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Title: Catholic World, Vol. 14, October 1871-March 1872 - A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Author: Various
Language: English
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THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
A
MONTHLY MAGAZINE
OF
GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.
VOL. XIV.
OCTOBER, 1871, TO MARCH, 1872.
NEW YORK:
THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION HOUSE,
9 Warren Street.
1872.
JOHN ROSS & COMPANY,
PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS,
27 ROSE ST., NEW YORK.
CONTENTS.
Affirmations, 682
Afternoon at St. Lazare, An, 683
Air, Travels in the, 757
American Catholic Bishops, Clarke’s Lives of the, 562
Arcueil, The Martyrs of, 613
Association, The International, 694
Authority in Matters of Faith, 145
Catholic Libraries, On, 707
Catholicity and Pantheism, 376, 830
Chateau Regnier, 520
Christianity and Positivism, 1
Civilization, Egyptian, According to the Most Recent
Discoveries, 63
Clarke’s Lives of the American Catholic Bishops, 562
Color--Its Poetry and Prose, 279
Cooper’s An Englishman in China, 322
Cosmic Philosophy, The, 633
Craven’s Fleurange, 651, 813
Döllinger Scandal, The, 248
Duties of the Rich in Christian Society, The, 577, 753
Egyptian Civilization According to the Most Recent Discoveries, 63
Elements of our Nationality, The, 91
Elinor’s Trial, 790
Englishman in China, An, 322
Executive Document No. 37; or, Several Calumnies Refuted, 665
Faber, Dr., The Princeton Review on, 400
Faith, Authority in Matters of, 145
Fleurange, 651, 813
Foxvilles of Foxville, The, 604
_Fraction du Centre_ in the German Parliament, The, 269
France, Recent Events in, 289
Gambetta, M., Letter of Mgr. Dupanloup to, 849
Ghost Story of the Revolution, A, 261
God is our Aid, 364
History, The New School of, 549
Holy Father, On the Present Condition of the, 777
House of Yorke, The, 16, 158, 305, 473, 582, 738
International Association, The, 694
Island of Saints, The, 335
Lake George, A Week at, 78
La Roquette, The Place Vendôme and, 127, 233, 347
Lasserre’s Our Lady of Lourdes, 100
Lateau, Louise, The Stigmata and Ecstasies of, 171
Late General Convention of the P. E. Church, 506
La Vendée, One Christmas Eve in, 447
Leper of the City of Aosta, The, 767
Letter of Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, to M. Gambetta, 849
Liquefaction of the Blood of St. Januarius, The, 32, 200, 391, 526
Lourdes, Our Lady of, 100
Lucas Garcia, 49, 189
Maistre’s Leper of the City of Aosta, 767
Mammoth Cave, A Visit to, 621
Martyrs of Arcueil, The, 613
Modern Opera, 415
Nationality, The Elements of Our, 91
New School of History, The, 549
On Catholic Libraries, 707
On the Present Condition of the Holy Father, 777,
One Christmas Eve in La Vendée, 447
Opera, Modern, 415
Our Lady of Lourdes, 100
Owen on Spiritism, 803
Pantheism, Catholicity and, 376
Papal Infallibility, Popular Objections to, 597
Philosophy, The Cosmic, 633
Place Vendôme, The, and La Roquette, 127, 233, 347
Poetry and Prose of Color, 279
Popular Objections to Papal Infallibility, 597
Positivism, Christianity and, 1
Princeton Review on Dr. Faber, 400
Protestant Episcopal Church, Late General Convention of the, 506
Protestant Rule of Faith, The, 488
Recent Events in France, 289
Religious Movement in Germany, and the _Fraction du Centre_
in the German Parliament, 269
Revolution, A Ghost Story of the, 261
Rich, Duties of the, 577, 753
Riot of the Twelfth, The, 117
Rome, St. Cecilia’s Day in, 646
Rule of Faith, The Protestant, 488
St. Cecilia’s Day in Rome, 646
St. Januarius, Liquefaction of the Blood of, 32, 200, 391, 526
St. Lazare, An Afternoon at, 683
Saints, The Island of, 335
Several Calumnies Refuted, 665
Spiritism, Owen on, 803
Stigmata, The, and Ecstasies of Louise Lateau, 171
Study of Sacred History, 421
Thoughts for the Women of the Times, 467
Travels in the Air, 757
Uncivil Journal, An, 721
Valentine, 214
Venite Adoremus, 557
Visit to Mammoth Cave, A, 621
Week at Lake George, A, 78
Who is to Educate Our Children?, 433
Women of Our Times, Thoughts for the, 467
Yorke, The House of, 16, 158, 305, 473, 582, 738
POETRY.
Annunciation, The, 812
Bethlehem, 487
Broad School, The, 525
Convert, A, 30
Dante’s Purgatorio (New Translation), 503
Evening Clouds, 15
Ever, 472
Epiphany, Our, 632
Lamartine’s The Wayside Spring (Translation), 213
Last Days of Oisin, The Bard, 845
Legends of Oisin, The, 185, 343
Limitation, 414
Martyrdom of St. Agnes, The, 828
Memory, A, 304
Mountain, The, 278
New Outspoken Style, The, 596
Our Epiphany, 632
Purgatorio, Dante’s (New Translation), 503
St. Agnes, The Martyrdom of, 828
True Faith, 232
Uhland’s Evening Clouds (Translation), 15
Veiled, 620
Wayside Spring, The, 213
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
American Home Book of In-Door Games, Amusements, and
Occupations, 720
Antidote to “Gates Ajar,” 572
Arians of the Fourth Century, The, 857
Augustine, Aurelius, Works of, 281
Bayle’s Pearl of Antioch, 719
Benni’s Tradition of the Syriac Church of Antioch, 428
Beecher’s Life of Jesus the Christ, 428
Biographical Sketch of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan, 143
Brightley’s Leading Cases on the Law of Elections, 431
Catholic Directory, Almanac, and Ordo, Sadliers’, 1872, 720
Catholic Choir, Peters’s, 283
Catholic Family Almanac, Illustrated, 284
Cineas; or, Rome under Nero, 429
Collection of Leading Cases on the Law of Elections in the
U. S., 431
Congregation of St. Paul, Sermons by the Fathers of, 576, 716
Critical Greek and English Concordance of the New Testament, 286
Curci’s Taking of Rome by the Italian Army, 718
Dahlgren, Ulric, Memoir of, 859
Doane’s Passion Play, 576
East and West Poems, 575
Essays Critical and Historical, 427
Florence O’Neill, 718
Formby’s Pictorial Bible and Church History Stories, 284
Fourfold Sovereignty of God, 427
Four Great Evils of the Day, 286
Gates Ajar, Antidote to, 572
Graduale de Tempore et de Sanctis, 287
Grand Demonstration in Honor of the XXVth Anniversary of the
Election of Pius IX., 287
Hallahan, Mother Margaret Mary, Biographical Sketch of, 143
Harte’s East and West Poems, 575
Harsha’s Life of John Bunyan, 287
Hastings and Hudson’s Greek and English Concordance of the
New Testament, 286
Hewit’s Light in Darkness, 282
Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits, 144
Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac, 284
Japan in Our Day, 720
Johonnot’s School Houses, 143
Julia, Life of Mother, 285
Lenten Sermons, 860
Letters of Mme. de Sévigné, 430
Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 430
Life of Card. Howard, 715
Life of Jesus the Christ, 428
Life of John Bunyan, 287
Life of Mother Julia, 285
Light in Darkness, 282
Lord’s Prophetic Imperialism, 574
Macaronic Poetry, 717
McCorry’s Mount Benedict, 144
Manning’s Fourfold Sovereignty of God, 42
Manning’s Four Great Evils of the Day, 286
Manual of Piety, 288
Martyrs of the Coliseum, 288
Memoir of Ireland, A, 719
Meehan’s Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries, 719
Montagu’s Letters, 430
Montalembert’s Monks of the West, 283
Morgan’s Macaronic Poetry, 717
Mount Benedict; or, The Violated Tomb, 144
Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century, 857
Newman’s Essays Critical and Historical, 427
Nieremberg’s Of Adoration in Spirit and Truth, 143
O’Connell’s Memoir of Ireland, 719
O’Reilly’s Martyrs of the Coliseum, 288
Of Adoration in Spirit and Truth, 143
Palmer’s Life of Card. Howard, 715
Pearl of Antioch, The, 719
Peters’s Catholic Choir, 283
Pictorial Bible and Church History Stories, 284
Pius IX., Grand Demonstration in Honor of the Election of, 287
Preston’s The Vicar of Christ, 571
Prisoners of St. Lazare, The, 573
Prophetic Imperialism, 574
Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries, 719
Rose’s Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits, 144
Sadliers’ Catholic Directory, Almanac, and Ordo, 1872, 720
St. Lazare, The Prisoners of, 573
School-Houses, 143
Segneri’s Lenten Sermons, 860
Sermons by the Fathers of the Congregation of St. Paul, 576, 716
Sévigné’s Letters, 430
Smith’s American Home Book, 720
Spouse of Christ, The, 860
Stewart’s Florence O’Neill, 718
Taking of Rome by the Italian Army, 718
Taylor’s Japan in Our Day, 720
The Internationale--Communism, 859
Tissandier’s Wonders of Water, 720
To and From the Passion Play, 576
Tradition of the Syriac Church of Antioch, 428
Vessels of the Sanctuary, The, 860
Vicar of Christ, The, 571
Villefranch’s Cineas, 429
Wonders of Water, 720
Works of Aurelius Augustine, 281
THE 1
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XIV., No. 79.--OCTOBER, 1871.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.
CHRISTIANITY AND POSITIVISM.[1]
Dr. McCosh had acquired a considerable reputation among Presbyterians
in his own country and ours, by several philosophico-theological works
he had published, before he was invited to become the president of the
New Jersey College at Princeton, one of the most distinguished
literary institutions of the Union. It had an able president, also a
Scotsman, in Dr. Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration,
and a devoted champion of American independence, and, though a
Presbyterian, a sturdy defender of civil and religious liberty. Dr.
McCosh comes to the presidency of the college with a high literary and
philosophical reputation, and comes under many advantages, and its
friends expect him to contribute much to raise still higher its
character, and place it on a level with Harvard and Yale, perhaps even
above them.
There is some ability and considerable knowledge displayed in the
volume of lectures before us, though not much originality. The author
professes to take the side of Christianity against the false and
mischievous theories of such men as Sir William Hamilton, of
Edinburgh, J. Stuart Mill, Huxley, Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and
others, whom he classes as belonging to the Positivist school. We have
every disposition in the world to think and speak well of the volume,
and to give it full credit for every merit it may claim. It is
directed against our enemy even more than against his. Positivism is
the most open, frank, honest, and respectable antagonist Christianity
or Catholicity has had in modern times, and, we may add, the ablest
and the most logical, especially as represented by avowed Positivists.
In fighting against us, positivism fights against our Presbyterian
doctor, so far as he retains any element of Catholic truth, and there
is no good reason why his war against it should not tend as far as it
goes to the same end as ours. Positivism can be opposed and 2
Christianity defended only on Catholic ground; and so far as Dr.
McCosh really does either, he must assume our ground and serve in our
ranks, or at any rate be on our side; and it would be churlish in us
to reject or underrate his services because in certain other matters
he is against us, or is not enrolled in our ranks.
It is certain that in these lectures, which show marks of much hard
mental labor, the author has said many good things, and used some good
arguments; but having truth only in a mutilated form, and only his
private judgment to oppose to the private judgment of Positivists, he
has been unable to give a full and conclusive refutation of
positivism. As a Protestant trained in Protestant schools, he has no
clear, well-defined catholic principles to which he can refer the
particular truths he advances, and the special arguments he urges for
their unity and support. His book lacks unity, lacks the mental grasp
that comprehends in its unity and universality the whole subject,
under all its various aspects, or in its principle, on which it
depends, and which explains and justifies it. His book is a book of
particulars, of details, of general conclusions drawn from particular
facts and statements, like all Protestant books. This is not so much
the fault of the author perhaps as of his Protestantism, which, since
it rejects catholicity and has nothing universal, is essentially
illogical, and can deal only in particulars or with individual things.
The contents of the book are referred to no general principle, and the
particular conclusions drawn are of little value, because isolated,
each standing by itself instead of being reduced to its principle and
co-ordinated under its law. The author lacks the conception of unity
and universality; he has particulars, but no universals--variety, but
no identity--multiplicity, but no unity, except in words. This is a
great defect, and renders his work inconclusive as an argument, and
exceedingly tedious to the reader as well as the reviewer. This defect
runs all through the author’s philosophy. In his _Intuitions of the
Mind_, there is no unity of intuition, but a variety of isolated
intuitions--no intuition of principle, of the universal, but simply
intellectual apprehension of supersensible particulars, as in _The
Human Intellect_ of Prof. Porter, who is a far abler man than Dr.
McCosh.
We are utterly unable to analyze these lectures, reduce their
deliverances to a universal principle, which, if accepted, is decisive
of the whole controversy they attempt to settle, or if rejected proves
the whole worthless. Then we complain of the author for the indignity
he offers to Christianity by suffering the Positivists to put it on
the defensive, and in attempting to prove it against positivism.
Christianity is in possession, and is not called upon to defend her
right till strong reasons are adduced for ousting her. Consequently,
it is for those who would oust her to prove their case, to make good
their cause. The Christian controversialist at this late day does not
begin with an apology or defence of Christianity, but attacks those
who assail her, and puts them on their defence. It is for the
scientists, or Positivists, who oppose the Christian religion, to
prove their positivism or science. It is enough for the Christian to
show that the positivism or alleged science is not itself proven, or,
if proven, that it proves nothing against Christ and his church. Dr.
McCosh seems to have some suspicion of this, and occasionally attempts
to put positivism on its defence, but he does it without laying down 3
the principle which justifies it; and in doing it he renders it
useless, by immediately running away after some pet speculation of his
own, which gives his opponent ample opportunity to resume the
offensive.
Dr. McCosh, also, more than half agrees with the Positivists, and
concedes that the religious society, as such, has no right to judge of
the bearings of the conclusions of the scientists on religion. “All
this shows,” he says, pp. 5, 6, “that religious men _qua_
religious men are not to be allowed to decide for us the truths of
science. Conceive an Œcumenical Council at Rome, or an Assembly of
Divines at Westminster, or an Episcopal Convocation at Lambeth, or a
Congregational Council at Plymouth, or a Methodist Conference in
Connecticut (why not say Baltimore?) taking upon it to decide for or
against the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, or the grand doctrine
established in our day of the conservation of force and the
correlation of all the physical forces, on the ground of their being
favorable or unfavorable to religion!” This concedes to the
Positivists that science is independent of religion, and that religion
is to be accepted or rejected as it does or does not accord with
science, and wholly overlooks the fact that religion is the first
science, and that nothing can be true, scientifically or otherwise,
that is contrary or unfavorable to religion. Religion is the word of
God, and every religious man says with the inspired apostle, “Let God
be true, and every man a liar.”
Dr. McCosh, of course, cannot say this, for, having no infallible
authority to define what is or is not religious truth or the word of
God, he is obliged to place religion in the category of opinions which
may or may not be true, and therefore to deny it as the law for all
intelligences. Supposing God has appointed an authority, infallible
through his gracious assistance, to teach all men and nations his
religion, or the truth he has revealed, and the law he commands all to
obey, this authority must be competent to decide whether any alleged
scientific discoveries are or are not favorable to religion, and must
necessarily have the right to decide prior to all scientific
investigation. If this authority decides that this or that theory is
unfavorable to religion, we as religious men must pronounce it false,
and refuse to entertain it. Dr. McCosh, as a Presbyterian or
Protestant, would have no right to say so, but the Catholic would have
the right, and it is his duty to say so; because religion is
absolutely true, and the supreme law for reason as well as for
conscience, and what is or is not religion, the authority unerringly
decides for him. Nothing that is not in accordance with the teachings
of religion can be true in science any more than in religion itself,
though many things may be true that are not in accordance with the
opinions and theories held by religious men.
The moment the Christian allows that the authority is not catholic;
that it is limited and covers only one part of truth; and that there
is by its side another and an independent authority, another and
independent order of truth, he ceases to be able to meet successfully
the Positivists; for truth is one, and can never be in opposition to
truth--that is, in opposition to itself. Religion, we concede, does
not teach the sciences, or the various facts with which they are
constructed, but it does judge and pronounce authoritatively on the
inferences or conclusions scientific men draw from these facts, or the
explanations they give of them, and to decide whether they are or are 4
not consistent with her own teachings. If they are inconsistent with
the revealed word, or with what that word implies, she pronounces them
false; and, if warranted by the alleged facts, she pronounces the
alleged facts themselves to be misinterpreted, misapprehended,
misstated, or to be no facts. Her authority is higher than any
reasonings of men, than the authority even of the senses, if it comes
to that, for nothing is or can be more certain than that religion is
true. We cannot as Catholics, as Christians, make the concession to
the Positivists the Presbyterian doctor does, that their science is an
authority independent of religion, and not amenable to it.
Dr. McCosh, we think, is unwise, in a controversy with Positivists, in
separating natural theology, as he calls it, from revealed theology.
The two are only parts of one whole, and, in point of fact, although
distinguishable, have never existed separately at any epoch of
history. The existence of God, the immateriality of the soul, and the
liberty of man or free-will, are provable with certainty by reason,
and are therefore truths of philosophy, but they were not discovered
by unassisted reason or the unassisted exercise of our natural powers
before they were taught to our first parents by the Creator himself,
and have never been held as simple natural truths, unconnected with
supernatural instruction or some reminiscences of such instruction.
Natural theology, or philosophy, and revealed theology form one
indissoluble whole, and Christianity includes both in their unity and
catholicity. In defending Christianity against positivism, which
denies both, we should defend both as a whole; because the natural is
incomplete and unable of itself alone to satisfy the demands of
reason, which is never sufficient for itself; and the truths necessary
to complete it and to solve the objections to the being and providence
of God are not obtainable by reason alone or without the light of
revelation. We may assert and prove miracles as a fact, but the
objections of Positivists to them cannot be scientifically answered
till we have proved that they have their law in the supernatural
order. The inferences we draw from miracles will not be appreciated or
allowed by men who deny the supernatural and reduce God to nature.
The author in reality has no method, but he begins by attempting to
prove the being of God, then the existence of mind in man, and the
reality of knowledge, and finally, in the second part, that the life
of Christ was the life of a real personage, and proves the reality of
his religion. He offers only one argument to prove that God is, and
that is the well-known argument from design, which he bases on the
principle that every effect has its cause. He does not develop this
argument, which has been so fully done by Paley and the _Bridgewater
Treatises_, but simply asserts its sufficiency. There are marks of
design in adapting one thing to another throughout the universe, which
can be only the effect of the action of an intelligent designer.
Giving this argument all possible force, it does not carry the author
in his conclusion beyond Plato or Aristotle, neither of whom was
properly a theist. Plato and Aristotle both believed in an intelligent
mind in the universe, operating on an eternal uncreated matter,
forming all things from pre-existing materials, and arranging them in
an artistic order. The argument from design can go no farther, and
this is all that is proved by Paley’s illustration of the watch, which 5
would be no illustration at all to a mind that had no intuition or
conception of a designer. Neither Plato nor Aristotle had any
conception of a creator or supermundane God. Whether the intelligent
mind has created all things from nothing, or has only formed and
disposed all things from pre-existing matter, as the soul of the
world, _anima mundi_, is what can never be determined by any
induction from the alleged marks of design discoverable in the
universe.
We therefore hold, and have always held, that this famous argument,
the only one the Baconian philosophy admits, however valuable it may
be in proving or illustrating the attributes or perfections of God,
when God is once known to exist, is inconclusive when relied on alone
to prove that God is, or is that by which the mind first obtains the
idea. It may serve as a corroborative argument, but of itself alone it
cannot originate the idea in the mind, or carry one beyond an
intelligent soul of the world, or the pantheism of Plato and
Aristotle, and of all Gentile philosophy, except the school of
Leucippus and Democritus, followed as to physics by Epicurus--unless
we must also except the sceptics, Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus. We
think, therefore, the author has damaged the cause of Christianity,
instead of serving it, by risking it on a single argument, by no means
conclusive to his purpose. A weak and inadequate defence is worse than
no defence at all.
The principle that every effect has a cause, on which the author bases
his argument, is no doubt true; but we must know that the fact is an
_effect_ before we can infer from it that it has or has had a cause.
Cause and effect are correlative terms, which connote one another;
but this is no proof that this or that fact is an _effect_; and
we cannot pronounce it an effect unless we know that it has begun to
exist; nor even then, unless we have the intuition of cause; and no
intuition even of a particular cause suffices, unless we have
intuition of a universal cause. It is not so simple a thing, then, to
pronounce a given fact an _effect_, and to conclude that there is
between it and something else, the relation of cause and effect. It is
precisely this relation that Hume, Kant, Thomas Browne, Sir William
Hamilton, Dr. Mansel, Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, Huxley, Herbert
Spencer, and all the so-called Positivists deny or relegate to the
region of the unknowable. Dr. McCosh does not refute them, by assuming
and arguing from the principle; he simply begs the question.
Now, we venture to tell our learned and philosophic author that his
whole argument for natural theology falls to the ground before a mind
that has no intuition of the relation of cause and effect, that is not
previously furnished with the knowledge of design and of a designing
cause. Hence, from the alleged marks of design and adaptation of means
to ends, it is impossible to infer a designer. When the watch was
presented for the first time to the untutored savage, he looked upon
it as a living thing, not as a piece of artificial mechanism
constructed by a watchmaker. He must know that it is a piece of
artificial mechanism before he can conclude man has made it. There
falls under our observation no more perfect adaptation of means to
ends than the octagonal cell of the bee. Does the bee work by design
in constructing it? Does the beaver work by design, by intelligent
design, in building its dam and constructing its house? It is generally 6
held that the bee as well as the beaver works by instinct, or by a law
of its nature, as does the swallow in building its nest. This proves
that a designer cannot be inferred from the simple facts observed in
nature, as the Positivists maintain. This is the condemnation of the
so-called inductive philosophy. The induction, to be valid, must be by
virtue of a principle already held by the mind, intuitively or
otherwise, and therefore can never of itself supply or give its
principle, or by itself alone obtain its principle. God is not an
induction from the facts observed in nature; and the Positivists have
shown, demonstrated so much, and have therefore shown that observation
and induction alone can give no principle, and, therefore, end in
nescience--the termination of the so-called _philosophie positive_.
Dr. McCosh is not wholly insensible to this conclusion, and seeks to
escape it by proving that there is a mind in man endowed with the
capacity of knowing things as they are. But if the existence of the
mind needs to be proved, with what can we prove it? By consciousness,
the author answers; but that is a sheer paralogism, for consciousness
is simply an act of the mind, and presupposes it. God can no more be
an induction from the facts of consciousness than from the facts of
nature. In either case, the God induced is a generalization; in the
one case, the generalization of nature, and, in the other, the
generalization of consciousness. The former usually goes by the name
of atheism, the latter by the name of egoism.
Dr. McCosh very properly rejects Hamilton’s and Mansel’s doctrine of
the pure relativity of all knowledge, and Herbert Spencer’s doctrine
that all knowledge is restricted to the knowledge of phenomena or
appearances, though conceding that appearances are unthinkable without
a reality beyond them, but that the reality beyond them, and which
appears in them, is itself unknowable; and maintains truly that we
know things themselves, both sensibles and supersensibles. We know
them, he contends, by intuition, or a direct looking on or beholding
them by the simple intellectual force of our minds. Of this we are not
so certain, for we do not ourselves know by intuition why salt is
bitter and sugar sweet, and we think the doctor knows things
themselves only in so far as he excepts their essence or substance,
and confounds the thing with its properties, or its accidents, as say
the schoolmen, in which case he makes no appreciable advance on Mr.
Herbert Spencer. I know the appearances and the sensible properties of
bread, but I do not know its essence or substance. Has the
Presbyterian doctor, who seems to have a holy horror of Catholicity,
invented a philosophy for the express purpose of combating with
apparent reason the mystery of transubstantiation, by making it
conflict with the positive testimony of the senses and the human
intellect?
But let that pass. The intuition the doctor recognizes is empirical
intuition, and intuition of particular or individual things, not of
principles, causes, relations. And from the knowledge of those
individual things, he holds that man rises by generalization and
abstraction--that is, induction--from one degree of knowledge to
another, till he finally attains to the knowledge of God distinct from
the world, and clothes him with infinite perfections. Yet the good
doctor claims to be a philosopher, and enjoys a high reputation as
such. None of these individual things, nor all of them together, are
God, or contain him; how, then, from them, supposing you know them, 7
rise scientifically to him? and what by abstraction and generalization
is that to which the mind attains? Only their generalization or
abstraction, which as a creation of the mind is a nullity. He, like
Hamilton, in this would make philosophy end in nescience.
We, of course, hold that we apprehend and know things themselves, not
phenomena merely, and as they are, not as they are not--that is, in
their real relations, not to us only, but in the objective world. But
to know things as they are, in their real objective relations, or to
know them at all, demands intuition of them, in their contingency or
in their character of creatures or effects--that is to say, as
existences, not as independent, self-existent beings, which they are
not. And this is not possible without the intuition of the necessary,
of real being, on which they depend and from which they are derived.
When I say a thing is an effect, I say it has been caused, and
therefore, in order to say it, I must have intuition of cause; and if
I say of a thing that it is a particular cause, I deny that it is a
universal cause, which I could not do without the intuition of
universal cause. So when I say of a thing it is contingent, I simply
deny it to be necessary being, and I could not deny a thing to be
necessary being if I had no intuition of necessary being. If the
author means by abstracting and generalizing our knowledge of things
or individual existence, distinguishing this ideal intuition, or the
intuition of real necessary and universal being--what philosophers
sometimes call necessary ideas--from the intuition of things or
contingent existences, along with which it is presented in thought, and
as the necessary condition of our apprehending them, and by reflection
and contemplation ascertaining that this ideal, necessary and
universal, is really God, though not intuitively known to be God, we
do not object to the assertion that we rise from our knowledge of
things to the knowledge of God himself. What we deny is that God can
be concluded from the intuition or apprehension of things. We rise to
him from the ideal intuition, or intuition of the real and necessary,
which enters the mind with the intuition of the things, and without
which we never do or could have intuition of them, any more than they
could exist without the creative act of real and necessary being
creating them from nothing and sustaining them in existence; but it
needs to be disengaged by a mental process from the empirical
intuition with which it is presented.
This ideal intuition is not immediate and direct intuition of God, as
the pseudo-ontologists contend, and which the church has condemned;
but is intuition under the form of necessary, universal, eternal, and
immutable ideas--of that which the mind, by reasoning, reflection, and
contemplation, proves really is God. What misleads the author and so
many others who use the argument he uses, is that the intuition of
real and necessary being, and the intuition of contingencies, are
given both in the same thought, the one along with the other, and most
minds fail to distinguish them--which is done, according to St.
Thomas, by the _intellectus agens_, in distinction from the
passive or receptive intellect--and hence they suppose that they
conclude the ideal intuition from the empirical intuition. This is
decidedly the case with Dr. McCosh. The learned doctor admits
intuitions, but only intuitions of individual existences--what we
call empirical intuitions--whether causes or effects, not intuition of 8
the ideal; and hence his argument for the existence of God proves
nothing, for the universal is not derivable from the particular, the
necessary from the contingent, nor being from existences. Had he
recognized that along with, as its necessary condition, the intuition
of the particular there always is the intuition of the universal,
etc., he would have placed theology against positivism on an
impregnable foundation. The necessary ideas, the universal, the
eternal, the immutable, the necessary, connoted in all our thoughts,
cannot be simply abstractions, for abstractions have no existence _a
parte rei_, and are formed by the mind operating on the concrete
object of empirical intuition. As these ideas are objects of
intuition, they are real; and if real, they are either being or
existences. But no existences are or can be necessary, universal,
eternal, immutable, for they depend to be on another, as is implied in
the very word existence, from _ex-stare_. Then they must be being,
and identifiable in the one universal, eternal, real, and necessary
being, and distinguishable from existences or things, as the creator
from his creatures, the actor from the act.
We have said that the ideal intuition is not intuition of God, but of
that which is God; we say now that the ideal intuition is not formally
intuition of _ens_ or being, as erroneously supposed by some to
be maintained by Gioberti and Dr. Brownson, but of that which is
_ens_. The process of demonstrating that God is consists in
identifying, by reflection and reasoning, the necessary ideas or ideal
intuition with real, necessary, universal, eternal, and immutable
being, and real and necessary being in which they are all identified
with God. This process is demonstration, not intuition. When I say, in
the syllogism, the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises, I
have intuition of the necessary, else I could not say it; but I have
not intuition of the fact that the necessary is being, far less that
it is God. This is known only by reflection and reasoning, disengaging
the ideal from the empirical. The idea must be real, or there could be
no intuition of it, but if real, it must be being; if being, it must
be real and necessary being; and real and necessary being is God. So
of all the other necessary ideas. As the intuition is of both the
ideal or necessary and the contingent in its principle, and in their
real relation, it gives the principles of a complete demonstration of
the being of God as creator, and of the universe as the effect of his
creative act, and therefore of the complete refutation of pantheism.
The vice of Dr. McCosh’s argument is that it proceeds on the denial of
ideal intuition, and the assumption that being, God, is obtainable by
generalization and abstraction from the individual things given in
empirical intuition. It is not obtained by reflection from them, but
from the ideal intuition, never separable from the empirical.
This process of proving that God is may be called the ideal process,
or the argument from universal and necessary ideas intuitively given.
It is not _a priori_, because the ideal is held by intuition; nor
is it an argument from innate ideas, as Descartes held; nor--since
really objective, and present to the mind--is it an argument from the
primitive beliefs or constituent principles of human nature, as Dr.
Reid and the Scottish school maintained, and which is only another
form of the Cartesian doctrine of innate ideas; or an argument drawn
from our own _fonds_, as Leibnitz imagined, or from the _a priori_ 9
cognitions or necessary forms of the intellect, as Kant held, and
which is only the doctrine of the Scottish school of Reid and Stewart
differently stated; but from principles or data really presented in
intuition, and along with the empirical intuition of things. It
places, therefore, the being of God on as firm a basis and renders it
as certain to the understanding as our own existence, or as any fact
whatever of which the human mind has cognizance; indeed, renders it
absolutely certain and undeniable. But while we say this, and while we
maintain that the ideal intuition is given along with the empirical
intuition, with which our author confounds it, and from which
philosophy or natural theology disengages it, we by no means believe
that the race is indebted to this ideal or metaphysical process--which
is too difficult not only for the Positivists, but for their great
opponent, Dr. McCosh--for the origin of their belief in God. All ages
and nations, even the most barbarous and savage tribes, have some sort
of belief in God, some religious notions which imply his existence;
and, hovering above the various Eastern and Western mythologies, we
find the belief in one God or the divine unity, though neglected or
rejected for the worship of inferior gods or demons, or the
elements--that is, the worship of creatures, which is idolatry, since
worshipped as God. The ignorant savage, but a grade above the beasts,
has never risen to the conception of God or of the Great Spirit from
the contemplation of nature, nor has he attained to religious
conceptions by a law of his nature or by instinct, as the bee
constructs its cell or the beaver its dam.
It is very true, nothing more true than that “the heavens show forth
the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands,”
but to him only who has the idea of God or already believes that he
is. Nothing more true than God can be traced in all his works, or that
“the invisible things of him, even his eternal power and divinity, are
clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the
things that are made,” but only by those who have already learned that
he is, are intent on answering the question, _Quid est Deus?_ not
the question, _An sit Deus?_ Hence we so far agree with the
traditionalist, not indeed that the existence of God cannot be proved
by reason prior to faith, but that, as a fact, God revealed himself to
man before his expulsion from the garden; and the belief, clear and
distinct or dim and confused, in the divine being, universally
diffused among all races and conditions of men, originated in
revelation and is due to the tradition, pure or impure, in its
integrity or mutilated and corrupted, of the primitive revelation made
by God himself to man. In this way the fact of the universality of the
belief in some form is a valid argument for the truth of the belief,
and we thus obtain a historical argument to corroborate the already
conclusive ideal or metaphysical argument, the principles of which we
have given.
We bear willing testimony to the good-will and laudable intention of
our author, but we cannot regard him as able, with his mutilated
theology and his imperfect and rather superficial philosophy--though
less superficial than the philosophy generally in vogue among British
and American Protestants--to carry on a successful war against the
Positivists. We are almost tempted to say to him:
Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis
Tempus eget.
He is too near of kin to the Positivists themselves, and adopts too 10
many of their principles and conclusions, to be able to battle
effectively against them. No doubt he urges much that is true against
them, but his arguments, as far as effective, are inconsistent with
his position as a Protestant, and are borrowed from Catholicity, or
from what he has retained from Catholic instruction and Catholic
tradition, not from his Protestantism. Having no authority but his own
private interpretation of the Scriptures to define what is or is not
Christianity, he knows not how much or how little he must defend
against the Positivists, or how much or how little he is free to
concede to them. He practically concedes to them the Creator. He
defends God as the efficient cause, indeed, but not as Creator,
producing all things by his word from nothing. He would seem to hold
it enough to defend him as the organizer and disposer of materials
already furnished to his hand. God does not seem to him to be his own
_causa materialis_. He works on a pre-existing matter. He constructs,
the author concedes, the existing worlds out of “star-dust,” or
disintegrated stars, without telling us who made the stars that have
dissolved and turned to dust, and without bearing in mind, or without
knowing, that Christianity teaches us that “in the beginning God
_created_ the heavens and the earth,” and therefore could not have
formed them out of “star-dust” or any other material.
The Protestant divine accepts and defends Darwin’s theory of the
origin of species by “natural selection,” though he does not believe
that it applies universally, or that man has been developed from the
ape or the tadpole. He denies that Huxley’s protoplasm can be
developed from protein, or life from dead matter; maintains that all
life proceeds from a living organism, that the plant can spring only
from a seed, and the animal only from a living cell or germ; and yet
concedes that some of the lower forms of organic life may spring or
may have sprung from spontaneous generation, and even goes so far as
to tell us that some of the most eminent of the fathers held or
conceded as much. What becomes, then, of the assertion that life
cannot be evolved from dead matter? He would seem to hold or to
concede that man lived, for an indefinite time, a purely animal life,
before the Almighty breathed into his nostrils and he became a
spiritual man, and quotes to prove it St. Paul’s assertion that “not
first that which is spiritual, but that which is animal; afterwards
that which is spiritual” (1 Cor. xv. 46). He seems, in fact, ready to
concede any and everything except the intelligent Mind recognized by
Plato and Aristotle, that has arranged all things according to a
preconceived plan, and throughout the whole adapted means to ends. He
insists on efficient causes and final causes, but hardly on God as the
_causa causarum_ or as the _causa finalis_ of all particular final
causes.
Throughout, as we have already remarked, there is a want of unity and
universality in his philosophy, as there necessarily must be in his
Protestant theology, and a sad lack of logical consistency and order,
or co-ordination. His world is a chaos, as is and must be the
Protestant world. Herbert Spencer undertakes to explain the universe
without God, or, what is the same thing, with an absolutely unknowable
God, which is of course an impossibility; but he has a far profounder
intellect and a far more logical mind than Dr. McCosh. He is
heaven-wide from the truth, yet nearer to it than his Presbyterian
critic. His logic is good; his principles being granted, his 11
conclusions, though absurd, cannot be denied. His error lies in his
premises, and, if you correct them, your work is done. He will correct
all details, and arrive at just conclusions without further
assistance. But Dr. McCosh is one who, however much he may talk about
them, never reduces his doctrines to their generic principles, or
reasons from principles. He is a genuine Protestant, and cannot be
refuted in refuting his principles, which vary with the exigencies of
his argument, and are really no principles at all, but must be refuted
in detail; and when you have convinced him twice three are six, you
have still to prove that three times two are also six.
Now, such a man--and he is, perhaps, above the average of Presbyterian
divines--is the last man in the world to attempt the refutation of
positivism. No Protestant can do it. Indeed, all the avowed
Positivists we have known regard Protestant Christianity as too
insignificant a matter to be counted. It is too vague and fluctuating,
too uncertain and indefinite, too unsubstantial and intangible, too
unsystematic and illogical, to command the least respect from them.
They see at a glance that it is too little to be a religion and too
much to be no-religion. It cannot, with its half affirmations and its
whole denials, stand a moment before an intelligent Positivist who has
a scientific cast of mind. The Positivist rejects the church, of
course, but he respects Catholicity as a logical system, consistent
with itself, coherent in all its parts, and for him there is no _via
media_ between it and positivism. If he were not a Positivist, he
says openly, he would be a Catholic, by no means a Protestant, which
he looks upon as neither one thing nor another; and we respond that,
could we cease to be a Catholic, we should be a Positivist, for to a
logical mind there is no medium between the church and atheism. The
middle systems, as Protestantism, Rationalism, Deism, etc., are
divided against themselves, and cannot stand, any more than a house
divided against itself. Their denials vitiate their affirmations and
their affirmations vitiate their denials. They are all too much or too
little.
The Positivists reject for what they call the scientific age both
theology and metaphysics. They believe in the progress of the race,
and indeed in all races, as does Dr. McCosh. They distinguish in the
history of the human race or of human progress three epochs or
stages--first, the theological; second, the metaphysical; and third,
the scientific. Theology and metaphysics each in its epoch were true
and good, and served the progress of man and society. They have now
passed away, and the race is now entering the scientific age, which is
the final stage, though not to last forever; for when the field of
science is exhausted, and all it yields is harvested, the race will
expire, and the world come to an end, as having no more work to do. It
will be seen there is here a remarkable difference between the real
Positivists, or believers in Auguste Comte, and our author and his
Protestant brethren. The Positivists never calumniate the past, but
seek to appreciate its services to humanity, to acknowledge the good
it did, and to bury it with honor, as the children of the New
Dispensation did the Old, when it had lived its day. One of the finest
appreciations from the point of view of humanity of the services of
the mediæval monks we have ever read is from the pen of M. E. Littré,
the chief of the French Positivists, and one of the most learned men
of France. It said not all a Catholic would say, but scarcely a word 12
that could grate on a Catholic ear. Dr. McCosh also believes in
progress, in the progress of our species, and, for aught we know, in
the progress of all species and genera, and that we outgrow the past;
but he takes pleasure only in calumniating it, and like a bad son
curses the mother that bore him. Because he has outgrown his nurse, he
contends the nurse was of no use in his childhood, was a great injury,
and it would have been much better to leave him to himself, to toddle
about at will, and toddle into the fire or the cistern, as he saw
proper.
Now, we think, if one believes in the progress of the species or the
perfectibility of man by development or by natural agencies, the
Positivist doctrine is much the most reasonable as well as far the
most amiable. Its effect, too, is far better. We--we speak
personally--owed much to the doctrine, which we borrowed not from
Comte, but from Comte’s master, Saint-Simon, the influence of which,
under the grace of God, disposed us to return to the old church. It
softened the animosity, the bitter hatred, toward the past which we
had inherited from our Protestant education, and enabled us to study
it with calm and gentle feelings, even with gratitude and respect, and
disposed us to view it with impartiality and to appreciate it with
justice. Studying the past, and especially the old church which we had
complacently supposed the race had outgrown as the man has outgrown
the bib and tucker of his childhood, in this new and better mood, we
soon discovered that there was much more in the past than we had ever
dreamed of, and that it was abundantly able to teach us much more than
we or any of our Protestant contemporaries supposed; and we were not
long in beginning to doubt if we had really outgrown it, nor in
becoming convinced that, instead of outgrowing it, we had fallen below
it; that the old church, the central institution of the world, was as
needful to us now as in the beginning; and that, in comparison with
the full noonday light which beamed from her divine countenance, the
light in which we had hitherto walked, or stumbled, rather, was but a
fading twilight, nay, midnight darkness.
Of course we differ far more from positivism than does Dr. McCosh, but
we can as Catholics better discriminate than he what is true and just
in them, and better understand and refute their errors or false
principles, because we have the whole truth to oppose to them, not
merely certain fragments or disfigured aspects of truth. It is only
Catholics who can really set right the class of men Dr. McCosh wars
against. Protestants cannot do it. When Theodore Parker published his
_Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion_, we had not--we speak
personally again--outgrown the Protestantism in which we had been
trained. We set about refuting him, and we saw at once we could not do
it on Protestant grounds, and we planted ourselves on Catholic ground,
as far as we then knew it, and our refutation was a total failure
except so far as we opposed to the _Discourse_ the principles of the
Catholic Church. Dr. McCosh has tried his hand in the volume before us
against Theodore Parker and the Free Religionists, and with no success
save so far as he abandons his Protestantism and quietly appropriates
the arguments of Catholics, to which he has no more right than he has
to his neighbor’s horse. It was hardly generous in the learned doctor,
while using their arguments--and they were the only arguments that
availed him anything--to turn upon Catholics and twit them of 13
“ignorance and superstition.” Was he afraid that people might discover
the source whence he drew the small stock of wisdom and truth he
displayed?
We might have made Dr. McCosh’s lectures the occasion of presenting a
formal refutation of positivism, but we had already taken up from time
to time the false principles, the errors and untenable theories and
hypotheses, which his lectures treat, and refuted them, so far as they
are hostile to Christianity, far more effectively, in our judgment,
than he has done or could do. He may be more deeply versed in the
errors and absurd hypotheses of the false scientists of the day, who
are laboring to explain and account for the universe without creation
and Providence, than we are; but we have not found in his volume
anything of any value which we have not ourselves already said, and
said too, perhaps, in a style more easily understood than his, and in
better English than he ordinarily uses. Our readers could learn
nothing of positivism from him, and just as little of the principles
and reasonings that Christianity is able to oppose to it. He writes as
a man who measures the known by what he himself knows, and is now and
then out in his measurement.
Dr. McCosh, also, adopts rather too depreciatory a tone in speaking of
our countrymen, especially considering that he has but just come among
us, and knows us at best only imperfectly. We own it was no striking
indication of American intelligence and judgment the importation of
him to preside over one of the best Protestant American institutions
of learning and science; but men often loom up larger at a distance
than they are when seen close by, and there is no country in which
bubble reputations from abroad more speedily collapse than our own.
The doctor will find, when he has lived longer among us, and becomes
better acquainted with us, that if England is nearer Germany, German
speculations are known to Americans and appreciated by them at least
as soon as they are by Englishmen or Scotsmen. Kant, Fichte,
Schelling, Hegel, were known to American scholars before there was
much knowledge of them in England or Scotland. The English and Scotch
are now just becoming acquainted with and are carried away by theories
and speculations in philosophy which had been examined here, and
exploded more than thirty years ago by Americans. The doctor
underrates the scholarship and intelligence even of his American
Presbyterian friends, and there are scholars, men of thought, of
science, general intelligence, in the country many degrees above
Presbyterians, respectable as they are. Presbyterians are not by any
means the whole American people, nor the most advanced portion of
them. They are really behind the Congregationalists, to say nothing of
“the ignorant and superstitious” Catholics, whose scholars are in
science and learning, philosophy, theology, especially in the history
of the church, it is no boast to say, superior to either, and know and
understand better the movements of the age, intellectual, moral,
social, and political theories, crotchets, and tendencies of the
present, than any other class of American citizens. It takes more than
a Dr. McCosh, although for a time a professor in Belfast, Ireland, to
teach them more than they already know.
We pass over the second part of the lectures, devoted to Apologetics,
as of no importance. One needs to know what Christianity is, and to
have clearly in his mind the entire Christian plan, before one can
successfully defend it against the class of persons the author calls 14
Positivists. This is more than the author knows, or as a Protestant
can know. His Christianity is an indefinite, vague, variable, and
uncertain opinion, and he has no conception at all of the Christian
plan, or what St. Paul calls “the new creation.” No doubt the miracles
are provable by simple historical testimony by and to one who knows
nothing of the Christian plan, or of its supernatural character; but
to the unbelievers of our time it is necessary to set forth, in its
unity and catholicity, the Christian _schema_, if we may be allowed
the term, and to show that miracles themselves have their reason or
law in the divine plan or decree, and are no more anomalies, in
relation to that plan or decree, or _ex parte Dei_, than are earthquakes
and volcanoes. It is only in this way we can satisfy the demand for
order and regularity. The unbeliever may not be able to resist the
testimony which proves the miracle a fact, but till we show him that
in a miracle the natural laws are not violated, or that nature does
not go out of her course, as he imagines, we cannot satisfy him that
he can yield to the miracle without surrendering his natural reason,
and the law and order of the universe.
Now, this the Protestant cannot do; and though he might adduce the
historical evidences of Christianity satisfactory to a simpler age, or
to minds, though steeped in error, yet retaining from tradition a full
belief in the reality of a supernatural order, he cannot as a
Protestant do it to minds that deny that there is or can be anything
above nature, and that refuse utterly to admit the supernatural order,
which the miracles manifest, or that reject miracles, not because the
testimony is insufficient, but because they cannot be admitted without
admitting the reality of the supernatural. The prejudice against the
supernatural must be removed as the preliminary work, and this can be
done only by presenting Christianity as a whole in its unity and
catholicity, and showing that, according to it, the supernatural or
Christian order enters into the original decree of God, and is
necessary to complete what is initial in the cosmos, or to perfect the
natural order and to enable it to fulfil the purpose for which it
exists, or realize its destiny or final cause, in which is its
beatitude or supreme good. This done, the prejudice against the
supernatural is removed, miracles are seen to be in the order, not
indeed of nature, as Carlyle pretends, but in the order of the
supernatural, and demanding only ordinary historical testimony to be
proved, and consequently Hume’s famous argument against miracles,
refuted by no Protestant that has protested against it, shown to have
no force.
Now, this requires a profound knowledge of Christianity, which is not
attainable by private judgment from the Scriptures, or outside of the
infallible authority of the church with which the revelation of God,
the revealed word, is deposited as its guardian and interpreter. M.
Migne, indeed, admits some treatises written by Protestants into his
collection of works he has published under the title of _Evangelical
Demonstration_, which are not without their merit, but are valuable
only on certain points, and on those only so far as they rest on
Catholic principles and use Catholic arguments. Christianity being
supernatural, a revelation of the supernatural, it, of course, while
addressed to natural reason, cannot be determined or defined by
natural reason, and can be determined or defined, preserved or 15
presented, in its purity and integrity, only by an authority
supernaturally instituted and assisted for that very purpose. Even
what the author calls natural theology, since it is only initial, like
the cosmos, is incomplete, and, though not above natural reason, needs
the supernatural to fulfil it, and therefore the supervision and
control of the same supernaturally instituted and assisted authority
to preserve it from error, from a false development, or from assuming
a false direction, as we see continually occurring with those who have
not such an authority for guide and monitor. Hence, even in matters
not above the province of natural reason, natural reason is not a
sufficient guide, or else whence come those errors of the Positivists
in the purely scientific order the learned doctor combats with so many
words, if not thoughts--with so many assertions, if not arguments?
Hence, since Protestants have no such authority, and make it their
capital point to deny that anybody has it, it follows that they are
unable to present any authoritative statement, or any statement at
all which an unbeliever is bound to respect, of what Christianity
really is, or what is the authentic meaning of the term. They can give
only their private views or opinions of what it is, and these the
unbeliever is not bound to place in any respect above his own,
especially since they vary with every Protestant sect, and, we may
almost say, with every individual Protestant who thinks enough to have
an opinion of any sort. Even if they borrow Catholic traditions,
Catholic principles, and Catholic doctrines and definitions, these in
their hands lose their authoritative character, and become simply
opinions resting on private reason. They can present as Christianity
nothing authentic to be defended by the Christian, or to be accepted
or rejected by the unbeliever. Clearly, then, Protestants are in no
condition to manage apologetics with acute, scientific, and logical
unbelievers; and if we wanted any proof of it we could find it, and in
abundance, in the volume before us.
[1] _Christianity and Positivism._ A Series of Lectures to
the Times, on Natural Theology and Apologetics, delivered in
New York, January 16 to March 20, 1871, on the “Ely
Foundation” of the Union Theological Seminary. By James
McCosh, D.D., LL.D., President of the College of New Jersey,
Princeton. New York. Carter & Brothers. 1871. 16mo, pp. 369.
----------
EVENING CLOUDS.
A TRANSLATION OF UHLAND’s “ABENDWETTER.”
I see the clouds at eventide
All in the sunset floating wide,
Clouds now in gold and purple dyed
That hung so dark and hoary:
And my dreaming heart says, Wait!
A sunset comes, though come it late,
That shall life’s shadows dissipate,
Light up its clouds in glory.
----------
THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 16
CHAPTER XIV.
BREAKING THE ICE.
Shortly after Mr. Rowan’s baptism, a miniature avalanche of letters
reached the Yorke family. Mrs. Rowan-Williams wrote to Edith, in a
very scrawly hand, in lines that sloped down, in a depressing manner,
toward the southeastern corner of the page: “Do come and make me a
visit, now that Dick is at home. You have no idea how handsome, and
good, and smart he is. Mr. Williams thinks the world of him; and as to
Ellen--well, it wouldn’t become me to say what I think. But it’s of no
use for her to try. Now, do come. This is the twentieth time I have
asked you. We will go everywhere, see all that is worth seeing, and
you shall be waited on like a lady, as you are.
“So the old clay bank has slipped down again, and the bushes have
tumbled into the mud, and the men have piled their lumber over the
ashes of my poor home. O Edith! my heart is buried under those boards.
Thank you, dear, for going to see it for me.”
Dick wrote: “Which is Mohammed, and which is the mountain? I must see
you, and if you cannot come here, I shall go to Seaton, though that
would not be easy for me to do now. Besides, I want you to see your
namesake. I have not long to stay, for the ship is about ready to
start, and we take our cargo in at New York. It would be almost like a
soldier deserting his army on the eve of battle for me to go away now.
Do come if you can. It seems to me that you must wish to.”
This young man, we may remark, has got quite beyond the model
letter-writer and the practice of penmanship. He writes quite in his
own way, and is a very creditable writer, too. He has also a fair
education, and can converse more intelligently on most subjects of
general interest than many a young man for whom education has done its
best. When Dick Rowan spoke, he said something, and one never heard
from his lips inanities, meanness, nor malice. Neither did he say much
of such things, even in condemnation. He looked on them with a sort of
wonder, a flitting expression of disgust, then forgot all about them.
His time had been too much occupied, his mind too busy for trifling.
He had studied constantly and methodically, and the little library in
his cabin on board ship was a treasury of science, art, and
_belles-lettres_. So far as it went, it was the library of a man
of cultivated mind. His life, too, had educated him, and been a
perpetual commentary on, or illustration or refutation of, his books.
The phenomena of the sea he had studied not merely as a sailor, but as
a student of natural history. Whatever culture can be derived from the
intelligent visiting of foreign countries, without going into society
there, that he had. He had not spent his time about wharves, and
ships, and sailors’ boarding-houses. Aside from his own tastes, he
never forgot that he was aspiring toward a girl who, if she should
visit these lands, would walk in palaces. Therefore, whatever was 17
famous in nature or art in those places, he sought and examined. Many
a traveller who fancied himself perfectly cultivated brought away less
pleasant and valuable information than this sailor from the cities
they had both visited. Moreover, Dick had studied hard to acquire
something of the language of every port he stopped at, and was already
able to speak French and Italian with ease, if not with elegance. The
elegance he did his best to improve by reading the best authors in
those languages, and by a few lessons in pronunciation, when he could
find time. Therefore, Miss Edith Yorke’s friend and correspondent was
by no means one whom she had reason to be ashamed of.
But the Rowans were not the only ones who insisted on Edith’s visiting
Boston at this time. Miss Clinton dictated a letter to Mr. Yorke, and
Carl, suppressing his laughter, wrote it: “I have sent three times for
that girl, and this is my last invitation to her. Why is she not
allowed to come? Has she nothing to wear? I enclose a check for a gown
and a pair of shoes. When she reaches here, I will give her what she
may need to make her decent. Or is it that Amy Yorke is jealous
because her own daughters are not invited? If one of them must come as
company for Edith, I will pay her passage up, but I don’t want her
here. She can go to Hester’s or Alice Mills’s. Melicent has too
ridiculous an idea of her own consequence, and Clara is too sharp and
impudent. Bird has read me her book, and I think it a very
disagreeable book. She had better learn to cook and mend her
stockings, and let writing alone.”
“Have you finished?” the old lady asked, as Carl, with pen suspended,
looked up from his writing.
“Yes!”
“Then sign my name.”
“Shall I write ‘yours respectfully’ or ‘yours affectionately’?” Carl
asked, with perfect gravity.
“Neither!” she replied curtly. “Sign my name without any compliment.”
“May I add a few lines for myself?” the young man asked, when he had
signed the name as directed. “There is a whole page left.”
“Yes.” The answer was given very softly, and a smile of singular
sweetness flitted across the old lady’s face as she looked at the
writer. Miss Clinton was very fond of Carl, in a tyrannical,
tormenting, selfish way, and liked nothing so much as to have him ask
favors of her.
He wrote rapidly a few minutes, and was about closing the letter, when
she stopped him. “Read me what you have written,” she said.
Carl blushed slightly, and hesitated. “It was not written to read to
you,” he answered.
“No matter, it will be all the more interesting,” she persisted. “Read
it! You read mine.”
Carl hesitated yet a moment longer, then, casting his eyes up to the
ceiling, read, as if he saw it written, in the painting there, a
preposterous eulogy of Miss Clinton, with a minute account of her
cat’s health.
“I won’t have it!” she cried out. “Read what you have written there,
or give it to me, and Bird shall come and read it. If you were a
decent writer, I should have eyes enough left to read it myself.”
Carl dropped his laughing manner. “Miss Bird will write a letter for
you,” he said, and was about holding the one he had in the flame of a
taper, when she stopped him. “Oh! send it as it is, since you are so
stubborn; though I haven’t a doubt that you have written the most 18
dreadful things of me.”
The Yorkes were highly amused by this letter. “You see, Edith, she is
a dragon,” her uncle said. “You will have to carry yourself very
gingerly.”
“I am not sure that is the best way to keep the peace with her,” Mrs.
Yorke remarked. “It would do with some, but she grows more overbearing
with indulgence. If she were touched by sweetness and submission, it
would be different. I have thought of late years that such persons are
benefited by a firm resistance.”
Clara also wrote: “Let mamma come with Edith, and stay at my house, of
course. It is really a shame that she has never visited me in the city
yet. Come right away, and we will all go back to Seaton together. You
should come for poor Carl’s sake, to cheer him up a little, if for
nothing else, for he must lead a miserable life with that awful old
woman. You would not have believed he could be so patient. Indeed, he
would have left long ago, if it had not been for the hope of bringing
you all back here again. If he were the only one in question, he would
not stay a day.”
Miss Mills also wrote in the same strain, and the result of it all was
that the invitations were accepted, with a difference. “I will stop at
Miss Clinton’s, since you think it better,” Edith said to her aunt.
“But I must see a good deal of the Rowans.”
“Certainly, dear,” Mrs. Yorke replied. “But say as little as possible
of the Rowans to Miss Clinton. It will only make her disagreeable.
Hester will be happy to see the young man and his mother, and since he
is a Catholic, I should think that Alice might be civil to him.”
Her invitation accepted, Miss Clinton began to look at the dark side.
“Are you sure that the girl is not very green, Carl,” she asked. “I
detest country manners.”
“Oh! she is very green--very!” was the reply.
Carl sat looking out into the garden, unconscious that his companion
was observing him curiously.
“Are you in love with that girl?” she asked after a moment.
Bold and hardened as she was, she started and shrank at the glance he
gave her. No words could have been more haughty and repelling.
“Well,” she said pettishly, “you need not look daggers at me, if the
question is not to your liking. You are not obliged to answer it.”
He looked out the window again, and said nothing. “She shall learn to
keep her claws off me,” he thought.
No one but himself knew what a price Carl Yorke was paying for his
expected inheritance. The ceaseless irritation and annoyance, the
enforced giving up of his studies, and those literary labors which now
seemed to him his vocation, and the constant confinement, were almost
more than he could bear. But one thought supported him, and that was
that he should some day be able to restore his family to their lost
home, and to pursue those plans of his own which their reverses had
interrupted.
He was also, not quite unconsciously, gaining something better than
gold. He was seeing all the deformity of selfishness, and the
unloveliness of that wit whose chief power is to wound. In asking the
bitter questions, What is this woman living for? what good does her
life do the world? echo had repeated the same questions in his own
soul--What are you living for? what good does the world derive from 19
your being in it? What in him and in others had been vices or faults,
veiled with a certain decorum so as to look almost like virtues, in
this woman’s character were stripped of the veil, and showed in all
their native hatefulness. Here, too, were free-thinking and atheism
_au naturel_, without the crown on their brows, the lustre he had
fancied their faces radiated, and without their airy grace. He saw a
scoffer, and it was as though he saw a devil. He had not the
consolation of thinking her really worse than himself, for he could
not shut his eyes to the fact that the difference between them had
been in manner, not in essence. He had shown more good taste and
delicacy, that was all.
“After all,” he thought, as he sat there that day, looking out the
window, “however it may be with men, women need religion. I would not
trust a woman without it. I will not retract my saying that religion
is a strait-jacket, and intended only for those who cannot stand
straight without it, but I begin to think that we are all of us
partial lunatics.”
“I have heard say that parlor means a place to parle in,” remarked
Miss Clinton presently.
“The orioles are building in this tree,” Carl said, quite as though
nothing unpleasant had happened.
She tossed her head. What did she care about orioles?
“How blood will show, both good blood and bad,” she said with the air
of one who has just discovered a great truth. “Wealth, associates,
travel, occupations, education, neither will efface the signature. The
original stamp remains in spite of circumstances.”
At the beginning, Carl scented battle, but he assumed an air of great
cheerfulness. “You are quite right,” he said. “That great _parvenu_,
Adam, and that still more frightfully new person, his wife, have left
an indelible stain upon their progeny. We can see it to this day,
faintly in some, more strongly marked in others. And, on the other
hand, that prince of the _ancien régime_, Lucifer--”
“Nonsense!” interrupted Miss Clinton. “I was going to say, if you can
stop your most disagreeable and disrespectful mocking--I was going to
say that you have some of the Bohemian lounging ways of your father,
though you never saw him, and though you have been under the training
of Charles Yorke since your babyhood.”
“Do you think I have my father’s ways?” Carl asked, with an air of
delight. “How glad I am! No one else ever told me so, and I was afraid
I might be all Arnold. My mother is, of course, an angelic lady; but
some of her family have had traits which--really--well, I should a
little rather not inherit. And so you think me like my father? Thank
you!”
“The Arnolds and the Clintons, sir, are families from whom you may be
proud to inherit anything!” the old lady cried, beating the table with
her fan. “They were among the _élite_ of Boston and New York when
this country was a British province. We had colonial governors and
judges, sir, when your father’s people were painting signs and
door-steps. It is rather late in the day, young man, for you to have
to be told what my descent is!”
She stopped, choking with anger.
The young man seemed to be much interested in this recital. “Indeed!”
he said, “this is very delightful to know, and it makes such a
difference! Though I had always understood that your descent had been
very--precipitous!”
Miss Clinton glared at him, unable to utter a word, and seemed only 20
just able to restrain herself from throwing her snuff-box at him.
He rose wearily, and went out of the room, having half a mind to run
away altogether.
But ah! who met him at the door, bringing sunshine and peace in her
fair face, holding out two dear little hands, and scattering with a
word all his annoyance?
“Dear Carl,” Edith said, “are you really glad to see me--really glad?”
“How could you imagine such a thing?” he replied.
“Then I will go back to Seaton again. Good-by!”
She took a step toward the street-door, only a step, both her hands
being strongly held.
“You forget, then, silvern speech and golden silence,” the young man
said.
“No,” she replied. “But solid silver is better than airy gold. If
people say kind things to you, then you are sure, and have something
to remember; but looks fade, and you can think that you mistake, or
mistook. Oh! I like silence, Carl, but it must be a silence that
follows after speech. That is the sole golden silence.”
“I am glad to see your face and hear your voice once more, Edith,” he
said seriously. “I have many a time longed for both.”
“Dear Carl!” she exclaimed. “But what is that I hear? Is it a parrot?”
Carl laughed. “Hush! It is Miss Clinton. She is calling out to know
who has come. We will go in and see her.”
Miss Clinton had one pleasant expression, and that was a smile, when
she was so delighted by something out of herself as to forget herself.
This smile brightened her face as she watched the young couple
approach her, hand in hand. She leaned back in her chair, and
contemplated Edith, without thinking of returning her greeting.
“I’m sure that is a golden silence,” Carl said, laughing. “But what do
you think of her, aunt? She likes to have people speak first, and look
afterward.”
“You are welcome, dear!” the old lady said softly, and extended her
hand, but without leaning forward. To take it, therefore, Edith had to
come very near, and was drawn gently down to the footstool by Miss
Clinton’s chair.
The old lady took off the girl’s hat, and dropped it on to the carpet,
then studied her face with delight. She loosened one of the braids of
hair wound around her head, and held it out to a sunbeam to see the
sparkle of it. She pushed it back from the face. “Did you ever see
such ears?” she said to Carl. “They are rose-leaves! There must be a
large pearl hung in each. She drew her finger along the smooth curve
of the brows. “A great artist and physiognomist once told me that such
brows show a fine nature. Broken brows, he said, indicate
eccentricities of character, brows bent toward the nose a tyrannical
disposition, heavy brows reserve and silence, but this long, smooth
brow versatility and grace. Read Lavater if you want to know all about
eyebrows.” She took the cheek, now glowing with blushes, in the hollow
of her hand, and held the eyelids down to admire the lashes. “They
make the eyes look three shades darker than they really are. But what
color are the eyes? They are no color. Did you ever see a shaded
forest spring, Carl? These eyes are as limpid.”
“Oh! please don’t!” the girl begged, trying to hide her face. 21
“My dear, I shall call you Eugénie, and shall adore you,” Miss Clinton
continued. “I hope they have not told you horrible stories about me,
or that, if they have, you will not believe them. People are fond of
saying that I am sharp, but I quote Victor Hugo to them, ‘_La rose
du Bengale, pour être sans épines, est aussi sans parfum._’ A
character without any sharpness would be like an ocean without salt.
Temper sweetens. When any person is recommended to me as of a very
mild and placid position, never getting angry, I always say, Keep that
person out of my sight! Yes, I shall call you Eugénie. I dislike the
Edith on account of old Mrs. Yorke. She and I always quarrelled, dear.
We were what some one has called ‘intimate enemies.’ But I don’t mean
to quarrel with her grand-daughter. You have your father’s eyes and
hair, Eugénie, but your mother’s features. I hope you have not her
disposition. She was too positive, and, besides, she ran away with
another woman’s beau.”
Edith drew back, and stood up, turning to Carl.
“There! she is angry the first thing,” the old lady cried. “No danger
of anybody’s thinking her _sans épines_. Take her down to get
some breakfast, Carl.”
“Dick Rowan is here,” Edith said, as the two went down-stairs; “and he
is a Catholic; and he has a new ship which he has named for me.”
There was no reply. They were going through the shady entry, and, if
the young man frowned at the news, the frown was not seen.
“Aunt Amy has gone to Hester’s,” Edith went on. “She got over the
journey nicely, and wants to see you very soon. She will send Hester
up to see me presently. I am too tired to go out to-day, would you
believe it? You see, travel was so new to me that I could not sleep. I
stayed on deck as long as I could, then I listened all night. It
seemed so strange to be on the water, out of sight of land.”
Later, while the young traveller was resting in the chamber assigned
her, a visitor entered gently, unannounced. “I thought I might come,
dear,” Miss Mills said.
Edith raised herself, and eagerly held out her arms. The lady embraced
her tenderly, then dropped, rather than sat down, in a chair by the
bed. She looked with a strange mingling of feelings on this child of
her lost lover. When she recognized the tint of his hair and eyes in
Edith’s, she bent toward her with yearning love; but then appeared
some trait of the mother--a turn of the head, a smile unconsciously
proud, an exquisitely fine outline of feature; and, at sight of it,
that wounded heart shrank back as from a deadly enemy. The interview
was friendly, and even tender, and engagements were made for future
meetings; but the lady was glad to get away. The sight of Robert
Yorke’s child had wakened all the sleeping past, and for a time the
years that had intervened since her parting with him faded like a
mist. Since that day, more than one power, at first pride, later
religion, had strengthened her, had raised up new hopes and new joys;
but they were not the sweet human hopes and joys that every man and
woman looks naturally for; they were those born of struggle and
self-denial. She had lived truly and nobly, but she was human; and
to-day her humanity rose, and swept over her like a flood.
Miss Mills locked herself into her room, and for once gave herself up 22
to regret. It was no ordinary affection which she mourned. It had
entered her heart silently, and been welcomed like an angel visitant;
it had been held sacred. She had watched it with awe and delight as it
grew, that strange, beautiful, terrible power! How complex it had
become, entering into every feeling, every interest! How it had
changed and given a new meaning to life, and a new idea and
comprehension of herself!
Then, when it had got to seem that she alone was not a complete being,
but only about to become perfect--then destruction came.
“Jove strikes the Titans down,
Not when they set about their mountain-piling,
But when another rock would crown their work.”
If the foundation merely of an edifice be overthrown, there is hope
that it may be rebuilt; but destruction overtaking when the topmost
height is almost attained is destruction indeed.
In the evening a knock was heard at the chamber door, which she had
all day refused to open, a note was pushed under the door, and a
servant waited outside for her to read it. She rose wearily, lighted
the gas, and glanced over the lines. “I am sorry you have headache,
sorry for you and for me. Edith is talking with Mr. Rowan, and I am,
consequently, _de trop_. There is no one I care to see to-night
but you. Send me word if you are better.”
“Tell him to wait,” she ordered, and, hastily dressing for a walk,
went down. The front parlor was not lighted, but she saw him sitting
by a window there. “Come out!” she said. “I wanted to go to the
chapel, and you are just in time.”
Scarcely a word was spoken as they went through the streets together.
They entered the chapel, and turned aside into a shady corner. Carl
sat, and his companion, too exhausted to kneel, sat beside him. In a
room near by, a choir was singing that most beautiful of hymns--
“Jesus, lover of my soul.”
“Alice,” Carl whispered, “that is enough to break one’s heart!”
Her tears broke forth afresh. “No, Carl, it is enough to heal a heart
already broken.” She listened, and looking toward the altar, repeated
over and over,
“Other refuge have I none.”
The solitude and quiet were soothing to both--the sense of a divine
presence more than soothing to her who had faith in it.
They had not been there long when a gentleman came up the aisle with a
firm, but light step, passed by without noticing them, and knelt down
just before them. Carl sat and gazed at him in astonishment. That Dick
Rowan should outwardly and publicly conform to the church, for Edith’s
sake, was not surprising, but that he should come privately to the
chapel to pray was inexplicable. Could it be that a brave, manly
fellow like this could sincerely believe?
Utterly unconscious of observation, the sailor knelt there motionless,
with his face hidden in his hands, and when Carl’s companion whispered
to him, and they both went out, that figure had not stirred.
Edith Yorke’s friend began at once to show her what was notable in the
city; but, as often happens, what they considered worth seeing
disappointed the neophyte, and what they passed without notice she
would fain have paused to look at. Inexperienced persons who have read
much usually overestimate the magnitude of the wonders they have not
seen. What young traveller, entering for the first time a city, ever
found its houses as palatial, its streets as superb, its monuments as 23
grand, as fancy had pictured them?
“Everything looks so much smaller and more shabby,” Edith confessed
privately to Dick Rowan. “Trees and waters are finer than any pictures
of them that I have seen, and faces that speak and smile are more
beautiful than any painted ones. Only some pictures of Italian scenes
delight me. Now, Dick, please do not be shocked when I tell you that I
quite long to stop and look at the organ-grinders and their monkeys,
and to gaze in at the shop windows. But I can’t, you know, for that
would make Carl and Hester and Miss Mills ashamed of me.”
The result of this confidence was that, dressed to attract as little
attention as possible, these two friends set the others aside, and
went on long tramps together. They paid not much attention to the
finer sights, but dived into all sorts of byways. They looked in at
shop windows, at birds and shells and jewels, and more than one
shopkeeper was smilingly pleased to display his best wares at the
young lady’s shy request, though informed beforehand that she did not
mean to buy. They watched the organ-grinders and their monkeys to
their hearts’ content; they amused themselves with the _gamins_,
and held various conversations with them; they were bountiful to
street-beggars. Ragged urchins were astonished by showers of candy
that seemed to descend from heaven on their heads, poor little weeping
outcasts were asked to tell their griefs, and listened to with tender
sympathy, tears perhaps rising into one pair of eyes that looked at
them. Sometimes a wretched pauper, walking with downcast face through
the street, felt something touch his hand and leave a bit of money
there, and looked up to see a lady and gentleman just passing, and one
sweet face glance momentarily back with a smile at once arch and
pitying. “Shall I ruin you, Dick?” Edith asks gleefully. “I have
ruined myself; but that didn’t take long. My poor little money is all
gone. Are you very rich?”
“Oh! immensely!” Dick replies. “I have chests of gold. Give away as
much as you wish to.”
One blind man gone astray long remembered how a soft hand took one of
his, and a firm hand the other, and his two guides led him home,
inquiring into his misfortune by the way, and commiserating him more
tenderly than brother or sister ever had.
“It is so sad to have all the beautiful world shut out,” said the
sweet voice out of the dark. “But one might, I think, see heavenly
things the more plainly.”
The poor man never lost himself afterward, but he looked blindly, and
listened to hear once more those two voices, and to feel the clasp of
those two hands, one soft as charity, the other strong as faith. And
since they never came to him again, to his imprisoned soul it seemed
as though heavenly visitants had led him, and spoken sacred words for
him to remember. These two young creatures, out of the happy world of
the rich and prosperous, were not afraid of soiling their hands or
their clothes, and did not look on the poor as they did on the
paving-stones.
“O Dick!” Edith said in one of those walks, “I do not wonder that the
Lord could not stay in heaven when he saw the misery of earth, and
knew that there was no comfort even in another world for it. What a
trial it must have been for him to sit above there, and hear all the
cries of pain that went up, and see all the weeping faces that were
raised. Why, Dick, it seems to me that if I could see and know at 24
once all the suffering there is to-day in this one city, it would kill
me. I wish we could do something besides play, as we do. Perhaps we
ought to work all our lives for the wretched, you and I; who can
tell?”
“Yes!” the young man replied slowly, and was silent a moment,
thinking. “That idea comes into my mind sometimes,” he added. “I
always fancy that the poor and the wicked look at me in an asking way,
differently from what they do to others, as if they expected me to do
something for them. It may be only because they see how I look at
them. I never see one but I think, How should I feel if that were my
father or my mother? But I don’t know what great work I could do. My
life seems mapped out.”
Sometimes their expeditions were merrier. They went to the Back Bay
lands, then not filled in, and stood so close to the railroad tracks
that the passing trains blew in their faces. “I like strength and
force,” Edith said; “and I like the wind in my face. It would be
pleasant to ride in a car with an open front, and the engine on
behind. Does it not seem like that in a ship at sea, Dick?”
“Better than that,” he answered, his eyes brightening. “For at sea you
have a clear track, and can fly on without stopping or turning out for
anything.”
“Now, let’s go and see that large building,” the girl said. “Isn’t it
fine to go about in this way? You are Haroun-al-Raschid, and I am
anybody, and we are exploring our capital. We are, perhaps, invisible.
Stop a minute. There are fishes in this ditch. I am going to catch one
with a crooked pin.”
They looked at the large building, Chickering’s piano-forte factory,
and Dick described foreign buildings to his companion, and described
so vividly and so simply that the structures seemed to rise before her.
He was remarkably gifted in this respect. His clear eyes took in the
general effect, and caught here and there a salient point to give it
character and sharpness, and his descriptions were never blurred by
superfluous words, or by imagination, which often destroys the
outlines of tangible things by its perceptions of their intangible
meaning.
One morning they went to Mass to receive communion together. The
morning was lovely, the spring green all freshness, the birds singing,
the sun stealing goldenly through a faint mist. Edith rose happy, and
everything added to her happiness. It was delightful to have some one
to go to Mass with. It only now occurred to her that she had been
lonely in her religion.
“I hope that I shall make a good communion,” she said to herself, as
she began to dress. “What should I do? Let me think! If I had a house
of my own, rather a poor little place, and some one I loved and
honored were coming to visit me, I should first make my house clean.
Then I should adorn it all I could, and prepare a little feast. I have
no servant, I will say, and must do everything myself. I am rather
glad of that, for I can show my good-will so. I will not mind getting
on my knees to scrub out the darkest corners. But I must let in light
to see where to cleanse. Come, Holy Spirit! enlighten my soul, and let
no darkness remain where a sin can hide itself. Then comes my
confession; but what poor things confessions are! I wish I could say,
I accuse myself of having broken all the ten commandments of God, and
the six commandments of the church, and of having committed the seven
deadly sins, and every sin that could be committed, and each a 25
thousand times over. Then I should be sure to get them all in. But
Father Rasle says that, if our dispositions are good, the sins we
forget, or do not understand, are included and forgiven with those we
confess. As when a woman sweeps her room, she sweeps out, perhaps,
some things she does not see. Well, say that my house is clean, what
have I to adorn it with?” She paused with the brush half-drawn through
her hair, and the first sunbeams, shining in her face, shone on
gathering tears. She recollected herself, and went on with her
dressing. “Such a bare reception! Nothing to offer! How about faith,
hope, and charity? I believe everything, I could believe a thousand
times more; but even the devils believe, Father Rasle says. I don’t
know whether I hope in the right way. Hope is a hard virtue to manage.
Do I love him? Yes! Even though I do wrong, still I love him. It is no
sign that you do not love a person, even if you do things to vex him.
What good work can I do to-day? I will read Miss Clinton to sleep, and
let Bird go out. That will be something, because I would rather go out
myself. And I will ask Miss Clinton if I may read a paper to her. That
will be awfully hard, for she will stare at me, and then laugh in that
way that makes me want to run out of the room. And I will--yes--no--will
I? Yes, I will try to kiss her, if I possibly can. She would be
pleased; but I shouldn’t be. Those will be like little daisies at the
doorstep when he comes in. But my house is bare yet. If only I had
some pain to offer!”
Her eyes chanced to fall on a coil of picture-cord, and the sight of
it gave her a new and startling thought. She paused a moment, then,
rising, pulled her curtains close, opened the door to assure herself
that there was no one in the corridor outside, then shut the door and
locked it. This done, she looped and knotted the cord into a
discipline--ah! not in vain had she once asked Father Rasle what that
was. Her hands trembled with eagerness while she fastened the five
lashes together. Then, with one glowing upward glance, she knelt, and
brought the discipline, with the full force of her arm, round across
her shoulders. A faint cry followed the first blow, and the blood
rushed crimson over her face and neck. “O Lord! I did not mean to cry
out!” she whispered, and listened, and struck again, and yet again.
“One for each of the five wounds, one for each of the times he prayed
in the garden.” She paused, and dropped forward with her face on the
floor, writhing in silent pain. “Now, one for each station of the way
of the cross.” Tears ran down her cheeks, but her strong young arm and
heart did not falter. “Now, a decade of the rosary.”
Sobbing, half-fainting, she rose after a while, and hid the precious
pencil, with which she had painted a picture for the wall of her
little reception-room.
“I must put on something extra, so that the blood shall not show
through my dress,” she said; but, looking to wipe away the blood,
behold! not a drop was there, but only long welts of red and white
crossing her fair shoulders.
Edith hid her face, with a _feeling_ of utter humiliation and
grief. She had been agonizing under the blows which had produced only
a few marks, and yet fancying that she imitated him whose flesh had
been torn by the lash, and whose blood had flowed in streams. “I can
do nothing, nothing! I am silly and presumptuous,” were the thoughts
with which she finished her preparation to go out. 26
But, trivial as her penance had been, it brought humility, and a
deeper sense of the sufferings of our Lord.
A servant who was washing the steps as Edith went out, smiled
gratefully to the pleasant greeting of the young lady, and looked
after her as she went down the street. The servants, all Catholics,
were very proud and fond of this young Catholic in their Protestant
household.
“Since I cannot do anything,” Edith pursued, as she walked on toward
the church, “I will ask the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph to come
first, and be in my house when the Lord shall enter. He will be
pleased to find them there. Then, when the time comes, I will go and
meet him at the door; but how dreadfully ashamed I shall be! I shall
not dare to look up, but I shall say, ‘Welcome, Lord!’ and kneel down,
and kiss his feet. Then, if there is anything more to be done, he will
do it, for I can do nothing. How odd it is that I should feel so
ashamed at having him come to me, and yet should want him to come! I
wouldn’t put it off for anything.”
Dick was waiting inside the chapel-door for her. He pointed her to a
confessional, then took his place near the altar. When it came time
for communion, they knelt side by side, but retired again to different
seats.
How long Edith knelt there she did not know. She had covered her face
with her hands, shutting out the sight of all about her, and her soul
had entered a new scene. There was a simple, small room, bare save for
two vague, luminous presences, one at either side, lighting the place.
There was an open door, with vines swinging about it, and a half-seen
picture of verdure, and deep blue heavens outside. Up through that
pure, intense color stretched two lines of motionless winged forms, as
if they bowed at either side of a path down which one had come. Within
the door, under the vines, stood the Lord, and she was prostrate on
the floor, with her arms clasped around, and her lips pressed to, his
feet. She did not look up, and he did not speak nor stir, but his
smile shone down through all her being. Let it last so for ever!
The tinkling of a bell awoke her as from a sound sleep--a flicker, as
of flames in the wind, moved those heavenly lines of receding faces,
and Edith lifted her head, and recollected where she was, seeming to
be suddenly transported back there from a distance. The priest was
carrying the host away from the altar of the chapel up to the church.
He held the sacred burden clasped closely to his breast, and bent his
head slightly toward it. He looked at it as he walked, yet chose his
steps with care. He wrapped around it the golden veil, of which the
fringe glistened like fire as he moved. No mother could carry a
sleeping infant more tenderly.
Edith stretched out her hands, with a momentary feeling of
bereavement, for the Lord was going away. “Oh! take my heart with
thee!” she prayed.
The lights disappeared, the sound of the bell grew fainter up the
stairs, and ceased. She sighed, then smiled again, and became aware of
Dick sitting at the furthest end of the bench, and waiting for her.
They went out by separate aisles, and met at the door.
“I would like to have followed up into the church, and waited till he
was at rest again, and seen where they lay him,” Edith said after a 27
while.
Dick smiled quietly, and said nothing. He was looking quite pale, but
bright. She made no comment on his looks, thinking that the communion
was the cause of his emotion.
They went to the public gardens before going home. It was very lovely
there. The mists of the morning had slowly gathered themselves into
detached clouds, and they scarcely moved, the air was so still. The
trees and the many pink flowers about glistened with dew.
Edith began to love her quietude, and grow merry, but with an angelic
merriment. “Do you think that the Lord came down to the garden only at
evening?” she asked. “I think he came at early morning, unless he
stayed all night--morning is so beautiful! How alive everything is!
You can almost see eyes in the flowers. See the swans on the water.
They float like clouds in the sky. Fancy a pink swan in a large blue
lake, throwing up sprays as white as snow over his bosom! Do you think
that the earth was any more beautiful when it was first made? Is it
not lovely now?”
There was no answer in words, but the young man’s eyes, glancing
about, were eloquent, and his smile was one of peaceful delight.
“Come,” the girl said, “let’s play that this is really the Garden of
Eden, and that you and I are just taking our first walk in it,
wondering over everything. Let us look at ourselves in the water, and
see if we are as beautiful as all the rest.”
He smiled at the childish fancy, took the hand she offered him, and
went with her over the water. The swans passed by, and sent ripples
over their mirror, but it was clear enough to give back the image of a
sweet oval face with bright eyes and lips, and of another face more
richly tinted, peach-colored with sun and wind, with eyes that
sparkled, and white teeth that laughed through a chestnut beard.
“Adam,” said the woman, “thou art more stately than the palm, and
thine eyes have beams like the sun. Let us praise the Creator who hath
formed thee in his own image!”
Dick’s hand and voice trembled, his face grew red in the water, then
grew pale. “Eve,” he said, “thou art whiter and more graceful than the
swan, and, while thou art speaking, the birds listen. I praise him who
has given thee to me to be mine alone and for ever--my mate in this
world and in the next.”
Speaking, his light clasp grew tight on her hand.
The face and throat that had shown swan-white in the water grew
rose-red, then disappeared as Edith started back.
“How could I look forward to anything else, Edith?” the young man
exclaimed desperately. “I have never dreamed of any other life. I have
worked, and studied, and hoped for you. What! will you turn away from
me now, for the first time? God have mercy on me!”
She did not utter a word at first. She was too much confounded. It was
to her as though the friend she had so long known had been suddenly
snatched from her side, and a stranger like, and yet unlike, him put
in his place. This man with the pallid face and trembling voice was
not Dick Rowan. She wanted to get away from him. But after a step or
two she turned back again.
“Who would have thought it?” she said, looking at him anxiously, as
though half hoping that the whole was a jest.
“Who would have thought anything else?” he replied, taking courage. 28
She turned away again, but he walked on beside her. It was too late to
withdraw. Having spoken, he must say all.
“I think you were the only person who did not see what I lived for,”
he said.
“But it is nonsense!” she exclaimed.
“We have always known each other. We are like brother and sister. Is
it only strangers who marry?” he asked.
“Marry! Fie! I never thought of such a thing!” she said angrily.
“Won’t you please think of it now, Edith?” he asked, in a voice so
gentle and controlled that it recalled her own self-possession. “This
has been the great thought of my life. It made me ambitious, for your
sake. I am a Catholic, thank God! and a sincere one, but it was love
of you that led me to study and think on that subject. When my life
hangs in the balance, I am sure you will at least stop to think,
dear.”
She looked at him, but he did not return her glance. His eyes were
fixed on the ground, and it really seemed as though his life did hang
in the balance.
“I’d like to stop and talk about it a little while, Dick,” she said.
“Sit here. Now, be reasonable, and I will not be cross again. Forgive
me! I was so surprised, you know; for I have been studying all my
life, and never thought about this. Now, it seems to me, Dick, that I
shall never want to be married to any one whatever. I shall live with
Aunt Amy, and, when she is dead, I will go into a convent, or, if I
should have money, will do something for the poor, perhaps. If you
want to have me with you, some time I can go on a voyage in your ship,
and you can always come to see me when you come home. Won’t that do?”
He smiled faintly.
“Oh! thank you!” she said, greatly relieved.
“Has any one else ever spoken to you in this way, Edith?” he asked,
looking at her searchingly.
“Oh! no,” she answered with decision. “I am not at all engaged, or
anything like it. No one ever cared anything about me. And I hope you
are satisfied now, Dick. It is very well for people to marry who are
afraid of losing each other; but we can live close by when we grow
old, or perhaps in the same house.”
“I have disturbed and troubled you, Edith,” the young man said after
awhile, “but I could not help it. There must be a beginning to
everything, and I had to make a beginning of this. I don’t expect you
to treat it seriously now, but I want you to think of it. It seemed
right that I should speak, or some one else might speak while I am
gone, and take you away from me.”
“But I should never think of having any one else, if you want me,” she
replied with perfect conviction. “I may not ever marry at all, but, if
I do, you will have the first chance.”
Dick Rowan’s whole face caught fire. “Why, darling!” he exclaimed
joyfully, “do you mean that?”
She was astonished and pleased at the effect of her words, “Truly,”
she answered. “You know very little of me if you do not know that I
have always considered myself to belong more to you than to any one
else.”
They had now reached Miss Clinton’s door, and there they parted
without more words.
But Edith’s indecision was of shorter duration than either she or her
friend had anticipated. The subject was so foreign to her thoughts 29
that at first she had comprehended nothing, and had received Dick
Rowan’s avowal in a most childish manner. But a few hours’
consideration had set the whole in a different light. She went down to
Hester’s as soon as dinner was over, and asked for her aunt. Mrs.
Yorke was in her own room, writing a letter, and she only glanced up
with a smile as her niece entered.
“All well at Miss Clinton’s?” she asked, folding the letter.
“Yes, very well.”
“Anything new?”
“Miss Clinton told me last night that her will is made, leaving
everything to Carl, and that, if I marry to suit her, I am to have her
jewels, shawls, and laces. I do not want them, though I would rather
have fresh new things for myself, if they are not so rich.”
“Whom does she wish you to marry?” Mrs. Yorke asked, directing her
letter.
“She did not say,” Edith replied in a constrained voice, looking down.
Mrs. Yorke glanced at her niece, then put her arm out and drew her
close. “You have something to tell me, dear,” she said.
Edith began to tremble. “Yes, Aunt Amy. Dick Rowan has been talking to
me this morning, and, if you and Uncle Charles are willing, and if I
should ever marry any one, I am going to marry him.”
Mrs. Yorke’s brows contracted slightly, rather with anxiety than
displeasure. “Dear child, are you sure of yourself?” she asked. “One
may have a very great affection for a person, and not be willing to
marry him. Don’t be hasty. Take time to think of it till he shall come
back again. If you promise, you may regret it. I must say, dear, I
think it selfish of him to speak so when you have seen nothing but
birds and books, and do not know your own mind.”
Edith raised her head from her aunt’s shoulder. “Oh! Dick isn’t
selfish, and he only asked me to think of it, and to know that he
wanted me.”
It was useless to oppose. After a little more talk, Mrs. Yorke
promised to consent if both were of the same mind after a year. “And
now, Edith, I have concluded to start for home to-morrow, and I want
to see Carl right away.”
She did not say that she had only come to this conclusion since Edith
had entered her room.
“And I also wish to see Mr. Rowan,” she added. “Did he not mean to
consult me?”
“Oh! yes,” Edith said eagerly. “He is coming up this evening; and,
Aunt Amy”--very hesitatingly--“don’t let me be married for a great
while, till I am twenty-five, at least. Of course,” looking up
quickly, as if some doubt had been expressed--“of course, I think the
world of him, and don’t wish to marry any one else; but I cannot,
_cannot_ hurry.”
Mrs. Yorke had a long conversation with her niece’s lover, that
evening, and laid down the law rather severely to him. No one but
Edith, herself, and Mr. Yorke were to know of his proposal. “I do not
wish her to be talked about, and assigned to any one, when nothing is
decided,” she said. “It is for that purpose that I am taking her away
so soon, to prevent talk. If, when you come home next year, she wishes
it, and nothing has happened to raise any new objection, I shall not
oppose you.”
He sat a moment silent. He asked nothing better than he had got; but
his proud spirit rebelled at the manner in which the promise was
given. He was tolerated because they could not help themselves. 30
“Do you agree to that?” she asked, after waiting a moment.
“Certainly!” he replied. “I forgot to say so, and to thank you,
because, excuse me! I was thinking how much poorer an offering is a
man’s whole heart and faithful allegiance than a full purse.”
“If you had millions, it would make no difference, Mr. Rowan,” Mrs.
Yorke said hastily, her color rising. “If I am not cordial in
welcoming you into this relation, my reasons are not mercenary, nor--”
her manner softened--“nor because I do not respect and like you.”
She held her hand out to him. He bent gallantly over it, murmured a
word of thanks, and took leave without saying any more.
He was willing, almost glad, that Edith should go home. He welcomed
any stir and progress in events which would seem to pass the time more
quickly along. Let him get over his year of probation, and, during it,
be separated from her, if they chose. Her doubt and trouble in their
new relations troubled him. When he should come again, all would be
settled. He was full of hope and triumph, and far removed from
jealousy. She had said that she should not think of marrying any one
but him; and what Edith said was as sure as sunrise.
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
(IN MEMORIAM.)
A CONVERT.
1856.
(These lines express the feelings of one, now at rest, who was loved
and honored by all who knew him--including, probably, those who cast
him off.)
I.
Ah me! my alienated friends,
Whose friendship, like a branch half-broke,
With all its mildewed blossoms bends,
And piecemeal rots;--how kind the stroke
That bond--your bondage--sent to sever!
Yet, can I wish it? Never, never!
II.
I hear them tread your festal floors:
When now the lights no longer burn,
Alone I haunt your darkened doors:
The guests are gone; yet I return:
In dreamless sleep outstretched you lie:
I dream of all the days gone by.
III. 31
Against myself your part I take:
“I was of those whose spring is fair;
Whom men but love in hope, and wake
To find (youth flown) the worse for wear:
’Gainst the defaulter judgment goes:
I lived on trust, and they foreclose.”
IV.
And many times I say: “They feel
In me the faults they spare to name;
Nor flies unjust the barbèd steel,
Though loosened with a random aim.”
Officious zeal! for them I plead
Who neither seek such aid, nor need.
V.
Give up thy summer wealth at last,
Sad tree; and praise the frost that bares
Thy boughs, ere comes that wintry blast
Which fells the grove that autumn spares.
There where thou lov’st thou liv’st! Bequeath,
Except thy bones, no spoils to death!
VI.
To others sovereign Faith exalts
Her voice from temple and from shrine:
For me she rears from funeral vaults
A cross that bleeds with drops divine;
And Hope--above a tombstone--lifts
Her latest, yet her best of gifts.
AUBREY DE VERE.
----------
THE LIQUEFACTION OF THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS. 32
NO. II.
When was this liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius first seen by
men? It is not easy to answer the question. Some Neapolitan writers
have maintained that it occurred probably on the very day when the
remains of the sainted bishop were first solemnly transferred to
Naples. For then, naturally and as a matter of course, the vials of
the blood must have been brought into close proximity with the relics
of the head. And this proximity, now intentionally brought about at
each exposition, seems to be ordinarily the necessary and sufficient
condition for the occurrence of the liquefaction. Others, however,
prefer to be guided by positive historical evidence, and have come to
a different conclusion. There is in existence a life of the saint
written in or near Naples, about the year 920. It combines historical
accounts and later legends, and evidently omits nothing which the
writer thought would promote veneration toward the saint. It is
diffuse on the subject of miracles. There is also in existence a
panegyric of the saint, written perhaps half a century earlier still.
No mention whatever is made in either of them of this Liquefaction. We
may, therefore, conclude that in the year 920 it was not known. Four
hundred and fifty years later, it was known, and had been known so
long as to be reputed of ancient standing. About 1380, Lupus dello
Specchio wrote the life of St. Peregrine of Scotland, who came to
Naples about the year 1100, and died there probably about 1130. In
that life it is stated that St. Peregrine came to witness this
celebrated and continual miracle--_quotidianum et insigne miraculum_.
Now, it may well be that the author, writing about two hundred and
fifty years after the death of St. Peregrine, had access to documents
and evidences clearly establishing this fact, although such documents
do not now exist, five hundred years later, or, at least, have not as
yet been exhumed from some dusty library, where they may be lying
unnoticed. Or, on the contrary, it may possibly be that in 1380 Lupus
believed that the miracle, so regular in its occurrence at his day,
had regularly occurred since the year of the translation of the body,
and took it as a matter of course that St. Peregrine had witnessed it;
and so put that down among the facts of his life. But this, even
though a harsh criticism, and one we think unwarranted, if not
excluded, by the words of the life, would imply at least that, in
1380, the Liquefaction had occurred for so long a time that men had
ordinarily lost the memory of its commencement.
Maraldus the Carthusian, who accompanied his abbot Rudolph to the
coronation of Roger, King of Sicily, as historiographer, tells us in
his _Chronicon_--or perhaps his continuator--how, in 1140, Roger
visited Naples, and how there he venerated the relics of the head and
of the blood of St. Januarius. The Liquefaction is not mentioned in so
many words. But these relics would not have been singled out from all
others in the city, and made so prominent, without some special 33
reason--a reason, perhaps, so well known and so obvious that it did
not occur to the writer to state it explicitly, any more than to say
that the king venerated the relics in the daytime and not at night.
The learned and critical Bollandists, who have carefully weighed all
that can be said on this question, incline to hold that the
Liquefaction commenced somewhere between the years 900 and 1000. Prior
to the century between those years, St. Januarius had been ranked
among the minor patrons of the church of Naples. After that century,
he holds the most prominent place and rank in their calendar. This
change is unusual and important, and must have been based on some
sufficient reason. The most probable one under the circumstances--if
not the only one that can be assigned--is that during that century the
Liquefactions became known. The contemporary records of Naples for
that time were very few; for it was a period of incessant warrings,
devastations, and tumults. Those that did exist probably perished in
the not unfrequent destruction of the monastic libraries. Still, some
venerable manuscript may even yet come to light, telling us how on
some festival day, or day of supplication, the relics were all on the
altar, the vials of the blood near to the head; how some of the crowd
that prayed before the altar saw that the blood in the vial had become
liquid; how the wonderful thing was spoken of and seen by many; how,
on other occasions, it occurred again and again; until at last it came
to be regularly looked for, as a part, and the most wonderful part, of
the celebration.
After 1400, the notices of the Liquefaction are more frequent. Æneas
Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II.) gives an account of it.
Robert Gaguin, the old French historian, narrating the journey of
Charles VIII. into Italy, mentions his visiting Naples in 1495, and
his witnessing and examining this miracle of the Liquefaction.
In 1470, Angelo Catone, a physician of Salerno, who devoted the later
years of his life to literature and to travelling, has written a brief
but clear account of it. Picus de la Mirandola, the wonder of his age,
has also left his testimony as an eye-witness.
It is needless to say that, since the invention of printing and the
multiplication of books, we have numberless accounts of it from
travellers and authors, in Latin, Italian, German, Polish, English,
French, Spanish, and every language of Europe.
Ever since September, 1659--ten years after the opening of the new
_Tesoro_ chapel--an official diary has been kept in it, recording
day by day the expositions of the relics; in what state and condition
the blood was found when extracted from the _armoire_, or closet;
after the lapse of what length of time the change, if any, occurred;
what was its course and character; in what condition the blood was,
when safely replaced in its closet in the evening; and, generally, any
other facts of the day which the officers charged with this duty
deemed worthy of note.
There are also printed forms in blank to the same effect, which one of
them fills out and signs in the sacristy attached to the
_Tesoro_, and distributes each day of exposition to those who desire
them. We have several in our possession.
Another diary is kept in the archiepiscopal archives. It was commenced
long before that of the _Tesoro_. We had an opportunity of looking
over it. Down to the year 1526, it seems to be made up from previous
documents and extracts from various authors. In 1526, it assumes the 34
character of an original diary. Here and there come intervals during
which it appears not to have been regularly kept on. These omissions
would be supplied from other sources, when, after a time, the diary
would be resumed. From 1632 it is complete. We have before us a
manuscript abstract of it, from which we will quote hereafter.
The church of Naples celebrates three festivals of St. Januarius each
year; the feast proper of the saint, commemorating his martyrdom; the
feast of the translation, commemorating the transfer of his body from
Marcian to Naples; and the feast of the patronage, a votive one of
thanksgiving. We take them up in the order of time as they occur each
year.
I. The first Sunday of May is the feast of the translation. On the
preceding Saturday--the vigil, as it is termed--a solemn procession,
during the forenoon, bears the bust containing the relics of the head
of the saint from the cathedral to the church of Santa Chiara, or St.
Clare. In the afternoon, another more imposing procession conveys the
reliquary of the blood to the same church, in which the liquefaction
is then looked for. About sunset, both relics are borne back in
procession to the cathedral and _Tesoro_ chapel, and at the proper
hour are duly locked up. On the next day, Sunday, they are brought
out, first to the altar of the _Tesoro_ chapel, and thence, after a
couple of hours, to the high altar of the cathedral. In the afternoon,
at the appointed hour, they are again brought back to the _Tesoro_
chapel, and are duly replaced in their closet, or _armoire_. The same
is repeated on Monday, and on each succeeding day of the octave up to
the following Sunday, inclusive. Thus, for this festival in May there
are _nine_ successive days of exposition. And, inasmuch as in the mind
of the church the vigil, the feast, and the octave are all united
together, as the celebration of one festival in a more solemn form, so
we naturally look on those nine expositions not as isolated and
distinct, one from the other, but as in some way connected together
and united to compose a single group.
The feast and its vigil are found in ancient calendars of the church
of Naples. The octave was added about the year 1646, on the occasion
of completing and consecrating the new _Tesoro_ chapel, the work and
the pride of the city. The processions on the vigil were at first
directed to such churches as the ecclesiastical authorities might from
time to time select, to meet the convenience or the wishes of the
faithful. In 1337, eight special churches were designated to which in
an established order of succession the processions would thereafter go
in turn each year. In 1526, it was stipulated between the city
authorities and the archbishop that they should instead go in turn to
six municipal halls, or _seggie_, as the Neapolitans styled them,
belonging to as many civic bodies or corporations, which united, in
some complex and ancient way, in the municipal government of the city:
that is, to the chapels or churches attached to these _seggie_. This
regulation was strictly followed until the year 1800. The old mediæval
usages and liberties had by that time become weakened or had died out
under the influence of modern centralization. The several old civic
corporations of Naples, if they existed at all, existed only in name.
The halls or _seggie_ had lost their original importance and standing.
A new regulation seemed necessary. From 1800 down, the procession of 35
the vigil has gone each year to the church of Santa Chiara.
II. On the 19th of September occurs the Feast of St. Januarius, the
chief or proper festival of the saint, commemorating his life of
virtue and his glorious death by martyrdom under Diocletian. It is
traced back to the earliest martyrologies and calendars of the church;
even those of the Greek schismatic church have preserved it. In
Naples, St. Januarius being the patron saint of the city, this
festival is, of course, one of high rank, and has an octave. Opening
on the nineteenth, and closing on the twenty-sixth of September, it
gives each year _eight_ days more, on each one of which the relics are
brought forth about 9 A.M., and are placed on the main altar of
the _Tesoro_ chapel, and, about 11 A.M., are carried thence out to
the high altar of the cathedral, whence again in the evening they are
regularly brought back to the _Tesoro_ chapel, to be replaced for the
night in their proper closets. On each day, the liquefaction is looked
for. The reason already given in the case of the May octave applies
here also. These eight days of exposition are not eight isolated or
distinct days, without any connection. They should rather be looked on
as forming a second group.
III. On the 16th of December is celebrated the feast of the Patronage
of St. Januarius. This is a single day festival in annual thanksgiving
for many favors received, and especially for the preservation of
Naples, two centuries and a half ago, from the fate of Herculaneum and
Pompeii.
Naples lies almost under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, that terrible
volcano which, after slumbering peacefully for an unknown number of
ages, renewed its fearful and destructive eruptions in A.D. 79,
203, 462, 512, and more than fifty times since. The burning gas or the
smoke from its crater has risen miles into the air, and has spread
like a dark cloud scores of miles on one side or the other. It has
thrown up stones, which fell in showers of lapilli ten miles away. Its
ashes have been borne to Tunis and Algiers in Africa, and to Tuscany,
to Illyria, and to Greece in other directions. Once they clouded the
sky and filled the air even in Constantinople. Streams of molten lava
have flowed down its sides, filling valleys that were broad and deep,
and sending in advance a sulphurous atmosphere and a glowing heat
which destroyed all animal and vegetable life, even before the fiery
stream itself touched plant, tree, or animal. They roll on slowly, but
so inflexible and irresistible that no work or art of man can stay the
movement or control its course. Everything in its path is doomed to
utter destruction. _Resina_, between Naples and the mountain, has been
destroyed and rebuilt, it is said, seven times; _Torre del Greco_,
near by, nine times. Other places have perished as did Herculaneum and
Pompeii. On every side of the mountain, so fair to look on when
peaceful, so terrible in its wrath, one may follow for miles on miles
these ancient currents, radiating from the centre. Here the hard, dark
rock rings, as iron would, under your horse’s hoof. There, what was
once a death-bearing stream of lava has been covered by time with a
rich soil, on which vines and olives flourish. By the shore, you may
see where they reached the water, and have added leagues of rough
volcanic rock to the land.
Naples has often been violently shaken, and sometimes seriously
injured; has often been in imminent peril, but never was utterly 36
destroyed. This brilliant capital, uniting in herself all that Italian
taste admires of beauty and luxury--“_Vedi Napoli, e muori_”--lives
with a sword of Damocles ever suspended over her. Each night as they
retire the Neapolitans may shudder if they cast a thought on the
possible horrors of the night they have entered on or what the morrow
may bring them.
But men become callous even to such dangers as these, when often
threatened and seldom felt. We can conceive how thoroughly all thought
of them had died out in 1631, when Vesuvius, in a long unbroken sleep
of one hundred and ninety-four years, had allowed six generations of
Neapolitans to grow up and pass to their graves without any experience
of its power. Earthquakes, explosions, flames, smoke, and streams of
fire were all forgotten. Towns and villages, and gardens and
vineyards, were dotting the base of the mountain or climbing its
pleasant and fertile slopes. And among the many charming scenes in the
neighborhood of Naples, there were then none more sweet and charming
than those of the narrow tract between the city and Mount Vesuvius.
So it was on the morning of Tuesday, the 16th of December, 1631. Yet
fair as was the scene on which the sun rose that day, it was to be
greatly changed ere night. Early in the morning, the citizens were
startled and somewhat alarmed by a very perceptible tremulousness of
the earth under their feet. It increased in violence as the hours
rolled on, and the atmosphere too, December though it was, became
sultry and close. The inhabitants of the beautiful villas and the
farmers and country laborers, who had felt the trembling of the earth
and the closeness of the atmosphere more sensibly than the citizens,
and who saw at once that it was caused by the mountain, commenced to
flee with their families for safety into the city. About 9
A.M. a cry of affright went up from the city and the country, as
suddenly the mountain shook and roared as if in agony. All eyes turned
to the summit of Vesuvius, only yesterday so fair and green. A huge
turbid column of smoke was seen swiftly springing upward from its cone
toward the sky. High up, it spread out like the top of a mighty pine
or palm. The lightning flashed through this rolling, surging,
ever-increasing mass as it rapidly expanded on every side. By 11
A.M., Naples lay under the dark and fearful cloud which shut out
the heavens and darkened the day. The incessant trembling of the earth
was perceptibly increasing in violence. Men felt that they were at the
beginning of they knew not what terrible tragedy, before which they
felt themselves utterly powerless.
The ever-open churches were soon crowded with fear-stricken
suppliants. The cardinal archbishop at once directed religious
services to be commenced in them all, and to be continued without
intermission. In the hours of the afternoon there would be a
procession through the streets near the cathedral, in which the relics
of St. Januarius would be borne. Men prayed to be spared from the
impending doom. The trembling earth might open to swallow them; the
tottering houses might fall and crush them; or the mountain, whose
sullen roar, like that of an angry monster, they heard amid and above
all other sounds, might destroy them in some other more fearful way.
They prayed and did penance, like the Ninivites of old. They sought to
prepare their souls for the death which might come to many of them. 37
To the gloom and horrors of the dark cloud of smoke, spread as a
funeral pall over the city, was added, later in the day, a pouring
rain. The water came down heated and charged with volcanic ashes.
Night arrived, more terrible than the day. The continuous trembling of
the earth had indeed ceased; but, instead, there came sharp, quick
shocks of earthquake, four or five of them every hour, vastly
increasing the danger of those who remained in their houses.
Out-of-doors was the pouring rain and the intense darkness, rendered
more fearful by the intermittent electric flashings of the cloud
overhead. The few oil-lamps in the streets gave little light; some had
not been lighted, others had been extinguished. The narrow streets
sounded with shrieks of alarm and prayers for mercy. They were filled
with those who chose rather the darkness, the rain, and the mud under
foot, than the danger within their own chambers. And all through the
city might be descried entire families grouped together, and, by the
light of torches or lanterns, making their way to some church--for,
all through the terrible hours of that long night, the churches still
remained open and thronged, and the services still continued. Day came
at length, if the dim, misty light could be called day. It brought no
relief beyond its saddening twilight. All hearts were depressed and
filled with gloomy forebodings. All felt that only by the mercy of God
could they be rescued.
At 10 A.M. there came two shocks of earthquake severer than any
that had preceded them. The waters of the bay twice receded, leaving a
portion of the harbor bare, and twice rolled back furiously, rushing
over the piers and quays, and passing into the lower streets of the
city. A hoarse and violent roar was heard from the mountain. It was
soon known that the sea of lava within its bowels had burst for itself
a channel-way out through the northern side, and was pouring down in a
rapid stream, widening its front as it spread into seven branches, and
advancing directly towards the city. _Portici_ and _Resina_, near the
mountain, or, rather, on its lower slope, were seen quickly to perish.
Portions of Torre del Greco and of Torre dell’Annunziata shared the
same fate. It seemed to the affrighted Neapolitans, as they looked on
the fiery streams pouring onward, resistless and inflexible, in their
course of destruction, that death was coming to them by fire, more
terrible far than death by water or by earthquake.
Meanwhile, the hour at last arrived fixed for this day’s procession.
The archbishop was to take part in it, and would himself bear the
reliquary of the blood of St. Januarius. The clergy of the city would
precede and accompany him, and the municipal authorities would walk in
procession behind. Thousands were in the cathedral and would follow
after, and tens of thousands crowded the streets through which its
route lay. A common feeling filled all hearts alike; they prayed
earnestly, if ever they did--for their lives, and their homes, their
all was at stake.
The rain had ceased, but the dark cloud still hung overhead, and the
ashes were still falling, and the air was close and sulphurous. As the
procession issued from the cathedral, and while the archbishop stood
yet in the square in front of it, a blaze of sunlight beamed around.
The sun itself they did not see, but his beams found some rift in the
mass of smoke surging overhead, and struggled through, throwing, for a
few moments, a glow of golden effulgence down on the cathedral and the 38
square, and the groups that stood or knelt within it. The effect was
electric. “It is a miracle! our prayers are heard!” was the cry that
burst from the multitude. In a few moments the light was gone; but,
with cheered and hopeful hearts, the procession moved on through the
crowded streets to the gate of the city, looking directly towards
Vesuvius and the advancing streams of lava. Here an altar had been
prepared in the open air, psalms were chanted, prayers and litanies
succeeded, and the archbishop, ascending the steps of the altar, stood
on the platform, and, holding aloft the reliquary of the blood, made
with it the sign of the cross towards the blazing mountain, and all
prayed that God, through the intercession of their great patron saint,
would avert the dreaded and dreadful calamity.
Ere the archbishop descended from the altar, all were aware that an
east wind had sprung up, and that the smoke and cinders and ashes were
being blown away over the sea. The mountain grew calmer, and at once
ceased to pour forth such immense supplies of molten lava. The dreaded
stream, no longer fed from the copious fount, soon slackened its
movement--ceased to advance towards them--and, before their eyes, was
seen to grow cold, and solid, and dark. When that procession, on its
return, reached the cathedral, the sun was shining brightly and
cheerfully. Well might they close with a solemn _Te Deum_, for Naples
was saved. Outside of the city, five thousand men, women, and children
had perished, and ruin was spread everywhere; within the city, not one
building had fallen, not one life had been lost.
The eruption continued for some months after, but in a moderated form.
The danger to the city was not renewed.
Therefore, in 1632, and in each year since, the sixteenth of December
has been a memorable and a sacred day for Naples. It became the
festival of the _Patrocinio_, or Patronage of St. Januarius. For a
century and a half, it was kept as a religious holy-day of strictest
obligation. But the sense of gratitude dies out equally with the sense
of dangers from which we escaped in the distant past. Whether this was
the cause, or whether it was deemed proper to yield to the so-called
industrial notions that have prevailed in more modern times, we cannot
say; but, for three-quarters of a century back, if we err not, this
festival in Naples ranks only as one of devotion. For a number of
years, its celebration was even transferred to the Sunday following.
In 1858, it was transferred back to the day itself, and is now
celebrated invariably on the sixteenth of December. On that day, the
relics are taken from their closet and borne to the altar of the
_Tesoro_, and thence to the high altar of the cathedral. After Mass,
and the recitation of a portion of the divine office, they are borne
in solemn procession through several streets in the vicinity of the
cathedral, and, on the return, are brought again to the high altar,
where there is the exposition of the relics with the usual prayers;
and the liquefaction is looked for for the _eighteenth_ regular time
each year.
If the weather be rainy, the procession goes merely through the aisles
and nave of the large cathedral and back to the high altar.
This feast has taken the place of another single-day festival,
formerly celebrated on the fourteenth of January, and now merged in 39
this votive feast a month earlier.
Beyond these ordinary and regularly established expositions, other
special or extraordinary ones have been occasionally allowed,
sometimes at the request of distinguished strangers, who visited
Naples mostly in winter, and could not wait for the recurrence of the
regular festival; sometimes to allow learned and scientific men,
earnest in the cause of religion, to examine the liquefaction more
closely and quietly than they could do amid the concourse of so many
thousands on the regular days; and, sometimes, for special and urgent
reasons of devotion or public need, as was that of December 16, 1631,
of which we have just given the account. These extraordinary
expositions were more frequent and more easily allowed two or three
centuries ago than in later years. In fact, the latest one of which we
can find any record occurred in 1702. Pope Pius IX. himself, during
his exile in Gaeta, near Naples, waited for a regular day--September
20, 1849--to witness the liquefaction.
On a number of religious festivals during the year, it is customary to
take out the bust of St. Januarius, containing the relics of his head,
and to place it, with other relics of the saints kept in the
cathedral, on the altar. To do this, it is, of course, necessary that
the city delegate with his keys should be in attendance, and should
co-operate with the canon or clergyman sent by the archbishop with his
keys. Together they open the closet in which, under two locks, is kept
the bust, and which, our readers will remember, is built in the
massive masonry wall of the _Tesoro_ chapel, immediately behind its
main altar, and adjoining the similar closet in which is preserved the
reliquary with the ampullæ, or vials, of the blood. As this reliquary
of the blood is not to be taken out on these occasions, its closet is
ordinarily left untouched. But, in some rare instances, it has been
opened, and due record made of the state in which the blood was then
seen to be. At some other times, also, the door has been opened by
special favor, that strangers might at least take a similar view, if
they could not be present at an exposition. We have the record of
nineteen times altogether since 1648, when the door was opened for one
or the other of these reasons, the last time being June 11, 1775, when
the blood was seen _hard_. However, as to the number of such minor
examinations, we apprehend that we should speak with some hesitation.
There may have been many more of which we have not just now at hand
sufficient information.
We have spoken of the official diary of the _Tesoro_ chapel,
commencing in 1659, and of the archiepiscopal diary, commencing as a
diary in 1526, and both continuing, the latter with some _lacunæ_ in
its earlier portions, down to the present time. Of course, different
hands have penned its pages as years rolled on; and it is curious and
amusing to note their differences of character as shown in their
styles. Even in so plain a matter as recording, day after day and year
after year, the state and condition of the blood when extracted from
its closet, the occurrence and character of the liquefaction, the
prominent or important facts of each day, and in what condition the
blood was when replaced at night in its closet--points which it was
the duty of all to record--personal traits are unwittingly manifested.
One writer evidently was fond of ecclesiastical ceremonies, and he is 40
exact in recording the character of the High Mass and of the
processions: who and how many walked in them, how many altars were
erected on the route through the streets, etc. Another was more of a
courtier, and he carefully mentions the presence of cardinals,
viceroys, ambassadors, princes, and eminent personages. A third was
devoted to prayer, and his entries breathe his spirit of devotion in
many a pious ejaculation. One tells you of a new musical _Te Deum_
that was sung. Another had a painter’s eye, and never fails to name,
with minute precision, the varying shades of color seen in the blood.
Another still, with more of a mathematical turn, is equally exact in
setting forth to the very minute the times of the liquefactions which
he records; while others, again, performed their duty in a more
perfunctory style.
On the whole, these diaries are to us most interesting and unique, as
well for the length of time they cover, and the evident sincerity and
earnestness of the writers in stating faithfully what they
saw--sometimes to their own astonishment or sorrow, sometimes with
joy--as also for the wonderful character of the facts themselves which
are recorded.
Of the archiepiscopal diary, we possess a manuscript abstract, kindly
written out for us. From its pages we have made a summary of all the
expositions of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples from the year 1648
to 1860, which we present to our readers in tabular form. We group
them together in octaves, for the reasons already given, and because
in that form several peculiarities are clearly seen which, perhaps,
otherwise would disappear.
We give, first, three tables for the vigil, feast, and octave in May.
The first one shows the state of the blood when taken out from its
closet, giving to each day a column, and recording in each column the
various conditions of the blood, distinguishing them as: 1. Very hard;
2. Hard; 3. Soft; 4. Liquid, with a hard lump in the liquid; 5. Hard
and full; 6. Full, when, on account of that fulness, it could not be
known whether the dark mass of blood within was solid or fluid; 7.
Liquid. A second table will set forth, under a similar arrangement,
the various lengths of time which elapsed from the taking out of the
reliquary of the _ampulla_ from its closet until the liquefaction
was seen to commence. After enumerating the instances in which the
time is clearly determinable, another line indicates the times when
the liquefaction is set down as gradual, sometimes because the time
was not clearly seen, sometimes, perhaps, because the recording was
perfunctory. We add another line, embracing the various occasions when
the diary either omits recording or indicating the time, or does so,
vaguely or in such terms as “_regular_, _very regular_,
_promptly_, _punctually_, _most punctually_, _without unusual delay_,
_without anything new_.” We subjoin to this table other lines, showing
on what days and how often the blood remained always fluid; or always
fluid with a hard floating lump; or always hard; or always full, and
so full that liquefaction was not detected. A third table, similarly
arranged, will show in what condition the blood was when locked up at
night in its closet. We also give three similar tables for the feast
and octave of September, and similar accounts for the December
festival and for the extraordinary expositions.
_May, 1648, to May, 1860, inclusive--213 Years._ 41
TABLE I.
STATE OF BLOOD AT THE OPENING OF THE CLOSET.
---------------------+------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
MAY. |Satur.|Sun.|Mon.|Tues.|Wed.|Thur.|Fri.|Satur.|Sun.
---------------------+------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
Very hard | 2 | -- | 1 | 1 | 2 | -- | 2 | 2 | 2
Hard | 156 |119 |207 | 203 |168 | 139 |123 | 113 | 113
Soft | 4 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 6
Liquid, with hard lump| 40 | 74 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | --
Hard and full | 3 | -- | -- | 1 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 17
Full | -- | -- | -- | 4 | 33 | 56 | 68 | 75 | 73
Liquid | 8 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | --
---------------------+------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
TABLE II.
TIMES OF THE LIQUEFACTIONS.
-------------------+------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
MAY. |Satur.|Sun.|Mon.|Tues.|Wed.|Thur.|Fri.|Satur.|Sun.
-------------------+------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
Under 10 minutes | 88 | 67 | 85 | 44 | 27 | 23 | 18 | 16 | 16
Under 30 ” | 49 | 28 | 63 | 73 | 46 | 46 | 44 | 35 | 37
Under 60 ” | 18 | 9 | 8 | 36 | 42 | 25 | 19 | 17 | 13
Under 2 hours | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 7
Under 5 ” | 1 | 7 | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3
Over 5 ” | 1 | -- | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | 4
Gradual | 1 | 40 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | --
Vague or omitted | 26 | 45 | 54 | 55 | 54 | 52 | 51 | 53 | 56
Always liquid, | | | | | | | | |
with hard lump | 17 | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | --
Always full | -- | -- | -- | 4 | 33 | 56 | 68 | 75 | 73
Always hard | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | --
Always liquid | 6 | 12 | -- | -- | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2
-------------------+------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
TABLE III.
STATE OF THE BLOOD WHEN LOCKED UP AT NIGHT.
----------------------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
MAY. |Satur.|Sun.|Mon.|Tues.|Wed.|Thur.|Fri.|Satur.|Sun.
----------------------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
Liquid | 131 |203 |204 | 174 |145 | 130 |122 | 121 |130
Liquid, with hard lump| 77 | 10 | 4 | -- |-- | -- | -- | -- | --
Liquid and full | -- | -- | 5 | 35 | 33 | 25 | 21 | 14 | 8
Full | -- | -- | -- | 4 | 33 | 56 | 68 | 75 | 73
Soft | 3 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 1 | --
Hard | 2 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1
Hard and full | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | 1
----------------------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+------+----
These tables present the course of the expositions for two hundred and
thirteen times each of the nine days, in all, 1,917 expositions. They
do not set forth the changes in color, in frothing and ebullition, in
minor increases or diminutions of volume, and in occasional
hardenings, of all which we shall treat further on.
_From September, 1648, to September, 1860--212 Years._ 42
TABLE I.
STATE OF THE BLOOD ON OPENING THE CLOSET.
---------------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
SEPTEMBER. | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26
---------------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Hard | 117| 191| 190| 191| 187| 189| 191| 195
Hard and full, (_probable_)| 24| --| --| --| --| --| --| --
Hard and full | 58| --| --| --| --| 2| 1| 1
Soft | 1| --| 1| --| --| 1| 1| --
Full | --| --| 1| 1| 2| 2| 2| 2
Liquid | 12| 21| 20| 20| 23| 18| 17| 14
---------------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
TABLE II.
TIMES OF THE LIQUEFACTIONS.
----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
SEPTEMBER. | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26
----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Under 10 minutes| 35 | 32 | 62 | 59 | 59 | 51 | 51 | 55
Under 30 ” | 64 |101 | 78 | 76 | 78 | 83 | 79 | 84
Under 60 ” | 19 | 24 | 17 | 21 | 10 | 18 | 21 | 15
Under 2 hours | 19 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 7
Under 5 ” | 27 | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | --
Over 5 ” | 13 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | --
Vague or omitted| 23 | 30 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 35 | 33 | 35
Always liquid | 12 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 18 | 17 | 14
Always full | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2
----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
TABLE III.
STATE OF THE BLOOD WHEN LOCKED UP AT NIGHT.
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
SEPTEMBER. | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
Liquid | 212 | 211 | 211 | 210 | 206 | 208 | 209 | 202
Liquid and full| -- | 1 | -- | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8
Always full | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2
Hard | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | --
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------
These tables give two hundred and twelve expositions for each day, and
thus for the whole group a second aggregate of 1,696 expositions. They
do not, any more than the preceding ones, give an account of the
changes to which the blood is subject, in color, frothing, or minor
increase or decrease of volume. These points will be considered in
their proper place.
The festival of the patronage on the 16th of December, established in
1632, has been celebrated 228 times down to 1860.
I. On opening the closet or safe the blood was found as follows:
Very hard, 2
Hard, 214
Soft, 1
Hard and full, 10
Liquid, 1-228
II. The variations as to times of liquefaction were as follows:
Immediately or under half-hour, 26
Under 1 hour, 29
” 2 ” 41
” 5 ” 42
Over 5 hours, 26
Always hard, 43
” full, 3
” liquid, 1
Vague or omitted, 17-228
III. The condition of the blood, when put up, was as follows: 43
Liquid, 131
” with lump, 46
Soft, 5
Hard as found, 43
Full, 3-228
The extraordinary expositions were 43 in number. Of these 20 may be
grouped with the December exposition, having occurred in the months of
November, December, January, and February.
The blood was found: Very hard, 1; hard, 13; soft, 5; and liquid, 1.
The times of liquefaction were: Under 10 minutes, 15 times; under 30
minutes, 1; under 5 hours, 1; remaining liquid, 1. Of course, on all
the 20 days it was put up liquid.
Nineteen days may be in the same way connected with the May
celebration, as they are distributed through the months of March,
April, May, and June.
The blood was found: Very hard, 1; hard, 13; soft, 4; liquid, 1. The
times of the liquefaction were: Under 10 minutes, 10 times; under 30
minutes, 3; under 60 minutes, 1; under 2 hours, 1; under 5 hours, 1;
time not indicated in the diary, 2; and it remained liquid, 1. On
every occasion it was put up in a liquid condition.
Four other times there were extraordinary expositions in July and
September. Twice the blood was found hard and liquefied within half an
hour each time, and twice it was found liquid.
Nineteen instances are recorded in which for various reasons the
closet was opened and the reliquary seen in its place. Four times the
blood was found very hard; six times it was hard; twice it was soft;
four times it was liquid, and three times the condition is not
recorded.
These tables present an aggregate of no less than 3,884 expositions
within a little more than two centuries, of which number no less than
3,331 were marked by a complete or partial liquefaction. The
exceptions are of various classes. The most numerous one comprises 320
cases, in which the ampulla, or vial, was found in the morning and
continued during the entire exposition of that day so completely full,
that it was impossible for an ordinary observer to say whether the
blood liquefied or not.
The writer of the diary says on this point, A.D. 1773: “When the
vial is full, some signs are at times observed indicative of a
liquefaction, chiefly a wave-like motion when the vial is moved. But
as this can only be seen from the rear (that is, as the light shines
on it or through it from the opposite side), and only on close
inspection and by practised eyes, and is not visible to ordinary
observers standing in front, it is not here noted down as a
liquefaction.” In the diary of the _Tesoro_ chapel, which we cannot
now consult, they are probably recorded as liquefactions.
The next largest class of exceptions consists of the 171 cases in
which the blood was found liquid in the morning, and was replaced in
the closet in the evening still in a liquid condition. We should
observe that not unfrequently in such cases the fluid mass became
congealed or even hard during the day and liquefied again. Even when
this does not happen, there are so many other and frequent changes as
to color, to frothing, or to ebullition, and to change of volume by
increase or decrease, that, even without the occurrence of
liquefaction, the fluid blood presents many wonderful characteristics.
Thus in our synopsis we have counted the octave of September, 1659, as
presenting seven days during which the blood was found and remained
liquid. The diary, taking up that octave day by day, states, that on 44
the 19th of September the blood was found liquid, and, the reliquary
being placed near the bust, there commenced an ebullition of the blood
marked with froth. This continued, off and on, during the day. On the
20th the blood was again found liquid, and the ebullition and the
frothing were repeatedly renewed as on the preceding day. On the 21st
the blood was a third time found liquid, and on this day the
ebullition was more continuous and violent. The 22d and the 23d and
the 24th were marked by the same phases. The blood was always found
liquid, and each day the ebullition was repeatedly resumed and
sometimes was violent. On the 26th the blood was found in a soft or
jelly-like state. It soon liquefied entirely, and during the day
became covered with froth. The 26th--the eighth and last day--was like
the first. The blood was again found liquid, and the ebullition was
resumed, yet more moderately.
The two remaining classes, which our tables present as exceptions,
will also suffer diminution if accurately examined. There are 44
instances in which the blood was found _hard_, and continued hard to
the end of the exposition. Yet the diary records on several occasions
the presence of one or more fluid drops, sometimes of yellowish serum,
sometimes of reddish blood, which could be made to run to and fro on
the surface of the hardened mass, and continued to be seen for hours,
or sometimes even until the close of the day.
As for the 18 other instances in which the blood was found partly
liquid and partly solid, the solid part floating as a globe in the
fluid portion, and in which the same state of things was seen during
the day and lasted until the closing, it must be observed that
generally, if not always, this floating solid mass gradually
diminishes by a partial liquefaction or increases in bulk by a partial
hardening. Sometimes both these changes succeed each other during the
day. In view of these facts, it would seem that these 18 cases, so far
from being looked on as exceptions, should on the contrary be rather
set down as special forms of the liquefaction.
No mere tabular summaries, like those presented above, can give the
salience which they demand to certain unusual facts and to many
ordinary but striking characteristics which should not be overlooked.
For this it is necessary to go back to the diaries themselves, and to
trustworthy historical notices of the miracle.
On Saturday, May 5, 1526, the vigil of the feast of the translation,
the liquefaction is recorded to have taken place as usual in the
_Seggia Capuana_, to which the processions were directed that day. On
the next day, the feast, the blood was found hard, and it continued
hard during the entire exposition. The octave had not yet been
established. It continued hard all through the octave of the
succeeding September, as also in January, May, and September of 1527,
and again in January, May, and September of 1528, and in January,
1529. The liquefactions were resumed on Saturday, May 1, and continued
on the next day, the feast, and regularly during the September
celebration. Thus, for nearly three years the blood remained hard and
solid, without liquefying at any time.
The Neapolitans connect this unusual fact with the anger of God and
his judgments, as manifested in the terrible pestilence which broke
out in their city in 1526, and came to an end only in the early months
of 1529, after causing 60,000 deaths in the single year 1527, and, 45
together with the war then raging, as many more in the ensuing year
1528.
Again, in 1551, in 1558, and in 1569, there was no liquefaction. On
the contrary, for the two years 1556 and 1557, and again for the two
years 1599 and 1600, and a third time for the single year 1631, the
blood was always found liquid when brought forth for exposition, and
never at any time was seen to become solid. Since the last-named year,
it has occurred, in ten different years, that the blood was found and
continued liquid during the whole of a single octave in a year; but
never in both octaves. It never continued hard for an entire octave at
any time, although at some few times the liquefaction occurred only on
the second, the third, or the fourth day of the celebration; or, on
the contrary, it was found and continued liquid for one, two, or three
days at the commencement, and was found hard only on the second,
third, or fourth morning. At the votive festival of December 16, it
has repeatedly remained hard. The table numbers 44 such cases. Of
these only 5 occurred in the first 150 years after the institution of
the feast; the remaining 39 all occur in the last 78 years. This the
Neapolitans explain by the special character of the festival. The
other festivals have been instituted in honor of the saint; this one,
to show their gratitude as a city for favors received repeatedly
through his intercession. Hence, when vice is rife in the city, and
especially when sins against religion abound, their professions of
gratitude are wanting in the most necessary quality to make them
acceptable; and the displeasure of heaven is marked by the withholding
of the miraculous liquefaction.
Departures like these from the ordinary course, or any extraordinary
delay in the liquefaction, or certain appearances of color in the
blood, which they traditionally dread, fill the people with alarm and
sorrow. From the many instances in the diary we give two, as showing
this practical connection between the liquefaction and the religious
feelings of the Neapolitans.
“1732, Dec. 16.--The blood was taken out, hard. Hard it continued
until after compline (the afternoon service). The people were waiting
for the miracle with great anxiety. Wherefore, instead of taking back
the relics (to the _Tesoro_ chapel) at the usual hour, they remained
on the high altar (of the cathedral) until after 21 o’clock (2.30 P.M.);
and the church being crowded with people, they recited the litanies
several times. Rosaries were said, and sermons were preached. But the
saint did not yield, which caused great terror; and everybody was
weeping. So things were up to 24 o’clock (5.30 P.M.) At that hour, a
Capuchin father in the church again stirred up the people to sincere
contrition for their sins, and to acts of penance. While they were
doing this, all saw that the blood was of a sudden entirely
liquefied--a great consolation to all. The _Te Deum_ was sung; and
then, only at half-past one of the night (7 P.M.), the relics were
taken to the _Tesoro_ chapel.”
“1748, May 7, Tuesday.--The blood was brought out hard. After 16
minutes, it liquefied. During the day it rose so high as to fill the
vial completely. From the 8th to the 12th, the vial was always full,
and the blood was seen to be one-half black, the other half
ash-colored, for which reasons his majesty came a second time to see
it, on Sunday afternoon (12th). When the king had left the
_Tesoro_, his eminence returned to pray to the saint to vouchsafe some
sign of the miracle before the closing up (it was the last day of 46
the octave). In the meantime the vast crowd strove to melt him by
their cries and their tears. His eminence, having made his way out of
the chapel with great difficulty, sent for a noble Capuchin, called
Father Gregorio of Naples, who, in a most fervent sermon, exhorted the
people to acts of faith and of sorrow for their sins. He then
commenced reciting with them the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. During
the recitation thereof, the blood was seen to sink half a finger, and
to commence to move. Who can describe the weeping and the fervor? The
_Te Deum_ was sung; and the blood was put up, being at nearly its
normal level, of its natural color, and with some froth.”
No wonder the Neapolitans love St. Januarius as _their_ patron saint
when he thus yields to their fervent entreaties and prayers what was
not granted to the pious curiosity of the king; nor, for this occasion
at least, to the prayers of his eminence the cardinal archbishop.
The following briefer entries of our diary breathe the same spirit:
“1714, May 5, Saturday.--The miracle took place at once. On Sunday,
after an hour and a half. During this octave, the blood showed a
thousand changes, liquefying, hardening, and increasing in volume many
times a day, in an unusual manner. God knows what will happen!”
“1718, Sept. 19.--The blood was taken out hard. After a quarter of an
hour, it completely liquefied. During all this octave the miracle
never delayed as much as an hour. This was truly a happy octave. There
were no great changes; only a slight increase in volume.”
It is tantalizing to pore over the diary. At times you almost fancy
that you have seized the very process of liquefaction. Thus on one day
you read: “The blood was brought out, being hard and at its ordinary
level. After fifteen minutes, a drop of serous humor, of a
light-yellow color, was seen to move about on the hard mass. At the
expiration of an hour and fifty-six minutes, the blood became liquid,
with a large spherical lump floating in it. There was the usual
procession through the streets, his eminence joining in. At 21½
o’clock (about 3 P.M.) the lump liquefied. The blood was put up,
entirely liquid and at its ordinary level.” (Dec., 1771.) You think
you see the steps of the process. First the drop of yellowish serum;
then a partial liquefaction, leaving a lump of solid matter; this
gradually decreasing for three hours and a half, until it entirely
disappears, and the whole mass is fluid. If you read the following,
you may feel surer that you are on the right track: “The blood came
out hard and at its ordinary level. At the end of half an hour, there
was seen to run about on the hard mass a particle of serous matter,
inclining to a yellowish color. So it stood during the procession,
which was outside, through the streets, his eminence the cardinal
archbishop taking his place in it. So it was when the reliquary was
brought back to the _Tesoro_. At 23½ o’clock (about 5 P.M.) this
serous matter changed into blood. But the mass still remained hard.
Words cannot tell with what earnestness and fervor the ecclesiastics
and the people continued at prayer. Finally, at 24¼ o’clock (5.45 P.M.)
the mass loosened in the vial; and half an hour later, that is, after
eight hours and fifty minutes of waiting, the liquefaction took place,
a small lump remaining solid and floating. So it was put up.” (Dec., 47
1768.) Notwithstanding the change of the character of the yellowish
serous drop in the last cited instance into red blood, and the great
difference of the times when the liquefaction took place, there is a
certain degree of correspondence between the two cases--enough perhaps
to arrest the attention and excite expectations. But all to no
purpose. Such a drop was seen on seven or eight other days, lasting a
couple of hours or for the entire day, without any liquefaction
following. And in three thousand three hundred and odd cases of
liquefaction, we have failed to find a third one in which such a drop
is noted to have preceded the liquefaction.
In fact, the modes of liquefaction are as various as we can imagine,
and as remarkable as the fact itself. Sometimes the liquefaction
occurs or commences at once, with little or no delay. At other times,
it is delayed for a quarter or for half an hour, for one, two, or
three hours or more. Sometimes, though very rarely, it has been
delayed nine or ten hours. All this is clearly seen in the tables.
Not unfrequently the change from solidity to fluidity, whether
occurring early or late, has been instantaneous, and for the whole
mass at once--_in un colpo d’occhio_. Sometimes it is gradual, lasting
before its completion over many hours; nay, sometimes the ampulla is
replaced in the closet for the night before its entire completion, a
greater or a smaller portion still remaining solid.
Sometimes the entire mass liquefies; at other times, only a portion.
When this is the case, the unliquefied portion generally floats as a
solid lump or globe in the liquid part. Sometimes, however, one side
of the mass was liquefied; while the other remained solid, and firmly
attached to the glass. Sometimes again, as in May, 1710, the portion
next to the glass all around remained solid, thus forming, as it were,
an inner cup, inside of which the other portion moved about in quite a
fluid condition. Sometimes, during the process of gradual
liquefaction, the upper part is quite liquid, while the lower part
remains for a time hard and immovable in the bottom of the vial; or,
again, the lower part liquefies first, and the upper portion,
remaining hard, is seen either as a floating globe or as a lump
attached for a time to the sides of the ampulla. And once, at least,
the upper portion and the lower portion both remained solid and
attached to the vial, while the middle portion was quite fluid.
We have already said something of the various degrees of liquefaction.
Sometimes the blood is as fluid as water, flowing readily and leaving
no coating after it on the glass. And, at other times, it may be
somewhat viscous; and, if the reliquary be inclined from side to side,
may leave behind a dark or a vermilion film on the inner sides of the
ampulla.
There are likewise degrees of hardness. Sometimes the blood is only
very viscous and grumous, or jelly-like. In the tables we call it
_soft_. At other times, the diary notes it as hard, _duro_; very hard,
_durissimo_; or even hard as iron, _duro come ferro_. When hard, it is
attached firmly to the glass ampulla. Yet on two occasions, at least,
the hard lump could move within, showing that it was then detached.
After having become liquid, or even when the blood was found liquid in
the morning, it has often hardened during the ceremonial of the day,
and then liquefied anew. One of the extracts we have quoted above
refers to the frequent occurrence of this variation in 1714. But 48
throughout the diary we find similar instances, where it hardened and
remained hard for a few moments only or for one or two hours, during
the public ceremony. This was sometimes repeated two or three times in
a single day.
There is a special case, in which the mass hardens so frequently, and
with such regularity, that it must not be omitted. We refer to the
custom of suspending the ceremony for a few hours during the middle of
the day. The Italians are very fond of a _siesta_ in the early
afternoon of a hot and oppressive summer day. Accordingly, unless
there be something unusual to excite them, they are accustomed, on the
later days of the octave in May, and sometimes of September, to yield
to their beloved habit. The church grows very thin soon after mid-day.
A few dozen pious souls may perhaps remain for their private
devotions--about the number one would almost always find in the
ever-open churches of an Italian city. Under these circumstances, the
exposition is suspended. The reliquary, if on the high altar of the
cathedral, is carried back to the _Tesoro_ chapel, and is placed on an
ornamental stand or tabernacle on the altar; and a silk veil is thrown
over the whole. The door in the metal-work railing under the arch
leading out into the cathedral is locked; and the clergy may retire,
one or two remaining on watch. The reliquary continues on the stand,
unapproached, but still visible, through the railing, to those in the
cathedral. At 3½ or 4 P.M. the clergy return to resume the exposition;
and the church is again full. The blood is very frequently found hard
at that hour, and liquefies anew, as in the morning. This intermission
and the attendant hardening and liquefaction seem to the Neapolitans
so much a matter of course that we find no mention whatever of it in
the diary, save the single notice that, on one day, although the veil
had been omitted, the hardening nevertheless took place. The
scientific men from Italy and from France and Belgium who have studied
the liquefaction at various dates, all unite in commenting on this
fact of the hardening of the blood during these mid-day intermissions,
and in considering it, under a physical point of view, as a fact of
the highest importance in deciding the character of the liquefaction.
There are other special circumstances under which the blood has not
liquefied, or, having liquefied, has suddenly hardened again. The
presence of open scoffers, or of declared enemies of the church, has
sometimes seemed to have this effect. In 1719, Count Ulric Daun was
viceroy in Naples. On Saturday, May 6, he came with many German
officers lately arrived in Naples to witness the liquefaction, in one
of the churches to which the procession went, as we have already
explained, and in which the liquefaction was first expected. The
viceroy with his personal staff was of course in his official
_loggia_ or gallery. The foreign officers were clustered together
within the sanctuary. Some of them were Catholics, some Protestants.
The blood was hard when brought to the altar, and remained hard and
unliquefied for a long time. The viceroy at length sent an aid, with a
command to all the officers to withdraw and stand outside the
sanctuary. They obeyed, of course. “Scarcely was this done--the
heretic officers thus withdrawing--when, in an instant, the entire
mass became perfectly liquid, to the great joy of all. It was a
miracle of miracles!” Some of the Protestants became Catholics 49
immediately.
_Putignani_ and _Celano_ mention another fact. We quote from the
former, who was a canon of the cathedral and present at the time on
service. “While the relics were out at the high altar of the
cathedral, there came many nobles from beyond the Alps, who wished to
do homage to the saint and to witness the liquefaction. The blood was
extremely fluid just then, and the reliquary was being presented to
those around, in turn, to be kissed. In an instant the blood became
hard and dry in the hands of the canon. Those near by, stupefied by
this new prodigy, stood, as it were, nailed to the floor. Then the
canon, moved by an interior impulse, raised his voice, and said aloud:
‘Gentlemen, if there be any heretic among you, let him retire.’
Immediately, one of the strangers quietly withdrew. Scarcely had he
withdrawn, when the blood was liquid again, and was bubbling.”
Putignani adds: “The same thing is said to have happened on other
occasions.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
LUCAS GARCIA.
FROM THE SPANISH OF FERNAN CABALLERO.
II.
Seven years passed in this manner. Lucia was fifteen, and had
blossomed into one of those exquisite and fragile creatures that, in
hot climates, appear so rarely and vanish so soon. Lucas, who was
twenty, had developed admirably. He was a youth of manly appearance,
and so judicious and industrious that farmers and managers of
haciendas employed him in preference to others. Both inherited their
mother’s type--the oval face, fine aquiline nose, large and expressive
black eyes, small mouth, adorned with perfect teeth, broad high
forehead, and the bearing of mingled grace and nobility that
distinguish the Andalusian.
Their father had yielded completely to the influence of _La Leona_,
who absorbed his living, and had made him a drunkard in order to rule
him the more effectually. Too enervated and lazy to enter upon a new
path, he went on selling his possessions to satisfy the woman’s
exactions, as an exhausted stream continues to flow in the channel it
made when it was full and strong, without either the will or the force
to open another. From the time that Lucas was able to work, he had
maintained the house alone, with that mysterious day’s wages of the
laborer which God seems to bless, as he did the loaves and fishes
destined to feed so many poor people. Else, how the _peseta_,
sometimes two reals[2] a day can support husband, wife, generally half
a dozen robust children; an old father or mother, or widowed
mother-in-law, clothe them all and the head of the family in a very
expensive manner,[3] pay house-rent and the costs of child-birth, 50
sickness, and unemployed days; and still yield the copper they never
refuse to _God’s-namers_,[4] is a thing past comprehension, and
belongs to the list of those in which, if we see not the finger of God
or his immediate intervention, is because we are very thoughtless or
voluntarily blind.
Lucas, who loved his sister above all things, seeing her entirely
neglected by her father, had assumed over her the sort of tutelage,
recognized and incontestable among the people, which belongs to the
eldest brother--a tutelage which is annexed to the obligation of
maintaining younger brothers and sisters if they are fatherless. This
obligation and right instinctive do not constitute a law, nor are they
laid down in any code, but are impressed by tradition on the heart,
and have, no doubt, given rise to the institution of entails.[5] Lucas
presented, also, the uncultivated type of those chivalrous and
poetical brothers that Calderon, Lope, and other contemporary writers
have given us in their delightful pictures of Spanish manners as
models of nobility, delicacy, and punctilious honor.
As for Lucia, she was, as her mother had been, loving, impressible,
and yielding. She regarded her brother with the deepest affection, in
which respect mingled, without lessening its tenderness.
One evening, when several neighbors, who tenanted Juan Garcia’s house,
were met together in the yard, one of them--it was the kinswoman of
the departed Ana--said:
“Have you heard the news? It is reported that _La Leona’s_ husband is
dead. What do you say to it?”
“That _La Leona_ is just now singing:
‘My spouse is dead, and to heaven has flown,
Wearing the thorns of a martyr’s crown,’”
replied one of the neighbors.
“There will be talk enough, woman, if it is true,” replied the first
speaker.
“Well, what do you want me to say? I feel it for one.”
“I feel it for _two_,” added a third, laughing.
“That is what I feel most,” continued the kinswoman. “It is reported
already that Juan Garcia is going to marry with the rag of a widow.”
Woman! will you hold your tongue?”
“No; and I say more: I say that I don’t doubt it; for the wretch has
him down, and holds him from beneath, so that she can put him to the
torture with “thou must swallow this, or I will lay on thee with
that.’”
“True enough,” observed the other, “she has made a fool of him with
drink; and, not satisfied with giving him wine, which is natural and 51
the legitimate child of the soil, she poisons him with bad brandy.”
“The kite will get everything away from him by degrees, till she
leaves him stuck, like a star lizard, to the bare wall,” added
another; “for she is more covetous than greediness, that ‘walks one
hand along the ground, and the other in the sky, and, with its mouth
wide open, that nothing may go by.’”
“She’ll be Juan’s third wife, and may die like the other two, and the
four children he has under the sod. He must have some deadly
exhalation about him, like a snake.”
“Kill _La Leona_! As if that would be possible! It’s my opinion that
Death himself couldn’t do it, with a century to help him. There was
the cholera, that carried off so many good people; it never approached
her door.”
“The she-rake has no end of luck.”
At this moment Lucas entered. It was Saturday evening, and he had come
to spend the Sunday at home.
“Lucas,” asked his kinswoman, “do you know that _La Leona_ is a widow,
and they say that your father is going to marry her?”
A thunder-bolt could not have hurt Lucas more suddenly than did these
words; nevertheless, he maintained his composure while he answered:
“Either you are dreaming awake, Aunt Manuela, or age is getting the
better of your understanding.”
“Don’t fling my age into my face, _Luquecillo_,”[6] said the good
woman, who was jocose. “I would rather you called me sly fox; it is
permitted to say _old_ only in the company of wines and parchments.”
“Well, then, why were you born so long ago? But don’t come to me with
your troubles.”
“Publish your decrees in time, my son, for this one is in everybody’s
mouth.”
“They may say what they please behind my back. Regiments can’t capture
tongues and thoughts, but no one is going to speak against my father
when I am present.”
“I’ll lay you something, Lucas, that he’ll marry!”
“That will do, Aunt Manuela; you know the saying, ‘Stop jesting while
jesting is pleasant.’”
Like all men of stem nature, Lucas, when in earnest, had in him a
something that imposed respect: the women were silent, and he went
into his own dwelling.
He did not speak to his sister of the matter that occupied his
thoughts so painfully, but, after giving her the money he had brought,
remained a while talking cheerfully and affectionately with her, and
then went in search of his neighbor, Uncle Bartolo.
He knew that the guerilla, on account of his age and good judgment,
and because he had been his grandfather’s friend, exercised great
influence over his father, and could think of no one so suitable to
confide in, and implore to interfere in the matter, and dissuade Juan
Garcia, if, indeed, he entertained it, from such an outrageous
project.
“Hola! What brings _Luquillo_ with the step of a Catalan and face of a
blacksmith?” exclaimed the old man, as Lucas entered.
The youth told his errand.
Uncle Bartolo, having heard him to the end, shook his head, as he
remarked: “Lucas, the proverb says, ‘Between two millstones one had
best not put his thumbs;’ but--well, for your sake and Lucia’s, the
pretty dove! I will do what you ask, even if I lose--and I shall, for
certain--your father’s friendship. I tell you though, beforehand 52
that interference will do no good.”
“But, uncle, that which is never attempted is never done.”
“Have I not told you I would try? You shall never say that you sought
me and did not find me. I only want to remind you that counsels are
thrown away upon the foolhardy, and perfumes upon swine. And to tell
the truth, I would rather tackle one of those highwaymen of last year
than your father; notwithstanding that the she-bandit has taken and
done for him as easily as a spider would vanquish a fly.”
Our old warrior went, the next day, to see Juan Garcia, whom he found
indisposed.
“Hola! Juan,” he cried, as he entered, how are you?”
“Not so well as I might be, uncle,” responded the invalid. “And you?”
“As well as can be, since I am a man of the old times, and not sorry
for it: better suited beneath white hairs than white sheets. But,”
continued the guerilla, who in his long career had never studied
diplomacy nor learned the art of preambling, “let us come to the
point; for one needn’t go by the bush where there’s a high-road; they
tell me, though I don’t want to believe it, that you are going to
marry.”
Juan contracted his brows, and replied:
“And if I have never told any one so, how could they tell it to you?”
“Answer one question with another, to avoid committing thyself,” is a
rule of rustic grammar that the people have at their fingers’ ends.
Uncle Bartolo proceeded:
“It’s easy to see how; you are thinking of it; and people nowadays are
so sharp that they divine the thoughts. So that we may as well be
plain--it is what you mean to do. Tell the truth, now.”
“The truth!” responded Juan, availing himself of another subterfuge.
“Then, though--because I was not prepared to tell it--I have not
complied with the church this year, I am to tell it to you! No, sir!
‘He that reveals his secret, remains without it.’”
“It is plain enough from your crafty answer that your mind is made up.
So you needn’t deny it, nor put me off with palaver.”
“The thing is yet in the blade, and to be nibbled at,” replied Juan.
“Do you know, Christian, what you are about? For the beginning of a
cure is a knowledge of the sickness.”
“Yes, sir, I have my five senses counted.”
“Yes, Juan, four of them useless, and one empty. But, my son, you know
me well, is it not so?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You are sure that I am your friend?”
“I don’t say no to that, Uncle Bartolo.”
“And you know the proverb says, ‘An old ox draws a straight furrow’?”
“Agreed, Uncle Bartolo; we know that kind of wisdom years give, for we
are told that the devil is knowing not because of his devilship, but
because he is the _old one_.”
“Well, that being so, you will heed what I say.”
“That remains to be seen.”
“And you will consider my advice?”
“What is the meaning of all this advanced guard, Uncle Bartolo? Why do
you sift and sift without falling through the sieve?”
“To fall with all my weight in saying this, and no more: ‘Don’t you
marry, Juan Garcia!’”
“Why not? if you would please tell me.” 53
“Don’t marry, Juan Garcia!”
“Uncle Bartolo, don’t leave your counsels like foundlings in the
hospital, without father or mother. I must not marry-the reason?”
“Juan, ‘where there has been familiarity, let there be no contract.’”
“If it were as you intimate, I ought to marry; for, if this woman has
lost respect through me--”
“Stop, Juan; that’ll do! Don’t come to me with your ‘_mea culpas_.’
There is always a pretext for wrong-doing. But you know very well that
the woman has not lost respect through you. Nobody loses what he never
had.”
“Uncle Bartolo, by what I shave off, but that you comb gray hairs, and
were my father’s friend--_Vive Dios!_--”
“Tut, tut, man! Don’t get excited, and talk nonsense! I did not come
here to poke you up, nor to pick a quarrel, but with a very good
intention; and, as the friend I am to you, to prevent your making an
atrocious fool of yourself. Have you considered your children, and the
kind of step-mother you are going to give them?”
“If she will be a wife good enough for their father, it appears to me
that she will be a good enough step-mother for them; especially as,
where they are concerned, what I do is right.”
“Right! Now you are like the Englishman, Don ‘Turo, that killed an
urraca for a partridge, and then said ‘all right.’ Take notice, Juan,
that they are not likely to be willing to live under that woman’s
flag. You are going to alienate them from you, and, ‘withdraw thyself
from thine own, God will leave thee alone.’”
“They will not be willing to live under her! What are you saying, sir?
We shall see, however. ‘Where the sea goes, the waves go.’”
“Well, Juan, we shall see that Lucas, who is high-minded, will not
consent to let his sister live with a woman of evil note.”
“The note I have put upon her, I will take from her. Do you
comprehend? And Lucas will be very careful not to set himself up to
crow while I live. There cannot be two heads, and, ‘in sight of the
public stocks, street-criers keep their mouths shut.’”
“Think, Juan, that your son should be the staff of your old age. You
may provoke him so far that he will leave you some day without
warning.”
“Let him go; I have the means to maintain myself, and my wife and
daughter.”
“Ah! Juan, what have you left? Juice don’t run out of a sucked orange.
As if that woman had not swallowed your slice of field and olive-yard,
leaving you nothing but the house; and that will go the same way the
field and orchard went. As for making a living--you have thrown
yourself away; your back is getting stiff already, and ‘to old age
comes no fairy godmother.’ Where, then, are those ‘means’ to come
from? What you are going to do is get entangled in debts; and, let a
man be as honest as he will, ‘if he owes and doesn’t pay, all his
credit flies away.’”
“_La Leona_ has a gossip at the port that is a contrabandist; he is
going to take me for a partner.”
“_Only this was wanting!_” exclaimed the old man indignantly. “_You!
you take to the path!_[7] Does Barabbas tempt you, Juan Garcia? Have
you lost your senses entirely, or are you fooling me? Sure enough, 54
‘he that goes with wolves will learn to howl.’ Don’t you know that the
devil takes honest gains and dishonest, and the gainer with them? But
let us keep to the matter in hand. Juan, the woman has a bad name that
neither you nor the king, if he tried, could take from her. She is bad
of herself; and neither you nor the bishop, if he set his heart on
doing it, could make her good. Moreover, ‘a rotten apple spoils its
company.’”
“Go on with the bad! ‘Against evil-speaking there’s nothing strong’;
but, if she appears good to me, we are all paid.”
“Juan, ‘look before you leap.’ You have not the excuse of youth for
your indiscretion; you are more than forty years old.”
“And have more than forty _arrobas_[8] of patience, Uncle Bartolo.
_Candela!_ I have long sought and never found a friend that would
offer me a sixpence, and have found, without seeking, one that gives
me advice.”
“Well, my son, your soul is in your palm,” said Uncle Bartolo, rising.
“Remember that there was not wanting a friend to give you good
advice--a man of ripe brain, who warned you of the future--for this
marriage is going to be the perdition of your house. And, remember
what I tell you now, a day is coming when you will have eyes left you
only that you may weep.” With these words, Uncle Bartolo went his way.
“Son,” said he to Lucas, who had waited for him in his house, “it was
lost labor, as I foretold. But go, now, and mind what I say. Submit to
what can’t be helped, and don’t be stiff-necked, for you’ll surely
come out loser. The rope breaks where it is slenderest. You are his
son, and the authority belongs to him. You will only be kicking
against the goad.”
Lucas went back to the country and to work with a heavy heart. When he
returned home on the following Saturday, he learned that the bans of
his father’s marriage were to be published the next morning for the
first time. Grief made him desperate, and he resolved, as a last
recourse, to speak himself.
We have already hinted at the cool and formal relation that existed
between these two--thanks to the neglect the abandoned man had shown
his children. For some time past, the excellent character of Lucas and
the good name it had gained him had inspired Juan Garcia with that
bitter sentiment which rises in the heart of a man who possesses the
legal and material superiority, against the subordinate to whom he
feels himself morally inferior--a sentiment of hostility that is apt
to manifest itself in despotism.
“Sir,” said the son, speaking with firm moderation, “they have been
telling me that you are going to marry.”
“They have been telling you what is quite true.”
“I hoped that it was not true.”
“And why? if I might ask.”
“On account of the woman they say you are going to have.”
“She is not, then, to your taste; and you think, perhaps, that I ought
to have advised with you?”
“No, sir, not with me--I am of small account; but with some one that
has more knowledge and judgment than I.”
“So, then, it appears to you,” said Juan, with repressed ire, “that
your father needs counsel?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Lucas calmly, “when he has a young daughter, and
is going to give her a step-mother.”
“For fear he might give her one that would eat her up, like the 55
_Cancon_?”[9]
“No, sir, no; we understand now that people are not swallowed like
sugared anises.”
“Or make her work, being herself industrious, and not willing to sit
hand upon hand like a notary’s wife?”
“It is not that, sir; Lucia is not afraid of work. She knows that work
is the honor of the poor.”
“Or, perhaps, keep her at home like a chained dog?”
“No, sir; I am not thinking of that; for my sister, though brought up
without a mother, is modest, and not a girl to be seen at the street
door or with a hole in her stocking. She is used to the shade, but--”
“But what? Have done!”
“That which this woman will give her is evil, and may be her ruin.”
Juan Garcia, who had with difficulty restrained himself, rushed upon
his son, as the latter uttered these words, with his hand uplifted to
strike. Lucas, perceiving the action, quickly inclined his head, and
received upon it the blow that had been aimed at his face.
“God help me, father! what have I done to be chastised? Have I said
anything wrong? Have I been wanting in respect to you? Father, just
before my mother--heaven rest her!--died, she said to me, ‘Lucas,
watch over your sister.’ I promised her that I would, and have kept my
promise.”
“She meant,” replied Juan, somewhat softened by the memory of the
mother evoked by her son, “she meant in case Lucia should be left
without me. But, while I live, which is it that has the authority over
my daughter?”
“Father, for the love of the Blessed Virgin, leave her to me! I will
support her.”
“Are you in your senses?”
“For God’s sake, don’t separate us! I will work with all my might to
maintain us both.”
“Separate you! Nobody has thought of doing it. You will come with her
to my house.”
“No, sir.”
“How is that? What do you mean by ‘no, sir’? Do you think you have a
right to call your father to account? Is it not enough for you to know
what his hands decide? Perhaps you would like to have another proof of
what they are able to do?”
“My father may kill me, and I shall neither open my lips nor forget my
duty; but--make me live with that woman--never!”
“We shall see about that, insolent upstart!”
“Yes, we shall see,” said Lucas, as he went sorrowfully out.
Lucas was gifted with one of those noble and delicate natures that
humble themselves in victory and grow firm in defeat; that is alike
incapable of noisy elation in triumph, or pusillanimous abjection when
prostrate. But the determination of his character was degenerating
into stubbornness, as it always happens when will forsakes the
guidance of reason to follow the promptings of pride. Therefore,
though he had not, in the slightest degree, failed in the strict
respect that morality enforces, neither the threats of his father nor
love for his sister could shake the resolution he had taken in that
decisive interview. On leaving his father’s presence, he went in
search of Lucia, whom he found weeping. For a long while neither
spoke: brother and sister mutually comprehending the cause of the
profound depression of the one and the tears of the other. 56
“If mother could open her eyes!” at last exclaimed Lucia.
“They whose eyes God has closed have no wish to open them again in the
world,” replied Lucas; “but remember, that from heaven she always has
hers fixed upon her daughter. I cannot help you; for, though I have
tried my best to keep you under my flag, I have not succeeded:
because, heart’s dearest, there is no power in the world that can
oppose a father’s.”
“But I am to do only what you tell me, Lucas, for my mother left me to
you,” sobbed the girl.
“Well, then, pay attention to what I am going to say.
“Bear your cross with patience; for that is the only way to make it
lighter. Be a reed to all storms, but an oak to temptation. Never turn
from the right path, though it be steep and sown with thorns. Always
look straight before you, for he that does not do this never knows
where he will stop. As for this woman who is going to be your father’s
wife, give her the wall; but remember that she is bad, and neither
join yourself to her nor talk with her, except with reserve and when
you must.”
“Shall you do the same, Lucas?”
“I--I shall act as God gives me understanding.”
Nothing was seen of Lucas on the day of Juan’s marriage, and it was in
vain that they looked for him: he had disappeared. Juan, who left no
means untried to ascertain his son’s whereabouts, learned some days
later, from a muleteer who come from Tevilla, that he had enlisted.
The father felt indignant at the contempt thus shown for his
authority, and sorry to lose an assistant in his son: but found
consolation in freedom from the immediate presence of an interested
witness whose censure like the fog, without form, voice, or action,
penetrated him with an uncomfortableness from which there was no
escape.
Lucia went to live with her stepmother, and it is hardly necessary to
relate what she had to endure; in particular from the daughters of the
latter, who, being both foolish and ugly, naturally disliked one who
was beautiful and wise; for she had commenced by playing with
sweetness the role of Cinderella that her brother had recommended.
But, little by little, the continual friction was wasting her
patience, and indignation, repressed discontent, and rancor were
beginning to find place in her heart. She wished, sometimes, to
humiliate, by her advantages, those who were continually humiliating
her, and grew presuming and fond of admiration. So it is that evil
seeds spread and multiply with prodigious rapidity: one suffices to
open the way and prepare the ground for the rest.
While these things were passing, a regiment of cavalry, commanded by
one Colonel Gallardo, came, and took up its quarters in Arcos.
Gallardo was rich, well-born, had been good-looking, and a great
coxcomb. He was still the latter; with the kind of conceit that is
often the result of living in the atmosphere of adulation that
surrounds the possessors of money and command--an atmosphere that
intoxicates many, making them overbearing and insolent, and apt to do,
with great impertinence, things that would not be tolerated in others.
While authority is thus misunderstood, it is hardly to be wondered at
that it has lost its ancient prestige, and is hated and set at naught.
Authority should be consecrated to its mission, and, with its
advantages, accept its responsibilities, the first of which is to give 57
good example. Do those in place really think they owe the masses
nothing?--that these are, at once, mothers to nourish, and incensories
to deify them? Shall we ever go back, morally, to those remote times
when men were both worthy and self-respecting, and neither admitted
flattery nor refused to rule its reverence; for the latter was never
so despised as it is at present; the former never so cringing.
But to return to Colonel Gallardo, who has given margin to those
reflections.
This admirable person added to his other pretensions that of youth in
its flower. His own having already gone to seed, the result was that,
instead of appearing the young cock, he suggested the idea of a very
old chicken. By grace of the peruke-maker, which, as everybody knows,
consists in creating ringlets where there is no hair, he wore curled
locks. He encased himself in a French corset, which gave him a
slenderness a sylph might have envied. It was an article of his belief
that amorous conquests were as creditable to a soldier as military
ones; and he considered a little hare-brainedness in a man and a spice
of coquetry in a woman the proper seasoning, for each respectively.
These things, united with vanity enough to fill the space left vacant
in his heart and brain by the absence of other qualities, made of
Colonel Gallardo one of those characters that are detestable, without
being malevolent and ridiculous, though they do not provoke mirth.
This cavalier, a bachelor, of course, like all of his stamp, had
lodgings opposite the house of _La Leona_, whose daughters were
not long in becoming acquainted with his attendants.
The preludes to acquaintanceship were couplets worded and sung with
the evident intention of opening a flirtation. The soldiers took the
initiative, singing to the music of their _guitarillos_:[10]
“If your person can be won
By valor in the field,
Here’s a man with sword in hand
Will sooner die than yield.”
Another followed:
“If for a rustic’s love
You slight a soldier bold,
Base metal you will have
Instead of shining gold.”
To which the girls replied in a similar strain, declaring that they
found it difficult to have patience with “these men of the fields,”
whom they describe as “persecutors of the ground” and “sepulchres of
_gazpacho_.”
Neither was the colonel behindhand in becoming enamored of the beauty
of Lucia; nor was he the man to dissimulate his sentiments. And, alas!
Lucia herself had ceased to be the discreet and modest maiden, who
would once have shrunk offended from demonstrations that could not
fail to give occasion for scandal.
The hopes of our decorated aspirant, who soon learned the interior
circumstances of this family, rose high in view of the antecedents of
the step-mother and the unhappy lot of the young girl. But he deceived
himself. For, though vanity had led Lucia beyond the limits of
prudence, she receded from corruption with all the energy of the
honorable blood she had inherited from her mother. This resistance
exasperated the step-sisters, who, wishing both to be rid of Lucia and
to see her undone, hoped that the colonel would take her away with
him, and laid a plan to accomplish the result they desired. Having 58
previously concerted with the lover, they carried out their project in
the following manner: One night, when Lucia had gone to her room, and
sat combing down her beautiful hair, the door opened suddenly, and
admitted the colonel, hidden to the eyes in cloak and slouched hat,
and accompanied by the daughters of _La Leona_ in giggling triumph.
They had hardly introduced him into the chamber, when, with jests and
bursts of laughter, they turned and ran out, closing the door behind
them and drawing the bolt.
Too much overwhelmed with indignation, terror, and shame to think of
any means of escape, the unfortunate girl covered her face with her
hands and remained silent. The colonel, also, who had been led by
_La Leona_ to think that it would not be difficult to propitiate Lucia
by tender and gallant speeches, found himself without words in the
presence of grief so real and so mute. For, unless a man is totally
base, no amount of daring will enable him wholly to overcome the
respect that innocence inspires.
“Am I, then, so disagreeable to you,” said Gallardo at last, drawing
nearer to Lucia--“I who have no wish but to please you?”
“Lucas! Lucas! O my brother!” cried the girl, bursting into sobs.
“I will go! I am going!” said the colonel, half-offended,
half-compassionate; and he approached the door, but it was locked.
“You see that I cannot get out,” said he, turning again toward Lucia.
“I know it,” she exclaimed. “They wanted to ruin me, and they have
done it! Have locked me in here alone with you! How can I ever bear to
have any one look me in the face again! What will Lucas say? Ah, my
heart’s brother!”
“You are not ruined, child!” said the colonel, irritated. “I am no
friend to tragedies; heroic Lucretias frighten me. Believe me, I
desire to go, and, to prove it, since I cannot leave by the door, I
will get out by this window.” With these words, the colonel wrapped
himself again in his cloak, and, mounting the window-seat, sprang into
the yard, which was enclosed only by a low paling.
Hardly had his feet touched the ground when he felt himself attacked
by an infuriated man, who apostrophized him with the most violent
insults. At the same moment, _La Leona_ and her daughters ran
shrieking from the house, while the unhappy Lucia called from the
window in a voice of anguish: “Don’t hurt him! It is my father!”
The man had drawn a knife but Gallardo, who was vigorous and wished to
escape from the adventure without hurting Lucia’s father and without
being recognized, pushed the assailant from him with such force as to
throw him upon his back; ran to the paling, leaped it, and
disappeared.
Juan Garcia rose from the ground in that state of blind rage in which
men of his uncultivated nature stop at no obstacle and hesitate at no
crime. Violently repulsing his wife and step-daughters, who, alarmed
at the result of their work, would have detained him, he hastened to
the house, and was making directly for Lucia’s room.
“Lucia! Lucia! jump from the window!” screamed _La Leona_,
foreseeing a catastrophe. “Your father is going to kill you!”
Wild with terror, Lucia, who heard the enraged and drunken voice of
her father approaching her chamber, precipitated herself into the
yard.
“Run to the colonel’s!” urged the step-mother, with no intention then
but that of saving her life. “He is the last one your father will 59
suspect. It is the nearest house, and you can be hidden there better
than anywhere else.”
Lucia obeyed mechanically, guided by the instinct of
self-preservation, the only motive that rules weak natures in moments
of supreme peril.
Gallardo was excitedly pacing his room when she rushed in, pale as
death, covered with her long black hair, cold and helpless with fear
and desperation, and, sinking upon a chair, exclaimed:
“You have been my ruin! At least save my life!”
It is to be supposed that even the dry and sterile heart of this man
would find, in such circumstances, sentiments and words to soothe the
wretched creature thus forced to seek his protection. It is certain
that, at the vision of her youthful and innocent beauty, seen through
the prism of her tears, he became more enamored than ever, and took
advantage of the distress, of which he was the cause, to advance his
suit.
And the poor child, bereft of affection and support, having nowhere to
lay her head, lacking firmness to resist and energy to act,
unsustained by principle duly and constantly inculcated, which would
have made her prefer misery to shame, allowed herself to be persuaded
and retained, drawn by a love that began with the promise and
conviction that it was to be unchanging and eternal.
The colonel soon left, taking with him, secretly, Lucia, who had
already begun to feel contented in the atmosphere of tenderness and
luxury that surrounded her.
The fit of passion that Juan Garcia had experienced, united with
grief, shame, and remorse, so affected his constitution, already spent
and worn by the life he had been leading, that he fell into an
inflammatory fever, from which he never recovered. A little while
before he died, he said to his old friend: “Uncle Bartolo, you hit the
mark when you told me that the day would come when I should have eyes
left only to weep. It has come, and--well, better to close them for
ever.”
* * * * *
Two years had passed since the events last narrated, and five since
Lucas left home. His regiment was in Cordova, where a general recently
arrived from Madrid was going to review the troops of the garrison.
The evening before the parade, Lucas was in the quarters with several
other soldiers from Arcos, one of whom, with the careless and constant
gayety which characterizes the Spanish soldier, and proves, to the
extreme scandal and disgust of the votaries of utility, the
non-material genius of the nation, was alternately touching his
guitar, and singing:
“Oh! ‘tis gay to be a soldier.
Standing guard with tired feet,
And head erect, in stiff cravat,
And nothing at all to eat.
“And, for the bread of munition,
He gets from the King of Spain,
To be ‘Alert there, sentinel!’
All night, and never complain.
“This is the life of a soldier.
To march wherever he’s led,
To sleep under alien shelter,
And die in a hospital bed.”
At this moment the picket-guard, which had just been relieved from
duty at the general’s quarters, came up.
“Oh!” said one of the newly-arrived, “if the general’s wife isn’t a
fine one! In all my travels I have never seen her equal.”
“She is not his wife,” replied another, “so drop the ‘fine.’”
“And why should I drop it? Good words neither add to beauty nor take
from it; but what do you know?”
“What they tell me; and, besides, if she was his wife, he wouldn’t 60
keep her so grand; for that is the way with the _You-Sirs_, they spend
more money upon their dears than they do upon their wives.”
“Because they are afraid their mistresses will leave them for other
lovers. What do you say, Lucas?”
“That it’s like keeping a lead knife in a golden sheath,” answered
Lucas.
“The soul of this one may be of lead, or something cheaper, but her
person--by the Moors of Barbary!”
“We hear enough,” replied Lucas; “dress up a block, and it will look
like a shopman. I tell you, these good-for-nothing she vagabonds
appear to me more like bedraggled rags than women.”
“Get away! If this Lucas hasn’t always the rod of justice lifted! He
has entered the uniform, but the uniform hasn’t entered him. If you
had been born king, they would have called you the _Justiciero_.”[11]
The next morning the troops were drawn up in splendid array, the bands
were playing, and the general, magnificently mounted, came galloping
upon the field, followed, at a little distance, by an elegant open
carriage, in which was seated a beautiful and richly dressed woman.
The carriage stopped near where Lucas and his townsmen were formed at
the end of a line.
“That is the general’s mistress,” said the man at Lucas’s right in a
low tone. “Did I not tell you she was a sun?”
Lucas raised his eyes, and fixed them upon the woman, at the same
instant starting so perceptibly as to attract the notice of his
companions.
“What ails you, Lucas?”
“Nothing,” he answered calmly.
But the glances of the occupant of the carriage had fallen upon the
gallant-looking soldier who stood so near her, and a cry of delighted
surprise burst from her lips.
“Lucas,” said his other neighbor in line, “that lady is looking this
way, and making signs to you.”
Lucas, pale but perfectly composed, neither looked up nor replied.
“Lucas, who can it be? She knows you; she is waving her handkerchief,
and seems as if she would spring out of the carriage. Look at her!
Say! who is she?”
“I do not know her,” answered Lucas.
“By the very cats!” exclaimed the first who had spoken, in an ecstasy,
“may my end be a bad one if it isn’t your sister Lucia! Look at her,
man! it is she!”
“I have looked at her, and I tell you that I do not know her,”
responded Lucas.
“Look, now, look! the poor little thing is crying. She is not much
changed, only handsomer. You must be blind not to see that it is your
sister!”
“I do not know her,” repeated the young man, with the same composure.
There are men who feel profoundly, but exercise such self-control that
they succeed in covering with a mantle of indifference the most
violent and agonizing emotions--moral Scævolas, who astonish without
attracting us. We like neither the motive nor the effects of a
stoicism that parades itself so disdainfully. For, if in order to
judge of all things human, it is necessary to compare them with the
example of the ideal of humanity--the God-Man--we cannot fail to be
repelled by such arrogance when we reflect that the most holy passion
would have lacked its tender and sublime sanctity, if in it bravado
had taken the place of meekness.
The voice of the commanding officer was now heard prescribing the 61
evolutions. When these were concluded, the troops marched to their
quarters, where, gathered in groups, they made their comments upon the
beautiful lady of the carriage, some of the soldiers from Arcos
declaring that it was Lucia, others, who had not seen her so near,
maintaining the contrary.
“Her brother will know,” they exclaimed, running to find him.
“Lucas, is that grand, fine _You-Madam_ your sister Lucia?”
“I don’t know the woman. And now, comrades, no more questions; for I
am not a repeating-clock, and am tired of answering.”
Before half an hour had passed, an orderly arrived from the general in
search of a soldier named Lucas Garcia.
Interiorly shaken by the indignation which he would not allow his face
to betray, Lucas followed the messenger to a house of good appearance,
and was shown into an elegant and luxuriously furnished cabinet. As he
entered, a fair young girl robed in silk rose from a sofa, and ran
towards him with open arms.
“I do not know you, my lady,” said Lucas, quickly repulsing her with
his right hand.
“Lucas, my brother!” she exclaimed, bursting into tears.
“I have no sister,” he replied, in the same tone as before.
“Lucas, my own brother, listen, and I will tell you what happened!”
At this moment, the colonel--that had been, and was now
general--entered.
“Ah! Lucia,” said he, with ostentatious condescension, “so, then, you
have already seen your brother.”
“He will not know me,” sobbed the girl.
“How is that?” asked the general, turning toward the soldier. “And
why?”
“Because it would be a deceit, my general,” answered Lucas, lifting
his open hand to his temple. “I am the only one left of my house, and
have no sister.”
“I sent for you,” proceeded the general, “to make you one of my
orderlies, to keep you near me, have you taught to write, and fit you
for a career. You will mount rapidly. I know already that you are
intelligent and brave.”
“I do not wish to learn to write, my general.”
“And why?” asked the general, repressing his ill-humor, “since without
knowing how to write, you cannot rise?”
“I do not want to rise, my general.”
“The reason is evident,” said the general, with a mocking laugh. “It
is not strange that the heir of such a house should disdain the
service of the king.”
“He that sees not the king is king to himself,” answered Lucas.
“What is there that you want, brother?” asked Lucia.
“I desire nothing but to serve my time out and return home.”
“But who calls you there, if, as you say, you have no one?” questioned
she.
“Love for my native place,” he answered. “God give me rest in the soil
that gave me birth!”
“Valiant goose!” exclaimed the general.
Lucas neither opened his lips nor moved an eyelid.
“Dearest brother! by our mother’s memory, don’t make as if you did not
know me! You break my heart! Stay here.”
“It would not suit me to be a stranger anywhere, madam.”
“Enough!” said the general. “Let the clown go, he will think better 62
of it.”
“I do not think twice of things,” replied Lucas, saluting as he went
out.
Lucia ran after him into the anteroom, caught his arm, and, pressing
it against her bosom, cried in a voice of passionate and tender
entreaty:
“Lucas! my brother! for God’s sake stay! The general has promised me
that he will do all he can for you; and he can do a great deal.”
“The sack is not big enough to hold both honor and profit,” responded
Lucas, hurling his sister from him with all the loftiness of a proud
nature and the brute force of an angry churl.
Lucia fell overwhelmed upon the nearest chair, and her brother went
his way to the quarters with clinched fists and lips compressed--pale
with lividness that ire stamps upon the faces of children of the
south. Ire was suffocating him; for he could neither express it nor
follow its vengeful impulses, which would not have been satisfied
short of the commission of a crime; and of this he was incapable.
But, oh! for a war. The private soldier would have given in it a
hundred lives if he had had them for a pair of epaulets that would
lift him to the rank required, in order to enable him to demand
satisfaction of the villain who, after having seduced his sister, had
insulted him so impudently--epaulets that he would have thrown away
the next hour, like flattened orange skins; for Lucas was not
aspiring; neither fortune nor show attracted him. He clung to his
condition, loved the labors of the field; was attached to his town and
its customs, and would not have renounced the things that suited his
taste, and in which he excelled, for the sake of hoisting himself upon
a platform where he must always have been an unwelcome stranger and
intruder. The very words were antipathetic to his innate devotion, to
his country, his province, the place where he was born, his lares, and
his class.--And the effort of the age is to destroy this beautiful
instinct of the heart, by continually saying to the poor, “Rise, rise!
the summit is your goal: the heights are common to all,” thus infusing
a vain arrogance into the wholesome minds of those who are so worthy
and respectable in the place they occupy.
CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT.
[2] From 10_d._ to 10½_d._ sterling.
[3] We have thought it worth while to give the exact
cost of the simplest dress--such a one as the poorest laborer
is never without--of an Andalusian peasant:
Cloak, 260 reals.
Cloth jacket, 60 ”
Cloth breeches, 60 ”
Set of buttons (silver), 60 ”
Idem for jacket, 36 ”
Woollen sash, 50 ”
Vest, 30 ”
Linen shirt, 20 ”
Linen drawers, 15 ”
Calf-skin shoes, 22 ”
Gaiters, 40 ”
Stockings, 14 ”
Handkerchief, 4 ”
Hat, 3 ”
-------
Total, 606 ”
--without the making, which is done by the men of the household.
What will be said to this by those who are all for utility,
economy, and savings-banks, when the Andalusian rustic might,
without inconvenience, go clad in a frieze sack, a pair of
hempen sandals, and a rush hat?--_Authoress._
[4] _Pordioseros_, those who ask in God’s name--that is to
say, beggars. For this and other delicate and tender
epithets that the Spanish poor apply to the unfortunate, our
stern language has no equivalents.
[5] The actual organization of the family
throughout the kingdom of Aragon, the Basque provinces, and
the mountains of Santander. It is this that makes the mania
for codification that at present exists in Spain so much to
be dreaded.--_Spanish Ed._
[6] Big Lucas.
[7] _Tomar la vereda_--Take another than the high
or legalized way. Said of contrabandists.
[8] An arroba is twenty-five pounds.
[9] A monster they frighten children with.
[10] Small guitars.
[11] The doer of justice.
----------
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 63
FROM THE CORRESPONDANT.
II.
THE SACERDOTAL CLASS.
Egyptian civilization had its source in the priesthood. There is
reason to believe that at first they exercised sovereign authority.
“After the reign of the demigods and the Manes,” says Manethon, “came
the first dynasty, consisting of eight kings, who reigned for the
space of two hundred and fifty-two years. Menes was the first of these
kings. He carried war into foreign lands, and made himself renowned.”
Menes, the chief of the military forces, effected a revolution which
substituted a civil government for a theocracy. He was the first to
assume the title of king, and he founded the hereditary monarchy of
Egypt.
The separation of the sovereign power from the priesthood was
maintained for a long time, for it is not till the twenty-second
dynasty that we meet Pahôr-Amonsé, high-priest of Amon-Ra, whose name
is still to be seen in the inscriptions at Thebes on a royal
cartouche. Pihmé, another high-priest, also figures in the royal
_legendes_ among the historical representations with which the pronaos
of the temple of Khons at Thebes is decorated. This sacerdotal
revolution doubtless took place at the end of the seven generations of
sluggish kings of whom Diodorus speaks. The twenty-second dynasty in
fact left no traces in history. It is only known by its downfall.
“And this leads us to remark,” says Champollion-Figeac, “that there
was perhaps some admirable conception, or profound combination, or
happy inspiration in the monarchical establishment of a powerful
nation in which the loss of the crown was the inevitable effect of the
incapacity or the negligence of the family that had received it by the
will of the nation. A Theban family preserved it for thirteen
consecutive centuries, and furnished six dynasties of more than fifty
kings. The first suffered from foreign invasion, and achieved the
arduous labor of sustaining the government, finally restoring all the
branches of public administration, and re-establishing the temples and
the public works. They rebuilt Thebes, Memphis, and the principal
cities, Lake Moeris, and the canals of Lower Egypt. They and their
successors bore their victorious arms over distant lands and seas. The
arts developed under the wing of victory. Public prosperity seemed to
keep pace with these heroic achievements, and the reigning family to
become more powerful and more firmly established by such great
undertakings. Inaction succeeded to so much zeal. Ten inglorious kings
ascended the throne, the last of whom were deposed by the priests.
The constitution of the country, favored by the state of affairs, 64
provided for this disorder. A new family was called to reign.”
Modern historians have represented the ancient monarchy of Egypt as
subjected to the despotism of the sacerdotal caste. This assertion
seems difficult to reconcile with the numerous inscriptions attesting
that the principal functions of the priesthood were constantly assumed
by the sons of the Pharaohs. An inscription in relief on the façade of
the tomb of Koufou Schaf, whom M. Mariette believes to be the oldest
son of Cheops, the builder of the great pyramid, depicts that prince
wearing a panther’s skin--a distinctive sign of high sacerdotal
functions--and among his titles is found that of priest of Apis.
According to a papyrus published by Baron Denon, the sons of the two
Pharaohs must have filled the office of the high-priest of Ammon.
It is true these last-named princes belonged to the twenty-second
dynasty, and at that epoch they had not had time to forget the
usurpation by the high-priests Pahôr-Amonsé and Pihmé. It is probable
that the king in causing this high function to be assumed by his
nearest relatives wished to take precautions against the reaction of
the sacerdotal class, always so powerful. But the monuments almost
always show the priesthood living in strict and intimate alliance with
the royal authority. Thus, while the younger sons of the Pharaohs
performed the priestly functions, the children of the high-priests
attended the royal children, and were employed in the highest offices
in the king’s palace. The office of high-priest of Ammon at Thebes,
the sacerdotal city, was hereditary, as Herodotus attests in the
following passage: “As Hecatæus, the historian, gave his genealogy at
Thebes, and made himself to be a descendant of a god, through sixteen
generations, the priests of Jupiter (Ammon) treated him as they did
me, except that I did not give my genealogy. After conducting me into
a vast interior apartment, they counted, as they showed them to me,
the large wooden statues of the high-priests, each of whom, while
alive, placed his image there. Commencing with that of the last
deceased and going back, the priests made me remark that each of the
high-priests was the son of his predecessor.... Each one of these
statues represented, they said, a piromis, the son of a piromis. They
showed me three hundred and forty-five, and invariably a piromis was
the son of a piromis.”
It is not necessary to remark to what degree the priests of Ammon took
advantage of the credulity of Herodotus. Doubtless, the office of
high-priest in Egypt was hereditary as well as the throne, but it was
no less subject to the influence of dynastic revolutions. We have just
seen, for example, the two sons of the king filling the office of the
high-priest of Amon-Ra, king of the gods.
The sacerdotal class was truly the soul of the Egyptian nation. It so
completely embodied the genius, character, and traditions of the
people that they may be said to have lived by their priests. They
formed the most powerful body of men that ever existed in the world
before the Catholic clergy.
As we have seen in a preceding chapter, the independence of this
corporation was ensured by a large territorial endowment. According to
Diodorus, “the largest part of the land belonged to the college of
priests.... They transmit their profession to their descendants and 65
are exempt from taxation.”[12]
“Thus secure in the possession of their lands,” says
Champollion-Figeac, “the entire sacerdotal class was like a family
with a vast heritage transmissible, according to known conditions,
from generation to generation. It was this right of inheriting the
lands that necessarily rendered their office hereditary, because the
nature of their functions determined the part of the land inherited by
each member of the family, and on this fundamental principle the whole
constitution of the sacerdotal caste of Egypt depended.”
The hereditary transmission of each sacerdotal function, and the part
of the landed property attached to this function, could only take
effect in favor of one of the children, and probably the oldest, as in
the royal family. The other children remained to be supported by the
head of the family, or easily found a means of subsistence in the
perquisites of the numerous sacred or civil employments. The number of
the temples, their rich endowments and rents, spoken of in the Rosetta
inscription, explains how so large a number of priests could live at
their ease. To this income must be added the subsidies from the royal
treasury, and the fees of the numerous salaried functions which
embraced every part of the public administration, apart from the
military sphere. But in Egypt, as elsewhere, families sometimes became
extinct for want of descendants, and thus a new path was opened for
capacity without employment.
To form an exact idea of the influence exercised by the priesthood
over Egyptian society, it is necessary to enter into some details upon
their manners and kind of life, the duties which occupied them, and
the extent of their knowledge of all kinds which they made use of to
promote the civilization of their country.
Plutarch relates that the Egyptian priests abstained from mutton and
pork, and on days of purification they ordered their meat to be served
without salt, because, among other reasons, it whetted the appetite,
inciting them to eat and drink more. He says: “They have a well apart,
where they water their bull Apis, and carefully abstain from drinking
the Nile water, not that they regard it as unclean, on account of the
crocodiles, as some suppose--on the contrary, there is nothing the
Egyptians reverence so much as the Nile--but they think its effect is
to render them more corpulent. They are unwilling for Apis to become
too fat, or to become so themselves, but wish their souls to be
sustained by slight, active, nimble bodies, and that the divine part
within may not be oppressed and weighed down by the burden of what is
mortal.
“In the city of Heliopolis, or the City of the Sun, those who worship
the divinity never carry any wine into the temple, because it is not
suitable to drink in the presence of their lord and king. The priests
take it in small quantities, but they have several days of
purification and sanctification, during which they abstain entirely
from wine, and do nothing but study and teach holy things.”
Who would have expected to find among the priests of a pagan nation
the rules of abstinence now practised by the Catholic Church?--“that 66
the soul may be sustained by slight, active, nimble bodies, that the
divine part within may not be oppressed and weighed down by the burden
of what is mortal.” Was it not in these temperate habits, so in
accordance with their spiritualistic doctrines, that lay, to a great
degree, the secret of the moral influence of the priests, the real
aristocracy of the country?
The prestige of the sacerdotal class was partly due to their costume
and appearance. “In other places,” says Herodotus, “the priests of the
gods wear their hair long; in Egypt they shave.... Every three days
the priests shave the whole body, that no vermin may defile them while
ministering to the gods. They wear only garments of linen and slippers
of the papyrus. They are not allowed to wear other kinds. They wash
themselves in fresh water twice a day and twice by night. Their rites
are almost innumerable.” On the Egyptian monuments of every age the
priests of various ranks are easily recognized by their heads entirely
shaven. They could only wear linen garments; woollen were forbidden.
Besides the religious motives that induced them to adopt linen
tissues, this preference was justified by its advantages. From linen
could be made light robes of dazzling whiteness, which would reflect
the sun’s rays and engender nothing unclean.
All the ancient authors testify to the effect produced upon the
popular mind by the imposing exterior of the Egyptian priests; their
gleaming white robes, the habitual gravity of their deportment, their
exquisite neatness, and the images of the gods worn on rich
collars--all conspired to excite respect and veneration.
The most important duty of the priests, next to the functions of their
office, was that of giving advice to the king. “The priests,” says
Diodorus, in a passage already cited, “are the chief counsellors of
the king. They aid him by their labors, advice, and knowledge.” In
alluding to the regulations for the education of the king, and
facilitating the accomplishment of their duties, we have shown how
their application, so important to the happiness of the people, was
confided to the wisdom and patriotism of the chief priests. But did
they not render this task impossible by allowing the kings to receive
divine honors, exalting their pride by the ceremonies of actual
worship, as attested by all the monuments, and officially recognized,
as we shall presently see, by the sacerdotal body itself, in the
Rosetta inscription?
In subjecting the Egyptians to the humiliation of this worship, and to
superstitions still more shameful, did not the priests degrade them,
and facilitate the despotism of the king? The more enlightened and
powerful the sacerdotal class, the more responsible before history for
the destiny of a nation which was the first-born of civilization.
“In Greece,” says Champollion-Figeac, “the service of the temple was
the sole occupation of the priests; in Egypt, they were statesmen
governing, so to speak, kings and people in the name of the gods, and
monopolizing the administration of justice, the culture of the
sciences and their diffusion. We, therefore, find members of this
caste everywhere, in all ranks of Egyptian society, and we see by the
grants to the lowest grades that they were attached by their titles or
office to religion and its ministrants. We find in ancient writings
the proper qualifications for the different classes of the priesthood. 67
The monuments show that this class, with its infinite ramifications,
was of every grade, the lowest of which was not despised. It was
everywhere present by means of a vast hierarchy, which had every
gradation from the all-powerful chief pontiff down to the humble
porter of the temple and palace, and, perhaps, even their servant.[13]
In addition to their religious duties, the learned priests taught in
the schools of the temples the arts and sciences, writing, drawing,
music, literature, cosmogony, natural and moral philosophy, natural
history, and the requirements of religion. The priest had charge of
the finances, the assessment and collection of the taxes; priests
administered justice, interpreted the laws, and in the king’s name
decided all civil and criminal cases. Another sacerdotal division
practised medicine and surgery. It is known that the Egyptians were
the first to make medicine an art founded on the data of experience
and observation.[14]
One of the most numerous and most important of the sacerdotal
divisions was the scribes, who transcribed the sacred books, the
national annals, the documents of all kinds relating to the civil
condition of families, property, justice, the administration, and,
finally, the ritual of the dead, more or less extended, which piety
deposited in the coffins of deceased relatives. Writing in Egypt dates
from extreme antiquity. There are inscriptions still to be seen,
perfectly legible, in the sepulchral chambers of the great pyramid,
constructed by one of the first kings of the fourth dynasty.
Champollion-Figeac says the three kinds of writing, hieroglyphic,
hieratic, and demotic, were in general use. He adds that “the
hieroglyphic alone was used on the public monuments. The humblest
workman could make use of it for the most common purposes, as may be
seen by the utensils and instruments of the most common kinds, which,
it may be observed, contradicts the incorrect assertions respecting
the pretended mystery of this writing, which the Egyptian priests,
according to them, made use of as a means of oppressing the common
people and keeping them in ignorance.”
No learned body ever understood the wants of its country as well as
the Egyptian priesthood. And never was a public administration more
solicitous of availing themselves of this knowledge for the general
benefit. It is true, the annual uniformity of physical phenomena
singularly facilitated the study and application of the laws necessary
for the well-being of the people. The great and wonderful inundation
of the Nile, occurring every year at the same time, covering the land
with water for the same length of time, then subsiding to give a new
face to the country and a fresh stimulus to the activity of the
inhabitants, naturally imprinted on the nation habits of order and
foresight which made it easy to govern.
The members of the sacerdotal class, then, were most intimately
connected with the individual interests of the nation; they were the
necessary intermediaries between the gods and man, and between the
king and his subjects. Their concurrence in all public business was
not less constant or less necessary. The religious nature of the
inhabitants led them to offer invocations to the gods amid all their
occupations, in peace and war, in public and private duties, at the
ebb of inundating waters, the preparation of the land for the seed,
and the harvesting of the fruits of the earth. The gods, manifesting 68
themselves through the priests, directed the most important decisions,
and sanctified by the expression of their satisfaction the possession
of the harvest, the first-fruits of which were received as
offerings.[15]
But that which gives a more just idea of the sublime _rôle_
played by the Egyptian priests is the Rosetta inscription.[16] It is
well known that this famous inscription is the reproduction of a
decree made in 196 B.C. by the representatives of the sacerdotal
body gathered at Memphis for the coronation and enthronement of
Ptolemy Epiphanes. On account of its importance, we think ourselves
justified in giving it almost entirely: “In the year IX.,[17] the
tenth of the month of Mechir, the pontiffs and prophets, those who
enter the sanctuary to clothe the gods, the pterophores, the
hierogrammatists, and all the other priests, who from all the temples
in the country have assembled before the king at Memphis for the
solemnity of taking possession of that crown which Ptolemy, still
living, the well-beloved of Pthah, the divine Epiphanes, a most
gracious prince, has inherited from his father, being assembled in the
temple of Memphis, have pronounced this same day the following decree:
“Considering that King Ptolemy, still living, the well-beloved of
Pthah, the divine Epiphanes, son of King Ptolemy and Queen Arsinoë,
gods philopatores, has conferred all kinds of benefits on the temples
as well as those who dwell in them, and in general on all those who
are under his dominion: that being a god, the offspring of a god and
goddess, like Horus the son of Isis and Osiris, the avenger of Osiris,
his father, and, eager to manifest his zeal for the things that
pertain to the gods, he has consecrated great revenues to the service
of the temple, in money as well as grain, and expended large sums in
restoring tranquillity to Egypt, and constructing temples therein:
“That he has neglected no means in his power of performing humane
deeds; that in order that in his kingdom the people and all the
citizens generally might possess an abundance, he has repealed some of
the tributes and taxes established in Egypt, and diminished the weight
of the remainder; that he has, besides, remitted all that was due him
from the rents of the crown, either from his subjects, the people of
Egypt, or those of his other kingdoms, though these rents were of
considerable amount; that he has released all those who were
imprisoned and condemned for a long time;
“That he has ordered that the revenues of the temples, and the rents
paid them annually in grain, as well as in money, together with the
portions reserved for the gods from the vineyards, the orchards, and
all other places to which they had a right from the time of his
father, should continue to be collected in the country;
“That he has dispensed those who belong to the sacerdotal tribes from
making an annual journey to Alexandria (the seat of royalty after the 69
accession of the Lagides);
“That he has bestowed many gifts on Apis, Mnevis, and other sacred
animals of Egypt;...
“It has, therefore, pleased the priests of all the temples of the land
to decree that all the honors due King Ptolemy, still living, the
well-beloved of Pthah, the divine Epiphanes, most gracious, as well as
those which are due to his father and mother, gods, philopatores, and
those which are due to his ancestors, should be considerably
augmented; that the statue of King Ptolemy, still living, be erected
in every temple and placed in the most conspicuous spot, which shall
be called the statue of Ptolemy, the avenger of Egypt. This statue
shall be placed near the principal god of the temple, who shall
present him with the arms of victory, and all things shall be arranged
in the most appropriate manner; that the priests shall perform three
times a day religious service before these statues; that they adorn
them with sacred ornaments; and that they have care to render them, in
the great solemnities, all the honors which, according to usage,
should be paid the other gods....
“And in order that it may be known why in Egypt we glorify and honor,
as is just, the god Epiphanes, most gracious monarch, the present
decree shall be engraved on a stela of hard stone, in sacred
characters and in Greek characters, and this stela shall be placed in
every temple of the first, second, and third classes existing in all
the kingdom.”[18]
When we remember that the rule of the Greek conquerors had already
been established in Egypt one hundred and thirty-six years, we judge,
from the manner the Egyptian priests expressed themselves, of the
persistent strength of this social organization imposed on the
successors of Alexander in spite of all their power.
Therefore, says Champollion-Figeac, “the monuments of the times of the
Ptolemies may be considered a key to the times of the Pharaohs, and
the account of the ceremonies celebrated at the coronation of these
Greek kings may very suitably be applied, by changing the names, to
the kings of the ancient dynasties.”
III.
THE MILITARY CLASS.
As we have already seen (Book I., chap. ii.), the profession of arms,
as well as all other pursuits, was hereditary in Egypt, and those who
followed it formed a distinct body still more numerous than that of
the priests. They owned a part of the land, but were forbidden to
cultivate it or to pursue any industrial labor. The fertile land
assigned to every head of a family in the division which, according to
Herodotus, was made under the first kings, was tilled by the laborers.
It is easy to perceive the evils of this system, which for ever
withheld from agriculture a multitude of young and vigorous arms.
Herodotus estimates the number of the calasiries and hermotybies (the
names of the warriors) at 410,000. We should doubtless modify the
information given Herodotus by the priests, who had motives for
exaggerating before a stranger the military forces of the country. But
it is no less true that the number of able men withheld from
agriculture by the Egyptian system must have been considerable. On the
other hand, notwithstanding the numerous gymnastic exercises to which
they were subjected, these exercises could not have been as 70
efficacious as agricultural pursuits in developing strength.
Wishing to elevate the noble profession of arms, they disparaged
manual labor, and gradually left to slaves not only the trades, but
even the agricultural pursuits so necessary to the existence and
prosperity of a nation. Thanks to the salutary rule of hereditary
professions, agriculture and other labor could not be entirely left to
slaves, but labor alone attaches man to the soil; and there came a day
when the military class was rooted out and transplanted beyond Egypt,
which was left defenceless to its enemies. This is an important point
in the history of the country which has not been sufficiently
remarked.
Psammetichus, the head of the Saïte dynasty, was, it is said, the
first king of Egypt who dared shake off the yoke of the laws imposed
from time immemorial on royalty.[19] Relying on an army of foreign
mercenaries, Arabians, Carians, and Ionian Greeks, he was not afraid
of violating the privileges of the military class, and thus a
revolution was effected in Egypt which became fatal to the country.
“Two hundred and forty thousand Egyptian warriors revolted.... They
therefore conferred together, and with one accord abandoned
Psammetichus to go among the Ethiopians. Psammetichus, hearing of it,
pursued them. When he overtook them, he implored them for a long time
not to abandon their gods, their wives, and their children. Then one
of them replied that everywhere ... they could find wives and
children.”[20]
There are such bold colors in the picture of Herodotus that modesty
requires us to efface them, but we may say that he depicts to the life
the brutal cynicism into which idleness had caused the military class
to fall. Whatever their wrongs on the part of the king, it is
difficult to allow they were right in carrying their resentment so far
as to abandon their religion, their families, and their country. When,
less than a century after, the Persians, led by Cambyses, invaded the
land, the unarmed nation could offer no resistance, and Egypt was
devastated. It had not recovered from this disaster when it fell into
the power of Alexander.
The military system of ancient Egypt possessed, nevertheless, several
advantages which should be noticed.
First: Exemption from military service ensured the tillers of the soil
complete stability to their occupation, so that war did not, as among
modern nations, hinder the cultivation of the land by enrolling the
ablest part of the population and endangering the subsistence of the
country.
On the other hand, the possession of landed property guaranteed the
patriotism of the soldiers, who, as Diodorus justly remarks, defended
their country with all the more ardor that they were at the same time
the safeguards of their own property. Finally, the perpetuity of the
military service in the same families must have singularly favored 71
the development of the art of war, respect for discipline, and the
maintenance of an _esprit de corps_ in the army. After the
expulsion of the Hyksos, the Egyptians, inured to war by their long
struggles against these foreign invaders, obtained great victories in
Asia, under their kings, Ahmes (Amosis), Thothmes III., and Rameses
II., called the great Sesostris by the Greeks. The military
pre-eminence of Egypt is attested by the Holy Scriptures in the
prophecies of Isaiah respecting her downfall.
It was by war and the public works that the Pharaohs shed so brilliant
a glory over Egypt, but we know how dearly this glory cost the nation,
whose traditional characteristic was eminently pacific. Nevertheless,
it would be unjust to make the king solely responsible for the ruinous
wars that ended in the conquest of Egypt. The defect we have referred
to in the constitution of the military class must have greatly
contributed to this fatal result. The forced inactivity of its
families made them a ready instrument for the ambition of the kings,
who found a benefit in turning their attention from internal affairs
and directing the activity of so powerful a body to distant
expeditions.
Under the eighteenth dynasty, and particularly under the reign of
Thothmes III., Egypt extended the power of its arms to a great
distance. We see this prince, according to a contemporary inscription,
“establishing his frontiers where he pleased.” The pictures graven on
the walls of two chambers recently discovered in the temple of
Deir-el-Bahari, at Thebes, a monument erected by the regent Hatasou,
sister of Thothmes III. (the eighteenth dynasty), show the conquered
people putting on board the Egyptian fleet the booty taken after
battle. Here are giraffes, monkeys, leopards, arms, ingots of copper,
rings of gold. There are entire trees, probably of a rare species, the
roots of which are enclosed in large boxes filled with earth. The
vessels themselves merit our attention. They are large, solidly built,
and impelled either by sails or oars. A numerous crew covers the deck.
Thanks to the care which the Egyptian artist took to indicate the
disposition of the masts, sails, and even the knots of the complicated
cordage which bound together the different parts of the vessel, we
have a clear idea what a vessel belonging to the Egyptian navy was
four thousand years ago.
“In another chamber of the same temple are scenes of as great an
interest. The Egyptian regiments are advancing with gymnastic steps
and entering Thebes triumphantly. Each soldier has a palm in his left
hand; in his right is a spear or battle-axe. Before them sound the
trumpets. Officers are bearing the standards, surmounted by the name
of the victorious regiment.”[21]
It was from the military class, according to Manethon, that sprang the
first dynasty, which commences with Menes, the leader of the armies.
From this king to Psammetichus, the founder of the twenty-sixth
dynasty--that is, for more than two thousand years--a strict alliance
existed between the army and the throne. This makes the following
passage from Herodotus worthy of attention: “They (the warriors) enjoy
by turns the following advantages: Every year a thousand calasiries
and as many hermotybies form the king’s guard. They daily receive,
besides their lands, five mines of baked bread, two mines of beef, and
four cups of wine. This is what the guards receive.” 72
By this truly monarchical system, to which we venture to call the
attention of the sovereigns who wish to retain their crowns, the whole
army corps, and all the members of the military class, were
successively admitted to the honor of guarding the sacred person of
the king, which must have singularly augmented their devotedness and
fidelity. This system had the great advantage of dissipating all
feelings of envy with which privileged corps are regarded.
The Egyptian monarch doubtless found a solid support in this intimate
union with the military class from which it sprang. King Psammetichus,
the founder of the Saïte dynasty, was guilty of the capital fault of
employing foreign troops, and violating the civil rights of the native
soldiers. He thus caused the emigration of the entire national forces
which we have already signalized as one of the principal causes of the
downfall of Egypt.
From the time of the Persian conquest, the glorious _rôle_ of the
great Egyptian army was ended. History only mentions after this the
exploits of the navy. Herodotus relates that Egypt furnished two
hundred vessels for the fleet assembled by Xerxes for the subjugation
of Greece. “The Egyptians,” says he, “had barred helmets, convex
bucklers with a wide bordure, spears for naval combats, and great
battle-axes. Most of them wore cuirasses and long swords. Such was
their equipment.”
This fleet valiantly sustained the national honor, for the same
historian adds a little further on: “In this combat (that of
Artemisium, which preceded the great naval battle of Salamis) the
Egyptians made themselves conspicuous among the troops of Xerxes; they
did great things, and took five Greek vessels with their equipages.”
IV.
LEGISLATION--ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS.
The wisdom of the Egyptian laws was everywhere admired in ancient
times. “I would remind the reader, accustomed, perhaps, to regard the
early history of Egypt as fabulous or somewhat uncertain, that
obscurity rests on some points of its chronology, and the name and
succession of some of the kings, but not on its legislation, the
wisdom of which was admired by antiquity; and its effect on the power
and genius of the Egyptian nation is attested by the monuments still
in existence.[22] Holy Scripture itself seems to ratify this eulogium
in saying that “Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and in his deeds.”[23]
Unfortunately, all the Egyptian laws have not come down to us, and we
have to resort to the incomplete testimony of Herodotus and Diodorus.
But, as M. de Bonald states, it is easy to recognize the general
spirit of this legislation, which constantly contributed to stability
by the maintenance of ancient customs, evidently borrowed from
patriarchal traditions, and by the widest application of the
hereditary principle extending to every grade of society. The details
we have given concerning the constitution of the family and about
property, the distinction between the sacerdotal, military,
agricultural, and working classes, as well as concerning royalty,
appear sufficient to give the reader an approximate idea of the 73
civil and political laws of the ancient Egyptian monarchy.
No trace has yet been found of the municipal rights in ancient Egypt,
but there is reason to believe that cities as powerful as Thebes,
Memphis, Elephantine, Tanis, etc., had institutions suited to the
genius of their inhabitants.
Each dynasty took for its capital the city from which it sprang. Thus
the two first dynasties established the seat of government at Thinis
and Memphis; the fifth at Elephantine; and the sixth at Memphis.
Thebes only became the capital from the time of the eleventh
dynasty.[24] Owing to this excellent custom, no city, under the
ancient monarchy, could preserve its ascendency and attract all the
sources of power in the country. Thinis, Memphis, Elephantine, Thebes,
Tanis, Saïs, etc., were by turns the capitals of the kingdom, the
centres of national activity, and the seats of sovereign power.
As to the financial laws, history has transmitted several the wisdom
of which makes us regret the more those that have not come down to us.
The object of the first was to proscribe idleness, which the Egyptians
rightly regarded as a social evil. “Amasis,” says Herodotus, “is the
author of the law which obliges every Egyptian to show annually to the
governor of his _nome_ (province) his means of subsistence, and
they who did not obey, or did not appear to live on legitimate
resources, were punished with death. Solon, the Athenian, having
borrowed this law from the Egyptians, imposed it on his
fellow-citizens, who still observe it and think it faultless.”
The Egyptians, then, recognized this fundamental law--that man should
live by the fruit of his labor, and we see with what rigor they
enforced it.[25] In a well-regulated nation, where there is work for
every one, no one, indeed, should be allowed to live at the expense of
the community. The protection afforded human life in Egypt allows us
to suppose that capital punishment was reserved for those who
obstinately refused to gain their livelihood by labor or other honest
means. We know from Herodotus that woman, as well as man, was
subjected to the great law of labor. “The women go to market and
traffic, the men remain at home and weave. Everywhere else the woof is
brought up, the Egyptians carry it under. The men carry burdens on
their heads, the women on their shoulders.”[26]
The weaker sex was better protected from the violence of human
passions than among other nations. “The laws concerning women were
very severe. Those who violated a free woman were mutilated, for this
crime was considered inclusive of three great evils, insult,
corruption of morals, and confusion of children. For adultery without
violence, the man was condemned to receive a thousand stripes, and the
woman to have her nose cut off--the lawgiver wishing her to be
deprived of the attractions she had availed herself of to allure.”[27]
We see the powerful protection assured to the family by the Egyptian
laws in making woman respected and obliging her to respect herself.
Human life was equally protected. “He who saw on the way a man
struggling with an assassin, or enduring violent treatment, and did
not aid him when in his power, was condemned to death.” “He who had 74
wilfully murdered a free man or a slave was punished with death, for
the laws wished to punish not according to the degree of rank, but the
intention of the evil-doer. At the same time, their care in the
management of the slaves kept them from ever offending a free man.[28]
The law respecting loans was no less remarkable. It was forbidden
those who lent by contract to allow the principal to more than double
by the accumulation of the interest. Creditors who demanded pay could
only seize the goods of the debtor. Bodily restraint was never
allowed. For the legislator considered goods as belonging to those who
acquired them by labor, by transmission, or by gift, but the
individual belonged to the state, which, at any moment, might claim
his services in war or in peace. It would, indeed, be absurd if a
warrior, at the moment of battle, could be carried off by his
creditor, and the safety of all endangered by the cupidity of one. It
appears that Solon introduced this law at Athens, giving it the name
of _seisactheia_,[29] and remitted all debts contracted under
restraint. Most of the Greek legislators are blamed, and not without
reason, for forbidding the seizure of arms, ploughs, and other
necessary utensils, as pledges of debts, and for permitting, on the
other hand, the privation of the liberty of those who made use of
these instruments.
It is evident that civilized nations, from the earliest times, sought
to oppose and repress the dangerous evil of usury, which inevitably
leads to the oppression of the laborer and the degradation of labor.
But the Egyptians had an efficacious means of ensuring the
payment of debts--in depriving those of sepulture who died without
satisfying their creditors. In such a case the body, after being
embalmed, was simply deposited in the house of the deceased and left
to the children. “It sometimes happens,” says Diodorus, “that, owing
to the prevailing respect for the memory of parents, the
grandchildren, becoming wealthier, paid the debts of their ancestor,
had the decree of condemnation revoked, and gave him a magnificent
funeral.” The same author adds, “It is common to give the body of a
deceased parent as the guarantee of a debt. The greatest infamy and
privation of sepulture awaited those who did not redeem such a
pledge.”
“Under the reign of Asychis,” says Herodotus, “the Egyptians made a
law allowing a person to borrow by giving in pledge the body of his
father. An additional clause allowed the lender to dispose of the
sepulchral chamber of the borrower, and, in case of refusal to pay the
debt, he who had given such a pledge incurred the following
punishment: in case of death, the impossibility of obtaining burial
either in the paternal sepulchre or in any other, and the interdiction
of burying any one belonging to him.”
This singular custom of pledging a dead body could only exist in
Egypt, where it was a religious obligation to preserve the body, and
an infamy not to give funeral honors to deceased parents.
The administration of justice in Egypt excited the admiration of the
philosophers and legislators of antiquity. Diodorus, who studied their
system, found it superior to that of other countries. To enable the
reader to judge for himself, we shall give the essential details
concerning it. “The Egyptians,” says he, “have carefully considered 75
the judicial power, persuaded that the acts of a tribunal have a
twofold influence upon social life. It is evident that the punishment
of the guilty and the protection of the injured are the best means of
repressing crime. They knew, if the fear of justice could be done away
with by bribes and corruption, it would lead to the ruin of society.
They therefore chose judges from the chief inhabitants of the most
celebrated cities, Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis. Each of these
cities furnished ten, who composed the tribunal, which might be
compared to the Areopagus of Athens or the Senate of Lacedæmon. These
thirty judges chose a president from their number, and the city to
which he belonged sent another judge to replace him. These judges were
supported at the expense of the king, and their salary was very
considerable....”
The plaintiff in person stated his grievances, and the accused
defended himself. There were no counsellors, “the Egyptians being of
the opinion that they only obscure a cause by their pleadings.... In
fact, it is not rare,” adds Diodorus, “to see the most experienced
magistrates swayed by the power of a deceitful tongue, aiming at
effect, and seeking only to excite compassion.”
This organization seems adapted to secure the equity and impartiality
desirable in the administration of justice. The selection of the
judges from the principal citizens of the country, and their large
salaries, guaranteed their ability and independence. At the same time,
the restricted number of judges shows how rare lawsuits were in Egypt.
It must have been so in a nation so wisely governed, in which order
and peace reigned among all classes and in all families, and where
the interests of every one were guaranteed and protected.
The study of the inscriptions shows that the civil offices were filled
by citizens belonging to the sacerdotal and military classes.[30] Were
these functions hereditary? The stability of the Egyptian institutions
allows us to believe the transmission of the public duties must have
been generally by inheritance.
A monument in the museum of Leyden shows us a family of the beginning
of the twelfth dynasty, which for many successive generations was
employed in the distribution of water in the district of Abydos.[31]
But more important duties, requiring greater personal capacity or a
special commission from public authority, must have been at the
nomination of the kings or the governors of the nomes.
“A great number of administrative reports and fragments of registers
of the public accounts are found in the papyri still preserved.
“The services employing the greatest number, and the most able men,
were those of the public works, the army, and the administration of
the revenues of the kingdom. Coined money was unknown,[32] all the
taxes were collected in kind. There were three divisions on the land
according to the nature of the rents: the canal (maou) paid its
tribute in fish, the arable land (ouou) in cereals, and the marshes
(pehou) in heads of cattle. A register was carefully kept, with an
account of the changes, a statement of all the kinds of land in each
district, and the names of the owners.
“... Many contracts of sales and rents of land and houses, drawn up 76
on papyrus, have been found among the family papers of the dead. They
show with what guarantees and careful formalities property was
protected in ancient Egypt.”[33]
By this sketch, however incomplete, of the laws and institutions of
ancient Egypt, we see they were, as Bossuet says,[34] “simple, full of
justice, and of a kind to unite the nation. The best thing among all
these excellent laws was--that every one was trained to observe them.
A new custom was a wonder in Egypt. Everything was done in the same
manner, and their exactness in little things made them exact in great
ones. Therefore, there never was a people that preserved its laws and
customs a longer time.”
V.
A SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.
We shall now give a brief review of the social and political
institutions of ancient Egypt.
The priesthood, the guardian of religion and the laws, and the
promoter of morality, was rendered perpetual by hereditary
transmission in the sacerdotal families.
The army, the guardian of civil and political life, and the maintainer
of order, was rendered perpetual by hereditary transmission in the
military families.
Labor, the source of national and individual vigor, was rendered
perpetual by the hereditary transmission of the agricultural or
industrial pursuits in the families of the agriculturists and artisans.
Authority, the organ of the national will, was maintained in its unity
and perpetuity, by hereditary transmission in the royal family.
And all these classes, all these families, were guaranteed in their
independence by the unchangeableness of their members, and the
proprietorship of the soil and the trades.
Such were the foundations of the social constitution of Egypt.
With such fine order, to borrow the language of Bossuet, there was no
place for anarchy or oppression. In fact, society was preserved from
the abuse of power by the fundamental law of hereditary professions,
which, ensuring to each family a fixed employment and an independent
existence, prevented the arbitrary changes of men and property, so
that opposition was not, as M. de Bonald happily says, in men, but in
the institutions.[35]
It was by this combined action of the different social grades, that
is, of royalty, the priesthood, the army, and the corporations devoted
to manual labor, that Egypt attained such a degree of civilization,
which left so great an impress on the ancient world, and the vestiges
of which still appear so worthy of attention.
In consequence of this wise and powerful organization, peace and
harmony seemed to have a long and unbroken reign in Egypt. The first
symptoms of disorder and tyranny only appear under the kings of the
fourth dynasty. When the knowledge of the true God was almost effaced
from the memory of man, the kings, regarded with religious veneration,
set themselves up for gods, and pride, the source of despotism, 77
entered their hearts. After overthrowing, or at least changing, the
nature of the national religion, they favored with all their might the
introduction of polytheism, which placed them on the altars, and gave
a divine authority to their power. “The priests informed me,” says
Herodotus, “that, until Rhamsinite, equity prevailed in Egypt, and the
prosperity of the country was great. But after him Cheops (Khoufou,
the builder of the great pyramid) reigned, and the people suffered all
kinds of miseries. First, he closed the temples and forbade the
offering of sacrifices; then he forced the Egyptians to labor for
him.” This tradition of the impiety of the first designer of the
pyramids is found in the extracts from Manethon, but with an important
addition: “Suphis, who built the largest pyramid, attributed by
Herodotus to Cheops, was at first a despiser of the gods, but he
afterward repented and wrote a sacred book, greatly esteemed by the
Egyptians.”[36]
This assertion of the national historian is confirmed by the
discoveries of modern science. A stone found near the great pyramids
contains a valuable inscription respecting the ancient history of
Egypt. “It appears from this inscription,” says Mariette, “that Cheops
restored a temple already standing (dedicated to Isis), assigning
revenues to it in sacred offerings, and replaced the statues of gold,
silver, bronze, and wood, which adorned the sanctuary....
“We see by this,” adds the learned archæologist, “that, even at that
extremely remote period, Egyptian civilization shone forth with the
greatest brilliancy.”[37]
We also see that the royal despotism could not long prevail against
the powerful social organization of which we have given a sketch, for,
in re-establishing the worship of Isis, Cheops doubtless restored at
the same time the national institutions, the violation of which has
left so marked a trace in the historic traditions of Egypt.
To show our impartiality, we ought to state that many modern
historians have judged Egyptian royalty much more severely than we.
Among them, M. François Lenormant may be particularly mentioned.
“From the time of the oldest dynasties,” says he, “we see existing
this boundless respect for royalty, which became a genuine worship,
and made Pharaoh the visible god of his subjects. The Egyptian
monarchs were more than sovereign pontiffs, they were real
divinities.... They identified themselves with the great divinity
Horus because, as an inscription says: ‘The king is the image of Ra
(the sun-god) among the living.’
“It is easily understood what a prestige was given to the sovereign
power in Egypt by such an explanation of royalty. This power, already
so great among the Asiatic nations adjoining that country, assumed the
character of genuine idolatry. The Egyptians were, with respect to
their king, only trembling slaves, obliged by religion even to blindly
execute his orders. The highest and most powerful functionaries were
only the humble servants of Pharaoh.... For this _régime_ to last so
many ages with no notable modification, the Egyptians must have been
profoundly convinced that the government they were under emanated from
the divine will.[38]
Egyptian society stood on so firm a basis that it could be oppressed, 78
but not overthrown, by the despotism of its kings. Property was so
well secured by the general law of inheritance, the sacerdotal and
military aristocracy was so firmly established in its independence,
that the first excess of power only affected the laboring classes.
Unable to dispose of the property of their subjects, the kings
appropriated, as J. J. Rousseau justly remarks, “rather men’s arms
than their purse.” It was thus they effected the gigantic work of
erecting the pyramids by the enforced labors of a whole nation.
Property was spared, but humanity was oppressed.
TO BE CONTINUED.
[12] Diodorus. History thus confirms the Scriptures:
“From that time unto this day, in the whole land of Egypt,
the fifth part is paid to the king, and it is become as a
law, except the land of the priests, which was free from
this covenant” (Gen. xlvii. 26). This privilege was not
always preserved. The Rosetta inscription informs us that
the sacred lands paid annually into the royal treasury an
_artabe_ for each _aroure_ of land, and an amphora
of wine for every aroure of vineyard.
[13] _Egypte ancienne_, p. 111.
[14] Chemistry comes from Chemi--which means
Egypt.--TR.
[15] We have borrowed from Champollion most of this
account of the services rendered by the priesthood to the
Egyptian nation. It is true, it only gives the favorable
side of that class, but, in speaking of the religion of the
country, we shall endeavor to complete the picture and
present it in its true light.
[16] The Rosetta Stone was among the valuable antiquities
collected by the French expedition into Egypt, and given up
to the English at the surrender at Alexandria. It was of
black basalt, about three feet by two. The inscription on it
was in three kinds of writing: the hieroglyphic, the demotic
or enchorial, and the Greek. The upper and lower portions of
the stone were broken and injured, but the demotic
inscription was perfect. The Greek inscription was a key to
the others, from which a complete hieroglyphic alphabet was
composed.--TR.
[17] Of the reign of Ptolemy.--TR.
[18] From Champollion-Figeac’s translation.
[19] “The priests represented Psammetichus as the first
Egyptian king to violate the sacerdotal rule limiting
the king’s ration of wine.”--Strabo, _Geogr._ xvii.
[20] _Herodotus_, ii. Diodorus confirms this account, but
its authenticity has been disputed by declaring that “the
garrison of Elephantine, comprising only some hundreds or
thousands of warriors, was the only one that could escape
into Ethiopia.” It was doubtless easier for this garrison to
cross the frontier which it was appointed to guard; but,
supposing the Egyptian soldiers, dissatisfied with the
violation of their privileges, had concerted among
themselves, as Herodotus declares, we do not see how King
Psammetichus could have hindered the departure of so
formidable an army. Besides, Herodotus adds that he saw in
Ethiopia a people known under the name of _Automoles_
(deserters), descendants of these Egyptian warriors. This
testimony is the more credible because Herodotus made the
journey not more than 150 or 160 years after the death of
Psammetichus.
[21] Mariette.
[22] De Bonald, _Théorie du Pouvoir_, i. 170.
[23] Acts of the Apostles, vii. 22.
[24] Mariette: _Aperçu de l’Histoire d’Egypte_, pp. 10 and 19.
[25] St. Paul says: “_Qui non laborat non manducet_.”
[26] _Herodotus_, lib. ii.
[27] _Diodorus_, lib. i.
[28] _Diodorus_, lib. i.
[29] From σείω, _I shake off_, and ἄχθος, _burden_. See
Plutarch, _Life of Solon_, xiv.
[30] Ampère, _Des Castes, etc., dans l’ancienne
Egypte_.
[31] Letter from M. de Rougé à M. Leemans, _Revue
Archéol._, vol. xii.
[32] We have seen by the law respecting loans, attributed
to King Bocchoris, that coined money was known to the
Egyptians at least eight centuries B.C.
[33] F. Lenormant, _Manuel d’Hist. ancienne_.
[34] _Discours sur l’Hist. univ._: “The Egyptians observe
the customs of their fathers, and adopt no new ones,” says
Herodotus.
[35] _Théorie du Pouvoir_, vol. i. book 1. From this work,
now consulted so little, but nevertheless full of remarkable
views respecting the different systems of social
organization, we have taken the plan of this _étude_ of the
political institutions of ancient Egypt.
[36] Eusebius, _apud Sync._ vol.
[37] _Notice du Musée de Boulaq_, p. 185.
[38] F. Lenormant, _Manuel d’Hist. anc._, vol. i. p. 334.
----------
A WEEK AT LAKE GEORGE.
Most of our merchant readers will be able to recall a thousand
pleasant reminiscences or anecdotes of the firm of Hawkins & Smith,
wholesale cloth dealers, of our great metropolis. Mr. Hawkins is the
dapper, fluent, old English gentleman, who meets all callers upon the
house. He appears to be the very life of the firm, and sells the
counters and shelves as clean as his own smoothly shaved, fair little
face. He is fond of boasting that he never kept a piece of goods
through two whole seasons. He is the only member of the firm with whom
our agents and correspondents are acquainted. Rarely, indeed, does it
enter anybody’s head to inquire for Mr. Smith. But a silent,
squarely-built, gray-eyed man, never to be seen in the salesroom, and
only in the office at the earliest hours, looks as if he might be
called Smith, or any other practically-sounding name; and on closer
inspection this same individual appears to possess those qualities
which would fit one to do and endure the grinding, screwing, and
pounding, the stern refusing and energetic demanding, connected with
the business of such a distinguished firm. Smith never boasts. He has
a disagreeable way of chuckling, when he observes, before dismissing
an idle employee, that _he_ (Smith) came here (to New York) in his own
schooner from home (Rhode Island) and, in six months, bought his share
in the present business. Mr. Hawkins never alludes to him in
conversation, but always greets him with marked respect, and, when
late to business, with a nervous flush quite unpleasant to witness. It
has been said by enemies of the firm that Hawkins is a first-class
salesman because Smith does all the buying; and many quaint
expressions have arisen regarding the fate of the American eagle
whenever a certain coin passes between old Smith’s thumb and
forefinger.
Any one who has so far penetrated the nether gloom of our first story
salesroom as to peep behind the little railing on the high desk, has
seen a tall, pale, blue-eyed young man, with closely-trimmed whiskers,
bending over the gas-lit figures and folios, the mysteries of Hawkins
& Smith. Five years in this Hades, wearing and puzzling over the 79
perpetual riddle before him, have worked a slight wrinkle just between
his brows, and bent his thin figure, and even blanched his delicate
hands and hollow cheeks; but he is no more a demon or ghost than you
or I, or even Mr. Hawkins himself, but the jolliest and best of jolly
good fellows. If you have long known Jack Peters, and acknowledged
this, be civil to me, dear reader, henceforth, for his sake, for I am
this book-keeper’s first cousin, George Peters.
Ask the boys in the first floor whom old Smith watches most. They will
tell you, with a laugh, the new clerk at the first counter. Ask Mr.
Hawkins whom he put at the first counter because he likes Jack Peters.
He will answer, George Peters, his cousin. Ask Mr. Smith who the clerk
at the first counter is. He will answer, “An infernal fool that
Hawkins picked up, because he always wants a good-looking
figure-head.”
This last remark is historical, and I quote it to illustrate many
subjects which vanity, modesty, and respect for my employers alike
render delicate to me, George Peters.
On a certain Monday evening in July last, Jack and I stood in the
dread presence of Hawkins and Smith, in the inner circle of the gloom.
“Mr. Peters,” said Hawkins, looking at both of us as blandly as man
could look in such a place, “we have both concluded that we can better
spare you this week than next. Nothing will be going on, and so you
had better be going off. Ah! ha! And you, my young friend, although it
is not customary to grant vacation to such recent employees, had
better go off, too, on account of your cousin--entirely on his
account!” added the little gentleman, dexterously, glancing the last
part of his speech from me to his partner.
Jack nodded his thanks, and I endeavored to thaw the cold stare of the
junior partner by a warm burst of gratitude, not altogether feigned.
His glance, indeed, altered, but only to a sneer, and the labials of
the word “puppy” were so distinctly formed that I could scarcely keep
from disarranging them by a hearty slap.
Feeling checked and snubbed, I walked with Jack out of the store, but
soon these feelings gave place to the excitement of our vacation.
“Jack, are the ‘traps’ all packed?”
“Everything is ready; all we have to do is to get aboard the boat.
Hawkins told me on Saturday that I might get ready, but that it was
necessary to stay over Monday in order to get you off with me. So I
left word at home to have everything sent down by the boy.”
We turned the corner, and, in a few minutes, were wandering through
the cabins and gangways of the Albany boat. The “boy” on whom Jack had
relied so confidently did not make his appearance until the last
moment, and then professed utter ignorance of any lunch-basket. Jack
was certain that he had put it with the trunk and satchels, and was
but partially convinced when he found it, on our return, in the
wardrobe of his bedroom. But we were on board of the _St. John_, and
it only made a difference of two dollars in the cost of our supper.
Yes, dear reader, we were on board of the _St. John_, and moving up
the Hudson; and, if you are pleased at finding us on our way at last,
judge with what feelings we turned from the brick and stone of the
great Babylon behind us to the towering palisades, the groves, and
hills, and happy rural sights about us. Jack and I were unable to 80
get a state-room; all had been secured before the boat left the wharf.
This, however, afforded little matter for regret, as we sailed through
moonlight and a warm breeze beneath the gloomy Highlands, and watched
the lights of the barges and tow-boats, like floating cities on the
inky river. Scraps of history and romance were suggested at almost
every turn of the winding channel, and as we passed old Cro’ Nest, the
opening lines of the _Culprit Fay_ were forcibly recalled:
“’Tis the middle watch of a summer night,
Earth is dark, but the heavens are bright,
And naught is seen in the vault on high
But the moon and stars, and the cloudless sky,
And the flood which rolls its milky hue,
As a river of light, o’er the welkin blue.
The moon looks down on old Cro’ Nest;
She mellows the shades on his shaggy breast;
And seems his huge gray form to throw
In a silver cone on the wave below.”
The white schooners went through their ghostly parts in a way that
would have shamed Wallack himself. We thought the performance of the
sturgeons fully equal, from an artistic point of view, and, certainly,
less objectionable from every point of view, when compared with
anything we ever saw at the ballet; and, yet, we remembered that men
and women were sitting wide awake through these late hours in the hot
and crowded theatres of the city. Thus we were consoled for the loss
of a state-room. But even in this peaceful enjoyment of nature we were
not without drawbacks, and in the chapter of accidents must be
recorded how and why we lost our places on the forward deck.
Scarcely had the steamer left her dock, when we were startled by a
voice inquiring “if there would be any intrusion in case a party of
ladies and gentlemen desired to while away time by singing a few
hymns?”
Jack and I turned in our seats. The inquiry had proceeded
from an elderly individual, of general clerical appearance, and
certain marks strongly indicating the specific character of the
“Evangelical” school. A pair of “sisters” hung upon either arm, and
all three settled into chairs in the middle of the deck. His question
had been addressed to about two hundred ladies and gentlemen who
crowded the forward deck. There were evident marks of dissatisfaction,
but, as nobody spoke, our “Evangelical” friend thought proper to
conclude that nobody was offended, and the hymn-singing commenced.
Gradually congenial spirits, drawn by the sound, were to be seen
approaching from various parts of the boat, and when Jack and I
returned from supper, we found about twenty or thirty in various
stages of excitement, and our clerical friend wrought up to a high
pitch. Another minister, with a strong but wheezy bass voice,
announced and intoned the hymns. At intervals in the singing, our
friend arose and addressed the spectators. At one time he informed
them that the feeling which animated the present assembly was love to
the Saviour. At another, he thought that perhaps there might be some
present who knew nothing about the Saviour; to such he would apply the
words of the apostle, “Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ.” He
said that he had been a child of God for thirty years, and knew by a
certain assurance that he was a saved man. Hallelujah!
“Evangelical” blood was up, and our friend turned from the
contemplation of his own happy lot to worry something or somebody.
Jack’s cigar caught his eye. It was the red rag to the bull.
“Young man! there ain’t no smokin’-car in heaven. There ain’t no 81
for’ard deck where you can puff that stinkin’ weed of your’n!”
Jack expressed a forcible denial in an undertone, and, before I could
nudge him, broke out with:
“I’d like to know what the Bible says against smoking?”
“You would, young man, would ye? Well, I’m glad you would. I’m glad
you have asked that question. Well, sir, the Bible says, ‘Let no
filthy communication proceed out of thy mouth’; and if that ar smoke
ain’t a ‘filthy communication,’ I’d like to know what is.”
There was a general roar. “Come along, Jack,” said I, “you are a
Papist, and can’t argue against a ‘free Bible.’” So, retiring to the
after-deck, which was covered, and concealed much of the landscape, we
left our Methodist friends triumphantly shouting and keeping folks
awake up to a late hour.
As the night passed, and our fellow-travellers dropped off one by one
to doze in their state-rooms or on the sofas of the cabins, we were
left alone. Gradually we retired within ourselves, and shut the doors
of our senses.
“Wake up, old fellow, we are nearly in!”
I opened my eyes, and saw Jack’s pale face smiling over my shoulders.
We landed at Albany, and after breakfast found ourselves settled in
the Rensselaer and Saratoga cars, and, changing trains at Fort Edward,
arrived at Glenn’s Falls in about three hours.
Jack, who had often made the trip before, had set me reading _The
Leather Stocking Series_, and I positively refused to budge from
the town of Glenn’s Falls until we had visited the rapids and
descended into the cave which Cooper has immortalized in the first
chapters of his most interesting romance, _The Last of the Mohicans_.
The falling in of the rock at different periods, and the low stage of
the water in the summer season, prevented us from recognizing the old
shelter of Hawkeye and his party.
But there is the cave, and there are the rapids--both are shrines of
American legend; and we felt better pleased with ourselves for our
pilgrimage. Of course we had missed the stage which takes passengers
from the station to Caldwell at the head of Lake George. We wandered a
short time about town, found out that there were a number of Catholics
in it, and that its president, Mr. Keenan, was a well-known Irish
Catholic. We also visited a beautiful church, the finest in the town,
recently completed by Father McDermott, the pastor of the
English-speaking Catholic congregation, there being also a
French-Canadian parish in the place.
As may be easily imagined, we had no mind to walk over to the lake, or
to pay ten dollars for a vehicle to carry us as many miles, and Jack
was beginning to grumble at my curiosity when we met a farmer’s
wagon--with a farmer in it, of course. The latter offered to take us
over for fifty cents a head, as he was going in the same direction.
Never was there a better piece of good luck. There are several Scotch
families settled on French Mountain, at the head of the lake; our
driver was one of their patriarchs. He literally poured out funny
stories of the “kirk” and “dominie”; and although some of the jokes
were very nearly as broad as they were long, Jack and I were forced to
hold our sides while the “gudeman” sparkled and foamed, like a certain
brown export from his native country.
During a momentary lull in the conversation, I took occasion to
inquire with respect to a black woolly-coated dog, who followed the 82
wagon, if he were a good hunter. “Yes,” said Jack, with a contemptuous
smile at the subject of my inquiry. “He is what is called a
beef-hound.”
“Hoot, mon,” said his owner, “that dog would tree a grasshopper up a
mullen-stalk.”
It was in no sad or poetical mood that we passed by “Williams’s
Monument” and the scene of Hendrick’s death and Dieskau’s defeat, or
saw at “Bloody Pond” the lilies bending over the sedge and ooze which
served of old as the last resting-place of many a brave young son of
France. We did not think of the fierce struggle which had here
confirmed our Anglo-Saxon forefathers in possession of this soil. All
this comes up now as I write; for, certainly no sober thought entered
our brains until, as we turned round a mountain-side, I saw Jack take
off his hat. I looked in the direction of his respectful nod, and--oh!
what a vision!--the deep blue lake sank from view in the embrace of
the distant mountains. Its winding shores and secret bays, curtained
with veils of mist hanging in festoons from boughs of cedar, birch,
maple, and chestnut, were like enchantment in their endless variety of
form and shade. No less the work of magic were the islands. These,
owing to the reflection of the water, appeared to hang over its
surface as the clouds seemed to hang over the peaks above. To stand
suddenly in view of such a sight might have startled and awed even
lighter souls than ours. Here, indeed, our hearts were lifted up and
thrilled as we thought of the gray-haired apostle and martyr, the
first European who sailed upon the water before us--the Jesuit Father
Jogues, who also gave it on the eve of Corpus Christi its original
name--Lac du Saint-Sacrament. Our Protestant tradition, following the
courtier taste of Sir William Johnson, has handed down the name of
Lake George, but we trust that the hope of every lover of American
antiquity who has visited its shores may not prove vain, and that
time, in doing justice to all, will restore to the lake its first true
and lovely title.
A few small sails on the water, and the smoke from the village at our
feet, broke the spell and reminded us that we were still among the
haunts of man.
Caldwell is made up of a courthouse, several churches, stores, hotels,
and shops, a saw-mill, and a few streets of separated dwelling-houses.
The grand hotel is near the site once occupied by Fort William Henry,
and is called by that name, and looks towards Ticonderoga, although
the view is cut off midway by the windings of the lake. Old Fort
George is overgrown with cedars and shrubs, and only a few feet of
ruined bastion remain. The scene of the massacre of Fort William Henry
is now, as nearly as we could reckon from Mr. Cooper’s description, a
swamp. Time, however, is said to have greatly altered the topography
of the shore at this point, and certainly it is hard to locate
Montcalm’s old camping-ground during the siege described in _The
Last of the Mohicans_.
Leaving such questions to the antiquarian, perhaps, dear reader, you
will ask one with a practical regard for the present and future,
namely, How do they provide for their guests at the Fort William
Henry? Alas! that were indeed an ill-timed question for us. Perhaps,
if I had asked the proprietor to allow me to report upon his fare in
the pages of THE CATHOLIC WORLD, he would have done so in a manner
satisfactory to all parties; but, as no such brilliant idea occurred
at that time, I am forced to confess that I was afraid that it was 83
too good. Be it said to our shame, we did not promenade upon the
magnificent piazza, nor did we stop to taste the alluring fare of the
Fort William Henry. What else did we come for? Why, to see Lake
George, of course, and to have a good time; and we did both, although
we went without lunch for some hours that day.
Scarcely had I claimed our baggage at the stage-office, when Jack came
up from the beach with a radiant countenance. “It’s all right!” said
he, “I’ve got just the boat we want. Five dollars for the rest of the
week. Take hold of that trunk, and we’ll get under way as soon as
possible.”
Perhaps, dear reader, in your wanderings through life it has never
been your happy lot to be absolute master of the craft on which you
are sailing. Do you think that you have fathomed the mystery of such
lives as those of Captain Kidd and Admiral Semmes?
Do you imagine that life on the ocean wave means sleeping in a berth
and pacing a quarter-deck? Ah! that was truly independence day to us.
The wind blew fresh and strong. We hoisted our india-rubber blanket on
an oar. Coats and collars were packed away in the satchel, our “worst”
straw hats were pulled down over our eyes, and, as we sat with
loosened flannel in the bottom of our heavy skiff, and listened to the
rippling water, we quite forgot that it was past lunch-time. The warm
south breeze, and that peculiar fragrance which popular fancy has
associated with the name of cavendish, brought us in full sympathy
with the naval adventurers of other days, and we blessed the memory of
Sir Walter Raleigh, “as we sailed.”
The upper portion of the lake, through which we are now passing, though
surrounded by hills, has enough farming land and farm-houses on their
slopes to give it that placid, tranquil beauty which is always
associated with views on the English waters. As it widened from
three-quarters to as many full miles, we passed several beautiful
residences, two of them belonging to Messrs. Price and Hayden of New
York City. Opposite these, on the eastern shore, is a handsome
property belonging to Charles O’Conor, Esq., one of the most
distinguished members of the New York bar, and well known throughout
the United States. Just abreast Diamond Island is the residence of Mr.
Cramer, president of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, and while
sailing past the lovely group of islands known as the “Three Sisters,”
the property of Judge Edmonds, we saw beyond them the white walls of
his cottage peeping out from the green foliage of the western shore,
about three miles and a half from Caldwell.
As the sun sank below Mount Cathead, back of the pretty little village
of Bolton, we landed on a little islet in the Narrows near Fourteen
Mile Island.
I was quite curious to find out what preparations Jack had made, and
lent a willing hand at the long narrow trunk. In the tray was a small
cotton tent, made according to Jack’s own order, and slightly larger
than the soldier’s “dog-house.” A keen little axe in Jack’s quick hand
soon provided a pair of forked uprights and four little pins, an oar
served for a ridge-pole, and our shelter was up before the sun was
fairly below the real horizon. Out of the same tray came a quilt and
two pairs of blankets, which I was ordered to spread on the
india-rubber. My task accomplished, the smell of something very much 84
like ham and eggs recalled me to the beach. We supped, that night, by
the light of our camp-fire, and it was only after a night’s heavy
sleep that I was able to examine the rest of Jack’s outfit. A small
mess-chest, which bore marks of his own clever fingers, occupied one
division of the bottom of the trunk. The rest of it was shared by
apartments for clothing, provisions, and a humble assortment of
fishing-tackle and shooting material. The gun lay strapped to one side
of the trunk, and a couple of rods on the other.
“Very neat, Jack,” said I.
“You are right; I built it myself, all except the walls and roof,
seven years ago.”
I am sorry to confess that I did not get up that morning until
breakfast was ready. Jack did not complain, but I saw by his quiet
smile that some kind of an apology was necessary.
“Jack, I’m as stiff as a clotheshorse, and sore from head to foot.”
“Why,” he asked, “didn’t you dig holes for your hips and shoulders, as
the Indians do?”
“The holes were all made, only they were in the wrong places.”
After breakfast, we broke up our camp and rowed over to Fourteen Mile
Island. On the way we had another view of Bolton, behind us, and the
countless islands in the Narrows, through which we were shortly to
sail. The little village of Bolton lies on the western shore opposite
Fourteen Mile Island. It contains a hotel, several boarding-houses, a
pretty little P. E. church, and a forest of flags, every house seeming
to have its own staff. One of the islands, near Bolton, was shown us
as the point of view from which Kensett’s picture of the Narrows was
painted. At Fourteen Mile Island we found a quiet little hotel, which
serves as a dining-place for excursionists from Caldwell. A few
regular boarders seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I noticed an
artist’s easel and umbrella on the porch.
We soon left with a good supply of butter, eggs, milk, and fresh
bread. After rowing a few miles through the maze of islands in the
Narrows, one of which is occupied by a hermit artist named Hill, a
“transcendentalist,” the wind arose, and we sailed under the shadow of
Black Mountain through the wildest portion of the lake. On the western
shore, savage cliffs were piled in utter confusion, now rising, like
the Hudson River Palisades, in solid walls above a mass of
_débris_, now hanging in gigantic masses over the crystal abyss below.
On the eastern shore, Black Mountain rises above any other height on
the lake, and the view which we beheld as we passed from Fourteen Mile
Island down the Narrows is one of the finest in the world. Now we were
drifting under the cliffs at the base of the mountain, and, looking up
its abrupt sides--a series of rocky spurs covered principally with
hemlocks and cedar--we saw two eagles soaring above the thin clouds
which floated half-way up. Throughout this portion the lake varies
from one to two miles in width.
Oh! what a cozy little nest in the hills at the northern end of Black
Mountain! A few farms, and a sleepy old mill that looks as if it never
was made to run, lie on the sunny slope retiring into the hills which
forms a pass over to Whitehall. No wonder they call it the “Bosom!”
Here, in a little graveyard, we saw the tombstone of a Revolutionary
soldier, and the old farm-house, at which we stopped for dinner, with
its loom and spindle and bustling old housewife, formed a good
specimen of that phase of American life which is rapidly passing 85
away for ever.
While our meal was being cooked, Jack disappeared with his rod. I had
a long talk with the mistress of the house. She was a “Free-will
Baptist” and very much opposed to the Irish and Catholics generally.
Her objections to the former were thus curtly summed up, “The critters
get rich off a rock, and have sich litters of children.”
During the ensuing conversation she remarked, “I have four sons, and
every one of them professors.”
“Ah!” said I, in all simplicity, “they must be doing very well; but
what do they teach?”
“Teach?--they don’t teach nothing. I said they were professors.”
“Well, then,” I asked, “what do they profess?”
“Why, professors of religion, of course,” answered the good
dame--“every one of ‘em baptized in yon lake. Oh! it was a glor’ous
sight!”
The good old lady--for she was past eighty--showed me her dairy, and
apartments of the house which she said were usually occupied by
boarders at this time of the year. She had woven all the carpets,
quilts, towels, napkins, and table-cloths of the whole establishment,
and everything looked very neat and old-fashioned.
“I’m mighty sorry you have to hurry off,” said she, “I could make you
the nicest chowder you ever tasted. My man knows just where to get the
fish. A few years ago we sent off, at once, one hundred and fifty
pounds of clean lake trout.”
I, too, was sorry that we were obliged to hasten on our journey, as I
thought, for the first time since we started, of Hawkins & Smith and a
long year in the gloomy salesroom.
Jack came late for dinner with five small brook-trout in his hand.
“Hulloa, old fellow, where did you get those?”
“Oh! there’s a little pool on the hillside up yonder,” answered Jack,
pointing as he spoke, “I always find two or three there.”
After paying for our dinner, visiting an Indian family who claim to be
the genuine “Last of the Mohicans,” we bade farewell to our hostess
and one of the “professors,” who had appeared in the meanwhile, and
were again afloat. We passed Sabbath Day Point, about two miles above
“The Bosom” on the opposite shore. The former derived its name from
having served as a resting-place to Abercrombie’s expedition; it was
the scene of several bloody skirmishes during the French and Indian
war and also during the Revolution.
The lake now widens somewhat, and the mountains decrease in height.
Two points of land overlapping from opposite sides close up the
northern view and form a large circular basin opposite the little
village of Hague, situated on the western shore about six or seven
miles from the lower end of the lake. One of the points alluded to is
a craggy spur which seems to spring directly out of the depths of the
water; it is on the eastern shore, and is called Anthony’s Nose. The
western point is a well-shaded lawn of about one hundred and fifty
acres, with a winding irregular shore, and containing a number of
large hickory and chestnut trees.
The robins were hopping about the lawn as we landed; the thrush,
singing his vesper, made a special commemoration of the faithful newly
arrived; the greedy cat-bird, a sleek-coated sharper, approached to
see what was to be made off the strangers; while the politic
red-squirrels, scampering off at sight of our tent to discuss the
object and intent of this invasion, remained at a respectful distance
while Jack’s trout were frying over the little camp-fire now gleaming 86
in the twilight.
Supper having been despatched, I heard Jack approaching, while engaged
in washing the dishes on the beach--an occupation which time and place
can often rob of all its offensiveness, wherefore, most delicate of
readers, I am bold enough to mention it.
I looked at Jack from my towel and tin plates, and great was my
astonishment to behold him in complete hunting-dress, gun in hand, and
all accoutred for the chase.
“Why, Jack! what’s afoot?”
“No game yet,” he answered, smiling; “but I’m to leave you to-night.”
“What! to sleep here all by myself?”
“Why, yes--you are not afraid, are you?”
“No, not afraid exactly.”
“The fact is,” said Jack, “a fellow over at Hague promised me a
deer-hunt last year, and if I can find him to-night I shall go out
with him to-morrow. You can’t shoot, have no gun, and are not much of
a walker, so I am sure you would be bored to death.” (I nodded.) Jack
continued, “I will walk over to-night, and if I do not meet the hunter
will be back bright and early to-morrow morning. If I do not come
then, please row over for me to-morrow evening.”
“All right, _mon capitaine_.” And, with a wave of the hand, Jack
departed, and I was alone.
The embers of the camp-fire began to brighten as the darkness fell.
The birds and squirrels disappeared. The trunk was stowed safely
together with its mess-chest and provisions, and the blankets were
spread in the little tent; the milk-jug and butter-bowl were secured
by stones in the water, in order to keep them cool. I began my rosary
for night prayers, and roamed through the grove over to the northern
side of the point, in full view of the steep promontory on the
opposite shore. Beyond our own smooth camping-ground the western shore
surged up again in all its former wildness. The beads passed slowly
through my fingers, and it seemed as if the beauty and loneliness of
the scene were absorbing all my faculties, and withdrawing me from
instead of raising my thoughts to God and heaven.
Finally the moon arose. A thousand scattered beams shot through the
dark foliage, and lit up patches of the lawn over which I had just
passed. The wind had died away, and the light fell in unbroken
splendor upon the broad mirror before me. The few thin clouds, veiling
small groups of stars, the frowning cliffs and sombre woods--all were
reduplicated in the unruffled water. Far to the south, Black Mountain
closed up the view, which sank in the east behind the low ranges of
hills, all dark below the rising moon. The last bead fell from my
fingers, and praying God to forgive anything inordinate in my
enjoyment of his creatures, I gave up to the intoxication of the
scene. The hours passed rapidly while I dreamed of the days of
Montcalm and Abercrombie, and saw in fancy the fleets of canoes and
batteaux passing and repassing in victory and defeat the rocks upon
which I was sitting. Had my mind ever reverted to the possibility of
being obliged to give a public account of itself, I might have
composed some lines, had some “thoughts,” or done something worth
recording. Alas, dear reader, do not consider me rude if I confess
that I did not think of you at that time. For, indeed, I did not think
of anything, but left my fancy to be sported with by impressions past 87
and present of the lovely region in which I found myself a happy
visitor. The cool night air brought the blood to my sunburnt cheeks.
The landscape swam before me, the past mingled with the present;
finally, the mist seemed to shroud everything. My watch was run down
past midnght when I awoke, finding myself stretched at full length on
the rock. I started--where was I? what had disturbed my slumber? Was
it the war-whoop of the Mingoes, or the friendly greeting of Uncas and
Chingacgook; but if so, where were the canoes? I raised myself slowly
on my elbow, all wet with dew, dazed by sleep and the strange scene
about me--when suddenly, under the shadow of the trees, and not one
hundred feet distant, there rose from the water a shrill, fierce,
devilish laugh, so wild and startling that I bounded to my feet and
fairly screamed with fright. The next instant, a large bird appeared
fluttering on the moonlit water beyond. “Pshaw!” said I, “didn’t you
ever hear a loon before?” Thus addressing myself, I returned to the
tent, and, stripping off my wet clothes, fell asleep in the blankets.
I do not know exactly what time of the day it was when I awoke the
next morning. The sun was high, and my clothes and the tent perfectly
dry; but I saw through its open door the steamer which leaves Caldwell
at eight o’clock, and hence concluded that it was now between ten and
eleven. I was glad enough that Jack did not appear to rebuke my
laziness until I came to try my hand at cooking breakfast. The fire
would smoke, and I could not hinder it; the ham would not broil, and I
could not force it. The eggs, of course, were scorched, and so was my
tongue when I tasted the coffee, which resembled a decoction of
shavings and bitter almonds. Quietly emptying the coffee-pot on the
grass, I contented myself with a cup of milk, which, however, showed
strong premonitory symptoms of sourness; and after bolting a huge
stock of raw ham and scorched eggs, made up my mind that this was to
be the last meal without Jack.
It was very warm in the tent, so, taking the quilt and a certain small
pouch of buckskin decked with wampum, I sought the shelter of the
grove. Chestnut-burrs did not prevent me from choosing the shadiest
spot, for my quilt afforded ample protection.
Here, with my back to the tree, I fell into a state which might easily
have proved a continuation of my already protracted nap. It was not
so, however. The bag of the medicine-man contains an antidote for
prosiness after meals. Blue clouds of the inspiring fragrance curled
in the still air, and the brain which might have succumbed to the
vulgar humors of digesting pork maintained itself in a gentle,
subdued, intellectual state. Had I some favorite author in my hand,
some volume of pithy sentences furnishing themes for my morning
meditation, or somebody’s “confessions”? Alas, dear reader, I am
forced to make a confession myself, to wit, that there was not a line
of printed matter in all our luggage.
Day-dreams and night-dreams are pretty much alike with me unless there
be a trifle of brilliant imagination in favor of the latter. Still, if
any stray thoughts wandered through my brain at this time, they must
have been something like these: Why was it that the law of rest had to
be superadded to the law of labor, if not because man has turned his
wholesome penance into a debauchery? Avarice and ambition have
gradually mastered the human race, and he who would eat or hold his 88
own must sweat and fight, or others will snatch it from him. By
degrees, the struggle has grown and deepened. First, we were shepherds
and tillers of the soil. Childhood passed in plenty and obedience.
Ploughing and reaping came only in their seasons, and, while kings and
princes tended flocks, labor was worship and life was not all
drudgery--there was some time for happiness and God. Then came the
curse of cunning and trade and cities. Here began a fiercer strife,
and, instead of the accidental miseries of drought and famine, men
learned to fear beggary. And, now that craft and commerce are supreme,
slavery is universal. No more days of festival, no more years of
jubilee! You, George Peters, wretch that you are, are the bond-slave
of Hawkins & Smith. What! will you rebel? Well, it is only a choice of
masters--serve you must. This pitiful vacation is only a device of old
Smith to make you feel your real bondage. If, dear reader, you should
perceive any other explanation of the facts which I so loosely jumbled
together, remember that this was the reverie of a lazy youth, escaped
from the thraldom of his counter, and basking in the fresh air and
beauty of Lake George. If, branching off from the great labor
question, I thought of anything else, it was to compare that beauty
with what I had seen in pictures or read in books of other lakes. I
have before alluded to the placid and tranquil English character of
the scenery between Caldwell and Fourteen Mile Island. The farms and
villas, and the town of Bolton, although lying on the western shore,
add much to this effect, and serve to rob the eastern bank almost
entirely of its natural air of uninhabited wildness. The sail-boats
and skiffs and three little steamers continually plying about this
portion of the lake, complete the impression that it is a place of
pleasure, ease, and holiday. The Narrows, completely filled with
islands, where every stroke of the oar reveals new vistas and endless
changes of scene, I can compare with nothing, and, indeed, it would
seem as if they were a unique creation. These extend for two or three
miles to where Black Mountain begins. And as for the rest, my
ignorance is also at a loss for a comparison, and I can only think of
what Lake Como might have been if adorned with islands, if its peaks
were lower and covered with foliage, and if the hand of man had never
wrought upon its native beauty.
That evening I rowed over for Jack. He had not yet arrived, although
the sun had set when I arrived, as agreed, at the little hotel at
Hague. Something unusual was going on, and I made various guesses as
to the reason why so many well-dressed maids and shaven yeomen were
gathered on the porch. Seven o’clock came, and yet no Jack. I eagerly
inquired after supper, resolved not to risk the chance of being
obliged to depend upon myself for a cook. The dining-room had been
cleared of every table save the one which I occupied, and shortly
after I had come out from supper I saw the young people crowding into
it. I had now begun to suspect what was the matter, when an
honest-looking young gentleman, fresh and fragrant from a process to
which he shortly afterwards urged and invited me, approached and said:
“Stranger, you’re camping on the p’int?” To this piece of information
I nodded a genial assent.
“Lookin’ for your pardner?” asked the pleasant young man. I nodded
again. “Well, he’ll be in soon. He’s gone out with a fellow that 89
never misses this sort of thing.” I had previously formed my own
notion of Jack’s companion, and a jolly flourish on a neighboring
violin forestalled the necessity of inquiring as to the nature of the
“thing” which exercised such an influence over him. The pleasant young
man, however, became confidential, and added with an ingenuous air:
“The fact is, we are going to shuffle the hoof a little to-night, and
he never misses anything like that. You’d better come in and try it
yourself.”
Then, becoming confidential in turn and glancing at my unpolished
extremities, I suggested that perhaps the articles in question were
not in a condition to be shuffled. Here it was that our sympathy
culminated, and my friend, in a burst of intimacy, proffered the
invitation before alluded to, with the words: “Come along and slick
up.” I do not know into what folly I might have been seduced if my
good angel Jack had not just then appeared and rescued me.
“How many deer, Jack?”
“Oh! we did not so much as start one,” he answered. And then asked,
“Have you had anything to eat?”
On my reply, Jack said that he was glad, for he had just had his own
supper in the kitchen. As we rowed back to camp, Jack fell asleep in
the stern of the boat, while telling me how he had tramped in vain
from early dawn till night.
Oh! how proud I felt next morning, when, after kindling the fire and
putting on the kettle, I came back and found Jack still sleeping in
the tent.
Dear old nervous Jack! who ever saw you asleep in daytime before?
Quick as the thought in my mind, he bounded up as freshly as one of
the deer of which he had been dreaming.
“Caught!” he said, the old quiet smile lighting up his face as he came
out and fell to work getting breakfast.
When we had finished our meal and laughed over the adventures of the
precious day, Jack set me to catching grasshoppers, while he prepared
the fishing tackle.
I found my occupation quite lively for a sultry morning, and not
without a certain amount of adventure, as I also discovered, for one
ignorant of the precise difference between a grasshopper and a hornet.
Finally, enough were caught and imprisoned in an empty wine-bottle to
serve for bait, and Jack was sure we were going to catch a load of
fish. My confidence in fishing was only in proportion to my
experience, very meagre, and after several hours fruitlessly spent in
trying various places, great was my astonishment when the lance-wood
rod bent double in my hands, and the next instant a large fish
appeared struggling on the surface of the water.
“Don’t lose him!” shouted Jack as he came forward, and snatched the
rod out of my hands and landed the fish.
“A fool for luck!” said my cousin. “I beg your pardon, old boy, but
there won’t be a better fish caught here this summer.” It proved to be
a splendid specimen of black bass, and weighed, according to Jack’s
estimate, every ounce of six pounds. Several smaller fish of the same
species, together with a few small perch, were the result of our day’s
sport. The big bass made a sufficiently large Friday dinner and
supper; the other fish we saved for our last breakfast.
Alas! for some episode, before we row down to Ticonderoga and take the
steamer on Lake Champlain to Whitehall, and the cars thence to Albany 90
and New York. Our tent did not blow away that night; and, although the
storm beat fiercely, not a drop of water touched us, thanks to the
little furrow which Jack had traced with a sharp stick, to carry off
the drippings from the tent-cloth.
Starting bright and early next morning, we rowed past a steep smooth
cliff running almost perpendicularly for about four hundred feet and
then down into the lake.
“That’s ‘Rogers’s Slide,’” said Jack.
“The deuce it is! He must have worn a stout pair of pantaloons!”
“Oh! but he didn’t actually slide, you know!” replied Jack, and then
proceeded to recount the famous escape of Major Rogers in 1758, who
here eluded the pursuit of the Indians, and, having thrown his
knapsack over the precipice, turned his snow-shoes and made off by
another route.
In a few hours, we had left our little boat attached to the steamer to
be taken back to Caldwell. A stage ride of several miles brought us to
Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain. That same evening, at ten o’clock, we
snuffed the hot and fetid breath of the great metropolis, and Monday
morning saw us re-entering the shades of Hawkins & Smith. A word to
Jack and a stare at me were the only greetings of the junior partner,
as he passed through the salesroom.
“Ah, boys!” said the cheery Hawkins, “glad to see you; look as if
you’ve been having a good time. Plenty of bone, muscle, and brown
skin, eh? I guess Mr. Smith will think that it pays to give you such a
_rest_. You haven’t been wasting your money at Long Branch or
Saratoga, I’ll bet.”
Thus ended our summer vacation; and if we did not have enough
adventure to pass for heroes, or bag enough game for sportsmen, or see
enough sights for artists, or recall enough of the past for
antiquarians, or measure miles and heights enough for the
scientific--in short, if we appear as two vulgar and thoroughly
commonplace clerks, smoking and boating through our holiday--take
note, dear reader, that even such as we can take delight in Lake
George; then, go and make the trip after your own fashion, and see if
you can enjoy it more or better.
----------
THE ELEMENTS OF OUR NATIONALITY. 91
The diversity of race to be found in this republic, like its rapid and
stupendous physical and mental development, is unparalleled in
history. Great nations, such as Austria, Prussia, and Russia, it is
true, have been called into existence in times comparatively modern,
but they have been aggregations of smaller kindred states already
established, attracted towards each other by mutual interests and
tastes, or coerced into union by force of arms. With us, growth and
greatness, originating at different times and at places widely
separated, have been the result in the first instance of the
establishment of a wise and comprehensive system of government, the
benefits of which we were willing to share generously with the people
of all nations; and next, to the alacrity and sincerity with which
those people, acting on an impulse common to humanity, have accepted
the advantages thus presented.
Looking back to the history of the migration of mankind from the
cradle of the human race, we find that colonies, afterwards to become
nations and the _nuclei_ of distinct families, thrown off from
the centre, presented each a unity of language and affinity of which
the originators of our country had not the advantage. Even Greece, the
graceful daughter of dusky Egypt, soon ceased to be Hellenic, and
became, notwithstanding her many subdivisions, thoroughly Greek, and
her colonies in Europe and Asia, when they ceased their connection
with the mother country, were quickly absorbed in the surrounding
peoples. The Roman Empire had no nationality, being simply the
creature of force, and no matter how widely its boundaries were
spread, all authority was lodged in Rome, and its subjects outside the
walls of that city were comparatively or positively slaves, without
any voice in the management of their own affairs, or a nationality to
which they could lay claim. As the legions were withdrawn to the
capital, the empire crumbled, and the disintegrated parts gradually
resumed their original character. So with the splendid but short-lived
empire of Charlemagne, The Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other European
and Asiatic conquerors who from time to time overran different parts
of Europe and founded dynasties, were simply waves of conquest
overcoming and enslaving the previous inhabitants, subjecting them to
the yoke of their own crude customs and laws, and building upon the
ruins of one nation the greatness of another.
Far different was the origin of our republic. At the beginning, we had
on our shores voluntary immigrants from the then four great maritime
nations of Europe--Spain, France, Holland, and England. The colonists
of each, from fortuitous circumstances, or led by peculiar
predilections, selected for settlement certain portions of the
continent, established themselves therein, and, while adhering to
their parent country and following its laws, speaking its
language, and practising its religion, early assumed a state of
semi-independence.
These representatives of distinct nationalities, though few in
numbers, grew prosperous each in its own territory, for the reason 92
that there was no idea of nationality, and consequently no unity of
action, among the aborigines in their resistance to the new-comers.
Supported by their home governments respectively, they grew from mere
settlements to be important colonies, at peace with each other as far
as their own individual relation was concerned, but always liable to
be embroiled in the incessant quarrels of their countrymen at home.
The sturdy Hollanders were the first to succumb to what might be
called foreign influence; then the French settlers, deserted by
France, laid down their arms before their English conquerors, who, in
their turn, by the Revolution of ‘76, yielded their dominion to the
Thirteen Colonies, which embraced within their limits much of the
territory and most of the descendants of the original colonists of at
least three of the nationalities which first effected settlements on
the Atlantic coast. From this period we may date the origin of
American nationality. In its infancy, it included nearly four millions
of men of various races, creeds, opinions, and sentiments. For the
first time in history was proclaimed the perfect equality before the
law of all persons of European origin, as has since been extended that
grand principle of human equality to men from every part of the earth.
In forming a code for itself, it rejected what was contrary to this
dogma, and adopted everything that was beneficial in all other forms
of government. From Holland, it took the Declaration of Independence,
that great manifesto of popular rights; from England, the writ of
habeas corpus and trial by jury; from France and Spain, many of those
equitable constructions of the civil law which regulate the rights of
property and the domestic status of individuals. To all these were
added the beneficent constitution under which we have the good
fortune to live, and the many excellent laws, local and national,
which, in conformity with that instrument, have been enacted from time
to time.
But custom is said to be stronger even than law, and hence we can
understand that the vivifying principle of the government itself was
generated from the peculiar circumstances amid which the first
settlers of America and their children found themselves, without local
monarchical traditions, an hereditary aristocracy, or laws of
primogeniture. With, as a general rule, little private fortune or
means of subsistence other than that derived from manual labor and
individual enterprise, the American colonist, no matter of what
nation, was naturally disposed towards popular government, and to
proclaim and admit general equality. It is undoubtedly to the
existence of these robust social and economical habits in the early
settlers--which, finding expression in their new-found political
power, were embodied in the fundamental laws of the new nation by the
fathers of the republic--that we are primarily indebted for the wise
and moderate scheme of government we enjoy, and which it is our duty
to preserve and perpetuate unimpaired to posterity.
It was thus by a combination of circumstances hitherto unknown that
our country became clothed with all the attributes of nationality
peculiar to itself--its subsequent progress, as we may presume its
future greatness, having no parallel in the annals of other lands.
That we are a nation, possessing an appropriate autonomy, capable of
sustaining all the relations of war and peace with other countries,
and exercising supreme authority over all our integral parts and
individual members, no sane man uninfluenced by the quibbles of mere 93
lawyers or unswayed by the political passions of the day, will deny.
Who would so deny, and maintain that this republic is a bundle of
petty sovereignties in which the power of one is coequal to that of
all the others combined, would reject the axiom of Euclid, that the
whole is greater than its part. The true American, then, is he who
keeps this principle of unity always in view. It gives dignity and
strength to his country abroad, and assures peace, concord, and
security at home. While allowing all possible latitude to subordinate
members in the management of their domestic affairs, it reconciles and
harmonizes the conflicting and sometimes antagonistic interests of
different sections, concentrates on works of vast commercial and
national importance the collective powers of all, directs the foreign
policy of the government for the general good, and arrays the power of
the people for the common protection and defence. True, some years
ago, many persons held contrary opinions, and in the attempt to carry
them out unhappily caused one of the most calamitous civil wars of
modern times; but, like the tempest which sweeps over the gigantic
oak, swaying its trunk and loosening the ground around it only that
its roots may strike deeper and firmer into the earth, our country has
passed through the storm unscathed and now rests on a basis firmer
than ever. The past and its errors, however, we can easily forget; the
future is ours; and who shall hold us harmless if we profit not by our
dearly-bought experience and the lessons which every day teaches us?
One, and not the least potent, of the causes which led to that
fratricidal struggle was the advocacy of what was called “manifest
destiny,” which is simply a delusive, dangerous, and, in its
application, very often a dishonest doctrine. It is not unnatural that
in a young and sanguine republic, whose short history is so full of
successes, many ardent propagandists of freedom should be found, who
without calculating consequences would like to extend the benefits of
our political system not only to the utmost confines of this
continent, but over all Christendom; but this feeling, though
creditable, is hardly one to be encouraged. It leads, as we have often
seen, to a national lust for the acquisition of our neighbor’s
territory, to the undue extension of our boundaries, disproportionate
to even our ever-increasing population, and to the weakening of the
bonds that hold together the comparatively settled states of the
Union, by the bodily introduction of foreign elements into our polity
at variance with our real interests. The annexation of Texas and the
acquisition of our Pacific territory, though productive of many
tangible advantages, were undoubtedly some of the remote, but,
nevertheless, very important, influences which, operating on the
public mind, tended to unfix our loyalty to the whole country, and to
induce us to view the recent forcible attempt on its integrity with
feelings somewhat akin to indifference. That enlargement of the
national domain was so sudden and immense that men’s minds, accustomed
to defined limits, failed to realize it. Patriotism is not a mere
sentiment, but a love of something of which we have some accurate
knowledge, whether associated with a particular race, locality, or
historical record, or all together; and hence, when we could not
understand how in one moment what we had thought was our country, the
object of our affection and source of our pride, was extended
thousands of miles and millions of acres, our imaginations could not 94
keep pace with the monstrous growth of the country, and we fell back
on our native or adopted states, and felt prouder of being known as
Virginians or Vermonters than of being United States citizens.
It is not at all improbable that posterity will see the whole of North
America united under one government, but this consummation, so
devoutly to be wished, to be permanent and salutary, must be the
result of time and the observance of the laws of right and justice,
for nations as well as individuals flourish or fade in proportion as
they follow or despise virtue. It must also be when our population is
not forty millions, as it now is, but quadruple that number, and when
our sparsely settled territories are well filled with citizens, their
resources in full process of development, and their varied interests
assimilated with those of other portions of the country. Steam and
electricity may do much to bring about such results, foreign
immigration more, but a proper administration of our own laws, and a
judicious, liberal, and conciliatory policy towards our American
neighbors, most of all.
Happily for us, we are at present on terms of friendship with all
nations, and, remote from Europe and Asia, we are not likely to become
involved in the complications and disputes of the Old World. Still, no
human penetration can foresee how long such a desirable state of
accord will exist. The monarchical states of Europe are not very
sincere friends of republicanism, and, should war occur between us and
them, our greatest difficulty would be to defend our already too
extensive frontiers from their attacks. Why, then, should we increase
our danger by enlarging them? A good general never lengthens his lines
unless he has proportionate reinforcements to maintain them.
As to becoming propagandists of republicanism in Europe, we think the
attempt, in this century at least, would be both injudicious and
useless. The impious atrocities and dark designs of the secret
societies there, who profane the word _liberty_ and blaspheme against
all religion, have put so far back the cause of true freedom in the
old countries that they who sincerely desire a more liberal system of
laws are glad to seek under the shadow of despotism protection and
security even at the sacrifice of their political liberties. If we
truly wish for the spread of free institutions, let us use example
rather than precept, and prove, by the honest administration of our
own concerns, respect for the doctrines of Christianity, and, by
proper regard for the rules laid down by the church, that
republicanism has ceased to be an experiment, and has become a
practical and glorious reality. Such a result would be an argument so
cogent that no sophistry could refute it and no force could combat its
logic. We must remember, also, that the greatest enemies of free
government are not, after all, kings and nobles, but those deluded men
who have banded themselves in every part of Europe, ostensibly as
republicans, but secretly as the destroyers of all law and order.
These men, it is well known, mock the inspired word of God and deny
his very existence, contemn truth, ignore the first principles of
justice, and scoff at the beautiful domestic virtues which bind the
wife in affectionate duty to the husband, and the child in love and
gratitude to the parent. Empires are governed mainly by force,
republics through obedience, and yet those pretended apostles of
freedom acknowledge no law except their own and that of their passions.
Human laws, no matter by whom made, or how just they may be in letter 95
and spirit, are mere pieces of paper or parchment if the people are
not disposed to obey them, and this disposition can only come through
religion. For, as man is constituted, he becomes amenable to the
operation of the divine law of obedience before he comes under the
edicts of human legislation; in other words, he is a Christian or the
reverse before he is a lawyer or responsible to the temporal law. “The
characteristics of a democracy,” says Blackstone, “are public virtue
and goodness as to its intentions;” and Napoleon I., though by no
means as good a Christian as he was a far-seeing statesman, when about
to reduce chaotic France to order and decency, found it necessary
first to restore religion and recall her exiled priesthood.
Unfortunately for us, this spirit of irreligion is not confined to the
other side of the Atlantic. We find it already making its way into
American society, though as yet it assumes more the character of
indifferentism. We call ourselves a Christian people, yet less than
one-half of the entire community ever enter a church for devotional
purposes from one year’s end to another. Recently, too, we notice, in
our larger cities particularly, exhibitions of the same wicked spirit
which animated the Carbonari and Socialists of Europe, and which
reveals itself in many expressions of sympathy for the infamous
Communists of Paris in the columns of some of our newspapers and the
speeches of more than one prominent politician. This insidious danger
to our venerated institutions ought to be closely watched and sternly
repressed. It is opposed alike to private virtue and public morals,
and, if ever allowed a controlling influence in the state, would
sweep away every safeguard that stands between the citizen and the
passions of the mob. No person who values the blessings of domestic
peace or venerates the memories of our ancestors, no true American,
can tolerate for a moment these communistic and socialistic designs
which are creeping in amongst us, utterly foreign as they are to our
soil and the genius of our people and government.
While thus excluding vicious principles from our shores, we ought to,
as we have ever done, continue to welcome the oppressed and
impoverished people of the Old World, and, as far as is consistent
with the public safety, to extend to them every facility to a
participation in the political as well as the material prosperity of
the country. They are our relations. Very few of us, going back two or
three generations, but will find that his ancestors were also
immigrants, like those who to-day seek our protection and hospitality.
Since the formation of our government, eight millions of them have
made their homes in the young republic, helping to develop our
resources, commerce, and manufactures, and always proving faithful to
their obligations of allegiance in peace as well as in war. An
enlightened and tolerant treatment of our immigrants is both
charitable and wise; and the best evidence that we have profited by
our superior political and educational advantages, is our readiness to
make allowance for the intellectual defects and antiquated habits of
those who have left home and country to join their lot with ours. The
exclusion of any class of citizens from a participation in the
benefits of our government, on account of religion or previous
nationality, never has had, and is never likely to have, the
countenance of the people of this country. The spasmodic efforts of
those fanatics, vulgarly but not inappropriately called Know-nothings, 96
which have been made occasionally, were directed against Catholics,
but they never reached the dignity of national movements, and, being
the offspring of disappointed ambition and blind prejudice, withered
before the scorn and contempt of all good men. Politically, there can
be little possible danger arising from the exercise of the elective
franchise by all citizens of foreign birth, even conceding their
inferiority in some respects to the native-born, as the former number
less than one-eighth of our entire population, and these, in the
natural course of events, will disappear from among us, their children
born here growing up thoroughly imbued with the spirit and liberality
of our institutions. Even to-day the immediate descendants of adopted
citizens hold, under both the great parties that divide the country,
many high places of honor and trust, and perform their duties with an
ability and patriotism that reflect credit on the American name. The
nationality that would deal harshly or jealously with friends or
neighbors because they were born in a foreign land, or are poor in the
world’s goods, is not American, and is more fitted for the latitude of
London or Peking than of New York or Washington.
We are well aware that there are many things in the conduct of some of
our adopted citizens that we find difficulty in understanding, and
which require all our good-nature to overlook or palliate. A great
famine, we might say a succession of famines, the misgovernment of
England, and the oppression of the worst class of alien landlords with
which a people ever were afflicted, have driven among us, within a
quarter of a century, over two millions of the inhabitants of Ireland.
Having been denied practically all participation in the government of
their own country, they never have had an opportunity of acquiring
that steady habit of thought and reflection necessary to qualify them
to judge of the relative merits or demerits of the manifold political
measures which the exigencies of a free nation are, from time to time,
presenting for popular endorsement; and having unlimited confidence in
those who profess to be their friends in their new homes, they fall an
easy prey to the demagogue and the political charlatan. The victims of
long, cruel, and unrelenting tyranny, and ardent lovers of their
fatherland, their hatred of England is, if possible, stronger than
their love for Ireland. In fact, those two engrossing passions
sometimes so absorb their minds that prudence, toleration, and even
self-interest are forgotten. This circumstance, while it may be
creditable to themselves, cannot but be regretted by us for many
reasons, but more particularly because it renders their assimilation
with the vast majority of our people more slow and difficult, and
operates against their material advancement, and consequently against
the welfare of their children. In the abstract, we do not blame our
Irish immigrants for this fond devotion to their natal country, nor
for their hatred of her oppressor; on the contrary, we admire it as
long as it works no injustice to them or to the country they have
selected as their future home; but we do most emphatically deprecate
the conduct of those among them who, trading on such natural and
generous feelings for selfish purposes, turn them aside from their
duty as parents and citizens, and, assuming to be their leaders, have
swayed them in the interest of this or that faction, wholly neglecting
at the same time the performance of duties to the execution of which 97
any one might be proud to devote his life.
Let us illustrate what we mean. There are, at least, two and a half
millions of Irish in the United States, the great majority of whom,
for very sufficient, if not obvious, reasons occupy socially and
pecuniarily a very inferior position to that which their natural
abilities would entitle them, yet we see how little effort is being
made by their countrymen, of more education or larger wealth, to
assist them. The Catholic Church has done much, but the church,
necessarily, can only attend to their spiritual wants and to the
education of their children; the temperance and benevolent societies
are good in their way, but their power is limited, and their sphere of
action very restricted; but we look in vain for an organization that
will take by the hand the bewildered and uncertain stranger as he
lands at Castle Garden or in the harbor of Boston, shield him from the
temptations and villany which mark him out as a victim from the moment
his foot touches the firm earth and his battle of life commences, find
him employment in the great centres of trade and commerce, or conduct
him safely to the broad spreading fields of the free and fruitful
West. If he be a farmer or agricultural laborer, as the majority of
Irish immigrants are, what society of his countrymen is prepared to
defray his expenses to the rural districts, where labor is always in
demand, and wages high, or help him to locate on the Western lands,
which can be had almost for the asking, and where he can bring up his
family in comfort and happiness? If half the money and one-quarter the
time and labor which were recently so foolishly expended in futile
efforts to free Ireland and invade the British dependencies had been
used for the benefit of the poorer class of our Irish immigrants, how
many thousands of them might now be enjoying happy homes in our
fertile Western states and territories, instead of infesting the
purlieus of New York, underbidding each other for precarious and
unhealthy employment. How many victims of disappointed hope or
mistaken confidence might have been rescued from the slough of
despondency and degradation into which they have fallen, and placed in
a position of at least comparative independence. The liberation of
Ireland through the instrumentality of her exiled children is an old
and a splendid dream, but it is only a dream so long as the present
relations exist between this country and England. We yield to no one
in appreciation of all that is noble in that pious and gallant nation,
and would, perhaps, sacrifice as much as the most enthusiastic of her
sons to see her not only independent, but in the enjoyment of the
fullest liberty; but no person who has ever casually studied the
relative strength and resources of England and Ireland, and who has
had any practical experience of the enormous expenditure of life and
money so unsuccessfully incurred by the people of the South, even when
military training and available population were so evenly balanced,
can for a moment believe in the success of any attempt of the people
themselves to separate forcibly one from the other.
But whatever the people in Ireland may see fit to do or dare, the
organization of armed men in this country to assist in that purpose is
most reprehensible and fraught with the greatest mischiefs. For any
person within our limits to attempt to levy war on a country at peace
with the United States is clearly illegal. If he be a stranger, it is
a criminal abuse of our hospitality; if a citizen, he disregards his 98
oath of allegiance. Such a movement gives color to the assertions of
the worst enemies of all foreigners, the Know-nothings, who accuse
Irishmen of not becoming citizens in the true spirit of their oath,
but merely pretended ones, whose object is to use this country as
their _point d’appui_ for ulterior objects. Besides, such
societies have a tendency to unsettle the minds of the people, and
divert them from the main objects of their self-expatriation--free
homes and altars. But even if Ireland were to-day independent, not
one-tenth of the Irish in America could or would return. The mass of
them are permanently attached to America by affection, association, or
interest; their children are growing up around them, naturally imbued
with a love for this, the country of their birth; their property and
business are here; some are too old to be retransplanted, and others
young enough to prefer seeking fortunes in our stupendous and but yet
only partially developed commonwealth, to spending a lifetime in the
necessarily limited sphere of enterprise presented by so small a
country as Ireland under the most favorable auspices. True patriotism
should, therefore, dictate to the Irish-American the wisdom of
promoting the welfare of this large majority of his countrymen who,
for good or evil, must pass their lives with us. And what a vast and
enticing field is thus presented to the successful merchant and ardent
Irish nationalist! If they cannot free Ireland, they can by their
money and their intelligence free tens of thousands of their
countrymen from the slavery of poverty and dependence, from the vices
of the cities and the degradation of the factories and the coal-mines.
Such an effort, judiciously made, apart from the benefits it would
confer on so many poor and deserving citizens, and the unanswerable
argument it would present of practical, disinterested sympathy, would,
if the occasion should ever present itself, enable the persons so
benefited to assist in their turn the cause of true Irish nationality.
There is nothing so successful, it is said, as success, and while the
sympathies of most nations, particularly of our own, are easily
enlisted in favor of an oppressed nation like Ireland, there is
generally observable an implied doubt that she is misgoverned because
her people have not the capacity to properly govern themselves. At
home, they certainly have not been allowed to try the experiment, but
here, with free institutions already firmly established, vast mineral,
agricultural, and commercial industries to invite their labor and
excite their ambition, and with an area of unoccupied land almost
beyond conception, a people incapable of profiting by these
advantages, either as individuals or by mutual co-operation, expose
themselves to the suspicion of being deficient in that organizing
faculty and mental grasp which create and sustain independent
governments.
Without intending to draw an invidious distinction between one class
of citizens and another, we may point to the German immigration to
this country as an admirable example of the benefits arising from
organization and mutual support. It is this harmony of purpose that
has given to the Teutonic element, though by no means the strongest in
our population, a preponderating influence in several of the Western
states, and the proprietorship of innumerable farms on both sides of
the Mississippi River. Coming from a self-governing country, and
leaving behind an extensive trading and manufacturing connection,
the German immigrant has of course many advantages over his Irish 99
fellow-voyager, but those who have closely watched the progress of
both races in America assert that it is to the admirable system of
mutual help and protection enjoyed by the former that his great
industrial progress is mainly due.
We are satisfied that there are many wealthy citizens of Irish birth
in this city and elsewhere who would gladly contribute of their
super-abundant means to assist their less fortunate fellow-countrymen,
were any feasible project inaugurated by which they could do so
practically and efficiently, and we trust that there are among us
adopted citizens themselves--persons who, abandoning chimerical
schemes of conquest and invasion, would devote their time and ability
to assist those of their helpless countrymen who have come and are
coming among us. Every intelligent agriculturist that can be planted
on the virgin soil of our now waste public lands, every ingenious
mechanic that is furnished with employment in our workshops, and, we
may say, every stalwart laborer that is removed from the overstocked
labor market of the East and assisted to the towns and smaller cities
of the South and West, adds to the general wealth of the community,
increases the strength and glory of our republic, and conduces to its
growing intelligence and morality.
The pursuit of wealth, however important, is not of course the primary
duty of man, considered either as an individual responsible being or
as a citizen. Religion, in its proper practical sense, is not only the
source of happiness for mankind in this world and the next, but is
absolutely necessary for the preservation of all well-regulated
society, and it is on this account among others that so many admirers
of American institutions have seen with regret that a large portion of
our immigrants from the continental countries of Europe evince a
complete disregard for the plainest forms of Christianity. Now, the
founders of this government were essentially a religious people. The
Catholics of Maryland and the Puritans of New England; the Virginia
Episcopalians and the Pennsylvania Quakers, feared God and revered his
laws, as far at least as they understood them; and the excellent
institutions which those men of diverse opinions, but honest
intentions, originated and transmitted to us, are but the reflex of
that reverential and devotional spirit. We admire the thrift and
enterprise of our German fellow-citizens, we admit their general good
order, taste, and proficiency in art, particularly the beautiful one
of music, and we know how many fine churches and hospitals they have
built and are sustaining, but it cannot be denied that there is a
great deal of indifferentism, and even worse, among the anti-Catholic
portion of them, the outward evidence of which may be found in the
complete disregard that is so generally manifested for the holiness of
the Sunday. We are not of those who would deny to the hard-working and
hard-faring classes their proper share of innocent and healthful
amusement on the only day in the week that they can escape from labor,
but this recreation should be preceded by some act of devotion, some
solemn and open recognition of our dependence on the great Giver of
life and happiness. Still, whoever visits our saloons and pleasure
gardens on a Sunday will find them thronged with persons of all ages
and both sexes from early morning till midnight, while churches that
would gladly receive them are comparatively deserted. Luther’s revolt
against the church has much of this to answer for, but Kant, Fichte, 100
and other so-called philosophers of more modern times have much more;
for while the “Reformers” only unsettled the religious mind of
Germany, and partially succeeded in alienating it from the Catholic
Church, the schoolmen succeeded in making atheism fashionable among
the intelligent classes by covering it with a thin veil of learned
mysticism. This want of proper deference for the day set apart by the
church, and by all Christian sects, for special reverence, and the
observance of which is even enjoined by our common and statute law,
is, we maintain, not only un-American, but is likely to produce a
general contempt for all law, and lead to a weakening of the sense of
that obedience which every individual citizen owes to the public
authority.
In thus alluding to the characteristics of some of our adopted
citizens, we have touched only on those of the two most numerous
representatives of European nationalities, not because there are not
others whose deficiencies, from an American point of view, are not as
apparent, but from the fact that we consider, from their numerical
strength and intrinsic qualities, they are destined to exercise a
marked and extensive influence on the future character of the country.
In feeling or temperament, they are not opposed to us nor to each
other. The vivacity and even excitability of one race find their
complement in the solidity and matter-of-fact disposition of the
other--a union of qualities which, governed and properly managed by
the practical genius of Americans, will in all human probability lead
to results in the distant future of the magnitude of which we scarcely
dare to dream. No people ever possessed the advantages that we, native
and adopted, enjoy. Let us avail ourselves of them in such manner that
posterity may look back to us, as we to the Revolutionary fathers,
with unmingled feelings of gratitude and admiration.
----------
OUR LADY OF LOURDES.
FROM THE FRENCH OF HENRI LASSERRE.
(_Concluded._)
PART X.
II.
Another episode.
There are, in civil life, men whose appearance is precisely that of a
soldier. Though they have never seen service, every one who meets them
and does not know them takes them without hesitation for veterans.
They have the rather stiff carriage, firm step, disciplined
appearance, and concealed good-fellowship belonging to the profession.
They are specially common in the mixed services, such as the customs,
the waters and forests, which, though purely civil in their nature,
borrow their degrees of rank and their methods from the system adopted 101
for the army. On the one hand, these men have, like private citizens,
a family and a domestic life; on the other, they are bound in a
thousand ways by the manifold requirements of an entirely military
rule. To this is due the peculiar appearance of which I speak, and
with which every one is familiar.
If, then, you have ever seen a brave cavalry officer in citizen’s
dress, with his short hair and his bristly moustache beginning to turn
gray; if you have noticed in his energetic features those straight and
vertical lines which are hardly as yet wrinkles, and which seem
peculiar to these military faces; if you have gazed upon that
forehead, rebellious to the hat, and which seems made expressly for
the kepi or tricorne, upon those firm eyes which by day are accustomed
to brave danger, but by night become gentle at the fireside as they
rest upon the children’s heads; if you remember this characteristic
type, I have no need to introduce you to M. Roger Lacassagne, officer
in the custom-house at Bordeaux--you know him as well as I.
When, about two years ago, I had the honor of visiting him at his
house, Rue du Chai des Farines, No. 6, at Bordeaux, I was struck at
first by his severe appearance and his air of reserve.
He asked me, with the somewhat brusque politeness habitual to men of
discipline, what was the object of my visit.
“Monsieur,” said I, “I have heard the story of your journey to the
Grotto of Lourdes, and for the profit of some inquiries I am just now
making, I have come to have it from your own mouth.”
At the words “the Grotto of Lourdes,” this stern countenance became
tender, and a dear remembrance softened its rigid lines.
“Be seated,” said he, “and excuse the disorder of our establishment.
My family leaves to-day for Arcachou, and everything is topsy-turvy.”
“Do not mention it. Tell me all about these interesting events of
which I have already heard, but only confusedly.”
“For my part,” said he in a voice choked by emotion, “I shall never in
my life forget their smallest details.
“Monsieur,” he continued after a moment of silence, “I have only two
sons. The youngest, about whom I am going to tell you, is called
Jules. He will come in before long. You will see how sweet, pure, and
good he is.”
M. Lacassagne did not tell me all his affection for this youngest son.
But the accent of his voice, which became gentle and as it were
caressing in speaking of this child, showed me all the depth of his
paternal love. I understood that in that strong and tender feeling was
concentrated all the force of this manly soul.
“His health,” continued he, “was excellent until the age of ten.
“At that period there came on unexpectedly, and without apparent
physical cause, a disease the importance of which I did not at first
appreciate. On the 25th of January, 1865, when we were sitting down to
supper, Jules complained of a trouble in his throat which prevented
him from swallowing any solid food. He had to limit himself to a
little soup.
“This state of things continuing next day, I called in Dr. Noguès, one
of the most distinguished physicians of Toulouse.
“‘The difficulty comes from the nerves,’ said he--which gave me hopes
of a speedy cure.
“In fact, a few days afterwards, the boy was able to eat, and I
thought all was over, when the trouble returned, and continued with 102
occasional intermissions till the end of April. It then became fixed.
The poor child had to live entirely on liquids; on milk, the juice of
meat, and broth. Even the broth had to be very clear, for such was the
narrowness of the orifice that it was absolutely impossible for him to
swallow anything solid, even tapioca.
“The poor boy, reduced to such miserable diet, was becoming visibly
emaciated, and was dying slowly.
“The physicians, for there were two--as I had from the outset
requested a celebrated practitioner, Dr. Roques, to consult with Dr.
Noguès--the physicians, I say, astonished by the peculiarity and the
persistence of this difficulty, tried vainly to discover its precise
nature, that they might apply a remedy. One day, it was the tenth of
May--for I suffered so much, sir, and thought so much about this
illness that I remembered every date--one day, I saw Jules in the
garden running with unusual haste, and as it were precipitately. Now I
dreaded the least agitation for him.
“‘Stop, Jules!’ cried I, going to him and taking his hand.
“He broke away immediately.
“‘Father, I cannot,’ said he. ‘I must run. It is stronger than I.’
“I took him in my lap, but his legs moved convulsively. Soon after the
movement passed to his head and face.
“The true character of his disease had at last declared itself. My
poor child was attacked by chorea. You are no doubt aware, sir, by
what horrible contortions this disease is usually marked.”
“No,” said I, interrupting him, “I do not even know what it is.”
“It is what is often called _St. Vitus’s dance_.”
“Yes, I have heard of that. Go on.”
“The principal seat of the disease was in the œsophagus. The
convulsions which I had just witnessed, and which were continued at
all hours from that time, put an end to the perplexities of the
physicians.
“But though they now understood the difficulty, they could not
overcome it. After fifteen months of treatment, the most they could do
was control these violent external symptoms; or really, in my own
opinion, these disappeared of themselves by the efforts of nature
alone. But as to the contraction of the throat, it had become chronic
and resisted all appliances. Remedies of every kind, the country, the
baths of Luchon, were successively and uselessly employed for about
two years. All the treatment seemed only to increase the disease.
“Our last trial had been one season at the sea-side. My wife had taken
our poor child to St. Jean-de-Luz. I need hardly say that in the state
in which he was, the care of his body was everything. Our only object
was to keep him alive. We had from the first suspended his studies and
stopped all labor on his part, whether of body or mind; we treated him
like a plant. Now, his mind was naturally active and inquiring, and
this privation of intellectual occupation gave him much _ennui_.
The poor boy was also ashamed of his trouble; he saw other children in
good health, and he felt himself as it were disgraced and under a ban;
so he kept apart.”
The father, deeply moved by these memories, stopped a moment to check
a rising sob, and continued:
“He kept apart. He was sad. When he found some interesting book, he
would read it to distract his mind. At St. Jean-de-Luz, he saw one day
on the table of a lady who lived in the neighborhood a little notice
of the apparition at Lourdes. He read it, and seems to have been very 103
much impressed by it. He said that evening to his mother that the
Blessed Virgin could very easily cure him; but she paid no attention
to his proposal, considering it as only a childish whim.
“On our return to Bordeaux--for a little while before this my station
had been changed, and we had come to live here--on our return to
Bordeaux the child was absolutely in the same condition.
“That was last August.
“So many vain efforts, so much science employed without success by the
best physicians, so much lost trouble, had by this time, as you will
easily imagine, discouraged us most completely. Disheartened by the
failure of all our endeavors, we gave up all kinds of remedies,
letting nature act alone, and resigning ourselves to the inevitable
evil which God was pleased to send us. It seemed to us that so much
suffering had in a certain way redoubled our love for this child. Our
poor Jules was tended by his mother and myself with equal tenderness
and solicitude continually. Grief added many years to our lives. You
would hardly believe it, sir, but I am only forty-six years old.”
I looked at the poor father; and at the sight of his manly face, upon
which grief had left such visible traces, my heart was moved. I took
his hand and pressed it with cordial sympathy and real compassion.
“Meanwhile,” said he, “the strength of the child decreased
perceptibly. For two years he had taken no solid food. It was only at
great expense, by means of a liquid nourishment in preparing which all
our ingenuity had been taxed that it might be substantial, and by most
extraordinary care, that we had been able to prolong his life. He had
become frightfully thin. His pallor was extreme; he had no blood
showing under his skin; you would have said he was a statue of wax. It
was evident that death was coming on apace. It was not only certain,
but imminent. And, though the uselessness of medical science in the
case had certainly been clearly shown, I could not help knocking once
again at its door. I knew of no other in this world.
“I applied to the most eminent physician in Bordeaux, Dr. Gintrac. Dr.
Gintrac examined his throat, sounded it, and found, besides the mere
contraction which had almost entirely closed the alimentary canal,
some most threatening roughnesses or small swellings.
“He shook his head, and gave me little hope. He saw my terrible
anxiety.
“‘I do not say that his cure is impossible,’ said he; ‘_but he is
very ill_.’
“These were his exact words.
“He considered it absolutely necessary to employ local remedies; first
injections, then the application of a cloth soaked in ether. But this
treatment prostrated the child; in view of the result, the surgeon
himself, M. Sentex, employed in the hospital, advised us to
discontinue it.
“In one of my visits to Dr. Gintrac, I communicated to him an idea
which had occurred to me.
“‘It seems to me,’ said I, ‘that if Jules _had the will_, he
could swallow. Does not this difficulty perhaps come from fear? Is it
not perhaps that he does not swallow to-day merely because he did not
yesterday? If so, it is a mental malady, which can only be cured by
moral means.’
“But the doctor dispelled this my last illusion.
“‘You are mistaken,’ said he. ‘The disease is in the organs
themselves, which are only too really and seriously affected. I have 104
not contented myself with looking at them, for the eye may easily be
deceived; but I have sounded them with an instrument, and felt of them
carefully with my fingers. The œsophagus is covered with little
swellings, and the passage has become so small that it is
_materially impossible_ for the boy to take any food whatever,
except liquids, which can accommodate themselves to the size of the
opening, and pass through the pin-hole, as I may call it, which still
remains. If the enlargement of the tissues proceeds a few millimetres
further, the patient cannot live. The beginning of the trouble, the
alternations which characterized it, and its occasional interruptions
also bear out the result of my examination. Your child, having once
recovered, would have continued well if the difficulty had been in his
imagination. Unfortunately, it is organic.’
“These remarks, which had been already made to me at Toulouse, but
which I had gladly forgotten, were too conclusive not to convince me.
I returned home, with death in my soul.
“What could now be done? We had applied to the most distinguished
physicians both of Toulouse and Bordeaux, and all had been unavailing.
The fatal evidence was before my eyes; our poor child was condemned,
and that without appeal.
“But, monsieur, such cruel conclusions cannot easily remain in a
father’s heart. I still tried to deceive myself; my wife and I
continued to consult; I was thinking of hydropathy.
“It was in this desperate state of things that Jules said to his
mother, with an air of confidence and absolute certitude which
strongly impressed her:
“‘Mamma, neither Dr. Gintrac nor any other
doctor can do anything for my trouble. It is the Holy Virgin who will
cure me. Send me to the Grotto of Lourdes, and you will see that I
shall be cured. I am sure of it.’
“My wife reported this proposal to me.
“‘We must not hesitate!’ cried I. ‘He must go to Lourdes. And that as
soon as possible.’
“It was not, sir, that I was full of faith. I did not believe in
miracles, and I hardly considered such extraordinary interventions of
divine power as possible. But I was a father, and any chance, no
matter how insignificant, seemed to me not to be slighted. Besides, I
hoped that, without any supernatural occurrence, the possibility of
which I did not wish to admit, this journey might have a salutary
moral effect on the child. As for a complete cure, I did not entertain
the slightest idea of such a thing.
“It was in winter, at the beginning of February; the weather was bad,
and I wished to wait for a fine day, on Jules’s account.
“Since he had read the little notice, eight months before, at St.
Jean-de-Luz, the idea which he had just expressed to us had never left
him. Having expressed it once without any attention being paid to it,
he had not introduced the subject again; but the thought had remained
in him, and worked there while he was undergoing all the medical
treatment with a patience that had to be seen to be appreciated.
“This faith, so full and complete, was the more extraordinary because
we had not brought up the child to any unusual practices of piety. My
wife attended to her religious duties, but that was all; and, as for
myself, I had, as you have just heard, philosophic ideas tending 105
quite the other way.
“On the 12th of February, the weather promised to be magnificent. We
took the train for Tarbes.
“During the whole journey, Jules was gay, and full of the most
positive faith that he would be cured; his faith was overpowering.
“As for myself, I encouraged, but did not share, this confidence; it
was so great that I should call it exaggerated, did I not fear to be
wanting in respect for the God who inspired it.
“At Tarbes, at the Hôtel Dupont, where we put up, every one noticed
the poor child, so pale and wasted, and yet with such a sweet and
attractive expression. I mentioned at the hotel the object of our
journey, and in the good wishes and prayers which these good people
made for us there seemed to be a presentiment of success. And when we
set out, I saw plainly that they would await our return with
impatience.
“Notwithstanding my doubts, I took with me a small box of biscuits.
“When we arrived at the crypt above the Grotto, Mass was being said.
Jules prayed with a faith which shone out in all his features, with a
truly celestial ardor.
“The priest noticed his fervor, and when he had left the altar, he
came out of the sacristy almost immediately, and approached us. A good
idea had occurred to him on seeing the poor little one. He proposed it
to me, and, turning to Jules, who was still on his knees, said:
“‘My child, would you like to have me consecrate you to the Blessed
Virgin?’
“‘Indeed I would,’ answered he.
“The priest immediately proceeded with the very simple ceremony, and
recited over my child the sacred formulas.
“‘Now,’ said Jules, in a tone which impressed me by its perfect
confidence, ‘I am going to be cured.’
“We went to the Grotto. Jules knelt before the statue and prayed. I
looked at him, and can still see the expression of his face, his
attitude, and his joined hands.
“He rose, and we went to the fountain.
“It was a terrible moment.
“He bathed his neck and chest. Then he took the glass and drank
several mouthfuls of the miraculous water.
“He was calm and happy, gay in fact, and radiant with confidence.
“For my part, I trembled and almost fainted at this last trial. But I
restrained my emotion, though with difficulty. I did not want to let
him see my doubt.
“‘Try now to eat,’ said I, handing him a biscuit.
“He took it, and I turned away my head, not feeling able to look at
him. It was, in fact, the question of the life or death of my child
which was to be decided. In putting this question, such a fearful one
for a father’s heart, I was playing, as it were, my last card. If I
failed, my dear boy would have to die. This test was a decisive one,
and I could not see it tried.
“But I was soon relieved of my agony.
“Jules’s voice, joyous and sweet, called me:
“‘Papa! I have swallowed it. I can eat, I knew I could--I had faith!’
“What a surprise it was! My child, who had been at death’s door, was
saved, and that instantly. And I, his father, was a witness to this
astonishing resurrection.
“But, that I might not disturb the faith of my son, I checked any
appearance of astonishment.
“‘Yes, Jules, it was certain, and could not have been otherwise,’ said 106
I, in a voice which I made calm by great effort.
“There was in my breast, however, a whirlwind of excitement. If it
could have been opened, it would have been found burning as if full of
fire.
“We repeated our experiment. He ate some more biscuits, not only
without difficulty, but with an increasing appetite. I was obliged to
restrain him.
“But I could not refrain from proclaiming my happiness, and thanking
God.
“‘Wait for me,’ said I to Jules, ‘and pray to the Blessed Virgin. I am
going to the chapel.’
“And leaving him for a moment kneeling at the Grotto, I ran to tell
the priest the wonderful news. I was quite bewildered. Besides my
happiness, so unexpected and sudden that it was terrible, besides the
confusion of my heart, I felt in my soul and mind an inexpressible
disturbance. A revolution was going on in my agitated and tumultuous
thoughts. All my ‘philosophical’ ideas were tottering and crumbling
away.
“The priest came down immediately and saw Jules finishing his last
biscuit. The Bishop of Tarbes happened to be that day at the chapel,
and he wished to see my son. I told him of the cruel illness which had
just had such a happy end. Every one caressed the child, and rejoiced
with him.
“But I meanwhile was thinking of his mother, and of the joy in store
for her. Before going to the hotel, I ran to the telegraph office. My
despatch contained only one word: ‘Cured!’
“Hardly had it gone before I wanted to recall it.
“‘Perhaps,’ said I, ‘I have been too hasty. Who knows if he will not
have a relapse?’
“I did not dare to believe in the blessing I had received; and when I
did believe in it, it seemed that it was going to escape from me.
“As for the child, he was happy without the least mixture of
disquietude. He was exuberant in his joy and perfect security.
“‘You see now, papa,’ said he to me every moment, ‘it was only the
Blessed Virgin who could cure me. When I told you so before, I was
sure of it.’
“At the hotel, he ate with an excellent appetite; and how I enjoyed
watching him!
“He wanted to return on foot to the Grotto to give thanks for his
deliverance, and actually did so.
“‘You will be very grateful to the Holy Virgin, will you not?’ said a
priest to him.
“‘Ah! I shall never forget,’ said he.
“At Tarbes, we stopped at the hotel where we had put up the day
before. They were on the lookout for us. They seem to have had (as I
think I told you) a feeling that we would be successful. There was a
great rejoicing. People gathered around us to see him eat with a
relish everything that was served upon the table; to see him eat
heartily who the day before could only swallow a few spoonfuls of
liquid. That time seemed to me long gone by.
“This illness, against which the science of the most able physicians
had failed, and which had just been so miraculously cured, had lasted
two years and nineteen days.
“We were in haste to return to his mother, and took the express train
for Bordeaux. The child was overcome with fatigue by the journey, and
I should also say by his emotions, were it not for his peaceable and 107
constant calmness in spite of his sudden cure, which overwhelmed him
with joy, but did not astonish him. He wanted to go to bed on reaching
home. He was extremely sleepy, and took no supper. His mother, who had
nearly died of joy before our return, when she saw him so exhausted
and refusing to eat, was seized by a horrible doubt. She told me that
I had deceived her, and I had the greatest difficulty in making myself
believed. But how she rejoiced when, the next morning, Jules sat down
at our table, and breakfasted with a better appetite than ourselves.
It was not till then that she became reassured.”
“And since then,” I asked him, “has there been no relapse?”
“No, sir, absolutely none. I may say that the cure progressed, or
rather consolidated itself, considering that it had been as complete
as it was instantaneous. The transition from a disease so fixed and
obstinate to a perfect cure was made without the least gradation,
though it was without apparent disturbance. But his general health
improved visibly, under the influence of a restorative regimen, the
salutary effects of which it was full time for him to experience.”
“And the physicians? Have they testified to Jules’s previous
condition? Certainly they should have done so.”
“I thought so too, sir, and mentioned the subject to the Bordeaux
doctor who had been the last to attend my child; but he maintained a
reserve which prevented me from insisting. As for Dr. Roques of
Toulouse, to whom I wrote immediately, he hastened to recognize in the
clearest terms the miraculous nature of the fact which had occurred,
and which was entirely beyond the powers of medicine. ‘In view of
this cure, so long desired and so promptly effected,’ he said to me,
‘why not quit the narrow sphere of scientific explanations, and open
one’s mind to gratitude for so strange an event, in which Providence
seems to obey the voice of a child?’ He rejected most decidedly, as a
physician, the theories which are always produced on such occasions of
‘moral excitement,’ ‘the effect of the imagination,’ etc., and
confessed frankly in this event the clear and positive action of a
superior Being revealing himself and imposing himself on the
conscience. Such, sir, was the opinion of M. Roques, physician of
Toulouse, who knew as well as myself the previous condition and the
illness of my son. There is his own letter, dated February 24.
“But the facts which I have just related are also so well known that
no one would care to contest them. It is superabundantly proved that
science was absolutely powerless against the strange disease by which
Jules had been attacked. As for the cause of his cure, every one can
place it differently, according to the point of view which he chooses
to assume. I, who had previously believed only in purely natural
phenomena, saw clearly that its explanation must be sought in a higher
order of things; and every day I gave thanks to God, who, putting an
end to my long and cruel trial in such an unexpected way, had
approached me in the way most adapted to make me bow before him.”
“I understand you, and it seems also to me that such was the divine
plan.”
After these words, I remained some time silent and absorbed in my
reflections.
The conversation returned to the boy so wonderfully cured. The father’s
heart came back to him, as the needle does to the pole. 108
“Since that time,” said he, “his piety is angelic. You will see him
soon. The nobleness of his feelings is visible in his face. He is
well-born, his character is honest and dignified. He is incapable of
lies or meanness. And his piety has not been at the expense of his
natural qualities. He is studying in a school close by, kept by M.
Conangle, in the Rue du Mirail. The poor child has quickly made up for
his lost time. He loves his studies. He is the first in his class. At
the last examination, he took the highest prize. But, above all, he is
the best and most amiable. He is the favorite of his teachers and
schoolmates. He is our joy, our consolation, and--”
At this moment the door opened, and Jules came with his mother into
the room where we were sitting. I embraced him affectionately. The
glow of health was on his face. His forehead is large, high, and
magnificent; his attitude has a modesty and gentle firmness which
inspires a secret respect. His eyes, large and bright, show a rare
intelligence, and absolute purity and a beautiful soul.
“You are happy to have such a son,” said I to M. Lacassagne.
“Yes, sir, I am happy. But my poor wife and I have suffered a great
deal.”
“Do not be sorry for that,” said I, going a little away from Jules.
“This path of grief was the way which led you from darkness to light,
from death to life, from yourself to God. The Blessed Virgin has shown
herself twice in this event as the mother of life. She has given your
son his temporal life in order to give you the true life which knows
no end.”
I left this family, so greatly blessed by our Lord, and, still under
the impression of what I had heard and seen, I wrote, with my heart
full of the feelings produced, what you have just read.
PART XI.
I.
Let us return to Lourdes. Time had passed, and human industry had been
at work. The surroundings of the Grotto, where the Blessed Virgin had
appeared, had changed their former aspect. Without losing anything of
its grandeur, this savage spot had put on a pleasing aspect. Yet
unfinished, but fairly alive with workmen, a superb church, proudly
crowning the Massabielle rocks, was rising joyously to heaven. The
lofty heights, so abrupt and uncultivated, where formerly the feet of
the mountaineers could scarcely descend, were covered with a
greensward and planted with shrubs and flowers. Among dahlias and
roses, daisies and violets, beneath the shade of acacias and
cytisuses, a path, broad as the highway, wound in sinuous curves from
the church to the Grotto.
The Grotto was enclosed like a chancel by an iron railing. From the
roof a golden lamp had been suspended. On the rocks, which had been
pressed by Mary’s sacred feet, clusters of tapers burned day and
night. Outside the enclosure the miraculous spring fed three bronze
lavers. A canal, screened from sight by a little building, afforded a
chance for those invalids who wished to be bathed in this blessed
water. The mill-race of Savy had changed its bed, having been led into
the Gave, further up. The Gave itself had withdrawn somewhat, to give
room for a fine road which leads to the Massabielle Rocks. Below, on
the banks of the river, the ground had been levelled, and formed
an extensive lawn and walk, shaded by elms and poplars. 109
All these changes had been accomplished and were still going on amid
the incessant concourse of the faithful. The copper coin, thrown by
popular faith into the grotto--the _ex-votos_ of so many invalids
who had been cured, of so many hearts who had been consoled, of so
many souls reawakened to truth and life, alone defrayed the cost of
these gigantic labors, which approaches the sum of two million francs.
When God, in his bounty, vouchsafes to call men to co-operate in any
of his works, he does not employ soldiers, or tax-gatherers, or
constables to collect the impost--he accepts from his creatures only a
voluntary assistance. The Master of the universe repudiates
constraint, for he is the God of free souls; he does not consent to
receive anything which is not spontaneous and offered with a cheerful
heart.
Thus the church was gradually rising, thus the river and the
millstream gave way, hillsides were levelled, trees were planted, and
pathways traced around the now famous rocks where the Mother of Christ
had manifested her glory to the eyes of mortals.
II.
Encouraging the laborers, superintending everything, suggesting ideas,
sometimes putting his own hands to the work to set a misplaced stone
or straighten a badly-planted tree, recalling, by his ardor and holy
enthusiasm, the grand figures of Esdras and Nehemiah, occupied, by
God’s order, with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, a tall
man, of marked features, seemed to make himself everywhere present.
His powerful stature and black cassock rendered him conspicuous to
all eyes. His name will be speedily guessed. It was the chief pastor
of the town of Lourdes, the Abbé Peyramale.
Every hour of the day he thought of the message which the Blessed
Virgin had addressed to him; every hour he thought of the miraculous
cures which had followed the apparition; he was a daily witness of
countless miracles. He had devoted his life to execute the orders of
his powerful Queen, and raise to her glory a splendid monument. All
idleness, all delay, every moment wasted, seemed to his eyes a token
of ingratitude, and his heart, devoured by zeal for the house of God,
often broke forth in warnings and admonitions. His faith was perfect,
and full of confidence. He had a horror of the wretched narrowness of
human prudence, and scouted it with the disdain of one who looks upon
all things from that holy mount whereon the Son of God preached the
nothingness of earth and the reality of heaven, when he said: “Be not
solicitous ... seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things
shall be added unto you.”
One day, while standing before the miraculous fountain amid a group of
ecclesiastics and laymen, the architect offered him a plan for a
pretty chapel which he proposed to build above the Grotto. The curé
looked at it, and a flush rose to his cheek. With a gesture of
impatience he tore the drawing into bits, and tossed it into the Gave.
“What are you doing?” cried the astonished architect.
“Look you,” answered the priest, “I am ashamed of what human meanness
would offer to the Mother of my God, and I have treated the wretched
plan as it deserved. We do not want a country chapel to commemorate 110
the great events which have taken place here. Go, give us a temple of
marble as large and as high as these rocks can sustain--as magnificent
as your soul can conceive! Go, and do not check your genius till you
have given us a _chef-d’œuvre_; and understand that, if you were
Michael Angelo himself, it would all be unworthy of her who has
appeared in this spot.”
“But, _monsieur le curé_,” observed everybody, “it will cost
millions to carry out your ideas!”
“She who has made this barren rock send forth its living stream--she
will know how to make faithful hearts generous,” answered the priest.
“Go, do what I tell you. Why are you afraid, O ye of little faith?”
The temple rose in the proportions designed by the man of God.
The good pastor, as he watched the progress of the various works,
often used to say:
“When will it be granted me to assist, with my priests and people, at
the first procession which goes to inaugurate in these hallowed
precincts the public worship of the Catholic Church? It seems to me
that then I could sing my _Nunc dimittis_, and die of joy.” His eyes
filled with tears at the thought. Never was there a deeper or warmer
desire than this innocent wish of a heart given wholly to God.
Sometimes, at hours when the crowd was thin at the Massabielle Rocks,
a little girl used to come and kneel before the place of the
apparition, and drink of the miraculous spring. She was a poor child,
and meanly clad--nothing marked out from the common people about. And
if the pilgrims were all strangers to the place, no one suspected that
it was Bernadette. This privileged soul had withdrawn into silence and
concealment. She went daily to the sisters’ school, where she was
the simplest, and strove to be the most unnoticed. The numerous
visitors whom she was called upon to receive never disturbed her peace
of mind, which ever retained the memory of its glimpse at heaven and
the incomparable Virgin. Bernadette kept all these things in her
heart. People came from all quarters, miracles were being worked, the
temple was rising. Bernadette and the holy pastor of Lourdes awaited,
as their crowning joy, the day which was to bring to their eyes the
sight of priests of the true God leading their people, with cross
advanced and flying banners, to the spot of the apparitions.
III.
In spite of the bishop’s decree, the church in fact had not yet taken
possession, by any public ceremony, of this spot, consecrated for
ever. It was not till the 4th of April, 1864, that this was done, by
the inauguration and blessing of the superb statue of the Blessed
Virgin, which was placed with all the pomp customary on such occasions
in the rustic niche, bordered with wild flowers, where the Mother of
God had appeared to the child of man.[39]
The weather was magnificent. The young spring sun had risen, and
advanced in a blue and cloudless sky.
The streets of Lourdes were adorned with flowers, banners, garlands,
and triumphal arches. The bells of the parish church, the chapels, and
the churches of the neighborhood, rang out joyous peals. Immense 111
numbers of people flocked together to this great festival of earth and
heaven. A procession, such as had never been seen by the oldest
inhabitant, moved from the church of Lourdes to the Grotto. Troops, in
all the splendor of military attire, led the way. Following them were
the confraternities of Lourdes, the societies for mutual aid, and
other associations, with their banners and crosses; the Congregation
of the Children of Mary, whose long robes were white as snow; the
Sisters of Nevers, with their long black veil; the Daughters of
Charity, with their great white hoods; the Sisters of St. Joseph, in
dark mantles; the religious orders of men, the Carmelites, the
Brothers of Instruction and of the Christian schools, and prodigious
numbers of pilgrims, men and women, young and old--fifty or sixty
thousand persons in all--wound along the flowery road leading to the
Massabielle rocks. Here and there, choirs and instrumental bands gave
a voice to the popular enthusiasm. Last, surrounded by four hundred
priests in choir dress, his vicars-general, and the dignitaries of his
cathedral chapter, came his lordship, Mgr. Bertrand-Sévère Laurence,
Bishop of Tarbes, in his mitre and pontifical robes, with one hand
blessing the people, and bearing his crosier in the other.
An indescribable emotion, an exaltation of feeling, such as only
Christian people assembled before God can know, filled every heart.
The day of solemn triumph had at last come, after so many
difficulties, struggles, and disasters. Tears of joy, enthusiasm, and
love ran down the cheeks of the people, moved by an impulse from God.
What indescribable joy must have filled the heart of Bernadette on
this day, as she led the Congregation of the Children of Mary! What
overwhelming happiness must have inundated the soul of the venerable
curé of Lourdes, who was no doubt at the side of the bishop, singing
the hosanna of the victory of God! Having both had to labor, the time
was certainly come for them to enter into their reward.
Alas! one would have sought in vain among the Children of Mary for
Bernadette: among the clergy surrounding the bishop, the Abbé
Peyramale would not have been found. There are joys too sweet for
earth, which are reserved for heaven. Here below, God refuses them to
his dearest children.
At this time of rejoicing, when the bright sun was shining on the
triumph of the faithful, the curé of Lourdes, laboring under a disease
which was expected to result fatally, was a victim to intense physical
sufferings. He was stretched on his bed of pain, at the head of which
two religious watched and prayed night and day. He wished to rise to
see the grand cortége pass, but his strength failed him, and he had
not even a momentary glimpse of its splendor. Through the closed
shutters of his room, the joyous sound of the silvery bells came to
him only as a funeral knell.
As for Bernadette, God showed her his predilection, as usual with his
elect, by giving her the bitter trial of pain. While Mgr. Laurence was
going, accompanied by countless numbers of his flock, to take
possession of the Massabielle rocks in the name of the church, and to
inaugurate solemnly the devotion to the Virgin who had appeared there,
Bernadette, like the eminent priest of whom we have just spoken, was
prostrated by illness; Providence, perhaps, fearing for this
well-beloved child a temptation to vainglory, deprived her of the 112
sight of this unprecedented festivity, where she would have heard her
name on the lips of thousands, and extolled from the pulpit by the
voice of enthusiastic preachers. Too poor to be taken care of in her
own home, where neither she nor her family would ever receive any
gift, Bernadette had been carried to the hospital, where she lay upon
the humble bed provided by public charity, in the midst of those poor
whom the world calls unfortunate, but whom Jesus Christ has blessed in
declaring them the possessors of his eternal kingdom.
IV.
Eleven years have now elapsed since the apparitions of the most Holy
Virgin. The great church is almost finished; it has only to be roofed,
and the holy sacrifice has long since been celebrated at all the
altars of the crypt below. Diocesan missionaries of the house of
Garaison have been stationed by the bishop near the grotto and the
church, to distribute to the pilgrims the apostolic word, the
sacraments, and the body of our Lord.
The pilgrimage has taken dimensions perhaps quite without precedent,
for before our day these vast movements of popular faith did not have
the assistance of the means of transportation invented by modern
science. The course of the Pyrenees Railroad, for which a straighter
and cheaper route had been previously marked out between Tarbes and
Pau, was changed so as to pass through Lourdes, and innumerable
travellers continually come from every quarter to invoke the Virgin
who has appeared at the Grotto, and to seek at the miraculous fountain
the healing of all their ills. They come not only from the different
provinces of France, but also from England, Belgium, Spain, Russia,
and Germany. Even from the midst of far America, pious Christians have
set out, and crossed the ocean to come to the Grotto of Lourdes, to
kneel before these sacred rocks, which the Mother of God has
sanctified by her touch. And often those who cannot come write to the
missionaries, and beg that a little of the miraculous water may be
sent to their homes. It is thus distributed throughout the world.
Although Lourdes is a small town, there is a continual passing to and
fro upon the road to the grotto, a stream of men, women, priests, and
carriages, as in the streets of a large city.
When the pleasant weather comes, and the sun, overcoming the cold of
winter, opens in the midst of flowers the gates of spring, the
faithful of the neighborhood begin to bestir themselves for the
pilgrimage to Massabielle, no longer one by one, but in large parties.
From ten, twelve, or fifteen leagues’ distance, these strong
mountaineers come on foot in bodies of one or two thousand. They set
out in the evening and walk all night by starlight, like the shepherds
of Judea, when they went to the crib of Bethlehem to adore the
new-born infant God. They descend from high peaks, they traverse deep
valleys, they cross foaming torrents, or follow their course, singing
the praises of God. And on their way the sleeping herds of cattle or
of sheep awake, and diffuse through these desert wilds the melancholy
sound of their sonorous bells. At daybreak, they arrive at Lourdes;
they spread their banners, and form in procession to go to the Grotto.
The men, with their blue caps and great shoes covered with dust from
their long night march, rest upon a knotty stick, and usually carry
upon their shoulders the provisions for their journey. The women wear 113
a white or red capulet. Some carry the precious burden of a child. And
they move on slowly, quiet and recollected, singing the litanies of
the Blessed Virgin.
At Massabielle they hear Mass, kneel at the holy table, and drink at
the miraculous spring. Then they distribute themselves, in groups
according to family or friendship, upon the grass around the Grotto,
and spreading out on the sod the provisions they have brought, they
sit down upon the green carpet of the fields. And, on the bank of the
Gave, in the shade of those hallowed rocks, they realize in their
frugal repast those fraternal agapes of which tradition tells us.
Then, having received a last blessing and said a parting prayer, they
set out with joyful hearts upon their homeward way.
Thus do the people of the Pyrenees visit the Grotto. But the greatest
numbers are not from there. From sixty or eighty leagues’ distance
come continually immense processions, brought from these great
distances upon the rapid wings of steam. They come from Bayonne, from
Peyrehorade, from La Teste, from Arcachon, from Bordeaux, and even
from Paris. At the request of the faithful, the Southern Railroad has
established special trains, trains of pilgrimage, intended exclusively
for this great and pious movement of Catholic faith. At the arrival of
these trains, the bells of Lourdes ring out their fullest peals. And
from these sombre carriages the pilgrims come out and form in
procession in the square by the station; young girls dressed in white,
married women, widows, children, full-grown men, the old people, and
the clergy in their sacred robes. Their banners are flung to the
breeze; the crucifix and the statues of the Blessed Virgin and the
saints are displayed. The praises of the Mother of God are upon every
lip. The innumerable procession passes through the town--which seems,
on such occasions, like a holy city, like Rome or Jerusalem. One’s
heart is elated at the sight; it rises toward God, and attains without
effort that elevation of feeling in which the eyes fill with tears and
the soul is overwhelmed by the sensible presence of our Lord. One
seems to enjoy for a moment a vision of paradise.
The hand of the Almighty does not weary in shedding all kinds of
graces at the spot where his Mother has appeared. Miracles are still
frequent. Not long ago Fr. Hermann recovered his sight there.
V.
God has accomplished his work.
He says to the flake of snow, resting hidden upon the lonely peak,
“Thou must come from Me to Me. Thou must pass from the inaccessible
heights of the mountain to the unfathomable caves of the deep.” And he
sends his servant the sun with its brilliant rays to collect and draw
along this shining dust, changing it first into limpid pearls. The
drops of water run through the snow, they roll down the side of the
mountain, they leap over the rocks, they break upon the pebbles, they
reunite, they collect in a mass, and run together, now gently, now
rapidly, toward the wonderful ocean, that striking image of eternal
movement in eternal rest--and thus they reach the valleys where the
race of Adam dwells.
“We will stop these drops of water,” says this race of man, as proud
now as in the days of Babel.
And they undertake to dam up this weak and quiet stream as it gently
crosses their fields. But the stream laughs at their dikes of wood, 114
earth, and pebbles.
“We will stop these drops of water,” the fools repeat in their
delirium.
And they heap up enormous rocks; they join them together with
impenetrable cement. And notwithstanding, the water does leak through
in a thousand places. But the men are numerous--they have a force
greater than the armies of Darius. They stop up the thousand fissures,
they fill up the cracks, they replace the fallen stones; and at last a
time comes when the stream cannot pass by. It has before it a barrier
higher than the pyramids, and thicker than the famous walls of
Babylon. Beyond this gigantic obstacle, the pebbles of its dry bed are
shining in the sun.
Human pride shouts its pæan of triumph.
Meanwhile the water continues to descend from those eternal heights
where it has heard the voice of God; and millions of drops, coming one
by one, stop before the barrier and rise silently against this granite
wall which millions of men have built.
“Look,” say the men, “at the immense power of our race. See this
enormous wall. Raise your eyes to its summit; admire its astonishing
height. We have for ever conquered this stream which comes from the
mountains.”
At this moment, a thin sheet of water passes over the cyclopean
barrier. They run up; but the sheet has thickened--it is a river which
is now falling, scattering on all sides the upper rocks of the wall.
“What is the matter?” they cry on all sides in the doomed city.
It is the drop of water to which God has spoken, and which proceeds
invincibly on its way.
What has your Babel-like wall accomplished? What have you done with
your herculean efforts? You have changed a quiet stream into a
formidable cataract. You tried to stop the drop of water; but it now
resumes its course with the violence of Niagara.
How humble was this drop of water, this word of a child to which God
had said, “Pursue thy course!” How insignificant was this drop of
water--this shepherdess burning a candle at the Grotto--this poor
woman praying and offering a bouquet to the Blessed Virgin--this old
peasant on his knees! And how strong, how apparent, impassable, and
invincible was this enormous wall, upon which all the force of a great
nation, from the policeman and the gendarme to the prefect and the
minister, had labored for eight months!
But the child, the poor woman, the old peasant, have resumed their
course. Only now it is not a stray candle or a poor bouquet that
testifies to the popular faith; it is a magnificent monument which the
faithful are erecting; they are spending millions upon this temple,
already celebrated throughout Christendom. Their opposers thought to
put down some scattered believers; but now they come in crowds, in
immense processions, displaying their banners and singing their hymns.
There is a pilgrimage without precedent; whole peoples now come, borne
upon their iron roads by chariots of fire and steam. It is not now a
little neighborhood which believes--it is Europe; it is the Christian
world which is coming from all directions. The drop of water which men
tried to stop has become a Niagara.
God has finished his work. And now, as on the seventh day, when he
entered into his rest, he has resigned to men the duty of profiting
by this work, and the formidable responsibility of developing or 115
compromising it. He has given them a germ of abundant grace, as of
other things; the burden remains on them of cultivating and maturing
it. They can multiply it a hundredfold by walking humbly and holily in
the order of his providence; they can make it unfruitful by refusing
to enter into this order. Every good thing from on high is entrusted
to human liberty, as the terrestrial paradise was at the outset, on
the condition of laboring for and keeping it--“_ut operaretur et
custodiret illum_.” Let us beseech God that men may not reject what
he has done for them, and that they may not by earthly ideas or
irreligious acts break in their guilty or awkward hands the sacred
vessel of divine grace which they have received in trust.
VI.
Most of the persons mentioned in the course of this long history are
still alive. The prefect, Baron Massy, Judge Duprat, Mayor Lacadé, and
Minister Fould are dead.
Some of them have made several steps in advance on the road to
fortune. M. Rouland has left the Ministry of Public Worship (for which
he does not seem to have been well fitted), to take care of the Bank
of France. M. Dutour, the procureur-imperial, has become counsellor of
the court; M. Jacomet is the chief commissary of police in one of the
largest cities of the empire.
Bourriette, Croisine Bouhohorts and her son, Mme. Rizan, Henri
Busquet, Mlle. Moreau de Sazenay, the widow Crozat, Jules Lacassagne,
and all those whose cures we have recorded, are still full of life,
and testify by their recovered health and strength to the powerful
mercy of the apparition at the Grotto.
Dr. Dozous continues to be the most eminent physician of Lourdes. Dr.
Vergez is at the spring of Barèges and attests to the visitors at this
celebrated resort the miracles which he formerly witnessed. M.
Estrade, whose impartial observations we have several times given, is
receiver of indirect contributions at Bordeaux. He lives at No. 14 Rue
Ducau.
Now, as formerly, Mgr. Laurence is Bishop of Tarbes. Age has not
diminished his faculties. He is to-day what we have represented him in
this work. He has near the Grotto a house to which he sometimes
retires, to meditate in this spot, beloved by the Virgin, on the great
duties and the grave responsibilities of a Christian bishop who has
received so wonderful a grace in his diocese.[40]
The Abbé Peyramale recovered from the severe illness of which we spoke
above. He is still the venerated pastor of this Christian town of
Lourdes, where his record is left in ineffaceable characters. Long
after he is gone, when he rests under the sod in the midst of the
generation which he has formed to the Lord; when the successors of his
successors live in his house and occupy the great wooden chair in his
church, his memory will be living in the minds of all; and when the
“Curé of Lourdes” is mentioned, every one will think of him.
Louise Soubirous, the mother of Bernadette, died on the 8th of
December, 1866, the very day of the feast of the Immaculate
Conception. In choosing this festival to take the mother from the
miseries of the world, she who had said to the child, “I am the
Immaculate Conception,” seems to have intended to temper the 116
bitterness of the loss to the heart of her survivors, and to show them
as a Certain pledge of hope and of a happy resurrection the sign of
her radiant appearance.
While thousands go to the Grotto to contribute to the splendid church,
Bernadette’s father has remained a poor miller, subsisting with
difficulty by manual labor. Mary, the daughter, who was with
Bernadette at the time of the first apparition, has married a good
peasant, who has become a miller and works with his father-in-law. The
other companion, Jane Abbadie, is a servant at Bordeaux.
VII.
Bernadette is no longer at Lourdes. We have seen how she had, on many
occasions, refused gifts freely offered, and repelled the good fortune
which was knocking at the door of her humble cottage. She was dreaming
of other riches. “We shall know some fine day,” the unbelievers had
said at the outset, “what her pay is going to be.” Bernadette had in
fact chosen her pay, and put her hand on her reward. She has become a
Sister of Charity. She has devoted herself to tend in the hospitals
the poor and the sick collected by public benevolence.
After having seen with her own eyes the resplendent face of the thrice
holy Mother of God, what could she do but become the compassionate
servant of those of whom the Virgin’s Son has said: “As long as you
did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.”
It is among the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction at Nevers
that Bernadette has taken the veil. She is called Sister
Marie-Bernard. We have lately seen her in her religious habit at the
mother-house of this congregation. Though she is now twenty-five,
her face has kept the character and the charm of childhood. In her
presence, the heart feels moved in its better part by an indescribable
religious sentiment, and one leaves it embalmed in the perfume of this
peaceful innocence. One understands that the Holy Virgin has specially
loved her. Otherwise, there is nothing extraordinary, nothing which
would make her conspicuous, or would make one suspect the important
part she has filled in this communication from heaven to earth. Her
simplicity has not been touched by the unexampled interest which has
been taken in her. The concourse and enthusiasm of the multitude have
no more troubled her soul than the turbid water of a torrent would
tarnish the imperishable purity of a diamond.
God visits her still, not now by bright visions, but by the sacred
trial of suffering. She is often ill, and suffers cruelly; but she
bears her pains with a sweet and almost playful patience. Sometimes
they have thought her dead. “I shall not die just yet,” she would say,
smiling.
She never speaks, unless questioned, of the favors which she has
received.
She was the Blessed Virgin’s messenger. Now that she has given her
message, she has retired into the shade of religious life, wishing to
be unnoticed among a number of companions.
It is a trouble to her when the world comes to seek her in the depth
of her retreat, and when some circumstance obliges her to appear
before it again. She fears the glory of this life. She lives in the
humility of the Lord, and is dead to the vanities of the earth. And
this book which we have written, and which speaks so much of
Bernadette, Sister Marie-Bernard will never read.
[39] This statue, made of fine Carrara marble, of
life-size, was presented to the Grotto of Lourdes by two
noble and pious sisters of the diocese of Lyons, Mesdames de
Lacour. It was executed according to Bernadette’s particular
instructions, by M. Fabish, the eminent Lyonnese sculptor.
The Blessed Virgin is represented as Bernadette described
her, with scrupulous regard to the smallest details, and
rare talent in execution.
[40] Mgr. Laurence died at the Vatican Council in the
winter of 1869-70.
----------
THE RIOT OF THE TWELFTH. 117
We are late in our comments on the riot of the 12th of July last in
this city, occasioned by the Orange procession in commemoration of the
Battle of the Boyne; but as what we have to say relates to general
principles rather than to particular facts, our remarks will have
suffered little from the delay, and will stand a chance of being more
carefully read and duly weighed than if made at an earlier day. The
tragic event is not likely to be soon forgotten.
The secular press of the city have, as far as we have observed, with
scarcely an exception, taken the ground that, however ill-advised
might be the Orange procession, it was a right of the Orangemen, and
the liberty of the citizen was infringed by the police order
prohibiting it. The order was also an act of cowardice, as dictated by
fear of a Catholic mob; and hence its revocation by the governor, and
his excellency’s resolution to sustain the majesty of the law, and to
protect the Orange procession by all the force, if necessary, at his
command, was a firm and manly interference in behalf of liberty and
law. The sectarian press of city and country see in the police order
prohibiting the procession--dictated, it is assumed, by the Catholic
clergy--only a proof of the hatred of the Catholic Church to liberty
and republican institutions, and in the action of the governor, and
the bravery of the military in firing on the crowd, and killing and
wounding a large number of citizens, for the most part innocent, except
of idle curiosity, an assurance much needed, that Protestants have as
yet even in this country some rights which Catholics are bound and can
be compelled to respect.
The view taken by the sectarian press is ridiculous, as well as
malicious. The Catholic Church was the victim of the riot, but her
only responsibility for it was in warning her children against it, and
bidding them to let the procession alone, and not to go near it. If
she had been heeded, there would have been no riot, no disturbance.
The question was not a Catholic question, and the church had nothing
to gain by preventing the procession, still less by a riot to break it
up. The pretence that the rights of Protestants are in danger from
Catholics in this country, where the Protestants outnumber the
Catholics as eight or ten to one, is too absurd to be even a passable
joke. Do the sectarian journals count one Catholic more than a match
for eight or ten Protestants? That were a greater compliment to us
than we deserve. We are afraid the sectarian leaders have bad
consciences, which make them cowards. Catholics cannot show the least
sign of vitality, or make the slightest move for the practical
possession of the equal rights guaranteed them by the constitution and
laws, but they take fright, tremble in their shoes, and cry out:
“Liberty is in danger!” the Pope is going to suppress American
republicanism, strip Protestants of their rights, cut their throats,
or reduce them to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” to--the
Jesuits. They are dreadfully alarmed, or affect to be, and create a 118
panic throughout the whole country. But, dear frightened souls, there
is no occasion for your alarm, unless you suppose you cannot be free
if everybody else is not enslaved. Even if we were the majority of the
American people, as we are not, nor likely to be to-day, to-morrow, or
the day after, you would be in no danger, for we understand liberty as
well as you do, appreciate it more highly, love it better, and have
made greater sacrifices for it than you can imagine. Not a few of us
have fled hither from the tyranny and oppression of Protestant
governments, expatriated ourselves for the sake of liberty, and do you
believe us such fools as to destroy it the moment we have found it?
This talk about the hostility of the church to liberty and American
republicanism, when not malicious, is sheer nonsense. The acts
Protestants allege to prove that the church is hostile to liberty,
prove the contrary; for they were acts done against tyrants and
despots in defence of liberty, both civil and religious. What were her
long struggles against the Franconian and Suabian emperors, but
struggles on her part for the freedom of religion, the basis and
principle of all true liberty? Why did the popes deny to kings and
emperors in the middle ages the right of investiture by the cross and
ring, but because to have conceded it would have enslaved the church
to Cæsar, and destroyed the independence of religion and the freedom
of conscience? Know you not that it was under the fostering care and
protection of the church that grew up the freedom and independence of
all modern nations? What nation, state, or people has she ever
deprived of independence or liberty? If she has asserted the rights
of sovereigns, and condemned sedition, turbulence, conspiracies,
insurrections, rebellions, on the part of the people, she has been
equally prompt and determined in asserting the rights and franchises
of subjects, and in censuring, excommunicating, and even deposing,
when professing to be Catholic, the tyrant who despoiled and oppressed
them. The great principles of justice and equality on which American
republicanism is founded were taught by hooded friars in their
monasteries, and proclaimed from the Papal throne ages before the
landing at Plymouth of the Pilgrims from the _Mayflower_, or the
settlement of English colonists on the banks of the James. Do, dear
friends, read and try to understand a little of history, and dismiss
your idle fears, or, if fear you must, fear for the salvation of your
own souls hereafter.
The fact is, we are a little impatient when we hear Protestants
expressing in grave tones and with a serious face their apprehensions
that the spread of Catholicity will tend to the destruction of
American liberty. Considering what Protestantism is, and by what means
it was introduced and has been sustained, it is too much as if Satan
should express serious apprehensions that the spread of the Gospel may
tend to the destruction of Christian piety and humility. We find among
Protestants men, and not a few, who, when they speak of liberty, mean
liberty for all men, for Catholics as well as for non-Catholics; but
your true-blue Protestant, who is imbued with the original and genuine
spirit of Protestantism, would seem unable to understand by liberty
anything but his right to govern, or by religious liberty anything but
his right to reject the papacy, abuse the Pope, calumniate and despoil
the church, and exterminate or enslave Catholics. Who has not heard of 119
Tyburn, and who went there--of the infamous penal laws against
Catholics of England and Ireland, to say nothing of other countries?
And were not these same penal laws enacted and enforced in the colony
of Virginia, and was it not a capital offence in Massachusetts for a
priest to set his foot within the colony, or for an inhabitant to
harbor or give him even a meal of victuals? Did not Massachusetts fit
out and send from Boston an armed body of men, who shot down Father
Rasle, a missionary to the Norridgewock Indians, at the head of his
congregation as they came forth from Mass, and massacred them? Did not
an American Provincial Congress enumerate among their grave charges
against George III. the fact that he had granted freedom of worship to
Catholics in the neighboring province of Canada? Was not Guy Fawkes’
Day celebrated in Boston with the usual anti-popery demonstrations
down to the epoch of the Revolution, until protested against by some
French officers, who came with the army from France to aid us in
gaining our national independence? Yet Protestants do not blush to
call Protestantism the friend, and Catholicity the enemy, of liberty!
Protestants have very short memories if they have forgotten these
things, or else they suppose that Catholics have no memories at all if
they suppose that we can permit them to claim, unchallenged, to be and
always to have been the party of liberty. It is not, however, the
strangest delusion of Protestants, and is only of a piece with their
delusion that Protestantism is Christianity and sustained by the Holy
Scriptures. But let this pass. We yield to no one in our devotion to
liberty or in our readiness to defend the rights of the citizen. We
have no sympathy with the rioters of the Twelfth of July and not one
word to offer in their defence. They broke both the law of the church
and the law of the land, sinned against God, and committed a crime
against the state. But we venture to deny that the police order
forbidding the Orange procession infringed the liberty of any citizen
or deprived the Orangemen of any right they had or could have on
American soil. No men or class of men have the right, in the
performance of no civil or religious duty, but for their own pleasure
or gratification of their own passions, to do any act or make any
display in the judgment of the police certain or very likely to
provoke a riot or breach of the peace. This is common sense, and, we
presume, common law.
The Orangemen were required by no duty, civil or religious, to
celebrate the battle of the Boyne by a public procession in the
streets of our city, nor were they called to do it by any sentiment of
patriotism--not of Irish patriotism, for the battle of the Boyne
resulted in the subjugation, not the liberation, of Ireland--not
American patriotism, for the event was foreign to American
nationality. No foreign patriotism has any right on American soil. The
event commemorated is wholly foreign to our patriotism. It occurred in
a foreign country before our nationality was born, and has no relation
whatever to any American sentiment. No precession not in honor of
religion or some religious event, and wholly disconnected with
American interests or sentiments, has any right on American soil, and
can only take place by courtesy or sufferance, indifference or connivance.
The prohibition of the Orange procession by the police would have 120
deprived the Orangemen of no right which they had or could pretend to
have in this country; and if the procession was designed or even
likely to irritate a portion of our citizens, and to provoke a riot,
it was not only the right but the duty of the police, as conservators
of the peace, to prohibit it, and as far as possible to prevent it.
But the right and the duty of the police do not stop here. There is
another side to the question. Every peaceable citizen has the right to
walk the streets without being insulted or having his feelings
outraged. Processions, banners, songs, tunes offensive, and really
intended to be offensive, to any portion of the community, and in
commemoration of no American event, in satisfaction of no American
sentiment, or in the performance of no civil, military, or religious
duty incumbent on American citizens, are never allowable, for the
insult and outrage offered to the feelings and sentiments, no matter
of what class of the population, is purely wanton, malicious, and
wholly unjustifiable. Of this sort is manifestly the insult and
outrage offered by Orange processions, banners, songs, and tunes to
all of our Irish fellow-citizens not of the Orange party; and these
fellow-citizens of Irish birth or extraction, though they have no
right to take the law into their own hands, have undoubtedly the
right, on American soil, to be protected by the American authorities
from insult and outrage to their feelings and sentiments, just as much
as persons have the right to be protected from indecent sights in the
public streets, or the display of obscene pictures and images in the
shop-windows.
But these Orangemen--very few, if any, of whom, we are told, are
American citizens--outrage American as well as Irish manhood. Their
celebrations here are an insult to every true American, for they are
in honor of principles and deeds abhorrent to every American heart.
For them to bring their old quarrels hither from a foreign land would
be reprehensible, even if their quarrels were not utterly disgraceful
to them, but they become a gross outrage when the real character of
their quarrel with their loyal countrymen is considered. The deeds of
the party in Ireland they represent are such as are condemned by every
distinctive American principle, and a more infamous party it would be
difficult to find in any country on earth. They represent the party
that in Ireland fought for a foreign invader and a chief of rebels
against their own country, and were at once traitors to their king and
nation. They represent the party that enacted the infamous and
brutalizing penal laws which deprived the loyal Irish--who in the
battle of the Boyne fought for and at the command of their rightful
king against rebels, traitors, foreign invaders, and enemies--of every
vestige of civil and religious liberty, even making it a crime for a
father to teach his own child letters, and doomed their descendants,
till within our own memory, to the most cruel, heartless, and hopeless
oppression ever endured by any people in the world; they represent the
party that, after the Presbyterian and Jacobin movement of 1798, into
which some Catholics had been inveigled by the promise of freedom for
their religion, and left to do the fighting and to bear almost alone
the penalty of defeat, were the authors of the savage butcheries
inflicted by the Orange yeomanry on the Catholic peasantry, even on
those who had taken no part in the movement, and were innocent of all
offence except that of sighing to be delivered from bondage, and
treated as men made in God’s image, not as wild beasts, whom it is a 121
merit to hunt out and shoot down wherever they can be found. They
commemorate in their processions, their banners, their songs and
tunes, the triumph of treachery, baseness, bigotry, persecution,
oppression, murder, rapine, and wholesale massacres, unsurpassed in
the history of the most barbarous and heathenish nations.
Never was there a more cruel and bloodthirsty party, one redeemed by
fewer virtues or blackened by more or greater crimes, or more
deserving the execration of mankind, than that which these Orangemen
represent and delight to honor. Is it no insult to us free-born
Americans for them to come here and flaunt in our faces their banners
stained with the blood of the innocent and the good, branded by the
widow’s curse, and wet with the orphan’s tears--symbols of ages of
wrong, oppression, and religious intolerance and persecution? Is it
here, in free America, they dare come to boast in public of their
crimes, and glory in their infamy? Do not we Americans profess to
abhor persecution, tyranny, and oppression? Do we not, as a sovereign
people, proclaim to the world that we have opened an asylum to the
wronged, the oppressed, the downtrodden of every land and of every
belief? Where, then, is our manhood when we allow the tyrant, the
oppressor, the persecutor, to come here and insult and outrage his
victims in the very asylum we profess to have opened to them? What
greater insult to all that is noble and manly can be offered Americans
than to be even asked to protect those who will not respect even the
right of asylum?
No, no; the press has taken only a one-sided view in calling the
prohibition of the Orange procession a violation of freedom and a
cowardly yielding to Irish or Catholic dictation. It was no such
thing. The Orangemen had no right on their side, and were entitled to
no protection. Liberty was on the other side, and its vindication and
the right of asylum required us as Americans to protect the victims of
the Orange party who had sought refuge with us from Orange insult and
outrage on our own soil. His excellency the governor of the state also
took only a hasty and a very incorrect view of the case in revoking
the very proper order of the police. We are as far as he can be from
yielding to the dictation of the mob. When a mob has collected, it
must be admitted to no parley, and the only answer to be given to its
demands is the reading of the riot act, and a whiff of grape-shot or a
shower of musket-balls. But no threats of violence should ever deter
authority from doing what is right, and, in this case, right was not
on the side of the Orangemen. Authority must be just as well as firm.
The threats of violence were wrong, but they did not put the Orangemen
in the right. Authority was bound to protect the Orangemen from actual
violence, but it was not bound to protect them in the performance of
acts which they had no moral or legal right to perform, and which it
was foreseen, if permitted, would lead to violence. One wrong is not
redressed by permitting another that must provoke it.
His excellency’s revocation of the order of the police prohibiting the
Orange procession, and promise to protect the procession by all the
force at his command, cannot be defended on the ground that the party
opposed threatened violence in case the procession took place, unless
it be assumed that the Orangemen had a perfect moral or legal right to
march in procession through our streets in their regalia, and with 122
their insulting banners flying and bands playing offensive marches.
But they had no such right, as we have seen, and the party making the
threats, however wrong the threats were, had the right to be protected
from the insult and outrage offered to their feelings by such a
display. The vindication of liberty did not require the procession to
take place, for liberty is not infringed where no right is violated or
abridged; and the assertion of the majesty of the law never requires
protection of a wrong because they who would be aggrieved by it have
threatened, if permitted, they will attempt by violence to right
themselves. Neither American liberty nor law required the Orange
procession to be permitted, and if both liberty and law required a
mob, when collected, to be dispersed and the violence suppressed, they
both also required the protection of American citizens from public
insult and outrage. His excellency forgot the duty of protecting
American citizens from wrong, and thought only of protecting a foreign
and wholly un-American party in committing it.
Yet we have no doubt that the mistaken conduct of the governor--an
able man, a good lawyer, and for the most part a worthy chief
magistrate of the state--was chiefly prompted by the clamor against
Catholics, and the charge brought against his party by its opponents
of acting under the dictation of Catholics, who, of course, it is
assumed, act always under the dictation of their clergy, and was
intended to refute the charge by showing his readiness to protect even
Protestant Orangemen, and shoot down their hereditary enemies, though
Catholics. The charge, we know, was made against the party now in
power in this state; but his excellency should not have allowed it
to move him. It is no doubt true that, but for the votes of citizens
who happen to be Catholics, he would never have been governor of the
state, and his party would be, at least for the present, in a hopeless
minority; but we cannot allow that Catholics have presumed upon the
fact, or asked anything not their right as simple American citizens,
and we know that they have obtained less than their equal rights, even
in this city, where they can probably count not much less than
one-half of the population. But the charge is a mere party trick,
designed, through the sectarian prejudice against Catholicity, to
throw the party now in out of power. The governor seems to us to have
fallen into the trap his political enemies set for him, and has not
unlikely damaged the political prospects both of himself and of his
party.
The clamor against the party on account of its Catholic leaders and
supporters means only that the _outs_ are anxious to become the
_ins_. The party out of power in the State would as willingly
receive the votes of Catholic citizens as does the party in power, and
when in power it did, we believe, more for Catholics than the party
now in power has ever yet done, though it, doubtless, promised less.
Catholics have never had any reason for giving their votes to the
Democratic party but that, in doing so, they followed, very
disinterestedly, their honest political convictions.
The pretence of Protestants that Catholics in or out of office act
politically under the dictation of their clergy, and in reference to
Catholic interests as such, is too notoriously false to mislead
anybody. Those prominent politicians, in or out of office, who happen
to be Catholics, are the last men in the world to listen to the 123
dictation of the clergy or to act in obedience to the orders of their
church, and they take infinite pains to prove that their religion has
nothing to do with their politics, in order, we suppose, to escape the
suspicion of being influenced in their political conduct by regard for
Catholic interests. Their party standing is more to them than their
Catholic standing, and they consult rarely the wishes or interests of
their church, and usually only the wishes and interests of their party
and its leaders. All the offices in the state or nation might be
filled by Catholics, the constituencies remaining unchanged, without
any more advantage accruing to the church than if they were all filled
by Protestants. Catholics and Protestants alike, when in office,
consult their constituencies, and act in the way and manner they judge
most likely to secure votes to themselves or their party.
The fact is, Catholicity has never placed any man in city, state, or
nation in office, and never yet has any man in our country been
elected to office because he is Catholic. The Catholics who are in
office under the municipal, state, or federal government, in congress,
in the state senate, or the assembly, are there not because they are
Catholics, but because they are Democrats or Republicans, or because
they are of Irish, German, or some other foreign origin, and have or
are supposed to have influence in securing the so-called “Irish vote,”
the “German vote,” or the “foreign vote”--distinctions which should
have no place in American politics--not because they are Catholics,
and supposed to be devoted to Catholic interests. There is an “Irish
vote,” a “German vote,” a “foreign vote,” but no “Catholic vote,” and,
the constituencies remaining the same, Catholic interests would be
just as safe in the hands of American Protestants as in the hands of
Catholics elected to office, not for their Catholicity, but for their
real or supposed influence with our naturalized fellow-citizens; and
perhaps safer, because Protestants would be less likely to be
suspected of acting under Catholic influence, and therefore could act
more independently.
It is, we think, a mistake on the part of our politicians who are
Catholics, whether in or out of office, to be so anxious not to be
suspected of acting under Catholic influence and in view of Catholic
interests. The church asks only what is just, only to be protected in
the possession of the equal rights before the state, guaranteed to her
by the constitution of the state, and which are not always respected
by the popular sentiment of the country. The care which politicians
take to show themselves independent in their political action, if
Catholics, gains them no credit, and a frank, open, straightforward,
and manly course would gain much more respect for themselves and for
their religion. Indeed, their sensitiveness and over-caution on this
point tend to excite the very suspicion they would guard against, or
the suspicion that their conduct is diplomatic, and that they have
some ulterior purpose in reserve which they artfully and adroitly
conceal. The church is supposed by Protestants to be the very
embodiment of craftiness and dissimulation, always and everywhere
intriguing to get the control of the secular power, and to wield it in
her own interest regardless of all rights and interests of the citizen
who happens not to be Catholic. Hence, every Catholic politician is
suspected beforehand of craft, intrigue, of crooked and underhand
ways, lacking frankness, openness, and straightforward honesty. The 124
only way to repel this false and unjust suspicion is for such
Catholics as are politicians to show in an open and manly manner that
neither they nor their church have any sinister purpose, and that in
being devoted to her interests and acting under influence as good
Catholics, they have nothing to conceal, and no ends to gain for her
incompatible with their plain duty as American citizens, or which they
fear or hesitate to avow in the face of all men. The best way to quell
a wild beast is to look him steadily in the eye, and show that you do
not fear him.
But to return to the question more immediately before us. If the press
and the executive had looked at the subject from the point of view of
common sense, as a simple question of right and wrong, without
prejudice against Catholics or in favor of Protestants, and without
any wish to charge or acquit any party of being under Catholic
influence, they could not, it seems to us, have failed to see that
liberty was violated in permitting, not in prohibiting, the Orange
procession. Party or sectarian prejudices obscured the judgment, and
many lives of innocent persons were lost in consequence.
It is contended by some that if a procession of Catholic Irish in
honor of St. Patrick is allowed, the Orange procession of the
Protestant Irish should also be allowed; either permit both, or
prohibit both. The celebration of St. Patrick’s Day as a festival of
the Catholic Church, which it is, even by a public procession through
our streets, if peaceable and orderly, is a right guaranteed in the
freedom of the Catholic religion under our constitution and laws, and
so far differs totally from the Orange procession. As a purely Irish
national festival, it can be celebrated here only by courtesy, as is
St. George’s Day by the English, St. Nicholas’s Day by the Dutch, or
St. Andrew’s Day by the Scotch; for no foreign nationality has any
right on American soil; otherwise, American nationality would not be
independent and supreme on American territory. No foreign national
festivals in commemoration or honor of events and interests or
sentiments foreign to American nationality and interests and
sentiments, can be publicly celebrated here except by indifference,
courtesy, sufferance, connivance, national comity, or international
treaty.
This rule, however, does not apply to religious festivals and
celebrations, whether Catholic or Protestant, because in the eye of
the state all religion is catholic, and not national, and, therefore,
never a foreigner in any nation. Protestants cannot claim Orange
celebrations as a right, though the Orangemen are all good
Protestants, because the event celebrated is a foreign political, not
a religious event; yet they have the right to institute and celebrate
festivals in honor of Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and other
Protestant reformers; for these being the founders of their religion
are as such not foreigners. Catholics may also celebrate here any of
the festivals of the church in the way and manner she prescribes,
because they are religious festivals, and the right to celebrate them
is included in the freedom of conscience; so may they celebrate
publicly the birthday of the Holy Father, his return to Rome from his
exile at Gaëta and Portici, the completion of the twenty-fifth year of
his pontificate, or his liberation, when effected, from his present
imprisonment, and the recovery for the Holy See of the possessions of
which she has been sacrilegiously despoiled--because, as the chief of
their religion, he is no foreigner in America.
The German peace celebration, as it was called, but really the 125
celebration of the German conquest and humiliation of France, our
ancient ally, was by sufferance, not by right. The Fenian
organizations, marches and countermarches, parades and processions in
honor of victories not won, are absolutely illegal, and take place
only by the connivance--we might say the culpable connivance--of the
government, if Great Britain, against whom they are directed, did not
herself allow demonstrations on her own soil against foreign
sovereigns. The celebrations of Italian unity, since effected by
fraud, violence, sacrilege, and robbery, the spoliation of the Holy
See, and the imprisonment of the Pope, perhaps should be regarded as
the celebrations of the successes of Protestant principles, and
therefore, by a right secured in the civil freedom of Protestantism,
and if peaceable and orderly, not prohibitable by the police. They may
be annoying to Catholics, but so is Protestantism itself; but
Protestants have, so far as the secular authorities go, the same right
to be Protestants that we have to be Catholics.
We have already shown that it is ridiculous to attempt to hold the
church responsible for the riot. The rioters may have been nominal
Catholics; but, if so, they were bad Catholics, for they acted
contrary to the principles of their church, and the advice and
direction of their pastors, and the church cannot be held responsible
for acts done contrary to her orders and in violation of her
principles. The rioters, themselves, knew and owned that they were
disobeying their church, and defended themselves on the ground that
the question was a national not a religious question, and, therefore,
not within the jurisdiction of the clergy. Their defence was a lame
one, and proved they were no true Catholics; for the church, without
assuming to decide the national, party, or political question, had
full jurisdiction of the morality of their acts, and was quite
competent to condemn the passions of anger and revenge that actuated
them and their riotous proceedings, as condemned by the law of God.
But there are Catholics in this city of fifteen or twenty different
nationalities, and yet the rioters were exclusively of Irish origin,
which is full proof that the riot was not Catholic, but Irish. Had it
been a Catholic riot, inspired by the church and for a Catholic
object, for which the church could be held responsible, Catholics,
irrespective of their nationality, would have been engaged in it, and
it would not have been confined to persons of one nationality alone.
It was, as everybody knows, an Irish riot, occasioned by an old Irish
feud between two Irish parties, not an American or a Catholic riot.
These hot-headed, disobedient Irishmen, even if Catholics, could not
commit the church to their disorderly and criminal proceedings.
It is only fair to add that this handful of Irish rioters could not
any more commit the great body of our Irish fellow-citizens. According
to the last census, there were 201,000 souls in this city who were
born in Ireland, to say nothing of their children and grandchildren
born here. There probably was not over five hundred, if so many,
actively engaged in the riot; but double the number, say there were a
thousand, and they are quite too few, even if they were of reputable
character, which they were not, to commit so large a body as that of
our Irish population, most of whom remained quietly engaged in their
ordinary avocations. That the Irish furnish their full quota of
rowdies, roughs, and disorderly persons in our large towns, nobody 126
denies; but we must remember that there are plenty of the same class
not of Irish origin, and there have been riots, and riots of a very
grave character, in which the Irish had no hand, though of some of
them they were the victims. We have seen more than one American mob in
which the chief actors were respectable, well-dressed Protestant
American citizens.
There are Irishmen who are wealthy and wear fine clothes that are no
credit to their race or their religion, but the Catholic Irish as a
body constitute a sober, quiet, peaceable, intelligent, religious,
industrious, and thriving portion of our population, and no
American-born citizen has any right to say a word in disparagement of
them. Indeed, we may say of the Catholic population of the city
generally, that it is that portion of the population that it can least
afford to spare. Were the city to lose them, it would lose the very
population that has contributed, and contributes, the most to its high
moral and religious character, to its industry and wealth, and on
which its prosperity chiefly depends. With all their faults, and they
are many, and many more in the eyes of the Catholic than of the
Protestant, they are, as they should be, decidedly the best people
going. Their vices are on the surface; their virtues lie deeper, and
are many, solid, and durable. We bless God that we are permitted to
call them brethren, and that we are with them in the unity of faith
and communion, though we happen to be an American of the seventh
generation, and it was our misfortune to be reared a Protestant.
We think the conduct of the Democratic party towards their Catholic
supporters is discreditable. Any party may feel itself honored that
secures the votes of the great body of our Catholic citizens, whether
naturalized or native-born citizens, and no party will suffer in the
end by insisting on justice to Catholics and to Catholic interests.
Any party, by frankly and fearlessly sustaining the equal rights of
Catholics with Protestants, and maintaining the freedom and
independence of religion, will not only serve truly their country, and
respond to the demands of American patriotism, but they will best
ensure its own permanent prosperity, power, and influence. They who
scorn and trample on the church may flourish for a time like the green
bay tree, but in the end they will wither and die, and their places be
sought, and not found. It is well for every political party to
remember that God reigns, and that they who scorn his church, whom he
hath purchased with his own blood, will in turn be scorned by the
“King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
----------
THE PLACE VENDOME AND LA ROQUETTE. 127
THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THE COMMUNE.
FROM LE CORRESPONDANT.
It would be difficult to find in the history of human revolutions a
spectacle at once as burlesque and terrible as that just presented by
the too celebrated Commune of Paris. It began with a long trail of
blood at the entrance of the Place Vendôme, and signalized its
wretched end by the horrible massacre of La Roquette. A witness of
these two bloody scenes, I shall depict them with but few comments,
but with perfect exactness of detail. At the risk of being incomplete,
I shall only relate what I saw. In speaking of the confinement at
Mazas and the massacres at La Roquette, I shall barely add some
incidents, the truth of which was vouched for by the companions of my
cruel captivity. Comments would only weaken the impressiveness of
these facts. I leave my readers to draw their own conclusions from a
moral and social point of view, only remarking that the first account,
relating to the events that transpired in the Place Vendôme during the
latter half of March, was drawn up a few days after they occurred.
Though the first essays of the Commune were not marked by the nameless
horrors that drew upon its end the reprobation of all civilized
nations, I have thought it right not to alter my first account.
Perhaps some observations may not appear sufficiently severe, and
others not wholly justified by the events. I give them to the public
as they were noted down at the time. By comparing the account written
at the end of March with that of the end of May, an exact idea may be
formed--I was going to say a faithful photograph may be had--of the
revolutionary condition of Paris at the beginning and the end of the
Commune. We may thereby be enabled to judge of the development, during
this short interval, of a brutal revolution--the implacable enemy of
all institutions, human and divine.
In spite of the mingled emotions of horror and disgust I feel in
recalling the men and the deeds I speak of, I may be permitted to
manifest two feelings that prevail over all others in the depths of my
soul--a redoubling of constant sympathy for the unhappy city of Paris,
only rendered dearer by its misfortunes, and an ardent gratitude for
the infinite mercy of God, which preserved me, contrary to all human
expectation, from the bullets of a herd of assassins more shameless
and lower than their predecessors of 1793.
I.
THE PLACE VENDÔME ON THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST OF MARCH.
I passed a great part of Tuesday, the twenty-first of March, in
discussing with some political friends the intolerable situation of
things at Paris, effected by the triumphal mob of Saturday, the
eighteenth. We all deplored and denounced that unjustifiable attempt 128
at the national sovereignty which suddenly drew on us the danger of
Prussian occupation of the city and the horrors of civil war--perhaps
both of these scourges. Our indignation was profound. One blamed the
government for having too readily abandoned Paris to the danger of
insurrection; another maintained that by establishing itself at
Versailles with the national assembly, and defending the environs of
Paris, it saved France. Another declaimed with bitterness, sometimes
against the culpable indifference of the national guards, which left
everything to be done, and sometimes against the audacity and
wickedness of the leaders of the mob that, without any pretext, was
dragging France, all bleeding from the wounds incurred in war, into a
bottomless abyss. We all felt there was something beneath all this: it
was the shameful defection of a part of the troops of the line which
had rendered such cruel misfortunes possible. If the army were to
countenance the insurrection, that would decide the fate of
France--_Galliæ finis!_
It was easier to deplore the gravity of the evil than to point out a
practical means of remedying it. There was great diversity of opinion
respecting the latter. Should recourse be had to material force or to
a spirit of persuasion and conciliation? The use of material force
might inflame the rebellious party still more, and cover Paris with
blood and ruins. The success of moral influence was hardly possible
with insurgents who began by assassinating Generals Lecomte and
Clément Thomas, and deliberately advocated a social revolution.
At three o’clock, a well-known inhabitant of the Place Vendôme, who
had already distinguished himself by his courage in the insurrection
of June, 1848, in which he was one of the first wounded, came to
announce to me the formal intention of the national guards of his
battalion to retake the place from the insurgents come from the
faubourgs. He thought that by a bold stroke they might effect their
object without a shot. It is sure that the friends of order wished by
all means to avoid the shedding of blood. Some moments after, one of
my friends, who bears one of the great political names of France, and
is destined to render his country eminent service, after the example
of his family, because he is at once a man of superior intelligence
and disinterestedness, very liberal and very religious, announced to
me that the national guards of his arrondissement were animated with
the best intentions, and comprehended the urgent necessity of
maintaining order in the midst of the inextricable chaos into which we
had fallen. He was himself a powerful example of the resolution and
self-sacrifice inspired by an enlightened and generous patriotism. A
retired officer from the time of his marriage, he had organized, at
the beginning of the war, the national guards of that section of the
country in which his estate was. Later, when the army of General
Chanzy made his evolution from the Loire toward the Sarthe, he resumed
his military life, and took an active part as captain of the staff in
the operations and struggles of the army of the west. The very day he
returned to civil life, he took the cars to spend some days at Paris,
where several members of his family awaited him. He arrived there on
the eve of the eighteenth of March. Instead of returning to the
country, like so many other Parisians, he enrolled his name the
following day as a simple member of the national guards, resolved to
recede before no danger or fatigue, and to serve the cause of order at 129
Paris as he had been serving the cause of the national honor in his
province. We should not despair of the future prosperity of a country
in which there is still a great number of examples of similar
devotedness. He did not think of returning to the country till the day
after the mayors and deputies of Paris, doubtless unwittingly serving
the interests of demagogism much more than the demagogues themselves,
thought they were making a conciliatory move by yielding to their
wishes, inviting the Parisian electors to illegal elections,
disbanding the battalions of the national guard, wholly devoted to the
cause of order, and thus destroying the sole material and moral
support that still remained to the better portion of Paris. These
mayors and deputies, whose imprudence and want of foresight no human
tongue could express, declared they had saved everything, and they had
lost everything. They ascended to the Capitol as in triumph, and they
had led us to the Tarpeian Rock. They pretended to avoid the shedding
of blood, and chose the surest means of shedding it in torrents. My
friend agreed with me that next to the hideous stand of the battalions
of the line that had entered into a pact with the mob, nothing could
be more disastrous than the inexplicable compromise entered into by
these mayors and deputies. There was not a day on which I did not
apply to them the dilemma that I formerly applied to the government of
the emperor in the _guêt-à-pens_ of Castelfidardo: “Either dupes or
accomplices.”[41]
At five o’clock, an old deputy who had been brutally excluded from the
legislative body in the favorable time of official candidature,
because he would not renounce his opinions of freedom and control,
gave me some interesting details respecting the pacific manifestations
that had just met with an unhoped-for success. A great number of
citizens, of all ages and of every rank, had traversed the principal
quarters unarmed, crying, “_Vive l’Ordre! Vive la France! Vive
l’Assemblée Nationale!_” They everywhere meet with cordial sympathy.
The battalion that guarded the Bourse presented arms as they passed.
The battalions of the faubourgs, that held the Place Vendôme,
endeavored in vain to prevent their passing, and the person who from
the balcony of the staff wished to address them in order to justify
the insurrectionary movement, was interrupted by enthusiastic
acclamations in favor of order and the national assembly.
The central committee at the Hôtel de Ville understood so well the
bearing of this manifestation that they hastened to take energetic
measures to remain masters of the Place Vendôme, and not to allow in
it any new manifestations from the friends of order. They sent thither
several battalions. Travel was forbidden there and in the neighboring
streets; the approaches were rigorously guarded: four pieces of
cannon, with cannoneers ready to fire, were set up in the Rue de la
Paix and the Rue Castiglione.
At nine o’clock, the wife of one of the employees of the minister of 130
justice came to beg me to carry to her brother the final consolations
of religion. I had seen him some days previous, and his end seemed
near. It was with the greatest difficulty she had left the Ministère
and the Place Vendôme, and she feared it would be impossible for me to
return with her. But, unwilling her brother should die without the
sacraments of the church, she succeeded by her prayers and tears in
reaching me, and was willing to brave everything again in order to
enable me to go to him.
I assured her I would unite my efforts to hers, and, though conscious
that the ecclesiastical costume had, since the downfall of the empire,
been disagreeable to the Parisian revolutionists, I added that we
should succeed. I set out that very instant with one of the employees
of the church.
The Place and the Boulevard de la Madeleine were quiet and nearly
deserted. The Rue Neuve-des-Capucines was livelier. At the entrance of
the Place Vendôme, I found myself in presence of the national guards,
who did not much resemble those belonging to that quarter. They were
very numerous. Their language was in the main rather noisy than
threatening. The words “citizen” and “republic” were constantly on
their lips. They allowed no one to stop, and showed themselves
severely rigid towards the passers-by that wished to contemplate a
spectacle so new in this pacific and wealthy quarter.
I had not yet arrived at the angle of the Rue Neuve-des-Capucines and
the Place Vendôme, when an outpost of the national guards, arms in
hand, cried to me in somewhat rough tone: “Citizen, no one is allowed
to stop!” It was the very place and the time to stop to accomplish my
holy mission. I explained briefly, but politely, the motive that led
me to the Place Vendôme: it was a question of giving a dying person
the last succor of religion; and, to leave no doubt of the truth of my
statement, I pointed out the lady, bathed in tears, at my side, and
the employee of the Madeleine. “It is impossible, citizen,” was
uttered on all sides, “the _consigne_ has forbidden it.” I asked
to see one of the officers, for I saw plainly I should be obliged to
parley, but, in view of a duty so grave and urgent, I resolved to use
every means. A sergeant presented himself with that important and
somewhat ridiculous air which carries the conviction among the lower
ranks that public affairs could not be sustained without him. I
explained my wish. “You cannot pass.” I mildly insisted. “The
_consigne_ has forbidden it, and to-day he is very rigorous.” I
asked the reason of this exceptional severity. “It is, you see,
citizen, because the bourgeoisie of this quarter have been making a
racket to-day, and this must not be repeated.”
This observation, one of the most characteristic I ever heard in my
life, was made with a seriousness which would have dispelled mine at
another time less distressing to my heart as a priest and a Frenchman.
Convinced that nothing was to be effected with this sergeant, who was
more self-sufficient than wicked, I asked to see the captain. He came
to me with a dry and lofty air that the mildness of my language and
doubtless the sad motive also that led me to the Place Vendôme
speedily modified. After refusing me, and listening to renewed
entreaties, he gave me permission to enter the Place Vendôme, on
condition that I should remain all night. That was the extent of the
right allowed him by the _consigne_. Tired of constantly hearing of a 131
_consigne_ who, according to the graphic avowal of the sergeant, was
only influenced by his dissatisfaction at the racket that the
bourgeoisie of the quarter had been making that day, I replied that I
could not accept the condition, that I was very sorry not to be able
to understand a refusal which affected a dying person and a family in
affliction, and that I would leave the public to judge this fact,
since there was no other authority to appeal to.
These words, uttered with an emotion but little restrained, changed
the mind of the captain, who vainly sought plausible pretexts to
oppose me. He appeared, besides, to be greatly preoccupied with the
command he exercised: others were constantly coming to him for orders,
and it was evident from his embarrassed manner that he had been more
accustomed to receive than to give orders. He ordered one of the
national guards to accompany me to the house of the minister of
justice, not to lose sight of me for an instant, and to bring me back
to the entrance of the Rue Neuve-des-Capucines. Notwithstanding the
pacific character of my costume, I was treated like one of the
suspicious bourgeoisie of the quarter, who could not be pardoned for
having made a racket during the day. The insurgents had strengthened
their position in the Place Vendôme, to prevent henceforth the
manifestations of honest people. They appeared resolved to allow it to
be entered only with extreme circumspection, and by persons who
resided here.
I proceeded, accompanied by my national guardsman, who was armed.
The Place was poorly lighted. We had scarcely left behind us the group
of national guards that barricaded the entrance, than he addressed me
these words in a confused but very respectful tone: “How sad all this
is, monsieur l’abbé, and how wrong not to arrange everything so every
one can remain at home and quietly attend to his business!” I
evidently had with me one of the too numerous workmen of Paris who
love order and peace, but who dare not, or who do not know how to,
resist the bold ringleaders who take them from their work and lead
them astray. The fear of not speaking with sufficient calmness and
caution, while I was at once afflicted and exasperated, induced me to
be reserved. I merely replied that I shared his sentiments, and that
very probably reason would prevail in the end.
Every moment we met armed groups. As far as I could judge, from rapid
glances over the Place, some were discussing with vivacity the events
of the day: others, like mercenaries, without dignity and without
conscience, appeared to have no other care than to smoke and drink.
The insurgents I met did not conceal the suprise that the presence of
a priest in their midst during the night caused them. Those who
thought I had been arrested, and was on my way to the post of the
_état-major_, where I had seen more than one spy or Prussian led
during the siege, did not deprive themselves of the pleasure of aiming
a joke or an insult at me. Those who thought I was going to fulfil the
duties of the holy ministry saluted me with respect. They were far
from resembling in their equipments and deportment the national guards
of the quarter of St. Roch or the Madeleine, but when I compared them
with those I found the next day in the same place, after the criminal
and bloody fusillade upon citizens only guilty of calmly expressing
their love of order and their devotedness to the national assembly,
they were comparatively disciplined and civilized. 132
The ante-room of the minister of justice’s residence was guarded by
insurgents, who allowed no one to enter or go out without particular
scrutiny. I quickly made known to the leader the object of my mission.
He listened to me with evident curiosity and self-sufficiency, and,
after affecting to consider, he motioned me to proceed. The court was
occupied by another post that watched the entrance to the offices and
hôtel of the minister, and the avenue that led through the gardens to
the Rue de Luxembourg. No light was to be seen in the apartments. A
profound silence reigned everywhere. No other employee remained at the
minister’s than the brother-in-law of the young man to whom I was
carrying the last consolations of religion. He received them with more
calmness and serenity than might have been expected, humanly speaking,
of a young man of twenty-two years of age, when one looks forward to a
long life; but what a double grief for a family to find themselves at
once in the presence of death and a band of insurgents!
A quarter of an hour after, I left the _ministère_ with my national
guard, who treated me with a respect more and more deferential. The
lady who had gone to the Rue de la Ville-l’Evêque to find me was also
struck with his excellent appearance, and commissioned me to give him
a small sum of money. I begged him, as delicately as possible, to
accept it in aid of his family, who might be in need for want of
employment. He seemed very much touched by this generous attention,
and, as much to satisfy my curiosity as to prevent the difficulty of
expressing his gratitude at a time when he was officially charged with
guarding me, I concluded to address him some questions.
“From what quarter of Paris are you?”
“I am from Bercy, monsieur l’abbé. They sounded the rappel this
evening. I set out with my company. They told us we were appointed to
a very important patriotic mission. Arrived at the Place Vendôme, we
were ordered to guard it rigorously.”
“But why so rigorous a guard in a quarter where there are only very
excellent people, who love order and peace above all things?”
“Ma foi, monsieur l’abbé, I know nothing at all about it. Bercy is
perfectly quiet. This quarter is no less so. I do not understand it.
They ordered us to come, and we had to obey.”
“But did you not at Bercy have confidence in M. Thiers as well as we?
Do you prefer Assi, Flourens, Blanqui, and Felix Pyat to him?”
“Our employers have always spoken very highly of him. The good workmen
call him a great patriot, and not a mere pretender like so many
others. He promised us liberty and work, and would certainly have kept
his word. So we have committed a great piece of foolishness in
allowing him to go to Versailles. God grant it may not be for a long
time!”
“But what becomes of your work all this time? Do you think this state
of thing favorable to the interests of the workman?”
“Ah, monsieur l’abbé, work is a thing but little thought of now, and
yet the longer we delay resuming it, the more unfortunate we are.
There are among us so many sluggards and madcaps!...”
My excellent guard was explaining to me in his own way how the bad
workmen, who wished in 1848 to obtain the right to labor, had, since
the siege of Paris, wished to retain the right of doing nothing, when 133
I found myself at the spot whence we had set out. Immediately resuming
his most official and patronizing air--“Citizen,” said he to the
patrol that guarded the entrance to the Place Vendôme, “let this
citizen pass!”
I had promised the family of the poor sick man to visit him again in
two or three days. Complicated as the situation of Paris was, and in
particular that of the Place Vendôme, treated and occupied as a place
taken by storm, in defiance of all right and all decency, by the
national guards of the faubourgs in revolt against the laws, I was far
from anticipating that I should hasten the next day to the same place
in the midst of all the horrors of civil war, to carry the
consolations of religion to the honorable inhabitants of Paris,
smitten down without any provocation, without any motive, by the
bullets of their fellow-citizens.
II.
THE PLACE VENDÔME ON WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY-SECOND OF MARCH.
The next day, the twenty-second of March--henceforth one of the
saddest dates in the history of Paris--I was on duty at the church of
the Madeleine--that is to say, appointed to receive, from six o’clock
in the morning till ten at night, those persons who sought the
religious or charitable ministry of the priest, and to afford them all
the satisfaction within the limits of possibility.
As the pacific manifestations on the eve had produced a favorable
moral effect, it was proposed to renew them during the day, as I
learned from some of my friends, known to be devoted to the cause of
liberty and order, so strangely compromised. The aim they had in view
and the means to which they had recourse were not only incontestably
legal, but also in conformity with the interests and dignity of all
the inhabitants of Paris. Therefore, far from concealing them, they
openly discussed them, hoping they would be understood and appreciated
as they deserved to be. They desired to promote, by means of
persuasion and conciliation, respect for order and the laws,
disregarded by the bold ringleaders and a part of the national guards
led astray. In the midst of ruins accumulated by an unfortunate war,
they wished to declare the assembly of the representatives of the
country in session at Versailles to be the sole power charged to watch
over our destinies, that we should rally around them and await their
solution of the inextricable difficulties of the moment. The
inhabitants of the Place Vendôme and the neighboring streets, wounded,
and not without reason, at seeing their quarter invaded and occupied
by the national guards from other quarters, who prevented travel,
terrified their families, and paralyzed all commercial transactions,
proposed to claim their rights, as inhabitants of the first
arrondissement, to become the police of their own quarter. They
violated no right, they were not lacking any propriety, in begging the
citizens of the arrondissements of Montmartre and Belleville, who were
installed there without any notice, to leave it to their own care. Not
only are those who live in the Place Vendôme Parisians as well as the
inhabitants of Belleville and Montmartre, but it was evident to those
who knew Paris that four-fifths of the national guards that held
possession of the Place Vendôme on the twenty-first, and especially on
the twenty-second of March, had never seen Paris three years 134
previously. Paris is rather the theatre than the author of the
revolutions that take place there.
Revolutionists and rioters belong to all parts of France and Europe,
and in disastrous times they hasten to Paris, hoping to catch fish in
the troubled waters.
I have studied all the large cities of Europe from a political and
social point of view. For reasons too extended to be enumerated here,
not one is like Paris, the rendezvous of all suspicious and corrupt
characters--of the unfortunate who are at variance with the laws of
their own country, and of men of no class who are ready to become
revolutionary agents--and these are the worst of all. After the siege
it had endured, the state of agitation and prostration resulting from
so great a struggle, so much suffering, and so many deceptions, could
not fail to attract the leading charlatans and rogues of all parts of
Europe. It is not to the honor of the popular class at Paris, the most
frivolous and the most credulous in the world, that these new-comers
met with a success beyond their expectations, for they became in a
moment our masters. Thanks to this cosmopolitan invasion, and also to
the departure of too large a number of genuine Parisians who feared
the Prussian bombardment less than the mob of international agents,
Paris, the brilliant centre of elegance, art, and of intellect, as
well as a financial and political centre, became, according to the
expressive comparison of the _Times_, an infernal caldron, which
terrified all Europe, and in which mingled and seethed all human
passions.
The party that was playing its part at Paris was not Parisian or
French, but exclusively social. It was a flock of birds of prey, a
herd of roaming wild beasts, who had hastened from the four cardinal
points to fall on the capital of France, which a five months’ siege
had weakened. The International agents wished to found the Commune,
and, to realize the idea of the Commune, which especially clings to
locality, home, the fireside, the steeple, the associations and
traditions of domestic interest, they summoned to Paris all their boon
companions of the Old and the New World, and forced the real
inhabitants of Paris to take refuge in the provinces or abroad. It was
a revolting cynicism, pregnant with disaster.
At half-past two, some persons, filled with terror and indignation,
entered the Madeleine to inform me of a sinister catastrophe. The
agents of the pacific manifestation, who had proposed on the eve to
traverse the principal streets of the city, crying, _Vive la
République! Vive l’Ordre! Vive l’Assemblée Nationale!_ had become the
victims of a horrible ambuscade. After passing through the Rue de la
Paix, a large number of respected citizens of Paris, unarmed, and
influenced only by the patriotic desire of securing, by the most
inoffensive means and for the benefit of all good citizens, the
triumph of equity, law, and a spirit of conciliation, had been met at
the entrance of the Place Vendôme by a murderous fusillade from the
insurgent national guards. The reports of the number of the killed and
wounded varied, but it must have been considerable.
At the same time, I saw from the outer colonnade of the Madeleine the
shops hastily shut up and people fleeing in disorder from the
direction of the Place Vendôme. Every face expressed wrath and
consternation. Some national guards of the eighth arrondissement
hastened to rally around the church to watch over the public security.
I made inquiries about the condition of the wounded, and was told 135
they were being carried home, and that several belonged to the parish
of the Madeleine, which includes the Rue de la Paix and the Place
Vendôme. As I did not know the address of the victims, and knew from
an experience of ten years that the members of the parish had the
Christian habit of summoning the priest to the aid of the dying, I
waited with emotion for them to have recourse to my ministry.
At four o’clock no one had come, and I was ignorant of the name and
address of any of the wounded. At half-past four there was a report
that some of the killed and wounded remained on the Place Vendôme, and
that there were detained there some of those engaged in the pacific
manifestation, among others, the father of a young man from the Rue
Tronchet, whose skull had been fractured by a ball, and whom the
insurgents refused to deliver up. Other details were added of such a
revolting character that I could scarcely credit them. I ordered the
Madeleine to be closed--took with me all that was necessary for the
administration of the sacraments, and went by way of the boulevards
towards the Place Vendôme, resolved, as on the preceding night, to
recede before no obstacle to my reaching the victims who might need
religious aid. The Boulevard de la Madeleine, generally so lively and
brilliant, was almost deserted. The inhabitants were inquiring in a
low tone, and in terror, about the incidents of the bloody drama that
had just taken place in the neighborhood. Some soldiers only, who had
joined the insurgents four days previously, were passing along with a
careless and almost satisfied air. If these unhappy men were aware of
the frightful event that then preoccupied all Paris, they only
retained a glimmering of moral sense. Already unworthy to bear the
name of a soldier, they would no longer merit to bear that of man.
At the entrance of the Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, which leads from the
Boulevard de la Madeleine to the Place Vendôme, I was stopped by a
group of people, who from a distance were regarding with mingled
sentiments of curiosity and terror the patrols of the mob scattered
along the street. “Do not go any further, monsieur l’abbé,” cried
several persons to me in trembling voices, more charitable than brave.
“If you go among those wretches, you are lost! We have seen them fire
upon inoffensive men who were bearing away the wounded at the entrance
of the Rue de la Paix.” I made no reply to what was dictated more by
fear than reason, and came to the first patrol stationed before the
Crédit Foncier. All the houses of the Rue Neuve-des-Capucines were
closed, and this street, one of the liveliest of the quarter, seemed
like a tomb. The head patrol, a jolly young fellow, with a face as red
as blood, advanced towards me, and, solemnly raising his sabre to
attest his authority, which I had no intention of disputing, ordered
me to stop. I explained to him, without concealing my sadness, the
object of my mission: “I am going as a priest belonging to the parish
of the Madeleine to see the wounded on the Place Vendôme.” He
immediately motioned with his sabre for me to pass; this was his only
reply. Was he aware of the effect of this sinister beginning of civil
war upon the condition of Paris? I doubt it--to parade and appear
important seemed to be his principal care. The other national guards,
vigilant and with their hands on their loaded arms, resembled
sentinels in face of the enemy, without their discipline and proper
carriage.
The second patrol, stationed in the middle of the street, allowed me 136
to pass without objection. It was composed, like the first, of
national guards of all ages, but not of all conditions: they were from
the most uncivilized class of the faubourgs. Their accoutrements were
not uniform or neat. Some appeared quite satisfied; they were the
youngest; others had a less blustering manner; but all felt an
instinctive joy to rule over the most brilliant part of Paris, and
inspire the citizens with a lively terror.
Before I came to the third patrol, placed at the opposite end of the
street, I noticed on the pavement many stains of blood. It was in fact
only a few steps distant that, only a short time before, the victims
of the fusillade fell. I will not attempt to describe the anguish that
filled my soul at the sight of this blood of my countrymen, shed by
insurgents without country and without God. In the midst of my great
distress I recalled the sublime cry of Monseigneur Affre: “Let my
blood be the last shed!” I ardently prayed in my turn that the blood
of these innocent and peaceful victims might be the last poured out,
but it was to be feared that the revolutionary and social crisis, that
weighed on Paris like a horrible nightmare, would only end, as it had
commenced, by a terrible effusion of blood.
There was no difference between this patrol and the preceding, except
that it was more actively vigilant. The chief of the national guards
that formed it, and who seemed surprised to behold me, having asked
where I was going, and what I was going to do, sent two men to conduct
me to the post that guarded the entrance to the Place Vendôme. During
the siege of Paris, I one day passed along the formidable defences of
the Point-du-Jour at Auteuil. The consigne there was of a different
degree of mildness and condescension from that at the entrance of the
Place Vendôme, which the insurgents evidently wished to make their
headquarters, and where they were entrenching themselves. The national
guards that defended the entrance were less blustering, but more
numerous and more decided, than those of the evening before. They
allowed me to pass without hindrance; many of them must have felt that
where the dead and dying are to be found is the proper place for a
minister of Jesus Christ. A sentinel was ordered to accompany me to
the Ministère de la Justice, where I intended to go first. He
possessed neither the intelligence nor the politeness of the national
guard that escorted me the night before. He was rather an animated
machine than a man. Not a word, not a gesture, not a change in his
features! After wondering what he was thinking of, I ended by doubting
if he thought at all. I should render him this justice--that, from a
material point of view, he discharged his commission with
irreproachable exactitude.
I experienced an undefinable impression in the Place Vendôme, produced
by a twofold contrast, the remembrance of which will not be effaced to
the latest moment of my life.
This Place, with which Louis XIV. adorned Paris, was first called the
Place des Conquêtes, to recall the brilliant victories which had
secured to France the fine provinces which we have just lost a large
part of, after most lamentable reverses. The sumptuous edifices, built
according to Mansard’s plans, which form the contour, render it in an
architectural point of view the finest Place in Europe. Destined by
Louis XIV. to bring together the royal library and imprimerie, the
academies, the mint, and the hôtel of foreign ambassadors; now 137
inhabited by wealthy families, rich travellers, and some of the
government officials; situated between the garden of the Tuileries and
the Boulevards des Capucines and des Italiens; entered at its two
extremities by the Rues de Castiglione and de la Paix, through which
pour wealthy merchants and elegant promenaders, it became on the
twenty-second of March the theatre of uproar and civil war: it was
covered with blood, and occupied by an armed crowd, in which prevailed
the most sinister faces from the worst quarters of Paris.
The national guards of Bercy that I had seen the night before were
models of civilization and distinction compared with these. Some were
rather boys than men. They appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen
years of age. As proud as they were surprised to carry a gun, they
only sought for an opportunity or a pretext to use it. Those who have
witnessed the revolutions of Paris know that armed children are
capable of atrocious misdeeds. Sprung from the lowest grades of
society, destitute of all moral sense, they care but little what cause
they have to defend or what enemy to attack: their highest ambition is
to display their audacity and to fire off their guns. As I am only
relating the things I witnessed myself, I shall not speak of the
fiendish part taken, according to some spectators, by a boy in the
fusillade which had just shot down too great a number of pacific and
honorable citizens. Many of the insurgents were in a state of
overexcitement, proceeding less from their political and social
opinions than from a too copious absorption of wine and other liquors:
this is on days of revolutionary storms another category of insurgents
capable of everything because they have lost all moral sense. There
was but little care and uniformity about their accoutrements. Some had
on only a part of the uniform of the national guards: others wore a
képi and a blouse. A great number of the képis were not numbered. Here
and there were to be seen some red sashes.
In this nameless multitude might also be remarked men of fifty or
sixty years, whose ferocious and degraded faces excited the worst
suspicions respecting their moral instincts and their previous
relations with the legal authorities. I at once saw that many of them
were foreigners, particularly Italians and Poles. What a contrast
between such insurgents, hardly to be found in June, 1848, in the
lowest parts of Paris, and the imposing architectural splendor of one
of the finest squares in the world! I could not express the effect of
this mingling of poetic beauty and foul deformity upon me.
Another contrast no less sad rent my heart. The side of the Place
Vendôme toward the Rue de la Paix was sprinkled with blood; now and
then the wounded and dead were carried by; and over these spots of
human blood, by the side of these unfortunate victims of civil war, a
great number of insurgents, perhaps the very ones who without any
motive or provocation had shot them down, were laughing, eating,
drinking, and amusing themselves, as if they were celebrating the
happiest event of their lives.
In going to the Ministère de la Justice, I had to pass through several
groups of varied physiognomy. They were generally astonished to see
the ecclesiastical garb among them. I acknowledge that, if I had not
had a mission of sacerdotal obligation to accomplish, I should hardly
have procured them this surprise, notwithstanding my natural love of 138
observation. Some--a small number, however--received me with coarse
insults and horrid laughter. A few steps from the Ministère de la
Justice, a national guardsman, who was talking and gesticulating with
uncommon vivacity, stopped to address me, while shaking his fist at
me, this singular apostrophe: “When shall we be delivered from those
wretches?” I will not relate other pleasantries of this nature of
which I was the butt: this one is only too much. Their authors had
doubtless learned to know and judge the clergy by the violent
diatribes of citizens Blanqui and Félix Pyat.
Others, on the contrary, saluted me with a respect and cordiality
which I was careful to return politely. They were honest workmen who
had doubtless had intercourse with their parish priests, or whose
children attended the catechism classes or the schools of the
religious congregations, and received a benefit which they understood
how to appreciate. There were strange contrasts in this mixture. Not
to forget a single characteristic detail, I caught some observations
that denoted on the part of their authors serious regrets for the
dreadful catastrophe which terrified the whole city.
If, among the insurgent battalions chosen to fire on the inoffensive
inhabitants of Paris, there were some to deplore the horrors of civil
war, how many might not have been found in the other battalions! If
the ringleaders could be separated from those whom they lead, and the
deceivers from the deceived, the number of the latter would be
considerable, and the former somewhat modified. One of the most
serious faults of the workman of Paris is the incredible facility with
which he enters into all the hollow schemes of the rogue and the
charlatan who tempt him, and sacrifices to their mad ambition and
culpable projects his peace, his property, his honor, and his life.
My guide, or rather my guard, appeared insensible to the insults as
well as to the salutations I received on the way. Arms in hand, always
impassible and solemn, it was only now and then he cast toward me an
inquisitorial glance, as if to assert his authority and my dependence.
I made known the object of my mission to the leader of the post at the
Ministère de la Justice. He was a young and well-bred officer. He
listened to me with attention, and replied, after saluting me twice
with a politeness full of respect, that I was at liberty to do all I
wished.
I found the sick person I had seen the evening before in the hôtel of
the minister of justice, exhausted by excitement that was hastening
his end. He could see from his sick-bed all that occurred on the
Place. In one corner of the apartment his sister, endowed with the
higher Christian virtues, and an aged lady whom I did not know, but
who was probably their mother, were weeping over the public as well as
their own private woes. I had promised the sick person the night
before to visit him again in three or four days, but as I could not
enter the Place Vendôme without indicating the precise place I wished
to go to, and could not have a better means of ascertaining where the
victims of the fusillade had been transported, I briefly explained the
reason of my unexpected call and gave him some religious
encouragement, which was to be the last. I learned that the dead and
wounded removed from the Place had been carried to one of the
neighboring houses occupied by the administration and the ambulance 139
of the Crédit Mobilier. I hurried thither.
The Ministère de la Justice was as silent and deserted as on the
preceding night. Four sentinels were posted between the court and
garden; a fifth at the door of the hôtel had the air of guarding most
conscientiously an absent excellency.
In going out, I sought with a discreet glance for my solemn guard, to
become anew his prisoner. The officer who had received me a few
moments before informed me he had sent him back to his post. From that
moment I could go where I pleased.
At the Crédit Mobilier I met two bodies that were being carried to
their relatives. I was told that one was M. Molinet, one of the most
pious and exemplary young men of the parish. He had been shot down by
the side of his father, who, notwithstanding his inexpressible grief,
had been torn from the body of his only son and carried as a prisoner
to the staff-officer of the Place. After offering up a prayer for
these two unfortunate victims, I inquired for the apartment to which
the wounded had been carried.
The consternation and terror that reigned among the inhabitants of the
Place Vendôme may be imagined from the sinister events that had
occurred before their eyes, and the dangers of all kinds with which
they were threatened. Stupor was depicted on the faces of the
concierges of the Crédit Mobilier. These good people were hardly
willing to half-open the door of their lodge, and muttered something
vague which was not an answer to my question. At last they sent with
me to the _salle_ of the wounded a charming child of eight or ten
years of age. He examined with more curiosity than fear the strange
features of the citizens of Montmartre and Belleville who occupied the
vestibule.
The number of the wounded in the ambulance was six. They were still on
the litter on which they had been brought. Two infirmarians, who wore
the red cross of the International society, were zealously attending
to them: a _cantinière_ of somewhat free manners also manifested
an equal desire to aid them. The insurgents that frequented the rooms
behaved with propriety; they spoke in low tones, and instead of the
care which they were not fitted to bestow, the most of them manifested
a sympathy mingled with curiosity. Beyond this, their faces displayed
no emotion; my presence did not astonish them; they discreetly retired
when I approached the sufferers. No one appeared to me mortally
wounded. Nevertheless, I administered religious aid to one of them at
his own request, and confined myself to giving the rest as much
encouragement as possible, for which they earnestly thanked me. They
all belonged to the bourgeoisie. The last to arrive lived in the Rue
Meyerbeer, and did not appear to be more than thirty years old. He
told me he was to have set out that very evening to join his wife and
children in the country, but wished before leaving to perform the part
of a good citizen by joining in the manifestation. He had been wounded
three times, but not dangerously.
At the entrance of the room a young man seized with frightful
convulsions had been laid down on the parquet. He was partly dressed
as a soldier of the line, and partly as a national guardsman. He was
doubtless one of the too numerous soldiers who had united with the
insurgents, and been drawn into serving their sad cause. The fusillade
from the ranks of his new colleagues, and the numerous victims they
had just shot down, must have caused a violent fit of remorse. He 140
was not wounded, but only had a sudden nervous attack, that affected
him in a manner painful to behold. He did not appear to understand
anything, and was suffering from contractions and contorsions of a
truly frightful character. I approached him--tried to calm him with
some kind words, and then recommended him aloud to the care of the two
infirmarians of the International society. The national guards who
surrounded him appeared touched to see manifested for one of their
number an interest equal to that I had just shown for the victims of
devotedness to the cause of law and order.
Before leaving the Place Vendôme I wished to ascertain if any of the
victims had been taken to the ambulance of M. Constant Say. This was
one of the six ambulances I was appointed to visit during the siege,
to administer religious aid and awaken the moral sense of the soldiers
who were sick or wounded. This ambulance was kept in perfect order.
More than once, in observing the meals of the wounded, I envied them
the healthful and abundant nourishment served up to them during the
interminable months of December and January. They were treated as real
members of the family, and were truly the spoiled children of the
house. They were daily visited by one of the most celebrated
physicians of Paris, who lavished on them the most intelligent care,
and by the minister of Jesus Christ, who no less kindly spoke to them
of God, their souls, their absent mothers, and of their temporal and
eternal welfare. It could not be otherwise in a family whose extensive
industrial establishment and inexhaustible charity are such a benefit
to the laboring classes of Paris. I had the consolation of seeing all
the soldiers who were taken to this ambulance leave it better Christians
and better Frenchmen.
As to the rest, during the entire siege, the solicitude of the
Parisians for the sick and wounded soldiers was truly admirable, and
the praise I am bound in justice to accord to the ambulance of M.
Constant Say, may be equally given to the rest I was appointed to
visit: the ambulances of M. Frottin, formerly mayor of the first
arrondissement, in the Rue St. Honoré; that of M. Jourdain, a member
of the Institute, in the Rue du Luxembourg; of Dr. Moissenet, a
physician of the Hôtel Dieu, in the Rue Richepanse; of Madame Dognin,
of the Point-du-Jour at Auteuil; and, finally, the ambulance bravely
founded and directed at Grenelle by some laboring women of ardent
faith, and a devotedness that works wonders, and transferred after the
bombardment of Grenelle to the magnificent hôtel of M. le Comte Mercy
d’Argenteau on the Rue de Suresne.
I was also aware that there were still some wounded soldiers in M.
Say’s ambulance. The brutal invasion of the Place Vendôme had
prevented me from visiting them the two days previous. To go there, I
was obliged to cross the entire Place. It seemed more like a field of
battle than a Place. Here were stacks of arms, there were caissons
full of supplies, further on were delegates of the central committee
of the Hôtel de Ville, who where transmitting orders with feverish
haste, and everywhere were the insurgents who had just fired, and who
were ready to take fresh aim.
I had no longer an armed guard to accompany me. During my walk, which
I frankly acknowledge would have seemed much shorter on ordinary
occasions, I was again an object of insult and sarcasms not highly
seasoned with wit from some, of respect and sympathy from others, and 141
of astonishment or indifference from the greatest part. I had never
seen so great a number of persons eating and drinking. Their appetite
only gave out after complete exhaustion of the means of gratifying it.
It is true that, to the demoralized workmen who abound in Paris, the
word riot signifies the time for good eating, and still better
drinking, and no work at all.
Against the railing that surrounds the column were squatting several
national guardsmen, to whom a _cantinière_ dealt out liquor. The
oldest was certainly not eighteen. At my approach one of them, who had
doubtless been a chorister in some church, instinctively made a
respectful bow. A second, who made some pretensions to delicate wit,
pointed at me with his sabre, uttering a laugh more stupid than
malicious. A third, and this became more serious, loaded, or pretended
to load, his musket, which he pointed at me. At the same time the
_cantinière_ encouraged him with atrocious words, that no
delicate ear would pardon me for relating. I had had for seven months
so many occasions to recommend my soul to God, that I thought it
opportune to do so once more. Nevertheless, not to take things too
seriously, I recalled the amusing reply made me by an excellent man,
from the neighborhood of St. Sulpice, who was obliged, after the three
first days of bombardment on the left side by the Prussians, to seek
refuge in the vicinity of the Madeleine. When I approved of his
prudent decision, he replied, “In fact, I could not reasonably pass
every night in recommending my soul to God!”
I arrived at my ambulance without any harm but a momentary fright.
None of the victims of the fusillade had been brought here. I found
my dear wounded ones in a fair way to be healed, but very much
depressed by what was passing around them, and humiliated especially
by the shameful defection of a part of the troops on the deplorable
day of Saturday, the eighteenth.
My sacerdotal mission was ended. In returning across the Place
Vendôme, I was not the witness or the object of any occurrence that
merits attention. The dense line of insurgents that guarded the
entrance of the Place from the Rue de la Paix opened for me to pass.
The patrol, who remembered having allowed me to enter, asked no
questions in permitting me to go out. I met a man in the Rue
Neuve-des-Capucines who was covering a real pool of blood with sand.
There was no change in the manner of the patrols: the street was still
like a tomb. Nearly in front of the Crédit Foncier, a shop-keeper of
respectable appearance timidly opened one of the doors of his shop,
and asked permission to pass from the last patrol toward the
boulevard, which was not more than fifty yards from me. He appeared so
alarmed, and his face was so extremely pale, that the patrol, proud of
the fear he inspired, did not fail to avail himself of so favorable an
opportunity of amusing himself at the other’s expense. He questioned
him with an affected solemnity which would have excited my laughter in
less tragical times, addressed him a long and severe recommendation,
and when the man turned, more dead than alive, toward the boulevard,
the youngest of the band, who hid the malicious hilarity of a
_gamin_ under the gravity of a judge, took his gun, and pointing
it toward the shop-keeper, who happily was not aware of such a salute,
had the air of saying: “If the rest of the bourgeoisie resemble this 142
one, Paris is certainly ours.”
I was as much saddened at the dejected and disconcerted appearance of
most of the inhabitants of this quarter, as I had been alarmed by the
boldness and audacity displayed on the Place Vendôme by the workmen of
the faubourgs, old criminals and revolutionists from all countries,
who held possession of it. There was more stupor than indignation
among the former. They hardly ventured to the doors of their houses,
they spoke in low tones for fear of being compromised. This
unfortunate attitude of the lovers of order only encouraged the energy
and boldness of the enemies of society. I comprehended for the first
time how a handful of factionists had been able in 1793 to terrify and
decimate the better part of the community, who were ten times as
numerous. The very day when the lovers of order will say to those of
disorder, with the same energy and firmness as God to the waves of the
sea, “Thou shalt go no further!” Paris will have no more to fear from
anarchy and revolution, and France will no longer oscillate between
the equally deplorable extremes of despotism and license.
If this simple and impartial account, intended to cast a little light
upon one of the saddest and most execrable episodes of the revolution
of the eighteenth of March, could also have the effect of calling the
more particular attention of the lovers of order and stability, of
whatever nation and party, to the dark aims of the International
league of demagogues who, under the mask of workingmen’s associations,
prudential interests, and mutual protection, aim at the denial of God,
the destruction of family and country, of public capital and private
savings, of the domestic and political hierarchy--in a word, the
destruction of all those principles which are the foundation of
society; and also of thoroughly convincing the better classes of Paris
and all the larger cities of France, that the promoters of disorder
and anarchy, though now recruiting from the lowest social grades of
Europe, are only strong in consequence of their own inaction and
regard for self; that such power is only derived from their own want
of discipline and energy; that they would only have to enroll,
organize, and assert themselves to utterly destroy it--I shall have
realized one of my most ardent wishes, and labored in my sphere of
action for the consolidation of the social edifice and of public
order, so profoundly shaken.
It was nearly six o’clock when I reached home. I had passed a little
more than three-quarters of an hour among the insurgents and the
wounded of the Place Vendôme. God alone knows with what emotion and
earnestness I implored him that I might never be subjected again to
such a trial to my heart as a priest and a Frenchman.
Here ends my first account, drawn up at the end of March. I need not
add that my prayer was not granted. The Commune was founded in blood
and terror, and was to end in a fiendish debauchery of madness and
crime.
TO BE CONTINUED.
[41] Here is what, according to the _Paris Journal_ of
Versailles for the 18th of May, citizen Raoul Rigault wrote
from the préfecture of police to citizen Floquet, one of the
unhappy instigators of this pretended compromise:
“My dear Floquet, you have decided then to set out with
Villeneuve and the prefect Lechevalier for Bordeaux. We are
too much united in our sentiments for you not to feel the
importance of your mission. The league of the republican
union, in pleading its own cause, pleads ours. As to your
9,500 francs, I will endeavor to furnish them, though it is
difficult to procure remittances.”
----------
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 143
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MOTHER MARGARET MARY HALLAHAN, O.S.D. 1 vol.
12mo. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1871.
The great success of the original life of Mother Margaret Mary
Hallahan, foundress of the Third Order of Dominican Nuns in England,
and the edification it has given to thousands of readers everywhere,
have induced her sisters and admirers to prepare an abridged life for
more general reading.
The abridgment is in every respect a creditable performance. In beauty
of diction, as well as in the subject-matter treated, superior ability
in biographical style is very discernible. The paper, printing, and
binding are also of the first class.
All who are interested, either from motives of faith or even of
curiosity, in the surprising revival of the Catholic religion in
England within the last half-century, will be cheered and delighted by
the perusal of this new edition, as it may be called, of the life of
one of the greatest agents in this wonderful work of God. The
cheapness of the work, moreover, puts it within easy reach of all
Catholic readers.
SCHOOL-HOUSES. By James Johonnot. Architectural Designs by S. E.
Hewes. New York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co. 1871.
Undoubtedly the subject treated in this work is one of considerable
importance, involving, as it does, the health and future prospects as
well as the present comfort of the rising generation. No doubt, also,
there is immense room for improvement in the internal arrangements of
the buildings in which so large a portion of the time of the young,
and especially of children, is to be passed; above all, as regards the
points of light, heating, and ventilation. The construction
particularly of country school-houses is also certainly open to change
for the better, and many good suggestions are made and designs
furnished by the authors. Some of these designs, however, strike us as
being unnecessarily ornate. The latter part is occupied with the
questions of furniture, apparatus, grounds, etc., and with many
illustrations of chairs, desks, globes, and other appliances, which
will be found useful and interesting. The book is finely printed, and
beautifully bound.
OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. Written in four books. By John
Eusebius Nieremberg, S.J., native of Madrid, and translated into
English by R. S., S.J., with a Preface by the Rev. Peter Gallwey,
S.J. London: Burns, Oates & Co. 1871.
This beautiful volume forms the first of a series of works, under the
title of “St. Joseph’s Ascetical Library,” undertaken by the Fathers
of the Society of Jesus in England. It is no novelty in itself, though
it will probably be new to almost all who see it in its present form.
The author was born at Madrid in 1590, and died in 1658; and this
translation of his work was made nearly two hundred years ago, in
1673, and has that charm of quaintness and simplicity which it is now
in vain to imitate.
The title might convey the idea that the treatise before us was a very
abstract and mystical one, unsuited to the generality of readers. But
such an idea would be soon dispelled by a glance at some of the
headings of its chapters, such as, “How Incommodious a Thing Sleep
is,” “How Penances and Corporal Afflictions help Us,” and “That we
must rise Fervorously to our Morning Prayer.” It is practical enough 144
for any one, perfectly clear, intelligible, and interesting; and, at
the same time, no one can find in it any want of devotion or
spirituality.
It is divided into four books, as stated in the title; the first,
second, and fourth treating of the purgative, illuminative, and
unitive ways respectively; the third being concerned with “What
Belongs to a most Perfect Practical Performance of Our Actions,” which
illustrates in detail the general principles laid down in what
precedes.
We are under great obligations to the editors for having brought into
notice, and into general use, as we trust, this treasure of Catholic
piety. It will be of inestimable value to all who desire to lead a
really spiritual life and to practice the “adoration” of which it
treats, which is nothing else than complete self-renunciation and
devotion, in the true sense of the word, to God and to his service.
IGNATIUS LOYOLA, AND THE EARLY JESUITS. By Stewart Rose. London:
Longmans, Green & Co.
We have several excellent biographies of St. Ignatius in the English
language, but the present one is likely, we think, to become the most
popular. It is carefully compiled, written in that literary style and
with those graphic sketches of surrounding circumstances which modern
taste demands, and published in an elegant manner. Its principal
distinctive excellence consists in the portraiture of the early life
of Ignatius as the accomplished, valiant, and Christian knight, whose
noble and chivalrous character formed the basis of his future heroic
sanctity. We welcome any work which may make the illustrious founder
of the Society of Jesus and his Institute better known both to
Catholics and Protestants, and we hope for a wide circulation for this
ably and charmingly written biography.
MOUNT BENEDICT; OR, THE VIOLATED TOMB. By Peter McCorry. Boston:
Patrick Donahoe.
The burning of the convent in Charlestown, and the accompanying
horrors of that fearful night, are subjects worthy of a graphic
description, well calculated to point a moral and adorn a tale. We
confess our disappointment in this volume, written, no doubt, with a
good design. The conversations are weak and pointless, and too much of
the book is occupied with the irrelevant talk of the “conspirators.”
We protest against the introduction of oaths into story-books. The
interest of the story is marred by these faults.
MR. P. DONAHOE, Boston, announces as in press an account of the
“Passion Play” at Oberammergau, Bavaria, from the pen of the Rev.
George W. Doane, Chancellor of the Diocese of Newark. It will be
dedicated to the Rt. Rev. J. R. Bayley, D.D., Bishop of Newark.
The Catholic Publication Society will publish, early in November, _Mary,
Queen of Scots, and her Latest Historian_, by James F. Meline. This
book will contain the articles which appeared in THE CATHOLIC WORLD on
Mr. Froude, as well as a great deal of new matter. In fact, the
articles as they appeared in THE CATHOLIC WORLD are almost entirely
rewritten, and many new facts produced. It will be a complete
refutation of Mr. Froude’s romance of history.
* * * * *
ERRATUM.--In the article on “The Reformation not Conservative,”
p. 733, 1st column, 16th line from the bottom, for _French_ sovereigns
read _Frank_ sovereigns. Christendom was founded some centuries before
there was a French sovereign or a French kingdom, in the modern sense
of the word _French_, or France. The Franks were a Germanic race, and
the German was their mother-tongue.
THE 145
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XIV., No. 80.--NOVEMBER, 1871.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.
AUTHORITY IN MATTERS OF FAITH.
The question we propose to discuss in this article is opened in the
note we introduce, answering an objection to the infallibility of the
church, made by a lawyer through a third person, and by an elaborate
note from the lawyer in reply, and urging another and, in his
judgment, a still more serious objection. The editor’s note is:
“The objection of your friend against the _infallible_ Bible
interpreted by a _fallible_ reason, as a sure rule of faith, is
unanswerable. Nothing stronger could be said against the
Protestant position.
“His objection against the church, _so far as it goes_, if I
understand it correctly, is also unanswerable. It is quite
evident that no agglomeration of fallible men can make an
infallible church, either by the personal authority of the
individuals or in virtue of their agglomeration. But that is by
no means the question with us.
“We deny that the church is simply an agglomeration of men; and
we deny that the infallibility comes by the authority of its
members in any way.
“As Christ is a Theanthropical person, so also the church is a
Theanthropical society, of which Christ is the head, the Holy
Ghost the soul, and the regenerated men the body. The
infallibility comes from the Holy Ghost, through Christ, to the
body.
“_If it is so_, it is evident that the infallibility will remain
as long as the union shall last. And in that supposition the
learned lawyer cannot fail to see that infallibility does not, in
any way, come to the body by the authority of its members, but
from God, the only authoritative and absolute power in the world,
which can bind the minds as well as the wills of men.
“That is the Catholic question, and the real position we
maintain.
“If each man is his own authority, according to the preceding
remarks in this book (and that is conceded), then an
authoritative church is impossible, because it presents an
authority external to me, and then asks me to accept it. I admit
that, if there is to be _any_ church, it must be of divine
origin. Even were the Bible inspired and infallible, I, being
fallible, must interpret it fallibly, and therefore it must be
the same _to me_ for all intents and purposes as if it were a
fallible book. The same argument applies to the church as a
divine, authoritative institution--what is _outside_ of the
man--that is, the so-called fact is not an authority for him; but
he is the authority for it; if not an absolute authority, at any
rate, the only authority possible. The trouble arises from the
Baconian philosophy, which has attempted to build up a system on
_facts_ so-called--without rejecting the _authority_ for those
facts--_as if the authority were in the fact itself_.”
This speaks for itself, and the position it takes is not controverted. 146
But the lawyer says it does not meet the question, that is, we
presume, the question as it is in his mind, though he had not
previously expressed it. He says:
“The note given me does not meet the question. It is claimed that
the church is infallible because a divine institution--that is,
because established by God.
“Now, admit it to be a divine institution, if it is to be
presented for our acceptance, it must be for the acceptance of
our fallible reason.
“For example, when the missionary carries the church to the
heathen, does he not present it for their rational acceptance?
And if so, does he not ask their finite judgment to pass upon and
accept the infinite and the absolute?
“Now, the point is this: if the thing or truth presented be
infinite and absolute, and the person to whom it is presented be
imperfect, fallible, and conditioned, how can the truth--or the
church, if you please--appear otherwise to him than according to
his finite and partial interpretation of it?
“The question in respect to the absolute is, not whether it be
_really_ true and absolute or not, but to what extent does the
normal affirmation go respecting it. In short, must not the same
argument obtain against the church as against the Bible?
“It comes to the question of _authority_; and, if all intelligent
authority resides in _the person_ (and certainly each one must,
from the nature of his constitution, be his own authority), then
it follows that no authority whatever can reside in the state,
the church, or in any mere institution or being _outside_ of the
person, whether that church or institution assume divinity or
not.
“The authority is not in the _so-called fact_, but in _the
person_ to whom the so-called fact is presented, and who is
called upon to pass upon it.
“The Baconian system is false, because it makes the so-called
fact the authority for itself; when plainly the very existence or
comprehension of the so-called fact depends wholly on the
_person_ to whom it is presented.”
The objection is, apparently, the objection we ourselves bring to the
Protestant rule of faith, namely, the Bible interpreted by private
judgment. The Bible may be the word of God and infallible, but my
interpretation of it, or my private judgment in interpreting it, is
fallible, and therefore I have in it and with it only a fallible rule
of faith. So the church may be a divine institution, and by the
assistance of the Holy Ghost infallible; but her teaching is addressed
to my intelligence, and must be passed upon by my private judgment,
which is finite and fallible, therefore incompetent to pass upon the
infinite and absolute. Hence, the Catholic rule no more gives
infallible faith than does the Protestant rule. The principle of the
objection the lawyer urges is that authority is intrinsic, not
extrinsic; comes not from without, but from within, from the mind, and
can never be greater than the mind itself; and as that is fallible,
there is and can be no infallible authority for faith or belief. The
objection is simply that an infallible authority for the mind in
matters of faith is impossible, because the mind is not itself
infallible, and therefore incapable of an infallible act or assent.
This, we believe, is the objection in all its force.
The objection rests on two principles, neither of which is tenable:
first, that the mind or intellect is universally fallible; and,
second, that the authority in matters of faith is in the mind itself,
not out of it, and, therefore, belief in anything on extrinsic
authority is impossible.
1. The intellect is not universal or infinite, and does not and cannot
know all things; but it is never false in what it knows, and in its
own sphere is infallible; that is, the intellect is not false or
fallible in what it knows, for every one who knows knows that he
knows. The judgment is false or fallible only when and where, and so
far as knowledge fails. Thus, St. Augustine says,[42] _Omnis qui 147
fallitur, id quo fallitur, non intelligit_. The error is not in the
intellect or intelligence, but in the ignorance or non-intelligence.
Doubtless, we can and do err in our judgment of matters of which we
are ignorant, of which we have only an imperfect knowledge, or when we
undertake from what we do know to judge of things unknown, which is
all that St. Thomas means when he says, “_Falsitas est in
intellectu_.”[43] To deny this is to deny all human knowledge, and to
assert universal scepticism, and then the lawyer could not assert his
objection, and would be obliged to doubt even that he doubts. If the
intellect is universally fallible, we may as well close the discussion
at once, for nothing can be settled. If it, in its own province, where
it really does know, is infallible, then the only question is,
whether, in passing judgment on the facts that establish the
infallibility of the church, the intellect is obliged to go out of its
own province, and judge of matters in regard to which it is
confessedly incompetent and fallible?--a question we shall consider in
its place.
2. We join issue with the lawyer on his assertion that the authority
is intrinsic in the mind itself, not extrinsic, either in the object
or the authority that affirms it. He says in his note that “no
authority whatever can reside in the state, the church, or any mere
institution or being _outside_ of the person, whether that church or
institution assume divinity or not. The authority is not in the
so-called _fact_, but in the _person_ to whom the so-called fact is
addressed, and who is called upon to pass upon it. The Baconian system
is false, because it makes the so-called fact the authority for
itself; when plainly the very _existence_ or comprehension of it
depends wholly on the person to whom it is addressed.” So we do not
know facts because they exist, but they exist because we know them or
judge them to exist! But how can so-called facts be addressed to the
person before they exist? The lawyer goes farther than his argument
against the church requires, and consequently proves, if anything, too
much, and therefore nothing. He makes not only all knowledge, but,
unintentionally, we presume, all existences, depend on their being
known, and therefore makes them purely subjective, and falls into
Fichteism or pure egoism.
The lawyer’s rule excludes not only faith, but knowledge of every sort
and degree; for all knowledge is assent, and in the simplest fact of
knowledge the intellectual assent is given on authority or evidence
extrinsic to the person, though intrinsic in the object. Knowledge is
either intuitive or discursive. In intuitive knowledge, the evidence
or motive of the intellectual assent is intrinsic in the object, but
extrinsic to the assenting mind. The immediate presence of the object
motives or authorizes the assent, and the mind has simply the power or
faculty of apprehending the object, or judging that it is, when
presented; for, without the object affirming its presence to the mind,
there can be no fact of knowledge or intellectual assent. In
discursive knowledge the authority or evidence, as in intuitive
knowledge, is intrinsic in the object, but it is implicit, and can be
placed in immediate relation with the intellectual faculty only by
discursion--a process of reasoning or demonstration. But demonstration
does not motive the assent; it only removes the _prohibentia_, or
renders explicit what is implicit, for nothing can be asserted in the 148
conclusion not already implicitly asserted in the premises; yet the
assent is by virtue of the evidence or authority intrinsic in the
object, as in intuition. All this means that we know objects because
they are and are placed in relation with our cognitive faculty, not
that they are because we know them, or because the mind places them,
or makes them its object. If the lawyer’s rule, that authority is not
in the object but in the mind or person, were true, there could be no
fact of knowledge, either intuitive or discursive, because the mind
cannot know where there is nothing to be known.
Faith or belief agrees with knowledge in the respect that it is
intellectual assent, but differs from it in that it is mediate assent,
by an authority extrinsic, as authority or evidence, both to the
object and to the person. The authority or evidence mediates between
the mind and the fact or object, and brings them together in a manner
somewhat analogous to that in which the middle term in the syllogism
brings together the two extremes and unites them in the conclusion. If
the evidence or the authority is adequate, the belief is reasonable
and as certain as any conclusion of logic, or as the immediate assent
of the mind in the fact of science or knowledge. I am as certain that
there is such a city as Rome, though I have never seen it, that there
was such a man as Julius Cæsar, George Washington, or Napoleon
Bonaparte, as I am that the three angles of the triangle are equal to
two right angles. It is on this principle the lawyer acts and must act
in every case he has in court. He summons and examines witnesses, and
relies on their testimony or evidence to obtain a conviction or an
acquittal, except in a question of law; and then he relies on the
judge or the court. If there is no authority _outside_ the person,
that is, no authority not in his own mind, why does he summon and
examine and cross-examine witnesses or consult the judge? Why does he
not work the facts and the law out of his own “inner consciousness,”
as do most modern historians the facts they give us for history? As a
lawyer, our friend would soon find his principle, if he carried it
into court, operating as an effectual estoppel to the practice of his
profession.
The lawyer asks, “When the missionary carries the church to the
heathen, does he not present it for their rational acceptance? And if
so, does he not ask their finite judgment to pass upon and accept the
infinite and absolute?” We are sure our friend would argue better than
this if he had a case in court on which anything of importance
depended. When presented by his brother lawyer opposite with the
decision of the court of appeals barring his case, would he attempt to
judge or pass upon the judgment of the court before accepting it, or
would he not be content with simply verifying the fact that the
decision has been rendered by the court of appeals or court of last
resort? We feel quite sure that, if he were on the defensive, and
adduced the decision of the court of last resort barring the action,
he would be very far from allowing his brother opposite to question
the judgment. Nor would he as a lawyer dream of rejecting the decision
because his own mind had not passed upon its merits; but, when once
assured that the court had rendered it, he would accept it and submit
to it as law, not on his own judgment, but on the authority of the
court itself. All he would allow himself to do would be to verify the
powers of the court, in order to ascertain if it is a court of 149
competent jurisdiction, and to be sure that it had rendered the
decision. The decision itself he would not, as a lawyer, think of
examining any farther than to ascertain its meaning. He would take it
as final, and submit to it as law, whether for him or against him.
The objection fails to distinguish what, in the case supposed, the
heathen are required to pass upon in order to act rationally in
accepting the church. They would be required to pass on the
sufficiency of the evidence of her divine institution and commission
to teach and govern all men and nations in all things pertaining to
the kingdom of God on earth. That evidence, called by theologians
“motives of credibility,” found complete, all the rest follows as a
logical consequence, and there is no calling upon “the finite to pass
upon the infinite and absolute, any more than there is upon the
counsellor to pass upon the merits of the judgment of the court of
final resort after being certified that the court has actually
rendered it. All that one has to believe of the infinite and absolute,
after he has established by evidence appropriate in the case the
divine institution and commission of the church, he believes on the
authority of the church herself.
The missionary, no doubt, presents the church to their rational
acceptance, and must, therefore, present to them the motives of
credibility, or the facts which accredit her as divinely instituted
and commissioned, and these motives, these facts, must be addressed to
their understanding, and be such as their reason can pass upon and
accept or reject. But the question is, Supposing reason has passed
upon these facts or the motives, and found them sufficient to accredit
the church, as a teacher come from God, and commissioned or authorized
by him to teach his word, is not the acceptance of that word on her
authority as the word of God a “rational acceptance,” and all the most
rigid reason does or can demand?
The lawyer says no; and because all authority is in the person, and
resides nowhere _outside_ of him, and therefore it is necessary that
reason should pass upon the contents of the word, that is, upon the
doctrines and mysteries contained in the word the church professes to
teach, which is impossible; for it requires the finite to pass upon
the infinite and absolute, which exceeds its powers; therefore, faith
is impossible. But this simply implies that no belief is admissible
that is not science, and faith must be swallowed up in knowledge, and
thus cease to be faith, before the human mind can rationally accept
it.
The trouble with the lawyer’s objection is that it assumes that faith
is irrational, unless it is science or knowledge. His statement goes
even farther than this. He not only denies that there can be any
rational belief on extrinsic authority, but that there is or can be
any such authority, or that any state, church, or _being_ has or can
have any authority _outside_ of me, or not derived from me. This, as
far as words go, asserts that God himself has no authority over me,
and his word has no authority for my reason or will, not dependent on
me. We do not believe he means this, for he is not divested of the
reason common to all men. He means, we presume, simply that no state,
no church, not even God himself, has any authority on which I can
rationally believe anything which transcends the reach of my reason,
or which is not intrinsically evident to my reason by its own light. 150
But what is evident to me by the light of my own reason, I know, and
not simply believe. As belief is always on extrinsic authority simply
accredited to reason, this goes so far as to deny that any belief is
or can be rational, and that any authority or any amount of testimony
is sufficient to warrant it, which, as we have seen, is much farther
than the lawyer can go in the practice of his profession, or any man
in the ordinary business of life.
We do not think our legal friend has duly considered the reach of the
principle he lays down. Even in the so-called positive sciences, the
greater part of the matters accepted by the scientist are accepted on
extrinsic authority, not on personal knowledge. No geologist has
personally observed all or even the greater part of the facts he uses
in the construction of his science; no geographer, however great a
traveller he may have been, has visited and personally examined all
parts of the globe which he describes; the botanist describes and
classifies more plants, the zoölogist more forms of life, than he has
personally seen, and the historian deals almost entirely with facts of
which he has no personal knowledge. Eliminate from the sciences what
the scientist has not observed for himself, but taken on the reported
observation of others, and from the garniture of every mind what it
believes or takes on extrinsic authority, not on his personal
knowledge, and there would be very little left to distinguish the most
learned and highly educated man from the untutored savage. In all the
affairs of life, we are obliged to rely on extrinsic authority, on
evidence neither in the subject nor in the object, on the observations
and testimony of others, and sometimes on the observations and
accumulated testimony of ages, especially in wise and prudent
statesmanship; and if we were suddenly deprived of this authority
evidence, or testimony, and reduced to our own personal knowledge,
intuitive or discursive; society would come to a standstill, and would
soon fall below the level of the New Hollander, for even he inherits
some lessons from the past, and associates with his observations some
observations of others.
We presume our friend the lawyer means nothing of all this, and his
mistake arises from not sharply distinguishing between the motives of
credibility and the authority, on the one hand, and the authority and
what it authorizes, on the other. The existence of God is a fact of
science, though discursive, not intuitive, science. That God is, as
the theologians say, _prima veritas in essendo, in cognoscendo, et in
dicendo_, is also a truth of science--is a truth we not simply believe,
but know or may know, for it can be proved with certainty by natural
reason prior to faith. God is truth; it is impossible for him to lie,
since he is _prima veritas in dicendo_, the primal truth in speaking,
and can neither deceive nor be deceived, for he is _prima veritas in
cognoscendo_, or the principle of all truth in knowing.
This granted, the word of God must be true, infallibly true. So far we
can go by science or certain knowledge. Now, suppose the lawyer to
have full proof that it really is God’s word that is announced to him,
would he not be bound to believe it true, nay, could he in the
exercise of his reason help believing it true, prior to and
independent of any consideration of its contents, or what it is that
God says? God can neither deceive nor be deceived, therefore his word
must be true, and cannot possibly be false. God’s word is the highest 151
and most conclusive evidence conceivable of the truth of what is
asserted in his word, and, if the truth, then reasonable, for nothing
is more reasonable than truth or unreasonable than falsehood. It
would, therefore, be as unnecessary as irreverent and impertinent to
examine God’s word to see if what he asserts is reasonable before
yielding it our assent. We know beforehand that it is true, or else
God could not affirm it, and that whatever conflicts with it is false
and unreasonable; and the lawyer himself will admit, we presume, that
the highest possible reason for believing is God’s word, in case we
have it. Let us consider so much settled.
The next step is the proof or certainty that what is alleged to be the
word of God really is his word. His word is his revelation. Suppose,
then, that he made his revelation, and deposited it with the apostles
whom he commanded to go forth and teach it to all men and nations. The
apostles would, on this supposition, be competent and credible
witnesses to the fact that God made and deposited his revelation with
them. Suppose, farther, that the apostles transmitted to their
successors, or, rather, that the church is the identical apostolical
body, continued without any interruption or break down to our time,
the church would then be a competent and credible witness to the fact
of revelation and to what is revealed. Being the eye-witness of the
facts which proved our Lord a teacher come from God and authorized to
speak in his name, and the depositary of the revelation, her testimony
is conclusive. She saw with her own eyes the facts, she knows what has
been deposited with her, and the commission she received, and therefore
her testimony or evidence cannot be gainsaid. She is the living and
contemporary witness, and every-way credible, as we have shown in the
article _The Church accredits Herself_.[44]
The infallibility follows necessarily from her commission from God to
teach all men and nations. This commission from God commands all men
and nations in his name to believe and obey what she teaches as his
word. If she could err in teaching, then all men and nations might be
required by God himself to believe error or falsehood, which is
impossible, since God is truth, and can neither deceive nor be
deceived. The divine commission to the church or apostolic body to
teach carries with it the divine pledge of infallibility.
Now, supposing the church to be what she claims to be, reason itself
requires us to accept and obey as the word of God whatever she teaches
as his word, since his word is true, and the highest possible evidence
of truth. Nothing is or can be more reasonable than to believe the
word of God, or to believe God on his word. Equally reasonable with it
is it to believe that what the Apostolic Church declares to be his
word, really is so, if she is instituted and commissioned by God to
keep, guard, teach, interpret, declare, and define it. The only point,
then, to be proved is the divine institution and commission, both of
which, if the apostolic body, she is herself the authority for
asserting, as the supreme court is the authority for asserting its own
legal constitution, power, and jurisdiction. This leaves, then, only a
single point to be proved, namely, the historical identity of the body
calling itself the Catholic Church with the apostolic body with whom
the revelation was deposited.
We need not now go into the historical proofs of the identity of the 152
Catholic Church with the apostolic body, for that is easily done, and
has been done over and over again; besides, it lies on the very face
of history, and Pius IX., the Pontiff now gloriously reigning, is as
easily and as certainly proved to be the successor of Peter as Ulysses
S. Grant is proved to be the successor in the presidency of the United
States of George Washington, the schism of Jefferson Davis to the
contrary notwithstanding. Moreover, if the lawyer doubts, as we
presume he does not, the identity, we hold ourselves ready to adduce
the proofs whenever he calls for them. Assuming, then, the case to be
as stated, we demand what in the whole process of acceptance of the
faith the missionary proposes to the heathen is irrational, or not
satisfactory, to the fullest demands of reason? In fact, the points to
be proved are exceedingly few, and those not above the reach of
private judgment, or difficult. The authority of our Lord as a teacher
come from God was proved by miracles. These miracles the church
witnessed and testifies to as facts, and so far her testimony is
unimpeachable. Their supernatural and miraculous character we can
ourselves judge of. Whether they prove the divine authority of Jesus
or not, is also a matter of which we are competent to judge. His
divine authority proved, his divinity, and all the mysteries of his
person can be rationally accepted on his word, and what his word was,
the church who received it is competent to declare. There really,
then, is nothing to be proved which the church herself does not either
prove or supply the means of proving in order to render belief in what
she claims to be, and in what she teaches, as rational or reasonable
as belief in any well-ascertained fact in natural science. The motives
of credibility which she brings with her and presents to the
understanding of all men who hear her accredit her as the divinely
appointed depositary and teacher of the revelation God has made to
men, and all the rest follows of itself, as in the syllogism the
conclusion follows from the premises.
The lawyer does not admit it, and rejects the whole, because he
rejects all belief on extrinsic authority. But is not this because he
mistakes the meaning of the word _authority_ as used by theologians
and philosophers? We have generally found that the men who object to
belief on authority understand by authority an order or command
addressed to the will, without including anything to convince the
reason or to motive the assent of the understanding. This is not
precisely the theological sense of the term. The theologians
understand by authority in matters of faith authority _for_ believing
as well as an order _to_ believe. It is the reason which authorizes
the belief, and is therefore primarily authority for the intellect,
and furnishes it an ample reason to believe.
Authority addressed simply to the will ordering it to believe, and
giving the intellect no reason for believing, can produce no rational
belief, and induce no belief at all, and this we presume is what, and
all, our legal friend means. Taking authority in his sense, we
entirely agree with him, except a command from God is always a reason
for the intellect as well as an order to the will, since God is
_prima veritas_, and can command only what is true, reasonable, just,
and right. His command is his word, and an order from him to the will
is _ipso facto_ a reason for the understanding, since no higher
evidence of truth than his word is possible. With this reserve, the 153
lawyer is right in his objection to belief on authority, as he
understands it, for there is no belief where there is no intellectual
conviction. But he is mistaken in supposing that theologians mean only
authority in his sense, authority commanding the will, and giving no
reason to the understanding; they mean primarily by authority in
matters of faith or reason authority for believing, and commanding it
only through conviction to believe, which it must do if convinced.
The authority, then, which we assert, is the reason for believing; it
is the _medius terminus_ that unites the credible object and the
creditive subject, and renders the belief possible and an intellectual
act, and so far assimilates it to knowledge. Belief without authority
is belief without any ground or reason for believing, and is
irrational, unfounded, mere credulity, as when one believes a rumor
for which there is no authority. When the authority is worthy of
credit, the belief is warranted, and when it is infallible, the belief
is infallible. In believing what the church teaches me is the word of
God, I have infallible authority for my belief, and cannot be
deceived, be mistaken, or err. This is all so plain, and so fully in
accord with the demands of reason, that we are forced to explain the
repugnance so many people manifest to believing on authority, by
supposing that they understand by authority simply an order of a
master to believe, without accompanying it with anything to convince
the understanding, thus making the act of faith an act not of faith at
all, but of mere blind obedience. This is all wrong. Faith as an
intellectual act cannot be blind any more than is the act of
knowledge, and must have a reason that convinces the understanding.
Hence, the church does not censure unbelief in those who know not the
authority or reason there is for belief, and, if at all, it is only
for their neglect to avail themselves with due diligence of the means
of arriving at belief within their reach.
The authority or command of God is indeed the highest reason the mind
can have for believing anything, and it is therefore that unbelief in
those who have his command or authority becomes sinful, because it
implies a contempt of God, a contempt of truth, and practically says
to him who made us, from whom we hold all that we have, and who is
truth itself, “We _will_ not take your word; we do not care what you
say; we are the masters of our own thoughts, and will think and
believe as we please.” This is not only irreverent and disobedient,
indicating a wholly indefensible pride and self-will, but denies the
very principle asserted by unbelievers in justification of their
refusal to believe at the order or command of authority, namely, that
it is not in one’s power to believe or disbelieve at will, nor as one
wills.
These explanations suffice, we think, to show that private judgment or
individual reason is not required by the Catholic to judge “the
infinite and absolute,” or to pass upon any matter that lies out of
the province of natural reason, and exceeds its competence or finite
capacity. It is required to pass only upon the motives of credibility,
or the facts that prove the church is a divine institution,
commissioned to teach all men and nations through all time the divine
revelation which she has received, and of these we are able by our own
light to judge. The authority to teach established, all the rest
follows logically and necessarily, as we have just said, as in the
syllogism the conclusion follows from the premises. The authority
being addressed to the intellect as well as to the will, and a 154
sufficient reason for believing as well as obeying, the lawyer’s
principal objection is disposed of, and the acceptance of the faith is
shown to be a rational acceptance.
But, conceding the infallibility of the church, since her teaching
must be received by a fallible understanding, why is belief on the
authority of the church less fallible than belief on the authority of
an infallible book, interpreted by the same fallible understanding?
You say to Protestants: The Bible may be infallible, but your
understanding of it is fallible, and therefore even with it you have
no infallible rule of faith. Why may not the Protestant retort: Be it
that the church is infallible, you have only your fallible private
judgment by which to interpret her teachings, and, therefore, with
your infallible church have only a fallible faith?
More words are usually required to answer an objection than are
required to state it. We do not assert or concede the fallibility of
reason, intellect, or private judgment in matters which come within
its own province or competence. Revelation presupposes reason, and
therefore that man is capable of receiving it; consequently of
certainly knowing and correctly understanding it, within the limits of
his finite reason. We do not build faith on scepticism, or the
incapacity of reason to know anything with certainty. Reason is the
preamble to faith, and is competent to receive and understand truly,
infallibly, if you will, clear and distinct propositions in their
plain and obvious sense when presented to it in words spoken or in
words written. If it were not so, all writing and all teaching, all
books and all sermons, would be useless. So far the Protestant rule
and the Catholic are the same, with this difference only, that, if we
happen to mistake the sense of the church, she is ever present to
correct the error and to set us right, while the Protestant rule can
give no further explanation, or add a word to correct the
misapprehension. The teachings of the church need to be understood,
but not ordinarily to be interpreted; and, even when they do have to
be interpreted, she is present to interpret them, and declare
infallibly the sense in which they are to be understood. But the
Bible, from beginning to end, must be interpreted before it can be
understood, and, while private judgment or reason may be competent to
understand it when it is interpreted or explained, it is yet only a
fallible interpreter, and incompetent to explain to the understanding
its real sense.
The church interprets and explains herself; there are books, also,
that carry their own explanation with them, and so need no
interpretation or further explanation; but manifestly the Bible is not
such a book. It is inspired; it is true; it is infallible; and is, as
St. Paul says of all Scripture, divinely inspired, “profitable to
teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of
God may be perfect, furnished to every good word and work” (2 Tim.
iii. 16, 17); but it bears on its face the evidence that it was
addressed to men who were already believers, and already instructed,
partially at least, in the truths it teaches or enforces, and that it
was not written to teach the faith to such as had no knowledge of it,
but to correct errors, to present more fully the faith on certain
points, to point out the duties it enjoins, to exhort to repentance
and reform, and to hold up as motives on the one hand, the fearful
judgment of God upon those who disregard his goodness, or despise his
mercy, or abuse his long-suffering, and, on the other, the exceeding 155
riches of divine love, and the great reward prepared in heaven for
those that believe, love, and obey him. No one can read it without
perceiving that it neither is nor professes to be the original medium
of the Christian revelation to man, but from first to last supposes a
revelation previously made, the true religion to have been already
taught, and instructions in it already received. This is true of the
Old Testament, and more especially true of the New Testament; and we
know historically, and nobody denies it, that the faith was preached
and believed, and particular churches, congregations of believers,
were gathered and organized, before a word of the New Testament was
written.
The Protestant, reduced to the sacred text, even supposing he has the
genuine and authentic text, and his private judgment, would be reduced
to the condition of the lawyer who should undertake to explain the
statutes of any one of our states, in total ignorance of the Common
Law, or without the least reference to it or the decisions of the
common-law courts. Now and then a statute, perhaps, would explain
itself, but in most cases he would be wholly at a loss as to the real
meaning of the legislature. Our wise law reformers in this state, a
few years since, seeing and feeling the fact, attempted to codify the
laws so as to supersede the demand for any knowledge of the Common Law
to understand them, and the ablest jurists in the state find them a
puzzle, or nearly inexplicable, and our best lawyers are uncertain how
to bring an action under the new Code of Procedure. The Protestant
needs, in order to interpret the sacred text, a knowledge of
revelation which can neither be obtained from the text itself without
interpretation nor supplied by private judgment. Hence it is that we
find Protestants unable to agree among themselves as to what is or is
not the meaning of the sacred text, and varying in their views all the
way down from the highest Puseyite who accepts all Catholic doctrine,
“the damnatory clauses excepted,” to the lowest Unitarian, who holds
that our Lord was simply a man, the son of Joseph and Mary, and
rejects the church, the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation,
original sin, redemption, the expiatory sacrifice, regeneration,
supernatural grace, the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment,
the everlasting punishment of the incorrigible in hell, and the reward
of the just in any heaven above the Elysian Fields of the Greeks and
Romans or the happy hunting-grounds of the poor Indian. Protestants
are able to agree among themselves only so far as they follow Catholic
tradition and agree with the church. The Protestant needs to know the
Christian faith in order to interpret the sacred text and ascertain it
from the Bible, and this he cannot know by his own private judgment or
develop from his own “inner consciousness,” since it lies in the
supernatural order, and is above the reach of his natural faculties.
It is clear, then, that in the Bible interpreted by private judgment
he has and can have only a fallible authority.
It is not because the Holy Scriptures do not contain, explicitly or
implicitly, the whole faith, that, interpreted by private judgment,
they give only a fallible rule of faith, but because, to find the
faith in its unity and integrity in them, we must know it
_aliunde_ and beforehand. This difficulty is completely obviated by
the Catholic rule. The church has in Catholic tradition, which she
preserves intact by time or change, the whole revelation, whether 156
written or unwritten, and in this tradition she has the key to the
real sense of the sacred Scriptures, and is able to interpret them
infallibly. Tradition, authenticated by the church as the witness and
depositary of it, supplies the knowledge necessary to the
understanding of the sacred text. Read in the light of tradition, what
is implicit in the text becomes explicit, what is merely referred to
as wholly known becomes expressly and clearly stated, and we are able
to understand the written word, because tradition interprets it for
us, without any demand for a knowledge or judgment on our part that
exceeds our natural powers. Our judgment is no longer private
judgment, because we have in tradition a catholic rule by which to
judge, and our judgment has not to pass on anything above the province
of reason.
The objection we make to the Protestant rule, it must be obvious now
to our friend, cannot be retorted. The Protestant must interpret the
sacred Scriptures by his private judgment, which he cannot do without
passing upon questions which transcend its reach. The Catholic
exercises, of course, his judgment in accepting the infallible
teachings of the church, but he is not required to pass upon any
question above the reach of his understanding, or upon which, by his
natural reason, he cannot judge infallibly, or with the certainty of
actual and complete knowledge. He is not required to pass upon the
truth of what the church teaches, for that follows from her divine
institution and commission to teach the revelation God has made
previously established. He has simply to pass upon the question, What
is it she teaches, or presents clearly and distinctly to my
understanding to be believed? and, in passing upon that question, my
judgment has not to judge of anything beyond or above reason, and,
therefore, is not fallible any more than in any other act of
knowledge.
There is another advantage the Catholic rule has over the Protestant
rule. In this world of perpetual change, and with the restless and
ever-busy activity of the human mind, new questions are constantly
coming up and in need of being answered, and so answered as to save
the unity and integrity of the faith. The Bible having once spoken is
henceforth silent; it can say nothing more, and make no further
explanations of the faith to meet these new questions, and tell us
explicitly what the word requires or forbids us to believe with regard
to them. Hence, Protestants never know how to meet them. Then new or
further explanations and decisions are constantly needed, and will be
needed to the end of time. Even the explanations and decisions of the
church, amply sufficient when made, not seldom, through the subtlety
and activity of error, and its unceasing efforts to evade or obscure
the truth, become insufficient, and need themselves to be further
explained, and applied so as to strike in the head the new forms of
old error and deprive them of their last subterfuge. These
explanations and decisions so necessary, and which can be infallibly
made only by a living and ever-present infallible authority, can be
only fallibly made, if at all, on the Protestant rule. Even the creed
of the church, though unalterable, needs from time to time not
development, but new and further explanations, to meet and condemn the
new forms of error that spring up, and to preserve the faith
unimpaired and inviolate. How is this to be done infallibly by a book
written two thousand years ago and private judgment, or without the 157
divine and infallible authority of the church?
These remarks and explanations, we think, fully answer the objections
of our legal friend to the belief on authority, and prove that no
attempted retort of the Protestant on the Catholic can be sustained,
or entertained even, for a moment. We have thus vindicated for him the
Catholic rule, and proved that faith on that rule is possible,
practicable, and rational, is reasonable obedience, and by no means a
blind submission, as he probably supposes. What more can he ask of us?
He cannot repeat his charge and say we have not met the question, for
we have met it, at least so far as we understand it, and under more
forms than he probably dreamed of in urging it. The question is one
that meets the inquirer at the threshold, and he can hardly suppose
that we could have accepted the church ourselves without meeting it,
considering it at length, and disposing of it.
Yet there is one thing more wanting. The method of proof we have
pointed out, however sure and however faithfully followed, does not
suffice to make one a Catholic, or to give one true Catholic and
divine faith, or faith as a theological virtue; it only removes the
obstacles in the way of the intellect in believing, and yields only
what theologians call human faith--_fides humana_--which really
advances one not a single step towards the kingdom of God, or living
union with Christ. A man may be thoroughly convinced, so far as his
reason goes, of the whole Catholic faith, and yet, perhaps, never
become a Catholic. To be a Catholic, one must have supernatural faith,
and be elevated by the grace of God in baptism to the supernatural
order of life in Christ. Reason can construct no bridge over which one
can pass from the natural to the supernatural; the bridge must be
constructed by grace. Faith, the beginning of the Christian life, is
the gift of God. The method we have pointed out or the Catholic rule
produces the conviction of the truth of the church and what she
teaches, and shows it to be one’s duty to seek, if he has it not, the
grace that inclines the will, illumines the understanding, and
regenerates the soul.
The way in which to seek and find this grace is pointed out by our
Lord, Matt. vii. 7: “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” The way is the way of
prayer. The grace of prayer, _gratia orationis_, is given unto all
men. All men can pray. He who prays for it shall receive the grace to
seek, and he who seeks shall find, and receive the grace to knock at
the door of the church, which will be opened to him, and he have the
grace to enter into the regeneration, and live the life of Christ. We
have no hope for the conversion of any one who does not pray; and we
have more confidence in the humble prayers of simple, sincere, and
fervent Catholic souls for the conversion of those without than in all
the reasonings in the world, however conclusive they may be. When once
grace has touched the heart, all clouds vanish of themselves, all
darkness is dissipated, all obstacles disappear, we know not how, and
to believe is the easiest and simplest thing in the world. To believe
is difficult only when one persists in relying on his own strength and
will accept no aid from above. Let those, then, who have faith pray
unceasingly for those who have it not.
[42] Lib. lxxxiii. quæst. xxx.
[43] _Vide Summa_, q. xvii. a. 3 in c.
[44] THE CATHOLIC WORLD for May, 1871, first article.
----------
THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 158
CHAPTER XV.
VOILA CE QUI FAIT QUE VOTRE FILLE EST MUETTE.
Madame Swetchine says: “The wrongs which the heart resents most keenly
are impalpable and invisible.” We may parody this, and say, with equal
truth, that the troubles most difficult to bear are frequently those
which, to indifferent observers, seem scarcely worth mention. There is
dignity, and a certain stimulating excitement, in great affliction and
great wrong; but a petty persecution, which we would fain treat with
contempt, but which, in spite of us, pierces with small, envenomed
points to our very hearts, is capable of testing our utmost endurance.
Who does not know how one malicious, intriguing woman can poison a
whole community, break friendship that would have stood the test of
death, and destroy a confidence that seemed as firm as the hills? The
smiling malice, the affected candor, the smooth insinuation, the more
than infantine innocence--happy he who has not learned by bitter
experience these tactics of the devil’s sharpshooters!
Of such a nature was the earlier stage of the persecution suffered by
the Catholics of Seaton. Servants were daily insulted by mistresses
less well-bred than themselves. They had to swallow a gibe with their
Friday’s eggs or fish; they were entertained with slanderous stories
regarding the priest they loved and reverenced. This was, of course,
without provocation. Who ever knew an Irish servant-girl who attacked
the religion or irreligion of her employers? Workingmen could not go
through the streets to and from their work without being forced to
listen to revilings of their church. This was carried to such an
extent that they soon found themselves obliged to relinquish their
open-air lounging-places, where they had smoked and talked after the
day’s work was done, and shut themselves into their houses. Nor were
they allowed to remain in peace there. Nearly all the Irish lived on
one street, running from the bridge up the west side of the river, and
called Irish Lane. When it was found that they would not come out to
be insulted, the mob that gathered in the streets every evening
marched up this lane, calling out to the Irish, challenging, taunting
them. But not one word or act of retaliation could they provoke to
give them an excuse for the violence which they were thirsting to
commit. Father Rasle had given his people stringent orders to remain
in their houses, and make no reply, no matter what was said to them,
and to defend themselves only if their houses were broken into. They
obeyed him with astonishing docility.
When, later, the people of Seaton found themselves covered with
disgrace before the country for their outrages on Catholics, they
strove to throw the odium on “a few rowdies,” or on workingmen from
other towns employed in the Seaton ship-yards; and in a sketch of the
town in the _History of Maine_, written since that time, the Catholics
are accused of being themselves the cause of their own troubles. Both
these statements are false. In the town-meeting, which endorsed and 159
even suggested every outrage that was committed, ministers and
town-officers made inflammatory speeches from the same platform with
any ignorant adventurer who might hope to raise himself to notice by
reviling the church. Those of the townspeople who were not active
members of the mob were, at least, passive lookers-on; and when, at
length, acts of violence began, some of the most prominent citizens
went to see the windows of the Catholic church and of the priest’s
house broken, as they would have gone to any other amusing show. But
we anticipate.
The prime instrument in this movement was the Seaton _Herald_, which
Carl Yorke had left in a sinking condition. The Know-Nothings, wanting
an organ, bought it for a song, and put into the editorial chair a man
well fitted for the work. Under such superintendence, the paper rose
to an infamous popularity. It was no longer a question of religious
freedom, and law, and order, but of common decency. Every week the
names of quiet, respectable people were dragged into its columns, that
festered with lies--their names only enough veiled to escape the law,
but not enough to conceal the identity. In a city, there is some
escape from this disgusting notoriety--one can hide from it; but in a
small town there is no escape. Everybody is known to everybody, and
one lives as in a glass case.
Mr. Yorke looked over one of these papers--“looked holes through it,”
Clara said--then threw it into the fireplace, dropped a lighted match
on it, and watched its burning with his nostrils compressed, like one
who smells a noxious scent. “Don’t send another number of your
disgraceful paper to me,” he wrote to the editor; but vainly, for the
paper came as before, and was regularly taken in the tongs and put
into the kitchen fire, except when Betsey or Patrick slyly rescued it
for their own private reading.
“I don’t care for their lies,” Patrick said, when Mr. Yorke reproved
him; “but I want to know what they mean to do. If a pack of thieves
were planning to break into your house, sir, wouldn’t you stop to
listen to their conversation?”
The Catholic children had also their cross to bear. The teachers of
the public schools, anxious to have their part in the “great work,”
were zealous in enforcing the Bible-reading, and careful to see that
no Catholic child omitted the doxology which Martin Luther chose to
add to the “Our Father” of the Son of God.
Suddenly an outcry was raised by the Know-Nothings. The pretext they
had longed and worked for was given, and great was their joy. The
incident was simple enough. The boy who lived with Father Rasle was
found by his teacher to have a Douay Bible. He was ordered to take it
away and buy a Protestant Bible. “I shall not buy you a Protestant
Bible,” Father Rasle said. “Use your own, or go without.” The child
was threatened with punishment if he did not bring one. The priest
immediately removed him from school, fitted up the building formerly
used as a chapel for a school-house, and employed a young Catholic
lady, recently come to town, as teacher. The Catholic children gladly
left the schools, where they had, perhaps, suffered more than their
parents had elsewhere, and placed themselves under the care of Miss
Churchill. How beautiful, how strange it was to kneel down and say an
Our Father and a Hail Mary at the beginning of their studies! How
delightful to go out at recess and play without being assailed by 160
blows or nicknames! How proud they were when Father Rasle came in to
give them his weekly instruction in religion! It was quite different
from their accustomed ideas of school-life.
Mrs. Yorke was much disturbed by this arrangement. “Edith will have to
give up her new friend,” she said decidedly. “I honor Miss Churchill
for acting up to her principles, even when it is sure to bring her
into a disagreeably conspicuous position; but there is nothing that
obliges us to share her danger. When a person comes out of the ranks
for conscience’ sake, let her stand alone, and have the glory of it.”
Edith objected at first, but her aunt insisted, and the girl soon saw
that, though it went against her feelings, it was right to obey.
“We are not Catholics, my dear,” Mrs. Yorke said; “but it is our duty
and wish to protect you from insult. We have suffered in doing so. You
know we have given up going to meeting, the sermons were so pointed,
and given up the sewing-circle, because we could not go without
hearing something offensive, and your cousins find it unpleasant to go
into the street even. As to your uncle, his defence of the religious
rights of your church exposes him to actual danger. Our life here is
nearly intolerable, and this will make it worse if you and Miss
Churchill continue to visit each other.”
Fortunately, Miss Churchill anticipated this, and herself put a
temporary end to their acquaintance--“till better times,” she wrote.
“She has behaved well,” Mrs. Yorke said, after reading the note. “And
now, Charles, I wish that you would show a little prudence, and let
events take their course without interfering. Why should you say
anything? It does no good.”
“From which motive would you wish me to be silent,” her husband asked
quietly--“from cowardice or selfishness?”
She made no reply, save to wring her hands, and wish that she had
never come to Seaton.
“Now, Amy dear, listen to reason,” her husband said.
“You know, Charles, it is very disagreeable to have to listen to
reason,” she objected pathetically.
He laughed, but persisted. “I have heard you say many a time that
disinterested and intelligent men were to blame in withdrawing from
public affairs, and leaving them in the hands of dishonest
politicians. You said, very sensibly, that, if such men were not
strong enough to prevent abuses, they should at least protest against
them, and let the world see that patriotism was not quite dead.
Perhaps, you added, such a protest might shame others into joining
you. Oh! you were eloquent on that subject, little woman, and quoted
from _Tara’s Halls_. The idea was that even the indignant breaking of
a heart in the cause of truth showed that truth still lived, which was
some good. What do you say, milady? Was it all talk? Are you going to
fail me? ‘I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober.’”
Mrs. Yorke was smiling, and her face had caught a slight color. The
repetition of her own sentiments had encouraged her, as the
recollection of our own heroic aspirations often does help us in
weaker moments.
His wife pacified, Mr. Yorke went out to work off his own irritation.
He would not have had her know it, but he had been attacked in the
street that very day when stopping to speak to Father Rasle. The
priest seldom went into the street unless absolutely obliged to, and 161
would gladly have avoided subjecting any one to annoyance on his
account; but Mr. Yorke would as soon have denied his faith as have
shrunk from stopping to greet the priest cordially--would have so
greeted him, indeed, if a hundred guns had been aimed at him for it.
But it was not pleasant. He was a fastidious gentleman, accustomed to
respect, and the impertinence of the rabble was to him peculiarly
offensive. He had come home fuming with anger, which had not abated
while restrained. Fortunately, he found something to scold at the
minute he went out. A grapevine, which he had coaxed to grow in that
unaccustomed country, had this year put forth its first clusters; by
some mistake, Patrick had clipped the leaves off, and left the green
bunches exposed to the sun.
“Pat, what fool told you to do that?” his master demanded angrily.
“Yourself, sir!” answered Patrick, without flinching. He had his cause
of annoyance also.
Mr. Yorke denied the charge with emphasis:
“It is no such thing, you--you vertebrate!”
Patrick drew himself up with an air of dignified resolution. “Sir,” he
said, “I’ve done my duty by you, and you’ve done your duty by me, and
I’ve taken many a sharp word from you, and made no complaint. But I’m
an honest man, if I am not rich nor learned, and I won’t stand and let
any one call me such a name as that.”
Mr. Yorke laughed out irrepressibly. “Well, well, Pat,” he said, “I
beg your pardon. You’re not a vertebrate.”
“All right, sir!” Pat answered cheerfully, and went about his work
satisfied.
Mr. Yorke, his good humor quite restored, went into the house again.
“Poor Pat!” Edith said, a little zealously, when the others smiled
over the story.
“We are not scorning him for his ignorance, my dear,” her uncle
replied. “With Charles Lamb, ‘I honor an honest obliquity of
understanding,’ and I also honor an honest ignorance of books; but
sometimes they are amusing.”
“What did I hear you saying to Mr. Yorke, Pat?” Betsey asked the man
that evening. “It seemed to me that you were impudent.”
“The fact is, I was really mad,” Patrick owned. “I’d been downtown,
and there I came across the editor of the _Herald_, and the sight of
him roiled me, especially as he grinned and made believe bless
himself. I’d like to meet him alone in a quiet bit of woods. I’d soon
change his complexion to as beautiful a black and blue as you ever
saw--the dirty spalpeen, with his eye like a buttonhole!”
Betsey sat on the door-step, and looked up at the stars. “If I’d had
the placing of ‘em,” she remarked presently, “I’d have put ‘em in even
rows, like pins in a paper. It would look better. They’re dreadfully
mixed up now.”
Patrick looked into the skies a little while, but his mind was on
other things than the marshalling of stars into papers of pins. “I’m
sorry Mr. Yorke went to that town-meeting to-night,” he said.
Mr. Yorke was, in fact, at that moment rising in the town-hall to
speak. The Rev. John Conway had uttered a bitter tirade against the
Catholic clergy, with a fierce recapitulation of the affair of Johnny
O’Brian, the priest’s boy, and his Douay Bible. Dr. Martin had
followed with cooler, but not less bitter, denunciation, and another 162
reference to Johnny O’Brian. A Portuguese barber had made an idiotic
speech, and various town-officers, and prominent Know-Nothings, all
more or less illiterate, had spoken, and all had seasoned their
discourse with Johnny O’Brian. Finally, the Rev. Saul Griffeth had
held his hearers spell-bound while he described, in glowing phrases,
the inevitable and complicated ruin of the country in case Catholics
should be admitted to equal rights, or any rights at all, and had
painted a dazzling picture of the country’s future glories should
Catholics be excluded. And here again the perennial Johnny O’Brian
figured.
In the midst of a cold and threatening silence, Mr. Yorke got up.
Never was his voice more rasping, his mouth more scornful, his glance
more full of fire. “It was happy,” he said, “for one man that the
Reverend Mr. John Conway was not Calvin; for, instead of being content
to burn Servetus, he would first have tortured him, till even the
flames would have been a relief. As for the Reverend Mr. Griffeth’s
companion pictures of the country’s future, they were daubs such as no
sensible man would receive as true representations, and the young man
who painted them probably believed in them no more than he had
believed in the precisely contrary views which he had expressed within
a few years in the speaker’s own hearing. With regard to the other
orators, he did not know what that illiterate and idiotic Portuguese
barber had to do with the town affairs of Seaton, and he congratulated
the rest on the possession of Johnny O’Brian, who had certainly been a
godsend to them. So long as a shred of that devoted child was left,
they would have something to say. But the reasoning in the most of the
speeches to which he had listened had reminded him of the Latin of
Sgarnarelle, _le médecin malgré lui_. They had put their premises in
the middle ages of Europe, and their conclusion in a little New
England town of the nineteenth century. ‘_Voilà ce qui fait que votre
fille est muette._’ What, in fact, are we here to talk about?” He then
went on to state his own views.
It is said of the French legitimists under the first empire, that in
their scorn of the emperor, and their determination to regard him as a
foreigner, they used to pronounce his name so that it seemed to be a
word of twenty syllables. Mr. Yorke had that faculty. His enunciation
was clear, and the letter _r_ very prominent, and the mere pronouncing
of a name he could make an insult. At first his manner had commanded
silence--no one liked to be the first to hiss; but it became too
scathing presently, and when one gave the first faint sound of
disapproval, the storm broke out. He tried again and again to speak,
but they would not hear him. Shouts and jeers arose, and cries of “Put
him out! Down with him!”
“Touch me if you dare!” he said, facing them, and lifting his cane.
They stood aside, and he walked out, and went home, not very well
pleased.
CHAPTER XVI.
BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM.
Mr. Yorke went home from that first town-meeting, and opened his
Bolingbroke to look for a sedative. He found this: “The incivilities I
meet with from opposite parties have been so far from rendering me 163
violent or sour to any, that I think myself obliged to them all. Some
have cured me of fears, by showing me how impotent the world is;
others have cured me of hope, by showing how precarious popular
friendships are. All have cured me of surprise.”
Mr. Yorke readjusted his glasses, and read the passages a second time;
but it was not the sedative he wanted. There was something the matter
with Bolingbroke; his was a worldly and selfish philosophy; and it
was, moreover, a discouraging one; for the reader wished to believe
that it was possible to awaken and keep alive in the popular mind an
enthusiasm for justice. Mr. Yorke was not aware that in this warfare
he had drawn nearer to God, and that what he missed in his old
favorite was that final, heavenly motive which, running like a golden
chain through the simplest human actions, strings them into jewels,
lacking which the noblest human thoughts and deeds crumble like sand
on the sea-shore.
Closing his book with a feeling of disappointment, his thought glanced
down to later times, and he remembered a noble sentiment uttered by
one whom he admired, indeed, but half-unwillingly--one of the purest
and most heroic men of our time, a man who lacks nothing but faith.
“With God, one is a majority!” said Wendell Phillips.
The thought came down on Mr. Yorke’s heart like a hammer upon an
anvil, and sent sparks up into his eyes and brain.
“I take back all that I have said against that man,” he exclaimed,
starting up and walking to and fro. “A man who has a vision of
absolute honesty cannot help being impatient of policy. Strong
conviction never is, never can be, tolerant.” He ran his fingers
through his hair as he paced the room, and combed it up on end. He
would have liked to go directly back to the town-hall, and perhaps
would have done so but for the probability that it was now dark and
empty.
“It is not pleasant to be insulted by such people,” he muttered; “but
it would be still less pleasant to think that the rascals could
silence me. I will be heard at the next meeting,
‘Though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace.’”
It was some time before Mr. Yorke had the opportunity he desired,
though scarcely a day passed in which he did not speak some word for
the truth. There was no other town-meeting that summer. The people
contented themselves with the weekly scandalous battery of the
_Seaton Herald_, and with a small domestic persecution. A few pious
church-members were especially active. This was a kind of missionary
labor which suited them well, for it gave the pretext of zeal to their
bigotry and uncharitableness. If a lady could have persuaded her Irish
servant-girl to eat meat on Friday, she would have gloried in the
triumph.
“I will not eat of flesh on the day when the flesh of Jesus Christ was
hacked and mangled for the sins of the world,” said one faithful girl.
“But nobody knows on what day of the week he died,” the mistress
urged. “That is one of the lies of your priests. Now, Bridget”--laying
a gold half-eagle on the table--“this money shall be yours if you will
eat that piece of meat.”
The servant looked at her mistress with that dignity which a scorn of
meanness can give to the lowliest. “Mrs. Blank,” she said, “you remind
me of the devil tempting our Saviour when he was fasting.”
The temptation and the occasion were trivial, but they called out the 164
spirit of the martyrs.
Cold weather seemed to cool the zeal of the Know-Nothings; but with
another spring it kindled again, making the Catholic school its
principal point of attack. Anonymous letters were written to the
teacher, threatening her if she did not give it up. The _Herald_
contained, week after week, insulting and scarcely veiled references
to her; and the children could not go through the streets unmolested.
But no notice was taken of these annoyances, and the school prospered
in spite of them. The children came unfailingly, not, perhaps, without
fear, but certainly without yielding to fear. They were deeply
impressed by the position in which they found themselves. All their
childish gayety deserted them. They gathered and talked quietly,
instead of playing; they drew shyly away without answering when the
Protestant children attacked them. “Keep out of their way, and never
answer back,” was the charge constantly repeated in the ears of these
little confessors of the faith, and they obeyed it perfectly. Dear
children! may they never lose in later years that faith by which they
suffered so early in life. Herewith, one who watched and admired their
constancy sends them loving greeting.
When the first examination for prizes took place in this school, Mr.
Yorke was present, and made an address; and when it was over, he and
Father Rasle walked away together.
“I am obliged to go away, to be gone a month,” the priest said. “I
must go to-night. But I do not like to leave my flock to the wolves.
There is no help for it, though. The bishop wishes to see me at
Brayon, and I must visit the Indians on Oldtown Island.”
“I advise you, sir, to go as quietly as you can, and let no one see
you go or know that you are going,” Mr. Yorke said.
Father Rasle looked surprised. “Why, you do not imagine that any
person would molest me?”
“I do not imagine, but I am sure that the Know-Nothings would do
anything,” was the reply. “It is not safe to give them an opportunity
for mischief.”
Still the priest looked incredulous.
“I cannot see why they should touch me,” he said. “I have done nothing
to provoke them. They insult us, they tell lies, and I do not resent
it. Do you know the stories that have been brought to me this week? I
find them amusing.” He laughed pleasantly. “See how they represent the
church! A Catholic man, they say, wanted to steal a hundred dollars.
Now, to take so much at once would be a mortal sin; but to steal ten
cents would be only a venial sin. So my brave Catholic steals ten
cents, and, after a week, ten cents more, and so on, till he has the
hundred dollars. By this means, he secures his money, and is guilty
only of a thousand venial sins, which he gets forgiveness for by
giving the priest fifty dollars. That is one of Mr. John Conway’s
stories. Here is another that was published in the _Herald_, with my
name and the others in full. You know that Mrs. Mary O’Conner’s
husband lately died in California. Well, the _Herald_ says that the
poor widow came to me, weeping and lamenting that she had not even the
consolation of seeing her husband’s grave; and I told her that, for
thirty dollars, I would have him buried here. She had saved thirty
dollars, earned by washing, and she brought it to me. Three days
after, I told her that her husband’s body had been miraculously
brought, and I pointed out the spot where it was buried, down here 165
behind the church. But I warned her that she must not dig there, as it
would be a sacrilege, and that, if she did, the body would disappear.
Here’s another: Patrick Mulligan confesses some sin to me, and, for a
penance, I tell him to give himself twenty-five blows with the
discipline. Patrick goes home, gets ready for his penance, and
suddenly remembers that he has no discipline. It is late at night. He
puts his head out the window, and sees that Mrs. Mahony, next door,
has forgotten to take in her clothes-line, and a fine new clothes-line
it is. Pat blesses the saints, creeps down-stairs, steals the
clothes-line, and, going back, cuts it up into a beautiful discipline.
After he has piously beaten himself, he burns the cord all up, that he
may not be known as a thief, goes to bed with a clear conscience, and
sleeps the sleep of the just.
“Now, sir,” the priest concluded, “it is not likely that I am to be
attacked for such stories as that. Of course, no sensible person
believes them; or, if people should doubt, they can easily find out
the truth.”
“The truth, my dear sir, is precisely what they do not wish to find
out,” Mr. Yorke replied. “They want to be exasperated, and, since you
will not afford them a pretext, they will welcome any lie, and no
questions asked. Moreover, you are not to think that such slanders
originate with the low only, and influence only the low. I came upon a
book the other day written by Catherine Beecher. You have heard of the
Beechers, of course? The title was _Truth Stranger than Fiction: a
Narrative_, she calls it, _of Recent Transactions involving Inquiries
in regard to the principles of Honor, Truth, and Justice which obtain
in a distinguished American University_. That university is in
Connecticut; and the affair was one which created a good deal of stir
among the Protestant clergy a few years ago. Miss Beecher seems to
prove clearly in her book that certain eminent doctors of divinity,
and professors, with ladies of their families, ruined the reputation
of a distinguished and innocent woman. But what does Miss Beecher
herself do, in the preface to this very book wherein she appears as
the champion of ‘honor, truth, and justice,’ spelt with capital
letters? She goes out of her way to speak of the Catholic clergy, and
asserts that, since their ministrations are efficacious, no matter
what their characters may be, ‘there is no special necessity, on this
account, to limit admissions to this office to those only who are
virtuous and devout.’ Now, the sentence is artfully worded to evade
the charge of slander; but almost all non-Catholics interpret it, as
the writer wished they should, to mean that, in ordaining a Catholic
priest, it is not considered of any consequence whether he is a man of
good character or not. It has been so interpreted by every person whom
I have asked to read it. I give you another instance: Doctor Martin
took upon himself to send Edith some anti-Catholic books, which I
returned to him without letting her see them. I glanced into one, and
found it divided into paragraphs, each containing a charge against
your church, illustrated by an anecdote. I read one paragraph, headed
_A Church without a Holy Ghost_. Of course, you were charged with not
believing in sanctification; and the anecdote was of a man who became
a Protestant after having been a Catholic forty years. When his new
teachers told him of the Holy Ghost, he exclaimed, ‘Holy Ghost! What
is that? I have been in the Catholic Church forty years, and I never 166
heard of a Holy Ghost.’ Now, sir, this, of course, seems to you
idiotic; but a Protestant doctor of divinity keeps such books, and
gives them to people to read, and repeats such falsehoods in his
sermons. You see what you have to expect.”
“Shall I, then, publish a card denying the truth of these stories?”
Father Rasle asked, with an expression of face which showed his
distaste for the task.
“No one will read it if you do,” was the reply. “You must leave all to
time. At present, for you to be accused is to be condemned. Who was
it--Montesquieu?--who says, ‘If you are accused of having stolen the
towers of Notre Dame, bolt at once’? That is your case. Whatever they
may charge you with, consider yourself convicted.”
They had by this time reached the priest’s house, a little cottage
close to the corner of the two streets. Mr. Yorke declining an
invitation to enter, they leaned on the gate a few minutes to finish
their talk.
“You must not judge our country by what you see here,” Mr. Yorke said.
“What you complain of is merely the abuse of a good gift. A priest of
your church has expressed himself very well concerning these
difficulties. ‘It always pains me, in such periods,’ he says, ‘to hear
men express doubt concerning our institutions. As for me, I would
rather suffer from the license of freedom than the oppression of
authority. War is better than a false peace; riot better than
servitude; heresy better than indifference. But none of these things,’
he adds, ‘is to my liking. And may the good God preserve us from them
all!’ That was Father John, an American priest.”
“Ah! I know him,” Father Rasle said brightly. “I happened to travel
once in his company. We were in a steamboat, and some minister entered
into controversy with him. Catholic Christianity degrades the man, the
minister said. The Catholic cannot hold any communication with God. If
he should be cast away on a desert island, he would be without God.
All must come to him through the church. He has in himself no power to
reflect the divine motions. ‘You mistake,’ says Father John; ‘and I
can show by a familiar figure; Suppose that every man in the world
should insist that his timepiece was correct, and should refuse to
regulate it by any other. Of course, the chronometers would all wag
their several ways, no two alike, and there would be a ceaseless
wrangling as to what was the time of day, and every man would think
that he carried the sun in his pocket. To the dogs with the meridian
and the almanac! my watch is right! That is Protestantism. Now, the
Catholic has his spiritual dial also; but since he knows that it is a
fallible instrument, he keeps it regulated by the great clock of the
church. The consequence is truth and harmony. Every Catholic
conscience ticks alike; and, when the meridian-gun of the great
regulator is fired, every man says, ‘It’s twelve o’clock. Amen!’”
Mr. Yorke’s warning was well-timed, for the event proved that Father
Rasle would scarcely have been allowed to leave the town without
molestation had it been known that he was going. No one knew it,
however, but the priest’s housekeeper, Mr. Yorke, and the man who
drove him over to Brayon that night.
“I do not think that any precaution was needed,” Father Rasle said to
his companion, as they drove through the dewy woods by starlight. “But
since it was as easy to come away quiet, why, I have. I have no wish 167
or right to throw my life away.”
Mr. Yorke did not know what had happened till Patrick told him the
next morning. The crowd had gathered in the streets, it appeared, and
taken their usual promenade up Irish Lane, with the usual result. No
one came out or answered them, and they could not see a face in the
windows, even. But if the patience of the Irish was not worn out, that
of their persecutors was. Since they could not provoke an attack, they
would make one. From Irish Lane they had marched to the priest’s
house, arming themselves with stones and brickbats.
“There isn’t a whole window left in the house, sir,” said Patrick;
“and there’s a stone lying on Father Rasle’s bed, where it was thrown
through the window, that would have killed him if he had been there,
as they thought he was.”
We trust that certain expressions which Mr. Yorke made use of on
hearing this story will not be remembered against him on the day of
final reckoning. They were not pious expressions, nor mild, nor,
indeed, very polished ones; but they were strong. He put on his hat
with an emphasis which left a large dent in the crown, refused to take
any breakfast, and started for the town.
“What does he mean to do?” cried his wife, wringing her hands. “I must
go after him. Oh! if Carl were here. Girls, it is of no use to oppose
me. I must know what goes on.”
The breakfast was left untouched, and the whole household gathered
about the mother, coaxing and soothing her. Patrick should go down,
they said, and keep his master in view.
“What protection would an Irish Catholic be to him?” cried the lady.
Betsey would go, she declared, standing with arms akimbo and her
fierce head raised. She would like to see the man that would stand in
her way when she was roused!
But, no; Betsey was too pugilistic. If Mr. Yorke were to see her, he
would be irritated. Some one more conciliating and politic was wanted.
Clara cut the matter short by appearing in walking dress. She would go
down and see what the trouble was, and send a messenger home
immediately.
Meantime, Mr. Yorke was in no danger whatever. People were, indeed,
more good-natured than usual after the success of the night before. He
encountered mocking smiles, but no threats. His first visit was to one
of the selectmen. “What are you going to do with the rascals who broke
Father Rasle’s windows, last night?” he demanded, without any ceremony
of greeting.
The man assumed an air of pompous indifference. “I do not propose to
do anything,” he said. “If they were brought before me, as a justice,
I should try them. But I am not called on to take any step in the
matter.”
“Perhaps you were one of them,” Mr. Yorke said bitterly.
The man’s face reddened. “I shall not take any notice of your
insults,” he said. “It is well known that those windows were broken by
a few rowdies who cannot be found out. The town is not responsible for
them. And even if they were known, the feeling of the community is
such that they would not be punished. People are so much excited
against the abuses of popery, and the interference of the priest in
our public schools, that they are willing to see every Catholic driven 168
out of the town.”
If there was ever a moment in Mr. Yorke’s life when he regretted being
a gentleman, it would be safe to say that this was that moment. To
talk with such a man was folly. But if some muscular Christian had
entered the scene opportunely, and applied to the town-officer’s back
a score or so of such logical conclusions as he was fitted to
understand, or had enlightened his cranium by propounding to it an
argument from an unanswerable fist, Mr. Yorke would, doubtless, have
left the office with a smile of serene satisfaction, and a conviction
that the dramatic proprieties had been sustained. No such person
appearing, he went away with anything but an amiable expression.
His next visit was to the Rev. John Conway. The minister had just
finished his breakfast, and came into the room with a comfortable,
deliberate air, rather exasperating to a man who was not only
indignant, but fasting. His guarded look showed that he expected an
attack.
By an effort, Mr. Yorke greeted him courteously, then began: “I come,
sir,” he said, “to ask you to raise your voice and use your influence
to put a stop to such outrages as were committed last night, and bring
the perpetrators of that to punishment.”
Mr. Conway seated himself with dignity, cast down his eyes, puckered
his mouth accurately, put the tips of his right-hand fingers to the
tips of his left-hand fingers in an argumentative manner, and spoke
slowly and solemnly:
“I am sorry that any violence has been done. But when a community
becomes incensed by encroachments which threaten their most sacred
interests, and when they find that the laws are not stringent enough
to afford them security from an insidious foe, we cannot expect that
they will act with that calmness and deliberation which is to be
desired. I deprecate--”
“You are not in your pulpit preaching to blockheads!” Mr. Yorke burst
forth. “I came here to talk common sense.”
A cold glimmer showed under the minister’s lower eyelids, and a flush
went over his face; but he had more self-control than his visitor, or
he had not that sense of outraged justice and decency which, to that
visitor’s mind, made forbearance a vice, consequently he said nothing
for a moment. There was, indeed, no more to be said. Mr. Yorke rose
and went to the door, but stopped there. Though appeal was vain,
warning might not be.
“I warn you, sir,” he said--“I, a Protestant--that your course is not
only dishonest, but impolitic. You are working so as to secure the
final triumph of those you hate, and to bring about your own ruin.
These anti-Catholic mobs are not Protestant, except as they protest
against all religious restraint. They hate Catholicism most, simply
because it is the strongest religion. You ministers think, perhaps,
that you use them; but you mistake. They use you, and they despise
you. They speak you fair now, because you stand between them and the
law and give them a certain respectability. Indeed, their only power
is derived from you. But when they shall have crushed Catholicism, if
they ever do, they will have the same weapons you have placed in their
hands against you. Do not hope that by the course you are taking you
are going to make Baptist, or Congregational, or Methodist
church-members; you are going to make infidels.”
A sense of the utter uselessness of his mission had restored Mr. Yorke 169
to calmness. He spoke firmly, but without any excitement, and, having
ended, left the house, and walked quietly homeward. Clara, coming down
East Street, and looking anxiously right and left, saw him, and dodged
out of sight. With her foot propped on a door-step, she made a
writing-desk of her knee, hastily pencilling a line to her mother.
While she wrote, three several families peeped and wondered at her
through their blinds. She looked about for an Irish boy--saw one, and
sent him with her message.
“Run like the wind till you come in sight of the house,” she charged
him, “but walk slowly up the avenue, or they will think that you bring
bad news, and be frightened.”
“All right, mamma!” Clara had written. “Everybody I meet is as quiet
and innocent-looking as a cat that has been stealing cream. I saw papa
this minute; I am going up to see Hester, and will be back before
dinner.”
Mrs. Yorke kissed and feasted the boy who brought the news; Melicent
searched for old clothes, and sent him home with garments enough to
last him a year, and both nearly cried over him, “Poor little
persecuted dear!” Betsey bestowed on him a pie, and the two Pattens,
having nothing of their own to give, stole each of them a cucumber,
which they slyly slipped into his pocket. People who lived with the
Yorkes always thought as the Yorkes did. There was never more than one
party in their house. Their domestics were partisans, their dependents
adorers.
Edith went out into the garden, and gathered some flowers for the lad,
talking with him meanwhile. It was a calm June day--after a
rain-storm. The sky had started to clear away--got so far that there
was nothing left but a pearly fleck of cloud that just netted the
sunshine--then had forgotten all about itself. A lovely, dreamy
softness overhung the scene, and the drops of rain that lay on every
leaf and flower shone, but did not flash.
The boy gazed at Edith with admiration. Her head was bare, and she
wore a blue dress, with loose sleeves, and a little crisp white ruffle
close around the throat. She stood on tiptoe, and stretched her arms
to reach a branch of red roses. As she caught it, a shower of drops
fell over her head and face. “_Asperges me!_” she whispered.
“Oh! she’s real pretty,” the boy said afterward to his mother. “She
has dimples in her elbows just like baby.”
When the wreath was made, Edith hung it round the child’s neck, his
arms being full, and walked down to the gate with him. “Try to be a
little saint, and not be angry, no matter what may be said to you,”
she said. “If you are afraid, say the ‘We fly to thy patronage, O holy
Mother of God,’ and she will take care of you. Good-by, dear.”
She leaned on the gate, and looked after him. Her cheeks were as red
as the roses she had gathered, and her expression was not, as
formerly, one of sunny calmness. She was as quiet in manner and speech
as ever, but it was the quiet of a strong and vivid nature fully
awake, but not fully satisfied, perplexed, yet self-controlled. So
much had happened to her in the last year! She had been called away
suddenly from childhood, and study, and vague, bright dreams to
confront a positive and quite unexpected reality. Unless she should
make a vow never to marry, then she was to marry Dick Rowan, that was
her conclusion; and having once made up her mind in that respect, she 170
thought as little about it as possible. Perhaps her only definite
thought was that Dick might have waited awhile before speaking, and
let her study more; for study had now become impossible. She wanted to
be in continual motion, to have work and change. A deep and steady
excitement burned in her cheeks, her eyes, her lips. Her piety,
instead of being tender and tranquil, had grown impassioned. To die
for the faith, to suffer torments for it, to be in danger, that seemed
to her desirable. She almost regretted that she had home and friends
to bind her. If she were still with Mrs. Rowan, in the little house
that was under that clay-bank, then she would be free, and perhaps
they would kill her. She had scarcely been to Mass that year without
thinking how glorious it would be if a mob would break in and kill
them all. Her imagination hovered ceaselessly over this subject.
Seeing her uncle coming, she waited for him. “We must make up our
minds that we have not seen the worst that they will do, little girl,”
he said. “There is no law.”
She smiled involuntarily.
“Why, are you pleased at that?” he exclaimed.
“There might be a worse fate than dying for one’s faith, Uncle
Charles,” she said, clasping her hands over his arms.
He laughed, and patted her cheek. “Is that your notion?” he asked. “If
it is, remember that I have a word to say about it. I shall fight hard
before you are made a martyr of. I see what you have been
reading--Crashaw’s _St. Theresa_:
‘Farewell, house, and farewell, home:
She’s for the Moors and martyrdom.’
Do I guess and quote rightly, mademoiselle?”
She only smiled in reply. But well she knew that she had been reading
from a deeper book than Crashaw.
A few nights after, the Catholic school-house was blown up with
gunpowder, and left a perfect wreck. “Of course!” said Mr. Yorke.
“The teacher has taken the children into the galleries of the church,”
Patrick said.
“The church will be destroyed, then,” replied his master.
It was not destroyed altogether at once, however, but every window in
it was broken. This was done in broad daylight, just after a summer
sunset.
Mr. Yorke put himself before the mob, entreating them to forbear, even
trying to push back the foremost ones, but without avail. “Don’t
listen to him! His niece is a Catholic,” they cried. “To the church!”
Two or three gentlemen drove up in their buggies, and sat at a safe
distance while the work of destruction went on, and several women
lingered on the outskirts of the crowd. In a neighboring street, out
of sight, Edith Yorke stood with Clara, and listened to the sound of
breaking glass. For a moment, natural indignation overcame piety in
her heart. “Oh! if I were a thousand men on horseback,” she exclaimed.
“I’d like to ride them down, and trample them under foot!” Then the
next moment, “Oh! how wicked I am!”
“You are not wicked!” Clara said angrily. “I won’t have you talk such
nonsense.”
Clara was in that state of mind when she must scold somebody.
Of course the authorities took no notice of this affair. The teacher
had the glass reset, and continued her school. Mr. Yorke wrote to
Father Rasle, advising him not to return to Seaton for a while, and a
lull succeeded.
And now the Yorkes took breath, and felt not quite alone, for Carl was
coming home, and Dick Rowan would soon be there, and Captain Cary was
coming down.
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
THE STIGMATA AND ECSTASIES OF LOUISE LATEAU OF BOIS D’HAINE. 171
Since the days of St. Francis of Assisium, whose life in the
thirteenth century was one constant succession of marvels, the
occasional appearance upon favored individuals of the stigmata,[45]
and the occurrence of ecstatic visions, have excited the deepest
interest in devout minds.
To the eye of faith, these departures from the ordinary laws of
nature, like the miracles which God has vouchsafed in all ages of the
church, have seemed fresh and brilliant illustrations of this divine
power. To the purely scientific mind they have presented inexplicable
phenomena, which, being irreconcilable with natural laws, have been
either openly derided or attributed to pious fraud.
Nor can the physiologist be harshly blamed for scepticism in this
direction, for history teems with the records of epidemics of
religious enthusiasm, in which fanaticism had led its victims to claim
repeated ecstatic visions of God, and to be the recipients of
supernatural revelations. The descriptions transmitted to us of the
Pietists and Illuminati in Germany, of the French and English Shakers,
the Welsh Jumpers, and many others of the sects to which the
Reformation gave birth, abound in instances of these ecstatic
outbreaks.
The visions of Swedenborg, as related in his _Arcana Cœlestia_, and in
the numerous biographies[46] of this extraordinary person, are well
known; and among similar claimants to supernatural experience,
Arnold’s description of John Engelbrecht[47] is one of the most
curious and interesting.
In Hecker’s _Epidemics of the Middle Ages_ is given a full account of
the “Convulsionnaires of St. Médard,” so-called from the cemetery of
St. Médard in Paris, where a noted Jansenist deacon was buried in
1727. The fanatical excitement of his followers first showed itself in
pilgrimages and reported miraculous cures at his grave, to which they
gradually flocked in great numbers, many becoming convulsed with
terrible contortions, jumping, shouting, rolling on the ground,
spinning around with incredible velocity, running their heads against
walls, while others preached fanatical harangues or pretended to be
gifted with _clairvoyance_. For more than fifty years these scandalous
exhibitions continued, Convulsionism growing into a distinct sect in
spite of the efforts of the government to suppress it, until swept out
of existence by the greater excitement of the French Revolution.
In many of these cases, the supposition of intentional fraud was
doubtless well founded; in others, the ecstatics were themselves the
unconscious dupes of their own fanaticism. To appreciate the cautious
scrutiny with which the church, however, sifts pretensions of this
nature in any of her children, the reader need only consult the lives 172
of such saints as have been thus favored.[48]
The psychological condition or state which is somewhat vaguely termed
ecstasy has always possessed peculiar interest both for the theologian
and the physician; and, although numerous definitions of it have been
attempted, it is extremely difficult to convey to the general reader a
clear idea of its distinctive nature. The word itself usually
signifies a condition in which the mind and soul is transferred, or
placed out of its usual state.
St. Augustine called it “a transport, by which the soul is separated
and, as it were, removed to a distance from the bodily senses,” and,
following this definition, Ambrose Paré, the father of French surgery,
terms it “a reverie with rapture of the mind, as if the soul were
parted from the body.” St. Bonaventure, the contemporary and
biographer of St. Francis of Assisium, says that ecstasy “is an
elevation of the soul to that source of divine love which surpasses
human understanding, an elevation by which it is separated from the
exterior man.” St. Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Bona, and other
theological writers give similar definitions; while among medical
authorities, Briquet, J. Franck, Bérard, Thomas King Chambers,
Guislain of Brussels, Clymer, Gratiolet, and many others describe its
symptoms and discuss its pathological relations.
Well-marked ecstasy and the stigmata have but seldom been united in
the same individual, and still more rarely have these extraordinary
manifestations been subjected to the searching tests of science.
It will not, then, be amiss to present the readers of this magazine
with a brief description of the most notable illustration in recent
times of these marvellous phenomena, as the case has acquired a
European celebrity, attracting the scrutiny of many savants, and
forming the subject of an interesting memoir[49] by a professor in the
Belgian University of Louvain. From his description of the facts,
which he was officially appointed to investigate in their scientific
bearings, we shall condense the following account.
In the rich and industrial province of Hainault, in Belgium, is
situated the village of Bois d’Haine, about midway between the towns
of Charleroi and Mons. It is mainly composed of cottages occupied by
workmen in the neighboring manufactories; and in one of the poorest of
these Louise Lateau, the subject of this notice, was born January 30,
1850.
She is the youngest of three children, all daughters; and their
parents were poor working people, strong and ordinarily healthy, and
never subject to any nervous hæmorrhagic disease. The mother is still
living and in good health; the father died during an epidemic of
small-pox at the age of twenty-eight. Louise, then two and a half
months old, contracted this disease from her father, but made a rapid
recovery. The family continued to struggle on in poverty, the
children’s food being poor and scant--“plusque frugal,” says Dr.
Lefebvre--but they nevertheless grew up robust and healthy. When only
eight, Louise was placed in the temporary care of a poor old woman in
the neighborhood, while the latter’s son was engaged in outdoor work.
A little later she was sent to school for five months, learning her 173
catechism and a little reading and writing. In her twelfth year,
having made her first communion, she entered the service of her
great-aunt, who lived at Manage, near Bois d’Haine, in a certain
degree of comfort. In this position she displayed great activity and
devotion to her duties, giving herself up day and night to the service
of her relative, who died in a year or two. She then entered the
service of a respectable lady in Brussels, where she remained only
seven months on account of an illness, the nature of which is not
described; after this she obtained another place in Manage, where, as
before, she left behind her the reputation of devoted courage, of
patient toil, humble and quiet piety, and charity for the poor.
About the beginning of 1867, she became more feeble in health without
being exactly ill or obliged to suspend her customary work. She lost
appetite and color, suffered from severe neuralgic pains in the head,
and her skin assumed the greenish-white hue that always indicates
impoverishment of the blood. This had been aggravated by a severe
attack of quinsy; and on several occasions, during the early part of
April of this year, she spat blood, the source of which (whether from
lungs or stomach) could not be decided.
For an entire month she now became constantly weaker, taking almost
nothing during this time but water and the medicines prescribed for
her. The exhaustion increased to such a degree that her death was
thought imminent, and on the 15th of April the last sacraments were
administered. She now suddenly improved, and so rapidly that, on the
21st of April, she was able to walk to Mass at the parish church,
three-quarters of a mile distant. This apparently remarkable cure was
the first incident that attracted public notice to her case; crowds of
people coming to see her as an object of curiosity.
This period may be viewed as her turning point from girlhood into a
woman; and, at her then age of eighteen, she is described as being
slightly below the middle height, with full face, very little color, a
fine delicate skin, light hair, clear, soft blue eyes, a small mouth,
and very white well-shaped teeth.
Her expression is intelligent and agreeable, and her general health is
good, and free from any scrofulous or other constitutional taint. She
has always worked hard, and exhibited considerable physical endurance.
Mentally she is represented as unemotional, lacking in imagination, by
no means bright, but of good, strong common sense, artless,
straightforward, and devoid of enthusiasm. Her education is limited,
although she has improved the elementary instruction received during
her brief school term, speaking French with ease and some degree of
purity, reading with difficulty, and writing very little, and
incorrectly at that. Her moral character is honest, simple,
transparent. Dr. Lefebvre and others, who questioned her about her
ecstatic visions, repeatedly tried to test her sincerity, but never
succeeded in making her contradict herself or tend in the least degree
to exaggeration: nor could she ever be induced by her young friends to
discuss her stigmata or visions, upon which she was equally reticent
with her friends and her family. Of a naturally gay and happy
disposition, she has shown in various circumstances much patience,
determination, and courage. Amidst many domestic anxieties and
troubles, often losing her rest day and night during the illness of 174
her relatives, and falsely accused by her mother (who seems to have
been a person of difficult temper) of being the cause of all the
family’s misfortunes, she remained invariably calm and cheerful.
Another of her most striking traits was her charity for the poor;
“poor herself, she loved to relieve the poor,” and many instances are
narrated of her devotion to the sick and helpless during the cholera
that raged at Bois d’Haine in 1866. From her infancy almost she was
exceptionally devout, and her piety was always practical, and devoid
of affectation and display. In her interior and religious life, as in
her domestic duties, she was simple, earnest, and discreet.
A recollection of these details of her character and antecedents is
necessary for the proper appreciation of the phenomena now to be
described. These are of two distinct kinds, having no connection but
their accidental association in the same individual; and that they may
be more clearly understood, they will be considered separately, first
the stigmata, then the ecstatic trances, and, thirdly, the nature of
the evidence upon which the extraordinary facts rest.
I.--THE STIGMATA.
The first occurrence of the bleeding was noticed by Louise on Friday,
the 24th of April, 1868, when she saw blood issuing from a spot on the
left side of the chest. With her habitual reserve, she mentioned it to
no one. The next day it recurred at the same spot; and she, then also
observed blood on the top of each foot. She now confided it to her
director, who, although thinking the circumstance extraordinary,
reassured her and bade her keep the facts to herself. During the night
preceding the second Friday following, May 8, blood oozed from the
left side and from both feet, and toward nine o’clock in the morning
it flowed freely from the back and palm of each hand. At this juncture
it seemed impossible longer to keep the matter secret, and her
confessor directed Louise to consult a physician.
Recognizing the medical character of the case, the periodical
bleeding, and the ecstatic trances which subsequently occurred, the
religious authorities felt constrained to place its investigation in
the hands of a medical expert, and for this purpose called in the aid
of Dr. Lefebvre. A more judicious choice could not have been made, as
this gentleman had long devoted himself to the study of nervous
affections, and had passed fifteen years in medical charge of two
hospitals for the insane, and in lecturing upon mental diseases in the
University of Louvain.
Of the minuteness of his examination, and of his credibility as a
witness, each reader can judge for himself.
If, during the course of the week, from Saturday to Thursday morning,
the hands and feet be examined, the following facts are revealed: On
the back of each hand there is an oval patch about half an inch (two
and a half centimetres) long, of a more rosy hue than the rest of the
skin, dry and glistening on the surface. On the palm of each hand a
similar oval patch was seen, equally red, and corresponding exactly
with the site of that on the back. On the sole and back of each foot
are found similar marks, having the form of a parallelogram with
rounded angles, nearly three-quarters of an inch (three centimetres)
in length.
On examining these spots with a magnifying-glass of twenty diameters,
the epidermis (or superficial layer of the skin) is found to be thin 175
but unbroken, and through it the cutis (or true skin) can readily be
seen.
The latter looks perfectly natural, except that the papillæ, or little
elevations in which terminate the nerves of touch, are slightly
atrophied and flattened, this giving rise to the glistening appearance
of the surface. When any one of the stigmata has not bled for a week
or two, the reddish discoloration disappears, and the papillæ resume
their normal appearance. No permanent marks remain upon the forehead;
and, except on Friday, the bleeding points cannot there be
distinguished. From a natural feeling of delicacy, the chest was only
examined during the ecstasy.
The first symptoms announcing the approaching bleeding usually appear
about noon on Thursday. Upon each of the rosy spots on the hands and
feet, a _bleb_, or little bladder, is seen to rise and slowly develop.
This exactly corresponds, when fully formed, with the size of the
patch; and is filled with a transparent serous fluid, sometimes of a
reddish tint in those on the soles of the feet and the palms of the
hands. The bleb consists of the epidermis detached and elevated from
the true skin by the accumulating serous fluid. No swelling or redness
is seen in the zone of skin immediately surrounding the bleb.
The bleeding nearly always begins between midnight and one A.M. on
Friday, and it does not occur in all the stigmata at once, but in each
successively and in no regular order. Most commonly the flow begins
from the side of the chest, then in succession from the stigmata on
the hands, feet, and forehead. A rent occurs in the raised cuticle,
which is sometimes longitudinal, sometimes crucial or triangular: the
serous fluid then escapes, and is immediately followed by blood,
which oozes from the exposed papillæ. Usually the flow of blood
detaches and washes away the shreds of epidermis, and the bleeding
surface is left uncovered; but sometimes on the palms of the hands and
the soles of the feet, where the epidermis is thicker, the blood
collects and clots in the bleb.
At each of his Friday visits, Dr. Lefebvre examined the stigma on the
chest, which lay in the space between the fifth and sixth ribs,
external to and a little below the centre of the left breast.[50]
At the first examination, which was made August 30, 1868, the bleeding
point showed no trace of a previous vesicle; the cuticle was not
detached, nor was the skin discolored, and the blood was seen to ooze
from three little points almost imperceptible to the naked eye, and
about one centimetre apart. In three subsequent examinations a vesicle
had formed like those on the hands and feet; it had burst, and the
blood oozed from a circular spot of the raw skin nearly a quarter of
an inch in diameter.
Upon four different occasions, blood was observed to be flowing from
the head. It was difficult to ascertain the condition of the skin
under the hair; but on the forehead no vesicle appeared, nor was there
any apparent change in the color of the skin. The blood was seen to
issue from twelve or fifteen minute points arranged in circular form
upon the forehead. A bandage, of the breadth of two fingers, passing
around the head equidistant from the eyebrows and the roots of the
hair, would include the bleeding zone, which is slightly puffy and
painful upon pressure. On examining these points with a magnifying 176
lens, most of them looked like minute cuts in the skin, of triangular
shape, as if made by the bite of microscopic leeches: others were
semilunar in shape, and some quite irregular.
The quantity of blood that flows through the stigmata each Friday is
variable. During the first months of the flow and before the
commencement of the ecstatic attack, it was abundant, and often lasted
twenty-four hours--from midnight to midnight--and it was estimated
that as much as one litre, or seven-eighths of a quart, was discharged
from the nine wounds. An exact estimate of the amount was difficult,
from the fact that most of the blood was absorbed by the cloths about
the chest and limbs. But, as the result of his personal observations,
Dr. Lefebvre states that at his first visit, August 30, 1868, both the
duration and the quantity of the flow had already begun to diminish:
beginning at midnight, it stopped about four or five o’clock the next
afternoon; yet he counted on that day fourteen large linen cloths (the
largest being twenty inches by eight, and the smallest twenty inches
by six) completely saturated. Besides this, the left foot was still
enveloped during the ecstasy, and there was a pool of blood on the
floor as large as two hands. He thinks he rather understates the
amount of blood then lost if he estimates it at two hundred and fifty
grammes (a half-pint). This, however, he gives as the mean quantity
lost, it being sometimes more and sometimes less.
Sometimes the bleeding ceased about midday, and two Fridays passed
without any hæmorrhage, the ecstasy occurring as usual. On one of
these occasions the stigmata remained unchanged, but on the other the
usual vesicle formed, yielding a serous discharge of a delicate rose
tint, but no blood. After this the usual bleeding resumed its regular
course every Friday, and the bloody chaplet on the forehead, which at
first appeared exceptionally, was now displayed each week.
The blood, which was carefully examined, had neither the scarlet tint
of arterial nor the dark purple hue of venous blood, but was of a
violet red color, like that of the capillaries or minute vessels which
unite the veins and arteries. It was of natural consistence, and
clotted readily upon the cloths and upon the edges of the wound. With
two of his colleagues who were expert in microscopy, Dr. Hairion,
professor of hygiene and dermatology (the theory of skin diseases),
and Dr. Van Kempen, professor of anatomy, Dr. Lefebvre made several
careful microscopic examinations of the blood, which showed a
perfectly transparent plasma or blood fluid, with the red and white
corpuscles of ordinary blood in proper proportion.
The stigmata are manifestly painful; for, although the girl was
extremely reluctant to speak of it, Dr. Lefebvre was satisfied, by
careful observation of her attitudes and expression before the
ecstasies began, that she suffered acutely.
The bleeding stopped at different hours, as has been stated. On the
following day--Saturday--the stigmata were quite dry, with little
scales of dried blood here and there on their surface. Not a trace of
suppuration ever occurred from the wounds; and the girl, who a few
hours ago had much difficulty in using her hands or in standing on her
feet, is busily engaged with her morning household duties, or walking
a mile and a half to her devotions at the parish church.
II.--THE ECSTATIC TRANCES. 177
The weekly ecstasies of Louise Lateau began on Friday, July 17, 1868,
thirteen weeks after the bleeding was first noticed, although the
curate of Bois d’Haine, M. Niels, had noticed before this some
fugitive attacks of unconsciousness. He discreetly avoided speaking of
them, however, and was careful not to discuss them even with Louise
herself. No details of these transient attacks, which generally
occurred during some of the great religious festivals of the previous
year, are given by Dr. Lefebvre, as he had no satisfactory evidence of
them, and was unwilling to trust the observations of others. The
marked ecstatic trances recurred every Friday after the date
mentioned, generally about eight or nine o’clock in the morning, and
ended about six in the afternoon, although sometimes lasting an hour
longer. Their duration is therefore from ten to eleven hours without
interruption; and they generally begin while the subject is occupied
with her devotions, although sometimes when she is in the midst of
conversation, and occasionally while engaged at her work.
On Friday morning, Louise is accustomed to pass the time in prayer,
the tender and bleeding condition of the wounds on her hands rendering
work impossible. Her prayers are of the simplest character, consisting
generally of the rosary. Seated on her chair, her hands wrapped in the
cloths, and her manner calm and serene, suddenly her eyes become
fixed, immovable, and the trance has begun. From his notes made on the
spot, upon one of these occasions, Dr. Lefebvre transcribes the
following description: “It is half-past seven in the morning. I have
been talking to Louise upon common topics, about her occupations, her
education, her health. She has answered my questions simply,
precisely, laconically. Her appearance is quiet and tranquil, her
color natural, her skin cool, and the pulse seventy-two in the minute.
After a while her conversation flags, and she answers more slowly. I
suddenly notice that she has become immovable, her eyes fixed and
turned upward, and a little toward the right. The ecstasy has begun.”
It is worth observing that the instant the eyes become fixed in
contemplation, the ecstatic state has commenced; after this the girl
answers no questions, and is quite insensible to external influences.
Dr. Imbert-Goubeyre, professor in the medical school of
Clermont-Ferrand, has also witnessed the commencement of the ecstasy
under like circumstances. His description is unnecessary.
Lastly, the ecstasy may begin while she is at her daily work. On
August 13, 1869, Mgr. d’Herbomez, the venerable Bishop of British
Columbia, went to see Louise Lateau, reaching her house about eight
o’clock in the morning. She was at work on her sewing-machine,
although her hands and feet were bleeding freely, and the blood
trickled down from her forehead, cheeks, and neck upon the machine,
which she evidently worked with the utmost pain. While the prelate was
speaking to her, the noise of the machine suddenly stopped, for she
had at once passed into the trance. A number of distinguished
ecclesiastics, among them Professor Hallez of the Seminary of Tournay,
have witnessed a similar onset of the attacks.
When once established, the course of the attack is thus described.
During most of the trance, the girl sits on the edge of her chair, as
motionless as a statue, with the body bent slightly forward; the 178
bleeding hands enveloped in cloths and resting upon her knees, the
eyes wide open and rigidly fixed as described. The expression of the
face is that of rapt attention, and she seems lost in the
contemplation of some distant object. Her expression and attitude
frequently change, the features sometimes relaxing, the eyes becoming
moist, and a smile of happiness lighting up the mouth. Sometimes the
lids droop and nearly veil the eyes, the brow contracts, and tears
roll slowly down the cheeks: at times again she grows pale, her face
wears an expression of the greatest terror, while she starts up with a
suppressed cry. The body sometimes slowly rotates, and the eyes move,
as if following some invisible procession. At other times she rises
and moves forward, standing on tiptoe with her hands stretched out,
and either clasped or hanging open like the figures of the _Orantes_
of the catacombs; while her lips move, her breathing is rapid and
panting, her features light up, and her face, which before the ecstasy
is quite plain, is transfigured with an ideal beauty. If to this be
added the sight of her stigmata: her head encircled with its bloody
chaplet, whence the red current drops along her temples and cheeks,
her small white hands stamped with a mysterious wound from which
bloody lines emerge like rays--and this strange spectacle surrounded
by people of all conditions, who are absorbed in respectful attention
and interest--some idea may be gained of what Dr. Lefebvre often
witnessed at Bois d’Haine.
About half-past one o’clock, she usually falls on her knees, with her
hands joined and her body bent forward, while her face wears an
expression of the profoundest contemplation. She remains in this
attitude about half an hour, then rises and resumes her seat. About
two o’clock the scene changes. She first leans a little forward, then
rises--slowly at first, then more quickly--and, as if by some sudden
movement of projection, falls with her face to the ground. In this
position she lies upon her chest, the head resting upon the left arm,
her eyes closed, her mouth half-open, her lower limbs stretched out
and covered to the heels by her dress. At three o’clock she makes a
sudden movement: her arms are extended at right angles with the body
in cross-like fashion, while the feet are crossed, the right instep
resting on the sole of the left. She maintains this position until
about five o’clock, when she suddenly starts up on her knees in the
attitude of prayer. After a few minutes of profound absorption, she
resumes her chair.
The ecstasy lasts until about six or seven o’clock, the attitude and
expression of face varying according to the mental impressions, when
it terminates in an appalling scene: The arms fall helpless alongside
of the body, the head drops forward on the chest, the eyes close, the
nose becomes pinched, while the face assumes the pallor of death: at
the same time the hands become icy cold, the pulse is quite
imperceptible, a cold sweat covers the body, and the death-rattle
seems to be heard in the throat. This condition lasts about fifteen
minutes, when she revives. The bodily heat rises, the pulse returns,
the cheeks regain their color, but for some minutes more there hangs
an indefinable expression of ecstasy about the face. Suddenly the
eyelids open, the features relax, the eyes look familiarly at
surrounding objects, and the ecstasy is over.
If the different phases of the paroxysm be carefully watched, it is
evident that the intellect, far from being dormant, is very active; 179
although the girl is quite unconscious of what is passing around her,
she remembers perfectly all her subjective sensations. Although
extremely reluctant to discuss the subject, she was ordered by her
spiritual directors to answer Dr. Lefebvre’s questions, which she
did--briefly, but distinctly--to the following effect:
When her ecstasy begins, she says she finds herself suddenly plunged
into a vast flood of light; figures more or less distinct soon appear,
and several scenes of the Passion then pass successively before her.
These she minutely but briefly describes--with the appearance of the
Saviour, his garments, wounds, crown of thorns, and cross. He never
addresses her a word or even looks at her. She describes with the same
clearness and precision the characters that surround him--the
apostles, the holy women, and the Jews.
Dr. Lefebvre has given a lucid exposition of the state of the
different organs during the several stages of the ecstasy, as well as
of the chief points of interest of the paroxysm. During the first
period--from eight o’clock in the morning until two in the
afternoon--Louise remains sitting in her chair, and her organic and
functional condition changes but little. The skin is cool; the face
retains its usual color; respiration is regular, and so calm that
close attention is needed to note the chest movement; the pulse is
soft and regular, beating about seventy-five in the minute.
Occasionally the heart-beats are more rapid or slower than usual, and
the face flushes or becomes suddenly pale: these functional
modifications accord with the play of the features, and are evidently
the result of the varying impressions of the mind.
From midday on Thursday, when she dines more sparingly than usual,
until eight o’clock on the Saturday morning, she tastes absolutely no
food or drink of any kind. She feels no need of either, and her
stomach would not retain it if taken; for, several times, when ordered
by her physician to take certain nourishment on Fridays, it has been
swallowed without resistance, but at once rejected. In spite of this
complete abstinence from drink, the tongue was always moist: the great
excretions of the body were suspended. Careful attention was directed
to the condition of the nervous system, and especially to sensation
and motion. To the touch, no tension or spasmodic contraction is
perceptible in any of the muscles, and the girl executes no movements
but those required for the action of the scenes at which she assists.
Thus, at times, she sits up straight, her hands either clasped or
hanging loosely, her lips relaxing into a smile, or her face drawn
into a frown. If her limbs be moved by a bystander, the result varies;
sometimes they preserve the position given, as, when her arms are
lifted up, they may retain the new position for nine or ten minutes,
and then slowly relapse to their former place. But, if she is lifted
to a standing position, great muscular relaxation is evident, and as
soon as the support is withdrawn she falls back into her chair. One
peculiarity should here be noted: if any effort be made to change her
position during prosternation, when the arms are extended and the feet
crossed upon each other, a decided resistance is perceptible, and the
extremities immediately resume their position.
The exercise of the special senses is completely suspended, as was
tested by experiment. The eyes are widely open, the pupils dilated,
the lids quite immovable, except when the conjunctiva[51] is touched, 180
which produces a slight winking or contraction of the lids. A bright
light or other object may be suddenly passed without effect before the
eyes, which gaze vacantly into space.
The sense of hearing is equally blunted, and insensible to ordinary
sounds. On several occasions, a person standing behind her has shouted
loudly into her ears without exciting the least evidence of being
heard. Except upon the conjunctiva, as mentioned, general sensibility
seems to be completely in abeyance. Numerous experiments were made to
test this fact.
For instance, the mucous membranes of the nose and ears were
repeatedly tickled with a feather without exciting any reflex
contraction; a strong solution of ammonia held under the nose produced
no effect. The skin, being less sensitive than the mucous membranes,
was pricked with a needle, and a pin thrust through a fold of skin on
the hands and forearm; the point of a penknife was also driven into
the skin until it bled freely, without producing the faintest muscular
contraction or indication of sensibility.
A still more decisive test was made with an electro-magnetic
battery,[52] the electrodes of which were placed on the front of the
forearm where the skin is very thin and sensitive, and the strongest
possible current passed through the muscles for more than a minute by
the watch without eliciting the least evidence of pain, and the
electric brush was equally powerless. The poles were likewise applied
to different parts of the face, and violent and prolonged contractions
of the facial muscles induced, but without the slightest winking or
other sign of sensibility or suffering.
Such is the condition of the organic functions during the first part
of the ecstasy, but some modifications are observed during the second.
Thus, while lying prostrate on the floor, the pulse becomes almost
imperceptible, and an ordinary observer would fail to detect it at
all, although Dr. Lefebvre was sure it never ceased to beat fully. Its
frequency was at the same time greatly increased; so that, when it
could be counted, it often rose to 120 or 130 in the minute. The
movements of respiration now become more and more feeble, and the
closest attention is needed to make sure that they exist, the
rhythmical motion of the little shawl that covers her shoulders being
often the only appreciable evidence that they are not totally
suspended.
Another remarkable fact, which is contrary to the general physical
rule, is that the rate of the pulse and that of respiration are
directly in an inverse proportion; both Dr. Lefebvre and Dr.
Imbert-Goubeyre having proved that, while the pulse rose from 90 to
130 per minute, the respirations (normally averaging 20 to 25) sink to
18 or even 10 in the same period. In proportion as the pulse and
breathing become feeble, the skin loses its natural temperature, and
is bathed in a cold sweat. As was stated, reaction occurs in ten or
fifteen minutes; the pulse regains its force and normal frequency,
respiration increases, and the natural standard of bodily heat is
restored. The ecstatic thus passes at once from her trance into her
ordinary life without any intermediate stage of transition. No
headache, stiffness of the joints, or other discomfort is complained
of; the intellect is perfectly clear, the expression serene, the face 181
calm, and the body active. At this moment the pulse has been found
regular, soft, and from 72 to 75 per minute; respiration of natural
strength, and 22 per minute, and the skin perfectly natural.
III.--THE QUESTION OF CREDIBILITY.
The suspicion of fraud seems never to have been entertained by the
people who surrounded Louise Lateau. Her straightforward character,
her simple and unostentatious piety, and her heroic acts of charity to
the poor seemed to them the antithesis of hypocrisy. Of the likelihood
of intentional deception each reader will judge for himself from the
sketch we have given of her history. Dr. Lefebvre, however,
acknowledges without hesitation that when he first visited her he was
sure a pious fraud was being attempted which the eye of science would
at once detect. Considering that he knew nothing of her and her
antecedents, this suspicion, he says, “was natural, legitimate,
necessary even; but it soon disappeared in presence of the facts.”
If only the stigmatization be considered, the supposition is
untenable, when it is remembered that she was constantly watched by
her friends, neighbors, and visitors. How, under such circumstances,
could she possibly buy and use the blisters, caustics, or other means
of producing the bleeding wounds? But, granting she had all these at
her command, how could the ignorant peasant girl--even though aided by
two or three accomplices--produce a result which the physician with
all the resources of science cannot effect? For it involved the
necessity of causing a bloody discharge from nine or ten points of the
body, and of sustaining this for a half-day or even longer under the
very eyes of witnesses who prevented any repeated irritation of the
bleeding surfaces. But when the ecstatic trance is borne in mind, the
impossibility of imposture is still more evident. How can we conceive
that a young girl, brought up in the hardships of manual work,
deprived of all instruction, who has read nothing, and seen nothing,
could each week, during an entire day, play the part of a consummate
actress; that she could simulate not only the abolition of sight and
hearing, but complete insensibility to the most exquisitely painful
tests; that she could control functions which are essentially beyond
the power of the will, as circulation, bodily temperature,
respiration; or that she could suspend those excretions which are at
once the most humiliating and the most irresistible evidence of human
weakness!
If, then, the problem at Bois d’Haine presented only one
difficulty--the stigmatization or the ecstasy--it would be next to
impossible to explain it on the supposition of fraud. But this
difficulty is incomparably greater when we consider these two
extraordinary facts in association. To suppose that both the ecstasy
and stigmatization were fraudulent would involve the manifest
contradiction of admitting that the hæmorrhage, which required a
frequent movement to sustain it for ten, fifteen, or twenty hours,
could be maintained during the prolonged immobility of the trance. No
one, however dextrous, could play this double _rôle_ for eighteen
months[53] without detection, although constantly examined by all
kinds of people--many of them filled with scientific distrust, and
among them more than one hundred physicians. As an example of the 182
uncertainty of her privacy, Dr. Lefebvre states (in a note) that, on
the 11th February, 1870, he was unexpectedly passing through the
neighborhood, and, as it chanced to be on Friday, he thought he would
stop and see Louise. He knocked at the door--was at once admitted, and
went straight to her little room without stopping to speak to the
family. It was a quarter to four in the afternoon, and she was
completely alone, lying prostrate on the floor, with her arms extended
as described, and insensible to all that was passing around her. The
bleeding limbs were wrapped in the usual cloths, of which he counted
nine. The blood which trickled from her forehead was dried; and,
lifting up her little white cap, he noticed the circle of bleeding
points on her forehead, which presented the usual appearance. The feet
had not been bleeding; on the right hand the flow was just stopping,
while on the left the blood was still distinctly flowing from both
stigmata. Having ascertained these points, he quietly left the cottage
without her having been aware of his visit.
As a general answer to the objection of insincerity, Dr. Lefebvre
appeals to both moral and physical proofs. As the most convincing of
the former class, he cites the general good repute of Louise, which
was never doubted, even by those who most resolutely questioned the
nature of the phenomena she presented: her brave and humble life, her
contempt for presents or money, her simplicity and avoidance of all
parade; her extreme anxiety to conceal the first evidence of the
stigmata even from her own family. If, as occasionally happened, money
or presents of any kind were offered to her mother or sisters, their
wounded pride was unmistakable; and when the Archbishop of Malines,
after a long examination of Louise, once asked the family if they had
no request to make of him, they only entreated that they might be
relieved of visitors and left undisturbed.
To meet the physical objections raised to the theory of the stigmata,
he tried the effects produced by cupping, caustics, and various
blistering agents. The first of these has little or no force; for,
besides the difficulty of exhausting the air under a cup upon the hard
and uneven surface of the back of the hand, it is necessary to cut the
skin to make the blood flow, and, when the amount drawn to the surface
flows out, the bleeding ceases at once.
Caustics produce a destruction of the skin at the point to which they
are applied, and after five or six days an eschar is detached, leaving
a sore but not a bleeding surface; or, if bleeding exceptionally
occurs, it ceases very soon, and the healing process is slow and
always followed by an indelible scar. This in no respect accorded with
the facts observed.
The blistering hypothesis seems less improbable, as this class of
irritants produce a special form of inflammation of the skin, during
which the epidermis is raised from the derm by an exudation of serous
fluid. As this process much more resembled the vesicles that preceded
the stigmatic bleedings, it was examined with greater care. The
characteristic odor of cantharides or ammonia was never perceived, nor
could the peculiar spangles of the Spanish-fly ever be detected with a
magnifying lens. Litmus paper, moistened and applied to the wounds,
gave no evidence of the application of acids. In addition to this,
there was no inflamed areola around the stigmata, as is common around
the edge of blistered surfaces, and their development was not
simultaneous, but successive; and more than once, in Dr. Lefebvre’s 183
presence, the ampulla or vesicle ruptured spontaneously, and the flow
of blood instantly began in its usual quantity.
When, however, the vesicle produced by a blister is ruptured, the raw
skin is exposed, but never under any circumstances emits a flow of
blood. To prove this in the most conclusive manner, the following
experiments were instituted:
On Friday, Nov. 27, 1868, Dr. Lefebvre, who usually adopted the wise
precaution of taking with him two or three of his colleagues or other
respectable physicians on his visits to Bois d’Haine, in the presence
of Drs. Lecrinier and Séverin, applied strong aqua ammonia to a spot
about half an inch in diameter upon the back of the left hand,
alongside of the stigma, which was then bleeding freely. A narrow
strip of sound skin was purposely left between the two. In about
twelve minutes a well-developed circular vesicle was obtained, filled
with transparent serum. On the hypothesis of fraud, this should have
burst spontaneously; but, as it did not do so, it was ruptured and the
cuticle torn off, thus exposing two raw surfaces side by side, upon
the same hand, and involving the same tissues. The two spots were
carefully watched; the stigma continued to bleed freely for two hours
and a half longer, while the blistered surface during this period did
not yield a single drop of blood. For a half hour it exuded a little
colorless serum, after which its surface dried up; on rubbing it with
a coarse towel, a little rose-colored serum escaped and soaked into
the cloth, but ceased the instant the friction was stopped.
The second experiment, which was still more decisive, was by means of
what he calls “the glove test” (_l’épreuve des gants_).
On Wednesday, February 3, 1869, Dr. Lecrinier, M. Niels, the curate of
Bois d’Haine, and M. Bussin visited the cottage, and took with them a
pair of thick, strong, well-stitched leather gauntlets. After
carefully examining her hands, and satisfying themselves that no
vesicle or abnormal redness existed, they asked Louise to put on the
gloves, which fitted her exactly. A strong wristband being then
wrapped five times around the wrist, so as not to leave the smallest
interspace between the glove and the skin, it was tied in a double
knot, the ends cut short, covered with melted sealing-wax, and
impressed on each side with a special seal. To prevent the wax from
scaling off from friction or any chance blow, the seals were enclosed
in little bags (_bourses en toile_). The gloves were the same for both
hands, except that on the right glove the thumb and forefinger were
cut short to allow the girl to continue her usual sewing. On the next
Friday morning, before seven o’clock, Dr. Lefebvre met by appointment
at the cottage Mgr. Pouceur, vicar-general of the diocese of Tournay,
and two well-known Belgian physicians, Drs. Moulaert, of Bruges, and
Mussely, of Deguze. After each one had satisfied himself of the
integrity of the seals, and that it was impossible to slip an
instrument of any kind between the glove and the skin, the strings
were cut and the gloves removed.
They were full of blood, which also covered the hands. When this was
washed off, the stigmata were found just the same as on other Fridays;
on the palm and back of each hand the epidermis had been detached; it
was torn, and the surface of the skin left raw, and each of the
stigmatic spots continued to bleed as usual. Of the feet, which had
not been subjected to any test, the right was bleeding freely, while 184
the left was dry.
Lest some subtle doubter might object to this experiment that, by some
indiscretion on the part of the examiners, the girl might perhaps have
discovered their intention, and applied her secret irritant to the
hands before their arrival, Dr. Lefebvre resolved to repeat the test
with still more conclusive precautions.
The gloves were therefore again applied on a Tuesday with the same
care as before, and the next day were removed for a few moments, and
the hands found in a perfectly healthy and natural state; they were
then re-applied as before. On Friday morning, they were taken off
before a new set of witnesses, when the stigmata of both hands were
found bleeding freely as usual.
In his appendix, Dr. Lefebvre states that this glove test was
suggested by Mgr. Pouceur, who superintended the theological part of
the inquiry at the request of the Bishop of Tournay, and to whose tact
and intelligent liberality he pays the highest compliment.
These experiments, and the inferences that they logically involve,
convinced Dr. Lefebvre that the hypothesis of fraud in the production
of the stigmata was untenable.
It would be easy to show by similar proofs that the ecstatic trances
could not have been feigned. But for our purpose it will suffice to
recall the reader’s attention to the numerous trials that were made to
test the subject’s sensibility to external impressions. Those made
with the electric current alone are decisive upon this point, for it
may fairly be said that the strongest and most resolute man could not
possibly resist some exhibition of feeling while a powerful magnetic
battery was contorting his muscles.
In a subsequent part of his volume, Dr. Lefebvre enters into an
exhaustive medical study of the facts observed, the discussion of
which would be out of place in this magazine. He shows conclusively
that, although they have some points in common, the ecstatic trances
essentially differ from hysteria, catalepsy, and other allied
disorders of the nervous system; while animal magnetism in its various
subdivisions of “Braidism,” hypnotism, and electro-biology is equally
powerless with somnambulism or the theory of spiritualism to unravel
the phenomena presented by this simple peasant girl of Bois d’Haine.
The reader who desires to pursue this inquiry is referred to Dr.
Lefebvre’s work (pp. 162 _et seq._) and to Fournier’s article
entitled “Cas rares” in the fourth volume of the _Dictionnaire des
Sciences Médicales_, which is replete with curious information upon
the subject of the stigmata.
So convincing are the statements of Dr. Lefebvre, who never descends
into the advocate or mistakes his own theories for facts, that the
case he narrates has been accepted in good faith, and republished
within the present year by two of the leading journals[54] of this
country and England.
In one of these, Dr. Day, of London, discusses the probable cause of
the phenomena with considerable liberality, while the learned Clymer
contents himself with reporting the extraordinary facts.
[45] It is scarcely necessary to explain to Catholic readers
that this expression is applied to the marks of the five
wounds upon our Lord’s body, as described in the Gospel, and
illustrated in all representations of the crucifixion.
[46] Among others, White’s _Life and Writings of Emmanuel
Swedenborg_. 1867.
[47] _Observations, etc., upon Insanity._ London. 1806.
Cited by Clymer.
[48] See among others, Salvatori’s _Life of Veronico
Giuliani_, pp. 100-108, and the exhaustive _Christliche
Mystik_ of Görres, in which is given a full account of
Maria Mörl, the “Ecstatic of the Tyrol.”
[49] _Louise Lateau de Bois d’Haine: sa Vie; ses Extases; ses
Stigmates. Etude Médicale._ Par le Dr. F. Lefebvre,
Professeur de Pathologie Générale et de Thérapeutique.
Louvain. 1870. 12mo, pp. 360.
[50] For the unprofessional reader, it may be proper to state
that this point is just external to the usual position of
the apex of the heart.
[51] The thin, transparent membrane that covers the eyeball, and
is reflected upon the inner surface of the lids. It is one
of the most delicate and sensitive portions of the body.
[52] This test is often applied for the detection of feigned
convulsions, etc., by criminals and other malingerers; its
efficacy will be appreciated by any one who has tried to
hold the poles of a powerful battery.
[53] That is, from July, 1868, to April, 1870, when Dr.
Lefebvre’s book was published. In a subsequent letter dated
January 13, 1871, to Dr. Day, of London, he states that her
condition is in all respects unchanged.
[54] _The Journal of Psychological Medicine_, New York,
Oct., 1870. _Macmillan’s Magazine_, London, April, 1871.
----------
THE LEGENDS OF OISIN, BARD OF ERIN. 185
BY AUBREY DE VERE.
INTRODUCTORY.
Among the mountains and on the wild shores of Western Ireland are
still recited, in the Gaelic, to eager listeners legends relating to
Fionn Mac Cumbal and his son Oisin, known to the English reader
chiefly under the names of Fingal and Ossian. Some of these
“rhapsodies” have been recently published, with an English version, by
the Irish “Ossianic Society,” and others by Mr. Hawkins Simpson, in a
valuable volume called _Oisin, the Bard of Ireland_. Many poems on the
same subject are included also in _The Dean of Lismore’s Book_, a work
consisting of ancient Gaelic poetry, selected from a MS. collection
made about A.D. 1514, by Sir James MacGregor, Dean of Lismore, an
island in Argyllshire. The early Irish settlements in Western Scotland are
largely referred to by the chroniclers and archæologists of Scotland.
W. F. Skene, Esq., in his learned Introduction to the Dean’s book,
informs us (though for Scotland, also, he claims Ossianic poetry)
that, during the four centuries in which the great Celtic house of the
“Lord of the Isles” held sway, there existed “not only a close
political connection between the Western Highlands and Islands and
Ireland, but the literary influence was equally close and strong; the
Irish sennachies and bards were heads of a school which included the
Western Highlands, and the Highland sennachies were either of Irish
descent, or, if of native origin, resorted to bardic schools in
Ireland for instruction in the language and accomplishments of their
art.” ... “The oldest of the Gaelic MSS. preserved in the library of
the Faculty of Advocates belongs to this period. They are all written
in the Irish character; the language is the written language of
Ireland; and they contain numerous specimens of the poetry of these
Irish masters.”
Among the Ossianic poems still chanted in Ireland, not a few consist
of dialogues between Oisin and Saint Patrick. They descend from a very
remote antiquity, though they have been much modified in the course of
ages. The bard, last of his race and clan, is represented as the guest
of Saint Patrick in one of his convents. He accepts the Christian
faith, though with misgivings, for he fears that he is thus false to
the friends of his youth, and now and then his wrath blazes out
against the monks, who have no faith in the chiefs of Inisfail. The
saint beguiles his outbreaks by praying him to sing the old glories of
the land.
Fionn, the father of Oisin, was the great commander of the Irish
Feine, a standing army elected from all parts of the country, and
invested with privileges which made it almost a kingdom within a
kingdom. Individually, he belonged to the Feine of Leinster, the
celebrated “Baoigne Clan.” Alarmed by the regal attributes assumed by
Fionn, all the provincial kings of Ireland banded themselves together
against him, and the battle of Gahbra, near Tara, in Meath, was
fought, A.D. 286. In that battle almost all the chiefs of both sides
perished, including Oscar, Oisin’s son, who commanded the Feine. Oscar
is always represented as the gentlest, not less than the bravest of
the Feine--the Hector of the Irish Troy.
Fionn and Oisin flourished, despite these poetic disputations, nearly
two centuries before the time of Saint Patrick! Some have supposed,
accordingly, that the Patrick of the Ossianic poems was some precursor
of the Irish apostle. But the chronological discrepancy would probably
have proved no counterweight to the strength of that instinct which
made the national imagination insist on connecting the heroic with the
saintly period of Ireland. A theme full of pathos and interest was
presented by the blind old warrior bard, divided between his devotion
to his father and his son on the one hand, and his reverence, on the
other, for the teachers of the better faith--between old affections
and new convictions--patriotic recollections and religious hopes.
I.
THE CONTENTION OF OISIN WITH PATRICK.[55]
[FROM ANCIENT IRISH SOURCES.]
When Patrick the faith to Oisin had preached,
He believed, and in just ways trod;
Yet oft for old days he grieved, and thus
Stormed oft at the saint of God.
“Woe, woe, for the priestly tribe this hour 186
On the Feine Hill have sway!
Glad am I that scarce their shapes I see;
Half-blind am I this day.
“Woe, woe, thou Palace of Cruachan!
Thy sceptre is down and thy sword,
The chase goes over thy grassy roof,
And the monk in thy courts is lord!
“Thou man with the mitre and vestments broad,
And the bearing of grave command,
Rejoice that Diarmid this day is dust!
Right heavy was his clinched hand!
“Thou man with the bell! I rede thee well,
Were Diorraing living this day,
Thy book he would take, and thy bell would break
On the base of yon pillar gray!
“Thou man with miraculous crosier-staff,
Though puissant thou art, and tall,
Were Goll but here, he would dash thy gear
In twain on thy convent wall!
“Were Conan living, the bald-head shrill,
With the flail of his scoff and gibe,
He would break thy neck, and thy convent wreck,
And lash from the land thy tribe!
“But one of our chiefs thy head had spared--
My Oscar--my son--my child:
He was storm in the foray, and fire in the fight,
But in peace he was maiden-mild.”
Then Patrick answered: “Old man, old man,
That pagan realm lies low.
This day Christ ruleth. Forget thy chiefs,
And thy deeds gone by forego!
“High feast thou hast on the festal days,
And cakes on the days of fast--”
“Thou liest, thou priest, for in wrath and scorn
Thy cakes to the dogs I cast!”
“Old man, thou hearest our Christian hymns: 187
Such strains thou hadst never heard--”
“Thou liest, thou priest! for in Letter Lee wood
I have listened its famed blackbird!
“I have heard the music of meeting swords,
And the grating of barks on the strand,
And the shout from the breasts of the men of help
That leaped from the decks to land.
“Twelve hounds had my sire, with throats like bells,
Loud echoed on lake and bay:
By this hand, they lacked but the baptism rite
To chant with thy monks this day!”
Oisin’s white head on his breast dropt down,
Till his hair and his beard, made one,
Shone out like the spine of a frosty hill
Far seen in the wintry sun.
“One question, O Patrick! I ask of thee,
Thou king of the saved and the shriven:
My sire, and his chiefs, have they their place
In thy city, star-built, of heaven?”
“Oisin, old chief of the shining sword,
That questionest of the soul,
That city they tread not who lived for war:
Their realm is a realm of dole.”
“By this head, thou liest, thou son of Calphurn!
In heaven I would scorn to bide,
If my father and Oscar were exiled men,
And no friend at my side.”
“That city, old man, is the city of peace:
Loud anthems, not widows’ wail--”
“It is not in bellowings chiefs take joy,
But in songs of the wars of Fail!
“Are the men in the streets like Baoigne’s chiefs?
Great-hearted like us are they?
Do they stretch to the poor the ungrudging hand,
Or turn they their heads away?
“Thou man with the chant, and thou man with the creed, 188
This thing I demand of thee:
My dog, may he pass through the gates of heaven?
May my wolf-hound enter free?”
“Old man, not the buzzing gnat may pass,
Nor sunbeam look in unbidden:
The King there sceptred knows all, sees all:
From him there is nothing hidden.”
“It never was thus with Fionn, our king!
In largess our Fionn delighted:
The hosts of the earth came in, and went forth
Unquestioned, and uninvited!”
“Thy words are the words of madness, old man,
Thy chieftains had might one day;
Yet a moment of heaven is three times worth
The warriors of Eire for aye!”
Then Oisin uplifted his old white head:
Like lightning from the hoary skies
A flash went forth ‘neath the shaggy roofs
Low-bent o’er his sightless eyes:
“Though my life sinks down, and I sit in the dust,
Blind warrior and gray-haired man,
Mine were they of old, thou priest overbold,
Those chiefs of Baoigne’s clan!”
And he cried, while a spasm his huge frame shook,
“Dim shadows like men before me,
My father was Fionn, and Oscar my son,
Though to-day ye stand vaunting it o’er me!”
Thus raged Oisin--’mid the fold of Christ,
Still roaming old deserts wide
In the storm of thought, like a lion old,
Though lamblike at last he died.
[55] The substance of this poem will be found among the
translations of the Irish Ossianic Society.
----------
LUCAS GARCIA. 189
FROM THE SPANISH OF FERNAN CABALLERO.
III.
Lucas, who could neither do nor remedy anything, suffered fearfully
from the presence of his sister so near him. Happily, in two days the
general left for Sevilla.
But from the hour when she met her brother and he refused to recognize
her, Lucia’s existence was changed. To her, in the flowery butterfly
life into which, at seventeen, she had been almost forced by
circumstances, the encounter with Lucas had been like the striking of
a bark indolently voyaging, without patron and without compass, to the
breath of light and laughing breezes, against the first rock of firm
land: the shock had been terrible. In perplexity she asked herself,
“Where am I? Whither am I going? Who is this that flatters and
shelters me? Who he that rejects me?” In terror she gazed around her:
all seemed new and strange, all odious and reprehensible. In her
memory--oh! that she had consulted it before!--she found the words her
brother had said to her at parting: “Never turn from the right path,
though it be steep and sown with thorns. Always look straight before
you, for he that does not do this never knows where he will stop.”
Lucia’s wretchedness was augmented by the seeming impossibility of
escape from the position in which she found herself. Could she turn
back without either encouragement and support, while, by continuing in
sin, she would have both? Her natural want of energy made it the more
difficult for her to return to the right path, with no help but his
who never fails those who seek him with faith and without fear or
faltering. The tears she shed tarnished her beauty, and the sorrow
that preyed on her heart robbed her manners--hitherto so gay and
caressing--of their charm. All this at first annoyed Gallardo, then
offended, and finished by exasperating him. Violent scenes took place
between the lovers; these introduced discord; and discord, when once
it has burst its primitive embankments, filters through whatever
others may be raised to contain it.
When the general was recalled to Madrid, expecting to be employed, and
thinking that his stay would not be long, he resolved to leave Lucia
in Sevilla. She allowed him to go without opposition, for so weary was
she of the life she led that any change seemed preferable. She was,
besides, very far from possessing the brazen and insolent courage that
women of her condition are wont to acquire, and that causes so many of
them, when they have ceased to be objects of passion, to be dreaded by
the men around whom they have coiled themselves like horrible snakes;
making miserable Laocoons of the victims, who often marry them through
fear, where before they would not do it for love, and thus render the
latter part of their career as ridiculous as the beginning was
scandalous.
A worthy manner, truly, in which to fill up a man’s existence!
The stay at court, however, of the _young_ general, as the papers
styled Gallardo, was prolonged. He alternated in various combinations 190
of second-class political intrigues, and allowed himself to be made
the conceited tool of one of them, under the full persuasion that he
had become the imposing leader of a party.
The general now began to think, with excellent reason, very sound
judgment, and profound calculation, that it was time for him to be
more considerate. The reader will pardon us the expression, which, in
his case, meant to enter upon a life of usefulness and devotion to the
interests of the country--without sacrificing his own, it will be
understood. Influenced by these grave considerations, our young leader
subscribed to newspapers, bought books and read some of them, though
he soon forgot precisely which he had read and which not; wrote a
memorial on river navigation, and another upon the _Renta del
Excusado_;[56] made short speeches as a preparation for longer ones,
which succeeded very well and met with the entire approbation of his
hearers; and, in the time it takes to say a devout _amen_,
exchanged the rakish air of the young blood for the pompous tone of
the prominent and influential citizen.
Our friend, as may be seen, had reached his apogee: in confirmation of
which--among other sacrifices made to seriousness--he had procured a
good cook, and loosened the lacings of his stays.
Nevertheless--since there is a difference between a serious man and a
moral one--our hero maintained a sort of toned-down dissoluteness
behind the scenes, where he and his intimates entertained themselves
in conversations tissued with a variety of subjects, such as the
discourse _A_ and the scandal _B_; the concordat and the theatre royal;
the ministry and the _danseuse_; the bishop and the prima donna; the
crown and cards; erected a throne to Tauromaquia; proposed an
apotheosis of industry; and passed a vote of censure upon the luxury
of novenas.
“Look here, _little one_!” said to him just such another “_little
one_” at a breakfast party--where champagne was made to represent the
tone of good society that the greater part of the guests lacked--“what
has become of _La Lucia_?”
“She was not very well, and I left her in Sevilla,” responded the
hero.
“Doesn’t it strike you that she is losing her varnish?”
“At twenty-one, man?”
“It is not singular,” remarked the elegant son of a capitalist (the
youth had been educated in France). “At that age, one who lives fast
is _sur le retour_.”[57]
“The existence of _camellias_ is like that of roses,” quickly added
another, whose Christian name of Bonifacio they were in the habit of
contracting into _Boni_.
Having constituted himself an inseparable copy of the engrafted
Parisian, and not wishing to fall behind his model in anything,
_Boni_ never allowed the capitalist to express an idea without
instantly reproducing it in different words, always endeavoring to
surpass the original in elegant Gallicisms; in scepticism of the most
material, and cynicism of the most approved kind, and in extreme
affectation of the fashionable foreign mannerism.
“You ought to place this Lucia _dis_-lucent among the number of the
thousand-and-one Didos,” said the would-be Gaul.
“Lay her aside with last year’s _modes fanées_,”[58] the copy hastened
to add.
“I cannot do that,” said the general. 191
“Stale Spanish morality!’” exclaimed the capitalist, bursting into a
laugh. “Does the fair creature expect to find an Amadeus of Gaul in a
general of the age of enlightenment?”
“Or a Pastor Fido in one who aspires to become a father to his
country?” put in _Boni_.
“The fact is,” replied our friend, “that in my connection with Lucia
there have been exceptional circumstances.”
“Tell them to us, little one,” said his intimate. “The romantic tale
will flavor the coffee.”
The general related all the preliminaries and particulars of his
relations with Lucia.
“Don’t you see, general,” said the imitator of the tone Parisian,
“that it was all a farce, very well got up, by those _fourbes rustics_
to set you on; alarm you; interest you in the girl, and oblige you to
take her?”
“That it was all an intrigue of _las étage_?” added the copy of the
copy.
“_Apropos_ of impositions,” said the capitalist, “I must tell you what
happened to me yesterday. A fellow came into my office--”
“Don’t omit,” said _Boni_, “that you were counting an immense sum of
money at the time, for that is what heightens the joke.”
“He asked me,” continued Creseus, “if I would lend him two doubloons.
I told him that it cost me the greatest pain to be obliged to refuse,
but that I had not sixpence by me.”
“If I had not wished to give, I would have sought another reply,” said
an old general--uncle to ours--who had lost a leg in the battle of
Bailen.
“General,” replied the narrator, “among us, _I have not_ is
synonymous with _I will not_; even sucking-babes understand it.”
“A synonym which Huertas has omitted, but which is known in these
days, even in the Batuecas,” chimed the repeater.
“It could not have existed when he composed his work,” said the
general.
“The fellow,” proceeded the narrator, “begged and implored, lowering
his demand to the most insignificant sum. I was as inexorable as
destiny.” And the millionaire cast around him a look worthy of Cato.
“He was, then, in real need, and not an impostor?” questioned the old
general.
“O sir!--general rule--every one that asks is an impostor.”
“Unless he is an intimate friend,” said _Boni_, speaking this time
with unaccustomed personality.
“_Ma foi_,”[59] answered the Gaul_ish_ Spaniard, “I except no one.
Seeing that he was not going to desist, and always with the amiability
and delicacy that must be used in such cases--”
“_Sans doute_, the same as in affairs of honor,” said the bad copy of
a worse original.
“I told him that, since his necessity was so extreme, I would venture
to lend him--not money, for I had none--but something that would be of
more use to him in his circumstances. The imbecile thought, perhaps,
that it was going to be my signature.”
“Your signature! What one might call the only and unique _sanctum
sanctorum_ of the disciples of Mercury. A thing so sacred!”
“My dear _Boni_,” said his friend, “_veuillez ne pas m’interrompre_?[60]
The fellow’s countenance lighted up. I believe, upon my word, that he
had not eaten in three days. Laughing within myself, although my face 192
denoted the gravest sympathy for his situation, I led him to a closet,
took out a case of pistols, which I opened, and, handing him a weapon,
said, as I bowed his dismissal, ‘Here is a remedy for all your
troubles.’ My mendicant turned upon his heel and left; and you may be
sure that I have rid myself of him, _une bonne fois pour toutes_.”[61]
Boni’s mirth was overpowering.
Gallardo and the rest of the Spaniards were silent.
“You must positively put this joke into some paper,” said the
capitalist’s admirer, between his paroxysms of laughter.
“_Mon cher, à quoi bon?_”[62] responded the hero of the anecdote, with
an air of modesty.
“To show people how to get rid of impostors,” answered Boni; “to
furnish a specimen of your humor--to let it be seen that you are as
richly endowed by nature as by fortune--to give circulation to an
entertaining item--and to--”
“And could a paper be found that would print such an iniquity as an
entertaining item!” shouted the old general, no longer able to contain
his wrath. “Is it the mission of the press to propagate such ideas and
sentiments? God help us, sirs, if there is no one left in Spain
capable of a blush! Can the press parade infamy shamelessly, and no
one be found to repudiate the impudence that relates such a scandal in
terms of laudation; or appeal from it to the noble and generous
instincts, and sense of public decorum, of good and true Spaniards?
Have we become as positive as the written law? In former times,
gentlemen, not all gave, but the few that denied did not boast of
their refusal. Charity made men sorry to say no, even to impostors,
and, having said it, they would have been silent about it for shame.
Avarice was looked upon as one of the disgraceful vices which respect
for public opinion required to be kept out of sight.”
“Uncle, for God’s sake!” entreated Gallardo.
“For God’s sake what, nephew?”
“Speak with more moderation.”
“When I do, look towards Antequera for sunrise.”
“Don’t feel apprehensive, general,” said the capitalist, “_Je sais
vivre_.[63] I respect your family, and know how to make allowance for
gray hairs and the ill-humor of advanced age.”
“Yes,” instantly added the speaking shadow, “_carte blanche_ belongs
to ladies, children, and--”
He was going to add _old men_, but a look from the general silenced
him.
“No, nephew, don’t be apprehensive,” said the latter. “The weapons of
a gentleman are for nobler uses than the punishment of insults.”
“Come, let us talk of something else,” said Gallardo’s intimate,
anxious to change the subject, but glad in his heart, as were all the
other guests, of the lesson the braggart had received from so worthy
and authorized an antagonist.
“It is not possible, Gallardo, that you will allow Lucia to be an
irredeemable lien upon you. Let me tell you, my boy, that it would be
a pretty piece of folly on your part to create an obstacle to your
future establishment.”
“I don’t see that--in order to be a deputy, senator, or--”
“Oh! you’re on the wrong tack. Your political ideas absorb all your
thoughts; but I have been told--by one of her friends--that the
daughter of Don Juan de Moneda,[64] the banker, is quite smitten with 193
your person.”
Gallardo straightened himself, and caressed his curled locks.
“Her mother is completely taken with the title of Marquis de Monte
Gallardo, which they say you are about to receive, and her father with
your capacity.”
“We are even there,” said the general, “for I am as much impressed
with his. To buy--”
“But,” proceeded the friend, “he is equally so with your sash and
rent-roll. Here, boy, is an opportunity to settle in life.”
“Really, I hardly know the kind and amiable young lady who has been so
condescending as to think of me!” drawled the extremely flattered
Gallardo, privately resolving to tighten his stays again.
“She is very beautiful,” affirmed his friend, “and you must know that
she rides like a Cossack.”
“Oh! Athenaïs la Moneda has the most elegant figure and complexion--so
pale!--and the fiercest glances” (he meant haughtiest) “of all the
belles of Madrid. She is delicious!” exclaimed the Parisian.
“She has the neck of a swan, with such _serpentine undulating_,” said
Bonifacio, quite at a loss for another comparison.
“The most desirable _parte, ma foi_! Her father is worth forty
millions, and she is the only daughter,” continued the capitalist, who
did not allow his appreciation of beauty to interfere with his
devotion to dollars.
“You ought to improve your opportunity, and marry at once,” advised
the friend. “These girls with forty millions are more capricious than
the wind. They change oftener than weather-cocks, and do just as they
please; for millionaire fathers who know only the Castilian have the
highest consideration for daughters who have learned French from Sue’s
novels, and Italian at the opera.”
“An heiress’s whim is like a flash of lightning. In losing time, you
expose yourself to a--”
“To a deception,” said the capitalist, concluding the sentence.
“To a _disabusement_,” said the copy, thinking, with profound
satisfaction, that he had, for once, surpassed the original.
“What is your opinion of all this?” asked Gallardo of his uncle, with
a laugh, intended to appear jesting, but which betrayed his interior
satisfaction.
“Yes, give us the benefit of your wisdom,” said the capitalist,
covering his ill-humor with a tone of light irony. “In matrimonial as
well as martial councils, the Nestors should be heard.
‘_La face des vieillards est pleine de majesti:
Leur voix sur l’existence a des secrets intimes._’”[65]
“_Une vieux de la vieille_,”[66] confirmed _Boni_, “is a California of
experience; a barometrical and chronometrical counsellor; a universal
grammar bound in gold; a--”
“Hush, _Boni_!” whispered the capitalist in the ear of his friend, who,
less accustomed to champagne than the others, began to feel its
emancipating influence.
Meantime, the old officer stroked his gray moustache in silence.
“Well, what do you think, general!” questioned Gallardo.
“I think that you ought to marry.”
“_C’est clair_,” said the Parisian.
“It is clear,” repeated _Boni_--“as clear as detestable water;
and they think of bringing it into Madrid! Will spend millions to do
it!”
“_Taisez vous, mon cher_,” entreated the model, in a low tone. 194
“I am not in the humor,” replied the copy, in excellent Spanish.
“Of course he ought to marry,” said all the rest.
“Let us understand each other, gentlemen,” said the old general. “I
think, Gallardo, that you ought to marry, not the mushroom of the
millions, but Lucia.”
These words were received with clamorous disapprobation.
“You take advantage of your _rôle_ of Nestor, general,” exclaimed
the capitalist.
“The hero of former times dotes--I would say _radote_. I propose a
vote of censure!” hiccoughed the copy.
“S-s-s, Boni. _Le vous en prie!_[67] Do you want to get another
broadside from the disabled old pontoon? Don’t provoke him, for the
next time neither prudence nor contempt will enable me to keep my
temper,” murmured his patron.
“The general is jesting. A gentleman of his fine delicacy cannot mean
to counsel one, in Gallardo’s position, to marry a woman of light
reputation,” said Gallardo’s friend.
“I do it because I have delicacy--a plant that strikes so deep when
once it has taken root, that neither the silver plough nor the golden
spade which cultivates the field of ideas of the present day can turn
it out. I counsel a man who has done a wrong to repair it. I advise
one who has been the ruin of an honest girl to become her defender.
And the more public he has made her position, the more he is bound to
set her right in the eyes of others. If the future looks smiling, I
counsel it all the more earnestly, that the past may not reproach him.
In my days, gentlemen, marriages were not discussed in semi-public
meetings. The only counsellors were, according to the circumstances,
the heart, the honor, and the conscience. But,” added the old man,
rising, “my sentiments are as much out of harmony with yours, as my
person is out of place in a reunion of gay young men. Gentlemen, I
salute you. Nephew, good-by. Do not ask me to your brilliant wedding
if you marry with the million-heiress of the caprices. If with Lucia,
I will be your groomsman.”
With these words the noble veteran took his leave.
“Style of an epic poem,” said the pseudo-Parisian.
“Tone of an _elegiac lyric_,” stammered the copy. “One would think the
governor had been drinking some kind of palate-skinning Catalan wine,
instead of the excellent, exquisite, delectable, delicious--”
“Enough, _Boni_,” interrupted his friend, indicating to him with his
foot the urgent necessity of more discretion.
“The general has, so to speak, one foot in the grave, and, naturally,
all looks to him _de profundis_ color,” observed Gallardo’s intimate.
“But we live in a positive age, and must conform to the step of its
march; to do otherwise would be to make ourselves antiquated and
ridiculous.”
Days followed days, each one bringing to our hero its business,
novelty, interest, and forgetfulness of those that had preceded it.
Lucia, in the meantime, saw her means of subsistence failing without
informing him; for, with the reawakened sentiments of duty and shame,
came the comprehension of her guilty dependence, and sense of the
double humiliation of soliciting and receiving. She had lived for some
time by the sale of her valuables, but this resource was almost
exhausted.
“What is to become of me?” she questioned, with more of weakness than 195
inquietude, more inertia than anguish, as she sat one day alone, her
head drooping upon her breast. “In forgetting how to work, I have been
like the sailor that forgets in a calm how to handle the ropes. What
shall I do when all is gone? What can he who has brought me to this be
thinking of?”
Her questionings were interrupted by the entrance of the woman of the
house with a letter.
“It is from Madrid,” she said, with a fawning smile. “I’ll bet that
the general tells when he is coming, and confirms the report of his
appointment as captain-general of this province.”
Lucia opened and read the following epistle:
“DEAR LUCIA: Nothing can last for ever. Mature age brings serious
ideas; the life of a man, obligations, circumstances, compromises, and
position, duties, which force us to make, in favor of reason and
morality, sacrifices that are not the less painful because they are
necessary.
“My family has undertaken to negotiate a marriage for me, which will
assure me a certain and brilliant future; and matters have proceeded
so far that I cannot oppose myself to the arrangement without
offending a powerful and respectable family, compromising my own, and
causing grave inconveniences, inconveniences which you would be the
first to deplore.
“I believe that you will understand the necessity of my establishing
myself in life, and will feel neither surprised nor pained. I am
equally persuaded, having noticed for a long time how unhappy you
seemed at my side, and how little pleasure my presence gave you, that
you will not miss me. It may be that another already occupies in your
heart the place that once was mine. If you will be happier with him
than you have been with me, I trust that I have enough philanthropy to
rejoice in your good fortune.
“Adieu. It is likely that we may not meet again; but, believe me, I
shall never forget you; and, if I can serve you in any way, command
me.”
“Well,” asked the woman, eagerly, “does he say anything about coming?”
“No,” answered Lucia, with the tears raining down her cheeks, “he says
that he is not coming.”
Lucia did not feel for Gallardo that which can properly be called
love; but, during four years, her naturally affectionate heart had
attached itself to him, and could not but be wounded by the cold
insensibility with which he had abandoned her.
The harpy’s face, manner, and tone changed at once; for this grief
confirmed her suspicions. Lucia’s lover had cast her off.
“Madam,” she said, “certain exigencies, in which I unfortunately find
myself, have obliged me to introduce a rule into my house, requiring
my boarders to pay in advance. All the rest have agreed to it, and I
trust that you will do the same.”
“No, madam,” replied Lucia, “for I am going away to-morrow, and so
shall have to give you only what is already due.”
The poor forsaken girl went out that night and sold her wardrobe to a
pawnbroker. After satisfying her creditor, she had enough left to pay
some wine-carriers for a ride upon one of their mules as far as Jerez,
and from there she meant to go to Arcos on foot. At dawn, on the
following morning, she passed through the Carmona gate, casting a
long, sad look upon the sleeping city--the city that the Bitis serves
as a page; La Giralda for insignia, and the verdure of its orange 196
groves for adornment; the city that is at once gay as a village maiden
and imposing as a queen; beautiful as a young girl, and full of wisdom
and memories as a matron; graceful as the Andalusian of to-day, and
chaste and noble as the Castilian dame of olden time.
Lucia found herself in Jerez alone and without resource, but, by favor
of her good angel, met Uncle Bartolo at the inn where she alighted.
The visible presence of the former would not have rejoiced her more
than did the sight of this old friend of her family, to whom she told
the whole of her sad story, adding that now she knew not what to do,
since she dared not seek even a servant’s place.
“My daughter,” said the old guerilla, “you grew vain in the fiend’s
own house of _Leona_, and forgot that wings were given to the ant for
its destruction. If you had shown that wretch a repulsive face, he
would not have ventured to do what he did. What motive, will you tell
me, could a _You Sir_ have for playing clucking fox to a little
country girl, but to make of her a mark for shame?
“However,” he continued, seeing that Lucia’s tears began to flow, “far
be it from me to hack at the fallen tree, or double the burden of the
ass that is down. The baptism of repentance opens the fold, and your
repentance is sincere, because you return to poverty, when, if you had
chosen otherwise, profligates would not have been wanting, in the
great city, to complete your ruin. Come with me, and I will talk to
Lucas. It is his duty to take care of you.”
“He will never forgive me, Uncle Bartolo!” exclaimed Lucia sadly. “He
has said that he had no sister, and no one can make him say the
contrary.”
“True,” replied the guerilla, “the Garcia heads are harder than
anvils. I learned that by experience when your father--Heaven rest
him!--married _La Leona_. But this is another thing, for,
notwithstanding that your father did so badly, Lucas has turned out
well. And it is a great deal easier to yoke two that are united by
blood than to unyoke two that the devil has united. We will see, God
helping us, and, in the meantime, you shall come to my house; there is
no great abundance, but good-will is not wanting.”
The next day saw Uncle Bartolo and Lucia travelling along the road
which we described at the commencement of our story; Lucia mounted
upon a little ass, and the agile good old man following on foot. At
nightfall they reached Arcos.
Alas! for the one who, returning to his native place, instead of
experiencing pure happiness, feels his heart torn by grief and shame;
finds his parents dead, the house where he was born the property of
strangers, and sees, in the looks of neighbors, cold disdain instead
of the joyful smile of recognition and welcome!
Uncle Bartolo took Lucia to his own house, and, while they were
preparing supper, went himself to that of Lucas, who, on receiving his
discharge, had returned to Arcos and to his post among the
day-laborers, and had, by his aptness and diligence, won so much
credit that several profitable jobs and positions had already been
offered him. As will be supposed, he had found his father’s house
sold. But as his kinswoman still lived in it, he hired his former
habitation, and she assisted him.
Uncle Bartolo entered, just as Lucas had finished his supper.
“Sit by, Uncle Bartolo,” said the young man.
“No, thank you. May what you have taken profit you! Will you have a 197
cigar?”
“It wouldn’t come amiss.”
Uncle Bartolo handed Lucas a paper cigar, lighted his own, and, with
characteristic bluntness, plunged into his subject.
“Lucas, man, will you tell me why you never speak of your sister? Does
it appear to you that a sister is a patch sewed on to be ripped at
pleasure?”
Lucas, disagreeably surprised, contracted his brows as he answered:
“I have no sister, Uncle Bartolo.”
“What! what do you say?”
“I have already said it. ‘In my manse they bestow but one loaf.’”
“Go a-walking with your grand talk! I’d like to know what right you
have to deny your sister, even though her life has not been what it
ought to be?”
Lucas had turned pale, and his beard trembled with repressed
indignation.
“Uncle Bartolo,” he replied, affecting an air of indifference, “the
saying is, ‘He that goes away is not counted.’ Let us drop this
conversation.”
“I don’t feel disposed to; you may as well understand that. And now,
let me tell you that this face of a judge, though it may be the
correct one to show to a sinner, is not by any means the one to show
to a penitent. Do you comprehend? Your poor little sister is penitent;
and you know that
‘He who sins and mends,
Himself to God commends.’”
“I have said that I had no sister.”
“Don’t be stubborn, for God’s sake! Look here now, soul of an ape! How
can you say you have no sister, if he has given you one? Lucas, I have
come, and I shall not go away until you forgive Lucia.”
“Uncle Bartolo, don’t pledge yourself to what you cannot accomplish.”
“You are your father’s own son--the one and the other harder-headed
than oxen. Juan Garcia and Lucas Garcia: there’s a pair fit for a
cart!”
“Why fall upon me, sir, in such a shower of sarcasms? Is it necessary
to give so many punches to say that the bull is coming?”
“Because he comes with a purpose, and, ‘when things come with a
purpose, more than the ass may fall to the ground.’ I tell you only
the pure truth, and you, with your devil’s motto of ‘few words and bad
ones,’ what you say has neither form nor sense! But to come back to
the subject, for I don’t let go the handle this way when I am
defending the right. As I was going to say, your stubbornness is worse
than your father’s; because it is not so bad to be determined upon
marrying one’s girl as to be determined not to forgive one’s sister.
It’s better to do more than your duty than to do less. If your father
lacked puncto, you have half a share too much. Your mother committed
your sister to you; and you are disobeying the last will of her that
bore you!”
“She committed my sister to me, but not the kept miss of a villain.”
“You are soaring as the eagle, which is a royal bird; you pronounce
your sentences like a judge of the Audiencia, and make yourself
believe that you are wiser than the Regency. But you are greatly out
of the way, my son. It ill becomes you to go before God in casting out
your sister; your own mother’s daughter, when her misfortune was
partly your fault.”
“Mine, sir?”
“Yes, yours; for you threw off the burden like an untamed colt; cast
behind you the trust you received from your mother, and, without 198
commending yourself either to God or the devil, shouldered your gun
and made off; knowing that for six years, walled up in a uniform, you
must lose sight of your charge; knowing, besides, that you were
leaving her in a house where wickedness was well established. And so
what happened, happened. The past is past, and can’t be mended now;
but after this, do you think it is right, Christian, that your sister
should have no one to turn to when she leaves her sinful life?”
“She ought to have remembered in time that every uphill has its down.”
“But, my son, is not this to
‘See the ulcer, see the woe:
Shut the purse, and naught bestow’?
This is to have bowels of a pagan toward a poor creature that they
pushed and pushed--a child that did not know what they were doing.”
“Uncle Bartolo, ignorance does not take away sin.”
“Do you think, if you had had your evil hour--suppose it for instance,
only--and had robbed or done something that had dishonored you, and
had gone to your sister, that she would refuse to own you? I’ll be
bound she wouldn’t!”
“Well, I should have acted badly. But the case is impossible, for it
would have been my care not to put myself in her way. ‘He that touches
his own with his leprosy, gives it to them, and does not cure
himself.’”
“Lucas, my son, the sentence says, ‘Act with good intention, and not
with passion!’”
“And the proverb says that ‘blood boils without fire,’ Uncle Bartolo.”
“Lucas, for the love of the Blessed Virgin! How can he who shows no
mercy hope for the mercy of God? Do a good deed, and, when you lie
down, though it be upon a mattress of rushes, you will sleep without
bad dreams, and as sweetly as if it were a bed of feathers!”
“You are wasting words, Uncle Bartolo. Even if I am condemned for it,
I will not hear that vile thing spoken of, and so--stop!”
“Go to, then, _Cain_!” exclaimed the good old man as he rose to leave,
“and God set a mark on you as he did on the cruel brother that he
cursed! I’d rather have her, with her sin and her repentance, than
you, with your virtue and your pride.”
To paint the grief of the wretched Lucia when Uncle Bartolo informed
her of the no-result of his mission, would be impossible.
“Holy God!” she exclaimed between her sobs, “only with thee shall I
find mercy! Ah! how I loved this brother in the days of my happy
childhood, when I was innocent, and he was all my consolation! Then he
could not do enough to please me, and used to swear never to abandon
me!”
“Come, come, dry your tears, my daughter,” said Uncle Bartolo. “‘The
frightened partridge is the first to get skewered.’ What do you want
of an unnatural, without bowels of compassion? You have me, and the
roof of my house is not so small that it cannot shelter you. What I
have you shall share, and you can help my poor Josefa. She has become
a potsherd, and don’t get much rest, for ‘woman’s work is done and to
be done again.’”
When the other inmates of the house slept, Lucia kept lonely vigil,
and wept the things that had formerly made her happiness--her poverty,
her innocence, and her brother’s affection. Wandering in the vast
field of her recollections, she found both affliction and consolation
in recalling all the particulars of her simple life; every proof of 199
tenderness that she had received from her brother; every hope,
withered or dead. With the deepening silence and shadows of the night,
her anguish increased. “What shall I do? What shall I do?” she cried,
wringing her hands. “I cannot be a burden to this good old man! I
cannot stay in this neighborhood, for my own brother’s rejection of me
will encourage others to outrage me! What shall I do? I must beg if I
cannot find work! Where shall I go? Wherever God may lead me!”
Without waiting for daylight, and silently, in order that her
departure might not be perceived by her protector, Lucia opened the
door, and stepped into the street.
But she could not leave, for ever, a place so dear to her, without
lingering for a moment before the adjacent house. It was the one in
which her mother died; its roof had sheltered her tranquil infancy: in
it she was leaving the brother that she still loved, in spite of her
guilt and his inhumanity.
Lucas was not asleep. Exasperation, a disquieted conscience, and heavy
heart had driven repose from him.
All at once, he was startled by the tones of a sweet and tremulous
voice near to the street door, singing the romance that he had taught
his sister when she was a child. He sprang from the bed, moved by an
irresistible impulse, but instantly covered his ears with his hands as
if to shut out the sound.
The voice sang:
“Praying in God’s name, sister,
And for his sweet mother’s sake,
Give my little children bread,
And his word in payment take.”
Struggling with mingled emotions of rage and grief, Lucas seated
himself upon his couch, and beat upon the ground with his feet.
The voice, becoming all the while more low and quivering, proceeded:
“He takes a loaf, and breaks it,
But throws it down again,
For blood run out of the bread.”
The brother’s heart was choking him, yet, still resisting, he covered
his now tear-stained face with both hands. But when the voice, broken
by sobs, continued,
“And she that, without pity,
To a sister refuses bread,
To God’s Mother doth refuse it”--
he rushed to the door, and, dashing it open, ran out; and Lucia, with
a cry of joy, threw herself into his extended arms.
The next day, Uncle Bartolo remarked to his wife:
“When the devil enters into one, he locks all the doors behind him.
But until the last hour, his divine Majesty keeps a postern open in
the sinner’s heart.”
[56] Name given to the subsidy formerly levied by the
King of Spain for carrying on wars against the infidels.
[57] On the wane.
[58] Faded fashions.
[59] In faith.
[60] “Will you please not interrupt me?”
[61] Once for all.
[62] What for, my dear?
[63] I know how to behave.
[64] Don John made of Money.
[65] “The aspect of the old is full of majesty:
Their words are laden with the secrets of existence.”
[66] An old soldier of the olden time.
[67] “Hush, I beg of you.”
----------
THE LIQUEFACTION OF THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS. 200
NO. III.
But this is far from being the general rule. In 1543, the diary
mentions the presence of Muleasses, Bey of Tunis, a Mohammedan, and
records his expression of astonishment at what he beheld. On several
other occasions, Mohammedans were witnesses of it; some became
Christians. Protestant travellers from England, Denmark, Sweden, and
Germany have written accounts of what they themselves saw. On four of
the six occasions when the writer of these lines was present, he can
bear personal testimony to the presence of Protestants.
It is narrated that the liquid blood has been known to solidify
instantly, whenever the reliquary passed into the hands of a
particular canon, in his turn of office, to be presented by him to the
people, or when certain persons approached to venerate and kiss it,
and would as quickly liquefy again when they withdrew. A notorious
case is mentioned by the Bollandists, and by other authorities, of a
prince, whose name, for family reasons, was not given--for the matter
was published in his lifetime. At his approach the liquid blood used
to become solid. His personal character left no doubt on the minds of
the Neapolitans why this happened.
We have already spoken of the notable differences of color, on various
days, or parts of the same day. The diary registers them as _bright_,
_beautiful_, _vermilion_, _rubicund_, or as _dense_ or _dark_, or
_blackish_, or _ash-colored_, or, again, _pale_ or _yellowish_.
Sometimes the whole mass was of one uniform tint. Sometimes there were
several tints in different parts, as in 1748, when, as we saw, one
portion was blackish and the other ash-colored, the vial being then
full, and the blood liquid, as afterwards appeared.
Again, the liquid blood is sometimes quite quiescent, yielding,
indeed, to every movement of the ampulla, as water would, but when the
ampulla is at rest on its stand, remaining in it as tranquil as water,
with a level and smooth surface, and without the least indication of
internal movement. Yet often it gives forth a froth or foam, which
covers a part or all of the surface, which stains the glass dark or
vermilion, and the remains or traces of which may be noticed on the
mass when indurated afterwards; that is, if this foaming has continued
until a solidification on the altar, or until the reliquary is locked
up in the evening. Very often this foaming will cease after lasting
half-an-hour or an hour. Its ending and disappearance is as fitful as
its beginning.
Sometimes the motion is greater, and of a different character--an
ebullition or boiling, as the Italians call it. Portions of the liquid
blood are thrown up a quarter of an inch, or more. Sometimes this
bubbling has been very violent, some of the liquid being thrown up
into the neck of the ampulla to the very top.
On December 16, 1717, it is recorded that, before the liquefaction
took place, and while the blood was still hard and solid, “an
exhalation was seen to rise from the hard mass, like to a little cloud, 201
and to ascend to the top of the neck.” On 24th September, 1725, “the
blood was taken out hard, and immediately liquefied; and three or four
times, of itself, it moved round in a circle within the ampulla,
although the ampulla was then in its place on the altar, and
motionless.”
It is needless to cite any more of the thousand-and-one items of such
character scattered through the diary. They all show the sincerity and
good faith of the writers, and the care with which the minutest facts
were observed, and accurately recorded on the day of their occurrence.
Next to the occurrence of the liquefaction, the most important fact,
in our judgment, is the frequent change of volume which the mass
undergoes while liquid. We say while liquid, for we do not discover,
either in the diary or in our researches elsewhere, any indication of
such a change taking place while the blood is in its solid condition.
But, while liquid, such changes are so frequent and so great that the
diary, as we saw, noticed their absence or _quasi_-absence, during one
octave, as something remarkable. The blood is said to be at its
ordinary or normal level when it fills about four-fifths of the space
in the ampulla, or vial. It has been known to sink below this, but
very rarely. Ordinarily it is oscillating in volume, sometimes
reaching the neck, or entering it so high as to leave only a thread of
light, or even filling the neck up to where it enters the mass of
soldering. The extreme distance between the two levels is about an
inch and a half, and the volume must increase over twenty per cent. in
order to rise from the ordinary level so as to fill completely the
ampulla. The days are comparatively rare when some change of volume
is not seen, either by increase or by decrease. The change is
generally gradual, yet such as may be watched and followed. Sometimes,
however, it is quite rapid in the ascent or the descent, or in
its alternations of rising and falling; sometimes almost
instantaneous--_in un colpo, in un tratto_.
These ordinary oscillations or changes of volume, which occur at any
time, may be looked on as the usual and minor form of one general and
striking trait or mode of action. When the increase is carried to its
utmost extent, the vial is seen to be completely filled; and this
fulness, in turn, presents many variations to be studied. We may
divide them into two classes. The first embraces all those cases in
which the fulness terminates, and the blood commences to diminish in
volume, at any time before the close of the octave; we may call these
completed periods. The second embraces all those in which the fulness
continues to the end, so that, on the last day of the octave, the
blood is replaced in its closet still completely filling the ampulla;
these we call incomplete periods.
To the prior class belong, first, all those many instances in which
the blood swelled up and filled the ampulla and commenced to sink
again in volume on the same day, whether after a few moments or after
several hours of fulness. Again, the diary records _three_ cases
in which it so rose one day and sank the next; _four_ cases in which
it rose one day and sank the second day after, keeping the ampulla
completely full for the entire intermediate day; _six_ cases in which
there were two such intermediate days; _two_ with three, and _four_
with four such intermediate days of complete fulness. We have thus
nineteen cases recorded in the diary, to which we should add, 202
perhaps, an equal number for the first category. A complete period, so
to call it, of the fulness may vary, therefore, from a few moments to
five consecutive days.
The second class comprises ninety-four instances of fulness opened and
not completed during the octave. The varieties in these are even
greater than in the former class. In _nineteen_ cases the fulness, or,
at least, its last phase, commenced on the closing day; in _five_
cases, on the day before; in _nine_, on the third last day; in
_eleven_, on the fourth; and in _twenty-two_ on the fifth day,
counting from the closing of the octave; in _twenty-six_ cases, the
fulness began on the sixth day; and in _two_ cases, as far back as the
seventh day, counting from the close of the octave. We have here
twenty-eight of these incomplete periods, longer than the longest of
the closed or complete periods, just mentioned, still further
complicating any question as to the lengths of these periods of
fulness.
Whenever, during an octave, the ampulla is locked up at night
_full_, it will be found _full_ the next morning. When it is locked up
at the close of an octave in that state, it will be found in the same
at the first opening of the next celebration, months afterwards. We
said that the mass changed its volume only when in a fluid condition.
We may now venture to add that such changes take place only in public,
and never while the blood is closed up in the closet, or
_armoire_. In examining the diary very carefully, we find that, in the
vast majority of cases, the level of the mass as stated when taken
out--whether it be at the ordinary level, or somewhat elevated, or
very high, or full--perfectly agrees with the level at which it was
stated to stand when last put up, whether the day before or at the
close of the preceding octave. In a number of cases, indeed, the diary
is silent or obscure on the point; but its language often seems to
imply this fact, or to take it for granted. Nowhere does it state the
reverse in general terms; and we cannot find a single instance
recorded which establishes the contrary. The blood is always found at
the level at which it stood when last put up.
These ninety-four unclosed periods were, therefore, prolonged to the
next festival, when the ampulla was taken out still _full_. Some of
these periods had just commenced on the last day; others had lasted
six full days after the day of their commencement. Is there any marked
difference in their closing? Not in the day; for they all, with three
exceptions, closed on the first day of the incoming octave, if they
had run over to May or September, or on December 16, if that was the
next exposition. In regard to time, there is no rule. The most
numerous class, containing twenty-six instances, varied from
_immediately_ to _nine hours and a half_; nine times the liquefaction
occurred in less than one hour, and nine times it delayed more than
three hours--the other eight times it lay between the two. The
twenty-two cases of the next highest class present the same
diversities of time, from _immediately_ to _nine hours and a half_.
Nine instances were under an hour, eight were over three hours, the
remaining five lay between the two divisions.
The more those periods of fulness are examined, the more clearly does
it appear that they follow no system, and can be classified or
accounted for by no law. We see the mass swelling and increasing its
volume and filling the ampulla, and continuing to fill it for some 203
moments, or hours, or days. We can note the facts; but why this
increase? why does it rise so high? why to-day, and not yesterday, or
to-morrow? why so long, or not longer? Physical science is as utterly
unable to answer these questions as it is to assign a cause for the
liquefaction itself, or for the various and varying phases of the
blood of St. Januarius.
As was stated in our preceding article, the Neapolitans hold that the
proximity of the relics of the head and the reliquary with the vials
of the blood to each other, is ordinarily the sufficient and
determining cause of the liquefaction. Their whole ritual of the
expositions is based upon this principle. The separation of the
relics, or their _quasi_-separation, by a veil thrown over the
reliquary of the blood, is ordinarily sufficient to terminate the
liquefaction and to indurate the blood anew. But, on the other hand,
the diary records a number of instances in which the blood, having
been found hard, liquefied at once, even before the reliquary was
placed near the bust. Several times, too, it has liquefied in the
streets, while carried aloft in the afternoon procession of the vigil
in May towards Santa Chiara or a _seggia_, although the bust had
already been carried thither in the forenoon. So, too, a liquefaction,
partially commenced in the _Tesoro_ chapel or in the cathedral, has
often continued or been completed during the outdoor procession
through the streets, on the festival of the patronage, in December.
Another cause or condition, perhaps as important as the proximity of
the relics, is, in our judgment, the strong faith and the earnest
devotion of the attendants--a faith and devotion in which the
Neapolitans, clergy and people, are not surpassed. It was, perhaps,
for this reason, that in the extraordinary expositions of which we
have spoken, the liquefaction so often occurred quickly, and, as the
Neapolitans would say, _Il miracolo era bellissimo_. The devout
strangers to whom the favor was granted brought to it faith and piety.
On the few occasions when it was tardy--on none did it entirely
fail--there may have been too strong an ingredient of mere profane
curiosity. Kings, and princes, and nobles of high worldly standing
have often visited Naples, and sometimes sought and obtained this
favor of an extraordinary exposition of the relics in their presences,
that, apart and with less danger of any intrusion on their personal
dignity or comfort, and in the company of their chosen attendants
only, they might have an opportunity of witnessing the miracle at
their ease. This was the length of their privilege. As for the
liquefaction itself, they had to wait as others waited, and, perhaps,
because they did not pray as others prayed, they were sometimes
disappointed.
In 1702, Philip V., King of Spain, to whom Naples was then subject,
visited the city, reaching it on the afternoon of Easter Sunday. On
Easter Tuesday, April 18, he was present at a Pontifical High Mass
celebrated in the cathedral. After that long ceremony, his majesty
passed into the _Tesoro_ chapel, where there was to be a special
exposition of the relics, that he might venerate them and might
witness the liquefaction. “The blood was brought out hard; four Masses
were celebrated in succession (about two hours); but the saint was not
pleased to work it. The king departed, and the Masses continued. At
the sixth Mass, and as the king had entered his carriage at the
cathedral door, the blood liquefied. The king returned at 22 o’clock,
and kissed the relics in the hands of his eminence in the _Tesoro_.” 204
However, the diary mentions that he did witness the liquefaction
itself at the next regular day in May, with all the people.
Other instances are given in which viceroys and nobles and princes
waited until they were tired out. Soon after their departure, when the
faithful and fervent people might freely crowd the chapel and pray,
the liquefaction would occur.
It is impossible to exaggerate the firmness of their faith or the
depth and tenacity of the affection of the Neapolitans for this
_their_ miracle. Whatever else happens to their fair city, nothing
must interfere with their devotion to St. Januarius and the proper
celebration of these festivals--neither wars nor pestilence, nor
eruptions nor earthquakes, nor change of rulers. Once a battle raging
in the streets prevented an outdoor procession. But, within the
cathedral, there was a procession through the aisles and nave, and all
things else went on as usual.
Oddly enough, the greatest disturber, to judge by the simple-minded
writers of the diary, has been--rain. Not that the weather has any
direct influence on the liquefaction or its circumstances. Quite the
contrary. The blood liquefies all the same, and with as many attendant
variations, whether the day be fair or rainy, whether the season be so
dry that the farmers are complaining of drought, and prayers have been
ordered for rain, or whether it has been raining incessantly for weeks
and months, to the injury of the crops, and in the churches they are
praying for fair weather; in summer, when the sun is pouring down his
almost tropical beams; and in winter, when the procession is confined
to the cathedral because it is too cold to go out into the streets,
or because the ground is covered with snow. These meteorological
changes have no apparent influence on the liquefaction or its
characteristic circumstances.
But at Naples they sometimes have terrible deluges of rain--steady
downpourings such as one may witness only within or close to the
tropics. Sometimes these have come on just at the hour to interfere
with the grand afternoon procession of the vigil in May, forbidding
it, or ludicrously disarranging it, and forcing monks, friars,
priests, seminarians, canons, and people alike to break the ranks and
seek immediate shelter in the neighboring shops and houses. However,
come what might, at the worst, his eminence, or the highest
ecclesiastical dignitary present, with a few attendants of waterproof
hearts, would carry the relic, in a sedan chair or a carriage, it
might be, to the appointed place. Is it not all punctually set down in
the diary; at what corner, or in what street, the procession was
broken up, and who then carried the relic on, and whether still on
foot or in a carriage, and how many courageously accompanied him? We
may be sure that on arriving at their destination they never failed to
find the church, despite the rain, and despite the absence of
fashionable ones, filled by devout souls, who loved their saint more
than they feared even such weather.
Passages in the extracts we have made from the diary, and many other
passages we might quote, indicate the feelings of alarm which fill the
hearts of the Neapolitans when the liquefaction fails to occur, or is
attended by circumstances which they traditionally dread. St.
Januarius is their patron saint. This ever-recurring liquefaction is,
in their eyes, a perpetual and miraculous sign or evidence of his care 205
and protection. When it occurs regularly, when the liquefaction is
complete and the color of the liquid blood a bright vermilion, and
when there are no sudden disturbances and only slight variations of
level, the Neapolitans are happy. “It is a blessed octave.” They think
they have evidence that all will go well with them. If, on the
contrary, the hard mass does not liquefy at all, or if the liquid
blood appear turbid, dark or ash-colored, or if it rises and falls
rapidly, or if it presents other unusual and sinister appearances,
their hearts sink, and they are filled with alarm and anxiety. They
fear that this is an indication of the displeasure of heaven, and that
the chastisements they deserve for their sins may soon come on them.
We once heard a learned Neapolitan enlarge on this theme, and cite
various instances in the history of his city in which he showed a
remarkable coincidence, at least, between such facts of the
liquefactions and the occurrence of wars, pestilence, famine, and
disastrous earthquakes, or of other signal chastisements from heaven.
We were not sufficiently conversant with the history of Naples either
to controvert his statements or to allege other facts to the contrary.
It is a subject on which one might go astray, almost as easily as if
he undertook to interpret the Apocalypse. But our friend professed to
have the history at his finger-ends, and certainly was himself
thoroughly convinced of the truth of his opinion.
Travellers are accustomed to tell amusing stories of the impatience
and irreverence of the Neapolitans during the exposition, whenever
there is an unusual delay in the liquefaction. They charge them with
addressing the saint alternately in expressions of religious homage
and of bitter reproach, praying and beseeching him one moment and
apostrophizing him the next in slang terms of vituperation. Such
travellers, we may be sure, are either drawing on their own
imagination or on the store of anecdotes they have heard from others.
They usually know little of Italian, and are utterly ignorant of the
peculiar dialect of the Neapolitan people--almost a language in
itself. The only possible excuse for making such a charge would be a
stranger’s misconception or misinterpretation of the demonstrative
gestures they indulge in when deeply moved, and his utter ignorance of
the words they are uttering. We opine, however, that the motive,
generally, is a wish to parade droll and amusing statements, even if
they be neither witty nor true.
We have been assured by many respectable clergymen of Naples, who, of
course, know their own people, and often have to chide them, that
there is not a word of truth in this charge.
The clergy and the laity of Naples, of all classes, learned and
unlearned alike, believe most steadfastly and earnestly in the
miraculous character of the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius. Many strangers who have seen it and have examined it
critically have come to the same conclusion. Although the church has
not spoken authoritatively on the matter, still the consensus of so
many learned, intelligent, and pious persons who have so accepted
it--the fact that during so many centuries it has stood the test of
time, and that science has not been able to explain it away or to
reproduce it artificially--and the very character of the liquefaction
itself, with its attendant circumstances, so clear, so plain, and so
decisive--all leave no room for reasonable doubt.
To complete our statement, we must, perhaps, go still further back, 206
and inquire how it has come about that a portion of the blood of a
Christian bishop, beheaded in the year 305, under Diocletian, and in
virtue of edicts by that emperor for the suppression of Christianity,
should, after the lapse of so many centuries, be now found in a glass
ampulla, or vial, at Naples. To some, this primary fact may, at first
sight, appear as strange and as extraordinary, if not as
unaccountable, as the subsequent liquefaction itself.
To an Italian Catholic, indeed, a doubt on this head would scarcely
present itself. The usages and the thoughts of his ancestors in the
faith have come down to him so naturally that they form, as it were,
part of his being. He thinks, and feels, and knows as his fathers did
before him. In such cradle-lands of Christianity, and among a people
that has never swerved from the faith since the early ages of the
church, there is what we might term an inherited Catholic instinct, a
readiness and a correctness of Catholic thought in religious matters,
which those of other lands that received the light of Christianity
only at a later period, and consequently have not such a bond of
ancestral connection with the Christians of the days of persecution,
can only reach by study and cultivated piety. However, even a moderate
acquaintance with the usages and customs of those early ages will show
in many instances that what some have considered peculiar national
traits of perhaps later growth are in reality deeply rooted in the
customs of those ancient times; and that many a point, often set down
as a fond fancy or a singular product of superstition, is firmly
established as a truth, by historical research into their records.
This is the case with the question before us.
As we study the daily life of those early Christians, passed under
circumstances so very different from those of our modern life, and
strive to realize to ourselves their thoughts and aspirations, their
motives and modes of action, nothing stands out in bolder relief than
their exalted conception of the honor and glory of martyrdom. In the
exquisite pages of _Fabiola_ and of _Callista_, the learned Cardinal
Wiseman and Dr. Newman have made these early Christians live again
before us; and we catch some insight into their enthusiasm on this
subject. To them, a martyr, dying for the faith of Christ, was--and
truthfully--a hero of the highest grade. _Greater love than this no
man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends._ John xv. 13.
They could never sufficiently honor him. For, honor him as they might,
all they could do would fall infinitely short of the honor which God
had already bestowed on his soul in heaven, and that which he would
bestow on his body in the resurrection. A martyr’s blood, in their
view, stood next in rank to the blood of the Saviour.
Their daily life made martyrdom the prominent subject of their
thoughts. Day after day, they saw their brethren seized, imprisoned,
tortured, and put to death for the faith. Each day, any one of
themselves might be seized and led to martyrdom. The greatest of all
triumphs, and the surest passport to everlasting bliss, was to
persevere unto the end in that conflict; the greatest of all
misfortunes was to fail and renounce or deny the faith for fear of
death. Each one strove to hold himself ever ready for the trial. Their
pastoral injunctions; their mutual exhortations; their most precious 207
literature--the _Acta Martyrum_; the ornamentation of their chapels
and crypts, still visible in the frescoes of the catacombs; the site
of their chosen sanctuaries, amid the tombs of their martyred
brethren; the very altars at which they worshipped; the tombs of their
more glorious martyrs--everything co-operated to keep alive this high
esteem of martyrdom, and to stir up their hearts to courage, and even
to a yearning for so glorious a crown, and so happy an ending of this
life of trials and sorrow.
While a confessor of Christ, as they called him, lay still in chains,
they used every means to enter the prison and to visit him--sometimes
availing themselves of legal rights, sometimes under various pretexts,
sometimes by bribery; when these would all fail, then by stealth and
at every risk. For he was to be strengthened by the sacraments and
encouraged by their words, or they were to be strengthened by his
example; and especially they would not lose the opportunity of
commending themselves to his prayers, and of seeking the blessing of a
chosen friend of God.
When he was led forth to trial, or to torture, or to death, they would
glide in among the crowd pressing around him, that he might be cheered
and sustained by the sight of Christian faces or by their outspoken
exhortations, and that they might catch and embalm in their hearts
every courageous word of faith he spoke to his judges, to the
executioners, and to themselves or to the crowd, and afterward be able
to bear testimony and to record the heroic triumph of another martyr.
After his death, they spared no effort to obtain possession of his
mortal remains, as of a most precious treasure. Their very earnestness
on this point was not unfrequently made an occasion of aggravating the
sentence. After execution, so the judge would order, the body must not
be delivered to his friends, according to ordinary usage. These
obstinate and fanatical Christians must be thwarted in their dearest
wish, or, rather, in their criminal purpose, of honoring one whom the
laws had sentenced to an ignominious death. Let the body be burned,
and the ashes be cast to the winds or to the running streams; or let
the vultures and ravenous dogs consume it; or let it be sunk by
weights in deep waters; let it be done away with in some manner, so
that the hated Christians be balked of their purpose.
At times this was successfully done. Often, however--even despite
these orders--entreaties and bribes to the soldiers and executioners
would prevail to obtain the body, or at least the fragments of it. If
they failed, stratagems would be used, and persevering search made,
even at great personal risk, to recover it. Very often, as the
martyrologies and _Acta Martyrum_ tell us, it was in such attempts
that the Christians were discovered, apprehended, and themselves
condemned as fresh victims.
When the execution was by beheading or dismemberment, or such other
mode as caused the effusion of blood, the Christians were careful to
gather this up in any way they could. Not unfrequently it was all they
could recover. Cloths and sponges sucked it up from the hard pavement
of wood or stones. The earth saturated with it was carefully gathered
up and borne away, that at home and at leisure they might carefully
separate the blood from the earthy matter, and place it reverently in
some vase, ordinarily of glass, sometimes of earthen ware, and in a
few instances of bronze. Sometimes a portion of sponge or of cloth 208
so saturated would be kept as a precious jewel in a locket of silver
or gold, and be preserved in the oratory or chapel of a Christian
household, or even be reverently borne on the person. Ordinarily,
however, the vials or vases into which the martyrs’ blood had been
gathered, or the open vases containing the saturated sponge or the
bundle of blood-stained cloths, would be placed with the body in the
tomb; or the vials might be built into the masonry of the tomb, near
the head, in such a way as to be partially visible from without.
The _Acta Martyrum_--the official records of the sufferings, death,
and deposition or burial of the martyrs, written out at the time by
appointed officers of the church--bear frequent testimony to the
widespread existence of this custom. Other Christian writings, in
prose and in poetry, refer to it frequently. We find it prevailing at
Rome and in all Italy, in Carthage, in Sebaste, in Nicomedia, in Gaul,
and throughout the church. It was the universal custom.
About the time when the body of St. Januarius was transported from the
original tomb where it had been laid during the persecution, to the
church of St. Januarius, _extra muros_, at Naples, similar
translations of the bodies of martyrs took place elsewhere. St.
Ambrose, the great Bishop of Milan, gives an account of such a
ceremony for the martyrs St. Gervase and St. Protasius, and again for
the martyrs St. Vitalis and St. Agricola. He mentions finding in the
tombs, in both cases, the blood of the martyrs which had been gathered
and placed there. St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brixia, about the same
time, mentions a similar fact. Some centuries later, the northern
barbarians were making raids into Italy, and had repeatedly broken
into and desecrated the sepulchres in the catacombs, either in mere
wantonness or in search for the treasures which they thought might be
hidden there. In order to save the venerated relics of the martyrs
from such outrages, the popes opened the tombs of the martyrs in the
portions of the catacombs then accessible--a great portion being
already closed up, either by the falling in of the roof or by the act
of the Christians centuries before--and transferred the remains to the
churches within the city for greater safety. In opening the tombs,
these vases were often found, and hundreds of them are now in the
churches or in the sacred museums of Rome. Three centuries ago, Bosio,
and after him Aringhi, Boldetti, Mamachi, and others, penetrated into
the catacombs, searched them anew, and came upon some of those
portions which had not been disturbed at the time of the general
removal. In such portions not a few unopened and undisturbed tombs of
martyrs were found. Within lay the remains of the body--bones and
dust--with sometimes the rusted fragments of the instrument of death,
and frequently the vial, or ampulla, of the martyr’s blood. During the
last forty years, the work of investigating the catacombs, which had
been intermitted, has been taken up afresh and prosecuted with
earnestness and skill by F. Marchi, Cav. de Rossi, and other eminent
archæologists. They still come occasionally across the tombs of
martyrs, evidently untouched since the day of deposition, and within
them, or in the mortar by the head, the vases of blood are still
found. Where these vials are so placed in the mortar as to be visible
and accessible from without, the thin glass has generally been broken.
But the bottom still remains firmly set in the mortar, and contains 209
or is covered to some extent by a thin, dry, reddish crust adhering to
it. This crust or film is all that is left of the blood the vase
originally contained. Vials, or ampullæ, in the interior of the tombs
are of course perfectly preserved. It is indeed interesting to look on
one of them, and to mark exactly the line to which the liquid blood
once reached, and the purple hue of the sediment or crust now left,
with its brighter or darker shades of color, perhaps from the
character of the blood, more probably from the thickness or thinness
of the crust itself. Under all the accumulated evidence, one scarcely
needs to read the rude inscription found and still legible, although
only scratched in the mortar when it was soft: SANGUIS, or SANG:
SATURNINI, _The blood of Saturninus_. We know that this is blood
which once flowed from a martyr’s veins, in testimony of his faith in
Christ our Lord.
In the 17th century, when Bosio, Boldetti, and others brought out such
vases from the catacombs, and special attention was directed to them,
the nature of this dry reddish crust adhering to the interior was
examined chemically. There was no discordance in the results obtained.
Among those who made such an examination was the celebrated Leibnitz,
a Protestant, among the ablest and most learned men of that age. He
gives an account of his process, and the decision at which he arrived:
_This coloring matter on the glass is sanguineous_. Some years ago,
the present Pontiff, Pius IX., had a new analysis made according to
the fullest and most accurate tests of modern chemistry. The answer
was still the same: This substance is, so far as chemistry can decide,
precisely what ought to remain as the residuum of human blood.
It is clear that, both as to the custom of the early Christians of
carefully gathering up the blood of their martyrs, of placing it in
ampullæ, or vases, and religiously preserving it, and likewise as to
the identification of the ampullæ themselves, the testimony is all
that can be desired. Bosio, Aringhi, Boldetti, Mamachi, Gaume, Marchi,
Raoul-Rochette, De Rossi, Perret--all who have studied the question,
are unanimous in recognizing these numerous old Roman vials, or
ampullæ, still found in the catacombs and tombs or preserved in the
churches, as the identical vials, or ampullæ, so used by the ancient
Christians. On this point, there remains not the slightest room for
doubt.
It is therefore but reasonable that there should exist in Naples a
vial, or ampulla, of the blood of St. Januarius. He was in his day a
distinguished bishop of the church. His martyrdom was public, and
attracted the attention of the Christians. It was by beheading. There
was no conceivable reason why the Christians should omit in that
instance what they were universally so careful to do in such cases. On
the contrary, to judge from the ancient accounts we have of the
martyrdom of St. Januarius and his six companions, the Christians
found no extraordinary difficulty in obtaining the bodies, and
entombing them in their usual mode. When, eighty or ninety years
later, the church had been firmly established in peace, the body of
St. Januarius was taken from the original tomb and brought to Naples,
as the bodies of the others were taken to the various churches which
claimed them.
The very presence, therefore, of an ampulla in the custody of the
church of Naples, together with the other relics of St. Januarius, is 210
under the circumstances _prima facie_ evidence of its own
authenticity--evidence which cannot be impugned, except by attempting
to overturn a well-known and universally admitted usage of the early
Christian church, or else by a supposition, equally gratuitous and
absurd, that the ampulla which originally was in existence, and was
prized beyond measure and carefully preserved, was somehow lost, and
another fraudulently substituted in its stead. We need not recur to
the olden traditions of the church of Naples or its legends concerning
this relic--traditions and legends found, too, we believe, among the
Greeks, whose intercourse with Magna Grecia, as Southern Italy was
called, was more intimate and continued longer than with any other
portion of Italy. We scarcely need the testimony of _Fabius Jordanus_,
quoted by Caraccioli, going to show that, so far back as A.D. 685, it
was the custom of the clergy of Naples to bear the relics of the head.
The historical evidence in favor of the genuineness of the relic is
ample and satisfactory. There would not be a moment’s hesitation on
the point but for the very vain hope which some minds may entertain
that, by declining to admit the genuineness of the blood, they will
somehow escape the difficulties of the liquefaction. As if the
liquefaction of any other substance, with all the circumstances which
characterize the liquefaction at Naples, as we have set them forth in
our previous articles, would not be for them as hard if not a harder
nut to crack than the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius!
Having, therefore, established the genuineness of the relic, the next
question which presents itself is this: Are we to attribute the
amount of the blood still to be seen within the ampulla when at its
ordinary level, and its condition when hard, to the continuous action
of natural causes; or are we to recognize in those points the effects
of that supernatural force to which the liquefaction itself is to be
attributed? Would or would not the agency of natural causes have
resulted in a greater reduction of the original volume of the blood,
and in a far different condition of the residuum, at the present time?
We know pretty accurately the composition of human blood. The
proportions of the several ingredients going to constitute it may vary
somewhat according to the health and the food of individuals. Without
entering into the refined, and as yet not fully accepted results of
the latest qualitative analysis, it will be sufficient to give the
following table of the constituents of the healthy blood of man:
Water, 790·37 }
Albumen, 67·80 }
Oxygen, } }
Nitrogen, } } serum,
Carbonic acid, } } 869·15
Extractive matters, } 10·98 }
Salts, } }
Coloring matter, } }
Fibrine, 2·95 }
Hæmatine, 2·27 } }
Globuline, 125·63 } } clot,
------ } 130·85
Blood globules, 127·90 }
-------- --------
1,000·00 1,000·00
Water constitutes nearly four-fifths of the entire quantity. If it be
driven off by evaporation, only a dry mass would remain behind.
When blood issues from the veins, it first passes through the process
of coagulation, the successive steps of which have been carefully
examined. Perfectly liquid as it comes out, the blood soon thickens,
through the action of the fibrine it contains, into a firm, elastic,
uniform, jelly-like mass. Soon drops of clear, amber-colored fluid
begin to exude from the mass of jelly, and accumulate until the whole 211
mass is divided into two parts--the serum, a transparent, nearly
colorless fluid, in which there floats the clot, or crassamentum, a
firm, red and opaque mass. In time, the clot is further divided. The
fibrine is seen at top, forming a layer of considerable consistence,
soft, elastic, tenacious, and of a yellowish white color; the under
portion, consisting of the heavier parts of the clot which have
gradually settled down to that position, is a red mass, made up
chiefly of the blood globules.
Further exposure would by degrees eliminate the aqueous portion by
evaporation, and the progress of decomposition would tend to free the
gases in the other constituents, and thus still further to diminish
the mass. But no experiments, instituted by physicists, can compare,
in time at least, with the instances presented to us in the vases of
the catacombs. There, traces on the glass still show clearly to what
level the blood, or at least the clot, originally reached; and we see
what has remained after a lapse of sixteen hundred years--a crust of
dry reddish powder adhering to and coating the sides and bottom of the
vessel.
Boldetti, however, mentions three instances in which such ampullæ were
found in the catacombs containing a residuum of the blood still thick
and slightly liquid. And, if we are not mistaken, something similar
may be seen in some other vials preserved here and there, and held to
contain a portion of the blood of certain martyrs.
The early Christians of Italy gave up the old Roman custom of
incremation, or burning the bodies of the dead, and adopted instead
the Eastern rite of sepulture. In some instances, at least, they seem
to have used spices and ointments, as the Jews and Eastern nations
generally did; and some of them might even have had a knowledge of the
antiseptic preparations used by the Egyptians. They never prepared the
dead as mummies, but they may at times have put some antiseptic
ingredient into the blood, tending by its chemical action somehow to
retard the escape of the water and the decomposition of the mass. If
this were really done or not, we believe modern science cannot decide;
and the historical evidence is not clear.
Something may be due, also, to the mode in which they would sometimes
close a narrow-necked vessel of glass. When it had received its
contents, the glass of the neck would be heated, probably by the flame
of a blowpipe, until it became soft and pliable. The sides would then
be pressed together until they coalesced and became united, thus
obliterating the orifice; or else molten glass would be carefully
dropped on the lips of the mouth, until the whole was entirely coated
over and perfectly closed. When either was followed and the work was
done perfectly, the ampulla would be, in fact, hermetically sealed.
The air would thus be excluded, and evaporation nearly arrested.
Placed in a _loculus_ or grave in the dry earth of the catacombs,
twenty-five or thirty-five feet beneath the surface of the earth, the
ampulla would also be subjected to an ever-equable temperature of
about 58° Fahr. Under such circumstances, especially if we admit the
presence of some antiseptic ingredient, it may be possible that
decomposition would be very slow. But, after all, the glass sides of
these ampullæ are thin, and glass is porous, and sixteen centuries is
a very long time. Even were the sides far thicker than they are,
evaporation would have slowly taken place, the gaseous products of
decomposition would have gradually passed through into the outer 212
atmosphere, and only the dry solid residuum would be left, as we
ordinarily find it in the ampullæ from the catacombs. The case of the
ampulla containing the blood of St. Januarius is not open to these
doubts. We are not able to say, indeed, whether it was actually closed
in either of the modes we have indicated. As it stands in the present
reliquary, of which we have given an account, the mouth enters so
deeply into the upper mass of soldering within the case that the eye
cannot discover the manner of closure. Before it was placed in this
reliquary, five hundred and seventy or seven hundred and thirty years
ago, this could probably have been seen; but we have found no record
throwing light on the subject. We presume it was done in one or the
other of the modes we have described. It is certainly so tightly
closed that not a drop of the liquid blood within has ever been known
to ooze out.
But this ampulla has not been lying in the low and equable temperature
of an underground vault of the catacombs. It has been preserved in the
upper and variable atmosphere of a city, subject for many centuries to
the excessive heats of almost tropical summers, and to the cold winds
that blow down at times from mountains covered with snow. By no law of
physics could a mass of blood so situated escape the natural
consequence--a vast diminution of bulk by the loss of water and the
escape of gases. The film that coats the interior of the smaller
ampulla seen in the same case or reliquary, so like the film seen in
the whole and in the broken ampullæ of the catacombs and churches
generally, shows, we think, what would have been the natural course.
That the larger ampulla should, on the contrary, have lost nothing in
the volume of its contents--that it should still be four-fifths
filled, although for centuries exposed, as we have said, to heat and
cold--that this general permanence of bulk and of character should be
maintained, although eighteen or twenty times a year the mass
alternates from a solid to a fluid condition, and passes through many
subordinate changes of color and volume--these facts seem to us not
only utterly inexplicable, but directly contrary to all we know of
physical laws. We place them along side the grand fact of the
liquefaction itself, as being in some measure its characteristic
concomitants. Still, should any one deem these questions too obscure
to be peremptorily decided, we shall not now discuss them. We are
quite willing to let them stand or fall with the more prominent and
important and more tangible question of the liquefaction itself. Of
that we shall now proceed to treat.
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
THE WAYSIDE SPRING. 213
FROM THE FRENCH OF ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE.
As here is quaffed a sweet forgetfulness
Of the long journey yet to go,
So unto all who through life’s pathways press,
Lord, from thy rock let waters flow!
Let thy sweet grace refreshment be!
On earth we wander wearily,
And in a thirst that will not cease.
Oh! let each dry and dusty lip
From thy deep hidden fountain sip
Sweet draughts of love and peace.
Ah! every soul drinks its own cup of bliss.
Some the delights of glory bless;
One finds it in a little daughter’s kiss,
Another in a wife’s caress.
The secret friendships of the heart,
The rapture of creative art,
Each hive its own sweet honey stores;
To every lip let torrents burst
From life’s great fount; but I--_I_ thirst
For the eternal shores.
Earth’s dreams are but a bitterness to those
Whose yearnings are for love divine.
No rivulet sparkles here, no runlet flows,
To satisfy this thirst of mine.
What shall assuage it? The desire
That heavenward ever doth aspire,
And sigheth ceaselessly;
The sweetness that in suffering lies,
And tear-drops showering from my eyes,
Are hope’s one draught for me.
----------
VALENTINE. 214
FROM THE REVUE DU MONDE CATHOLIQUE.
I.
“Frankly, my dear friend, tell me, is she not charming? Does she not
lend a certain grace to her white dress, and a brilliancy to her blue
ribbons? Is she not the prettiest flower in my garden?”
“And my Alfred, dear Madame de Guers, does he not look well by her
side? Are there many young men in our village who appear to such
advantage near this fair and graceful darling, now in the flower of
her youth?”
“What you say is true, my friend. We have both of us, thank God, fine
children--noble, virtuous, and good; and I hope they will be happy.”
“They will make a very handsome couple, at all events,” concluded M.
Maubars, rubbing his hands and smiling contentedly.
Thus spoke two old friends, as they sat quietly, one summer evening,
in the shadow of the hop-vines of a pretty green arbor, and talked
away in this simple, lively, and joyous manner, while they observed
their children as they appeared here and there in the garden-walks.
When people have passed fifty, and known each other since they went to
the same school in childhood, and during the long succeeding years
have resided pretty much in the same place, they are very apt, when
talking together, to speak openly from their hearts, especially if
those hearts are filled to the brim and running over with justifiable
paternal pride and motherly tenderness. And it was true that the dear
Alfred, the only and cherished son of M. Maubars, was handsome,
honest, active, and gifted, and, thanks to the fortune which he would
inherit, would one day take his place among the most respectable
citizens of the province. As to Madame de Guers, this fair and worthy
old lady, with white hair, in whom all the select souls of the little
town saluted and recognized a sister, all the poor a benefactress, and
all the afflicted a friend, she had never been a mother. She had
married late, less from inclination than duty, to obey a vow of her
parents and fulfil a family project; she had cared for, with an
admirable devotion, and supported with a no less admirable equality of
temper, the precocious infirmities and frequent brusqueries of M. de
Guers, who, as former captain of a vessel, had lived a silent, sombre,
deserted life in an old cold-looking little house on the coast. But
one happy day the sun seemed to shine brighter for her, and the
radiant sentiment of an unknown happiness mingled with her tears and
her regrets, as one of the friends of her childhood, a poor widow, in
dying, confided to her the education and guardianship of her deserted
infant. What a complete happiness, what a recompense for all the
sunless days, the gloomy and heavy hours, so faithfully supported! M.
de Guers, though very ill at the time, consented to receive the child,
on condition, as he added peremptorily, “that she should be kept very
neat and make no noise”--this his precise and solemn declaration. The 215
little Valentine seemed to understand what was expected of her, and,
though stirring, vigorous, and lively, rarely a rent was seen in her
little Indian silk, never a spot on her red lips nor her cherubic
forehead. When she happened to fall, she smothered her sobs and cries;
when she remembered the past, she wept low for her mother--and all
this not to displease the old gentleman, shut up in his close parlor,
where he contemplated with astonishment mingled with pity and respect
his two unfortunate legs--done up in flannel. Time, childhood, and
natural gaiety combining, the little girl began even to find herself
perfectly happy in this old house, where she was cherished, and
nothing left undone for her needs, her games, or her repose.
Need we say that her adopted mother was happy? At the end of the long
nights of want of sleep and suffering that she passed with the ill and
impatient old man, she ran for a moment to the little chamber above,
and watched the sweet pet, with brown eyes and rosy cheeks, as she
woke to her morning’s happiness; she felt the dear little round arms
press her neck, the sweet tender lips imprinted on her own, and she
thanked God for this blessing. The little toilet made, and the
breakfast over, she carried down-stairs happiness enough for
half-a-day. Later, when her voice trembled at the end of some long
lecture, or her arms were wearied at some endless rubbing, she looked
out the window, saw the little one disporting in the sun, playing
hide-and-seek among the lilacs, or smiling to her from amidst the
roses, and, at this sight, it seemed her cup of joy was full, that the
spring light played even in the sick man’s chamber, and for the time
she forgot whether she was guardian or victim. Thus she lived on,
consoled and strengthened by the child, consoling and strengthening
her husband, until the day when M. de Guers died, and both wept his
loss--Valentine with time having learned to love him; and he himself,
won by the grace and beauty of the child, had often so far unbended as
to keep time for her with his crutch while she danced all alone before
his window in the garden.
From this moment, Madame de Guers gave Valentine all her time, her
heart, her cares, her tenderness. I leave you to imagine how such
precious gifts, with the aid of years, added to everything lovely and
noble in the child. Of all the young girls of C----, Valentine at
eighteen was not only one of the most beautiful, but, better still,
the best, the simplest, the most tender, the humblest, the most
joyous, and the best loved: the most ill-natured of the citizens could
not refuse her their homage, and her adopted mother loved her to
excess and with pride and delight; M. Maubars, too, the oldest friend
of the house, and his son, the elegant Alfred, saw in her perfection a
treasure, and their united wonder. Then at eighteen the future is so
beautiful, the horizon so pure, dreams so sweet, and friends so
tender! How happy, then, was our Valentine at this moment, when,
joyous under the eyes of her mother, gay and confiding in the presence
of her future husband, and gracious and pretty as she always was in
her simple and quiet toilet, she wandered hither and thither in the
garden, breathing the air, gathering the flowers, and breaking from
the trees the large snow-balls that shed their petals on her lustrous
brown hair.
We do not know exactly what Alfred and Valentine were talking about in 216
the garden-walk, as running from side to side to form their bouquet
they chanced so often to meet. But, under the arbor, they were more
grave, calmer, and certainly more mature, and they spoke of business.
“If you will permit it, my dear friend, I should like the young couple
to live in my house,” said M. Maubars. “It is, I may say, without
vanity, one of the most comfortable and best furnished in the town. As
to me, you know, I am becoming a monk, or a bear, or a house-rat. The
rolling of the half-dozen coaches and the three or four cabs our town
possesses is sufficient to trouble my digestion, and almost deafens
me; so I think, in order to plant my cabbages in peace, I had better
lodge in the pavilion of my large garden at Vaux, which is not more
than a league from the town. My good old Baptistine will accompany me,
and keep the pot boiling. Every evening the children can come and see
me, that is, every fine evening; and you can have them right by
you--nothing to do but cross the street, and walk a few steps on the
quay, ring the little bell, the latch will fly up, and there will be
Valentine in a clean dress and red ribbon coming to meet you, for her
delicate hearing would distinguish your step among a thousand others
on the same pavement.”
“Poor dear child! I don’t want to be selfish, and yet it is hard to
part with her,” murmured Madame de Guers, while stifling a sigh.
“Do you call that parting with her, when I tell you she will be right
under your eye? And then, my dear friend, I must tell you you have
become very worldly of late. You are obliged to accompany Valentine to
this and that soirée, and it fatigues you, absorbs and puts you out
altogether. When it comes my Alfred’s turn to do all this for her,
you will see how you will improve, and old ladies always recover so
naturally. Confess it, my dear Madame de Guers, have you not for some
time been very negligent of yourself and your old people?”
“Alas, yes! poor good old people!” replied the respectable lady, with
a sweet smile. “Yet every morning, after Mass, I stop to see them.
True, my child monopolizes much of the time I should give to them, but
she loves them too: she has so excellent a heart! How often I have
seen her, when quite a child, take from her weekly allowance to buy
jujube for old Manou, who has catarrh so badly, and tobacco for
Périne, whose happiness is in smoking! And how she takes care of them
when necessary, my friend! How merry she makes them, and consoles
them, and reads them good books, and the Scripture she explains so
prettily! In truth, this humble work will not perish with me: I have
some one to whom I can confide it.”
This demands an explanation. Madame de Guers was not only an
excellent, tender, and devoted mother, a constant and generous friend,
but she was, at the same time, profoundly pious and sincerely
charitable. The death of M. de Guers had left in her soul a bitter and
secret sorrow, which she had never been able to console. The former
lieutenant of the service, in spite of the solicitations and tears of
his Christian and devoted wife, had bid farewell to this world in a
manner far from exemplary, dying, without doubt, peaceably and bravely
enough, but without repentance, without hope, without penitence,
neither fixing his eyes on the cross nor listening to the absolution
of the curé. So, for the poor, tender soul of the wife there remained
a gnawing regret, a continual terror, and at the price of any 217
austerities, of any sacrifices, she wished to secure the eternal
salvation of this obstinate husband. God only knows what
mortifications she practised in secret, to gain a little every day
towards the tender and sublime end she proposed; and, above all, she
openly redoubled her works of fervor and charity. A part of the money
left her by her husband had been employed by her in a house of refuge,
where ten or twelve old, infirm women, the very poorest of the
department, could live comfortably and in peace until the end of their
days, and at the low price of reciting every day from their bench in
the chapel a prayer for the repose and salvation of the soul of Jean
Louis de Guers, former officer of the king’s fleet. We said before
that Madame de Guers had given Valentine all her heart, her time, and
her life: we should, nevertheless, have remarked that she reserved a
portion for the poor old recluses of her little hospital, not finding
it a difficult matter to reconcile, in her humble and peaceable
existence, happiness and duty, charity and love.
“My dear old pensioners,” she said again, while regarding from a
distance her charming adopted daughter, who smiled on her from amidst
the shady trees, “they will be truly happy to find after me this dear
child, who will, I am sure, possess the courage and strength to
replace me. Good little Valentine! she has already given them, in my
name, a portion of her heart, and to do so she needs to be as generous
as in truth she is, for I could have given a much more brilliant
heritage to this dear child had I not already adopted my old people.
Her mother, alas! died without fortune, and for me, I have still
remaining forty thousand francs, invested in rentes in the state, and
my little property here. This is all, my good Maubars, I have to give
her.”
“Well, well, my dear friend, don’t trouble yourself. The whole will
amount to sixty thousand francs, at the lowest figure. Valentine is
treasure enough in herself, and don’t need any more.”
“A treasure! Yes, indeed, you have spoken the truth!” replied the
noble woman, fixing on her interlocutor a look radiant with joy,
happiness, and confidence; “and as you make me so happy, my brave
Maubars, in speaking as you do, I am not ashamed to confess I have
often thought--have often feared--well, don’t blame me; nothing, you
know, is so restless and timid as a mother--I have feared that a dowry
so small could not respond to the legitimate views of a young man like
Alfred, who can aspire to the best match in the country. I dare not
tell you how this secret doubt has tortured my heart. It would have
been so painful, so frightful to think that my want of foresight might
have prepared so bitter a disappointment for my dearly loved
Valentine.”
“And who speaks of disappointment, cowardly mamma that you are?”
replied M. Maubars, with the good hearty laugh of the retired
successful merchant. “Of course I do not mean that any dowry is to be
despised, and, I will add, if this were larger, it were so much the
better. But the moment that the question is between it and you and
Valentine, Alfred and I will accept what you have in all confidence.
Let there be no more mention of these things between us any more than
there is just now in the conversation of that happy couple smiling and
babbling among the roses.”
“How good you are, Maubars,” replied the adopted mother with a sigh 218
of relief. “Assuredly,” she continued with a sweet and mischievous
smile, “I am very sure that it is not with dowry or business that they
are entertaining themselves just now.”
This you may be assured of, my readers, for, just then, Valentine,
spreading into a sweet smile her fine and delicate lips, while her
brilliant eyes sparkled above the cheeks as rounded and satiny as the
petals of her roses, said to her partner, who was coming toward her:
“You had better believe me, Mr. Alfred. We will not go to Paris. Paris
is very far off, and it costs a great deal to go there. But we will go
every evening and see dear papa in his little pavilion at Vaux. Won’t
it be charming to do just as we did when we were little, ten years
ago, just us two alone, you and I, running through the ruts and the
fields, gathering the new hay and the herbs covered with dew?”
And the simple child, clapping her white hands, gently smiled still
more joyously at the innocent, truant projects with which she proposed
to inaugurate their future housekeeping. Then, Alfred having offered
his arm, she accepted it a moment in order to adjust with her young
intended some other detail of great importance, which she must tell
her mamma immediately--mamma holding her breath meanwhile, hearing
vaguely the murmur of the wind in the arbor and smiling with
tenderness as her child approached.
“Mamma,” cried Valentine, throwing her arms around her mother’s neck,
and with a caressing and infantine movement mingling the waves of her
lustrous hair with the fine, heavy gray curls, “did you not say that
the anniversary of your birth would come in two weeks, the second of
next month, and that you would love to see Alfred and me choose that
day to celebrate our betrothal?”
“Yes, my darling,” replied Madame de Guers gently.
“Very well, dear mamma, it is all arranged; we will exchange our rings
on the same day that gave me so dear a mamma. But have you decided
anything about the invitations?”
“I have at least thought of them, my child. We will have, I think, the
greater part of those of our own society, and especially, you
understand, all your young friends.”
“Yes, just as you wish. But is it to be only for the evening, dear
mamma?”
“Ah! my little ambitious one wishes to give a whole day to her
_fête_.”
“Indeed I do, mamma; I have dreamed of it even, so I may as well
confess. I want particularly in the morning to have those I invite al
to myself; I will receive them, lodge them, and serve them with my own
hands. O mamma! it will be so nice, in the shady part of the garden,
among the flowers, to set the long tables, and have an excellent
breakfast, good wine, cakes, a roast, and Pierrot the violinist with
his violin, and the baskets all filled with flowers! And my guests
will be so surprised, and so pleased, my dear good mamma!”
“But who are they, then?”
“Your old women, dear mamma.”
Madame de Guers’s response was to take the pretty brown head of the
charming child in her trembling hands, and to press it tenderly and
long upon her lips, while a gentle shivering of admiration and love
made her heart beat.
“It is said,” she replied at last; “the table shall be set for
fifteen, and there shall be cakes and violins, and wine and flowers. 219
You shall serve them, my child, and my old people will believe they
are at the wedding.”
Then, as the first stars began to dot the pure sky, and the happy and
united group rose to leave the perfumed shelter of the garden, Madame
de Guers, more joyous and prouder than ever, held back on purpose to
let the young people pass before her, while she whispered in the ear
of her old friend, who was philosophically taking in the whole scene:
“My good Maubars, did you not say, just now, my Valentine is a
treasure?”
II.
Two weeks afterward, the air being of the softest, and the sky most
radiant, Valentine received with great joy and pomp her morning guests
on this the day of her betrothal. Everything passed conformably to the
announced programme: the large table was ornamented and covered with a
long white cloth; the light wine of the country filled the glasses;
the cakes appeared large and gilded; and the roast was cooked to
perfection. At this succulent and cordial banquet the twelve old women
arranged themselves in order, and Valentine waited on them, cutting up
the mutton in rosy slices, distributing the pieces of cake with her
pretty little white hand, upon which shone the golden ring, with its
blue stone, that Alfred had sent her that morning to wear until she
took the other that would enchain her for life. The poor old gossips
feasted with a good heart, and laughed as they tippled, their glasses
tumbling against each other; while the sparrows, somewhat ousted,
piped in the branches, astonished at so much noise, then dropped
gently to the earth to peck at the crumbs of cake that fell in the
grass; and, to crown all, the violin of Pierrot, seated at his post
under the arbor, played for the delighted old women all the minuets,
gavottes, and hops of the good old time.
You can judge of the gratitude and general joy.
“God will take you to his holy paradise, good and beautiful young
lady!” said mother Périne, as she received from the hands of the
pretty child her third slice of mutton.
“What are you saying there, mother Périne?” cried Babet, her usual
antagonist. “What kind of wish is that you are making? Better hope for
Miss Valentine, as for many others, that paradise will come as late as
possible, and that here the dear good young lady will become a great
and good matron, and enjoy herself as much as she can in this world.”
“True enough,” said Manou, “for there is the scraping of the violin;
and just listen to that pretty gavotte! Oh! in those days when I was
but twenty, how I hopped about like a young goat at the first note of
the music. Dear me! Miss Valentine, how this good wine makes you young
again, and puts the gaiety into you! I do believe, if Pierrot begins
that flourish once more, I shall jump up and dance a minuet in your
honor.”
So Valentine laughed, and the other old women applauded, and Manou
fluttered about in true dancing style. Madame de Guers herself, who
was rarely gay, wiped away a joyous tear from her eyes, while a tender
and proud smile spread over her countenance. There was only the very,
very old Genevieve, who could not laugh, because she had lost her five
sons and grown blind in weeping for them. But, with her old wrinkled
hand, she had groped for the pretty little one of her young friend and 220
protectress, pressed it between her own, and repeated in mourning
accents:
“Miss Valentine, you deserve to be truly happy; you know how to give
blessings like the good God, whose care and pleasure it is to think of
the poor.”
Thanks to the pleasure of such a repast and so much time so happily
spent, the old guests lingered around the table in the garden, and
exceeded the limits of the morning hours. When at last they wended
their way homeward, accompanied by the good sister who took care of
them, they met on the road several of those invited for the afternoon,
friends of Valentine mostly, accompanied by their mothers, in elegant
toilets, and coming in great pomp to offer their compliments.
“Why, how is this, my dear? Have the old pensioners of Madame de Guers
come to congratulate you?” asked Rosine Martin, one of the young
ladies, as she entered and embraced her friend.
“Yes, Rosette, on this occasion I gave them a little _fête_. They
breakfasted here and drank my health; and, do you know, Pierrot played
the violin, and old Manou was so excited she actually danced a
minuet.”
“Do you hear what Valentine is saying?” whispered Madame Martin to her
friend and confidante, Madame Fremieux. “I always thought Madame de
Guers put on the airs of a great lady, and, of course, will leave the
same to Valentine, as foundress of charitable institutions.
Insupportable, is it not? And charity costs something too. It is well
to make a parade of it, whether one has it or not; and the question
is, whether it is prudent to put such ideas into the child’s head,
when she will give her at the very most two poor thousand francs?”
“Provided that charity is a luxury like any other, and often more
imprudent than any other,” added, sententiously, Madame Fremieux,
while she pulled out with her right finger the crushed ruche of her
green satin dress.
“What an odd fancy you have for these old gossips, Valentine!” said
Adeline de Malers, another good friend, a pretty young woman with two
handsome children, whom she led gaily into the garden. “There they go,
charmed with your reception, and repeating your name to all the echoes
of the town. Well, it is a good idea while you are waiting and have so
little to do, and nothing much to love. See what will become of them
when you will be mamma in your turn, my dear!”
“Do you think so, Adeline? I cannot agree with you,” replied
Valentine, blushing a little. “My dear good mamma Marie always found
time to give me all her care, her love, and her watchfulness, and yet
I am sure she never neglected these poor old friends. It seems to me
that when one becomes a mother, one desires to heap up a treasure of
good actions, and multiply one’s merits and virtues, in order that God
may requite the little good one does in graces and benedictions on
these dear little heads.”
“You always have a sentimental way of seeing things,” replied Adeline,
stooping and arranging with her rosy fingers the white plume that
graced the hat of baby; “but I doubt if Mr. Alfred Maubars will give
the same light to the chapter; for, my little one, husbands are not
nonentities in the future organization of a household; their decrees
are inevitable, and must be listened to.”
“O Adeline! do you really think that Alfred would wish to prevent my
doing a little good in assisting the unfortunate?” said Valentine, 221
deeply moved and almost indignant. “He who gave up his project of
going to Paris, which we were to do immediately after our marriage? He
who promised to give me one-half of what it would cost to make this
trip to make a present to dear mamma, and furnish woollen stockings
and aprons for the poor little parish children in the winter?”
“O my good Valentine! where you are just now, all this may be. But
later, it will not, my dear. Do you see? The most part of the good
husbands I know--and there are none too many of them--think charity
begins at home. The wife, if she pleases, may give away the old boots
and slippers, but woe to her if, in a fit of generous imprudence, she
parts with the half of the chicken or the little glass of port that
belongs to my lord.”
The joyous Adeline laughed with all her heart as she finished these
words, and for a moment Valentine smiled at the lively raillery of her
friend. But, M. Maubars and Alfred appearing at the same time at the
end of the walk, she fixed on her intended a disturbed, timid, and sad
look, asking herself if it could be true, if it could ever be
possible, that he who should be her natural confidant in all the sweet
and tender inspirations of her heart, in all the Christian aspirations
of her innocent and pious soul, should consider it a crime in her to
continue to obey the great and holy law of Christ that she had seen
practised, every day from her infancy, in her own humble home.
However, this passing distrust of the sweet and charming betrothed was
soon dispelled. Alfred approached and presented her a rich and
graceful bouquet, and his words as he handed it were so respectful and
tender, and his look so subdued and sincere! Then all the young people
invited had arrived; they were just finishing the joyous feast taken
together on the grass, and already they were preparing for the dance.
And now the scraping of Pierrot made way for an harmonious orchestra
that resounded sweetly, echoing through the shady bowers. On the
branches of the large lindens were suspended light and capricious-looking
garlands, in which little red, blue, white, gilded, and green lamps
were hung. They looked like stars that had come from heaven to see the
_fête_ and smile at the other living stars, the young girls their
sisters. M. Maubars had charged himself with this part of the
entertainment--an offering not of charity, but one made to youth and
pleasure. So, everything passed off as brilliantly as could be wished
on such a day; and quadrille after quadrille succeeded each other on
the same spot where, a few hours earlier, Manou, recalling her twenty
years, had so valiantly executed the rhythmical and bounding steps of
the ancient minuet of Auvergne.
And while the young people danced, the older ones talked in the
parlor, or complacently looked on while their children enjoyed
themselves from the little fringed pavilion with velvet benches that
had been prepared for them in front of the greensward. Madame Martin,
while admiring from afar her brown and pretty Rosette, had insensibly
approached the father of Alfred--and of all the ladies in the town,
she had the least sympathy for Valentine, having for a long time
nourished very sweet maternal hopes on the possibility of a marriage
between Rosette and the young Maubars.
“In truth, dear neighbor,” said she, accosting with an amiable smile
the honorable retired merchant, “one must confess you do things 222
royally. It certainly cannot be these ladies, with their small, very
small fortune, who have by themselves given us such a _fête_ as this.
And then, it is not according to their tastes. If by accident they
should have a little too much money, they would have less pleasure in
offering a ball to their friends than a breakfast to their old poor.”
“My dear Madame Martin, when one does as one can, one does as one
should,” replied, with a deep bow, M. Maubars, responding to her
compliment to himself. “As to these ideas of our excellent friend
Madame de Guers, you see, we must not be surprised at them. She has
always lived a little above our so-called middle society; she is a
woman--how shall I say it?--well, of the old _régime_. In her
devotions, in good works, and perseverance, she has grand ideas; the
commandments of Christ, the love of her neighbor, the good of the
poor. It is all beautiful, Madame Martin, and sits superbly on a woman
like her, grave and dignified, with such handsome white hair.”
“But for the little one--for Valentine--do you think, M. Maubars, that
it will suit her as well?” replied, quickly, the lady, with a mocking
smile.
“Oh! why not? Everything becomes a child. All these fine devotions are
an occupation for the widow and an amusement for the little one. It is
much better to direct her by caring for the poor than by ruining the
reputations of others and seeking false excitements. Wait till
Valentine becomes the wife of Alfred; that will change everything, you
know, neighbor. The dear child will only have one end, one duty, one
love--her husband.”
“Do you really think so, neighbor?” interrupted Madame Martin, in a
jeering tone.
“It is, at least, what all women promise at the altar, madame. And
Valentine will do as she promises, I am certain. A child so docile, a
nature so pliable, and a heart of gold. Yes, madame; I do not doubt,
if my Alfred wishes it, she will prefer the road to the market or the
grocery in preference to that of the church. And as to the refuge of
which you speak, Madame de Guers will take care of that, as it will be
her only occupation. My daughter-in-law will visit it occasionally in
her leisure moments.”
“It will become her well to adapt her household to his wishes; for
every one knows, neighbor, your son brings her a fortune far superior
to her own.”
“Alas! yes, you say truly; her dowry is the only weak point.”
“The little one will have scarcely anything, will she, M. Maubars?”
asked the lady precipitately, in her ardent, almost joyous curiosity.
“Oh! a modest cipher, but enough. There is nothing to complain of. If
it had been less, I confess I do not know what Alfred would have done.
The needs of luxury are so numerous nowadays, and it costs so much to
live, my dear lady!”
“Yes, we all know that,” replied the prudent mother. “This is the
reason I calculate, and economize, and stint myself every day for the
love I bear Rosette. According to my ideas, it is a culpable charity
that does not consider one’s own first.”
At the enunciation of this wise maxim, M. Maubars sighed profoundly.
At the bottom of his heart he could not help wishing, in the interest
of Valentine and Alfred also, that Madame de Guers, his dear old
friend, had less tenderness and greatness of soul, less generous
devotion, and a little more worldly prudence and solicitude for the 223
material side of life. Nevertheless, he was careful not to express
aloud the secret preoccupations which now and then disquieted him a
little; and just then Valentine, leaving the joyous group of dancers,
approached him, sweet and charming in her innocent joy and unaffected
simplicity. Her steps, delicate and modest, slid silently over the
grass, and the golden reflection of the long garlands of light made
her muslin dress appear whiter and more transparent, while her brown
hair, simply raised and half-crowned with a bouquet of small roses,
glittered browner and more lustrous as the tiny lamps threw their rays
upon it as she passed. The smile alone of such a charming
daughter-in-law could dispel a host of deceptions and fears. In
Valentine’s eyes beamed so much candor, love, sweetness, and virtue
that in admiring her one forgot the more or less respectable cipher of
the promised dowry.
But Valentine did not remain long with the group of talkers seated in
the shade; she was looking for Madame de Guers, and ran away promptly
when she heard the good old lady had gone into the house.
“Dear mamma, are you ill?” said she, quite distressed when she saw her
dear protectress in the little reception-room, carefully wrapped up in
a large shawl, pale, trembling slightly, and appearing to suffer.
“Oh! my child, it is nothing; a slight chill--a trifling ailment only.
We have had a great deal to do today, and I am tired. Perhaps I took
cold sitting so long in the shade of the lindens. Go and dance, my
love, for you must replace me and finish the ball. Make my excuses to
our guests.”
Valentine obeyed, but she left her mother sadly, with a secret
convulsion of the heart, that dimmed her bright eyes and her radiant
smile. Two hours after, when, at last, alone on the step of the dear
old house, she had said adieu to her guests and was at liberty to run
to the room where Madame de Guers already reposed, she saw clearly
that this instinctive fear was a realized fact. The sleep of her
adopted mother was agitated and painful, her forehead was burning, her
eyes half-open, her breathing difficult and accelerated. For the first
time in these fifteen years of peace and happiness passed under the
friendly roof of the old house, the heart of the young girl sank for a
moment under the weight of an unknown grief--of a mortal anguish.
Without thinking of her ball-dress, she knelt down at the foot of the
bed, weeping in terror, praying to God, and gently kissing, from time
to time, the hand of the sick woman, who, in her feverish sleep,
muttered words without meaning. And thus she awaited the day--the new
day that was to arise for her, and menace her with danger, grief,
terror, and anguish.
III.
It had been decided, on the day of the modest betrothal, that the
marriage of Alfred and Valentine should be celebrated a week after the
Nativity of Our Lady, in September, before the first fogs of autumn
had tarnished the verdant woods, and before the vintagers had robbed
the robust vines of their golden grapes on the slopes descending to
the valley below. But autumn passed; the woods grew yellow and the
leaves fell; the joyous shouts of the vintagers ceased to rejoice the
hills, and the icy winds of winter blew over the blackened slopes,
without Valentine having sought her white marriage robes. Alas! it 224
was a robe of mourning that covered her now, poor little one! She had
again become an orphan; her sweet and careless happiness of the young
daughter, the cherished child so tenderly protected, was all gone,
destroyed for ever, for ever lost with the last swallows that fled
from the woods with the first falling leaves. The most devoted care,
the greatest affection and constancy, could not preserve to her this
nervous and tender mother, whose life here below was sad enough, and
whose death would have been sweet, had she not so felt for and
trembled for her child. Her illness, however, had been long and
courageously combated, and for some time there was hope of triumph
over the disease, until one day, when Valentine was absent on a
pilgrimage to a neighboring chapel, a sudden hæmorrhage set in, and
Madame de Guers, feeling it necessary to use what strength she had
left, sent for several papers, and with pain wrote for her adopted
daughter directions which were not to be opened until a month after
her death, when the first transports of grief were over.
The fatal moment then came, and by one of the last auroras of
September, soft, fresh, and almost veiled, Valentine found herself on
her knees by the bedside of the dying, exchanging the last adieux with
her tender benefactress, the devoted mother who, from her infancy, had
so unceasingly studied her happiness. The poor child remembered no
more: grief had completely prostrated her, and she forgot her own
existence until one evening, returning to consciousness, she found
herself clothed in deep black, and alone with Marianne, the old and
faithful servant, who wept low by her side and tried to console her.
Then, M. Maubars and Alfred had come, and Valentine felt a secret
consolation in the midst of her sadness. It was so sweet, so toning
and strengthening, to know one’s self still loved while circumstances
had separated her from him upon whom she had lavished such a wealth of
affection. It is true the consolations offered by the future
father-in-law and betrothed were not of the highest order of morality,
and not very profound, perhaps, but they were truly affectionate and
sincere--at least, Valentine thought so--so they had power to
alleviate her grief and restore her heart’s serenity.
“What would you, my child? We are all mortal,” said the future papa.
“But we can still console ourselves, and live almost happy in the love
of the friends that remain to us.”
Alfred did not even say as much. But he looked at her tenderly, with a
gentle expression of interest and pity; he quietly took the little
white and thin hand that lay languidly on her black drapery, and
pressed it between his own, while he murmured:
“Poor dear Valentine! Poor friend, so dearly loved.” And these simple
words, this look, this affectionate gesture from the friend of her
childhood, seemed to open to the heart-broken young girl a new
treasure of hope and consolation.
The days, however, rolled on: grief was not less profound, less
constant, or less bitter, but it became necessarily more contained,
more resigned, was borne more valiantly in secret, giving place to
austere duties, they serious preoccupations of life. The time came,
naturally, when business had to be spoken of to Valentine. Until then,
with respect for her grief and her weakness, they had spared her every
proposition, every discussion on the subject.
“I will do all that is necessary,” murmured the poor child. So they
told her she must assist at the opening of the will, which would take 225
place by the notary, in presence of authorized witnesses.
The solemn assembly, therefore, convened on a cold morning of November
in the large parlor of the house. A biting and mournful wind shook the
windows, and threw against them in disorder the last leaves of the
lindens that on the day of the betrothal had balanced so joyously
their green perfumed crowns above the gladdened heads of Valentine,
her companions, and her betrothed. The last wishes of Madame de Guers
were expressed in a manner at once neat and concise. Her little
capital of 40,000 francs, placed in rentes on the state, and her
house, with all its dependencies, were willed by her to her dear
pupil, Valentine Vaudrey, in default of direct inheritors from her own
family or from that of her husband. The assistants knew in advance the
tenor of the will; nevertheless, after its reading they hastened to
congratulate the poor heiress, now overwhelmed in tears.
“Dear good madame knew you well, and she was not wrong,” said the old
and honest Marianne, with a convinced air.
“My dear child, hereafter you are quite at home,” added M. Maubars, as
he pressed with lively affection the little white hand, quite dampened
with tears.
The notary, however, made a gesture with his hand to reclaim still
some moments of silence. “The reading of the papers establishing the
last wishes of the defunct is not yet completed, gentlemen,” added he,
in a grave and measured voice. “I have in my hand a letter written by
my respectable client fifteen days before her death, and addressed to
her pupil, Mlle. Valentine Vaudrey. Mlle. Valentine will be kind enough
to take notice, conjointly with myself and M. the President of the
Tribunal or M. the Justice of the Peace, if these last recommendations
are not to be considered as bearing upon her affairs.”
Valentine, drying her eyes, raised her pale, noble forehead, and tried
to collect her voice, that trembled greatly.
“My good Monsieur Morin, read the letter,” said she, “I pray you. My
dear and best friend had no secrets to confide to me, I am sure, and
her last wishes should be respected and known by all.”
The notary bowed and broke the seal. With one look he glanced through
the writing, and a shade of surprise and anxiety was depicted on his
face. Valentine, disquieted in turn, advanced gently, and extended her
hand toward the paper.
“Of what is this the subject, sir?” she asked timidly.
“Business; only business, my dear young lady,” stammered the good M.
Morin in an embarrassed tone.
“Then read it aloud, I pray you, sir,” said the young girl, tranquil,
resolved, and suddenly reassured.
The notary then slowly unfolded the paper, put on his spectacles, and
began his reading in the midst of a profound silence, and perhaps
anxiety, that reigned just then among the little assembly.
“My dearly loved Valentine,” said the noble woman dead, “forgive me if
I open my heart to you, and if, in giving up what has been, after you,
the joy and consolation of my existence, I leave you perhaps serious
duties, real and profound anxiety. My will, as you no doubt have
learned, makes you the one and only heiress to the modest sum I feel
so happy to be able to leave you. But you know, my poor dear child, I
have besides undertaken, and you know with what end, a work of mercy 226
that I wished to succeed and prosper a long time, even when my
presence and aid would have, by the will of God, been withdrawn from
my poor old _protégées_. This charitable foundation has been for me
the object of grave and disquieting cares, that till now I have never
found necessary to confide to you. I have just learned that the
proprietor of the building that shelters my poor old pensioners,
having some speculation in view, has decided to take possession of it
and its dependencies himself, or will only permit me to retain it
under conditions too exacting to be in harmony with my slender
resources. Many people of judgment whom I have consulted have all
counselled me to choose another abode and there install my pensioners.
If I had found myself, as formerly, alone in the world, I should not
have hesitated to do so; but to find a suitable house and pay several
debts of my poor little hospital--for times have not been good for a
few years past--I should have had to have laid out at least twenty
thousand francs, almost the half of my present fortune; and could I
deprive you of so important a sum--you, my best loved and only
heiress, who cannot have the same reasons for being interested in the
existence of the work, and therefore its continuation?
“This idea has not seemed possible to me, my dear child; therefore I
have made no reserves, no stipulations in the interests of my poor old
dependants, leaving it to your reason, not less than to your generous
heart, to decide what you find best to do. Perhaps the advice, the
support of the new family into which you are going to enter, of my
good friend M. Maubars, whom I have always known so loyal and just,
will be at your service, and, without impoverishing yourself, you can
aid those whom I have always wished so much to see prosper. Take
advice, then, of these friends, my daughter, consult your own
faculties, your strength, and, above all, do not precipitate anything.
It would have been too painful for me to have died in the thought of
relinquishing this work which has been so dear and consoling,
therefore I speak to you of it to-day, confident you will understand
me in this as in everything else. But, in any event, I hope that
Providence will continue to watch over this modest foundation for his
glory, and whatever you decide to do, my good and tender child, be
assured you will have my approval and my blessing.
“Farewell, joy and consolation of my old years, sweetness of my life,
my dear daughter. I will not forget you in the presence of my God, if
he will deign to hear my prayers.”
Thus the letter finished, and the sad and continued voice of M. Morin,
which seemed to die out in murmurs, was only replied to by the long
and bitter sobs of Valentine.
At the end, the young girl, trembling and half-tranquillized,
approached the notary, turned toward him her mild countenance, where a
timid smile of gratitude and tenderness already commenced to shine as
a fugitive and light ray in the midst of her tears.
“Monsieur Morin, in four months I will be twenty-one,” said she.
“Perhaps the proprietor of the asylum will wait till then. I shall be
free then, will I not, to give the twenty thousand francs necessary
for the purchase of the house?”
A profound silence, soon interrupted by a feeble murmur, greeted at
first these words of the orphan. M. Maubars rose from his chair,
shrugged his shoulders slightly, approached her, and took her hand 227
with a benevolent and paternal smile.
“Permit me, my dear child,” said he. “You are not--my worthy and
respectable friend knew it well--quite competent to decide in matters
of business, and you had better, I think--”
“You think perhaps I would do better to install the poor women in this
dear old house,” interrupted the generous girl, with her sad and sweet
smile. “Monsieur Maubars, I love it too much, this humble abode, too
much in truth, I have in it so many sweet recollections, and have
passed here so many happy days of infancy. But my poor dear mamma
would perhaps be happier to know her old friends lodged and sheltered
here, in her own house. So I am quite ready to give it up to them, if
you think it right, quite suitable.”
“But no, no, dear good Valentine,” replied the prudent papa, with a
very embarrassed air. “My child, you well understand, questions of
sentiment should never interfere with those of business. Think, by
abandoning this little property, or its equivalent sum, you give up in
reality one-third of your dowry--a dowry, permit me to say too,
without any grudge, that is already not the most considerable. Think
that all prudent people would endeavor to dissuade you from taking
this part; that you are not in reality free to accomplish a sacrifice
so important and to the detriment of your future family.”
Ah! poor Valentine! had she ever expected such a declaration? At first
she listened calmly, then smiled; then as she comprehended these
words, that came like a thunderbolt upon her in all their cruelty, her
paleness disappeared and gave place to a quick and glowing redness;
then this in turn vanished, and she remained cold and white as a
marble statue. Then a ray of indignation and grief glanced from her
pure eyes, but compressing, however, the sudden beating of her heart,
palpitating and growing colder every instant, she replied, still in an
uncertain and timid voice, with a firm and serious accent, but
caressing and affectionate:
“Free, did you say, my good Monsieur Maubars? Do you not mistake me?
Should I not be always free to accomplish my duty, the last wishes of
my mother?”
“But allow me ... distinguish,” repeated the future father-in-law,
alarmed but yet not discouraged. “There is an imprudent and rash
liberty, my dear young lady, and one that is provident and wise. You
see yourself that your tender and generous protectress orders nothing,
and asks nothing of you. She simply engages you to seek for the best
advice of those who are interested in your happiness, in your future
destiny, mine amongst others, my dear child. And you know well I am
disposed to act toward you as an old friend, as your father. I have a
great influence in benevolent societies, am a member of several;
nothing easier for me to tranquillize you on the subject of your old
women than to make out a little account of the actual state of things,
with a few words of my own observation, and have them received without
any delay or trouble into the hospital for incurables in this
department. In this way, my dear Valentine, you see all can be
arranged for the best. You will be relieved from all inquietude as to
the fate of the _protégées_ of the excellent Madame de Guers; your
little fortune will not be compromised; exempted from every care, free
from obligations, you can consecrate your entire time to your duties,
to the affections that await you in your new family.”
Valentine listened to every word, her eyes fixed, her lips immovable.
But from time to time a deeper and more sombre shade spread over her 228
eyes, an expression more desolate fixed itself on her lips. When the
caressing and persuasive voice of her future father-in-law ceased to
be heard, she sadly bent her head, and replied:
“Alas! Monsieur Maubars, I see we can never again understand each
other. I am not free, as you appear to think. What my dear and worthy
protectress would have done, I must do for her.”
“But, my child, reflect: you cannot sacrifice your little fortune.”
“And this fortune, to whom do I owe it, then--I, a poor, abandoned
orphan, who, without the generous protection of this inestimable
friend, would have been sent in years gone by where you would place
these poor infirm people--in a hospital. Oh! my good Monsieur Maubars,
if my benefactress had in dying left some debt of honor that I should
pay, would you advise me to cancel the obligation--you who are so just
and honorable?”
“But, dear young lady, the case is different; your excessive delicacy
leads you astray.”
“It is only different in one respect: it is more grave and solemn.
This is a sacred debt that Madame de Guers has contracted toward God
and toward the poor, to satisfy the yearning of her soul. To-day this
debt is transmitted to me. I recognize it; I receive it with the rest
of her heritage; I promise to use, if necessary, all my resources, all
my time, all my strength to pay it as I should.”
The young girl, pale though resolute, rose in pronouncing these words,
and extended her little hand, that had ceased to tremble, as if she
called upon all the strangers assembled to witness her irrevocable
decision, her generous determination. The old frequenters of the
mansion could scarcely recognize her: she seemed to have grown taller,
ripened in a moment, and was transfigured. Her former sweetness, so
timid and charming, did not abandon her, but there mingled in it an
expression of invincible courage and inflexible integrity; the weak
and feeble child had disappeared, and in her place appeared a
woman--loyal, intrepid, resigned, ready for every devotion, for every
sacrifice, even of the oldest and most cherished affections of her
heart.
M. Maubars was undeceived; it was with an expression evidently of
extreme surprise and marked discontent that he fell back a few steps
and bent his whitened head: “I persist in hoping, mademoiselle, that
you will still reflect,” said he, in a tone impressed with remarkable
coldness. “Otherwise, you understand, without doubt, our projects must
undergo same modification. Consider that such obstinacy on your part
is a most unhappy precedent for the well-being and peace of your
future household.”
At this brutal menace, at this the saddest moment, perhaps, of her
life, Valentine became still paler and her look more sombre, but she
neither trembled nor flinched, accepting without a murmur and in
silence all the bitterness of the duty she had just embraced. Only, by
an old and tender habit of childhood, with the remains of a hope
perhaps, her gaze, more eloquent and earnest than ever, was fixed upon
Alfred--the friend, the betrothed, whom, for so long a time, she had
been accustomed to consult in any sadness or disquietude. But Alfred,
before the mute anguish of this regard, was not moved. He bore with
his father an air of gravity and dissatisfaction.
“I am sure you will reflect upon this, Valentine,” he simply said. 229
“You see my father counsels you as a true friend, having only in view
your happiness and the preservation of your fortune.”
Then Valentine turned slowly and sadly, without allowing a single tear
to escape her, or a single sob that was then swelling in her breast.
“My good Monsieur Morin, my resolution is taken,” said she, her voice
at first trembling, but becoming steadier as she spoke. “All the
reflections that I could make would only serve to show me my duty,
more distinct, more exact, more sacred. In two months, if you wish, we
will hear what property had better be sold, and choose a suitable
abode for our asylum.... Now, gentlemen, our council is ended, I
believe.... I thank you one and all for having accorded me your advice
and the support of your presence.”
All the assistants understood that the courageous young girl must be
left alone to suffer, alone to weep. They rose simultaneously, bowed
to her profoundly with admiration and respect, and went out. Alfred
wore already a resigned look of sadness, and M. Maubars betrayed his
irritation in his brusque movements and unsteady walk. The echoes of
their steps died in the distance, and around the orphan in her
mourning reigned only solitude and silence.
“It is all over; they have said it,” she murmured then, and let fall
the pent-up tears. “But no! it was to be.... I wished it also. It was
my duty--why could he not so understand it? Oh! Adeline told me the
truth. God is good to have enlightened me while I am still single and
free. Poor mamma, you could not have imagined this. So much the
better, for you would have wept so bitterly.”
Speaking thus, she wept and wept, hiding her face in her hands, and
sobbing as if her heart would break. The hours flew by, night came,
and the November rain fell on the windows, the November wind shook the
shutters in the little parlor, formerly so tightly closed, so bright,
and peopled with good friends, but now so solemn and deserted, and
where the orphan alone must suffer and weep.
IV.
Valentine held firm to her resolution; her soul, so loyal and pure,
was of those where the courage of devotion, and the love of duty
accomplished, united to double the price of the humble virtues,
submission, gentleness, and tenderness. To a very polite and
respectful letter from Alfred, in which the young man begged her to
let him know if she still persisted in her intentions, she replied in
simple terms, releasing him from his engagement, and telling him that
henceforward she should devote herself to the austere and honorable
task bequeathed her by her adopted mother. Notwithstanding her orders
to the contrary, one of her best friends forced her way into the
house, no doubt with good intentions. It was the lively and joyous
Adeline de Malers, in whom, in spite of much prudence and worldly
experience, tenderness and benevolence were not wanting, and who would
sincerely have desired to conquer what she considered the obstinacy
and blindness of her poor dear friend. Adeline took care to bring
precious arguments with her to plead the important marriage cause: she
led her two dear little children by the hand, with their innocent
babbling and sweet smiles, the source of so much delight and maternal
felicity. However, Valentine did not yield; her soul was steeped and
her resolution strengthened by the secret prayers and solitude of her 230
affliction.
“My dear,” said Adeline to her at the end of her arguments, “if you
grow poor by this foolish liberality, and if, half-ruined, you are
obliged to give up M. Alfred Maubars, you will be an old maid, I warn
you.”
“I have always been a happy young girl, I can be a tranquil and
contented old maid. Happiness has no age,” replied Valentine, with her
calm and tender smile.
“My dear, the obliged are generally ungrateful; gratitude from the
poor is a rare and uncertain commodity.”
“I know it; but the satisfaction of an accomplished duty is immense,
and the grace of God infinite. Besides, I shall be so happy to realize
the intentions and to continue the work of my mother, who is in
heaven.”
Adeline shrugged her shoulders with a gesture of impatience. “But your
poor old folks won’t live for ever, and when the last one has
disappeared, your work will be finished, and you will be alone.
Besides, in devoting yourself in the flower of your years to their
catarrhs and their rheumatisms, do you know, my poor child, what you
renounce and what you lose? Come here, Bertha, my treasure, kiss me,
Max, you dear little angel.... Look at them now, you wicked little
obstinate one, and tell me, as you examine them well, if all the
happiness, all the glory of a woman, does not consist in raising,
caring for, and cherishing such charming little loves.”
At these words, Valentine drew the little ones to her; kissed each of
their pretty white foreheads, and laid her hand gently on their blonde
heads; for she had at heart that tender and deep love of children that
God has given innocent young girls, in order that one day their most
holy duty may become their truest and sweetest happiness. And for an
instant perhaps the caressing look that she fixed upon them became
more tender, deeper, and more tearful; she stooped then a moment
toward the earth; then resumed her serenity, and replied peaceably and
with resignation:
“God has given me my children--children, Adeline, who have great need
of me, for they are suffering, poor, and feeble. Besides, my good
friend, when the last of these poor old people shall have gone, there
will remain to me the foundation, the hospital. I will open it then to
real children, to young and poor orphans. In this way, I too will have
my family--my family blessed by God.”
“It is fanaticism, truly, and I begin to despair of your future, my
dear friend,” cried Adeline, surprised and discontented to find her
overtures so energetically repulsed. “But, then, why do you persist in
remaining in the world, that will only have, believe me, disdain for
your heroism, coldness and raillery for your generous devotion? Why do
you not at once adopt the cornette and serge of the Sister of
Charity?”
“Because, thus far, God has not so commanded me,” replied the
courageous child, modest and resigned. “My duty lies near these old
women; here my place is marked out; I have nothing else to do but
understand, adore, and obey. And since I have friends among my people,
I esteem and love them also. Why should these friends abandon me
because a sacred duty claims a portion of my time and my strength, and
I must consecrate myself to it? My destiny is no doubt changed, but my
heart will never change, and from those I should have loved my memory
will never be detached; no rival affection will banish their remembrance, 231
and for them, always, I shall be Valentine.”
Adeline took leave soon after, half-angry, half-impressed, declaring
she could understand nothing of the character of such an obstinate
girl, who could hide such real perversity, such inexplicable tenacity,
under a manner so timid and so gentle. After her departure, the pupil
of Madame de Guers read for the last time the solemn message to
Alfred, and finished the reply she had already commenced. Not a tear
sullied the page whereon slowly and courageously she traced her
farewell. Not a start of tenderness or grief agitated the poor little
white hand, that so heroically sealed the decree of separation,
renunciation, and forgetfulness. Only when she had finished, when
there was nothing more to propose or hope for, when the old Marianne,
carrying the letter, had disappeared in the fog, near the neighboring
quay, she gently approached, with her eyes full of tears, the chimney
where the noble and tender face of her second mother, the friend of
her youthful years, smiled on her as if to encourage her from under
her light glass covering. Before she pressed her trembling lips on the
little portrait, she smiled sweetly through her tears.
“It is all finished, mamma,” murmured she. “I will do as you
would--hereafter live only for God, and for his poor. You have told me
more than once that such is the lot of the elect. I believe you, dear
mamma; I love you and I bless you.”
And as the choice of the young girl was made, she lived, as she had
said, devoted and valiant, active and resigned. The notary soon came
to the conclusion, and made it known to her, that all her resources
would be needed for the support of her old people. But what would she
have done all alone in the dear old house, much too large for her by
herself, and so full of remembrances, rendered so bitter in silence
and solitude? Valentine understood what she had to do, and easily
resigned herself. The old and peaceable abode, a little enlarged,
received on one story the old pensioners of the little hospital, while
the young protectress reserved on another her bedroom, her little
parlor, and her library: a modest apartment filled with pious relics
and sweet and humble souvenirs. And from this moment her life was
entirely consecrated to her retreat, to God and the poor; from this
moment, too, she openly relinquished all hope of any new situation,
any other destiny; and the circle of friends and acquaintances of the
little town of C---- ceased to include her among the marriageable.
In obscure cares, in constant labor, in hidden devotions, passed the
days, sped the years, and robbed her of her youth. But peace remained,
because she was content to establish her abode in the shadow of a
Christian roof, and in the love of grateful hearts. It is true--though
some of our readers may be permitted to doubt it--that a peace the
sweetest, the most delightful, the most constant, and the most sure
does not depend on what excites and passes so quickly from earth, but
on the true, salutary, and Christian manner in which the soul, wise
and resigned, puts itself in harmony with the exigencies of its
destiny and the will of its God. Valentine felt this early, and from
that time experienced it always. The serene tranquillity of her heart,
humble in its desires and contented in its destiny, was never
overshadowed by a cloud; it stood proof against any shock, even on the
day when, having finished the reading of the Scriptures to the old 232
Genevieve, she heard in the street, quite close to her, a great noise
of carriages, rolling joyously towards the church, from which
resounded the sounds of a _fête_, and, looking out the window to
explain the cause of the tumult, she saw in the first of the
carriages, ornamented with wedding favors, bouquets, and ribbons, two
friends of her childhood: the betrothed of that day, Alfred Maubars
and Rosine Martin. There passed over her face a calm smile, vague and
almost dreaming; then a fixed and disturbed look, for at the bottom of
the page, as she read, were these words: “_It is not good for man to
be alone._”
But almost immediately resounded in her ears the caressing and
infantine voices of childhood, those of two little orphans, her
cherished dependants, who had taken the places of Babet and Manou,
dead full of years, and now quietly reposing in their graves. At the
joyous call Valentine was once more herself, and, with a calm smile,
bending her head as if she recognized her error, she said:
“Yes, indeed, it would be sad to be alone, but those are never so who
know how to love. Dear mamma told me so, and well she knew what she
said. Come, Marie, come Louisette, let me say the _Angelus_ with
you.” The little ones approached, knelt down, and she laid her hands
on their heads, and kissed their browned foreheads. And before she
made the sign of the cross she regarded them earnestly, and with a
joyful, softened, peaceable, and triumphant gaze, even an expression
of indifference and forgetfulness to the carriage that was rolling
towards the church, and she rose at last full of gratitude and love of
benediction and prayer, and lifted her eyes to the clear and blue
heaven that caressed her with its gold-lit rays.
----------
TRUE FAITH.
Faith is no weakly flower,
By sudden blight, or heat, or stormy shower
To perish in an hour.
But rich in hidden worth,
A plant of grace, though striking root in earth,
It boasts a hardy birth.
Still from its native skies
Draws energy which common shocks defies,
And lives where nature dies!
E. CASWALL.
----------
THE PLACE VENDOME AND LA ROQUETTE. 233
THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THE COMMUNE.
FROM LE CORRESPONDANT.
II.
I shall not pass abruptly from my first account, drawn up at the end
of March, respecting the tragedy of the Place Vendôme, to that written
at the end of May, concerning the invasion of the Madeleine, my
detention at the Préfecture de Police and at Mazas, and the
transcendent crimes of the Commune which I witnessed at La Roquette.
What was the opinion of the few politicians left in Paris respecting
the strange events they witnessed, the accomplices and auxiliaries of
the Commune, and the degree of responsibility the national and
international element would incur in its follies and crimes?
We must render this justice to the victorious insurgents of the
eighteenth of March--that the power of dissimulation was the weakest
of their traits and the least of their cares. If they aimed at
imitating Carnot, Danton, and Robespierre, they made no pretensions of
rivalling Richelieu, Mazarin, and Talleyrand. With a moderate degree
of coolness, curiosity, and discernment, it was easy to gain access to
their larder, and ascertain the ingredients of the viands to be served
up to us each day. They had too slight a dash of moral sense to be
preoccupied with questions of honor and propriety. The absoluteness of
their aims made them completely insensible to delicacy of means and
diffidence as to appearances. Therefore, the politicians who had not
fled before the heroes of the Internationale did not waste their time.
If they were nearly deprived of action, they could, at least, be
observant, communicate the result of their impressions, and acquire a
reasonable conviction respecting the operation of the revolutionary
engine, with its numerous springs and mysterious propelling forces,
not revealed by the press of the Commune, and therefore escaping the
attention of the vulgar.
I have already protested against the weakness, blindness, or
connivance of the republican mayors and deputies of Paris, who,
immediately after the massacres of the Place Vendôme, became
reconciled to the agents of the central committee, disbanded and
dispersed the battalions of the national guard still faithful to the
cause of order, and gave Paris up to an association of adventurers and
outlaws, some of unknown origin, others notorious for their conflicts
with the laws of their own countries, and all for their savage hatred
of every social institution.
Instead of subsequently acknowledging their weakness or error, the
majority of the radical republicans continued their campaign against
the national assembly with a persistence and hypocrisy that cannot be
sufficiently stigmatized. To preserve the republic, they emboldened
and strengthened the Commune, thus sacrificing to their political idol
the peace, prosperity, honor, and existence of their country. The 234
Commune did not conceal its affection for such auxiliaries, but its
caresses were to some of a more serious and compromising nature.
Formerly, the most ultra never dreamed of giving up their patriotism.
It was reserved for the members of the Commune to divest themselves of
this old prejudice of all nations. They vehemently demanded, during
the siege of Paris by the Prussians, the most extreme measures--a
general sortie, “_des battailles torrentielles_,” and fighting to the
last. When conspiracy made them masters of Paris, their violence and
ferocity against the Prussians changed to obsequious devotedness and
civilities of the most amicable nature. Their dishonest protestations
were displayed in the columns of the official journal of the Commune
with a coolness that makes one blush. The delegate of foreign affairs
treated the Prussians, who had just lacerated and humiliated France,
and bombarded its capital, as if they were our most faithful allies,
and were sacrificing themselves heroically for our safety.
The generals of the Commune, who had been imprisoned some weeks before
by the government of the national assembly as Prussian spies and
agents, made no change in their patriotic course. The delegate of war,
General Trochu, recalled at the tribune, “is making a series of
rigorous arrests, the object of which is to assure to the enemy the
freedom the pending negotiations confer on them.”
The politicians and chemists of the Commune proved they had been in a
good school by borrowing two ideas of M. de Bismarck and M. de Moltke,
the very names of which now inspire horror--the system of hostages and
the use of petroleum. To ensure the entire payment of the exorbitant
requisitions on the invaded provinces, and somewhat avenge the limited
enthusiasm manifested by the humiliated and suffering inhabitants, the
Prussians retained the most notable individuals as hostages, and sent
them to the prisons of Germany. Citizens Ferré and Raoul Rigault found
this system too ingenious and convenient not to be adopted. They took
as hostages, and imprisoned them at Mazas and La Roquette, the priests
and laymen who, according to the opinion of these servile imitators,
had been more devoted to social and national interests than to those
of anarchy and demagogism.
Fourteen months ago, a peculiar dictionary was discovered in the
headquarters of the Internationale, in which was a list of such words
as nitro-glycerine and picrate of potassium, and a recipe for
sulphurate of carbon, and the chlorate and prussiate of potassium. At
the end of the recipes were these words, significant of the uses to
which they were to be applied: “To throw from the windows: to be
thrown into the gutters.” If the most formidable of recipes is not to
be found there, it is because the citizens of the Commune had not yet
learned in the school of Prussian engineers the art of destroying
houses and monuments by means of petroleum.
In continuing the account of the horrible deeds of the Commune, I find
consolation as a Frenchman in the thought that the murderers and
incendiaries of Paris denied not only their God, but their country,
and that they were members not only of a criminal, but a foreign
league.
I.
THE CLOSING OF THE MADELEINE.
In following with serious attention the various evolutions of the
Commune, we are struck by the contrast between its beginning and its 235
end. Its first essays were rather grotesque than frightful. The
statesmen most preoccupied about the quicksands on which it threatened
to cast society and the nation did not at first foresee the crimes
that are without a name, which made its end one of the most sinister
pages in human history. The reason is easily understood. Once masters
of Paris, the charlatans and rogues that composed the Commune hoped to
become the rulers of France. They saw themselves already at the head
of a social revolution, and, encouraged by their unexpected success in
the seductive cause of pretended renovation, they set to work in
earnest. Hence the deluge of strange and incoherent decrees that
became a dead letter, and only served to amuse the careless and
frivolous Parisian.
But when the generals of the Commune made an audacious effort to seize
Versailles and open communication with their numerous agents in the
populous centres of the provinces, they were overwhelmed by the army
they thought disorganized or won over to their cause, and all their
plans were overthrown. The attempts to excite an insurrection in the
large cities failed. The Commune could expect nothing more from the
intervention of the departments: its rule was restricted to Paris, and
the days of its power were numbered. Then projects of hatred and
vengeance succeeded those of social renovation. The monkeys of the
Hôtel de Ville gave place to tigers. The prophets and apostles of the
Commune lost their _sang-froid_. The foul Felix Pyat exhausted himself
in atrocious invectives, and the fiendish Delescluze evidently
preferred to blow up Paris rather than give it up to France.
While the emissaries of the radical republicans knowingly deceived
France and all Europe respecting the condition of Paris, and were
circulating their deceitful and imprudent sophisms, dictated by their
admiration for the Commune and their hatred of the national assembly,
what was the language of foreign journals that cared for nothing about
these internal struggles but exactness and impartiality? The
correspondent of the _Times_ was not satisfied with comparing
Paris to an infernal caldron, in which seethed all human passions, but
thus depicted the armed forces of the Commune: “Besides the old and
the young, excited by the phraseology of the first revolution, still
novel to them, all the villains in Paris are under arms. I have never
seen, even in London, so sinister a collection of faces. These men
always seem more or less intoxicated. They have not, perhaps, ceased
to be so since the eighteenth of March.” Such is the spectacle in the
streets and public places: that of the forts and ramparts is of a
still more expressive character: “Man is there only a ferocious
animal, everywhere scenting blood. We hardly recognize him, and no
longer comprehend him.”
The parish service I directed at the Madeleine after the arrest of M.
Deguerry encountered but few difficulties. The Commune only made some
insignificant requisitions in a civil manner. The qualification of
“citizen director of the church of the Madeleine,” given me in the
most solemn manner, enlivened me for an instant in the midst of my
cares and griefs.
The success of the Versailles army, in giving joy to the respectable
people still remaining at Paris, was a source of danger to them. The
Commune concentrated, or rather gave up, its civil and military power
into the hands of the committee of public safety and the central 236
committee. On Wednesday, the seventeenth of May, in going to
administer the last sacraments to the daughter of a concierge in the
Rue de la Victoire, I found the ninth arrondissement hemmed in by the
insurgents, who were making frequent arrests. Thanks to one of the
most ultra journals of the Commune that I pretended to be reading very
attentively, I passed through their inquisitorial ranks unimpeded.
On the eighteenth, which was Ascension day, the church of St.
Augustine was closed, and one of the vicars and the organist were
imprisoned. All the offices of the day were celebrated at the
Madeleine, attended by a numerous and very devout congregation; but,
so far from yielding to any illusion about the fate that awaited me, I
begged Dr. B. de L----, a parishioner of the Madeleine, to enable me
after vespers to see M. Jacquemin, one of the physicians of the prison
of Mazas. There was every reason to believe I should soon require his
kind services. I was already acquainted with M. de Beauvais, the
second physician at Mazas, whose courageous devotedness I was
subsequently to experience, and who had already been so thoughtful as
to give me news of the curé of the Madeleine and of the Archbishop of
Paris. After my interview with Dr. Jacquemin, I felt some
embarrassment about returning to my residence. The Rue de la
Ville-l’Evêque was filled with an armed band of the national guards.
The house of the Sisters of Charity, opposite the Presbytère, was
guarded by two sentinels. The sisters had been expelled, and the
girls’ school confided to some _citoyennes_, who, according to the
unruly tongues of the quarter, had been replaced at the prison of St.
Lazare by the Sisters of Picpus, who were accused of a series of
crimes, each one more extraordinary than the rest. I bought, as on the
previous day, one of the ultra journals of the Commune, and, armed
with this new kind of a safe-conduct, I took a roundabout way to the
Rue la Ville-l’Evêque, in order to avoid the national guards as much
as possible. Once their protection would have been eagerly sought
against a robber or assassin, but since the reign of the Commune
respectable people feared and fled from them as the worst of
evil-doers. And the new military organization will doubtless have to
undergo a radical transformation, for it will be difficult for it to
rise above the moral discredit into which it has fallen.
Some moments after, a Polish priest, who had given himself up with
indefatigable zeal to the service of the ambulances, notified me that
an order had been signed to close the churches and arrest the priests
still in Paris. I went to see one of my devoted _confrères_, M.
de Bretagne, and consult with him about the means of preserving the
holy eucharist from profanation. The insurgents had already thrown
away or carried off in their cartridge-boxes the sacred elements in
some of the churches. At this very time the church of St.
Philippe-du-Roule was entered by the insurgents, and for want of
priests they arrested two employees who were guarding the church. The
Madeleine of the eighth arrondissement was the only church that was
still open.
Although, after the arrest of M. Deguerry, a part of the valuables of
the church had been carried to a safe place, I employed the first
moments of Friday, the nineteenth, in confiding the remainder to some
women of the working-classes. I only left in the church a few valuable 237
objects and several hundred francs. The agents of the Commune had a
singular longing for money, and when they could not obtain some
bank-bills or gold in their expeditions, the places invaded or the
persons arrested had to suffer for such a financial disappointment.
At half-past three, the sacristy door burst open. A tall young man,
clad _à la_ Robespierre, with a broad red mantle that half-covered him,
advanced at the head of a knot of confederates armed with revolvers,
and exclaimed in a loud tone: “The church of the Madeleine is closed
by order of the committee of public safety.” I was at that moment
supplying the unfortunate people whom the _régime_ of the Commune had
deprived of work and bread. I had on my choir robes in addition to my
ordinary ecclesiastical costume. The inmates of the sacristy were
greatly excited. Some who were waiting to go to confession fled. Only
one, the wife of an old prefect of the empire, bravely remained to
witness this singular spectacle. I approached the judicial agent, and
asked to examine the official decree and see if it was authentic.
While I was reading it, I saw in his hands two other decrees of the
committee of public safety, one prescribing my arrest and the other
the suppression of some newspapers that had not conformed to the
opinions of the Commune. I thought the signature was that of Ranvier,
the mayor of Belleville, one of the most influential members of the
Commune and of the committee of public safety. He was an old bankrupt
wine-dealer, who had several times been amenable to the laws, and,
like all social outlaws, swore an implacable hatred to society. He
acquired great popularity in the clubs, after the fourth of September,
by advocating social war, as in the last months of the empire he had
advocated the claims of absolute liberty! It was by virtue of this
absolute liberty that he had just signed the three decrees, that aimed
so many brutal blows at religious, civil, and political liberty.
“Are you the citizen director of the church of the Madeleine?” added
the delegate, somewhat irritated at the inspection of the warrant,
which seemed to him rather impertinent.
I would willingly have replied like Sganarelle, “Yes and no, according
to your wish,” but unfortunately, instead of living any longer in the
Paris of Molière, we lived in a city of folly and crime.
“You know perfectly well that the curé of the Madeleine was arrested
six weeks ago. It is I who am for the present in his place.” I had not
finished these words before he took the second warrant, and exclaimed
in thundering tones: “By virtue of a decree of the committee of public
safety, the citizen director of the church of the Madeleine is
arrested.” The murderers who escorted him, and who belonged to the
battalion of the _Vengeurs de Flourens_, rushed upon me, holding
their revolvers against my throat and chest, and bestowing on me a
series of names, the most decent of which were “_bandit_, _canaille_,
_crapule_, _assassin_!” One of them, whose stupid ferocity can only
be attributed to drunkenness, cried, while endeavoring to adjust his
arms: “It is you, vile rabble, who cause the patriots of Paris to be
assassinated by the wretches at Versailles: the priests are the
murderers of the people: they should all be shot.” I had received
these miserable men with politeness and a sentiment of resignation.
Their low insults made me flush with indignation and decide to
confront them.
“I am not accustomed to hear such language,” said I to their leader.
“If you continue to treat me in this way, I shall seat myself without 238
another word, and force alone shall tear me from this sanctuary.”
He made a sign to his followers to moderate their civic indignation,
but without being heeded. I now sought to lead them into a discussion,
hoping to appease them and preserve the church from devastation by
making them incapable of justifying their acts and outrages. For two
hours--hours that seemed ages--I was obliged, under the greatest
peril, to defend myself as a man and a priest against these
emissaries, who were as ridiculous as they were odious. I will relate
the principal points in this interchange of observations.
I first asked why I was arrested. At this question the delegate of the
committee of public safety replied by a torrent of accusations and
maledictions against the “miserable quarter of the Madeleine, the most
hostile in Paris to the _régime_ of the Commune.” He was not wholly
wrong in this, for at the last elections the parish of the Madeleine,
which comprises about forty thousand inhabitants, did not give more
than a hundred votes to the candidates of the Commune. In the eighth
arrondissement, where the church is, of about nineteen thousand votes,
only five hundred voted for the Communist members. He added: “You must
therefore expiate your conspirations in favor of the Versailles
assassins.” Here the delegate was no longer right. But it was evident
that I was arrested because I was the “citizen director of the
Madeleine,” and they would make me expiate the sympathy and
concurrence that the parishioners of the Madeleine had the
unpardonable offence to refuse the Commune. To gain more time and thus
calm their fury, I spoke of political affairs. My observations visibly
disconcerted my interlocutors. The epithets, _canaille_, _crapule_,
and assassin, became more and more rare, and their revolvers, at first
so actively and impertinently exercised, were returned by degrees to
their cases.
Another incident that might have been fatal to me served still more to
disconcert them. During the last half of the reign of the Commune, the
affair of the bodies found at St. Laurent, Notre Dame des Victoires,
and Notre Dame de Lorette had an unfortunate effect. Disregarding the
reports of the physicians and what was clearly evident, the
revolutionist papers, the _Journal Officiel_, and the clubs exclaimed
at the scandal. The most abominable crimes were imputed to the clergy,
against whom a diabolical persecution was excited by extravagant
accounts and vile pictures. In vain were these extravagances met by
decisive reasons: the reasons themselves became new subjects of
crimination and invectives which gave me great concern.
The vaults of the Madeleine were at this epoch filled with bodies.
During the siege of Paris by the Prussians, the bodies of several
generals and foreigners of distinction had been deposited there till
they could be carried to their distant family tombs. I had for several
days dwelt on the explanation I could give respecting these bodies so
as to silence these furious madmen, but had found none. The time had
come when I needed it.
“It is in this miserable parish of the Madeleine,” exclaimed the
delegate of the Commune with a smile of contempt and hatred, “that we
shall discover the infamy of the priests. I will bet,” continued he,
turning toward his agent, “that we shall find here more horrible
things than at St. Laurent and Notre Dame des Victoires. Citizens, 239
let us go down into the vaults!”
The ray of light that I had sought for in vain the three previous
weeks all at once beamed into my mind, I found the reason I needed.
Though in the power of the dangerous agents of the committee of public
safety, I blessed God for his protection.
“I have two observations to make to you,” I replied. “The first is
that you will find in the vaults of the Madeleine many more corpses
than in the other churches....”
I can still see the delegate laughing with fiendish satisfaction at
these words till he nearly fell backwards. “I told you, citizens, that
there was more infamy in this church than anywhere else!”
“The second observation, sir, concerns you personally, and from a
motive of charity I think it a duty to draw your attention to it. I
warn you that several of these bodies belong to illustrious families
in Spain, Italy, England, and America, and, if you are rash enough to
disturb them, it is with these foreign powers, and not with me, you
will have to deal.”
In his place I should have endeavored to dissimulate my embarrassment
by doubting this assertion, and requesting to be assured of the fact.
But he was not constrained in the least. He waved his hand with a
triumphant air, and, as if it were I who proposed to violate the
tombs, he exclaimed in the most sonorous manner: “Yes, yes, the
Commune will protect these bodies; they shall be protected!”
After this incredible instance of foolishness and incoherency, we may
stop. I will only beg pardon for mentioning one of the moral
reflections made by one of the emissaries of the Commune at the
commencement of this scene. I had occasion to pronounce the name of
God. “Stop,” said he to me, flourishing his revolver, “if God existed
and should descend here, it is he I would shoot first!”
It was half-past five. My situation became less critical. These men,
at first so ferocious, now treated me with politeness. The most brutal
seemed almost ashamed of having insulted me. I was able to request the
national guards appointed to watch over the Madeleine not to allow
anything to be removed or desecrated. I also begged that the faithful
employees of the church might have the liberty of returning home. The
delegate charged to arrest me could no longer deceive himself. He
became almost affable. I will not mention his name. He sufficiently
dishonored the family from which he sprang by his deeds. A week after,
by a coincidence worthy of note, he directed from the Madeleine the
fight on the Boulevard Malesherbes. More strongly resisted than he had
expected, he found himself with two of his agents hedged in by the
Versailles troops, and sought shelter in the cellar of the church. An
officer of the line shot him with a revolver, fracturing his skull.
This prodigal child had become hardened in sin: unworthy of pardon and
mercy, he had become incapable of repentance.
I arrived at the préfecture de police at a quarter past six,
accompanied by a staff-officer of the Commune. I was as yet but little
preoccupied about my situation, but when told that I was to appear at
once before citizen Ferré, the _préfet de police_, who was
regarded by men of penetration as another Robespierre, I felt that my
case was extremely grave, and that, having but little to hope from
man, I should confide myself to the protection of God.
II. 240
THE PREFECTURE DE POLICE AND MAZAS.
It is no easy matter to describe the singular scene at the préfecture
de police, usually so quiet, so disciplined and solemn. This
establishment had become noisier and more picturesque than a
fair-ground. By way of contrast with the usual proceedings, robbers
and other criminals now issued decrees of arrest and imprisonment, and
they who were arrested and imprisoned were lovers of order and their
duty.
The entrance was guarded by a crowd of national guardsmen, who had
stopped drinking and smoking to laugh at the unfortunate victims of
the hatred of the committee of public safety, who were arriving in
large numbers. I had seen at the Madeleine the delegate who ordered my
arrest give the staff-officer appointed to conduct me a five-franc
piece to pay for the carriage. This honest man found it more suitable
to leave this expense to his prisoner, and keep the five francs
himself. It was a little contribution to the expenses of the war that
I cheerfully paid. Like the misanthrope of Molière, I was almost glad
to see the masters of Paris throw off the mask and add niggardliness
to all kinds of violence. It was pleasant to be able to testify that a
staff-officer of the Commune, the friend of Ferré and Raoul Rigault,
the confidential agent of the committee of public safety, and one of
the great dignitaries of the prefecture de police, committed a theft
at my expense, and with an unceremoniousness that could not be found
among the robbers and pickpockets of the worst quarters of the
barriers.
After waiting three hours, I was summoned before citizen Ferré, the
member of the Commune delegated to the ex-préfecture de police, which
signifies in common language the _préfet de police_. He appeared to be
from twenty-six to thirty years of age. He was no longer the ten-years
student and the burlesque writer for the small journals of the Latin
quarter, who gave himself up to pleasure on those rare festivals when
the proceeds of his pen allowed him to revel at the public balls at
the crossway of the Observatory. He had exchanged his worn clothes for
a more elegant suit, his old pointed hat for a cap with gold spangles.
Carelessly seated in a superb arm-chair in the luxurious office where
Delessert, Maupas, and Pietri had labored, he gave orders to his
subordinates with the solemnity and self-sufficiency of a pasha. I am
mistaken; the great pashas I saw while travelling in the East were
only inferior rulers beside him; he realized with admirable precision
the fantastic idea I had formed of a Chinese mandarin of the first
class.
After making a salutation which he doubtless did not find
proportionate to his dignity, I requested permission in respectful and
sufficiently humble tones to appear as promptly as possible before the
_juge d’instruction_. He interrupted me in a dry and haughty tone: “Be
silent, citizen. You are here to listen to me, and not to talk!”
I had never met with so humiliating a reception. It is true I had
never been in the presence of insolence personified. I immediately
drew from my pocket a number of the _Journal Officiel de la Commune_
which I had been carefully keeping for three days, and which contained
a recent decree by virtue of which all individuals arrested should
appear before the _juge d’instruction_ within twenty-four hours or be 241
restored to liberty.
“I wished at first, sir,” I firmly replied, “to solicit a favor, now I
claim a right. By virtue of the decree of the Commune which I am going
to read to you, I demand the right to appear within twenty-four hours
before a _juge d’instruction_.”
Our arrogant mandarin shrugged his shoulders, and smiled, as if to
say, “Here is a simpleton who still believes in the decrees of the
Commune!”
“Captain, conduct this citizen to prison,” was his only reply. On
Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of May, at half-past seven in the
evening, I noticed through the bars of my cell my mandarin transformed
into a bloodthirsty tiger, crossing the court of La Roquette and
giving orders for the immediate execution of the Archbishop of Paris,
M. Bonjean, M. Deguerry, and their three companions.
My situation assumed a more gloomy aspect than I had anticipated. I
had been arrested as one of the last hostages, and was at the mercy of
a band of ruffians who were exasperated to madness by the approach of
the Versailles army. I did not lose courage in my misfortunes.
Convinced by the example of the staff-officer who had robbed me of
five francs that I still had one means of alleviating my lot, I
henceforth placed all my confidence in the infinite mercy of God,
without forgetting a generous distribution of pieces of a hundred
sous. I immediately slipped two into the hands of my jailer, who was
profuse in his bows, and gave me an exceptional testimony of his
gratitude, in his way, by shutting me up in the cell that had been
occupied by M. Deguerry. I told him that, lacking everything, I must
absolutely write my friends that evening, and begged him not to send
my letter through the office. As he objected, I told him I needed
money, and, if I were not at once supplied, I should not be able to
acknowledge, as was my practice, the kind services of the good
officials with whom I had to deal. At this, what had been impossible
was instantly effected.
I wrote to the Presbytère of the Madeleine for money and other
effects; then I added what I considered very important, and wished not
to be seen at the office, that they must not speak to any one of my
arrest, or write me a single line, or, especially, take any steps for
my release. To pass unperceived and confounded in the crowd of
prisoners was my only chance of safety. I remained faithful to this
principle to the end.
Having had no food since ten o’clock in the morning, I asked for
something to eat. They told me it was too late, that the dinner was at
five o’clock, and the regulations allowed nothing afterwards. The same
accident occurred several times, and owing to other obstacles I was no
more fortunate about sleeping. I will say, for the edification of
those who wish to get an idea of the _régime_ of the Commune, that at
the end of ten days’ imprisonment I returned home, after having dined
twice and slept two hours and a half. My friends declared that I
looked ten years older; but, knowing the truly French elasticity of my
temperament, I consoled them with the assurance that ten days of
freedom would make me ten years younger, which has proved true.
During the night, prisoners were continually being brought in. Among
them were some members of the national guards of the Commune, who,
through insubordination and drunkenness, became my companions in
captivity. They kept up a terrific noise. Some cried as loud as they 242
could bawl: “Vive la République! Vive la Commune!” Others thought they
were at a club, and, all speaking at once, advocated in discordant
tones the abolition of capital, the death of the priests, the freedom
of woman, and other benefits of social revolution.
Just after midnight, a confederate officer was brought into one of the
neighboring cells who was indebted to too copious libations for the
eloquence of a Demosthenes and the strength of a Hercules. This
patriot thought himself confronting the Prussians, among whom he made
frightful carnage. “Now it is your turn, you bully of a Bismarck! Now
you, William, you rascal! You shall see what a patriot and a
republican can do!” Then he would throw himself on to the door of his
cell, and pound and kick it. This continued till daybreak. The heroic
avenger of the national honor made me forget for a time the singular
insolence of Ferré, and more than once I laughed at his manly
eloquence and glorious feats in battle. I took pleasure in retaining,
in the midst of the extravagances and crimes of the Commune, a bitter
remembrance of the crushing and humiliating proceedings of Prussia.
On Saturday morning I wrote to M. Moiré, the _juge d’instruction_,
asking to be heard in the course of the day. At half-past three I
received a reply. It was an order to Mazas. No illusion was longer
possible. The advocates of legal forms must expect to be shot without
form--a respect for which would doubtless have been a poor consolation
in falling under the bullets of assassins, but it is well to observe
that such judicial modes are unknown among the cannibals themselves.
Among the prisoners who accompanied me were, with other ecclesiastics,
the Abbé Laurent Amodru, the vicar of Notre Dame des Victoires, and
the Abbé de Marsy, the vicar of St. Vincent de Paul. Both came to me
and manifested a sympathy that began to cheer the gloomy perspective
of Mazas. M. de Marsy was full of animation, and his cordial
devotedness was of more benefit to us in a moral than a material
sense. And I became inseparably attached to M. l’Abbé Amodru. He was
my neighbor again at La Roquette, and his encouraging example, even
more than his precious religious ministrations, aided me in enduring
the greatest trials in that fearful abode. I wish to give him a public
testimony of my profound gratitude. We were transported in one of
those cellular vehicles, the very sight of which inspires horror and
disgust, and arrived at Mazas at half-past five. They kept us shut up
nearly two hours in a kind of grated cage, which made me wish for one
of those which contain the wild beasts in the Jardin des Plantes.
Though separated from one another, we were able nevertheless to
exchange some words. “It is an indignity,” exclaimed a young national
guardsman, who had refused to serve the Commune, “to shut us up in
this way as if we were robbers!”
“Cheer up,” replied an old man with a cultivated and sympathetic
voice. “In these days, honest men are placed here, and robbers are
left without.”
Exhausted with fatigue, I could neither sit down, lie down, eat, nor
read. I can understand these rigorous precautions for the disciples of
Cartouche, Troppman, and Dumolard. Would there have been any great
social danger in shutting us up in an apartment where there was a
bench? I learned afterward that the Archbishop of Paris had the same
preliminary ceremony to undergo, which almost reduced him to agony. 243
When my turn came to go to the register’s office, I was very much
exasperated, and not at all disposed to conceal my dissatisfaction;
and I had begun to observe that mildness and patience only served to
aggravate our troubles with the emissaries of the Commune, while a
timely and vigorous protestation obtained some alleviation. The
registrar, in taking a long and minute description, demanded my
name--“The Abbé Lamazou, Vicar of the Madeleine.” I never failed to
articulate this title distinctly. It edified some, irritated others,
and proved to all that by my profession I did not necessarily belong
to the family of those accused of robbery, brigandage, or
assassination, for whom the prison of Mazas was intended.
Having entered the establishment, they pointed toward a door. I
supposed it was my cell. By no means: it was a bath-room. As vagabonds
and criminals are not always models of neatness and health, I
understood the necessity of making them take a bath at their entrance
into prison. I also comprehend that recourse may be had to this easy
means of ascertaining if a dangerous criminal has not concealed in his
clothes some weapon or some document that may compromise him. When the
warden ordered me to undress in order to take a bath, I was for a
moment confounded. The sight of a dirty bath-room and a smoking rag,
that perhaps had just wiped the body of some foul vagrant of the
barriers, quite restored my energy.
“I will not take a bath.”
“The regulations require it: you must submit to them.”
“I tell you once for all, that I will not take a bath, if you shoot
me.”
“Well, in your place I would act the same,” replied the warden in a
most friendly tone. “I am distressed at all that has been going on
here for some time. Only, as the director of the prison is a furious
partisan of the Commune, if he were aware of your resistance, he might
subject you to rigorous treatment. I will close the door for a few
minutes, and you will be reported as having taken your bath.”
I thanked him warmly. Some wardens of the former administration still
remained at Mazas and La Roquette. They not only manifested a cordial
respect for us, but rendered us the most valuable assistance. Of all
the marks of sympathy that I received after my deliverance, none
affected me more than the letters and calls of my old wardens of Mazas
and La Roquette. Among those who came to see me was the warden of the
bath-rooms at Mazas. There were then, among the hordes of the Commune,
who were a disgrace to the human race, some men who honored it by
their conscientiousness, their courage, and their moral dignity.
Although the day was nearly at an end, I was not at the end of my
tribulations. The cell in which I was shut up seemed most
objectionable. It was exceedingly cold, and, as I had been laid up
with an attack of bronchitis, it might bring on inflammation of the
lungs. It was on the ground, and immediately facing the interior
entrance to the main part of the prison. I knew the populace might
take Mazas by force and give a second edition of the days in
September. I should then be one of the first at hand. Finally, and
this was decisive, I had fallen into the hands of a Communist warden,
who, seeing me exhausted, having had no nourishment since morning,
gave no other proof of his solicitude than examining my pockets, my 244
books, and even my portemonnaie.
The next morning I asked to see one of the physicians of the prison.
It was Dr. de Beauvais’s day, whom I had already seen at the
Madeleine. As he was under the surveillance of the agents of the
Commune, I made no sign of recognition. I made known to him the
intolerable treatment I had received, the bad state of my health, and
the physical impossibility of remaining in my cell. I added that I
simply wished to inform him of my situation, but by no means to claim
a favor.
He replied that, in consequence of my state of health, I had a right
to change my cell. He ordered one to be given me in the first story.
The energy of my language had such an effect on the infirmarian and
pharmaceutist of the prison that they hastened to manifest their
sympathy. My new warden was perfect. In spite of the severity of the
discipline, I could, thanks to them, obtain news of M. Deguerry, Mgr.
Darboy, Mgr. Surat, and of M. Bayle, the vicar-general of Paris, who
was in my neighborhood. Hitherto I could only give an idea of their
trials and those of the other hostages of the Commune by relating my
own, only most of them had been incarcerated seven weeks, and I only
four days.
Sunday was, relatively speaking, a comfortable day. I guessed, on
Monday morning, from the general sound of the tocsin, that the
Versailles troops must have entered Paris. The pharmacist and wardens
confirmed the supposition. “Courage,” they said to me, “perhaps in a
few hours, or to-morrow at the latest, you will be free.”
I offered up my thanksgivings to God, and hailed the first dawn of
light on Tuesday as the happy day of my deliverance, and the
deliverance of all my companions in captivity.
III.
LA ROQUETTE--MASSACRE OF THE HOSTAGES--FOUR DAYS OF AGONY.
A brilliant sun lighted the prison of Mazas. We were, then, about to
return to Paris, from which we seemed a thousand leagues distant,
though within its limits; we were to behold once more those who were
dear to us, and endeavor, according to the measure of our strength, to
heal the moral and material wounds made by the most shameful and
odious of _régimes_ that ever burdened a civilized people. I forgot
all my fatigues, all my sadness, all my anguish, in the reawakening of
hope and life. I prayed with the enthusiasm of an exile who had
despaired of ever seeing his country again, and to which he was, by an
unexpected event, about to be restored.
At a quarter before ten, the door of my cell was opened. A warden I
did not know ordered me to collect my effects and go down. My
deliverance, then, was nearer at hand than I had hoped. All my things
were packed in a few minutes. I took all the money out of my purse
except enough to pay for a carriage and give the driver a generous
_pourboire_. I was too happy not to wish to make those around me
happy. In descending I distributed all the money I possessed. They
shut me up in one of the compartments of the prison parlor. After some
minutes, they took me to the director, who asked me if I had any
observations to make. “None,” said I, “unless that I am ignorant why I
am brought here.”
His face, and the faces of the agents who surrounded him, seemed very 245
ferocious, but I knew they had been indebted to the insurrection for
their places at Mazas, and must therefore be dissatisfied to see Paris
restored to France and to itself. In my heart I pardoned all the ill
that had been done me. Nevertheless, one thing astonished me, that I
did not see Mgr. Darboy, M. Deguerry, or Père Olivaint, or any of the
priests who had been transported with me from the préfecture de police
to Mazas. I spied a warden I knew. I asked him where I might expect to
find the curé of the Madeleine. He replied with tears in his eyes: “He
left last evening with the archbishop and several other gentlemen! May
God watch over you!”
I could not describe the impression made on the happiest of men by
this mysterious reply and the frightened appearance of the warden. I
questioned him, but he disappeared in a passage. What had happened to
my companions? What was going to happen to me?... I sought an
explanation to this mystery--but it was beyond my comprehension.
Suddenly a word, a single word, pronounced, I know not by whom, I know
not where, resounded in my ear like a thunderbolt: “La Roquette!”...
To this voice from without, an interior voice instantly replied: “La
Roquette, the prison of those condemned to death!”...
This frightful thunderbolt, which precipitated me into an abyss a
thousand times more fearful than that from which I thought I had
issued, was enough to dismay a nature more strongly tempered than
mine. I was dismayed and broken down, and yet, after the poignant
griefs and enervating perplexities that had overwhelmed me for two
months, I had at least the advantage of knowing my certain fate. My
conscience gave me the consoling testimony that I was a victim of my
fidelity to duty; my courage revived at the thought of the numerous
and illustrious captives who had suffered more than I, and whose
examples I only had to follow to die as a priest and a Frenchman. I
cried with the royal Psalmist: “But I have put my trust in thee, O
Lord: I said: Thou art my God, my lot is in thy hands.” This lifting
of my heart to God sufficed to give me firmness and the serenity of
Christian resignation.
When they shut me up in one of the grated cages in the vestibule of
Mazas, the warden charged with this painful task secretly pressed my
hand, and informed me that the Archbishop of Paris, the curé of the
Madeleine, and most of the other hostages had gone to La Roquette,
where we were now to be taken. His pressure of my hand and the
consternation of his face were more eloquent than all he could say. It
was a comfort truly providential to find the Abbé Amodru again in the
cage next mine. Our impressions were the same. Thanks to the signs we
agreed upon when we left the préfecture de police, we could give each
other absolution. We must find ourselves in the presence of death to
comprehend the nothingness of all human things; there is then no
longer any difficulty in praying, in repenting, in pardoning our
fellow-men, and in trusting wholly in the mercy of God.
One by one the cages opened and shut with a lugubrious noise, and I
was surrounded with hostages destined for La Roquette. I was surprised
to find several under complete illusion respecting our situation. Some
thought we were about to be restored to liberty, and others did not
seem to comprehend the significance of our being sent to La Roquette. 246
It was not best to enlighten them yet, but I resolved to do so at a
later moment. With almost certain death staring us in the face, I
thought it proper, and especially more Christian, to modify my
attitude. Until now I had taken an energetic stand against the agents
of the Commune, and sometimes expressed my indignation. I now resolved
to speak but little, to pray a great deal, to encourage those of my
companions who should need it, and to arm myself with patience and
meekness toward our persecutors.
The charitable young pharmacist of the prison, who, the night before,
so gladly announced our approaching liberation, was stationed in a
corner of the vestibule to give us a last proof of his sorrowful
sympathy. This was not only a kind but a courageous act at a moment
when a single smile of compassion might be regarded as treason. A week
after, a young man, kneeling by the body of M. Deguerry in the lower
chapel of the Madeleine, stopped me to express his joy and his grief.
It was the pharmacist of Mazas.
An enormous cart, surrounded by armed national guards, awaited us in
the first court. I at once bethought myself of the carts that during
the Reign of Terror conveyed the victims of the committee of public
safety to execution. And we too were to go in the same direction,
toward the Barrière du Trône. Such coincidences could not fail to
strike any one familiar with our revolutionary history. Fifteen
prisoners mounted the cart, among whom I noticed M. Chevriaux, the
principal of the Lycée at Vanves, who bravely wore his ribbon of the
Legion of Honor; Père Bazin; M. Bacues, the director of St. Sulpice;
an honest workman, and some members of the national guards, guilty of
not having sacrificed to the idol of the day. They were mostly
ecclesiastics.
We were told that the reason we had not been sent to La Roquette the
night before with the first hostages dispatched was that a third
vehicle could not be procured. Mgr. Darboy, Mgr. Deguerry, Mgr. Surat,
and M. Bonjean had suffered very much at Mazas: the prolonged severity
of the prison discipline had, in particular, shaken the archbishop’s
health. They had been obliged, only a few hours before his departure
for La Roquette, to apply blisters to him. But they all showed
themselves, by their firmness and patience, superior to their sad
condition.
At the sight of M. Perny and M. Houillon, apostolic missionaries in
China, whom the Commune had stupidly arrested on their way through
Paris, M. Deguerry said to Mgr. Darboy: “Only think of those two
Orientals coming to seek martyrdom in Paris! Is it not curious?” On
the way, they had to encounter the threats and outrages of a rabid
mob. Men _en blouse_, ragged children, and women, or rather furies,
wished to stop and enter the vehicles: “_A bas les chouans et les
calotins!_”--“Stop, we wish to cut them in pieces!”
It was revolting, monstrous, and yet something still more hideous was
reserved for us. We were insulted in our turn, not by the multitude,
but by the national guards who had charge of us. I could understand
the threatening attitude of an over-excited mob, led away by its bad
instincts and the speeches of demagogues, but I had never seen, or
thought it possible, that an armed force could basely insult and
threaten those whom they were officially deputed to escort to a place
of punishment. I had not suspected such a degree of vileness in human
nature, and felt rather humiliated than indignant. “Ah! citizen,” 247
said one of these tigers armed with a _képi_ and a chassepot,
“you reckon on the arrival of the Versailles assassins! Well, this
morning we cut them off at the Porte d’Auteuil with our mitrailleuses:
twenty thousand prisoners are in our hands. The _chouans_ and their
accomplices will have the fate they merit.” An ecclesiastic of the
Faubourg St. Antoine, who had been embittered by his trials, wished to
take up for the Versailles army. I tried to make him comprehend that
reserve and silence were the safest and most suitable course for us.
I asked the national guardsman at my right the quarter he was from. He
replied that he belonged to the battalion of Charonne. It was more and
more manifest that the old suburbs of Paris ruled and kept Paris in
terror. The quarters St. Martin, St. Antoine, and St. Marceau were no
longer rulers of this great city, but the citoyens of Belleville,
Montmartre, La Villette, Ménilmontant, Charonne, and Montrouge, that
is to say, the districts that a few years ago were not a part of
Paris, that had municipalities and material interests distinct from
Paris, and had made a most vigorous resistance to their annexation to
the city. But the head of the second empire conceived a pride in
reigning over a capital containing two millions of inhabitants, and
the thickly settled suburbs were violently annexed to Paris. He wished
to eclipse Babylon and ancient Rome. To make his way through his
capital, innumerable boulevards must be opened, bordered by sumptuous
edifices. To seek the fresh air of the Bois de Boulogne, he must
traverse immense avenues peopled with all the wealthy idlers in the
world, and consequently new legions of workmen were summoned from
every point of the compass, who concentrated themselves like an army
ranged in battle in the annexed zone.
A humble journalist, I had pointed out, as a great social danger, the
tendency of the empire to separate Paris into two parts, one peopled
by the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, and the other by workmen,
outcasts, and the dissatisfied from the entire world. My criticisms
and sad forebodings were recompensed by officious remonstrances,
domiciliary visits, and the seizure of my papers. The course of the
empire had, then, been fatal to France in a political point of view,
since compression had only served to debase its inhabitants and
organize all kinds of social conspirations; fatal in a religious point
of view, for the affairs of Rome alarmed the consciences of Catholics,
and the clergy, so respected in 1848, became the objects of prejudice
and hatred, the bitter fruits of which we were reaping; and fatal in a
military sense, for France was humbled and crushed by a foreign power.
I will declare, for the political honor of the eminent men whose
opposition to the empire I shared, that at the time I thought I was
about to be put to death in prison and render the Supreme Judge a
strict account of my actions, far from regretting a stand that some of
my friends and ecclesiastical superiors had blamed and treated as
“_passion politique_,” everything at Mazas and La Roquette,
everything in Paris and the whole of France, assured me I had not
taken a wrong course; that, on the contrary, I had served the cause of
religion and of my country.
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
THE DÖLLINGER SCANDAL. 248
FROM THE HISTORISCH-POLITISCHE BLAETTER.
During the course of the year 1857 we published in these pages an
exhaustive article on the philosophy of Baader. Before the article was
sent to press, the editor of Baader’s complete works gave to the
public the author’s correspondence in another volume, the appearance
of which occasioned the most painful surprise among the admirers of
the great thinker. The book showed that, in his later years, Baader’s
mind was out of harmony with the church; and that his tone towards it
had grown to be one of bitterness even. As was wont to be the case in
those happier days, the editors of these pages turned to Dr. Döllinger
for an explanation of the glaring contradictions between the earlier
and later views of Dr. Baader. The result was a postscript to the
article above referred to, written by Dr. Döllinger, and which may be
seen in the fortieth volume of the _Historisch-Politische
Blätter_, p. 178.
In this postscript, Dr. Döllinger pointed out from the correspondence
itself what were the reasons of the change, and showed that Baader’s
animosity against the church rested only on extraneous and accidental
causes, and had nothing to do with his philosophy. “No further
key”--these are Döllinger’s concluding words--“will be needed to
understand how the broad chasm that separates the calm convictions of
the ripe man in his prime from the passionate, almost childlike,
outbursts of mental impotence of the old man in his decline, was
overleaped.”
These lines were written by Dr. Döllinger thirteen years ago, and we
have often read them since. Step by step, he has himself proceeded in
a course towards the church which he so severely censured in the
philosopher of Munich.
The fall of the two men is to a certain extent the same. The
gray-haired church historian, too, is separated by a great chasm from
what he was in his prime--at a great distance from the convictions
that guided him when he was in the zenith of his intellectual power.
His deportment and language betray signs of ungovernable passion,
incompatible with the self-possession of a man who understands his own
mind.
We have a right to seek in his case, also, for a psychological
solution of the change that has left him the very reverse of what he
was. In his case, as in that of Baader, it will be seen that the
reasons have nothing to do with his erudition as a church historian;
that they are of a purely “extraneous and accidental character.” But,
indeed--and this is the great difference between the two--in Baader’s
case, the motives were of a private, domestic nature; in the case of
Döllinger, they are of a public and political nature. To express it in
a word, it is the spirit of the times and of the world that has
carried Döllinger into the fatal gulf. Döllinger’s fall, his breaking
off from all he was in the past, is only a piece of the political
history of Bavaria during the last twenty years. The Council and the
definition of the 18th of July have only hastened the matter; they
have merely given the disease, in its crisis, an acute form; but, 249
without them, the break would still have taken place; for a current of
thought had set in in Döllinger’s mind which would have necessitated
it. When, therefore, we are asked how it happens that a highly learned
and highly respected man, like Döllinger, in the enjoyment of a
completely independent position, could cast himself into a current
running counter to his whole previous life, our answer is very simple;
for, from the very beginning of a certain period in the history of
Bavaria, every true Catholic was called upon to bear his cross with
the church; and it is not given to every one to choose being put in
the background when he needs only to yield in order to reap his share
of the honors of this world.
It was beyond a doubt impossible for Döllinger to add anything to his
reputation for learning. Was he not the head and ornament of the
Catholic school of Munich? And, by the way, it is beyond a doubt that
that school had taught as a body, concerning the _ex cathedrâ_
decisions of the Holy See, neither more nor less than is now required
by the decrees of the Council of the Vatican. Witnesses can be found
for every day and year, from among the students of the Munich
theological faculty, from the Bishop of Mainz down to the humblest
parish priest, to show from their notes and memoranda that Döllinger
himself taught exactly what the Archbishop of Munich requires him now
to subscribe to. Whoever questions the infallibility of the Papal
decisions contradicts the present and past testimony of the church,
and must deny the infallibility of the church itself--such was the
view of the whole Munich school; such was Döllinger’s own view.
If Döllinger’s present views were correct, the immunity of the church
from error could not for a moment be maintained, no matter where it
might be claimed its infallibility resided. Döllinger subordinates the
church to science and the decisions of the church to the final
judgment of the learned, more especially to the final judgment of
historians. Such is his theory, and such, practically, his answer to
his ecclesiastical superiors.
Not without reason, therefore, does the Archbishop of Munich in his
pastoral, dated Palm Sunday, say: “In this manner the church’s divine
commission and all Catholic truth is called in question.” It cannot
for a moment be doubted that a man who speaks as does Döllinger in his
declaration of the 28th of March last, has lost completely the
Catholic idea of the church. The only difference between him and the
Protestants is that, in addition to the Bible, he admits, tradition,
“the unanimous consent of the fathers,” to be a source of religious
truth; and this a Protestant may also do, provided no external
authority be constituted the court of final appeal; and Döllinger in
fact claims that there is no such court, since he subordinates both
Pope and Council alike to what he calls “science.”
In point of fact, however, even if not expressed in precisely those
words, these were Döllinger’s views years ago. We long since foresaw
what was coming, and just as it has come. It was then a matter of no
little surprise to us that his course caused no uneasiness even in
ecclesiastical circles; and that no importance was attached to the
remarkable revelations to which we now call attention, although the
circumstances attending and the persons concerned in them were
calculated to invest them with a character of the highest importance. 250
We have already referred to the revelations in question as throwing
light on the internal history of Bavaria, and on Döllinger’s dangerous
complication with certain tendencies of the late government; but we
must return to the subject, and treat it more particularly. We refer
especially to the academical oration held by Dr. Döllinger on the 13th
of March, 1864, on King Maximilian II.
In his oration, he happens to speak of the remarkable interest felt by
the deceased monarch in historical research, and reveals to the world
a very strange, “a more secret” motive for the royal interest. The
reader, to understand the full bearing of the history which we give
below entire on Döllinger himself, must bear in mind the peculiar
characteristics of a man who has lived more among his books than among
men. It would be hard for any one to be more subject to external
influences than Döllinger is, and, at the same time, to be less
conscious of their presence or effect. He unconsciously puts forth
to-day, as the result of his own experience, what he happened to hear
expressed yesterday by another. Döllinger is always the product of his
surroundings, and hence his change, as he lost his old friends, one
after another, by death or by alienation, and fell in almost
exclusively with the society of the so-called “Bernfenen.” This
explains also how it came to pass that many younger men, and the
members of the scientific guild--for example, his little
Mephistopheles, Huber--exercised so unwarranted and increasing an
influence over him. Bearing all this in mind, it is impossible to
overestimate the effects and influence of the overtures which King
Maximilian made to Dr. Döllinger. He was completely intoxicated by
them, and his new friends found means to prevent his return to his
sober senses. The impression made on Döllinger in the conference in
question must have been the more lasting, as Döllinger, the
acknowledged head of the Ultramontane party, could not have hoped to
stand any higher in his majesty’s favor than any other of that abused
class. To express the whole matter in a few words, we are convinced
that the careful observer will discover the later as opposed to the
earlier Döllinger in the following account, or in his cradle.
The following extract is from the oration above referred to:
“As I have permitted myself to refer to the deeper thoughts which
guided the king in his government, and especially in his attitude
towards science, I may also recall certain other communications which
I received from his own mouth. An upright, faithful Christian, he
believed in the lasting future of Christianity, and, therefore, could
not conceive that its divisions and the struggle of the different
confessions should continue for ever; that Christians should waste
their powers in mutual injury. The division, he was of opinion, had
had its time, and God had permitted it for some high purpose; and that
time, even where not entirely past, was near its end; and he believed
firmly that in spite of all polemical bitterness, in spite of the
sordid spirit of self which had intruded itself into the controversy,
the day of union for Christian nations would come, and the promise of
one fold and one shepherd be fulfilled. And the great ecclesiastical
bodies of the West being once reconciled and working with more than
redoubled intellectual vigor upon the Græco-Russian church, the latter
would not long resist the powerful magnetic influence of unity. Or, on
the other hand, when once the union of the Catholic and Anatolian 251
churches was effected, the various Protestant sects would be gradually
drawn into the current and meet their brethren.
“Naturally, however, the attention of the king was claimed in the
first instance by whatever could be looked upon as tending in a
proximate or remote degree to the reconciliation of the East, and
particularly of Germany. He saw that the future union could not be a
simple, unaccommodating mechanical coming together of the separated
confessions. Neither did he think for a moment of the absorption of
one church into another. It was necessary, he thought, that both
bodies should first undergo a purgative process, and that each should
acknowledge that it might receive, though, perhaps, in an unequal
degree, some good from the other; that each might help to free the
other from its peculiar defects and one-sidednesses, and supply what
was wanting in each other’s ecclesiastical and religious being; that
each might heal the other’s wounds; and that neither should be
required to surrender anything which its life and history had proved
to be a positive good. Under these conditions, sooner or later, the
process of reconciliation and of union would take place in the heart
of Europe, in Germany.
“Such nearly were the thoughts which the king developed to me in a
long conversation which I had with him, and which I never can forget.
I do not know how far Schelling’s ideas of an all-embracing church of
the future gave form and shape to the royal views. It is a matter of
fact, however, that that thinker had exerted a great influence on the
mind of the king long before his accession to the throne. At the same
time, the king saw that this idea of a future church entertained by
Leibnitz and by Germany’s greatest men was recognized as a necessity,
and confidently hoped for also by his eminent and enlightened kinsman,
King Frederick William the Fourth of Prussia. A German patriot, he saw
in this reunion the salvation of Germany; a Christian, he saw in it a
bulwark for the defence of the Christian faith, now so fiercely
menaced.
“And here he believed his own Bavaria was called to take an active and
initiatory part, and the Bavarian king not only to point out the way
the country was to go, but to guide it in that way. It was not a
matter of mere chance the Frankish race, the numerically predominant
race in Bavaria, was about equally divided between the two
confessions, and that in no country, not even in Prussia, were the
local mixture and inter-relations of Protestants and Catholics so
intimate and extensive as in Bavaria.
“In the second place, as far as the king himself was concerned, he
could and it was his duty to do something to bring Germany a little
nearer to the desired goal. He had been obliged to establish a perfect
equality of rights and of political standing for the professors of
both confessions, to the end that no portion of the people might feel
oppressed, or grow embittered, or think themselves kept in the
background, for with such feelings on the part of any portion of the
nation, all coming together, all understanding, was impossible.
“And here he was of opinion science, and particularly historical
science, was called upon to accomplish much; for religion itself was
history, and only as a historical fact, and in accordance with the
rules of historical criticism, could religion be understood or
appreciated. In his own view, historical science was the kingdom in
which, in the words of the sacred writings, peace and justice would 252
kiss; for only through history, as established by the most thorough
research, could men know their own past and others’ past, their own
and others’ failings; through it only was there any hope of begetting
a conciliatory and pacificatory frame of mind.
“Thus the field of historical science seemed to the king like the
Truce of God in the middle ages, or like a sacred city in which those
elsewhere at variance found themselves at peace together; and, urged
on by the same desires, endeavored to slake their thirst at the same
fountain of truth, and grew into one communion.
“Out of the scientific fraternity of historians would one day proceed,
so he hoped, after the trammels of confessions had been done away
with, a higher union, embracing all historical, all religious truth, a
brotherly reconciliation, such as patriots and Christians alike hoped
and prayed for.”
All this Dr. Döllinger spoke with all the warmth of personal
conviction. Although the whole is evidently a thrust at the idea of a
confession and against the church as an organization, Döllinger does
not append one word of correction in the name of the church. We
cannot, however, help wondering that a critic so acute, a thinker so
profound, as Döllinger should have surrendered himself to such a
politico-religious system. It is easily seen that there are three
separate, and in part contradictory, ideas in the royal programme, and
all three have this in common, that they are totally irreconcilable
with the idea of a divinely instituted and saving church.
In the first place, there is mentioned St. John’s church of love,
Schelling’s church of the future, on which subject Döllinger was
otherwise perfectly innocent. An ideal which contemplative enthusiastic
characters like King William the Fourth might cherish, and which might
also claim a place in the thoughts of the Bavarian king, could
scarcely have much attraction for Döllinger. But it was otherwise with
the second idea which King Maximilian had elaborated, that is, with
the idea of a German national church; and, finally, with the third
idea, that of the absorption of all the confessions into a universal
republic of _savants_, and the church into a world-academy of
science. Here the thread of the supernatural is completely lost,
though, perchance, the king himself was not aware of it; for, is this
not the most utter rationalism?
If, now, we look at Döllinger’s declaration of the 28th of March, we
will find these two ideas standing out in bold relief. The odious
antithesis of Germanism and Romanism may indeed be in harmony with the
reigning political spirit; it certainly is incompatible with the idea
of the Catholic Church. Whoever presumes in the name of nationality to
speak of any member of the church as of the “Roman party,” either
knows not what he is doing or must wish the “German national church”
in schism. From this there is but one step, and that not a hard one
for the pride of intellect or the haughtiness of science, to the
position occupied by Döllinger in his declaration to the archbishop,
in which he places the scientific fraternity of historians as the
highest authority over the church, and makes it the court of final
appeal in matters of faith. And yet the learned gentleman, although he
signs himself only “a Christian,” will have us consider him a
Catholic.
It is impossible to look into the abyss into which this once clear
thinker has fallen without a feeling of terror. Is it not sufficient
to open the eyes of every one that the apostles of German Catholicism 253
and free religion, like a Heribert Rau and an Oswald, have again
called the attention of the public to their already published works as
an “interesting commentary on Dr. Döllinger’s protest”?
It is true that Döllinger has nothing in common with those men in his
views of his relations to God; but then we must remember these
gentlemen are only drawing their own consequences, and Döllinger has
lost all right to find fault with the consequences they draw.
The unwarranted introduction of nationalism into the idea of the
church was doubtless Döllinger’s first step downhill. This gained, the
disturbers of the peace of the church soon possessed themselves of the
whole man. There can be nothing more hostile to the real spirit of
Catholicism than this false principle of nationality; for the end of
the church, in a spiritual point of view, is to smooth away all
national differences, and bring the different nations into one fold.
To wish, at a time like the present, when the fanaticism of
nationality, if we may be allowed the expression, is tending to
alienate still more the peoples of different nations--to wish, we say,
at such a time to destroy the only tie that holds them together, is to
betray the wildest party fanaticism imaginable.
We can understand what the cry for a German national church means in
the mouths of those modern Neros, the liberalists--in the mouth of any
one else, we cannot understand it.
We know very well that Döllinger was very far from desiring a schism
when he spoke at the Linzer Catholic meeting in 1850, upon the subject
of the place of German nationalism in the church. It was somewhat
otherwise in his declarations in the Munich Conference in 1863. There
a turning-point was discoverable.
A short time previously, the at first purely scientific difference
with the “Roman party,” or neo-scholastics, had arisen. Döllinger had
roused the suspicions of these latter; but we feel certain that at
that time there were no grounds for their suspicions. He was, it was
plain, only a little too susceptible to the influences of a certain
kind of liberalism, and extraordinarily anxious to do away with any
suspicion of adhering to the Ultramontane party.
The danger practically and in point of fact began when he became
entangled in Bavarian politics, especially in what concerns the
question of the relations of science to ecclesiastical authority.
“German science” now became the focus in which the more or less
conscious tendencies of Döllinger were concentrated. It is in 1865
that we must place the real turning-point in Döllinger’s career.
About the end of the year 1861, the writer of these lines went to
Frankfort-on-the-Main. He visited Böhmer, and will never forget a
scene he witnessed on the occasion of that visit. The great historian
was sick at the time, fresh in mind, it is true, but in a repining
condition, and almost bitter. Our conversation turned on the condition
of the University of Munich under the _régime_ of the so-called
“Bernjungen.” Böhmer expressed great regret at what was going on in
Munich, but reserved the vials of his wrath for the celebrities of the
month of March previous. Especially, he made Döllinger responsible for
it that so favorable a time had not been used for the founding of a
historical school in the interests of the church. It was well known
that Dr. Döllinger had had many scholars during his long career as a
professor; but he had founded no school. It might be said, even, that
he did not leave a disciple after him. Whilst he expatiated in the 254
endless world of book in a manner hitherto unparalleled, perhaps it
became impossible for him to prepare the living materials which young
men needed, and lost the gift of sociability.
Böhmer became more and more aggravated as he proceeded, till, finally,
his anger culminated in the following anecdote: He said that, when
Döllinger visited Frankfort last, he had had a walk with him through
the city, and Döllinger had spoken to him about his literary plans.
He, Böhmer, remonstrated with him, and inquired why he did not fulfil
his older promises; why he did not continue his unfinished church
history. Whereupon Döllinger, stopping and swinging his cane, said
with a smile: “You see, I can’t do that; for now my researches have
brought me to such a pass that I cannot make the end of my history
tally with the beginning; the continuation of my church history would
be entirely Protestant.” I see Böhmer this moment before me with the
same grim visage which he wore as he closed this story with the words:
“_He--he_ said that!”
Still, in 1860, Döllinger’s great work, _Christianity and the Church
in the time of their Foundation_, appeared. Embracing the results of
the latest research, and written in the most charming manner, this
book touched and strengthened many a Catholic heart, as it did my own.
But Döllinger has made that same beautiful book a sad memorial of his
fall. He had written the book when he was sixty years of age, but
when, in 1868, the second edition of it appeared, it was discovered
that he had omitted some of the principal passages of the first
edition, bearing upon the promises to and the establishment of the
primacy; and what he had not omitted, he had changed in the interests
of liberalism, and all without giving any ground for the alterations,
without a single note even.
Döllinger has a wonderful memory for everything in the world of print,
but very little for what concerns his own person or his own acts. When
he wrote his declaration to the Archbishop of Munich, he seems to have
quite forgotten the intentional “corrections” of his celebrated work.
Otherwise, he would not have referred to the approval which it met
with from the whole of Catholic Germany, and raised the question,
Which text he meant--the true one of 1860, or the altered, not to say
the falsified, one of 1868? Moreover, he, as the inspirer of
_Janus_, recalled, in that last-named book, the little he had left in
the edition of 1868 favorable to the primacy, for the reason that it
“contradicted all opinions of the fathers, and the principles of
exegetical theology.” In other words, _Janus_ has completely and
flatly denied the primacy.
It is hard to calculate what a blessing Döllinger might have been the
means of to his contemporaries and to posterity, had he continued to
make the rich treasures of his knowledge accessible to Christendom as
he had done in his work of 1860. The Almighty, who had preserved him
upright during the wars and passions of these later years, would have
decreed him doubtless a rare old age had he remained true to his
resolution not to divide his powers, to live an unprejudiced votary of
science. It was to be otherwise. That book was the last fruit of the
professional activity of the historian. The historian was now to
become the bitter party-man, not to say the future Bavarian senator,
and, as a writer, a mere political pamphleteer. Here his career as a 255
man of science closes.
Late in the fall of 1861 appeared his work, _The Church and the
Churches, etc._ It was a kind of colossal apology for the two
well-known Odeon Lectures of the fifth and ninth of April of the same
year, on the temporal power of the popes. In these lectures Döllinger
has come forward in the _rôle_ of the politician--a _rôle_ which he
was never intended to play on account of his too great credulity.
Expressions had crept into these lectures so little savoring of piety,
so painful to Catholic hearts, that the worst was feared for Döllinger
in ecclesiastical circles. We also feared the consequences. Döllinger
himself was evidently staggered at the unexpected impression of his,
to say the least, unexplained appearance in such a character. The book
which followed, in other respects a wonder of historical information,
was nothing but a powerful effort to shield himself from the
consequences of this step.
The ideas expressed in the royal conversation above referred to are
here recognizable, more particularly in the introduction, as well as
the endeavor to harmonize them with the principles of the church. It
would not be very difficult to allay the doubts which Döllinger has
endeavored to awaken concerning the mediæval church and the Papacy in
his (or his amanuensis’s) letters on the council in the _Allgemeine
Zeitung_, and now in his “declaration,” from his own work of 1861. The
Encyclical, and particularly the doctrine of the Syllabus on the
relations of church and state, may be both explained and defended by
the assistance of the same book. Döllinger then knew very well how to
vindicate the true sense of certain decrees and bulls of the popes
issued while the mediæval relations of the church to the state were yet in
force; he well knew then how to separate what is transient from that
which is eternally true. If, at that time, any one had come to him to
tell him that Napoleon III. intended to take advantage of the Bull
“Cum ex apostolatus officio” against the Protestant princes of Germany
and Prussia, with what shouts of laughter would he not have received
him! Now he himself is guilty of just such an absurdity--and how grave
he is withal!
The question of the relations of science to church authority became
now in Bavaria a practical question, and Döllinger was called upon to
prove the strength of his principles by overt acts. One difference
followed another in that country, and Döllinger was as interested in
them as he could be in matters entirely personal to himself. Like a
general, he felt himself responsible for the result of all those
contests, and never thought of examining closely the claims of those
who crowded around him and offered him their services. In this way it
was that he became the protector of one so unworthy as Pichler against
the archiepiscopal ordinary. At this time, even, he had his passionate
turns, which gave rise to serious misgivings, but which he was sure to
regret himself before any length of time had expired.
At this period the episcopal conference at Fulda resolved to take
steps to revive action in the matter of the establishment of a “free
Catholic university.” Döllinger could see in this nothing but the
proof of a dark conspiracy against German science.
He was unable to see that the anti-ecclesiastical, not to say the
antichrist, spirit which had crept into the universities, was more
than even he would be willing to be accountable for were he the chief 256
pastor of a diocese.
The opinion expressed in an appeal to the Catholic ladies of Germany
on the subject of the higher schools, made him lose his patience
altogether. The outbreak of the Seminary question in Spiers was in his
view another attempt of those infected with the “Roman” spirit against
free German science, and it found him, even if not publicly, on the
side of the decided opponents of the bishop’s rightful claim in the
matter.
Very nearly at the same time, the then Bavarian minister of worship
made a report to the king on the occasion of a vacancy in the
theological faculty of Würzburg, in which he painted the clergy
educated in the German College at Rome in no flattering terms. An
accidental circumstance threw suspicion on Döllinger as the instigator
of it. The pamphlet “for the information of kings,” which appeared in
the beginning of 1866, represented Döllinger, although only under the
general name “of the Munich school,” as the real actor in the minister
of worship’s puppet-play. There was a report that in the Spiers
matter, speaking of the attitude of the bishops, he had said: “They
are attempting to misuse the king’s youth!” How much of this had its
foundation in truth, to what extent the statements of the pamphlet
were based on a change or mistake between the ministry and cabinet,
must remain undecided.
The pamphlet referred to created no small excitement, however; and,
precisely two years before the appearance of the notorious articles on
the Council, was exhaustively replied to in the _Allgemeine
Zeitung_. The style and other accidents would lead to suppose that
the “amanuensis,” since known more of, had here made his _début_. The
reply was not a refutation. It was made up of a series of
counter-complaints, and, with the exception of the attacks on the
Jesuits, the Roman party, and the boys’ seminaries, these articles
contain the kernel of the articles against the Council published two
years later. In spite of all this, however, Döllinger is represented
in these articles as of the same unaltered mind with other members of
the faculty, Haneberg and Reithmayer.
“If there was no ground of suspicion during all these long years, no
reason to believe that these men were hankering after dangerous
novelties, how comes it recently that such suspicions are aroused,
seeing that they have always been of the same mind?” It is now certain
that this unanimity has since ceased; and it is clear that Döllinger’s
monstrous accusation--“not a soul believes it”--must have been
unjustly brought by him against his colleagues. The articles also
quote the words of the Tübingen theologian: “The suspicion has spread
further--Döllinger and Michelis are no longer innocent.” What says the
Tübinger of the drifting of these two men to-day?
On the first of January, 1867, the Hohenlohe ministry took charge of
the ship of state.
It will not be claimed that Döllinger’s influence increased with the
accession of his old friend Prince Hohenlohe to the ministry; it
seemed more probable that the prince would have found the learned
professor a powerful obstacle in his way. The prince had formerly been
considered unexceptionable in his religious views and relations; but
in order to dissipate the bad odor in which he was in the highest
circles, suspected as he was of favoring Prussia, he knew no better
method than to encourage the superstitious fear of the Ultramontanes
and of the Jesuits which for twenty years had reigned within the walls 257
of the royal palace at Munich. This it was which had made Dr.
Döllinger so interesting a subject since he was regenerated from the
infection of Ultramontanism.
Countenanced by such a man, it was thought the discomfiting of the
“clerical party” would be a less dangerous operation than effecting it
by an unasked-for alliance with the party of progress.
This explains how Prince Hohenlohe, at the head of the foreign
department, was determined to serve Döllinger in every way possible
against the “Curia” and all matters related to it.
The infamous articles on the Council appeared in the _Allgemeine
Zeitung_ from the 10th to the 15th March, 1869, under an anonymous
name. Every effort was made to conceal the author, and even to mislead
the public as to who he was. The real author could not conceal himself
as far as we were concerned; but it required a long time to convince
the many, and great was the surprise of all unprejudiced minds at the
discovery.
In the meantime, the preparation of the anonymous _Janus_ was
undertaken, and the circulatory dispatches of Prince Hohenlohe made
their appearance on the 9th of April, 1869, which, of course,
Döllinger could not well subscribe as their author. The council of
ministers, of course, was not consulted in the matter; and the
well-known five questions put by Prince Hohenlohe to the theological
faculties of Munich and Würzburg, concerning the future council, were
not whispered to the minister of foreign affairs by some secret agent.
In the name of the majority of the faculty of Munich, Döllinger was
called upon to answer his own questions. In contradistinction to the
clear and frank separate vote of Professors Schmid and Thalhofer, and
to the incisive opinion of the Würzburger faculty, that exposition was
but the unworthy production of a time-server. It was impossible for
any one to discover the real meaning of the opinion. The only thing
plainly discoverable was the ambiguity by which the author sought to
shield himself from trouble.
The absence of conviction in the whole affair is so evident that we
may well yet remain in doubt concerning the position of Döllinger’s
colleagues; and that in spite of the fact that the libellous articles
of the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ are to be found in the widespread pages of
_Janus_. We have already looked into this department of the literature
of our day; we have done so already. Not only was infallibility
condemned in it; but the primacy, at least since 845, is there made to
appear as an infinite series of deception and forgeries, or, as
_Janus_ expresses it, as a sickly, uncouth, consumptive-engendering
excrescence on the organism of the church. Not only was the future
council condemned before it was held, but the Council of Trent was
turned into “a should-be œcumenical council,” which was arbitrarily
governed by legates, in which the Roman party alone had sway, and
which, in a word, was nothing but an assemblage of fools and
pickpockets. This view of the Council of Trent Döllinger seems to have
forgotten, when he wrote his declaration of the 28th of March of the
present year, in which he refers to the Tridentine article of faith
which he had twice sworn to, and in which he leaves out the essential
part of the oath, namely, the promise to interpret the Holy Scripture
only “in the sense approved by Holy Mother Church.” 258
The foreign office and its zealous co-operator, the learned professor,
now began their campaign against the Council. The reporter of the
Leipzig _Grenzboten_ of the 24th of June, 1870, thus expresses himself
on the subject: “The alarming circulatory dispatches of Prince
Hohenlohe have turned to political account the results obtained by
_Janus_, and introduced them into governmental and diplomatic
circles.” The Bavarian ambassador, a man of no distinction and one who
favored the “Curia,” was recalled and replaced by Count Tauffkirchen,
the most talented diplomatist at that time at the disposal of the
government.
His operations in Rome were very influential; and if the matter
furnished by the events in the Council became immediately the subject
of discussion in the press and in the literature of the day, the
Bavarian Embassy is not entitled in the least to the merit of it. The
rest was accomplished by Döllinger, as is now well known, and by his
intimate young friend Lord Acton.
About the end of the year appeared the pamphlet, _Considerations for
the Bishops of the Council on the Question of Papal Infallibility_.
This time he appeared again anonymously, but without making any extra
effort to conceal himself as the author. A little later, he appeared
under his own name in the official organ of the new Catholic theology,
the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, in the “Declaration in the matter of the
address touching Papal Infallibility,” on the 19th January, 1870. From
this declaration, says the Lepzig correspondent more than once
referred to above, proceeded his agreement with the views of _Janus_.
The publication of his name was no sooner made than the party of
progress took it as a signal to make him their own entirely.
This had already been done in the press; now it was accomplished in
the House.
On the 7th of February, Dr. Völk, a deputy, seized the opportunity
presented by the debates on the “address” to drag Döllinger into the
field against the “patriotic” majority. He read the most objectionable
and most venomous parts of the “Considerations” and “Declaration,” and
imputed these views to the majority of the House as their own
opinions, endeavoring to drive them to declare themselves for
Döllinger and against the Pope and the Council. The “patriotic”
majority had taken care not to embitter the debates by introducing
questions ecclesiastical into them; but now a defence was called for.
The stenographic report describes the scenes, which were closed with
the following words from Deputy Törg:
“I have been on the most intimate terms with the gentleman whom Deputy
Völk so formally parades before the House, for years. I became
acquainted with him shortly after the time of the ‘genuflexion
question’ in Bavaria; and, surely, no one then imagined that a time
would come when Dr. Döllinger would be thus quoted before the whole
House by Dr. Völk. I consider it a terrible misfortune, and accept it
as such; yes, gentlemen, as a personal misfortune. Dr. Döllinger was
an authority for me; he is such no longer; for he has fallen the
victim of blind passion and lost the calmness necessary to the forming
of an opinion; and he is no longer in a condition to formulate a
dogmatic question as a theologian ought to be able to formulate one.”
But that is not what Döllinger wants. He now stands in dread of all 259
conscientious critics, his own fame for critical acumen being entirely
gone.
He makes the definition of Papal infallibility a monstrous bugbear,
and no remonstrance prevails to prevent his making the bugbear more
terrible to himself and others. The worst feature in the whole is his
passion against the temporal power. He sees nothing in his opponents
that is not criminal. They use the infallible Pope to depose the
monarchs who do not suit them, to absolve subjects from their oath of
fealty, to overthrow constitutions, to annihilate every right. Dr.
Döllinger endeavors by the most unqualified denunciation to tell the
new German Empire--elsewhere he always says that the doctrine was
never known in Germany: “I cannot dissemble that this doctrine, in
consequence of which the former German empire perished, in case it
should obtain sway among the Catholic portion of the German nations,
would sow the seeds of an incurable disease in the newly founded
German empire.”
But what now? As we have already pointed out, the matter did not turn
out as those interested wished it would.
It was expected that Döllinger’s influence would have carried the
greater part of the clergy and intimidated the bishops; thus it was
hoped without much danger would be obtained the object which, although
yet not clearly defined in every particular, embraced, at all events,
the annihilation of Ultramontanism, of the “clerical party,” and of
the Jesuits in Germany. It was hoped to accomplish all this without
the always, as was acknowledged, dangerous assistance of the party of
progress, through the mere weight of Döllinger’s name and influence.
But his name has not accomplished what was hoped it would. The
auxiliaries wished for did not come; the others who were not expected
came in crowds. Scarcely had the national liberals rested from other
arduous tasks than they enlisted under Döllinger’s standard for the
accomplishment of their next and greatest task, the destruction of
the Catholic Church in Germany. We are far from denying that at
first, under the pressure of slanders and denunciations, some
well-intentioned men were carried away. We have hopes for their
return, and do not wish to wound the feelings of any one. But when Dr.
Döllinger surveys the chaos of the “address,” and considers how it
would fare with him could he hear the confessions of all these
“Catholics,” I do believe he would blush at such adherents, for I do
not believe he has quite lost the power of distinguishing moral
turpidity from virtue.
He need not know the state of the consciences of his Munich colleagues
who signed the address, in which they hesitate not to give the lie to
the whole Catholic episcopate; he knows better than anybody how many
of them have a moral right to speak in the name of “Catholic
Christendom.”
Viewing the matter in this light, we have in one way wondered at the
signing of many, in another way we have wondered at the signing of
only a few. And in the face of such phenomena, Dr. Döllinger desires a
church the duty of whose bishops it shall be simply to declare that
which all believers, represented by scientists, will have thought or
believed upon a question of the faith.
It is easy to say what the next thing sought by those who follow
behind Döllinger’s banner is. The police regulations required by the
government against the decrees of the Council are a matter of secondary
importance. And the great storm of an ovation given to Döllinger is 260
meant not so much for Döllinger himself as for its influence on the
king and his government.
The king must a second time be made to serve the cause of German
liberalism. We said it in the beginning: as soon as the little German
Empire is established, the party will want a “German National Church”
for their little empire. We did not think, indeed, that any attempt at
this would be made so soon; for, a year ago, men who knew what they
were talking about assured us that so long as the old king lived he
would not permit the peace of religion to be disturbed; but that it
would be otherwise with those who came after him. But now that the
king has become German Emperor, unanimous reports of the contrary come
to us. “The idea of the establishment of a German National Church is
taking deeper root, to all appearances, in the government circles.” So
a relatively unprejudiced Berlin correspondent lately reported. The
rest of the tale is told by the debates in the chamber of deputies.
The party are anxious to strike the iron while it is hot; not without
reason was the party battle-cry spoken during the war--all our noble
blood were shed in vain did not the stroke which freed us from France
sever the Catholics of Germany from Rome--“War against France and
against--Rome!” Even Dr. Michelis joined in the cry.
If it was very desirable that the Bavarian king should take the
initiative in the matter of the imperial title, it was also very
desirable that the first step for the establishment of the “German
National Church” should proceed from the palace at Munich.
The King of Bavaria was to be to the “new Luther” what Prince
Frederick of Saxony had been to Luther of old; and on that account, he
is promised the surname of the Wise. This is the meaning of the
infamous telegram of the tenth of March from Dresden--“him, the
enlightened thinker who publicly proclaims his dissatisfaction with
the dogma of Papal infallibility!” When the representatives of high
offices in Munich dare to set themselves up publicly as commanders in
the military ecclesiastical society, one need not be surprised at the
progressionist intrusive attempts, rashly sporting with the
monarchical principle itself. Thus only can we understand how any one
could be so bold as to encourage the clergy to fall by insinuating a
provision that no one might fear a material loss. Could the necessary
number of state-church servants have been found, the programme was
that the King of Bavaria should give the “German National Church” its
first ground in the Munich places of worship. We wish to be excused
from describing further the plan which finally would make true the
saying: “They wish to misuse the king’s youth.”
We are not deceived. Should this plan fail, another will be sought to
accomplish what is intended. Döllinger has been in relation with
Prussian diplomats since 1866. However, neither he nor the new German
Empire has the divine promise which the church has; and where the Pope
and the bishops are, there is the church.
Let all Catholics gather more closely yet about the centre of unity.
We can do no better service to the world. God will take care of the
rest.
----------
A GHOST STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 261
We have not many haunted spots now in our Empire State, or even in
America, and very few genuine goblin stories, such as once upon a
time, told by the fireside, made one afraid to look behind him;
delightful old tales, implicitly believed in by narrator and
listeners, and casting over all a shadow of utter and indefinable
terror! Not that ghosts have ceased to come, but they are things of
course now, and their position with regard to mortals in the flesh is
entirely changed; the territory of spirit-land (at least a part of it)
has been annexed, we may say, to our free and independent thirty-seven
states; a regular intercourse has been opened; and, as the intangible
parties in the compact have frequent and passing invitations to make
earthly visits at certain specified periods, it is no more than civil
in them to wait until they are expected.
Now, in years gone by it was quite otherwise; so far from being
invited, they were universally shunned; man, woman, and child fled at
the slightest indication of their presence; and as for speech, it was
next to impossible for them to put in a single word before the
terror-stricken mortal had speeded away, far beyond all hearing. Not
much seemed the gain to either side by those interviews; occasionally
some rogue was known to disgorge his ill-gotten pelf in consequence of
the midnight apparitions of some phantom things, a warning to him to
mend his ways; or some timid heart perhaps grew faint, and before long
time ceased to beat, under the idea that it had received a
supernatural summons to the unseen world; but generally speaking, the
shock of an intense and overpowering affright was about all that
accrued to the sight-seer from the meeting--a terror so genuine that
he was able to impart it to many a circle of eager listeners for an
incredibly long period after the adventure.
But what attraction has modern America for sprites, spooks, brownies,
fairies, and all that dainty ethereal tribe that may be met in the Old
World? Or what, for the more solemn shadows that haunt dilapidated
galleries, in the tumble-down ruins of ancient transatlantic castles?
What homes have we for “elves and little people,” that dance for
years, yes for centuries, on the same greensward in the Highlands of
Scotland? Alas! in an incredibly short period grass here gives place
to wheatfields, and fairy rings would be disrespectfully ploughed up
and planted. Let any sociable _brownie_ plan a visit to old
friends, she would probably find the whole family, bag and baggage,
moved off to the far West, and only strangers round the hearthstone.
They love things old, and here all is new and cheerful under the
tireless march of improvement. We have no black forest, no
“Castled crag of Drachenfels,”
but the primitive woodland yet clothes the mountain that “frowns o’er
the wide and winding” river.
The nearest approach to a haunted castle is to be seen sometimes in
travelling over the Western States. There, in some lonely inconvenient
spot which no prudent man would have chosen for a homestead, an
unfinished, overgrown, weakly-looking wooden house tells its story, 262
not of greatness gone by, but of greatness planned and never
accomplished--a pitiful comment on the uncertainty of human affairs!
It happens thus: Some settler, sadly miscalculating his resources,
projects a palace in the wilderness on a scale of city splendor; that
is, with parlor, dining-room, kitchen, bedrooms, and the little
elegances of pantries and closets. The sides are enclosed, the roof is
on, and the revenues he counted on as certain are not forthcoming.
Then do papered walls and panelled doors with brass knobs, and visions
of portico and piazza, all float away to the blue clouds; the hapless
dreamer fits up one corner room for the reception of his whole
household until he can find another _location_, and take a new start
in the search after fortune, and so abandons his rickety palace to the
lord of the soil. As the boards blacken in wind and storm, and one end
blows down perhaps in some rough northwester, it gains the name of
being haunted; and to ride past such a skeleton thing by moonlight or
in the dim twilight, with the utter desolation of all around, and the
yawning blackness of cavities which should have been doors and
windows, it requires no great stretch of imagination to picture an
unearthly head peeping out here and there. Very bold yeomen are known
to always whip their horses to a full gallop as they approach and pass
the fearful spot; and as for women and children, under that strange
fascination by which the supernatural repels and yet attracts, they
always gaze intently, and as surely “see something”!
Although goblin visits in our land are just now rather on the decline
(except in a regular business way), there was a time when strange
sights were seen and strange things happened; and, although it may
seem almost incredible, it is a fact well established in history that
it was generally to the Dutch settled here, to that clearheaded,
reasoning nation, so little likely to be deceived on any subject, that
most of these revelations were made.
This certainly ensures for the tales the firm belief of all mankind.
When an imaginative Hibernian or a lively, light-hearted Gaul
announces a vision, it must be taken with some little allowance for
flights of fancy, etc., etc.; but when a phlegmatic, cool-headed
Hollander declares he has seen a _spook_, you may believe as if it was
your own eyes.
For the precise period most prolific in signs, sights, and dreams, we
must go back to the early days of our state, yet not to the
_first_ settlers. _Their_ troubles, so numerous that it is scarcely
possible to number them, had their origin in things tangible; and so
closely did these troubles press daily on all sides, that the thoughts
of the first colonists were entirely engrossed by the things of earth.
To such a point did this downward tendency reach, that they seemed at
times in danger of relapsing into heathendom, as may be seen from the
reports sent back to Amsterdam, and yet extant among colonial papers,
that they possessed neither school-houses nor churches. They did
possess, however, three unfailing sources of annoyances and danger--an
Indian warfare, neighbors on their eastern boundary of unparalleled
audacity, and domestic bickerings in the perpetual strife kept up
between Manhattan and Rensselaerwyck.
What might have happened if the Indians had been treated with common
justice and honesty can be now only conjecture; but their wrongs began
at the beginning. It is a dark spot on the glories of the adventurous 263
little yacht _Half-Moon_ that her very first track through the waters
of the magnificent Cahohatéa (now the Hudson) was marked with their
blood, causelessly and wantonly shed.
Hendrik Hudson and his crew landed, we are told, on the western bank
of the great bay, which was lined with “men, women, and children, by
whom they were kindly received, and presented with tobacco and dried
currants.”[68] A little further on were “very loving people and very
old men, by whom the Europeans were well used.” They brought in their
canoes to the voyagers all sorts of fruit and game, and on one
occasion of a visit made by white men to the shore they broke their
arrows and threw them in the fire to express their pacific intentions.
Yet despite all this, when the vessel had advanced only a few miles,
one of her crew fired and killed an Indian, without the least warning,
for attempting to steal a pillow and some old garments.[69] No
satisfaction was offered to the terrified savages, and they pushed off
for the shore in their canoes, but they vowed a vengeance, and they
kept the vow; so that, when some few years later one ship after
another brought the enterprising individuals who first unpacked their
household utensils and farm tools in the New World, they entered upon
a stormy existence already prepared for them. It was not a glimpse of
wraith or goblin that people feared to encounter in the lonely
by-path, but the stealthy tread and dark visage of some lurking
savage, ever watchful and merciless, ever close at hand when least
expected. How often in the silent night, in how many little hamlets,
in how many solitary huts, women and children listened in speechless
terror to the war-whoop, that fearful yell, and were made to feel
Indian retaliation for the evil doings of fathers and husbands! Small
time had they for ghostly fears. When the savages fled before European
firearms, it was only to return. More than two thousand of them
appeared in their canoes at one time before the little block-house at
Manhattan, because Hendrik von Dyke, with an imprudence and wickedness
perfectly disgraceful in a mynheer, had killed a squaw for stealing
apples in his orchard. His orchard was on the present site of Rector
Street.
But, though the Dutch colonists were generally at fault in provoking
contention, they were also valiant, after some preparation, to meet
it. When Claes Smit was ruthlessly murdered by the natives, some time
about 1642, and they refused either to give up or punish his murderer
because he had fled and could not be found, the colonists consented to
march to battle,
“provided the director himself (Von Kieft) accompanied them
to prevent disorder, also that he furnish, in addition to
powder and ball, provision necessary for the expedition,
such as _bread and butter_, and appoint a steward to
take charge of the same, so that all waste be prevented.
“If any person require anything more than this _bread and
butter_, he to provide himself therewith.”[70]
Finally, however, gunpowder prevailed; and the aborigines retreated to
forests beyond the reach of the _pale-faces_; schoolmasters and
ministers had been sent over from Holland, and the inhabitants of
Manhattan Island, as well as the other little settlements up the
river, began to live a more spiritual life, and to gather around them 264
by degrees all that troop of unearthly beings well-known in the mother
country. Little children were encouraged to be good and expect Santa
Klaus, and bad ones were no longer frightened into propriety with the
threat of being devoured by some hideous Waranancongyn with tomahawk
and scalping-knife.
One of the spots first renowned for ghostly adventures was a pleasant
little valleylike place, on the northern limits of the town, called
Medge Padje (now Maiden Lane), where a clear stream ran between grassy
banks, so gentle and noiseless that it carried the gazer’s heart
back--far back over the ocean to the canals of Faderlandt, and was a
perfect relief from the lashing waves of the great North River.
Hither, on pleasant summer afternoons, many a gude vrow would turn her
steps with her troop of sturdy urchins, and, work in hand, knitting,
knitting, all the way. But they were always careful to return before
dark; for such fearful tales had been told, principally of a tall
woman in white who always vanished in the direction of Golden Hill
(now John Street), that no one cared to make her acquaintance.
Long years after this, when the palisades marking the extent of the
city had been removed as far north as what is now Warren Street, and a
field of barley flourished on the Heerewegh (now Broadway), somewhat
about the present City Hall, we again hear of the same apparition. The
Rev. John Kimball, passing along the little stream rather late at
night, heard steps, and, looking behind him, saw the spectre; of
course he fled. Doubtless she was the bearer of some important message
from the spirit-land which she was anxious to communicate, but, as no
one ever stopped to listen, what it was can now never be known.
Mr. Watson, in his _Annals of New York_, relates a story given by a
military gentleman of his own encounter with an apparition in that
same place. The captain declares, and doubtless believed, that he
bravely attacked it, and discovered only a mischievous mortal in
disguise; but it is hardly probable that any mortal in his senses
would be personating a ghost at midnight on haunted ground, so that
the tale, being rather one-sided evidence, is doubtful.
Another solitary place was Windmill Lane,[71] which led from Broadway
between Cortlandt and Liberty Streets down quite a steep hill, in a
northwest direction, to the river edge, where stood a windmill. There
was a time when this lane was the most northern street in the
settlement; then house after house began to be built around the old
mill, and the city crept up gradually in that direction. Among those
who made their homes there was a French lady, Madame Blonspeaux, who
had crossed the ocean to teach the rising generation all she
knew--French and embroidery. Two paths led to her establishment, one
through the Lane, the other through a wheatfield, where now is St.
Paul’s church, and both were beset with spectres. Alas for the scholar
kept in after the others were dismissed! Lightly did the offended
majesty of madame weigh in the balance compared to what might possibly
beleague the path homeward. There was a legend of a tall Indian who
was always digging about for his bow and arrows, and a little short
Dutchman about a foot high in breeches and cocked hat, who, the moment
he found them, sprang into sight from somewhere and kicked the dirt 265
over them, and the Indian began his search again![72]
But the section of country most famous for spectral manifestations was
the region about the Kaatskill Mountains. Darkly wooded glens, and
lonely streams, and deep ravines offered the most ample facilities for
all kinds of signs and wonders. Indeed, the Dutch settlers that dwelt
in that by-place of existence, on the little cleared spots that here
and there dotted the landscape, were so quiet and orderly, so far
removed from the commotions that agitated the river colonies, no
wonder ethereal beings found their companionship most congenial. These
settlers had removed thither originally from the neighborhood of Fort
Orange, and principally, nay, I may say solely, in disgust at the
general uproar and discomfort which invested everything in proximity
to that fort, under the joint dominion of the Patroon of
Rensselaerwyck (or his agent), who resided there, and Director-General
Petrus Stuyvesant, who fulminated his bulls from the south end of the
Hudson; the contemporary edicts of the rival parties being always
diametrically opposed to each other.
The truth is that, from the moment Director Stuyvesant landed at
Manhattan, appointed there by the States-General of the United
Netherlands, he had carried matters with such a high hand that
everything succumbed before him. The boldest spirits bent to his rule,
and (to continue the metaphor) he walked over them. His word was law
without reason or explanation. He had even been known to shorten a
troublesome state audience by tearing up the documents and dismissing
the deputation.
Thus ruled the governor at Manhattan; but when Brant Arent Van
Slechtenhorst was sent over from Holland as agent for the heir of the
last patroon--Johannes Van Rensselaer, a minor--Petrus Stuyvesant met
his match. Commander Slechtenhorst was in popular estimation “a person
of stubborn and headstrong temper.”[73]
When Stuyvesant directed Carl von Brugge to quarry stone and cut wood
for repairs on Fort Orange, nearly destroyed by a freshet, Brant dared
the deputy to touch stone or stick at his peril, either for
fortification or firewood; for the trees, root and branch, all
belonged to his employer the patroon! He further forbade any of the
inhabitants to aid them with horses, etc., while at the same time he
was building a house himself not a pistol-shot from the fort. The news
being carried to Manhattan, the director sent some soldiers to
demolish the offending house now being built, and arrest the offender.
This was more easily ordered than accomplished, so the soldiers held a
parley with him, and were cautioned, among other bits of good advice,
to take warning by one Jacob Jansen, who had not long before cut two
fir-trees--eight days after he was seized with his plunder on the
river by the patroon’s officer, and duly punished! with the stunning
point to the climax: “Can’t he do so now?” All this being duly
reported to the great director at Manhattan, it was deemed best to
seek supplies beyond the domain of Rensselaerwyck, “stones from the
mountains, rocks, and plains--timber from anywhere within the limits
of New Netherlands--to have a wagon made, and take the horses of Jonas
Bronck, who was in debt to the company,” and whose opinions on the 266
subject were of course of no consequence. As for pulling down the
house recently erected, Herr Van Slechtenhorst pointed to the fact
that Fort Orange stood on the very soil of his employer, and that it
was his intention at some leisure day to annihilate it. So went
matters, until at last, when Stuyvesant ordered a solemn fast, and Van
Slechtenhorst absolved all in his latitude from obedience, human
patience could stand it no longer, and the insulted autocrat rushed to
Albany in the swiftest sailing sloop that could be found; there, as
has been said, to meet his match.
But our business is not with these belligerents, but with those
peacefully disposed burghers, who had grown tired more and more, year
after year, with this turmoil, which seemed now to have reached its
height. Armed soldiers were in their midst (for seven had been sent up
from Manhattan), and when the talk was of razing houses, why, even the
neighboring Indians came crowding in to ask what the _Swannekins_ were
about.
Happily another home opened to them, and very many packed up all their
worldly goods and migrated. This home was the region about the
Kaatskill. One part of the mission of Herr Van Slechtenhorst when sent
over the ocean was “to acquire by purchase the lands around Kaatskill
for the greater security of the colonie, as they were forming
companies to remove thither.”[74]
On the land thus obtained, they had nothing to fear from Indian
opposition, and the kind of domestic life they coveted is pictured in
a lease yet extant in the Van Rensselaer family, dated 1651, wherein
the tenant binds himself to “read a sermon or portion of Scripture
every Sunday and festival to the neighboring Christians, and to sing
hymns before and after prayer, after the custom of the Church of
Holland.” Years in that little nook of creation brought few great
changes; their habitations had come to be grouped together somewhat
town fashion, and were dignified by a name much too long, and
unpronounceable except by a Dutch tongue, but well loved because
traceable to Holland; and there life after life passed away like great
waves in a stream--one disappears and another takes its place.
Such were the mortal inhabitants of the place; but the invisible
portion of the community--their name was Legion! It seemed the very
place of refuge for all sorts of bodiless personages who had been
insulted and expelled from other places; indeed, if a census had been
taken, according to the old wives’ stories, their aggregate numbers
would have made up near half the population of the village.
In one portion of the spot which might truly have been called the
supernatural reservation was a deep ravine, which bore traces of
having once been the bed of a mountain stream. At this period (some
time before the old French war), its sole inhabitants were a morose,
ill-looking woodman and his aged mother, and their dwelling-place was
a miserable hut perched on rocks, and so hidden by gnarled and twisted
trees and a dense undergrowth of shrubs as to be almost invisible to
any but its occupants. Why they established themselves in that
uninviting place, or what were the events of their lives previous to
their appearance there, their unintelligible English failed to
communicate, nor was there aught in the sullen taciturnity of both of
them in the presence of a stranger, or in the loud and fearful 267
bickerings heard ofttimes in their hovel by the passer-by, that
created a desire to fathom the mystery. When the news arrived that
French and English had met, the outcasts in the glen, strange to say
were the only ones in the settlement whose fortunes seemed in any way
to be affected by it. Their disputes were heard louder and more
frequent than ever before, to end, alas! in a tragedy. The man, tired
perhaps of his monotonous existence, and hoping also to better his
fortunes, was desirous of joining the ranks of war, yet, feeling at
the same time the necessity of his support to his old mother, he
strove to wring from her a consent to his departure. It was sought in
vain. The aged woman, to her consciousness of utter helplessness,
added doubtless a natural desire for his safety, and consent was
withheld. Opposition goaded him, and in a moment of passion he struck
her lifeless to the ground.
The miserable parricide fled, and the hut fell in ruins. Time passed
on, the war was ended, and peace restored.
And now, when the tragedy of the glen had grown to be an old story,
only told by a winter evening’s fire, it began to be whispered--and it
fairly petrified the senses of every hearer--that Dark Rob, as he was
called, or his spectre, had returned to his old abode!
No one cared to investigate the matter very closely. A light was
certainly seen flickering in the ruined hovel, and a phantom-like
thing in human shape glided about the spot. No mortal would choose to
remain there alone, so it must be the shade of Dark Rob, on the
theatre of his unnatural crime!
Many an evil deed was related of him in this, his second sojourn in the
hut; but one of the most evil, because passing all comprehension, was
the strange influence he contrived to acquire by ways unknown over a
sturdy farmer named Jansen Van Dorp. How they first met was perfectly
inexplicable; for goblin Rob had never been visible in any of the
ordinary paths of the settlement, and, although Jans was one of the
very few who laughed to scorn the idea of a ghost, he would scarcely
venture in his sober senses to penetrate the dark shadows of the
haunted hovel uninvited. In whatever way it happened, events proved
their close intimacy; his steps were watched, and traced night after
night to the hut, where they held their unholy orgies.
As a matter of course, the worldly affairs of Jans Van Dorp became
disjointed things. His vrow had always borne a close resemblance to
the helpmate of Socrates, and it is not to be supposed that such
doings on the part of her truant spouse added to her sweetness of
temper.
The most irritating part was the sudden taciturn spirit which seemed
to possess the mynheer. Taunts, sneers, questions, reproaches, all
were in vain! This was both new and alarming, because on no previous
occasion had he ever been backward in contributing his share to the
Babel din of their wordy skirmishes. It confirmed, alas! her worst
suspicions, namely, that he was in toils and snares beyond all mortal
power of extrication.
Great light was thrown on the affair by a shrewd neighbor, Effie
Demson, who, having migrated to America from the Highlands of Scotland
(and by some odd chance wandered down to the Kaatskill), was allowed
to be especially versed in hobgoblin ethics. She affirmed that she had
often heard from reliable authority that, whenever a mortal is admitted 268
to the society of spirits, an oath of secrecy is imposed under a
penalty few would care to brave. She cited the cases of several
imprudent individuals who, having violated this compact, suffered
fearful consequences. One was Alice Pearson, of Byrehill, somewhere
about 1588. Having been introduced to the invisible world by a friend,
and joined them in “piping, mirth, and good cheer” (to use her own
words), she was warned that, if she ever related what she had seen,
“she should be martyred.” One day, when she began to speak of these
things, an unseen blow took away her breath and left an ugly mark on
her side; heedless of the warning, Alice continued her revelations
until she was burned as a witch, thus fulfilling her doom.[75] Every
one in the Highlands knew, too, the terrible visitation that had
lighted on one kirk for having pried into secrets merely to publish
them. Every one knew that he was a mere wandering gypsy in the
universe, and would be to the end of time.
Effie generally concluded her oracles with the remnant of an old song,
written about fairies particularly, but equally applicable to any
unearthlies. It was called
“_God a Mercy Will_.
“To be sung or whistled to the tune of _Meadow Brow_ by the
learned; by the unlearned, to the tune of _Fortune_.
“A tell-tale in their companie
They never could endure,
But whoso kept not secrecy
Their deed was punished sure.
It was a just and Christian deed
To pinch such black and blue.”
Etc., etc., etc.
_Poetica Stromata._
As this bore the antique date of 1648, and was written by Corbet,
Bishop of Norwich, it was considered good authority for anything.
This, then, explained the unusual silence of Jans Van Dorp, and it
also half-reconciled his gude vrow to endure her unsatisfied
curiosity. To wonder and to be afflicted night after night by his
truant absence was bad enough, but to have seen him vanish in blue
smoke would have been worse.
Things were passing thus in that sequestered little spot, while the
great world without was agitated with mightier events--the opening
scenes of the Revolutionary war. It is doubtful whether the faint
rumors of it which penetrated the seclusion there would have excited
the least attention, except for the fact that it was the only earthly
topic on which Jans Van Dorp nowadays manifested the least interest.
Every Dutch villager, whose business led him to the great cities, was
questioned and cross-questioned on his return as to the precise state
of things, with a minuteness which would have done honor to that
renowned lawyer Heer Adrian Van der Donck, the first who landed in the
New Netherlands. The one little gray newspaper that arrived weekly,
and had hitherto circulated among his neighbors until it was quite
illegible, was now packed immediately in his great-coat pocket and
taken to his ghostly partner. All this was a perfect labyrinth of
mystery, and furnished texts for many a sage conjecture and dubious
shake of the head. Some hinted that Jans Van Dorp might mean to put in
execution the threat he had been so often heard to hurl at his
irritating helpmate when her vexatious volubility exceeded all bounds
of endurance--that he’d be off to some war. But time puts an end to
all things, although it does not always explain things to universal
satisfaction. What Jans or the goblin thought or meant can never be 269
fathomed, but some things are matters of history; and it is a
testified fact that the very moment this little dingy newspaper
brought tidings that the first cannons of battle had boomed, Jansen
Van Dorp started as if his doom was somehow connected with it. It was
a night, dark and stormy, but he seized his hat, and rushed from the
cheerful glow of his own home to the pitchy darkness without, and they
whispered he was bound to the haunted hovel! Too probable, for from
that hour neither Jans nor spectre was ever seen there more.
It should rather be said, never seen as mortal _could_ be seen, for by
many he was still considered an inhabitant of the settlement, although
lost for ever to his hapless vrow. He had visited her in dreams, and
warned her of something she could not exactly remember, but very
terrible, and given on these occasions such diverse accounts of
himself, it was hard to tell what to believe. To Effie he had
frequently presented himself. She had seen him in the coffee dregs, in
leaves at the bottom of her tea-cup, in a mirror which she had cut
triangular for that express purpose, and, finally, in a tremendous
thunder-storm, standing close beside her.
As he gave no sign on these occasions, her charitable conclusion was
that he had nothing very good to relate of himself.
Many months after this, one of the most intelligent mynheers of the
settlement, having been called by business to a far eastern city,
declared on his return that, among a troop of soldiers marching to the
frontiers, he had recognized Jans Van Dorp and Dark Rob; but, as he
failed in speaking to them, his assertion passed for nothing, and his
story was dismissed as mere moonshine, too absurd to be believed.
[68] O’Callaghan. _Hist. New Neths._, vol. i. p. 37.
[69] _Ibid._ vol. i. ch. 2.
[70] O’Callaghan, _Hist._ vol. i. bk. iii. ch. 2.
[71] Watson’s _Annals of New York_.
[72] The writer of this possesses two pieces of
embroidery done by one of madame’s pupils.
[73] O’Callaghan, _Hist._, vol. ii. p. 72.
[74] O’Callaghan, _Hist._, vol. ii. ch. iv.
[75] _Trials from the Criminal Records of
Scotland._ By R. Pitcairn, Esq.
----------
THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN GERMANY, AND THE _FRACTION DU CENTRE_
IN THE GERMAN PARLIAMENT.
TRANSLATED FROM THE REVUE GENERALE.
An apathetic calm generally succeeds to political agitation at the
close of legislative sessions. An exception to this rule prevails in
the German Empire, inasmuch as the attacks against the _Fraction du
Centre_, which began during the session, increased to an
actual storm at the close of the diet. Most of the foreign journals
have spoken of this phenomenon, but in so unsatisfactory a manner that
perhaps a more minute account of the movement will not be displeasing
to the readers of the _Revue Générale_.
I have already indicated in a general way, in an account of the
parties in the German Parliament, the attitude and tendency of the
Catholic party, or the so-called _Fraction du Centre_.
The bases upon which it is founded are as follows:
“_Justitia fundamentum regnorum._ The _Fraction au Centre_ in the 270
German Parliament limits its activity by the following principles:
“I. The fundamental characteristics of the empire as a confederation
(_Bundesstaat_) shall be maintained. Conformably to this principle,
all efforts shall be opposed that tend to modify the federal character
of the constitution of the empire, and the spontaneity and
independence of the several states in their interior affairs shall
only be sacrificed when the general interests evidently require it.
“II. The material and moral welfare of the popular classes shall be
urgently insisted upon. The civil and religious liberty of all the
subjects of the empire shall be secured by means of constitutional
guarantees, and religious associations, in particular, shall be
protected against legislative encroachments.
“III. The _Fraction_ weighs and forms resolutions in accordance with
these principles, upon all questions submitted to the deliberation of
the parliament, but without forbidding isolated members to vote in the
assembly contrary to the decisions of the _Fraction_.”
The _Fraction_ remained faithful to these principles during the
session of the parliament that has just closed. It avoided all extreme
views, and manifested no systematic hostility to the government.
Nevertheless, the very fact that it is composed of Catholics firmly
resolved to defend the rights and liberties of the church against
all attacks, and that these Catholics were elected from the
most prosperous and intelligent sections of Germany, where
pseudo-liberalism thought its rule immovably established, sufficed to
excite against the _Fraction_ a coalition of all who were opposed to
the church. Their invectives began with the debates on the address.
The form of address proposed by the national liberal party contained,
besides some expressions in praise of the historic views of the
adversaries of the Papacy, the following sentence: “The days of
interference with the national affairs of other kingdoms will, we
trust, never return under any pretext or under any form.” This
sentence, destructive of all national rights, was evidently aimed
against Rome, as was partly acknowledged: the Italian revolution was
not to be checked by diplomatic representations in the accomplishment
of its designs against the visible head of the church. Naturally, it
would not have occurred to any one to impose absolute passiveness on
the powerful German Empire in its relations with neighboring states.
The party of the _Centre_ drew up a counter-schedule, which did not
contain the proposition of absolute non-intervention we have just
referred to, but which was nevertheless in conformity with the address
of the liberals. This counter-schedule did not demand, either directly
or indirectly, any intervention in favor of the Pope: it contained
nothing that clashed either with the government or the other parties,
and consequently was not the object of criticism in any quarter. So
true is this, that the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ of Augsburg, the chief
organ of anti-religious liberalism, could not disguise its preference
for the schedule of the _Centre_ as to its substance as well as form.
Nevertheless, though the _Centre_ remained wholly on the defensive,
and its orators exhibited the greatest moderation, a real storm of
invectives was raised against them and the church by the journalists
of all the other parties and by the parliament. Even the so-called
conservatives took sides against the _Centre_, whose motion, thanks to
these outcries, only obtained sixty votes. A proposition made shortly 271
after by the _Centre_ in the interests of civil liberty met the same
fate. This proposition had for its object the admission of several
principles into the constitution of the German Empire which had been
sanctioned by the Prussian constitution. As these principles
guaranteed the independence of the church--the Evangelical as well as
the Catholic (Art. 15, Pruss. const.)--the proposition was opposed
with extreme bitterness, even by a large majority of the Catholic
deputies who did not belong to the _Fraction du Centre_. Among these
was Count de Frankenberg, of Silesia. This noble member had given his
electors a written promise to vote in accordance with the proposition
of the _Fraction du Centre_. But in the speech he made against it, he
declared that he did not consider the time chosen by the _Fraction_ as
opportune. In his ignorance of judicial things, he probably is not
familiar with the adage: _Quod sine die debetur, statim debetur_.
The _Fraction du Centre_ made no other independent motions during the
session that could incur any attacks. But the “clerical party” was
attacked the more vehemently at the elections, so the _Centre_ found
itself still exposed to a cross fire. The whole affair has been
related in the journals. We will confine ourselves to an incident that
gives a tolerably correct idea of the majority.
Before the election of Dr. Schüttinger, nominated from the district of
Bamberg, and belonging to the _Fraction du Centre_, the curate of a
small town within that district announced from the pulpit, after
divine service, that those of his parishioners who had confidence in
him could assemble at his house after church to learn which candidate
was preferable, according to his opinion. This invitation appeared to
the majority an intolerable infringement on electoral liberty as well
as an abuse of the pulpit, and the election of Dr. Schüttinger was
annulled. A new ballot gave the same candidate a thousand more votes
than at first. At the next session, the validity of this re-election
will be submitted to the decision of the parliament, and the question
arises if the majority will be fully satisfied respecting the
electoral liberty of the district of Bamberg. But the Belgian
Catholics know by long experience what their adversaries mean by
electoral manœuvres.
In all the occurrences we have referred to, the government showed
itself entirely passive, so there was no real conflict between it and
the party of the _Centre_. When the debate took place respecting
Alsace-Lorraine, our party proposed to ensure to those provinces the
most independent existence possible, and a separate constitution.
Prince Bismarck did not exactly agree with this, but his opinions
coincided far oftener with those of the deputies Windthorst and
Reichensperger than with those of the leaders of the other parties. On
the whole, no instance can be mentioned in which the _Fraction du
Centre_ is in flagrant hostility to that powerful statesman. It even
openly opposed an interpellation respecting the Roman question, in
order not to excite any irritating debates and appear suspicious of
the good intentions of the emperor and chancellor. In spite of this,
it was reported during the session that the _Fraction du Centre_ had
incurred the disapprobation of the chancellor of the empire. The
_Deutsche Reichscorrespondenz_, the organ of the so-called liberal
conservatives, gave some foundation to this report by pretending that
the Count de Tauffkirchen had, according to the instructions of Prince
Bismarck, accused the _Fraction du Centre_ to Cardinal Antonelli of 272
having assumed an attitude hostile to the government of the empire,
and that the cardinal had expressed his disapproval of this attitude
not only before the Count de Tauffkirchen, but in a letter addressed
to the leaders of the _Fraction_. This assertion being repeated in
several quarters, the said leaders denied it in the journals. Driven
to the wall, the _Deutsche Reichscorrespondenz_ then brought up the
case of the Count de Frankenberg already mentioned, and at last Prince
Bismarck himself declared the blame really proceeded from Cardinal
Antonelli. This induced the Bishop of Mayence to ascertain the correct
account of the matter from the cardinal. His eminence replied that it
had been incorrectly reported to him that the _Fraction du Centre_ had
insisted upon the Emperor of Germany’s intervention in favor of the
Pope, and that, under the existing circumstances, he had declared such
a step inopportune. At the same time, the cardinal assured the Bishop
of Mayence and his friends that he had a particular esteem for the
members of the _Fraction du Centre_ and its proclivities. Thus failed
the effort made at the court of Rome to bring discredit on the _Fraction_
among Catholics, for at once a great number of Catholics gave in their
full adhesion to the _Fraction_, and besought it to persevere
courageously. This effort had, moreover, a comic side, for until now
the _Fraction_ had been represented as the servile tool of the Roman
curia, whence it received its orders on all important questions.
No general interest would be felt in all these facts, if they were not
the clear prelude of an act the consequences of which cannot be
foreseen. It is not the acts of the _Fraction du Centre_ that provoke
the violent attacks against it: it is its very existence that is
considered a crime. Those hostile to the church had calculated,
without distinction of party, that the very first diet of the German
Empire would aim a blow at “Romanism” in Germany, on the ruins of
which would afterwards rise a national German church, that might
finally end in a cosmopolitan “Humanitarianism,” without dogmas,
without sacraments, and without altars--the very _beau idéal_ of
freemasonry. Everything, in fact, seemed propitious for the
realization of this hope. The two principal Catholic nations
successively conquered, the Roman race suffering from incessant
convulsions, the head of the Catholic Church a prisoner at the
Vatican, and, finally, a schism that seemed likely to arise on account
of the dogma of infallibility--all seemed to form a breach by which it
was hoped their opponents would be overcome. Only, as an ancient adage
says: “Man proposes, but God disposes!”
The election of the Prussian deputies and the members of the German
Parliament has already paralyzed the action of these regenerators of
humanity, by rousing the Catholics to an energy not easily to be
surmounted. The complete union of the representatives elected, and
their bold stand, showed it would be quite useless for the legislative
assemblies at Berlin to make any serious charge against Catholicism.
On the contrary, it was hoped at Berlin that the initiative would be
taken by Munich, where “the Luther of the nineteenth century” had
raised a standard of revolt against the Roman Pontificate. But Munich
was likewise under the influence of illusions. It was supposed that
Mgr. Hefele, the Bishop of Rothenberg, would add the sanction of 273
episcopal authority to the influence of the learned Professor
Döllinger, and thus sustain his course. It was still more certain that
a great number of the pupils of the theological seminaries would
respond to the appeal of Döllinger and his able adherents. Döllinger,
it may be remembered, had publicly declared that thousands of priests
thought exactly as he did.
But Bishop Hefele remained faithful to the Pope, and the German clergy
unanimously declared that Döllinger’s assertion was a calumny. The
King of Bavaria himself, who had given Döllinger so many proofs of his
esteem, hesitated a long time about giving him his support, because he
could not help seeing that the anti-ecclesiastical movement was
chiefly led by a political party whose efforts openly tended to
mediatize the reigning houses of the second and third ranks in order
to form a united and centralized Germany, in imitation of the empire
of Napoleon III. These efforts naturally met with the most favorable
concurrence on the part of the democrats; for an empire of this kind,
established on a broad and “liberal” basis, would lead, by a sort of
fatality, to a republic, especially if they first succeeded in doing
away with the religious and historic traditions.
Immediately after the close of the parliament, a fire was opened at
Berlin upon the “clericals,” and especially upon the _Fraction du
Centre_. The official journals did their best to open the way to
“modern progress” by removing all the obstacles that might impede it,
and to increase the diplomatic pressure that had so long been exerting
its influence on the Bavarian cabinet. The whole German press, with
the exception of a dozen journals, naturally joined in the chorus, and
then began an attack on the Catholics, the like of which had not been
witnessed since the Archbishop of Cologne was sent under guard to the
fortress of Minden, under the pretext that he had conspired with the
two revolutionary parties against the Prussian government.
The German Catholics are accustomed to these kinds of accusations,
which have passed through all possible variations. Thus, the Catholics
of the Rhenish provinces have been successively accused, according to
the circumstances of the moment, of plotting with France, Belgium,
Bavaria, and Austria, against Prussia, and of considering the Pope as
their legitimate sovereign. Foreigners can hardly credit what I am
obliged to relate here, and, if they should, it would excite their
risibility. Unfortunately, these absurdities have a serious side for
the Prussian Catholics. Independently of the circumstance that these
perfidious calumnies, systematically repeated, might pervert public
opinion in those sections of Germany where Protestantism prevails,
they serve as a pretext for practically refusing Catholics the open
equality which they should share with the adherents of other
religions. For example, all the higher offices of influence are, with
very rare exceptions, filled by Protestants, who, as a matter of
course, specially favor the interests of their co-religionists in
every way, and, so to speak, are obliged to do so, because genuine
Catholics are officially designated as unpatriotic. An exact list of
the functionaries of the German communes and government, drawn up with
reference to the religion of each one, would be a valuable statistic,
because it would incontestably establish how far the principle of
_suum cuique_, which constitutionally recognizes the equality of
Christian sects, is really applied. It is evident that such a report 274
will never be published or drawn up by the authorities, consequently
the formation of a private agency to effect such an object is an
urgent necessity. Perhaps this report might at last put an end to the
constantly repeated accusations of the base ingratitude of Catholics
against the Prussian government. The clear judgment of Frederick
William IV., and the constitutions that sprang from the events of
1848, guaranteed a liberty of action to the Catholic Church and its
organs which had not existed in any German state since the peace of
Westphalia. The Prussian Catholics displayed a lively gratitude for
this, and flattered themselves with the hope that several crying
injustices which weighed on them would be removed, especially in the
conferring of public offices and the nomination of professors at the
universities. This hope was then the more reasonable, because, in the
war against France, Catholics, as well as Protestants, shed their
blood on the battle-fields, and submitted to the heaviest
requisitions. The religious orders particularly signalized themselves
by their services, as the recently published report of the Knights of
Malta (Catholics) prove. Unfortunately, this hope has already given
place to serious preoccupation.
Prince Bismarck appears no longer able to endure repose. Having
vanquished our foreign enemies, he seems to aim, unless all
appearances deceive us, at making adversaries of the Catholics of
Germany and causing them to feel the weight of his hand. Perhaps he is
influenced by the consideration that military unity, to be on a solid
basis, should be founded on, or crowned by, political and religious
unity. At all events, this is the opinion of the liberal party, whose
course involuntarily recalls the expression of Tacitus, “_Ruere in
servitium_;” whereas, while M. de Bismarck was rising to power, they
abused him beyond all bounds. These worshippers of success have for
allies the Catholics who are not willing to submit to the decrees of
the Council of the Vatican. In the jargon of the liberals, these
Neo-Protestants are designated as old Catholics, while the immense
majority of Catholics who now, as formerly, consider the authority of
the Pope and bishops in religious things as higher than that of
certain professors, are styled Neo-Catholics, absolutely as if they
had abandoned the faith of the church. A foreigner would find it
difficult to understand how it is possible to give a completely
opposite meaning to the real signification of a word, and this in a
country like Germany, which prides itself on its intelligence.
But it is not the anti-religious journals alone that take this
liberty. M. de Mühler himself, the Prussian minister of the public
worship, treats the Catholics, who remain faithful to the decrees of
the Pope and bishops as rebels to the government. Immediately after
the suspension of the council, he took under his protection the
professors, even those who were priests, who refused to submit to the
decisions of the council and the bishops, and encouraged them in their
revolt against ecclesiastical authority. Recently, _à propos_ of the
affair of the Bishop of Ermland, he went so far as to submit to the
ministry of Prussia, composed exclusively of Protestants, a resolution
to ascertain what Catholics should be considered as orthodox, and he
ordered a priest named Wollmann, who had been excluded from the fold
of the church by major excommunication, to retain his professorship as
religious instructor in the Catholic college of Braunsberg. The
students, unwilling to receive religious instruction from a fallen
priest, left the college. They were thus obliged to give up most of 275
their studies, as there is no other establishment of the kind at
Braunsberg. It should also be remarked that the College of Braunsberg
was founded by a bishop and sustained by Catholic foundations. In
Silesia, another priest named Kaminski, likewise excommunicated, was
appointed to a church that he might celebrate the divine service for
those who protested against the Council of the Vatican. In a word,
every where there is any reason, or even a pretext, the episcopal
authority is sacrificed to those who refuse them the obedience
solemnly sworn to them, or become unfaithful to the church by calling
the episcopal crosier the _bâton_ of a police officer. On all
sides were declarations, more and more threatening, that an end must
be made of “Romanism,” that German science should take the place of
idolatrous papistry, and the echo of this cry is to be found in the
papers that seek their inspiration from the ministerial bureaux.
But in spite of the great power of the Prussian government, the
centralists, to their severe mortification, were doubtful about
succeeding in fully organizing a persecution against the Catholics
unless the other German governments, or at least the most important of
them, declare war against the church. The Würtemberg government was so
wise as to declare from the first that it would ignore the decisions
of the Council of the Vatican as long as no one was influenced by it
against the laws and constitution of the kingdom. As this evidently
would never be the case, the Würtemberg ministry, if the national
liberals who have just begun an outcry in the assembly of
representations at Stuttgart do not impose a different policy on them,
will consequently remain strictly passive with respect to the church,
as is the case in Belgium, Holland, England, the United States, and
every country where genuine liberty prevails. The statesmen who govern
those countries do not allow their slumbers to be disturbed by the
decrees of the Council of the Vatican, and deem it beneath their
dignity to regard them as a pretext to form a kind of Cæsaro-papism.
As we have remarked, the course of the Bavarian government in the
ulterior development of this agitation, will be of great importance.
The pressure brought to bear on that government by Prussia and all the
parties inimical to the church has led to the retirement of Count
Bray, whose devotedness to the church is well-known. Nevertheless, the
king has not fully decided to create, by an open rupture with the
religious authorities, unforeseen complications in his kingdom,
already so shaken, and to recompense by moral violence the fidelity of
those of his subjects who have shown themselves the most devoted
partisans of the dynasty of Wittelsbach. This question, so painful for
the majority of Bavarians, will be doubtless decided before this
article is published.
Having given a general outline of the present state of affairs, I am
led to ask myself what, before the end of the year, will be the stand
of the Catholic representatives who are still faithful to the church
in the legislative assemblies of Prussia and the German empire. The
reports of those deputies to their electors appear to me adapted to
strengthen them in their resolution to continue to struggle
courageously against the supremacy of the state as well as against
revolutionary absolution, and to remain defenders of the church and of
all constitutional rights against the false apostles of liberty and an
arbitrary ministry. At all events, I imagine these deputies will smile 276
with pity when they hear themselves styled unpatriotic by some parties
in imitation of a part of the journals hostile to the church, or even
accused of conspiring with foreigners or the _Internationale_. Some
papers, in fact, have not shrunk from the ridicule attached to such
foolish accusations. Does not this having to resort to such
imputations prove the want of any serious charge against the members
of the _Centre_? They are evidently not credited by those who make use
of them, nor is any attempt made to convince others of their truth.
The members of the _Fraction du Centre_ figure, for the most part,
among the notabilities of their districts. Many of them have occupied
or occupy some public office with honor: and several have, for many
years, showed their constant zeal in the old Prussian house of
legislation, where they had a seat, and gave their devoted support to
the government in the crisis of the year 1848 and the following year,
often at the expense of their popularity. They were often known to
defend the authorities against the attacks of those who are now
endeavoring to excite the government against them.
In support of what I have just stated, it is sufficient to recall the
names of those whom the confidence of their colleagues chose as a
committee of the _Fraction du Centre_ in the German parliament
and the Prussian house of representatives. I will mention M. de
Savigny, the son of the illustrious jurisconsult so well-known
throughout the whole world, who was formerly Prussian minister at
Brussels, and latterly the representative of the King of Prussia at
the Diet of Frankfort; M. Windthorst, who was president of the house
of representatives in Hanover, and twice minister of justice in that
kingdom; the Baron d’Arétin, the vice-president of the upper house in
the kingdom of Bavaria; M. de Mallinkrodt, the counsellor of the
Prussian regency; the Prince de Loewenstein; the Count de
Landsberg-Velen, a hereditary member of the Prussian house of lords,
etc. Perhaps I may be permitted to mention also my brother, a
counsellor of the Prussian Court of Cassation, who was one of the most
active leaders of the conservative party when the government was the
object of the most violent attacks.[76]
He who consecrates his time and strength to the cause of justice and
religious liberty, or uses them in the arena of political combat,
should not expect to reap any gratitude, but the leaders of the
_Centre_ and their friends could not foresee that they would be
exposed to the calumnies I have alluded to. The only appreciable
grievance uttered against the Hanoverian and Bavarian members of their
_Fraction_ is, that the former disapproved of the annexation of their
country to Prussia, and the latter used its influence to prevent
Bavaria from joining the new German Empire. But these deputies have
stated publicly that, these measures having been decided by vote, they
were ready not only to fall in with the new order of things, but to
endeavor to strengthen it, which cannot be the case if the national
liberal party is not opposed, the evident tendency of which is not of a
nature to fortify the constitution of the empire, being directed 277
against the federative principle, which is the fundamental
characteristic of this constitution. No one has a right to suspect the
statements and character of these men who merit the esteem of all
honorable people for having defended in a purely conservative sense,
and by all legal means, the traditions of their ancestors, to which
they remain faithful, and which they wish to maintain as long as their
duty evidently requires it.
To the _Fraction du Centre_ in the German Parliament belongs also M.
Kraetzig, the leader of the Catholic department of the ministry of
public worship, which has just been dissolved. This division, composed
of three counsellors belonging to the Catholic faith, was organized by
Frederick William IV. with the benevolent intention of giving the
Catholics of Prussia a sort of guarantee for the suitable
administration of the funds for public worship: it was not wished that
such matters should be decided by a Protestant government without at
least listening to the advice of the Catholic functionaries. (The
leader of the Catholic department of public worship had only a
consultative voice.) The existence of this division was a pledge to
the Catholics, being an assurance that their religious interests would
never fall into hostile or indifferent hands. If we except the Prince
de Hohenzollern, no Catholic ever had a seat in the ministerial
council, and especially no Catholic was ever appointed minister of
public instruction. The suppression of this division, decreed on the
eighth of last July, is the more serious a symptom that it has been
applauded by the journals opposed to the church, and with a joy equal
to that manifested at the measures taken in Alsace against the brothers
devoted to instruction and against the Catholic press. The party of
the _Centre_ will naturally oppose with all its might the current of
opinion which these acts prove to exist in the region of power. Its
voice, it is true, will be stifled by the majority, but it will not be
raised the less energetically for liberty and justice, with the hope
of seeing a better day dawn, and, whatever the event, with the
conviction of having fulfilled an obligation of conscience not only
toward the church, but to the state.
The hope of soon seeing the clouds disperse that have been
accumulating of late around Germany in so unexpected a manner is
founded on the political prudence, the experience, and the opinions of
the Emperor William. It is not possible for this monarch crowned with
laurels, after having established peace with foreign powers through
the bravery and fidelity of the _whole_ German nation, to authorize
the persecution of millions of Germans on account of their faith, and
consent to sacrifice the national peace--the peace which is especially
due to his royal brother, whose memory is still blessed by Catholics.
There is no doubt but the appeals of the Catholic population will be
heard and listened to, as soon as they reach the foot of the throne.
The statesman who, in such an unparalleled manner, has been so highly
exalted to the very steps of that throne, and whose celebrated name is
displayed, without his consent I am persuaded, on the standard of the
enemies of the church, cannot be ignorant that, when these troubles
shall have assumed more formidable proportions, it will be more
difficult to overcome moral resistance than to triumph over physical
obstacles, and that measures of policy will be powerless against the
former. He will hardly consider it chivalric; with all the enormous 278
material resources of the state at his disposal, to enter into a
combat against people who can and will only oppose him passively, as
is suitable in the defence of a cause which represents the most
powerful interests of humanity.
But perhaps all these hopes are illusory; perhaps we are about to see
in our Fatherland the beginning of a sad and fruitless struggle, such
as has so exhausted the strength of other countries by giving a free
course to the most dangerous passions. In this case the Catholics of
Germany should prepare themselves to endure a long succession of
contradictions, for their moral courage will be severely tried. They
will have to make sacrifices of all kinds for their faith, recalling
the precept of the Gospel that commands us not only to render to Cæsar
the things that are Cæsar’s, but also to God the things that are
God’s, whatever may happen, whatever may be the consequence of such a
struggle, the church of God, which has always been victorious through
patience, will never yield either under assaults of unbelief or the
attacks of a false science, that in its pride seems to declare anew:
_Eritis sicut Deus_. Truth is great, and it will prevail: _Magna est
veritas et prævalebit_.
A. REICHENSPERGER.
COLOGNE, Aug., 1871.
[76] The modesty of the eminent author of this
article did not permit him to mention his own name among the
most illustrious members of the _Fraction du Centre_. It
would be ungrateful not to supply this omission by adding to
the valiant champions enumerated above the man whose
multiplied labors, marked by his superior intelligence and
ardor of feeling, are at once an honor to Germany and the
church.--(_Note of the Editor._)
----------
THE MOUNTAIN.
The mountain’s sides are green anear,
In clouds is lost its snow;
And he who climbs that Alpine height
Shall earth and heaven know.
Lo! like a temple to the skies,
For toil, for prayer, for sacrifice,
Its green and snowy heights arise.
A thousand pilgrims wander up
To yonder blue abode,
And some are lost, and some are slain,
Or robbed upon the road.
Far up the holy hermits dwell,
And sounds the monastery bell
The safe and ancient way to tell.
And they who mount that highest steep
Are tired and sad and poor,
But lo! a starry house is there,
And angels at the door.
Rich joy for poverty and pain
They give, that summit to attain:
All earth they leave all heaven to gain.
----------
COLOR--ITS POETRY AND PROSE. 279
The three primary colors, according to the latest conclusions of
science, are _red_, _green_, and _blue_.
Oersted, in one of the chapters of his _Soul in Nature_, gives us a
little diagram to show how the _complementary_ and _characteristic_
combinations of colors are produced.
[Illustration]
The colors opposite in the figure complete each other in white, hence
are called complementary colors--red and green, orange and blue,
yellow and violet. These are the harmonious colors.
Two colors, between which there is only one intermediate color,
constitute characteristic combinations of color, as Goethe calls
them--for instance, red and yellow, yellow and blue, blue and red--and
are the combinations most common in uniforms.
In regard to the symbolism of colors, Oersted gives the following
enumeration:
White fitly typifies _innocence_; the purity of snow and summer
clouds, and all the analogies of nature, suggesting and completing its
significance. Black, which, as the withdrawal of light, denotes loss
of life-giving power, as in night, and to which is added in the
storm-cloud unwonted gloom and desolation, stands appropriately for
the color of mourning. Red is the color of love, from the hue of the
blood, to which is united the idea of the heart, heat, and intensity
of life. Yellow denotes falsehood, as indicating the deceitfulness of
that which shines, also as the color which, when it departs from
purity, soonest becomes disagreeable. Green symbolizes hope, the green
of spring in nature giving token of the fruition of summer. “If we
consider also,” says Oersted, “the satisfaction with which the eye can
rest on it, we should call it the color of trust. Blue,” he adds, “is
called the color of fidelity, but since faith, hope, and love are so
frequently named together, and the two last each has its symbolical
color, we might assume that one of the colors belonged to this noble
quality. It is evident that blue, since it indicates distance, vacuity
from matter, therefore the immaterial is suitable as a symbol of
faith. It is the color of the sky also, and this leads us away from
the earthly. Then the repose in blue, and the feeling that of all
colors it is the least splendid, with the exception of violet, which,
when unmingled with red, really the violet of light, is so feeble, and
has in it so little power, that it is not much considered. Goethe says
that blue is a ‘_stimulating negation_.’ We learn from natural science
that blue united with violet is reflected back every time that light
passes through a less occupied space, namely, a vacuum, hence Goethe’s
expression. Violet and blue also indicate darkness, since they are the
colors which have the least light in them, and the pigments which they
represent are easiest converted into black.
Faith, which looks up out of the blackness and shadow of death into 280
the full-orbed splendor of the sun of righteousness, may not
inappropriately take for its symbol the “stimulating negation” of the
poet.
Thus do the three primary colors, blue, green, and red, represent the
triad of Christian graces, the primary virtues of the Christian
life--faith, hope, and charity, or love.
But leaving the poetry of color, we come to the subject of its place
and function as it imprints itself on the myriad forms of the organic
world. The question has been asked, Are all these tints of nature in
the flower and shrub, the gorgeous plumage of the bird, only meant to
please the eye of man and to gratify the artistic sense? Is there a
deeper, subtler purpose running through all this apparently wanton
pageantry, aside from the delight which it affords the mind of man,
and looking only to the perfecting and preservation of the organism
itself?
A utilitarian age has answered in the affirmative, and the researches
of Darwin, Wallace, and others are daily opening new vistas into this
interesting field of inquiry.
Darwin was the first to establish the fact that the bright coloring of
flowers is for the purpose of attracting insects in order to
accomplish their fertilization, and deduces the general rule that all
flowers fertilized by the wind are of dull and inconspicuous colors.
In the animal kingdom the principle of assimilation guides and
modifies coloring in conformity with surrounding nature, and it is,
therefore, to a great extent, protective.
The lion inhabiting the desert is of the color of the sands, so as
hardly to be distinguished at a short distance. The leopard lives in
jungles, and the vertical stripes on its body harmonize admirably with
the vertical reeds of its tangled lair, and completely conceal it from
view.
In arctic regions, white is the prevailing color, as here reign
perpetual snows; therefore, it is that the bear is only found
_white_ in this part of the globe.
The curious fact that among birds the female is usually of a dull
neutral tint, while the male monopolizes the bright colors, is
accounted for on the principle of protective coloring, the female
needing the obscurity afforded her by her sober plumage. When there is
an exception to this rule, the protection is afforded in some other
way. And this leads us to the subject of _birds’ nests_.
Wallace, in a chapter on the theory of birds’ nests, divides them into
two classes, those in which the eggs are protected by the shape or
position of the nest, and those in which they are left exposed to
view. He then gives the following law: “That, when both sexes are of
strikingly gay and conspicuous colors, the nest is of the first class,
or so as to conceal the sitting bird; while, whenever there is a
striking contrast of colors, the male being gay and conspicuous, the
female dull and obscure, the nest is open and the sitting bird exposed
to view.”
In connection with the subject of protective coloring, the phenomenon
of _mimicry_ is not the least curious. Wallace gives several instances
of butterflies, moths, snakes, etc., where the coloring of protected
families is imitated by weak and unprotected ones not in any way
allied to them. A large and bright-colored butterfly, the heliconidæ
of South America, which is protected by a disagreeable quality
affecting its taste, thus rendering it secure from insect-eating
birds, is imitated by a smaller and eatable family, resembling it so
completely as to be quite indistinguishable by its enemies from the 281
former. Thus it is protected and enabled to perpetuate itself by
borrowing the colors of its secure and powerful neighbor.
The elaps among venomous snakes is another instance where protection
is afforded through mimicry to a harmless snake that would otherwise
be defenceless. The elaps and the species that copy its coloring are
found only in tropical America, and are peculiar as being the only
snakes marked in the same manner by red, black, and yellow rings.
----------
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO. A New Translation.
Edited by the Rev. Marcus Dods, M.A. Vols. I. and II. The City of
God. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. For sale by the Catholic Publication
Society, New York. 1871.
The Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, are well known and honorably
distinguished among publishers for the works of a high class of
scientific and literary worth in sacred literature which they are
regularly bringing out in the best style of the typographic art.
Besides their series of works by the most eminent German Protestant
theologians of the orthodox school, some of which are really valuable
to the Catholic student, they are issuing a set of translations of the
Ante-Nicene Fathers, and have now commenced a series of translations
from St. Augustine which they design to extend to sixteen or eighteen
volumes. We cannot sufficiently rejoice in the publication of these
patristic works. Nothing can produce an equally powerful impression in
favor of the Catholic Church on serious and educated minds with the
perusal of numerous and extensive works translated from the early
Christian writers. The two volumes before us are, in every sense of
the word, superb. The editor has prefaced them by an introduction,
whose style reminds us of Macaulay--while its matter is excellent,
interesting, and in all respects unexceptionable--in which he gives an
account of the nature and the circumstances of the great work of St.
Augustine, and of the various judgments of eminent scholars upon it.
So far as a merely cursory glance can warrant us in judging of the
merit of the translation, it appears to us that the extremely
difficult task of rendering the Latin accurately into good English has
been successfully accomplished. The work itself has been considered by
some eminent scholars as one of the great masterpieces of human
genius. It is the first great work on the philosophy of history which
was ever written. It was the fruit of the latest and most mature
period of the great doctor’s life. Its plan embraces a comprehensive
defence of Christianity against the objections of the Roman statesmen
and philosophers of the fifth century. A vast number of interesting
topics are treated in it, so that, apart from the philosophical value
which it possesses, it is most interesting and curious as a museum of
antiquities from the epoch when paganism was passing away to give
place to Christianity. It is to be hoped that Catholics as well as
Protestants will patronize the truly noble and useful undertaking of
the Messrs. Clark and their literary _collaborateurs_, to enrich our 282
English libraries with these splendid patristic translations.
A Life of St. Augustine is also promised to accompany the selections
from his writings. From this we can scarcely expect as much
satisfaction as from the other parts of the undertaking. The theology
and opinions of the writer must unavoidably prevent him from
understanding and correctly representing a Catholic bishop and doctor,
and giving a perfectly complete and correct account of the state of
the church during the period in which he lived. No one but a Catholic
can achieve this task with success, although a Protestant who is
sufficiently learned, accurate, and skilled in the art of composition,
may make a perfectly satisfactory translation of Catholic works. It
were much to be desired that some competent Catholic scholar would
give us a biography of St. Augustine so complete and perfect that it
would supplant all others, and take rank as the standard history of
his life and times.
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. A Treatise on the Obscure Night of the Soul. By
the Rev. A. F. Hewit, of the Congregation of St. Paul. New York:
Catholic Publication Society. 1871. Pp. 160.
This is a very small volume in bulk, and of very modest pretensions,
but of great merit, and treats with much truth and justice a very
important subject. It belongs to what is called _Mystic Theology_, and
gives us in a small compass the simpler elements of the science of the
saints, and cannot fail to interest all those who are entering upon a
life of Christian perfection, whether in religion or in the world. The
“obscure night of the soul,” as St. John of the Cross calls it, is
experienced in some degree by all whom the Holy Spirit is conducting
through purification, not to be effected without pain and sorrow, to
the highest and closest union with God possible while we are still in
the flesh. It is a deprivation of all sensible sweetness in devotion,
a desolation, a deadness of all but the very highest faculties of the
soul, in which all is dry and hard, and the soul discerns not a ray of
light to relieve the darkness that seems to pervade and envelop her
every act, and everything seems listless, prayer demands an effort,
and brings no consolation, and meditation is painful and fruitless.
This obscure night of the soul, sometimes called passive purgation, is
supernatural, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and is intended to try the
soul, to test its faith and confidence, to purify it, and enhance its
merit by bringing it in the end into joyful union with God.
If carefully distinguished from sadness and melancholy, which may
spring from the physical constitution and a variety of natural causes,
this inward desolation, in which the soul longs for light, for
spiritual life, and to behold the countenance of the Lord, is a great
good, and a proof that the Holy Spirit has not left us, but is present
within, and is preparing us for the joyful day that will dawn in the
soul, and permit us to ascend to the Mount of Vision with the saints.
Sensible sweetness, even visions, which are not seldom experienced by
one just entering a religious life, are baits to lure us on, or to
save us from discouragement, but they cannot create in us a robust and
solid piety. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son that he receiveth. Far more profitable to the soul is this obscure
night in which the Lord hides his face from us, and leaves us
desolate, and yet does not leave us, nor cease to love and care for
us.
Father Hewit explains the sources and solidity, the certainty, the
infallibility, of the science of the saints; shows the principles on
which it rests; describes the desolation of the soul due to the
discipline to which the Holy Spirit subjects the aspirant to Christian
perfection; gives plain and simple directions to distinguish it from
natural sadness or melancholy, and for the behavior of the soul while 283
suffering, and for deriving the greatest possible spiritual benefit
from it. He also gives us a criterion by which the operations of the
Holy Ghost may be distinguished from visionary illusions sent by Satan
to deceive and ruin the soul, which the spiritists make so much of.
His remarks on spiritism are just and opportune, are exceedingly
valuable, and should be pondered by every Catholic. The ravages of
spiritism are fearful.
The work is addressed solely to Catholics, and we think young and
inexperienced confessors and directors will find much in it to aid
them in their noble but arduous duties of directing souls in the way
of perfection. To the class of Christians for whom it is specially
intended, it will serve as a valuable and trustworthy guide, and will
assist them to profit by the many larger and fuller treatises on the
spiritual life whose excellence is unquestionable, and without
superseding them. We thank the author for the rich present he has made
us.
THE MONKS OF THE WEST, FROM ST. BENEDICT TO ST. BERNARD. By the Count
de Montalembert. Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1872. 2 vols.
This is an American reprint of the English translation of Count
Montalembert’s great work. The English edition is not only very
splendid, but very costly. Mr. Donahoe’s edition is compressed into
two volumes, at the reduced price of eight dollars, and is
nevertheless very handsomely printed, with type sufficiently large and
clear, and in all other respects well brought out. We welcome its
appearance as a most fortunate event, and recommend the work most
heartily as one which every intelligent Catholic ought to read as a
glorious monument of his religion, and every literary man as one of
the finest historical and literary productions of the age.
It is without a question that the Count de Montalembert was one of the
greatest and noblest men of this century, whether in or out of the
Catholic Church. The present work is the most complete and splendid
monument of his genius and piety which he has left to perpetuate his
fame. It is no mere compilation of biographies of the common sort, but
a history of the great monastic institution in the West, of its
stupendous works, and of the civilization of which it was one of the
chief organizing powers. It includes some most important and little
known chapters in the history of the chief nations of Christendom. Its
copious and exact erudition is only equalled by the majestic eloquence
of the style in which it is written, and which the translator has well
rendered into English. There are a few passages in the introduction in
which the author has allowed a certain bitterness of feeling to
disturb the ordinarily pure current of his sentiments, and has
betrayed some signs of his sympathy with the errors of the party of
so-called Liberal Catholics. We do not consider this blemish, however,
sufficient to detract seriously from the value and merit of this great
work, or to make its perusal in any way dangerous. It is a work
thoroughly Catholic, and pervaded with the same spirit of loyalty to
the Holy See which the illustrious author has expressed in his
dedication of the work to Pius IX. Whatever he said or did in a
contrary spirit was a lamentable inconsistency, which we trust God has
pardoned, as the Holy Father has done in so tender and magnanimous a
manner.
PETERS’S CATHOLIC CHOIR. A Monthly Magazine devoted to Catholic
Church Music. New York: J. L. Peters.
The purpose of this publication is to offer in a cheap form selected
musical Masses, hymns, and motets for the use of our church choirs. 284
The selections, from a purely musical point of view, are as good as
publications of this nature generally contain.
THE PICTORIAL BIBLE AND CHURCH HISTORY STORIES. Abridged. A
Compendious Narrative of Sacred History, brought down to the
present Time of the Church, and complete in one Volume. By the
Rev. Henry Formby. New York: The Catholic Publication Society,
9 Warren St. 1871.
This is a book which deserves to find a place as a text-book in all
Catholic schools, and to be put by all Catholic parents into the hands
of their children. Even the very little ones will be found capable of
comprehending the easy and familiar English of the narrative; nor can
too much stress be laid on the importance of thus familiarizing them
from the start with the history of God’s dealings with men. For this
purpose, the plan of acquainting them with the Bible history simply is
far from sufficient. It leaves too great a gap between the past and
the present--as if sacred history had virtually come to an end
eighteen centuries ago, and since then everything had been merely
secular and profane. A well-instructed child needs to have the whole
of sacred history, from the creation of the world to the usurpation of
Rome by Victor Emanuel, laid before his eyes in a series the
connections of which are plain and unbroken. Such a simple historical
knowledge will be apt to prove the best safeguard of his faith in a
time when there is no longer any great temptation for him to abandon
it in favor of misbelief, but when open unbelief in the providence of
God is fast becoming his only real enemy. The task which Father Formby
has undertaken, of presenting this history in an easy and compendious
form, is one which he has very satisfactorily accomplished, and for
which there seemed to be a crying need.
We can only hope that American Catholics will make haste to avail
themselves of the results of his labors. The book is an attractive
one, very fully illustrated by pictures which, if they are not to be
called artistic, have at all events the merit of being often
suggestive, and the letterpress will be found good reading by older
readers as well as by the young ones.
THE ILLUSTRATED CATHOLIC FAMILY ALMANAC FOR THE UNITED STATES FOR
THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1872. Calculated for different Parallels of
Latitude, and adapted for use throughout the Country. Illuminated
cover, 12mo, pp. 144. New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
1872.
There are many good works to be done for our Catholic community, and
here is one of them. A little annual at a trifling price, yet, in
paper, typographical execution, and illustrations, wonderfully
attractive, now finds its way to over seventy thousand Catholic homes,
and gives to perhaps a quarter of a million of Catholic readers
information, instruction, and entertainment.
The material is new and healthy. It is a commentary on the communion
of saints. Catholics are not of one state or country, of one age or
century. We are a brotherhood embracing all. The young growing up wish
to know of the past glories of the church as the old love to speak of
them; and all desire information of the actual life of the church.
God’s hand is not shortened in the nineteenth century. He overlooks
the great and wise, and reveals himself to little ones, now as of old.
Bernadette Soubirous, whose likeness is given, kneels there, and all
cluster round her to hear the wonderful history of Lourdes. The lately
martyred Archbishop of Paris will be viewed with interest, and the
sketch of him will be imprinted on all minds. The beautiful portraits
of Adelaide Procter and Eugénie de Guérin bring to mind the
representative women of the church in our day, whom to know is to 285
love; and many thousands will here begin to appreciate those two
beautiful souls. In the history of the church in America, all will
feel that Catholicity is no stranger in the land when we see before us
the remains of a cathedral in Greenland, built in the twelfth century;
a bishop in Florida in the sixteenth, predecessor of the illustrious
Carroll in the last, and the saintly Flaget in our own.
Ireland, the fatherland of so many sons of our Holy Mother, is not
forgotten. The ruins of religious houses, caused by hate, and the
excellent portrait of the Liberator, O’Connell, show the close union
between Catholics of all lands and times.
This little attractive bouquet of Catholic flowers, rich with the
aroma of faith, will, by its suggestions, its information, and its
creditable appearance alone, keep alive and stimulate the true
Catholic feeling; and there can be no better work than to disseminate
it widely and more widely in every parish, until it finds its way to
every Catholic family in the land.
LIFE OF THE REVEREND MOTHER JULIA, Foundress and First Superior
of the Sisters of Notre Dame, of Namur. Translated from the
French. With the History of the Order in the United States. New
York: The Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street. 1871.
Marie Rose Julia Billiart, the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame,
was born at Cuvilly, in Picardy, in 1751, and died in 1816. The life
from which this is translated was first published in 1862, for the use
of the Sisters, but will be found also of great interest to the
general reader. It is certainly so, or at least should be, in this
country, where they are so widely diffused, are doing so much for the
cause of Catholic education, and are so well known. Mother Julia was
also a saint, and the lives of the servants of God are always
interesting, especially when told in a natural and unaffected way. Her
whole life was an extraordinary one, though her congregation was not
established till 1803, when she had reached the age of fifty-two; its
foundation being, as it were, necessarily delayed by the disturbances
in France during the Revolution; but of course the greater part of
this memoir is occupied with her last years, which were more abundant
than those that preceded in visible service to others, though not
perhaps in merit to herself. At her death, the order was firmly
established, though not without passing through many trials and
difficulties, and had a number of houses in France and Belgium. It was
brought to this country in 1840, and to England three years later; it
now has seventeen houses there, and twenty in the United States,
having the care, in these two countries alone, of more than thirty
thousand children. The latter part of the book, as stated in the
title, is occupied with its foundation and establishment here; also an
interesting account is given of its introduction into England and
Guatemala, to which latter place they were sent in 1859.
We have before us a list of the houses of the Sisters in
Massachusetts, nine in number, at which nearly seven thousand children
are instructed, as well as over a thousand night-scholars; they have
also more than five thousand attending Sunday-school. It is very much
to be desired and hoped that so useful a body of religious may be
everywhere as abundant as in this favored state; and yet there are not
enough even there, and probably never will be. The words of our Lord
are always verified: “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers
are few.” Still, there will, no doubt, be vocations when they are
really asked for.
The _Life of Mother Julia_ is well and clearly printed, and beautifully
bound; and the translation was made by an American lady fully qualified 286
for the task.
An excellent portrait of Mother Julia embellishes the book.
THE FOUR GREAT EVILS OF THE DAY. By Henry Edward, Archbishop of
Westminster. London: Burns, Oates & Co. 1871. Pp. 142. For sale by
The Catholic Publication Society, New York.
The Four Great Evils exposed in these four lectures are the Revolt of
the Intellect against God, the Revolt of the Will against God, the
Revolt of Society against God, the Spirit of Antichrist. The author
shows how the revolt against the Roman Church and the Vicar of Christ
results in atheism, immorality, social anarchy, and the disruption of
the whole fabric of Christianity, involving the destruction of the
human race, and of the world, the Catholic Church excepted, which is
preserved by miracle to the end of time. These lectures are very
timely, and ought to be read by every reflecting person. The
Archbishop of Westminster is equal to the greatest of our modern
prelates in his clear insight into Catholic principles, and thorough
knowledge of the atheistic and communistic tendencies of
Protestantism. Hence the respect, fear, and hatred with which he is
regarded by the enemies of the church. One thing especially noticeable
in these lectures, and which we have observed with peculiar pleasure,
is the exhibition of the intellectual as well as moral degradation of
modern infidelity. The superstition and absurdity into which the proud
rebellion of the mind against the authority of the church has plunged
it is shown by Archbishop Manning, in a different way from that
employed by Dr. Newman, but with a force equally irresistible. We
recommend all our intelligent readers, and we presume that all our
readers are intelligent, who desire to master the true and pure
principles of the Catholic religion in their relation to the errors
and disorders of the day, to obtain and study carefully all the works
of the Archbishop of Westminster.
A CRITICAL GREEK AND ENGLISH CONCORDANCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Prepared by Charles F. Hudson, under the direction of Horace L.
Hastings, editor of _The Christian_; revised and completed by Ezra
Abbot, LL.D., Assistant Librarian of Harvard University. Second
edition, revised. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1871.
This handy little volume is evidently the result of a good deal of
painstaking and conscientious labor. As the production of several
hands, it is a monument of somewhat heterogeneous scholarship. It
professes to be “critical”; and critical and scholarly we are sure it
is, so far as it is indebted to the contributions of Dr. Ezra Abbot, a
gentleman whose minute bibliographical knowledge is only equalled by
his rare modesty, and by his readiness to place his learning at the
disposal of others. To his careful hand, we take it, is due the
collection of various readings as given by Griesbach, Lachmann, and
the latest editions of Tischendorf and Tregelles. The student will
find in this compilation a mass of information which we do not
remember to have seen in so compact a form elsewhere. For the rest,
the work will doubtless fulfil the purpose announced by the
editor-in-chief, as a “book available to the mere English reader,” and
will be welcomed by evangelical ministers of all denominations who may
have felt more or less keenly the need of supplementing the defects in
their early classical education by some easy artificial helps. How
convenient, for example, when we run against the word γυνή, to find,
on the authority of Messrs. Hastings and Hudson, that, in a given
number of passages, the majority in fact, it signifies _woman_,
undoubtedly _woman_, whereas in several other given passages, including 287
1 Cor. ix. 5, it means _wife_--even though there may be some
misgivings about the “margin.” Whether or not it be “critical,” under
cover of scholarship, to turn a supposed Greek concordance into
nothing more nor less than a quiet vindication of the accuracy of the
King James Version, we leave it to ordinary unbelievers to determine.
LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN, with Notices of some of his
Contemporaries, and Specimens of his Style. By D. A. Harsha, M.A.,
author of “Life of Philip Doddrige, D.D.,” etc. Philadelphia: J.
B. Lippincott & Co. 1871.
Nothing, we suppose, is more likely to strike the ordinary Catholic
reader, supposing him even to waste his time over books of the kind,
than the great meagreness and poverty of what are known by
Protestants as religious lives. Even a non-Catholic, like Mr.
Matthew Arnold, has somewhere commented on the superiority of
Catholic biographies to Protestant ones, with that air of easy
insolence which has made him anything but a pleasing subject for
contemplation to the majority of his countrymen and co-religionists.
Mr. Harsha’s life of the allegorizing tinker of Bedford can boast of
no advantage in this respect over other efforts of the same general
description. It is not, we should say, the fault of the biographer,
who seems to have genuine religious instincts, and to be principally
hampered by his ignorance of what true spirituality means, and the
poverty of the material he works in. These, however, are in his
position necessary evils.
This book has other faults for which he is more actively
responsible. A man who wonders that Bunyan should have been molested
for his religious views under what he, perhaps facetiously, calls
the “mild rule of Cromwell” (a characterization that John Evelyn would
have been as slow to endorse as any Catholic Irishman of Zedah) and is
puzzled to account for his freedom during the reign of the Second
James, needs something besides an acquaintance with the _Pilgrim’s
Progress_ and Bunyan’s sermons to qualify him for the task of a
biographer. Perhaps, however, a thorough knowledge of history would be
as successful an agent in the work of un-Protestantizing a sincere man
as any other merely human one that could be named.
GRADUALE DE TEMPORE ET DE SANCTIS, juxta Ritum Sacrosanctæ Romanæ
Ecclesiæ cum cantu Pauli V. Pont. Max. jussu reformato cui addita
sunt officia postea approbata sub auspiciis Sanctissimi Domini
Nostri Pii PP. IX. Curante Sacr. Rituum Congregatione, cum
privilegio. Ratisbonæ, Neo-Eboraci et Cincinnatii: Sumptibus,
chartis et typis Frederici Pustet.
About the time of the opening of the Œcumenical Council, the firm of
F. Pustet were permitted by special indult to publish a revised
edition of the Gradual known as the Medicean. A commission was
appointed by the Sacred Congregation of Rites to undertake this
revision, but the suspension of the Council and the political troubles
ensuing prevented the completion of their labors. A dispensation,
however, was granted to Mr. Pustet to publish and sell the work,
adding the portion yet unrevised as it stands in the original edition.
We reserve a fuller notice for some future date, when we hope to lay
before our readers a critical essay on the various editions of the
Gradual and other books of chant published in Europe and Canada.
THE GRAND DEMONSTRATION in Baltimore and Washington, D. C., in honor
of the XXVth Anniversary of the Election of Pius IX. to the Chair
of St. Peter, June 17, 18, 19. A.D. 1871. Baltimore: John Murphy &
Co.
It would be scarcely possible to add anything on the general subject
of this handsome brochure--the theme of so many thousand eloquent pens 288
and voices. The celebration in the Province of Baltimore, however, was
an exceptional one, as became the oldest See in the United States.
Besides the addresses, letters, and resolutions, etc., which we
naturally look for in such a publication, it includes encyclical and
other letters from His Holiness, and some historical and chronological
matter which the reader will find highly useful.
THE MARTYRS OF THE COLISEUM; or, Historical Records of the Great
Amphitheatre of Ancient Rome. By the Rev. A. J. O’Reilly,
Missionary Apostolic at St. Mary’s, Capetown. London: Burns,
Oates, & Co. 1871. For sale by the Catholic Publication Society,
New York.
The basis of the narratives of this volume is furnished by the ancient
_Acts of the Martyrs_. The story of several of the most illustrious
martyrs of the early ages is told by the author, according to history
and legend, with some embellishments of imagination, poetry, and
fancy. There is also an account of the history of the Coliseum itself,
as far as knowledge or probable conjecture can furnish it. The
author’s style is warm, exuberant, and brilliant. The volume is
instructive and entertaining, and ought to be a favorite, with young
people especially.
MANUAL OF PIETY, for the use of Seminarians. Second American Edition.
Baltimore: Published by John Murphy & Co., 182 Baltimore Street.
1872.
This is a new edition of an excellent and well-known manual for
seminarians. It can hardly be too highly commended either as regards
matter or form. It contains an immense amount of matter in a very
small space, and the type is clear and beautiful.
MR. ROBERT CODDINGTON has in press, and will publish about Christmas,
_The Vicar of Christ; or, Lectures upon the Office and Prerogatives of
our Holy Father the Pope_, by Rev. Thomas S. Preston, pastor of St.
Ann’s Church, New York, and Chancellor of the Diocese. It will be
published uniform in style with the other volumes of Father Preston’s
lectures.
The Catholic Publication Society will publish, November 1, _Mary,
Queen of Scots, and Her Latest English Historian_, a narrative of the
principal events in the life of Mary Stuart, with some remarks on Mr.
Froude’s _History of England_, by James F. Meline. This work will
contain not only the thorough criticism of Mr. Froude’s _History of
England_ as far as made in the five articles on the subject in THE
CATHOLIC WORLD--articles which have attracted general attention, and
put Mr. Froude upon his defence--but also a complete narrative of the
life of Mary Stuart, with a review of those volumes of Mr. Froude’s
history not noticed in the articles.
MR. P. DONAHOE, Boston, will soon publish _To and from the Passion
Play at Oberammergau, Bavaria_, from the pen of the Rev. George H.
Doane, Chancellor of the Diocese of Newark. It will be dedicated to the
Rt. Rev. J. R. Bayley, D.D., Bishop of Newark.
KELLY, PIET & CO. announce as in press _The Martyrs of the
Coliseum_, by Rev. A. J. O’Reilly.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
From CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO., New York: The Holy Bible according to
the Authorized Version (A.D. 1611), with an Explanatory and Critical
Commentary, and a Revision of the Translation, by Bishops and
other Clergy of the Anglican Church. Edited by F. C. Cook, M.A.,
Canon of Exeter. Vol. I. Part 1. Genesis-Exodus.
From KAY & BROTHER, Philadelphia: A Collection of Leading Cases in
the Law of Elections in the United States, with Notes and References
to the latest Authorities. By Frederick C. Brightly.
THE 289
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XIV., No. 81.--DECEMBER, 1871.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.
THE RECENT EVENTS IN FRANCE.
We have no occasion to dwell on the disastrous events of the war of
the second French Empire with Prussia, nor on the still more
disastrous results of the feeble efforts of the improvised republic to
drive back the German armies from French soil. They are too painful to
be dwelt on, and are, probably, as well known to our readers as to
ourselves. We may, however, remark that we regard it as a mistake to
represent the war as unprovoked by Prussia. The party that declares
the war is not always responsible for it. Prussia, by her duplicity,
her aggressive spirit, and her menacing attitude to France, gave to
the French government ample reason, according to what has long been
the usage with European nations, for declaring the war.
We have never been the partisans of Louis Napoleon; but it is only
simple justice to say that by his concessions of January, 1870, he had
ceased to be the absolute sovereign of France, and had become a
constitutional monarch, like the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland,
and the declaration of war against Prussia in July of the same year
was not his personal act, but the act of the Liberal ministry and the
French people, influenced, not unlikely, by the secret societies that
had sworn the Emperor’s destruction. Perhaps, when the facts are
better known, it will be clearly seen that the Emperor had really no
alternative but war with Prussia, or the loss of the French throne for
himself and dynasty. Though unprepared, he chose the war, as offering
at least a chance of success, and it is not improbable that the result
would have been less disastrous both for him and the nation if he had
been loyally sustained by the French people, and had not had a more
formidable enemy in his rear than in his front. The influences that
compelled him to consent to the declaration of war were unfriendly to
him, and both before and after the declaration were, not unlikely,
indirectly controlled by that astute but unprincipled diplomatist,
Bismarck, at present Chancellor of the new German Empire, and through 290
whose adroitness Germany has been Prussianized.
It now also appears that the disaster of Sedan was far less the fault
of the Emperor than of his marshals, who acted without his orders, and
without concert with one another. If Marshal MacMahon had fallen back
on the capital, as Trochu says he advised, instead of attempting to
relieve Metz, and given the nation time to rally and concentrate its
forces, it is probable the empire would have been saved, and the
Prussians been ultimately defeated and driven beyond the Rhine. Even
after the disaster of Sedan, the integrity of French territory might
have been saved, and peace obtained on far less onerous terms than
those which were finally imposed by the conqueror after the surrender
of Paris, but for the Parisian mob of the 4th of September, which
compelled the Corps Législatif to pronounce, illegally of course, the
escheat of the Emperor and the empire, to proclaim the republic, and
to suffer a so-called government of defence to be improvised. The
disaster of Sedan was great, but it was a mere bagatelle in comparison
with that of the revolution effected by the Parisian mob acting under
the direction of the secret societies, whose destructive power and
influence were so well and so truthfully set forth by Disraeli in his
_Lothair_, one of the most remarkable books recently published, and
which shows that its author fully understands the great questions,
movements, and tendencies of modern society. That revolution was the
real disaster, and Paris, not Prussia or Germany, has subjugated
France. The French, excepting a few lawyers, journalists, literary
dreamers, and the workingmen of the cities and towns, who demanded
“_la république démocratique et sociale_,” had no wish for a republic,
and were, and are, decidedly anti-republican at heart. The men
composing the so-called government of defence were, for the most part,
men who had not, and could not inspire it, the confidence of the
nation, were men without faith or solid principle, theorists and
declaimers, utterly destitute both of civil and military capacity,
distrusted, if not detested, by all Frenchmen who retained any sense
of religion or any love of country surpassing their love for their own
theories. France, perhaps, could have been saved by a loyal support of
the empire, and a hearty co-operation with the Imperial government
under the Empress-Regent, even after the disaster of Sedan, but not by
overthrowing it, and plunging the nation into the revolutionary abyss.
The government of defence only hastened the catastrophe by defaming
the Imperial government, calumniating it, and publishing every sort of
falsehood against it that malice could invent or render plausible, as
the event has proved, and all the world is beginning to see and admit.
But for the socialistic revolution, it is now known that, even after
the surrender of the Emperor, the Imperial government could have
obtained peace without any mutilation of French territory, and on
terms, if hard, at least such as could be borne. France would have
suffered the mortification of defeat, and would have been compelled to
indemnify, as a matter of course, Prussia for the expenses of the war;
but she would have suffered no loss of territory, and would have
remained, defeated indeed, but not conquered. Europe would have
mediated effectually in her favor, for the balance of power requires
her preservation; but the European nations could not intervene in favor 291
of a revolution which was a menace to each one of themselves, and
Prussia would not and could not treat with a revolutionary committee
that had no legal existence and no power to bind the nation.
The insurrection of Paris on the 18th of March, 1871, against the
Versailles government, was only the logical continuation of that of
the 4th of September against the empire. The same party that made the
one made the other. An omnibus would hold nearly all the republicans
in France that differ essentially or in principle from the Paris
Commune, and its suppression after a fearful struggle is the
condemnation of the revolution that overthrew the empire, and also of
the government that suppressed it. Its suppression, so absolutely
necessary if France or French society is to subsist, was simply the
revolution condemning and killing itself. No government can be founded
on the revolutionary principle, for that principle is destructive and
can found nothing; and hence it is that every revolution is compelled
to devour itself; and to be able to reconstruct and maintain political
or social order, it must deny its own principle, and as far as
possible undo its own work. Yet the Commune is only “scotched, not
killed,” and will rear its head again in the first moment a new
political crisis comes. A republic of law and order, respecting and
maintaining the rights of person and property, such as we regard our
own, is at present impracticable in every nation in Europe, with the
single exception of Switzerland, for it has no basis in the interior
life, the antecedents, the manners, customs, and usages of the people.
It was by the aid of non-republican France that the Parisian
insurgents were put down. There is in Europe no political _via media_
practicable as yet between the absolutism of Cæsar and the absolutism
of the people. Either Cæsar is in the place of God, or the people; and
the only religion this nineteenth century tolerates is either
monarchical absolutism or popular absolutism; and European society, as
we see, only swings like a pendulum from the one to the other, and
finds no liberty or chance for free development under either. Its real
progress is suspended.
At this moment, France lies prostrate with the iron heel of the
conqueror on her neck, and that conqueror, Prussia, a power that never
was known to have a noble or generous sentiment, and that has 1806 to
avenge. Prussia has not yet relaxed her hold on her prostrate foe, and
will not of her own accord, so long as a single sign of life remains.
France has now no legal government, no political organization, and,
what is the worst, recognizes no power competent to reorganize her
society, and reconstitute the state, and has recognized none since the
revolution of 1789. Since that worldwide event, she has had no
government which she felt herself bound in conscience to obey, or
towards which she had any genuine sentiment of loyalty. No government
has been able to count on the national support if it became
unfortunate, and ceased to gratify the national pride or vanity. The
principles of 1789, avowedly accepted as the basis of his government
by the Emperor, are destructive of the very sentiment of loyalty, and
deny the obligation in conscience of the people to obey authority any
longer than it suits their convenience. If a plebiscitum or the
popular vote could create a legal government, Louis Napoleon was and
is still the legal sovereign of the French people, and, through them,
of France. But the nation never had any sentiment of loyalty towards 292
him, and abandons him as it did his greater uncle the moment he
becomes unsuccessful. It never felt that it owed him allegiance, and
how could it since he professed to hold from it? His government was
based on a plebiscitum, and could it bind the nation? It was created
by the people, was their creature, and can the creator be loyal to or
bound by his own creation? The nation can be bound only by a power
above itself and be loyal only to an authority that comes from a
source independent of the people.
Louis Napoleon held from 1789, and had the weakness to believe in
plebiscitums. He seems never to have understood that universal
suffrage can only create an agency, not a government. He was a
disciple of the political philosophers of the eighteenth century, who
erected revolution into a principle. These philosophers of the
eighteenth century made no account of the continuity of the national
life, of national habits, customs, and usages, and assumed that the
convention might draw up an entirely new constitution according to an
abstract and preconceived theory, without regard to the antecedents or
past life of the nation, and without any support in the spiritual or
supernatural order above the nation, get it adopted by a plurality of
votes, and safely rely on _l’intérêt bien entendu_, or enlightened
self-interest, to preserve it and secure its successful practical
workings as the fundamental law of the nation. The whole history of
France for nearly a century, without any reference to our own
experience, refutes the absurd theory of the philosophers, or
sophists, rather. A French gentleman, still living, told us, before
the recent collapse of the second French Empire, that he had witnessed
seventeen revolutions or changes of government in his native country,
and he is in a fair way of living to see the number increased at least
to a score. No government created by and held from the people can
govern the people; and, if reason alone or the calculations of
interest were sufficient to sustain a government, no government or
political constitution would be necessary. Paper constitutions are
worthless, save so far as they express the living constitution of the
nation. “Constitutions,” Count de Maistre has well said, “are
generated, not made”; and the merit of the American constitution is in
the fact that it was born with the American people, not made by them.
France was originally constituted by the king, the nobility, the
church, with some feeble remains of the old Roman municipalities,
subsequently revived and expanded into the _tiers-état_. The balance
of her original constitution had been disturbed, it is true; the
church and the nobility had been greatly enfeebled by the inordinate
growth of monarchy on the one hand, and the expansion of the communal
power on the other; but these four fundamental elements of her
national constitution still subsisted in more or less force down to
the Revolution of 1789. That revolution swept away king, church, and
nobility, and proclaimed the _tiers-état_ the nation, without any
political organization or power to reconstitute legal or legitimate
government. No nation is competent to constitute itself, for till
constituted it is only a mass of individuals, incapable of any legal
national act. Since then France has been trying in vain to make
something out of nothing, and been continually alternating between the
mob and despotism--despotism suppressing the mob, and the mob deposing
despotism. She at this moment has no legal government, and the French 293
people recognize no power able to reconstitute the state. Her old
monarchical constitution, tempered by the church and her old nobility,
and restrained by provincial customs, usages, privileges, and
franchises, is swept away, and nothing remains of her political life
that can serve as the germ or basis of reorganization, or the
re-establishment of authority, competent, legally or morally, to bind
the nation, restore order, and protect liberty.
Worse than all else is the fact that 1789 swept away the church as a
power in the state, and left the state it wished to constitute without
any moral support, or power not dependent on the nation to sustain it.
It threw the management of public affairs into the hands of men and
parties that had no faith in God, who hated or despised religion, and
believed only in themselves and the perfectibility of the species.
This was the greatest evil of all. A nation may be politically
disorganized, and yet be able to recover and re-establish a legal
government, if it retains religion as an organized power, independent
of the nation; for it then retains a power that has its source in the
supernatural, above the people, and able to bind the national will in
conscience, and give consistency and a divine sanction to the national
ordinations. The first Napoleon had sense enough to see something of
this, and to understand that he could not reorganize disorganized
France without calling in religion to his aid; he therefore solicited
a concordat from the Holy See, and re-established the church. But he
had not sense enough to see and understand that even the church could
not aid him if holding from himself, or if subjected in her
administration to his own or the national will. He committed
the usual mistake of secular sovereigns, that of insisting on keeping
the control of the ecclesiastical administration in their respective
dominions each in his own hands, of using the church to control his
subjects, but allowing her no authority over himself.
Nothing can exceed the short-sightedness of secular sovereigns in
seeking to keep religion in their respective dominions subject to
their will as an adjunct of the police, rather than an independent
power holding from God, and alike supreme over sovereigns and
subjects. The present hostility to the church, even in old Catholic
nations, is in no small measure owing to the fact that the sovereigns
have sought to use her to preach submission, resignation, and patience
to their subjects, and to uphold the authority of the government,
however forgetful of its duties, tyrannical, or oppressive. They have
sought to make her their instrument in governing or, rather,
misgoverning their subjects, without the liberty to exercise the power
which, as the representative of the divine authority on earth, she
holds from God, to remind them of their duty to govern their subjects
wisely and justly, to rebuke and place them under interdict, and even
to declare their power forfeited when they persistently violate the
law of God and oppress the people. They thus render her odious to the
lovers of freedom. Hence we see the revolution far more bitter against
the church than against the sovereigns, who, having rendered her
odious by denying her the freedom and independence which are her
right, and without which she can render no service either to power or
to liberty, have everywhere abandoned her to the tender mercies of her
enemies, in the vain hope of conciliating the revolution and saving
their own heads. They throw her now as a sop to Cerberus. 294
The power of religion to sustain authority against the insurrection
and rebellion of subjects, and liberty against the tyranny of the
prince, is in her being an organic power in the nation, but
independent of the national will, holding from God, not from the
nation or its sovereign, and free to declare and apply the divine law
alike to prince and people. Nationalized, she has no support outside
of the nation, no power not derived from it, and can give the nation
only what it already has in itself. It must follow, not lead the
nation, and share its fate, which it has no power to avert. What can
the Russian Church do to restrain the tyranny of the Czar? Or the
Church of England to check the progress of the revolution now going on
and threatening to sweep away king, nobility, and the church first of
all? What can it do before the democracy become omnipotent? Why is it
that no Gentile nation has ever shown any recuperative energy, but
because Gentilism, as the name implies, is nationalism, and the nation
has in it only a national religion, and nothing outside, above, or
independent of the national authority? The Gentile religion, deprived
of catholicity, had to follow the nation, and to share its corruption
and its fate. When the nation fell, it fell with it; and the nation,
when it fell, fell for ever, and disappeared from the list of nations.
Protestantism in its essential principle is a revolt against
catholicity, and the subjection of religion to the national will. It
is essentially a revival of nationalism, or Gentilism, and hence a
Protestant nation has no recuperative energy, and, were it to fall,
its fall would be like that of a Gentile nation, a fall without the
power to rise again. So it must be with every nation that has only a
national or a nationalized religion.
Napoleon, who wished the church only as an adjunct of his own power,
never understood anything of all this. He saw that the church was more
conservative than Protestantism, and in fact so by virtue of her
Catholicity, that she had a stronger hold on the French people, and
could serve him better than any Protestant sect; but he did not see
that the church, sought for a political end, is necessarily powerless
even to that end, and that she serves a political end only when she is
sought for her own sake, recognized and supported for a religious end,
or as the free and independent kingdom of God on earth. Not
understanding this, he refused her unrestrained liberty, and sought by
his own legislation to subject her in his own dominions to his own
will, and to compel her either to support his policy or to feel the
full weight of his vengeance. She must support him, wear his livery,
do his bidding, hold his enemies to be her enemies, or he would not
tolerate her at all. She, as the church of God, could not accept this
position and sink into a mere national church, however powerful the
nation. She asserted her independence, and her independence alike of
him and those he professed to govern. He commanded her to obey him:
she refused. He quarrelled with her, dragged her supreme pontiff from
his throne, despoiled him of his estates, imprisoned him, was
excommunicated, became powerless before his enemies, was defeated,
lost his throne, and was sent by his conquerors to fret his life away
as a prisoner of England on the barren isle of St. Helena, leaving
French society hardly less disorganized than he found it.
The Restoration which followed was a return toward legitimacy, and
under it France actually recuperated with a rapidity which seems 295
marvellous to unbelievers. But it humiliated the nation, because it
was imposed on it by foreign bayonets, and its work of reparation and
expiation necessarily made it unpopular with all who had profited by
the plunder and confiscations of the Revolution, or by the wars of the
Empire. The spirit of 1789 still possessed a large portion of the
population. The Bourbons returned, also, with the old Gallican
traditions of the relation of church and state, which had lost the
monarchy, and prepared the people for the old revolution. They would
have the church, indeed, but they would never recognize her rightful
supremacy; and, though giving France really the best government she
had had for a long time, they at length fell before the intrigues of a
younger branch of the family, supported by the combined factions of
the Bonapartists, republicans, and socialists.
The monarchy of July or the Barricades was, notwithstanding the
pretences of the _juste milieu_, or doctrinaires, a purely
revolutionary government, improvised in the interests of disorder,
without a shadow of legality, and without anything, in the nation or
in religion, on which it could rest; and from the first it was spurned
by the legitimists, the old national nobility, by the peasantry, the
larger part of the republicans, and supported only by the
_bourgeoisie_, or business classes, and the Bonapartists, the latter
of whom hoped to make it a stepping-stone to the restoration of the
Napoleonic empire. It had no hold on the nation, no power to
reconstitute it on a solid and permanent basis; and so, as a new
generation appeared on the stage, it fell without a struggle before
the Parisian mob. It was indifferent rather than avowedly hostile to
the church, but it gave free scope to the infidel press, warred
against the Jesuits, and maintained the infidel university in the
monopoly of education. It, however, indirectly served the cause of
religion by the little court favor the bishops could obtain, and who,
in consequence, retired, and looked after the interests of religion in
their respective dioceses, so that when a Parisian mob overthrew the
citizen-king in February, 1848, and proclaimed the republic, the
church was really more influential in France than she had been since
1682. She had influence enough to displace the party that made the
revolution from the control of public affairs, to defeat and crush the
reds and communists in the terrible days of June, 1848, to save French
society from utter dissolution, and maintain order under a republic
proclaimed by the friends of disorder. We are far from being convinced
that, if the bishops and clergy had continued to show the energy in
supporting the republic that they did in wresting it from the control
of the infidels and destructives, they would not have been able to
reconstitute French society on a Catholic and a republican basis, to
the advantage alike of religion and society.
Certain it is, the church, though not officially supported by the
republic, and had many and bitter enemies in France, was freer under
it than she had been since the great Western Schism, and had a fair
opportunity to prove to the world that she is wedded to no particular
form of government or political organization, and can subsist as well,
to say the least, in a republic as in a monarchy. We thought at the
time, and we still think, though no enemy to monarchy and no blind
defender of republicanism, that the French bishops and clergy
committed a grave blunder in abandoning the republic and surrendering 296
French society to the nephew of his uncle--a member of the Carbonari,
a known conspirator against the Pope in 1832, and a favorite with the
red republicans and socialists. It would be difficult to estimate the
damage they did to France and to the cause of religion throughout the
world. It will cost, perhaps, centuries of bitter struggle and
suffering on the part of Catholics, to repair the sad effects of that
blunder. But French Catholics had for ages been accustomed to rely on
royal support, and they lacked the robust and vigorous habits under
God of self-reliance. The bishops and clergy could easily have marched
to a martyrs’ death, but they had with all their experience never
learned the folly of putting their trust for the church in princes.
They remembered the Reign of Terror; they remembered, also, the
flesh-pots of Egypt, and shrank from the hunger, thirst, and fatigue
of the desert.
The new emperor found the French people divided into three principal
parties--the church or Catholic party, which included the Bourbonists
and the better part of the Orleanists; the republican party, properly
so-called; and the socialistic or extreme radical party, represented
in the recent civil war by the communists of Paris and of all Europe.
His policy on commencing his reign was avowedly to keep the control of
all these parties in his own hands, by leaving each party something to
hope from his government, and allowing no one to gain the ascendency,
and, as far as possible, engrossing the whole nation in the pursuit of
material goods. He acknowledged the sovereignty of the nation,
professed to hold from 1789, and favored universal suffrage, which was
in accordance with the views of the republican party; he adopted
measures to secure employment to the working-men of the cities and
towns, among whom was the great body of the socialists, or communists,
by his encouragement of expensive national and municipal works; and,
to retain his hold on them and to protect himself from the assassins
of the secret societies, he made his Italian campaign, drove the
Austrians out of Italy, and prepared the way for Italian unification,
and for despoiling the Holy Father of his temporal possessions and
sovereignty; raised the salaries paid to clergy as servants of the
state, and repaired churches and abbeys as national monuments at the
national expense, to please and secure the church party. But he
suppressed the freedom the church had enjoyed under the republic,
maintained the “organic articles” of his uncle, and all the old
Gallican edicts and legislation against the freedom and independence
of the church in full force, trusting that she would see a
compensation for her loss of liberty in the increased pomp and
splendor of her worship or the gilded slavery to which he reduced her.
The recrudescence of infidelity, atheism, or materialism was a marked
feature under the Second Empire, and the influence of religion daily
and hourly declined; and all the wisdom and energy of the government
seemed exerted to _despiritualize_, if we may be allowed the word, the
French nation, to extinguish whatever remained of its old chivalric
sentiments and its old love of glory, once so powerful in every French
heart, and to render the nation intent only on things of the earth,
earthy. His policy, being always that of half-measures, disguised as
moderation, was not suited to make him true friends. His Italian
campaign against Austria was pushed far enough to make Austrians his 297
enemies, but not far enough to make friends of the Italians. His
consent to the annexation to Sardinia of the Italian duchies, the
Neapolitan kingdom, and the Æmilian provinces of the Holy See, was
enough to alienate the friends of international law, and to offend all
conservatives and Catholics who had any sense of right or religion;
but not enough, so long as he protected the Holy Father in the
sovereignty of the city of Rome, to gain him the good-will of the
infidels, communists, secret societies, or of the partisans of Italian
unity. His policy of never pushing matters to extremes, and of winning
and controlling all parties, by leaving each something to hope from
him, but never what any one specially desired, necessarily resulted,
as might have been foreseen, in offending all parties, and in gaining
the confidence of no one. He had by his half-and-half measures
succeeded in alienating all parties in France, and, by his Crimean
war, his Italian policy, and his half-league with Bismarck to drive
Austria out of Germany and increase the territory and power of
Prussia, had succeeded equally well in losing the confidence of all
the European nations with which he had any relations, and in finding
himself without an ally or a friend.
The elections of 1869 disclosed the very unsatisfactory fact that he
really had no party in France, and no support but his own creatures,
and if he still retained a feeble majority in the popular vote, say of
five hundred thousand votes out of an aggregate of six millions and a
half, it was from a dread of another revolution, rather than from any
attachment to him personally or to his government. This led him to a
new line of policy, to abandon _personal_ government, to make large
concessions to what is called self-government, and to throw himself
into the arms of the apparently moderate liberals, as distinguished on
the one hand from the church party, and on the other from the
socialists, communists, or destructives, that is, of the feeblest and
least popular party in France, and consented to the war against
Prussia as his only chance of recovering, by military success, if he
gained it, his popularity with the nation. His military expedition
having failed, because he had, so to speak, _unmartialized_ his
empire, and because he was not really backed by the French people, he
was obliged to surrender himself a prisoner of war with his army at
Sedan, and his dynasty was expelled by a mob. He had abandoned the
Holy Father in order to serve the liberals at home and abroad,
deserted the cause of God, and God, and even the liberals, deserted
him.
France is to-day not only prostrate under the iron heel of the
Prussian, but is without any government in which any party in the
nation has any confidence, and, if she recovers at all, her recovery
must be slow and painful, and subject to numerous relapses. Prussia,
as we have said, will not readily let go her hold, and never, so long
as she can help it, suffer her to rise from her present condition. The
remote cause is 1789, or rather the causes that led to that
uncalled-for and most disastrous revolution; but the proximate cause
we must look for in the lack of wise and practical statesmanship in
Louis Napoleon, who sought to govern France according to a
preconceived theory, worked out in his closet or his solitary studies.
When he took the reins of government, the Catholic party were really
in the ascendant; and, had he been a wise and practical statesman, he
would have seen that the only chance of reorganizing and governing 298
France was not in laboring to maintain an equilibrium of parties, but
in throwing himself resolutely on the side of the party, in studying
and sustaining, without any compromise with the enemies of God and
society, real Catholic interests, and in surrounding himself by
thorough-going Catholic statesmen. Catholicity alone offered any solid
basis for the state or for authority, order, or liberty. The other
parties in the nation were all, in varying degrees, the enemies alike
of authority and liberty, and none of them offered any solid basis of
government. He should, therefore, have placed his whole confidence in
Catholic France, and set them aside, and, if they rebelled, have
suppressed them, if necessary, by armed force. Had he done so, and
acted in concert with the Holy Father and the religious portion of the
nation, he would have reorganized France, given solidity to his power,
and permanence to his throne. But from policy or from conviction he
chose to hold from 1789, and was incapable of understanding that no
government that tolerates the revolutionary principle, or is based on
infidelity or the rejection of all spiritual or supernatural authority
above the nation, can stand. So-called self-government, without the
church of God, teaching and governing all men and nations in all
things spiritual, is only a delusion, for the nation needs governing
no less than the individual.
But as we have already hinted, there are remoter causes of the present
condition of France, and, we may add, of all old Catholic nations; and
Catholics must not throw all the blame of that condition on the
governments or the revolutionary spirit of 1789, still so rife. They
have been and still are the great majority in all these nations, and
why should they not be held responsible for the prevalence of the
revolutionary spirit, and for the bad secular governments they have
suffered to oppress the church? Why have they suffered an
anti-Catholic public opinion to grow up and become predominant? Why
have they suffered the rights and interests of religion to be
sacrificed to the falsely supposed rights and interests of the secular
order? Can they pretend that no blame attaches to them for all this?
France has, at least since the death of Philip the Second of Spain,
been the foremost Catholic nation of the world, and for a much longer
time the leader of modern civilization; and in her we may see the
causes that have produced her own fall and that of the other old
Catholic nations. France, in this her supreme moment, has not, we
believe, a single Catholic in the administration. The president is a
believer in no religion; the minister of foreign affairs is no
Christian, and besides is a man of very small abilities; the minister
of worship and instruction says he is moral, but he is certainly no
Catholic. The transition government, opposed as it is by all the other
parties in the nation, of course must at present seek to gain the
support of the bishops and clergy, or what we call the church party.
In Spain, though the majority are Catholics and have votes, the
government is in the hands of the enemies of the church. In Italy, a
handful of infidels and miscreants are able, though the great body of
the people are Catholics and have votes, to control the nation, to
violate with impunity every principle of private right and of
international law, to confiscate the property of the church and of
religious orders, and to despoil the Holy Father, take possession of
his capital, and hold him a prisoner in his palace. Why is this 299
suffered? Why is France and every other old Catholic nation ruled by
men who have no regard for the church and are opposed to her freedom
and independence? Whence in modern times comes this undeniable
political inanity of Catholics? Why is it that popular literature,
science, and public opinion are throughout the world decidedly
anti-Catholic?
Certainly this is not owing to the inaptitude of Catholics as such;
for, through all the ages from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to
the taking of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth
century, Catholics were the governing class, and in no period of human
history have civilization and the progress of society so rapidly
advanced as during this period, which Digby calls the Ages of Faith.
It is not, again, owing to any loss of life or vigor in the church
herself, as is evinced by the success of her missions in Protestant
nations and among savage and barbarous tribes. It is only in old
Catholic nations that the church loses ground, and this proves that
the cause is not in her. It can be traced to no Catholic cause, but
must be traced to some defect in the Catholic administration in these
old Catholic nations themselves. Catholics protect Catholic interests
better, and have more influence in public affairs in Prussia, in Great
Britain and Ireland, in Holland, and the United States, than in
Austria, France, Spain, or Italy. Why is this?
One reason we may perhaps find in the failure of pious and devout
Catholics to consider the difference between their duties in a
Catholic state and what were their duties in the early ages under the
pagan emperors. Under the pagan emperors, power was in the hands of
their enemies, as it is in infidel, heretical, and schismatical
nations now, and they had no political responsibility. All that was
incumbent on them was to cultivate the private virtues, to do their
best to sanctify their souls, to obey the constituted authorities in
all things not contrary to the law of God, and, when the laws of the
empire or the edicts of the emperors commanded them to do what the
Christian law forbids, to refuse obedience and submit cheerfully to
the penalty of disobedience, which in most cases we know was
martyrdom. But when the empire became Christian, and especially when
Christendom was reconstituted by the conversion of the barbarian
nations that succeeded to the empire, the position and duties of
Catholics or Christians in some respects changed. Power passed to
their hands, and they became responsible for its exercise, and it was
their duty to keep it in their own hands, and conform the national
legislation and administration to the law of Christ. Catholics then
incurred as Catholics a political responsibility which they had not
under the pagan emperor, and which they were not free to throw off.
The popes always understood this, and acted accordingly; but the
ascetic discipline which enjoined detachment from the world was by
many devout and earnest souls construed to mean detachment from all
part or interest in the political order or the government of
Christendom. In consequence, the affairs of state fell, as under the
pagan empire, into the hands of Cæsar, or of those who were more
ambitious to acquire honors and power than to protect and promote the
interests of religion.
This has been more especially the case since the opening of modern
history or the rise of Protestantism; and we find among devout
Catholics intent on saving their own souls a feeling that there is an
incompatibility between politics and religion, and that he who would 300
serve God must leave the affairs of state to men of the world; which
is, in effect, to deliver them over to the control of men who are
servants of Satan rather than servants of God. The state has,
therefore, been given over to the Enemy of souls, because Catholics
were led, through a one-sided asceticism, to neglect to keep it in
their own hands, and the church has been suffered to be despoiled, her
pontiffs, priests, and religious have been suffered to be massacred,
for the lack of a little resolution and energy on the part of
Catholics to defend their religion and the sacred rights of their
church and of society entrusted to their courage and fidelity. Thus a
handful of Jansenists, Protestants, Jews, and infidels in France were
permitted to establish a reign of terror over twenty-five millions of
Catholics, exile their bishops, massacre or banish their priests and
religious, suppress religious houses, close the churches, prohibit
Catholic worship, abolish religion itself, decree that death is an
eternal sleep, and substitute for the worship of the living God the
idolatry of an infamous woman, placed upon the altar and adored as the
goddess of Reason. All this time, while all these horrors were enacted
in the name of the nation, the twenty-five millions of Catholics,
except in Brittany and La Vendée, made hardly a show of resistance,
and suffered themselves to be led as sheep to the slaughter, forgetful
that they owed it to France and to Christendom to sustain and govern
their country as a Christian or Catholic nation. It is a duty to pray,
and to pray always, but sometimes it is a duty for Christians to
fight, and to have not only the courage to die in the battle for a
holy cause, but to generous souls the far more difficult courage, the
courage to kill. We have observed among French Catholics no lack of
courage against a foreign foe, even in a war of more than doubtful
necessity or justice, but a fearful lack of courage against the
domestic foe, as in the late communist insurrection of Paris. They
seem restrained by scruples of conscience.
Another reason may probably be found in the fact already hinted, that
the mass of Catholics have been trained and accustomed to rely on
external authority; to look for protection and support not to God and
themselves, but to the secular government. They have not been
accustomed to rely on spiritual authority alone, but on the secular
sovereign as a sort of _episcopus externus_. This had no evil
consequences so long as the secular sovereign was faithful, and acted
only under the direction and authority of, and in concert with, the
Supreme Pontiff; but it had a most disastrous effect when the
sovereign acted in ecclesiastical matters in his own name, and when he
turned against the Pope, and sought to subject the church in his
dominions to his own control or supervision, which was not seldom the
case. But the clergy and people, accustomed to look to the secular
authority to guard the fold against the entrance of the wolves, became
slack in their vigilance and remiss in acquiring habits of
self-reliance, and, with the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, of
self-defence. Consequently, when kings and princes ceased to keep
guard, or when they turned wolves themselves, as in the Protestant
revolt, the flock was powerless, knew not to whom to look for support,
and had no resource but to yield themselves to be devoured by schism,
heresy, or apostasy. This is now the case with the great body of the
Catholic people in all old Catholic countries. With the vain hope
of conciliating the revolution and preserving their thrones, the 301
sovereigns of Europe, without a single exception, have abandoned or
turned against the church, and there is not one on whom the Holy
Father can count. He is alone, with the kings and princes of the earth
either hostile or indifferent to him, while the old habit of relying
on the secular authority for support, for the moment at least,
paralyzes nearly the whole body of Catholics in all old Catholic
nations.
Another reason, growing out of the last, may be found in the habit
that has grown up since the rise of Protestantism, of relying on the
external almost to the exclusion of the internal authority of the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Ghost dwells in the church, and teaches and governs
through her as his external organ; he dwells also in the souls of the
faithful, and inspires and directs them, and gives vigor, robustness,
and self-reliance to their piety. Protestantism assailed the external
authority of the church, and made it necessary for Catholics to turn
their attention to its defence, and to show that no spirit that
disregards it, or that does not assert it and conform to it, can be
the spirit of truth, but is the spirit of error, in reality
anti-Christ, who, the blessed Apostle John tells, was already in his
time in the world; yet it may be that the defence of what we call the
external authority of the Holy Ghost, or authority of the church as a
teaching and governing body, has caused some neglect in the great body
of the faithful of the interior inspirations and guidance of the Holy
Ghost in the individual soul. No Catholic will misunderstand us. We
appreciate as much as any one can the external authority of the
church, her supremacy, her infallibility; we accept _ex animo_ the
supremacy and infallibility of the successor of St. Peter in the See
of Rome, as defined in the recent Council of the Vatican, and should
be no better than a Protestant if we did not; but that external
authority is not alone, or alone sufficient, as every Catholic knows,
for the soul, and its acceptance is not sufficient for salvation. The
Holy Ghost must dwell in the individual soul, forming “Christ within,
the hope of glory.” We do not mean to imply that any of our ascetic
writers or spiritual directors overlook the need of the interior
inspirations and guidance of the Holy Spirit, or fail to give it due
prominence, but that its authority has not had due prominence given it
in our controversial literature and in our expositions of Catholic
faith intended for the public at large.
All these reasons have combined to reduce France, so long the foremost
Catholic nation in the world, to her present pitiable condition,
hardly more pitiable than that of Italy, Spain, Austria, and the
Spanish and Portuguese states of this continent. What is the remedy,
or is there none? We do not believe there is no remedy. We do not
believe it, because the church proved her power in France under the
Republic of 1848, which originated in hostility to her still more than
to monarchy; we do not believe it, for we see Catholicity still able
to convert the heathen; we do not believe it, because we see
Catholicity vigorous and flourishing, and every day gaining ground in
Protestant nations, where the church has no external support, and
receives no aid from the state, and is thrown back on her own
resources as the kingdom of God on earth, as she was under the pagan
emperors. These facts prove that she is by no means effete, or
incapable of making further conquests. Her decline in old Catholic
nations is no sign of weakness or decay in her, but is due to the 302
imperfect training, to the timidity and helplessness of her children,
deprived as they are of their accustomed external supports.
The remedy is not, as De Lamennais contended, in breaking with the
sovereigns and forming an alliance with the revolution; but in
training her children to those interior habits and robust virtues that
will enable them to dispense with the external props and supports of
civil society, and in asserting for herself in old Catholic nations
the freedom and independence she has here, or had in pagan Rome,
though it be done at the expense of her temporal goods and of
martyrdom. The people of God, under the Old Law, sought support in an
arm of flesh; the arm of flesh failed, and they were carried away into
captivity. The arm of flesh fails the people of God again. There are
Christians, but there is no longer a Christendom. Modern society is
hardly less pagan than the ancient society the church found when she
went forth from Jerusalem to convert the world. There is no reliance
to be placed in the horsemen and chariots of Egypt. The whole world is
to-day, as in the time of the apostles, a _missionary_ world; and,
perhaps, the greatest embarrassment of the Holy Father is encountered
in the fact that Catholics in old Catholic nations cannot see it, but
persist in being trained and governed as they were when there was a
Christendom. Everywhere the church is by the defections of the
governments become again in all nations a missionary church, and her
bishops and priests need everywhere to be trained and formed to be
wise, persevering, and effective missionaries. Catholics must
everywhere be made to understand that it is not the church that needs
the state, but the state that needs the church.
France without the church has no power to reorganize the state. She
has not yet subdued the revolutionary elements which have so confused
her, nor loosed the hold of the conqueror upon her throat, and her
present improvised government deserves the confidence of no party in
the nation. In itself, the Thiers government is utterly powerless. It
needs the church, and cannot stand without her. French Catholics
should understand this, and boldly assume the lead of public affairs,
if they are men and love their country, and make, as they now can, the
republic, under an emperor, king, or president, it matters not much
which, a truly Catholic republic, and France, now so low and weak, may
become again the nucleus, as under Clovis and St. Clotilde, of a
reconstructed Christendom, constituted differently as to politics, it
may be, but unchanged as to religion from that which has now passed
away. The church never dies, never changes, and cannot be other than
she is; but the political organization of Christendom may change with
time and events. It changed when the barbarian nations displaced the
Roman Empire; it changed when Charlemagne closed the barbarous ages,
and opened the way for the feudalism of the middle ages; it changed
again when, through the revolution inaugurated by Luther, absolute
monarchy succeeded to feudalism in Catholic hardly less than in
Protestant Europe; and it may change again when order succeeds to the
present revolutionary chaos. It is not likely that Christendom will be
reconstructed on its old political basis, whether it is desirable that
it should be or not, and, for ourselves, we think that all who hope to
see it so reconstructed are sure to be disappointed. We think it not 303
improbable that, when Christendom is reconstituted, it will be
politically, on a republican and anti-monarchical basis. Pure
absolutism, whether that of Cæsar or that of the people, is
incompatible with the recognition of the divine sovereignty, and
consequently with religion. Neither form of absolutism can form the
political basis of a reconstructed Christendom; but the probabilities
are that, when things settle into their places, and the new order
begins to emerge, it will be based on some form of republicanism, in
which the organic people will take the place of the monarch.
The present condition of things is certainly sad; but we see nothing
in it that should lead us to despair of the future. Catholics in old
Catholic nations have needed, and perhaps still need, to learn that
this church can subsist and conquer the world without any external
support of the secular government, but that secular government cannot
subsist and discharge properly its duties to society without the
church. We who live in Protestant countries, and see society daily
dissolving before our eyes, have no need to be taught that lesson; we
have already learned it by heart. But the mass of Catholics in old
Catholic nations, even of the educated as well as the uneducated, as
yet only imperfectly understand it, and consequently render it
difficult, if not impossible, for the church to adopt fully and
promptly the measures she might judge the most proper to meet the
wants of the times. They do not see that the old Christendom has gone,
beyond the hope of recovery. Providence, it seems to us, has permitted
the present state of things as necessary to disembarrass the church of
their inopportune conservatism, and to force them to learn and profit
by the lesson which every day becomes more and more necessary for them
to heed, if the prosperity of religion is to be promoted, the
salvation of souls to be cared for, and the preservation of society
assured. The measures taken are severe--very severe, but there are
scholars that can be made to learn only by the free use of the ferula.
Especially do the Catholics of France need to learn this lesson, for
in no other country have Catholics made their religion so dependent on
the secular order.
The fall of France, notwithstanding the faith, piety, and charity of
so large a portion of her people, will probably prove only a temporary
injury to Catholic interests. France has fallen because she has been
false to her mission as the leader of modern civilization, because she
has led it in an anti-Catholic direction, and made it weak and
frivolous, corrupt and corrupting. Providence is severely punishing
her; but he has not, we trust, cast her off for ever. She has in her
bosom still millions of Catholics, and these have only to come forward
in the strength of their religion, displace the enemies of God, take
themselves the management of the affairs of the nation, and show the
wisdom and energy they did in 1848, when they put down the red
republicans and socialists. They will then enable France, in spite of
the grasp of the conqueror and the fierce opposition of the
destructives, to recover, slowly and painfully, it may be, but
nevertheless to recover, and to prove herself greater and more
powerful than ever. When France becomes once more a really Catholic
nation, the revolution will be extinguished, infidelity will lose its
popularity, atheism will no longer dare show its head, and a reaction
in favor of the church will take place, so strong and so irresistible 304
that the whole world will be affected by it, and the nations that have
so long been alienated from unity will be brought back within the
fold.
The only obstacle to this grand result which we see is in the
timidity, in the lack of energy on the part of Catholics in the
assertion and defence of their religion, or in their want of courage
to confide alone in God for success. Adversity, we think, can hardly
fail to reform and reinvigorate them, and to direct their attention to
their true source of strength as Catholics or the children of God.
They will learn from it to adhere more closely to the Chair of Peter,
and to rely more on the internal direction of the Holy Ghost, and less
on the aid of the secular order. No doubt, the present state of things
imposes additional labors as well as sufferings on the bishops and
clergy in old Catholic nations, and requires some modifications of the
education of the priesthood now given in our seminaries. Our Levites
must be trained for a missionary world, not for an old Catholic world;
but this need alarm no one; for the greater the labors and sacrifices
in the service of God, the greater the merit and the reward.
----------
A MEMORY.[77]
’Twas only a prayer I heard
In that vast cathedral grim,
Where incense filled the air
And vesper lights burnt dim.
’Twas only a woman’s form,
Kneeling with upturned face,
That looked through the pictured altar
Up to the throne of grace.
Clasped in her small white hands
An amber rosary telling;
While from her glorious eyes
Teardrops fast were weelling.
No thought for the world without,
No thought for the stranger near,
As pausing and sobbing she murmured,
“O Mother of sorrows, hear!”
And I, in a land of strangers,
Joined in the pleader’s prayer:
Praying for her that I knew not,
To Her who I felt was there.
[77] By one who is not a Catholic.
----------
THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 305
CHAPTER XVII.
“Most characters are too narrow for much variety,” says Walter Savage
Landor; and, we add, so much the better for them! for that variety is
often a bitter dower to its possessor.
A man of one idea may be called an acute sector of humanity. He is
clear-willed, prompt, and uncompromising; he walks over people who
stand in his path, and will not listen to the opinions of others,
except in order to controvert them; and he usually accomplishes
something that you can see. The man of two ideas widens his arc a
little, and turns out for and listens to people now and then. The man
of three or more ideas lives and lets live, believes that some good
may come out of Nazareth, and not only listens to others, but is
sometimes convinced by them; and his path curves somewhat, hinting at
an orbit. In him you first perceive that growing humanity aims at the
circle; and as, with the crescent moon, we may see the full moon
faintly outlined, so this man perceives more than he is. For it is not
true, at least not here, what Carlyle says, that “what a man kens, he
can.”
But there is another kind of man, rarely seen, who rounds the circle.
He has eyes and sympathies for zenith and nadir, sunset and sunrise,
and every starry sign. His thought enters at every door, feeds at
every table, and listens to every tongue. Nevertheless, to the few of
one idea and the few of two ideas, and the countless throng of those
who never had an idea, he is, oftener than not, a fool, or a knave,
or a lunatic. He is eccentric, inconsistent; worse than all,
unpractical. Doubtless, he is wicked as well, since he is likely to
eat of all the fruits in the garden. For, though original sin may have
touched them with blight on the one cheek, on the other, to his eyes
still lingers that paradisian bloom it caught on the sixth day, when
the Creator looked, and _saw that all was good_. This perfected
nature, therefore, which needs only the _fiat lux_ of faith to make it
a sun, is appreciated and hailed by him only from whose one limit to
the other stretches the connecting glimmer of prophetic
half-knowledge.
We do not pretend to say that Carl Yorke had one of these universally
sympathizing natures; but he was various enough to be hard to get
attuned, especially since his programme had once been interrupted, and
his harmony temporarily disconcerted.
When a man has looked upon happiness as his first object in life, he
finds it hard to give it the second place, or to leave it quite out of
his plans. Moreover, we do not repent till we have transgressed, and
it must, therefore, be far more difficult to save the tempted than the
sinner. Of actual, heinous transgression, Carl was innocent; but he
had slipped around the outer circle, where first you lay the oars
aside, and the smooth-backed waves become your coursers. Then a man
fancies himself a god: not Neptune himself seems greater. One may more 306
easily tear himself out from the central whirl than draw back from
that smooth outer circle.
Besides, there was doubt. He who can do many things must needs choose,
and, where circumstances are passive, choice may be difficult. Carl
inherited his father’s talent, and had more than his father’s force.
He sketched and painted exquisitely, and, when he drew the portrait of
one he loved, the picture breathed. Many a lady, disappointed with the
stiff presentment of her beauty achieved by other artists, had
entreated him in vain to become her limner.
“Ransome paints my nose, and hair, and shoulders all right,” one said.
“I cannot find fault with a line. But for all the soul he puts into
them, my head might as well be a milliner’s block. I suppose it is
because he thinks that a fine body does not need any soul. Such a
contrast as I saw in his studio, the other day! He had two or three
portraits of Mrs. Clare, painted in different positions, and he
displayed them to me, going into ecstasies over her beauty. ‘Yes,
yes,’ I answered; but I was not enchanted. ‘She is one of the few
dangerous women,’ he said, meaning that the power of her loveliness
was irresistible; but I could not understand his enthusiasm.
Presently, I espied, in a corner of the room, on the floor,
half-hidden by other pictures, a face that made me start. I did not
think whether or not the features were perfect, the hair profuse, the
tint exquisite. I saw only a luring, fascinating creature, who, with
head half-drooping and lips half-smiling, gazed at me over her
shoulder. There were no red and white. The face looked out from
shadows so profound, they might be of a midnight garden at midsummer,
when the moon and stars are hid in sultry cloud, or from the shrouding
arras of a lonely chamber in some wicked old palace, or from the
overhanging portal of the bottomless pit. I would walk through fire to
snatch back one I love from following such a face. ‘It is wonderful!’
I exclaimed. ‘Why do you hide it? It is by far superior too anything
else you have here.’ I thought that Mr. Ransome did not seem to be
much delighted by my praise. ‘I did not paint it,’ he said. ‘Carl Owen
Yorke did.’ Of course, I could not say any more. The situation was
embarrassing. ‘Would you think that face the same as these?’ pointing
to his portraits of Mrs. Clare. I could see no resemblance. ‘They are
the same,’ he said, looking mortified. And then I knew what he meant
in saying that she was a dangerous woman.” “Why did you paint that,
Mr. Yorke?” the lady asked abruptly, turning upon Carl.
“In order not to be attracted by it,” he replied gravely. “Did it not
leave on you the impression of something snakelike? In painting that,
I broke the spell. Alice Mills told me to paint it. She said, ‘You are
fascinated only by that which you cannot analyze. Catch the trick, and
the power is gone.’ She was right. She is always right. Nothing is so
shallow as an evil fascination.”
Yet, in spite of every promise of success, Carl turned aside from art.
He had found out that the artist, above all, needs happiness. One can
study, think, and work, when the heartstrings are strained to
breaking; but he who, with his hand upon the pen, the brush, the
chorded string, or the chisel, waits till those subtile influences
which he is gifted to perceive shall move him, must have every pulse
stilled by a perfect content. Pain distorts his work. It untunes his
music, blurs his color, deadens his thought, and makes his chisel
swerve. Nor is this in purely natural art alone; for the artist whose 307
struggling soul ignores all else to grasp the supernatural gives only
a blunted ray through a turbid medium.
The pencil failing, there was diplomacy, and literature, particularly
journalism. Something must be done. His idle and aimless life had
become a torture. Therefore he studied, and read, giving much time to
languages. “Languages,” he was wont to say, “are as necessary to a man
who would always and everywhere have his forces in hand, as a string
of keys is to a burglar.”
A conversation which Carl held with Edith, just before she left
Boston, may have been instrumental in arousing him. The two stood
together, in one of the lance-windows that lighted Hester’s library.
Hester and her mother were up-stairs, and there was no one else in the
room but Eugene Cleaveland and his little brother, Hester’s child. The
little one was gravely and patiently striving to pick up, with dimpled
fingers, a beam of pink light that fell on the floor through a pane of
colored glass in the window-arch, and Eugene was as gravely explaining
to him why he could not.
“And so,” said Carl, after a silence, “Mr. Rowan is your ideal man.”
It was his way of intimating his knowledge of existing circumstances,
and he spoke carelessly, watching the children.
“I have no ideal of man,” Edith replied briefly; and, after a moment,
added: “A person maybe excellent, without being ideal.” She thought a
moment longer, then said: “Men and stars have to be set at a certain
distance before they shine to us. I am not sure but Tennyson could
make a fine hero of a poem of Dick. He has heroic qualities. I do not
analyze nor criticise my friends, but I perceive this in him: he is
capable of proposing to himself an object, and following it steadily.
Every one is not.”
Carl Yorke’s countenance changed. And yet he knew well that she had
not dreamed of reproaching him.
“What are you studying Spanish for?” Miss Clinton inquired fretfully,
one day. “You might as well learn to dance the minuet.”
“When one has so many castles in a country, one would like to know the
language,” he said.
“Pshaw!” exclaimed the old lady. “Don’t waste your time. No language
with a guttural in it is fit for a well-bred person to speak. Besides,
to speak Spanish properly, you must wear a slouched hat and a
stiletto, or a ruff and feather. I have no patience with this mania
for tongues. English and French are enough for any sensible person.
Italian is boned turkey. What book is that you have brought in?”
“De Maistre, _Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg_.”
Miss Clinton laughed disagreeably. “‘The prophet of the past,’ is it?
Who is it says that he has ‘_une grande vigueur, non pas de raison,
mais de raisonnement_’? Are you studying sophistry or Ultramontanism?
_A propos_, there are pretty doings in that absurd little town where
your people live. That ungrateful paper which you used to edit has
been abusing your father like a pickpocket, on Edith’s account, I
suppose. You wouldn’t tell me, but Bird found out; and she says that
he doesn’t dare stir outdoors.”
“It is not true that he is afraid,” Carl said; “but he is insulted. In
Seaton, ‘the pen is mightier than the sword,’ without doubt. I would
like to see it tried if the horse-whip might not in this case be 308
mightier than the pen.”
“You see, now,” the old lady said, “what mischief all these religions
make. The basis of every so-called religion is hatred of every other
so-called religion. And here you are poring over De Maistre! Pshaw!
Read _The Age of Reason_. Here it is.”
Carl was silent a moment, struggling with himself. Then he said, “I
have gone round the circle, and come back to a faith in faith, and the
sneers or arguments of the atheist have no more effect on me. I have
found that mocking is neither noble nor manly, still less womanly; and
I look back on my days of scepticism as on the freaks of a
presumptuous child, who fancies itself wiser than its parents, when it
is only more foolish. I have done with Tom Paine and his brotherhood.”
It is always hard to even seem to exhort our elders, and especially so
when they are our intimates; and Carl spoke with such an effort that
his words seemed to be a passionate outburst.
Miss Clinton looked at him a moment in silent astonishment, then
laughed shrilly. “‘_What is this that hath happened to the son of
Kish?_’” Then changing suddenly, she rang her bell. “Bird,” she said,
when that person appeared, “I want you to read the paper to me. There
is a beautiful case of poisoning, this evening. Young Mr. Yorke is too
pious for secular reading. He has turned preacher, Bird. You and he
can sing psalms together.”
“Alice, I accept one dogma of your church,” Carl said afterward to his
friend. “I must believe in purgatory, for I am in it.”
“I am rejoiced to hear it,” she replied, yet looked at him sadly. She
would so gladly have spared him any pain. “Purgatory is the high-road
to heaven. Of course, while you are getting your moral perspective
arranged, you must feel uncomfortable; but once started in life, all
will arrange itself.”
“Suppose that I should fail?” he asked.
“I dare say that you will fail, in one sense,” she replied. “Men who
propose to themselves great ends always do meet with a sort of
failure, as the flower fails in order to give place to the fruit. Each
great success, _being unique_ of its kind, comes in its own way.
You cannot count surely, but success must come, sooner or later.”
“You speak as if I had all eternity,” he said, not without impatience.
She looked up vividly. “You have all eternity, Carl!”
He made no reply.
“Let me quote a favorite of yours,” she said:
“‘That low man goes on adding one to one,
His hundred’s soon hit.
This high man, aiming at a million,
Misses a unit.
That, has the world here--should he need the next,
Let the world mind him!
This, throws himself on God, and unperplexed,
Seeking, shall find him.’”
“I understand you,” he said, with a slight shrug. “But, do I look an
apostle?”
“You might be,” she answered. “You could influence a class which the
preachers cannot reach. Religion has been too much confined to
ascetics, or to those who underestimate the power of the beautiful.
What we want most now are Christians who can outshine sinners in
grace, fascination, and learning. In these reckless days, people will
not receive a check from those whom they know would gladly impose an
utter prohibition; but one of their own might put a limit. We want
scholars who will acknowledge that there is a point beyond which 309
speculation should not go and reason cannot. We want accomplished
leaders in society who are not ashamed to prostrate themselves before
God; and we want gentlemen to encourage modesty in women. You see
there is a large field.”
“I am glad,” Carl exclaimed, “to hear a Catholic own that a rich and
cultivated person can do some good in the church besides giving money.
From all the sermons I have heard with you, the impression I have
received is that clean linen and a knowledge of the alphabet are
obstacles to grace. Never once have I heard talent or culture spoken
of except with reprobation.”
“Oh! you exaggerate!” she said. “It is true, the poor need constant
comfort, and the rich constant warning; and it is equally true that
the greatest ignorance, combined with charity, must be more pleasing
to God than the finest intellect and learning without charity.”
“There is precisely the point,” Carl said eagerly. “And my experience
and belief are that the finer the mind and the culture, the greater
the charity, and _vicè versa_. ‘_Tout comprendre c’est tout aimer._’ I like
Sir Thomas Browne’s thought: ‘Those highly magnify him whose judicious
inquiry into his works returns him the homage of a learned
admiration.’”
She made no reply. They had been out walking, and they now reached
Miss Mills’s door. “Are you ill?” Carl asked, noticing that she looked
unusually pale.
“I am rather tired,” she answered faintly. “Good-by!”
When he turned away, she stood looking at him through the side-light,
and, when he was no longer visible, she went up-stairs to her chamber.
She was very tired, and very ill. Her impulse was to lie down, but she
hesitated, then refrained. “All is ready,” she said, looking about
her. “I do not think that there is anything to do.”
She put up a small trunkful of clothing with feverish haste, rang her
bell, and ordered a carriage. “Drive to the Hospital of the Sisters of
Charity, in South Boston,” she said to the driver. And, sinking back,
knew no more till she had reached her destination.
“I think I have come here to die,” she said to the sister who received
her. “And I have a few wishes. Send back word immediately where I am.
I did not tell them, for I could not bear any struggle. My worldly
affairs are all in order, and I have no last words to say to any one.
Let no person come near me but the sister and the priest, and do not
mention any person’s name to me, nor tell me who comes to inquire. I
know they will all be kind; but all my life has been a sacrifice to
others, a sympathizing with and loving of others, while my own heart
starved, and these last hours must be given to God alone. No earthly
being has any claim on them.”
Perhaps in all her life she had never before spoken so bitterly, but
her words were true. She had given to the poor, and worked for them,
and their gratitude had been but the ‘lively sense of favors to come.’
She had been solicitous for friends, had mourned over their sorrows,
and sympathized with them always, and their selfishness had grown upon
her unselfishness. So sweet had been the sympathy and love she
lavished upon them, they had never stopped to inquire if she were
impoverishing herself, or if she also might not wish sometimes to
receive as well as to give.
But the thought of how keen would be the revenge of this utter
withdrawal at the time when they must have been startled into 310
thinking of her in some other way than as pensioners, never entered
her mind. Besides that momentary and almost unconscious complaint, she
had but one thought: God alone had loved her, and she must be alone
with him. She could no longer do anything for any person; and since no
one belonged to her more than to any other, nor so much as to others,
no one had any claim to intrude now.
The sisters were faithful to their charge. Of the many who came with
tardy devotion, she heard nothing; of Miss Clinton, sitting in her
carriage at the door, with two men waiting to carry her up-stairs in a
chair as soon as she should have permission, the attendants did not
speak to her; of Carl Yorke, haunting the place, and sitting hour
after hour in the parlor, waiting for news, she never knew.
One day, when Carl had sat there long, with only one prospect of news
before him, the priest came down, and entered the room. Carl lifted
his face from his hands, and looked at him, but could not speak.
“Let us think of heaven!” said the priest.
Of some actively religious persons, we might think that they parody
the paradox, and say, Give us the luxuries of piety, and we will
dispense with the necessities; but this woman had been other. No great
work could be pointed to that she had done or attempted: her life had
flowed like an unseen brook, that, hidden itself, is only guessed at
by the winding line of verdure which betrays its presence. She was one
of those piteously tender and generous souls whom everybody makes use
of, and nobody truly thanks. Seldom, indeed, do we find one so just
and truly kind as to think for those who do not demand their
thoughtfulness. It is the clamorous and the pushing who possess the
land.
A part of Miss Mills’s fortune was given to the church, the rest was
left conditionally. She knew Miss Clinton’s caprice well enough to
think it possible that Carl might be left unprovided for at the last
moment. In such a case, he was to be her heir, after a few legacies
had been paid. But if Miss Clinton’s will should be favorable to him,
then all was to go to Edith.
On Miss Clinton, the effect of this death was terrible. She
alternately refused to believe that it had taken place, and reproached
them for telling her of it. When Bird tried indiscreetly to draw a
pious lesson from it, the old lady flew into such a paroxysm of rage
that she frightened them. She seemed to be on the point of having
convulsions. Carl went to the funeral without saying where he was
going, and the name was never again mentioned in her hearing.
But that silence was not forgetfulness, they saw plainly; for, from
that time, Miss Clinton never allowed herself to be left alone a
moment. Bird read to her till far into the night, watched her fitful
slumbers, and was ready with cheerful inquiries whenever the old lady
opened her frightened eyes. The light never went out in her room, but
was kept brightly burning--a small shade screening the face only of
the sleeper. By day, Carl had to read to her amusing stories or tell
the gossip of the town.
When spring came again, she was unable to leave her room, and, in a
short time, was confined to her bed, and from querulous became
light-headed.
Carl made a desperate effort one day to induce her to see a priest or 311
a minister, using every argument in his power, even begging her to
consent for his sake. He was not sure that she heard or understood all
that he said, for, though she sometimes looked at him with intent,
wide-open eyes, her glance often wandered.
“Are you afraid?” she asked sharply, when he paused for a reply.
“Yes; I am afraid,” he answered. “There is no bravery in defying God.”
She half-lifted herself from the pillows, her brows contracted with an
anxious frown, and she looked about the room as if in search of some
one. He was startled by the change in her face. “Do you want
anything?” he asked gently.
“Carl,” she called out, as if he were far away and out of her sight,
“who was it said, ‘O God!--if there is a God--save my soul--if I have
a soul’?”
She did not look at him, but leaned out of bed, staring wildly round
the room. He tried to soothe her, and coax her back to her pillows
again.
“Was it I said it?” she asked excitedly, resisting him, and sitting
upright. “Was it I said it? It sounds like me, doesn’t it?”
He rang the bell, and Bird came in. But they could do nothing with
her. She pushed them aside, leaned from the bed, and searched the room
with her wild eyes, then looked upward, and seemed to shrink, yet
continued looking. “Was it I said it, Alice?” she cried out
breathlessly. “It sounds like me, doesn’t it? ‘O God!--if there is a
God--save my soul--if I have a soul!’”
“She is gone!” Carl whispered, and laid her back on the pillow.
So Carl Yorke was at last rich and free, with the world before him.
There was but little for him to do at present. When winter should be
near, the family were to come up and take possession of their old
home, which would then be ready for them. Now that it was summer, he
would go down and stay with them a while. If rest and pleasure were to
be had there, he would have them. He felt like one who has travelled
over a dusty, sultry road, and longs to plunge into a bath, and wash
all that heat and dust away. He wanted to hear again at the home
gatherings gentle voices, to see tender, thoughtful ways, to refresh
his soul in that quiet yet rich atmosphere.
“I will not turn my back upon delight, and invite dryness of life by
looking for it,” he thought. “If the Bible does not proclaim my right
to pursue happiness, the Declaration of Independence does, and I will
give myself the benefit of the doubt. When the summer fails, I must
look about me, and think of work, and remember the curse of Adam; but
I will give myself a few weeks of lotos-eating--if they are to be had.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHOOSING THE PATH.
“Now that the priest is gone, we have peace,” said the Seaton paper.
In fact, having driven the priest away, so that these poor souls were
deprived of their consolations and restraints of religion, having
destroyed their school-house, so that there seemed no possibility that
the school could continue after the cold weather should set in, there
appeared no more mischief to do. Catholicism was, apparently, dead in
Seaton. The Catholics did not raise their voices. Those who mourned 312
their deserted altar, mourned in silence; the rest went back to their
whiskey-drinking, their quarrelling and stealing. That was what the
atheists meant by peace. “The lion and the lamb had lain down
together,” but the lamb was inside the lion.
On the surface of these halcyon circumstances, Carl Yorke found his
lotos-flower growing. Everybody was smiling and conciliatory.
Congratulations, not always overdelicate, on his accession to fortune
met him at every hand, and callers became more frequent, in spite of a
reception as cool as politeness would allow. In fine, the Yorkes,
having suffered a temporary eclipse, shone out again with dazzling
lustre, regilt by their new prosperity. If they bore themselves rather
haughtily in the face of this subservience, we can scarcely blame
them. We can forgive, we may not care for, the frowns that darken with
our adversity; but the smiles that brighten when fortune brightens,
must, in a noble nature, awaken a feeling of involuntary disgust.
Dr. Martin and his wife called a few days after Carl came home. It was
rather an embarrassing call, for there was scarcely a non-explosive
subject on which they could speak, but by dint of careful management
on the part of the ladies, and a determination on the part of each
gentleman that he would not be the aggressor, no accident happened.
Mr. Yorke and the minister exchanged a few remarks on agriculture,
Clara hovering between them, and volubly smoothing the asperities of
their uphill talk. Mrs. Martin and Melicent were kindred souls on the
subject of worsted work, and grew quite intimate over a new pattern
and a rainbow package of wools. Mrs. Yorke acted as presiding deity,
and dropped a smile or a word at the right time, and Carl was somewhat
cynically amused by the situation, and therefore amusing. The visitors
had asked for Edith, but she declined to come down. When they had
gone, however, she spoke kindly of Dr. Martin.
“He asked me once,” she said, “if, when I came to die, I should need
any one but Christ. I could not answer him, for I did not understand
then that he was attacking the doctrine of extreme unction, and
intimating his belief that Catholics think only of the priest, and not
at all of God. But I noticed that he showed a great deal of feeling,
and when he said, ‘If you have Christ, you need no one else,’ there
were tears in his eyes. Since then, I have liked him. I think he is
mistaken, rather than malicious.”
Mr. Yorke looked gravely at his niece. “I sometimes think,” he said,
“with Pope, ‘that there is nothing needed to make all rational and
disinterested people in the world of one religion, but that they
should talk together every day.’ If people would ask what you believe,
and listen to you, instead of telling you what you believe, and
abusing you, much strife might be avoided.”
“I think that Dr. Martin’s motive in coming here was good,” Mrs. Yorke
said. “He knows that we are going away, and wishes to part in peace.”
“Carl, have you settled what you are going to be?” Edith ventured to
ask when he joined her afterward in the garden.
“No,” he answered, with hesitation. “Something depends. I am at the
north pole, and all roads lead south. Meantime, I am not idle.”
She waited for him to continue, but he said no more, and she felt 313
chilled, and mortified at having questioned him. No one in the world
was less curious concerning the private affairs of others than Edith,
and she never asked a question, except from a feeling of tender
interest. Therefore she considered herself repulsed.
“What are you studying now?” Carl asked, after a moment, the silence
becoming awkward.
“I have almost given up books,” she replied quietly, and the hands
with which she was weaving a morning-glory vine into its trellis were
not quite steady.
Oh! if he would only question her, and insist on knowing everything.
She was in deep waters, and she longed to tell him all, and ask the
solution of her doubts. With a fine, unerring instinct which she felt,
but did not understand, Edith could tolerate the thought of no other
confidant. Yet a great barrier stood between them. She could go
frankly to Dick, if she had anything to say to him, but Carl was
different. She could tell him nothing, unless he asked her. Besides,
he never told her anything. Now she thought of it, except these silent
motions of sympathy, their intercourse had been very exterior. She
knew nothing of his real life; and yet he, too, was at the point of
choice in some things, and must have much to say to one he cared for
and trusted. She waited a moment, then walked toward the house, and
they separated rather coldly.
Edith had, indeed, dropped the study of physical science, but she had
taken up another, and it perplexed her sorely. Within the last year
she had been striving, with but little help, to learn something of the
science of the heart. What was this love that had started up in her
path, and demanded to be listened to, and returned? She had written
as frankly as she could to Father Rasle, telling him of her promise to
Dick Rowan, and his answer had disappointed her. She read some of the
moralists, and her soul recoiled. If that was love, why were the
stories of Jacob and Rachel, and Esther and Assuerus, told without
sign of reprobation? She went to the novelists, and they pleased her
but little better. In despair, then, she went to the poets. Eureka!
Here was what she wanted: the affection at once pure and impassioned,
heroic and tender, demanding all, yet sacrificing all, proud yet
humble, inexplicable save by the poet and the lover. It was fitting
that the poets should be its interpreters, for it was above common
life, as song is above speech. Grapes were not sour because they grew
high, nor things impossible because rare.
“Dear Mrs. Browning!” she whispered, as she read _Aurora Leigh_.
“What a pity she had not faith! Her nature is glorious. How she spurns
the low!”
She read Tennyson, and sighed with delight over the faithful Enid, and
wept for Elaine dead, and floating down the river to Launcelot, her
letter to him in her hand.
So, with the help of the poets, Edith escaped the danger of being
contaminated by the efforts made to save her from harm. With her
intuitive beliefs confirmed by these prophetic singers, she refused to
let that yet unfolded blossom of her life trail in the mire, but held
it up with a proud, though trembling hand. To her, loving was a very
holy and beautiful thing.
But she longed to know what Carl thought of it.
Carl kept up his regular hours of study, and he set up his easel, and
made a crayon group of his father, mother, and sisters. Mrs. Yorke 314
insisted that he should paint his own portrait separately for her.
Being in a bitter mood one day, he sketched himself as Sisyphus
standing on the hill-top, and watching the great stone, which he had
just rolled painfully up hill, roll down again of itself. Edith sat by
him, saying a word now and then, and watching his work.
When his hand paused to let his imagination picture first the dull
misery in the face of the dazed and baffled giant, she said quietly,
“What great bovine creatures the Titans were, after all! I did not
admire them much, even when you read me the translation of the
_Prometheus_. All that splendor of soul was Æschylus, not the
fire-stealer. But wasn’t it a beautiful verse: ‘Stately and antique
were thy fallen race’?
“Still, the mastodon is stately and antique, too. The Titans were too
easily conquered. They cut like great melons. If their spirit had been
equal to their size, they would have snapped the Olympians like dry
twigs beneath their feet.”
Carl knew full well that she was talking _at_ him, but he was in
no mood to be either shamed or inspired. He wanted to be coaxed. The
manliest man has his time of not only wishing, but needing, to be
coaxed, if only he would own it.
She stretched her hand, and softly, inch by inch, drew the
porte-crayon from his yielding fingers. “Please, Carl! The picture
would haunt me, though it were out of sight.”
It was better than a wiser word. Carl’s face cleared.
“I am going to paint your portrait in oil,” he said, “and keep it
myself. Shall I?”
“I will be your rich patroness, and you a poor artist,” she said. “I
order my portrait of you, and will pay--let me think what! It shall
be a red gold medal of the Immaculate Conception, or a little ebony
crucifix, with the figure in gold, whichever you choose. Then I will
be a poor lady, and you a rich artist, and you shall buy the picture
back, and--what will you give me for it? I know what I like that you
have.”
“What do you like?” asks Carl, placing a large sheet of drawing-board
on his easel.
“A tiny brooch, that you never wear, with a carbuncle in it. I confess
to you that I have longed for it. It is like a coal of fire. It is
most beautiful. You know I have a passion for gems. Flowers make me
sad, but gems are like heavenly joys and hopes that never fade. There
is no object in nature that delights me like a beautiful gem. They are
the good acts of the earth. A ruby is an act of love, a sapphire an
act of faith, an emerald an act of hope, a diamond an act of joyful
adoration. Pearls are tears of sorrow for the dead, opals are tears of
sorrow for sin. The opal, you know, is the only gem that cannot be
imitated.”
“So you wanted the carbuncle,” Carl said, much pleased. “Why didn’t
you say so before?”
“I waited till I knew that you cared nothing about it,” Edith
answered.
“But I do value it very much now, young woman; and if you know where
it is, you will bring it to me at once. I am impatient to see it.”
She went out and got the brooch. It was a smooth, oval stone of a
deep-red color, with a tiny flame flickering in it. The lapidary had
been too true an artist to spoil the stone with facets, and the result
was a little crystallized poem. Edith laid it on black velvet, and
held it out for Carl to see. “There!” she said. It had never occurred
to him to look at it before, but now its beauty was apparent. 315
“I am delighted to give it to you, dear,” he said affectionately, and
pinned the velvet ribbon round her neck with it.
They smiled at each other, well pleased; then she sat down by him, and
watched while he began to sketch.
“Isn’t it odd, Carl,” she said, “that you and I should be rich people,
when we were so poor a short time ago? Only I did not know that we
were poor. I always felt rich after I came here.”
“I half remember a fairy story,” Carl said. “It is of a fairy who wove
pearls around a sunbeam, or a moonbeam, to prove to her lover her
miraculous power. I am going to paint you as that fairy. Shall it be a
sunbeam or a moonbeam, milady?”
“Make it a tropical full moonlight, Carl, and give me a palm-tree to
stand under. It would be refreshing to stand in the midst of such a
scene, even on canvas.”
The artist sketched lightly and swiftly. “Here, at the right, a troop
of fairies shall dance, only half seen. Near them, a thin arch of a
waterfall shall leap, and drop, and lose itself in spray, and gather
so slowly, and flow away so slowly, that the stream shall look like a
vein of amethyst damaskeened into the turf, not a ripple nor a bubble
to be seen. The orchestra, blowing on flower-trumpets, and shaking
campaniles of bluebells and lilies-of-the-valley, are hidden by their
instruments beside this waterfall, and their music makes the thin
sheet waver as it drops. The palm-tree lifts itself against the moon,
and seems to be on fire with it, and droops in a verdant cascade above
you, every feathery plume fire-fringed with light. But only one beam,
like a shaft of diamond, shall pierce that foliage, and there you
stand, with your arms uplifted, braiding pearls around it. You are
smiling softly, your hair is down, and filmy sleeves drop back to your
shoulders. As you braid, the light prisoned inside changes the pearls
to opals.”
“You will never be able to make me look like a fairy,” Edith said. “I
see a moral in everything. Fairy stories and myths always seem to me
Christian truths in masquerade; as though the truths, jealously
wishing us to prize them, put on dress after dress, to see if we would
recognize them in each. ‘If you really care for me, you will know me
through any disguise,’ that is what they say. Why, Carl, if you and I
were at a masquerade, and you did not know me, I should feel hurt.”
“We will try that some night in Venice,” Carl said, smiling to
himself.
“Yes. But this moonbeam hid in pearls--to me it is like a true thought
well spoken; or, no, it is the Immaculate Conception. And now,
good-by. I must go to my school.”
Since she could not be permitted to instruct Catholic children, Edith
went four times a week, and every Sunday, to the Pattens, and taught
them whatever they seemed to be most in need of. The town-schools were
far away, and the mother too hard-worked to do more than feed and
clothe her children, and these ministrations were thankfully received.
Edith held her school on a large flat rock near the house, so as not
to interfere with Mrs. Patten, and embarrass her in her work. Only on
Sundays did the young lady enter the house, and then there was a grand
dress parade, to which the family looked forward all the week. On
these occasions the children were all washed “within an inch of their
lives,” as Mrs. Yorke’s Betsey expressed it; their best clothes, 316
given by Mrs. Yorke, were donned; and their hair combed down so
smoothly that it seemed to be plastered to their heads. Woe to that
child who should rumple a hair or disturb a fold when all was done!
Since her accession to fortune, Edith had given the family, among
other things, a clock--they had formerly reckoned time by the
sun--and, at precisely half-past nine, Joe sat himself in the south
window to watch for the teacher. According to Mrs. Patten’s notions of
propriety, it would be indecorous for any of them to be seen outside
the door on Sunday till after the instruction. The house was as clean
and orderly as such a place could be made; the sacks of straw and dry
leaves that answered for beds were made into two piles, in opposite
corners, and used as sofas; the calico curtains that divided the
bedrooms were artistically looped; a vast armful of green boughs
concealed the rocks of the rough chimney, the sticks laid there to be
lighted to get dinner by, and the pots and pans in which that dinner
was cooked. Green vines and flowers and moss were placed here and
there, and the door by which Edith entered was always made into a sort
of triumphal arch, where she stood a moment to exchange her first
salutation with the family. They were drawn up in two lines, to right
and left, the girls headed by their mother, the boys by their father,
and as that pretty creature appeared in the door, with her air of
half-conscious shyness, and wholly unconscious stateliness, like a
young queen appearing to her subjects, the feminine line dropped a
short courtesy, and the masculine line achieved a simultaneous bow,
both so crisp that they gave a sensation of snapping. What a beautiful
salutation was that low, deliberate “Good-morning!” of hers; and what
could equal in grace that slight bending, half bow, half courtesy,
with which she greeted them! Opposite the door was a little stand,
with a chair behind it, and the whole company stood till Edith had
taken her seat there. She never did so without a blush of humility.
To one less earnest, and less preoccupied by the real work she had to
do, this ceremony would have seemed sufficiently ludicrous. Or,
perhaps, we should say, rather, to one less tender of heart. But Edith
Yorke saw only the eager gratitude and desire to do her honor, the
simple earnestness and good faith, and that mingling of poverty and
taste which silently showed all the misery of poor Mrs. Patten’s life.
For all that was done was hers. Without her, the children and their
father would have been almost as clods.
There is a certain arrogance of affability with which the rich
sometimes approach the poor, as though wealth and education
constituted an essential difference which they are elaborately anxious
should not too much humiliate their _protégés_. This the
intelligent poor are very quick to perceive, and inwardly, if not
outwardly, to resent. Others assume the rude manners of those whom
they would benefit, in order to set them at ease--a good-natured
mistake, but one which inspires contempt, and weakens their influence.
Edith Yorke’s quick sympathies and delicate intuitions rendered it
impossible for her even to make either of these missteps. She carried
herself with perfect dignity and simplicity, was kind, and even
affectionate, without lowering herself into a caressing familiarity,
and thus gave them a sample of exquisite demeanor, and, at the same
time, set them as much at their ease as it was well they should be. 317
If people of rude manners were always perfectly at ease, they would
never improve. Mrs. Patten, who was often on her guard with Melicent,
pronounced Edith to be a perfect lady; and when an intelligent poor
person gives such a verdict, without hope of favor from it, it is,
perhaps, about as good a patent of social nobility as a lady can
receive.
Paul and Sally were still at “the hall,” where Melicent considered
them her especial subjects, and taught them in season and out of
season; but, alas! there were still nine children at home. Polly, the
baby of six years ago, is now a stolid lassie of seven, and there are
two younger, the last only six months old.
One hot Sunday in July, Edith found the feminine procession without
its head. Everything else was in order, but Mrs. Patten sat in a
corner of the room, holding her sick baby. It had been sick all the
week, and Edith had visited it, and sent the doctor, but this morning
it was worse.
“We need not interrupt your discourse, though,” Mrs. Patten said. “He
doesn’t notice anything.”
In these Sunday lessons, usually consisting of Bible instructions,
histories of the saints, and explanation of Christian doctrine, Edith
had instilled a good deal of Catholic truth, without alarming her
hearers. She had even obtained permission to teach the children to
bless themselves, and say the Hail Mary; only Mrs. Patten had wished
that _Mother of Christ_ should be substituted for _Mother of
God_.
“But was not Christ God?” asked the young teacher.
“Yes, Miss Edith,” the woman replied. “But Mary was the mother of his
human nature only, not of his Godhead.”
“You cannot separate them,” Edith said. “He was not born a mere man,
and deified afterward: his birth was miraculous, and God was his
Father. She was the mother of all that he was. To be a mother is not
to create. You did not make that child’s soul, yet you are his mother.
You would not stop to say that you are the mother of his body, and
that his soul came from God. You are his mother, because you gave him
human life; so Mary did for Christ. Besides, you will always be your
child’s mother, though his body will turn to dust, and be regathered
again at the last day. But the body of Christ never was destroyed. It
sits now at the right hand of the Father, the same human form that
Mary cherished, as you do that child.”
Boadicea was silent “They shall say Mother of Christ, then, if you
prefer,” Edith said softly. But the next time she came, they said
Mother of God. She made no verbal comment on the amendment, but bent
and, for the first time, kissed the forehead of the child who gave the
title, tears of joy shining in her eyes.
On this July day, after taking her seat, and watching the family
arrange themselves to listen, Edith hesitated on what subject she
should speak. She had one prepared, but presently concluded to change
it.
“I will tell you what baptism is to-day,” she said; and then gave them
a clear and simple explanation of the sacrament.
Joe sat on a low stool, with a child in his arms, tears dropping down
his cheek now and then, as he glanced from the speaker to his sick
child. Mrs. Patten’s face showed only a quiet endurance.
“So necessary is baptism,” Edith concluded, her voice slightly
tremulous, “that even a baby must not die without it. If one should be
in danger of death, any person who knows how can baptize it.” 318
She said no more, but, after distributing some little presents to the
children, as her custom was, and sitting by the baby a few minutes,
went home. The mother was very pale. She sat looking at her child, and
seemed indisposed to speak. There was even a sort of coldness in her
manner when she took leave of her visitor.
The children went out, and looked after the lady as long as they could
see her, then gathered in a whispering group about the door. They
felt, rather than knew, the impending sorrow. Joe went, stool in hand,
and sat down by his wife. Her lips began to tremble. She was only a
woman, poor soul! and wanted comfort, not only for the grief before
her, but for the new and terrible fear that had risen up in her heart
while Edith Yorke spoke.
“Joe,” she said unsteadily, “that girl is very learned. Dr. Martin
can’t equal her. She makes everything awfully clear. She leaves no
hole for you to crawl out. If baptism isn’t what she says, then there
isn’t any sense in baptism.”
“Yes,” sighed Joe, “she’s a mighty smart gal.”
“Then,” the mother whispered sharply, “if what she says is true,
what’s become of our other children, Joe?”
He looked up with startled eyes. He had been thinking of their present
sorrow, not of the past. It is only the mother who for ever carries
her children in her heart.
“There are three children gone, Joe,” she said imploringly.
He dropped his eyes, and considered anxiously, not so much the fate of
his lost children as the fact that Sally looked to him for help. A
shallow head goes with a shallow heart, and his first thought was
merely how he should evade the weight of his wife’s dependence.
“Oh! you broken reed!” she exclaimed, with suppressed passion.
Thus apostrophized, Joe became desperate, and that desperation
imparted to him an air of unwonted decision and authority.
“I tell you what it is, Sally,” he said, “these rules and regulations
are very well for learned folks, and they’re to blame if they don’t
keep ‘em. But I don’t believe that the Lord is going to punish us nor
our young ones for what we don’t know nothing about. He knows well
enough that we’d a had ‘em, every soul of ‘em, baptized, if we’d a
thought he wanted us to. I’m sure I don’t begrudge the young ones
being baptized. So don’t you believe, Sally, but he’ll sly ‘em in
somehow, poor little creters! Why, do you s’pose that, while we were
sitting here and crying over our dead babies, and saying, ‘The Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord,’
that just at that time he’d got ‘em out of sight somewhere, and was
pinching on ‘em and hurting on ‘em for his own amusement, with their
scared little faces looking up at him? It don’t stand to reason,
Sally.”
The first tears she had shed started from the mother’s eyes and ran
down her cheeks. “Joe,” she said gratefully, “you’ve got some gumption
in you, after all.”
Edith went home that day with a troubled heart. Two or three times on
the way she stopped, having half a mind to turn back, but did not. She
was too agitated to keep quiet or to eat. One thought filled her mind:
a soul just slipping away from earth waited on the threshold till she
should open for it the gate of heaven. The thought was overpowering.
In the afternoon, Mrs. Yorke and Melicent went to see the sick child, 319
carrying everything they thought might be needed. Edith had sent for
the doctor again, and he came while they were there, and accompanied
them home. She listened to their talk, and heard them say that the
child could not live more than twenty-four hours longer. They spoke
kindly, and they had acted kindly, yet it all jarred terribly on her.
Of the highest interest at stake, of the miraculous possibility that
she saw, they knew nothing. Dared she wait?
After tea her resolution was taken. She came down-stairs, and found
Carl pacing to and fro at the foot of the terrace. He threw the end of
his cigar away as she approached him, but did not take any further
notice of her till it became evident that she wanted him.
“Carl,” she said, “I want you to go over to the Pattens’ with me.”
“Certainly!”
He did not annoy her with questions, nor exclamations, nor
expostulations; he simply and promptly started. They avoided the
family in going. When one is in suspense, it is distressing to have to
explain to those who cannot help and do not understand the need.
“I am going to baptize the baby, if they will let me,” Edith said,
when they entered the wood.
He only answered, “Yes!” He knew enough of Catholic doctrine to
understand the importance which she attached to the ceremony.
The sun had gone down in a splendor of rose-color, and all the forest
was steeped with it. The silver stems of the birches flickered like
rubies, and all the streams and springs blushed as if they had newly
been changed to wine for some great marriage feast. A brook ran toward
them all the way beside their path, like a breathless messenger bidding
them hasten at every step. Then that airy flood of light ebbed down
the west, and left a new moon stranded there, and stars sprinkled all
through the blue. When they came out into the clearing, it was deep
twilight. The cabin window shone out red through the dusk, and from
the open door a lurid path of light stretched across the garden-plot
and plunged into the woods opposite.
Like most people who live in the woods, the family kept early hours,
but to-night none of them had gone to bed, nor were the beds prepared
for them. The children were huddled together near the fireplace,
whispering, and casting frightened glances to where their father and
mother crouched on the floor beside the cradle, in which lay their
dying babe. They had no lamps nor candles, but a pine-knot, fixed in
the fireplace, sent a volume of inky smoke up chimney, and made a
crimson illumination in the room. In that light every face shone like
a torch.
The sick child lay in a stupor, sometimes holding its breath so long
that the mother started and caught it up. Thus partially recalled, it
breathed slowly again. There was no sound in the room but that low
breathing, and the hissing of the flame in the chimney.
But presently there was a sound outside of steps coming nearer, and as
they looked at the door Edith appeared on the threshold, all her
whiteness of face, dress, and hands changed to pink in the light, as
Charity might look hastening on her errand. Her eyes were wide-open
and startled; her hair, which had fallen, caught in the low bough of a
tree as they came, was drawn over her left shoulder, and twisted about
her arm.
After the pause of an instant, she came swiftly in, and knelt by the 320
cradle, leaving Carl standing in the doorway.
“Thank God! I am in time,” she exclaimed. “I have come, you dear
parents, to baptize this child, if you will permit me. You were not to
blame for the others, because you did not know. But now you know.
Consent quickly; for it is almost gone!”
“Yes, yes!” said the mother. “Make haste!”
Edith called the children, and made them kneel about the cradle, with
their hands folded, palm to palm, and she scarcely noticed that Carl
came in and knelt behind them.
“I am so anxious to do it rightly,” she said, with one swift glance
round the circle. “I never did it before, but it is very simple. I am
very unworthy, and am afraid. All of you must say an Our Father for
me.”
Edith put a crucifix in the father’s hands, and, as he held it up,
bowed herself, and kissed the floor before it. Then she lighted a wax
candle she had brought, and gave it to the mother to hold. Lastly, she
knelt by the head of the cradle, and poured out a little vase of holy
water.
“What is the child’s name?” she asked, quite calm by this time.
Mr. and Mrs. Patten looked at each other. There had been many
discussions between them on the subject, and at this moment neither of
them could call to mind a single desirable name which had not been
appropriated by their children, living or dead.
“I would like to name him for my father,” Edith said. And they
consented.
The words were spoken, then Edith leaned quickly, with a triumphant
smile, and kissed the new-made saint, and whispered something to it.
The child had been lying in that stupor for several hours, but at her
whisper he opened his eyes, and fixed them in a solemn and steady gaze
on her face. There was something in the look significant and
unchildlike; and, so looking at her, he calmly died. Only a sigh, and
the lids half-drooped, that was all on earth. But who shall say what
it was in heaven?
It was quite dark when the two went home again. The sultry air was
still, and perfumed with sweet fern and wild violets, and the brook
ran along with them now with a sound like a child talking to itself.
They walked hand in hand, guided by that sound.
“I am very, very happy!” said Edith.
Carl said nothing, but stopped short.
“Have you lost the track?” she asked.
There was still a moment of silence, then he said in a stifled voice,
“I have found it again.”
Poor Carl! his finding of that path was heroic. For an instant, a
flower-wreathed wicket had seemed to swing across his way, and a path
of delight to lead from it. He closed it, and walked on.
After a minute, Edith recollected that she had brought a second
candle. They stopped and lighted it, then resumed their walk. She held
the candle in her right hand, her left she placed in Carl’s again. The
air was so still that the yellow flame waved only with their motion,
and the light of it made a halo about them, and brought out leaves and
flowers, and drooping branches, that shone a moment, then disappeared.
That ancient forest had arched over many a human group during the
unknown centuries of its life, dusky hunters in the chase or on the
war-trail, pale-faced pioneers, glancing right and left for the savage 321
foe, the Catholic missionary, armed only with the crucifix, yet with
that weapon and with his pleading tongue conquering the hatchet and
the tomahawk, children and youths going a-maying, yet never did it
overshadow a fairer group than this.
Looking down at Edith, Carl renounced the thought of painting her as a
fairy; he would paint her walking through a dark forest, with a candle
in her hand. “Perish civilization!” he said suddenly. “I wish there
was not a house between here and Massachusetts Bay!”
Edith smiled, but said nothing. She did not speak till, too soon, they
reached the house. There she stopped to enter by the side door. “I
will go in this way,” she said. “I do not wish to speak to any one
else to-night. Please tell them what I have done.”
He was going, when she softly called him back. “After he was
baptized,” she said hurriedly, “I whispered, and told him to pray for
you and me when he reached heaven. Good-night, Carl!”
The next forenoon Edith went up to her chamber to dress before dinner.
She braided her hair, put on a rose-colored lawn, and fastened a
velvet ribbon around her throat with the precious carbuncle. She was
blissfully happy, she scarce knew why. Never had she been conscious of
such delight. “How sweet, how beautiful is life!” she said to herself.
“Thanks, dear Lord! I am so happy!”
She looked smilingly over her shoulder toward the door, for Clara had
come running up the stairs and burst into her room.
“Edith,” she said breathlessly, “he has come! Mr. Rowan has come! He
is down in the parlor with papa, and mamma, and Melicent.”
Edith did not change her position nor say a word. She looked steadily
at Clara, and waited.
“He is as handsome as a prince,” her cousin went on with enthusiasm.
“He gave me this slip of paper for you. Will you be right down?”
“Go and tell him that I will come down in a minute,” Edith said
quietly, and still looked at her cousin till she went out of the room
and shut the door. Then, overcome by a sudden weakness, she dropped on
her knees.
“I am very glad,” she said solemnly, and lifted her eyes. “I thank
thee for bringing him safe home again. Help me!”
She unfolded the slip of paper, and read the line it contained: “Don’t
come down, Edith, if you are going to say no to me.”
She had never thought of saying no to him.
A minute later she stood in the door of the parlor, where they all
were. She was very white, but her lips wore a sweet and resolute
smile.
Dick came to meet her, his face in a fine flame, and she placed her
hand in his. “It is yours, with their consent,” she said.
For a moment he was unable to speak. He looked at her searchingly, his
eyes full of tears. “Are you willing, Edith?” he asked.
“I am more than willing,” she replied.
He led her to Mr. and Mrs. Yorke. “I would not dare to ask you for
such a precious gift,” he said, “if God and herself had not already
bestowed it.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
AN ENGLISHMAN IN CHINA.[78] 322
In November, 1867, Mr. T. T. Cooper, an English gentleman who
describes himself as a “pioneer of commerce,” undertook an overland
journey from Shanghai to Calcutta with the hope of discovering some
shorter and more direct line of communication between India and China
than that lying through the province of Su-tchuen and Eastern Thibet,
the only route at present open. The undertaking was not a successful
one, Mr. Cooper having been stopped and imprisoned at Weisee-foo, in
the province of Yunnan, in July of the following year. This detention
was the work of the Thibetan lamas, who have no desire for a free
trade which will interfere with their monopolies, and who are, as a
matter of course, violently opposed to the introduction of a religion
which will weaken their own hold upon the people. Mr. Cooper, although
an English Protestant who was contented to describe himself on his
travels as a disciple of Confucius, and who took pains to inform the
lamas that he could readily sympathize with their dislike of foreign
innovations in religious matters, did not fail to share the effects of
that distrust of foreigners which is so carefully kept alive in China
by the governing classes, the literati, and the priests. While
imprisoned at Weisee-foo, his interpreter, a Chinese Catholic,
overheard the following conversation between two Mandarins, one of
whom was Mr. Cooper’s jailer, which was, to say the least of it, not
reassuring:
“Just as Philip took his place under the window, Tien asked the Atenze
Mandarin if he had seen the foreigner who had passed through Atenze on
his way to Tali-foo, adding, ‘We have him here in the Yamun.’ His
guest replied, ‘No; the cursed barbarian! what is he? I heard he was
writing all the time he was in my town, and drawing the country. The
son of a dog, too, writes with a pen that requires no ink. I suppose
he has come to see the country; and his people will come to take it
by-and-by. You have got him here; why don’t you kill him?’ To this my
friend Tien replied, ‘Why, it’s no use to kill him; he has no money.
We have searched him; he has nothing; and now we are considering what
to do with him.’ When Philip had got thus far, he was so completely
overwhelmed that it was several minutes before he could proceed: when
he had recovered a little, he went on to relate what the Atenze
Mandarin said in reply. The ruffian evidently hated foreigners, for he
said, ‘Oh! kill him. You dispose of him; and when I return from the
fight, I will kill those sons of dogs, the missionaries on the
Lan-tsan-kiang: they are fast converting the Lu-tsu, and they will
very soon be masters of the country, and we shall be killed; so kill
them all, I say.’”
A day or two later, our traveller, who seems to be very plucky and
full of courage, managed to effect his escape, but only to retrace his
steps to Shanghai. His account of his travels is most entertaining, 323
and as it contains a great deal which will be interesting to the
general reader, as well as much which is especially so to Catholics,
we propose to make copious extracts from it. The book itself has not
been reprinted here, and the English edition is so expensive that it
is hardly likely to be as generally read as its merits deserve.
The project of undertaking this long and perilous journey had
suggested itself to our traveller’s mind so long ago as 1862, but
various circumstances rendered it impracticable to begin it until
1867, when the promised support of influential Shanghai merchants made
Mr. Cooper again cast about him for ways of surmounting the still
remaining difficulties. These were the well-known jealousy manifested
by Chinese officials toward strangers; the wild tribes dwelling in the
mountains; utter ignorance of the language of the country; and the
danger of carrying so large a sum of money as would be necessary for
the expenses of the journey. After a month of perplexity, Mr. Cooper
concluded to address himself to M. Lamonier, the procurator of the
Catholic missions at Shanghai. “I knew,” he says, “that the posts of
the French missionaries extended in an unbroken chain to beyond the
western border of China; and I felt convinced that only by their help
could I hope to pass through the empire. M. Lamonier, ever ready, as
are all the Catholic missionaries, to forward all useful projects,
soon dispelled my anxiety about the carriage of specie, for he
arranged to give me a letter of credit for six hundred taels (£180,
the sum he considered sufficient for travelling expenses), addressed
to the mission stations in Yunnan, Sz-chuan, and Eastern Thibet; so
that it would not be needful to carry a large sum in silver, until
after passing beyond their posts. He also proposed a feasible plan for
surmounting the difficulty of the language. A party of young
missionaries were expected to arrive from France toward the end of the
year; if I accompanied them to Sz-chuan, I could hire a house in some
village containing a mission station, and, under the protection of the
missionaries, set to work and acquire a sufficient mastery of the
language. This arrangement would prolong my journey by six months; but
the delay was unimportant, so long as the difficulty of the language
was got over. And thus, before leaving M. Lamonier, the two great
obstacles which seemed for a time to render my journey impossible were
disposed of.”
A part of this plan, however, was not destined to fulfilment. The
French consul at Hankou, whose dignity had been touched by some
remarks made upon him in the Hankou _Times_ by its English editor,
resolved to avenge himself by preventing our Englishman from availing
himself of the services of the missionaries, and compelled them to
leave Hankou without him. The French consul-general at Shanghai,
Vicomte Brenier de Montmorend, on being appealed to, found means to
soothe his subordinate’s ruffled temper, and although he lost the
promised escort of the young missionaries, Father de Carli, the head
of the missions at Hankou, obviated this difficulty by providing him
with two native Christians to serve as interpreter and guide. These
were both trustworthy men, who joined him rather for the sake of the
missionaries than for any liking for the journey, but who, for that
reason, served him so much the more faithfully. One of them, George
Phillips, whose name Mr. Cooper contracted into Philip, for 324
convenience’s sake, was the eldest son of a family which had been
Christians for several generations. “His superior education rendered
him, save in dress and manner, quite different to ordinary Chinamen,
whose natural superstition and prejudice were replaced by
intelligence, strengthened by the study of European philosophy and
theology, while a knowledge of the Latin, English, and Chinese
languages made the term of interpreter in his case no empty title.
Such was my interpreter, who proved, as I expected, a useful servant
and intelligent companion.”
Having procured the services of these men, however, Mr. Cooper found
it impossible to induce them to start from home until after the
Christmas holidays were over; so that it was not until the 4th of
January, 1868, that he finally left Hankou for the interior. He had
previously taken the advice of the English secretary of legation at
Pekin to conform himself in all respects to the line of conduct
pursued by the missionaries, and had, during his month of enforced
inaction, been trying to accustom himself to the pigtail and
petticoats in which he was to introduce himself to the Chinese public.
He had also been obliged to relinquish the idea of making scientific
observations while on his journey, in order to avoid shocking the
inveterate prejudices of the people against the use of instruments for
that purpose. Even in keeping a daily record of his travels, he found
it necessary to be constantly on his guard against their suspicious
curiosity. One amusing instance of his caution in this respect,
characteristic alike of our traveller and of his friendly enemy, is
worth quoting:
“Round the fire of the little courier hut where we put up for the
night, we were joined by a lama, who was, he said, _en route_ for
Bathang. Since the unwelcome addition of the soldier spies to our
party, it had become necessary for me to wait till all were asleep, to
write up my journal. I was hard at work about midnight, when the lama
returned to the room, pretending to have left his prayer-book behind;
and seeing me engaged in writing, he became very curious to know what
I was doing. Had I owned to recording a simple narrative of the day’s
journey, he would have reported that I was taking notes of the country
for some sinister purpose, so I replied that I was writing my prayers,
a ceremony which I performed every night. This is a very common
occupation of the lamas themselves, but he was surprised that a
merchant should write prayers; so I told him that I always recited
them after they were written, and would commence as soon as I had
finished. He waited, and I soon commenced to read my journal over in a
monotone like that in which the lamas recite their litanies. After
reading thus for nearly half an hour, I stopped and asked my friend to
recite his prayers for my benefit, promising to pay him for the
service--and off he started and kept it up without ceasing until
daylight next morning, when he awoke me, and received his fee of one
rupee. He declared that I must belong to the Yellow religion, but I
assured him to the contrary, merely saying that my religion much
resembled his own. He was evidently puzzled, but pleased at my having
made use of his services as a priest, and begged me to allow him to
keep under my escort to Bathang.”
His inability to serve the interests of science was perhaps not a
trouble of a nature to be very seriously felt by our traveller, whose
chief object in undertaking his journey was a commercial one, and 325
whose quick perceptions and readiness to adapt himself to
circumstances were a fair guarantee that he would neither run
unnecessary risks nor let any available source of information pass
unexplored. His book, which is very free from anything like unpleasant
self-consciousness, shows him, notwithstanding, to have plenty of
English pluck and determination, accompanied by a very un-English
freedom from prejudice. One could find it in one’s heart to wish that
in passing through scenery so impressive as that of Eastern Thibet, he
might have added to his other good qualities as a narrator something
more nearly approaching artistic perception than he anywhere exhibits.
The absence of anything of the kind has, however, the effect of making
his narrative singularly free from any appearance of conventional
book-making--a result which is very like a perfect compensation.
At Sha-su, which he reached toward the middle of January, after a week
or more of rather unpleasant boating experience, Mr. Cooper made his
first acquaintance with real Chinese society, which he describes very
well, and with some characteristic reflections:
“After breakfast, I paid a visit to the Catholic mission agent,
Cheesien-sin by name, a wealthy merchant engaged in an extensive trade
with Sz-chuan, with whom I had to arrange about funds for our journey
to Chung Ching. We were shown into a little room next the
counting-house, where we found several Christians, merchants from
Chung Ching, smoking their pipes, each with his cup of tea on a small
table before him. As soon as I seated myself, a little boy placed a
tea-cup before me, and, throwing in a pinch of fragrant tea, poured
in boiling water from a large kettle, which he took from a little
stand over a charcoal fire burning in an iron brazier in the centre of
the room; having thus helped me to tea, he took my long Chinese pipe,
and, filling it with tobacco, handed it to me with a light, and then
took up his place behind my chair. Nothing could exceed the quiet
politeness and quickness with which this little fellow served me; to
every one in the room I was a perfect stranger and a foreigner, yet,
being in a house of business, no distinction was made between me and
any of the Chinese present.... After waiting about half an hour, the
merchant came from the counting-house, and, saluting me very
courteously, apologized for having kept me waiting, and after a few
remarks on the crops and weather, inquired my business. On learning
the object of my visit, he appeared quite pleased, and expressed
himself delighted to be able to do anything for a friend of the
fathers, and, leading me into his office, he paid me over the sum I
required, merely taking from me a receipt for the amount. We then went
back to the waiting-room, where he introduced me to several of the
Chung Ching merchants, and explained to his guests that I was a
foreign merchant undertaking a great journey to open up commerce, and
complimented me on my courage in starting alone on so great an
enterprise. We all sat smoking and drinking tea for nearly two hours,
when I rose to go; but my host said that dinner was just ready, and he
would be glad if I would join himself and guests, apologizing at the
same time for his homely fare, saying that, if he had known I was
coming, I should have had a proper dinner.
“I was so charmed with the manner of this Chinese gentleman--for such
in bearing he really was--that I accepted his invitation, and sat down 326
again; and in a few minutes all the other merchants, except two young
men, who were permanent guests, left, and a serving-man then laid out
the table, placing a pair of ivory chop-sticks, tipped with silver,
for each of us, and brought in the dinner, consisting of fish-soup,
boiled and fried fish, stewed ducks, mutton, and fowl. We took our
seats--the host last--and were then handed cups (about the size of a
large breakfast-cup) of rice, and in the interval before the soup and
fish were brought in, baked melon-seeds were placed before us on small
plates; these we nibbled at for a few minutes, until our host, taking
his chop-sticks up, put their points into a plate of fish, and,
looking round the table, bowed to us, whereupon we simultaneously
helped ourselves, and commenced our meal. I kept up a lively
conversation on the subject of foreigners and their wonderful
inventions during the dinner, which I thoroughly enjoyed. When we had
finished, we all stood up, holding our chop-sticks by the tips with
both hands horizontally in front of our foreheads as a sign of
thankfulness, and also respect to our host. We then sat down again,
and little kettles of hot Samshu were brought in, and we commenced to
drink wine with each other. The two young merchants soon became very
loud in my praise, saying that I was quite different to the foreigners
in Hankou, I was more like a Chinaman; but were very anxious to know
if I was of the same religion as themselves; and when I told that I
was a Christian, repeatedly embraced me, calling me a brother. We sat
over our Samshu and smoked for a long time, the absence of anything
like constraint among us, and the genuine hospitality of our host,
making the hours pass quickly. I felt that I was seeing Chinese life
from a standpoint hitherto unknown to most Europeans, especially
Englishmen; and I felt much gratified with this my first admission
into the private life of the people whose manners and customs I had
adopted. During the time I was in the house I saw no females with the
exception of a servant, nor did I ever in the house of any respectable
Chinaman meet the womankind during the greater part of a year spent
among this people.... As I was going toward the hotel, I could not
help reflecting on the scene I had just left, so different in all
respects from any previous idea I had formed of the Chinese character,
of which, though I had dwelt for years in their country, I confess
with shame, I had until now known nothing. I could not help
contrasting the reception my host had given me, a total stranger and a
foreigner, with that which he would probably have received at my hands
had he visited me in Shanghai, when, as is usual with us Englishmen,
he would very likely have had to come into my office without the least
polite encouragement from me, and have transacted his business
standing, after which I should probably have dismissed him with a
gesture of impatience. It seems a great pity that we Englishmen, being
such a great commercial people, do not associate ourselves more with
the people amongst whom we trade. In China, we would do wisely to
remember the old adage which tells us to ‘do in Rome as the Romans
do,’ and to meet the Chinese more on a footing of equality; in fact,
adopt as much as possible their ways of business, and by this means do
away with that system of go-betweens which is so detrimental to us in
all our dealings with the people, of whom we really know nothing. By 327
being brought more in contact with them, we should pick up their
language, and instead of being at the mercy of that villanous thing
known under the name of compradore, we should at once preserve our
dignity, and enter into more pleasant and profitable relations with a
people whose closer acquaintance is better worth cultivating than we
in our national insularity are prone to believe.”
Such pleasant experiences, which were often repeated, were not always,
however, the order of the day when our traveller met the individual
popularly known as the “heathen Chinee.” At the mission-stations, or
wherever he encountered isolated Christians, he received always the
most cordial hospitality, since even the jealous Chinaman, in becoming
Catholic, becomes also cosmopolitan.
At Chung Ching, where Monseigneur Desfleches sent a swell Chinese
merchant to be his escort about the city, Mr. Cooper visited a
newly-built and very beautiful Taouist temple, belonging to a sect
differing widely from the Buddhists, and which he describes as
representing the ancient polytheism of the country, as reformed and
engrafted with a peculiar theosophy of Laotse, the great rival of
Confucius. Here also he assisted at daybreak on a Sunday morning at
the sacrifice of the Mass, served by a Chinese priest and Chinese
acolytes, and listened to a Chinese sermon. The devout behavior of the
congregation, many of whom gathered around him after the Mass was
over, and, on learning that he was not a Catholic, naturally expressed
fervent hopes that he might soon become one, made a great impression
upon our traveller’s mind. He could not, he says, avoid being
influenced by them, nor help offering up a silent prayer for the
success of the Catholic missions in China. He finds the present power
of these missions a “most striking instance of the inutility of
coercion directed to restrain freedom of mind in religion. The fearful
persecutions that assailed the missionaries and their converts during
the eighteenth century, failed altogether to arrest the spread of
Catholic Christianity, which now, but a hundred years later, numbers
its adherents by hundreds of thousands, to be found in all the
provinces of the empire.”
Apparently both the missions and the missionaries impressed him much;
and he gives a lengthy account of them, prefacing it with the remark
that whoever deems it irrelevant is at liberty to skip it. In his
judgment, as in that of every intelligent observer, it is the literati
and the governing classes who are the promoters of all the
persecutions of the converts--the people themselves are neither so
jealous of foreigners nor so attached to paganism as is often
supposed.
The converts are principally recruited from the well-to-do middle
classes, although there are in the villages many Christian communities
composed of the industrious peasantry. When Mr. Cooper was in China,
the missions were enjoying perfect toleration, but from his
observation of the marked dislike of the Christians displayed by the
officials and the literati, he was apprehensive that this apparent
peace might be at any moment exchanged for all the perils of
persecution--an apprehension which, as all the world knows, has since
been most fearfully realized. We extract a few passages from his
account of the missions, as recording the impressions of a candid
observer as to the success of a work of which he was yet capable of
lamenting that the devoted men who labor in it “are not the apostles
of a simpler and purer faith.” Yet when he meets “apostles” of what 328
he supposes to be a “simpler and purer faith,” he can hardly preserve
a decent gravity in contemplating either their methods or their
results. “By their fruits ye shall know them” is naturally the last
reflection suggested to the mind of a Protestant when he considers
missionary work. The application of the text would be so speedily
fatal to his Protestantism that the instinct of self-preservation
keeps him from making it:
“The _Société des Missions Etrangères_, which from its headquarters in
Paris directs the affairs of this mission, is most careful in the
selection and training of the candidates for missionary life. As their
work lies much among the wealthy and educated, though the poor and
ignorant are by no means neglected, every missionary sent to Sz-chuan
is specially educated for the purpose of meeting the Chinese literati
on equal terms. They land in China generally as young and
newly-ordained priests, under vows by which the rest of their lives is
dedicated to the Sz-chuan Mission. Once having entered upon their
work, they never abandon it, nor return to their native country;
indeed, it is impossible for them to do so, for I have good reasons
for stating that any recreant who may seek, in violation of his
engagements, to quit the country, is certain to be apprehended by the
Mandarins and sent back to the jurisdiction of the mission. This has
an apparent connection with the edict of Khang-hi, which accorded
toleration to those missionaries only who would swear never to return
to Europe. The young missionary on entering China strips himself of
his nationality; he shaves his head, and adopts the Chinese costume,
and conforms in all respects to the Chinese mode of life. His first
two years are spent either at one of the principal mission stations or
at some out-station, in close attendance on an old and experienced
father, under whose care he systematically studies the language and
the manners of the people to whose service he has devoted his life. He
is also trained in the working of the mission, and, as soon as he is a
proficient in the language, is appointed to a permanent post under
general orders from the bishop of the district to which he has been
sent from Paris. It can easily be imagined that a mission numbering
its converts by tens of thousands, and carrying its labors over such a
vast extent of country as Western China and Eastern Thibet, must be a
well-organized institution systematically administered. Taking
advantage of the division of all the provinces into districts, each
district is worked by the mission with more or less activity, as the
disposition of the people will allow. The apostolic bishop resident at
Chung Ching exercises a metropolitan authority over four other
bishops, who reside at Cheutu and Swi-foo, in Sz-chuan, Yunnan-foo in
Yunnan, and in Kwei-cheu, and Bishop Chauveau at Ta-tsian-loo. The
latter has charge of the mission stations of Eastern Thibet
established at Bathang, Yengin, and Tz-coo, on the western banks of
the Lan-tsan-kiang. I was informed that there were, in 1868, three
hundred French missionaries, besides native priests and catechists,
engaged in the missions working in the above provinces. The pay of a
missionary varies from one hundred taels[79] per mensem--the salary of
a bishop--to twenty taels, the scanty stipend of the simple fathers.
Out of this they provide themselves with everything. At small
out-stations, of course, the people give many presents of food, but 329
even then the pay is so trifling, compared with the salaries drawn by
Protestant missionaries, that one can only wonder how these French
missionaries manage to exist, and it is only when their self-denying
and abstemious mode of life is witnessed that an adequate idea can be
formed of real missionary work.
“By a strict system of reports, coming from every missionary in charge
of a district through his bishop to the metropolitan bishop at Chung
Ching, the affairs of the mission are administered with the regularity
of a well-organized government. Closely observing the Chinese customs,
the bishops assume the title of Tajen, ‘Excellency,’ and the fathers,
according to their precedence in the mission, Ta-low-ya, ‘Great
Elder,’ and Low-ya, ‘Elder.’ Every convert coming into the presence of
a father is obliged to bend the knee, a custom which a recent able
French writer declares he has himself heard the Christians complain of
as unbecoming. In exacting this apparently slavish mark of homage from
their flock, the fathers imitate the magistrates, and by this means,
as well as by the influence they naturally acquire in the direction of
civil affairs among their converts, they very probably excite the
jealousy and hatred of the governing classes. As an illustration of
this, I may quote the words of an old and experienced father: ‘We are
not persecuted on religious grounds, but on political, because they
fear our influence over the people.’ From my own experience of the
Chinese, I must say that (however repugnant to our Western ideas) the
exaction of the utmost respect from their converts is absolutely
necessary to the maintenance of the religious authority of the clergy,
for the Chinese, as yet, know no intermediate step between servile
submission and insolent independence; and, when compared with that of
any Protestant mission in the world, their success is so wonderfully
great, that I feel inclined to give them the full credit of knowing
from experience what is best for the interest of their mission.... The
education of the young is a special object of care; at all the
principal mission stations there are separate schools for boys and
girls. The boys are taught to read and write Chinese and Latin,
besides geography and other useful information, which tends to dispel
their Chinese prejudices. Promising candidates for the priesthood are
usually sent to Macao and Hong-Kong, and occasionally to Rome, to
receive their professional education. The girls are taught to read and
write Chinese, and are instructed in sewing, etc. At Chung Ching and
Cheutu there are boarding-schools, where young girls are educated till
they are marriageable. These pupils are eagerly sought for by the
converts in marriage, and are reputed to make excellent wives. The
native Christians, as a rule, are remarkable for their good character;
their houses are distinguished by their superior cleanliness and
order.... I cannot but record how forcibly I was impressed by their
devout attention to the offices of their religion, and this is not
merely superficial--they are staunch adherents of their faith, but few
being ever found to apostatize even under the pressure of persecution;
and having myself witnessed the beneficial effects of their labors, I
conclude with wishing the utmost success to the pious and laborious
agents whose self-denial has been rewarded by such extraordinary
results.”
On reaching Ta-tsian-loo, at that time the headquarters of Bishop
Chauveau, to whom Mr. Cooper gratefully records his many obligations, 330
and whom he calls the ablest man and kindest friend he found in
Western China, he made acquaintance with some of the Thibetan lamas,
and visited their lamasery, of which he gives an interesting account.
The chief lama paid him a visit at his hotel, and, as he showed a good
deal of curiosity concerning his intentions, Mr. Cooper proceeded to
define his position by remarking that he had heard that the lamas were
averse to French missionaries entering their central kingdom, and
added that he was not surprised that a great religious country like
Thibet should object to the introduction of a new religion. The lama,
unused to the easy way in which a travelled Englishman can carry his
religion, was amazed, but on learning that Mr. Cooper was not a
Frenchman, but professed a different faith from theirs, being in fact
a simple disciple of Confucius, quite indifferent to new creeds, and
disposed to look with friendly eyes upon all religions whatsoever, he
became at once more cordial, invited him to the lamasery, warned him
of a conspiracy against his liberty, and cautioned him to avoid
identifying himself in any way with the Catholic missionaries. Mr.
Cooper’s return call upon his new friend was not in all respects
pleasant:
“Crossing the courtyard, the lama led me up a flight of stairs into
his room, which differed from those occupied by the other lamas only
in its furniture and superior cleanliness. The other rooms were dirty,
and contained nothing save a small stove in the centre of the floor,
and a large wooden bucket, somewhat like an attenuated churn, and
containing the everlasting butter-tea of the Thibetans. My host’s
room, however, had in it several chairs of Chinese make, and round
the stove was spread a thick woollen carpet, on which I was invited to
squat. Having comfortably seated myself, a youth attired in lama robes
brought in silver cups, one of which my host filled with butter-tea,
and, as an especial mark of hospitality, broke off from a huge pat of
rancid butter a piece as large as his fist, and put it into my cup,
which he politely handed to me; then, filling his cup in the same way,
he invited me to drink with him. Good manners obliged me to drink, and
I succeeded in swallowing a mouthful of the greasy mess with
well-feigned pleasure, which, my host observing, nodded his head, and,
bending gracefully forward with a flourish, stirred round the piece of
butter in my cup with his little finger, and again pressed me to
drink. I would have given worlds to have been spared this second
trial; but, calling up all my resolution, I made another gulp, and
hastily relighted my pipe, while my hospitable host sipped his melted
butter with as much gusto as an alderman would his full-bodied port.
“Expressing a wish to view the lamasery, I was shown over it by the
lama, and visited the chapel or temple, where he daily offered his
prayers to the Grand Lama, as he said; meaning, I presume, Buddha. It
was a superb little place. At one end a railing, richly ornamented and
gilded, fenced off intruders from a gilded image of Buddha, about five
feet high, sitting in a contemplative posture, enveloped in a white
drapery of silk gauze. Round the four walls were rows of niches, like
pigeon-holes, about a foot square, in each of which was a small Buddha
of solid gold, about two inches high. There could not have been less
than a hundred of these images, and my first impression was that they 331
were only gilt; but the lama pointed them out to me as gold, and
several of them which I handled were made of the precious metal.... I
learned from Bishop Chauveau that before the Chinese conquest the
lamas used to marry, but that the Chinese, fearing the power of the
sacerdotal caste, procured an order from Lhássa enforcing celibacy on
all lamas. Notwithstanding this, at the present time, out of the
population of the three kingdoms of Thibet, more than one-third are
lamas. It may be imagined, therefore, what a power the priesthood has
over the people. In almost every family one or more of the sons are
lamas from compulsion. In a family of, say, four sons, the chief lama
of the district will generally insist upon two becoming lamas, and, at
the age of between twelve and fourteen, the boys are taken to the
lamasery, where they are educated, and, when grown up, admitted into
the priesthood. If the parents object to give up their sons to the
priesthood, the threat of an anathema from the lips of the chief lama
or the grand lama at Lhássa, is sufficient to overcome all opposition;
thus the ranks of the priesthood are constantly recruited and their
power strengthened. The population, owing to this, is gradually
lessening, and the lay people are the mere slaves of the lamas, who
live in luxurious idleness, for each lamasery possesses enormous
estates, as well as the revenues drawn from the lay population in the
shape of tithes on produce, both of cattle and grain.”
At Bathang, which our traveller visited in May, 1868, he made still
further acquaintance with the lamas, but seems to have found no cause
to form a more favorable opinion of them. The lamasery which he
describes, and the town of Bathang itself, have since been destroyed,
as readers of the _Annals of the Propagation of the Faith_ will
remember, by an earthquake which occurred on the 11th of April, 1870.
The valley of Bathang seemed to Mr. Cooper a sort of little Eden, by
reason of its great fertility and beauty. The town contained,
according to him, some 6,000 inhabitants, including the lamas, who
lived just outside it. Bishop Chauveau, however, whose information is
of course more accurate, rates them at 8,000 or 9,000. Of these at
least 3,000 were killed by the earthquake, including 430 of the lamas.
One of these men had for some time been prophesying some fearful
calamity as a judgment from the gods upon the frequent conversions
from lamanism, and he induced the people to renew some of their
heathenish practices, and it was during these performances that the
town was destroyed, and the prophet himself killed. None of our
missionaries were injured, and the ill fate of the lamas and their
lamasery has had the fortunate effect of making the people look with
still greater disfavor upon them. The gods, they say, seem to be
getting tired of the lamas. Mr. Cooper being admitted as witness
against them, such a disposition on the part of their deities would
appear to be only natural:
“My arrival at the gates of the lamasery caused a great hubbub.
Hundreds of lamas swarmed on the flat roof of the buildings which
composed the square block enclosed by a high wall, while numbers
hurried to and fro through the courts and passages in a state of great
excitement. Dismounting outside the gate, I left my pony in charge of
the gatekeeper, and entered. Scarcely, however, had I passed the inner
gate, when a lama, addressing me in Chinese, inquired my business. I
informed him that I was desirous of seeing the building, and, giving 332
him my card, desired him to present it to the chief lama, with a
request for permission to view the lamasery. He requested me to remain
at the gate until his return, and took my message to the chief
lama.... From where I stood I could see but little of the interior
building. As much, however, as was visible proved that the fame of the
Bathang Lamasery was justly deserved. In the centre of the block of
buildings, the roof of the sacred temple was plainly visible, its
massive gold covering flashing and gleaming in the sunlight with
dazzling brilliancy. On the roofs, and, indeed, everywhere, the place
was literally alive with roosters, which kept up an incessant crowing,
blending in a chorus with the chants of the lamas. These birds are
sacred to Buddha, and number, I was told, more than a thousand. None
are ever killed, and their ranks are constantly swelled by the
donations of the country people, who bring the chickens to the
lamasery as religious offerings. The birds are all capons, and, like
the lamas, live a life of celibacy. Not a single hen is allowed to
come within the building. Everything in the sacred edifice is
dedicated to the worship of Buddha, and supposed to be free from the
contamination of the outer world.
“I noticed several nuns about, with shaven heads, but dressed in the
ordinary garb of Thibetan women, with this difference, that the color
and material of their dress were the same as those of the priestly
robes of green stuff. These nuns are the abject slaves of the lamas,
performing all the drudgery of the house in common with youthful
novices or deacons. They, however, in the outer world enjoy, like the
lamas, a superior social position, and command considerable respect
from both sexes of the lay people. They do not shut themselves up
entirely in lamaseries, like cloistered nuns of the Romish religion,
but often live with their families, and work at the household duties
and in the fields. These nuns, like the priests, profess the strictest
chastity, dedicating themselves entirely to the worship and service of
Buddha. But, from my own observations, and from the openly expressed
opinion of the lay inhabitants of Thibet, which I had frequent
opportunities of hearing, virtue is a thing unknown among the
priesthood, and the lamaseries are little better than dens of
debauchery. Just as I had begun to be impatient at his long absence,
the lama returned with a message that my presence was not desired
within the building, as it would unsettle the priests at their
devotions, but if I wished to leave an offering in the shape of money
or anything else, it would be accepted. As this concession on the part
of the chief lama was meant as an expression of good-will, I gave the
messenger a tael of silver, and, with a feeling of disappointment,
returned home. I afterward found that I had reason to congratulate
myself on my exclusion from the lamasery, as many of its inmates were
suffering from small-pox. This fearful disease commits great ravages
among the Thibetan population; of whom almost every fourth person is
disfigured by its effects.... When cases occur in a town, the lamas
compel the families attacked to remove to the mountains, and seal up
their houses. Should the sick persons be unable to bear removal, they
are shut up in the house, all communication with them being
prohibited, and are left to die or recover, as the case may be.”
It was in a great measure to the lamas that Mr. Cooper owed the 333
non-success of his journey, although, the object of it becoming known,
the Chinese government also was interested in preventing its
accomplishment, since with a new trade route opened to foreign
enterprise, the existing monopolies would of course be destroyed.
“Nothing,” says Mr. Cooper, “is more contrary to the policy of the
Chinese government and lamas than the introduction of Assam tea. The
Chinese on their part dread the loss of their valuable wholesale
monopoly, to maintain which they give the lamas the monopoly of the
retail supply; who, by this means, hold in absolute subjection the
people, to whom tea is a prime necessary of life. The lamas, on their
part, fear that, with the introduction of British trade, the teachers
of the new religion would come, and free trade and free thought
combined would overthrow their spiritual sway.... I myself was
destined both now and in a subsequent journey to experience their
determination to prevent the intrusion of the detested Palin.”
Nothing would be easier than to extend our quotations from this
interesting traveller, every page of whose book is entertaining. On
leaving Bathang, the impossibility of inducing a male Thibetan to act
as a servant had made it necessary for his interpreter to hire an
elderly female as a cook; but Mr. Cooper, while supposing that he was
merely assisting at an impromptu picnic, found himself unexpectedly
married, with all due Thibetan form, to a pretty little maid, who, her
parents were persuaded, would be an excellent substitute for a
servant. He soon managed to return her to her relatives, but not until
after an amusing compliance with the religious customs of his new
bride, which we must let him relate. They were passing one of those
cairns of prayer-stones which the piety of the travelling Thibetans
erect along the road. No Buddhist passes them without adding a stone
and muttering a prayer:
“Lo-tzung, having contributed her quota of stones and prayers, gave me
to understand that, in order to secure our future happiness, she must
have a couple of Khatah cloths to attach to the flagstaffs, and there
was nothing for it but to unpack one of the baggage-animals and get
out the ‘scarves of felicity’(?) Having given them to the young lady,
I was inwardly congratulating myself that now, at least, we should be
able to continue our march, for the afternoon was wearing, and our
station for the night still distant. But my matrimonial embarrassments
had not yet ended. It was necessary for me to tie one of the ‘scarves
of felicity’ to the flagstaff, and kneel in prayer with my bride. This
I peremptorily refused to do; but poor Lo-tzung shed such a torrent of
tears, and informed me with such heart-broken accents that, if I did
not do this, we should not be happy, and that she especially would be
miserable, that there was nothing for it but to comply. And there, on
the summit of a Thibetan mountain, kneeling before a heap of stones,
my hand wet with the tears of a daughter of the country, I muttered
curses on the fate that had placed me in such a position.”
It had been Mr. Cooper’s intention to take this little girl along with
him to Calcutta, since to cast her off would have given dire offence
to the Thibetans, and there hand her over to the care of the Catholic
Sisters. The hatred of the lamas, however, pursued him on his journey,
and, by prohibiting the people from sheltering him or selling him
food, they so nearly reduced the party to starvation that Lo-tzung 334
was only too glad to leave him and take shelter with an uncle. Later
on, at Weisee-foo, as we have already related, he was imprisoned, and
narrowly escaped with his life, only to begin at once to retrace his
steps homeward. On reaching Kiating, on his return journey, he met for
the first time traces of Protestant missionary work, and tells an
amusing story about it:
“On the second day, a Chinese Christian called upon me, from whom I
learned that a Protestant missionary had visited the city in the early
part of the year, and had distributed a good many religious books; one
of which, in the possession of the landlord of the hotel, proved to be
a copy of the New Testament in Chinese. The owner produced the volume,
and, adjusting his spectacles with a solemn air of wisdom, turned up
the passage which runs as follows: ‘It is easier for a mule [the camel
in the English version] to pass through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Having read these words, he
looked over his spectacles at me, and asked in a very contemptuous
voice if it was possible for any man to believe such a statement, and
if foreigners really did believe the statements made in this book? It
had been my invariable custom since commencing to travel in China to
avoid religious discussions, and always to proclaim myself a disciple
of Confucius, so I now replied that I was not a teacher of religion,
but only a humble disciple of Con-fu-dzu, but as to the statement
about the mule passing through the eye of a needle, I thought I could
explain that; and then proceeded to interpret the word ‘needle’ as
used in the passage referred to. This somewhat mollified mine host,
who remarked that he had no doubt that English teachers found
great difficulty in writing the flowery language, and it would perhaps
be as well if they did not write religious books for the Chinese under
such circumstances. When I was alone, I could not but regret that the
praiseworthy efforts of the missionary in Kiating had not been more
successful. However, as soon as it becomes safe for Europeans to
travel in China, there is little doubt but that the self-denying and
hard-working Protestant missionaries will enter upon a new and
extensive field of labor, in which their energy, devotedness, and
well-known _pacific_ influence will doubtless win for them, if
not success, at least admiration from their supporters at home.”
After leaving Hankou for Shanghai, he again came upon their
traces--apparently without great gratification:
“As we steamed past the city of Yang-chow, in the province of
Nganhoei, we saw the British fleet which had been sent up to demand
satisfaction for an outrage committed on some Protestant missionaries,
who had been beaten and otherwise maltreated. The sight of a British
fleet on the Yang-tsu for such a purpose was curious indeed, and must,
I have no doubt, have done much toward convincing the people of
Yang-chow of the force of Protestantism, if not of its pacific nature.
For myself, I remember the patient French missionaries, whose only
resource had been flight into mountain fastnesses, and then recall the
rebuke given by the Master to the disciple for drawing his sword
against the high-priest’s servant; and it seemed hard to reconcile the
presence of a fleet at Yang-chow for such a purpose with the doctrines
professed by his servants. Probably, however, times have changed since
Paul preached Christ crucified, and suffered martyrdom; and it may now 335
be found more expedient to proclaim the Gospel from the cannon’s
mouth, and summon gunboats to exact reparation for our modern
martyrs.”
Here we take leave of our traveller, whose unfortunate experiences did
not prevent him from undertaking a similar journey, though by a
different route, in the following year, and with a like unsuccessful
result. His book is very well worth reading, simply as an entertaining
record of travel in a little known country; although to a Catholic it
has the further interest of furnishing another of those involuntary
testimonies from Protestant pens, which record the unvarying failure
of their own missionary enterprises in producing any beneficial effect
upon the heathen, and the exceeding heroism and devotion and the
uniform and great success which as invariably characterize our own.
[78] _Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtail and
Petticoats; or, An Overland Journey from China toward
India._ By T. T. Cooper, late Agent for the Chamber of
Commerce at Calcutta. With Map and Illustrations. London:
John Murray. 1871.
[79] Not quite $170.
----------
THE ISLAND OF SAINTS.
Nature has been lavish in her gifts to this lovely island, once so
famous as the nursing-school of the godly and learned. Though fallen
from her high estate, though no longer the unrivalled land of science,
she is still the
“Land of wild beauty and romantic shapes,
Of sheltered valleys and of stormy capes;
Of the bright garden and the tangled brake,
Of the dark mountain and the sunlit lake!”
Rugged, precipitous cliffs protect her coasts, while her shores are
indented by the most magnificent bays and harbors. Her bosom is stored
with precious metals, and the most fertile soil in the world crowns
her granite base. Her very geographical position is an advantageous
one, for she is placed, as it were, an advanced guard on the outskirts
of Europe--she opens the route to the great Western world, and she
offers the first eastern port to the American mariner.
“Moist, bright, and green, her landscape smiles around;” pellucid
lakes reflect as in a mirror the hills, rocks, and precipices on their
margins; here are undulating plains of unequalled verdure; there,
garden-like tracts where the myrtle, the rose, and the laurel need no
culture; where the evergreen arbutus, in wonderful luxuriance of
growth, appears to be indigenous; where every spot is enamelled with
flowers and fragrant herbs.
Beautiful Ireland! most picturesque land on the face of the globe!
Alas! why not also the richest and happiest?
Religion and learning early found a welcome home in this “emerald gem
of the ocean.” Even in the dark days of paganism, the priest-and-poet
Druid of Erin appears to have been superior in intelligence and
culture to his brethren of England and of the Continent; and when
Christianity was first preached in the land, no other people ever
welcomed it with such ardent enthusiasm as did the Irish; no other
people ever clung to their faith with such inviolable fidelity as
Irish Catholics have since done.
During the five centuries that followed the apostolic labors of Saint
Patrick, so great was the multitude of holy personages who trod in the
way which he traced out; so eminent the sanctity of their lives; so 336
illustrious their learning, that Ireland received the proud title of
“Island of Saints and Doctors.” The number of her churches was
infinite, and her monasteries and convents were at once the abodes of
piety and the sheltering homes of the poor and the stranger. Her
theological schools and colleges were the most renowned of Europe.
Their halls were open to the students of every clime, “who,” says
Moreri, “were there received with greater hospitality than in any
other country in the Christian world.” Hither, as to the “emporium of
literature,” the youth of France, Germany, and Switzerland repaired in
search of knowledge. But to the English nobility and gentry
especially, the Venerable Bede tells us “Ireland showed the most
cordial hospitality and generosity, for, great though their numbers,
they were _all_ most willingly received, maintained, supplied
with books, and instructed without fee or reward.”
And the tide of sanctity and learning overflowed the shores of the
holy isle; many were the pious missionaries who, in those days of
religious fervor, went forth to labor for the salvation of souls among
the nations of Europe. The memory of their works is still preserved in
the countries which reaped the fruits of their zeal. The Italian town,
San Columbano, still bears the name of the great Columbanus, a native
of Leinster; and St. Gall, in Switzerland, still reminds us of his
friend and disciple Gallus. The hermitage of Saint Fiacre, another
Irish saint, is still one of France’s consecrated spots; and the
memory of the Connaught man, Saint Fridolin, “the Traveller,” is still
blessed on the banks of the Rhine. The famous universities of Paris
and of Pavia owe their origin to the learning and industry of Clement
and John, both Irishmen. From Ireland the Anglo-Saxons derived their
first enlightenment, and till the thirteenth century the literature of
Scotland was the special province of the Irish clergy.
“When we look into the ecclesiastical life of this people,” says the
learned Görres, “we are almost tempted to believe that some potent
spirit had transported over the sea the cells of the Valley of the
Nile, with all their hermits, its monasteries with all their inmates,
and had settled them down in the Western isle--an isle which, in the
lapse of three centuries, gave eight hundred and fifty saints to the
church; won over to Christianity the north of Britain, and, soon
after, a large portion of the yet pagan Germany; and, while it devoted
the utmost attention to the sciences, cultivated with especial care
the mystical contemplation in her religious communities, as well as in
the saints whom they produced.”
Numerous vestiges are still to be found in Ireland of those days of
enthusiastic faith. Ivy-grown abbeys and churches, and the habitations
of saints; and the emblem of our holy creed, now rudely cut on pillar
stones, now exquisitely carved in fine proportions, are to be met with
scattered over the whole length and breadth of the land--“memorials,”
we are told “by a celebrated archæologist, “not only of the piety and
magnificence of a people whom ignorance and prejudice have too often
sneered at as barbarous, but also as the finest works of sculptured
art, of their period, now existing.”
In the wild and lonely valley of Glendalough, County Wicklow, are yet
to be seen the remains of the noble monastery, “once the luminary of
the Western world,” founded in the beginning of the sixth century by
Saint Kevin, around which a city rose, flourished, and decayed. Gloomy 337
mountains encompass the silent and now almost uninhabited glen, in
whose bosom lie the ruins of shrines which nearly thirteen centuries
ago were raised in honor of their God by men joyous and thankful in
the feeling of certain immortality--men whose fathers in their youth
reverenced the Druid as a more than human counsellor.
“Yes, peopled were once these silent shades
With saintly forms of days departed,
When holy men and votive maids
Lived humble here, and heavenly-hearted!”
Here are assembled dismantled churches, crumbling oratories, broken
crosses, shattered monumental stones, and tombs, no longer to be
distinguished, of bishops, abbots, and recluses. And near the wasted
remains of the holy piles, one of those mysterious edifices, a tall
and slender Round Tower, stands, still strong and straight, like a
sentinel guarding the wrecks of the past. It is impossible to imagine
a scene of sterner, more desolate grandeur. On the shore of one of the
two lakes that lie embosomed in the glen, rises a beetling rock, in a
cavity of which Saint Kevin is said to have lived while pursuing that
course of study and contemplation for which his name is even now
revered. In this same cavern, too, still known by the name of “Saint
Kevin’s Bed,” the illustrious saint and patriot Laurence O’Toole is
believed to have ofttimes mused and prayed when he was abbot of
Glendalough.
In the county of Meath we find the remains of Saint Columb’s
house--Saint Columbkille, the elegant poet, the pious founder of so
many monasteries--a high stone-roofed construction of singular
architecture, seeming to combine the purpose of an oratory with that
of a habitation.
On the celebrated Rock of Cashel stands a group of ruins unparalleled
for picturesque beauty and antiquarian interest. The most ancient
structure, with the exception of the Round Tower, is Cormac’s chapel,
built by Cormac MacCarthy, the pious king of “deep-valleyed Desmond,”
in the beginning of the twelfth century. It also is a stone-roofed
edifice, with Norman arches and an almost endless variety of Norman
decorations. Near it rise the magnificent cathedral founded by Donogh
O’Brien, King of Thomond, about 1152; and on the plain beside the
rock, Hoar Abbey, the ancient castle of the archbishops, a perfect
Round Tower, and numerous crosses.
And one of the grandest of these ancient holy piles, Newtown Abbey,
now lies a crumbling heap on the banks of the Boyne. What it once was
may, however, still be conceived, of from the exquisite beauty of some
of the remaining capitals, vaulting, and shafts, and from the many
fragments of its noble windows which are strewn about the neighboring
cemetery. This, alas! like many another of the magnificent ruins of
Ireland, has been used as a quarry; not by the unlettered peasant, who
is rarely found wanting in a devotional feeling that leads him to
regard antiquities, and especially those of an ecclesiastical origin,
with a sentiment of profound veneration; but by contractors for the
erection of new buildings, and sometimes even by men of station and
education, who seem to have forgotten that age and neglect cannot
deprive structures once consecrated to God, and applied to the service
of religion, of any portion of their sacred character.
Bective Abbey, not far from Newtown, is another wonderful wreck, which
seems to combine ecclesiastical with military and domestic architecture 338
in the most singular manner. It presents indeed a striking evidence of
the half-monk, half-soldier character of its founders. Battlemented
towers, cloister-arches, and rooms with great fire-places; the flues
carried up through the thickness of the walls, and continued through
tapering chimney-shafts, seem to have made the Abbey of Bective a kind
of monastic castle, and previous to the use of artillery it must have
been a place of great strength.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful edifices ever erected in Ireland was
the church of Killeshin, near Carlow, once decorated with richly
sculptured capitals representing human heads, the hair intertwined
with serpents. This magnificent building was more hardly treated by
the destructiveness of an individual who, about forty years since,
resided in the neighborhood, than by the storms and frosts and
thunderbolts of ages. The detestable vandal wantonly defaced the
exquisite capitals, and almost entirely obliterated an Irish
inscription which extended round the abacus!
On the romantic shores of the beautiful Lake of Killarney stands the
venerable ruins of Muckross Abbey. No vestige of its former grandeur
remains; “its antic pillars massy proof” are all ground into dust, and
a magnificent yew-tree that has grown in the very centre of the wreck
spreads its mighty, sombre branches like a funereal pall over the
fallen temple. And in the lake on the “holy island” of Innisfallen, on
a gentle verdant slope, surrounded by thick groves, are still to be
seen the few crumbling stones that mark where stood the abbey once so
renowned throughout Christendom for its learning and piety.
But it would be a vain task to attempt to enumerate all the beautiful
memorials of Ireland’s splendor whose ivy-grown ruins still adorn the
land they once made so famous.
“Her temples grew as grows the grass”--
and popular tradition tells us that numbers have been hidden from
mortal eye, ever since the pious monks who prayed within them were
barbarously driven forth or slain.
“In yonder dim and pathless wood
Strange sounds are heard at twilight hour,
And peals of solemn music swell
As from some minster’s lofty tower.
From age to age those sounds are heard,
Borne on the breeze at twilight hour--
From age to age no foot hath found
A pathway to the minster’s tower!”
Mingled among the mossy marbles of fallen altars; among the mouldering
stones and the rusted iron of crumbled cloisters; beneath the
“churchyard’s bowers”; by the bleak hillsides; on the margins of the
sunlit lakes, or under the shadow of the mysterious Round Towers, lie,
almost countless, the defaced, mutilated emblems of Ireland’s
heart-deep faith--broken crosses--innumerable broken crosses--eloquent
of the piety of those by-gone days, eloquent of the ruthlessness of
the devastator. They are found scattered over the whole island, and
are as various in their styles as in the perfection of their
workmanship--some, differing in nothing from the pillar-stones of the
pagans, save that they are rudely sculptured with a cross, to mark the
graves of the early Irish saints--others have the upper part of the
shaft hewn into the form of a circle, from which the arms and the top
extend. Crosses, highly sculptured, appear to date from the ninth and
twelfth centuries. In these the circle, instead of being simply cut
into the face of the stone, is represented by a ring, binding, as it
were, the shaft, arms, and upper portion of the cross together. There
are scores of these beautiful remains in Ireland, but the finest, 339
perhaps, are those at Monasterboice, near Drogheda; they are so
singularly symmetrical and artistic as to have excited the enthusiasm
of every learned archæologist who has seen them.
There were originally three crosses at Monasterboice; two still exist,
well preserved; the third was broken, tradition says, by Cromwell. The
larger of the two nearly perfect crosses measures twenty-seven feet in
height, and is composed of three stones. The shaft, at its junction
with the base, is two feet in breadth and one foot three inches in
thickness. It is divided upon the western side by fillets into seven
compartments, each of which contains two or more boldly-cut figures,
now much worn by the rain and wind of nine centuries. The sides of the
cross are ornamented with figures and scroll-work alternately.
“The smaller cross, fifteen feet high, is exquisitely beautiful,” says
Mr. Wakeman, in the _Archæologia Hibernica_, “and has suffered little
from the effects of time. It stands almost as perfect as when first
erected nine hundred years ago. The figures retain almost all their
original sharpness and beauty of execution. Within the circular head
of the cross, on its eastern face, our Saviour is represented sitting
in judgment. A choir of angels occupy the arm to the right of the
figure. Several hold musical instruments, among which is seen the
ancient small and triangular Irish harp. The space to the left of our
Saviour is crowded with figures, several of which are in an attitude
of despair; an armed fiend is driving them from before the throne. The
compartment immediately beneath bears a figure weighing in a pair of
huge scales a smaller figure, the balance seeming to preponderate in
his favor. One who appears to have been weighed and found wanting is
lying beneath the scales in an attitude of terror. The next
compartment beneath represents apparently the adoration of the wise
men. The star above the head of the infant Christ is distinctly
marked. The third compartment contains several figures, the action of
which we do not understand. The signification of the sculpture of the
next following compartment is also very obscure. A figure seated upon
a throne or chair is blowing a horn, and soldiers with conical
helmets, broad-bladed swords, and with small circular shields appear
crowding in. The fifth and lowest division illustrates the Temptation
and the Expulsion. An inscription in Irish, upon the lower part of the
shaft, desires “a prayer for Muiredach, by whom was made this cross.”
We can imagine how, when this masterpiece was pronounced finished by
the gifted artist, the chiefs and abbots, the bards and warriors, the
monks and priests, and may be many a rival sculptor, crowded around
it, full of wonder and admiration for what they must have considered a
truly glorious, nay, unequalled work. And Muiredach most certainly was
not refused the boon he craved.
We have mentioned pillar-stones, and though they do not belong to the
Christian vestiges of the Island of Saints, still they are so mingled
with the holier relics that they cannot be passed over in silence.
Obscure, mysterious in their origin, many hypotheses have been formed
respecting them by the learned, and they have been supposed by turns
to be landmarks, idols, or monumental stones. Some of the Irish
pillar-stones are inscribed with the Ogham character, a kind of
writing believed to have been in use in Ireland before the
introduction of Christianity. Stones very similar, but perforated, 340
are also found in Ireland, in Scotland, and even, it is said, in
India. What may have been their origin is completely unknown.
The most remarkable of the pillar-stones is found at the celebrated
hill of Tara, in the county of Meath. Dr. Petrie thinks that this
monument is the famous Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, upon which, for
many ages, the kings of Ireland were crowned, and which is generally
supposed to have been removed from Ireland to Scotland for the
coronation of Fergus Mac Eark, an Irish prince--a prophecy having
declared that in whatever country this stone was preserved, a king of
the Scotic (ancient Irish) race should reign. The learned Doctor
refers to some MSS., not earlier certainly than the tenth century, in
which the stone is mentioned as still existing at Tara. “If this
authority may be relied on,” says Mr. Wakeman, “the stone carried away
from Scotland by Edward the First, and now preserved in Westminster
Abbey, under the coronation chair, has long attracted a degree of
celebrity to which it was not entitled, while the veritable Lia Fail,
the stone which, according to the early bardic accounts, _roared_
beneath the ancient Irish monarchs at their inauguration, remained
forgotten and diregarded among the green raths of deserted Tara.”
Deserted Tara! thirteen centuries have passed away since the kings and
chiefs of Ireland were wont to assemble in the royal city--
“Tara, where the voice of music sung,
And many a harp and cruit responsive rung,
And many a bard, in high heroic verse,
The deeds of heroes gloried to rehearse.
And many a shell went round, and loud and long
Rose the full chorus of the festive song.
Ah! who can tell how beautiful were they--
The Fenian chiefs--how joyous, young, and gay!
Each stood a champion on the battle-field,
And but with life the victory would yield.”
Thirteen centuries have passed away since the work of decay began, and
nothing now remains of its ancient grandeur. All has been swept away,
save some faint indications of the site of the noble banqueting-hall,
whose magnificence was so vaunted in bardic song and story, and the
raths upon which the principal habitations stood.
These raths or duns, which are found in every part of Ireland, often
consist of only a circular intrenchment, but most frequently form a
steep mound, flat at the top and strongly intrenched. The works
usually enclosed a piece of ground upon which, it is presumed, the
houses of lesser importance stood, the mound being occupied by the
dwelling of the chief. The circular enclosures generally contain
excavations of a beehive form, lined with uncemented stones, and
connected by passages sufficiently large to admit a man. These
chambers or artificial caverns are supposed to have been store-houses
for food and treasure, and places of refuge for the women and children
in time of war.
In the centre of the principal mound of Tara, the Forradh, now stands
the Lia Fail--the great pillar-stone--the stone of destiny--moved from
its primitive site to its present in order to mark the grave--“the
croppies’ grave,” it is called--of some men killed in an encounter
with British troops during the rising in 1798.
By the side of the hoary ruins of the earlier monastic houses is
almost invariably seen one of those singular and, for many centuries,
mysterious edifices, the Round Towers. The question of the origin and
uses of these remarkable vestiges long occupied the attention of
antiquaries. They were supposed to have been built by the Danes, or to
have a Phœnician or Indo-Scythic origin, and to have contained the 341
sacred fire from whence all the fires in the kingdom were annually
rekindled. There were almost as many theories concerning them as there
were towers, and each succeeding theory appeared to involve the
subject in deeper mystery than ever--a mystery that was proverbial
until dispelled for ever by the learned Dr. Petrie. This gentleman has
decided that the towers are of Christian and of ecclesiastical origin,
and were erected at various periods between the fifth and thirteenth
centuries--that they were designed to answer, at least, a twofold use,
namely, to serve as belfries, and as keeps, or places of strength, in
which the sacred utensils, books, relics, and other valuables were
deposited, and into which the ecclesiastics to whom they belonged
could retire for security in cases of sudden attack; and that they
were probably also used, when occasion required, as beacons and
watch-towers. These conclusions were arrived at after a long and
patient investigation of the architectural peculiarities of the Round
Towers, and also of the religious structures generally found in
connection with them, and the vexed question is at rest.
The sites of a hundred and eighteen of these buildings have been
discovered, the greater number in ruins; indeed, of some only the
foundations remain; others are almost perfect in external shape. They
vary from eighty to a hundred and ten feet in height, tapering
gradually to the summit, and terminated by a high conical stone roof.
The Tower of Clondalkin, near Dublin, is nearly perfect; but perhaps
the most noble example is found at Monasterboice, where it combines,
with the magnificent crosses we have described, and the ivy-grown
ruined churches, to form a group of sacred antiquities unsurpassed in
interest and picturesque beauty.
Frightful as were the devastations of the Danes in Ireland--the
unhappy land bore the brunt of their fury--and frequent as was the
pillage of religious property, there have been found many beautiful
relics of sacred objects belonging to the sacked and ravaged abbeys
and churches. In newly-ploughed lands, in the beds of rivers, in the
heaps of crumbled stones around the ruins, in the bogs have been
discovered, among many other interesting evidences of early Irish
civilization, pastoral crooks and crosiers, chalices of stone and of
silver, and ancient quadrangular bells of bronze and of iron. These
last appear to have been in use in Ireland as early as the time of St.
Patrick. Some of them, we are told by Cambrensis, were so highly
reverenced that both clergy and laity were more afraid of swearing
falsely by them than by the Gospels--“because of some hidden and
miraculous power with which they were gifted, and by the vengeance of
the saint to whom they were particularly pleasing, their despisers and
transgressors were severely punished.”
The crooks and crosiers are in general of exquisite workmanship,
exhibiting a profusion of ornament of extreme beauty. Among these
relics has been found one which affords the most striking evidence of
the proficiency that Irish artificers had arrived at in many of the
arts previous to the arrival of the English. It is known as the Cross
of Cong, and was made at Roscommon, by native Irishmen, about the year
1123, in the reign of Turlogh O’Connor, father of Roderich, the last
king of Ireland. The form is most elegant, and it is completely
covered with minute and elaborate ornaments, a portion worked in pure 342
gold. The ornaments are, for the most part, tracery and grotesque
animals fancifully combined, and similar in character to the
decorations found upon crosses of stone of the same period. In the
centre, at the intersection, is set a large crystal, through which is
visible a piece of the true cross, as inscriptions in Irish and Latin
distinctly record.
The copies of the Gospels and of the sacred writings which had been
used by the saints of Erin were often preserved by their successors
enclosed in cases of yew, or some wood equally durable. Some of these
deeply-interesting evidences of Irish piety and learning have come
down to us, and are to be seen in the collection of the Royal Irish
Accademy at Dublin. One of them, the Caah, is a box about nine inches
long and eight broad, formed of brass plates riveted together, and
ornamented with gems and chasings of gold and silver. It contains a
rude wooden box enclosing a copy of the ancient Vulgate translation of
the Psalms in Latin, written on vellum, and, it is believed, by the
hand of Saint Columbkille, “the Apostle of the Picts.” It seems to
have been handed down in the O’Donnell family, to which the great
saint belonged.
Another most interesting relic, also in the collection of the Academy,
is the Domnach Airgid, which contains, beyond a doubt, a considerable
portion of the copy of the holy Gospels used by Saint Patrick, and
presented to him by Saint Macarthen. This MS. has three covers; the
first and most ancient, of yew; the second, of copper plated with
silver; and the third, of silver plated with gold.
Beautiful--sadly, solemnly beautiful--are the remains of Ireland’s
ancient grandeur; but though her splendor may have passed away;
though she be no longer “the school of Christendom”; though her abbeys
and monasteries, her churches and towers and sculptured crosses, lie
mostly heaps of wayside ruins, still her faith, her wondrous faith, is
fresh and strong as in those bygone ages. As it was in those days of
old when the fervent piety of her sons led them to distant lands,
apostles of religion and science, so is Ireland’s faith now, warm and
active as ever. In all her struggles, in all her sorrows, her faith
has stood by her side to minister consolation and to ward off despair.
O lovely, unhappy isle! “thou chief of reliquaries,” though thy
shamrock be watered with tears, still thou hast the better part!
“And if of every land the guest,
Thine exile back returning
Finds still one land unlike the rest,
Discrowned, disgraced, and mourning,
Give thanks! Thy flowers, to yonder skies
Transferred, pure airs are tasting;
And, stone by stone, thy temples rise
In regions everlasting!”
Will “the bound and suffering victim” ever again breathe freely?--will
religious freedom and political freedom ever again stand hand in hand
on the dewy turf of Erin?--will the Lia Fail ever again roar beneath
the seat of an independent Irish ruler?--these are questions which
Time alone can answer. But whatever fate may be reserved for
long-tried Ireland in the future, however disconsolate her present,
every Irishman’s heart should glow with pride and love when he
remembers the glory of her early days--glory such as no other country
ever possessed--glory of which no centuries of relentless tyranny can
deprive her--the glory of having been, when all was dark around, the
home of learning and the fatherland of saints!
----------
THE LEGENDS OF OISIN, BARD OF ERIN, 343
BY AUBREY DE VERE.
II.
THE DEATH OF OSCAR.[80]
“Sing us once more of Gahbra’s fight,
Old bard, that fight where fell thy son:”
Thus Patrick spake to vexed Oisin,
And the old man’s wrath was gone.
“Thou of the crosier white! whoe’er
Had seen that plain with carnage spread.
Or friend or foe, had wept for Eire,
And for her princes dead!
“There lay the arms of mighty chiefs:
There kings in death with helms unbound.
A field of doom it was; a place
By deadly spells girt round!
“Upon his left hand leaned my son:
His shield lay broken by his side:
His right hand clutched his sword: the blood
Rushed from him like a tide.
“I stayed my spear-shaft on the ground:
O’er him I stooped on bended knee:
On me my Oscar turned his eyes:
He stretched his hands to me.
“To me my Oscar spake--my son-- 344
The dying man, and all but dead:
‘Thou liv’st! For this I thank the gods!
O father!’ thus he said.
“‘Rememberest thou that day we fought
Far westward at the Sith of Mor?’
Caoilte spake: ‘I healed thee then,
Though deep thy wounds and sore:--
“‘No cure there lives for wounds like these.’”
Here ceased the lamentable sound.
Five steps the old man moved apart;
Then dashed him on the ground.
“My Oscar stared upon his wounds;
To fields long past his thoughts took flight:
‘My son, I cried, thou hadst not died
If Fionn had ruled the fight!’
“O Patrick! I have sung thee lays,
Emprize of others, or my own;
Where he was bravest all were brave;
But his, and his alone,
“The gracious ways, the voice that smiled,
The heart so loving and so strong:
The women laughed my harp to hear;
They wept at Oscar’s song!
“All night we watched the dying man:
To staunch his blood we strove in vain:
We heard the demon-loaded wind
Along the mountain strain.
“All night we propped him with our spears:
To staunch his blood we strove in vain:
Till, drenched in falling floods, the moon
Went down beyond the plain.
“Alas! the dawning of that morn,
My Oscar’s last! With barren glare
It flashed along the broken arms,
And the red pools here and there.
“Then saw we pacing from afar, 345
A kingly form, a shape of woe:
King Fionn it was that toward us moved
With measured footsteps slow:
“King Fionn himself; and far behind
Came many warriors more of Fail,[81]
Down-gazing on Baoigne’s clan,
Death-cold, and still, and pale.
“There lay all dumb the men of might;
There, foot to foot, the foemen, strewn
Like seaweed lines on stormy shores,
Or forests overblown!
“Oh! then to hear that cry far borne
On gales new-touched with morning frost
As though he heard it not, the king
Came, striding o’er that host,
“Seeking the bodies of his sons.
So on he strode through fog and mist;
And we to meet him moved; for now
That Fionn it was we wist.
“‘All hail to thee, King Fionn! all hail!’
He answered naught, but onward passed
Until he reached that spot where lay
My Oscar sinking fast.
“‘Late, late thou com’st: yet thou art here.’
Then answered Fionn, ‘Alas the day!
My reign is done since thou art gone,
And all this host is clay.’
“My Oscar gazed upon his face:
He heard the words his grandsire said:
He heard, nor spake: his hand down fell;
And his great spirit fled.
“Then all the warriors, far and near, 346
Save one that wept, and Fionn, my sire,
Three times upraised a cry that rang
O’er all the land of Eire.
“Fionn turned from us his face that hour:
We knew that tears adown it crept:
Never, except for Bran his hound,
The king till then had wept.
He shed no tear above his son;
Tearless he saw his brother die:
He wept to see my Oscar dead,
And the warriors weeping nigh.
“This is the tale of Gahbra’s fight,
Where all the monarchs warred on one;
Where they that wrecked him shared his fate,
And Erin’s day was done.
“On Gahbra’s field the curse came down:
Our voice is changed from that of men:
We sigh by night; we sigh by day:
We learned that lesson then.
Oh! many a prince was laid that day
In narrow cairn and lonely cave:
But all the fair-famed Rath thenceforth
Became my Oscar’s grave.
Patrick, I pray the Lord of Life--
Patrick, do thou his grace implore--
That death may still my heart ere long:
This night my pain is sore.”
[80] The substance of this poem will be found among the
translations of the Irish Ossianic Society.
[81] “Inisfail”--Ireland.
----------
THE PLACE VENDOME AND LA ROQUETTE. 347
THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THE COMMUNE.
FROM LE CORRESPONDANT.
_Concluded._
When we arrived at La Roquette, as there were no steps by which to
descend from the cart, the national guardsmen, who had not insulted
us, aided the laymen in getting out, but when it came to the turn of
the priests they refused their assistance. They shut us up for more
than an hour and a half in a narrow room which could scarcely hold us.
It was nearly five hours since we left our cells at Mazas. Some aged
priests--pardon these common details concerning the sufferings of all
kinds we underwent--asked to be shown to a retired place. After making
them wait a long time, they placed a repulsive bucket in the middle of
the room. During our whole stay at La Roquette, a hundred soldiers,
ten ecclesiastics, and some national guardsmen had no other--what the
English and Germans call by a modest euphemism “a closet or
privy”--than an article of the same kind, placed in the middle of an
infectious apartment in the third story, and I was suffering from an
inflammation of the bowels, brought on by want of exercise, of
nourishment, and of sleep.
The time passed in this anteroom was not lost. We became acquainted
and we encouraged one another. In the school of misfortune, people
learn to be communicative, and to overlook differences of age and
social rank. Those who did not anticipate any imminent danger were
undeceived. We will add, to show how profoundly hope is graven in
the heart of man, that the strongest pessimists easily yielded to the
influence of the optimists. Not one was wanting in firmness and
patience.
At last the door of the anteroom opened, and a citoyen with red
pantaloons, a red girdle, and red cravat called over the prisoners. It
was Citoyen François, the Director of La Roquette. Those familiar with
the history of Paris know that, at the end of the Empire, the post of
the sapeurs-pompiers of La Villette was taken by assault by a handful
of demagogues, who killed several sapeurs-pompiers. The leaders of the
insurrection were no other than _General_ Eudes, a member of the
Commune, and Citizen François, the warden of La Roquette. The
citizen-director of Mazas had still greater claims on the confidence
of the Commune. It will be seen that the hostages were well guarded.
La Grande-Roquette, so called to distinguish it from La
Petite-Roquette, which is opposite, and where young prisoners are
confined, is the prison of those condemned to death and to the
_travaux forcés_. It is divided into two distinct parts: the eastern
and western buildings. Separated by a spacious interior court, they
are united on the street by a third building, in the lower part of
which is the jailer’s office; and, on the opposite side, by a
sufficiently large chapel, which was, of course, closed and stript of 348
all the exterior emblems they could destroy.
Some of us were confined in the first story of the western building
where the hostages were who came the night before. The second and
third stories were occupied by those sentenced by the court of assize
of the Seine.
The remainder, and I was of the number, were sent to the third story
of the eastern building. The first story was occupied by about forty
Parisian guardsmen, prisoners of the Commune; the second story by a
somewhat larger number of _sergents de ville_, who were found at
Montmartre in the affair of the eighteenth of March. In consequence of
the defection of a part of the line, they fell into the power of the
insurgents. There were also on the same story a dozen artillerymen,
likewise prisoners. The third story, where I was conducted with seven
ecclesiastics and three laymen, was already occupied by a hundred
soldiers, some of whom, on their way through Paris at the time of the
proclamation of the Commune, refused to serve it, and others had been
taken prisoners in the engagements between the insurgents and the
regular army. The following night, three vicars from Belleville and
St. Ambroise were imprisoned with us.
The cells of La Roquette are extremely plain. They are about one mètre
and a few centimètres wide and two and a half metrès long. No chair,
no table: the only article of furniture is an iron bedstead. Neatness
is the least thing to be remarked concerning them. It was very evident
that several generations of criminals had occupied them without
rendering them any more agreeable. This was not all. The first night I
found myself among two kinds of insects whose names are unmentionable.
When in the warm climes of the East, and in the villages of Southern
Spain, I found myself _aux prises_ with these nocturnal enemies, I had
at least the consolation of lighting my taper, of complaining the next
day to the hostess, and of changing my room or the inn. But at La
Roquette none of these things was possible. Having no chair to sit on,
I remained seated on my bed.
I must, however, mention one advantage at La Roquette of which we were
deprived at Mazas: the cellular discipline was not as rigorous. The
prisoners could at certain moments of the day see each other in the
court, or in the passage of the story they occupied. Each window
lights two cells separated by a strong partition, but between the
partition and the grating of the window, common to both cells, is a
space through which the occupants can talk, and even pass a book. I
could thus exchange some pious thoughts and fortifying resolutions
with my neighbor, the Abbé Amodru. During the day we spoke of God, of
death, eternity, of the assistance we could render our companions:
during the night, we regarded with horror the lugubrious fires that
seemed to be devouring the whole city.
The very night of our arrival, a battery of seven large marine pieces
set up at Père-la-Chaise began to discharge shells and petroleum-bombs
on different parts of Paris. As it was only a few mètres from our
prison, it shook our cells and stunned us with the frightful
detonation, and the whir of the projectiles passing above our heads.
This battery did not cease its incendiary work till the following
Saturday, the twenty-seventh of May, at half-past three, the moment
when the regular army gained possession of the cemetery. Some days
before my arrest, Citizen Delescluze declared in a proclamation, 349
little noticed, that the miserable advocates of the government of the
fourth of September, ready in words to defend us against the Prussians
behind the forts, ramparts, and barricades, had given everything up to
them; but the Communists would show themselves faithful to their plan
of defence against the royalists--“after the ramparts, the barricades;
after the barricades, the houses; after the houses, fire and the
mine.” This great criminal should have kept his word.
We were permitted on Wednesday morning to hold communication with one
another. But the director gave the strictest orders that there should
be none whatever between us and the soldiers. When the soldiers were
not in one of the courts of the prison, we were shut up in our cells.
I observed M. l’Abbé Beyle, one of Mgr. Darboy’s vicar-generals, in
one of the windows of the first story of the western building. He
immediately recognized me, and informed me by some intelligible signs
that the hostages would have recreation together in one of the courts,
and that M. Deguerry would be very glad to see me and obtain news of
the parish of the Madeleine.
At noon the wardens ordered us to descend. I was affected at the
thought that I was about to see our archbishop and vicar-generals, my
curé, and some of my friends belonging to the clergy and religious
orders of Paris. I stationed myself before the door through which they
would come out of the western building. The archbishop was the first
to appear. He was hardly recognizable, such frightful ravages had
privations and sufferings wrought on his frail and delicate
constitution. He was immediately surrounded by the priests of the
eastern building. The laymen were not less eager to manifest their
respectful sympathy. While he was addressing me a friendly word, and I
was kissing his hand, M. Deguerry entered the court. I had been for
ten years one of his vicars at the Madeleine. Knowing his great need
of an active life and a certain impressionability of his character, I
expected to find him enfeebled, discouraged, and ill after two months’
confinement in the cell of a prison. Happily, there was nothing of the
kind. His face was fresh and healthy, and his conversation cheerful
and enlivening. In spite of his seventy-four years, he was as erect as
ever. He, as well as the archbishop, had undergone much suffering, but
privations and trials had made no inroads upon his strong
constitution.
With the exception of a quarter of an hour I passed with Mgr. Surat,
Père Olivaint, M. Bayle, M. Petit, the chief secretary of the
archbishop, M. Moléon, the curé of St. Séverin, and some other
_confrères_, I passed the whole time of recreation with M. Deguerry.
He was desirous of news concerning his clergy and parish. The closing
of the Madeleine greatly distressed him, but, when he heard that
nothing had been injured or desecrated, he resumed his serenity. He
said little of the humiliating treatment of Raoul Rigault, and the
_ennui_ and sufferings of his long imprisonment in the cells of Mazas.
So far from retaining any bitterness in his heart, he wished “to
consecrate _the few years he still had to live_ in doing as much
good as possible to those who had been persecuting the clergy and
injuring the cause of religion; in adapting the charities and the
ministry of the times to the exceptional wants of Paris; and in
showing that by abandoning Jesus Christ and his holy teachings,
peoples, as well as individuals, only meet with deceptive illusions 350
and material and moral ruin.”
We quote these words to show that M. Deguerry had no grave fears
respecting his situation. The archbishop and he both knew that the
death of the hostages had been discussed by the Commune, but they were
convinced that these threats would never be executed. What reasons had
they for such an assurance? Had they received an absolute promise?
Were they ignorant of the revolutionary orgies of Paris, and the
brutal hatred of its tyrants? Did they think, having nothing to
reproach themselves for, that no one could conceive the idea of
putting them to death? I was vainly endeavoring to find an explanation
of this assurance when Mgr. Darboy joined us.
If his health was affected and his body enfeebled, his mind was
undoubtedly clear and sagacious. He not only took broad and correct
views of the events and men of the times, but he displayed an
acuteness almost caustic. The consciousness of his ecclesiastical
dignity and his intellectual strength suggested to him many
observations, full of animation and reality, respecting the incredible
humiliations that he had received from Raoul Rigault and other heroes
of the club, or _estaminet_, who thought they were aggrandizing
themselves and acquiring claims on the admiration of posterity by
their absurdity and impertinence. He bitterly deplored the weakening
of the public sense of respect for authority, and thought, without a
reformation in this respect, Paris and the whole of France would never
recover from their misfortunes. To support these observations, Mgr.
Darboy recalled the conclusion of one of his last pastoral letters, in
which he predicted that, if society, persisted in disregarding the
precepts of the Gospel and abandoning the principles of religion and
morality, it would be liable to a terrible overthrow.
I, in my turn, recalled to his recollection that a democratic journal
had not hesitated to condemn this language as bearing the impress of
exaggeration, so desirous was it that Paris should be divested of all
religious belief or practice. He remembered the article spoken of, and
seemed pleased to hear it quoted.
The archbishop knew I had only been arrested the week before, and was
aware that, in consequence of my former functions, I had frequent
intercourse with the political world. After questioning me respecting
the religious condition of Paris and the parish affairs, and inquiring
about Mgr. Buquet, who, notwithstanding his great age and notoriety,
had bravely remained at Paris, rendering quite providential service in
the diocesan administration, of which he was the only member free
after the arrest and incarceration of M. Jourdain at the Conciergerie,
and M. Icard at the Prison de la Santé, Mgr. Darboy added, in a tone
that excluded all personal preoccupation:
“What is thought of the situation and fate of the hostages in the
political world of Paris?”
“Thanks to the confidence inspired by the Commune, honest men,
monseigneur, are daily taking flight. When the committee of public
safety came to prove my mistake in not following in their traces, I
only knew four persons in Paris with whom I could converse, and that
rarely, on the events of the day:--M. L----, the chief secretary of
the Crédit Foncier; M. G----, a former deputy from Seine-et-Marne; the
Count de L----, an old officer; and M. G----, the president of the
Conseil de Fabrique, at St. Eustache, imprisoned for a short time,
though eighty-four years old, because a supply of bread and meat was 351
found at his house which he had the boldness to distribute to the poor
of the Quartier des Halles. If, therefore, you wish to know the
impressions of the political and diplomatic world now at Paris, you
will be nearly reduced to mine, and it is a question if my modest
_régal_ could tempt monseigneur’s appetite.”
“I perceive,” said Mgr. Darboy, smiling, “that the Commune has not had
any time to depress your spirits. I am waiting for an answer to my
question.”
“All persons of honesty and intelligence condemn your arrest,
monseigneur, and that of the other hostages. Only the Prussians and
the Commune are capable of reviving this barbarous custom. I have been
assured that the representatives of several foreign powers have taken
steps to free you from danger, and doubtless the government at
Versailles, in the impossibility of directly intervening, will
consider it a duty to encourage these efforts.”
“I was aware of this,” replied the archbishop with marked
satisfaction. “It was doubtless under this diplomatic pressure that
Protot declared to me that, if the Commune had taken hostages, it was
in obedience to the brutal requirements of the lowest demagogues, and
if they should possibly consider an execution necessary, they would
choose one or two officers of the peace, or _sergents de ville_, and
by no means a member of the clergy. As for the rest, I have entire
confidence in the goodness of God and the testimony of my conscience.”
As Mgr. Darboy ended these words, at about half-past two, the warden,
who guarded us, gave the signal for returning to our cells. His
confidence astonished me, and would have diminished my apprehensions
if, after my transfer to La Roquette, I had not firmly resolved not
to yield to my illusions. And afterwards, in writing an account of
this final interview to an eminent friend of the archbishop and my
curé, I said: “While they seemed to have no fears, I had no hope.”
This was on Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of May. Some time after,
about seven o’clock, I observed, through the bars of my cell, a
strange movement in the large interior court. There was a great
difference between Mazas and La Roquette. At Mazas, the prison
discipline was in sufficient vigor, but at La Roquette there was no
order and no discipline. This prison, placed between the Faubourgs St.
Antoine, Ménilmontant, and Charonne, was at the mercy of all the wild
beasts of these quarters, who knocked around and roared without any
restraint. Some men of sinister appearance went from the office to the
western building where the first hostages were kept, some armed with
revolvers and others carrying mysterious documents. The director of
the prison, with his red girdle and pantaloons, gave, or rather
received, orders with an air that might be regarded as embarrassed or
satisfied, according to one’s idea of his principles. The bad wardens
did not conceal their joy, the good ones disappeared in consternation.
A citoyen of imperious manners and wild aspect, before whom some bowed
and others trembled, proceeded like a man in a fit of madness or
intoxication towards the western building. I had not then sufficient
presence of mind to recognize him, but I was convinced afterwards that
it was Ferré; others, with less probability, declare it was Raoul
Rigault. These two rivals of Robespierre would figure equally well at
the post of infamy.
Most of the windows were closed in the first story of the western part
facing us, where the principal hostages were incarcerated; a few were 352
open, revealing empty cells. At the same time, the windows of the
second and third stories, occupied by those condemned by the court of
assize, were filled with prisoners who were wondering, with a lively
curiosity, at the meaning of the unusual spectacle which had struck
us.
My anxiety became more and more intense, when I saw an officer of the
insurgents half open the door that led from the court to the office,
and say, with a solemn voice: “Are the _hommes de guerre_ ready?”
Without being thoroughly initiated into the military language, I
understood they were about to shoot the whole or a part of us. I threw
myself on my knees to implore God to grant us all strength and
courage. A few minutes past eight, I was stunned by a horrible firing.
Six almost simultaneous discharges of chassepots, succeeded by some
single reports, resounded in the prison court. A deadly silence
succeeded this noise, and revealed to me that only a few steps distant
had been committed one of those monstrous crimes that constitute an
epoch in the history of the human race.
From the prayers for the dying I passed to the prayers for the dead.
Never had I so thoroughly sounded the depths of God’s mercy. I no
longer conjured him, but claimed an indemnification, worthy of him,
for the victims of so base and execrable an outrage. I never could
have survived this excess of man’s iniquity, if I had not felt myself
sustained by an assurance of the eternal goodness and justice of God.
When I rose, the mournful noise of the clarions and drums, and the
dismal rumbling of a cart towards Charonne, seemed to put an end to
this tragedy.
Wednesday night was truly a night of torture for me. Every instant
the outer and inner doors of the prison were opened to bring in, or
carry away, victims. A court martial, or rather banditti under the
guise of judges, held a session in the office. The unfortunate men,
who were suspected of “complicity with the _chouans_ at Versailles,”
or who refused to die for the Commune under the orders of old
criminals, were mercilessly sacrificed. With the sound of drums and
trumpets mingled the noise of the carriages that brought the suspected
to La Roquette, and carried to Père-la-Chaise those who had been shot,
and the bombs _à pétrole_. At the same time the cemetery battery did
not cease its thunder, and the flames that were consuming the
monuments of Paris cast their lurid gleams into our cells. Let the
reader for a moment take my place, and he will feel that no
description could equal so overwhelming a spectacle.
Being on the eastern side of the prison, which has no direct
communication with the western, I was still ignorant on Thursday
morning of the names of the victims of the night before. Two faithful
wardens came at an early hour to announce the fatal news, and give me
nearly the same details of this sad drama. According to them, the
emissaries of the Commune were the only witnesses of the execution: it
was therefore difficult to obtain a precise, and, especially, a
complete account. One of these wardens, who went as near as he could
to the place of execution, received orders to aid the executioners in
placing the bodies upon a cart which was to take them to a corner of
Charonne, at the extremity of Père-la-Chaise. It is to his details,
and those of other wardens, and the prisoners of the western side,
that I owe the following particulars.
An emissary of the préfecture of police presented himself with some 353
armed insurgents in the first story of the western side, uttering
horrible threats: “The royalists are assassinating the republicans: it
is horrible! it must be stopped!” Then taking a list marked with a red
pencil, he cried in a loud voice: “Citoyen Darboy! citoyen Deguerry!
citoyen Bonjean! citoyen Ducoudray! citoyen Clerc! citoyen Allard!”
They were the six victims given up to the jury of frenzied demagogues.
Everybody knows the three first. Père Ducoudray, of the Society of
Jesus, was the superior of an educational establishment in the old Rue
des Postes, and devoted himself to the formation of good Christians
and good Frenchmen; Père Clerc, also a Jesuit, and formerly a naval
officer, was one of the directors of the same establishment; and the
Abbé Allard, an old apostolic missionary, who had been devoting his
time to the service of the ambulances and still wore the armlet and
cross of the international society of Geneva.
Each one replied in a firm and resigned voice: “Present.” I learned
the next day from Mgr. Surat, the first vicar-general of Paris, that
the Jesuit fathers had received two days before some consecrated
hosts, and the Fathers Ducoudray and Clerc were able at this critical
moment to give themselves the Holy Communion. They also gave him two
sacred hosts at the arrival of their murderers, one of which he
offered M. Deguerry, who thus met death with the Christian fortitude
and the boundless trust that the bread of life confers.
In going down, Mgr. Darboy and M. Bonjean, who showed an invincible
firmness to the end, locked arms.
They were all overwhelmed with gross insults on their way to the place
of execution. An obscure corner had been chosen, on the circular
railway that separates the main prison from the outer ramparts. The
victims were able to give one another encouragement and final
absolution and benediction. Some words have been attributed to the
archbishop, the authenticity of which I cannot vouch for: I am not
even sure that he spoke at all. It is very probable that, in the
presence of death, they preserved a religious recollection, replying
only by their silence and forgiveness to the insults of their
murderers. What is beyond doubt, they all displayed an unalterable
calmness and dignity.
Their murderers could not have been numerous, or else their state of
intoxication and fury must have prevented their correctness of aim.
Some of their victims, in fact, received only two shots. When their
bodies were discovered, I had that of M. Deguerry examined by three
physicians--Drs. de Beauvais, Moissenet, and Raynaud. A round ball had
passed through one side of the eye into the skull, where it was
imbedded in the fractured bones. It is preserved at the Madeleine. The
other ball passed through one of the lungs. The physicians thought
that his death must have been instantaneous. At the moment of being
shot, M. Deguerry, with an impulse in accordance with his military
turn, opened his cassock and exposed his chest to the aim of his
murderers; the ball which entered his lung only passed through the
back part of his cassock.
The wardens informed me that, before throwing the bodies into the
cart, they were stripped of a part of their clothes, which were burned
on the place of execution. I can testify to the exactitude of this,
having twice seen the spots covered with the burning clothes. I also
ascertained that the money of the six victims was afterward stolen 354
from their cells, and their books and papers cast into the fire. Some
weeks after a half-burned breviary was seen in one of the closets of
the ante-room of La Roquette. It is thus the Commune respected the
last wishes and testamentary dispositions of its victims.
Those who were shot on Wednesday and the following days, and all the
prisoners whom the committee of public safety reserved for the same
fate, were victims of their devotedness to two noble and grand causes.
They were persecuted through hatred of religion, the abolition of
which the Commune had inscribed in its sacrilegious programme, and
through hatred of the country represented by the French army and the
national assembly at Versailles, who were defending order, liberty,
honor, civilization, and the faith against barbarians.
After the massacre on Wednesday, the hostages could entertain no
further illusion as to their fate. This was only the commencement of a
bloody drama. Everything convinced me it would only end with the last
of the hostages. Then we entered upon a long agony of four days, the
sad changes in which no human tongue could describe. I will confine
myself to enumerating without comment the most remarkable incidents.
On Thursday noon, we were allowed recreation together in the same
court as the day before. Our faces were sadder, but our hearts were as
courageous. The laymen manifested a cordial sympathy for the clergy
and a like serenity. It was evident that all put their confidence in
God--a confidence that is not vain. I conversed twenty minutes with
Père Olivaint. Smitten in his dearest affections, he still had a
gracious smile on his lips. I will not attempt to depict
the expression of his face or repeat his conversation. His face had
something about it truly supernatural, and his words were those of an
angel. At the proposition of Mgr. Surat, M. Bayle, and Père Olivaint,
the priests made a vow, if God would deign to snatch them from the
jaws of death, to celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving in honor of the
Blessed Virgin on the first Saturday of every month for the space of
three years. I noticed among the laymen a face familiar to me. I
inquired his name. It was that of one of the most intelligent and most
courageous commissaires de police. It was he whom the government
appointed in January, 1864, to make me a domiciliary visit and seize
my papers, by way of expiating my support of M. Thiers as a candidate,
and my opposition to the measures that had brought destruction on the
empire and threatened at this very moment to cover Paris with blood
and ruins. By a strange freak of fortune, our struggles in opposite
directions had brought us to the same fate, which neither of us had
hardly anticipated. If I had not been afraid of recalling a delicate
remembrance, I would have assured him of my absolute forgiveness and
of my devoted regards. Towards the end of our recreation, one of the
shells from the battery of Père-la-Chaise broke, with a loud
explosion, a stone in the wall under which we were walking. In
ordinary times we should have shuddered and taken flight, but now it
scarcely excited attention. In separating, we bade one another
farewell till we met again--below, or in heaven: we did not know
which.
In the evening we noticed fresh fires in Paris, and learned that the
insurgents were setting fire to all the monuments of those quarters 355
where they had been repulsed by the army of Versailles. These fires
distressed and exasperated me. Forgetting the danger I was in, I broke
out in bitter complaints before my companions, who could not succeed
in calming me. I was indebted to the heroes of petroleum, picrate, and
glycerine for the only moments of irritation and despondency I felt
during my captivity.
That morning they shot M. Jecker, the celebrated Mexican banker, in
the court of La Roquette, and in the evening a refactory national
guardsman against the outer wall. I comprehended the execution of the
latter, but that of M. Jecker would have seemed to me an atrocious
logogriph, if we had been on earth and not in the realm of demons. At
eight o’clock, a warden notified M. Amodru and myself to descend to be
shot. “_Finitum est_,” “All is finished,” said my kind neighbor to me.
We knelt down by the window common to both cells, and gave each other
absolution. The prisoners who understood the warden’s order regarded
us from their cells with curiosity. The most cynical laughed at the
prayers we were making in view of immediate death. I put on my
sacerdotal garments, wrote my relatives, friends, and _confrères_ a
few farewell lines, and read in my breviary the prayers of the dying.
After half an hour, I learned they had made a mistake, and instead of
exposing M. Amodru and myself to the range of loaded chassepots, two
laymen were to be taken before a court-martial, which amounted to the
same thing, if I except a pretence of trial. I learned later, from an
under-officer and some _sergents de ville_, that the agents of the
Commune announced, more than once, that prisoners were about to be
shot, adding some time after with a malicious smile that they would
lose nothing by waiting, and the ceremony was merely deferred till the
next day.
I passed a part of the night in regarding the fires. The whole horizon
was aflame toward Bercy. The battery at Père-la-Chaise, encouraged by
the progress of the flames, redoubled its violence. The firing of arms
and the booming of the cannon at the same time resounded in the
direction of Montmartre and the Hôtel de Ville. I wondered if I was
awake or under the influence of a horrible nightmare. A complete
exhaustion of physical strength prevented me from fully deciding. I
only mention this strange sensation because my companions in captivity
also experienced it.
On Friday morning, at an early hour, my neighbor and myself received a
visit from one of the subaltern employees of the prison. At first we
felt some confidence in him, and we gave him two or three francs a
day, as much from a wish to do a kind act, as a reward for his
services, which were in a state of project. It did not require
profound sagacity to discover that he was at the bottom only a spy and
an accomplice of the Commune. The equivocal manner in which he
pretended to console us in relating the progress of the Versailles
army, showed he had the highest ideas of our simplicity and candor.
Finding us more depressed and reserved after the catastrophe of
Wednesday, he said to us in that tone, at once bantering and polite,
which the Parisian _voyou_ has at command: “Is it possible you give
credit to the stories in circulation respecting the death of the
Archbishop of Paris and the Curé of the Madeleine? They are simply
absurd. Some of the national guards, who had been drinking too much,
were amusing themselves in discharging their guns against the prison 356
walls: I assure you, no one was shot.”
Then, knowing we were to undergo the same fate in a few hours, he
eagerly proposed to the clergy of our story a lottery which, according
to his delicate calculations, would procure him some profits without
depriving him of the objects of art he was proud of fabricating. For
eight days I was obliged to swallow such humiliations, which revealed
poor human nature in quite a new aspect. The selfish proposition of
this deceitful employee was rejected promptly, but we concluded to
continue our daily gratuity, in gratitude for services he was always
promising, and which were never performed.
When he left our story, he always went directly to the office to give
an account of what he had seen or heard. We had not only to resist
ferocity, but also craftiness and duplicity.
It was in the plans of the Commune that none of the hostages should
escape death. The next Sunday, the first object that struck my eyes at
the office of La Roquette was the list of their names. There was a
horizontal mark against the names of those who were to be shot: when
the execution was accomplished, they added a vertical mark, thus
forming a cross. Every name had a horizontal line before it. If my
memory does not deceive me, they followed the order of the list in the
executions.
About two o’clock, three shells from the battery of Père-la-Chaise hit
the prison roof only a few mètres above our heads, and covered the
court with tiles and fragments of the chimneys. Some of the prisoners
protested against the danger of these projectiles exploding in their
closed cells and had the doors opened; others did not seem to heed the
stunning incident: absorbed in prayer, they were more preoccupied with
eternal than temporal things.
The shells that hit our prison were an indication of the rapid
progress of the French troops, but this progress threw us into the
most perplexing and intolerable of situations. We could only expect
our safety from the Versailles army; we ought, then, in consideration
of the general interests of civilization, and our own interests, to
desire ardently its triumph. But it was no less evident that the
nearer the army approached, the more imminent became our end. Thus the
perspective which was our only hope of safety, inevitably announced at
the same time our destruction. If the illimitable consolations of
religion had not raised us above our misfortunes, we should have been
a prey to the anticipated horrors of everlasting woe. In such cruel
hours we comprehend the words of the God-Man, who, in the garden of
Gethsemani and on Golgotha, drank to the dregs the chalice of all
humiliations, all sorrows, and every kind of anguish, in order to
sanctify them. “My God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me?” should
not be separated from these other words, which exclude all despondency
and presage a wonderful recompense: “Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit!”
IV.
LA ROQUETTE--INSURRECTION--DELIVERANCE--CONCLUSION.
The close of the day on Friday was exceedingly gloomy. The same events
took place in the interior court of the prison as on Thursday evening.
At the sight of the mysterious agent who held a list in his hand, each
one said to himself: “My name is probably inscribed on that list: may 357
God have mercy on me!” I again heard the fatal interrogation from the
mouth of an insurgent officer: “Are the soldiers at their post?” From
the cells in the building opposite some friendly hands indicated to us
by signs that the number to be shot amounted to twelve, fifteen,
sixteen!... It was hardly a fourth of those immolated to the hatred of
the Commune. Unfortunately, the facts that each one witnessed were
limited, as our horizon was restricted to the four corners of our
cell, or at most to a part of the story we were in: each one,
therefore, could only give some particulars of the changes of fortune
and the victims executed.
On Saturday morning, one of the employees of the library, who
manifested a solicitude beyond all praise, gave me, with tears in his
eyes, the most minute details about the extent of the sad event. At
five o’clock, an emissary of the Commune entered the first story of
the western side, and called out: “Citoyens, attention to the roll:
here, fifteen are wanted!” Among these victims were the Jesuit Fathers
Olivaint, Caubert, and De Bengy; the four principal Fathers of the
Society of Picpus: Abbé Sabattier, the second vicar of Notre Dame de
Lorette: Abbé Seigneret, a young pupil of the Seminary of St. Sulpice;
and Abbé Planchat, a genuine missionary, who displayed all the zeal of
an apostle, not in China or Japan, but among the working-classes of
the Faubourg St. Antoine. About forty gendarmes, soldiers, officers of
the peace, and Parisian guardsmen were also summoned, the most of whom
were imprisoned in the first story of our building to the east. They
were conducted to Belleville, preceded by drums and trumpets, into one
of the courts of the Rue Haxo. All the long way, a furious crowd,
among whom women made themselves conspicuous by a frenzy bordering on
drunkenness, vomited forth threats and imprecations. After shooting
them with chassepots and revolvers, they mutilated their bodies with
kicks and the butt-end of their muskets, and afterwards threw them
pell-mell into a cellar, whence they were taken out three days after
in a state of advanced putrefaction.
The most incredulous saw their last hour approaching, and I prepared
myself once more to die. The insurgents stole or burned the things
left in the cells. I placed my watch, papers, and my testamentary
dispositions in the care of the employee at the library, with the
names of the persons to whom he was to transmit them. I earnestly
desired my body might receive a suitable burial, and, not knowing what
means to take that it might be recognized, I communicated my anxiety
to the Abbé Amodru, my neighbor. He had foreseen, and provided for,
the difficulty, and, following his example, I wrote my name in legible
characters upon several small slips of paper, which I put into my
shoes and the different pockets of my habit.
It was the eve of Whit-Sunday. Having no longer the strength to kneel,
I seated myself on my bed, and took sometimes my breviary, and then
_The Following of Christ_ in my hands. I prayed God for courage and a
spirit of sacrifice. In reading the Thirtieth Psalm, I was struck with
these words: “Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon
thee!... Thou shalt protect them in thy tabernacle from the
contradiction of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he hath shown his
wonderful mercy to me, a fortified city.” But I immediately distrusted
the hopes that so readily pervaded my soul I wished to remain facing
the sad realities of death.
The constantly increasing noise of the firing announced the approach 358
of the contending parties. The barricades of the Château d’Eau had
been valiantly taken by the Versailles troops: the Commune, in session
at the Mairie du Prince Eugène, was obliged to beat a retreat. By a
great effort, the scattered members sucoeeded in gaining the office of
La Roquette, to conduct the labors of the cosmopolitan banditti.
Between the army of deliverance and us were still those men of blood,
whose last ravings were so many decrees of death and incendiarism. It
is said that Ferré sprang like a tiger about to lose his prey, crying
in a hoarse voice: “Make haste! shoot them, the _chouans_! Cut their
throats, the robbers! do not leave one standing! Citoyens and
citoyennes of the faubourgs, come and avenge your sons and your
fathers, basely assassinated!” The unhappy men had no time to lose;
the Versailles troops, on the one hand, were entering the Boulevard du
Prince Eugène; on the other, they surrounded Père-la-Chaise; but, by
an intolerable fatality, the source of our safety was at the same time
that of our destruction.
A few minutes past three, the heavy bolts of our cells flew back with
unaccustomed quickness. I was on my knees, saying, with a voice almost
extinct, the office of the Eve of Whit-Sunday. My neighbor quickly
opened the door of my cell. “Courage,” he said, “it is now our turn;
they are going to take us all down to shoot us!”
“Courage,” I replied, “and may the will of God be done!” I had on my
clerical costume, and advanced into the corridor where priests,
soldiers, and national guards were all mingled together. The priests
and national guards appeared calm and resigned, but the soldiers could
not believe in the fate that awaited them. “What have we done to those
wretches? we fought against the Prussians! we fulfilled our duty! What
are they going to shoot us for? No, it is not possible!” Some uttered
cries of anger, others remained silent and motionless as if they were
in a dream. The priests knelt to fortify themselves by a last
absolution; one of them urged the soldiers to imitate us, and
addressed them some words of encouragement.
A voice with a metallic ring suddenly rose above this confused noise:
“My friends, those ignoble villains have already killed too many; do
not allow yourselves to be murdered; join me; let us resist; let us
fight. Rather than give you up, I will die with you!” It was the voice
of the warden Pinet. This generous son of Lorraine, aghast at so many
crimes, could no longer stifle his indignation. Charged to open our
cells slowly and deliver us two by two to the insurgents, who were
waiting for us below, he had fastened the door of the third story
behind him, rapidly opened our cells to advise us and aid in
organizing a resistance, ready to sacrifice his life in aiding us to
save ours. At first, I could not believe in so much heroism. The Abbé
Amodru spoke in his turn, and joined his protestations to those of
Pinet: “Let us not submit to be shot, my friends, let us defend
ourselves. Have confidence in God; he is for us and with us; he will
save us!”
There was a difference of opinion; some hesitated. To defend
ourselves, objected one, would be madness; we should only incur a more
cruel death. Instead of being simply shot, we shall be slaughtered by
a mob or consumed in the flames. “Let us call up the national guards,”
exclaimed a simple fellow (I had not believed such _naiveté_ possible 359
at La Roquette), “and prove to them that we are honest men, and not
robbers and assassins.” “It is not _our_ lives they wish,” cried a
soldier, whose impartial truthfulness renders it obligatory on me to
repeat his words, and who had as little discernment as moral sense,
“it is only the _curés_ they have a grudge against; let us not expose
our lives in trying to defend theirs!”
I had not yet uttered a word, but followed with an anxiety, easy to
comprehend, the phases of this strange situation. Some of my brethren
asked what there was to fear or to hope for. “The _sergents de ville_
who are below are disposed to defend themselves,” cried the warden
Pinet, whom the hesitation rendered more energetic and more eloquent.
“Do not allow yourselves to be shot by that band of robbers.” I was
already convinced that resistance, the success of which I thought more
than improbable, was nevertheless the most suitable measure to be
taken. From the eighteenth of March I had not ceased to protest
against the silence and giving up of honest men to criminals; and to
show myself to the end faithful to my programme, I emerged from my
apparent inaction. M. Walbert, an old _officier de paix_, and the Abbé
Carré, the Vicar of Belleville, suggested that a hole should be made
in the floor to open communication with the _sergents de ville_
imprisoned on the second story, and they immediately set to work with
boards and iron rods that we wrenched from our beds. I joined them. I,
who in the morning had no longer strength enough to stand, and who had
not yet eaten a mouthful of bread, broke boards in pieces and twisted
off the rods with irresistible facility! In five minutes a large
opening was made between the second and third stories. The _sergents de
ville_ were ready to pay dearly for their lives. The under-officer
Teyssier hoisted himself through the opening to aid Pinet in the
command of the insurrection.
The interior court of the prison was crowded by an abject multitude
come to witness our last sufferings. It is easier to imagine than to
depict the appearance and the threats of this crowd. We put mattresses
against the windows as a protection against bullets. There was a young
man in the crowd who ordered us to come down, and aimed at us with a
coolness that attracted my attention. “See that wretch,” said the
warden Pinet to me, “he is one of the two condemned to death by the
court of assize of the Seine!.”
“The barricade is on fire,” exclaimed some soldiers. “We are stifled!
Help!”
Two enormous barricades had been constructed against the two doors of
the story, with our beds and the flagstones torn up from the floor. I
ran to the barricade on fire, and found myself in a cloud of smoke.
“Do not be alarmed,” said a soldier, whose skill and presence of mind
I admired, “I constructed the barricade, and took care to place only
mattresses in front: bring me some water.” In fifteen minutes the fire
was extinguished. I heard the insurgents, who sometimes threatened to
set fire to our building, to blow it up, or order the batteries of
Père-la-Chaise to fire at it: sometimes they perfidiously cried:
“_Vive la ligne!_ surrender, and we will set you free!” The massacres
of those who trusted to their promises proved how sincere they were.
At that moment, something as unexpected as fortunate took place in the
prison. While we were organizing a desperate resistance, and the
soldiers, more bold than prudent, were crying, “Let us go down to the 360
office, and boldly attack the Commune!” the Communists, frightened at
our resistance and the rapid progress of the French army along the
Boulevard du Prince Eugène, hastily fled from La Roquette in the
direction of Belleville. The rabble, astonished at this sudden
removal, were convinced of the great danger, and fled after them. The
prisoners were restored to liberty, and naturally cried: _Vive la
République! vive la Commune!_
Availing themselves of this confusion, the lay hostages who were to
have been shot with us escaped from La Roquette: almost all succeeded
in crossing the barricades or hiding till the next day in the late
haunts of insurrection. Some of the clergy imitated them; others,
particularly Mgr. Surat, who was dressed as a layman, hesitated. The
wardens, from motives more praiseworthy than prudent, urged them to
fly. This course seemed to me disastrous. The neighborhood of the
prison was in the hands of the insurgents, whose irritation knew no
bounds. I thought it my duty to warn the first vicar-general of Paris,
and said to him through the bars: “Take care; to leave is certain
death; to remain, uncertain!” I ascertained afterwards that I had not
been heard. In going out of the prison, he was murdered in a frightful
manner, with M. Bécourt, the curé of Bonne Nouvelle; M. Houillon, a
missionary of the Missions Etrangères, and a lay prisoner. Some
priests succeeded in concealing themselves in the Faubourg St.
Antoine, and some returned to the prison.
Notwithstanding the departure of the insurgents who were to put us to
death, we were still exposed to sudden attack and every danger while
the prison gates were unfastened. I therefore protested in violent
terms to the two wardens, who, frightened at the terrible consequences
that would result from a return of the insurgents, urged us strongly
to descend and go out. “We will not go out,” I replied; “the
Versailles troops will be here in a few hours: if any misfortune
happens to us by your fault, on you will fall the responsibility.
Fasten all the prison doors, and only open them to the Versaillais.”
They warmly reproached me for an obstinacy they thought must prove
fatal to us, but they faithfully obeyed my orders.
At eleven o’clock at night, the firing, which was not far off, ceased.
The frenzied demagogues without uttered powerless threats against us.
We kept a strict guard, and seriously began to hope. At a quarter
before three, the firing recommenced toward Père-la-Chaise. Every hour
now seemed an age. There was a formidable barricade in the Rue de la
Roquette in front of the prison. Attacked on the side of the Bastille,
it would have opposed a formidable resistance on account of its
steepness, but, owing to the winding and concentric course of the
French army, the insurgents, stormed from the heights occupied by our
troops, left the barricade in disorder, and a battalion of marines
took possession of La Roquette. Our resistance, that at first was only
madness, ended miraculously. It was the great festival of Whit-Sunday.
After four days of the greatest agony that can be imagined, we were,
contrary to all expectation, restored to life and liberty.
While some of the prisoners cried, “Vive l’armee! Vive la France!” the
most of them, affected by want of sleep and the mental torture that no
human tongue could express, persisted in regarding our liberators as
insurgents disguised as marines. Then began a singular negotiation
between the prisoners and the marines, in which the former, more 361
incredulous than St. Thomas, saw nothing but snares, and the latter
with immovable patience submitted to requirements that were almost
puerile. The arms, flags, books, and papers of the battalion were
demanded. The marines consented, but the prisoners, blinded and
confused, were still far from being reassured concerning the identity
of the marines.
Some of my companions and myself, who could not believe a disguise
could be so perfect, were distressed at this prolonged hesitation, far
from flattering to our courageous deliverers. We induced our
companions to allow us to go out, that they might judge from our
reception what course to take themselves. At the sight of the marines
who rush toward us, not to massacre us, but to shake our hands and
rejoice over our deliverance, the confidence of our companions
revived, and they came to receive their share of cordial sympathy.
My surprise was great when I heard General Vinoy’s aide-de-camp
eagerly inquire for Mgr. Darboy and M. Deguerry. “Where are they? How
do they do?” It was four days since they were massacred by the
Commune, and the frightful reality was still unknown at Versailles and
Paris. Knowing the profound affection of the brave General Vinoy for
the Archbishop of Paris, his aide-de-camp begged me to give him some
correct details, which he immediately despatched to the general and to
Versailles.
They were still fighting furiously around La Roquette. We were obliged
to wait nearly an hour at the office, where we found, in fearful
disorder, cartridges, cigars, swords, guns, proscription lists,
proclamations, and the decrees of the expiring Commune, never to be
issued.
Accompanied by an escort bearing before us the French flag, we set out
in a body by the heights of the Faubourg St. Antoine, the Jardin des
Plantes, and the quais on the left bank of the river, toward our
homes. At each step we had to struggle against the most poignant
emotions. Here, in the boulevards, were heaps of men and horses who
had been killed, with pools of blood beside piles of cartridges and
broken chassepots. There, trees were broken down and houses shattered
by shells. The few inhabitants we met seemed confounded and in
despair. Further on, we uttered a cry of horror at the sight of the
Hôtel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, the entrance of the Rue du Bac,
the Tuileries, and the palaces of the Conseil d’Etat and of the Légion
d’Honneur in flames or in ashes.
In the Rue des Saintes-Pères, a gentleman and lady whom I knew, but
whose names I could not recall, stopped to ask if I was one of the
Jesuit Fathers, and if I came from La Roquette. They wished news of
Père Caubert. I informed them he was shot on Friday with Père
Olivaint. At this, the gentleman raised his eyes to heaven, while the
lady made an effort to overcome her emotion. “You see before you,”
said he, “Père Caubert’s sister!” It was M. Lauras, one of the
directors of the Orleans Railway, and Madame Lauras, _née_ Caubert.
I accompanied the soldiers, who had participated in my captivity, to
the Palais Bourbon, and after a fraternal grasp of the hand I turned
toward the Madeleine. The Place de la Concorde was upset, and a part
of the Rue Royale burned down with petroleum. I found the Madeleine
standing, and my residence in the Rue de la Ville-l’Evêque, but both
injured by the firing. No one knew of, and what was more strange, no 362
one would believe in, the horrible deaths of Mgr. Darboy and M.
Deguerry. My two _confrères_ at the Madeleine expressed the same
doubt, the same incredulity. When at vespers I was about to ascend the
pulpit to recommend the victims to the prayers of the faithful, they
advised me to defer it, hoping the fatal news would not be confirmed.
I had told it to more than one hundred persons, begging them to
inform, in their turn, the other parishioners of the Madeleine, but
when, in an affecting but cautious and brief manner, I requested the
faithful gathered at the foot of the altar to pray for the pastor of
the diocese and the curé of the parish, basely shot on the
twenty-fourth of May, in the prison of La Roquette, a cry of grief and
horror escaped from every soul; the men and the women rose up in
confusion, as if to protest against it; the gravest and most
reverential for a moment seemed to lose their balance. Among the
confused voices around the pulpit, these words were the most distinct:
“No, no, such a crime is not possible!”
My moral conclusions will be simple and brief. It would be an insult
to the reader to dwell on the great lessons to be drawn from such
sorrowful and overwhelming catastrophes.
First Lesson. Divine Providence never chastised and enlightened a
nation by severer blows. It behooves us therefore to consider the
grave and exceptional malady that is afflicting society, and seek an
efficacious and permanent remedy for it. We are all suffering from the
evil, and we all should be preoccupied about the means of recovery.
Some days after leaving La Roquette, I wished to revisit the places
where I had been imprisoned, in order to retrace, with precision, the
events that took place in the last days of the Commune. I met
there one of the most intelligent and most religious _juges
d’instruction_ on the bench of the Seine. I visited with him the
places of the greatest interest, Mgr. Darboy’s cell, and the spot on
the circular road where the murder of the six principal hostages took
place. The warden took us to Troppmann’s cell. “I supposed, till
within a few days,” said I to the magistrate of the Seine, “that
criminals like Troppmann were of a rare species that required fifty or
sixty years to develop in the lowest grades of society. After the
realities I witnessed at La Roquette, I am convinced they are to be
found by thousands in Paris.” The _juge d’instruction_ replied that
all the magistrates who studied the mysteries of those grades had the
same conviction. It would therefore be simply folly not to consider
the remedy most suitable to counteract such a disorder.
Second Lesson. In the horrible catastrophe that has just revealed so
many material or moral sores, every one is more or less responsible
and culpable. Every one should say his _meâ culpâ_, and seek to become
better. The most guilty are certainly the turbulent working classes,
the demagogues, the International, the secret societies, outlaws, and
governments without morality, but they alone are not guilty. Literary
men who diffuse in their pernicious publications the poison of
scepticism and immorality; artists who are wanting in respect and
decency; the journals of the rich and influential _bourgeoisie_, which
defend the principles of material conservation, while by their attacks
on the Holy See, the clergy, and the church generally, they sap the
very foundations of morality; politicians who brutally proclaim, with
a view to the rewards and the gratification of their cupidity, the 363
primacy of might against right--should disavow and correct their
errors. Pious people and the clergy should redouble their solicitude
and energy in extending and strengthening their influence,
particularly in the most populous districts. There are no other means
of safety.
Third Lesson. The reign of the Commune has revealed a frightful number
of wicked men in society capable of every excess. They have trampled
under foot the very first principles of natural order and social life,
which the Reign of Terror would have feared to disregard. The
executions at La Roquette, without preparation, without discussion or
preliminary trial, were a thousand times more monstrous than the
executions of the Revolutionary tribunal. In 1793, the Dantons and
Robespierres were imitators, more or less imposing, of the Catilines
of ancient Rome: in 1871, we have had Raoul Rigault and Ferré, the
Catilines of the gutter. Ferocious beasts are not reasoned with--they
are muzzled. Society therefore should have a power of legal repression
proportioned to the dangers that threaten it.
But as the material order of things is founded on the moral order, the
great principles of reverence for God, a respect for others and for
ourselves, should be diffused and practised. It has been wished to
establish society with no religious belief, make laws, found
institutions, and keep the people in order, without reference to the
teachings of the Gospel: this is building the social edifice upon
quicksands. How can an economist, a politician, however incredulous,
help understanding that while the mass in the great cities, especially
at Paris, do not find in the faith, in the observance of religious
duties, and in the eternal recompense of a future life, a source of
morality, strength and consolation in view of the inequalities of
fortune and social position, in view of the enjoyments and leisure of
the fortunate ones of this world and of the unforeseen trials and
sufferings that too often beset them, there can be neither security
nor repose?
Jesus Christ and his Gospel are still the salt of the earth and the
light of the world. To withdraw society from this divine and guiding
influence would condemn it to sorrow, crime, and shame.
----------
GOD IS OUR AID. 364
A CHRISTMAS STORY OF ‘67.
In the dim twilight of an October evening, a rich man prepared to
leave the vast treasures accumulated by a fruitless life. Fruitless, I
say, for though his increasing millions ranked him a merchant prince
of the great metropolis, yet the gold had hardened and crusted and
metallized his heart--fusing a subtle poison that destroyed the softer
instincts of his nature. Therefore, instead of bearing upward a
Godward soul on prayerful incense, those last pulses concentrated in
one bitter feeling against the daughter whose faith had won from him
the intense hate of his life. The owner of millions each year
increased his avarice, bowing him low before the god of the nineteenth
century, and inciting the struggle, the sacrifice, the sin, for place
and station and gold, literally proving the poet-king’s cry,[82]
“_Quoniam omnes dii Gentium dæmonia!_” So, while the stormy gusts
swept up the avenue, and the lowering sky increased the night, the old
man gathered his failing strength for the last great effort. “Hold me,
William, support me ere it is too late. Quick! give me the pen, I must
sign while yet my hand has power.” Then they put the pen in his
trembling hand, his stalwart son supporting him, and all the fiercer
passions played upon that cold face, and in those cruel eyes, as he
wrote the signature disinheriting the child of the wife whose fair
face looked in silent reproach from the portrait opposite. And William
Stanfield folded the paper and locked it in the escritoire, and old
Thomas of the iron heart “slept the last sleep.” But this Stanfield,
he of the stern Puritan stock, had not always been thus. First, he
married his wife as a mere boy of twenty--a gentle New England
girl--who had left William to him; William, so staunch in his loyalty
to the heritage left by the _Mayflower_ stock. But Thomas laid his
boyish love to rest within the quiet “God’s-acre” of the village
church, and then wandered to New York to build his fortune. Fate did
not withhold her favors from this sturdy son, who met and conquered
her; for he was determined to succeed, and did!
And strange to say that at this time human softness yet lived amid the
dross and corruption of the world, for Thomas Stanfield was by no
means indifferent to certain influences. So, one bright Christmas
morning, he found himself in New Orleans, and, stranger still to
relate, his partner, Mons. Crécy, persuaded him to listen to the
magnificent service at ---- Church. The music was exquisitely
appealing, thrilling the nobler attributes of man’s better nature; and
so this worldly materialist forgot to speculate or dream of gold for
two long hours, and sat rapt, while his soul absorbed its divine
inspiration. If there is a season when the hardness of humanity
dissolves and merges into its spiritual essence, it is when music
gently lifts it to its higher affinities, and brings it _en
rapport_ with God. And thus the man of gold listened to the soft
soprano, and far beyond the latticed grating caught a glimpse of dark
eyes that haunted him long after the anthem ended. And when Etienne 365
Crécy asked him to dine at the “Grove,” his plantation near the city,
he accepted, scarcely realizing what he did till he found himself
behind a pair of splendid bays, with New Orleans far in the distance.
The balmy, bright-skied South always brought a pleasant Christmas, for
oranges hung golden on the trees that formed the grove leading to the
house, and the sweet breath of the blossoms perfumed the air. This to
the Northerner, accustomed to ice and snow at this season, was a most
enjoyable contrast; and his stroll over the beautiful grounds afforded
real pleasure. Then they rested on the broad piazza, or gallery, as it
is called in Louisiana, and talked of business details, when suddenly
Mons. Crécy discovered that his guest was strangely distrait, for a
clear, soft voice was sounding, to an accompanying harp, and Mr.
Stanfield recognized the same silver tones that had absorbed him
during the morning service. “_Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe
deprecationem nostram_,” fell earnest and tender on his ear--it was,
it must be, the same, and he turned to M. Crécy. “It is my daughter
Madelaine,” said the old man; and at dinner he saw the same fawn-eyes
that had first glanced from behind the grating in the old church. And
those shy, sweet eyes found a place in the heart of the cold New
Englander, and in the spring he bore her a bride to his beautiful home
in New York.
Three years passed, and only the step-son shared their household. Some
trouble attended the marriage, for the parish priest, Father Jean, at
first refused to unite her with such an obstinate heretic. But the
maiden loved this son of the Puritans, so either her gentle influence
or his pertinacious perseverance overcame the scruples of the good
priest, and Thomas Stanfield finally triumphed, giving some vague
promise in reference to the children. He fully intended evading the
fulfilment of the promise, for soon after his marriage he acknowledged
thus much to his wife, who, with tears in her dark eyes, said she
would only pray for God’s grace to change him. So, almost as a curse
it seemed, for three years no child came to bless the marriage. True,
the young wife was very dear to this stern husband, but the element
which had strengthened his forefathers still waxed strong within him,
and the self-asserting dogmatism heired from John Carver’s band
sounded in the stern words that answered his wife when, with quivering
lips, she told him of his little daughter’s advent. He kissed the pale
young mother tenderly and lovingly, but even in that hour he did not
restrain himself from replying, “She belongs to me!” and Madelaine
understood too well what those words implied. So she only whispered,
as her white face grew whiter, “_I will leave her to God._ May
our Holy Mother care for her!”
Then the gentle soul departed with the cross upon her bosom, and those
last words on her lips, and many, many years after Thomas Stanfield
heard repeated in his dreams, “God shall help her.”
And a judgment rested on the rich man’s harvest, for this
warm-hearted, earnest Southern wife was very dear to him. But the
child grew in loveliness, and her impulsive nature felt the need of
more than her cold father accorded. Firm as he had been in reference
to the child, it seemed strange that he evinced so much indifference
to her education, for though she had been baptized in his own church,
and sent to Protestant schools, yet very little care was bestowed
upon her religious instruction. When she grew old enough, she 366
accompanied her father to church, and through the long sermons her
weary little eyes would often close. She went merely from habit,
because her father wished her with him, for there was nothing in the
cold, formal ritual, if that bare service can be called a ritual, to
attract or warm her heart; but it was part of her duty to go; and so
she went. Thus her childhood passed, and so her girlhood opened.
Children rarely exert the reasoning faculties, accepting with
boundless trust what is proposed by their elders. Faith and confidence
are largely developed, therefore a grave record is written of those
intrusted with these young immortals. But when reason waked and the
heart expanded, this warm loving nature asked for more than what was
offered, and her soul felt starved, hungry for the food it found not.
Thomas Stanfield was now devoted to his business, from nine in the
morning, when his _coupé_ drove him to his office, to six in the
evening, when his key opened the massive door of his palace--his whole
soul entered into the fascination, the strife for increasing millions.
And at night, as he sat silent in his high carved chair, the closed
eyes and set features told that the scheming still continued. Was it
strange, then, that the young girl yearned for something more than her
home offered? Well, one September evening, soon after their return
from the country, the servant handed in a card, bearing the simple
inscription, “Kenneth C. Arnaud.” Then Mr. Stanfield, disturbed in the
midst of some speculation, testified by a grunt his welcome to a
distant relative of his wife. “This is Miss Stanfield, my daughter,”
he said, as he seemed to remember that another person occupied the
room. The stranger was a courtly, handsome gentleman, and started as
his eyes rested on the young girl. “How like my cousin Madelaine,” he
said, “as I remember her in my childhood.” For the first time the old
man seemed to realize the resemblance, and turned to examine the fair
girl who was his daughter. “Yes,” he faintly assented, and the
conversation dragged through a half-hour’s duration, when Mr. Arnaud
rose to go. But this was not his last visit, for he passed the winter
in the city; and many evenings found him at Mr. Stanfield’s house,
where Madelaine sang to him the songs he loved best. Then a new life
opened to the young girl, and her heart felt a strange happiness it
had never known before.
The Advent season came--a time of joy and gladness in the churches
that celebrate this season, but scarcely remembered or noticed in
dissenting congregations; and on the first Sunday that Mr. Arnaud
formed one of the family party, he proposed that Madelaine should
accompany him to St. ----’s church, as the music was always attractive
there. Old Mr. Stanfield was half asleep, when the name of this Roman
Catholic church startled him. “Only to listen to the music, papa!” she
laughingly replied to his frown, and she went. The ritual was new to
her, the service a strange mystery, but she patiently watched it all,
listening to the exquisite bursts from the choir. Then sounded the
“Alma” with its sweet cadence, and the heart of the young girl
thrilled within her. She could not explain, but she felt a strange
attraction that drew her against her will to this beautiful ritual.
Then came the lovely benediction, and the devotion of the kneeling
hundreds, the solemn censer’s cloudlike offering, the elevation, and
the echoing bell, at which a hush swept like an angel’s presence over 367
the rapt thousands. It was all a lovely dream to this young
enthusiast, and, closing her eyes, troops of seraphim and cherubim
seemed prolonging the words--
“Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui.”
She returned to her home filled with a new life, and for the first
time her soul felt its thralls. She was very quiet that night, and
even her father remarked the change. Poor child! she had needed all
that had been denied to her, and the starved spirit was just tasting
of the food immortal. Is it not often thus in life, that a charm, a
mere instinct, leads us to the path for which we have been vainly
striving? Give me thine heart! was the cry of the Holy Mother to the
footsore and weary, to all who sought consolation from that loving
breast; and the listening angels caught the echo of that cry, and bore
it up to the great Pontiff, who sends the Comforter to spread the
white-winged dove on the troubled soul that calls for peace!
The spring came, after the long, cold winter, and Kenneth Arnaud asked
the old man for his gentle daughter. But Mr. Stanfield had always
regarded Madelaine as a mere child, and seemed shocked and angry at
the request. He had forgotten that eighteen years had passed since his
soft-eyed wife had whispered, “I leave her to God”--and now a Catholic
had asked his child in marriage! He did not answer the young man for
several weeks, not till the sweet eyes of his daughter had been dimmed
with many tears, and her childish heart had felt, ay, painfully felt,
the first great sorrow of her life.
“It seems strange that my faith should prove an objection, Mr.
Stanfield, for not very many years have passed since you gave your own
example.”
The old man looked him steadily in the eyes, and replied:
“And the great unhappiness of that union was the education of the
children that were to come. What say you of this?”
“That, your daughter shall determine.”
“You can speak this with safety, Mr. Arnaud, for my daughter has
proved a quick pupil.”
“I can scarcely comprehend you, Mr. Stanfield, and, as a gentleman,
will not understand the accusation implied.”
“I do not accuse you of influencing my daughter, but her bias in favor
of the Romish Church is a subject that cannot afford me happiness.”
The conversation was serious, and very painful to both, and at last
Mr. Stanfield closed the interview with this remark: “As my daughter’s
happiness is concerned, I cannot withhold my consent, but I wish you
to clearly understand that, when she renounces the church of her
forefathers, she also relinquishes all right to her father’s estate.”
A proud smile curled the young man’s lips as he replied, “I feel
privileged to claim her, even though the conditions were far more
capable of inflicting unhappiness.”
And so they were married, and the old man and his son William bowed
before the golden calf, and worshipped it, offering their souls as
homage at its shrine.
For the young wife, one brief year of happiness passed, and yet there
was unrest even then within her soul, for she craved with hungry
longing the new life which she feared to taste, because the ties 368
binding her to her father appealed to her heart, and she dreaded an
anger which she knew would never forgive what he considered so fearful
an error.
But one cold morning in the winter of ‘61, the telegraph bore to New
York tidings of the secession of Louisiana, then the sons of the sunny
South rallied to her standard, and for four long years a bloody war
desolated that section. She, the young wife, had never given her
thoughts to politics, nor did she understand why hate and bitterness
waged with such deadly strife between the two portions of a country
which she so dearly loved; but her husband decided for her, and,
feeling that her life was only a part of his, she followed. And those
were years fraught with agony--years that recorded suffering that aged
more than time had power to accomplish; for over each battlefield
brooded a great host of prayer--prayer born of love intensified, and
of partings which would know only the meeting above; and the race
schooled by those years grew, developed, lived, more than generations
ordinarily experience in a whole lifetime.
Col. Arnaud won a soldier’s reputation, and the autumn of ‘64 found
him, with his fine regiment, encamped a few miles below the
Confederate capital. Madelaine soon followed him to Richmond, bringing
her little family, her boy Kenneth and a baby daughter. The winter was
very trying to this delicate woman, for the city was crowded with
refugees from all parts of the Confederacy; every square inch was
occupied, and therefore comfortable accommodations were impossible to
find. Then the depreciated currency rendered the price of necessities
almost fabulous, so that barely to live required great sacrifice and
control. But the courageous wife and devoted mother gathered her little
ones, and contentedly dwelt in one small room, happy to welcome her
husband whenever his brief furloughs allowed him to spend a day with
her. But the great culmination approached, and the troops that wore
the tattered gray were soon to furl the cross of stars that had
proudly waved over many a gallant fight; and on one cold wintry
morning she heard the newsboys shout “Extra! extra!” and soon Franklin
Street was echoing with news of the fierce battle below Richmond.
Madelaine had not seen her husband for almost four weeks, and her
heart sank as she listened. “I will get a paper,” she said, and,
leaving her nurse with the children, she descended to the street to
purchase one.
Poor young thing--she little realized how literally she had followed
the Scriptures, for she had forsaken all things, and he, her brave
husband, was all she had to cling to; and now--but she was too truly a
woman for control, and she fainted when she read the cruel words that
told of her husband’s fate. A night of horror followed, and the roll
of the ambulance in the early gray of the next morning startled her
from her troubled sleep. They, those of his brigade, in their faded
gray bore him to the small chamber where his young wife waited, and
pale and ghastly she saw him laid upon the bed, where he was soon to
sleep the long pulseless sleep. All that glory could render to sweeten
the pain of dying was offered, for the journals rang with the grand
charge he had led, and his deeds of daring were as household words in
the crowded Confederate capital. But the great edict had gone forth,
and the priest of his church came to offer the last consolations.
“My own true wife,” and he summoned the bowed figure, the frail 369
girl-woman who knelt beside him. The sweet eyes were dim with tears,
and the voice was tremulous with passionate grief. His left arm drew
her to him, for the right was crushed and powerless. “I am about to
ask a brave act from you, my darling; do you think that you can please
me?”
“Ask me anything, Kenneth, only stay with me. Oh! do not leave me
yet,” and burning tears blinded her.
“‘My ways are not thy ways, nor my thoughts thy thoughts’: do you
remember these words, my own wife? And then--only a little while, when
we shall meet where the for evermore will indeed be eternal! But not
of this did I wish to speak, Elaine, but”--and he hesitated--“if my
faith could be taught to my little ones?”
She did not reply at first, but, with one gaze of devoted, earnest
love, she turned, and kneeling by his side, with the weak precious
hand clasped within her own, she repeated: “And receive, O Lord, thy
servant into thy holy church, for which her heart hungers.” And he
answered, “Amen!”
But this was no sudden desire influenced by her devotion to her
husband; for, six years before, when she had listened to the sweet
vesper service, the latent life had wakened, and the slumber had seen
sleep no more, but the message, “Wake to thy salvation!” electrified
her soul, and her whole nature thrilled its amen there; since then she
had been peculiarly situated, and shrank from provoking anger in her
father, as she realized how very stern he could be when he felt
himself aggrieved. But now her heart told her she must no longer
hesitate, the great crisis asked for action, and she felt that all
worldly considerations must be forgotten when her husband, and her own
heart also, called for a decision which shaped her life. So she was
baptized by the holy father beside the bed where her husband lay
dying; and the priest’s voice was very tender as he welcomed this
stricken daughter Christ had given to his fold.
Only a few days after, she laid her husband to rest beneath the
poplars at “Holleywood,” where many of his comrades were lying; and
then came the gloomy, stormy March, and the sad April when the snowy
flag was folded, and it was during this season that the widowed mother
was received into her husband’s church.
The war had closed, and we all remember the fearful wreck that
followed when Madelaine Arnaud found herself battling with the grim
wolf whose shadow darkened her door. Her husband’s fortune was all
gone, and the delicate, dependent woman felt that she had but little
to hope for from her father; still she would not believe that he could
entirely forsake her, even though she had become a member of the
church his soul abhorred. So she wrote in her extremity and asked for
advice. Many anxious days and nights passed, and no letter came; a
fortnight intervened, when, one morning, she opened the envelope
handed to her by the postman, and read:
“You have chosen your way in life, and, when you forsook your
father’s faith, he also separated from one who had joined herself
to idols. I enclose all that you may ever claim from me.
“THOMAS STANFIELD.”
She found enclosed the last note written by her mother, only a few
hours before her death, and a silver crucifix, with the name
“Madelaine Crécy, La.,” inscribed on the back or flat side of the
cross.
She was very young to be left so entirely alone, for she was not yet
twenty-five, and two children depended on her for support. What could 370
she do, and how must she act? In her agony, she cried, “Save me, O
Father, for without thine aid I am lost!” Then the crucifix fell from
her letter, and, clasping it, she drew her boy to her, and, kneeling,
prayed: “Lord, thy enemies and mine have risen up against me: I
therefore cast myself at thy feet to implore thy succor.”
The soft eyes of the little one gazed into her own, and, nestling
closer, he asked:
“What makes mamma so sad?”
There are seasons in life when suffering is too great for expression,
when tears refuse relief, and the overcharged heart, paralyzed by
pain, seems incapable of pulsation. Then even speech fails; and the
poor, desolate woman only pressed her child closer, and appealed to
her God for protection.
Thus days passed, and she seemed unable to act, for at the South all
was poverty and desolation, while she dared not anticipate what
awaited her in New York. But the few dollars were growing less, and
her children required food, so she decided to try the great city, and
thither with her faithful nurse she journeyed. Her mother’s note gave
her strength, and she often re-read the faint tracery on the faded
paper.
“For, my darling child” (the note read), “should you ever wander
into the dear fold of your mother’s church, feel always that my
blessing will rest upon you, and though I may not live to guard
you, yet my prayer will be then as it is now for God to be with
you.
“MADELAINE CRECY STANFIELD.”
And though she did feel crushed and desolate on that stormy September
evening which found her in the great city, still a strength came to
her which she had never known, and she felt that God would protect
her. Through the crowd at the depot she wended her way, and thence in
the midst of a pouring rain to a cheap boarding-house, where she
passed the night. The next morning she met an old servant who had
known her as a child, and, with tears streaming from the old eyes, she
took her to a small but respectable house in the town-part of the
city, where she rented two rooms, and commenced her new life. A
touching sight it was to see her in her sad mourning dress, she so
fair and fragile, yet feeling that three depended upon her exertions,
she rose to the emergency, and determined to succeed, or die in the
service. She had brought a letter to a priest of her church, and to
him she applied. He was very kind, and promised to do all that he
could, but at the same time told her that pupils were not easily
obtained, and recommended her to watch the newspapers. And she did
search the journals, devoting herself to answering advertisements,
but, save a few questionable replies, nothing came of this attempt.
Meantime she began to feel the pinchings of want, and ventured to try
sewing, but how was she to obtain work? “Go yourself, my dear young
mistress,” said the good old negress--“go yourself; and may de kind
Lord bless you!” And, shrinking and nervous, she applied to a merchant
down-town. She could scarcely find words for her request, but her pale
face appealed, and she bore away her parcel. Tireless were her
continued efforts, and all through snow and ice she persevered in her
work. “God will help her!” the dying mother had said, and through the
darkness of her life’s storm she tried to comfort herself with this
assurance.
It was very hard to realize that her father accumulated useless 371
thousands and lived in princely style at the other end of the city,
while, only because she believed in her mother’s faith, she must
suffer and toil with her little ones, needing comfort, and often even
bread. Then the old man died, and, ere he died, the scene with which
this story opens shamed his last hours.
But the exposure of three winters told on this delicate woman, and,
when she felt her strength waning, all the horrors of starvation
frightened her; for she knew that there were none to help her. She had
moved still lower down-town, and into a smaller room, and there, with
her faithful nurse, she endured life. But then there came a time when,
though the will is strong to do, the physique fails to support, and
the brave heart, struggling to conquer, feels despair steeling its
vitals, and thus it was with Madelaine. The autumn of 1867 set in
early, and November was cold and cruel to the poor. She, weaker than
she had been, felt her slight unheeded cough increase, and, when
December came, was too ill for any exertion. Bitterly the winter
opened, snow covered the city, the wind keen and merciless swept the
island, and thus the Christmas week found her with the little ones
dependent, and she utterly helpless. The last penny had been expended,
and the children were wailing with hunger.
Kenneth had looked into her own tearful eyes, and whispered, “Darling
mamma, I will pray to Our Lady, and she will ask God to help you.” She
only kissed her brave, trustful child, but had no strength for
utterance. So, when the chill night wrapped the city and darkened the
gloomy chamber, the child picked up his mother’s rosary, and, throwing
it around his throat, held the crucifix in his infant hands, and,
kneeling beside his mother’s low, poor bed, pleaded that the blessed
Virgin would be kind to his dear mamma; and then the sweet child went
to sleep murmuring Our Lady’s name.
The dawn was fast breaking over the city when the child kissed her,
and said, “She has heard my prayer, mamma, for I dreamed that a
beautiful angel like the picture in your prayer-book came to me, and
said, ‘God will help her!’--and does not that mean you, mamma?”
“I hope that our kind Father will help us, my darling; therefore we
must try to deserve his help.”
“Oh! he will help you, mamma, and I will help you, too.”
The day wore away, the last slice had been divided, and there was
literally nothing else in the house. Hunger, starvation, was before
them, and God, only God, could help them.
The snow fell heavily, the wind blew, and even the elements seemed
warring against her, for she had not even fuel to keep off the cold.
Two o’clock chimed from Trinity, and, turning, she missed Kenneth. He
was now eight years old, and often went out alone, but, with an
instinct plainer than words, her heart rose to warn her of danger.
Three, four, five o’clock came, but still the child did not return.
The lamps glared in the dark streets, and the night seemed too cold
for human life--when--crash! a shriek, and a pair of horses dashed
madly down the streets, throwing the occupants of the coach senseless
upon the sidewalk. A crowd soon gathered, and bore the crushed and
suffering man into the gloomy room where the sick woman lay. Her room
opened on the street, and so they laid him on the small bed where the
nurse slept.
“Bring a light,” sounded a gruff voice. 372
“Don’t you see dat de poor chile has no light for herself? Stonishing
de fools dat libs in dese parts!”
A kind voice asked, “Is there no money? Take this and buy a candle.”
The speaker was a shabbily-dressed man, but the whole aspect showed
that he had known better days. He remained with the injured man, and
while they go to find a light I leave them...
The snow was falling in great white feathery flakes, covering the dark
alleys and darker tenements with its soft downy covering, and the
little ragged, barefooted gamins of the great city were shrieking and
screaming with delight; but not to build mimic forts or to join the
army of snow-ballers did our little wanderer pause. “Mamma shall have
some money,” he said, “and I will begin to work for it, so I will go
to the streets where the fine houses are, and there the men will give
me work.” Only eight years old was this little soldier in the grand
army, but his noble face was radiant with the workings of his soul,
which no poverty could injure. His little clothes were patched and
scanty, and his poor little frozen toes came through the holes in his
worn shoes; but the eyes shone with a light that could not be dimmed,
and the firmly-set lips told that he was quite determined to do his
best on that afternoon. At first he shrank from the cutting wind that
swept from the East River, but, with hands in his pockets and cap
pulled down, he ran on till he came to Broadway. Crowded with the
happy crowd of the vast metropolis, the great highway was gay with
bright faces on this eve of the feast of joy. Windows bright with
presents for the favored children of fortune, shops thronged by
smiling mothers eager to gratify their pampered darlings, and
child-infant as he was, the little one paused to look at the pretty
toys; but tears filled the large blue eyes, and he said, “Oh! I can’t
look at these things, for poor mamma is sick and wants food.” At that
moment, a gentleman passed, and the child went up and pulled his warm
overcoat, “Will you give me some work, sir?” But the creature, a
fashionable young fop in tights, shook him off, and passed on. Then
came another, this time a respectable gray-haired worthy, and, running
in front, the same appealing voice asked the same question. But the
successful merchant, hurrying home, was intent upon some new
speculation, and, suddenly disturbed, was not very amiable, as he
replied, “Be off, you little vagabond!”
This time the policeman came up, and taking him by the arm gruffly
ordered him to move on. And thus, on the eve of this blessed festival,
when the great city joyed in each household, there was no grain for
this wee waif, no crumb for the little estray, who was struggling
against the power of the ebb which fate had sent to test his strength
for the hereafter. On, on past the Fifth Avenue Hotel, through Madison
Square, glancing at the glittering icicles or gleaming snow-drifts,
shivering over the frozen pavements, on he travelled, faintly trying
for that which seemed for ever denied to him.
“_I will_ find it for her,” he said, “for the beautiful angel, our
Holy Mother, told me that she should be taken care of. I see her now
far up in the clouds.” And up in the leaden sky, far beyond the pure,
beautiful flakes, he gazed, half-hoping that the Mother of Christ
would smile on him again. And did she not even then hover over the
young boy-warrior? Did she not pray that he, too, might be strengthened 373
in this hard fight which his infant powers essayed? _Adjuvabit eam
Deus_![83] the dying mother had prayed, and his promises would not
fail. At last, far up the avenue, when the cold, shadowy twilight
stole on the great city, he paused before a stately mansion. Curtains
of silk and costly lace draped the windows, and liveried servants were
sitting on the box of the handsome coach awaiting the master’s coming.
Then the heavy door of massive bronze opened, and the master slowly
descended the broad steps.
“Oh! you will help me, won’t you? Please give me some work, for I want
to earn money for my mother!”
“Send that little beggar away,” was the irritable rebuff, and the
footman flung him aside, not heeding where he fell. The carriage
rolled away, and no thought was given to the small human bundle,
roughly hurled from the rich man’s path. Then night darkened over the
city, and the stars, God’s eternal sentinels, guarded earth as they
had done eighteen centuries before when they watched the birth of the
incarnate God. And beneath the same shimmering light the boy-warrior
lay, all worsted in the strife, as thousands had sunk before, and all
unconscious of the cruel hearts that still pulsed on. The torn little
cap had fallen off, and the fair golden curls shaded the pale,
childish face, turned upward as if in appeal to the Blessed Mother he
had seen in his dreams. Was she watching still, and did her kind eyes
see the crucifix clutched in the poor cold hands--the crucifix with
the dead Christ, whose birth the morrow would celebrate? But the soft
feathery flakes fell steadily on, covering the sweet face of the
little one. Ah! God of infinite love and goodness, will the great army
with the ranks of sin, and greed, and lust, prosper and thrive and
live, while this young soldier, this infant of purest soul and lion
heart, lies all unheeded, dying, the victim of cruelty and selfish
forgetfulness?
But see--a policeman tramps near, and he comes with stalwart tread,
swinging his burly arms, and clapping his gigantic hands to keep the
fingers from freezing, for verily death seems to breathe out in the
stealthy, deadening cold. Bravely he glances with searching look up
and down the broad avenue, then pauses suddenly by the side of the
obstruction just without the pavement.
“God and his holy saints forsake me, if this same bundle ain’t a
child! Ugh! but it’s an ugly night for this small specimen to be left
here! But come, let’s see, my little man,” and he tried to move him.
“St. Patrick save me! if I ain’t afraid that he’ll never feel again!”
And he dropped the little arm he held, and the crucifix, falling, lay
dark against the glittering snow. The sight of the cross at once
touched the stout Irishman, and this sturdy six-footed son of the
Green Isle, this huge guardian of the great city, gathered the stray
lamb to his bosom tenderly, pityingly, as its own mother, and bore it
to the station-house. And, full of the warm impulse of his race, he
chafed the poor little hands, and lingered by the pallet on which he
lay, till great tears fell from eyes that had not seldom looked
unmoved on the misery of the metropolis. He raised the child’s
crucifix to his lips, and though he hurriedly summoned a physician, he
muttered, “Poor little lamb, if he does come back to life, it will
only keep an angel longer from Our Lady’s home!”
The man returned to his duty, and hours passed before he was relieved,
but ere he returned to his own home, and the young wife waiting him, 374
he went back to the station-house to look after “the pretty young one”
who had died with the cross in his hand; for he fully expected to find
him dead on his return.
“We have had hard work to bring him back, Murphy,” said the doctor, as
the man walked up to the child. “Only five minutes more, and the cold
would have reached the little heart, which was losing all sensation.
We have had a time of it, and he has just fallen asleep. These are
what we found on him. The card was fastened to his worn jacket, and
the crucifix has also a name engraved.” And picking up the card from
the table the policeman read, “Kenneth Arnaud, 312 East ---- Street.”
On the back of the silver cross was the name, “Madelaine Crécy, August
15, 18--.”
“Poor little child! said the policeman. “I’ll take him home, for his
house is near my own.”
So he wrapped the sleeping child in an old blanket, and carried him
through the storm. A light glimmered on the first-floor front room as
he approached the house, and the man stepped in to inquire about his
young charge. As he opened the rickety door, the wailing voice of a
woman smote him with the agonizing pain it expressed. “The gentleman
may remain,” she said, “but for God’s sake find my child. O sir! bring
me back my child!” and her sobs and moans were heart-rending. The
negress rocked to and fro with the little girl, trying to keep her
warm and still her feeble cries for bread, chanting the while in dull
monotone, a habit peculiar to her race, and which at this time
increased the oppressive gloom of the place, not at all relieved by
the flickering tallow-candle, nearly burned out--on the small bed in
the corner the wounded gentleman lay groaning in agony, and
impatiently awaiting a messenger he had summoned--a sad eve truly that
announced the blessed festival!
At this time the policeman tapped with his club, but receiving no
answer, and not caring to wait in the cold, he once more opened the
door. Standing mute on the threshold, for the scene at first deprived
him of speech, then walking to the centre of the room, he asked, “Is
the mother of Kenneth Arnaud here? For I have found a child of that
name, who wore a crucifix on which was engraved ‘Madelaine Crécy.’”
With one wild scream the mother answered, “He is mine!” and, as she
clasped him to her heart, the soft eyes unclosed, and the feeble
little voice whispered, “Darling mamma, I asked them all for work that
I might buy you bread, but--oh! my head hurts, for a wicked man flung
me away from a gentleman who rode in his carriage. But, mamma, don’t
cry, for she--the one with the angels--will care for us. Oh! I have
just seen her, and I waked to find your own eyes where hers had been.
Dear mamma, keep me with you, away from the cruel man, and the ice,
oh! the cold snow!” And his little frame shivered with the
recollection.
“Madelaine Crécy!” the sick man muttered on his couch in the corner.
And the policeman approached. “Yes, sir, that was the name on the
crucifix, and I thought the little fellow was dead when I picked him
up in front of the millionaire’s house on Fifth Avenue.”
“My God! and it was my servant who cast him from me! Will you take a
message to that house, my good man? Do not refuse me, for gold shall
pay you well. I--I am that millionaire, and an avenging God has
crushed me.” With his uninjured arm, he drew out a card from his 375
pocket, and said, “Take this to my residence, and tell my housekeeper
to come to me at once.” Then, placing an eagle, his own valued
pocket-piece, in the policeman’s hands, he prayed him to hasten his
errand.
But the mother’s weak voice also called the kind Irishman. She had
heard nothing of the conversation, for she was absorbed with her
darling, who in broken words had told his little story.
“I have nothing to give you, sir,” she said with tears streaming down
her pale cheeks. “The rosary was my mother’s, and besides this I have
not even food for my children. But I will pray for you, and God will
bless and reward you, sir; he will grant what I cannot give.”
She clasped his rough hand, which her tears fell upon, and he
hurriedly left the room, for his own eyes were very dim.
Many and varied are the phases which the great city presents to these
her guardians, but in his fifteen years’ experience none had touched
him more than this.
He closed the door after him, and the solitary candle burned to its
socket. It was now past midnight, and a long silence ensued, broken
only by the snores of the negress, for the starved infant had cried
itself to sleep. The bruised stranger forgot his own suffering as he
contemplated the surrounding misery, and for some time the stillness
was profound. At last he muttered, “Madelaine Crécy! Madelaine Crécy!
can it be the same! Then God have mercy on my soul!”
“Who calls my mother’s name?” asked the sick woman.
“I, your father’s son, Madelaine Arnaud. I, your brother, who
despoiled you, and sold his life for gold, but,” and his voice
trembled with emotion--“but who will devote that life to you now, if
you will allow it, to atone for the cold selfishness of the past.”
“I should be no daughter of the church which you despise, William
Stanfield, if I bore anger to my father’s son. I teach my little
children to pray, ‘Forgive us, as we forgive those who sin against
us,’ therefore must my heart refuse all malice against God’s
creatures, else would my own prayers avail not.”
He could not answer then, for he, the bigot, the scorner of that
church which he had ridiculed, felt now the beauty of her teaching
when, even in the midst of her sufferings, this desolate woman could
forgive one who knew that he was responsible for so much that might
have been alleviated.
“Elaine!”--ay, it was the first time that she had listened to her old
name since the night when her brave husband had spoken his farewell,
and the sound thrilled her with strange memories--“Elaine, your roof
has sheltered me to-night, and saved from destruction one who claims
as a proof of your forgiveness acceptance of the home which he will
share with yourself and little ones.”
And, ere she answered, the chimes of Trinity heralded the dawn of that
thrice-blessed morning when the angels sang, “Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace to men of good-will.” And that message of
the Incarnation brooded with its holy evangel on the troubled hearts
within, as, when the Christmas sun shone over the snow-covered city,
the carriage of the rich merchant bore its precious freight to his
home, and light, and life, and joy succeeded the gloomy night. And
she, when her prayer ascended on that night of shelter and rest,
realized the fulfilment of her mother’s benediction: “Adjuvabit eam
Deus!”
[82] “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils.”
[83] “God shall help her.”
----------
CATHOLICITY AND PANTHEISM. 376
NO. XII.
THE COSMOS IN TIME AND SPACE.
The supernatural moment unites created personalities to the infinite.
By the moment of substantial creation the first duality is established
between the infinite and the finite. This duality is brought into
harmony and unity in the Theanthropos, who knits together the finite
and the infinite in the oneness of his single personality. But as the
hypostatic moment united only created natures to the infinite, another
moment was necessary, namely, a medium between the Theanthropos and
substantial creation. This is the _supernatural_, which, by raising
created persons above their natural sphere, enables them to arise, as
it were, to the level of the infinite, and establishes a communication
and intercourse between them. This we have shown in the preceding
article. The question which now remains to be treated of at present is
the following: _Who or what is to be the medium of communicating the
term of the supernatural moment to created personality?_
Although God, in acting outside himself, might have effected
everything immediately by himself, without allowing any play to second
causes, yet, following the law of his wisdom, he exerted immediately
by himself as much power as was required to set second causes in
action, and then allowed them to develop themselves under his
guidance. The law of wisdom is the law of sufficient reason, which
implies that no intelligent agent can, in acting, employ more power
than is absolutely necessary to attain its object; for acting
otherwise would be to let the amount of action not necessary to attain
the object go to waste, and be employed without any possible reason.
Hence the necessity on the part of the infinite to admit secondary
agency in the effectuation of this moment, whenever that was possible,
in order to observe the law of wisdom. Applying this theory to the
external action, we see that the substantial and the hypostatic
moments were effected immediately by God himself, because no secondary
agency could be employed therein; but the supernatural moment was
effected by God through the agency of the Theanthropos, who merited it
by his own acts of infinite value.[84] Hence, as the Theanthropos is
the meritorious cause of the supernatural moment, he is pre-eminently
its mediator, and therefore the medium of communicating it to created
personality. This consequence of Christ being the medium of the
communication of grace, in force of his being its meritorious cause,
is so evident that we know of none who has ever disputed it. The only
question which remains to be solved--a question of the greatest
importance--is this: When the Theanthropos was living on earth, he
would communicate the term of the supernatural moment in the personal
intercourse and intimacy in which he lived with his followers; but as 377
he has withdrawn his visible presence and intercourse from the earth,
how is the term of the supernatural moment to be communicated to human
persons in all time and space?
We answer by laying down the following principle: _This medium must
be such as will preserve the dignity and the prerogatives of the
Theanthropos, as will befit the nature of human personality, as will
fulfil the object which the supernatural term is intended to
attain_.
Because, if the medium which is chosen does not fulfil these
conditions; if it does not maintain the dignity and prerogatives of
the Theanthropos; if it does not befit the nature and constitution of
human personality; if it frustrates the ends of the supernatural
moment instead of attaining them, it is evident that infinite wisdom
could never have chosen it without contradicting itself. The principle
is, therefore, evident. Now, what can this medium be in its nature
which fulfils all these conditions? It can be nothing else than _the
sacramental extension of the Theanthropos in time and space_. In
announcing such a principle, the reader is at once aware that we
require some kind of presence of the Theanthropos in the cosmos
extending to all time and to all space.
But what is meant by sacramental extension, and why should it be so?
To answer this question, let us get first a true metaphysical idea of
the sacrament. The term sacrament in theological language is applied
as conveying the idea of an instrument of grace. Hence, to get at the
idea, we must inquire into the idea of instrument. Now, what is an
instrument? It is an organism which contains a force. And what is
force? It, being one of the first elements of our thoughts, can be
defined but imperfectly, less by its essence than by its effects. It
might be defined to be the energy of a being retaining its existence
through the means of an effort of concentration, or diffusing it
outwardly by a movement of expansion. Every act of force must be
reduced to this two-fold movement: either we shut ourselves, as it
were, in ourselves to concentrate our life, and give ourselves the
highest possible sensation; or we expand ourselves to communicate our
life to others, and according to the degree of this double tension we
exhibit the phenomenon of force. The hand contracted or closed is the
symbol of the force of concentration; the hand open to give is the
image of the force of expansion. The force of concentration in its
highest possible act is eternity--the possession of interminable life
all at once. He alone possesses it who in an instant--one,
indivisible, and absolute--experiences in himself and for ever the
plenitude of his being, and says, _I am who am_; the sublimest idea
ever conceived and ever uttered. The force of expansion at its highest
possible act is the external action; and he alone possesses it who,
absolutely sufficient to himself in the plenitude of his being, can
call to life, without losing of his own, whomsoever and whatsoever he
lists--bodies, spirits, worlds, and for ever in ages without number,
and in space without limits.
Now, God, in giving us being, has given us force, without which a
being could not conceive itself, and has given us this force in its
double element of concentration and expansion: the one, which enables
us to continue its existence, and to develop ourselves; the other,
which enables us to propagate ourselves: the one, by which we tend to
the act of eternity; the other, by which we tend to the act of 378
creation.
But there is this difference among others between us and the infinite,
that _he_ possesses in himself and by himself the force of concentration
and expansion, whereas our force is borrowed and communicated to us by
means of _instruments_, which his infinite wisdom has prepared. Life
is kept in us by something _forcing_ to us the _instruments_ to which
God has communicated the power of sustaining and repairing it.
We subsist by the invisible force contained in an organism. The same
must be said of the force of expansion. We cannot act outside
ourselves, on any being at all capable of resistance, by the simple
direct act of our will, but must make use of instruments, among which
our body is the first.
Now, the reasons of this are, that, if we possessed the force of
concentration and expansion in ourselves and by ourselves, it would
follow that, as these two forces constitute the essence of life, we
should have life in ourselves and by ourselves, we should be to
ourselves the reason of our being and subsistence, and consequently we
should be infinite and not finite. Hence, pantheism, which admits the
unity of substance independent and self-sufficient, and all else as
phenomena of this substance, rejects all idea of instrument in
metaphysics, and all idea of sacrament in theology.
Nor would it do to say that God might communicate that double force to
us immediately by himself without the aid of any instruments. For two
reasons we must reject such a supposition: First, the law of secondary
agency, which requires that created substance should act, and it would
not for any purpose do so were God to do everything immediately by
himself. Second, the law of communion, so necessary to the unity of
the cosmos, which is founded exclusively upon the action of one
element upon the other, else the communion would be merely imaginary
and fictitious.
We conclude: An instrument in its metaphysical idea is an organism
containing a force of concentration and expansion. A sacrament, being
an instrument, must therefore be an organism containing a force of
concentration and expansion; and, as an organism is something outward
and sensible, it follows that a sacrament must be also outward and
sensible. And as the force which the sacrament is designed to convey
is altogether supernatural, it follows that a sacrament must be an
instrument of conveying supernatural force. We may, therefore, define
a sacrament to be a sensible instrument or organism containing a
supernatural force of concentration and of expansion.
But it is evident that no instrument, no organism in nature, is
capable of conveying a supernatural force of concentration and of
expansion; for that would imply an act superior to its nature, which
is a contradiction. It follows, therefore, that this supernatural
force must be communicated to the organism by the Theanthropos,
otherwise it could never fulfil its destination and office. The
Theanthropos, in order to be the means of communicating to all human
persons in time and space the supernatural term, which is nothing else
but a supernatural force of concentration and expansion, must
communicate and unite his infinite energy and action to an external
organism, and thus himself convey through that organism the
supernatural life. And this union of the infinite energy of the
Theanthropos with an outward organism must not be successive or
temporary, but permanent and stable; since the object is to convey 379
the supernatural force to all human persons in _all time_ and in _all
space_.
This is the sacramental extension of the Theanthropos in time and
space, the continuation upon earth of the hypostatic union, the
filling up, as it were, of his incarnation, a second incarnation; not
of the Word with human nature in the unity of his personality, but an
incarnation of the Theanthropos, the Word made man, with visible,
outward, external instruments, in the unity of one sacramental being,
to convey to men in all times and spaces the supernatural life of
grace.
This sacramental extension of the Theanthropos must be divided into
various moments, owing to the requirements of the object for which it
is intended. The object of the supernatural moment is to reproduce the
Theanthropos in all human persons by a similitude of his nature,
perfections, and attributes, and by a real union with and
transformation into his life.
The infinite, from all eternity, under the subsistence of primary,
unbegotten activity and principle, begets and conceives intellectually
a similitude of himself absolutely perfect under the subsistence of
intellectual expression, _Logos_ or Word. This action of the
_Principle_ begetting the Word, exhibiting all the essential
requisites of generation, constitutes the Principle--_Father_; and the
begotten--_Son_. In his works _ad extra_, the infinite, in effecting
the mystery of the hypostatic moment, does nothing less than exalt the
cosmos, as recapitulated in the human nature of the Word, to the very
same dignity which arises in his bosom when in the day of his eternity
he begets his eternal Son. For the Theanthropos, or the Word made man,
is not the Son of God figuratively, or by adoption, or by any other
action than that which begets him from eternity. He as man-God is the
Son of God really, naturally, and by the same identical action which
eternally engenders him. Hence, the cosmos, as abridged in the human
nature of Christ, in force of the hypostatic moment, is really,
naturally, and by the same eternal action of the Father, the Son of
God Almighty.
The infinite wishes to extend this divine _Sonship_ of the
cosmos, as recapitulated in the human nature of Christ, to human
persons also. This of course cannot be effected except by an adoption
founded upon the following elements:
1. A perfect similitude of the nature, properties, attributes, and
virtues of the Theanthropos.
2. A real union with him.
3. A communication of his life.
4. A communication of his beatitude.
In other words, a reproduction of Christ and his nature, his
attributes, his life, and his bliss.
To effect this reproduction are required: First, a similitude of the
nature of Christ; a similitude of his intellect; a similitude of his
will; a sharing in his feelings. Second, a real and substantial
participation of his life, in order that this similitude may be
sustained, and that, initial and germinal as it is in this world, it
may grow and develop itself by communing with its proper object, and
thus become perfect and able to attain a participation of his bliss in
palingenesia.
Thus the eternal Father, seeing all human persons bearing the image of
his Son, having his mind, his will, his feelings, communicating with
his life, extends to them the feeling of a father and the inheritance
of children.[85]
Hence, the different moments of the sacramental extension of the 380
Theanthropos:
1. A moment of supernatural generation by which the Theanthropos
attaches his infinite energy to a visible instrument, permanent in
time and space, and through which he confers a similitude of himself
and the other divine persons; a similitude in essence, in intellect,
in will, in feeling, in aspirations, in an initial and germinal state,
and which establishes the incipient and germinal union of human
persons with the Trinity.
2. A moment by which the Theanthropos attaches his infinite energy to
a visible instrument, and through which he carries that initial and
inchoative similitude and union to a definite and determinate growth.
3. A moment by which the Theanthropos attaches his infinite energy to
a sensible instrument, in order to communicate to human persons the
power to perpetuate his sacramental extension in time and space.
4. A moment by which the Theanthropos communicates his infinite energy
to human persons, to exalt their natural force of expansion, and
enable them to propagate the human and supernatural species.
5. A moment by which the Theanthropos attaches and unites the _real
substantial presence of his person_, that is, of humanity and
divinity, both subsisting in his single divine person, to a sensible
instrument, in order to communicate to human persons his real,
substantial, theanthropic life, in order to put all human persons of
all time and space in real living communion with each other, by
meeting in him and through him as a common centre, and in order to
reside continually in the visible cosmos.
The third and fourth moments follow necessarily from the others, both
having the like office.
The first of them is intended to perpetuate the sacramental extension
of Christ. An organism to be set in motion requires the agency of
human persons; consequently, the supernatural organism or the
sacramental extension of Christ, in order to be applied to human
persons, requires the agency of human persons, appointed and fitted
for such office by another visible instrument to which a particular
theanthropic energy is attached.
This third moment is demanded also for another object, that is, the
transmitting whole and entire, and without any error, by a personal
intercourse, of the whole body of doctrines which are the object of
the supernatural intelligence bestowed by the first moment. No other
possible way can be thought of transmitting whole and entire the whole
body of doctrines, the object of the supernatural intelligence, than a
personal intercourse, the only safe, natural, philosophical manner of
transmitting doctrine. Hence, for this object, also, a moment was
required by which the Theanthropos, attaching his infinite energy to a
particular instrument, would fit human persons to teach infallibly the
whole body of doctrines he came to reveal, and to put in act his
sacramental extension.
The fourth moment relates to the natural union of sexes in reference
to generation.
Human persons being exalted by the first moment to the supernatural
order, their personal acts must necessarily become supernatural; much
more the highest possible personal act of expansion, which is the
transfusion of their united life into a third. Consequently, it was
befitting that the Theanthropos should attach a particular
supernatural energy to the union of the sexes with a view to the act
of generation, in order to exalt and sanctify it, and thus enable 381
them not only to generate as persons exalted to a supernatural state,
but to bring up the offspring in the same supernatural order.[86]
All the moments of the sacramental extension of Christ but the fifth
imply a personal action of the Theanthropos, attached to each
particular instrument constituting the moment.
The fifth moment alone implies a real substantial presence of the
whole person of the Theanthropos under the visible instrument. This
requires explanation and proof, since it has been denied with the
fierceness and rage of an opposition which did not and could not
comprehend the grandeur, the sublimity, the magnificence of the
elevation of the cosmos, by the fact of the hypostatic moment.
Catholicity holds: 1. That, though the Theanthropos has withdrawn his
_visible_ presence from the cosmos, he remains in it still, not by a
spiritual, figurative, phenomenal presence, but by a real, substantial
presence of his _whole person_, that is, of his body, blood, soul, and
divinity--a presence hidden under the modifications of bread and wine.
2. That the manner according to which this real, substantial presence
of the Theanthropos is obtained, is by a change of the substances of
bread and wine into the substance of the body and blood of the
Theanthropos, not still and dead, but as vivified by his soul and
divinity; a change effected by the sacramental words impregnated with
the infinite power of the Theanthropos, and uttered by the minister
over the elements to be changed.
Now the question arises: Is this substantial presence of the
Theanthropos necessary? Is it metaphysically possible in the manner
that the Catholic Church admits it?
As to the first question, we observe that such a presence is not
absolutely necessary when considered of itself, independent of, and
previous to, the adoption of the present plan of the cosmos by the
infinite intelligence of God. But considered in relation to the
present plan of the cosmos and as a complement of it, it _is_
necessary. Infinite intelligence might have selected another plan, but,
having once chosen the present plan of the cosmos, the real presence
becomes absolutely necessary as a complement bringing it to perfection.
This we shall endeavor to prove by the following arguments:
First, the end of the action of the infinite outside himself is the highest
possible manifestation of his infinite excellence. To attain this end, an
infinite effect would have been necessary. But as an infinite effect was a
contradiction in terms, infinite wisdom was to find means whereby to effect
the highest possible manifestation of himself, in spite of the ontological
finiteness of the cosmos to be effected. This means was to produce a
variety of moments; to bring the whole variety of moments to the highest
possible unity in the person of the Theanthropos.
1. To produce a variety of moments, in order that the _infinity_ of
the perfections of God, which could not be expressed by the terms
effected in _intensity_ of being, might be expressed in _extension_
and _number_.
2. The highest possible unity, in order that the infinity, simplicity,
and oneness of God might be portrayed.
3. In the person of the Theanthropos, in order that, if this variety
brought into unity could not be ontologically infinite, it might be
infinite by a union and communication the highest possible.
These are the three leading principles, according to which infinite 382
wisdom resolved the problem of the end of the external action: highest
possible variety, highest possible unity, highest possible
communication.
Now, let us see if and how the effectuation of real cosmos was
governed by these principles.
In view of these principles, God effected substantial creation and the
hypostatic moment, by which the whole substantial moment was united to
the person of the Word in the bond of his divine personality.
Was the problem of the highest possible variety and the highest
possible unity and communication in the person of the Theanthropos
resolved? It was, so far only as nature and substance were concerned;
because the hypostatic union only wedded _human nature_, and through
it all inferior natures, to the person of the Word. But this unity and
communication excluded, and had to exclude, all human personalities.
It excluded them in the fact; it had to exclude them, otherwise human
personality would have ceased to exist. Here the problem must be
resolved anew--how to raise human personality to the highest possible
union and communication with the Theanthropos. Another moment was
effected to initiate the solution of the problem; and this was the
supernatural moment. By it human personality, by being endowed with a
higher similitude of the Trinity and the Theanthropos, and by
receiving higher faculties, is brought into a real and particular
union with the Word, and through him the other persons of the Trinity.
But the supernatural moment does not resolve the problem yet; because
the union which results thereby is union between human persons and the
Word as God, not a union between human persons and the _Theanthropos_,
the Word made man.
A real and efficient union between two terms requires a real relation
between them. Now, the supernatural term establishes a relation
between human persons and the Word, but not a relation between them
and the Theanthropos, because it is wholly spiritual and incorporeal.
A true relation between persons composed of body and soul must be a
contact, not spiritual only, but also corporeal.
Hence, if we exclude the real substantial presence of the Theanthropos
as such, we have a union of human persons united to the Word, but not
a real efficacious union of human persons united to the
_Theanthropos_. On this supposition, the cosmos would lack the highest
possible unity and communication, and would fail to realize the end of
that external action. But, admit the corporal presence of the
Theanthropos in time and space, admit that presence incorporating and
individualizing itself in human persons, and the whole wisdom and
beauty of the design flashes at once upon your mind--the whole cosmos,
as abridged in the human nature of Christ, made infinite by the
hypostatic union with the Word; all human persons incorporated body
and soul into the body and soul of the Theanthropos, built up into his
body and soul, transformed, as it were, in them and through them, and
in them coming in the closest possible communication with the divinity
which a _person_ can attain. In this plan only everything holds
together and presents order, harmony, and beauty.
But, if the real substantial presence of the _Theanthropos_ was
necessary in order to bring human personality to the highest possible
union and communication with the infinite, and thus realize the end of
the external action, it was also required that the being and actions 383
of human personality might be elevated to the dignity, excellence, and
value of _theanthropic being and acts_. In the hypostatic union, human
nature and all the inferior natures which it eminently contains, as
connected in the person of the Word, are deified, and their acts have
the value and dignity of divine acts.
Hence, so far, the end of the external action which is to raise the
cosmos in its nature and acts to an infinite dignity by union and
communication, is attained. But human personality, not being an
element of the hypostatic union, could not acquire in its being and in
its acts the dignity and excellence of divine being and acts, and
consequently the end of the external action could not by the
hypostatic moment be realized as regards the same personality. Here
another problem arose in the divine mind--how to raise human
personality to such a union with the Theanthropos as, without
infringing upon its nature, to raise its being and its acts to the
value, excellence, and dignity of theanthropic being and acts, and
thus to exhibit in it the most perfect image of the infinite. This
problem was resolved by the incorporation of the Theanthropos, under
the modifications of bread and wine, in human persons. This plan does
not imply an hypostatic union, which would do away with human
personality, but a union so strict, so close, and so intimate, as
merely to fall short of the hypostatic. For, in it and by it, the
Theanthropos, the God made man, in his whole person, composed of body,
soul, and divinity, is incorporated in human personalities by the act
of eating, and his body pervades their bodies, his blood circulates in
their blood, his soul inheres upon and clings to their soul, his
divinity purifies, sanctifies, ennobles, exalts their whole being,
and, like food, results in a transformation--a transformation not
indeed of the Theanthropos into the flesh and blood of the human
person, as it happens with ordinary food, but a transformation of the
human person into the body, blood, soul, and almost divinity of the
Theanthropos. “Cresce et manducabis me, nec tu me mutabis in te sed tu
mutaberis in me.”[87] The fathers have endeavored to express the
intimacy of the union by adopting various similitudes. Some have
likened it to a piece of glass when impregnated by the rays of the
sun, and appearing like a smaller sun. Others have compared it to the
action of fire upon iron, which, when heated and become red hot, looks
exactly like fire, and could fulfil the functions of fire. St. Cyril
of Alexandria has chosen the similitude of two distinct pieces of wax,
which when melted and mingled together are so intimately united as to
form one single piece, defying every possible recognition of their
former separation. But all these similitudes, possible as they may be,
can never express the mysterious intimacy and closeness between human
personalities and the Theanthropos in the eucharistic banquet.
Now, how does this resolve the problem? Most perfectly. The infinite
intends to exhibit in human personalities an image, an expression of
himself as pure and as perfect as possible--an image of his being and
of his life or action in obedience to the end of the external action,
always preserving the conditions of human personalities. Now, what
does the cosmos of personalities when united to the Theanthropos in
the mystery of the Eucharist, when pervaded by him, when so closely 384
and so intimately united to him as to feel his flesh come in contact
with their flesh, his blood glowing in their blood, his heart beating
against their hearts, his mind illumining and guiding their minds, his
will captivating and mastering their will, his divinity ennobling and
exalting their whole being and faculties--I say, when the cosmos of
personality is thus united to the Theanthropos, does it not represent
most vividly the infinite being of God? Does the infinite in looking
at such a cosmos see anything but as it were one Theanthropos filling
and pervading all?
As to expressing the action of the life of the infinite, and thus
raising the acts of a human person to the dignity and value of
theanthropic life, it will appear evident if we recollect that the
life of the infinite establishes the eternal religion in the bosom of
God which expresses itself in the mystery of the ever blessed Trinity.
For the Father, in recognizing himself intellectually, and as it were
theoretically, produces an intellectual image of himself, absolutely
perfect in every sense. Both in recognizing themselves aspire a
practical acknowledgment of themselves, the Holy Ghost, who completes
the cycle of infinite life, and perfects the eternal religion.
Now, this eternal religion are human persons destined to express, to
realize in themselves, that they may be a most perfect image in their
action and life of the life of the infinite. This they could never do
either naturally or supernaturally. Naturally, because such
acknowledgment requires an infinite intellect to apprehend the
infinite excellence and perfection of God, and an infinite power of
appreciation to value, esteem, and love it practically. Now, naturally
these faculties of human persons are simply finite. Even the light of
grace, which strengthens the natural intelligence, and the
supernatural force, which corroborates the will, cannot do it, because
in their nature also finite. It is, therefore, the infinite intellect
and will of the Theanthropos which alone can appreciate him
intellectually and love him as he deserves. Now, the mystery of the
Eucharist enables human persons to partake of this intellectual and
volitive recognition of the infinite by their union with the
Theanthropos. When, after the solemn and happy moment of feeding upon
the flesh and blood of the Theanthropos, I turn myself to adore God,
to render him the homage of adoration which I owe him as creature,
then I am not alone with my limited understanding and will. It is with
the intellect of the Theanthropos, which pervades and illumines my
intellect, that I recognize theoretically his infinite perfections.
When at the same moment I turn to him to offer him the tribute of my
love, I cling to him then, not with the finite, limited, circumscribed
power of my natural or supernatural will, but of a will under the
guidance, the mastery, the possession, the infinite power of expansion
of the will of the Theanthropos, under the immense weight of his love;
and when I yield my heart to exuberant joy and complacency in his
infinite loveliness and bliss, it is not the little vessel of a heart,
which can contain but a finite joy, but a heart under the pressure of
infinite jubilee, which gushes up from the heart of the Theanthropos
and overflows into my heart, and makes it swim in a joy and a delight
known to those alone who have tasted it. Thus, with the Theanthropos
in my bosom, pervading my mind, my soul, my heart, my flesh, and
drawing me toward him even as the bridegroom draws his bride to him,
even as the mother presses her offspring close to her bosom in the 385
intensity of maternal love, I know and I feel that I am adoring God as
perfectly as a human person could possibly do, and the finite personal
act of my adoration becomes infinite because mingled with the infinite
act of the Theanthropos.
Hence the Eucharist is necessary, because it resolves the problem, how
to elevate human persons to the most perfect image of God by
incorporating the Theanthropos in human persons, and sharing with them
his perfections and his acts.
So far, we have proved the necessity of the real presence, because, in
force of the end of the external action, the cosmos, not only in the
natures which it contains, but in the personalities also, required to
be brought to the highest possible union and communication with the
infinite.
We shall prove the same necessity from the requirements of
supernatural life.
The supernatural term conferred upon human persons, consisting of a
superior essence engrafted on their natural essence, and of
supernatural faculties, must live, that is, act and develop itself.
Now, life, in the highest metaphysical acceptation of the term,
consists in communion--the communing of a subject with an object. In
the infinite, this communication is active. For the first principle
lives inasmuch as he communicates his life to his conception, and both
transfuse it into the spirit. But as the finite cannot contain life in
itself, it must communicate with an object in order to appropriate it
to itself. A person elevated to the supernatural moment cannot
therefore live, except by communion with the objects proper to that
moment. Now, what is the proper object of the supernatural faculties
of intelligence and of will? For the intelligence, it is an actual
apprehension of the infinite and the finite in all their relations,
inasmuch as they are intelligible and inasmuch as the faculty is able
to apprehend them. For the will, it is the infinite and the finite in
all their relations, inasmuch as they are lovable. Hence, the
supernatural intelligence must apprehend and come in contact with the
infinite, his nature, his perfections, the mystery of his life and of
his bliss, with the infinite, inasmuch as he acts outside himself,
and, hence, with all the moments of his action and their terms. The
same must be said of the supernatural will. This communication must be
real and effective, otherwise the life which would flow from it would
not be real, but fictitious and unsubstantial. But how to put the
supernatural faculties of elevated persons in real, actual,
substantial communication with the infinite and the finite in all
their relations, so that the supernatural term may live, be unfolded,
and transformed into them? By the real substance, presence, and
communication of the Theanthropos, who in his single individuality
realizes the infinite and the finite in all their relations to each
other. By communing actually and substantially with him, the essence
of the supernatural moment comes in contact with the essence of the
infinite, with his attributes, the eternal mystery of his life; it
comes in contact with all substantial creation as abridged in the
human nature of Christ; it comes in contact with the supernatural
term, as Christ contains the fulness of it in his soul. Supernatural
intelligence comes, therefore, in contact with all the objects which
it is intended to appropriate, that it may expand, grow, and become
perfect. The same happens to the supernatural will. Thus, in union 386
with the Theanthropos by the eucharistic presence, they come in
communion with all the objects which are to bring them to perfection
by a gradual development and transformation.
Take the corporal presence of the Theanthropos away, and the
supernatural faculties would only be in communication with the
infinite, but not with the finite; with God, but not with his cosmos;
because these faculties could never come in contact with the whole
cosmos, except inasmuch as it exists and lives in the Theanthropos.
This argument introduces us to another. Every elevated person, to live
fully and perfectly, must be in communication not only with the
infinite and the finite as to nature, but also as to personality.
Every elevated person must commune in a real, living, actual,
quickening manner with elevated persons in time and space. The
perfection of unity of the cosmos claims this communing, as it is
evident; and the fulness of life of each particular person demands it,
because life in its plenitude[88] results from communing with all its
proper objects.
Now, how to bring together all elevated persons living at a distance
of time and space--some in the initial and germinal state, others in
the state of completion and palingenesia? We come into communion with
things and persons distinct and separate from us by time, space, or
individuality, by a _medium_ common to us and those things or persons
we wish to enter into communion with. Thus, I come into communication
with persons at a certain distance from me by the mediums of light and
air, which are between me and them, and common to both. Suppose I was
speaking, the air which exists between me and my hearers would be the
common medium of communication. In articulating, I would strike the
air which surrounds me, and the strokes would be transmitted from
particle to particle in every direction until they would reach the
ears of my audience, and thus a communication by speech would be
established between us. If, therefore, all elevated persons must come
in contact with each other, there must be something which will bring
them together--a medium common to them all--to make them commune with
each other. Now, this medium is the real substantial presence of the
Theanthropos incorporating himself in all elevated persons. I commune
with the Theanthropos, with his divinity and his humanity, with his
intelligence, his will, his heart, his body: I appropriate him to
myself; another communes likewise with the Theanthropos; and thus we
are brought together, we come in contact, we are united in the same
life, intelligence, will, heart, body; thus we meet and live in one
common theanthropic life. This is the foundation partly of that
sublime, magnificent, ennobling doctrine of Catholicity, the
_communion of saints_--communion of all persons elevated to the
supernatural moment. Communion! What is the medium which brings them
together? It is the real, living, substantial presence of the
Theanthropos incorporated in them, and on which they have fed and
shall feed for eternity.[89]
How beautifully, how divinely was this communication of the
Theanthropos given to us in the shape of food and at a banquet! Men 387
in all times and in all places, by a prophetic instinct implanted in
them by the Creator, have recognized the banquet as the supreme and
the best expression of union and communication; because it was to
appropriate, to drink life at one common source, from one common food.
In the eucharistic banquet this is realized truly. Imagine a
banqueting-hall as unbounded as space, and a banquet as long as time.
Suppose millions upon millions of elevated persons entering the
banqueting-hall to partake of the same repast. It is nothing less than
the flesh and blood of the Theanthropos, not dead, but living and
quickening, by the indwelling of his soul and divinity, under the
appearance of the simplest and most primitive elements of life--bread
and wine. All partake of it; it penetrates and fills them all. A glow
of theanthropic life runs through their supernatural being; their
supernatural intelligence grows brighter at the flashes of his
infinite, finite intelligence; their will expands at the embraces of
infinite and finite loveliness; their hearts swell with virtues under
the pressure of the heart of Jesus; their affections are purified,
cleansed, ennobled, divinized at the contact of the affections of
Jesus; their very flesh is spiritualized at the touch of his flesh; a
seed, a germ of immortality is sown in it, to bud and blossom in the
end of time. They live; not they, it is the Theanthropos who lives in
them. And what wonder is it, then, that their natures, coming in
contact in him, their intelligences meeting in him, their will
harmonizing in him, their hearts beating together in him, their
emotions mingling in him, their flesh touching in him and through
him--what wonder, I say, is it, then, that they should communicate
with each other, and that their virtues and their very merits should
become common? Those who have never realized such a doctrine may often
have marvelled, on hearing a Catholic speaking of those who have
passed from the initial and germinal state to the state of
palingenesia, as if they were present to him, as if he were actually
holding sweet converse with them. This doctrine explains it all. A
Catholic feels truly that the life of the apostles and evangelists
glows in his bosom, that the blood of martyrs runs in his very blood
and ennobles it, that the guileless simplicity and innocent loveliness
of the virgins beams on his countenance, that the virtues of all the
saints are transfused into him; because at the eucharistic banquet he
can meet them living in the eternal mediator of all things, the
Theanthropos, and in him and through him he mingles with them,
associates with them, comes into the closest possible communication
with them. Utopians have dreamt of a universal society, in which
everything would be common. It is the eucharistic doctrine of the
substantial presence of the Theanthropos which alone realizes this
universal, sublime, ennobling society of all elevated spirits in one
common medium, and having everything common in the only mediator,
Jesus Christ, in all time and space.[90]
We feel that withal the arguments we have brought forward in 388
vindicating the beautiful and sublime dogma of the real presence of
the Theanthropos in his cosmos will have no effect on some minds,
unless we remove the metaphysical difficulties which are raised
against it, and show consequently its possibility. Therefore, we
willingly hasten to the task. And as these objections are very
popular, we shall put them in the popular form of a dialogue. The
dialogue is between W. and D., the first a Protestant, and the other a
Catholic.
_W._ I shall begin by a very strong objection. I cannot conceive the
possibility of the body of a full-grown man being within the small
portion of space filled by a wafer. Christ was a full-grown man. He is
so now. How, then, can he reside or be contained in such a small
particle of space as the host?
_D._ You will be kind enough to observe what the Catholic Church
teaches, that it is the _substance_ of the body and blood of
Christ, which is under the modifications of bread and wine.
_W._ Suppose it is; what difference does that make?
_D._ All the difference in the world. Pray, what is a substance?
_W._ It is that part of a being which remains immutable amid all the
vicissitudes and changes of the being. These changes or vicissitudes
are called accidents or modifications; that which remains always the
same and immutable is called substance.
_D._ Right; and, pray, has substance any dimensions, has it length,
breadth, height, or depth, or is it what philosophers call a simple
being?
_W._ It must have no dimensions, because dimensions may change and
vary, and the substance must be always the same.
_D._ Then substance is a simple being, that is, it has neither height,
depth, length, or breadth.
_W._ So it would seem, and so, if I recollect aright, all the
metaphysicians worth the name hold it to be.
_D._ Right again; and, if you remember, Leibnitz calls it a _monas_, or
a unit, and distinguishes two kinds of substances, the simple and the
composite. The simple is one substance; the composite is an aggregate
of simple substances or _units_. Thus, bodies are an aggregate of
substances or units.
_W._ Well, suppose that bodies as to substance are an aggregate of
simple units, what of that?
_D._ Why, then your objection is
answered.
_W._ How?
_D._ Did we not say that the Catholic Church teaches that it is the
_substance_ of the body and blood of Christ, which is under the
modifications of bread and wine? Did we not agree upon the theory that
substance has no dimensions? Did we not admit that a body is an
aggregate of simple units, as to substance, and that consequently in
that respect it has no dimensions? Then it matters not how large or
how small you may imagine the wafer to be, it cannot make the least
difference; seeing that our Lord’s body in the holy Eucharist is there
in its substance, or as an aggregate of simple units, and consequently
has no dimensions, and occupies no space whatever. And remark, that
what happens in this particular case happens in every other being under 389
the class of bodies. The substance or the number of simple units
forming a body occupies no space whatever, and is whole and entire
under each and every modification. What is particular to the Eucharist
is that the substance of the body of Christ lies not under its own,
but under foreign modifications. But I trust you see no difficulty in
this?
_W._ Not much; the main difficulty of space being removed, I can very
well conceive that God could easily cause a substance to appear under
foreign modifications; for I see no contradiction to any essential
attributes of a substance in appearing under the garb of the
modifications of another. But what I cannot conceive is this: if we
admit composite substances to be an aggregate of units, that is, of
beings having no dimensions or parts, how do you account for the
phenomenon of extension? A monas, or unit, is like a mathematical
point, that is, a cipher with regard to extension; multiply,
therefore, the units as much as you like, and the result will always
be a cipher with reference to space. How, then, do you explain the
phenomenon of extension?
_D._ First of all, you will be kind enough to understand that it is
not the Catholic Church who is bound to explain the phenomenon of
extension. It is the metaphysicians who hold the theory, though it is
the only true one. It is enough for the church to say, Your best and
most universal theory is, that a body is an aggregate of units devoid
of extension. I show you that my dogma agrees perfectly with your
theory. But it may be as well to mention the explanation which the
metaphysicians just mentioned give to the objection. They hold that
extension, as it falls under the senses and the imagination, is not
real, but phenomenal, and that the real objective extension is nothing
more than the constant relation of all the units of a nature to
produce in a sensitive being the phenomenon of the representation of
space.[91]
_W._ But the greatest difficulty remains yet. Nobody can be in
different places at the same time. You hold that the body of Christ is
in as many places as there are hosts in the universe. This would
establish the astounding phenomenon of a body in millions of different
places at the same time. This is certainly absurd, and I conceive that
you will find much more trouble in explaining away this difficulty
than you did the first.
_D._ I must beg leave to call your attention again to the fact that
the Catholic Church teaches that it is the substance of the body of
Christ which is in different places at the same time.
_W._ Oh! you are there again with your substance! I must own you have
an ingenious way about you, and, if you succeed in making me see how
this circumstance removes the objection, as it did the first, I give
it up.
_D._ But it _does_ remove it. And let me tell you that you 390
Protestants, in fighting against the dogmas of the Catholic Church,
commit two very serious faults: First, you do not provide yourselves
with philosophy enough to cope with her. Secondly, you do not sound
the depth of her statement. Then it generally happens that, when you
think you are proposing your strongest objections, and you are very
sure you have her in a corner, you are merely combating a phantom of
your own imagination.
Now, let us see if the substance of the body of Christ can be in
different places at the same time. To do this, we must examine the
other question, How can a simple being reside in space? Metaphysicians
teach that a body may reside in space in two ways, according as it is
considered either in its phenomenal representation or in its real
objective nature and substance. In its phenomenal representation, a
body resides in space by contact of extension; in its real objective
nature and substance, by acting upon it. I lay my hand flat upon the
surface of a table, and suppose I consider both my hand and the table
in their phenomenal extension. Under this respect, all the points and
parts which form the phenomenal extension of my hand come in contact
with all the respective parts of the table which my hand is able to
cover.[92] Under this respect, a body naturally _cannot_ be in
different places at the same time without a contradiction, because the
supposition would imply that the parts of my hand which are in contact
with the respective parts of the table are also in contact with parts
of other bodies at any given distance.
But if we consider a body not in its phenomenal extension, but in its
real objective nature and substance, the case is different; because,
as we have seen, the body as to its substance is simple and
unextended, and therefore, as such, it cannot reside in space by
contact of extension, inasmuch as its parts touch the phenomenal parts
of space; for it has no parts which may touch. Hence it follows that
it resides in space as every other simple being, that is, by acting
upon it.[93] In this case, a body in its substance and objective
nature does not reside in space except by its action upon it.
Now, naturally, a body in its objective nature and substance is
limited in its action to a certain defined space, and cannot extend
its action beyond it. But there is no possible contradiction in
supposing that a body may be endowed by the infinite with the power
and energy to act upon any indeterminate amount of space at the same
time.
Now, with regard to the body of our Lord, we have seen that it is in
the holy Eucharist in its objective state, and consequently is there
by its real action. The miracle in this case is, that the infinite
power of the Word to which it is hypostatically united intensifies its
natural sphere of acting upon space, and makes it extend to thousands
of places at the same time. To conclude: The question, Can the body of
Christ be in different places at the same time? resolves itself into
this other: Can the substance of the body of Christ act really and
truly in different places at the same time? Who could give a reason
worth anything to show that it cannot? Who could prove any
contradiction in the supposition? There would be a contradiction in 391
saying that the phenomenal dimensions of the body of Christ, at the
same time that they touch the dimensions of one definite space, touch
also the dimensions of numberless other spaces. But there is no
contradiction in saying that the substance of the body of Christ can
act by virtue of the Word, to whom it is united, in numberless places
at one and the same instant.
The completion of the theory of the cosmos in time and space will be
given in the next article.
[84] Council of Trent.
[85] “Quos prescivit et predestinavit conformes fieri imagini
filii sui, ut ipse sit primogenitus in multis fratibus.”
Rom. viii. 29.
[86] There are two other moments, but as these imply the
question of evil, they shall be treated of when speaking of
that question.
[87] St. Augustine.
[88] We speak of initial plenitude.
[89] We hold that an elevated person once united to the
substance of the Theanthropos, though not always actually
united to his body, because this sacramental union only
lasts as long as the species would naturally last, yet is
continually so united in a spiritual though not less real
manner.
[90] We have given the real presence, and the communion of
the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, as the foundation of
the communion of saints. To this might be objected that all
the saints of the Old Testament, and many elevated persons,
such as children dying after baptism, and grown persons who
never could communicate, never were united to the Theanthropos
in the Eucharist, and consequently would be excluded from
the communion of saints. We answer, first, that we have only
made the real presence _partly_ the foundation of the
communion of saints. Second, we speak of the perfect state
of the cosmos, and consequently not of the imperfect and
incipient state, such as was the state of elevated persons
in the Old Testament, who were united to Christ by faith and
charity. As to children and grown-up persons who never
communicated, we answer that we are giving the general law,
and not accidental cases. The foundation, therefore, of the
communion of saints is the union with Christ, real and
actual, of the supernatural faculties. The perfection of the
communion of saints is the real presence and incorporation.
[91] We have given here the theory of the best of modern
philosophers. But any one acquainted with the scholastics
will at once perceive that their theory agrees perfectly
with the above. The fundamental idea of the scholastics in
reference to matter is that it is something absolutely
indeterminate, which they express by saying that it is
neither quantity nor quality, etc., and that it becomes
determinate by the form, which is something altogether
unique and devoid of dimension. Matter they compare to
potentiality, something only possible, the form to the act
or actuality. We subjoin a few extracts from St. Thomas:
“Materia prima aliquo modo est quia est in potentia. Sicut
omne quod est in potentia potest dici materia ita omne a quo
habet aliquid esse potest dici forma. Forma dat esse
materiæ.”
It is clear, therefore, that, according to the scholastic
theory, what gives being to matter is the form, something
altogether simple and unextended.
[92] “Corporalia sunt in loco per contactum
quantitis.”--_St. Thomas._
[93] “Incorporalia non sunt in loco per contactum quantitis
sed per contactum _virtutis_.”--ID.
----------
THE LIQUEFACTION OF THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS.
NO. IV.
After the very full and detailed exposition of the facts of the
liquefactions, as millions have seen them in the past--as tens of
thousands may, and do still, see them each year--the question forces
itself on us: Is this a miracle, as the Neapolitans believe, and as
many earnest and critical examiners from other lands have been led to
hold, after a careful and candid investigation into the facts of the
case? Is it a suspension of the ordinary laws of nature, and an
intervention of the supernatural power of the Most High, producing an
effect above and beyond the ordinary course of nature? or is this
liquefaction a phenomenon entirely within the sphere of natural
laws--either the result of some law, or combination of laws, producing
this effect; or is it the result of the art and skill of men? One of
these three it must be: either the spontaneous effect of some natural
laws, or the artificial result of human trickery, or a miracle. The
decision must depend on the character of the facts.
The Neapolitans, and, with them, Catholic writers generally, hold it
to be a miracle. On the other hand, such a visible substantiation of
the claims made by the Catholic Church that miracles do continue in
her fold, as the Saviour promised, and are the seal and confirmation
of her divine authority, has not failed to arouse the opposition of
those who deny that authority.
In meeting the argument, or the facts of the case, they have not
always followed the same line. Two or three centuries ago, they
contended that the liquefaction was a lying wonder produced by
witchcraft or magic, or by the power of Beelzebub. A little later,
natural philosophy was appealed to. This liquefaction of the blood,
when the vial was brought near to the head, arose, they said, from a
law of sympathy in nature, akin to if not merely a peculiar form of 392
that law which causes blood to flow from the wounds of a corpse if the
real murderer lay his hand on the dead body.
These replies, or attempts at a natural solution, are antiquated. We
need not seriously consider them.
In the last century, the objectors took a very different ground. The
whole thing, they said, was a device of the priests. Some called it a
“trick of long standing and great ingenuity”; others stigmatized it as
“one of the most bungling tricks ever seen.”
This style of objection still holds its own.
During the present century, another style of objection has come into
vogue, based on the ever-increasing spirit of rationalism. The laws of
nature, we are told, are invariable and supreme. No violations of them
are possible. All miracles--in the sense of occurrences above and
beyond those laws of nature, occasional interruptions in the grand
scheme of universal order, law, and causation--are to be at once
rejected. “The idea of _their_ possibility can only occur to those
who have failed to grasp the great inductive principle of invariable
uniformity and law in nature.” “It is hardly a question of evidence.
The generality of mankind habitually assume antecedently that miracles
are now inadmissible; and hence, that, in any reported case, they must
in some manner be explained away.... Of old, the sceptic professed he
would be convinced by seeing a miracle. At the present day, a visible
miracle would be the very subject of his scepticism. It is not the
attestation, but the nature of the alleged miracle, which is now the
point in question. It is not the fallibility of human testimony, but
the infallibility of natural order, which is now the ground of
argument.” (Rev. Baden Powell, _Order of Nature_.)
We have not the space to examine this theory at length, and to show
that it is at bottom anti-christian and pantheistic, contrary to the
soundest principles of true philosophy. Nor is it necessary for our
purpose to do so. All the philosophical disquisitions in the world
will not prove to a man having eyes that, because “the laws of nature
are immutable, and miracles are therefore impossible,” the blood which
stands in the ampulla was liquid when taken out, or is solid at the
conclusion. He saw that it was hard, and sees that it is now fluid. He
will laugh at the philosopher and believe his own eyes.
Neither is it necessary to confute at length the opinion accepted so
blindly by Protestants, that the age of miracles has long since past,
and that miracles have entirely ceased since the days of the apostles.
If God can work miracles, what man can limit him in the exercise of
that power, either in time or place? And did not the Saviour promise
the continuance of signs among them that believe--a continuance to
which he put no limitation?
The assertion that the Catholic Church is erroneous, and that
consequently there can be no miracles in her fold, is more than akin
to the words of the Pharisees to the blind man, whom our Lord had
restored to sight: “_Give glory to God; we know that this man is a
sinner._” The appropriate answer was: “_If he be a sinner, I know not:
one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see_” (John ix. 24,
25).
We therefore leave the general subject of miracles to be treated by
others; and we confine ourselves to the fact of the liquefaction. In
this, as in every other case of alleged miracles, the decision depends
entirely on the character of the testimony and on the nature of the 393
facts which that testimony establishes.
The testimony in this case is overwhelming in amount and unimpeachable
in character. The liquefaction with its marked features and details
are clearly established. We have only to seek its cause.
Is it due to the regular action of the natural laws which, under the
given circumstances, produce the liquefaction, independently of any
special act of men designed to bring it about? How does a solid body
naturally pass into a fluid condition?
A solid body may become fluid by deliquescence. Certain substances
drink in water from the atmosphere around them to such an extent as to
become fluid. They are said to deliquesce.
Is this liquefaction a deliquescence? Most assuredly not.
1. The substance within the ampulla--the indurated blood--so far as
the eye can judge of it, through the glass of the ampulla and the
glass sides of the reliquary, bears no resemblance to any of the
substances which are known to deliquesce.
2. The process of deliquescence is well known and is not to be
mistaken. It is gradual; and the exterior of the deliquescing
substance, being in immediate contact with the water-bearing
atmosphere, is always seen to yield first to the liquefying influence
of the water. On the contrary, the liquefaction is often
instantaneous--_in un colpo d’occhio; in un tratto_. Even when gradual
and not instantaneous, the differences are marked. The upper portion
will become perfectly liquid while the lower portion remains still
hard; or the lower portion will liquefy while the upper portion
retains its hardness; or, again, the upper and lower portions may both
remain hard while the middle portion becomes fluid; or the middle
portion will continue hard and solid while they become perfectly
liquid: sometimes, the outer surface next to the glass sides of the
ampulla will be seen to soften and liquefy first--in this case
following the course of a deliquescence; sometimes precisely the
reverse occurs--the central portion is seen to become liquid while the
exterior remains hard and unliquefied. When we add that occasionally
one side or lateral half liquefies while the other preserves its
hardness, and also that, while frequently the entire mass becomes
liquid, yet, on many occasions, a certain portion remains hard for
hours and days and then liquefies--perhaps gradually, perhaps only
after the entire mass has become hardened again--it will be seen that
this liquefaction presents every possible mode and shade of difference
to distinguish it from the single mode of deliquescence.
The difficulty becomes greater if we consider the obstacles to a freer
communication between the outer atmosphere and the substance within
the ampulla. The ampulla is a tightly-closed glass vessel, and is
itself held within the reliquary, another tightly-closed vessel of
metal and glass. This twofold barrier must forbid any ready and rapid
passage of atmospheric water from the air to the substance within the
ampulla.
Again, no connection whatever can be discovered between the
superabundant moisture or the dryness of the atmosphere at Naples and
the occurrence or non-occurrence of the liquefaction. We may take a
series of twenty days, which the diary marks as very rainy, or
occurring in a long-continued rainy season; and a series of twenty
others, when the weather was dry--so dry, they were praying for rain.
It will be seen that the phases of the liquefactions for each series 394
are so alike that they might be interchanged. The general hygrometric
condition of the atmosphere evidently has no perceptible influence for
or against or on the liquefactions.
Nay, more, it frequently happens that the blood, after liquefying,
grows solid again on the same day, and then liquifies, perhaps
solidifies anew, and liquefies a third time. All these changes have
sometimes taken place within one hour. Now, did the atmosphere, during
that hour or during that day, pass through corresponding extreme
changes of its hygrometric condition? Ordinary men did not feel them.
Meteorological observers have not noticed them. Registering
instruments do not record them. And yet, the habit of watching their
neighboring and often threatening volcano has made the people of
Naples as observant of such changes as sailors at sea, and has given
to that city one of the ablest schools of meteorology on the
Continent.
We may well conclude, therefore, that the liquefaction of the blood of
St. Januarius is not the deliquescence of a solid body, arising from
humidity of the air to which it is exposed.
Is it the melting of a solid substance through the action of heat?
This is a more important question. Many of those who charge bad faith
and trickery on the “priests and monks” officiating at the
expositions, maintain that it is by an adroit application of heat that
the liquefaction is brought about. Others, who admit the sincerity and
good faith of the Neapolitan clergy--which, knowing the men, they feel
cannot be impugned--still attribute the liquefaction to the heat of
the altar, all ablaze with lighted tapers, and of the crowd thronging
the chapel, and packed most closely just in the sanctuary itself and
around the altar.
We undertake to show that the liquefaction is in no way produced by or
dependent on heat.
I. Often, when the crowd is greatest, and the heat most intense--say
in September--the liquefaction is delayed for hours; perhaps does not
occur at all, or only a portion liquefies, while another portion
remains solid.
II. On the contrary, it has occurred quickly and for the entire mass,
even though the crowd was comparatively small. This is especially seen
in the extraordinary expositions, even in winter, when not a score of
persons were present.
III. It has taken place in the open air, while the reliquary, placed
upright in an open framework, and held aloft above the heads of the
people, was borne in procession through the streets; and this in the
winter months of December and January, as well as on the vigils at the
beginning of May.
IV. It has occurred on days when snow covered the streets, or the cold
was so excessive as to cause the usual procession through the streets
to be dispensed with. As the churches in Naples are not heated, the
temperature within the cathedral must have been very low, probably not
above 45° Fahrenheit.
V. This very question has been submitted to scientific investigation.
The professors of the Royal University of Naples, headed by Dr.
_Nicholas Fergola_, the most eminent physicist of the faculty,
instituted a number of interesting observations, which Dr. Fergola
published. We copy from his work a table giving the actual temperature
in a number of instances, as shown by a standard thermometer which
they stationed on the altar in close proximity to the reliquary at the
time of the liquefaction:
TABLE. 395
OBSERVATIONS FOR TEMPERATURE AND TIME AND CHARACTER OF THE
LIQUEFACTION OF THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS, MADE BY THE
PROFESSORS OF THE ROYAL UNIVERSITY, NAPLES.
A, date; B, temperature, _Fahr._; C, number of minutes which
elapsed from the commencement of the exposition of the relics on the
altar, until the liquefaction of the blood; D, character of the
liquefaction.
+---------------+---+---+---------------------------------------+
|A. |B. |C. |D. |
+---------------+---+---+---------------------------------------+
|1794. Sept. 19.|80°|27´|From hard to perfectly liquid. |
| 20.|80 |21 | ” ” ” liquid. |
| 21.|80 |19 | ” ” ” ” |
| 22.|78 |24 | ” ” ” ” |
| 23.|77 |25 | ” ” ” ” |
| 24.|78 |5 | ” ” ” ” |
| 25.|80 |10 | ” ” ” ” |
| 26.|77 |5 | ” ” ” ” |
|1795. May. 2.|76 |12 | ” ” ” semi-liquid. |
| 3.|76 |2 | ” ” ” perfectly liquid. |
| 4.|77 |41 | ” ” ” liquid.* |
| 5.|80 |22 | ” ” ” ” * |
| 6.|75 |12 | ” ” ” ” * |
| 7.|76 |29 | ” ” ” ” * |
| 8.|77 |29 | ” ” ” ” * |
| 9.|80 |33 | ” ” ” ” * |
| 10.|67 |15 | ” ” ” ” * |
|1795. Sept. 19.|74 |25 | ” ” ” ” with floating lump.|
| 20.|78 |26 | ” ” ” perfectly liquid. |
| 21.|81 |27 | ” ” ” ” ” |
| 22.|78 |25 | ” ” ” ” ” |
| 23.|80 |24 | ” ” ” ” ” |
| 24.|81 |32 | ” ” ” ” ” |
| 25.|78 |18 | ” ” ” ” ” |
| 26.|74 |3 | ” ” ” ” ” |
+---------------+---+---+---------------------------------------+
On the six days in May, marked *, the reliquary was placed on its
stand on the altar about mid-day, for the afternoon intermissions. A
silk veil was thrown over it; and it was left undisturbed until after
3 P.M. At that hour, the blood was found hard each day; and
subsequently it liquefied again, during the afternoon service.
The foregoing very important table speaks for itself. Once the
temperature stood at 67°, and the liquefaction took place in 15
minutes, although the day before, with the thermometer standing at
80°, it had been delayed more than twice that time. Twice the
thermometer marked 74°; the liquefaction was delayed in one instance
only 3 minutes; in the other, full 25 minutes. Once the temperature
was 75°. In that case 12 minutes of delay were counted. Thrice it was
76°; and the times were 2 minutes, 12 minutes, and 29 minutes. Four
times it was 77°; the liquefaction occurred after a lapse of 5, 25,
29, and 41 minutes, respectively. Five times the thermometer stood at
78°; and the times of delay in the several cases were 5, 18, 24, 25,
and 26 minutes. Seven times it stood at 80°; and the delays were
respectively 10, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27, and 33 minutes. The highest point
observed at the time of the liquefaction was 81°. It was reached
twice. Here again the times differed. On one occasion the liquefaction
was delayed 27 minutes; on the other, 32 minutes.
In view of these varied results from so many careful tests, the
commission of professors could only report, as they did, and as Dr. 396
Fergola maintains in his essay, that the liquefaction of the blood of
St. Januarius evidently does not depend on the degree of heat to which
it is subjected during the expositions.
VI. The same conclusion may also be reached by a single consideration.
When a solid substance is liquefied or melted by heat, it will
continue liquid if the heat is kept at the same temperature or rises.
It will resume its solid condition only when the temperature falls
below that degree which is the melting point of the substance.
Now, in those summer days which we have spoken of--such as the six
days of May, 1795, marked in the table of Fergola--days on which the
Neapolitans seek the repose of a _siesta_--the hottest hours are from
12 M. to 3 P.M. During these hours, the temperature is naturally
higher than it was at 9.30 or 10 A.M., or is afterward at 4 P.M., or
later. Yet the blood, which liquefied at 9.30 or 10 A.M., almost
invariably becomes solid again during these hottest hours, if the
reliquary be placed on the altar and a silk veil thrown over it, and
it liquefies again during the afternoon exposition, although the heat
of the day is then sensibly diminishing.
The more accurately and carefully the facts of the liquefaction are
studied, the more clearly do we see that it does not depend on
temperature, general or local. It is not produced by the action of
heat.
This exclusion of the agency of heat has “considerably exercised” some
of the opponents of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius.
Confident that all miracles are, now at least, inadmissible, and that
this and every other alleged miracle is susceptible of a natural
explanation, if we only knew it, they eagerly catch at any, even the
most far-fetched and improbable theories, and put them forward with
equal inconsiderateness and confidence.
We have heard it said: Oh! Naples is an exceptional, volcanic
district. There may exist there some occult or obscure volcanic
agency, which suffices to produce the liquefaction; who can tell what
strange results may come from a combination of all the volcanic
agencies ever at work in that vicinity?
Is Naples the only volcanic district in the world? Does any other
volcanic district present anything like this liquefaction, or
calculated to throw light on it? Even in Naples, is there another
similar example? And has not this liquefaction continued regularly,
even when Vesuvius was quiescent for a long term of years. Previous to
December, 1631, the volcano had slumbered in perfect tranquillity for
nearly two centuries. A French traveller tells of the flocks of cattle
he saw browsing within the very crater itself, then a vast green
valley sunk in the plateau forming the top of the mountain. Yet all
this while the liquefactions continued as they had done before, and as
they have done ever since, in other seasons of quiet, and in seasons
of active volcanic eruption.
And then, we ask, what other sign or indication is there giving
evidence of this natural influence or law? And what sort of a natural
law is that which acts only on one single vial of blood, and has not
acted on the thousands of others in the same conditions.
Again, it has been urged, in much the same strain, that our knowledge
of the laws of nature is still very imperfect. Many laws are as yet
undiscovered. Every year is marked by some advance in our knowledge of
them. It by no means follows that this liquefaction is miraculous, 397
merely because as yet we are unable to assign the precise law or laws
of nature which govern it. Perhaps, some time, men will discover them.
Then all will be plain. Until then, they tell us, philosophy requires
us to note carefully and accurately the facts of the case, and to wait
for some explanation or solution of them in the future.
It is always well to take note of the facts, and to make our theories
subordinate to those facts. What we find fault with our opponents for,
in this question, is that they do precisely the reverse: they fix a
theory in their minds, and if the facts of the case do not agree with
their theory, why, so much the worse for the facts.
One word on the laws of nature. Although there may be many of which we
have now no knowledge, and which we may hereafter discover, still we
do know some. These may be supplemented--they cannot be contradicted
or reversed by any laws hereafter to be discovered. The legitimate
conclusions based on the certain knowledge which we have, are not to
be impugned or held doubtful until we discover other laws. We do know,
for example, that when a man’s head is severed from his body, he dies.
All the known and unknown laws of nature cannot make him live again.
It will not do to base an argument in one paragraph on the invariable
uniformity of law and order in nature, and, in the next, to maintain
that we are as yet all at sea about these laws.
Among the well-known and uncontested laws of nature by which we may be
guided in our argument, are several which have a close connection with
the subject before us. We refer to them.
I. We know that solid bodies become liquid by increase of temperature;
for each body, there is a certain melting-point. Above that, the solid
body becomes liquid; below that, it remains solid, or returns to
solidity.
II. The same liquid, at the same temperature, has the same volume, or
occupies the same space. It is on this law that our thermometers are
constructed.
These two laws are known and established beyond doubt, if anything is
known or established beyond doubt in physical science. Let us consider
them in reference to the substance which is seen to liquefy in the
vial or ampulla in the reliquary.
I. This substance has no fixed melting-point. Looking at Fergola’s
table, we see that it liquefied one day at 67° in 15 minutes, while
the day before, at 80°, it liquefied only in 33 minutes. One day at
76° it liquefied perfectly in 2 minutes, and the next day at 77° it
occupied 41 minutes. It has liquefied in the month of January, during
a procession in the public street, while it was borne aloft on a
stand, and freely exposed to the general temperature--then probably
between 50° and 60°, if not lower. At other times, in midsummer, with
a temperature over 80°, it has remained solid and unliquefied for
hours and for days. Nay, after having become liquid, it frequently
solidifies again, just at the hours between 12 M. to 3 P.M., when the
heat of the day reaches its maximum. It is clear that this
liquefaction completely sets aside the first-mentioned law of the
melting-point.
II. The law of volume is set aside with equal peremptoriness. As you
look at the liquid in the vial, you see that it changes in volume,
either increasing or decreasing. Sometimes the liquid occupies only
about three-fourths of the space within the vial. Before your eyes, it 398
will increase, sometimes with froth, sometimes even bubbling more or
less violently, sometimes retaining a perfectly tranquil and level
surface; sometimes rising very slowly, sometimes rapidly; and it may
continue to rise until it fills the vial. Or again, if the vial be
full, or nearly full, the liquid within it will sink, either suddenly
or gradually, hour by hour, with or without froth or bubbling, until
it occupies perhaps three-fourths of the space. These changes take
place in summer and in winter indifferently. They are entirely
independent of the temperature. They evidently set aside the second
law we have recited regarding volume.
III. A third law of nature is, that her steps are forward and not
backward. A movement once made is never revoked. Chemical changes are
progressive, and, so long as the ingredients and agents remain the
same, they never go back to repeat a combination which has once been
made and then changed for another.
Yet continual repetitions of the same forms, combinations, or
conditions of the substance within the ampulla are a special
characteristic of the liquefactions.
We will produce, hereafter, in a fitting place, evidence that for
centuries the ampulla has not been opened, and consequently that its
contents have not been changed. Nevertheless, the alternate hardenings
and liquefactions, the variations of color, the frothing, and the
ebullitions, and the increases and decreases of volume, have continued
to succeed each other, and to be repeated hundreds, some of them
thousands, of times.
Nay, leaving aside for the moment these longer periods, and confining
our examination to the ten or twelve hours of a single day, during
which the ampulla is all the while under the public gaze, and any
interference of chemical art with the contents is absolutely
impossible, we still find these repetitions of the same form or
combination. The blood was solid when first taken out, it liquefied,
stood liquid for an hour or two, solidified again, and again
liquefied. Perhaps it solidified a third time, and a third time
liquefied. It commenced to froth, and it ceased, then commenced again,
and again ceased. It changed color, and again returned to the prestine
tint. It changed in bulk, either increasing or decreasing, and again
returned to its former level.
This reiteration of some or of all of these changes, in a single day,
while the ingredients in the ampulla are evidently neither added to
nor diminished, is contrary to the course of nature. The opposition is
seen, the same in character, but manifested in vaster proportions,
when evidence compels us to admit that the substance in the ampulla
has not been changed or meddled with for years, and even for
centuries; while yet these reiterations ever continue. The argument is
the same in both instances.
There is no uncertainty as to the facts of the liquefaction or the
well-known laws of nature which we have referred to. Nor is there any
doubt that the facts are violations of those laws. Other laws of
nature, yet to be discovered, may fill gaps in our knowledge, and may
complement the laws already known. None will be discovered to
contradict or upset them. It is as vain to wait for the discovery of
some unknown law which may account for the facts of the liquefaction,
as it would be to look for some other unknown law of nature in virtue
of which Lazarus lived again, and came forth from the tomb--a law 399
which, curiously enough, happened to act just at the moment when our
Saviour stood before the tomb, and cried out: “_Lazarus, come forth._”
Can anything be more absurd than this theory which, with words of
seeming scientific caution and of wide philosophic views, would
attribute the liquefaction to the action of some as yet undiscovered
laws. In truth, what sort of a regular natural law would that be which
manifests its unshakable uniformity by somehow or other coming into
play, and producing the liquefaction, just at those precise days,
hours, and places which men have from time to time selected, because
convenient to them or suited to their thoughts of religion--a law
which caused the blood to liquefy regularly on the 14th of January,
each year, so long as that day was celebrated as a festival; and
skipped back to December 16 when a new festival on that day was
substituted instead--which is ready to put off the liquefaction from
the 16th of December to the Sunday following, whether the delay be of
one, two, three, four, five, or six days, according to the day of the
week on which the 16th may fall, and continues its complaisant action
for the quarter of a century during which several archbishops of
Naples preferred a celebration on the Sunday after to a celebration on
the 16th of December itself; and which was quite ready to go back
again to liquefying the blood on the 16th of December as soon as
another archbishop decided to return to the old usage--which is
equally accommodating in May, and always commences its series of
liquefactions for nine consecutive days precisely on the Saturday
before the first Sunday in May, regardless of whether it fell on April
30 or any day after up to and including May 6--and which, stranger
yet, has been known often to adapt itself to the journeyings of
strangers coming to Naples, and to bring into play its power of
liquefaction on the very days and hours when these strangers could
come to the _tesoro_ chapel, and the ecclesiastical and the civil
authorities had come to an understanding, and the relics were brought
out and placed on the altar?
It is useless to multiply words. The theory of general law must be
ruled out, as utterly inconsistent with the facts of the case.
Whenever the liquefaction occurs, it must be each time in consequence
of something done or occurring on that occasion; either because of
something done by man intentionally and advisedly for the
express purpose of producing the liquefaction, or perchance
unintentionally--that is, without a knowledge of the effect to
follow--or else because of the exercise on the part of God of his
supernatural power, in answer to the faith and earnest prayers of a
believing people. In this case, it is a miracle, as the Neapolitans
and those who agree with them steadfastly hold it to be.
We have already stated facts amply sufficient to exclude one arm of
this alternative. The liquefaction cannot be the natural result of any
action of man, whether intentional or accidental. Any liquefaction
produced by the art of man would of course be within the sphere of
natural action, and would necessarily be subject to the natural laws
of liquefaction. If produced by heat, the law of the melting-point
would be observed. If it in any way depended on the mutual action of
chemical ingredients, the laws of such action would never be seen to
be reversed and set aside repeatedly, even in a single day. In
whatever way the liquid was obtained, it would observe the law of 400
constant volume at the same temperature, and would not so frequently
either decrease or increase its bulk. In one word, man has no power to
set aside the laws of nature as we plainly see them set aside in this
liquefaction. We are forced to conclude that it is not his work. The
liquefaction which is seen at Naples is not, and cannot possibly be,
the natural result of any art or skill, or of any blundering of the
Neapolitan clergy.
This will be made still clearer if circumstances allow us to examine
somewhat in detail, as we hope to do in a closing article, the various
solutions which have been proposed, and the attempted imitations of
this liquefaction. Their signal failure in every instance serves as
practical confirmations of the conclusion to which we have been
already led. If with the aids of science and skill at their command,
men have failed to reproduce the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius, is it not clear that the priests and monks of Naples are
not competent of themselves to produce the original?
The liquefaction must be, as the Neapolitans hold it to be, a
_miracle_--a fact contrary to the laws of nature, wrought by the
power of God for a purpose worthy of himself.
----------
THE PRINCETON REVIEW ON DR. FABER.[94]
Twenty years ago, Dr. Newman delivered a series of lectures on “The
Present Position of Catholics in England.” The scope of these lectures
was the exposition of the English Protestant view of the Catholic
Church. Dr. Newman showed, with an ability, skill, and cogency of
argument, a mastery of language, a wealth of illustration, and a
keenness of satire which even he has rarely equalled in his voluminous
writings, what is the nature, origin, basis, and life of this view.
Its sustaining power, he proves, is _tradition_, its basis _fable_,
its life _prejudice_, its protection ignorance. We take the liberty of
recommending this volume to the writer whom we are now intending to
criticise, to the conductors of the distinguished review for which he
writes, and to the clergy and reading laity in general of his
eminently respectable denomination. The indignation to which the
British Lion was roused, and the fierce assault which he made upon the
illustrious athlete who entered his cage and took him by the beard of
prejudice, so thick, of such ancient growth, and so venerable in his
own eyes, is an evidence of the power of Dr. Newman’s arm and the
efficacy of his weapon. The exposure which he made of one of the
apostate traducers of the Catholic religion, after whom the English
public for a while ran open-mouthed, gave occasion to a prosecution
for libel, as the result of which Dr. Newman was condemned to a fine
and imprisonment. It was a striking illustration and confirmation of
what Dr. Newman had so boldly declared. The consequence has been 401
that the person whom Dr. Newman was judged by the English jury to have
libelled stands just where he did before the sentence was pronounced,
and that Dr. Newman himself is fawned upon by the British Lion with
almost the affection which another lion felt for Androcles when he
drew a thorn from his paw.
The old Protestant tradition or view about Catholics lingers still
about its ancient haunts in England, and probably survives in the
minds of a majority of the English people. Its force is, however,
diminished, and its prestige is waning, thanks, in great part, to Dr.
Newman, but in a considerable measure also to his gifted and holy
friend and disciple, Dr. Faber. In the United States, the Protestant
view and tradition about Catholics was colonized along with the other
British institutions which the first settlers transplanted from the
mother country. It has given way in part within the last quarter of a
century, and with more facility than in England. Yet it still retains
an extensive and strong hold upon our soil, and needs many vigorous
efforts in order that it may be wholly uprooted. The article we are
reviewing is an instance and an evidence of the condition in which
this old Protestant view is lying at present in a large class of
minds, of whom the author may be taken as a representative. On the one
hand, his whole tone and line of thought and reasoning is a perfect
illustration of the thesis of Dr. Newman’s lectures. On the other, his
manner of speaking about Dr. Faber and his writings shows the
beginning of a caving-in of the great dyke of prejudice even among the
stricter and more old-fashioned Protestants. As to the way in which a
Catholic should endeavor to open a breach for the tide through this
heap of sand, Dr. Newman has shown it to such perfection in his
aforesaid lectures that we can only follow out and apply his method,
and push forward in some new directions the work which he has
substantially completed. We will, therefore, begin by a somewhat long
quotation from one of these lectures, as the basis of the remarks we
have to make ourselves, in which we shall endeavor to make the line of
argument adopted by Dr. Newman bear more directly and in detail upon
certain specific topics brought to view in the article under notice:
“PREJUDICE THE LIFE OF THE PROTESTANT VIEW.
“In attributing the extreme aversion and contempt in which we
Catholics are held by this great Protestant country to the
influence of falsehood and misrepresentation, energetic in its
operation and unbounded in its extent, I believe in my heart I
have referred it to a cause which will be acknowledged to be both
real and necessary by the majority of thoughtful minds, Catholic
or not, who set themselves to examine the state of the case. Take
an educated man, who has seen the world, and interested himself
in the religious bodies, disputes, and events of the day--let him
be ever so ill-disposed towards the Catholic Church, yet I think,
if he will but throw his mind upon the subject, and then candidly
speak out, he will confess that the arguments which lead him to
his present state of feeling about her, whatever they are, would
not be sufficient for the multitude of men. The multitude, if it
is to be arrested and moved, requires altogether a different
polemic from that which is at the command of the man of letters,
of thought, of feeling, and of honor. His proofs against
Catholicism, though he considers them sufficient himself, and
considers that they ought to be sufficient for the multitude,
have a sobriety, a delicacy, an exactness, a nice adjustment of
parts, a width and breadth, a philosophical cumulativeness, an
indirectness and circuitousness, which will be lost on the
generality of men. The problem is, how to make an impression on
those who have never learned to exercise their minds, to compare 402
thought with thought, to analyze an argument or to balance
probabilities. The Catholic Church appeals to the imagination, as
a great fact, wherever she comes; she strikes it: Protestants
must find some idea equally captivating as she is, something
fascinating, something capable of possessing, engrossing, and
overwhelming, if they are to battle with her hopefully: their
cause is lost unless they can do this. It was, then, a thought of
genius, and, as I think, superhuman genius, to pitch upon the
expedient which has been used against the church from Christ’s
age to our own; to call her, as in the first century Beelzebub,
so in the sixteenth Antichrist; it was a bold, politic, and
successful move. It startled men who heard; and whereas
Antichrist, by the very notion of his character, will counterfeit
Christ, he will therefore be, so far, necessarily like him; and,
if Antichrist is like Christ, then Christ, I suppose, must be
like Antichrist; thus, there was, even at first starting, a
felicitous plausibility about the very charge which went far
towards securing belief, while it commanded attention.
“This, however, though much, was not enough; the charge that
Christ is Antichrist must not only be made, but must be
sustained; and sustained it could not possibly be, in the
vastness and enormity of its idea, as I have described it, by
means of truth. Falsehood, then, has ever been the indispensable
condition of the impeachment which Protestants have made; and the
impeachment they make is the indispensable weapon wherewith to
encounter the antagonist whom they combat. Thus you see that
calumny and obloquy of every kind is, from the nature of the
case, the portion of the church while she has enemies--that is,
in other words, while she is militant--her position, that is, if
she is to be argued with at all; and argued with she must be,
because man, from the very force of his moral constitution,
cannot content himself in his warfare, of whatever kind, with the
mere use of brute force. The lion rends his prey, and gives no
reason for doing so; but man cannot persecute without assigning
to himself a reason for his act; he must settle it with his
conscience; he must have sufficient reasons, and, if good reasons
are not forthcoming, there is no help for it; he must put up with
bad. How to conflict with the moral influence of the church
being taken as the problem to be solved, nothing is left but to
misstate and defame; there is no alternative. Tame facts,
elaborate inductions, subtle presumptions, will not avail with
the many; something which will cut a dash, something gaudy and
staring, something inflammatory, is the rhetoric in request. He
must make up his mind, then, to resign the populace to the action
of the Catholic Church, or he must slander her to her greater
confusion. This, I maintain, is the case; this, I consider,
_must_ be the case; bad logic, false facts; and I really do
think that candid men, of whatever persuasion, though they will
not express themselves exactly in the words I have used, will
agree with me in substance; will allow that, putting aside the
question whether Protestantism can be supported by any other
method than controversy--for instance, by simple establishment,
or by depriving Catholics of education, or by any other violent
expedient--still, if popular controversy _is_ to be used, then
fable, not truth; calumny, not justice, will be its staple. Strip
it of its fallacies and its fiction, and where are you?”[95]
Where would the Rev. Mr. Scribner be if his article were stripped of
its fallacies and its fiction? What would become of the _Princeton
Review_ if it should publish a fair and favorable account of the
life and writings of Dr. Faber, without the potent antidote
administered along with that sweet draught of stolen waters which
might otherwise prove too alluring to some of the young and candid
members of the Presbyterian flock? The writer of the article, who has
evidently been educated in the old-fashioned Protestant tradition
about the Catholic Church, has fallen in love with Dr. Faber and his
works, and with the greatest frankness and candor has opened his mind
to the public. We can see plainly reflected in his pages the
astonishment which came over him as he began and went on from volume to
volume of the writings of the eloquent Oratorian, and from page to 403
page of his charming biography. We can see, with equal distinctness,
how he fell back on the old Protestant view, the old prejudice, with a
sort of violent effort, in order to protect himself against the new
light which had beamed on his mind and the new sentiments which had
stolen unbidden into his heart. Moreover, since he could not deny
himself the pleasure of communicating the new treasure he had found to
his fellow-Presbyterians, he could not help feeling that they also
needed a safeguard, and could find none that would answer except the
old one behind whose shelter he had hidden himself. Suppose that a
number of earnest and inquisitive Presbyterians should be induced, by
reading the sketch of Dr. Faber’s life and writings furnished by one
of their own pastors, to purchase or borrow the books which he so much
delights in? Suppose they should come to the conclusion that the
beautiful character of F. Faber is a fair specimen of the fruit which
the Catholic religion produces? That his doctrine is really and truly
the Catholic doctrine which flows from the lips of all our preachers
and from the pens of all our spiritual writers? Suppose these same
persons should meet with some priest possessing somewhat of the same
spirit with F. Faber, should listen to his conversation and hear his
sermons, or should perhaps attend a mission or retreat? We ask the
question, not as a Catholic, but as any one might ask it, and simply
looking at it as a question of the gain or loss of vantage-ground by
the respective parties. Does not any one see, that whereas we have
need of nothing more than a fair chance to compare the evidence, the
excellence, the attractiveness of the two religions, in order to hold
our old ground and gain new, the Presbyterian has lost the greatest
advantage he has hitherto possessed, as soon as the frightful cloud of
odium which the old Protestant view has thrown around us has been
dissipated? Therefore, that odium must be kept up; that antecedent
impossibility that there can be any truth in the claims of the
Catholic Church because it is so very wicked, must be placed as a bar
to the ingress of every argument. So has the Rev. Mr. Scribner
reasoned and acted. We will not impute to him a deliberate and
conscious purpose to falsify or calumniate, and are willing to admit
that he is probably in a great measure the victim of the gigantic
fraud which he indorses and recommends. His language about the
Catholic Church and her hierarchy is of that kind which might justly
cause the cheek of any one not steeled to the endurance of the
grossest insults to mantle with indignation. But, when we reflect on
the fact that many honest, candid, and well-disposed minds are duped
to such an extent by this fraudulent Protestant tradition that they
are almost incapable of seeing anything except through its medium, we
are more inclined to pity than anger. It is a great misfortune, even
when it is not a wilful fault, to be under the control of this horrid
delusion, this gloomy nightmare, which besets the very cradle, haunts
the nursery, and sits brooding and glowering on the breast of so great
a multitude of our fellow-Christians. We will, therefore, try to do
something to relieve them of this incubus, and to lead them to think
and feel more rationally and justly about Catholics and their
religion. We will take the expression of the common Protestant view by
the author before us in its objective sense, without reference to his 404
personal and subjective motives in repeating such ignominious charges,
and simply examine them in themselves and with reference to the
grounds on which they rest.
The first passage we quote is the last sentence of the article. It is
expressed conditionally as to the form, because the direct statement
of the author was quite different, and apparently contrary to it. Yet
it does not appear that the author entertains any doubt, or at least
intends to suggest any doubt, of its truth:
“We may admit that the Papacy is the Mystical Babylon, the
Scarlet Woman, the Antichrist drunk with the blood of the saints,
‘the great Whore which did corrupt the earth with her
fornication,’ and yet believe that God has a people in the Church
of Rome who live and die within her pale.”
Here we have what Dr. Newman calls the “expedient of superhuman
genius,” the startling, fascinating, terrifying idea, the Protestant
view, which forestalls all argument by prepossessing the imagination
with a nightmare of preternatural horror. The writer has had this
image before him from a child. He alludes to it as something well
known to his readers. It is like the “Old Smoker” in the chimney, or
the goblin in the garret, or the mad bull around the corner, waiting
to execute vengeance on naughty little girls and boys who ask
questions. We find it very difficult to argue seriously against this
chimera. It is like arguing against the odd fancy of the eccentric
Jesuit Hardouin, that the North American Indians are the descendants
of devils. It is revolting or ludicrous as it is looked at in
different lights. It appears to our mind to be vulgar, silly,
superstitious, and fanatical. Not, of course, because it is the use of
language and imagery taken from the Scripture, but because it is a
wholly arbitrary, fanciful, and unwarrantable use and application of
such language and imagery. It is like the grotesque use of Scriptural
names and images by the fanatics of the Cromwellian revolution. It is
assumed as something certain and well known that the Papacy is
foretold and described in these prophetic visions and predictions, as
certain and well known as the interpretation of Joseph’s dream, the
dreams of the chief butler and chief baker of Pharaoh, the vision of
Nabuchodonosor, or the Messianic predictions of Daniel. Nothing short
of this would justify the manner in which Protestant writers apply
these terms to the Roman Church, and shut out all calm and sober
consideration of her claims and doctrines by an appeal to the
prophecies respecting Antichrist and Babylon. You cannot argue from a
mere hypothesis, as if it were a fact or a certain truth. In this
case, the entire probability of the hypothesis depends on first
proving that the Roman Church really possesses and exhibits the
qualities which must belong to the objects of the prediction. A sober
and rational inquiry into the real meaning of these sublime, terrible,
and obscure prophecies exacts, first of all, a study of the
interpretation of the fathers. It requires, moreover, an examination
and due appreciation of the expositions of Catholic commentators. It
must be dispassionate and scientific in its character. Now, the vulgar
Protestant application of these prophecies to the Roman Church has
none of these characteristics. It finds no countenance from any
writers before the time of the so-called Reformation. It was invented
and used as a convenient and telling weapon of assault. It is rejected
by some of the eminent scholars of the Protestant persuasion. On what 405
does it rest? On nothing but the conjectural interpretation of a
certain number of individuals. We should find no difficulty in proving
its absurdity and falsity if we chose to undertake the task. But that
is not our object. All we contend for at present is, that it is an
irrational and abusive employment of terms to call the Roman Church by
the names of symbolic persons or objects in the prophecies, as if it
were certain that this application is just and true, and that these
names need only to be repeated in order to designate the Catholic
religion as a detestable monster, to be shunned and fled from, but not
to be approached and fearlessly examined.
As the Rev. Mr. Scribner has been haunted from infancy by these
Apocalyptic monsters, and has always associated them in his
imagination with the Roman Church, it is quite natural that
distinctive Catholic doctrines should appear to him clothed with the
same alarming and hideous outward semblance of monstrosity. So, then,
he says that,
“Even if the sincerity of some who profess to have been converted
to the belief of the _monstrous doctrines_ of transubstantiation,
the sacrifice of the Mass, the supremacy of the Pope, purgatory,
the worship of the saints, and the adoration of the Virgin, must
be admitted, still there are some who have secret doubts as to
the possibility of such persons being true Christians” (p. 516).
Why are these doctrines called _monstrous_? Doubtless, all error is
more or less monstrous, as a greater or less distortion of the truth.
Therefore, one who considers these doctrines erroneous might mean no
more in calling them monstrous than if he said they are great errors.
But it seems to us that our author used the word to express an
antecedent, obvious monstrosity of some sort, which makes these
doctrines incredible in themselves, without any reference to the fact
of their being either proved or disproved to be parts of revealed
doctrine. Now, looking at the matter as if we were mere inquirers or
philosophers, what is there more incredible in the doctrine of
transubstantiation than in that of the Incarnation, in the sacrifice
of the Mass than in that of the Cross, in the supremacy of the Pope
than in the supremacy of the twelve apostles, in purgatory than in
hell, in the worship of the saints and the Virgin than in the divine
adoration of the humanity of Christ? Whoever will take the trouble to
read our philosophers and theologians, will find that they demonstrate
the futility of all the antecedent objections which can be made to the
credibility of any Catholic doctrines. As to the arguments in proof of
these doctrines from Scripture, tradition, and reason, whoever
maintains that they are so obviously proved to be false by the
contrary arguments, that it is only a monstrous ignorance, folly,
credulity, or wickedness which can induce any one to hold them as
Christian doctrines, had better favor the public with a clear and
succinct treatise containing the reasons for his opinion. It might,
perhaps, answer the purpose of a Protestant _End of Controversy_,
which has been a great desideratum for a long time.
When he incidentally hits on the subject of relics and miracles, our
estimable author is still more overcome. Dr. Faber, in his eyes, is
always a charming, grown-up infant, who is only made more lovely and
attractive by believing everything. But not so with those who cannot
claim his sympathy for their sweet simplicity, and must be considered
as grown-up men:
“With the exception of a few such men as Faber, it is not to be 406
believed for a moment that the educated prelates and priesthood
of the Romish Church have themselves a particle of faith in what
they teach the people concerning their Popish legends. We do not
know what to think of the man who does not feel intense
indignation at the bare thought of Pope, cardinals, and priests
all encouraging the people to reverence the disgusting pretended
relics with which their churches are filled. Let it be remembered
that the highest Romish authorities in all countries continue to
this day to give their sanction to _what they know to be
imposition_ on the credulity of the people; and can it be
doubted that even the most bigoted person, if he knew the real
facts, would question the truth of a system which rests so
extensively on known and deliberate deception?” (p. 528).
There is something which seems so honest and unpremeditated about this
outburst of indignation that we are disposed to give the author the
benefit of that excuse of childlike simplicity which he so kindly
makes good in behalf of Dr. Faber. He has no thought of proving his
assertions, does not seem to think they require any proof, or that
they can be questioned by any one who is not ignorant and bigoted.
_Let it be remembered_, he says, as of something learned in childhood,
like the rules of grammar or the date of the discovery of America.
Evidently, here is the old Protestant view, the old tradition, which
has all the force of an infallible authority. Now, it is not the fault
of Presbyterians and other Protestants that they have had this
prejudice instilled into their minds in youth. While their ignorance
is invincible, it is also inculpable. But if they adhere to it without
reason, through supine indifference to truth or affection for their
old prejudices, when their attention has been called to the reasons
and motives for doubt and examination, they become morally blameworthy.
A simple denial of the truth of the accusations made in the foregoing
paragraph, on our part, is enough to destroy all their prestige in the
mind of any candid and intelligent Presbyterian who is not ignorant or
bigoted. Our word carries as much moral weight as that of the
conductors of the _Princeton Review_. And we deny emphatically,
invoking God as a witness to our sincerity and truth, every item of the
foregoing accusation. It is an atrocious calumny, and those who have
uttered it are bound to prove it or retract it, even if they have been
themselves deceived, and have had no intention to calumniate. This is all
the reply we have to make to the attack on the personal honor and integrity
of the Catholic priesthood. But in regard to the topic itself of relics and
miracles, we will say a word out of charity to our bewildered and indignant
friend, and to all like him who are willing to hear the other side.
_Disgusting pretended relics._ What is the sense of that word
_disgusting_? Does it mean that real relics are disgusting,
or that pretended relics are disgusting because of the imposition? If
it mean the former, we do not understand the feeling any more than we
understand the feeling of one who is disgusted with the furniture
which has been in the family for a long time. You cannot argue the
question in that way. The only way of arguing the matter at all is to
discuss the matter itself. If the relics of the saints are entitled to
reverence, and have a secret, miraculous power, the feeling of disgust
is simply an abnormal and senseless feeling, which ought to be
suppressed by an act of the will. If it is a question about the
genuineness of the relics, no one who is not grossly ignorant of
history can be unaware of the fact that, from the second century down,
relics of martyrs and saints have been highly honored and religiously 407
preserved. There has never been any difficulty in procuring genuine
relics in abundance of the contemporary saints. As regards the relics
of the cross, and other relics connected with the persons of our Lord,
the Blessed Virgin, the apostles, and the most ancient and illustrious
saints, we must refer the curious reader to books for information. We
can only strike, so to speak, a few random blows at the prejudice
which encrusts the Protestant mind, and endeavor to crack it. We
merely wish to convince our friends of the absurdity of their hasty
and wholesale condemnation of our motives, spirit, doctrines, and
practices, that they may think it worth while really to examine the
matter with seriousness. So, without going into any general
examination of relics universally, we will just take up an instance of
a particular case of relics in the house where we are writing, as an
example of our ordinary and practical conduct in respect to relics. In
an oratory which is used for private devotion, there is placed above
the altar a large and ornamental sarcophagus, the front and sides of
which are of plate glass. Within is a wax figure of a Roman youth
reclining on a crimson couch, dressed in crimson silk, crowned with a
chaplet of flowers, and with the eyes closed as if he had just died.
Within the breast is a reliquary, with relics of a body taken from the
Roman catacombs. In the corner is a phial, marked with a red ribbon,
and which once contained blood. These are the relics of Justinus, a
young martyr of Rome, which are duly and officially authenticated as
having been taken from the Catacombs. Now, whoever knows anything of
Roman archæology knows that the most learned and careful antiquarians
give us certain marks by which the remains of martyrs may be
identified. The Rev. Mr. Scribner will not hazard his reputation as a
scholar, we presume, by classing the folios of De Rossi and other
savants of Rome among the impostures of priestcraft. We have, then,
the relics of a true martyr, arranged and placed in such a way as to
make an object of contemplation to the eye of taste and of Christian
faith, which is pleasing, instructive, and fitted to excite pious
emotions. What is there disgusting in this?
But then there are the legends about miracles wrought by the relics of
the saints, and other miracles. Very true, my dear friend, and, no
doubt, very puzzling and startling to one who has been accustomed to
believe that the marvellous and miraculous passed away with the age of
the Bible. But, reflect for a moment on the full extent of the
admission you will have to make to the infidel rationalist, to the
enemy of Christianity, who makes our whole religion mythical, if you
reject all this portion of the belief of Catholics as founded on the
fabulous. Read Bede’s _Ecclesiastical History of England_, the
twenty-third book of St. Augustine’s _City of God_, St. Ambrose’s
description of the discovery of the relics of SS. Gervasius and
Protasius, and Isaac Taylor’s _Ancient Christianity_. You will find
that we modern Catholics are in the same boat with the fathers, the
prelates, the Christian people of the fifth century. We float or sink
together. It seems to us, however, that before one resolves to follow
the shallow and sophistical Isaac Taylor and his servile copyist, the
translator of the _City of God_, in condemning our Christian
forefathers as the authors or the dupes of a gigantic system of
imposture, and before one pronounces a similar sentence on the whole 408
body of their modern descendants, it would be well to examine somewhat
carefully the evidence in the case. For instance, to confine ourselves
to modern times, there are: the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius; the ecstatic virgins of the Tyrol, and the recent similar
case in Belgium; the miraculous conversion of the Jew Ratisbon; the
case of Mrs. Mattingly of Washington; the miracles of Lourdes; the
miraculous cure of a young lady at St. Louis, attested by three
physicians; the miracles wrought by the relics of F. Olivaint, the
martyr of Paris; the miraculous conversion of sixteen Mohammedans at
Damascus, one of whom has suffered martyrdom; and many other events,
believed by a vast number of intelligent persons, upon grounds of
evidence, to be supernatural and miraculous. We do not ask our
Protestant friends to believe these things on our word or without
evidence. We simply say that it is the part of good sense and
necessary for you, if you expect to sustain your own cause against us,
that you should examine these things, and, if you deny altogether this
whole class of professed facts, should give good reasons for it. Will
you rule the whole case out of court by a sweeping principle that
these things are in themselves impossible and incredible, and
therefore false? We defy you to do it without subverting the whole
basis on which rests the belief in the miracles of the Old and New
Testaments. Moreover, we defy any one to evade or rebut the evidence
of some of the miracles we have mentioned, especially the cure of
Bourriette at Lourdes and of Mrs. Mattingly at Washington. We mention
these, because we have given the evidence of the former in our own
pages, and of the latter in the edition of the works of Bishop
England, prepared for the press by the author of this article more
than twenty years ago. The authority of the Roman Church,
nevertheless, and the truth of the Catholic faith, do not in any
manner rest on any one or all together of the visions, revelations, or
miracles in question as their basis, and as the ground of a divine
faith. Their highest value, even when fully proved, is to confirm and
enliven our faith in truths of which we are previously certain.
The Rev. Mr. Scribner says with great truth that “one great lesson
taught by this biography [of Dr. Faber] is the lesson of charity” (p.
531). He is also so obviously correct in his remark that “charity does
not require us to admit that to be true which is false,” that we
wonder he took the trouble to make it. Moreover, we cannot and do not
wish to dispute his right “to pronounce a flaming Roman Catholic
professor a child of the devil who shows himself to be one.” But we
wish to add to his statement one more, which is that justice requires,
as well as charity, that one should not make atrocious charges or
apply opprobrious epithets without adequate proofs and motives. Let
the reverend gentleman consider, then, coolly and deliberately, and
let every Protestant reader of this article consider and judge of the
following sentence:
“It would not be enlightened charity which would make us think
that, perhaps, after all, _the licentious Roman Catholic
priests of Spain and Italy, and the brutal priests of
Ireland_, are Christian men” (p. 531).
Charity! We do not ask your charity. We spurn with indignation any
such despicable counterfeit of charity as that which is here
repudiated. The Catholic Church does not need any mantle to throw 409
over any priests who are either “licentious” or “brutal.” Let the
jurisdiction over clerical delinquents, which rightfully belongs to
her, be admitted and sustained by the civil governments, and she will
treat them with the right kind of charity, by restraining them from
all power to sin, and giving them an opportunity of doing penance.
Civil governments, when they have been engaged in a conflict with the
church, and Protestant leaders, have always been ready enough to
encourage, to employ, and to reward these outcasts of the priesthood,
or impostors who have falsely pretended to be priests. By their
suborned testimony, the British government hanged Oliver Plunkett at
Tyburn. For the sake of another of the same sort, an English jury
fined and imprisoned the most honorable and illustrious writer in
England. Examples nearer home are not wanting, and are not, we
suppose, quite yet forgotten. All those worthless members of the
priesthood who have been disgraced, or who deserve to be, we leave to
bear by themselves the judgment both of men and of God. But on what
evidence are the priests of Spain and of Italy called in general and
unqualified terms “licentious,” and the priests of Ireland “brutal”?
We would like to know what opportunity American Presbyterians have of
knowing accurately the condition of the Spanish clergy. Blanco White,
as Dr. Newman shows, furnishes no testimony which can be used to prove
any such assumption as that of our very confident friend Mr. Scribner.
In regard to Italy, is there any testimony given by trustworthy,
competent witnesses, who have lived there long enough to know what the
character of the clergy is, or anything which the violent enemies of
the church in Italy have been able to establish against the clergy,
which warrants the opprobrious epithets applied to them in the elegant
passage we have cited above? That the busybodies who are trying to
make mischief in Italy, and whose proceedings are viewed with intense
disgust by some honorable Protestant clergymen, keep some very
disreputable company among the Italian clergy, we have no doubt. We
suppose there are more than one hundred thousand priests in Italy,
and, as we have seen two such specimens as Gavazzi and Achilli, we
cannot wonder if there are some scores of similar individuals who are
able to keep their places under the protection of so detestable a
government as that of Victor Emanuel. These are the men who consort
with Protestant emissaries, and who malign the virtue of their
brethren, which they hate and envy because of their own wickedness.
But, as Dr. Newman remarks, those who leave the Catholic Church, and
yet retain some moral probity and gentlemanly honor, do not furnish
Protestants with the evidence they want in order to sustain their
defamation of the Catholic priesthood. Men like Wharton, Blanco White,
Lord Dunboyne, Gioberti,[96] Capes, Hyacinthe, and Döllinger, do not
answer the purpose for which they are wanted, because they will not
utter the gross calumnies or invent the startling, sensational lies
which certain infamous scribblers like Maria Monk, or mountebank
lecturers like Leahy and the last new Baron, manufacture for the
greedy ears of a credulous public.
The insult offered to the clergy of Ireland is equally offensive and 410
touches us still more closely. It is not so bad an epithet which is
applied to them, but, while it is vague enough to make it difficult to
seize and expose the precise calumny which the writer intends to
fasten, it is forcible enough to make it as insulting and opprobrious
as any epithet which a gentleman could well use, or a refined and
scholarly periodical suffer to appear on its pages. It is like the
gross caricatures of _Harper’s Magazine_. We blush at the thought of
noticing such an aspersion on the Irish clergy. The priests of Ireland
_brutal_? The Irish people are not a brutal people, and it is
impossible that a brutal clergy should spring from them. The clergy
are loved by their people, they cannot therefore be brutally cruel;
they are respected by them, and therefore they cannot be brutally
vicious. They are educated men; they meet noblemen and gentlemen on
equal terms. Irish society is cultivated, refined, and polished, and
the Catholic priests of Ireland are respected by the respectable
Protestants of Ireland. Such an accusation as this could not be made
in Dublin, or on the floor of the British House of Commons, without
calling derision on the head of the unlucky person who ventured to use
a sort of language about Catholics, which polite society is beginning
to regard as unfit for its ears.
It is no wonder that a gentleman so prejudiced against the Catholics
and their religion as Mr. Scribner has shown himself to be, should be
astonished or puzzled at the conversions which have taken place in the
past twenty-five years:
“How one educated in the Protestant faith can become a sincere
Papist it is difficult for us to understand, and to many minds
the thing seems impossible” (p. 516).
He tries to diminish, and as far as possible to shirk the difficulty
by laying the blame on Anglicanism and Puseyism:
“It must be remembered that for an Anglican or Puseyite to become
a Catholic is a very different thing from the conversion to
Romanism of any other intelligent Protestant.”
The perusal of Dr. Newman’s _Lectures_ will show that the Protestant
view and the Protestant prejudice have had as deep and strong a hold
in the English Establishment as in the Kirk, and, therefore, the
difficulty remains where it was. But, although we may allow that a
High-churchman is logically nearer to a Catholic than is a
Presbyterian, there are plenty of cases of the conversion of those who
were brought up in the other Protestant churches. Hurter, Phillipps,
Stolberg, and De Haller were Lutherans. Mr. Lucas was a Quaker, and F.
Baker was brought up a Methodist; Dr. Brownson was a Unitarian, and
Judge Burnett was a Campbellite. There are numbers of converts in the
United States from the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists,
Unitarians, and other denominations. It does not alter the case that
some of the best known of the converts who were brought up in various
sects became Episcopalians first, and afterwards Catholics. For, as
our author asserts, they became by that step “almost Catholics.” And
how did they first become convinced of those “almost Catholic”
doctrines, and altogether Catholic principles which they only
logically followed out when they became Catholics? Then, again, we
have the two Drachs, the two Ratisbons, Hermann and Veith, who were
Israelites. Infidels, too, have been converted, as well as Protestants
and Jews; men of every country, rank, and profession, noblemen, 411
clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, physicians, merchants, military and
naval officers, have embraced the Catholic faith. Since the time of
the so-called Reformation, these converts have amounted to hundreds of
thousands, and it is our opinion that there must be at least fifty
thousand at the present moment in the Catholic Church of the United
States. This fact must, therefore, be looked in the face, and it must
be admitted that there is something in the Catholic religion which is
capable of convincing the understanding and winning the homage of the
most intelligent, upright, and conscientious persons, even though they
have been educated in Protestantism.
Mr. Scribner admits, with a commendable candor and frankness, the
sincerity and excellence of Father Faber:
“One at least who followed Dr. Newman into that communion
deserves, as far as his love for the Lord Jesus and his
self-sacrificing zeal are concerned, to be held as a
model--Frederick William Faber. In his numerous devotional books,
in all his correspondence, and in his hymns, almost all of which
are of the highest order for beauty, tenderness, and
spirituality, there breathe sweet humility, childlike trust in
Jesus as the Saviour of the lost, and the most loving submission
to the divine will.... And yet this man, whose self-sacrificing
piety and loveliness of Christian character all must acknowledge,
was, during almost the whole period in which he so earnestly
sought the good of others by his incessant toil, as sincere and
thorough a Romanist as if he had drunk in the system with his
mother’s milk.... But as long as one retains with these errors
(‘the monstrous doctrines of transubstantiation, the sacrifice of
the Mass, the supremacy of the Pope, purgatory, the worship of
the saints, and the adoration of the Virgin’), however
inconsistently, the essential truths of the Gospel, his holding
them is not incompatible with piety. Whoever is a true worshipper
of Christ is born of God, and that the subject of this biography
worshipped and loved the Saviour it is _impossible to doubt_....
One great lesson taught by this biography is the lesson of
charity, and that we should be cautious in assuming that a man is
not a Christian because he is a Romanist. Undoubtedly, when we
obey the injunction of the Scripture to pray for ‘all saints,’ we
pray for many who are in the Church of Rome. Even a Romish priest
who prays to the Virgin, and who teaches the people to pray to
her, as Faber certainly did, may be, like him, an humble
worshipper and lover of Jesus. And though he may practise
austerities, he may do so in a different spirit from that which
actuates the masses in his own church, for, instead of being full
of self-righteousness, he may have no confidence in his own
righteousness.... We may admit, etc., and yet believe that God
has a people in the Church of Rome who live and die within her
pale” (pp. 515, 516, 517, 531, 532).
Let the reader peruse these passages carefully. They read very
differently from the other set of extracts, and yet they occur
together, mixed up with each other, and we have separated them in
order to exhibit more clearly the singular clashing in the author’s
mind between old, timeworn prejudices, and a new, intruding set of
thoughts and sentiments derived from the perusal of F. Faber’s life
and writings. We have shown how he attempts to reunite the two. But
they cannot live peaceably together in the same breast, any more than
could Sara and Agar in the same tent. They are incompatible. It is
impossible to make out of Father Faber an exceptional case. If the
charge of idolatry is sustained against us, and if, in other respects,
the Roman Church deserves the epithets applied to her by our enemies,
Father Faber went with his eyes open, and remained with his eyes
opening wider and wider, and died in a religion which cannot be
embraced without bringing death to the soul. He was no adherent of 412
any softening, modifying, minimizing school. He was not like any of
those whom Protestants are wont to regard with favor as belonging more
to themselves than to us, as a sort of secret, unconscious
Protestants, who are only externally united to the Roman Church, while
their spirit is alien from her spirit. There was nothing of Pascal,
Martin Boos, or Hyacinthe about him. He was not even one of those who
stopped short at the line of strictly defined and obligatory doctrine,
as if afraid of being extreme Catholics. He was no Gallican, no
rigorist, no advocate of anything that might be called Neo-Catholic or
Anglo-Catholic. Even in regard to minor and accessory matters, to
modes and ways in which there is great room for variation in opinion
and practice, he preferred those which characterize the genius of the
Italian and Spanish nations, and which seem to the colder and more
reserved temperament of the English to be the most remote and foreign
to their tastes and intellectual habits. He endeavored to divest
himself of everything which bore the semblance of conformity even in
accidentals to Anglicanism, and to throw his whole soul into what he
considered to be the most perfectly Catholic mould. He outran in this
many both of the old English Catholics and of his fellow-converts.
Especially in regard to the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he
made himself the champion of the most exalted views concerning the
power and glory of the Mother of God, and the importance of her cultus
in the practical teaching and piety which is directed to the end of
the conversion and perfection of souls. He followed St. Bernardine of
Sienna, St. Alphonsus, and the V. Louis Grignon de Montfort, and his
entire spiritual doctrine is derived from similar sources, as it were
flowing from the very topmost heights of mystic contemplation, above
the clouds, and far remote from the paths and ken of ordinary mortals.
In his theology, which is remarkable both for accuracy and depth, he
always follows those authors whose doctrine accords with the strictest
criterion of Roman orthodoxy. It is not, then, anything in Father
Faber which is peculiar and self-originated, or which he brought over
from his Protestant education, and has mixed with Catholic doctrine as
a clarifying ingredient, that makes his books popular with
Protestants, and has excited the admiration of the writer in the
_Princeton Review_. F. Faber’s doctrine and sanctity are purely
Catholic products. The homage which he has extorted is homage paid to
the school in which he learned, and the masters and models he
followed. The sheep shows the quality of his pasture in the fineness
and whiteness of his wool. “Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs
of thistles.” If our reverend friend were more familiar with the lives
of the Saints and the works of Catholic spiritual writers, he would
cease to wonder at F. Faber and his works. We can point him to whole
libraries of works in which the characters and actions of a multitude
of similar men and women are depicted, and where countless forms of
the same divine truths and holy sentiments are presented. Those who
“practised austerities” to the greatest possible extent, the
solitaries of the desert, the holy monks and nuns, the saints of the
most heroic type, are precisely those who were marked at the same time
by their entire conformity to the doctrine and spirit of the Roman
Church, their profound humility, and their ardent love of the great
Lord and Saviour of mankind. Contrasting F. Faber, and others like 413
him, with the great body of fervent Catholics, as if they had a
“different spirit,” the great body being “full of self-righteousness,”
and these select few having “no confidence in their own
righteousness,” is sheer nonsense, and an unmeaning rattle of words.
We cannot all pretend to possess the genius, the loveliness of
character, the extraordinary graces, or the exalted sanctity of F.
Faber. But all those who hold the genuine Catholic doctrine which our
holy mother the church teaches, and possess in any degree the genuine
Catholic piety which she inculcates, are, so far, like F. Faber. The
same spirit is in all, whether they be the frail and sinful confessing
their sins with contrition, the sincere though imperfect who are
striving to keep God’s commandments with more or less diligence, or
the more advanced in Christian virtue and holiness of life. Those who
have a false and counterfeit piety, who indulge in the spiritual sins
of pride, self-confidence, and vainglory, who are willing victims to
the illusions of the devil, and seek to play the part of saints in
order to gratify their self-love and win applause, are like other
sinners, except that they have more of the hypocrite about them. They
generally become heretics, or fall into open sin, and cease acting
their wearisome part, unless they are truly humbled and converted.
These are the persons who have a “different spirit” from that which
actuates the true children of the church. That F. Faber touched the
common chords which vibrate through the great Catholic heart is shown
by the fact that he is the most popular spiritual writer of this
century. Three hundred thousand copies of his works, in some six or
seven languages, had been sold some time ago, and they still continue
to circulate everywhere. It is not a little remarkable that the same
chord is obedient to his touch in the hearts of so many Protestants.
What genius, learning, reasoning, philosophy, cannot do, the faith and
love which spring from prayer and penance accomplish with ease. It is
a remarkable fact, and we call the attention of Catholic preachers and
writers to it, as well as that of Protestants. One who disdained the
thought of diluting Catholic doctrine to suit the delicate palate of
the age, who was regardless of the opinion of men, who plumed his
pinions for a kind of audacious flight into the lofty ether in which
saints alone are wont to soar and poise in contemplation, who threw
off all drapery from the glorious form of Catholic truth, and loudly
called on all men to gaze and worship, is the one who wins the
confidence and captivates the hearts of the greatest number of the
church’s lost and estranged children. We trust that his works will win
their way, and exercise their gentle, attractive force still more
extensively among evangelical Protestants. The recommendation of a
Presbyterian pastor, which goes forth under the sanction of Princeton,
will, we trust, produce its full effect, and excite the pious
curiosity of a great number of readers to become acquainted with the
biography and writings of the gifted, lovely, holy poet, priest, and
teacher, who has been called the Bernardine of Sienna of the
nineteenth century.
We have endeavored to bring out into strong relief what is really of
the greatest moment in the article of the _Princeton Review_, and what
the weak though violent counter-protests only make more prominent and
definite, that the concessions to the personal and doctrinal purity of
Father Faber are a yielding of the most grievous of the charges against 414
Catholics and their religion. It argues, we hope, a change in the
spirit and manner of maintaining the controversy with us which is
coming on. The teaching of Father Faber is admitted to contain the
“essential truths of the Gospel,” and his most distinctively Catholic
and Roman doctrines are admitted to be “not incompatible with piety.”
The conclusion is rigidly logical and irresistible, that Calvinists
must consider the controversy between us as one not respecting
_directly_, but only _indirectly_, the essential, fundamental dogmas
and precepts of the Gospel and Christianity. Let them, then, realize
this view to themselves, think in accordance with it, and regulate
their conduct and language in harmony with it. Let them no longer
ignore and practically abjure the Christian church from the fourth
century to the present moment, and confine their sympathies to an
imaginary primitive period and the sphere of modern Protestantism. Let
them study ancient, mediæval, and modern Catholic authors, read
history and theology, and learn to discuss the real issue with us. The
Chinese method of warfare, charging upon us with shields aloft,
bearing the hideous figure of the beast with seven heads and ten
horns, with outcries and shouts of derision and vituperation, will not
answer any longer. Those who choose to follow such tactics will soon
be forced to throw their shoes into the air and take to flight. It is
too late to frighten even Presbyterian children with such nonsense.
The weakness and helplessness of the poor Irish Catholics, and of the
handful of Catholics in England, made them for a long time the easy
victims of oppression and calumny. But the day for treating the
Catholics of the English-speaking world with haughtiness and contumely
has passed by. We desire, however, no revenge or retaliation. We ask
nothing of Protestants except that they will seek the truth. In the
words of Montalembert: “The truth, and nothing but the truth--justice,
and nothing but justice--let that be our sole revenge!”[97]
[94] _The Princeton Review_, October, 1871. Art. II.:
_The Life and Letters of Frederick William Faber._ By
Rev. William Scribner.
[95] _Lecture IV._, p. 206. Dublin. Third Edition.
[96] We do not intend to affirm positively that Gioberti
formally renounced the communion and faith of the Catholic
Church, a matter about which there hangs a great obscurity.
But his violent enmity to the Jesuits and his revolutionary
principles in general would have certainly led him to attack
the clergy and the existing order in the most vulnerable
part.
[97] _Monks of the West_, Introduction, last paragraph.
----------
LIMITATION.
Through limit and hindrance man works: no limit hath God, and no need;
But his wind is musical only when prisoned in the cane of the reed.
AUBREY DE VERE.
----------
MODERN OPERA.[98] 415
Nothing better pictures an epoch than the art and literature which it
produces. The great characters, religious and political, immortalized
by history, have always been surrounded by a cluster of noble
geniuses, artistic and literary. The generosity and magnanimity of
heroes is reproduced in the sublime purity of the works of art of
their epoch. Nobility of art bears testimony to the excellence of
morals. Our century is no exception to this. Confusion of principles
in politics and religion is accompanied by an analogous overturning of
morals, of art, and of literature. We are living in a time of general
depravity; at least, it is so as regards those who pretend to march at
the head of modern civilization. But their depraved literature, their
shameless arts, exercise their disastrous influence over those who
would wish to resist the current of the bad passions of the day. It is
to them that M. Stein gives warning of the danger, in depicting the
bad conditions into which dramatic music has degenerated. It is a
study of contemporaneous manners, not so much from an artistic as from
a religious and political point of view.
GENTLEMEN: A few days ago, it was shown you here how considerable is
the influence of the fine arts upon the moral life of mankind; it was
demonstrated how they can guide the human sentiment towards different
ends, good or bad.
You will permit me now to call your attention to a branch of the fine
arts which, more now than ever, and more than all others, exercises
its influence on the moral life of the people, and which merits thus
the highest degree of interest from this assembly. It is dramatic
poetry allied to musical art, that is, the Opera.
You all know the great extent of this branch, which has captivated the
favor of the public to a degree perfectly exceptional, and which has
banished to the second place all other branches of dramatic art.
The reasons of this extraordinary success are not so well known. The
excessive predilection of public theatregoers for the opera is of
quite recent date. Only forty years ago, the masterpieces of dramatic
poetry enjoyed the same favor as those of dramatic music. By the side
of Mozart and Carl Maria von Weber, Shakespeare and Schiller were
found on a footing of equality; to-day they must retire before
Meyerbeer and Offenbach, and be contented to remain eclipsed by these
favorites of the public. If you question on the subject enthusiastic
lovers of the opera, they will answer that, in our day, opera has made
progress so considerable, and attained to such perfection, that the
understanding of music is so general among the people, that this
predilection of an enlightened public for dramatic music is the most
natural thing in the world. You know there never can be question of
any other than an enlightened public; for it cannot be doubted that
every man who frequents the theatre is a man of progress. The gallery 416
represents the preparatory school; the boxes, the pupils in
philosophy.
However, it is difficult to believe that artistic taste and love of
music are the sole motives which cause the public to fill the halls of
the opera-house. Forty years ago, the works of Mozart, of Weber, and
other masters were well appreciated by connoisseurs, but they did not
meet with as much success from the public as modern operas enjoy
to-day. Or is it rather that Donizetti and Verdi, Meyerbeer and
Offenbach, understand the art better than Mozart and Weber, Spohr and
Spontini? We cannot admit it. The reason must be elsewhere, and
surely, gentlemen, you wish to know it.
In a pamphlet published ten years ago, Richard Wagner says: “The
essential foundation of art, as practised generally in our day, is
industry: its moral end is gain, its æsthetic intention to kill
_ennui_.”
This richly endowed artist has in view his colleagues in dramatic
music, the composers of opera. He knew these men well, and understood
himself how they set to work. But in the words quoted he has perfectly
explained the end and tendency of modern opera.
The end is no other than gain; and, as means conducive to this end,
effect is necessary, which must be attained at any price.
Industrialism, that tyrant of our age, has also submitted the opera to
its power, and under its domination the art exhausts itself forcibly,
because tied to the fly-wheel of the artistic fabric. To produce
effect, to surprise and bring out something which has not yet been
seen--these are the objects of actual dramatic music. To this end is
sacrificed not only art, but also all that exists--religion, politics,
morality, and truth. This unfortunate course has been inaugurated by
the Italians. In their dramatic works, Donizetti and Verdi have sought
but for effect, theatrical success, and to this end have completely
sacrificed dramatic truth. For love of effect, they have trodden upon
law, morals, and even reason. The domination of sense over mind is the
characteristic feature of their music.
But it is among the French that this style has attained its greatest
perfection, and even among the German composers, who, for love of
effect, have Frenchified themselves. The most skilful author of scores
of operas, Scribe, has offered his pen to these greedy musicians for
money, and shows his readiness to sacrifice all to it. Scribe
understood the Parisian public for which he worked. He knew its
weakness, and he has succeeded in imposing the vitiated taste of that
public on the whole civilized world.
In the texts furnished by Scribe, all is intended for scenic
effect--all means are employed to reach this end. The requirements of
dramatic truth and of morality, even of good sense, are sacrificed to
the one end, effect. Frivolous and immodest allusions, which offer
gross food to the impure fancy, and necessarily soil the imagination
of innocence; doubtful scenes, as, for example, in _Fra Diavolo_,
where a young girl unrobes and goes to bed before the audience;
scenes of the bath, as in the _Huguenots_; scenes of seduction, as in
_Robert le Diable_; political allusions, exaltation of and homage to
the revolutionary passions, as in the _Muette de Portici_; base
flattery to the irreligious opinions and prejudices of the day; even,
in fine, scenes peculiarly religious, that are put into the piece to
produce striking contrasts, and bring out voluptuous scenes
better--these are the artistic means of which these poets and composers 417
have made use to produce effect, and to make money with this effect.
Thanks to these industrials of the opera, it happens that in France a
new opera has no longer chance of success, if it be not abundantly
provided with these means for exciting bad passions.
Now, how is it in Germany? The German good-nature imitates everything
of which the French set the example. It allows itself to be deceived,
even to the point of finding _naïveté_ where there is nothing but
immodesty. It thinks even that it recognizes a religious character in
works which do but abuse and vilify religion. The German good-nature
imagines that these creators of French art have carried dramatic music
to its highest perfection, whilst in reality they are merely skilful
workmen, and often something much worse.
If it be denied that our so-called artistic and intelligent public is
intoxicated with drinking from the poisoned cup of the French opera,
it must be conceded that in Germany there are still many men who know
and love art, and who therefore, at the start, do not sacrifice to
this musical Baal, but render testimony to the truth with regard to
the modern opera. They do not trouble themselves about the shouts and
railleries of the crowd, who are unreflecting, and seek in art only
sensual enjoyment and pastime.
Permit me here to recall the memory of a generous man, a grand master
of the musical art, whom the city of Düsseldorf formerly counted among
its citizens--to wit, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. From the letters he has
left, we know that, during his artistic career, he desired earnestly
to try his creative power on the opera, but could not succeed because,
notwithstanding his multiplied efforts, he could not find a text to
please him. During his sojourn in Paris, his father wrote him to
employ Scribe to furnish him a text, to make the composition at Paris,
and to have the joint work performed there. This letter of the father
betrays a man well versed in business. In his answer, Mendelssohn
first speaks of the difficulties which are raised against strangers
who wish to represent their works in Paris; then says: “It must be
added that, among the French, the principal condition is one to which
we must always be opposed, even when the epoch requires us to be ready
to make concessions to the taste of the day. This essential condition
is immorality. I have no music for that. It is ignoble. If the present
age exacts such requirements of the opera, I renounce it for ever. I
prefer to compose religious music.”
Honor to the honest man! Honor to the artist who in acting thus
honored himself--who refused to gain money and to make himself famous
by selling for so base a use the divine gift which God had given him!
As Mendelssohn indicates here, it is particularly Meyerbeer who has
devoted himself to this bad style. In his youth, this talented artist
had composed several operas which had not been favorably received. He
had tried without success in the German school as well as in the
Italian. He gave himself up to the mercantile style, and his career
was brilliant. Meanwhile, Meyerbeer employed Scribe to write his
texts, and these two minds understood each other wonderfully. The one
furnished piquant scenes, without regard to the exigencies of reason
and morals, and threw in a profusion of seductions for all the
passions. He set to work all the wonders of decoration. The other
illuminated the whole with seductive music, which sought but for 418
effect, and had no regard to dramatic truth. In this manner, Meyerbeer
has become not only the most famous, but also--and this is the
principal thing--the richest musician of the entire world. He knows
his business, as no one before has known it.
Meyerbeer is distinguished particularly for his predilection for
religious scenes. With consummate skill, he uses them to produce
striking contrasts. None of his last operas fail in this spicy
seasoning. As a Jew, he is impartial among the different Christian
sects. He maligns and mocks them all. In _Robert le Diable_, it is
Catholicism which is put under contribution to furnish material for
his religious scenes; in the _Huguenots_, he abuses Protestantism in
the same manner and to the same end.
Marcel, a personage insignificant and dull, a fanatical Huguenot,
interrupts everywhere the action of the piece with a Protestant
canticle, always inopportunely and without reason, but producing
always a grand effect by contrast. It is the air of the canticle of
Luther: “Our God is a tower of strength.” The success of the
_Huguenots_, this opera being so much a favorite, rests almost
entirely on the contrasts produced by this canticle.
In the first act, a merry company of cavaliers is found at table
drinking and singing a riotous song. Marcel, the incomprehensible
solitary, proceeds to thunder out, with a loud voice accompanied with
brazen instruments: “Hear me, strong God! My voice is raised to thee.”
This canticle, in the midst of jovial drinkers, intermingled with the
song they are singing--how can it fail of effect? In the second act,
there is a very violent scene. At the instigation of Queen Margaret,
the Count St. Bris has proposed his daughter to the Chevalier Raoul,
who refuses her. Valentina, the daughter, despised and scorned,
complains; Queen Margaret preaches peace; all shout and fence, and
Marcel adds his chorus in a thundering voice, “God, our guard and
protection, listen to our cries!” Is not this a shameful prostitution
of sacred things? But it produces effect; and our opera-going public,
which boasts of its delicate taste, is enchanted with it, and imagines
that the violent impression produced by these contrasts is a religious
and edifying sentiment.
In _L’Africaine_, the last production of Meyerbeer, he introduces us
immediately, in the first act, to a sitting of the secret council of
the King of Portugal. It is understood that the grand inquisitor and a
certain number of cardinals play the principal _rôle_. Finally, Vasco
de Gama is condemned, loaded with chains, and thrown into the deepest
dungeon. Why? Because he has affirmed the existence of distant and
unknown lands of which the Scripture does not speak. You know well
that ecclesiastical dignitaries have always had the habit of refuting
with chains and a prison novel ideas and scientific discoveries. At
least, by this scene the public is convinced of it, with the aid of
stunning music. This same opera, so much approved, contains also a
very piquant amorous intrigue. There are several choruses of prayer,
then a large vessel on the stage, and finally a manchineel tree, which
spreads death. We must agree that it is the possible and the
impossible.
However, it is not the Jew Meyerbeer who has pushed to the extreme his
musical industry. The Jew Offenbach has gone much further. The former
speculated principally on the curiosity of the unreflecting masses;
but while his art is under subjection to frivolity, he still seeks 419
to preserve a certain decorum. But Offenbach has got rid of the last
remains of modesty and propriety. Yet the Christian public besiege the
workshop, and applaud with frenzy the musical indecencies of this
industrious Jew.
_Orphées aux Enfers_, _La Belle Hélène_, _La Vie Parisienne_, such, for
several years, have been the favorite works with a public in advance
of its age. These operas have been played every day for weeks and
months on every stage; and often there are disputes over the tickets
for these representations. Of course, it is all owing to the beautiful
music.
With these impure works, dramatic music has attained the extreme of
degradation. After having been lowered by Meyerbeer and the modern
composers of France and Italy to the rank of an _equestrienne_, who
rides round the circus in elegant costume, the muse of music has been
thrown to the demi-monde by Offenbach. She could not fall lower.
Gentlemen, permit me to repeat the question which was laid before you
in the beginning. What is the reason that modern opera has gained the
favor of the public to so eminent a degree that not only the classical
works of this kind, but also the masterpieces of declaimed drama, are
banished from the theatre? Now, we can answer this question. The
reason of this surprising phenomenon is that, by the modern opera, art
has entered into the service of sensuality, art has lost all generous
and elevated motives. It has tasked itself to amuse a public depraved
by pleasures of every kind--to satisfy curiosity, to flatter the bad
passions, the errors and prejudices of the age, and to make a bad use
of the questions of the day.
Those who still doubt what I say have but to notice the intimate union
of the ballet with the opera which the prevailing taste dictates as an
inexorable law. In most cases, the ballet has no logical or artistic
connection with the opera. It is a foreign element which imposes
itself upon musical and dramatic action, and which is given with the
avowed intention of exciting voluptuousness. Reason is forced to
despise the ballet; moral sentiment condemns it; musical art is
obliged to lament over it as a sad aberration; nevertheless, modern
opera has concluded an alliance for life with this frivolous creation
of the present time. You know the proverb, “Tell me what company you
keep: I will tell you what you are.”
Our friends of the opera do not like to be told these things.
Judgments like these are for them the expressions of a mind opposed to
modern civilization, and lost in obsolete ideas. If one of these
partisans of modern opera hears what I have just said, he will
certainly say that the darkness of my ultramontane soul is blacker
than the color of my robe. He will maintain that it is only æsthetic
education, artistic sense, enthusiasm for music, which draws him and
his equals to similar works; and, nevertheless, the old operas which
are veritable works of art, but which do not contain any piquant
subject and little food for sensuality, leave them cold and
indifferent in the depth of their hearts. The symphonies of Beethoven
and Mozart cause these lovers of art to yawn, and the name alone of an
oratorio makes their flesh creep.
What position have we Christians to take, in order to oppose these
alarming phenomena of the present day? A critic of the seventeenth
century, named Wehrenfels, has laid down this principle for dramatic
art in general: “Finally, all our dramatic representations should be 420
such that Plato could tolerate them in his republic, that Cato could
listen to them with pleasure, that vestals could witness them without
wounding their chastity, and, what is more important, that Christians
could listen to them.”
You will say this is too antiquated a principle. Among the greater
part of our amateurs at the theatre it will only provoke expressions
of doubt; they will say that this poor Wehrenfels is far behind modern
civilization. Notwithstanding, no one undertakes to refute this
principle, to demonstrate that these requirements are groundless. But
as long as they are not refuted, we must consider them justified, and
we ask if they should not be applied to the opera. Is not the drama
when sung to be submitted to the same true moral and æsthetic laws as
the drama recited?
To the phenomena of life as produced before our eyes, we apply the
scale of conscience and of reason. Why should it not be our right and
our duty to apply them also to the opera, and to regulate our conduct
from the result of such an examination? No one will deny that this
question is well founded. Nevertheless, it would meet with much
resistance. Our enthusiasts of the opera have tacitly agreed that,
where it is a question of opera, good sense and conscience should be
silent. But ourselves, gentlemen, ought never to abandon these
principles. We should no longer be Christians, if we did not apply to
the opera the principles we practise in our lives.
Let us, then, apply these principles to the music of our day. What
must we do if it be condemned for frivolity, for immodesty and abuse
of religious things? If we find that the scenes are arranged solely
with a view to effect, and in disregard of good sense and logic? If
reason and conscience, by common accord, condemn this degradation of
art, and the deception with which this degradation is presented as
veritable art? What must we do, in presence of these great accusations
against modern opera?
Would you condemn to silence your reason and your conscience because
you are promised amusement? Would you wish, as a return for your
money, to have sung on the stage words you despise, words you would
repulse if they were spoken? Would you put a temptation before your
children, in leading them to the opera--these same children whom you
tried to bring up in honesty, in religion, in piety, and the
observance of all Christian duties? Do you believe that at the opera,
where religion is made a plaything, where it is exposed to contempt,
attacked and calumniated, they will learn to esteem and to obey it?
Will they learn good morals, decency, and propriety from the dancers
of the ballet? It is sufficient to place before you these questions;
you will answer them yourselves. But why this severe criticism? What
will result from it?
Will my words succeed in turning dramatic music from its bad course,
and making it enter on a better? Will the thousands and thousands of
individuals who find their greatest pleasure in modern opera take
notice of them at all? I do not count upon that. But I hope with
confidence, gentlemen, that my words will engage you to examine more
closely the subject of which I have been treating. You will not form
your judgment from charlatans of criticism and enthusiastic partisans
of sensuality; but you will judge for yourselves, by vigorously
applying your Christian principles. If you are thus affected, my words
will have borne fruit.
[98] _Lecture of M. Stein, Curate of Cologne._ Delivered
before the Catholic Congress at Düsseldorf.
----------
THE STUDY OF SACRED HISTORY.[99] 421
It has been said that a distinguished English lady, remarkable for her
intelligence in the treatment of many questions affecting the
condition of the proletarian classes, and by whose persevering efforts
the erection and management of reformatories for juvenile offenders,
and industrial schools for that vagrant portion of the community known
in our civilized era as “street Arabs,” and who herself personally
superintended most admirably a reformatory for young girls in Bristol,
was accustomed to say to her visitors, in reply to their astonishment
at her wonderful perseverance and success: “Whenever I see anything
that I can call radically wrong, I never feel satisfied till I can
render to myself an intelligent reason why it has gone wrong; and
then, when I know what the causes are, I set myself to the task of
preventing, as far as possible, the occurrence of anything of the same
kind in the future.”
This practical view of the duties of life, which proved of such
benefit to the beneficiaries of that philanthropic lady, seems to have
been adopted by the author of the work before us, and to have been
applied on a more comprehensive scale. Becoming convinced, after long
investigation, that one of the evils which at present afflict society
arises out of spiritual ignorance of the history of the church and of
the pre-Christian era, instead of supinely contenting himself with
bemoaning the calamity, he set to work and produced a book which,
under its present modest title, contains a concise history not only of
the Catholic Church, but of the ways of God’s providence to man from
the creation, as far as they have been revealed to us through the
pages of Holy Writ and in the writings of ancient authorities. The
reverend author by this admirable work hoped, if he could not
contribute to dispel the mists of doubt and dissent now so widespread
in both hemispheres, to at least put into the hands of the rising
generation a preventive and an argument against those who would either
deny the existence of a revealed law, or, admitting, would pervert its
commands to their own weak or vicious purposes. His success so far has
been proportionate to his ability and purity of motive.
We are all aware that the best part of the Christian people has been
plunged into profound grief and stupefaction by the recent murder, or,
as the Holy Father more emphatically expressed it, the parricide of
the late Archbishop of Paris, and so many of his faithful clergy. Now,
who were the perpetrators of that most foul deed? In one sense,
certainly, not a wild, tumultuous mob, acting without system or
guidance, nor yet private assassins in the employment of the secret
societies, or moved thereto by personal malice or revenge. On the
contrary, the deed was done in the open day, by the arbitrary orders
of what was claimed to have been a regularly established government,
and executed by its armed soldiery, two of whom, even when about to
obey the mandates of their supposed superiors, knelt at the feet of 422
the holy prelate and begged his forgiveness for the crime they were
about to commit. It is not claimed by the apologists of the Communists
that their illustrious victims were guilty of any offence against the
state, or that even the form of a trial was accorded them; and yet
there are to be found many persons, considering themselves honorable
and intelligent, who openly or secretly applaud that glaring and cruel
act of injustice, and who thoroughly sympathize with the European
revolutionists--those enemies of all law, who, if they had the power,
would repeat in every city in Christendom the late disgraceful scenes
of Paris. It is a melancholy fact that outside the Catholic Church the
horrible murder of the venerable Archbishop Darboy and so many of his
clergy has been the cause of ill-disguised congratulation, not only
among those who are in direct affiliation with the revolutionists, but
amid the sects who profess to regard the Decalogue as part of their
fundamental doctrine. Have we yet heard from the thousands of pulpits
and hundreds of newspapers, occupied and controlled by the various
Protestant sects, one open and manly protest against the atrocious
criminals who have so recently sullied the fair fame of France by
deeds that would have disgraced the most degraded forms of savage
life? Not one.
A fact like this, so patent and portentous, while it shows how large a
portion of civilized society has fallen away from the plainest
teachings of Christian charity and justice, must necessarily lead to
the inquiry as to the best means of arresting, and, if possible,
correcting so monstrous an evil. Recognizing it as such, it is our
duty fearlessly and persistently to endeavor to correct it, for
“_Felix qui potuis rerum cognoscere causæ_” will always be a true
maxim, even when we are engaged in the study of the worst of human
miseries and disasters with a view to their alleviation.
In contemplating the many evils which now afflict Christian society,
the creation and formerly the obedient creature of the Catholic
Church, we must recollect that God has not given to his church the
gift of being the infallible preserver of the faith in every nation
and at all times, no more than she can guarantee to all people civil
order and wise government. There is no doubt that the church is the
tree set up in this world, the leaves of which are the health of
mankind, “_et quis tibi imputavit si perierint nationes quas tu
fecisti_” (Wisd. xii. 12); but who shall accuse her of countenancing
the disorders which have arisen through the rejection of her authority,
and to which she has ever been strenuously opposed? Our Lord himself
contemplates the rebellion of nations and people against his doctrine. To
the angel of the Church of Ephesus the Spirit said, “Be mindful from
whence thou hast fallen: and do penance, and resume thy first works. Or
if not, behold I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of its
place, except thou dost penance” (Apoc. ii. 5). Even the presence of the
priesthood among us in adequate numbers is no assurance against schism
and infidelity. Though we may have every confidence in their sanctity and
the soundness of their teachings, we cannot always be certain that the
duties of their holy calling will be performed with uniform discretion,
intelligence, and zeal, or that the hearts of their congregations will
respond on all occasions and amid all circumstances to the teachings of
their pastors. It is true that at all times and in all places the
soldiers of the Cross have proved themselves the faithful guardians of
piety and morality, but it must be admitted that occasionally, 423
particularly in Europe, they have not attached sufficient importance
to the necessity of the intellectual training of the masses and to the
wonderful advances of the human mind in abstract and practical
sciences. What the Abbé Fleury wrote of a past generation is
partially, at least, true in this. In the preface to his _Historical
Catechism_, he says:
“We see a great number of devout persons who have read great
numbers of spiritual books, and are familiar with a large variety
of devotional practices, but who are totally wanting in an
understanding of the very groundwork of religion.”
Fleury’s testimony receives a remarkable corroboration in the
circumstance that, in the last century, whoever derided the
traditional belief in God and in the Christian revelation acquired
credit with the multitude as an “_esprit fort_.” In short, the idea of
there being so much as the possibility of an “_esprit fort_” who
believed in God and who _ex animo_ professed the faith of the church,
appeared to be unknown, and the universal notion in France was that
the choice consisted in being feeble and pious or strong-minded and
atheistical. Under the influence of this notion, the principal part of
the male population of France fell away from the faith, and it has
required the persistent efforts of at least two generations of
priests, and with but partial success, to lead them back to the
church. Religion in Great Britain during the past century is known to
have largely taken its complexion from France, and it is remarkable
that the bulk of the English Protestants affected to form precisely
the same estimate of it, and that it was a power inimical to the
cultivation of the understanding and a decided enemy of knowledge and
progress. The same phenomenon appears in Italy. The Italian people are
still deeply attached to the traditions of the Catholic faith, but the
popular idea of the Catholic religion, misled by the slanders and
misrepresentations of the revolutionists, is that it is the religion
of the timid, the feeble, and the pious, that its wants are limited to
functions and processions, beads and prayer-books, or what would be
rather scoffingly called “_roba di pietà_,” and that it is in no way
conscious of any wants proper to a manly understanding, and
consequently never expected to take any pains to satisfy them. In
Germany, there are perfectly analogous symptoms. Catholics in some
parts of that great empire bear the contemptuous name of
_Dunkelmänner_, men of darkness; and they are looked upon, not merely
by the positive enemies of all religion, but by the busy throng, as
certainly no friends to the legitimate progress and cultivation of the
gifts of the understanding.
The consequences of these disastrous tendencies to fall off from the
practice of the virtues and observances of the church are apparent to
all thinking men, and, if not checked, will have an equally marked
effect on the morals and faith of future generations. To some extent,
we humbly submit, they are due to a want of thorough education, not
only spiritually but humanly, among a large number of Catholics, who,
not deficient in piety and the desire to live according to the
precepts of Christianity, are too often led away by the sophistries
and superior knowledge--real or affected--of the opponents of their
faith. Learning is said to be the handmaiden of religion--and is never
so brilliant as when employed in her service, while religion,
profiting by her assistance, moves on from one triumph to another. It 424
does not appear to be a part of the providence of God that man should
simply grow into a knowledge of the doctrines of the church, in the
same manner as he advances to bodily maturity, but by intelligent and
persevering teaching and diligent practice. In our world, every year
brings new-comers on the stage, and the message to the Church of
Ephesus was, “_Age pœnitentiam et prima opera fac_.” The Catholic
clergy inherit a tradition, long anterior to that of the past century,
of being the patrons and the cultivators of the human mind, and they
still should remember these true and ancient glories of their sacred
calling. The language of the sacred liturgy on the day of Pentecost is
beautifully expressive on this subject:
“_Da tuis fidelibus_
_In te confitentibus_
_Sacrum septenarium._”
_Sacrum Septenarium_--the sacred seven gifts of the Holy Ghost,
amongst which we find the “spirit of understanding and of knowledge.”
All the gifts of the Holy Ghost doubtless require to receive their due
share of honor and cultivation. But in a generation which has gone so
widely and so terribly wrong by the way of a perverted and deceived
intellect, the cause of faith in the world demands that the battle be
fought with a special determination on the ground of the intelligence.
If Satan relies on the perversion of the mind for leading them away
from belief in the truth and divinity of the revelation brought by
Moses, and perfected by the coming and ministry of one greater than
Moses, St. Michael must contend with Satan for the possession of the
body of Moses. The more the spirit of deception that has gone abroad
seeks to discredit the Mosaic revelation, which is the forerunner in
the world of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the more we must
diligently persevere and insist that all who are willing to listen
should stir up within themselves the gifts of the spirit of
understanding and knowledge, and qualify themselves to resist and
confront the spirit of error wherever they meet with it and on all
fitting occasions. Every Catholic family ought to be a centre or focus
of Christian information. In every household there ought to be books
containing the narrative of the works of God through the line of his
great saints, beginning from the sacred narrative of Moses downwards
to the present time. Sacred history is the true tower of strength to
the cause of faith.
This study should not, as it has heretofore generally been, confined
to ancient history; for, though we may find in the Old Testament the
wonderful working of God in his intercourse with his creatures, and
see developed and completed his works and promises to his chosen
people, we have, under the new dispensation and in the history of the
Catholic Church, as indubitable proofs of the promises and fulfilment
of them in the fulness of time by our divine Maker. The history of the
Popes, for example, from St. Peter to Pius IX., is replete with
providential incidents, astonishing the worldly and baffling the
so-called wisdom of the sceptical. The perpetual rejuvenation of the
church herself when apparently crushed and disintegrated beneath the
load of kingly oppression and the lawlessness of the mob, is in itself
not only a perpetual miracle, but the evident fulfilment of the
promises of the Founder to be with her all days even to the
consummation of the world. The lives of the grand throng of saints,
martyrs, confessors, and missionaries--the glory and pride of the
church--their sufferings, triumphs, and miracles; their love of art 425
and literature, and all that makes life holy and beautiful, are
fraught with lessons before which even the story of Abraham’s
sacrifice and Joseph’s forgiveness sink into comparative
insignificance. Sacred history should be read as a whole, from the
beginning of time to the present day, giving to the more ancient part
its proper share of attention, not only for its own sake but as
prefiguring the more perfect system of Christianity. But the history
of the Church deserves and should receive our chiefest and most marked
attention.
The book of the Rev. Henry Formby, which, under its simple title,
contains a concise and chronological narrative of sacred history from
the creation down to our own times, in this respect is one of the most
useful publications that has recently appeared from the English press,
and, though but an abridgment of a much more voluminous work on the
same subject, it preserves all the essential features of the original
with singular simplicity and lucidity of style. The title gives but a
faint idea of its merits, for in truth it is not a mere collection of
stories in the general acceptation of that term, but short, succinct,
and correct historical sketches of events related in the Old
Testament, and a condensed and necessarily short history of the church
from its foundation. The arrangement of the subject is admirable, and,
in view of the vast field of Biblical lore to be traversed, and the
numerous historical facts of the first importance to be touched on, at
least in the confined limits of one volume, there are displayed a
clearness of narration, and a nice appreciation of the salient points
in the spiritual progress of the human race, that make the book easy
to be read and understood by even the most ordinarily instructed
person. In fact, if the author had substituted “pictures” for
“stories” in his title-page, he would have been more correct.
A general knowledge of the history of the creation, and of God’s once
chosen people, the Jews, as well as an acquaintance with that of the
church herself, the perfection of what was imperfectly prefigured
under the old dispensation, ought to be an essential ingredient in the
education of every Catholic child and of every adult, no matter what
may be his condition in life; but heretofore the undertaking has been
so laborious on account of the want of elementary books on those
all-important subjects, that but little was generally known of the
workings of Providence in ancient times, and the typical significance
of many of the events related in the Old Testament, except by the
learned few. Even the early history of the church has been practically
a sealed book to the English-speaking masses, whose ideas of her long
years of suffering, persecution, and final triumph have been of the
most indefinite and oftentimes erroneous character. We have to thank
Father Formby for supplying this defect in our Catholic literature,
and in future there can be no excuse for ignorance of at least the
origin, labors, and progress of the religion we profess. In about one
hundred and sixty pages, the half of his book, devoted to the
Christian era, he presents to us very complete and exact, if not very
elaborate, views of the leading events in the history of the church
for over eighteen centuries. In addition to this, he has appended to
many of the sections in the part occupied with the pre-Christian
period short moral reflections, and institutes comparisons between the
old and new order of things, which are not only edifying, but highly
instructive, particularly to young readers. For example, with
reference to the days of the creation of the world, he remarks: 426
“Jesus Christ rested in the tomb from the work of redemption on
the Sabbath or seventh day, and arose again from the dead on the
first day of the week. For this reason, the Christians no longer
keep holy the original Sabbath, but the Lord’s day, or first day
of the week, in memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
And again, after relating the dispersion of the builders of the Tower
of Babel, he draws this beautiful comparison:
“The nations of the world suffered a great punishment upon their
pride in the confusion of their speech, and in their separation
one from another. Jesus Christ has in part removed this
punishment; for he has again made all the nations of the earth
one religious family in his church, under the supreme government
of the successor of St. Peter, and as partakers of one and the
same sacrifice at the altar.”
In allusion to the well-known story of the sale of Joseph to the
Egyptians by his brethren, he says:
“Joseph, hated by his brethren on account of his love of virtue
and innocence, and sold by them for a slave into the land of
Egypt, is a striking figure of Jesus Christ hated by his own
people on account of his love of justice and sanctity, and
delivered up by them bound into the hands of the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate.”
Father Formby’s diction and treatment of his subject are varied and
suited to the epoch which he describes. In the early pages of his
book, he adopts the figurative orientalisms of the Hebrew writers, but
further on he sobers down to the less florid and more matter-of-fact
style of modern times. His descriptions of the crusades and the origin
and growth of the religious orders are exceedingly graphic and
correct, though of course merely outlines of what would fill books
enough to make up an ordinary library if written in detail, and his
summing up of the so-called reformation is deserving of particular
notice.
“There is something worthy of being carefully observed as regards
the Protestantism which began in the sixteenth century to cause
whole nations and peoples to renounce the faith and discipline of
the Catholic Church. But as other great heresies, such as that of
Arius, have had a similar ruinous effect in causing a great
falling off from faith without the end of the world following in
their wake, Protestantism cannot simply for this reason by itself
be understood to be the sign to which St. Paul refers. What is
remarkable, however, in Protestantism is, that though Dr. Martin
Luther and the others who were leaders at the time formed sects,
the disciples of which called themselves by the names of
their masters--as Lutherans from Luther, Calvinists from
Calvin--Protestantism has long ago ceased to be the name of any
particular doctrine. Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists,
Socinians, and all the different sects which arose at this time,
as regards what is meant by Protestantism, are just as good
Protestants the one as the other. They may, and do, dispute with
each other about what is to be held to be true as Christian
doctrine, but as regards Protestantism they are all quite agreed.
How come, then, those who are completely at war with each other
about Christian doctrine to agree completely about
‘Protestantism’? The reason is, that Protestantism proper has but
one solitary doctrine and one solitary precept, viz., ‘_Depart
from the Roman Church_.’ All who satisfy this one precept entitle
themselves to the name of ‘Protestant.’ It is true that, up to
the present time, those who have protested against the Roman
Church have generally had the credit of deserving to be, in some
way or other, known as Christians; but this is rapidly ceasing to
be the case. ‘Protestantism’ has now come to be the name of the
confederacy of almost all without exception whose cry is, ‘Depart
from the Roman Church,’ so that there would seem to be no
rashness in recognizing it as the departure (_discessio_) which
St. Paul points to as the sign indicating the world to be drawing 427
to a close.”
In addition to the merits and attractions of this valuable
contribution to contemporaneous Catholic literature, we observe that
most of the leading incidents recorded in sacred history are
illustrated by wood-cuts very handsomely designed and executed, so
that the eye as well as the understanding is made familiar with the
historical places, incidents, and characters sought to be portrayed,
and the frontispiece is a large and excellently clear engraving of
Jerusalem. The growth of Catholic literature in England, where even in
the recollection of many of us Catholicity, confined to the humble
minority, was banned and ostracized by author and reader alike, is one
of the most healthful signs of the times, and it will be a great
dereliction of duty on our part here in America if we do not profit by
the labors of our co-religionists abroad, hoping some day to
reciprocate the favor.
[99] _The Pictorial Bible and Church History Stories,
Abridged._ By the Rev. Henry Formby. New York: The
Catholic Publication Society. 1871. 8vo, pp. 320.
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NEW PUBLICATIONS.
ESSAYS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL. By John Henry Newman, formerly Fellow
of Oriel College, Oxford. Vols. I. and II., 8vo. London: Basil
Montagu Pickering, 196 Piccadilly. 1871. New York: For sale by The
Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street.
“These essays, with the exception of the last, were written while
their author was Fellow of Oriel, and a member of the Established
Church. They are now, after many years, republished, mainly for the
following reason: He cannot destroy what he has once put into print:
‘Litera scripta manet.’ He might suppress it for a time; but, sooner
or later, his power over it will cease. And then, if it is, either in
its matter or its drift, adapted to benefit the cause which it was
intended to support when it was given to the world, it will be
republished in spite of his later disavowal of it. In order to
anticipate the chance of its being thus used after his death, the only
way open to him is, while living, to show why it has ceased to approve
itself to his own judgment.... This, accordingly, has been his attempt
in the present edition of these essays, as far as they demand it of
him; and he is sanguine that he has been able to reduce what is
uncatholic in them, whether in argument or in statement, to the
position of those ‘difficultates’ which figure in dogmatic treatises
of theology, and which are elaborately drawn out, and set forth to
best advantage, in order that they may be the more carefully and
satisfactorily answered.”--_Author’s Preface._
Anything from Dr. Newman’s pen has a strong personal claim upon the
interest of Catholics. The volumes before us contain fifteen essays,
written at different times between the years 1828 and 1846. The
subjects are mainly connected with the intellectual progress at that
time developing in the mind of the author. The volumes are necessary
to a collection of his works, and also to a perfect acquaintance with
classic English literature.
THE FOURFOLD SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. By Henry Edward, Archbishop of
Westminster. London: Burns, Oates & Co. For sale by The Catholic
Publication Society, New York.
The rapidity with which volume follows volume from the prolific pen of 428
the Archbishop of Westminster has often astonished our mind. From
hints given in the preface to this last publication, we get, in part,
an explanation. It appears that his Grace employs a skilful
stenographer to take down and then copy for the press his
extemporaneous lectures. In this way, one who has a mind stored with
the acquisitions of a lifetime, and is gifted so unusually with the
_copia fundi_, can accomplish what could otherwise be done only
by a man of more leisure than is enjoyed by the active prelate of the
London diocese.
These four lectures make a pendant to the last four published, and
complete the general view of the subject. They are like all the works
of Archbishop Manning, of which our opinion has been so lately
expressed. We need, therefore, only to announce the publication of
these new lectures, and our readers will understand for themselves the
value and interest they possess.
THE TRADITION OF THE SYRIAC CHURCH OF ANTIOCH, concerning the
Primacy and the Prerogatives of St. Peter, and of his successors,
the Roman Pontiffs. By the Most Rev. Cyril Behnam Benni, Syriac
Archbishop of Mossul (Nineveh). London: Burns, Oates & Co. 1871. For
sale by The Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street.
This unique production symbolizes the contrariety and unity of the
East and West in a singular manner. It begins at both ends, and
finishes in the middle, where the appendices usually put at the end
are snugly sandwiched between the Syriac original and the English
translation. This translation has been made by the Rev. Joseph
Gagliardi, and is, of course, at that end of the volume which, to our
Occidental habits of thought, appears to be the natural beginning. The
Syriac begins at the opposite end, and thus both languages have their
own way, and the book will answer equally well for the reader in
Nineveh and the one in London. The tradition of the Church of
Antioch, where St. Peter established his first see, is scarcely
inferior in interest and importance to that of the Roman Church. The
learned prelate has gathered together the best and most authentic
testimonies to the supremacy of the Roman See from documents both
ancient and modern, liturgies, official acts, and writings of prelates
and learned men, both Catholic and schismatical. The references are
most carefully given, and the whole work is critical and scholarly. It
is published in a very handsome and ornamental style, and cannot fail
to interest the curious, the learned, and all who are engaged in
theological pursuits. The testimonies to the authority of the Holy See
which it contains are very valuable, and as they are given in a clear
English translation, methodically arranged, and accompanied by full
explanations, they are intelligible to any person of ordinary
education. We cannot flatter ourselves that we have very many among
our subscribers who will be able to appreciate the beauties of the
Syriac original.
THE LIFE OF JESUS THE CHRIST. By Henry Ward Beecher. Illustrated.
New York: J. B. Ford & Co. 1871. Vol. I.
The publishers of this work have given it a very handsome exterior,
and adorned it with a number of excellent illustrations of scenes and
places in Palestine. The attempts at reproducing some of the most
celebrated representations of our Lord are, however, not successful.
As for the work itself, it is an effort to imitate the fascinating and
popular style of Renan in such a way as to satisfy those Protestants
who call themselves Evangelical. That the author has the art of
pleasing the multitude cannot be questioned. That he is an artist in
the highest and truest sense we cannot admit. And, so far as more
solid qualities are concerned, he is not to be compared for a moment,
in respect to that erudition which brings rabbinical and classical 429
treasures to enrich and illustrate the Evangelical narrative, with Dr.
Sepp, whose _Leben Jesu_ still remains both the most valuable and the
most interesting of all works of this class thus far produced, in
spite of much that is fanciful and visionary.
If the doctrine of this book were sound, we should hail its
publication with joy, even although we could not consider it to be a
literary masterpiece. Even if it contained only the errors common to
Protestants; still, if it were sound on the great central truth of the
Incarnation; one might think it likely to be useful in preserving
among Protestants the true doctrine of the divinity and humanity of
Christ contained in their formularies. As it is, we must condemn it as
more mischievous and absurd than the _Vie de Jésus_ of Renan. Of
course, no Catholic who has any regard for his own principles will
ever think of looking for religious instruction or edification in any
book proceeding from Mr. Beecher’s pen. The evil which this shallow
and utterly heretical production, coming forth in such a taking guise,
will cause will be among Protestants. One class of them--those who
swallow its honey with pleasure--will take in a deadly poison of
heresy. Another class, who will look at its doctrine coolly and
critically, will be strengthened in their tendency to rationalism and
unbelief by its crude absurdity.
Mr. Beecher teaches a more gross and monstrous doctrine than that of
Arius, Nestorius, or Appolinaris. It is, namely, that God contracted
and diminished his divine nature within the mental and physical limits
of manhood. God became the human soul of a human body. This is the
anthropomorphism of Swedenborg. It destroys all true conceptions both
of the human and the divine nature of our Lord. Pantheism is better
than this. The reasoning and exegesis on which this revolting doctrine
is based are not worthy of a moment’s notice. All is mere superficial,
rhetorical, sentimental talk, without a shred of philosophy or
theology. We shall look with some curiosity to see what judgment the
Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines of the stricter sort will
pronounce on this latest product of the pseudo-Evangelical school.
What those of them who have some theological knowledge will think, we
know very well; but we are desirous of seeing whether they will
express their thoughts in clear and emphatic language, and caution the
Protestant public against a doctrine which subverts the Nicene Creed
and the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, to say nothing of other
formularies which are essentially the same with these.
Behold a new proof of the utter insufficiency of the text of Scripture
alone by itself even to preserve the orthodox doctrine after it has
been fully presented to the mind! How much more, then, to give it at
first hand! What the orthodox Protestants still retain of the faith is
the faith of creeds, councils, and tradition, and the exercise of
private judgment on the text of Scripture is destroying it fast.
CINEAS; OR, ROME UNDER NERO. From the French of J. M. Villefranche.
1 vol. 12mo. Philadelphia: Peter F. Cunningham. 1871.
If we except _Fabiola_, _Callista_, and _Dion_, we feel no hesitation
in saying that _Cineas_ is equal to any production of its kind yet
offered to the English reader. In this tale, history and tradition are
interwoven with fiction, and the result is a graphic sketch of
Christianity in the apostolic ages. The portico, the Pantheon, the
temple, and the catacomb are brought upon the stage, and made to
represent their parts. The scene changes from the Circus Maximus to
the Mamertine, from Rome to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Athens; and
at each change of scene the infant church appears clothed in new 430
beauty, in new holiness, in new strength. It is much to be desired
that Catholics of the present day should become acquainted with the
religious life of their brethren of the early church. No other study
is so well calculated to enliven our faith, animate our hope, inflame
our charity, and incite us to that heroic virtue so necessary to
perseverance in the present age. _Cineas_ tends to promote this study,
and as such we welcome it, commend it to the perusal of every
Catholic, and thank the translator and publisher for the care with
which they have performed their respective tasks.
THE LETTERS OF MADAME DE SEVIGNE TO HER DAUGHTER AND FRIENDS. Edited
by Mrs. Hale. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1871.
THE LETTERS OF LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. Edited by Mrs. Hale.
Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1871.
These two books, simultaneously issued from the same press and edited
by the same author, bear strong marks of similarity and contrast.
Each, in its way, has long been looked upon as a model of epistolary
correspondence in its appropriate language, and each is defaced by
that superficial, not to say anti-Christian, philosophy which
prevailed among the “higher classes” in France and England during the
last and the preceding century. The French authoress, however, has
somewhat the advantage of her English sister, not only in the
possession of a language especially adapted, by its grace and
flexibility, to this species of composition, but from the fact that
she lived surrounded by a strong Catholic public opinion, which, with
all her cynicism and fashionable scepticism, she could not wholly
disregard. We find, therefore, in many of her letters, particularly
those to her daughter, flashes of true, genuine moral sentiment, which
are the more striking from contrast with the worldly tone which
generally characterized her life and correspondence. Lady Montagu, on
the contrary, was brought up in that hard, unsympathetic school which
was inaugurated in England after the frenzy of the Reformation had
subsided, and with all her wit and womanly elegance we cannot look
upon her otherwise than as an intellectual pagan. We may search from
cover to cover of Mrs. Hale’s edition of her correspondence in vain to
find one religious sentiment that would not have been as appropriate
in the days of Horace or Zeno as in the eighteenth century of the
Christian era. This is the more singular when we recollect that these
gifted women, married to husbands far their inferiors mentally, and,
as it appears, merely for the sake of conventionalism, by a not
unnatural effort transferred the love women usually bear to the
partners of their joys and sorrows to their offspring, and centred all
their affections and hopes in their children. With our children we are
apt “to assume a virtue if we have it not,” yet still we find these
two intellectual mothers writing to their daughters in strains which,
if not positively immoral in the broad sense of that term, certainly
could not actively conduce to strengthen them against the temptations
by which they were constantly surrounded, or to elevate their minds
above the glitter and hollowness of the society in which they were
obliged to move. Both these distinguished writers were well-bred,
thoroughly educated according to the idea of their times, and were the
associates of generals, statesmen, poets, and artists, and their
frequent and familiar reference to the then leading men of their
respective countries are not only interesting, but instructive, as
giving us a view of the interior life of many eminent personages
hitherto known to us only by their public acts; but when we consider
how many unexceptionably good books this age of cheap printing has put 431
within our reach, and the shortness of this busy life itself, we
cannot recommend to our readers, particularly the younger portion, the
perusal of either volume; nor do we see the necessity of a new edition
of works which are merely ornamental, without having the merit of
being innocuous.
A COLLECTION OF LEADING CASES ON THE LAW OF ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED
STATES. With Notes and References to the latest authorities. By
Frederick C. Brightly, author of “The Federal Digest,” “The United
States Digest,” etc. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 17 and 19 South
Sixth Street, Law Booksellers, Publishers, and Importers. 1871.
Mr. Brightly, who has done so much in his previous works to facilitate
the law-student and the lawyer in their studies and preparation of
cases, by means of his admirable and learned digests and treatises,
has now acquired a new claim upon the gratitude of the student and
professional man by his _Collection of Leading Cases on
Elections_. The author has been most happy in the selection of his
subject, for there are few branches of the law so important, in a free
and representative government like ours, as the law of public
elections.
In the early days of our Republic, when there was more conservatism
than at present, only the most important civil officers of the Federal
and State governments were elective by the people, and the elective
franchise was not so universally participated in by the masses as at
the present time. Then the executive, elected by the people, was
clothed with the appointing power, which he exercised with greater
deliberation, calmness, and discrimination than is possible to the
people amidst the excitements and intrigues of a popular election. He
was held responsible to the people for an honest, faithful, and
judicious exercise of this high prerogative. But gradually the
executive, elected by, and justly accountable to, his constituents,
has been stripped of this power, and the same has become vested in or
been resumed by the people, who, while possessing, according to the
theory of the lawgivers of Ancient Greece, a greater amount of purity
of intention, are swayed more by impulses and the passions of the
hour. The legislative bodies then, as now, have always been elected by
the qualified voters. Then elections were comparatively few, and the
contests in the courts over executive, judicial, and ministerial
offices, and in the legislatures over the contested seats of members,
were comparatively few.
The law in such cases was sought for entirely from the analogies of
the English common law cases and the parliamentary precedents and
decisions. Now, while the Federal offices remain mostly as they were
under our first Presidents and Congresses, in the States almost every
office, from governor and judges of the highest courts down to
magistrates and constables, has become elective by the people, and the
States, with whom, under the Constitution, rests the power of
regulating the qualifications for the exercise of the elective
franchise, have generally removed all qualifications thereon, and
conferred universal suffrage, as it is called, upon the people.
There is scarcely a function of government, from the most vital and
momentous to the most trifling, that is not discharged in our regard
by elected officers; our lives, our liberties, our property, our
castles, and our reputations are confided to the protection or
neglect, if not abuse, of officers elected for short terms; so that
every interest of life and of society is thus governed, controlled,
and administered indirectly by the voting masses.
We will give a single illustration of this: If we take thirty-three
and a third years as the average span of human life, it may be said
that in every thirty-three and a third years [the time has been 432
estimated as much shorter in regard to what we are going to state],
the entire property of the country, its countless millions, are
administered or acted upon by a single officer, the Judge of the
Probate Court, or other officer of the law, elected by the people, and
thus incidentally by the masses themselves. Thus the various
elections, which we so heedlessly disregard or pass by, are, in fact,
the casts of the die that determine the fate of the nation, its
prosperity, happiness, and honor. The importance, therefore, of the
law regulating these elections in their varied relations may be
estimated from this fact.
That numerous questions and contests should have arisen in a country
where so many offices are to be filled, and where elections are so
frequent, is not strange, and that the decisions of our own courts
upon these litigated cases should have become numerous and controlling
is a natural result. The law of elections has been greatly developed
and expounded in this country in recent years. The leading cases
bearing upon these subjects have been skilfully and carefully collated
by Mr. Brightly, illustrated by his own notes and references, and
presented to the legal profession and the public in the volume before
us. He could not have selected a theme of greater interest or
importance to our country, especially at this time, than the law of
elections. He has handled it with the same accuracy, learning, and
industry which have always characterized his works, and elevated his
reputation as a jurist and author. The present work carries with it an
interest far more general than professional works usually possess, and
may be read with improvement and pleasure by all who are fond of a
good and readable book, who seek for useful knowledge on a matter of
vast public import, or who take an interest in the purity of
elections, and in the general morals and welfare of the commonwealth.
We commend it to their perusal.
The title of Father Doane’s new book is to be _To and from the
Passion Play in the Summer of 1871_. It will soon be published by
Mr. Donahoe, Boston.
MR. P. O’SHEA announces as in press, and to be published by
subscription, _The Lives of Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church
in the United States_, by Mr. Richard H. Clark, A. M. The work will
be published in two large octavo volumes, and will be ready about the
first of December. These volumes will contain the biographies of all
the deceased members of the American Catholic Hierarchy, from the
earliest dawn of Christianity on this continent to the present day,
and will trace the history of the church through the important
episcopate of Archbishop Carroll, and chronicle with graphic effect
the labors, sacrifices, and achievements of over fifty bishops who
have been called to their reward.
The Catholic Publication Society will soon publish a new edition of
Father Young’s _Office of Vespers_, greatly enlarged and improved.
The volume of _Sermons of the Paulist Fathers for 1870_ will be ready
for delivery on the 25th of November.
THE 433
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XIV., No. 82.--JANUARY, 1872.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.
WHO IS TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN?
Every day that passes over our heads and witnesses the rapid increase
of the population of the country adds to the interest which attaches
to the reciprocal rights and duties existing between the state and the
citizen, as far as the question of the proper education of our
children is concerned. It has become a matter of the most vital
importance, superior to mere party consideration in the success of
this or that faction of politicians; for in the proper appreciation of
its magnitude and in its judicious and permanent settlement may be
said to lie not only the future welfare of this republic, but the
supremacy of Christianity itself on this broad continent. The history
of the church from its very foundation is full of instances of the
decay of religion and morality in one country simultaneously with
their growth or revival in another. It was thus that the faith, grown
weak in the farther East, found so many earnest professors in Italy,
and when Gaul and the Spanish peninsula succumbed to their pagan
conquerors, the light of the Gospel was transferred to the islands of
Britain and Ireland, and brightened into an effulgence which, in a few
centuries, penetrated the darkest recesses of the then semi-barbarized
continent. In Europe to-day, the church, assailed on one side by
Cæsarism and on the other by the secret societies, can hardly hold her
own, notwithstanding the justice of her cause and the zeal and
learning of her champions; and it would seem to be one of the
mysterious designs of Providence that the theatre of her triumphs and
conquests is, for a time at least, to be transferred to the fresher
and more vigorous New World. The astonishing growth of Catholicity in
America in our own day is an evidence of this, but our present
victories will be barren of any good results if we neglect the proper
education of our children, who, as we gradually pass away, are
destined to take our places for good or evil.
The time has come when the question, Who is to educate our children?
should be definitively answered. Pulpits, forums, and the press, in 434
their respective spheres, have discussed the matter from almost every
stand-point, and some of the ablest thinkers, particularly in the
Eastern States, have devoted their time and erudition to the
elimination of order out of the chaos of crude and transcendental
opinions which of late have filled the pamphlets and books of so many
writers in Europe and America on the subject of education. Theories
innumerable have been advanced, and historical precedents quoted in
favor of particular systems, without much approach to unanimity, and
still the problem remains as ever unsolved.
Amongst other expressions of opinion on this all-important subject, we
have before us a long and very elaborate essay in the _Congregational
Quarterly_ of Boston, strongly in favor of the continuance of the
public-school system as received in that classical city, and as
earnestly endeavoring to demonstrate that, unless the Bible, “without
note or comment,” prayers, hymns, and piety, be taught in the state
schools in conformity to the statute of 1826, these institutions will
become worse than useless, and should be discountenanced. In the
language of the writer: “The school system which requires the ethics
can receive them only as indissolubly one with the religion, and the
state that cannot sustain a statute like the Massachusetts law of
1826, which requires the principles of piety as well as those of
morality to be taught, cannot sustain a common school system.”
As a counterpoise to our New England contemporary, we find in the last
number of the _American Educational Monthly_, a magazine published in
this city, as stout a defence of secular education, while exhibiting a
decided preference for the removal from our public schools of the
Bible and the discontinuance of all teaching of a religious character.
Its arguments on these points, if less subtle, are more practical than
those of the _Congregational_, and some of the facts it adduces in
support of its views are thus plainly stated:
“It is well to repeat here what was said in the beginning: that
knowledge is not virtue itself, but only the handmaid of virtue.
This is the lesson of Connecticut statistics--a state having a
first-class university as well as the usual network of common
schools: in every nine and seven-tenths marriages there is sure
to be one divorce. Ohio, which has no university comparable to
Yale, and whose common schools are presumably no better than
Connecticut’s, has but one divorce in twenty-four marriages in a
much larger population. There are graduates of common schools who
make it their business to procure divorces by observing
prescribed forms, yet without the knowledge of one or other of
the parties--contrary to the spirit of the law.”
From the contemplation of these and other results of our common
schools, in which piety and morality are supposed to be taught, the
writer in the _Monthly_ concludes that it is better for us to “leave
devotional instruction to those whose business it is--to parents and
clergymen.”
Another writer, the editor of one of the most widely circulated of our
sectarian weekly newspapers, also a decided advocate of the public
school system as at present existing, puts forward among others the
following novel argument for its perpetuity:
“We hold, therefore, that it is unnecessary and unwise to
disperse or redistribute our common school pupils in accordance
with the dogmatic or ecclesiastical leanings of their parents
respectively--that the inconvenience and cost of so doing would
immensely overbalance its benefits. We should need far more
schools; yet our children would have to travel much further to
reach one of the preferred theological stripe than at present.
We do not decide that soundness of faith is of little 435
consequence--far from it; we only insist that provision is
already made for theological instruction apart from our common
schools, and that there is no need of making such provision
within them. The Roman Catholic and the Protestant coincide with
respect to spelling and grammar; the Trinitarian and the
Unitarian are in perfect accord as to mathematics, at least in
their application to all mundane affairs. Then, why not allow
them to read and cipher from the same text-books on week-days,
and learn theology in their respective churches and
Sunday-schools on the Lord’s day? This seems to us the dictate of
economy, convenience, and good sense.”
Nearly every week similar effusions appear in the columns of the
so-called religious press, in which are enunciated opinions and
speculations as absurd as the above, and yet as varied as the clashing
sects they profess to represent. On one point alone, and that a very
suspicious one, are they agreed--in a general determination to reduce
the children of the Catholics of this country under the sway of a
system of public instruction which parents can neither encourage nor
countenance. On the minor features of this system, with their usual
want of unity, they widely dissent one from the other.
Now, whence this confusion of ideas about one of the plainest and most
vital requirements of a free Christian people--education? Does it not
lie in the utter misapprehension of what education really is? In pagan
times, education was supposed to be the accumulation of knowledge for
its own sake or for the superiority it conferred on its possessor over
his less instructed fellows. It was of the earth, earthy. From a
Christian point of view, its aim, primarily and principally, is to
facilitate, by proper training and instruction, the attainment of our
true happiness--the knowledge and observance of the laws of God here
and eternal happiness hereafter. To the pagan, this world was
everything, and consequently he utilized his knowledge for worldly
advantage alone. For the Christian, education is merely a means to a
great end, and, as eternal bliss is infinitely greater than any
temporal enjoyment to him, the training of the soul, the immortal
part, in the ways of religion is of paramount and incomparable
importance. Secular education, when properly applied, should not be
undervalued, inasmuch as we have duties in this life to be performed,
to ourselves, our country, and our fellow-man; but it should be
tempered and permeated, so to speak, with religious instruction, so
that the learner, as his mental faculties expand with his years, may
be gradually but constantly led to the knowledge of those divine
truths which the church teaches her children, and his character thus
be insensibly formed on a true Christian basis. If we admit, as every
professing Christian is bound to do, that man’s chiefest object in
life is the salvation of his soul, if “the knowledge of God is the
beginning of wisdom,” it is the merest folly to suppose that this
knowledge, so all-important in itself, can properly be imparted to our
children after ordinary school-hours, when the young mind is fatigued
and needs repose or recreation, or on one day out of seven, when so
many distractions occur to call off the attention of most children.
This would be to make religion distasteful, if not odious, to our boys
and girls, and lead them to dread the recurrence of a day which, to
them at least, should be one of gladness and innocent enjoyment. We do
not underrate the value of parental advice and example, or ignore the
benefits conferred on our rising population by pastoral instructions
and Sunday-school training, but we assert the day-schools should also 436
take their part in supplying food to the ever-expanding and
question-asking minds of the American youth.
The formation of character, one of the great objects of education,
should be conducted on principles somewhat similar to those of
domestic economy. We do not eat all the sweets at one time and the
sours at another, the solids at one meal and the dessert at the next,
but by a judicious admixture of both produce a savory and salutary
combination which gives health and strength to the body. It may be
said that mere secular education--such as geology, geometry, history,
natural philosophy, botany, astronomy, etc., as taught in our common
schools--presents no opportunity for moral instruction. Nothing can be
more fallacious. That great master of dramatic literature,
Shakespeare, whose knowledge of the springs of human action has seldom
been equalled, has told us that we can find books in running brooks,
sermons in stones, and good in everything. Properly directed, the
anatomy of the smallest insect, equally with the contemplation of the
vast firmament with its countless planets and stars, may become a
silent and involuntary prayer to the Creator of all things. There is
not a force, physical or deduced, that is revealed to the mind of
youth that ought not to be made to bear with it some conception of the
unseen Power that presides over and governs the universe, and the
teacher who neglects to place before the minds of his pupils the moral
to be drawn from those symbols of the Creator’s almightiness does but
half his work, and that the less nobler part. Leaving dogma and
doctrine aside, are the generality of our public school teachers
capable or disposed to thus draw from nature the beautiful lessons of
God’s wisdom and power--lessons which no book can adequately teach,
but which should be before one’s eyes from infancy to the grave?
Some persons speak of religion in connection with the education of
youth as if it were a mere matter of sentiment or a holiday pastime,
to be occasionally indulged in when the more serious duties of
money-making and political advancement have been complied with. On the
contrary, it is a matter of everyday life, controlling and guiding our
intercourse with mankind individually as well as collectively, and as
we are responsible for our actions every conscious moment of our life,
so should it in one form or another be associated with our every
pursuit and act. If this be true among full-grown men and women, is it
not apparent that any system of youthful training that would
dissociate religion from secular studies in early life would send into
the world vicious or ignorant adults, who would either ignore
altogether the practice of honesty, truthfulness, and morality, or who
in their ignorance would make these great attributes of Christianity
subserve their worldly interests and passions? Education, therefore,
that would exclude religious instruction from our children during
their hours of study, which is half of their young lives, is not
education at all, at least in the Christian sense of the word. It may
make them expert financiers or glib politicians, but it cannot make
them upright, truthful, and benevolent citizens. In this regard, we
agree with the writer in the _Congregational_ when he says, “We call
attention in the outset to the immense difficulty, if it be not the
absolute impossibility, of separating religious instruction from any
practical system of public education.”
But we do not coincide with him in his estimate of the right and duty 437
of the state to provide this education. Granted that religion is an
essential element in education, who is the proper authority to
inculcate it? Clearly not the state, for, in our theory of government,
the state knows no religion, nor under any pretence can it lay claim
to any apostolic authority to preach and teach the Gospel to the
nations. That is a power far anterior to and above all existing
governments. That the state is or ought to be religious in the
character of its acts cannot be denied, but this character should be
derived from the teachings of the church to its individual members,
and gives it no power to prescribe to the church what she should teach
or allow to be taught, for the authority of the teaching church is
from God, and that of the state from man. It is true that the common
law framed by our Catholic ancestors recognized the laws of the
church, as far as public morality and the observance of Sundays and
holidays were concerned, as part of the law of the land, but it was
never intended that the state should be placed above the church in
matters spiritual, much less to make it the teacher and expounder of
her doctrines. This innovation was one of the fruits of the
“Reformation,” which, while professing to liberate the minds of men
from spiritual thraldom and the authority of the popes, actually
subjected their consciences and forms of faith to the whim of
parliaments and the arbitrary _dicta_ of local lay tyrants. Even to
this day, the House of Lords in England, composed as it is mostly of
laymen, and those, too, not remarkable for their piety or morality, is
the court of last resort to determine and decide what are and what are
not the doctrines taught by our Holy Redeemer.
If the state claim the right to educate our children, that right cannot
be derived from the natural law; for the state, being an artificial
organization, cannot in its corporate capacity have any natural law.
On the contrary, the natural law bestows the possession, care, and
custody of the child on the parent, and the duty thus imposed cannot
be relinquished or delegated without a manifest infraction of the
first principles of that law. Besides, the state is only constituted
to do for the citizen what he, from his want of ability, means, or
strength, cannot do for himself. Its office is simply the
administration of justice, retributive and distributive, and the
enactment of laws to facilitate that object. All outside of that is
simply usurpation, which may, and generally does, degenerate into
tyranny. Whenever a state invades private reserved rights and
oversteps the bounds of its legitimate duties, law and justice are not
only brought into contempt, but enactments in themselves abstractly
just are despised and evaded. The futile attempts to enforce certain
sumptuary laws in this and other countries prove this conclusively.
Nor does the state derive its power to educate our children as it sees
fit from the will of the people as expressed in the fundamental laws
of the land. In the Declaration of Independence, it is clearly stated
that among the _inalienable_ rights of mankind are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of _happiness_. Now, who that has been blessed with
children does not know that the care and custody, education and
maintenance, of his offspring constitute the greatest happiness of his
life, compared with which riches, honors, and fame dwindle into
insignificance? One of the most powerful arguments against Southern
slavery, now happily for ever abolished, was that it separated the
child from its parent: but what is the value of freedom to me if, as 438
the _Congregational_ suggests, I must see my child forced into a
common school, to listen to the reading of a Bible which I believe, at
best, to be a mutilated and perverted copy of the Holy Scriptures, and
be obliged to repeat prayers and hymns that too often, alas! are but
blasphemies against the holy name of him who died on the cross for
man’s redemption? In one case the body alone suffered, in the other
the eternal salvation of immortal souls is imperilled. Even the
framers of the constitution, that noble document about which so much
is said and so little understood, having surveyed their work, and
finding it defective in respect to providing guarantees for the
perfect freedom of religion, hastened by an amendment to supply the
deficiency. “Congress,” they ordained, “shall make no law respecting
the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof,”[100] and our own state, on November 3, 1846, by its
constitution, emphatically declares that “the free exercise
and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without
_discrimination or preference_, shall for ever be allowed in this
state to all mankind.” (Art. I. sec. 3.)
Does the state derive its authority to teach religion to our children
from God? If so, where is its authority? The writer in the
_Congregational_ evidently considers the Bible an authority on
matters of faith and discipline. Yet we fail to find in the inspired
writings any authority for the state of Massachusetts, or any other
purely political corporation, to teach the doctrines of Christ. But,
if the state have a right so to teach, it has a right also to decide
what shall be taught, and this, of course, must depend on the character
of the officials through whom the state for the time being acts; for
as yet, unlike other and more favored Protestant countries, we have no
fixed state religion, and must depend on the popular electoral vote
for our faith and ideas of morality. We would like the advocates of
religious teaching in schools, “the Bible, prayers, hymns, and piety,”
to be more explicit on this point. Are our children to be taught
religion according to the parliamentary doctrine of the Church of
England, or the total depravity notions of the followers of Calvin;
are they to be obliged to deny the divinity of Christ with the
Unitarians, and eternal punishments with the Universalists? Are we, in
fact, bringing children into the world to be liable any day to be
indoctrinated into the vagaries of Methodism, Congregationalism,
Presbyterianism, Muggletonianism, Mormonism, or any other of the
thousand “isms” born of that fruitful mother of dissent, the much
vaunted Reformation? Or are we to have them treated to a dose of each
and every one in turn as the political wheel brings their professors
to the surface? The idea seems perfectly absurd, and yet it is the
logical consequence of the _Congergational’s_ position that the state
can teach religion in its schools; for the state, being liable to be
controlled at any time by any of the believers in the “isms,” must of
necessity teach its own ism, and, having the sovereign authority, who
can dispute its choice? But, says the writer in the _Congregational_,
and those who agree with him, we do not violate the rights of
conscience, we only advocate the reading of the Bible, “in which the
Papist does not believe,”[101] prayers, hymns, and piety. Now, in 439
what does the religion of the Congregationalists consist, if not in
these very matters which they would insidiously intrude on the
attention of our children? Does any one believe, if the writer in
question, or those who believe in his sentiments, had the control of
our schools, that the prayers and hymns would be such as a Catholic
child could conscientiously listen to? Would the Apostles’ Creed and
the _Confiteor_ be among the forms, or would the _Stabat Mater, Ave
Maria Stella_, in Latin or English, or any other of the beautiful
appeals to the clemency and protection of the Blessed Mother which the
church puts into the mouths and hearts of her little ones, find a
place in schools presided over by the advocates of religion and piety,
as prescribed by the law of 1826? And yet, we venture to say that more
than one-half of the children who attend the public schools in the
very city in which this _Quarterly_ is published are Catholics, and
born of Catholic parents. Yet we are told that not only the morals,
but the religion of our children is to be at the mercy of politicians,
calling themselves the state, too often elevated to power by most
corrupt intrigues. Is there anything particularly virtuous in the
character of our legislators or the members of our board of education
that would induce us to suppose that they were specially selected by
Providence to teach his laws and expound his doctrines? And still, for
all practical purposes, they are the state. They enact the laws,
select the schoolbooks, appoint the teachers, and prescribe the course
of study to be pursued. If their appointees leave out the Bible,
prayers, hymns, etc., the schools become, in the language of the
_Congregational_, the instruments of “sweeping away the political
Protestantism of the land,” while, if they do enforce the observance
of these religious exercises, we have a new set of apostles annually
or biennially elected by political coteries to teach our children!
The three great sources of authority which all writers on the
philosophy of government ascribe to the state are, then, wanting, to
justify these assumptions of the advocates of the right of the state
to teach religion to the children of its citizens, but the
_Congregational_ still argues that it has a right to teach
“morality and piety.” How are morality and piety to be taught without
religion? What is its idea of morals abstracted from practical
religion? Does the writer who adorns its columns believe that the end
and aim of all true education is to promote man’s true happiness, and,
if so, does he believe in a hereafter of eternal rewards and
punishments, and how we are to earn the one and avoid the other? He
knows as well as we do that, of some dozen leading Protestant sects in
this country, not two are agreed on the essential Christian duty and
faith of man necessary for his salvation. Who, then, is to decide but
the state, which, as we have endeavored to prove, has neither a divine
mission nor even human consent to interfere in spiritual matters? It
may be said that the state does not decide these questions, but it
does. Every hour devoted to a child’s instruction, relatively at
least, involves the question of man’s true destiny; for the religious
question, which is the question of man’s true destiny, sums up all
other questions. As far as Catholics are concerned, they object to
each and all such teachers, whether appointed by the warring sects or
by the temporal authority. For example, the writer in the
_Congregational_, though evidently an intelligent and accomplished 440
gentleman, would not be a very safe teacher in a school composed in
whole or in part of Catholic children. Any person who could endorse as
he does Draper’s absurd assertion that the _Imitation of Christ_ was
the forerunner of the Reformation, call the illustrious Fénelon a
Jansenist, style millions of his fellow-citizens by the cant epithets
of “Romanists” and “Papists,” and coolly declare that Catholics do not
believe in the Bible, is evidently unfitted to form a correct opinion
on any religious subject, much less to be entrusted with the
instruction of youth.
“But,” says the writer above quoted, “the safety of democracy requires
compulsory education. The work cannot be entrusted to churches, or to
corporations, or to individuals.” Now, this may mean very little or a
very great deal. If it mean, as he hints in another part of his
article, that the state has an absolute right to teach a particular
religion or any religion at all in its public schools, and enforce
attendance therein, for the preservation of our democratic form of
government, we entirely dissent from his proposition. The very essence
of a free government lies in its recognition of religious liberty and
the natural rights of individuals, and our best guarantees of freedom
rest on the fact that majorities, which for the time being represent
the power of the state, all potent as they may be, cannot set aside
the fundamental law, and dare not infringe on the civil or religious
liberty of the citizen. No state could or ought to attempt an exercise
of power so utterly despotic and foreign to the genius of our
institutions.
We are aware that of late it has been customary to denominate our form
of education as the American system, for the purpose, doubtless, of
exciting public prejudice in its favor. The system is not by any means
American in the national sense. It is purely local, and of Puritanical
origin and growth. When the New England colonies by persecution and
violence secured for themselves uniformity of worship, such as it was,
they established schools, in which prayers, hymns, and piety were
taught _ad libitum_, with all the raw-head-and-bloody-bones
anti-Catholic fiction which the descendants of the Pilgrims mistook
for veritable history. Being all of one mind, such a system of
training could have no perceptible evil effect on the pupils; for, if
they did not hear intolerance and falsehood in the school, they were
pretty certain to hear them in the meeting-house. But times have
strangely altered since then, as the writer in the _Congregational_ is
forced to admit. “The reason our school system had to be modified,” he
says, “was not that it was _per se_ right from the day it was enacted,
but because the foreign immigration and the changes of time had
produced an immense revolution in the religious spirit of the people,
and required the readjustment of the civil creed in the school
system.” In no sense, then, can this system of public education which
is sought to be thrust upon us be called American, except, perhaps, as
contradistinguished from that of England, France, Germany, Austria,
and other so-called despotic countries, in all of which the
denominational plan, more or less generally, prevails. In the latter
two countries particularly, one Catholic and the other Protestant, the
scheme of secular education has been tried and abandoned, and the
wisdom of the new system has been proved beyond peradventure. If it be
American to tax citizens for the support of schools and compel them to
send their children to be called Romanists and idolaters, then is the 441
public-school system entitled to that distinctive appellation? We do
not think that it is.
The state having no authority by the natural or divine law to assume
control of the education of our children, by what other right can it
claim it? Some may say, from political necessity, that the state, in
order to protect its own interests, must see to it that a certain
amount of intelligence is diffused among its supporters. Here the
whole question comes up again. What is that intelligence which is
necessary to the preservation and well-being of our free institutions?
Is it a certain knowledge of mathematics, geography, and the physical
sciences, or is it not probity, morality, and lawful obedience to the
constituted authorities? Yet these are virtues that can only be taught
through religion, and the state, having no religion, cannot teach
them. Is it not for the general interests that we should have
stalwart, healthy, well-fed, and sober citizens? And yet the state
does not profess to enforce a general plan whereby every one should be
provided with proper exercise, employment, medicine, food, clothing,
and shelter. To do so would simply be to attempt to realize the
utopian dream of the socialists; and still it would be no greater a
usurpation of power than the design of furnishing our children with a
general system of instruction, and, indirectly, with a uniform
religion. If the state, as it ought to do, requires a certain amount
of intelligence in its citizens, let it make the presence or absence
of that knowledge the test of citizenship and the passport to places
of honor and public confidence. The right to vote and hold office, for
example, is not an inherent right, but depends on many qualifications,
such as sex, age, nationality, freedom from crime, ability to support
one’s self, and previous residence. Why not add ability to read and
write intelligibly?
There are cases, however, in which we admit that the state has not
only a right, but is in duty bound, to interfere with the disposition
and education of children. When parents, either through poverty,
misfortune, crime, or any other cause, are unable or unwilling to take
proper charge of their children, the state, for its own protection and
to save the community from the consequence of vice and idleness, is
justified in taking care of them, for this does not violate the
principle of civil polity that a state is constituted to do only for
the citizen what he is unable to do for himself. Hence, the
establishment of almshouses, asylums, nurseries, reformatories, and
other benevolent institutions, which all wise governments provide as
barriers against prospective crime and distress. But even in those
exceptional cases, as much care as possible should be observed in
following out the spirit of our free institutions, which are so
strongly opposed to any interference in matters of conscience, even
among the most humble and unfortunate.
But while we are combating the arguments of our Boston contemporary in
favor of compulsory education, it may be said that no compulsion is
used or intended to be used in this or many other states in the Union.
This is a mistake; there is compulsion of the most practical kind. It
is true that the officer of the law does not come into our homes and
forcibly drag our children to school, but the tax-gatherer does so,
almost as efficiently, if more silently. The masses of the people in
this, as in most other countries, are poor. With the American
Catholics this is peculiarly so. They are taxed to support the public 442
schools, and must either send their children there or pay for their
education elsewhere. This double payment, in most instances, they
cannot afford. How many tens of thousands of parents are there not
among us whose scanty means will not permit them to indulge in the
luxury of seeing their children instructed in the ways of true
religion, and who are consequently compelled, if they desire even a
primary education for their offspring, to send them to schools which
they neither admire nor would select if they had a free choice!
We are accused of being hostile to the Bible. Such is not the fact,
and those who make the assertion are well aware of its falsity. The
Bible has always been an object of especial care and veneration in the
Catholic Church. It is one of the sources of her authority and the
muniments of her holy mission. What we object to is the profanation of
its sacred character by unworthy and profane hands. It has repeatedly
pained us to see even “King James’s Version,” imperfect as it is,
scattered broadcast by the agents of the Bible societies in hotel and
steamboat saloons, barbers’ shops, and bar-rooms, not to be read, but
to be devoted to the meanest purposes of waste paper. The treatment of
the holy book in some of our public schools is little better. If any
person doubts that Catholics venerate and read the Bible, let him go
to our large Catholic publishing-houses and see the numerous and
splendid editions of the Old and New Testaments which are constantly
being issued from their presses.
Though on principle we decidedly object to the reading of the Bible in
our public schools, our greatest objection is to the schools
themselves. We hold that the education that does not primarily include
the religious element is worse than no education at all, and, we
hold, also, that the state has no right to prescribe what form of
faith, doctrine, or religious practice should be taught to the
children of its citizens. We claim that Catholic parents have a right
to demand that their children shall be educated by Catholic teachers,
be instructed from Catholic books, and at all times, particularly
during hours of study, be surrounded as much as possible with all the
influence that the church, into whose bosom they have been admitted by
baptism, can surround them. This can never be done in our public
schools. However high the personal character of the teachers in those
institutions, and whatever may be the peculiar merits of their
discipline and success in turning out smart accountants and
superficial thinkers, we maintain that, in the formation of character
and the cultivation of the spiritual and better part of our nature,
they have been and must necessarily be failures. What parent can read
without a shudder the following extract from a Boston paper regarding
the recent investigation of a _savant_ who, it is well known, is no
friend to Catholicity or the teachings of the church:
“Professor Agassiz has of late given a portion of his valuable
time to an investigation of the social evil, its causes and
growth, and the result has filled him with dismay, and almost
destroyed his faith in the boasted civilization of the nineteenth
century. He has visited and noted down the houses of ill-fame
throughout the city of Boston, and has drawn from the unfortunate
inmates many sad life stories. _To his utter surprise, a large
number of the unfortunate women and girls traced their fall to
influences which surrounded them in the public schools._”[102]
It has been already stated, on the authority of the _Educational
Monthly_, that in the State of Connecticut, the paradise of public 443
schools and nursery of public-school teachers, there is one divorce
annually to every nine marriages, and now we have the unbiassed
testimony of Agassiz, after mature examination of the malign influence
of state schools in the sister state. Is there any reason to doubt
that this sad state of morals exists in other cities, and may be
traced to the same source, and, if so, is it not time that our public
system of instruction, at least for females, should be discontinued?
But even in a material point of view our common schools have been far
from a success. In the efforts, conscientious we must believe, to
eliminate sectarianism from the school-books, the Board of Education
and Trustees of our cities have almost destroyed their usefulness for
any purpose. The primary rules of reading, writing, and arithmetic,
and the elements of pure mathematics, can be taught with impunity,
but, when the higher branches of study are reached, the religious
question again comes up. Take geology, for example, that most
interesting science, the abuse of which has led to more atheism than
all the sophistries of Voltaire or Volney. As at present taught in our
schools, without explanation or qualification, it cannot help being
detrimental to the faith, and consequently to the morals, of the
curious and undisciplined minds of the scholars. As to history, it is
impossible, even with the most careful revision, to reproduce it
without constant reference to disputed events and characters,
regarding which Protestants and Catholics can never agree. Can we
imagine a history of modern Europe, with the great facts of the
civilization of the Old World by the church, the establishment of the
temporal power of the Popes, the “Truce of God” and the Crusades
in the middle ages, the great rebellion against spiritual
authority--miscalled the Reformation--the penal persecution of the
Irish Catholics, and the French Revolution left out? At best, such a
book would be a sorry compilation of dates and miscalled facts, and
yet to describe those great epochs in European history with any degree
of accuracy would necessarily offend the opinions or prejudices of
either Protestants or Catholics. If history be “philosophy teaching by
example,” we must look for it somewhere else than in our public
schools.
But, because we are opposed to the existence of common schools, are we
therefore against popular education? On the contrary, the efforts of
the humbler class of Catholics throughout the country to secure
education for their children independent of state interference are
almost incredible.
In this city alone twenty thousand children are annually taught in the
free schools attached to the various churches, at an expense of a
little over one hundred thousand dollars, independent of the thousands
who attend the pay-schools of the Christian Brothers of a high
grade.[103]
Let us now sum up in brief our objections to the further continuance
of the present public school system:
I. All education should be based and conducted on true religious
principles.
II. The state has no right to teach religion in its schools.
III. State or public schools without religion are godless.
IV. As such, they are incapable of forming the character of our
children, or teaching them morality according to the Christian
principle.
V. In endeavoring to avoid what is called sectarianism, they defeat 444
the ends of even mere secular education.
Now, it may be asked, What remedy do we propose for the evils which
our public school system has already produced? What substitute are we
prepared to offer that will both satisfy the demands of religion and
the requirements of the state? We answer, by the establishment of
denominational schools for Catholics, wherever practicable, under the
supervision of the proper ecclesiastical authorities, and likewise for
such of the sects as do not approve of mixed schools. How are these
schools to be sustained? In either of two ways. If the state will
insist on levying a general school tax, let it be divided _pro rata_
according to the number of pupils taught in each school: let the
denominational schools have their proper proportion, and the mixed or
non-religious schools theirs. The amount thus apportioned to the
Catholic schools might be deposited with a board or other executive
body, to be composed in whole or in part of clerics and laymen, and,
if necessary, let the state appoint proper officials to see that
accurate returns of attendance are made. The other way, which to our
mind is much preferable, would be to abolish altogether the school
tax, and throw upon the parents of all denominations or of no
denomination the responsibility of educating their own children.
Compulsory education may do very well in countries where the subject
is but an automaton liable at any time to be moved by a despotic
government, based on principles that the people are made for the
government, not the government for the people, and where the acquired
intelligence of the masses is merely used or misused for the benefit
of a few hereditary rulers; but in a country like our republic, the
strength of which lies in individual effort, and where wealth, fame,
and honor are within the reach of every one, even the humblest who has
energy and ability enough to win them, we can have no fear that
parents, and, least of all, Catholic parents, will be derelict in
their duty in respect to the proper secular education of their
children. The struggles they have made and are making to support their
free day-schools, despite the onerous tax with which they are burdened
by the state, would be renewed with fourfold energy if that drain on
their resources were removed.
The advantages to be derived from the adoption of either plan would be
manifold and incalculable.
It would satisfy the conscientious scruples of those parents who 445
consider that they should not be required, directly or indirectly, to
send their children to the public schools, as at present conducted. It
would not only advance the material prospects of the pupil, by giving
him a thorough education devoid of all the restrictions and
mutilations which an attempt at fairness and the production of
non-religious books have produced; while he would, gradually and
without apparent effort, imbibe the true religious spirit that would
be his guide and best defence in after life. It would also elevate the
character of the teacher by placing him in his true position, midway
between the divinely appointed minister of the Gospel, and the
instructor of children in matters purely secular, and, by holding out
to him a higher and nobler goal than that resulting from mere personal
ambition or the hope of pecuniary reward, would doubly increase his
zeal and efficiency. For the public generally, the change suggested
would be equally salutary. The welfare of the state does not rest on
piety alone, nor on mental intelligence alone, but on both acting
together, the latter, of course, being subordinate to the former. No
man, no matter what may have been his natural gifts, was ever less
brave in action, less wise in council, less enterprising in commerce,
or less loyal to his government, because he was taught from his
infancy to regard the practice of religion as his first and principal
duty. The desire of eternal happiness, as much an instinct of our
nature as the mode of securing it, is the fruit of proper religious
education, reacts on a man’s conduct even in matters exclusively
pertaining to the things of the world, and compels him to a more
steadfast and fearless course in the discharge of his civic duties.
But it would also have another and not less marked effect. It would
rid the community of a host of officials, many of whom are
incompetent, and some of whom, we are sorry to say, are corrupt, and
it would also save the public treasury vast sums of money, much of
which is now uselessly squandered. Who would believe that in this
great city, where there is so much learning and public spirit, the
Board of Education, consisting of twenty-one persons, is principally
composed of liquor and billiard saloon keepers, horse dealers,
retailers of articles used in the schools, and of that nondescript
class called brokers? Yet this intellectual body exercises supreme
control over the public schools of New York, and proposed this year to
spend no less a sum than $3,150,000, or more than double the amount
required for the same purpose eight years ago.[104] The way in which a
portion of this money is spent may be inferred from a statement
recently published in one of our daily newspapers, from which we
extract the following paragraph:
“The next item is incidental expenses of the Board of Education,
including shop account, $60,000. What are ‘incidental’ expenses?
It means expenditures for which the items cannot be anticipated,
or of which it is not agreeable to furnish a statement; it means
simply a general fund to be expended by the clerks and officers
of the Board of Education as they think proper ‘incidentally.’
Among these ‘incidental’ expenses is what is known as a tea-room;
that is to say, the members have a supper or refreshments
furnished to them at their meetings, and as they choose to order.
This is never returned or charged under the head of tea-room, 446
supper, dinner, or board bill, but is covered up under the head
of postage-stamps or other ‘incidental’ expenses. How much of the
$60,000 goes in this way, it is, of course, impossible for us to
know.”
Is it any wonder, then, that, in view of such extravagant use of the
public money, of which the above is only a specimen, the education of
about one hundred thousand children, the average attendance at our
public schools, should cost over three millions of dollars, or at the
rate of thirty dollars _per capita_, while in the Catholic free
schools one-fifth of that number are taught at an expense of one
hundred thousand dollars, or at the rate of only five dollars a head,
per annum?
Are the Catholics competent and prepared to assume the duties and
responsibilities of the education of the vast number of children of
their communion who now attend the public schools? Most decidedly. As
to our ability to teach, we point with something like pride, certainly
with satisfaction, to the success of our numerous colleges,
seminaries, and convent schools, to the latter in particular, where
are always to be found among the pupils a respectable minority
composed of daughters of many of our most intelligent Protestant
families. We call attention, also, to our twenty-four city free
schools, now in full operation, many of which, though of recent
origin, will compare favorably with the oldest of our common schools.
Besides the professors of our colleges, who are constantly preparing
young men for the ministry and for the scarcely less responsible
duties of teachers, and such orders as the Christian Brothers, we have
many trained lay instructors ready and anxious to devote themselves to
the good work of Christian education. Then, again, there are numbers
of Catholic teachers now in the public schools, male and female, many
of whom we know personally, who would prefer to give their services
exclusively to the training of children of their own faith if such an
opportunity presented itself. Said one of this class, a teacher of
over twenty years’ experience, on a late occasion to the writer, “If I
dared, I would like to expose the dangers and absurdities of our
school system; but I cannot, for I would surely be found out and
dismissed, and then what would become of my wife and family? I wish we
had separate schools for ourselves, and then I would feel like
teaching even at a less salary than I now receive.”
We submit the consideration of this very grave and, in our mind, most
important question to the serious consideration of our patriotic and
reflective countrymen, no matter of what creed or opinion, having an
abiding confidence in their sense of justice and equity. To the
fanatical portion of the community who will not listen to reason, we
have only this to say: Though you may pretend not to know it, and may
even be unconscious of the fact, your instincts tell you that the
present system of education saps the foundation of the Catholic
religion, and it is for this reason you hold so tenaciously to it; but
let us add, the system itself, being godless, undermines all religion
and morality likewise. But such is your infatuation and hostility to
our religion that to so undermine it you are willing to see your own
faith, whatever that may be, ruined and wrecked as long as you can
accomplish your object, and the next generation become atheists and
sceptics, totally devoid of all faith. Holding the political power,
and in spite of your boasted fair play and in defiance of the spirit
of our free institutions, you are determined to uphold your system 447
and tax us for its support against our consciences, against religion,
freedom, equal rights, and the spirit of American institutions. Your
efforts to stretch the powers of our government, to the detriment of
our natural, divine, and political rights, will ultimately end in your
own confusion. They are more worthy of some half-crazed theorist or
mad follower of Fourrier and the Communists than of a citizen of this
great republic. The government that robs a parent of his rights and
his children is neither free nor democratic, but is the aider and
abettor of that system of free-lovism which is said to have originated
in pagan Sparta, and has culminated in our own country at Oneida. But
let it be understood that, as Catholics and free citizens, we proclaim
our rights, shall resolutely defend them, asking for nothing which we
are not willing to grant to others, and being content with no less for
ourselves.
[100] Amendment proposed March, 1789.
[101] See page 587, October number of the _Congregational
Quarterly_, under the title “The State--Religion in its
Schools.”
[102] _The Pilot_, Nov. 4, 1871.
[103] For the benefit and edification of our readers, we
subjoin an official tabular statement of the attendance on,
and expenses of, the Catholic free day schools of the city
of New York for the present year:
Daily Annual
Location of Schools. attendance. Expenses
for the
support
of schools.
Nos. 272 & 274 Mulberry St., 1,100 $6,000
Barclay and Church Sts., 573 3,118
New Bowery and James Sts., 1,400 9,000
No. 29 Mott St., 1,225 5,745
Nos. 54 & 56 Pitt St., and 264
Madison St., 1,620 9,500
Nos. 8 & 10 Rutgers St., 1,050 5,000
Leroy St., 1,000 5,500
Nos. 300 & 302 East Eighth St., 1,600 7,000
Nos. 121 & 123, and 135 & 137
Second St., 1,420 5,970
Nos. 8 & 10 Thompson St., 240 2,000
No. 208 East Fourth St., 1,700 6,217
No. 48 Fourth Ave., 200 2,000
Nos. 511 & 513 East 14th St., 1,250 10,000
No. 32 West 18th St., and 111
West 19th St., 720 5,000
No. 118 West 24th St., and
236 West 26th St., 140 1,120
Nos. 333 & 335 West 25th St., 650 3,000
No. 209 West 30th St., and 211
West 31st St., 400 1,600
No. 143 West 31st St., 400 1,000
East 36th St., near Second Ave., 1,250 6,000
No. 309 East 47th St., 130 2,660
East 50th St. and Madison Ave., 350 1,000
East 84th St., near Fourth Ave., 560 4,000
West 131st St., and West
133d St., near 10th Ave., 320 1,000
West 125th St. and Ninth Ave., 130 1,000
------- ---------
19,428 $104,430
[104] The expenses of the Board of Education of this city
for six years have been as follows:
1863, $1,450,000
1864, 1,787,000
1865, 2,298,508
1866, 2,454,327
1867, 2,939,348
1868, 2,900,000
----------
ONE CHRISTMAS EVE IN LA VENDEE.
It was in ‘93--that horrible ‘93, whose very name makes our blood
curdle and our hearts beat with a sense of terror and security, as
when we gaze on the painted panorama of a battle-field or some scene
of crime and danger and despair long since enacted, but brought
vividly before us by the graphic power of eloquence or art. The words
have a spell in them that fascinates us, and defies us to pass on
without pausing to look upon the memories they evoke. Well, it is of
this tragic ‘93 that I am going to speak. But not to describe its
horrors. It only makes the frame of my story, a most veracious story,
and full of the spirit of that wonderful epoch, where we see all that
was noble and loveliest in humanity shine forth by the side of its
most criminal and appalling aberrations.
It was Christmas eve fourscore years ago. The fertile soil of La
Vendée, red-dyed by streams of patriot blood, was hidden under a deep
quilt of snow. All the landscape slept as in a death-sleep under a
pure white pall. Hills and plains were garmented in white. The snow
had fallen heavily during the night, and its untrodden purity was as
smooth and uniform as the blue of the winter sky, that looked down
upon it and grew pale. The cottages that dotted the fair expanse
hardly broke its uniformity, for they too were liveried in white, the
roof thick thatched with snow, and the whitewashed walls only a degree
less dazzling than the brightness of the ground. The hedges that
divide the fields in La Vendée as in England were filled and covered
with snow, and the hoar-frost like a fairy lace-work glittered and
shone on the soft, unblemished surface, and the trees with rolls of
snow resting on their bare gaunt arms held up clusters of icicles that
sparkled like crystals in the tepid December sun.
The village of Chamtocé lay in this white landscape; and in the middle
of the village stood the church, and close by the church the
presbytery.
On the road that led from St. Florent to Chamtocé a young, lithe 448
figure was crushing the crisp white carpet with a long, elastic step.
His face was concealed, the upper part of it by a cap drawn low over
his forehead, and the lower part by a woollen scarf wound round his
throat, swallowing up the chin and nose in its capacious folds. The
weather was not cold enough to need this ostentatious display of
_cache-nez_; true, _la nappe blanche de la Noël_ (white cloth of
Christmas), as the peasants call it, was spread, but there was not a
breath of wind, and it was not freezing. It had frozen during the
night just enough to sprinkle the hoar-frost abroad and hang a thin
fringe of glass from the roofs of the houses and deck the trees with
icicles, but this was not what the Vendéans called freezing. The Loire
pursued its journey majestically to the sea unchecked by the icy hand
of the black frost, the cruel black frost, that had but to blow with
its bleak breath for one night on the strong deep stream to paralyze
its waters and chill their moaning into icy dumbness. So, the cold was
not bitter. The traveller knew it, too, for on coming to a point of
the road where it turned abruptly, and disclosed the church with its
slim, gray belfry, and, on the rising ground beyond it, a windmill,
still as spectre suspended midway between the white earth and the pale
sky, he looked cautiously up and down the road, assured himself there
was no one in sight, and then, raising his beaver cap, stood
bare-headed in the attitude of a man saluting some object of love and
veneration.
“Nearly four years since I knelt under the shadow of thy walls, and
now I have come home, and thou dost greet me with the same unchanged,
unchanging welcome!”
He replaced his cap, drew it low over his face, and continued his way.
“Home, did I say?” he muttered presently. “Have I still a home to come
to? Gaston most likely is gone, fallen like the best blood of La
Vendée in God’s and the king’s cause. And Marie!”
A sudden flush suffused the bronzed cheek. The pilgrim walked on with
a quicker step, and was soon at the gate of the presbytery.
“Ah! here it is, just as I left it--the little wicket that opened so
often with a ready welcome. A good omen to begin with!”
He pushed it and walked on. The door of the dwelling-house stood ajar;
winter and summer it was never shut; he pushed it open, and knocked
gently at a door on the left.
“Come in!” said M. le Curé.
And François Léonval entered and stood face to face with the only
father he had known on earth. Nearly four years had passed since they
had parted, and the old priest who had baptized him, and taught him,
and wept with him beside his mother’s grave, was just the same as when
he had left him, benign, cheerful, a trifle more bowed perhaps and a
good deal whiter, but the same in everything else--nothing was changed
within. He looked up promptly, closed his book, and then, with a
glance where “charity that thinketh no evil” deprecated a certain
vague mistrust, he said:
“What can I do for you, my boy?”
“Monsieur le Curé! mon père! Is this the welcome you give me?”
“François! my son! my best-loved!” And the old man held out his arms,
and the two clasped each other.
“Ah! my son!” exclaimed the curé, when his emotion left him power to
speak, “this is an hour worth suffering for; it pays me for many days 449
of anguish. Little did I dream to have such a joy before we met in
heaven. My son! my boy! Blessed be God and Our Lady of Mercy, who have
watched over you and brought you back to me! I never thought to see
your face before I died!”
“And why not, mon père!” said François, laughing, and embracing him
again; “you know the prodigals are sure to return sooner or later;
besides, you promised to pray me safe home, and not to go to heaven
till I came back to get your blessing. Did you forget your promise?”
“Forget it! Does a father forget his son? But you have travelled a
long way; you will tell me all presently; but first you must have need
of food and warmth. Victoire!”
The grim old gouvernante appeared, and on recognizing François her
features expanded into a smile of genuine delight, and she embraced
the young man with motherly affection, and overpowered him with
questions that she never waited to hear answered, while she bustled
about the table, running backward and forward to her kitchen, and
making ready with all speed the very best her store could supply. The
frugal meal was soon spread, and the curé, to whom, after the first
outburst of joy had subsided, her presence was an unguessed relief,
said with a sudden change in his voice and look that struck cold on
François’s heart:
“Ah! François, François, it was not well to leave me all these years
without a sign or a word. Gaston held out for a long time that either
you had escaped from the country, or that you were still fighting, and
that it was in either case only the fear of getting us into trouble
that prevented you writing, or the want of a trusty messenger, and I
believed him while I could; but when two whole years went by, and still
we had no news, what could I think but that you had fallen? Victoire,
put on your hood, and go--but stay--no, I had better go myself. We
must run no risks: there is a price on your head, you say? I will go
myself. These are times when we need the cunning of the serpent more
than the innocence of the dove. Alas! what does innocence avail my
little ones? But shame upon me for an ungrateful wretch! Does it not
avail them the palm-branch and the crown, and are not the purest of
the flock chosen for a sacrifice to plead for the guilty?”
Thus discoursing, he wrapped himself in his heavy serge cloak, and
clutched his stick, and went in search of Gaston, but not without
first speaking a word in Victoire’s ear.
And who was Gaston? Gaston was cousin-german and adopted brother of
François. They had been brought up from infancy together by Gaston’s
mother. When they were both sixteen, she died, leaving the lads to the
care of the good God and Monsieur le Curé, and bidding them love each
other like true brothers, and live together in the comfortable
cottage, which, being her own, she bequeathed them as a joint legacy
till either should marry, and then, if they chose to separate, the one
who left was to have compensation in a sum of money to be kept by M.
le Curé till the event entitled either of the youths to claim it.
Besides the cottage, their mother, for both the lads looked on her as
such, left two thousand francs, to be equally divided between them
when they came to be twenty-one. This was the wedding portion she had
brought to Gaston’s father, and as she had adopted François, and given
him a true mother’s love, she wished to divide her all, share and
share, between him and her own son.
Gaston had a goodly inheritance of land from his father, so she was 450
not impoverishing him by sharing her own with his brother, and he
could never feel in after-life that she had wronged him. So Jeanne
Léonval thought, at least. And perhaps she was right at the time. But
as years went on, Gaston saw things differently; his ideas about the
value of money changed, and with them his notions regarding right and
justice, and he began to feel an undefined vexation and sense of
injury on the subject of his mother’s will. For Gaston had a worm at
his heart--the worm that entered the heart of Judas, and sucked it dry
of love, and truth, and mercy, and led him at last to deicide and
despair. He loved money, and he was growing to love it more every day;
it was filling up his heart, and making him hard and selfish, and
brushing off the bloom of his boyish freshness. He was growing into a
miser. Nobody noticed the growth. Gaston did not suspect it. He lived
like other people, frugally but abundantly, in the homely manner of
his mother and the people of his class. He wore good clothes, and the
same as those around him. But though he did not take to the ways and
crotchets of the miser of the story-book, his heart was none the less
developing the miser’s spirit, and growing rapidly absorbed, to the
exclusion of all other aims, in the love of money. He grudged more and
more parting with it, and he longed and pined more greedily after its
possession. François, who lived with him, saw nothing of this. He saw
him indeed eager and active in turning his land and stock to account,
vigilant to seize every opportunity for gain, sharp at striking a
bargain, chary of spending his money on many innocent pleasures that
tempted the self-denial of older and wiser heads; but this was right
and fair so far. There were plenty of idlers, and fellows to spend
their money as fast as they made it, and it was well to see Gaston
prudent and thrifty, and laying by for the rainy day and the little
ones who would be coming by-and-by. So argued the honest, open-handed
François, who approved the wisdom of his brother, but did not practise
it, and never could keep a franc in his pocket while he saw any one in
want of it. Quite as self-denying as Gaston, he pinched himself from a
different motive. He saved to give. He gave to the widow who would be
driven from her shelter if he did not come in time to pay the rent; he
gave to the cold and the hungry; no hearth wanted wood, no mouth
craved for bread, while François could supply both. Not a child in the
village but loved him, not an elder but smiled a blessing on the young
man as he passed. Gaston knew it, and forgave him. He loved him well
enough to forgive him even that share in his mother’s _dot_ that was
coming to François one of these days. But when the day came, and he
saw the money that ought to have been his handed over to his
cousin--he disowned the brotherhood that moment for the first time in
his life--Gaston felt the fiend wake up in him, he felt he was badly
treated, wronged and robbed of his due, and he was wrathful against
Jeanne and François. In the angry spirit of the moment, he spoke
bitter words to François, and reproached him for having come between
him and his mother. But François, who retained the guilelessness of a
child, cared too little about the money to seize the base motive of
his brother’s anger; he thought it was an outburst of latent jealousy
against the orphan child who had come between him and the fulness of 451
his mother’s love, and, with the warmth of a generous nature, François
forgave him his unjust reproaches; he offered to give up all at once
unconditionally to his cousin, and to leave the cottage, and take no
compensation, provided only Gaston would give him back his love and
trust. Gaston was not utterly hardened, and the generosity and
frankness of his cousin disarmed him, and shamed him out of his
unworthy resentment; he embraced him, and asked him to forgive him,
and they were true brothers from that out. The coils of avarice twined
round Gaston’s heart, and choked his best instincts and his finest
impulses, but they did not crush out his love for François. That grew
and flourished like a lily amongst weeds. So they stayed together till
they grew up to man’s estate, and then an event occurred in the
distant town of Chapelle-aux-lys which was to make a new era in the
lives of both.
A niece of the curé’s died, leaving one orphan child, whom she
implored her uncle to receive and take care of; Marie was alone in the
world; and there was no one to whom the mother could bequeath her
except the curé of Chamtocé. Great was the perplexity of the worthy
priest when he received the intelligence of his niece’s death,
accompanied by the unexpected legacy of a grand-niece, and a request
that he would enter into possession at once. Victoire was called into
council, but, instead of helping him out of the difficulties of the
position, she staggered him by asking if he meant to buy a cage and
hang _la petite_ in the window like a canary? That was the only way
_she_ saw of taking her in. Why, they were so tight for room that
if she, Victoire, were not the woman she was, it would be simply an
impossibility to fit herself and her _effects_ into the space allotted
to her at the presbytery; and where, in the name of common sense, did
M. le Curé think she could make room for another inmate? The curé
admitted the inexorable logic of this fact, and immediately proposed
adding another room to the house; this was the Vendéan’s ready way of
simplifying difficulties when his family outgrew his dwelling.
Victoire said of course that this remedy was open to them, but what
were they to do with _la petite_ till the room was built? Hang her up
in the window? M. le Curé rejected the cage alternative, and suggested
his niece be sent to one of the farmers’ wives’ for the time being.
“Which of them?” Victoire begged leave to inquire. Mère Madeleine
would take her and welcome, but she had four sons at home, so that
would not do. Then there were La Mère Tustine and La Tante Ursule, and
a great many other estimable matrons who would gladly give her a
shelter, but between their hospitality and Marie’s acceptance of it
there stood some impediment in the shape of sons or brothers that shut
the door on the young stranger. The curé and his gouvernante were
puzzling over the case, and seeing no way out of it, when François
Léonval came in. The curé loved all his children, but, if there was
one that he loved better than all, it was the child-like, open-hearted
François. He told him at once of his trouble, and asked him what he
was to do. François solved the difficulty instanter by offering him
the spare room at home--his mother’s formerly, and never occupied
since her death--assuring the curé that he and Gaston and Gervoise,
their old _bonne_, would take every care of his grand-niece, and that,
far from being in the way, she would be quite a godsend to them all in
the dull cottage. The curé smiled with a deeper thankfulness than the 452
young man understood at the biblical simplicity betrayed in this
proposal, and it took a good deal of argument to make François see
that the scheme was not practicable; but when ultimately he did see
it, he was ready with an amendment which the curé saw no fair reason
for rejecting. This was that Mlle. Marie was to be installed in her
uncle’s room, and he was to come and stay with the brothers while
another was being added to the presbytery. This point settled, the
first thing to be done was to get possession of Marie. The curé would
have gladly gone to fetch the poor little orphan himself, but this was
Saturday, a very busy day for the country priest, and to-morrow would
be Sunday, a busier day still, and when it was quite impossible for
him to be absent. But François here again came to the rescue. He would
drive over to Chapelle-aux-lys, put up for a few hours--it was a good
three hours’ drive--and be back by nightfall with the legacy. François
Léonval was perhaps the only youth in the village to whom such a
mission could have been entrusted without its provoking a stream of
chattering comments on all sides, but the curé knew that not even that
queen of gossips, Tante Ursule, would find a word to say against it in
his case. So he gave his blessing to François, who ran home as fast as
he could, put the strong bay mare to the cariole, and was soon
trotting over the snow on the road to Chapelle-aux-lys. This was how
Marie came to Chamtocé.
In due time the room was built, the curé took leave of the brothers,
and returned to the presbytery, where Marie reigned henceforth with
soft, despotic sway over himself, the stiff old Victoire, and all who
came within her kingdom. She was soon the acknowledged belle of
Chamtocé, and the number of her admirers and the zeal with which they
competed for her hand in the village dance, or the honor of carrying
her red morocco _Heures_ to and from church on Sundays and fête-days,
became a serious complication in the existence of the venerable curé.
For his flock loved him with the love that casteth out fear, and had
no secrets from him; old and young went to him with their _confidences_
as a matter of course, and the rival candidates for Marie’s favors
carried their hopes and fears and complaints of her and of each other
to his sympathizing ears with merciless garrulity. It was no small
thing to bear the burden of this confidence, to hearken to these
knotty cases, and to give advice and sympathy befitting each
particular one. The curé, to be sure, had more experience than most
men in this kind of diplomacy, having been the bosom confidant of all
the swains who had sighed to the belles of Chamtocé these forty years
past; but he declared that Marie’s lovers gave him more to do than the
whole generation together. There were nine eligible _partis_ going,
and all nine were competing for her. The good man was driven to his
wits’ end. Marie remained serenely indifferent to them all, and never
gave a glance of encouragement to one above another, nor could her
uncle detect the faintest sign of preference toward any of them. He
took refuge, therefore, in perfect neutrality, and refused to
interfere in behalf of any of the suitors. She was young enough to
bide her time and try their fidelity before she adopted a choice so
important to them and to herself. Marie was fifteen when she came to
Chamtocé. The revolution had broken out in Paris and was spreading
rapidly through the provinces. La Vendée, which was destined soon to 453
play such a noble part in the fiercest tragedy the world ever saw, was
still comparatively quiet; but before Marie had spent two years in her
new home, the Royalist movement was firing the hearts of the Vendéans,
and the enthusiastic spirit of Charette and Cathelineau and Stoffel
was fanning the flames of patriotism and goading the peasants to that
grand and universal uprising whose story stands unparalleled in the
annals of chivalrous loyalty. The Republican soldiers, _les bleus_, as
they were called, were scouring the country, depopulating villages,
murdering the priests, and hunting down the nobles, ordering off whole
streets to the guillotine in a batch, spreading terror and devastation
everywhere. The peasantry had risen _en masse_ and joined the Royalist
troops, and were selling their lives and their altars dear. Chamtocé
was not behind hand in the patriotic movement. It furnished its goodly
contingent of soldiers to the king, and many were the episodes of
daring and self-devoted loyalty that marked the progress of the
Vendéan cause in the pretty, peaceful village.
Marie was just seventeen when the first recruitment took place. It was
a bright spring morning. She was sitting in the latticed window of the
presbytery parlor, a dark-eyed, merry-looking maiden in a fan-shaped
Vendéan cap, whose soft white cambric frilling set off her warm olive
complexion admirably, and made her a very pretty picture as she sat
singing to her spinning-wheel, bobbing her head with a quick, graceful
movement that kept time to the play of her foot and hands. At a table
at the other end of the room the curé was writing away diligently. He
was too much absorbed in his work to be disturbed by the musical
purring of Marie’s wheel, or the broken snatches of song with which
she varied the _rond-rond_ and enlivened the pleasant, monotonous
labor; he knew she was there, but her presence was no more hindrance
to him than the sunshine that was streaming unbidden through the
window, and filling the little room with warmth and brightness.
Suddenly the _rond-rond_ ceased, Marie looked up, and fixed her eyes
on some distant object along on the road. Then she stood up, and said
hurriedly:
“Mon oncle! mon oncle!”
“Well, my child?” answered the curé abstractedly, without pausing from
his work.
“I see horsemen galloping toward the village. _Sont-ce les bleus?_”
The word made the curé start like the touch of a spring. He dropped
his pen and was beside her in an instant. They looked out steadily
toward the dust-cloud that was advancing rapidly, and for one minute
neither spoke. Then the curé exclaimed joyfully:
“No! They are Charette’s men!”
And so they were. But none the less was there cause for Marie’s cheek
to grow pale, and the heart of the old pastor to beat with a great
emotion. They knew what brought these Royalist soldiers to Chamtocé.
Charette wanted men, and he had sent here to levy them. In less than
an hour, every available man in the village was up on the _place_ for
inspection. The difficulty was whom to take and whom to refuse, for
the brave fellows whose exploits and valor won for them later the
sobriquet of _peuple de géants_ (race of giants) were all clamoring to
be enrolled under the king’s flag, and to go forth and die for the
king’s cause.
For the first time to-day since that outbreak that had bound them in
closer brotherhood, François and Gaston quarrelled. Both wanted to go, 454
both were equally good for the service; the recruiting officer, unable
to choose between them, declared they must decide for themselves. The
only way to do this was to defer it to the curé. They walked off to
the church, where the old man was speaking plain, soul-stirring words
of encouragement and exhortation to a throng of men and women, the men
exulting, the women weeping, but all of one mind and heart in the
cause, and ready to give their best and dearest to serve under the
banner of the fleur-de-lis.
Marie was kneeling close by the altar, amidst a group of weeping
mothers and sisters. Her eyes were dry, but dim and restless; she
spoke to no one, but turned constantly toward the door, as if she were
watching for some new arrival. When the brothers came in, there was a
movement, the crowd made way for them as they walked up to the altar,
and hushed their sobs to hear what they were going to say.
“Monsieur le Curé,” said Gaston, “only one of us may enlist, and you
are to choose between us; which of us may go and fight for the king?”
“Ah! my children, what is it you ask of me! How can I choose!”
exclaimed the old man, clasping his hands. “You are both dear to me; I
would have you both fight for the king and win a crown of glory. If
you fall fighting in defence of God and his altars, yours will be the
crown of the martyrs. Which is most pure at heart, strongest in faith,
most worthy to serve in the cause of God? He alone can tell!”
“François! François!” cried many voices in chorus, and the people
gathered round the poor man’s friend, and blessed him, and bid him joy
of being chosen for the good fight.
“So be it!” said the curé; and François knelt down, and the curé laid
both hands upon his head and blessed him.
Marie was a silent and unnoticed spectator of the scene. She was still
on her knees, clasping the altar-rails with both hands so tightly that
the strain left them white and bloodless. François waited till the
crowd had followed M. le Curé out of the church, and it was empty
except of the two, and then he went close up to Marie and knelt down
beside her. He did not speak, and she did not look at him, but she
knew that it was François.
“Marie!” he said, and laid his hand on her arm.
Then she turned and looked into his eyes, and these two knew that they
loved each other.
“If I fall, you will remember me, Marie, and pray for me,” said
François, taking her hand in both his.
“Yes.”
“And, Marie, if I return--”
“We will come to this same spot and bless God together, François.”
“You will wait for me a year and a day?”
“I will wait for you to the end of my life.”
They sent up one last prayer in silence, then kissed each other and
parted.
As François left the church he met Gaston, who was seeking him in
great concern everywhere. The brothers walked home arm-in-arm,
discoursing with full hearts of this sudden and solemn parting. When
they entered the cottage, François went straight to his room, and came
out with a small deal box in his hand.
“_Frère_,” he said, “I have not much to trouble about in the way of
property, but what I have you will keep for me. My savings are nothing
to speak of, seven hundred francs in all; here is the box. I should not
have had even that sum but for the sale of the cattle at Easter. Do 455
the best you can for me with it; lay it out in stock or grain--whatever
brings most as times go. The sheep were the best investment the last
two fairs; I wish I had done more in that line; but I was never
overwise with my money, and this will thrive better in your hands than
in mine, _frère_; only I would rather you didn’t let it lie out long
at a time, as you do with your own; gather it in soon after a good
stroke, and let it grow till it’s a good sum; it’s not safe in these
days to leave one’s money floating in any business.”
Gaston’s astonishment had grown to stupefaction by the time his
brother brought this speech to an end. What did it mean, this sudden
desire to make money and let it accumulate? François had all his life
been as careless of louis-d’or as of carrots or apples, and gave them
away as readily for the asking; and now that he was about to face the
cannon, and stood a strong chance of never needing them again, he was
smitten with an insane desire to have them increase and multiply.
Though Gaston said nothing, François read this wonder in his eyes.
“Don’t think I’ve put my heart in the money,” he said, laying a hand
on Gaston’s shoulder, and looking wistfully into his face; “I’d hand
it to you for your own, to do as you liked with it, if I were alone in
the world; but I’m not, _frère_. I’ve another to think of now.”
He drew away his hand, and averted his face quickly, but Gaston saw
his lip quiver, and the drops gather in his brave, truthful eyes. He
saw it all at a glance, and followed the recruit’s figure, as it
disappeared again into his room, with an expression on his face that
it was better for both François did not see; if he had looked at his
brother then he would have read a secret that would have pierced his
heart like a sword. Gaston stood staring after him as if he had been
turned to stone, his features fierce and hard-set, the veins in his
forehead swelling and throbbing, all his frame shaken by a vehement
struggle. Gaston mastered it, his face relaxed, and he went in after
François.
“_Frère_,” he said, “you may trust me,” and held out his hand to him.
François clasped it, but looking at his brother with a puzzled smile:
“Trust thee!” he repeated, “as if I needed thy pledge for that!
Brother, I trust thee as I trust my soul.”
“And, _frère_, as Monsieur le Curé said just now, the best and purest
are chosen for the sacrifice; if--”
“_Vive Dieu et le Roi!_” cried François, raising his cap. Then he was
silent a moment before he said:
“If I fall, you will be a good brother to Marie, and do what you can
to comfort her.”
“And the money, what shall I do with it?”
“Give it to her.”
The brothers embraced, and set out in search of M. le Curé. He blessed
them all once more, and the brave young fellows fell into ranks with
the soldiers, and marched off singing their battle-psalm, their hearts
beating with high hope and faith and courage; while brave Vendéan
mothers followed them out of the village, speeding them with blessings
and cries of _Vive Dieu et le Roi!_ It echoed through the gathering
twilight with a strange, inspiring pathos. Quiet and darkness fell
upon Chamtocé, the shadows died out of the silent church, the red
flame of the sanctuary lamp rose and fell, flickering like a crimson
pulse in the gloom, and casting its halo on the bowed head of the 456
Vendéan soldier’s _fiancée_.
PART SECOND.
François’s money multiplied with such unprecedented luck in Gaston’s
keeping that the little deal box was soon too small to hold it. Gaston
kept very little money of his own in hand, he let it float, as his
brother said, but whatever he had was always in gold--he never took
payment in anything else, and he followed the same plan for François.
If it had been his own, he could not have put more zeal into the
management of it; and it was with a sense of personal pride and
success that at the end of a year he counted over François’s treasure,
and found he had trebled the original sum. And Marie--how fared it
with her? She was waiting in patience and hope and prayer till the
time named by François as the furthest date of his return came and
passed and brought no sign of him, and then her heart sank. She could
not think that he would leave her in such cruel ignorance of his fate
if he were still alive; but neither could she believe that he was
dead. They would have heard of it somehow. Bad news travels quickly at
all times, and even in those days of terror, when postal arrangements
were broken up, and it was at the risk of his head that a messenger
carried a letter, news came from the most distant points to
out-of-the-way villages in a way that was almost miraculous. _Les bleus_
were everywhere, ubiquitous, stealthy, vindictive, but they could not
cut off communication between the Royalists. Fresh recruits started
from Chamtocé, and wounds and deaths and noble exploits were
chronicled from the distant camp or battle-field, but not a word came
over the hilly plains of La Vendée to tell of the fate of François
Léonval. Two years went by, and still the silence was unbroken. Then
one morning Gaston dressed himself with unwonted care, and went to the
presbytery. He found M. le Curé alone. They sat some time together,
and when the young man rose to take his leave, the curé said:
“You will meet her probably on the way home. Plead your own cause, my
boy; I have done what I could for you; you have my best blessing if
you can persuade Marie.”
Gaston met her and pleaded. But not successfully. “François said a
year and a day, and after that, if you did not hear, you might be sure
he had gone before us,” urged Gaston, choosing the word that would
fall less harshly on his listener’s heart; “and now two years have
passed and he has neither written nor sent. I do not ask you to forget
him, or to cease to love him; we will both love him, and think of him
always as dear brother, and he will be happier in heaven for seeing
you happy here. Let me fulfil my promise to him that I would take care
of you. Come home with me, Marie, and be my wife!”
“I promised that I would wait for him,” answered Marie, her dark eyes
looking out toward the west with a gaze of patient longing as she
walked on by Gaston’s side.
“A year and a day. You told me he said a year and a day.”
“He said it, but I put no limit to the time. I said I would wait to
the end.”
“But he would not have it, Marie; he loved you too well to wish you to
waste your life in solitude and vain hopes.”
But Marie shook her head and repeated:
“I promised I would wait for him.” 457
“And your uncle--does his wish count for nothing? You know that he has
long since given up all hope, and that the thought of leaving you
alone in the world is embittering his old age. ‘I am getting old,’ he
said to me just now, ‘but the only thing that makes me dread death is
this anxiety about my _pauvre petite_. Who will take care of her when
I am gone?’ ‘I promised François I would, _mon père_,’ I said. ‘Then
go and plead with her for yourself and for me,’ he replied, ‘that
Marie may let you keep your promise.’”
They walked on in silence till they came to the gate of the
presbytery, and Marie raised her face to Gaston’s and said:
“Wait one year more, Gaston, and then, if you still wish, come and
tell me, and I will go home with you.”
“I have waited three years already, and I would wait as many more to
win you,” answered the young man; and as he bent his face over
hers--not a handsome face, but illuminated now by eyes that were
liquid and beautiful with beseeching love--Marie thought that, since
she must choose a home when her uncle was gone, she would rather share
Gaston’s than any other, and that it might not be such a difficult
thing to love him by-and-by.
That night, when Gervoise had gone to bed, and the place was quiet and
all the bolts drawn, Gaston took out François’ money-bag and counted
over the contents. It was a good round sum now. He built up the louis
into little piles and reckoned them, and then poured them back into
the bag; and the coins flashed like little suns in the dim light of
his lantern; and Gaston feasted his eyes on them: he thrust his hand
into the heap, and, gathering up a handful of coins, let them drip down
through his fingers one by one, listening to the pure ring of the
metal as if it had been music, as indeed it was to him. Now that Marie
had promised to be his wife, this gold which was hers would soon be
his, and before the year was out it would be a still bigger heap. He
had not told her or the curé that Francois had left any money in his
charge, not from any idea of latent treachery to François--oh, no!
Gaston was incapable of that; but it had been his dream ever since
François had gone to win Marie and then settle this money on her,
telling her, of course, whose gift it was. Partly from methodical
habit, and partly from an unconfessed pleasure in the sight and touch
of the gold, he had made a point of counting it all over after every
fresh transaction, but from this night out he began to count it
oftener. The fact that it was now to all intents and purposes his own
added a new zest to the operation, and the prospect of it became by
degrees the chief solace of his working hours, till at last he came to
count it regularly every night and to long for the moment when he
could lock his door and turn the flame of his lantern on the burning
blaze of the gold.
The year came to an end. There was no news of François, and Gaston,
being still of the same mind, claimed his promise, and Marie came home
with him.
But seven months later François was tramping along through the snow on
his way to Chamtocé, and now he is sitting before the pine-wood fire
in Monsieur le Curé’s parlor. He had not asked for Marie, and the curé
had not named her. The dumb entreaty of François’ eyes smote him to
the heart, and he had not the courage to tell the pilgrim that the
light which had lured him on through the smoke of the battle, in the 458
dreary watches of the bivouac, in the many miseries of his soldier
life, was a mirage that had tempted him along the desert path, only to
mock him when he neared it, and fade out of the sky like a false and
fickle star. No; he had not the courage to tell him that Marie was his
brother’s wife.
When the curé entered the cottage, he found Gaston sitting down to his
dinner alone. Marie had gone to nurse a sick neighbor’s child. The
curé was glad of her absence. It made his mission easier. “_Mon
garçon_,” he said at once, “I bring news that will startle you, and I
am thankful to be able to break it to you before Marie hears it. Your
brother is come back.” The curé expected his announcement to startle
Gaston, as he had said, but he was not prepared for the effect it
produced. The young man stood bolt upright, looked at the curé with
wild, scared eyes, and dropped again into his chair without uttering a
word.
“Have you told him?” he gasped, after an interval of silence that the
old priest felt himself incapable of breaking.
“No; her name was not mentioned by either of us.”
“Ha!” Gaston drew a breath of relief; “then perhaps--who knows? He may
take it less to heart than we fear?”
“I don’t know. At his age, four years is a long absence; still we
cannot tell. But at any rate, my son, you must come and give him a
brother’s welcome, and do what a brother’s love can do to lighten the
disappointment to him.”
He took Gaston’s arm, and they went out to the presbytery together.
The curé’s heart belied his words when he held out the hope that
François’ love might not have borne unchanged the test of absence. He
knew the youth too well to believe it. And he was right.
The meeting between the brothers was quiet, but none the less
terrible. The curé told François how it had all happened; how
faithfully Marie had kept her troth, hoping long after he and Gaston
had given up all hope; how at length he had urged her to listen to
Gaston; and how, tardily and with a sad heart, she had yielded to both
their entreaties. François heard him to the end, and then, in a voice
of heart-rending gentleness, he said:
“It was my fault, _frère_; I do not blame thee. God’s will be done!”
He held out his hand, Gaston clasped it, and the brothers stood for a
moment face to face in silence. Both were very, pale, but it was not
François who was the paler of the two.
Gaston went home, and François watched his figure across the little
garden and down the road till it disappeared like a blue speck on the
white background, and then he fell upon the curé’s neck and sobbed
like a woman.
Before many hours Chamtocé was on tiptoe with alarm and curiosity. A
shepherd had arrived in haste with the news that one of the royalist
captains had passed through Saumur in disguise, and been traced to
Chapelle-aux-lys, whence _les bleus_ were started in pursuit of him;
there was a large price on his head; and _les bleus_ were so enraged
against him for his desperate exploits and for having baffled them so
long, that they were resolved to show no quarter to the people that
harbored him, and would set fire to the town rather than let him
escape. An old cowherd who had been born and bred in the service of
the Maulevriers had recognized François Léonvel on the road, and,
guessing whither he was bound, had sent a trusty messenger with a word 459
of warning to Chamtocé.
Gaston was the only person, besides the curé and Victoire, who knew of
his brother’s arrival so far, and when Gervoise came in with this
news, which she caught from the village gossips on her way from
evening prayers, his first impulse was to rush to the presbytery, and
warn his brother to start at once, and seek some safer hiding-place.
He went out quickly, but, as he had his hand on the wicket, he saw
Marie coming towards the cottage. She was the last person he wished to
meet just then, but he could not avoid her without exciting surprise
in her mind, and perhaps suspicion. So he tarried till she came,
wondering why she walked so slowly, as if she did not make sure he was
waiting for her, or as if--as Gaston’s heart whispered to him--she
would rather he went without speaking to her. Why? Was it possible the
truth had come to her ears already? He could not believe it, still it
was with a painful quickening of his pulse that he saw her at that
leisurely pace.
“Were you waiting for me, Gaston?” she said simply.
“No. I am going in to Monsieur le Curé for a minute; I will be back
presently. Are you not well, Marie?”
“Yes, _mon ami_, quite well, only tired and cold.”
She drew her shawl closer round her with a little shudder, and passed
him and entered the cottage. Gaston’s heart leaped up as if an adder
had stung it, and then sank as suddenly with a horrible faintness. He
leaned against the snow-stuffed hedge and felt as if the very life
were frozen within him. The blood rushed to his throat; he put his
hand to his forehead as if a spasm of pain had stunned him; but soon
rousing himself from his absent attitude, he walked on to the
presbytery. But he did not enter it. He did not see it, in fact. He
walked on and on like a man in a dream, looking neither to the right
nor the left, and when suddenly he remembered where he was, and
whither he was bound, he had left the village more than a league
behind him, and was standing on the sloping beach of St. Florent,
under the shadow of its semicircular hills that look down upon the
Loire, where the little islet of ---- sits like a brooding swan midway
in its waters. The night had fallen, but the moon was not yet up, and
the darkness was only lightened by the snowy reflex of the landscape.
A bank of cloud hung like a heavy curtain over the hill, and hid away
the moon. Somehow Gaston was glad of the darkness. But it was in vain
that he strove to make it dark within. No outer darkness could conceal
from him the workings of his heart. He saw into its troubled depths as
clearly as if a thousand moons had been shining in the purple vault
above him. He saw the tempter busy with his fiercest instincts, and he
saw what a base and miserable tool he was. Ay, but desperate as well
as base. Much must be forgiven to a desperate man. Here was his whole
life wrecked. His wife’s affection and trust--he felt it had not yet
grown to love--was lost to him; his gold was lost to him--his
precious, darling gold, that he had hugged to his heart till it grew
to be a part of it, a second wife; and he must give it up just at a
moment when he wanted it as he had never done before, and had laid out
all his money, and had not a louis to ring on his hearthstone except
this gold of François’. A curse upon the hour he took it! François
would never ask it back--never accept it, most likely, Gaston felt. 460
But Marie would never consent to keep it. No, and she would grow to
hate him in spite of herself for having come between her and François,
and forced her to break her troth to him. His life, that was so bright
and rich, how dark and wretched it had become within these last few
hours! And was there no rescue from it all? Yes. He had only to speak
a word, and he was saved. Let him start off now, before Marie knew of
François’s return, and meet _les bleus_, and they would come quietly
to the presbytery, and take him away in the night, and there would be
an end of François for ever, and of the misery he was going to cause.
Treachery? Bah! His was the treachery to come back after being as good
as dead all this time. Was it a crime to have married Marie, when he
left her three whole years without a word of love or a sign of
existence? She was happy now, but if once she saw François she would
never know happiness again. The sight of his misery would fill her
heart with remorse, and break it. What right had François to go away
at all when he knew that Marie loved him? It was no doing of Gaston’s
that; he wanted to go in his stead. Would that he had! But now he was
to be a ruined, blighted man to the end of his days. And to what
purpose? To save François from being shot a little sooner than he
might be; for so surely as he had a head on his shoulders, so surely
would he have a bullet through it some day. No one would be the worse
of his having it to-morrow instead of a month hence or a year, and two
human beings would be considerably the better of it.
Gaston had flung himself on a snow-heap by the side of the river, his
face buried in his arms, while he worked out his wrongs and his despair
to this conclusion. François must die. There was no other way out of
it. Once he brought his mind to face this alternative and close with
it, there was no time to be lost, and it would be dangerous to go over
the ground again. He must act at once if he were to act at all. Gaston
shook the snow from his arms, and sprang to his feet. But a change had
come over the scene, and he could hardly realize that it was the same
he had surveyed in the dim white darkness half an hour previously. The
heavy bank of cloud had melted away; only one small patch remained,
fringed with silvery rays that lighted up the sky like the glory of a
tabernacle; all round it myriads of stars were twinkling in the liquid
depths of blue, and gazing on their own brightness in the steel-blue
mirror of the Loire, that trembled lightly as the golden shafts shot
down through it and illuminated its cold, pure bosom like a second
heaven. Presently, the moon came out, not “pale for weariness of
climbing” the steep sky, but radiant and beautiful, and shone serenely
in the clear December heaven, and all the world was bathed in silvery
twilight. The solemnity of the scene thrilled through Gaston’s soul,
and made his pulse beat with an unknown fear; but it was the ennobling
fear with which nature inspires us in her sublimest aspects--the
reverent awe that uplifts the soul, not the guilty terror that casts
it down, paralyzing and debasing it.
His ghastly project cowered before him like a fiend dragged from outer
darkness into the splendor of God’s sunshine. The divine beauty of the
world without rebuked and annihilated the foulness of the world
within. No base or treacherous thoughts could contemplate the purity
and glory of that starry splendor, and not perish. It drew the earth 461
heavenward, and made all things grand and solemn. The meek, low hills
grew mighty and majestic; they stretched their pure white peaks to
kiss the stars, soaring high above the haunts of men, as if they
scorned the earth, and would have naught in common with the pettiness,
the guilt, and the folly that had their dwelling on the plain. The
very silence had a voice in it more powerful than thunder. It rang
with inarticulate harmonies through Gaston’s soul--mysterious,
unuttered whisperings, as of angels hovering to and fro, brushing the
crystal twilight with their wings.
And were there not angels near him in his hour of struggle? Did he not
hear them pleading at his heart, touching his storm-tossed spirit with
their loving, beseeching eyes, weeping, perhaps, over the impending
ruin of his God-imaged soul? Surely, if angels ever weep, earth has no
misery more worthy of their tears. And were they less powerful than
the fallen spirits who were fighting against them for the noble prize,
or did they love God’s human creature less than the fiends hate him?
Gaston called to mind the days long ago, when he was an innocent
child, and prayed every night to his angel guardian before lying down
to sleep, and believed that the beautiful benign spirit stood at the
right side of his little cot, watching him while he slept. It was many
a day since he had prayed, but now the words came back on him with a
strange, impelling power, and played upon his heart like the notes of
a long-forgotten melody. They rose to his lips, but he choked them
down. He could not let them pass. Whom was he to speak to--an angel?
There was a gulf between the Judas that he was to-day and the unsullied
little child who used to breathe that prayer in an angel’s ear.
Gaston felt the scene was subduing his soul to a dangerous softness,
and unnerving him for his purpose. What a fool he was to stand there
moon-gazing! He turned his back on the river and the hills, and strode
homeward at a rapid pace. He tried to sing, but his voice jarred like
a discord on the holy silence, and he checked himself. It was near ten
when he re-entered the village. Every house was closed and quiet, but
not asleep. This was Christmas eve. The children were put to bed with
many a promise that they should be called for midnight Mass, but most
of the elders were watching, saying their rosaries, or singing
_cantiques_ in family groups while awaiting the summons of the bell to
gather round the crib of the new-born King. Gaston saw the lights
gleaming from many windows, and wished them out. He had no mind to be
seen prowling alone in the snow at this time of night, and on such a
night, so he crept on stealthily under the shadow of the cottages,
till he came to his own gate. He dreaded meeting Marie, and having to
answer her questions as to why he had been out so long. But perhaps
she would ask no questions. Was she really so pale when he met her
that time, or was it his terrified fancy? Anyhow, she could not know
yet for certain that François was here, whatever fears or hopes--yes,
Gaston must use the word--the gossip that had reached her ears may
have suggested. But on entering the bright, spacious kitchen where the
table was spread for supper, all its pewter and delft glancing in the
light of the pine-logs that blazed merrily in the broad chimney, he
saw no one but old Gervoise, sitting bolt upright in her high-backed
chair in the chimney-corner, and nodding significantly at the knitting 462
that lay on her knees. The noise he made drawing a stool to the fire
awoke her. He asked where her mistress was, and Gervoise told him that
Marie had come in for a few minutes and then gone out again, and that
they were not to expect her home that night, as the child was worse.
He was glad of her absence; yet it frightened him. Was it a
pretext--was she shrinking from him, afraid or loath to meet him! At
any rate, it changed his intention of starting at once; he decided
that he would wait till all the village was up and astir for midnight
Mass, and then he would slip off and ride hard, so as to reach
Chapelle-aux-lys and be back again before daylight and Marie’s return.
He said he did not care to eat anything, and went up to his room. He
locked himself in, lighted his lantern, and pulled out the fatal
money-bag; he felt he must strengthen himself by the sight of the
gold, and count over his treasure once more, to make sure it was worth
the price he was going to pay for it. This done, he flung himself
undressed on the bed, and, worn out by the conflict of the last few
hours, was soon sound asleep. But he had not been asleep long before
he was aroused by a long knocking at his door, and a rough voice
demanded admittance. Gaston sprang to his feet.
“Who’s there?” he said.
“_Les bleus._ Open in the name of the republic!” and the speaker dealt
a blow on the door that nearly broke it in.
Gaston opened without further parley, and six men entered the room.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“We want one François Léonval who is concealed in this house. Tell us
where to find him and we will go, and do you no harm; but if you try
to shirk it--” The man swore a brutal oath, and pointed his pistol at
Gaston’s head.
But Gaston Léonval had a Vendéan’s spirit withal. It was not to dastardly
personal cowardice that he would betray his brother; he felt the cold touch
of the muzzle on his forehead, and, quietly pushing it aside, he told the
man he might search the house, and he wished him joy if he found what he
was looking for. “We had better begin by the outhouses and the garden,”
said the one who seemed to take the lead; “two of you stay inside to
prevent any tricks, while we are outside.” And he left the room, followed
by all but one soldier, who remained to mount guard over Gaston.
But a safer and stronger sentinel was keeping watch by the wretched
brother, urging him with terrible power and show of reason to say the word
that would free him for ever. Only an hour ago, he was resolved to run
great risks to say it, and now he had only to make a sign, and run no risk
whatever, and he could not bring himself to do it. Confound that moonshine!
It had made a woman of him. He went to the window and looked down into the
garden to watch the proceedings of the soldiers. Then he heard them
searching the rooms below, banging doors and overturning everything, and
presently the officer came up-stairs again.
“Hearken, _mon garçon_, it’s no use trying to play hide-and-seek with
_les bleus_,” he said, “you won’t find it answer. Now, once for all,
where is this François Léonval?”
“I tell you he’s not here,” replied Gaston doggedly; “if he was, you
would find him.”
“Most likely, if we had time to lose hammering at the walls and hunting 463
up the chimneys; but _les bleus_ have a more expeditious way of going
to work. When we can’t bag our game, we fire it. So walk out, and we
will set a light to the house and make a little Christmas bonfire for
you. If he’s a coward, he’ll soon cry _merci_! If he’s a brave man,
why he’ll go out in a blaze, and that’s as good a death as another. So
here goes, give me the light!”
He seized the lantern, took out the socket, and deliberately advanced
towards the bed.
“Hold!” cried Gaston, clutching his outstretched arm; “the man you are
in search of is not here; he is at the presbytery.”
The _bleu_ laid down the light.
“Stay here,” he said to the soldier who had remained in the room; “we
will whistle for you when it’s time to join us.”
He descended the stairs quickly, and Gaston heard the door close, and
saw the five figures disappear down the road. After that he seemed to
fall into a sort of stupor, and stood without moving hand or foot,
staring stolidly out of the window, while the soldier waited in
silence for the promised signal. It came at last, wounding the silence
like the hiss of a snake, and Gaston knew that his brother was in the
hands of the torturers.
No sooner was he alone than a legion of demons seemed to people the
room, filling it with hideous forms and voices, mocking and scoffing,
and asking him what he had done with his brother. He stamped in rage,
and dashed his hands through his hair, and began to walk rapidly up
and down. But the spectres kept pace with him, grinning and hooting
and repeating with maddening iteration: “What have you done with your
brother?”
“What had he done with him?” cried Gaston aloud--“why, only what
François would have done with himself sooner or later. And was he to
let his house be burnt down and his gold melted to postpone the day
perhaps for twenty-four hours? Pshaw! what an idiot he was to take on
so about it. It was all that whistle that set his nerves on an edge.
Why did it keep on hissing and hissing? The _bleus_ and their capture
were half a mile out of ear-shot by this. Fate had been good to
Gaston, and served him much better than he could have served himself.
It had taken the matter out of his hands, and he had been no more than
a passive agent in its grasp, in the grasp of law and might--ay, and
right too. When François came back like a simpleton and thrust his
head into the lion’s mouth, what could he expect but that it would
close on him and crunch him? It was over now. Marie would never hear
of his return and need never curse the day she gave her hand to
Gaston, and Gaston might sleep in peace, and without being haunted by
terrors of his brother’s return.” Thus did he argue with the fiend and
strive to beat him off, and stifle remorse that had entered his soul,
and was gnawing at him with fierce, relentless tooth. But it would not
do. Across the legion of fiends there flitted visions of the past,
that he could not shut his eyes to, struggle as he would. First, there
rose before him a curly-headed little brother whose small arms were
round Gaston’s neck, clasping him as they lay in a little cot beside
their mother, breathing softly in sweet child slumber; then he beheld
a frank, bright boy kneeling with him beside that mother’s death-bed,
while she blessed them and promised to meet them in heaven. Then the
boy was a youth who stood with his hand on Gaston’s shoulder, and
looked into his eyes, and said: “Brother, I trust thee as I trust my 464
soul!” This faded away, and he saw the same youth bronzed and
war-worn, and betrayed in his manly trust, but still holding out his
hand to Gaston, and saying with the well-remembered voice, now husky
with the strong man’s agony: “I do not blame thee, brother; God’s will
be done!” Slowly but vividly the visions rose before Gaston’s soul,
and he could not but look on them, and, as he looked, sweet memories
of his childhood rushed upon him like a torrent and bore him down; his
boasted courage was gone, his pride, his love, his gold melted away
like false phantoms, and he was alone with his sin and his despair. He
remembered François’ noble unselfishness, his truth, his grateful love
of their common mother, his reverence for her lightest wish; he
remembered his many acts of kindness to the poor and the suffering,
and how he had seen him followed by blessings from the old and young
whom his generosity had helped and comforted; and oh! bitterest of all
was the memory of their parting, when François gave him his little
hoard in trust, and bid him take care of Marie. And this was the
brother he had sold! O God! It was all too horrible to be true. Gaston
seized the bag of gold, rushed from the house and into the stable,
and, without waiting to saddle her, leaped on his mare’s back, and
dashed off in pursuit of _les bleus_. They were only six, and he had
gold enough to buy them if he only came in time. The mare flew as if
she knew what hung on her speed, dashing up the snow that spattered
her flanks and enveloped her rider in a moving cloud as they galloped
along. The moon was still magnificent, and the stars shone down with
the same calm splendor--the patient, far-away stars that 1793 years
ago rang out the glad tidings to the watchers on the hills of Judea:
Glory to God! Peace to men! Gaston, as he flew past the scene of his
recent struggle, felt a chill of supernatural terror freeze him to the
marrow of his bones. The stars stooped down till they seemed to touch
him, and pierce him with needles of fire; the hills, the stern,
uncompromising hills, shook their pale brows at him, and turned and
ran with him through the waste of snow; and above them, from the
battlements of heaven, rang out a myriad voices in ecstatic song:
Glory to God! Peace to men! But ever and anon, breaking the high
harmony of that song, came a shriek as of a mocking fiend: “What hast
thou done with thy brother?”
The mare took a longer stride and put out her strength with a sudden
increase of vehemence as they came to a turn in the road where it
crossed the river and rounded the base of the hills. Gaston’s heart
leaped up to his throat, as he caught the hammering of hoofs ahead.
Thank heaven! he was in time. The horsemen came in sight. They
slackened their speed, nay, they were dismounting now. Out in the open
road with no shelter of any sort in sight? What did it mean? The mare
strode on. A few more pulls, and she would be up with them. Gaston
could distinguish the trim figures of the soldiers and François’s
loose peasant dress. But now he lost sight of them; they had moved
behind a hedge. Only for a moment. The six slim figures emerged from
the snowy foreground, and six muskets gleamed horizontal in the
moonlight.
“Hold! in the name of heaven, hold!” shrieked Gaston.
He flung down the bag, that burst and sent the gold rippling on the
ground--but it was too late; there was a rattle, and flash followed 465
flash, as he sprang from his horse and rushed between the murderers
and his brother. François lay prostrate, writhing in the snow, that
his blood was turning to crimson. Their eyes met for one moment, and
then François’ closed for ever. Gaston fell on the body with a cry
that was like the shriek of a condemned soul; and then he felt a hand
on his arm.
“There are the midnight bells sounding,” said old Gervoise, in a
querulous voice. “I have been calling to you through the door these
ten minutes, and you wouldn’t awake. I thought you were dead, so I got
my own key and opened it.”
Gaston, dazed and terror-stricken, and doubting still whether he was
dreaming or waking, started up, and told Gervoise not to wait for him,
that he would follow her in a minute. Then he fell upon his knees, and
prayed as a soul might do who had passed the gate “where hope enters
not,” and been snatched back from the dark abyss.
“It was a vision to save me from the crime of Cain. Blessed be the
mercy that has rescued me!”
He lighted a candle, opened a drawer in which he kept some writing
materials, and sat down with a pen in his hand. He hid his face in his
hands, and his lips moved convulsively in prayer for a moment, and
then he began to write. It was not long. He did not read the letter
over, but sealed it with a broad red seal, and then, with that strange
force of habit that asserts itself so unaccountably in moments of
supreme emotion, he carefully replaced the pen and paper in the
drawer. After this he laid the letter on the table in the middle of
the room, and, taking his coat and cap, sallied out into the night.
The Christmas bells were ringing out their welcome to the new-born
King, tripping in silver-footed chime on the midnight silence, grave
and merry, full of glad pathos and exulting hope, and forebodings
solemn and tender. And the hymns and anthems of the villagers answered
their call and swelled the chorus of the chimes; but the voice of a
noble sacrifice that went up from Gaston’s heart mingled in diviner
harmony with the pure joy-jargon of the bells. He entered the church,
but, instead of going up to his accustomed seat, he stood near the
door, half concealed by the angel holding the _bénitier_. He saw the
stream of familiar faces flow in and take their places, and then turn
with eager expectation toward the sacristy. The well-trained voices of
the choir, unsustained by harp or organ, intoned the glorious hymn,
_Adeste Fidelis_, and old and young answered in loud-voiced chorus:
_Venite adoremus, Venite in Bethlehem!_ The altar was wreathed with
lights and flowers, every pillar and picture-frame sparkled with the
red-berried holly; the little lowly crib with its suggestive imagery
glowed with crimson lamps; and before it the loving prayer of simple
hearts made a fitting welcome for the Child that was born in poverty,
and first worshipped by shepherds. As midnight struck, the door of the
sacristy opened, and Monsieur le Curé in his grandest vestments came
forth; but before the door had closed again, Gaston caught sight of a
figure kneeling furtively behind it. He gave one long look at the
golden door of the tabernacle, signed himself with the sign of the
cross, and slipped out of the church.
Early on Christmas morning, a horseman rode in from Chapelle-aux-lys
with a letter for M. le Curé! It was signed _Loison, soldat de la
République_; and its purport was to inform him that one François 466
Léonval, who had born arms for nearly four years against the republic,
and taken refuge the day before at Chamtocé, whither the soldiers of
the republic were bound in pursuit of him, had, in order to prevent
the shedding of innocent blood, left his native village in the night,
and of his own free will given himself up to justice. He had died like
a soldier, worthy of a better cause, and had begged the writer to bear
his last words to the curé of Chamtocé, which were that he was happy
to give his life for God and the king; and he prayed a blessing on his
brother, and Marie his sister-in-law, and begged them and the curé to
be mindful of him in their prayers. He fell crying _Vive Dieu et le
Roi!_ which treasonable words had been enough to shoot him again if he
were alive; but being dead, the writer, who respected a brave man,
though he was a traitor, conveyed them in fulfilment of his promise to
François Léonval.
Soon after this event the Reign of Terror came to an end. The fertile
fields of La Vendée smoked once more under the furrowing ploughshare,
and peace and plenty smiled upon the land. Absent ones returned to
gladden many hearts, and to tell the story of their short and
wonderful campaign, and brought back glory-laden banners, tattered and
blood-stained, to hang in the village church, as trophies of Vendéan
valor, to show future sons of La Vendée how their fathers had fought
the good fight. Once more there was marrying and giving in marriage,
and toil and prosperity reigned in Chamtocé.
When the winter snows had twice melted off the hills, and the
snowdrops peeped up under the grimy hedges, like white-robed little
choristers singing their glad good-by to the winter, and the lusty
young spring had laid his emerald finger on the earth, the bells rang
out their full, exhilarating peal, and a gay procession wound its way
to the church, where Monsieur le Curé in his surplice and stole
awaited the bridal train. His voice shook, and big drops rolled down
his aged cheeks, as he laid his hand on the two bowed heads and called
down the blessing of the God of Abraham on Marie and François Léonval.
This was his last ministration. He tarried long enough to bless the
marriage of his two best-loved children, and then he went home. They
laid him to rest beside a humble grave that was always freshly decked
with flowers. It bore a white stone cross and a marble slab, on which
it was recorded that François Léonval in life was a brother with a
noble heart, and in death a martyr who had died for a noble cause, and
that, like his Master, “having loved his own, he loved them to the
end.”
----------
THOUGHTS FOR THE WOMEN OF THE TIMES. 467
BY ONE OF THEMSELVES.
The woman of the nineteenth century owes all the advantages of her
social position to the Catholic Church.
The disadvantages of that position, which are more or less justly the
causes of discontent and complaint, are the natural fruits of
Protestantism.
For many centuries, the church maintained a severe conflict against
influences, principalities, and powers, which must have baffled the
efforts of any but a divine institution, to rescue woman from the
depths of degradation into which the iniquities of heathenism had
thrust her. It required the superhuman patience and energy of a system
animated by divine charity and sustained by omnipotent power to
prosecute the struggle successfully, and to place woman in the
position for which she was designed by her Creator. So far as she has
since preserved the high relations with her Maker, with the family,
and with society which were achieved for her by that struggle, it has
been by virtue of the same power that first effected her elevation.
The divided and antagonistic forces of Protestantism have been as
adverse to the interests of woman as it was possible for disjointed
elements, acting discordantly, to be. Fortunate has it been for her
that the very discrepancies of its moral elements have operated in a
great measure to neutralize its influence. Since the days when the
first Reformers (?) pronounced the result of a solemn debate in their
decision that the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel might live with two wives
conjointly without compromising his character as a good Christian under
the _new religion_, and those of England exulted in the action of
Henry VIII. when he repudiated the saintly Catharine of Aragon--for
twenty-five years his faithful and lawful wife--and took the wanton
Anne Boleyn in her stead, the general tendency of Protestant influence
has been to rob woman of the dignity with which the church had
invested her, by loosening the obligations of the marriage bond and
diminishing the sanctity of the conjugal relation. If it has not
entirely succeeded in degrading her to be the mere victim of man’s
capricious whims, it has done what it could. Want of harmonious action
between its constituent parts has been the best protection
Protestantism has afforded to woman against this result. The boasted
“progress”--originating in the revolt against divine authority
exercised through the church--so far as it affects the condition of
woman, has been steadily in this direction, especially during the
present century.
Women are conscious of this. They are aware that the ground upon which
they stand is becoming, year by year, less and less firm, the
guarantees of their rights more and more feeble and inoperative, while
the chances of a conflict for gaining a more secure footing are
strongly against them. But while they are keenly alive to these facts,
the cause for their existence is an enigma they have not yet
solved--its remedy, a contingency they have not reached even in
conjecture.
They could not be persuaded that it is the boasted “spirit of the age”
which is in fault; that its irrepressible tendencies are to raise one 468
class by depressing another, and to create a countless multitude of
tastes and wants which can be gratified by none but the favored class
who are the possessors of great wealth.
They fret vainly--beating against the little that remains of ancient
bulwarks erected to shield them, as if by destroying these their
condition would be improved--and indulge an idle dream that women’s
suffrage will remedy the evils, real or imaginary, of which they
complain. “Let us vote,” they say; “let us have some voice in
regulating our own affairs, and, if we do not succeed in shaping them
entirely to our wishes, we shall at least reduce the number and weight
of our grievances, be enabled to open new channels through which we
can attain the independence we desire, and, by making our presence
felt as an element of the body politic, be acknowledged as an existing
fact that is of some importance to the nation.”
It is indeed an idle dream! The mind of every intelligent person must,
upon a very little reflection, discover innumerable reasons why woman
must cease to be woman, wife, and mother, before she can exercise the
elective franchise to any purpose.
As a true American woman, we cannot regard the clamor which has been
raised upon the subject of woman’s rights with the entire contempt it
has met in many quarters. There is an invisible current of sad and
mournful facts underlying this agitation.
If “material prosperity” is the key-note of Protestantism--as the
testimony of its own writers would seem to prove--the development of
material comfort and luxury is its highest expression. In all the
appliances, arrangements, and habits of our domestic and social life,
there has been a constant and alarming increase of expense during the
past fifty years. New fashions have been invented, new wants created
and multiplied, so rapidly that the supply, never exceeding the
demand, has altogether exceeded the means of a great majority of our
people. The few who were able to indulge in each novelty as it
appeared have gone to surprising lengths; while the many, whose
revenues were wholly inadequate, have strained every possible resource
to keep pace with their wealthy leaders in expensive follies. Crime,
bankruptcy, widespread ruin, and desolation have followed, of course.
Multitudes have been left in poverty, with all the habits, tastes, and
aspirations which wealth alone can gratify, and of these multitudes a
large proportion are women. Accustomed to affluence, they are
determined not to accept poverty--the synonym for _disgrace_ in their
circle--and eagerly cast about them for some avenue of escape. Hence
the frantic efforts to obtain entrance into new paths, hitherto
untrodden by woman, for securing the object of their ambition.
Woman has a right to be all that her Maker designed when he created
her as a “help” to man. He is not of more importance to society in his
own place than she in hers. He would not render himself more
ridiculous by forsaking his own duties and avocations for the care of
the household, the kitchen, and the nursery, than she would by
abandoning these for the public employments of men. The present state
of affairs is sufficiently deplorable, but I do not see how such an
exchange would mend the matter. Nor can we see any remedy, but by
returning to old-fashioned ways. Very comfortable ways they were, too,
however disdainfully the Flora McFlimsys of modern times may toss 469
their pretty befrizzled heads at the mere mention of them.
What sensible woman would not prefer the happy solitude of a Eugénie
de Guérin--whereof her pen discourseth so eloquently that even the
chickens fed by her hand seem to the reader like birds-of-paradise--in
her beloved Cayla, to all the magnificent bleakness, splendid
miseries, and heart-burning rivalries too often enclosed within the
walls of a palace on the Fifth Avenue?
There are still further causes of uneasiness for women.
Twenty-four years of security in Catholic certainties, and in the
enjoyment of such countless consolations as flow from the acceptance
of Catholic verities and guidance, have not obliterated from our
memory the discomforts formerly experienced from some of these.
American women cannot abide the patronizing and condescending tone
assumed by the men of society toward them. For our own part, the air
of lofty contempt for which it was exchanged after our profession of
the Catholic faith was truly refreshing in comparison. They want no
such ostentatious toleration. They glory in the consciousness that
woman may claim as inalienable a right to be sharply criticised as men
enjoy, and have no thanks for such forbearance and namby-pamby
nonsense as would be extended to a spoiled child. Nor would men offer
it, if they possessed the robust hardihood and manly frankness of
their grandfathers.
These women, many of them intelligent and thoughtful, are restless
with an unrest which comes from being tossed upon the heaving waves of
vague uncertainty from point to point, without the power to attain any
fixed position.
Men regard their efforts to gain _terra firma_ with a blending of pity
and contempt--in which the contempt is ill concealed and largely
predominates--and the question whether a party rope shall be thrown
out to draw them ashore, only to offer them before the car of some new
political Juggernaut, hangs in the balance. Woe to the women of
America should that question be decided in the affirmative!
In all the perplexing “changes and chances of this mortal life,” it is
much to stand upon the firm basis of a well-defined and secure
position, with the assurance that, so long as one is true to the
duties and requirements of that position, a power fully competent to
sustain its own guarantees is pledged to shield and protect it in
every exigency.
This is the situation in which the Catholic woman is placed at the
present juncture. She occupies an elevated standpoint, from which she
can watch with great serenity and confidence all the strifes and
agitations, moral, social, and political, that convulse this
nineteenth century. She knows that the firm and consistent action of
the church of Christ, as the champion and protector of woman’s rights,
from the period of its first establishment to the present time, is a
sufficient assurance of its future course; and she need not fear that
an institution through which the Almighty sways the moral forces of
the world so potently as to bring to naught the raging of the heathen,
and render all the fractional efforts of Protestantism powerless, will
prove a broken reed to lean upon in the hour of danger.
But the church requires from her daughters a _quid pro quo_. Nor does
she leave them in doubt as to its character. Every duty of the
Catholic woman of whatever age, relation, or state in life is so 470
simply and clearly defined for her, that to mistake or err is
impossible, except through wilful dereliction: For the child,
reverence and submission to parental authority; for the maiden, humble
devotion to the plain everyday duties of home, and a modest reserve
that seeks the seclusion from which she must be
“Wooed,
And not unsought be won”;
for the married woman, respect for him who is “her head, even as
Christ is head of the church”; entire devotion to his spiritual and
temporal interests; and a loyal fealty to the sacred gift of
maternity, by which the First Great Cause brings her into most
intimate communion with himself; permitting her through its penalties,
as one of Eve’s daughters, to offer her portion of expiation for the
sin of that first parent, before his holy altar. For the mother, this
tender Mother of souls provides abundant consolations and counsels in
every hour of need, with measureless grace and strength to enable her
to discharge perfectly every duty towards the young immortals
committed to her keeping.
In no feature of the maternal care and solicitude with which the
church surrounds her daughters is the contrast with the cold neglect
and indifference of Protestantism more striking, than in the treatment
extended by each system to those women who remain in a state of
celibacy.
The condition of such under the Protestant _régime_ is truly pitiable,
and the very title of “old maid,” with rare exceptions, entails odium
and contempt more surely than moral depravity.
Hence the dread entertained by the girl in Protestant society for a
single life, and the universal impression that to be married is the
first great object of her existence. Alas! that escape from the sacred
but irksome duties involved in that step should too frequently be the
next!
Even mothers encourage their daughters in this view of the matter, and
enter into their conspiracies for securing husbands with misguided
zeal. Very little reflection is devoted to the question whether the
parties are suited for each other, or the mutual attachment
sufficiently strong to enable them to bear jointly the numerous and
inevitable trials which pertain to every state and condition of life.
The attention is chiefly directed to considerations of a widely
different character, relating wholly to pecuniary affairs. It is a
most singular fact, in connection with this phase of our subject,
that--the great _desideratum_ once secured--the young wife too
generally begins at once to regard and treat the husband whom she has
been so anxious to gain as the adversary to her interests and
happiness, instead of adopting the old-fashioned idea that he is her
best friend. Strange as it may seem, this is a very common mistake in
these days, and the source of much domestic discord and misery.
A lovely young mother--one of the fairest and most intelligent
specimens of the modern American woman whom we are so happy as to
know--said to us, the other day: “My boys are well provided for in any
event, and, if they were not, they could fight their way in the world
like others; but, I assure you, I shall bestir myself to make such
provision for my girls as will secure them from being ground to powder
by their husbands!”
This from a most devoted and exemplary wife, happy in a husband who
dotes upon her, was sufficiently surprising.
“But,” said we, “you would not on any account have your daughters 471
remain unmarried; and would you be willing to give them to men with
whom you would not trust their money?”
“Ah!” she replied, “I should prefer to rely upon their securing
respect and good treatment with plenty of their own money at command,
than with an empty purse.”
We sighed as we inquired mentally if it could be that our American men
were really becoming so mercenary, and, recalling the old-fashioned
doctrine of perfect community of interests between husbands and wives,
marvelled much whether families governed by such maxims, and homes
regulated from the start upon such a footing, would more abound in the
desirable elements of old-fashioned comfort than those wherein the
wife ruled, as of yore--yea, and supremely, too--by the old, old
fashion of _love_!
The Catholic maiden of advanced age has a place as secure, and a
sphere of action as respectable, in Catholic society as the married
woman, nay, the very spirit and effect of her religion is to ensure
for her increased respect on account of her vocation to celibacy. We
know of many beautiful instances where such persons are the beloved
and guiding spirits of households embracing all ages, and the
beneficent patrons of their neighborhoods.
If she is favored with a vocation to a religious life, how many homes
are open to her happy choice, where affection, honor, and countless
opportunities for the exercise of angelic virtues and charities await
her!
Verily, the Catholic maiden need not despair if she has no vocation
for matrimony! She knows she does better in remaining single than she
would in entering the married state without such vocation. These
questions are, therefore, made the subjects of long, serious, and
prayerful consideration. The Catholic wife enters that state,
forewarned and forearmed for all the painful trials and anxious cares
it involves, with the full knowledge that she can evade none of them,
however trying to flesh and blood or irksome to her tastes and habits,
and remain guiltless in the sight of the Arbiter of her destiny,
before whose tribunal she appears as often as she approaches the holy
sacrament of penance.
She takes up the tender and healthful delights of maternity with joy.
and bears its pains and penalties with cheerful courage and patience.
Already the Catholic mothers of America may glory in the fact that
their children will form a very large proportion of the future
citizens of our great republic. Let them, then, rise to the level of
their destiny. Let them see that those children are thoroughly
instructed in the principles of their religion. No station is so
humble and no lot so hard as to prevent the mother from teaching the
children God has given her, if she is earnest in her wish to do so. In
no way can her boys be better prepared for exercising their elective
franchise intelligently, and no one can deny that a woman’s suffrage
offered through a fine group of boys will be far more efficient than
her single vote.
Catholic women are inexcusable if they do not put aside the
allurements of the world, spurn the glittering kaleidoscope of
fashionable vanities, and, clinging with ever-increasing affection and
allegiance to the ancient and mighty Mother, who is their best, their
only sufficient, friend and protector, keep themselves aloof from all
the agitations that distract their less favored sisters in the
fruitless attempt to build up woman’s rights upon the ruins of her 472
ancient safeguards.
Woman’s suffrage--should they obtain it--will only betray their feet
into a political slough, and bespatter them with political defilements
from which none but an omnipotent power can rescue and cleanse them.
Woman has everything to lose and nothing to gain in this movement,
for, after all, men will manage affairs to suit themselves. The
Almighty pronounced no idle decree when he said to the woman: “Thou
shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over
thee.”
----------
EVER.
The steadfast gaze brings out the star,
That, like an eye
Set in the sky,
Its sweet light shedding from afar,
At morning dawn, and still at even,
The night alway,
And livelong day,
There twinkles ever, deep in heaven:
Thy constant prayer so reacheth Love,
That, like the star,
Seeming so far,
Its glad strength sending from above,
To youth’s fair dream, and memory’s smart,
To grief’s sad moan,
And joy’s sweet tone,
Aye burns for us, deep in God’s heart.
----------
THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 473
CHAPTER XIX.
HALCYON DAYS.
Having given their consent to Edith’s engagement, the Yorkes
immediately adopted Dick Rowan as their own. They were not people to
be friendly by halves. Even Melicent was propitious, and, when she saw
with what pleased surprise he met her advances, became still more
amiable. Clara, who lived in a rarer atmosphere, effervesced more
readily, and could not enough praise her cousin’s _futur_. Hester
insisted that he should leave the hotel, and stay at her house. She
was completely won by the almost boyish affection and respect with
which he treated her husband, his first and only former friend in
Seaton, and by his fondness to her children.
Mrs. Yorke, beginning by talking with, in order to study him, and know
thoroughly what sort of man she had promised her niece to, found
herself growing affectionate toward him, and not only probing his
mind, but unfolding her own. In after-years she remembered these
confidential interviews as an honor, which, at the time, she had
scarcely appreciated. The young man told her all his hopes and plans,
asked her advice in everything concerning Edith, and listened eagerly
when she explained to him the needs and habits of a delicately bred
lady.
“My poor mother is the only woman I have ever lived in the house
with,” he remarked; “and, of course, she was not able to be dainty.”
He said this rather sadly, but without a taint of humility. Mrs. Yorke
was impressed by the dignity of that character which would not be
ashamed of anything but its own wrong-doing.
One confidence led to another, and Dick was afterward surprised on
recollecting that he had related the story of his whole life to
Edith’s aunt, and spoken more freely to her of his early struggles and
sufferings than even to Edith herself. Not only this; but, seeing
tears in her eyes when he told of his father’s despairing efforts to
reform himself, and hearing the pitying word she spoke for him whom
others had mocked, he told her the end of it all, and where that
father’s desolate grave had been made.
“You poor, dear boy!” she exclaimed, holding out her kind hand to him,
“I don’t wonder that Edith loves you!”
“I do not pretend to understand the designs of God,” Dick said
unsteadily. “When I think of my father, all is a mystery. But for
myself, I think I can see that suffering was good. My nature is to go
straight to any end which I propose to myself, without much regard for
the wishes of others, and no regard for ordinary obstacles. I might
have been cruel, I should have been selfish; but suffering has taught
me to be more tender of other people.”
“Yes,” Mrs. Yorke said; and, recollecting her own early trials,
thought that they had helped her to be more pitiful of his.
Then, led on by her sympathy for him, she told her own past, there on 474
the spot where it had occurred.
These confidences drew the two together, and formed a bond which was
never broken.
A man’s manliness can scarcely bear a severer test than when he
becomes the pet of woman. One is sometimes astonished to see how
characters, apparently fine, deteriorate under that insidious
influence. But Dick Rowan was too grateful and modest, and too little
selfish or vain, to be injured.
“He is not quite like us,” Mrs. Yorke said, “but he is more natural
and original, and is, altogether, a remarkable young man. Edith has
reason to be proud of his homage. He certainly behaves exquisitely
toward her.”
Mr. Yorke, refusing to be influenced by feminine raptures, was fain to
take the young man out of the house, in order to talk with him
uninterruptedly. He displayed the improvements he had made in the
place, his avenues, now as hard as cement, his terraces, smooth and
green with turf of velvet fineness. There were vines here and there,
disposed for effect, like drapery in an artist’s studio, and many a
flower which bloomed now for the first time under Seaton skies. They
stopped at last beside a clover-plot, thick with crowded trefoils and
blossoms. Its surface was unsteady with bees, musical with a low hum,
and all the air was sweet with the breath of it.
“If I were not disgusted with Seaton,” Mr. Yorke said, “I should like
to spend my summers here, and carry out my plans for the place; but
when we go away, probably in October, I shall never wish to see the
town again. There is no security here.”
Dick leaned thoughtfully on the fence, and watched the bees come and
go over the clover, and took off his hat to shake his hair loose in
that fragrant air. “I think, sir, that Seaton may be in future all the
better for this trouble,” he said slowly. “The tone of the place is
low, I know that well, but it is in a fair way of becoming ashamed of
itself, and so, of mending. When people have wrong ideas, and stand by
them stubbornly, I like to have them go on, and find out for
themselves what their principles lead to. Conviction reaches them then
through their own experience, and so you hear no more about the
matter. It is, of course, a slow way, but it is sure.”
Mr. Yorke made a grimace, and quoted President Mann: “God Almighty is
not in a hurry, and I am.”
Carl had gone to Bragon. He went quite unexpectedly, the day Dick
Rowan came, and did not see Edith’s lover till he had been a week in
Seaton. He came home one evening after tea, when the young people were
in the cupola, looking down the bay, for the _Halcyon_. They waved
their handkerchiefs to him, and his mother ran out to meet him.
“My dear son!” she exclaimed, embracing him as joyfully as if he had
been gone a year. “I would not watch for you, lest I should be
disappointed. I pretended I did not expect you. But you may know what
a hypocritical pretence it was when I say that your supper is all
ready, though, to be sure, breakfast, dinner, and supper have been
kept for you every day.”
While speaking, she led him into a little northern parlor, which was
their summer dining-room.
Carl looked at his mother with a smile, but tears rose to his eyes. He
was not one to take even a mother’s devotion as a matter of course,
and just now he found it peculiarly touching.
Mrs. Yorke looked very frail and lovely as she sat opposite her son. 475
Her snowdrop of a face, the pale blue scarf knotted loosely about her
neck, with fringed ends hanging over her white dress, the fall of lace
fastened to her hair by a rosebud--all made a pretty picture. To the
inherent loveliness of the mother, she added the charm of the
exquisite lady.
“If you do not need that apostle behind your chair--” her son
suggested.
She immediately dismissed Paul Patten; and Carl was free to say, “Now
tell me the state of affairs. The engagement I take for granted; but
have I got to endure the spectacle of a pair of cooing lovers? I would
rather leave the country.”
For a moment Mrs. Yorke was too much occupied to give any reply but a
smiling shake of the head. Eating was one of the fine arts with her,
and she made a point of having the circumstances of that odious
operation as artistic as possible. Having placed an accurate square of
currant jelly on a glass plate, where it lay like a ruby block stolen
from Solomon’s hidden treasures, and filled a gorgeous Japanese cup
with coffee, into which she put a tiny cube of loaf-sugar and a
spoonful of cream, she was ready to speak.
“There is no necessity for any such banishment, my dear. Edith is very
friendly to him, but she surrounds herself with a fine reserve which
he could not break through if he would. I could as soon fancy a
gentleman approaching familiarly the Queen of Sheba. They are very
little alone together.”
“What delicious coffee!” Carl exclaimed, and immediately began to tell
some incidents of his journey.
When they heard the others coming down-stairs, they went to meet them.
Melicent came first, with Mr. Rowan, and all saw with pleasure that
the two young men met not only with courtesy, but friendliness. Carl’s
invariable, haughty silence whenever Dick Rowan’s name was mentioned
had given them some uneasiness regarding the meeting. Indeed, could
they have found fault with him for anything, it would have been for
what they considered this excess of pride.
The two passed on, Clara following, and, quite in the rear, came
Edith, alone. She was half-smiling, and came slowly down, step by
step, with a touch of feminine coquetry as innocent and natural as the
tricks of a playful kitten, lingering as he waited. Yet her bright
cheeks and shining eyes told that the approach was a delight.
But for some reason, Carl chose to be displeased all at once, and, by
a slight change of attitude and expression, to be waiting, not to
greet her, but to go up-stairs.
“Pardon me for being so slow,” she said, becoming instantly a
courteous lady. “I think I am getting old and dignified. The wings
have gone from my feet.”
The _Halcyon_ had come, and the Yorkes immediately made the
acquaintance of its master. Dick and Edith went down to the ship to
see him, and persuaded him to go home to tea with them. The big,
bashful sailor was not accustomed to the society of ladies, and had
the impression that there was something cabalistic in good-breeding.
But he found himself quite at ease with the family, after a while, and
was convinced that they were not aware of the few blunders he
committed in the first embarrassment of meeting them. Some diversion
had always taken place at precisely the right moment to screen him,
and soon his self-possession was quite restored. He left the house 476
that night highly pleased with his visit.
“They seem to me perfectly kind and natural people,” he said to Dick,
as they walked through the woods together. “Your Edith, it is true, is
rather grand, but in a sweet, child-like way, and Miss Melicent seems
disposed to be a little on the high horse once in a while, but not
much. I always thought that accomplished ladies were more airy, but I
don’t see that these do any great things.”
“True,” Dick answered; “but mark the things which they do not do.”
They were much together after that, and Mrs. Yorke and her daughters
went on board the _Halcyon_, and were entertained there. Carl had been
afraid to have his mother venture on board the ship, and had charged
himself especially with the care of her, but his solicitude was not
needed. He was both pleased and amused by the simplicity and
tenderness with which their gigantic host smoothed every smallest
obstruction from her path and spared her every exertion. There had
been a momentary flash of angry surprise when he saw his mother lifted
over an obstructing timber in Captain Cary’s arms; but the sailor’s
face was so absolutely anxious and kind, and Mrs. Yorke laughed so
merrily over the _naïf_ gallantry, that he instantly perceived the
folly of resenting it.
“My dear,” Mrs. Yorke whispered to Clara, “he is like one’s
grandfather, grandmother, and all one’s aunts and uncles, in one. It’s
a pity he hasn’t a wife, he would be so good to her.”
Clara blushed slightly. She had been thinking some such thought
herself.
The intercourse gave the Yorkes a fresh and novel sensation. It was so
different from anything they had ever had before, and, at the same time,
so pleasant. It came like a breath of pure sea-air into a warm and
scented drawing-room. They were not so mummified by convention that
they could not appreciate this simple, unconventional nature, in which
they found a noble delicacy.
Captain Cary listened with indignation to the story of their Seaton
experiences. An autocrat on board ship, and completely his own master
everywhere, he could not comprehend how one part of a community could
exercise such tyranny and coercion over the other. “It seems to me
that the Catholics must have done something out of the way,” he said.
“There’s usually fault on both sides, you know, though no fault would
justify such a persecution.”
“There is just the trouble,” Mr. Yorke replied, rather impatiently.
“It is so easy for people, who wish to be fair, and, at the same time,
not put themselves to the inconvenience of investigating, to say that
there is probably fault on both sides, and then fancy that they have
done justice. On the contrary, they may have done great injustice, and
have, certainly, rendered a careless and slipshod judgment. For there
are cases where the fault is all on one side, and other cases where,
though in the end there may be fault on both sides, the responsibility
really rests on the one who was the aggressor, and provoked the other
beyond endurance. I am not blaming you, sir; but I am always anoyed by
that off-hand way of saying, ‘There’s probably fault on both sides.’
If people don’t know, let them say they don’t know, and not give any
judgment at all. I do know, and I say that no provocation was given,
and the Catholics have been only too supine.”
“There have been times, Captain Cary,” Edith said, “when I have wished 477
that you were here. I know you would have been on our side.”
“That I would!” he answered heartily, looking at her with a kind
smile. The two were great friends. “And I would have left my mark
anywhere you told me to strike.”
“It was a shame to waste you on a merchant-ship,” Clara said to him.
“You should have been an admiral.”
The sailor gave one of his great laughs, which always made Mrs. Yorke
jump and flush. “We big fellows are not always fond of fighting,” he
said. “When I was a boy, I had two younger brothers about half my
size, and either of them was a match for me. I was so peaceable that I
was called Mother Cary’s chicken, and I believe it was that nickname
that first put it into my head to go to sea. No, I’d rather fight wind
and wave than men. I could attack a man if he were doing anything
absolutely wrong; but to kill him because he belonged to a foreign
nation, and carried a different flag, that would be too cold-blooded
for me.”
The two sailors, with Edith and Clara, visited the Catholic school,
carrying gifts for the children and encouragement to the teacher.
“You look so worn, dear friend,” Edith said. “I wish you would give
up, and come to Boston with us.”
The teacher shook her head. “I cannot give up,” she said.
Captain Cary complimented Miss Churchill in his own fashion: “We call
that a pretty sharp ship that will sail within four points of the
wind,” he said. “But I hear that you have been making way with the
wind in your teeth.”
“I have not made much headway,” she answered, smiling, “but only held
my own. I am anchored.”
Carl accompanied them up Irish Lane, on Sunday afternoon. They called
at several houses, and talked with and encouraged the inmates. It was
a help to these poor souls to have some one to tell their troubles to.
“But what shall we do when you are all gone?” they asked mournfully.
To them, the expected departure of the Yorke family from Seaton was a
misfortune second only to the banishment of their priest.
Their situation was, indeed, a cruel one. It was not alone the
contumely to which they were subjected, and the being unable to hear
Mass, but their sick and dying were deprived of the sacraments, and
their infants were unbaptized. Yet no harsh word escaped them.
Scarcely one seemed to recollect their persecutors. They were
suffering for the faith, and it was God’s will--that was their view of
the position. The instruments which God used to try them, they thought
but little of. Carl Yorke went home thinking that he had heard better
sermons that afternoon than he had ever before heard in his life.
Father Rasle’s continued absence was not voluntary. He would fain have
returned to his flock, in spite of Mr. Yorke’s and Miss Churchill’s
letters, but his superior added a command to their advice, and he was
forced to restrain his zeal.
“Tell my people that I never forgot them,” he wrote to the teacher.
“Every day at Mass I pray for their deliverance. It cannot be long
before I shall visit them. Meantime, let them give their enemies no
pretext for further injury.”
To Edith he wrote:
“Your desire to _act_ in behalf of these persecuted people is natural,
but I must forbid you. You may safely follow the advice of such good
people as Mr. and Mrs. Yorke. But do not fear that, because you are
inactive, you therefore are useless. I visited once, in Europe, a 478
spot where a temple had stood. Nothing was left of it but a few broken
fragments lying about, and a single beautiful pillar that stood alone.
Was that pillar useless? No; in its way, it was very eloquent. No one
could look upon it without trying to fancy what the whole edifice
might have been; and you may be sure that the traveller’s imagination
did its best in rebuilding that temple. So, now, you shall be the
little caryatid of the church in Seaton. You have the gift of silence:
use it. Be as obedient and quiet as that solitary column, and let the
world guess from you how fair must be that structure of which you are
a part.”
Edith turned from the window, where she had stood to read her letter,
folded her arms up over her head, and said to Dick Rowan, sitting
there, “Can you fancy me supporting an entablature?”
“No,” he answered; “for then there would have to be others like you.”
Edith blushed, and dropped her arms; for they were all looking at her,
and their faces, as well as Dick Rowan’s answer, reminded her that she
was beautiful. She gave him her letter to read, and went to sit on the
window-sill beside Clara, and listen to the talk of the three
gentlemen on the piazza. The two families were dining together that
day, and Mr. Yorke, with his son-in-law, and Captain Cary, were
smoking their cigars outside. Inside the window nearest her husband,
Mrs. Cleaveland sat in a low, broad arm-chair. A nurse in a white cap
had just placed on her knees Hester’s second son, an infant of six
months old. As it lay slowly and deliciously waking up, both nurse and
mother gazed down upon it with adoring eyes. Master Philip, this
baby’s predecessor, was hiding his face in one arm of his mother’s
arm-chair, being in temporary disgrace. Original sin was very strong
and active in this child. He was full of vitality and determination,
and just at that age when will is pretty well developed, and memory
and understanding still dormant--the age for childish atrocities.
There were moments when the child’s life was a burden to him, by
reason of the great number of things which he wished to do, and meant
to do, and could not remember that he must not do. He had a chronic
desire to pull out the baby’s eyelashes, “eye-winkeys,” he called
them, and to make it smile in season and out by violently drawing the
corners of its mouth round toward its ears. Whenever an infantine
shriek was heard, it was always understood that Master Philip was in
some way accountable. Another fancy of his was to poke holes in paper,
or any delicate and easily perforated fabric, with his plump
forefinger. He could have no greater pleasure than to seat himself,
with some precious volume before him, and go gravely and industriously
through it in this way, leaf by leaf, from cover to cover. There was,
indeed, a long list of indictments against this unhappy child. The two
little forefingers tied together behind his back, and a dilapidated
book lying on the carpet, showed plainly enough what his offence was
at this time.
In the background, Carl was telling marvellous stories to the
culprit’s half-brother, Eugene; and Mrs. Yorke and Milicent, in the
centre of the room, were coaxing some account of his adventures from
Dick Rowan. He had to be persuaded before he would speak much of
himself.
“Isn’t he magnificent?” Clara whispered to Edith, meaning Captain Cary.
The sailor had been describing an arrowy little craft, the 479
_Humming-bird_, in which he had once darted in and out of the Chinese
coast, smuggling opium in the very teeth of an English man-of-war.
Seeing the addition to his audience, he threw the end of his cigar
away, and moved his chair nearer the window.
“How I should like to be a sailor!” exclaimed Clara with enthusiasm.
Captain Cary leaned forward, with his arms on his knees, in order to
bring himself more on a level with the young ladies. “And how would
you like to be a sailor’s wife?” he asked.
Although he had the greatest possible admiration for Miss Clara Yorke,
and considered her by far the cleverest young woman he had ever known,
it would be safe to say that the thought of going any further than
that had never entered his mind, till he saw the flash of eyes and
color with which she received his question. The effect was electrical.
He straightened himself up again, and, in the first break of that
possibility, did not hear her saucy but rather tardy reply: “That
depends on who the sailor is.”
The man was confounded between terror, rapture, and astonishment.
Clara’s look had seemed to show that such a consummation was not
impossible to, at least, think of--that it had, perhaps, occurred to
her own mind. True, she was most likely to scorn the thought; but, for
all that, a momentary vision danced before his eyes of what his life
would be if he had a woman of his own to love and serve. That the wife
of his choice should serve him, never occurred to this generous soul.
He could at any time have married a common person, whom most people
would have thought good enough for him; but there was in his nature a
capacity for tender worship which made him shrink from such an
alliance.
Presently, Edith’s cool voice stole through the chaos of his mind.
“You can go to sea with Dick and me, Clara.”
The sailor started, and fell from the clouds. His face became
overcast, and, with a deep sigh, he seemed to renounce a
long-cherished hope.
With a laugh and a toss of the head, Clara rose from her lowly seat,
and, stepping out through the window, began to promenade up and down
the garden-walk. She saw through this great, transparent creature
perfectly, and was amused, and she knew not what else. One could not
be angry with the fellow, she said laughingly to herself. She had been
looking up to him with enthusiasm, as to some antique bronze or marble
Argonaut, or other hero of simpler times. Now that was changed, and
she was on the pedestal, to be worshipped by him. It was preposterous,
but not altogether disagreeable.
Meantime, Captain Cary was confiding his distress to Edith. “I hope
that your cousin didn’t think I was fool enough to dream of her being
my wife,” he said, looking down. “What I said was a slip of the
tongue, and I didn’t know the drift of it myself till I saw how she
took it.”
“Oh! never mind,” Edith answered. “Clara is always jesting, and
twisting people’s meaning. She knew you meant no such thing.”
He sighed, and said no more.
If Clara had expected the sailor to watch her, she was disappointed.
He went into the parlor, and when, later, she entered, brilliant with
exercise and mischief, he was sitting by Carl, and listening with as
sober a face to the stories that young man was telling Eugene
Cleaveland as if he were listening to a sermon. Clara passed near
them, to hear what it might be which produced such solemnity in the 480
man and such a trance of interest in the child.
“Then,” Carl was saying, “Taurus sent to the Great Bear to say that he
should like to have something out of the golden dipper about the
middle of the next month, for all the little stars would grow dim
about that time, and need something to polish up with. And the Bear
said, ‘All right! but the dipper hangs so high on the celestial pole
that you will have to pay me a good deal to climb up to it.’ And
Taurus answered, ‘All right!’ And then the Bears set slyly to work to
grease the pole, so that the dipper should slip down, and they get
their pay without work; and Taurus he set to work to push the dipper
higher up, so as to get more work than he had agreed to pay for; and,
meantime, all the poor little stars languished, and grew dim. And then
Orion got mad, and brought a lot of little dippers, and gave each of
the little stars a full one. And the stars grew bright and glad. But
the Bulls and Bears, finding that they were both beaten, didn’t feel
glad. The Bear began to bite his own paws, and the Bull went for
Orion, and tried to toss him. But Orion laughed, and put up his
shield, and called his dogs, and--”
“Upon my word, Carl,” says Clara, “I think you put the stars to base
uses when you set them to gambling in stocks. Have you told Captain
Cary of our projected sail down the bay?”
“Poor Clara!” Melicent said, joining them. “We are planning some
little pleasure-trip to distract her mind. You do not know, perhaps,
that the Philistines are upon her?”
The sailor did not understand, but looked so inquiring and solicitous
that Clara explained to him.
“I published a story ages ago,” she said, “and the editor of the
_Cosmic_ has just become aware of it. He found it lately among the
_débris_ of his writing-table. The authoress, he says, has shaken
up a few fancies in a kaleidoscope, and calls them life. They are
about as much like life, he adds, as Watteau’s shepherdesses are like
real shepherdesses, or as Marie Antoinette’s housekeeping at the Petit
Trianon, with ribbons tied round the handles of silver saucepans, was
like real kitchen-work. Still, he concludes, the story is amusing, in
spite of its pinchbeck ideal, and, when the writer is older, she will,
doubtless, do better. The musty old metaphysician!” exclaimed Miss
Clara, warming with the subject. “I once read a paragraph in one of
his articles, and found it comical. I had never seen any of the words
before, except the articles and prepositions. My first impression was
that he had made them up, for fun. I found them all out in the
unabridged dictionary, though. They were real words, but I have
forgotten what they mean.”
“So much the better!” said Melicent. And then followed a controversy
on the subject of learned women. Melicent denounced them as unwomanly;
but Melicent was neither a student nor well read, and there might be a
difference of opinion as to cause and effect in her case. Mr. Yorke
mocked _les savantes_; but Mr. Yorke adored a wife whose literary
acquirements were of the most modest kind, and he had once, in a
never-forgotten argument, been worsted by a clever woman. Captain Cary
was of opinion that clever and learned women were not fit wives for
common men. At that, Clara took up the gauntlet with great spirit.
Clever women did not wish to marry common men, she said. And there
were plenty of uncommon men who were not jealous of them. She disliked 481
all this hypocritical talk about the beauty of simplicity and humility
and submission in women. The real meaning of it was not Christian, but
Mohammedan.
“For me,” Mrs. Yorke interposed, “I think that some women should be
learned, in order to appreciate learned men. If the wife of a scholar
could not understand and sympathize in her husband’s love of books and
what they teach, she would soon grow jealous of them, and he would
miss what should be his sweetest homage.”
“Now, is not there an orthodox woman?” Mr. Yorke exclaimed with
delight. “The sole use she can conceive of a woman’s having for
learning is that she may be better able to appreciate her husband.”
Edith glanced past Carl, and looked with arch inquiry at Dick Rowan.
He was perfectly self-possessed, and spoke even with a slight air of
authority. “I believe the true superiority of woman to be in
religion,” he said; “and, if she has that, it is no matter whether she
is learned or not.”
“But is not your view somewhat ascetical?” asked Carl Yorke. “We are
supposing that this life is something. Looking at the question in that
light, I would say that no one has the right to dogmatize one way or
the other. Let each woman follow the bent of her own mind, and be as
learned as she will. I only stipulate that she shall not be
loud-voiced nor disputatious, but wear her learning with a grace, as
an ornament, not a weapon, though she may use it as a weapon when
there is need. I would have woman wear erudition, as Mrs. Browning
says men wear grief who have worn it long:
‘As a hat aside,
With a flower stuck in it.’”
“And while your erudite wife is gracefully adjusting her ologies, who
is to see to the bread and the buttons?” Melicent asked, rather
sneeringly.
“Oh! those everlasting buttons!” Clara cried out, and put her hands
over her ears.
“The servant, probably,” Carl replied to Melicent. “If a woman could
give some thought to those things also, well and good, but I should
not choose a wife for such a service. I would rather have her help me
to polish a sentence or pose a figure than cook my dinner or mend my
stockings, unless we were so poor that labor was absolutely necessary.
I should be ashamed to see my wife performing menial services for me.
I would as willingly see her at work in the field as bringing me my
slippers.”
Carl had scarcely time to see the look of beaming approval in Edith’s
eyes, before his sight and hearing were both temporarily lost in
Clara’s rapturous embrace. “You are perfect!” she cried, kissing him.
“You are of the progeny of Apollo! I am so glad to have that slipper
theory upset; for I never saw a woman bringing her husband’s slippers
for him without feeling a contempt for her. I don’t believe that any
one ever admired such a piece of mean servility, except the lazy Turk
who allowed it to be done for him.”
While they laughed at Clara’s enthusiasm, Dick Rowan said to Edith, “I
quite agree with your cousin. I mean all that he means, and more.”
“By the way,” Carl said carelessly, as he went toward the door, “I am
not Edith’s cousin, nor in any way related to her.”
CHAPTER XX. 482
THREE SONGS.
Captain Cary had been three weeks in Seaton, and was to sail in two
days for New York, where the _Halcyon_ was sold, taking Dick Rowan
with him. From New York, Dick was to sail immediately, on a three
years’ voyage, in the _Edith Yorke_. The captain did not say
definitely what his own plans were, perhaps did not know them himself.
“I did think of settling down on shore,” he said to Mrs. Yorke. “But
one person doesn’t make a home, and all my people are dead. I’d half a
mind to ask Rowan to take me as a passenger. He has a splendid ship.”
They were all in the garden that last evening but one. Edith sat on a
bench beside Melicent, and looked intently at Dick Rowan, who was
talking with Clara and Mrs. Yorke. She was thinking over all his
goodness, all his affection for her, studying his personal beauty, his
frank, bright face and athletic form, and trying to excite in herself
some enthusiasm regarding him. Carl stood near, listening to, but not
joining in, the conversation. She compared the two young men. Their
height, their form, were very nearly the same; but Carl had the proud
and measured tread of one bred to the parlor and the promenade, Dick
the free and springing step of the mountaineer. This was distinctive,
yet each had moods like the other. On the deck of his own ship, the
sailor trod like a king; and the man of the world could bound as
lightly up a steep, or vault as lightly over an obstacle, as though
his life had been spent in athletic sports. Dick Rowan’s eyes sparkled
like the ripples of his own blue sea, and looked _at_ people, not
through them; Carl’s careless glance could become piercing and keen as
a two-edged blade. It was useless to compare them, the one as direct
and transparent as a child, the other noble, indeed, yet subtle, as
one aware of the world’s ways, and guarded at every point.
“I must be very hard and cold,” Edith thought, finding herself
unmoved, in spite of her efforts. “Or, perhaps, it may be because I
have always known and been sure of him.”
Looking her way, Dick met that steady gaze, and flushed with pleasure.
If the expression was grave and regretful, what then? Were they not
about to part? He led Mrs. Yorke to her, and the others followed, to
make arrangements “for a sail they were to have the next day.”
“You had better wear dresses that wetting will not hurt,” Dick said;
“for you will be likely to get a little scud-water in your laps.”
“And, pray, what is scud-water?” Mrs. Yorke asked.
Dick explained that it was spray blown off.
“How pretty!” exclaimed Clara. “You may fill my lap with it.”
They separated again, and Dick was left with Edith.
“What shall I bring you from Calcutta?” he asked.
“Bring me Dick Rowan safe back again,” was the answer.
Both were silent a little while, then he spoke in a quiet voice: “Ask
God to do that, Edith. He has been so good to us, I think he will
refuse nothing.”
She looked at him wistfully. “Are you very happy, Dick?” 483
“Happy!” he exclaimed. “Dear, my very finger-nails shine! Edith, I am
so happy that I should be afraid, if I would allow myself to be. But,
no; I will trust God when he gives me joy, as well as when he gives me
pain.”
While they talked, Mrs. Yorke was walking aside with Clara, and
questioning her. “What is the matter with Captain Cary?” she asked.
“He has grown very sober lately.”
Clara laughed, rather consciously. “How should I know, mamma?”
Mrs. Yorke looked displeased. “I wish for a frank answer,” she said.
“What is the meaning of this? It isn’t possible that there has been
any trifling on your part!”
The girl blushed deeply, but told what little there was to tell,
including that unlucky question: “How would you like to be a sailor’s
wife?”
“He hadn’t the slightest personal meaning, mamma,” Clara added
hastily, seeing her eyes open with something like a flash. “He told
Edith afterward that it was a slip of the tongue.”
“Then why should not that have been the end of the matter?” Mrs. Yorke
asked, rather peremptorily. “You had but to assume that such a thing
was impossible, not to be thought of, and be just as courteous to him
as before.”
“But you see, mamma,” Clara replied, looking a little frightened, “it
isn’t as impossible as it is unlikely. Stranger things have happened
in the world, and will again, and the world is and will be no worse
for them. You know I have never been able to acquire the fine art of
assuming that ninety-nine facts make a truth.”
“My dear,” said the mother with precision, “please not to be
grandiloquent. Let us confine ourselves to the case in hand. Your
sublime generalizing has done you very little credit if it has led you
to disturb the peace of a good honest man, and put our own delicacy in
question. Coquetry is not only cruel, it is mean and vulgar. Of course
you are ready with the childish excuse that you meant no harm. That is
not enough for one who has arrived at years of discretion and has a
conscience. You must mean something one way or the other.”
Clara’s eyes were suffused with tears. “I think that you misunderstand
me, mamma,” she said in a low voice. “I was never in my life so much
pleased to have any one like me.”
Mrs. Yorke stopped, and looked at her daughter in astonishment.
“Oh! I know all that you would say, mamma,” the girl went on, half
laughing, half weeping. “He is a sailor, which is as if a bird should
say, ‘He is a fish.’ He has only a common-school education, as far as
books go, and he has none of our ways. But all that doesn’t make his
esteem any less worth having. Men of the world often give only a tame,
half affection, and are, perhaps, almost sorry when they are accepted.
They think of themselves, they think of a thousand other things: he
would think of me. When Edith sang, the other evening,
‘Oh! wert thou in the cauld blast,
I saw his eyes fill with tears. He would take all the roughness, and
danger, and hardship, I know. But men of the world are as dainty as
women. If they give us the inside of the pavement, and let us enter a
room first, they have gone the length of their chivalry. Then, there
is the effect on myself. In the society of such a man”--glancing to 484
where Captain Cary stood--“I should be gentle and feminine. But with
the wilted specimens of humanity I see ordinarily, I am in imminent
danger of becoming a strong-minded woman. One must keep up a balance,
mamma, and it is weak men make bold women.”
Mrs. Yorke sank on to a bench. “What do you mean to do? What am I to
think?” she exclaimed.
Clara laughed. “Don’t be afraid, mamma. If this Neptune should offer
himself to me--he will not!--I should refuse him, and then cry my eyes
out afterward. But if he should take me by force, pirate-fashion, and
run away with me, so that I could not help myself nor be responsible,
I should be delighted. Now, don’t say any more about it, please.”
Mrs. Yorke threw off her fears with a shrug of the shoulders. It was a
mere theory. It was one of Clara’s enthusiasms. “Well, my dear,” she
concluded, rising, “all I have to add is that I hope your admiration
of the rough diamond will not lead you to consume it in the blowpipe.”
And so the subject dropped.
“There is a party of Indians camping out on the Point,” Mr. Yorke said
to them that evening. “You might find it interesting to visit them
to-morrow. I met one in the woodland, this morning, cutting down a
tree for basket-wood. I asked him who gave him permission to cut trees
on my land. ‘It was all ours once,’ he growled out, and gave me a look
that I shouldn’t like to meet, unless I had friends near. I told him
to take all he wanted.”
The little sailing-party, only six with a sailor from the _Halcyon_ as
assistant, started early in the afternoon. The crew of the _Halcyon_
gave them a hearty cheer as they slid down past the wharf where she lay;
the fresh breeze, blowing off shore, smoothed the waves, and,
overhead, light clouds ran races with them. Out of one cloud, that
seemed scarcely a hand’s breadth, a shower of large, sun-lighted drops
came clattering down. In the midst of it they reached the Point, and
stepped out on to the rocky shore. A clumsy old Indian woman had just
kindled a fire, and piled brush over it. Not a spark was visible, but
thick white smoke gushed out through the green, curled over into a
shifting Corinthian capital, and rose into air, and in another instant
it topped a shaft of flame. The woman took no notice of the visitors
standing near her, but stood tossing twigs into the fire. Her face was
ugly, her dress careless, but her small brown hands and moccasined
feet were models of beauty. Two or three men were lying about lazily,
waiting for their dinner, and a mischievous little girl was weaving a
basket. She alone noticed the strangers, the others wore a look of
disdainful unconsciousness. The ladies talked with the child, and
bought baskets of her; the gentlemen made themselves acquainted with
the elders, and found them not insensible to the charms of tobacco and
coffee. Under these persuasive influences, their taciturn hosts
melted, and became almost friendly. Presently, another Indian appeared
from the woods, came straight toward them, and dropped a long string
of quivering, rainbow-colored trout at the old woman’s feet. A
whispered exclamation broke from the lips of the visitors as they saw
this dusky young Adonis. The Greek outlines, with more than Grecian
richness of color, the plumy, clustering hair, from which a few
raindrops slid as from a bird’s wing, the eagle eyes, the fanciful
dress, beaded and fringed, that air of superb repose and 485
unconsciousness which civilization only imitates, but does not
attain--all were fascinating and _unique_. He stood one moment as some
exquisite bronze, then stepped lightly over the springy moss, lifted
the fold of a tent, and disappeared. This was her brother, Philip
Nicola, the little girl told the ladies, and her name was Malie. Edith
gave the child an Indian prayer-book, prepared by their patlias; then
the party embarked again, spread their sail to the breeze, and sped
down the bay.
Dick Rowan, standing to unfurl the sail, sang out joyously, in a
clear, ringing voice, an old French song:
“‘Si le roi m’avoit donné
Paris sa grand’ ville,
Et qu’il me fallût quitter
L’amour de ma mie,
Je dirois au roi Henri:
Reprenez votre Paris,
J’aime mieux ma mie, oh, gay!
J’aime mieux ma mie.’”
Edith turned her head aside, and watched their sparkling wake subside
to a milky path. If she was pleased, no one could see. But as they
approached that low, sandy island that three of them had visited
before, she rose, and leaned on Dick’s arm, and gazed on it with him.
“God have mercy on him!” they whispered; and both Dick and the captain
removed their hats, and remained uncovered till they had passed by.
The others did not know what it meant, but they asked no question, and
soon all was gay again.
They landed a few miles down the bay, wandered awhile on the shore,
took their luncheon there, and sat to see the sun go down, reddening
all the water. Then a bright pallor succeeded, tingling with unseen
stars, and the bay became a silver mirror. The breeze went down with
the sun, and only a soft breath out of the south pressed their sail
as they started to return. Between two fleckless, transparent abysses,
they floated, as through ether, and might, it seemed, be drawn up or
sink down at any moment. The night deepened, and became a crystalline
darkness, with stars above and stars below, and then the east grew
radiant with a soft aurora.
As the light increased, they saw a speck on the water, and, leaning
low, Captain Cary espied Philip Nicola in a bark canoe, dancing across
the bay, skimming the water like a bird. The imp of mischief, or of
vanity, seemed to possess the fellow. He shot across their prow, so
near as almost to catch the foam it threw up, he zigzagged ahead of
them, he slid into their wake on one side, and flew past them on the
other. Lastly, he dropped far behind, and they heard him singing over
the water. The song was some wild chant in his own language,
piercingly sweet, and full of a barbarous pathos and power. As they
listened, convention dropped from them like a garment. They were
simple children of nature, and creation was full of mysteries for
them.
A golden splendor filled the east, a disk of burning gold showed above
the woods, and kindled their feathery tops, a crinkling flame ran
round every ripple of the bay, and their prow tossed off sparks
instead of foam. Then the moon sailed majestically upward, and made an
enchanted day about them. As she rose, the blue of the sky drew back,
like the fold of a curtain, and left a pathway of mellow light for her
feet.
Not a word was said by any one. The scene was too beautiful for
praise. Edith and Carl sat opposite each other, and Dick Rowan stood
between them, leaning against the mast, and looking down on that fair
head with its crown of braids. She leaned over the boat-side, and 486
trailed her hand in the water, nor spoke a word, nor once lifted her
eyes. As the water-lily, growing to maturity through unconscious sun
and dew, when its appointed sunrise comes, shines through all its
snowy petals, and opens to disclose another sun hidden within its
folded whiteness, so her soul, now its time was come to know itself
and be known, stirred through all its calm reserves and
unconsciousness at the sound of that savage chant. She forgot, for the
time, all that was cramping in her life, and had a new sense of
freedom and joy.
The song ceased. They neared the Point, and a path of crimson trembled
out from the camp-fire there and crossed the moonlight. Clara leaned,
and whispered to Carl. He hesitated a moment, then, with a gesture
that showed a sort of defiant resolution, acquiesced in her demand.
Carl seldom sang, and, when he did, it was for the words rather than
the music, and his style was that of an improvisator. He sang:
“The moon is climbing up the sky,
Back rolls the ether blue.
The folded roses stir and sigh,
With droppings of the dew;
The tide runs up to meet the stream,
And bear her to the sea:
Downward, as in a happy dream,
They’re floating silently.
“The slumb’ring deeps of life upbreak,
Our childish play is o’er.
The footsteps of the future shake
The lintel of our door!
Awake, sweetheart! thou giv’st to-day
A soul, and not a toy:
Wake! lest the child’s hand fling away
The woman’s crowning joy.
“Cast off the dreams of childish days,
Take on thy woman’s state.
Search thine own spirit’s deeper ways,
Ere yet it be too late.
The time is come for thee to give--
The time for me to take:
Lift up thy lids, and bid me live!
O woman’s soul, awake!”
Slowly Edith lifted her drooping head, her heavy eyelids, and looked
at Carl, and he looked at her. The full moon shone in their faces, and
they saw only each other, and were conscious only of each other. The
lily had bloomed.
Some sharp sound, like breath drawn through teeth, was heard, and
Melicent cried out, “Mr. Rowan!”
They looked just in time to see Dick’s white face as he staggered
backward. His eyes closed, and, before they could reach him, he fell
over the boat-side, with a heavy splash, and sank.
Captain Cary threw off his coat, and was overboard in a second, and
soon they saw him bearing up a pallid face on his arm. “Haul in sail,
and row ashore!” he called out, and himself struck out for the Point,
which they were close upon.
Philip Nicola met him there, and the other men came down, and, when
the party had stepped on shore, Dick was in one of the tents. Captain
Cary came out to meet them. “He has come to,” he said, “and will soon
be all right. But you had better go home. I will stay and take care of
him. He doesn’t wish to go up now.”
“I must see him, I shall certainly see him,” Edith said resolutely,
stepping forward.
“I wouldn’t to-night, Miss Edith,” the sailor replied, standing in her
way. “He doesn’t feel like talking.”
“I shall go in!” she said, and waved him aside, and went into the
tent.
Dick Rowan lay on the low pallet, with his face turned away and hidden
in his arms. Edith knelt beside him. “Dick!” she said, in an imploring
voice.
He started slightly. “Don’t speak to me! Please go home now,” he said.
“I don’t want to talk.”
“I mean to be true to you, Dick,” she sobbed, without rising. “I will 487
never see nor speak to any one you wish me to avoid. I will go away
with you this time, if you say so.”
His only reply was to bid her go. “Give me time to think,” he said, “I
will tell you afterward.” And there was no way for her but to go.
“I am going to walk home,” Carl said, and started off through the
woods.
When, the next morning early, they sent down to the village for news,
the _Halcyon_ had sailed, and Dick Rowan had sailed in her.
----------
BETHLEHEM.
Bethlehem--House of bread:[105]
Of the Bread that came down from heaven,[106]
“For the life of the world ‘tis given:
Eat of it,” Jesus said.
“Father,” he bade us pray,
“Give us this heavenly bread.”
“Ours” we must call it, he said.
“Give us it day by day.”
Knelt in the midnight cave
The shepherds and sages three--
_Theirs_ (do we envy?) to _see_
The Bread which the Father gave:[107]
_We_ in the faith’s broad day
Kneeling--nor once, but at will--
Take of that Bread our fill,
None “sent empty away.”
How should we envy _them_?
Yet as the grace the shame,
If but in boast we claim
The goodlier Bethlehem.
ADVENT, 1871.
[105] The literal signification of Bethlehem.
[106] John vi. 33, 51, 52
[107] Ibid. v. 32.
----------
THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH[108] 488
Dr. Hodge is an Old School Presbyterian, and a sturdy opponent of what
among Protestants is called the “New England theology.” He is a man of
learning and ability, and one of the most distinguished theologians in
the Presbyterian Church. If he has failed to reduce Protestantism to a
system, complete, uniform, and coherent in all its parts, it is not
his fault, but undeniably the fault of Protestantism itself, which is
not all of a piece, which consists of fragments only of truth, with no
genetic relation one to another, or connecting links, and which no
mortal man can mould into a systematic whole. What man can do with so
untoward a subject Dr. Hodge has done, if we may judge from the volume
before us, and, as far as our knowledge goes, his work is the least
unsuccessful attempt to construct a complete and consistent system of
Protestant theology that has as yet been made.
Neither our space nor our leisure permits us to review the entire
volume, or to discuss the author’s system in its several bearings; a
better opportunity to do that will be presented when we have the
completed work before us, of which only the first volume has as yet
been published. We shall confine ourselves for the present to a single
question, namely, the Protestant rule of faith. The author devotes the
entire Chapter V. of his Introduction to the statement and refutation,
as he understands it, of the Catholic, or, as he says, the Romanist
rule of faith; but as his objections to that rule and his supposed
refutation of it presuppose the truth of Protestantism, and are of no
account if the Protestant rule of faith is invalid or inadequate, we
need not stop to defend it, but are free to pass at once to the
examination of the Protestant rule which he opposes to it. If that can
be asserted and maintained as a rule of faith, or authority for
determining what is the faith God has revealed and commanded us to
believe, the Catholic rule is indefensible, or at least unnecessary.
The author is not very clear and definite in his statement of the
Protestant rule of faith. He says (p. 150), “All Protestants agree in
teaching that ‘the Word of God as contained in the Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments is the only infallible rule of faith and
practice’;” but from his assertion of the right of private judgment
and several of his objections to the Catholic rule, we may, without
danger of error, take the Protestant rule of faith to be the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, or the Bible interpreted by
private judgment--that is, interpreted without any public or catholic
authority--as the Protestant rule or standard of faith. But this is
rather the denial than the assertion of a rule, because it presents no
rule or standard to which private judgment must conform in order to be
anything but naked opinion. The Bible, even conceding its divine
inspiration and sufficiency, cannot be the rule or standard for
private judgment, if it is to be interpreted by private judgment, for 489
that would require private judgment to judge what the faith is, before
it has any rule by which to judge what it is. The Protestant doctrine
confounds the rule of faith with the place of faith, and private
judgment with individual judgment. In private judgment, the individual
judges by no objective rule or standard, and his judgment is purely
subjective, and is worth nothing even for himself; but an individual
judgment is not necessarily private, for it may be by a rule or
standard common to all men, what we call a public or catholic rule. A
judgment dictated by reason, or the reason which is common to all men
and the same in all, is not a private but a public judgment, and binds
all men to whose knowledge it comes as much as it does the individual
who renders it. Men may sin against reason as well as against faith.
Men are bound to exercise their reason, the reason common to all men,
in all questions submitted to reason or within its province, and are
bound to do so in interpreting the Bible so far as its interpretation
comes within the province of reason, and may abide by its decisions,
unless overruled by a higher authority--as the lawyer has the right to
abide by his own judgment of the meaning of a statute, or as to what
the law is, till the court decides against him; but private judgment
is a private opinion, and binds nobody.
Dr. Hodge holds that the Scriptures contain not all the revelation
Christ and his apostles made, but all that is now extant. But, even if
so, his doctrine only makes them the _place_ of faith; it tells where
the faith is, but not what it is. They may be the fountain, but they
cannot be the rule or standard, of faith. The rule is precisely that
which is necessary to enable us to draw the faith from the Scriptures,
and determine that it is the faith God has revealed and commanded us
to believe as his word. The Protestant rule as given, then, is no rule
of faith at all, and it is impossible to elicit by it an act of faith.
The author is too hasty, then, in setting aside the Catholic rule on
the authority of his Protestant rule, which, in order to be a rule,
demands a catholic rule of judgment, as he himself virtually concedes
(p. 127).
Dr. Hodge makes it a grave objection to the church that she does not
allow private judgment as a rule of faith; yet it is only as against
the church or Catholics that he himself allows it. When his aim is to
destroy Catholic faith or to detach Catholics from their fidelity to
the church, he asserts the unrestricted right of private judgment;
but, when he wishes to build up faith or to establish Protestantism as
a positive doctrine, he restricts it, and confines it to the
regenerate. It is not every one who is free to interpret the faith or
the Scriptures according to his own private judgment; but only those
who have been regenerated, and are enlightened and led by the Holy
Ghost. But even this does not help him, for he has no public or
catholic rule by which to determine who are or who are not
regenerated, and the individual himself has only his own private
judgment by which to test the spirits, and to determine whether the
spirit by which he is led is the spirit of truth or the spirit of
error. The blessed Apostle John tells us not to believe every spirit,
but to try the spirits, for there are many false prophets gone out
into the world. Now, what is wanted is an objective test or touchstone
of truth by which to try the spirits. This cannot be the subjective
leadings of the spirit, for they are precisely what is to be tested in
order to determine that they are from God, and not from the enemy of 490
souls taking the guise of an angel of light in order to deceive. The
learned professor, then, even with the restriction of private judgment
to the regenerate, and the assumption of the interior assistance and
guidance of the Spirit, though contradicting himself, gets no rule of
faith, and has at best only the place of faith.
The learned author is aware that the Bible interpreted by private
judgment is no rule, at least no adequate rule, of faith, and so he
seeks to supply its deficiency by tradition. He says, “Protestants
admit there has been a stream of traditionary teaching flowing through
the Christian church from the day of Pentecost to the present time.
This tradition is so far a rule of faith that nothing contrary to it
can be true. Christians do not stand isolated, holding each his own
creed. They constitute one body, having one creed. Protestants admit
that there is a common faith of the church, which no man is _at
liberty to reject, or can reject and be a Christian_” (pp. 113, 114).
This would seem to make the Protestant rule not the Bible interpreted
by private judgment and private illumination, but the Bible
interpreted by the traditionary teaching of the church or the common
faith of the Christian body. This, if it meant anything, would be
fatal to Protestantism. The author says (_ubi supra_), “Christians
constitute one body with a common creed. Rejecting this creed, or any
of its parts, is the rejection of the fellowship of Christians,
incompatible with the communion of saints or membership in [of] the
body of Christ.” It is undeniable that the Catholic Church included at
the epoch of the Reformation the whole Christian body, except those
cut off from that body as heretics and schismatics; and it is equally
undeniable that the Reformers or first Protestants did reject what was
then the creed of this body, or at least important parts of it, and,
therefore, did reject what our Princeton professor says “no man is at
liberty to reject, and which no man can reject and be a Christian.”
The Reformers, then, were not, and Protestants who held from them are
not and cannot be, Christians.
But the author would avoid this conclusion by making the tradition he
concedes mean nothing, or at least nothing tangible. When Protestants
speak of the common consent of Christians, he says (p. 115), “they
understand by Christians the true people of God,” that is, “the truly
regenerate, holy men, the temples of the Holy Ghost.” They understand
not a public external organic body, but an invisible and inorganic
body of believers, confined to no one external communion, that is, men
who belong to what Catholic theologians call “the soul of the church.”
Yet even these prior to Protestantism were, if not the whole body of
Catholics, in the Catholic Church, and held firmly, and more firmly
than others, the very creed, or the very parts of it, which
Protestants reject as Roman or Papal corruption. Even conceding this
restriction, the author would hardly be able to avoid the conclusion
that Protestants do reject the common creed of the true people of God,
for these true people of God, whoever they might be, were included in
the visible Catholic Church, and held its faith. But let this pass.
How is the Protestant to ascertain who these people are? Or how
ascertain what is their creed or common faith, if he does not
determine it by the creed publicly professed by the external or
visible church in which they are concealed?
Here is a grave difficulty, and much graver than our Protestant
professor would seem to regard it. The Scriptures interpreted by 491
unregenerate men, he holds, are no rule or criterion of faith; it is
only the private judgment of the regenerate, of those who are led by
the Spirit, that is to be heeded, and the common faith of all such,
the true people of God, is obligatory, and the faith which no one can
reject in whole or in part and be a Christian. But we cannot avail
ourselves of their traditionary teaching or common consent as a rule
of faith, or for the interpretation of Scripture, unless we know who
they are. But, as they are not an outward visible public body, but an
invisible, inorganic, and, so to speak, a private body, we cannot know
who they are without some rule or criterion by which we can
distinguish them from the ungodly, or from those who, according to St.
Augustine, are _in_ the church, but not _of_ the church. Hence the
difficulty. We must have, prior to the application of the Protestant
rule, another rule, a catholic rule, by which to determine and apply
it. We cannot use the Protestant rule unless we know what it is, and
we cannot know what it is without a prior rule for determining who are
the true people of God, the elect, and what is their common creed, or
traditionary teaching from the day of Pentecost down to our times. But
our learned professor has neglected to give us this antecedent rule,
without which the one he gives us is no rule at all. He gives no mark
or sign by which we can recognize the invisible people of God, and we
do not think he can; for we do not believe anybody knows or will know
who they are till the last judgment, when the secrets of all hearts
will be laid open.
It will not do here to refer us to the Bible for the rule by which to
ascertain them; for we must know them and their common faith in order
to obtain our guide to the sense of the Bible. We cannot take the
sense of the Bible to determine them, and then take them to determine
the sense of the Bible. It will not do, again, to say they are they
who are led by the Spirit, for it is precisely those who are led by
the Spirit that we wish to ascertain; nor will it do to appeal to
religious experience, for it is only the religious experience of the
true people of God that can avail, and that would be referring us to
the people of God to tell us who are the people of God. It would be to
reason like the poor Anglican, who makes orthodoxy the test of the
church, and the church the test of orthodoxy. “Jack, where is the
hoe?” “Wid de harrow, massa.” “Where is the harrow?” “Wid de hoe,
massa.” The Protestant, in any case, gives no more satisfactory
answer; for, with all his pretensions, he can only tell us that the
true faith is the faith held and followed by the true people of God,
and the true people of God are they who hold and follow the true
faith.
The author, as we have seen, says: “When Protestants plead the common
consent of Christians--the common faith of the Christian body--they
mean by Christians the true people of God. Romanists, on the other
hand,” he continues, “mean the company of those who profess the true
faith, and who are subject to the Pope of Rome. There is the greatest
difference between the authority due to the common faith of truly
regenerate, holy men, the temples of the Holy Ghost, and that due to
what a society of nominal Christians profess to believe, the great
majority of whom may be worldly, immoral, and irreligious.” But where
did the professor learn that the authority of the teaching depends on
the personal virtue of the teacher? How does he know that they who 492
recognize the authority of the Pope are only nominal Christians? or
that the Pope is not led and assisted by the Spirit in his office of
teacher of the universal church? Nay, how does he know, or how can he
prove to us or anybody else, that there are any of the true people of
God among Protestants at all? He must prove his rule of faith before
proceeding to apply it.
Dr. Hodge continues, on the same page (115): “The common consent for
which Protestants plead concerns only essential doctrines; that is,
doctrines which enter into the very nature of Christianity as a
religion, and which are necessary to its _subjective_ existence in the
heart, or which, if they do not enter essentially into the religious
experience of believers, are so connected with vital doctrines and
precepts as not to admit a separation from them.”
Here is the same difficulty again. What is the Protestant rule for
distinguishing among revealed doctrines those which are essential and those
which are not essential? Will the author tell us the essentials are those
doctrines which all Protestants agree in teaching, and that those in which
they do not agree in teaching are non-essentials? But who are Protestants?
All those who agree in teaching the essentials? Where is the hoe? With the
harrow. Where is the harrow? With the hoe. This would be only to adopt the
principle of poor Jack’s replies to the questions of his master.
But no. The essentials are “those doctrines which enter into the very
nature of Christianity as a religion, and which are necessary to its
_subjective_ existence in the heart.” But how determine what these
are, unless we know the very nature of Christianity? And how can we
know or determine what is the very nature of Christianity, unless we
have a rule or standard of faith? But the essentials are those
doctrines which “are necessary to its subjective existence in the
heart.” What doctrines are these? Have Protestants any objective rule
for determining them? The professor gives none except the Scriptures,
which do not suffice, because, as we have seen, the Scriptures are the
place, not the rule of faith, and what we are seeking is the rule or
authority for determining what is the faith they contain. Among
Protestants there is a very great diversity of views as to what is
necessary to the subjective existence of religion in the heart.
Schleiermacher, in his _Discourses on Religion, addressed to the
Cultivated among its Despisers_, maintains that only the sense of
dependence is necessary to the subjective existence of religion;
Twesten, as cited by the author, maintains the same, and that in a
subjective sense all religions are equally true, though not equally
pure; some Protestants place the essence of religion in reverence; Dr.
Channing seemed to place it in philanthropy, or in a sense of the
dignity of man; others in “self-culture,” in “self-worship”; and a
distinguished Protestant minister maintained to us, some years ago,
that a pantheist, like Spinoza, or an atheist, like Shelley, might not
only be truly religious, but a good Christian. There are thousands and
thousands in all Protestant denominations who, virtually at least,
regard the subjective existence of religion in the heart as nearly, if
not totally, independent of all objective doctrines or faith. Such is
at least the tendency of modern Evangelicalism, Bushnellism,
Beecherism, and from which even our author himself is not always free.
He makes, indeed, a brave fight for dogmatic theology or objective
faith, but his concessions to Whitfieldian and Wesleyan notions of 493
religious experience place him on the declivity to pure religious
subjectivism. All these have the Scriptures, and profess to take them
for their rule of faith and practice; but it is evident from what we
have said that the Scriptures are not a sufficient rule by which to
determine what are essentials and what are not. What rule, then, have
Protestants by which to make the distinction?
Dr. Hodge says, in refutation of the Catholic rule, which, by the way,
he does not correctly state: “Our Lord, in promising the Spirit to
guide his people into the knowledge of truths necessary to their
salvation, did _not_ promise to preserve them from error in
subordinate matters, or to give them a supernatural knowledge of the
organization of the church, the number of the sacraments, or the power
of bishops” (pp. 115, 116). Then, on these matters, the organization
of the church, the number of the Sacraments, and the power of bishops,
Protestants have no promise of exemption from error, and hence it is
quite possible that they err in rejecting the Catholic doctrine of the
church, of the hierarchy and the sacraments. But the professor’s
limitation of the promise of our Lord is not warranted by his own
professed rule. The promise, as recorded by the Evangelists is
unlimited: “But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you _all_ things, and bring _all_
things to your mind _whatsoever_ I shall have said to you” (St. John
xiv. 26). This is explicit enough. But, again, “But he, the Spirit of
truth, when he shall come, will teach you _all_ truth” (_ib._ xvi.
13). Therefore, our Lord said to his apostles, “Go ye, and teach all
nations ... to observe all things _whatsoever_ I have commanded you,
and behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the
world” (St. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20). This is a promise of guidance of
the Spirit into all truth, and of exemption from error, in anything
which our Lord has said or commanded.
If we were defending the Catholic rule, we should remind the author
that this promise was made to the _ecclesia docens_, and only through
that to the _ecclesia credens_; but, as we are not defending the
Catholic rule, we suffer him to apply it to what he calls the true
people of God. Yet, if he accepts the plain declaration of our Lord
himself as recorded in the Gospels, he has no authority for
distinguishing between essentials and non-essentials in the revelation
of God, and none at all for restricting the promise of spiritual
guidance and assistance to a promise of preservation from error only
in certain fundamental truths of revelation. The author must either
give us the rule or authority on which he makes the distinction and
limitation, or concede that he makes it by no rule, and, therefore, on
no authority.
Dr. Hodge tells us (p. 151) that “all Protestants agree in teaching
that the word of God, as contained in the Old and New Testaments, is
the infallible rule of faith.” He should have said _some_ Protestants;
for many who claim to be Protestants do not agree in teaching that.
Will the professor say that those who do not so agree are not
Protestants? By what authority? By the authority of the Bible,
interpreted by private judgment? But they have the Bible and private
judgment as well as he, or those who agree with him. Will he appeal to
tradition? But tradition taken as a whole condemns him as well as
those who differ from him. Then he must discriminate in tradition
between what is to be followed and what is to be rejected. But this 494
discrimination demands a rule of judgment. But what rule can the
author allege? Private judgment? But that is no rule, for private
judgment is by its very definition a judgment without any rule or
standard of judgment, and, besides, those who differ from him have
private judgment, and theirs is worth as much as his. Will the author
answer again--The tradition or common consent of the true people of
God? But who are they? Here, then, we are back in the old difficulty.
Protestantism moves always in a vicious circle; proving its rule by
its faith, and its faith by its rule. We see no way by which it can
get out of this circle. It is not only as a Catholic we have felt this
difficulty; we felt it as a Protestant, when we had the misfortune to
be a Presbyterian, like our learned friend the Princeton professor.
We are sure the fault is not the professor’s, for he doubtless sees
that he moves only in a vicious circle as clearly as we do, and no
doubt would come out of it and move forward in a straight line, if he
could. The fault is in Protestantism itself, which is essentially
illogical, and does not conform to the divine order or the truth of
things. The Reformers themselves started without seeing whither they
were going, and without seeing that the Catholic system, parts of
which they rejected, was a systematic whole, and that, if one part was
retained, the whole must be retained, and, if one part was rejected,
the whole must be rejected. This is what Moehler has so admirably
shown in his _Symbolik_. But the Reformers did not wish to reject the
whole; they wished to reject only a part, and in the beginning only a
small part. They wished to remain Catholics, _minus_ one or two
dogmas, and, after the condemnation of Luther by Leo X., _minus_ the
Pope and the Roman curia. But they were driven onward farther than
they intended, and farther than they foresaw or were prepared for.
They constructed no rule of faith beforehand, and adopted one only as
the exigencies of the controversy with Catholics made one necessary;
still, except on certain points, they continued using the old Catholic
rule. Hence their Protestantism was patched up with shreds of the old
religion, eked out by such new cloth as they were able to supply to
meet the pressure of the occasion. It was formed not all at once, nor
all of one piece. It was formed little by little in the struggle to
maintain themselves against their Catholic adversaries, and to retain
as much of what had always been the faith of Christendom as was
possible in the position they assumed. In forming it, they were much
more intent on demolishing what our professor calls “Romanism” than on
laying a solid foundation for a Protestant superstructure.
The simple fact is, the Protestant movement could find no solid
foundation except in pure rationalism, or, rather, in pure
individualism, in which every man is his own church, his own rule of
faith, his own law, and his own God--a conclusion from which Luther
and Calvin would have recoiled with horror, as recoils Dr. Hodge
to-day. The Reformers did not see, for they were, as all Protestants
are, sad logicians in matters of religion, whither their movement
tended, nor dream that one day they would be called on to show that
their religion rests on a solid foundation, or a bottom of its own,
irrespective of any relation to the Catholic Church, and when they
must prove that it is something besides a mere protest against the 495
Church of Rome. They thought they could throw off Rome and a few
dogmas, and still remain true Christian believers. In this they were
deceived; for they were too little for Christianity and too much for
its full denial. They retained certain positive Christian doctrines,
but they had no authority for them except the Catholic authority which
they madly rejected. Hence, when we press them for the authority on
which they assert these doctrines, they fall into the vicious circle
in which we find them for ever gyrating, and from which not even Dr.
Hodge can relieve them.
The author says (p. 104), “Romanists agree with Protestants in
teaching the plenary inspiration and consequent infallible authority
of the sacred writings.” But this is a mistake. Catholics do not
agree with Protestants, but some Protestants--by no means all
Protestants--agree with the church in maintaining the Catholic
doctrine of the “plenary inspiration and consequent infallible
authority of the sacred writings.” It is simply a Catholic doctrine
retained by the Reformers from the church, which taught it nearly
fourteen hundred years before Protestantism was born. The able and
learned professor, we are sorry to observe, forgets that the church is
some centuries older than the oldest Protestant sect, that the
founders of Protestantism had all been reared in her communion, and
separated from her. Protestants have undeniably no historical
connection with our Lord and his apostles, save through the Catholic
Church, or the church in communion with the See of Rome. Whatever
doctrines Protestants hold that the church always held and taught are
hers, not theirs; and it is a grave mistake to pretend that they are
Protestant doctrines. Protestantism consists essentially and solely in
those things which distinguish it from Catholicity, or in what is
peculiar to it and constitutes its _differentia_--in what it
denies that the church asserts, and it asserts that she denies. If
they have stolen some of her doctrines, that does not make them any
the less hers by right, nor give them the right to appropriate them as
their own. There is not a single doctrine which Protestants profess to
hold--which she teaches, and always has taught--to which they, as
Protestants, have any title, or which they can prove to be revealed
truth independently of her testimony and authority. It is disregarding
this truth that gives to Protestantism the appearance of being a
religion.
We return to the word of God as contained in the Old and New
Testaments. Before the author can assert the Scriptures as the
infallible rule of faith, he must settle, first, the canon; second,
the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures; third, the completeness or
sufficiency of the Scriptures; and, fourth, the true sense of the
Scriptures. Now, not one of these points is it possible for a
Protestant to settle independently of the witness and authority of the
Catholic Church, and Dr. Hodge confirms our assertion by his manifest
failure to settle any one of them on Protestant grounds. They are all
questions of faith, and not one of them can be settled prior to or
without the rule of faith; and yet on Protestant grounds they must all
be settled before the rule of faith can be ascertained and applied.
Protestants exclude from the canon of the Old Testament several books
called by some the Deutero-canonical books, which are included in it
by the Catholic Church, and even the schismatic churches of the East,
and they are far from being agreed among themselves as to what books 496
are or are not canonical. Some would exclude the Book of Ruth and the
Canticle. As to the New Testament, Luther had doubts, if our reading
or memory be not at fault, of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and that of
St. Jude, and rejected the Epistle of St. James, which he called an
epistle of straw, probably because it flatly contradicts his doctrine
of justification by faith alone; others have doubted the canonicity of
these, and, in addition, of the Apocalypse, the second Epistle of St.
Peter, the second and third of St. John, and that of St. Paul to
Philemon; others still reject the Gospel according to St. John, and
indeed the whole New Testament, except the Synoptics--and these, while
they admit them as authentic, they deny to be inspired. The Princeton
professor may deny these to be Protestants, but they have as good a
right to exclude from the canon such books as they judge proper as had
Luther and Calvin; and there is no rule by which he can make out that
he is a Protestant that will not equally serve to prove that they are
Protestants. The only rule available is Catholic tradition, and that
condemns him as well as them.
The professor does not rely on the authority of the Synagogue, though
he adduces it, to settle the canon of the Old Testament, for that
would be anti-Protestant; but attempts to settle it by the authority
of the New Testament. Such books as he finds a text quoted from by our
Lord or his apostles he assumes to be canonical and inspired; but such
as he does not find thus quoted from, he rejects from the canon. But
this is not conclusive, for the author concedes that our Lord and his
apostles said many things that are not recorded in the New Testament,
and how does he know that in those many unrecorded discourses the books
which he rejects as uncanonical, and which Catholics hold to be
canonical, were not quoted? Then, by what authority does he pretend
that a citation of a text from a book proves the book to be canonical
or the whole book to be inspired? St. Paul, at Athens, cites the Greek
poet Arrian, and in his Epistle to the Hebrews he manifestly adopts a
phrase and a sentiment from Plato’s _Republic_: must we therefore
conclude that the poems of Arrian and Plato’s _Republic_ are
canonical, and Arrian and Plato to be included in the list of divinely
inspired writers? Has the professor any assertion of our Lord or of
any writer in the New Testament that a Jewish or any other book cited
by him or by his apostles is canonical and divinely inspired?
Certainly not. St. Paul says in his second Epistle to Timothy, “All
Scripture divinely inspired is profitable,” etc., but he does not say
what Scriptures are or are not divinely inspired.
Then, again, as to the New Testament, the author concedes that, during
the first century and later, the canon of the New Testament was
uncertain. It, then, was not settled by our Lord or his apostles
themselves. On what authority, then, was it settled? Manifestly only
on the authority of the church, that is, of popes and councils. But
our Princeton professor denies the authority of popes and councils;
denies the infallibility of the church; nay, he denies that the
church, Catholic or Protestant, has any teaching authority, fallible
or infallible. The canon neither of the New Testament nor of the Old
is settled, then, by any infallible rule or authority. How, then, can
the professor maintain that Protestants have, in the Scriptures, an
infallible rule of faith? No fallible rule suffices for infallible
faith.
As Protestants are unable, without the authority of the church or 497
tradition, to settle the canon, so are they unable, without the same
authority, to determine what books are or are not divinely inspired.
The author contends that it suffices to prove that the writers were
messengers from God, and commissioned to speak or write in his name.
But that cannot be proved unless they accredited themselves as such by
their miracles, and not even then, unless the miracles are attested to
us by a competent and credible witness of them. Who or what, for
Protestants, is that witness? The Record! But the record may have been
forged or interpolated, and must, before it can be adduced as
evidence, be authenticated. How can the Protestant authenticate it,
except by showing that it has been carefully and vigilantly guarded
from the first till now by an official keeper with whom it was
deposited? Deny the church as the depositary of the record, as the
Protestant does, and there is no certain means of authenticating the
record, and then none of authenticating the miracles; then none of
establishing the fact of the divine commission of the sacred writers,
and consequently none of proving the divine inspiration of the sacred
writings, since inspiration is a supernatural fact.
But did it ever occur to our learned professor that he has, in order
to prove the inspiration of the Scriptures, not only to take the
authority of the church for so much, but to prove, before he can
allege the authority of the Scriptures, all the Catholic has to prove,
in order to prove the divine authority and infallibility of the
church? He must prove that our Lord and his apostles spoke and wrote
by divine authority, and that is all the Catholic has to prove. In
either case, the authority, whether of the church or of the Bible,
turns on the fact of the divine commission, which the Protestant must
prove in the very outset as well as the Catholic, and which he cannot
prove if he rejects the testimony of the church as the contemporary
and living witness of the facts. The church, having been founded by
and grown out of that commission, and continuing without interruption
from the apostles down to us, is herself the living witness of the
facts which prove the commission. She authenticates the record; but
the Protestant has, in addition to authenticating the record which
proves the commission, to establish the genuineness, integrity, and
authenticity of the sacred writings before he can infer their divine
inspiration and infallible authority, or use them as a rule of faith,
and not even then unless their writers expressly declare them to be
inspired, for it is possible for divinely commissioned men to write at
times on matters not covered by their commission.
But we are not yet through with the Protestant’s difficulties, if he
is to proceed independently of Catholic tradition. Supposing him to
have proved all this, he still has to prove the completeness or
sufficiency of the Scriptures. Dr. Hodge does not pretend that the
Scriptures contain all the revelations made by our Lord to his
apostles, but only what is now extant. “It is not denied,” he says
(pp. 182, 183), “that there may have been, and probably were, books
written by inspired men which are no longer in existence. Much less is
it denied that Christ and his apostles delivered many discourses which
were not recorded, and which, could they now be known, would be of
equal authority with the books now regarded as canonical.” But how
does he know that these discourses or the instructions they contained 498
are now lost, or that they are not preserved and as well-known and
authenticated in the traditions of the church as the canonical books
themselves? Furthermore, how does he know that it is not precisely in
these discourses which were not recorded that is to be found the key
to the sense of those which were recorded? The church has always so
held and taught; indeed, the author himself concedes that, at the
first, the whole revealed word, whether written or unwritten, went by
the name of the tradition, and the written tradition was not
distinguished from the unwritten. He says:
“In the early church, the word [tradition] was used in this wide
sense. Appeal was constantly made to the traditions, that is, the
instructions the churches had received. It was only certain
churches at first that received any of the written instructions
of the apostles. And it was not till the end of the first century
that the writings of the Evangelists and apostles were collected
and formed into a canon or rule of faith. And when the books of
the New Testament had been collected, the fathers spoke of them
as containing the ‘traditions,’ that is, the instructions derived
from Christ and his apostles.... In that age of the church, the
distinction between the written and unwritten word had not yet
been distinctly made. But as controversies arose and disputants
on both sides of all questions appealed to ‘tradition,’ that is,
to what they had been taught; and when it was found that these
traditions differed, one church saying their teachers always
taught them one thing, and another that theirs had taught them
its opposite, it was felt that there should be some authoritative
standard. Hence the wisest and best of the fathers [who were
they?] insisted on abiding by the written word, and receiving
nothing as authoritative not contained therein. In this, however,
it must be confessed, they [the wisest and the best of the
fathers] were not always consistent. Whenever prescription,
usage, or conviction founded on unwritten evidence was available
against an adversary, they did not hesitate to make use of it.
During _all the early centuries_, therefore, the distinction
between Scripture and tradition was not so sharply drawn as it
has been since the controversies between Romanists and
Protestants, and especially since the decisions of the Council of
Trent” (pp. 108, 109).
There are several inaccuracies in this passage. In the early ages of
the church, when controversies arose and contradictory traditions were
alleged, appeal was not made to the written word, but to the churches
founded by St. Peter, or by his immediate authority, that is, to
Antioch, Alexandria, or Rome, or to a council, provincial, plenary, or
œcumenical, as can hardly be unknown to so learned a theological
scholar as Dr. Hodge.[109] But two facts are conceded in the passage:
first, that the church for a hundred years or more had only unwritten
tradition or the oral instructions of its pastors as its rule of
faith; and, second, that the written and the unwritten traditions of
the word were deemed of equal authority by the wisest and best of the
fathers, and were not as to their authority distinguished, at least
not sharply distinguished, before the rise of Protestantism. The
professor, then, must prove that the whole church was wrong prior to
Luther in recognizing the authority of the unwritten traditions before 499
he can assert that the Scriptures contain all of the revealed word
extant, or maintain the completeness or sufficiency of the Scriptures
as the rule of faith. How will he do it, after conceding that they do
not contain the whole revelation that was made, nor even the whole
extant in the opinion of the church or the great body of Christians
prior to the rise of Protestantism? Does the written word anywhere
declare its own completeness or sufficiency, and that the portions not
recorded are of no importance?
But the difficulties of Protestantism do not end even here. The Bible
is no rule of faith except in its true sense, or as rightly
interpreted according to the meaning of the Holy Ghost. The author
says (p. 183): “The Bible is a plain book. It is intelligible by the
people. And they have the right and are bound to read and interpret it
for themselves, so that their faith may rest on the testimony of the
Scriptures, and not on that of the church. Such is the doctrine of
Protestants on this subject.”
But is it true? If so, how happens it that among Protestants we can
hardly find two, when left to themselves, without any parental or
pastoral instruction, who agree in their interpretation of the written
word, or as to the doctrines to be deduced from it? Yet the author
himself can hardly believe what he asserts to be the Protestant
doctrine on the subject is true. “It is not denied,” he adds (pp. 183,
184), “that the Scriptures contain many things that are hard to be
understood; that they require diligent study; that all men need the
guidance of the Holy Spirit to a right knowledge and true faith. But
it is maintained that in all things necessary to salvation they are
sufficiently plain to be understood even by the unlearned.” What! even
by those who are unable to understand a word of the language in which
the Scriptures were written, and must depend on the fidelity of
translations made by fallible men, and vouched for by no infallible
authority? By those who do not know how to read at all in any
language? Then how does the professor know what things are or are not
necessary to salvation? That the things necessary to the right
apprehension of the mysteries of the faith are not contained in those
very parts of Scripture which are hard to be understood, or that the
proper explanation of those parts is not necessary to the proper
understanding of the other parts, which he judges to be intelligible
even to the unlearned? The author here must either borrow from the
Catholic rule, which condemns his Protestantism, or else admit that he
has no satisfactory answer to give to these and kindred questions.
But all these questions are quite unnecessary, for the author
obligingly refutes his own rule of faith, and acknowledges that the
Scriptures interpreted by private judgment or by human reason itself
are not sufficient to give a “right knowledge of the true faith.”
Neither learning nor diligent study, nor the perspicuity of Scripture,
suffices; for “all men,” he says, “need the guidance of the Holy
Spirit in order to a right knowledge of the true faith.” This is
conclusive against the Protestant rule; and confesses that no man can
arrive at the knowledge of the true faith without the supernatural
assistance of the Holy Spirit. Let us hear no more, then, of the
Scriptures interpreted by private judgment, or of the ability or the
right of every individual to read and interpret the Scriptures for
himself and to form from them his own creed.
It is worthy of remark here that our Protestant professor is obliged 500
throughout to adopt the principle of the Catholic rule of faith, only
he applies it differently. The Catholic asserts the infallibility of
the Pope in matters of faith and morals by virtue of the assistance or
guidance of the Holy Spirit; the Protestant professor claims the same
infallibility, by virtue of the same supernatural assistance, for each
one of the people of God taken individually. But the Pope is a public
personage, all the world knows or may know who he is, and can recur to
him, and, supposing him to be assisted as claimed, all the world may
know from him the true faith; but in the Protestant sense there is no
public means of knowing who the people of God are, and, consequently,
no public means of knowing what the Spirit teaches, or whom he guides
or assists to a knowledge of the true faith, since he guides or
assists only private individuals, not a public personage or a public
body. It can be no public rule of faith, and, as we have shown, none
for the individual himself, for he has no objective and independent
rule for determining whether the spirit that leads him is the spirit
of truth or the spirit of error. The professor has refuted his own
doctrine in his refutation of the Quaker rule of faith. The interior
illumination, he asserts, is private, and can be brought to no public
or catholic test. Not the church, both because the church the
Protestant recognizes is invisible, and recognizable by no external
marks or notes, and because the church, according to him, has no
teaching authority or faculty. Not to the Scriptures, because it is
the test of the right understanding of them that is required, and to
take them as the test of this is to reason in a vicious circle.
Protestants, historically considered, arrived at their rule through
Protestantism, not at Protestantism through the application of their
rule, and the fact is, they cannot logically assert their rule till
they have proved or obtained _aliunde_ their Protestantism. They are
obliged to prove their Protestantism in order to prove their rule, and
they must prove their rule in order to prove their Protestantism. This
is a grave inconvenience. But, assuming without proof that the
Scriptures are the sufficient and only rule of faith, they conclude,
against undeniable facts, that the Bible is a plain book, and
intelligible to the people, to even the unlearned, as it should be if
intended by its divine Author to be the sufficient and only rule of
faith. They find their conclusion untenable, and modify their
statement, and say that their conclusion is true as to all things
necessary to salvation. But, finding no agreement among Protestants
themselves who take the Bible as their sufficient and only rule of
faith as to what things are necessary to salvation, they divide. One
class declares more or less distinctly that no objective faith is
necessary to salvation, and another class, in which is included our
author, asserts, while maintaining the right of private judgment, the
private illumination of the Holy Ghost as the rule for interpreting
the Scriptures, apparently not perceiving that they are in flagrant
contradiction with themselves.
The professor objects (p. 127) to tradition as the rule of faith that
it is not adapted to that purpose: “A rule of faith to the people must
be something they can apply; a standard by which they can judge. But
the unwritten tradition is not contained in any one volume accessible
to the people and intelligible by them.” This were a valid objection,
if the people had to seek through all history to find and verify the 501
tradition; but is no objection at all, if we suppose an infallible
teacher, always present, who preserves and applies the tradition for
the people. But does the Protestant escape his own objection by
rejecting all unwritten tradition, and making the Bible alone the rule
of faith, which is at least as unintelligible to the people as is
unwritten tradition explained and applied by duly authorized preachers
of the word?
That the Bible ought, on Protestant principles, to be a plain book,
interpreting itself to every person of ordinary sense, or who has
enough sense to be a moral agent, we concede, and Protestants should
actually derive their doctrines from it. But nobody knows better than
our author that neither is a fact. He knows that the Protestant
people, however much they may read and praise the Bible, do not form
their own opinions from it, but from their pastors or teachers, or the
community in which they are brought up. He knows, also, that the
people could never of themselves derive even the doctrines which he
holds to be essential and necessary to salvation from reading the
Bible alone. Unitarians and Universalists deny that the Bible teaches
them, and the people, as a matter of fact, take them from the
tradition of their sect, and at best only find confirmation of them in
the Scriptures; and yet such are the exigencies of Protestantism that
the ablest and most learned Protestant professors are obliged, in the
face of these facts, to say with Chillingworth, “The Bible, the Bible
alone, is the religion of Protestants.”
But Protestants should bear in mind that Catholics have the Bible as
well as they--had it ages before Protestantism was ever heard of, and
that it was from Catholics that they obtained it--strictly speaking,
from the church _stole_ it. How, then, can it be their religion any
more than it is the religion of Catholics? Catholics, if they have not
admitted it to contain the whole revealed word, have always held it,
before Protestantism and since, to be divinely inspired, and, as far
as it goes, the infallible word of God. They have always held that all
Christians are bound to believe whatever it teaches, and forbidden to
believe anything that contradicts it. This is all that Protestantism
can really say. The church contends that in no respect does her
doctrine conflict with the written word, and is in most respects, if
not in all, positively sustained by it. Suppose her as fallible as
Protestants confess themselves to be, what can Protestants have in the
Bible that Catholics have not? or what have they from any source that
can override the Catholic understanding of the Scriptures, or
authorize them to say that it is a misunderstanding? Catholics may
have more than Protestants, but in no case have they or can they have
less. By what rule or standard, then, do Protestants judge the
Catholic understanding of the Scriptures to be false and the
Protestant understanding to be true? Private judgment is no rule, and,
if it were, Catholics have private judgment as well as Protestants;
they have, too, reason, Biblical, historical, and all other sorts of
learning, as well as they, and, at least, in as eminent a degree. By
what rule or standard of judgment, then, is Protestantism to be
pronounced more Biblical than is Catholicity?
The professor says: “The people have the right of private judgment,
and are bound to read and interpret the Bible for themselves.” In
matters left to private judgment, in regard to which there is no 502
public or catholic rule, be it so. But, when the people have a public
or catholic rule, they are bound to judge by it, and the right of
private judgment ceases. Protestants either have such a rule or they
have not. If they have, they are bound to judge by it, and have no
right of private judgment in the case. If they have not these, they
have no rule or standard by which to judge, no rule of faith, and that
ends the matter. We beg the professor to understand that all this
Protestant rationalistic talk about private judgment is mere
moonshine. He may allow it against what he calls “Romanism,” but he by
no means allows it against what he holds to be the word of God. As for
the people being bound to read or interpret the Bible for themselves,
it is sufficient to ask what would become of the professor’s own
vocation if it were so? Were the people who lived before the New
Testament was written, or its several books collected into a volume as
the rule of faith, bound to read and understand it for themselves? Are
those bound to read or interpret the Bible for themselves who know not
even how to read? These are reckoned to be at least nineteen-twentieths
of mankind; shall they receive no religious instructions till they
have learned to read? What shall we say of those who--and they are the
bulk of mankind--obliged to toil incessantly to sustain their bodily
existence, have no time to learn to read, much less to study
diligently the sacred Scriptures, even if they could read? What are we
to say of children who are too young to read and understand the Bible
for themselves, and yet are old enough to sin? Can these all be saved
without the knowledge of the truth? or are they excluded by an
inexorable decree and no fault of their own from salvation? The fact
is, Protestants, whatever the fuss they may make about the Scriptures
and private judgment, adopt, in practice, as their rule of faith, the
Bible interpreted by the learned, or those they hold to be learned,
the rule Dr. Döllinger would force the church to adopt. Catholics are
not more dependent on the church than Protestants are on their
pastors. But as their doctors cannot agree among themselves, they have
no resource but to divide with their doctors, and divide they do, each
division following its favorite doctor, and founding with him a new
sect, which allows no private judgment against itself. Even
Unitarians, who believe hardly anything, tolerate private judgment
only when it makes for them, and are as intolerant of those who deny
anything they hold to be essential as an Old or New School
Presbyterian. The worst of it is that, while Protestants yield a
slavish submission to their ministers, they deny that their ministers
have any authority from God either to teach or to govern them, and,
like the old carnal Jews, boast that they are free and in bondage to
no man. The most degrading and debasing slavery into which mortals can
be plunged is that of Protestants to their favorite ministers, unless
it be that of the heathen to their idols or false gods.
But we are exceeding our limits. We have said enough, we think, to
show that Protestants have no independent rule of faith--independent
of the Catholic Church, we mean. In so far as they hold Christian
truth or positive faith at all, they hold it on the authority of the
Catholic rule, which they reject; and when deprived of what they stole
from us, and to which they have no right, they have nothing to prevent
them from running into pure rationalism on the one hand, or into 503
mysticism and transcendentalism on the other. The germs of both were
in the original Protestant movement, and may be easily detected even
in our Princeton professor. Into one or the other he must run, if he
ever gets out of the vicious circle in which Protestantism, pretending
to be Christian, necessarily gyrates, unless the grace of God relieves
him and enables him to return to the bosom of the Catholic Church,
where alone he will find true freedom and truth in its unity and
integrity.
[108] _Systematic Theology._ By Charles Hodge, D.D.,
Professor in the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. Vol.
I. New York: Scribner & Co. 1872. 8vo, pp. 648.
[109] If the written word had been regarded as the
sufficient and only rule of faith, there could have been no
occasion to appeal to apostolic churches or to councils to
ascertain the evangelical or apostolical traditions. It
would have been simpler to appeal to the written word
itself. The reason of the council, as its purpose, was to
collect by the testimony of the pastors of the several
churches what was the tradition that was handed over to each
by its apostolic founder, and which it had preserved. By
ascertaining thus by the testimony of each the traditions
common to them all, the controversy was settled. The
frequency of councils in the early ages proves that during
those ages, at least, Christians did not adopt the
Protestant rule of faith, and that they were by no means
Protestants. The pretence of the Reformers that they were
restoring primitive Christianity, primitive faith and usage,
is to be taken as a pretence only.
----------
DANTE’S PURGATORIO.
CANTO SECOND.
This Canto of the _Purgatorio_ is the one which contains that episode
of the music-master, Casella, to which Milton alludes in his
celebrated Sonnet to Henry Lawes, and perhaps all the more celebrated
from this allusion to the passage in Dante.
Casella was a dear friend of Dante’s, and used to set his _canzoni_ to
music, and sing them with a voice which it must have been delicious for
Dante to have made immortal. Dante supposes in the poem that Casella
had gone to Rome in the year of the Jubilee, and, coming thence by
sea, had perished near the mouth of the Tiber.
For Canto I. of this translation, see CATHOLIC WORLD for November,
1870.
Now that horizon whose meridian arch
Hangs o’er Jerusalem its topmost height
The sun had reached: while opposite, her march
Holding in countercourse, the circling Night
Walked forth from Ganges, bearing in her hand
The Scales that she lets fall with her advance,
So that the morning’s cheeks where I did stand
From white and red grew orange to my glance.
Beside the sea we made a brief delay,
Like lingering men, that on their journey dream,
Who go in spirit, but in body stay:
And lo! as when, surprised by morning’s beam,
Through the gross vapors Mars doth redly burn
Down in the west upon the ocean floor;
A light appeared--oh! may that light return--
So rapidly those waters travelling o’er,
That to its motion flying were but slow:
Then, having momently withdrawn my gaze
To question of my Guide, I looked, and lo!
Larger it burned, and seemed almost ablaze!
Soon from each side thereof, although I knew
Naught what they were, something appeared of white,
And underneath another of like hue
Little by little grew upon my sight.
My Master spake not: I meantime could spell 504
Wings in those first white objects at the side:
Soon as he recognized the pilot well,
“Behold God’s Angel!--bend thy knees!” he cried:
“Lift up thy palms to him--now in thy ken
See one of heaven’s high ministers indeed!
Look, how he scorneth all device of men;
He nor of oars nor any sail hath need
Save his own pinions (while he beats the air
And heavenward stretches those eternal pens),
From shore to shore so distant--plumes that ne’er
Moult like the changing tresses that are men’s.”
Then as more near and nearer to us drew
That divine bird, so grew the splendor more
Till scarce the eye could bear a closer view:
I bent mine down, and he arrived ashore
With a fleet skiff, so light upon the flood
That without wake it skimmed the water’s breast:
High on the stern the heavenly helmsman stood,
In aspect such as Holy Writ calls Blest.[110]
More than an hundred spirits in one band
Within sat blending in one voice their strains,
“_In exitu Isràel_--From the land
Of Egypt”--and what else that psalm contains.[111]
The sign of holy cross he made them then,
Whereat they bounded all upon the strand,
And he, swift as he came, sped back again.
The crowd that stayed looked wildly round, and scanned
The place like strangers coming to things new.
Now on all sides had Phœbus pierced the day
With his keen arrows, which so fiercely flew
That Capricorn was chased from heaven’s midway,
When the new-comers raised their brows to us,
Saying: “Show us the pathway, if ye know,
Up to the mountain.” Virgil answered thus:
“Perchance you think us dwellers here? Not so.
We, like yourselves, are only pilgrims here:
Just before you, and by another way,
We came, a road so rugged, so severe,
That climbing this will seem thereto as play.
The spirits, by my breathing who could guess
That I was living, wan with wonder grew;
And just as people round a herald press
Who comes with olive wreaths, to hear what new
Tidings he bears, regardless how they tread, 505
Thus gathering round, those favored souls eyed me;
Each one, as ‘twere, forgetful how he sped
Towards where they go, more beautiful to be.
One I beheld before the rest, who came
As to embrace me, with such look intense
Of love, it moved me to return the same.
Oh! save in aspect, shadows void of sense,
Three times my hands around his form I threw,
And thrice received them back upon my breast.
I think my face was tinged with wonder’s hue;
For the shade smiled as after him I pressed,
And, I still following, he so sweetly said:
“Follow no longer;” whose that voice must be
I knew full well, and begged him, ere he fled,
To stay a little while to speak with me.
He answered me: “As in my mortal part
I loved thee once, I love thee loose from clay,
And therefore stop; but thou--why wandering art?”
“My dear Casella, I come not to stay,
And must return where I am dwelling still.
But tell me what has so delayed thy bliss?”
“If he who taketh whom and when he will
Refused my passage oft, no wrong was this,”
The shade replied: “To Heaven’s his choice conforms:
These three months freely he hath carried o’er,
At their own pleasure, the peace-parted swarms:
Whence I, too, coasting homeward by the shore,
Where Tiber’s waves grow salt, with gracious hand
Was gathered. Titherward he now has gone,
Bending his pinions towards the sacred strand
Where all those meet who seek not Acheron.”
Then I: “Unless the new laws here forbid
Memory or use of that love-laden style
Which all my longings once full gently chid,
Soothe with one song, beseech thee, for awhile
This soul of mine, which, dragging here its clay,
Is so worn out.” Directly he began
“_Love reasons with me_,” in so sweet a way
That the same sweetness I could hear--I can.
We stood, my Master and myself, as though
Naught else possessed us, and that shadowy swarm,
Rapt, listening round him to his notes: and lo!
That noble old man’s venerable form[112]
Came crying: “How now, tardy spirits--why 506
This negligence? why lingering do ye plod?
Run to the mountain, that from every eye
The scales may fall that seal your sight from God.”
As doves in barley, gathering grain or tares
(Busy at pasture in a single flock,
Quiet, nor showing their accustomed airs),
If aught approach the timid tribe to shock,
Fly from their food, assailed by greater care,
So quit the song this new-come troop, and started
Hillward, like one who goes unknowing where:
And with no less a pace we, too, departed.
[110] “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God.”
[111] Psalm cxiv.
[112] The spirit of Cato of Utica, introduced in the First
Canto.
----------
THE LATE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
The doings of a body so large, and in a worldly point of view so
respectable, as the Episcopal Church, ought to be of some consequence
to the public. Unfortunately, however, the negative character of its
legislation prevents it from reaching the wants of the day, or
speaking to the heart of a restless age which is bent on physical
progress. The gentlemen who form the convention meet together every
three years, and spend three weeks in moving the interesting machinery
of legislation, without doing anything whatever, and in disappointing
every one who asks for a positive statement in matters of doctrine or
discipline. Their body is formed after the plan of the United States
Congress, and has no counterpart in any period of ecclesiastical
history. The bishops form the upper house or senate, and the clerical
and lay deputies constitute the lower or more popular house, one half
of which is composed of ministers and one half of laymen. Each house
acts as a restraint upon the other, and no law can be passed without
the agreement of the two branches. The bishops might be disposed to
change the creed or make some new article of faith for their
communion, but they cannot do so without the consent of the deputies.
The same thing is true of the ministers in the convention. The laymen
have a veto upon their pastors, who in turn can tie up the legislation
of their flock. A negative lay-vote in the lower house will nullify
even the action of the bishops in council, as well as the wishes of
the reverend clergy. If, for example, the Episcopal body should
propose to pass a law on ritual, and the ministers were agreed to it,
the lay deputies could defeat it by an adverse vote. There is
something very peculiar in this equalization of ecclesiastical
prerogatives between ministers and laymen, which strikes the
unpractised eye as unique and strange. The constitution of the
Protestant Episcopal Church was formed, as we have intimated, after 507
the model of the American Republic. There is, however, no executive,
the presiding bishop being only a chairman of a meeting; and the power
of putting into effect the action of the convention lies wholly in the
convention itself, which has no existence after it adjourns _sine
die_. We believe, however, that the different dioceses feel bound to a
certain kind of obedience, the nature of which will depend upon
individual bishops.
In regard to the late convention, we have little to say, and yet some
good may result from putting on record what Catholics think of a body
of Christians which makes such large pretensions, and at the same time
is so utterly helpless, and useless as a teacher of truth. Our purpose
in this article will be accomplished by a brief view of the
impressions produced by this council upon the Episcopalians and the
world; by a consideration of what has been done negatively and
positively; and a few remarks upon the position in which the
Protestant Episcopal Church stands before mankind.
I. The impression produced upon Episcopalians, as far as we can learn
it from themselves, is very singular, and seems to differ with
different minds. The only satisfaction expressed in any of their
journals is that the convention did not do any more harm. The
_Church Journal_, of November 1, speaks of the “tomb of the Capulets”
to which so many important measures were consigned. “That vast
mausoleum,” it says, “well stored at the close of the session of 1868,
received a large accession in 1871.” It also terms the whole thing a
_fiasco_, and pitifully remarks that “the mind of the church must be
well informed in 1874 if we would not pave the way to another _fiasco_.”
“In the matter of tone, temper, and decorum, _with slight exceptions_,
the convention was worthy of the respect of the church.” There were,
therefore, exceptions in which it is not deserving of any respect. The
_Church Weekly_ rejoices that no great evils have come from this
council of their _branch_ of the one (_invisible_) church, and
attributes this to the good sense of the deputies, who generally were
“wise and conservative men.” “It was only by the _non-concurrence_ of
orders that action was not had on ritual, and in the form proposed by
the House of Bishops.” The same journal says that the bishops are
utterly unfitted for action on any of the subjects which came before
the convention. “They are chosen,” it remarks, “for any reason rather
than knowledge of _liturgies_, _ritual_, _canon law_, _or theology_.”
What these reverend fathers are expected to know we are left to
imagine, and it is a great strain upon our powers; for we are somewhat
bewildered by the observation “that they are chosen for their
practical common sense, which is American English for success in life.”
The _Christian Witness_ feels happy that there is “such elaborate
discussion on the smallest points, and that questions of order take
much of the time in their disposal.” The result, however, is not so
pleasant, because “the most important subjects are left to the end of
the session, when the haste of the members to return home cuts short
the discussion, and _dissatisfaction_ is the result.”
The _Protestant Churchman_ is the only paper we have seen which seems
really gratified. The convention did not do anything, but showed a
spirit which, if not quenched, will yet accomplish much:
“No one who was present could fail to be struck with some very
remarkable developments, the full significance of which does by
no means appear in what the convention actually did or left
undone. Although the convention did not pass any of the 508
proposed canons against ritualism, it is yet true that an
anti-ritualistic spirit was disclosed, which was entirely
unexpected, and in the presence of which scarcely any one, in
either house, dared to avow himself a ritualist. Although the
convention did not repeal the restrictive and exclusive canons,
still the evidence was most marked of the progress of liberal
sentiments. If the questions involved in these canons had come
fairly before the convention, we believe that the result would
have surprised every one, and satisfied those who have been
hopeless of favorable action.
“In our view, this convention has marked a transition period in
the history of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The old ruts have
been obliterated, and new paths of progress have been opened. It
is our profound conviction that there has not been a convention
for many years which has revealed a prospect so encouraging for
truly liberal and evangelical principles.”
The internal spirit of a legislative body is, however, hard to
understand except from its public acts, and when there are no such
satisfactory acts, honest observers may differ in their judgment. The
High Churchmen felicitate themselves that their tenets were not pulled
to pieces, while Low Churchmen see a _spirit_ which accords with their
sentiments, and so take courage for the future.
In spite of all these causes of happiness, the advanced ritualists
find much to complain of, because the bishops, _though apostles_, did
not realize their dignity, and the ministers, though _actually Catholic
priests_, did not seem to know it. Besides their ignorance of
“liturgies, ritual, canon law, and theology,” they were not reverent
in the house of God, nor did they seem to feel that they were, what
the _Churchman_ calls them, “apostles, occupied with the faith and
practice of the apostolic age, and framing their conduct and teaching
according to a model seventeen hundred years older than the systems
represented by Protestant names.” In church they seemed to forget the
“real presence,” and to be only polite and sociable gentlemen, very
glad to meet their friends of the nineteenth century. So says the
_Church Weekly_:
“Men and women seem too tired and excited for reverent devotion;
and not merely was loud talking and laughter going on at one end
of the building before the blessed sacrament was consumed, but,
within the very sanctuary, even bishops were seen exchanging the
courtesies of society with one hand, while with the other they
were holding the Lord’s body and blood. The truth is, there
cannot be proper reverence when a building which is during one
hour the scene of exciting debate and the arena of unrestrained
conversation is, during the next, devoted to what ought to be the
solemn worship of Almighty God. Nearly all the clergy and laity,
ritualists included, seemed at times to forget that Emmanuel
Church, though used as a convention hall, was a consecrated house
of prayer. Constant introductions, subsequent chattings, mild
flirtations with ladies, and the frequent use of opera-glasses,
did a great deal towards destroying reverence for God’s
sanctuary; and I could not but feel the evil habit engendered
there found its way into many of the churches in which divine
worship was held on the following Sunday.”
As for the impression produced upon the world, we can take the spirit
of the press, which has amused itself much in studying the science of
using words, and saying nothing, which the Protestant Episcopal
council possesses in the highest degree. Every one of the other
Protestant bodies has a distinctive character, and uses words
according to the received interpretation of the dictionaries. The
Episcopalians, however, sit upon the fence, and turn their faces now
to the north, and now to the south, and speak like the Sibyl, so as to
be on the safe side with every one. No one would venture to abridge 509
their liberty, or even laugh at their peculiarities, if they did not
pretend to be above their brethren, and ape the exterior of the old
church. Their phylacteries are many and large, and so not a few of
them carry a sign to prove that they are what they profess to be. In
spite of what the world thinks, they are _priests_ and _bishops_, and
theirs (O tempora, O mores!) is the only pure _branch_ of the Catholic
church. Their coats and cassocks beat us out-and-out, and they are
_Catholics_, the only true Catholics, while we are Romanists.
When we behold such a remarkable body, which claims, through its
ardent children, to be the most primitive and only pure church in
existence, we naturally are curious to find out what the doctrine of
this church is. Then, when it speaks enigmas, and has a language of
its own, with no published dictionary, we are somewhat bewildered.
Seriously, we think we have not exaggerated the sentiment of the
journals of the day. They are amused at the spectacle of three weeks’
work which has accomplished nothing, and at definitions of doctrine
which can be construed in two contradictory senses. We do not believe
there is a living man who can tell what the doctrine of the Episcopal
Church is, nor a single member of that communion who has any clear
ideas on the subject. Each one may tell us what he believes for
himself, but his private opinion is not necessarily the creed of his
church. If the Redeemer of men has left his religion in such hands, we
can only say that he has not shown human wisdom, and that his Gospel
will be of little use to mankind. Our further remarks will justify
these conclusions, and show that never since the creation has there
been a body with so great pretensions and so little foundation for
them. This is not because the authorities do not sometimes speak
plainly, but because the members of the church insist on interpreting
whatever they say according to their own ideas, and there is no final
tribunal.
2. With the exception of a few local canons on matters which have no
general interest, the convention, as such, has done nothing. We shall
try to give a fair synopsis of its doings, and let them speak for
themselves. As the _Christian Witness_ tells us, great attention has
been paid to points of order, and the rules for the trying of bishops
and ministers. This would lead us to conclude that either these canons
had been very imperfect, or that there are many and difficult cases of
delinquency. We incline to think, however, that there are not many bad
ministers, but that the wish to make laws and to speak on them is the
parent of all these emendations of their code. Very few of the
resolutions referred to the committee on canons have seen the light,
but are consigned to that “tomb of the Capulets” of which the
_Church Journal_ speaks.
The different dioceses in the State of New York have been desirous of
having a “federate council” of their own, and some action was taken on
this subject. Not much satisfaction has been derived from this,
because the journal most interested is acutely grieved. “It is sad,”
it says, “to think that what is called the mind of the church is not
yet ready for the _Provincial System_, or even a court of appeals. The
federate council of New York is granted sufficient power to keep it
from dying of atrophy or inanition, but we fear it will prove only a
sickly sort of existence after all.” The particular benefit of the
provincial system in the Episcopalian hierarchy we do not see; but 510
this is none of our business. Our sympathies are with those who want
it, and are unable to get it.
A joint committee of bishops and ministers has been appointed or
continued on _religious reform_ in Italy.
As far as we can learn, the labor of this committee will be very
arduous. They are to watch for Catholics and infidels in Italy who
turn Episcopalians. There are not many of these converts, but for this
very reason they will be all the more difficult to find and provide
for.
We would humbly suggest that a _branch_ of their _branch_ of the _one_
church be established there, with a bishop whose travelling expenses
should be prepaid, no matter what the cost may be. A committee in the
United States can hardly be adequate to this critical work, for if
there is no Episcopalian minister at hand when a man or woman is at
the point of converting, he or she may be gathered in by a sect of
Protestants who have no bishops. We should also have recommended that
this committee have power to act in Bavaria, especially as there is no
time to lose. Still, as our advice may not be understood, we do not
press the subject. Old Dr. Döllinger has valid orders, and so has poor
Father Hyacinthe, and might possibly be saved for the cause of
Episcopacy.
Another thing which moves us very much is the magnitude of the work
again thrown on the committee who are to seek for union with the
Eastern heretical churches. So little has been accomplished beyond an
exchange of courtesies that we fear the means are not adequate to the
end.
Anglicans have already signified their willingness to throw the
“Filioque” out of the creed, and to give up thus the doctrine of the
Trinity, but this does not seem to bring the two or four bodies any
nearer together. The Eastern churches still call the Anglicans
heretical, and say they have no orders, while in all humility they
prostrate themselves before the walls of Constantinople or St.
Petersburg, and ask for the smallest smile of recognition. We do not
think the committee have done their duty, and, as the prophet urged
the priests of Baal, we beg them to persevere. These venerable
patriarchs may possibly be asleep, or absent on a journey. If they
would ordain one of the Episcopal ministers, he would certainly be a
priest, and perhaps the American Branch might be ordered to adopt the
Russian Pontifical. It is very like the Roman, but then it could be
translated into English. The same doctrines are more palatable in
Russian or in Greek than they are in Latin, and the Eastern is a “Holy
Orthodox Church,” while the Roman Catholic Church is _schismatical_
and in great error. The Holy Orthodox Church, having anathematized the
Thirty-nine Articles, has touched rather severely the Anglican
pretensions, but our good friends here are able to bear more than this
without being discouraged. Before these words reach the public, we
trust the Episcopal Committee will have had the opportunity to wait
upon the Grand Duke Alexis and offer him Trinity Church for his
cathedral during his stay in New York. A _branch_ that has been cut
off from the parent trunk can be carried even some distance to shade a
sprout that comes out of the ground of its own responsibility and from
its own little root. “How good and pleasant a thing it is to see
brethren dwelling together in unity!”
At the next convention, we hope to hear something of the effect of the
regular resolutions which have been passed the last fifty years, and 511
to hear if the old _branch_ will at last recognize the new branch
planted by Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, and watered by
Luther and Calvin and their friends. A small casket containing the
ashes of Cyril Lucar might be carried in procession on this grand
occasion, still in the future, with a tablet bearing in bold relief
the canons of the Synod of Bethlehem.
We pass to another of the doings of the convention, which has our
unqualified approbation, accompanied only with the fear that the
project may not be successful.
We refer to “the revival of the _Scriptural diaconate_ of women,” as
the bishops call it in their pastoral.
The Scripture here alluded to is probably the ninth to thirteenth
verses of the fifth chapter of the First Epistle of St. Paul to
Timothy:
“Let a _widow_ be chosen, not under threescore years of age, who
hath been the wife of _one_ husband; having a testimony of her
good works, if she have educated children, if she have exercised
hospitality, _if she have washed the saints’ feet_, if she have
ministered to them that suffer tribulation, if she have
diligently followed every good work. But the younger widows shun,
for when they have grown wanton in Christ, they will marry,
having damnation because they have made void their first faith.
And withal being idle, they learn to go about from house to
house, not only idle, but tattlers also, and inquisitive,
speaking things which they ought not.”
The bishops do not say whether they propose to carry out these rules
of St. Paul literally, but they seem to “feel an earnest desire that
prudence and good sense may preside over every _effort_.” The
committee, whose report was substantially accepted, do not fix any
rules as to the age of the postulants, nor do they utter one word
about widows. They use the term “sisterhoods” in connection with
remarks upon “the Phœbes and Priscillas of apostolic times,” while
without explanation they condemn “the false and pernicious system of
the Church of Rome.” (A rose under any other name will _not_ smell so
sweet.) These sisterhoods are to be established everywhere in
hospitals and benevolent homes, and a central house or training school
is recommended to fit the candidate for the various works of mercy.
These sisters are to be without vows, and so free to come and go,
leave their various convents, and marry whenever they please.
The rule of obedience depends upon their own consent, and so they are
their own masters, even when they live in community. We confess a
great anxiety to see this system thoroughly tried, and to know, in the
course of a few years, how many will remain and die in their
conventual habit. Even if it fail, it is a step in the right
direction, and we are glad the committee did not rigidly adopt the
rules of St. Paul. For if they were restricted to widows over sixty
years of age, they might not find many subjects, and in this climate
the deaconesses might be incapable of much work.
The action of the convention in regard to _ritualism_ is so remarkable
that we hardly know how to describe it.
The bishops in their pastoral have something to say on it, which we
shall notice afterward. They, however, are only one-third of the
convention, and cannot of themselves pass any laws which shall have
binding force. It seems that, three years ago, when the matter was
discussed, a committee was appointed to examine the subject, and
report a canon or canons to be enacted which might produce uniformity.
This committee reported very plainly, and gave an opinion which can be 512
understood. They recommended a canon which should forbid all the
peculiar actions of the ritualists, such as “the use of incense, the
placing or retaining a crucifix in any part of the church, the use of
lights about the holy table, the elevation of the _elements_ in
holy communion for the purpose of adoration, the mixing of water with
the wine, the washing of the priest’s hands, the ablution of the
vessels, the celebration of holy communion when there is no one to
receive, and using any prayers or services not contained in the
_Book of Common Prayer_.” This recommendation was referred to a joint
committee, who, not being able to agree perfectly, brought forth as
the result of their labors the draft of a law which makes the rule of
ritual the _Prayer-Book_ and “the canons of the Church of England in
use in the American Provinces before 1789, and not subsequently
superseded, altered, or repealed.” Then, as few seemed to know about
these canons, it was determined to appoint a new committee to find out
about them, and inform the next General Convention. In the meantime,
all mixed questions were to be settled by the bishops in their various
dioceses, should it please them to interfere, or should any brother be
offended by excess or defect of ritual. The evident result of all this
legislation was to leave the whole matter just where it was before.
This canon did not, however, seem to please. Some of the members
wished to know what these “customs before 1789” were, before they
could intelligently act, and on a division of the house the project
was lost. Substitutes a little more decisive were offered, and they
did not meet with favor. The bishops, anxious as it would seem to have
some action taken on the subject, sent down to the deputies the
following resolution, which they had passed, and for which they asked
the concurrence of their brethren:
“_Resolved_ (the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies
concurring), That the following canon be adopted and enacted, to
be entitled Canon ----:
“The elevation of the elements in the holy communion in such
manner as to expose them to the view of the people as objects
toward which adoration is to be made, in or after the prayer of
consecration, or in the act of administering them, or in carrying
them to or from the communicants, and any gesture, posture, or
act implying such adoration, and any ceremony not prescribed as
part of the order of the administration of the Lord’s Supper or
holy communion in the _Book of Common Prayer_, and the
celebration or reception of the holy communion by any bishop or
priest when no person receives with him; likewise, the use, at
any administration of the holy communion, of any hymns, prayers,
collects, epistles, or gospels other than those appointed in the
authorized formularies of the church or under § 14 of canon 13,
title 1, of the Digest, are hereby forbidden.”
This resolution was put to vote, and lost by a small majority on the
clerical vote. The following proposition was then offered and adopted
unanimously, which, so far as we know, was the end of the matter in
the convention:
“_Resolved_, That this convention hereby expresses its decided
condemnation of all ceremonies, observances, and practices which
are fitted to express a doctrine foreign to that set forth in the
authorized standards of this church.”
A slight review of this remarkable action on the subject of ritual
will show that the bishops were anxious to pass a law against the
practices peculiar to the few good people who are called ritualists,
but that they were outvoted by the clerical deputies, and that nothing 513
has been done which will have any weight. For who knows what the
doctrine set forth in the authorized standards of the Episcopal Church
is? And who will determine when ceremonies contravene the doctrine
about which no one is certain? The Thirty-nine Articles speak plainly
enough when they tell us that “the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was
not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or
worshipped,” and that “the sacrifices of Masses were blasphemous
fables and dangerous deceits.” Yet we are told that these words do not
mean anything which could forbid the elevation and adoration of the
Holy Eucharist, or the private celebration of the sacrifice of the
Mass.
We are moreover informed that these articles are of no authority,
although confessedly they are the only creed which the Protestant
Episcopal Church possesses. So, when men can thus seriously argue, and
quietly look each other in the face, we despair of finding any words
which cannot be misinterpreted. So, as they say, with thanks to God
for his great mercy, our ritual friends will go on, and do as they
have done, interpreting the standards to suit themselves, and, above
all, taking advantage of that blessed _Use of Sarum_ which has been
to them a source of so great consolation.
Appropriately of all this, we give an extract from the _Church
Weekly_, regulating the order of service for the third week of
November.
[Column Header Key:
A = Day of Month.
B = Day of Week.
C = Concordance.
D = Observance.]
KALENDAR FOR THE WEEK.
+----+-----+--------------------------------+--------+--------------------+
| | | | | |Altar Color.|
| A | B | NOVEMBER. | C | D +------+-----+
| | | | | |Sarum.| Rom.|
+----+-----+--------------------------------+--------+-------+------+-----+
| 19 | S. | 24th after Trinity, | .. | Feast.| R. | G. |
| 20 | M. | [S. Edmund, K. M., | A[113] | .. | R. | R. |
| 22 | W. | [S. Cecilia, V. M., | C[113] | .. | R. | R. |
| 23 | Th. | [S. Clement, Bp. Rome, M., | .. | .. | R. | R. |
| 25 | S. | [S. Katharine, V. M., | C[113] | .. | R. | R. |
| 26 | S. | Sunday next before Advent,[114]| .. | Feast.| .. | G. |
+----+-----+--------------------------------+--------+-------+------+-----+
It must be observed that “Calendar” is spelt with a K, which is more
ancient, and that the “authorized standards” of the Episcopal Rite
have nothing about S. Edmund, S. Cecilia, S. Clement, nor S. Catharine
(spelt with a K). The “altar color” is also very useful, especially as
they give at the last column the Roman Rite. A friend of ours told us
of a very solemn marriage which he witnessed in Trinity Church the
other day. The Rev. Dr. Dix was the celebrant (as he thought), with a
deacon and subdeacon, all beautifully vested, and the candidates were
a young priest and a young lady, who in this most impressive manner
was to become his wife. Oh! what will the Greeks say to this? We fear
they will be scandalized, and that even the giving up of the
“Filioque” will not prevent them from staring with eyes wide open. The 514
priest said the nuptial mass, and the other priest and his wife
received the holy communion and the sacrament of matrimony. How does
this compare with the services before 1789?
We cannot, however, pass over the action and language of the bishops
in this matter. We suppose our Anglican friends will admit that
neither priests nor laymen are by any rule of ecclesiastical antiquity
allowed to judge in council on points of faith. This has generally
been left to the episcopate, to which, in union with its head, Christ
committed the government of his church. Now, for the advanced High
Churchmen it is a sad fact that the bishops of their church have
unqualifiedly condemned them. They have done this, first in the canon
which they passed and sent down to the House of Deputies, and,
secondly, in the language of their pastoral, which is the accurate
expression of their doctrine. We know that their words can be
explained away, but we respectfully submit that this time the attempt
to do so will be dishonesty. If these reverend fathers in God can
speak at all, then they have spoken. We give their words, and pray
they may fall upon the open ears of their children who bow down before
them as “apostles”: “The doctrine which chiefly attempts to express
itself by ritual, in questionable and dangerous ways, is connected
with the Holy Eucharist. That doctrine is emphatically _a novelty in
theology_. What is known as eucharistical adoration is undoubtedly
inculcated and encouraged by that ritual of posture _lately_ introduced
among us, which finds no warrant in our ‘Office for the Administration
of Holy Communion.’” They then go on to say that whatever presence of
Christ there may be is such as does not allow him to be there
worshipped, and that to adore the elements is “an awful error.” We
give an extract from a writer in one of our New York journals, who
seems, up to this time, to be honest in his understanding of his
spiritual fathers:
“3. There are bishops and--bishops; there are doctors
and--doctors. Here is the Bishop of Arizona, for instance, who
says that ‘that doctrine (eucharistic adoration) is a _novelty in
theology_.’ But there is St. Ambrose, whilom Bishop of Milan, who
says, ‘We adore the flesh of Christ in the mysteries.’ Here is
the Bishop of Central New York, who declares that ‘the doctrine
and the practice which it implies are most certainly unauthorized
by Holy Scripture, and entirely aside from the purposes for which
the holy sacrament was instituted.’ But there is St. Gregory of
Nazianzum, not recently, indeed, but most truly Bishop of
Constantinople, who used this expression, ‘Calling upon him who
is worshipped upon the altar.’ Here is the Bishop of Delaware,
who unites with the Bishop of Connecticut in saying that ‘the
doctrine and the practice which it implies are most dangerous in
their tendencies.’ But there is the poor Bishop of Hippo,
Augustine by name, who, unfortunately for his reputation,
committed himself to the declaration that ‘no one eateth that
flesh till he have first adored.’ And how many other bishops,
great and small, there are who have acted upon that dictum of the
misguided African, God only knows!”
His appeal is from bishop to bishop, and from doctor to doctor,
according to his own private judgment. We are pained more than we can
express at the malicious quibbles which distort words so emphatically
plain. We submit that, if Jesus Christ _is_ present in the Eucharist,
he _must_ be adored by all but infidels; and, secondly, that, if the
bread is his body, as he said it was, it cannot at the same time be
bread, since two substances cannot coexist in the same space. All
changes of words upon the terms “spiritual and corporal” are only the
unfortunate sophistries of a deceiver or of the deceived. If our 515
ritualistic brethren have any doubt as to the meaning of the bishops,
let them go and ask Dr. Smith, or Drs. Lee and Coxe, Potter and
McIlvaine. They will give a clear reply, we do believe.
We approach another and most important act of the Council of Episcopal
bishops which will certainly render this convention memorable for all
time. They have, in the most solemn manner, given their definition of
the term “regeneration” which is used in the offices of their church.
The Twenty-seventh of the Thirty-nine Articles was probably framed to
suit different opinions among the followers of the Reformation of
Luther. There baptism is called “a sign of regeneration,” though it is
not declared to be the instrument of regeneration, and may be only a
mere sign without the substance. But the Office for Baptism in the
_Prayer-Book_ is in no way equivocal. There it is distinctly taught
that the child baptized is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. According
to all the received acceptation of words and the doctrine of
formularies from which this office was derived, regeneration means the
new birth by which through divine mercy the child, naturally born of
Adam, is supernaturally born again of water and the Holy Ghost,
receives the new life of grace, and becomes really the child of God.
Such are our Lord’s words to Nicodemus, wherein he instructs him
concerning baptism: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Ever since the formation of the Episcopal Church the great majority of
her members have found the words retained in the baptismal service
onerous and out of place. For they do not believe in any such
doctrine, since they have adopted the heretical notions of Calvin and
Luther concerning the new birth. Only a few High Churchmen have ever
held to baptismal regeneration, yet they have had the language of the
_Prayer-Book_ to sustain them in controversy. One of the best and most
learned of the Episcopalian ministers, for many years professor in the
General Theological Seminary, taught that “regeneration” in the
baptismal service, by a special use of terms, meant only a “_change of
state_,” and that the doctrine that baptism was the new birth was
utterly untenable in the Episcopal Church, and contrary to the whole
spirit of its creed. The united voice of the bishops now comes to
declare the same opinion, and to make of the regeneration taught in
their offices only such an external change by which the child is
promised unto God, and, without any interior operation, is adopted
into the visible fold of Christ. We give the language of this most
remarkable definition:
DECLARATION OF THE BISHOPS IN COUNCIL,
OCTOBER 11, 1871.
“We, the subscribers, Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the United States, being asked, in order to the quieting of
the consciences of sundry members, of the said church, to declare
our convictions as to the meaning of the word ‘regenerate’ in the
‘Offices for the Ministration of Baptism for Infants,’ do declare
that in our opinion the word ‘regenerate’ is not there so used as
to determine that a moral change in the subject of baptism is
wrought in the sacrament.”
To this declaration are appended the signatures of forty-eight
bishops, all but two, we believe, of the whole of their hierarchy. Now
we were somewhat prepared for attempts to wrest the meaning of these
very plain words, but not for the flagrant dishonesty of some of the
High Church journals. Let us call things by their right names, and
speak the truth, if need be, in all sadness. We were not prepared to
hear that “the bishops were not asked nor did they profess to say 516
what regeneration means”; that in saying what it was not, they aimed
to give no explanation whatever of the word. We give two short
extracts, one from the _Churchman_, and the other from the _Church
Weekly_, which for candor and sincerity certainly deserve the first
premium:
“The object aimed at was ‘the quieting of the consciences of
sundry members of the church.’ It was not to give an exhaustive
definition of the word. Certain persons claimed that the term
might be interpreted to signify a moral change in the subject of
baptism. They knew that many would so understand it. And so the
bishops, being asked, stated what no sound churchman ever denied,
and no well-read theologian and respectable student of the
meaning of language ever denied, namely, ‘that the word is not so
used’ in that connection. The thing asked for was granted. The
object aimed at was accomplished, and those who represented the
unquiet consciences have acknowledged their grateful
appreciation.
“We can illustrate this point by a single example. Some readers
of the Bible may think that, whenever the word ‘day’ occurs in
the first chapters of Genesis, it must mean a period of
twenty-four hours. Common people have come to understand it in
that sense. Now, suppose that the question has been raised in
some Baptist or Congregational ‘Sabbath-school.’ The teachers
think a declaration from their pastor or bishop--if they please
to call him so--to the effect that the word does not of necessity
imply a period of time limited to twice twelve hours, would quiet
the consciences of some of their pupils who have studied geology.
Suppose the thing asked for is granted: are we, therefore, to
conclude that the pastor has pretended to give a definition of
the word ‘day,’ and to state exactly ‘what it does mean’? Shall
we speak of him as having ‘grappled with’ the creation question,
and yet ‘failed to tell a waiting’ Sabbath-school what the exact
time indicated by that word ‘day’ was--whether ten thousand
years, as some believe, or, as others think, ten million?”
“Alas! the House of Bishops have put forth a definition which is
_no_ definition! They pretend to define, and yet they do _not_
define! There is not a churchman, however ignorant of theology,
who does not laugh in his sleeve at this pseudo-definition, which
will have the effect, however, of making manifest either the
ignorance or the insincerity of ‘Evangelicals,’ provided that
they remain in the church. For, if the latter remain therein
after this, it must be either because they cannot tell a
definition from an evasion of a question, or because they are in
search of some excuse for not carrying out those boisterous
threats with which they have been for some time past making both
day and night hideous to all peaceful churchmen.”
The respect here shown to these right reverend fathers in God is
nearly as great as their honesty. Now, we insist that the new birth of
water and the Holy Ghost implies a _moral change_ of the most important
kind, and that even the forgiveness of original sin cannot take place
without such a change. We will take the words of the Episcopal
Catechism, and leave it to any just mind if regeneration determines a
_moral change_. There we are taught that the inward grace, inseparable
from baptism, else it is no sacrament, is “a death unto sin and a new
birth unto righteousness; for, being by nature born in sin, and the
children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace.” To be
made the child of grace surely requires a moral change, which the
bishops deny. They will, therefore, have to put out a new catechism or
a new dictionary. As for the quibbles upon the sense of the word
“determine,” as if the venerable prelates meant to sport with the
common sense of their constituents, they are too paltry to deserve the
notice of any respectable man. The plain fact is beyond dispute, that
the supreme authority of the Protestant Episcopal Church has formally
denied the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, which is contained in
the Catechism and Office for Baptism. In this they have only spoken 517
the real feeling and belief of the great majority of their religious
communion since the time of its formation. Of this wonderful
declaration, they say in their pastoral that “they have, with an
extraordinary unanimity, set forth a definition touching their offices
for the baptism of infants.” The declaration, they inform us, “was
made in the loving hope that many consciences might thus be for ever
freed from false impressions concerning the teaching of the church, as
respects spiritual religion and personal piety.”
We have no right to expect any accurate use of terms in the language
of those who, according to the testimony of many of their children,
know nothing of canon law or theology; yet here we have a plain
statement which admits of but one interpretation. The bishops at the
next convention may retract it or deny it, and individuals among them
may gravely say that they do not receive a doctrinal definition which
they signed. Stranger things have happened. The two who did not sign
it are, we are told, High Churchmen of the old, dry school, while the
hopeful abettors of ritualism have gone down under this cloud, from
whose darkness they can never clear themselves before an honest
public.
We pass on to notice the further action of the reverend prelates in
council, since to us ecclesiastics they are the only part of the
convention who are properly judges in doctrine or discipline. Having
denied regeneration in holy baptism, and the real presence of Christ
in the Eucharist, they have, with like unanimity, attacked and
forbidden, as far as they may, _private confession_. Sometimes, they
inform us, a soul is so burdened with its sinfulness as to desire “an
authoritative assurance of forgiveness.” This, however, in their view,
is by no means necessary, nor is it “the duty of Christians, or
essential to any high attainments in the religious life.” “Pardon,”
according to them, “is granted to any child of God, on his repentance,
accompanied by prayer, and reliance upon the promises of Christ, as
well as on the use of the means of grace.” What means of grace are
here intended does not appear. To make confession, therefore, “a thing
customary, not exceptional, enforced, not free, is to rob Christ’s
provision (what provision?) of its mercy, and to change it into an
engine of oppression and a source of corruption. History demonstrates
this, and the experience of families, and even of nations, shows that
the worst practical evils are inseparable from this great abuse. To
pervert the godly counsel and advice which may quiet a disturbed
conscience into the _arbitrary direction_ which _supplants_ the
conscience, is to do away with that sense of moral responsibility
under which every man shall give account of himself to God.”
This is not the place to point out the gross ignorance and prejudice
of the Episcopal bishops. They speak of what they know nothing, having
never confessed their own sins, nor felt the need of any
“authoritative assurance of pardon.” To assert a wholesale slander of
one of the most sacred institutions of Christ, hallowed by the
practice of three-fourths of all who call themselves Christians, which
is really the great source of the little purity left in the world, is
a fearful crime before heaven. We acquit them, therefore, in charity,
of the intention to slander, and hold them culpably ignorant. All this
is, however, beyond the scope of our present purpose. We have only to
say that they have forbidden, as far as their words go, the _ordinary_ 518
practice of confession, and that they deprecate it as “an engine of
oppression and a source of corruption.” It remains now to be seen
whether these counsels of the chief pastors of the Protestant
Episcopal Church are to be followed by their children who think them
to be successors of the apostles and fathers in God. Will the Right
Rev. Dr. Potter, who once published, as we have been informed, a
manual for the examination of conscience, to whom a prayer-book, with
directions for confession, has been publicly dedicated, now interfere
and put a stop to this great abuse? Will the handful of _ritual
priests_ in this city cease to sit in their pews or their libraries
to hear and absolve penitents? To speak our honest opinion, the words
of the bishops will have no influence whatever, and things will go on
precisely as they did before. We only venture to wish, for the sake of
propriety, that confessionals might be erected in all these churches,
where at least the female penitents might be heard. We assure our
friends that this advice comes from a good heart. If they cannot hear
confessions in public, they would do well for themselves not to hear
them at all.
The most reverend prelates go on to condemn “the tendency towards
saint-worship, and especially its culmination in the worship of the
Blessed Virgin.” “The bare suggestion that the intercession of the
Virgin Mary, or of any other saint, is in any way to be sought in our
approaches to the throne of grace, is an _indignity_ to the one only
Mediator and Intercessor which we, his _apostolic_ witnesses, cannot
too strongly nor distinctly forbid in his holy and all-sufficient
name.” Is this language plain enough for our ritualistic friends? Do
they think these words equivocal? They as _apostles_ have forbidden
any one to seek the prayers of the Mother of God or of any other
saint. To do so is to offer indignity to Christ, according to their
theology. On the same principle, Episcopalians must not ask the
prayers of each other, unless they wish to insult the one Intercessor.
The reason why the saints cannot intercede for us is that Jesus Christ
alone may do it. We cannot, therefore, suppose that living men or
women are in a different position in this respect from their departed
brethren, especially from the great heroes of Christianity. We really
blush at the stupidity of men who call themselves teachers and wear
episcopal robes, but it is not our business to criticise their
directions to their flock. We simply put before the world what they
have so plainly said. All invocation of any one but Christ is to be
stopped within their communion by their solemn decree, if, indeed, it
was ever practised.
From this restriction of prayer, they pass on to condemn the
devotional books which “have been insidiously multiplied of late years
in England and America, and are alien in their character to the whole
spirit of the Liturgy.” We presume they here refer to the translations
of Catholic books of devotion which have become for some time past the
pious nourishment of all the advanced Episcopalians. We have seen many
of these works ourselves, and have even seen the _Book of Common Prayer_
bound up with parts of the Missal, and preparations for communion and
confession taken from well-known Catholic authors. This, to say the
least, is an acknowledgment that their own church does not feed their
souls, and that they seek a life it can neither give nor support. This
alone ought to be sufficient to send them where they can find a 519
religious system according with their wants. Certainly they can do as
they like in the matter. They can put on all our vestments, and their
bishops may wear rings and crosses, and bear mitres and crosiers, and
they may cross themselves with the left hand, and bow down before an
altar which is only wood or stone. They may call themselves the only
Catholics in the world, and out-herod Herod himself, and quietly put
us Romanists in the shade. But we think the bishops are right to tell
them that all this is inconsistent with Episcopalianism, and that they
ought to be either one thing or the other. A man has a right _before
the law_ to play the Harlequin; but has he a _moral_ right to do so?
Is it an honest or fair thing to remain in a church and use devotions
and teach doctrines which it condemns? Much is said of “that liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free.” But can that be a liberty to
contradict ourselves, to profess to be what we are not, and to carry
private judgment to absurdity? We are forced in reason to commend the
advice of the bishops, and to say with them to our good friends,
“Gentlemen and ladies, if you wish to use Catholic books, be kind
enough to go where they belong. Please do not attempt to foist upon
our people a spirituality which is foreign to our Protestant
communion.” From our past knowledge, however, we do not believe that
the counsel of the reverend fathers will produce much effect. We shall
still as ever have Catholic books of devotion luxuriously bound (the
binding goes a great ways), “and adapted to the use of the _American
Church_.” For our own part, we hope that this will be the case, since
the recitation of our prayers, and the reading of the masters of the
spiritual life, may do much to lead souls to the one true faith.
3. A few remarks will now suffice to show the position in which the
Protestant Episcopal Church has placed herself by the action of this
convention. If we regard the whole body, including the laymen as well
as the clerical deputies, we can see how true to its birthmarks has
been the legislation of a communion which glories in the non-committal
character of its creed and profession. Two or three parties, with
views diametrically opposite, are thus kept together, and in the
diversity of opinions is the safety of the whole. When the Episcopal
Church begins to have anything like a faith, then will it fall to
pieces, and new sects will arise of its component parts. How long it
will go on holding together High Church and Low Church, Broad Church
and no church at all, we do not know. But this we think, its
Protestant character is now well established to all mankind. Not one
single link which could bind it to the doctrine or practice of the
past has been left. If it will not baptize itself with the names of
Luther, Calvin, or Zwingle, it can boast of no father or mother. In
the words of its Bishop Lee, if it is not a _Protestant_ church, it
disowns its birth, and has no right to be called a church. Through the
most solemn action of its supreme authority it has denied the real
presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the regeneration of children
in baptism, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of
confession. As for the ritualists, they have been handled without
mercy, and their whole system of faith and worship summarily
condemned. It will be of little avail to them to say that the bishops
only have pronounced a decision, and that the division of the clerical
and _lay vote_ in four or five dioceses saved them from a prohibitory 520
canon of the whole convention. Are the presbyters and lay deputies the
successors of the apostles, whom the Lord instituted to govern the
church of God? Who made the sheep of the flock the judges in
ecclesiastical causes?
We have no heart to believe that the condemnation of the bishops will
do any good with the majority of them. A few earnest souls will come,
one by one, into the true fold of the Good Shepherd, where a man has
to _receive_ and obey Christ, and not _make_ a religion for himself.
Yet we fear, and with sadness we say it, that no power whatever could
open the eyes of many. If their church should deny the Holy Trinity or
the incarnation of God the Son, they would explain away the denial.
Blow after blow with a rough hand has been given to these so-called
Catholics within the past few years. Many are not shaken, but in spite
of all the decisions of their councils and the admonition of their
pastors, they go on insisting on vanity, erecting an idol which their
own hands have made, and blindly falling down to worship it. Who shall
reason with men who have histories and even grammars and dictionaries
of their own? Who but God in his infinite mercy can roll away the
darkness of hearts which walk in a vain shadow and disquiet themselves
for naught, calling evil good and good evil? Here logic is wasted, and
the past, with its lessons, ignored, as if the Word made flesh had
never been on earth, nor quickened with divine grace our fallen
humanity. Fellow-Catholics, let us to prayer, that such souls may not
die eternally out of their Father’s house, strangers to the Bread of
Life. In their great need, the pitying heart of Jesus crucified will
hear, and scales shall fall from many eyes. Oh! how sad to travel long
and far in this weary life, and then only to see from a distance the
promised land, but never to rest in the tabernacles of the God of
Jacob.
[113] Except in American Church.
[114] Give notice of S. Andrew’s Day.
----------
CHATEAU REGNIER.
A CHRISTMAS STORY OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
I.
A proud man was the Baron Regnier. In the old days of Charlemagne, the
Chateau Regnier had risen, a modest mansion on the pleasant banks of
the Garonne. That great monarch died; his empire fell to pieces; the
lords became each one an independent sovereign in his own castle,
making perpetual war on each other, and electing kings who could
enforce neither respect nor obedience. Then the Chateau Regnier was
enlarged and fortified, its retainers and vassals became numerous,
and, as was the method of growing rich in those times, large parties
of horsemen would sally from its gates, as suited their pleasure or
necessities, to plunder neighboring lords or defenceless travellers.
The Barons Regnier were brave men; never was there a brilliant or 521
dangerous expedition wherein some scion of the house did not
distinguish himself. When the first preaching of the Crusades stirred
the soul of Europe, there was bustle of preparation and burnishing of
weapons at the château; even in the motley company of Peter the Hermit
went one of the younger sons of the family, who did his part of
plundering in Hungary and Dalmatia, and perished on the shores of the
Bosphorus; and in the more orderly expedition that followed, the
reigning baron himself led a brave array under the banner of Raymond
of Toulouse.
The return of the crusaders brought more refined tastes into France,
though not more peaceable manners. The Château Regnier was enriched
and beautified; troubadours gathered there; feasts were continually
spread; still plunder and anarchy were the order of the day till the
reign of Louis le Gros. That energetic king devoted his life to
establishing law and order in France. Then the house of Regnier,
having plundered all that it conveniently could, took part with the
king to prevent all further plundering, so it grew strong in its
possessions.
With such a line of ancestry to look back on, no wonder that the Baron
Regnier was proud. He himself in his youth had shared in the disasters
of a crusade. After his return home, he had married a beautiful wife,
whom he tenderly loved; but his happiness had been of short duration;
in three years after their union she died, leaving him an image of
herself--a frail and lovely little being, the last flower on the
rugged stem of that great house.
A lovely land is the south of France. Two thousand years ago the old
geographer of Pontus[115] called it the Beautiful, and its soft
_langue d’or_ is the very language of love. It was on the shores of
the Garonne, in the twelfth century, that the troubadours sang their
sweetest songs. Among them was found Pierre Rogiers, who wearied once
of the cloister, and so wandered out into the world--to the court of
the beautiful Ermengarde of Narbonne, to the palaces of Aragon, at
last to the shores of the Garonne, and, finding everywhere only vanity
of vanities, once more entered the gates of the monastery and lay down
to die.
Here, too, lived Bernard de Ventadour, who loved and celebrated in his
songs more than one royal princess. Here he dwelt in courtly splendor,
till he too grew weary of all things earthly, and yearned for the
quiet of the cloister, and, wrapping the monk’s robe around him, he
too died in peace.
No wonder if Clemence Regnier, growing up a beautiful girl in the
midst of these influences, should yield her soul to the soft
promptings of affection. She was the favorite companion of her father;
no wish of hers was ungratified; her sweetness of temper endeared her
to all around her. She was sought in marriage by many rich nobles of
Toulouse; she refused them all, and gave her preference to the younger
son of a neighboring baron--a penniless and landless knight.
When the old baron first discovered their mutual attachment, he was at
first incredulous, then amazed, then angry. He persistently and
peremptorily refused his consent. The De Regniers had for so long
married, as they had done everything else, only to augment their power
and wealth, that a marriage where love and happiness only were 522
considered, was an absurd idea to the baron.
“This comes of all these _jongleurs_ and their trashy songs!” he
exclaimed; “they have got nothing to do but wander about the world and
turn girls’ and boys’ heads with their songs. I’ll have no more of
them here!”
So the baron turned all poets and musicians out of his château, but he
could not turn love and romance out; the young heart of Clemence was
their impregnable citadel, and there they held their ground against
all the baron’s assaults.
Four years went by; Clemence was pining away with grief, for she loved
her father and she loved her lover; at last, her love for the latter
prevailed, and, trusting to win the old baron’s forgiveness
afterwards, Clemence fled from the château with the young Count de
Regnault.
Baron de Regnier was a man who, when moderately irritated, gave vent
to his wrath in angry words, but when deeply wounded he was silent;
and here both his pride and his affection had been wounded most
deeply.
He signified to the guests at the castle that they might depart; he
closed the grand halls, keeping near him a few old servants; dismissed
his chaplain, whom he suspected, though falsely, of having married the
runaway couple, and who had been their messenger to him, begging for
his forgiveness and permission to come to him; closed his chapel
doors; and shut himself up, gloomy and alone, in a suite of rooms in a
wing of the château.
Many loving and penitent messages came to him from Clemence. At first
he took no notice of them: at last, to one he returned an answer--“He
would never see her again.”
II.
The summer came and the winter, and many a summer and winter passed,
and the dreariest domain in all France was the once merry Château
Regnier. Year after year the old man brooded alone. If friendship or
chance brought guests to the château, they were received with stately
formality, which forbade their stay; rarely did a stranger pass a
night within its walls. The retainers kept their Christmas holidays as
best they might; no great hall was opened and lighted, no feast was
spread. They wondered how long the baron would live such a life, and
what would become of the château should he die, for he had no heir to
take it.
Ten years passed: the old man began to grow tired at last of his
solitude; he listened to the voice of conscience--it reproached him
with ten long years of neglected duties. The first thing he did was to
open the doors of his chapel. He sent for artisans and ordered it to
be repaired and refitted, then he sent a messenger to the Bishop of
Toulouse, asking him to send a chaplain to the Château Regnier.
The church was in those days what she is now--the great republic of
the world; but at that time she was the _only_ republic, the one
impregnable citadel where, through all the centuries that we call the
middle ages, the liberties and the equality of men held their ground
against hereditary right and feudal despotism. In the monastery the
prior was often of lowly birth, while among the humbler brethren whom
he ruled might be found men of patrician, even of royal lineage.
Virtue and talent were the only rank acknowledged; the noble knelt and
confessed his sins, and received absolution from the hand of the serf. 523
Thus, beside the princely-born Bernard we see the name of Fulbert, the
illustrious Bishop of Chartres, raised to the episcopal throne from
poverty and obscurity--as he himself says, “_sicut de stercore pauper_”;
and the life-long friend and minister of Louis the Sixth, Suger, the
abbot of St. Denis, and regent of France, was the son of a bourgeois
of St. Omer.
So it happened that when the baron sent to the Bishop of Toulouse for
a chaplain, a young priest, who was the son of a vassal of Château
Regnier, threw himself at the prelate’s feet, and begged that he might
be sent. The bishop looked on him with surprise and displeasure.
“Monseigneur,” said the priest, “you reproach me in your heart for
what appears to you my presumption and boldness in making this
request. I have a most earnest reason, for the love of God, in asking
this; for a very brief time do I ask to remain chaplain at the Château
Regnier, but I do most earnestly ask it.” So he was sent.
The young Père Rudal had been in his childhood a favorite with the
baron. It was the baron who had first taken notice of the bright boy,
and who had sent him away to the great schools of Lyons to be
educated; and now, when he saw his former favorite return to him, the
old man’s heart warmed again, and opened to the young priest.
It was with strange emotions that the Père Rudal stood once more in
the home of his childhood. When a careless boy there, with no very
practical plans for life, he had loved, with a boy’s romantic love,
the beautiful Clemence. He was something of a dreamer and poet; she
had been the queen of his reveries. He was the child of a vassal, and
she of noble birth. This thought saddened him, and many were the
ditties wherein he bewailed, in true troubadour fashion, this mournful
fact; but that he was a boy of twelve when she was a girl of seventeen
did not at the time occur to him.
After he had gone to the university he heard of her departure from her
father’s castle, and the old man’s unforgiving anger against her. The
thought of her grief kept the remembrance of her in his heart, and
now--though he could laugh at those old dreams of romance--he could
love her with a nobler love. He knew the baron’s former predilection
for himself, and he prayed daily to heaven that he might once more see
her restored to her father’s halls.
At the château now he was the baron’s constant companion. He led the
old man little by little to interest himself once more in the duties
of life--in plans for ameliorating the condition of some of the poor
vassals--in some improvements in the château. Before two years had
passed the old man seemed to love him like a son. Yet often a cloud
passing over the weary face, a deep sigh, a sudden indifference to all
earthly things, betrayed the lifelong grief of the baron’s heart, and
the thought still kept of her whom that heart so truly loved but would
not pardon.
It was drawing near to the Christmas season, when one day Père Rudal
said to the Baron:
“My lord, more than a year have I been with you, and although you have
heaped many favors upon me, I have never yet solicited one; now I am
going to ask one.”
“My dear friend and companion,” replied the baron, “whatever is in my
power, you know you have only to ask.”
“In the old days,” continued the priest, “this château of yours saw
many a gay feast, especially at the Christmas-tide; then there were 524
nobles and ladies here; now it has grown gloomy and silent. What I ask
is, that this Christmas you will give an entertainment, but one of a
novel kind; let the halls be opened and a banquet spread, and invite
all your poor neighbors, your vassals, your retainers, their wives and
children; let none be omitted: do this for the love of that little
Child who was so poor and outcast for love of us. I myself will
superintend the whole, and pledge myself for the good conduct and
happiness of all; and moreover, you yourself will accompany and remain
among your guests, at least for a little while. I know I am making a
bold request in asking this, but I am sure you will not refuse it, and
I promise you will not repent of it.”
The baron acceded to the request. Had he been asked to entertain grand
company at his castle, in his present mood he would have refused at
once and haughtily; but he was too generous to refuse anything asked
in the name of the poor; besides, he felt in his heart the truth of
what the young priest had said to him: “There is no solace for grief
like that of solacing the sorrows of others; and no happiness like
that of adding to their happiness.”
III.
Christmas Day came; and, after the Grand Mass was over, the great hall
of the château was opened, and tables were spread with abundance of
good cheer; there were presents for the little children too; and there
were _jongleurs_ who, instead of the customary love ditties, sang old
Christmas carols in the soft Provençal dialect. Amidst the hilarity
there was, what by no means was common in those days, order and
decorum. This was due in part to the restraint and awe inspired by the
old château--opened for the first time in so many years; but more to
the presence in their midst of the baron and the priest, who passed
from one group to another with a kind word to each.
After a while the priest laid his hand on the baron’s arm:
“Let us retire to yonder oriel window--there we may sit in quiet and
contemplate this merry scene.”
The baron gladly escaped from the crowd, but, as he seated himself, a
sigh of weariness escaped him, and a cloud gathered on his brow.
“How happy you have made all these good people,” said the priest. “The
merriment of children has something contagious in it, has it not?”
“What have I to do with the merriment of other people’s children--I, a
poor childless old man?”
The baron spoke bitterly; for the first time in his life had he made
an allusion to his griefs.
“But see these three pretty little children coming towards us,” the
priest continued; “we did not see them as we passed through the hall.”
And he beckoned them nearer--a little girl about eight years old, a
little boy some two or three years younger, and the smallest just able
to walk: beautiful children they were, but dressed in the ordinary
dress of peasant children.
“Do not refuse to kiss these pretty little ones for the love of the
little Child who was born to-day,” pleaded the priest, as he raised
one on his own knee. “Now, my lord, if it were the poorest vassal in
your domains, would he not be a happy man whom these pretty ones
should call grandpapa?”
The baron’s face assumed a look of displeasure. “I want no more of
this; entertain your guests as you please, but spare me my presence 525
here any further. I am glad if I can do anything towards making others
happy, but happiness for myself is gone in this world.”
“O my lord!” said the Père Rudal, “why is your happiness gone? Because
you have cast it away. When your daughter, your Clemence, threw
herself and her little ones at your feet, and prayed you, for the love
of the little Child born in Bethlehem, to take _her_ little ones to
your heart, why did you coldly turn away and refuse her?”
The baron turned to him with unfeigned surprise. “What do you mean?”
said he. “I have never seen her since, and her children never.”
“But you see them now.”
“O father!” said a well-known voice, and his own daughter Clemence was
kneeling in the midst of her little ones at his feet.
The old man sank back in his seat--his daughter’s arm was thrown
around his neck--her head was resting on his heart--and after an
instant’s struggle between love, the divine instinct, and pride, the
human fault, his arm was clasped closely about her. Père Rudal lifted
up the youngest child, and placed it on the baron’s knee, and then
quietly stole away.
A merry place was the Château Regnier after that night; the rooms and
halls were opened to the daylight--there was romping and laughing of
children from one end of it to the other. The Count de Regnault was
sent for on the very next day after that happy Christmas, and was
embraced by the baron as a son--and evermore thereafter, with great
splendor and merriment, was that feast held at the château; so that
the Christmas festivals of Château Regnier became famous throughout
France.
As for the young priest--that night, after he had seen Clemence once
more in her father’s arms, he left the château and never returned to
it. He went away to Toulouse, and wrote from thence to the baron,
telling him that his love for him and his was unalterable, but his
mission at the château was accomplished; the voice of duty called him
elsewhere; and he begged the baron’s consent to depart. The baron gave
his acquiescence reluctantly. Père Rudal soon after entered the order
of the Trinitarians, for the redemption of captives, which had been
recently established, and perished on a voyage to Tunis.
[115] Καλὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ τῶν Αὐσκίων--_Strabo._
----------
THE “BROAD SCHOOL.”
What is your “Broad School” now, Professor, say,
But the booking-office of the old “Broad Way”?
AUBREY DE VERE.
----------
THE LIQUEFACTION OF THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS. 526
NO. V.
The direct and positive arguments which we have presented in our last
article, bearing on the miraculous character of the liquefaction,
cover the ground so entirely that we might, indeed, rest our case on
their presentation. We need, however, make no apology for going
further, and examining also, and somewhat in detail, the difficulties
and counter-statements which have been made, from time to time, by
those who deny its miraculous character. Truth shrinks from no
examination or proper test.
We are confident that, the more closely those objections are examined,
the weaker they will be found to be; and their weakness is an
additional argument for the truth of our conclusion.
The general charge is that this liquefaction is effected by some trick
or other on the part of the priests. A vague charge by itself means
nothing, and is of no value. To be worth anything, there must follow a
“specification,” some indication or explanation of the precise mode or
trick by which the liquefaction is effected. HOW IS IT DONE?
This is the first question to which a reply must be given, before the
objectors can come into court.
The replies to it have been numerous, very numerous--in fact, so
numerous as to lose all real value: they are so wonderfully discordant
and so contradictory.
The liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius has occurred, during
the last two hundred and fifty years--to go no further back just
now--at least four thousand times; in public, without any attempt at
concealment, under the eyes of believers and unbelievers alike,
standing on every side and within a few feet, it may be, in immediate
contact with the officiating clergyman, and, therefore, possessing
ample opportunity for the closest and most critical inspection of
everything concerning it. Under such circumstances, it is
inconceivable that the precise trick, or fraud, or secret, if there
were any, should remain undiscovered. Yet, that no such discovery has
been made is perfectly clear from this striking disagreement among
those who charge that there is fraud, as soon as they undertake to
state distinctly in what the fraud or trick consists. What one
proposes is scouted by another as so weak and so contrary to the facts
of the case, that it is virtually a surrender of the cause. One
declares it to be “one of the most bungling tricks he ever saw”; but
he is entirely silent as to the nature of the trick so obvious to him.
Another states it to be a trick “of great ingenuity,” as well as of
“long standing”; but, with equal prudence, he also is mute as to its
character. A third will explain the manner in which A. thought it was
done; and the very different manner in which B. held that it was
performed; while C. with equal shrewdness proposed a third mode. The
reader is considerately left free to select which he pleases. Which 527
of them or whether any one of them be actually true is apparently a
question of minor importance. The grand purpose aimed at--and for
that, any one of them, even if a mistake, will, it is thought, be
sufficient--is to find some passable or colorable pretext to relieve
the reader from the exceedingly disagreeable necessity of admitting a
popish miracle.
When two and a half centuries of keen and critical examinations,
covering so many thousand instances of the liquefaction, have resulted
only in such utter confusion and disagreement among those who profess
to have discovered the fraud, we may legitimately conclude that in
reality there has been no discovery of any trickery or fraud
whatsoever.
Not to tax the reader’s patience too much, we will endeavor to
classify the various modes in which we are assured by these discordant
voices that the fraud is perpetrated.
The first class attributes the liquefaction, or seeming liquefaction,
to some kind of jugglery or _legerdemain_ practised by the officiating
clergymen during the exposition of the relics.
But _when_, or _how_, it would puzzle Houdin himself, or the Fakir of
Ava, to say.
Is it, as some have suggested, the adroit substitution of a second
reliquary which contains a liquid, and which, at a suitable moment, is
presented to the bystanders, instead of the original reliquary
containing a hard substance?
Most certainly not. The officiating priest stands in front of an altar
built of marble and bronze, without drawers or hiding-places. The
reliquary in his hands is of considerable bulk--twelve inches high,
five inches broad, and two and a half or three inches thick--entirely
too large to elude the keen eyesight of the hundreds close around, who
intently watch it and scan every motion of the clergyman. Where could
the second reliquary lie hidden until needed? Could he lay down the
first one and hide it away, and draw forth the second one and exhibit
it to the people, without some such movement of his hands and arms as
must inevitably be seen? Can it be that never once in these four
thousand times did any eye detect the act of substitution? Many of the
chaplains and canons who officiate are aged men. Can their feeble or
half-paralyzed arms do frequently, regularly, and always with perfect
success, what the most expert and practised prestigitator would shrink
from attempting? The thing is utterly impossible.
If it were possible and actually done, it would not answer the
requirements of the case. In such a substitution, the liquefaction
would _always_ appear to be instantaneous--as instantaneous as the
adroit substitution. But the real process of liquefaction is seldom so
instantaneous. It is often gradual, occupying an appreciable,
sometimes a long time. It may often be followed by the eye in the
various stages from solidity to perfect fluidity.
Moreover, no substitution can account for the subsequent hardenings,
or the alternations of hardenings and liquefactions, especially when
these occur, as they sometimes do, while the reliquary remains
untouched, mounted on its stand on the altar, in the sight of all, or
during a procession in the streets when it is borne aloft, equally
untouched, in its open frame, and is equally visible to all.
The idea of a substitution of reliquaries can only be entertained by
one who is utterly ignorant of the circumstances of the liquefaction.
We set it aside. If nothing else can be said, the miracle must stand. 528
The publicity of all the movements of the officiating clergyman who
holds the reliquary, and the unceasing inspection of the reliquary by
so many observers on every side, are equally peremptory in excluding
the supposition that the liquefaction may possibly be produced by
inserting, during the exposition, some new ingredient into the
ampulla, which, uniting with the hard substance already there, will
give a third substance of a liquid character. How could this be done
so many thousand times; and always under the eyes of a crowd of most
attentive and watchful observers, without a single one of them ever,
in a single instance, detecting this new substance while held in
reserve for the proper moment, or noticing the act of inserting it, as
this precedes the liquefaction? And what shall we say of those
numerous cases in which the blood, having liquefied, becomes hard
again, and, after a time, liquefies again? Is there an adroit
withdrawal of this new ingredient from the ampulla in order that the
liquid may harden again, and is there a fresh application of it, each
time, for every renewal of the liquefaction, during the day? And what
if these changes occur while the reliquary is not in the hands of the
clergyman at all, but has been placed and remains all the while on its
stand on the altar, or is borne aloft in its open frame during a
procession? Does this wondrous ingredient of wondrous power wondrously
manage, of itself, and without the aid of human hands, to find its way
to and into the ampulla, or to withdraw from it, as often as needed?
The drollest attempt at a solution, in this line, which we remember to
have met, was one put forward, with the usual air of positive
assertion, in a bitter anti-Catholic magazine, published years ago in
the United States, which undertook to impugn this miracle. HOT WATER,
the writer maintained, was stealthily introduced into the hollow metal
stem or handle below the reliquary; the heat from which might pass, by
conduction, through the intervening substances, and at last reach the
substance itself within the ampulla and cause it to melt.
The stem aforesaid is just three inches and one-eighth in length, and
seven-eighths of an inch in external diameter. Allowing the metal of
which it is formed to be one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness--less
it can scarcely be--and that the hollow extends the entire length--on
which point we avow our ignorance--the cavity of the stem would hold
about one-fifth of a gill--rather too small a quantity for the purpose
in view.
Moreover, the opening or mouth of the hollow stem is at its lower
extremity. Now, inasmuch as even hot water is subject to the laws of
gravity and will fall downwards, we submit that for the hot water to
remain in the stem or cylinder with its lower extremity quite open,
for even ten minutes, would be as truly a miracle as the liquefaction
itself is claimed to be. Even allowing some invisible plug to be used
to close that opening and to prevent the water from falling down,
would not the first and most powerful effect of the heat of the water
be manifested in the thin metallic sides of the stem itself, scorching
and blistering the hands of the priest that held it?
And again, when the liquefaction is delayed--which, on this
supposition, would occur because the heat in the small quantity of
water first introduced is not sufficient for the purpose, and has been
absorbed by the metal reliquary before producing the desired 529
liquefaction--it would obviously become necessary to empty the stem
and to take in a fresh supply of hot water. The same thing would, at
least on a cold day, have to be repeated over and over again until the
liquefaction finally does occur; and would have to be repeated still
over again as often as the substance in the vial grows hard during the
day, and a fresh liquefaction is required. Where is the vase into
which they pour out the water that has lost its heat? Did any one ever
see the kettle brought in with the fresh supply of water, steaming
hot, as needed?
Perhaps the author of this explanation was a wag, making game of the
gullible readers of the anti-Catholic magazine. If he was in earnest,
we regret that he did not turn his brilliant talents to the task of
discovering perpetual motion.
Lest the reader may think that we are not doing justice to the
opponents of the liquefaction, we will quote the words of one who is
or should be held as a high authority in their ranks. Bishop Douglas
(of Salisbury, England) published A CRITERION _for distinguishing
the Miracles of the New Testament from the Tricks of Pagan and Papal
Priests_. Speaking of the liquefaction, he says:
“The particular natural cause is not indeed absolutely agreed
upon. Some have imagined that the heat of the hands of the
priests who have been tampering with the vial of blood during the
celebration of Mass will be sufficient to make it melt. Others,
again, have been inclined to believe that the liquefaction is
affected by the heat of vast numbers of wax tapers of enormous
size with which the altar is decked out, and many of which are
placed so conveniently that the priest can, without any
appearance of design, hold the glass so near to them as to make
it hot, and consequently dispose the enclosed substance to melt.
I should be inclined to subscribe to this opinion, had I not met
with a more probable solution.
“I am informed (for I have never tried the experiment myself)
that a composition of _crocus martis_ and _cochineal_ will
perfectly resemble congealed blood, and, by dropping the smallest
quantity of _aqua fortis_ amongst this composition, its dry
particles will be put into a ferment, till at last an ebullition
is excited and the substance becomes liquid.
“That a glass may be so contrived as to keep the _aqua fortis_
from the dry substance till the critical moment when the
liquefaction is to be effected may be easily conceived. And
indeed the vial containing the pretended blood is so constituted.
It is something like an hourglass, and the dry substance is
lodged in the upper division. Now, in the lower division of the
glass, a few drops of _aqua fortis_ may be lodged without
furnishing any suspicion, as the color will prevent its being
distinguished. All the attendant circumstances of this bungling
trick are perfectly well accounted for by admitting this
solution. Whenever the priest would have the miracle take effect,
he need only invert the glass, and then the _aqua fortis_, being
uppermost, will drop down on the dry substance and excite an
ebullition, which resembles the melting. And upon restoring the
glass to its former position, the spectators will see the
substance, the particles of which have been separated by the
_aqua fortis_, drop down to the bottom of the glass, in the same
manner that the sands run through an hour-glass.
“Now, upon the supposition that I have assigned the real cause,
the priests can prevent the success of this miracle whenever they
please; and accordingly we know that they do actually do so, when
they have any prospect of advancing their own interest, by
infusing a notion into the minds of the Neapolitans that heaven
is angry with their nation.”
Bishop Douglas with his reliquary “something like an hour-glass”
deserves to stand next to him who filled the stem with boiling water.
They both seem to value the dreamy supposition which they evolve out
of their own inner consciousness as fully equal to undoubted and actual
facts demonstrated by experience or fully established by testimony. 530
We leave aside the chemistry involved in his supposition, since he
candidly avowed that he never tried the experiment. It is a pity he
did not make a similar candid avowal when speaking of the shape of the
vial containing the blood. He should, for the sake of good faith, have
warned his readers that he had never seen the vial itself, nor even an
engraving of it; and should have let them understand that his whole
explanation was based on his assumed ability to describe accurately
and minutely the shape of a vial which, he must have been aware, and
should have informed them, he was entirely ignorant of.
Any one who has seen the reliquary and the ampulla within it, or has
even looked at the figure of it which we have given, or at engravings
of it which are easily obtained in Naples and elsewhere, will see at a
glance that the shape of the ampulla is just the reverse of an
hourglass. In fact, in form it much more closely approaches a sphere.
Not a single point set forth in the explanation is correct. There is
no upper division in which the dry substance, compounded of _crocus
martis_ and _cochineal_, and perfectly resembling congealed blood,
is or can be lodged; there is no lower division, unoccupied save by
the few drops of _aqua fortis_, the color of which prevents its being
discovered, even by keen, curious, prying eyes. There is in the
liquefaction no sandlike fall, from an upper into a lower division, of
a stream of particles of the dry substance, now separated or liquefied
by the _aqua fortis_. The bishop has not only failed to hit the bull’s
eye, he has entirely missed the target, every shot.
And yet, with what delicious complacency he considers, and expects
his readers to admit, that he, above all others, has correctly exposed
the bungling trick, and has unmasked the fraudulent dealings of the
priests, who can effect or prevent the miracle as they please! It is a
genuine sample of the way in which a certain class of writers think
they demolish anything Catholic. And how many, after reading this
passage of the _Criterion_, may have closed the book in perfect
confidence that, after such an exposure, so clear and detailed, by so
learned and so respectable an authority, it would be waste of time to
read another word on the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius!
Need we go back to the two previous explanations he mentions, but
which he will not adopt, until he is forced by the failure of his pet
explanation? So many others have urged them that we may not pass them
entirely unnoticed.
The ordinary form of the first one is this: The officiating priest,
who holds in his hands the vial containing the blood, rubs it with his
handkerchief, and clasps it in his palms. The animal heat of his
hands, and such heat as the friction may produce, suffices to bring
about the liquefaction.
Let the reader cast an eye on the very correct figure of the reliquary
which we give. The priest holds it by the stem below; sometimes, in
turning it, he may put one hand on the crown above. He does not, for
he cannot, touch the interior vials containing the blood. They are
inside the case, held in position by the soldering above and below,
and are enclosed and protected by the thick metal rim, and the plates
of glass in front and rear. The heat of his hands, as he holds it, and
the utmost heat that can be produced by the friction--as occasionally,
every five or ten minutes, he may, if he thinks it necessary, rub 531
the plates of glass with his white handkerchief, in order to see
better through them into the interior--cannot possibly affect the
contents of the ampulla in any appreciable degree. As for causing them
to melt or liquefy, one might as well expect the same animal heat of
one’s hand to light a wax candle by simply grasping and holding the
candlestick in which it stands, or that lightly rubbing the
candlestick with a handkerchief, every five or ten minutes, to keep it
bright and dry, would produce the same physical effect on the candle
placed in it as ordinary mortals obtain nowadays by igniting a lucifer
match and applying it to the wick.
No one who has ever witnessed the liquefaction can listen to this
attempt at explanation without a smile of pity or of contempt. Even in
those cases in which the liquefactions take place while the reliquary
is in the hands of the priest, it is equally insufficient and absurd.
It has no application whatever to the other many cases in which the
liquefaction occurs while the reliquary stands on the altar or is
borne in procession. Like the other solutions we have examined, it
makes no attempt to account for the reiterated hardenings and
liquefactions which may occur during the day, nor for the variations
of volume and for the other phases which are presented. Yet we must
bear in mind that all these are striking and characteristic points,
which are to be strictly accounted for, equally with the simple fact
of a solid substance becoming fluid.
As for the second mode of solution mentioned by Bishop Douglas, that
which attributes the liquefaction to the general heat around the altar
due to the “vast number of wax tapers of enormous size” burning on the
altar, and also, not to omit what others have said, to the crowd
closely packed around the officiating clergyman--that attempted
solution has already been disposed of. Thermometrical investigations
by scientific professors, and the many times that the liquefaction
takes place at the altar when there is little or no crowd, and also
away from the altar and its “wax tapers of enormous size” during a
procession in the streets, and while the reliquary is freely exposed
to the open air of December--all alike combine to exclude this
solution. As for the convenient position in which the bishop places
some of those wax tapers, and the practice of the priests to make use
of this position and, “without any appearance of design,” to “hold the
glass so near to them as to make it hot, and consequently dispose the
enclosed substance to melt,” we may ask, if he did not believe this to
be true, why has he repeated the statement, and expressed his
inclination “to subscribe to this opinion” even as a _pis aller_? If
he did believe that the priest really so manipulated the vial in order
to produce the liquefaction, ought not that to be sufficient? Why
postpone the truth in favor of a pet theory about _crocus martis_,
_cochineal_, _aqua fortis_, and the _hour-glass_? Evidently, his mind
was rather cloudy on the subject. Seriously, the priest could not hold
the reliquary so near to a lighted wax taper of enormous size, long
enough to make it hot, without attracting the attention of hundreds
each time he did it. Not to overlook the smallest point, we may remark
that, on the six occasions when we were present at the liquefaction,
on all of which it invariably occurred at the main altar of the
_Tesoro_ chapel, the lighted tapers on the altar were few. If our
memory serves us right, they were just _six_, three on each side of 532
the crucifix over the centre of the altar, and all of them placed on
tall and elevated altar candlesticks. The nearest blaze must have
been, at least, seven feet away from and above the reliquary, as the
chaplain held it in front of the altar. To achieve the feat which
Bishop Douglas mentions, it would have been necessary to move back a
portion of the crowd, near the altar, in order to get room, and then
to bring in and make use of a good-sized step-ladder! The only burning
light ever held in proximity to the reliquary is the single small
taper, sometimes held by an assistant chaplain, and used on cloudy or
hazy days, when the general light in the _Tesoro_ chapel is not
sufficiently strong to show through the glass plates of the reliquary
and the sides of the ampulla, as distinctly as desired, the state of
the blood in the interior of the ampulla. In such cases, this taper is
now and then brought for half a minute or a minute within eight or ten
inches of the reliquary, and is held a little downward, and behind it,
in such position that its light may shine obliquely onward through the
glasses, on the surface of the blood, and show, as we saw it show, the
state of the interior with perfect distinctness. It is not applied to
the reliquary in any way that can appreciably heat it. When the
atmosphere is perfectly clear, the general light of the chapel is
amply sufficient, and this taper is not needed nor brought forward.
What we have said of the modes thus examined is true of all attempted
explanations based on some supposed feat of jugglery or legerdemain
during the exposition. To one who has witnessed the liquefaction at
Naples, and knows what is really done, they are simply ridiculous. We
repeat: if nothing else can be urged, the miracle must stand.
This has been felt, and in consequence we have another class of
proposed solutions, of a seemingly higher character. Chemistry is
brought into service. Some compound is skilfully prepared, we are
told, and inserted by the priests into the ampulla beforehand. It is
of such a character that it appears more or less hard and solid at the
beginning of the exposition, and, during the exposition, is made to
melt or to appear to melt. Chemists, we are assured, can easily
prepare such substances, and can thus reproduce the liquefactions at
will. These experiments, it is claimed, settle the question. What the
chemists do and acknowledge, the priests do, and pass off as a
miracle.
Let us analyze these experiments, and see whether in reality they
repeat and renew the liquefaction with its characteristic and
essential phenomena, or in what respects and how far they fail to do
so.
The first of these of which we have any account dates from Berlin, in
1734. On the 26th of January in that year--so we are told in a letter
dated a few days after, and published in Paris--Gaspar Neumann,
councillor of his majesty’s court, doctor in medicine, and professor
of chemistry, entertained a party consisting of fourteen learned
friends, assembled to dine at his festive board, with an imitation of
the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius. The letter was written
by one of the party to his friends at home. We carefully reproduce the
facts which the letter states, omitting the badinage and sneering
remarks with which it accompanies them--remarks quite characteristic
of the school of Voltaire whenever religion or anything connected with
it was in question. In default of the original French, we quote from 533
a translation published in England.
The professor, we are told, placed before his friends “a human skull.”
He also produced from his laboratory “three vials of crystal or very
clear and transparent glass, in each of which was contained a matter
in a very small bulk, dry, black, and so hard as to produce a noise on
the sides of the vial when shaken.” The first vial being brought near
to the head, the matter in it “became of a deep-red color, liquefied,
bubbled, increased its bulk, and filled the vial.” The second vial was
also brought near to the head, and the portion of matter in it
“bubbled but little.” But when the third vial was similarly brought
near the head, the whole of its contents “remained dry, hard, and
black.”
The writer evidently wished to convey the impression--perhaps he
himself believed--that these vials, which the professor had carefully
prepared in his laboratory and showed to his friends after dinner,
correctly exhibited the liquefaction in all its chief phases. If the
liquid in the first vial had also several times changed its color; if
it had filled the vial, not by adding bubbles to bubbles, but by an
actual increase of the volume of the liquid within, independently of
that frothing or bubbling; if it had then similarly decreased in bulk;
if the liquid had solidified without any diminution of temperature,
and become fluid again without increase of it, he would have presented
a far stronger case than he has done.
But those points are absent. Perhaps the writer did not know that they
were necessary. The letter itself is written in a jocular and mocking
tone, and evidently in a spirit that relished sharp epigrammatic
points, calculated to excite a laugh, far more than the humdrum
reality of sober truth.
We find another account of this same experiment in a French work
before us: _La Liquefaction du Sang de S. Janvier_, by Postel. This
account is more calm and sober in style, and is based upon the
_Bibliothèque Germanique_, a work to which we have not access. It
varies considerably from the sportive account given in the letter.
According to Postel, the contents of the first vial _liquefied entirely_;
the contents of the second vial _liquefied only partially_; in the
third vial there was _no change whatever_. The statement is distinctly
made that neither in the first vial nor in the second was there any
sign of ebullition. The variation is important.
As between the two accounts, we could scarcely hesitate a moment which
to hold most worthy of credit on any point on which they differed. In
neither account do we find any indication of the nature of the
chemical compounds which Dr. Neumann had prepared in his laboratory
and placed in the vials. But as the experiment was made known and
repeated, especially in France, we may take it for granted that the
material used in those repetitions is the same that he devised.
This material is a mixture of suet, or other similar fatty matter, and
ether, the compound being brought to any desired tint--in this case, a
deep or dark red--by a further admixture of any suitable pigment. The
mixture or compound so prepared is solid at ordinary temperatures; but
at about 92° F. it will melt. If a quantity of such a mixture be
inserted in a small glass vial, and the vial be clasped in the palm of
one’s hand, it will soon receive from the hand sufficient heat to
bring about a total or a partial liquefaction, according to the greater 534
or smaller proportion of the ether used in originally compounding it.
Neither would it be beyond the art of chemistry, in preparing this
mixture, to introduce other ingredients, the particles of which would
be brought into contact with each other when the liquefaction has been
effected and the chemical combinations of which would then give rise
to a greater or less amount of frothing or bubbles.
All this, however, is very far from being a reproduction of the
liquefaction which is seen at Naples. The differences, or rather the
failures to imitate and reproduce it, are essential and evident. We
point out the chief ones:
I. This liquefaction of the laboratory _always and entirely_ depends
on the application of the proper degree of heat. So long as its
temperature is below the melting point, the substance in the vial
remains hard and unliquefied. When the temperature, from whatsoever
cause, is raised above that degree, liquefaction ensues. If the
temperature again sinks below it, the substance, if not meanwhile
decomposed, returns to its previous solid condition. The operators
themselves inform us frankly how the required degree of heat is
usually communicated to it; by holding the vial, if small enough, in
the palm of one hand, or tightly pressing it, if somewhat larger,
between the palms of both hands. If the general heat of the room be
raised high enough to reach the melting point of the substance in the
vial, this circumstance alone would suffice to bring the compound to a
fluid condition.
On the other hand, being from Naples and not from Brobdignag, the
chaplain or canon has a hand only of the ordinary size, and is
altogether unable to clasp in the palm of one hand, or even with both
palms, an object so large as the reliquary. He is forced to hold it by
the stem; in which position, the heat of his hand can have no
appreciable effect on the contents of the vial within the reliquary.
Moreover, the liquefaction often takes place when the reliquary is not
held in his hands at all.
II. We repeat it again. The real liquefaction does not depend on heat
It takes place at various temperatures. There is no fixed melting
point for the substance in the ampulla. It will often solidify at a
higher temperature than that at which it stood liquid; and will
liquefy at a temperature notably below that at which it became or
stood solid. This is an essential difference, going to the root of the
question.
III. The attempted imitation may, at the utmost, present a bubbling or
frothing, produced in the way we have indicated. This may even go to
such an extent as to fill the vial with froth or bubbles. But it can
never cause the bulk or body of the liquid itself, free from those
bubbles, and independently of them, to swell and increase in actual
visible amount so as to completely fill the vial. The amount of the
liquid obtained, when at rest and in its tranquil state, and at the
same temperature, will always be the same. Precisely the reverse
happens in the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius. The liquid
blood may bubble and froth without increasing its bulk, or it may
increase its volume with or without this frothing, or it may decrease
its volume, again, with or without the frothing. And these changes of
the bulk of the actual liquid in the ampulla do not depend on the
temperature. Neither are they points on which a mistake is possible;
for they reach, as we have stated, to the extent of twenty per cent. 535
On those two cardinal points, the imitation entirely fails. We need
scarcely note the facts that the preparation, when solid, does not
resemble coagulated or hardened blood, and, when liquid, could never
be mistaken for liquid blood, whether arterial or venous, nor does it
present the changes of color so often seen in the real liquefaction.
IV. Ether is an essential ingredient of this artificial compound.
Suet, or whatever other fatty substance is used instead, will dissolve
in ether; while it will not dissolve in water or in alcohol. Now,
ether is comparatively a modern discovery. Whether Paracelsus hit upon
the discovery of it or not is a point mooted among those who have
studied his life and achievements in chemistry. But, if he did, the
knowledge of it was lost with him, and it remained unknown to the
world until Künkel discovered or rediscovered it in 1681--early enough
for Neumann, but entirely too late to be of any service in getting up
a compound for the liquefaction at Naples, which, for the matter of
that, runs back far beyond the days of Paracelsus himself.
This explanation, therefore, that the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius is in reality the liquefaction of a compound of ether and
suet or other fatty substance, must be set aside, because entirely
insufficient to meet the case, and because it involves a glaring
anachronism.
It fails, too, in another point. The ether will, in course of time,
gradually escape though the pores of the glass. When it is gone, the
liquefactions are at an end. The fatty matters, too, will decompose in
time. In fact, the whole preparation would have to be frequently
renewed. On the other hand, as we shall see further on, there is ample
evidence that the ampulla remains unopened, and that the substance
within it remains untouched and identically the same, from year to
year, and from century to century.
These reasons were too patent to allow Dr. Neumann’s attempted
imitation to hold its own in the estimation of those who seriously
examined the question. It was thrown aside for others. We find an
account of one of them, written by La Condamine, and presented to no
less a body than the Academy of Sciences in Paris, in 1757. His
article may be found among the various articles published in the
_Memoirs_ for 1763.
La Condamine explains, with no little glee, and some detail, an
experiment which he had lately witnessed in company with others, and
which he was allowed afterward to repeat and study out in private and
at his leisure, and with the assistance and explanations of the
inventor himself. He does not give the inventor’s name, but we know,
from other sources, that it was San Severo.
There was a circular case of bronze or silver gilt. In front and rear,
there were circular plates of glass. The whole stood on a richly
ornamented foot, and was surmounted by a winged mercury. Within the
case, between the plates of glass, was seen a vial. So far, the
workman had prepared a vague imitation of the actual reliquary.
“The vial appeared half full of a stiff grayish paste, which,
judging by its surface, seemed to be powdery or granulated. By
inclining the case, alternately, from side to side, and shaking
it for half a minute, more or less, the paste became liquid and
flowing, sometimes only partially so; at other times, it grew
hard again, and by shaking it anew it became liquid again.... I
remarked beneath the vial two small cones, I do not know of what
material, meeting by their points. I was told (by the inventor) 536
that there was a little passage through these points. He said,
also, that the cones were hollow, and that, as the lower one was
movable, it sometimes happened that its orifice exactly met the
orifice of the upper cone, and sometimes did not; this was
altogether a matter of chance.... As for the powder which I saw
in the vial, I was told that it was an amalgam of mercury, lead,
tin, and bismuth; that the bismuth, which amalgamated only
imperfectly, hindered the mixture from becoming a pasty lump, and
gave it rather the character of a powder too coarse to pass
through the little opening which communicated with the cones.
Finally, there was hidden, within the case, a circular tube
communicating with the lower movable cone, and containing liquid
mercury. In shaking the whole irregularly, whenever the openings
of the two cones came together, more or less of this mercury made
its way into the vial and liquefied the amalgam. It happened
sometimes, in these various movements, that the mercury which had
entered got out again, and then the amalgam returned to its
previous condition and was fluid no longer.”
This is the account which La Condamine has given, after a long and
careful private examination, aided by the explanations of the
inventor, and which, he tells us, he wrote down the same day. The
inventor promised to give him in writing a fuller account, with minute
drawings of all the parts; but up to the date of publication (five
years later) he had, for some unknown reason, failed to keep the
promise.
La Condamine acknowledges that he had never seen the real reliquary,
and had never witnessed the true liquefaction at Naples. He thought
this substitute just as good.
Had he witnessed the reality, and had he examined it with one-half the
care he bestowed on the substitute, he never would have written his
report.
I. He would have instantly seen the difference between a true
liquefaction--where a substance previously hard is unmistakably seen
to become gradually soft and then perfectly liquid, as is often the
case at Naples--and this seeming liquefaction of the experiment, which
consists only in making the loosened grains or particles of the
amalgam swim in and on the fluid mercury which has been introduced,
they themselves remaining hard and not at all liquefied, but ready to
be heaped together again in a hard mass of grains or powder, whenever
the liquid mercury is withdrawn. The difference between the two
processes is as clear as light, and as great as the difference between
the melting of icebergs and a movement of a fleet of ships on the
ocean. A child could not mistake it. Fortunately, the icebergs melt
and disappear as they are changed into water: with equal good fortune,
the ships do not melt, but float on, until they reach their port.
II. He would see that this grayish amalgam, in its dry, powdery state,
is totally unlike the hard, dark mass of blood in the ampulla, and, in
its pretended liquid state, it is equally unlike the liquid blood. In
fact, as the mercury enters below and permeates the mass, its silvery
gleam may somewhat enliven the dull-grayish hue of the amalgam, but it
can present nothing akin to the _rubicund_, the _bright vermilion_, or
the _dark hue_ of the liquid blood. Nor is there anything like the
film which the liquid blood sometimes leaves on the sides of the
glass, nor like the frothing, or the ebullition. On all these points,
the experiment failed.
III. After sufficient mercury has been introduced to occupy the
interstices in the granular mass, any additional supply will lift the
particles, separate them, and allow that motion which the inventor
passed off for fluidity; and this seeming fluidity becomes greater as 537
the quantity of fluid mercury so introduced for the grains to float in
is increased in amount. But the mercury occupies space, and so
increase of bulk and increased fluidity must go together. A hardening
requires, on the contrary, a withdrawal of the mercury, and is
consequently always connected with a decrease of bulk. This is
directly contrary to one of the most striking features of the real
liquefaction, on which we have already commented at length.
IV. It fails to account for the hardenings and the liquefactions which
occur when the reliquary is not in the hands of a chaplain or canon to
incline it never so coaxingly, but stands and has been standing for
hours, untouched and immovable, on its pedestal on the altar. In this
point the imitation again signally fails.
V. What we said of ether, we may almost repeat here concerning the
bismuth. This is the important ingredient of the amalgam, the
intractableness of which keeps the material in a state of powder or
grains. When that is overcome, the whole mass coheres and becomes a
hard lump; and the liquefactions, such as they were, are over. Now,
bismuth was discoved by Agricola in 1529, centuries after the date
when the liquefactions are known to have regularly occurred.
VI. The prying eyes of thousands have never discovered in the
reliquary any trace of a circular tube containing mercury, nor of the
all-important little hollow cones, meeting by their points. More than
once, as we shall see, the reliquary has been in the hands of
goldsmiths and skilled workmen. They found nothing of this nor of any
other contrivance.
These two of Neumann and San Severo are the chief attempts made to
imitate the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, and they have
signally failed. We need not examine, one by one, the various
substances which have been proposed as the chemical substance craftily
used no this occasion; from the “deep-red sublimate of gold,” which,
one tells us, “being easily fusible by the heat of one’s hand, is
exhibited by the Neapolitan priests for St. Januarius’s blood,” down
to the theory that “the dark-red mass which melts in the ampulla is
only a preparation of ICE; for everybody knows that in Naples they
are more skilful in preparing ices than even in Archangel.” By the
way, we suspect that Aulic Councillor Rehfues, a German Protestant
traveller, to whom we owe this last explanation, was only making fun
of his brother Aulic Councillor Neumann, and of the other theorists,
who were proposing, each one, his own guess as to the substance.
Anyway, the fact that the real liquefaction is not caused by the
application of heat rules out all these suppositions. The fuller and
more accurate our knowledge of chemistry, the more clearly do we
realize the truth that all experimental liquefactions are governed by
the laws of nature. The more conversant we are with the _facts_ of the
real liquefaction, the more clearly do we see that here those laws are
set aside. We cannot shut our eyes to the opposition.
Sir Humphry Davy, who witnessed the liquefaction when he visited
Naples, and who carefully examined it, made no secret afterwards among
his friends of the deep impression it produced on his mind, and of his
decided judgment that chemistry, so far as he knew it, could not
account for the liquefaction. This may have been one of the causes of
that inclination toward the Catholic Church which, from the period of 538
that visit, was manifested by that eminent scholar, and which led him
to think seriously, at least, of entering her fold, even if he did
not--as some thought he did--carry his purpose into effect before
death.
And yet we are asked to believe that, “away back in the dark ages,”
those “ignorant monks and priests in Naples” possessed a knowledge of
chemistry which enabled them to do this! And, more wonderful still,
that they have secretly handed down that knowledge and power, within
their own body, and that they continue to this day to effect the
liquefaction in some strange way entirely unknown to the scientific
world!
We pass on to other views of the question.
This charge of fraud implies that the ampulla is tampered with from
time to time; and that those who have charge of it--clergy and laity
alike--and especially those who hold it at the time of the
liquefaction, are all playing a trick.
Is the ampulla or vial really tampered with? Is it regularly opened
for the insertion of some duly prepared material?
The ampulla stands within a case or reliquary, as our figure shows it.
The case or reliquary, of silver and of glass, is kept in an
_Armoire_, or closet, wrought in the solid stone wall of the _Tesoro_
chapel, as strong and secure as a bank-vault. This _Armoire_ is closed
by metal doors, each secured by two strong locks, with different keys,
one set of which is always in the possession of the municipal
authorities of the city, the other in that of the archbishop and
clergy. They have been so kept for just two hundred and twenty-four
years; for we need not take account just now of the previous
centuries, when the relics were in the exclusive custody of the
archbishop and clergy, and were kept in the old _Tesoro_, or strong
room, still to be seen in the second story of the cathedral tower.
During all these two hundred and twenty-four years, the locks have not
been tampered with. The clergy have not charged any one with doing it.
The municipal authorities have never suspected it.
Moreover, the reliquary, when brought out, remains exposed to public
scrutiny for ten or twelve hours at a time, on eighteen days of each
year; and there is no man, woman, or child in Naples, and no stranger
in the city, who may not, if so minded, scrutinize it a score of times
a day, at less than twelve inches’ distance. Any opening or closing of
the case, any taking out or putting in of the vial, would leave some
trace of the fact, either in the silver rim, or in the position of the
vials within, or at least in the soldering at bottom and at top, which
would have to be disturbed, if not broken, each time, and then
restored. Among the special industries of Naples are working in
jewelry and coral, retouching and repairing paintings, and--we are
sorry to say it--fabricating _Old Masters_. The Neapolitans have eyes
for signs and traces like these in question as quick, sharp, and
unerring as an Indian on a trail. No change or trace of any tampering
has ever been seen by them. The vials are in identically the same
inclined position from year to year--the same as represented in
engravings a century or two centuries old. The soldering, in which the
bottoms and tops are immersed, is hard, old, black, through age, and
evidently untouched. The outer case shows no sign of any opening by
which a side can be unscrewed or lifted out, so as to allow the vials
themselves to be touched. Probably, when originally made, five hundred 539
and fifty or seven hundred years ago, this could have been done. But
the screw or the joint has long since rusted, and the whole thing is
now one mass of dingy and rusted silver, holding two glass plates.
In the year 1649, Cardinal Ascanio Filomarini was Archbishop of
Naples, a man of great culture and taste and of ample private fortune,
and much given to the adornment of the churches of his diocese.
The new _Tesoro_ had just been completed, and was shining in all the
brilliant splendor of newness. The cardinal thought that the reliquary
to contain the vials of the blood, for which the _Tesoro_ had been
built, ought to correspond, as the bust did, with the grandeur of the
chapel itself. This the dingy old silver reliquary, in which they had
been kept for so many centuries, did not do. He determined to replace
it by another of gold, of excellent workmanship, and adorned with rich
jewels. He had one made “regardless of expense,” and, when all was
ready, on September 1, 1649, he came into the _Tesoro_ with some of
his clergy and the delegates from the city, and with public notaries,
that proper legal record might be made of everything, and with chosen
goldsmiths. Are not the names of them all duly recorded? The
_Armoire_ was opened, the reliquary was taken to the adjoining
sacristy; and there, for several hours, in presence of his eminence
and his clergy, and the honorable delegates, “and of us, the
undersigned notaries,” the goldsmiths tried and essayed to open the
reliquary. They failed and gave it up. They could break the reliquary,
if so directed; but they could not open it. Accordingly, the reliquary
was locked up again as it had been taken out. The cardinal was a
persevering man. He got other goldsmiths, and came a second time, on
the 8th of September, with clergy, delegates, and notaries. For two
hours again these goldsmiths tried to open the reliquary, and failed,
as the first had done. They could break it, if required; but how could
they open a case where all their trying could find neither joint nor
screw? Again the reliquary was replaced in the _Armoire_. The
cardinal’s heart was set on using his new grand reliquary on the
festival near at hand, the 19th of September. He thought over the
matter, again summoned the delegates and the notaries, and on the 16th
came, a third time, with his clergy and yet other goldsmiths. A third
prolonged trial was made with the same ill-success. The reliquary
might be broken, if they wished; it could not be opened. To break it
was not to be thought of; that might endanger the precious vials
within. So, the old silver reliquary was put up again, that evening,
and his eminence was forced to use it on the festival of the 19th for
the exposition that year. It has been used ever since. And now, two
hundred and twenty-two years later, it was again brought out on the
19th of September in this present year, 1871. The cardinal, it is to
be presumed, devoted his rich reliquary to some other pious purpose.
But if his eminence had lived to the age of the olden patriarchs, and
had retained it in his possession, he might have at last found a more
favorable opportunity for again trying to change that reliquary. On
the afternoon of Tuesday, May 5, 1762, one of the glass plates, by
dint, of course, of being rubbed for so many hundred years by white
handkerchiefs, became somewhat loose in its groove or socket, and
threatened to fall inward, endangering the precious vials. Accordingly,
early next morning, an hour and a half before the time for the regular 540
exposition (for it was in the May octave), the archbishop of that day,
Cardinal Sersale, came with clergy, city delegates, notaries-public,
and goldsmiths. The reliquary was taken out of the _Armoire_, and the
glass was fixed again firmly in its place, and the reliquary was
returned to its _Armoire_, before the hour for the public exposition.
It does not appear, from the very succinct account we have of the
occurrence, whether or not, during the work, the vials or ampullæ were
taken out of the reliquary, within which they are held in their places
by the old soldering. Nothing is said of this having been done, nor of
the soldering being touched and then repaired when they were put back
in their places. On the whole, considering the nature of the repair to
be done, and that it was done in a few moments at the door of the
_Armoire_, back of the altar, we are inclined to think that they did
not find it necessary to move them, and that they were accordingly
left untouched in their places.
These are the only occasions on which the diaries say anything bearing
on the feasibility of opening this reliquary, or of its being
repaired. In the archives of the cathedral, another incident is
mentioned, of an ancient date. In the year 1507, nearly a century and
a half before the building of the new _Tesoro_, the relics were kept
in the old _Tesoro_ or strong room of the cathedral, a strong vaulted
chamber of stone, in the second story of the tower, which rises at the
northeast corner of the church. That _Tesoro_ was then approached by
a winding stairway. A very aged canon was bringing down the reliquary
from the _Tesoro_ to the church for an exposition. At the very first
step, he tripped and fell; and the reliquary rolled down, from step to
step, to the very bottom. All present feared it was broken, and gave
thanks when it was taken up and found to be perfectly uninjured. Yet
the alarm had been great; and Maria Toleta, “the pious wife of the
viceroy,” who was present at the time and shared in the alarm, had the
winding stairway taken down at her own expense, and replaced by
another one, straight, broad, and easy, which is in use to this day.
We may take these facts as fair evidence that the reliquary is strong,
and not very easily opened, and that they who know all about it do not
believe that it is or can be regularly opened.
The same conclusion is also forced on us by considerations of an
entirely different character. We have already drawn attention to the
fact that, whatever the level at which the blood stands when
the reliquary is locked up at night, at the close of one
exposition--whether _at its ordinary level_, or _somewhat increased_,
or _very much increased_, or _full_--it is invariably found at the
same level when taken out the next time for the ensuing exposition,
whether that time be next morning or after the lapse of months. The
level is one of the points specially noticed and recorded. A variation
would necessarily be detected. Yet, if on each one or on very many of
the four thousand occasions we have spoken of, the old contents had
been privately taken out between the expositions, and a fresh supply
put in, would there not have been, not unfrequently, some appreciable
inequality of level?
Again, sometimes the blood was _hard_ when put up. How could a hard
substance be extracted from a narrow-necked vial of glass without
breaking it? According to our tables, on three different occasions the
blood, after its usual liquefactions and changes in September, _filled_ 541
the ampulla, and was so locked up at the end of the novena. It was
found _full_ and _hard_ in December following, and, not liquefying at
all, was again locked up in the same condition. It was found in
precisely the same state when the reliquary was again taken out in the
May following. Here, on three occasions, the contents of the vial,
solid and completely filling it, must have remained unextracted from
September to May, seven months. Yet in the May octaves that followed,
the liquefactions went on as usual. No freshly inserted compound was
necessary for the liquefaction. The same reasoning applies in a
measure to the numerous cases in which such a fulness went over, four
months and a half, from May to September, or nearly three months, from
September to December.
Again, in quite a number of instances, as the same tables show, the
condition of the blood, when locked up, is noted as _liquid with a
floating hard lump_, as was the case on the 16th of December, 1870.
When it was taken out, the next day, or after several months, though
often found entirely hardened, yet not unfrequently--as on the 6th of
May, 1871--it was found in precisely the same state in which it had
been put up: _liquid with a floating hard lump_. In all these cases,
the condition of the contents of the ampulla is a new and insuperable
objection to the supposition that a newly prepared amount of matter
had been inserted for the subsequent liquefactions. Did other
circumstances allow it, we might conceive a liquid to be poured out of
the ampulla, and a fresh liquid to be poured in. But how is the solid
hard lump, that would not liquefy, to be got out? And if got out, how
is another hard lump to be put in to replace it? Are the constituents
of this new hard lump poured into the ampulla separately, as liquids
or powders that can pass through the neck? Then their character must
be such that, instead of uniting with the liquid already there, or the
constituents of the liquid portion, they will, on the contrary,
combine apart to form the hard mass. But if so antagonistic to the
liquid portion, how is it that, when the lump does liquefy during the
ensuing exposition, these constituents at once intimately unite with
the liquid, the whole forming a homogeneous mass, which without the
least indication of any antagonism between its component parts will
henceforth solidify and liquefy as a single mass?
The more carefully the facts of the case are studied, the more
imperatively do they exclude every hypothesis save the simple one
which so many other facts corroborate, that no attempt has been made
to change the contents of the ampulla. Every- thing about the ampulla
excludes the idea that it is regularly tampered with privately between
the expositions.
There is still another light in which we must view this charge of
fraud. Ever since the opening of the new _Tesoro_, in 1646, there have
been attached to that chapel twelve chaplains and a _custos_, with
inferior attendants as needed. In the cathedral itself, at least from
1496, there have been twenty canons and beneficiaries, besides minor
attendants. When the liquefaction takes place in the _Tesoro_, the
reliquary is in the hands of the chaplains, who act in turn, or
relieve each other as convenient. When it occurs in the procession or
in the cathedral, or in some other church, the reliquary is in the
charge of the canons, who similarly relieve each other. Hence, canons
and chaplains, all alike, must be cognizant of the fraud, if any there 542
be, and must participate in it. Add to these the archbishops and their
vicars-general in Naples since 1496. Add also those clergymen who,
having been canons or chaplains, have passed to other dignities, or
have retired from their office, but must of course still retain the
knowledge of this fraud, if they once possessed it. We may say that
there have been on an average, at all times, forty ecclesiastics, if
not more, who had cognizance of the fraud, if there were any. The
dignity of canon of the cathedral or chaplain of the _Tesoro_ is
ordinarily reached only after years of meritorious service in the
lower grades of the ministry. Hence the canons and chaplains are
usually men of mature and advanced age. We can scarcely give them more
than fifteen years of average life. We have thus about a thousand
clergymen since A.D. 1500, all charged with being cognizant of and
participators in the fraud.
Now, what was the character of those men? Those among whom they lived,
and who knew them, respected them as a body of men devoted to the
service of God, pure and exemplary ecclesiastics, proved by years
spent in the zealous works of the ministry. Some were men of honorable
and noble families; others were men distinguished in the walks of
literature and science; some had sacrificed all the world promised
them, in order to spend their lives in the sanctuary. Some were
revered in life, and remembered after death, as pre-eminently true
servants of God, men of prayer, of strong faith, and of singularly
pure and saintly lives. Of course, individuals here or there may
indeed have been wicked or hypocritical. But this testimony of the
people to their character must have been true of the great body.
Now, could such men have all united in this fraud? On their own
principles and convictions, and according to the doctrines they taught
and should themselves practise, there could scarcely be a more heinous
sin against God and his holy religion, than to palm off a trick of
crafty men as a miracle of God’s working. Could they bring themselves
to it?
Is it possible that no one of them ever repented, even in the presence
of death, and sought to save his soul, and to make reparation, by
disclosing the fraud and arresting the evil? Could all have chosen to
die impenitent, with the certainty of everlasting damnation before
them, rather than reveal the blasphemous and, to them, henceforth
useless trick? The thing is impossible.
Again, men, even though good and pious, may be garrulous. All men have
their unguarded moments. How came it that the secret never leaked out
from any one of them during all these years?
Again, among so many there must have been men wicked, avaricious,
passionate, revengeful. How comes it that no one sought to make money
by revealing the secret; that no one declared it through anger; that
no one did so in retaliation when he was punished by his
ecclesiastical superiors?
Nay, more, we fear that instances might be found in which, toward the
close of the last century, some of them were carried away by the
irreligious mania then prevailing, and became the companions of
infidels, if not themselves infidels. And unless our memory is at
fault, one or two yielded to the blandishments and the privileges of
Protestantism. How comes it that, through such, the world has not
learned how this antiquated trick is actually done? Obviously, they
had no disclosure to make. This is the only possible answer. 543
There is still more to be said on this point. The civil authorities of
Naples are, and have been for two hundred and twenty-four years, joint
custodians with the archbishop and clergy of the _Tesoro_ chapel and
of the relics of St. Januarius. They keep one set of the keys of the
_Armoire_, or closet, which can never be opened save in the presence
of one of their members, whom they send as a delegate, and whose sworn
duty it is never to lose sight of the reliquary until it is placed in
its closet, and he assists in duly locking it up. During these two
hundred and twenty-four years, Naples has again and again changed
masters. Austrians, Lombards, Spaniards, and French--Bourbon,
Imperial, and Republican--have held, as the Piedmontese now hold, the
city, which in fact has oftener been ruled by strangers than by
Neapolitans. These rulers have been men of every character, from the
best to the worst; often rough, ruthless soldiers, who brooked no
opposition, and were ever ready with the sword; often keen, crafty
civilians, ready to cajole, to bribe, and to deceive, and thoroughly
practised to detect plots and ferret out hidden things; sometimes
professed infidels and avowed enemies of all religion; oftener
political enemies of the Neapolitan clergy, whose hearts, of course,
were with their own oppressed people. How comes it that none of these
rulers at any time have ever discovered and made known the fraud?
Can we suppose that those rulers, ill-disposed as they often were
toward the clergy, could or would sacrifice their own interests, their
policy, their jealousies, and their personal feeling, in order to
co-operate in a fraud, the success of which would certainly be less
agreeable, perhaps far less profitable, to them, than its failure and
exposure?
Would not the French infidels, in 1799, have gladly put this stigma on
the odious cause of Christianity?
And, in these present years, would not Ratazzi, Garibaldi, and their
party gladly do it if they could? What a triumph it would be for them
if they could strike this blow at “clericalism”--a blow far more
effective than fining, imprisoning, or exiling bishops and priests and
religious! They would glory in doing it if it were possible. What
holds them back? There are no limits to their hatred or to their
powers of calumny. They are ever denouncing the ignorance and the
blind superstition of priests and people. But the very gist and
copiousness of their invectives prove that they themselves know and
feel that the priests and people are alike sincere. It is the depth
and earnestness of that sincerity which excites their rage.
Brought face to face, in Naples, with this manifestation of the
supernatural, the civil government, whatever the political
circumstances and whatever the private character of individual members
of it, have always seemed struck with awe, and have never failed in
respect. Nay, more, they have ever claimed and exercised their
privilege of sending their delegate to intervene in the exposition.
And so, after all, on the 19th of this last September, as in times
past, they did send a delegate, with his scarlet embroidered bag, and
the two antique keys chained together; and the doors of the
_Armoire_ were opened; and the relics were reverently taken out and
carried to the altar; and the blood was seen to be _hard_; and the
clergy and the crowd prayed and waited for the miracle; “and, after
eight minutes of prayer, the hard mass became entirely liquid.”
There is an anecdote current in the world on this subject which we 544
have heard cited as peremptory against much of what we have just said.
The anecdote, in passing from mouth to mouth, has become so vague and
so full of variations that we would scarcely know how to present it,
had we not found a precise and _quasi_ authoritative form of it in the
columns of the _Coryphæus_ of French infidelity, the _Siècle_ of Paris
of the date of October 11, 1856:
“The history of Championnet did some damage to the miracle of St.
Januarius in the minds of a great many. In 1799, the French army
was in Naples, where it had been well received at first.... On
the 6th of May, the crowd filled the chapel of the cathedral....
For more than half an hour the priest had been turning backward
and foward, on his hands, the round silver lantern with two faces
of glass within which is preserved the precious blood in a small
vial. The little reddish mass would not quit its state of
solidity.... The exasperated populace commenced to attribute the
stubbornness of San Gennaro to the presence of the French. There
was danger of a tumult, when an aid hastened to notify General
Championnet of the suspicious conduct of the saint. In a few
moments the aid returned, approached the priest politely, and
said a few words in his ear. What he did say is not precisely
known, but he had scarcely said it when the blood at once
liquefied, to the great joy of the people, who at last had their
miracle.”
Alexandre Dumas, in one of his novels, narrates the same story much
more dramatically. According to him, “General Championnet saw that it
was important for his safety and the safety of the army that the
miracle should not fail that year; and he made up his mind that, one
way or another, it should positively occur.” The first Sunday of May
was near at hand. On the vigil (May 4, 1799), the procession marched,
but between files of French grenadiers. That night the city was
patrolled by French and Italian soldiers jointly. All day Sunday the
miracle was patiently waited for; but in vain. Six in the afternoon
came--Championnet, with his staff, was in his elevated _loggia_ or
gallery. The people began at length to lose patience and to vociferate
angrily. At 7 P.M. they were brandishing knives and threatening the
general, who pretended not to understand or heed them. At 8 P.M. the
streets around were filled with other crowds equally threatening. “The
grenadiers waited on a signal from the general to charge bayonets. The
general continued unmoved.” At half-past eight, as the tumult was
still increasing, “the general bent over and whispered something to an
aid-de-camp.” The aid left the stand, and passed up to the altar and
knelt in the front rank, and waited. In five minutes the canon,
bearing the reliquary, came round to him in his turn. He kissed the
reliquary as others did; but, while doing so, grasped the priest’s
hand in his.
“‘Father, a word with you.’
“‘What is it?’ asked the priest.
“‘I must say to you, on the part of the general commanding, that
if in ten minutes the miracle is not accomplished, in fifteen
minutes your reverence shall be shot.’
“The canon let the reliquary fall from his hands. Fortunately,
the young officer caught it before it reached the ground, and
gave it back with every mark of profound respect. Then he arose
and returned to his place near the general.
“‘Well?’ said the general.
“‘All right, general,’ said the young officer. ‘In ten minutes
the miracle will take place.’
“The aid-de-camp spoke the truth; nevertheless he made a mistake
of five minutes; for at the end of five minutes only, the canon
raised the reliquary aloft, exclaiming, _Il miracolo è fatto_.
The blood was completely liquefied.”
We suppose we may take these as the best versions of the same story.
The other French and late English versions we have met of it, however 545
they may vary in minor details, all agree as to the person--General
Championnet, and as to the year, 1799. So far as we can judge, the
_Siècle_ and the other writers got their facts from the novelist. It
is their way. When they attack religion, all manner of weapons are
acceptable. Where the novelist got it we need scarcely inquire.
Certainly, on a pinch, he was capable of inventing it out of the whole
cloth. But we can only credit him with twisting and reversing an older
story. In a work entitled _Naples and Campagna Felice_, printed in
London in 1815, there is an earlier account of “the very recent
experiment of General Championnet.”
“When this _Champion_ of liberty entered Naples with his unhosed
_enfans de la patrie_, his curiosity, or rather his infidelity,
prompted him to direct the priests forthwith to perform the
ceremony before him and his companions, the philosophic
worshippers of the Goddess of Reason.... ‘The miracle must be
exhibited this instant, or I’ll smash your vials and all your
nonsense into a thousand pieces.’... Every devout effort of the
priests proved vain; even the general’s active assistance and
repeated trials to give fluidity to the indurated blood, by means
of natural and artificial heat, were equally unsuccessful.”
This want of success, according to, the teller of the story, was due
to the fact that the relatives of St. Januarius were not present. The
general sent soldiers to arrest them, and had them brought into the
church.
“A second experiment was now instituted in due form: which, to
the utter amazement of the French part of the congregation, and
to the inward delight of all the pious Neapolitans, succeeded
almost instantaneously.”
Were it not for the identity of names and place, we could scarcely
recognize this earlier English version, with its characteristic
contempt of French philosophers and _enfans de la patrie_, and its
result of the experiment so satisfactory to the Neapolitans, as in
reality the original form of the story, which Dumas, and after him
many others, have dressed up and presented to the world with such
different details, and with a result exactly opposite.
But a regard for truth obliges us to reject this earlier form, no less
than those which followed, as, all of them, pure fictions. The
evidence is clear and to the point.
I. On May 4,1799, General Championnet was not in Naples. He had
entered that city with his army on the 28th of January preceding, and
had established “The Parthenopean Republic”; but he had been relieved
of his command before May; possibly on account of ill health, for he
died at Antibes a few months later. His successor in the command at
Naples was General, afterwards Marshal Macdonald.
II. The diary of the _Tesoro_ chapel, and the archiepiscopal diary,
in their accounts of the exposition on Saturday, May 4, 1799, both
mention the presence of General Macdonald with his officers.
III. According to the same authorities, the liquefaction, so far from
being long delayed, that day took place quite soon--after a lapse of
only ten minutes.
IV. They indicate the very respectful demeanor of the French general,
and his expressions of reverence; expressions which, by the way, he
confirmed afterwards by presenting to the _Tesoro_ chapel a beautiful
silk mitre, rich in gold work and jewels, which is still shown in the
sacristy.
V. Finally, to clinch the whole matter, we quote the following extract
from a contemporary letter, published at the time in the official 546
organ at Paris--the _Moniteur_, No. 259, of date 19 Prairial, Year VII.
(June 10, 1799).
“Naples, 21 Floréal (May 13).--The festival of St. Januarius has
just been celebrated with the customary solemnity. General
Macdonald (successor to Championnet), Commissary Abrial, and all
the staff, witnessed the renowned miracle. As it took place
somewhat sooner than usual, the people think better of us
Frenchmen, and do not look on us any more as atheists.”
The writer little thought what a dramatic story a novelist’s
imagination would conjure up, and some credulous people would believe,
instead of the simple matter-of-fact statement he gave _en
passant_ of the solemnity he had just witnessed. A more complete
refutation of the whole story could not be desired than that afforded
by the words and tone of this letter.
We have been diffuse on the charge of fraud. But when we consider the
persistence with which it is made, and the variety of forms in which
it is presented; and that, after all, for most minds, the alternative
is between a suspicion of fraud, on one side, and the recognition of
the miraculous character of the liquefaction, on the other--it was
proper to treat this charge at length and in all its aspects.
We have seen that the publicity of everything about the exposition
peremptorily forbids every form of legerdemain during the ceremony.
Equally inadmissible is the supposition of some chemical compound
prepared beforehand. For no chemical compound which man can prepare
will liquefy, as this does, independently of heat, and under such
diverse circumstances, or will present the many varying phases which
are here seen. The most artistic attempts have utterly failed, and
must ever fail. For they are all subject to the laws of nature; while,
in this liquefaction, the laws of nature are clearly set aside.
Again, all testimony goes to show that the ampulla is not opened from
time to time to receive any chemical preparation.
Moreover, if there were any fraud, it would have been known to nearly
a thousand clergymen, and no one can say to how many laymen. Yet pious
men were never heard to denounce it; repentant men never disclosed it;
high-minded and honorable men never repudiated it in scorn, vile and
mercenary men were never moved by anger, revenge, desire of pecuniary
gain, or other potent motives, to betray it. Even political enmities
and fierce party strife, so prone to indulge in charges of fraud, have
failed in Naples to stigmatize this as a fraud. Evidently, there was
no fraud known or suspected there. In fine, were there a fraud, this
universal silence would be a greater miracle than the liquefaction
itself.
It has been asked, sometimes jeeringly, perhaps sometimes seriously,
if the Neapolitans are in such perfect faith and so sure of the
character of the substance which liquefies in the ampulla, why are
they unwilling to submit that substance to the test of chemical
analysis? Is not their omission, nay, their unwillingness to do this,
a confession on their part of the weakness of their cause?
To one who knows them, or who even reflects for a moment on the
subject, the answer is obvious. It is their perfect good faith itself,
and their consequent veneration for what they look on as sacred and
specially blessed of God, and not any fear or doubt, that would make
them rise in indignation against what, in their eyes, would be a 547
profane and unwarrantable desecration.
There are limits, they would protest, to the intrusive and irreverent
meddling of men under pretexts of science. Are there not many points
in pathology and physiology on which further knowledge is very
desirable--a knowledge which some think can be reached best and most
surely, if not only, by vivisection, especially of human subjects,
whether in normal health or presenting peculiar developments? Shall
we, therefore, in the interests of science, pick out such cases in a
community, and deliver them over to be cut up alive, and their still
living bodies to be explored by these science-seeking experimenters?
Knowledge is good and profitable, undoubtedly; but human life is
sacred, and must be preserved intact, even though these men remain in
the dark on various obscure points.
So, too, holding as they do that the ampulla contains a portion of the
veritable blood of St. Januarius, preserved by miracle of divine
Providence, and miraculously liquefied on his feasts, the Neapolitans
would shrink in horror from the sacrilegious profanity of delivering
it over to the retorts and crucibles, and mortars and solutions, of a
chemical laboratory.
Chemical experiments, they would say, are very respectable and very
admirable in their place; but there are things too precious and too
sacred to be submitted to them. In refusing to do so, the Neapolitans
do not confess a sense of the weakness of their own cause. They rather
manifest their sincere veneration for what they believe God has
specially honored.
As for the plea that this test would solve the question, the
Neapolitans would reply that for some minds nothing is ever solved.
If men wish really to know the truth, let them examine the evidences
which were appealed to before modern chemistry was invented. Those
evidences still exist, and are ample and irrefragable. “They have
Moses and the prophets; if they will not hear them, neither will they
believe, though one rose from the dead.”
One other objection remains: does God act uselessly? And of what
possible use is this miracle? What is the benefit of wonderfully
preserving from utter destruction, through so many centuries, a small
portion of blood, and of causing it to soften or liquefy fifteen or
twenty times a year, when brought, even if reverently, close to the
head of the martyr from whose veins it flowed? What good does this do?
Is it not so trifling and insignificant a thing as to be almost
ridiculous, and entirely unworthy of the majesty of God?
Who shall presume to say that it is unworthy of God--of that God
without whose knowledge and permission not a hair can fall from our
heads--of that Saviour who mixed clay with the spittle of his mouth,
and therewith touched the eyes of the blind man, that sight might be
restored to them? It is not for us to decide what is becoming or
unbecoming for God to do.
Who shall say that it is useless? Has not the faith of a simple-minded
people been confirmed and strengthened by it, to such a degree that
the truths of divine revelation and the obligations of man before God
are to them verities as strong, as clear, and as real in their daily
life as is the sunlight that beams down on their fair land? How many
sinners have been led, through it, to repentance and amendment of
life? How often have the indifferent been stirred up to avoid evil and 548
to do good, and the good animated to greater fervor and earnestness in
deeds of piety and virtue? And, after all, are not these the grand
purposes of all God’s dealings with men?
Nor is this miracle--for such we call it, although the church has
never spoken authoritatively on the point--alien from doctrine.
Wrought in honor of a sainted and martyred bishop, it is a perpetual
testimony to the truth of the doctrines he preached, and of the church
which glories in him as one of her exemplary and venerated ministers;
it is a confirmation of the homage and veneration she pays to him
because he chose rather to sacrifice his life than to deny the Saviour
who had redeemed and illumined him. Wrought within her fold, it is a
permanent evidence that she is in fact and in spirit the same now as
in the early days of persecution--the ever true and faithful church of
Christ.
It is a confirmation, likewise, of the doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead--that special doctrine which the apostles put forth so
prominently in the beginning of their preaching; which was ever
present to the minds of the early Christians, cheering and
strengthening them when this world was dark around them; which formed
the frequent theme of their pastoral instructions and their mutual
exhortations, and became the prevailing subject of their household and
their sacred ornamentation in their homes and in their oratories, and
over their tombs in the catacombs; which gave a special tone to their
faith, their hope, and their charity and love of God, and was, as it
were, the very lifeblood of their Christianity.
Nowadays, outside the church, how faint, comparatively, has belief in
this doctrine become, or, rather, has it not died out almost
completely from the thoughts and the hearts of men? Within the church,
the solemn rites of Christian sepulture, burying the dead in
consecrated ground, tells us of it. The preservation and the
veneration of the relics of saints and martyrs teach it still more
strongly. Does not tangible evidence, as it were, come to it anew from
heaven by this constant and perpetual miracle, showing that the bodies
of the sainted dead are in the custody of him who made them, and who
has promised that he will raise them up again in glory?
Finally, this miracle seems to us especially adapted to our own age,
when over-much knowledge is making men mad. Men are so lifted up by
their progress, especially in natural sciences, that they have come to
feel that they can dispense with God and substitute NATURE in his
stead, with her multifarious and unchangeable laws. They boast that,
under the light of their newly-acquired knowledge, everything is
already, or will soon be, susceptible of natural explanation. As for
miracles--direct interventions of God in the affairs of the world,
reversing or suspending, in special cases, these ordinary laws of
nature--they scout the idea. All past accounts of miracles, no matter
when or by whom recorded, they hold to be either accounts of natural
events warped and distorted by excited and unrestrained imaginations,
or else the pure fictions of superstition and credulity. They are sure
that, in the first case, had there been present witnesses of
sufficient knowledge and caution--such knowledge and caution as they
possess--the accounts of those events would have come down to us in a
far simpler garb, and unclothed with this miraculous robing. They are
equally sure that, in the other case, education, especially in the 549
physical sciences, would have forbidden the creation of those
numberless fictions.
Well, here, in the light of this nineteenth century, in one of the
most polished, most delightful, and most accessible cities of
Italy--centuries ago the largest, and even now the fourth largest, in
Europe--there occurs an event to which their attention is invited. It
is not an event of which a few only can be witnesses, and which all
others must learn on their testimony. It occurs in public. It occurs
fifteen or twenty times each year, and year after year. All may
scrutinize it again and again, as often and as closely as they please.
No mystery is made of anything about it. We admit it has come down to
us from the middle ages, dark, ignorant, and superstitious as they are
alleged to have been. But then, if it belongs to the past, it occurs
still, and belongs equally to this nineteenth century. Moreover, it
comes directly in contact with those physical sciences in which they
think themselves strongest, and it should, therefore, interest them,
and claim their attention.
Will they accept the invitation? We think very few will heed it.
Many would not dare to believe in a miracle nowadays, not even if it
happened to themselves. They take their ground beforehand. Since
miracles are impossible, any special one must of necessity be
false--either a fraud or a delusion. They know from the beginning what
the result of inquiring into this one must be--why give themselves
unnecessary trouble? Such minds choose their own side, and implicitly
choose the consequences that follow.
Others pretend to examine, but do it with a resolute and unshakable
predetermination that this must _not_ be found out to be a miracle.
They foster a prejudice which may blind their eyes to the light; and
they, too, make themselves equally responsible for their conclusion
and its consequences.
But if any one--Catholic, Protestant, or Rationalist--will examine it
seriously and candidly, no matter how closely and patiently--nay, the
more closely and patiently, the more surely--he will come to the same
inevitable conclusion to which such an examination has heretofore led
so many other candid and intelligent inquirers: _Digitus Dei est hic_:
The Finger of God is here.
----------
THE NEW SCHOOL OF HISTORY.
If the ghost of Tacitus could return from the Acherontic shades, learn
the English language, and spend a few weeks in reading the most
popular modern works in that branch of letters of which he was in his
day the conspicuous ornament, he would rend his toga in despair, and
mourn over the ruin of one of the noblest of the sciences. The
“dignity of history” was not an unmeaning phrase when kings, consuls,
and military commanders moved with stately pace through the polished
pages, and uttered the most heroic of sentiments in the most formal of
addresses. Ancient authors would have deemed it the grossest indecency
to quote familiar language from the lips of any historical character,
or to let the world imagine that men who concerned themselves with 550
the destinies of states, behaved even in moments of relaxation like
the men who buy and sell in the shops, and confine their cares to
commonplace domestic matters. And yet what could be more absurd than
to suppose that generals addressed their armies amid the heat of
battle in a speech regularly compounded of exordium, argument,
exhortation, and peroration; or that great men wore the grand manner
to bed with them, and put on civic crowns before they washed their
faces in the morning? It is not so very many years since Cato used to
be represented on the English stage in a powdered wig and a
dress-sword, which was not more incongruous than the spectacle
presented by all the old statesmen and fighting characters of
antiquity, mouthing orations, and posing themselves in the best of the
classical histories. Perhaps it was something to be thankful for that,
in the eclipse of learning during the disturbed middle ages, the art
of writing history after the heroic manner was lost. The chroniclers
of feudal times devoted infinite pains to the reeord of facts--as well
as the record of many things that were not facts--but knew little of
the graces of literary composition, and cared nothing for the dignity
of history. They stripped off the heavy robes, and showed us the
deformed and clumsy figures underneath. Lacking literary culture and
the fine art of discrimination, they left us only the bare materials
of history instead of the historical structure itself. Industrious but
injudicious collectors, they were sometimes amusingly garrulous,
sometimes provokingly uninteresting; but their labors were invaluable,
and modern scholars owe them a debt which can never be repaid. It is
only within a hundred years that English writers have tried to combine
the merits of the ancient and the mediæval schools, discarding the
cumbrous and delusive garments in which Herodotus and Livy used to
wrap up the Muse Clio, and draping the bare skeletons of the annalists
with comely mantles. There was a portentous dulness in most of the
earlier essays in the reviving art, scarcely interrupted until Hume
embodied his sceptical philosophy in a history of England, and the
infidel Gibbon threw a lurid splendor over the chronicles of the
declining empire. Both these eminent writers brought to their work an
elegance of style worthy of the classical period, and a vigor of
thought so different from the unreflecting industry of their plodding
predecessors, that the falsehood underlying their narrative was not
readily perceived, or was too easily pardoned. Boldness of theory, and
in Gibbon a sardonic wit, added interest to the charms of the
well-told story. But Hume and Gibbon, as well as many of their less
distinguished contemporaries, labored under a radically wrong theory.
They accommodated historical narrative to the illustration of
preconceived principles, instead of deducing the principles from the
facts; and left us, consequently, volumes of sophistical argument,
rather than chronicles of actual occurrences and pictures of actual
society.
It was not until Macaulay arose in England, and Prescott in the United
States, that the modern school of historical writing was fairly
developed. Macaulay explained his own theory when he said that “a
perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to
make his narrative affecting and picturesque, yet must control it so
absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds,
and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own.” 551
William H. Prescott, though he sometimes trusted authorities who did
not deserve his confidence, and was swayed by religious prejudice and
an inability to comprehend the spirit of Catholic faith, came nearer
to the perfection of Macaulay’s ideal than any previous writer. His
imagination adorned the romantic tales of conquest and adventure in
the New World with a splendor till then unknown; yet no one could
charge that he had been led away by the temptations of a too luxuriant
fancy, or had heightened the effect of his narrative by a single touch
unauthorized in the musty chronicles from which he drew his material.
Prescott’s earlier histories are stories in which the actors stand
forth with as much distinctness, and incidents follow one another with
as much rapidity and as close connection, as in a well-constructed
novel. In his unfinished _Philip II._, he entered upon a wider field,
which required a different treatment. It was no longer sufficient to
tell a story well; he had to paint the manners of an age, the life and
character of a nation, and to unravel the network of intrigue which
constitutes the political history of Europe during a long and stirring
period of time. That he did this, so far as his labors extended, with
consummate art, no American reader needs to be told. But the system
which he pursued was carried to a greater length by Macaulay--the best
type, upon the whole, of the new school of historians of whom we
purposed speaking in this article. Macaulay assumed that history ought
to show us not merely the revolutions of dynasties, the clash of
armies, and the intrigues of cabinets, but the daily life and
conversation of all ranks of the people, from the prince to the
peasant. It ought to teach us their habits of thought and their mode
of speech. It ought to open for us their private homes, their
workshops, and their churches. It ought to depict national habits and
character, or it could not explain national tendencies and
aspirations. To do this, it must pick up a multitude of little things
which the older writers thought beneath the dignity of history. It
must invade the province of the poet and the novelist. Otherwise, he
who would understand the reign of King James must read half of it in
Hume and half in _The Fortunes of Nigel_.[116] Macaulay made many
mistakes in the execution of this noble plan. He picked up too many
things which were not so much undignified as untrustworthy. The
sketches of society which he drew with such a masterly hand may have
been true in their general effect; but he blundered in details.
Besides, he was as hot a partisan as Hume, as inveterate a theorist as
even the author of _The Decline and Fall_.
Whatever his mistakes and shortcomings, Macaulay rendered an
invaluable service to literature by the impetus which his brilliant
example gave to the new principles of historical composition. He may
be said to have dealt the finishing blow to the old style, and shown
us how a minute, faithful, and vivacious story ought to be set before
the world--how the historian must draw his materials, not only from
state-paper offices and formal chronicles, but from gossiping diaries,
ballads, pamphlets, and all other sources in which are preserved
traces of the condition of society and the domestic annals of the
people. The period which he undertook to illustrate offered peculiar
advantages for the development of his plan. It was a period when a
great change was taking place in English customs and ways of thought. 552
The revolution, which not only exchanged one dynasty for another, but
metamorphosed the very system of English government, merely followed
in the path of a remarkable intellectual and social transformation,
without which the political reversal would have been impossible. The
events of the reign of James II. could not be explained under the old
plan of writing history on stilts. They were incomprehensible except
by one who could mingle familiarly with the English people, and learn
by what steps they had reached their new departure. Only one period in
the history of England showed changes of equal importance. That was
the period which witnessed England’s apostasy from the Catholic faith;
and it is the period which one of the latest and most brilliant of
English historians has chosen for the subject of a work planned (if
not executed) after Macaulay’s model.
Mr. James Anthony Froude attempted to trace the development of the
English nation, from the day of Henry’s formal separation from the
communion of the Holy See to the final establishment of Protestant
ascendency at the death of Elizabeth. This is by no means the task he
has accomplished, but it is the task he set himself at the beginning
of his work. He purposed to show the processes by which a people,
devotedly and even heroically faithful to the Roman See, became first
schismatic and then heretical; how their character under the change of
faith took on a new color; how the foundations of the English
supremacy over Ireland and Scotland were laid in blood and crime; and
how the maritime ascendency which has lasted three hundred years was
established by the daring and enterprise of English sailors during the
latter half of Elizabeth’s reign. Never had historian a more tempting
theme. If Mr. Froude had been a man of philosophical spirit, acute
insight, industry, and literary honesty, he might have produced a work
that for brilliancy would have rivalled Macaulay’s, and for dramatic
interest would have been almost unequalled in our language. There was
no lack of material. Since Hume and Lingard--one the most misleading,
the other the driest of modern English historians--had treated the
same period, an immense store of records and official documents had
become accessible to scholars. The British State-Paper Office abounded
with historic wealth which the earlier writers did not know. The
archives of Simancas disclosed secrets long unsuspected, and
unravelled mysteries that had long baffled investigators. And from a
thousand sources new light had been thrown upon the social condition
of England, new illustrations given of the tendency of English
thought, new explanations offered of the development of English
strength and English character.
In his first volume, Mr. Froude seemed to appreciate the nature of his
task, and to go about it with something of the proper spirit. He set
before us a lifelike picture of England in the early part of Henry’s
reign, and displayed admirable art in reproducing the manners, the
conversation, and the tendencies of the common people, as well as the
superficial characteristics of the chief actors in the historical
drama. But even in the first volume he showed the glaring faults which
vitiated all his later labors, and, increasing as the work went on,
made his history at last one of the worst that the present generation
has produced. Fired with the zeal of a blind partisan, he forgot all
his earlier purposes and all his earlier pictorial art in the
enthusiasm of a fierce religious bigotry. It became his object to 553
describe a conflict for the possession of England between the powers
of darkness and the powers of light. On the one hand stood the Pope of
Rome and his agents, Catharine of Aragon, Wolsey, Mary Tudor, Philip
of Spain, and the Queen of Scots. On the other, arrayed beneath the
banner of civil and religious liberty, fought those bright beings,
Henry VIII., Anne Boleyn, and Queen Elizabeth. Naturally, when
Elizabeth at last triumphed in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Mr.
Froude declared the battle over, and dropped his unfinished,
ill-proportioned story. One qualification he certainly had. He shrank
from no paradox. He carried his theory boldly over the most serious
obstacles, and took even the nastiest fences in the life of Henry
without an instant’s hesitation. The most fervent Anglicans were
amazed at Mr. Froude’s admiration for the bluff, carnal-minded king,
and wondered how he was to justify the new views of history which he
set forth with such alluring boldness. It was not long before he
taught them his method. “It often seems to me,” says Mr. Froude, in
one of his collected essays, “as if history was like a child’s box of
letters, with which we can spell any word we please.” Of course, when
the historian takes the liberty of leaving out facts which do not
please him, disarranging sequences which conflict with his
preconceived theories, and giving his own peculiar coloring to
incidents without caring what coloring actually belongs to them, it is
indeed easy enough to make history spell whatever he pleases. At the
very outset, Mr. Froude had an opportunity to try his skill in
accommodating facts to theories. He began his story with Henry’s
project for a divorce; and his starting-point was the assumption that
the king’s scruples were thoroughly conscientious, and no thought was
given to Anne while he believed himself legally married to Catharine.
To maintain this, the historian resorted to his characteristic
vices--suppression and misrepresentation. He concealed the origin of
Henry’s intercourse with Anne Boleyn, bringing her on the stage some
years too late, with the air of one introducing a fresh arrival; and
he grossly distorted the contemporary records from which he professed
to quote. The king’s distaste for Catharine, he says, had risen to its
worst dimensions before he ever saw Anne Boleyn. He adds that her
first appearance at court was in 1525--which is an error, for she came
to the court in 1522; and yet it was not until 1527 that we find Henry
agitating the question of a divorce. That Mistress Anne during these
five years was otherwise employed than in fascinating his majesty, Mr.
Froude apparently wishes us to infer from the story that she was
engaged to Lord Percy, the eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland.
Lord Percy, to quote our author’s words, “was in the household of
Cardinal Wolsey; and Cavendish, who was with him there, tells a long
romantic story of the affair, which, if his account be true, was
ultimately interrupted by Lord Northumberland himself.” This, if
Cavendish said it, would indeed afford a fair presumption that Anne
was not at that time (the date is given by other authorities as 1524
or 1525) the object of the royal attentions. But Cavendish really says
something very different. He declared that _the king sent for Lord
Northumberland, and ordered him to interrupt the affair_. Mr. Froude
could not help seeing this statement if he read Cavendish at all, and
we do not understand how he is to be acquitted of gross and
intentional misrepresentation in making his authority convey a meaning 554
diametrically opposed to the one intended. After this, Mr. Froude goes
on with the story of the divorce as if Anne had no existence, and she
does not appear again upon the scene until the stage has been nearly
cleared for her.
This is a fair specimen of literary dishonesty or recklessness from
the first volume. Later instalments of the work, especially those
devoted to the Queen of Scots, have been dissected by an able hand in
the pages of this magazine. The series of papers in which Mr. James F.
Meline examined in our columns Froude’s account of Mary Stuart, have
now been incorporated with much additional matter in a volume entitled
_Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Latest English Historian_.[117] No more
thorough scarification of a literary offender has been published
within our recollection. Mr. Meline has traced the historian’s
authorities with admirable patience, disclosed his falsifications, his
misconceptions, his suppressions, and his interpolations, and utterly
demolished the case which Elizabeth’s advocate made against the
unfortunate Mary. It is common to meet with uneducated people who
cannot tell a story correctly, or repeat the words of a conversation
without grossly distorting their meaning. Partly from defects of
memory, partly from an intellectual deficiency which prevents them
from apprehending things exactly as they are, such persons invariably
misreport what they have seen and heard. What such people are to
society, Mr. Froude seems to be to history. The _Saturday Review_ says
that he has not “fully grasped the nature of inverted commas.” If he
quotes a state paper, he leaves out essential passages, and inserts
statements which rest upon no authority but his own. He gives his
conjectures as if they were recorded facts. He disingenuously combines
unconnected facts so as to bear out his private conjectures.
These are serious charges to bring against a writer of history; but
they are all proved by Mr. Meline’s book. We do not purpose reviewing
the whole story of the Queen of Scots, or reviving the endless
controversy upon her innocence, so soon after the task has been
performed in the pages of THE CATHOLIC WORLD by the author of the
savage little volume now before us. But we shall select and arrange
from this record a few specimens of Mr. Froude’s sins, that our
readers may judge for themselves how little claim this latest English
history has to an honorable place on their library shelves.
1. Mr. Froude begins early to prepare our minds for Mary’s imputed
profligacy. “She was brought up,” he says, “amidst the political
iniquities of the court of Catharine de Medicis.” The fact is that
Mary never was at the court of Catharine de Medicis at all. Catharine
had no court, no influence, no position in history, until after Mary
had left France. And, besides, Mary and Catharine cordially detested
each other.
2. On the authority of Knox’s _History of the Reformation_, he relates
that Knox had labored to save the Earl of Murray from the dangerous
fascinations of his sister Mary, “but Murray had only been angry at
his interference, and ‘they spake not familiarlie for more than a year
and a half.’” But Knox gives an entirely different version of the
quarrel. He writes that he had urged Murray to legalize by act of the
parliament the confession of faith as the doctrine of the Church of 555
Scotland, but Murray was more intent upon his private interests--“the
erledom of Murray needed confirmation, and many things were to be
ratified that concerned the help of friends and servants--and the
matter fell so hote betwixt the Erie of Murray and John Knox, that
familiarlie after that time they spack nott together more than a year
and a half.” There is nothing about Mary’s influence over her brother;
the influence was all on the other side.
3. Mr. Froude assumes to quote from a dispatch of Randolph’s to Cecil
a description of Mary’s luxurious habits. “Without illness or
imagination of it, she would lounge for days in bed, rising only at
night for dancing or music; and there she reclined with some light
delicate French robe carelessly draped about her, surrounded by her
ladies, her council, and her courtiers, receiving ambassadors and
transacting business of state. It was in this condition that Randolph
found her.” (_Randolph to Cecil_, Sept. 4, 1563.) There is no such
description in the dispatch. On the contrary, Mary is represented at
this period, both by Randolph and by other authorities, as
industrious, active, energetic, and capable, but at the same time in
bad health.
4. Mr. Froude thus travesties Randolph’s account of the return of
Bothwell (1565): “Suddenly, unlooked for and uninvited, the evil
spirit of the storm, the Earl of Bothwell, reappeared at Mary’s court.
She disclaimed all share in his return; he was still attainted; yet
there he stood--none daring to lift a hand against him--proud,
insolent, and dangerous.” And he adds that “the Earl of Murray, at the
expense of forfeiting the last remains of his influence over his
sister, summoned Bothwell to answer at Edinburgh a charge of high
treason.” What Randolph really says is this: “The Queen misliketh
Bothwell’s coming home, and has summoned him to undergo the law or be
proclaimed a rebel.” It was the Queen therefore, and not Murray, who
“summoned him to answer.” Moreover, Bothwell did not appear at court,
but sought refuge among his vassals in Liddesdale.
5. Mr. Froude speaks of Lennox having “gathered about him a knot of
wild and desperate youths--Cassilis, Eglinton, Montgomery, and
Bothwell.” If he had read his authority (Randolph) with decent care,
he would have seen that these were not the friends of Lennox, but, on
the contrary, the strongest dependence of Murray and Argyle
_against_ Lennox. Moreover, Eglinton and Montgomery are one and the
same person.
6. A blunder which has already excited some discussion is Mr Froude’s
statement, on the authority of a letter from Randolph to Cecil,
October 5, 1565, that Mary, “deaf to advice as she had been to
menace,” said she would have no peace till she had Murray’s or
Chatelherault’s head.” There is no such letter. It appears, however,
from a letter of Randolph’s, dated October 4, that Mary was “not only
uncertain as to what she should do, but inclined to clement measures,
and so undecided as to hope that matters could be arranged.” The
document to which Mr. Froude refers is a letter from the Earl of
Bedford, who was not at Mary’s court, but at Alnwick, on the English
side of the border, and who consequently had no such opportunities as
Randolph for knowing the temper of the Scottish Queen. But even
Bedford does not say what Mr. Froude reports. The earl merely relates
the substance of information brought back from the rebel camp by one
of his officers. According to this man, Murray and the other rebel
lords are dissatisfied with the little that England is doing to help 556
them, and _they_ say, “There is no talk of peace with that Queen, but
that she will first have a head of the duke or of the Earl of Murray.”
7. One instance of Mr. Froude’s incorrigible propensity to blunder in
that peculiar manner which is vulgarly called “going off at
half-cock,” deserves to be mentioned, not for its importance, but
because it is amusing. He describes Mary on a furious night-ride of
“twenty miles in two hours,” at the end of which she wrote “with her
own hand” a letter to Elizabeth, “fierce, dauntless, and haughty,”
“the strokes thick, and slightly uneven from excitement, but strong,
firm, and without sign of trembling.” It is a pity to spoil such a
picturesque passage; but the very letter which Mr. Froude seems to
have examined with such care contains the Queen’s apology for
_not_ writing it with her own hand, because she was “so tired and ill
at ease,” and mentions, moreover, that the twenty-miles ride occupied
five hours, not two.
8. In his account of the murder of Darnley, Mr. Froude pursues a
singularly devious course, through which his reviewer follows him with
inimitable pertinacity. The historian accepts without reserve the most
notoriously untrustworthy authorities, distorts evidence, throws in a
multitude of artful suggestions, and suppresses in a manner that is
downright dishonest every circumstance that tells in Mary’s favor. We
have no space to recapitulate here the numberless blunders and
perversions of which he is convicted by Mr. Meline; but some of them
are too ludicrous to be passed over. For instance, Mr. Froude finds it
suspicious that Mary should have “preferred to believe” that she
herself was the object of the lords’ conspiracy, though a dispatch from
Paris had conveyed “a message to her from Catharine de Medicis that
_her husband’s life was in danger_.” The message was not from
Catharine de Medicis, but from the Spanish ambassador in France, and
wanted her to “take heed to herself,” for there was “some notable
enterprise in hand against her.” Not a word is said of her husband.
9. It is again mentioned, as confirmation of her guilt, that “she sent
for none of the absent noblemen to protect her,” and that “Murray was
within reach, but she did not seem to desire his presence.” Now, Mr.
Froude’s own authorities show that Mary _did_ send for many of the
absent noblemen, and in particular that she twice sent for Murray, who
would not come.
10. When Elizabeth sent Killigrew to Scotland to inquire into the
circumstances of the murder, _Murray_ (as Killigrew himself relates)
entertained the English ambassador at dinner, and invited to meet him
Huntly, Argyle, Bothwell, and Maitland--all of them among the
murderers of Darnley. This was strong circumstantial evidence of
Murray’s guilt. Mr. Froude accordingly (referring to Killigrew as his
authority) suppresses all mention of Murray, who gave the dinner and
presided at it, and states that Killigrew “was entertained at dinner
by the clique who had attended her [Mary] to Seton”--thus implying
that Mary, instead of Murray, was in league with Bothwell and the
others to prevent his getting at the truth. The whole substance of
Killigrew’s letter is most outrageously misrepresented. Mr. Meline
gives the original and the false version side by side.
But we must pause. We cannot follow Mr. Meline in his admirable
discussion of the authenticity of the famous casket letters, or his
exposure of the extraordinary misstatements with which Mr. Froude has 557
loaded this portion of his book. With the question of the innocence of
the Queen of Scots, we are not now concerned. Our business is rather
with the innocence of the Queen of Scots’ most notorious modern
accuser. And whatever may be thought of the honesty of Mr. Froude’s
motives, whether we decide that he blunders through sheer incapacity,
or lies with malice aforethought, we believe candid students will
admit that his reputation as a historical writer has been utterly
ruined, and that his work will be remembered hereafter as a disastrous
literary failure.
[116] See Macaulay’s _Essay on History_.
[117] _Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Latest English
Historian._ By James F. Meline. New York: The Catholic
Publication Society.
----------
VENITE ADOREMUS.
It comes to us, as a messenger of peace and love, a memory of home, a
voice of the past, with the echo of unforgotten joys, and the
_refrain_ of ever-silent sorrows; with the sacred thoughts of
that most touching feast, Christmas, of that most tender mystery, the
Infant-God; with the human thoughts of friends gone from us and loved
ones far away--_Venite adoremus_!
It conjures up pictures before us of a happy, ignorant childhood,
peaceful as a meadow-brook--a young life passed amid smiling hills,
and fruitful vales, and woods where the honeysuckle twines round the
old gnarled hawthorns, and the oak spreads its green, trembling tent
over carpets of wild hyacinths. There, before the mind’s eye, rises
the vision of a house, gray and picturesque, a broad, lovely terrace,
and oriel windows looking down and beyond it into a sloping orchard.
At the back, leaning on the grassy bank, dotted by firs and elms,
lilacs and guelder-rose, and fragrant syringa and gold-blooming
laburnum, stands a gaunt old tower, clad in dark purple-berried ivy--a
ghost tower, the haunt of mystery, overshadowing the little cloister
and the tall, gray roof of the chapel. But it is winter, and I have
been forgetting that the _Venite adoremus_ is a snow-flower of devotion,
a “Christmas rose,” not a red June rose, regal in its dusky, velvety
mantle of richest, warmest color; for now we hear the chant of the
holy Christmas song, and the tapers are lighted on the stone-carved
altar, where, on each side of the niched reredos, white angels kneel
with their eternal torches, ever still, ever adoring, like some
heavenly exile bound to earth’s temples by a divine spell, of which
art holds the key. Above, the Annunciation is blazoned forth on the
pictured window; but you cannot see it now, the night blots out its
fairness. Angels, again, on the frescoed wall, bear scrolls, whose
silent voices chant a ceaseless _Gloria_ to the Babe in the
tabernacle--_Laudamus te_, _Benedicimus te_, _Adoramus te_, _Glorificamus
te_--and the rest of the narrow chapel is dark and voiceless, save
where a taper glimmers on the desk of the little, humble harmonium,
round which stand reverentially the few singers, whose only guerdon is
the smile of the unseen but not unfelt God. Dark and dusky red are
the hangings that tapestry the wall, bearing over their surface thick 558
growths of the white fleur-de-lis; while above the simple benches of
stained wood, at the back, rises a long, dark gallery. It was there I
heard the first Midnight Mass I ever heard in my life.
_Venite adoremus!_ It brings back visions of a mother’s patient,
doting love; of a gathering of friends; of pleasant, hushed talk of
ghosts and spectres; of long, dark corridors, where the wind moaned
like a soul in pain; of oriel windows, many-paned, through which came
the distant sound of young owls hooting mournfully in the snow-covered
plantations.
How kind a mother the church is! Are not all her feasts as many days
of remembrances given to the past joys of home? Are they not a
faultless calendar of our hopes and fears for years past? When the
children, with earnest, unsuspicious gravity, debated upon the
arrangements of the “crib,” what excitement! what interest! When the
parents and the old retainers closed one room in mysterious silence,
and decorated the glittering Christmas-tree, what wonderment! what
whisperings!--and on the revelation, what delight! When piles of
blankets and warm clothing were distributed among the poor, what
curiosity to see which child got the petticoat Eleanor hemmed, or the
jacket Frances put together!
All this is in the voice of the _Venite adoremus_ as it sounds faintly
now through a half-opened door, a Sunday surprise in a house hardly
given to much solemnity--a house far away from the old gabled
homestead and the snow-veiled chapel-roof.
But it has other scenes to show, other memories to waken. It tells of
a Southern church, gaudy and bedizened, full of frivolous worshippers,
whose Christmas vigil has been kept in the ball-room they have
hurriedly left to listen to the operatic orchestra preparing its
musical pyrotechnics for the dread moment of the Elevation. But pass
we on to more congenial remembrances. It tells of a simple,
white-washed chamber, a prison-ward in the Holy City, where reclaimed
and forgiven women are worshipping the divine Babe, who has wrought
their salvation and sent them in their hour of need to the arms of his
earthly angels, the Sisters of Mercy; it tells of a high dignitary of
the Vatican, leaving his purple magnificence to come among the city
prisons, and spend with them a more edifying Christmas than the
display of the public churches promised his humble devotion. _Venite
adoremus!_ It swells up in sweet woman-tones from some recess of
faithful memory, but the halls through which the hymn was borne that
Christmas night echo only to the heavy tramp of the sentinel now, if
not to worse, the blasphemies of the ungodly trooper.
It brings the mediæval glories of St. Mark’s to the mind of a lover of
that unique basilica--that petrified dream of the heavenly Jerusalem,
with its curious barbaric wealth, its golden mosaics, its Byzantine
spoils of victories that were not merely the victories of civilization
over decay, but the triumphs of faith over superstition. The glorious
church is full, dark masses of human beings sway about its
broad-reaching nave, and here and there, like fire-flies, like
heart-stars, shine the little _cerini_--the rope-like coils of wax,
the picturesque forerunners of garish gas-jets and dream-dispelling
coronas. The Mass in Venice is not a real Midnight Mass, however,
since, by special permission, it is celebrated at five o’clock in the
afternoon of the vigil. It is sad to hear profane music even in this
consecrated spot, whose dim, suggestive beauty seems to inherit the 559
vague and solemn halo of the veiled lamps of the Holy of Holies in the
temple of Jerusalem; but corrupted taste certainly does reign in the
Venetian basilica, and a Mass full of modern Italian _fioritura_ is
annually performed in it at the festival of Christmas. Still, the mind
sees beyond the unhappy aberrations of the modern Euterpe out into the
long vista of past centuries, when graver and nobler strains rang
through the low-vaulted temple, and the stern and silent heads of the
state came in procession to grace the triumph of the new-born Saviour.
From Venice to Geneva there is a wide gulf, but the _Venite adoremus_
bridges over that.
Once again Christmas comes round, and the same world-wide chant rises
in the now half-converted stronghold of Calvinism. It leads us towards
the older town, far from the noisy port hotels, into a winding
labyrinth of steep, ill-paved streets, through rows of old houses,
every one of which seems to have a history of its own, and whose
old-fashioned windows, and wide portals opening into silent
court-yards, remind one of time-worn parchment bindings round poems
for ever new. But is this analogy not a little true? for is not the
poem of the human heart as old and as changeless as the ancient
romances of long-dead bards, and yet do we ever tire of its
repetition, any more than we are weary of Chaucer and Shakespeare, of
Homer and Virgil?
_Venite adoremus!_ It lures us on to a dark church, dedicated to St.
Germain, where there is nothing beautiful to strike the eye, nothing
artistic to make the heart beat. Plain and even unsightly, tawdry and
faded, as all churches are whose history lies between the dreaded
persecution of the sixteenth century and the Gothic revival of the
nineteenth, St. Germain yet possesses that untold charm which the
Italians so broadly but accurately describe by the word _simpatico_.
Sympathy! yes, that is it. It breathes on us from every corner; it is
the atmosphere of the little church; it softens every incongruity, and
sweetly blinds us to every defect. After all, such churches,
inartistic as they may be, are no unfit representatives of the church
militant, while our glorious blossoms of stone, born of the Moses-like
rod of Pugin, are types of the unfathomable beauty and jubilant repose
of the church triumphant.
In this Midnight Mass at Geneva it was touching to see the crowds that
flocked to the church through drifting snow and biting wind--real
Christmas weather--and, without any attraction in the shape of noted
preacher or imposing ceremonial, filled the church as full as the
generous heart-blood does the bosom of the Christian martyr. Hundreds
of silent worshippers were assembled there, and, when the last Gospel
of the Mass had been said, the priests returned, in alb and stole, to
give communion to the eager congregation. Hardly one present seemed to
have left the church, and gradually the vast body of the faithful
broke, like successive waves, at the foot of the altar. For one whole
hour was this scene enacting, and no music was heard meanwhile, and,
though few rules were enforced and little order reigned, yet the sight
was as widely suggestive as any more carefully arranged
demonstrations. Somehow these artless, unpremeditated outpourings of
the heart of Christendom have a far higher power to interest, a far
subtler charm to entrance, and leave a higher impression and a more
healthful influence behind, than those wonderful pageants which from 560
year to year draw thousands of curious spectators to Rome. Here is
everyday Christianity; here is the inner working of that silent,
God-wielded mechanism whose outward robes and draperies only come to
us in the shape of those glittering festas; here is the real work, the
real core of things, the heart whose pulsation alone gives meaning to
all that external magnificence, the sun of which those ceremonies are
the radiance, the consuming fire of which that glorious ritual is but
the outgoing heat and the coruscant light. And when we think of the
darker and varied aspects, the inner complications of the lives of
those who were crowding round the altar-rails of St. Germain, what a
wonderful, manifold history, what a spiritual landscape of infinite
shades of the most delicate pencillings, do we not see! Side by side
kneel souls whose life-paths run in opposite channels: here is Martha,
the busy household angel, whose faith is inwoven in her every daily
movement, her every thought, though it be of toil and anxiety; there
is the pensive Magdalen, whose sadness is her soul’s beauty, whose
memory brings before her even more tokens of merciful forgiveness and
unwearied love than of her own little past, her sins and her
hard-heartedness; there kneels the widow whose child has just been
given back to her from the very portals of death, and whose only altar
for many dreary months has been the darkened chamber and the curtained
sick-bed. Close to her is a maiden whose life is one long act of pure
preparation for the bridal feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb, and
who, when next Christmas-chimes sound, will hear in them the glad
knell that proclaims her death to the outside world, and her life-long
vow of obedience to her Spouse. Here is a Monica, wrestling in prayer
for a wayward son whose hopeless lapse from the narrow path of virtue
is the heaviest cross her Saviour could have chosen for her burden;
there again is the bride, kneeling by the side of the simple, joyous,
boyish bridegroom, with whom she is just beginning a new stage on the
road to eternal bliss. So rough, so uniform, so commonplace is the
aspect of the crowd, that these things are only visible to spiritual
sight, to the eye of the soul; and, if visible even to our darkened
organs of spiritual understanding, how much more clearly and far more
touchingly to the eye of eternal Wisdom and fathomless Love! What a
rose-garden is a church full of humble communicants before the sight
of God! How fragrant and varied the blossoms to his illumined
perception! Men in every stage of conversion--those who have just
timidly set their foot on the first round of Jacob’s mystic ladder;
those who have struggled so far that they can dare to look down one
moment, and measure the death from which God’s love has raised them,
in order to gain additional grace to correspond with his future and
more rapid calls heavenward; those who have left all sin and danger so
far behind that they look upon them calmly, as one sees the rolling
clouds far below from the crisp-breathing atmosphere of the highest
mountains; those whose conversation is in heaven, and whose thoughts
are silent angels walking ever with them as the living messengers of
God. Such are the miracles of grace that crowd the lowly church; the
mysteries that we can only guess at beneath the crust of materiality
which we see; the wonders that jostle us in the swaying throng, and of
which we have so little knowledge that we hardly even suspect what
angel’s robe has swept past our own garments a moment ago. 561
And as this scene fades away, while the silence is again broken by the
sweet song of home, _Venite adoremus!_ we see another and a last
picture dawning from the gray mist of memory.
Not far from the old home where the first Midnight Mass of our
childhood entranced our imagination is another house--a home, too, in
some sense, yet not the home that the mother hallowed in the dear,
olden days, for now she is only present in the spirit, and she never
even saw the first Christmas snows in this new and stately hall.
But a church, fair and carven, stands above her grave, and her loving
heart is the first stone, the foundation-stone of the new shrine.
Close above her resting-place is the altar, and close below, the
organ. There Christmas is enthroned again, the _Venite adoremus_ echoes
once more through wreathed arches and festooned pillars; there again a
small household and a few newly-converted children of the faith of old
England kneel in silent prayer, and mingle thoughts of the foundress
of the church with those of the new-born King whose praises, whose
_Gloria_, she is now singing in heaven. Thus the soul-stirring Christmas
hymn links the past with the present, the memories of foreign lands
with the dear thoughts of home, and binds them together as a sheaf of
golden straw to lay in the crib of the Babe of Bethlehem.
_Venite adoremus!_ It has been sung to our infancy when the nurse
rocked the cradle where slept the first-born; it has cheered our early
childhood when the young mother-voice taught it to us at the Christmas
fireside; it has thrilled our heart in youth when, far from the old
home, we have listened to its solemn, familiar strains; it will stir a
chord of memory through each succeeding year as our early associations
grow dim and our path waxes more lonely; it will breathe a sweet
farewell and echo in our ears on our very deathbed, linking the
thought of our first earthly home to that of our expected eternal one
in the bosom of our Jesus and the arms of our new-found, glorified
Mother.
Those who are dear to us on earth, those who grew up round the same
hearth, and knelt peacefully at the same father’s knee, and held his
hand the day the mother-angel winged her way to her God, can never
forget the _Venite adoremus_, the Christmas pledge of undying love
and indissoluble union, which they learned and sang together for long,
long years of joy, nor can they dream that, however far apart, that
hymn does not make the heart beat and the eye grow dim with tears even
as in the days of old; while--O happier thought even than that!--they
never can forget that as on earth, so will it be hereafter, that the
crown of song will lack no jewel, will miss no note, of _all_ that
once were in it, and that for ever and for ever _one_ will be the
undiminished chorus of father and mother, brethren and sisters, in the
halls of the “Everlasting Christmas.” _Venite Adoremus! venite
adoremus Dominum!_
----------
MR. CLARKE’s LIVES OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS.[118] 562
“Like stars to their appointed heights they climb.”--SHELLEY.
The remark had become trite in the mouths of Europeans, that America
has no history. Such was the inertness of our countrymen in the
department of American history; such the want of works recounting the
thrilling story of early adventure and colonization, the struggles of
feeble colonies for existence and permanence, their long and steadfast
preservation of free institutions inherited from the mother-country,
and their gallantry in defending them against an unnatural mother; the
birth and growth of a vast and mighty republic, maintaining at once
order and liberty amid the convulsions and revolutions of European
dynasties and empires, and eliciting from a European monarch, whose
crown was afterwards torn from his head, the remark addressed to an
American Catholic bishop, who told him of free and peaceful America,
“Truly, that people at least understand liberty; when will it be
understood among us?”--all these things remained so long an untold
story, that it was believed but too generally that America was without
a history to record. The subsequent works of Bancroft, Irving,
Prescott, Parkman, and others have pretty effectually dispelled the
delusion.
But it seems to have been equally thought, among the historians of the
church, that her career in America was also devoid of historical
interest, so few and meagre were our published records and histories.
In the general histories of the church, such as that by Darras,
commencing with the earliest ages, and coming down to our own times,
with but slight general allusions to America, no mention whatever is
made of the rise and progress of the church in the United States. In
the American edition of Darras, there is an Appendix, written for the
purpose by an American author, Rev. Charles I. White, D.D., giving a
_Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Catholic Church in the
United States of America_, and intended to supply, in some measure, the
omission.
In our article on Bishop Timon, in THE CATHOLIC WORLD of April, 1871,
we remarked: “Sketches of local church history, more or less complete,
have occasionally appeared--sketches, for instance, like _The Catholic
Church in the United States_, by De Courcy and Shea; and Shea’s _History
of the Catholic Missions_ among the Indian tribes of America, and
Bishop Bayley’s little volume on the history of the church in New York.
But a work of a different kind, broader in its design than some of these
excellent and useful publications, more limited in scope than the dry and
costly general histories, still awaits the hand of a polished and
enthusiastic man of letters.”
When we penned these lines, though we knew of Mr. Clarke’s long-continued
and unwearied labors in that department of American Catholic 563
literature, had cheered at times his earnest and faithful studies, and
had, by his kindness, been able to spread before our readers some of his
interesting and admirably prepared biographical papers, such as the
_Life of Governor Dongan of New York_, in THE CATHOLIC WORLD of
September, 1869, and the _Memoir of Father Brébeuf, S.J._, in the July
and August numbers, 1871, still we scarcely hoped that we should see
our desires so soon realized, or that we should so soon have occasion
to hail the appearance of the splendid work now before us, the fruits
of his accomplished pen and energetic industry, in the two handsomely
printed and elegantly bound volumes, _The Lives of the Deceased Bishops
of the Catholic Church in the United States_. The production of such
a work, prepared during the broken and fleeting moments of leisure
snatched from a life devoted to professional duties, and to an active
participation in the Catholic and public-spirited enterprises of our
busy metropolis, is something for which we, as a Catholic journalist
devoted to literature, may be permitted to express our own thanks, and
those of the Catholic community, and at the same time to commend it as
an instance of successful literary toil in a rich but uncultivated
field, and as, what we hope and believe it will be, a reward for long
and painstaking researches, careful collation, and fine literary
study. There were but few published works, as we have remarked, from
which to draw the facts and information necessary for such a book.
Hence the author had to seek, in a great measure, his materials from
the archives of the various dioceses, the unpublished correspondence
and journals of the deceased prelates, their pastoral letters and
addresses, from the Catholic serial publications and newspapers of the
last half-century (a task of great and protracted labor and fatigue),
from the personal recollections of surviving friends, co-laborers, and
colleagues of the bishops, from family records, from his own
correspondence with numerous witnesses of the growth of the church and
of the labors of our apostolic men, and even from the silent but
sacred marble records of the tomb. The frequency with which the author
cites, among his _authorities_, unpublished documents and original
sources of information, which were in many cases the individual
narratives of living witnesses, committed to writing at his request,
and for this work, is a proof of the industry and labor with which
this work has been prepared, and give us the means of appreciating the
services thus rendered to our American Catholic literature, in
securing and preserving from decay, oblivion, or total loss many
valuable but perishable traditions and documentary materials. We will
refer to two only, among many instances throughout these richly stored
pages, of valuable documents thus given to the public; these are the
royal charter of King James II., guaranteeing liberty of conscience to
the Catholics of Virginia in 1686, and the beautiful and touching
letter addressed by Archbishop Carroll, in 1791, to the Catholic
Indians of Maine, the remnants of the pious and faithful flock of the
illustrious and martyred Rale--for the publication of both of which we
are indebted to Mr. Clarke.
Mr. Clarke has devoted many years to these valuable and excellent
studies and compositions, and those who have read our Catholic
periodical literature during the last fifteen years, will remember his
_Memoirs_ of Archbishops Carroll and Neale, of Bishops Cheverus and
Flaget, of the Rev. Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, of Fathers 564
Andrew White and Nerinckx, of Governor Leonard Calvert, Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, Commodore John Barry, the father of the
American navy, and Judge Gaston; which were published in 1856 and 1857
in _The Metropolitan_ of Baltimore. The favor with which these papers
were received at the time, and the earnest recommendations of
prelates, priests, and laymen, have, as we have learned, induced the
author to enlarge his plans and undertake a series of works, which
will give the American Church a complete biography of ecclesiastics
and laymen, and, at the same time, literary monuments of classic taste
and scholarship. The present book of the prelates will, as we rejoice
to learn, be followed by the second work of the course, containing the
lives of the missionaries of our country, such as White of Maryland,
Marquette, Jogues, and Brébeuf of New York, Rale of Maine, the
missionaries of the Mississippi Valley, of distinguished priests in
later times, and of the founders of our religious houses, male and
female. The remaining work of the series, more interesting probably
than even the preceding ones, because not the least attempt has so far
been made in that direction, will contain the lives of distinguished
Catholic laymen, who have rendered signal services to our country,
such as Calvert, Carroll, and Taney of Maryland, Iberville of
Louisiana, Dongan of New York, La Salle and Tonty, explorers of the
Mississippi River, Barry of Pennsylvania, Vincennes of Indiana, Gaston
of North Carolina, and many others. The whole will form a complete
series of Catholic biographical works, issued in the appropriate order
of bishops first, priests and religious second, and finally of
statesmen, captains, explorers, and jurists. We cannot withhold the
expression of our pleasure at the prospect of results such as these in
a department of literature which it has ever been one of the objects
of THE CATHOLIC WORLD to encourage, promote, and cherish.
That valuable materials exist in the country for all of these important
works, we feel quite sure. We hope care will be taken of them and that
they will be freely placed at the service of our Catholic historians
and authors. Their publication would be the best means of preserving
them, while rendering them useful to the present generation. We will
give an incident in the experience of Mr. Clarke, in preparing his
_Lives of the Bishops_, related by him to us, as an evidence of the
danger to which valuable historical matter is constantly exposed of
being lost and destroyed. He applied, in one instance, to the
custodians of the papers relating to the Catholic history of an
important diocese and state, and was informed that the diocesan papers
and documents had been for many years locked up in a strong chest or
safe, before and for some time after the death of the first bishop,
and, on being opened and examined, they were found to be in a state of
complete decay from the damp, fell to pieces when handled, and that
scarcely a line of the writing was legible. Other cases are related of
valuable materials for American Catholic history lost or sent out of
the country. We observe, in the first volume before us, a new and
appropriate feature--a distinct and separate return of thanks by the
author to a long list of prelates, priests, and laymen who have
supplied him with materials or aided him in his labors. The appeal he
makes, in his preface, for the assistance of such as possess materials,
has our cordial sympathy; and we hope the appeal will not be made in 565
vain.
The book of prelates, whose appearance we now hail with so much
pleasure, is the most important and valuable contribution yet made to
our American Catholic biographical literature. It covers the ground of
our entire church history to the most recent times, possesses the
peculiar interest which attaches to personal and individual narrative,
and is free, as we have said, from the dryness of the general history.
Its pages teem with an ardent love of country and of our American
institutions, and with a devotion to true liberty, which well accord
with the traditions and education of one of the descendants of the
Catholic pilgrims of Maryland, who constitute the theme of an honored
chapter in our history, illustrating the magnanimity of a dominant
Catholic majority in times when toleration was not the fashion, the
harmony between Catholicity and liberty, and an unflinching faith
through generations of Protestant persecution. Praise is freely
bestowed, where praise was due, to our country and to our countrymen;
and reproof is administered in the spirit of true affection, whenever
there are errors or abuses to be corrected, or where there is
conflict, in the civil or political order, with the sacred rights of
religion and of conscience.
The antiquity of the Catholic Church in America, her struggles and
triumphs, are well worthy of the study of all. Her struggles have ever
been against vice and error, and in favor of liberty and virtue. Her
triumphs have been the conquest of souls for heaven. No impartial mind
can study the career of the Catholic Church in the United States
without being convinced of the purity of her motives, and the
sacredness of her aims. Her conservatism, her sacraments, her defence
of Christian marriage, her labors for religious education, her
chastening influence over the consciences of her children, of which
every day’s record affords examples, her maintenance of law and order,
have made her in the past, what they will prove in the future, the
mainstay of society, of liberty, and of the republic. Her growth in
our midst has been the work of Providence, not of man; a growth which,
as our author shows, has proportionately far outstripped that of the
republic. While the country has increased from thirteen states to
thirty-seven states and eleven territories in ninety-five years, the
church has increased from one bishopric to sixty-four bishoprics, six
vicariates apostolic, and four mitred abbots in eighty-one years. The
population of the country has increased from 2,803,000 to about
40,000,000, while the children of the Catholic Church have increased
from 25,000 to 5,500,000. The increase of the general population of
the country has been 1,433 per centum in ninety-five years, and that
of the church has been 22,000 per centum in eighty-one years. The
Catholic clergy have increased from twenty-one priests in 1790 to
about four thousand eight hundred priests in 1871; they dispense the
blessings of religion in 4,250 churches and 1,700 chapels.
After giving these statistics, the preface proceeds thus:
“To Rome, the capital of the Christian world, Eternal City,
destined in our hopes and prayers and faith to be restored to us
again as the free and undesecrated Mistress and Ruler of
Churches, and to the Sovereign Pontiffs therein, Vicars of Christ
on earth, we turn with love and gratitude for the care,
solicitude, and support bestowed upon our churches, and for the
exemplary prelates bestowed upon them by the Chief Bishop of the
church. To our venerable hierarchy, bishops and priests, and 566
to the religious orders, both male and female, we render thanks
for their labors, their sacrifices, their sufferings, and their
suffrages.
“To our prelates, especially, is due under God the splendid
result we have but faintly mentioned. They were the founders of
our churches, the pioneers of the faith, and the chief pastors of
our flocks. In poverty and suffering they commenced the work, and
spent themselves for others. A diocese just erected upon the
frontiers, in the midst of a new and swarming population, to
anticipate and save the coming faithful, the hope of a future
flock, an outpost upon the borders of Christianity and
civilization--such was the frequent work and vigilant foresight
of the Propaganda and of the Councils of Baltimore--such the
charge confided to a newly consecrated bishop. To the religious
enterprise and untiring providence of the Catholic Church, in her
prompt and vigorous measures for the extension of the faith in
this country, may well be applied the striking lines of Milton:
‘Zeal and duty are not slow;
But on occasion’s forelock watchful wait.’
--_Paradise Regained._
“To assume the task of creating, as it were, building up, and
governing the infant churches thus confided to their care, was
the work that was faithfully and zealously performed by our
bishops. It was no uncommon thing for a bishop to be sent to a
diocese where there was scarcely a shrine or a priest; where he
not only had no friends or organized flock to receive him, but
where he had not even an acquaintance; where he would not meet a
face that he had ever seen before. In some instances, he had to
enter a diocese rent with disunion or schism among the people; in
others, he was compelled to reside out of the episcopal city by
reason of disaffection prevailing within. In other cases, such
was their poverty that they had not the necessary means to
procure an episcopal outfit, to provide a pectoral cross and
crosier, or to pay their travelling expenses to their dioceses.
In many cases the humble log-cabins of the West were their
episcopal palaces and cathedrals; and frequently church,
episcopal residence, parish school, and theological seminary were
all under the same contracted roof. In the midst of such
difficulties, we behold examples of humility, patience,
cheerfulness, zeal, charity, love, poverty, and untiring labor. A
study of such examples, and of lives so good, so heroic, has led
us to undertake the work now presented to the public, in order to
repeat and continue their holy influences, to preserve the memory
of such deeds, to render a tribute to those honored names, and to
rescue, as far as we could, our Catholic traditions from oblivion
or total loss. We applied to ourself, and yielded to the spirit
of, the poet’s appeal:
‘Spread out earth’s holiest records here,
Of days and deeds to reverence dear;
A zeal like this what pious legends tell?’”
The two volumes contain the lives of fifty-six American bishops, and
to the second volume is affixed an appendix containing the lives of
three prelates of other countries, who have a special connection with
the American Church. The first volume, to which we will confine our
present writing, contains the lives of twenty-nine prelates, a list of
whom, with the dates of their consecration or appointment, and the
religious orders to which they belonged, where such was the case, will
in itself prove interesting.
The antiquity of our church in America is strikingly illustrated in
this volume--an antiquity equal to that of the church in some of the
old countries of Europe, extending back to the ages of faith, when the
church was fighting her battles with paganism, and before the time
when altar was raised up against altar by the Protestantism of the
sixteenth century, and before the more modern phases of infidelity and
communism had declared war against all altars and all religion. In the
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, the Northmen of Iceland, hardy
adventurers on the seas, pushed their exploits beyond the continent of
Europe, and landed colonies on the shores of this continent. Coming
from their ice-clad homes, our extreme north-eastern regions were to
them a country of enchanting verdure, and received the name of 567
Greenland; and, pushing their cruises farther south, they entered our
own Narragansett Bay, where, seeing the country festooned with vines
teeming with grapes, they called it Vinland. Our poet Longfellow,
aptly quoted by Mr. Clarke, has celebrated some of the exploits of
Vikings and Northmen on sea and shore. They were the freebooters and
highwaymen of the ocean;
“Joining the corsair’s crew.
O’er the dark sea I flew
With the marauders;
Wild was the life we led,
Many the souls that sped.
Many the hearts that bled,
By our stern orders.”
At the time of which the poet sings, both Iceland and Greenland were
pagan. The mother-country owed her conversion to missionaries from
Ireland, and she, in turn, sent out devoted priests, who converted her
colonists in Greenland and Vinland to the faith. Convents and churches
arose and resounded with the praises of God, chanted in Latin hymns
three centuries and a half before Columbus discovered America.
Pre-eminent among the Catholic missionaries was Eric, who, in the
beginning of the twelfth century, commenced his exalted labors at
Greenland, and afterwards particularly along the banks of Narragansett
Bay. The site of the present city of Newport and its vicinity were the
virgin fields of his apostolic labors. So important did these
Christian colonies become, that a bishopric was erected at Garda, the
episcopal city of Greenland, and Eric was consecrated its first bishop
by Lund, a bishop of Scandinavia. He visited again his cherished flock
at Vinland, to whom he was devoted, and, rather than leave them, he
resigned his mitre and crosier, went into the ranks of the clergy, and
gave his life for his flock--the first of American martyrs.
The colonies of the Northmen were swept away, and the record of them,
even, faded from the histories and traditions of mankind.
“I was a Viking old:
My deeds, though manifold,
No skald in song has told,
No saga taught thee.”
A glowing tribute is paid by the author to the Catholic faith and
genius of Columbus, the unrivalled discoverer of America. In the very
generation in which Columbus lived, the church established a bishopric
within the present limits of our republic. Among the ambitious and
hardy captains of that day was Pamphilo de Narvaez, who, in attempting
the conquest of Florida, aspired to add to the Spanish crown a realm
equal in extent and wealth to Mexico, and to rival the fame of Cortéz
by his own exploits. The Franciscans were at his side, seeking a
holier conquest, fired by no earthly ambition, but by a heavenly zeal.
A bishopric was erected for Florida as the expedition was about to
sail from the ports of Spain, and Juan Juarez, who had already won the
title of one of the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, was appointed, in 1526,
Bishop of Rio de las Palmes. He spent his brief sojourn in Spain in
securing ample provision for his future flock, and in obtaining royal
guarantees for the liberty and kind treatment of the natives. No time
was left for his consecration; he hastened on board the fleet, and
rushed to the spiritual relief of his children, whom he knew and
“loved only in Christ.” After the disastrous termination of the
expedition, he and his companions suffered shipwreck, and are believed
to have perished of hunger--the second martyr of our church. Well has
our author said of him, that he gave up his own life that he might 568
bestow upon others life eternal; and that he who died of hunger for
God’s sake was greatly rewarded by that same God with celestial
feasts, and replenished with seraphic delights; and has aptly applied
to him those beautiful words of the Canticle:
“Esurientes implevit Bonis.”
We have dwelt briefly, but with particular pleasure, upon these the
first two lives of the volume, because of their peculiar interest and
beauty, but they must be read at length in the work itself to be duly
appreciated. We rejoice that they have now been rendered a classic
story in our language--an enduring monument in our literature.
We had marked out several extracts from the interesting and important
life of Archbishop Carroll, and from the lives of other eminent
prelates, for insertion, but the want of time and space deprives us
and our readers of this pleasure. We reserve the remaining space
allotted to this article for three extracts, the first of which is the
historical sketch given by Mr. Clarke of an event which reflects
untold honor and glory upon the American Catholic episcopate. The
honor and merit of originating the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith, which has ever since been and is now spreading the Gospel
throughout the world, is due to an American prelate. Bishop Dubourg,
of New Orleans, is the recognized founder of that illustrious society.
And now we will let the author speak for himself:
“The most brilliant and fruitful service rendered by Bishop
Dubourg to the church, not only in America, but throughout the
most remote and unenlightened portions of the world, was the
leading part he took in founding the illustrious ‘Association for
the Propagation of the Faith.’ It has been well said that ‘the
establishment which M. Dubourg, while on his return to Louisiana
from Italy, made at Lyons, is of itself enough to immortalize his
name. He there formed, in 1815, the Association for the
Propagation of the Faith. This single institution, which conveys
benedictions unnumbered to millions, and which daily sounds the
glad tidings of a Saviour to those who are seated in the silence
of death, becomes a monument sufficient to eternize the memory of
Dubourg, and to shed a full ray of brightness on any college
associated with his name.’”
The following extract, from the _Life of Archbishop Eccleston of
Baltimore_, relates to interesting and stirring events in the life
of our Holy Father, Pius IX., and the history of our country and
church, which are made to reflect upon events transpiring in our own
times:
“The adjournment of the Sixth Council was soon followed by the
death of Pope Gregory XVI. and the election of Pope Pius IX. The
remarkable events that ensued are a part of the history of our
age. Loud, long, and enthusiastic were the plaudits that greeted
the first acts of the noble and saintly Pius IX. from every
portion of the world, and especially from the United States.
Popular meetings in the principal cities sent the most respectful
and laudatory addresses to the Holy Father, and Congress sent a
minister to congratulate him on his course and to reside at his
court. It seemed as though the Protestant world were prepared to
hail the return of the glorious ages of faith, when the Sovereign
Pontiff was the universally recognized Father and arbiter of the
Christian world. The loyalty of Catholics was manifested by the
obedience of their souls and submission of their hearts to him
whom they recognized as the Vicar of Christ on earth. To their
Protestant fellow-citizens was left the work of giving utterance
to the public voice of congratulation and praise. The address of
a public meeting held in New York by six thousand persons, and
presided over by the mayor, contained the following remarkable
passage:
“‘And more formidable than all these, you must have girded
yourself to encounter, and by God’s help to overcome, that 569
fickleness and ingratitude of multitudes just released from
benumbing bondage, which could clamor in the wilderness to be led
back to the flesh-pots of Egypt; which, among the contemporaries
and even the followers of our Saviour, could leave him to bear in
solitude the agony of the cross; and which in your case, we
apprehend, will yet manifest itself in unreasonable expectations,
extravagant hopes, impetuous requirements, and in murmurings that
nothing has been earnestly intended, because everything has not
been already accomplished.
“The address of the Philadelphia meeting, held January 10, 1848,
contained the following earnest words: ‘May the Almighty grant
you length of life, strength of heart, and wisdom from on high,
in order to bring to a happy conclusion the beneficent reforms
which you have begun! May he inspire the princes and people of
Italy with the courage and moderation necessary to second your
efforts! May he raise up to you successors, who will continue to
extend the influence of peace and justice on earth; and the time
will come when the meanest of God’s poor will, if oppressed, be
able to summon the most powerful of his oppressors to appear at
the bar of united Christendom; and the nations will sit in
judgment upon him, and the oppressor, blushing with shame, shall
be forced by their unanimous and indignant voice to render
justice to the oppressed.’
“Similar addresses were sent from nearly every city of any
importance in the Union to the Holy Father. But soon the
prophetic language of the New York meeting was realized; the
clamor of the disappointed populace was raised against their
father and best friend; Count Rossi, his secretary, is
assassinated, and the Holy Father himself is a fugitive from
Rome. It was then that the devotion of Catholics manifested
itself towards the Supreme Pontiff, and many and heartfelt were
the testimonials of loyalty and affection received by the exile
of Gaeta from his children throughout the world. The Catholics of
the United States were not behind their brethren in these
demonstrations, and the hope was entertained that the Holy Father
would accept an asylum in our midst.... How vividly do the
present wrongs of that same Holy Father, and of that same holy
church, recall the events of his glorious pontificate! When, oh!
when, will the Catholic peoples of the world demand of their
governments the restoration of the capital of Christendom, and
the liberty of the Vicar of Christ?”
As we were about to close our article, our eye fell upon the following
fine passages in the _Life of Dr. England, First Bishop of
Charleston_, and we yield to the temptation of transferring them to
our columns, both as a tribute to that illustrious prelate and as
specimens of Mr. Clarke’s style:
“The great struggle of Bishop England’s life in this country
seems to have been to present the Catholic Church, her doctrines
and practices, in their true light before the American people. In
his effort to do this his labors were indefatigable. His means of
accomplishing this end were various and well studied. He
endeavored, from his arrival in the country, to identify himself
thoroughly with its people, its institutions, its hopes, and its
future. He was vigilant and spirited in maintaining and defending
the honor and integrity of the country, as he was in upholding
the doctrines and practices of the church. In his oration on the
character of Washington, he so thoroughly enters into the
sentiments of our people, and participates so unreservedly in the
pride felt by the country in the _Pater Patriæ_, that his
language would seem to be that of a native of the country. There
was no movement for the public good in which he did not feel an
interest, and which he did not, to the extent of his
opportunities, endeavor to promote. His admiration for the
institutions of the country was sincere and unaffected. Though no
one encountered more prejudice and greater difficulties than he
did, he, on all occasions, as he did in his address before
Congress, endeavored to regard the prejudices and impressions
entertained by Protestants against Catholics as errors, which had
been impressed upon their minds by education and associations,
for which they themselves were not responsible. In his writings
and public sermons and addresses, he travelled over the wide
range of history, theology, and the arts, in order to vindicate
the spotless spouse of Christ against the calumnies of her
enemies. If Catholic citizens and voters were attacked on the 570
score of their fidelity to their country and its institutions,
Bishop England’s ready pen defended them from the calumny and
silenced their accusers. If a Catholic judge or public officer
was accused of false swearing or mental reservation in taking the
official oath, he found an irresistible and unanswerable champion
in the Bishop of Charleston. He found the church in the United
States comparatively defenceless on his accession to the See of
Charleston, but he soon rendered it a dangerous task in her
enemies to attack or vilify her; and many who ventured on this
mode of warfare were glad to retreat from the field, before the
crushing weapons of logic, erudition, and eloquence with which he
battled for his church, his creed, and his people....
“Bishop England visited Europe four times during his episcopacy,
for the interests and institutions of his diocese, visiting Rome,
most of the European countries, and his native Ireland, which he
never ceased to love. He was sent twice as apostolic delegate
from the Holy See to Hayti. He obtained from Europe vast
assistance for his diocese, both in priests, female religious,
and funds. It was proposed to translate him to the bishopric of
Ossory in Ireland, but he declined. The highest ecclesiastical
dignity, with comfort, luxury, friends, and ease, in his native
country, could not tempt him to desert his beloved church in
America. He had become an American citizen and an American
prelate, and he resolved to continue to be both as long as he
lived. At Rome he was consulted on all matters relating to the
ecclesiastical affairs of this country. The officials of the
Eternal City were astounded at the great travels and labors of
Bishop England. They heard him appoint from the Chambers of the
Propaganda the very day on which he would administer confirmation
in the interior of Georgia. The cardinals, in their wonder at all
he accomplished, and the rapidity of his movements, used to call
him ‘_il vescovo a vapore_,’ or the ‘steam bishop.’ We have
seen with what an insignificant force he commenced his episcopal
labors. He increased the churches of his diocese to over sixteen,
and lef behind him a well-organized and appointed clergy, and
numerous ecclesiastical, religious, educational, and charitable
institutions. The Catholic families of his diocese might have
been counted, at the time of the erection of the See of
Charleston, on one’s fingers; at the bishop’s death they were
counted by thousands. But the good he accomplished was not
confined to his own diocese. His elevating and encouraging
influence was felt throughout this country, at Rome, and in many
parts of the Catholic world.”
His dying words to his clergy, and through them to his flock, were as
follows:
“Tell my people that I love them; tell them how much I regret
that circumstances have kept us at a distance from each other. My
duties and my difficulties have prevented me from cultivating and
strengthening those private ties which ought to bind us together;
_your_ functions require a closer, a more constant intercourse
with them. Be with them--be of them--win them to God. Guide,
govern, and instruct them. _Watch as having to render an account
of their souls, that you may do it with joy, and not with
grief._ There are among you several infant institutions which
you are called on, in an especial manner, to sustain. It hast
cost me a great deal of thought and of labor to introduce them.
They are calculated to be eminently serviceable to the cause of
order, of education, of charity; they constitute the germ of
what, I trust, shall hereafter grow and flourish in extensive
usefulness. As yet they are feeble, support them--embarrassed,
encourage them--they will be afflicted, console them.
“_I commend my poor church to its patrons--especially to her to
whom our Saviour confided his in the person of the beloved
disciple: ‘Woman, behold thy Son; Son, behold thy mother.’_”
The second volume contains the lives of thirty American bishops, and,
in the Appendix, the lives of Right Rev. Charles Augustus de
Forbin-Jansen, Bishop of Nancy, France, who visited this country in
1840, and rendered signal services to religion while here; of Right
Rev. Edward Barron, who volunteered from this country for the African
mission, was made Bishop of Africa in 1845, and died at Savannah,
Georgia, in 1854, “a martyr of charity”; and of Cardinal Bedini, whose 571
visit to this country is in the recollection of our readers.
We cannot close our notice without again commending, in the most
emphatic manner, this record of the labors of the self-denying
prelates who were the means, under God, of planting the church in our
beloved country--not only for its historical interest, and as an
addition to our permanent Catholic literature, but for the incentive
it furnishes to others, both cleric and lay, in their several spheres,
to be unremitting in their efforts to extend the faith, thus happily
transferred to our soil, to every nook and corner of this favored land.
[118] _Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church
in the United States, with an Appendix and an Analytical
Index._ By Richard H. Clarke, A.M. In two vols. Vol. I.
New York: P. O’shea. 1871.
----------
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE VICAR OF CHRIST; or, Lectures upon the Office and Prerogatives
of our Holy Father the Pope. By Rev. Thomas S. Preston, Pastor of
St. Ann’s Church, New York, and Chancellor of the Diocese. New York:
Robert Coddington, No. 366 Bowery. 1871.
We have here another series of the excellent Advent Lectures of F.
Preston, which have done so much good in the instruction of the
faithful and the conversion of numbers of persons to the true faith.
Carefully prepared and solid discourses on the great Catholic
principles, dogmas, doctrines, laws, and rites--in fact, on all the
topics of religion universally--are especially necessary and useful in
our time and country. Besides the additional good accruing to that
which has been done by the preaching of these discourses through their
more general dissemination among the laity, their publication is a
great benefit to the clergy, as giving examples of the best kind of
preaching, and furnishing a stimulus and a help to efforts of the same
kind.
The present series of lectures on the Pope is fully equal to the
former publications of the author in ability and excellence, if not
superior to them. The subject, at any rate, makes it far the most
interesting and important of any. F. Preston has merited well of the
church by his zealous and efficient devotion to the cause of the Pope
and the Holy See, and his continual efforts to instruct the Catholic
laity in sound doctrine in this most essential matter. In this volume
he has given us a lecture on the supremacy, another on the Papal
infallibility, a third on the temporal sovereignty, and a fourth on
the Pontificate of Pius IX. At the end, the decrees or constitutions
of the Vatican Council and several recent allocutions of the Holy
Father are given in Latin and English; and the whole is concluded by a
carefully and critically prepared chronological list of the Sovereign
Pontiffs, in which we are glad to see the Avignonian and Pisan
claimants of the tiara relegated to their proper place on one side,
while the succession is continued through the Roman line, which is
unquestionably the true one. The lecture on infallibility is
especially marked by solid learning and ample citations from the
fathers, proving conclusively that this article of the faith was
explicitly held and taught from the beginning. The style is grave and
serious, copious and flowing, and warmed with a spirit of fervent love
to the souls of men. It is the style, not of a mere essayist, but of 572
a preacher. It is, therefore, far more pleasing and popular in its
character than that of most books on the same topic. Every Catholic in
the United States ought to read it, and we doubt if any book has been
published on the Pope equally fitted for general circulation in
England and Ireland. Neither is there any so well fitted to do good
among non-Catholics. We hope no pains will be spared to give it a wide
and universal circulation.
It is most important and necessary that all Catholics should be fully
instructed in the sovereign supremacy and doctrinal infallibility of
the Pope, and the strict obligation in conscience of supporting his
temporal sovereignty.
Mr. Coddington has published this volume in a superior manner, with
clear, open type, on very thick and white paper, and adorned it with
an engraved portrait of the beloved and venerable Pius IX. Once more
we wish success to this timely and valuable series of lectures, and
thank the reverend author in the name of the whole Catholic public for
his noble championship of the dearest and most sacred of all
causes--that of the Vicar of Christ.
ANTIDOTE TO “THE GATES AJAR.” By J. S. W. Tenth thousand. New York:
G. W. Carleton & Co. 1872.
Mr. Carleton appears to be convinced that “_de gustibus non est
disputandum_” by a bookseller, but rather that provision is to be made
for all tastes. On the back of this little pious pamphlet we find
advertised _The Debatable Land_, by Robert Dale Owen; _The Seventh
Vial_, containing, we conjecture, a strong dose, by Rev. John Cumming;
_Mother Goose with Music_, by an ancient, anonymous author; _At Last_,
a new novel, by Marian Harland, etc. The _Antidote_ is a rather weak
and quite harmless dose, done up in pretty tinted paper. The writer
naively asks, on p. 23: “Who would not like to fly away in the tail of
a comet?”--a question which any little boy would answer in the
affirmative, but cruelly dashes our hopes to the ground by telling us
that “all this is mere conjecture.” Again, on p. 26, he gravely
reasons thus: “As to families in heaven living in houses together, as
if they were on earth, that is simply impossible. When children marry
here, they leave their parents, and have homes of their own; their
children do likewise, and so on _ad infinitum_. Those who would live
together in heaven would be only husbands and wives and the unmarried
children. And as to the married who are not all happily united here,
are they to be tied together for ever whether they like each other or
not?” The little pamphlet is concluded by two pieces of poetry, one of
which is pretty good, the other one of those cantering hymns which are
such favorites at the week-evening prayer-meeting:
“We sing of the realms of the blest,
That country so bright and so fair,
And oft are its glories confessed;
But what must it be to be there?”
The doctrine of Miss Phelps’s antagonist is more orthodox than hers,
without doubt, so far as it goes, but it is presented in such a way as
rather to provoke a smile than to convince or attract the mind of any
one who is not already a pious Presbyterian. Our Presbyterian and
other Evangelical friends contrive to make religion as sad and gloomy
as a wet afternoon in the country. Even heaven itself has but small
attractions for those who are not depressed in spirits, when described
in the doleful strain which is supposed to be suitable to piety. Miss
Phelps, as well as other members of the gifted and cultivated Stuart
family, and many of similar character and education, revolted from the
dismal system of Puritanism. She yearned after a brighter and more 573
beautiful religion, which has in it something else than the valley of
the shadow of death. Her striving to realize this ideal produced
_Gates Ajar_ and other similar works, whose immense popularity proves
both her own power as a writer and also a widely-felt sympathy with
the sentiments of her own mind. It is the Catholic theology alone
which presents the true and complete doctrine respecting the beatific
vision, the glorified humanity of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the saints,
the angelic hierarchy, and the relation between the visible and
invisible worlds; together with that element of the poetic and the
marvellous after which the mind, the imagination, and the heart crave
with an insatiable longing. We are tempted to close the present
exercise, after the manner of the little book before us, with a few
verses from an old hymn, written by one of the persecuted Catholics of
Lancashire, at the close of the sixteenth or the beginning of the
seventeenth century. The whole hymn may be found in the _Month_ for
September and October:
“Hierusalem, my happie home,
When shall I come to thee?
When shall my sorrowes have an end?
Thy ioyes when shall I see?
“Thy walls are made of precious stones,
Thy bulwarks diamonds square,
Thy gates are of right orient pearle,
Exceedinge riche and rare.
“Thy turrettes and thy pinnacles
With carbuncles doe shine;
Thy verie streets are paved with gould
Surpassinge cleare and fine.
“Thy houses are of ivorie,
Thy windoes cristale cleare,
Thy tyles are made of beaten gould
O God, that I were there!
“Thy gardens and thy gallant walkes
Continually are greene;
There grow such sweet and pleasant flowers
As noewhere else are seene.
“Quyt through the streetes with silver sound
The flood of life doth flowe,
Upon whose bankes on every syde
The wood of lyfe doth grow.
“Hierusalem, my happie home!
Would God I were in thee!
Would God my woes were at an end,
Thy ioyes that I might see!”
THE PRISONERS OF ST. LAZARE. Edited by Mrs. Pauline de Grandprè.
Translated from the French by Mrs. E. M. McCarthy. New York:
Appleton & Co.
In this volume we have a rambling, desultory description of the prison
of St. Lazare in Paris, and its inmates. It is a prison for women
guilty of every variety of crime, and they are even incarcerated here
on suspicion. But the majority of its occupants are women who have
fallen from virtue more or less criminally. Two great unsolved
questions of the age force themselves upon the attentive reader of
this volume, filled with the pitiful tale of woman’s sin and shame:
What can be done to succor unfortunates who have been ensnared and
drawn away from the paths of virtue, and have a desire to return to an
honest life; and what are the legitimate and proper employments of
women outside of the family?
We are not competent to answer thoroughly either of these questions,
which for many years have exercised the politician as well as the
philanthropist; we can only express our opinion. We have no such place
in this country as St. Lazare, but we have the abandoned women and
their needs. Ah! that word abandoned expresses the state of the public
mind toward those who have thus fallen; but the Catholic Christian
cannot suffer any soul for whom Christ died to be abandoned, and the
Catholic Church answers the first of these questions by opening her
arms to the penitent, and offering her the refuge of “Houses of the
Good Shepherd,” established in most of our large cities. By the
support and multiplication of this order, whose lifework is to receive
and help these poor children of sin, is the most effectual way in
which Catholic women can reach the class in whose interest this book
was written. We do not believe that women discharged from a prison
like St. Lazare could be preserved from future danger in an institution 574
like the one proposed in the appendix to this volume. No place but a
strictly religious house, in our opinion, could be a house of moral
convalescence to these poor creatures. There is one way in which
American Catholic women can lessen the number of these miserable
outcasts. Watch over your servants, know where they spend their
evenings, take them by the hand and give them loving, maternal advice
as to their company, and endeavor to bring them often to confession
and communion. The providence of God has committed these young girls
to your care, and who knows but their souls may be required of you,
negligent mistresses, in that day when we must all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ? With regard to the employments of women,
should not women be allowed to do any honest business that they can do
well? Many new openings have been made for her of late years in
telegraphic and photographic offices and stores. But, after all, to
touch the root of this matter, why should not woman be so trained that
she could, in any emergency, have a resource and support herself? A
great deal would be gained if children were brought up to feel that
“it is working, and not having money, that makes people happy.” “It is
a noteworthy fact,” says the author of _The Prisoners of St. Lazare_,
“that three-quarters of the inmates are without knowledge of a trade
or of any means of making a livelihood for themselves. The support of
husband or father failing, then destitution followed, and then vice.”
PROPHETIC IMPERIALISM; or, The Prophetic Entail of Imperial Power.
By Joseph L. Lord, of the Boston Bar. New York: Hurd and Houghton.
1871.
Mr. Lord writes like a thorough gentleman, a point which we notice in
this distinct and emphatic manner because it is a somewhat rare
phenomenon in literature of this class. He writes, also, like a
well-trained and cultivated scholar and thinker. It is, therefore, a
pleasant task to read what he has written, more pleasant from the fact
that his essay is a short one, and his thoughts are briefly as well as
lucidly and elegantly set forth. Moreover, although a Boston lawyer,
Mr. Lord really reverences the Holy Scriptures and believes the
prophets. His spirit is pious and fervent, though sober, and he is
alike free from cant and from unbelieving flippancy. The peculiar
theory of Mr. Lord regarding the fulfilment of what we may call the
imperial prophecies is not contrary to orthodox doctrine, and is in
fact held by him in common with some Catholic writers, although
diverse from the one held by the generality of sound interpreters. So
far as all the empires preceding that of Christ are concerned, he
agrees with the common interpretation. In respect to this last, he
holds to a personal descent and earthly empire of our Lord. This is an
hypothesis which, in our eyes, has no probability whatever. It is not
wonderful, however, that a person who does not see the earthly empire
of Christ in the reign and triumph of his Vicar and the Roman Church,
should be driven to look for a personal descent and reign of the Lord
in the latter times. In this respect, Mr. Lord agrees with a number of
eminent Protestant writers, who, being disgusted with the fruits of
the Reformation, and not so happy as to see the glories of the
Catholic Church, fly for consolation to this brilliant but, as we
think, baseless hypothesis.
Mr. Lord differs from most American Protestants in the very
disrespectful esteem in which he holds democracy. It is curious to
observe the very enthusiastic and adulatory language in which a number
of divines express their conviction of the truth of his theory,
imperialistic as it is from top to bottom. They withhold their names, 575
however, from a motive of prudence. Mr. Lord’s arguments have not
convinced us that his theory is correct, but they prove their author
to be worthy of esteem.
EAST AND WEST POEMS. By Bret Harte. Boston: James R. Osgood &
Company (late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood & Co.). 1871.
Many of those who have enjoyed Bret Harte’s fugitive pieces have felt
a vague suspicion that the word poetry was scarcely adequate to
express their character. The sketches from nature have been
unquestionably graphic, and, in some cases, not devoid of real humor
or pathos--all which has led to their being considered by many as
evidences of genius capable by its touch of ennobling humble and
insignificant subjects. The volumes, however, which have succeeded one
another since Mr. Harte has left California, persuade us that he not
only calls his rhymes poetry, but sincerely believes them to be such,
and takes for granted that everybody who knows anything at all agrees
perfectly with him. We fear that there has been a mistake somewhere.
Either the public have been betrayed into an incautious endorsement of
the author’s opinion of his own work, or the author has mistaken the
character of the sensation which he has created.
He seems to be just as eager as ever in his efforts to astonish the
world; and we know not how many more volumes of “poems” we may expect
before the public and he come to an understanding. For our own part,
the present is just one more than we are prepared to welcome. In spite
of kindly dispositions, we are painfully impressed with the fact that
the mistake we have alluded to lies with the author. We are also
unpleasantly relieved from a doubt as to whether the character of his
doggerel is, in all cases, due to the subject, and forced to conclude
that there is a congeniality between the writer and his themes which
is the secret of his success. We wish him well, and none the less in
desiring space wherein to administer to the present volume the
castigation which it deserves. In so doing, we would not deny him a
certain amount of genuine talent, such as is shown in certain places
in the “Greyport Legend” (pp. 7-10), or the “Lines on a Pen of Thomas
Starr King” (pp. 65,66), or “A Second Review of the Grand Army” (pp.
95-99); nor would we be disposed to carp at a certain slovenliness
which mars the beauty of other serious poems, but which did not
detract from their merit on the occasions for which they were
written--as was the case with the “Address” (pp. 78-81), and the poem
of the “Lost Galleon” (pp. 82-93)--the latter, if we mistake not,
having been composed for a social reunion of the Alumni of the Pacific
Coast. But nothing could induce us to excuse the reckless vulgarity
displayed in such pieces as “A White Pine Ballad” (p. 155); “In the
Mission Garden” (p. 21). There is also enough nonsense in such lines
as the “California Madrigal” (p. 127), “A Moral Vindicator” (p. 165),
_et alibi passim_, to make the deliberate addition of “Songs
without Sense” (p. 168), unwarrantably superfluous.
The author is not sufficiently aware of the distinction between
coarseness and originality, or else prefers notoriety to fame. We
cannot consent to the admission of his book into respectable libraries
or drawing-room bookstands, still less to a place in American
literature. If he should ever recognize and prune his defects, and
cultivate a little more respect for those for whom he writes, as well
as love for the purity of the idiom in which he deals, we shall be
happy to give him that praise which would be at present most unmerited
and inopportune.
SERMONS BY THE FATHERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF ST. PAUL. Vol. VI. New 576
York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1871.
For obvious reasons, we have taken occasion to speak of this volume
without the knowledge of the responsible editor. The great pressure on
our columns this month, which has compelled the omission of several
valuable articles already in type, will not permit, however, more than
a passing notice. We have always considered these annual volumes as
models of wise, simple, and earnest instruction, and see no reason to
change our opinion in the present instance. Indeed, there is, perhaps,
increased reason, during these troublous times, to admire the bravery
with which our Paulist Fathers meet the various questions demanding
solution, and we therefore take pleasure in commending the work to the
attention of all interested in homiletic literature. C.
TO AND FROM THE PASSION PLAY, IN THE SUMMER OF 1871. By the Rev. G.
H. Doane. Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1872.
This elegant volume contains not only an accurate description of the
Passion Play--a spectacle to which, of course, none but a Catholic can
do justice--but also a great deal of interesting matter about a number
of things and places that the author saw on his journeys to and fro.
As regards Paris, we have a sketch of some of the deeds of the
Commune, and, in particular, the murder of the late archbishop.
It is worthy of remark that, when Father Doane describes whether a
place or an incident, he avoids that elaboration and artifice which
pall upon the reader in many books of travel, and gives us his
thoughts and impressions in an easy and happy style. We congratulate
him on his literary efforts; and thank him cordially for affording us
so much valuable information in so pleasant a manner.
The “Catholic Publication Society” has in press, and will publish
immediately, _The Pastoral Address of the Archbishops and Bishops of
Ireland on the School Question_. It will be got out in a 12mo
pamphlet, and will be sold for $3 per 100 copies.
The “Catholic Publication Society” will also publish, early in January,
_The Liquefaction of the Blood of St. Januarius_; _Lentent Sermons_,
from the Italian of Rev. Paul Segneri, S. J.; and _Sermons on
Ecclesiastical Subjects_, Vol. II., by Archbishop Manning.
BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED.
From CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO., New York: The Holy Bible according to
the Authorized Version (A.D. 1611), with an explanatory and
critical commentary, and revision of the Translation, by Bishops
and other Clergy of the Anglican Church. Edited by F. C. Cook,
M.A., Canon of Exeter. Vol. I., Part I. Genesis-Exodus. 8vo, pp.
xii., 928.
From HURD & HOUGHTON, New York: The Last Knight: A Romance-Garland,
from the German of Anastasius Grün. Translated with Notes by John
O. Sargent. 8vo, pp. vi., 200.--The Church Idea: An Essay toward
Unity. By Wm. R. Huntington, Rector of All Saints’, Worcester.
12mo, pp. 235.
From ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston: Songs of the Sierras. By Joaquin
Miller. 12mo, pp. 299.
From CARLTON & LANAHAN, New York: The Mission of the Spirit; or, The
Office and Work of the Comforter in Human Redemption. By Rev. L. R.
Dunn. 12mo, pp. 303.
From J. B. LIPPINCOTT, Philadelphia: The Resurrection of the
Redeemed; and Hades. By James Boggs. 12mo, pp. 145, 69.
From HOLT & WILLIAMS, New York: Art in Greece. By H. Taine.
Translated by John Durand. 12mo, pp. 188.
From PATRICK DONAHOE, Boston: The Four Great Evils of the Day. By
Henry Edward, Archbishop of Westminster. 18mo. pp. 207.--Review of
a “Treatise on Infant Baptism” by Thos. H. Pritchard, D.D. Part I.
By Rev. J. V. McNamara, Pastor of St. John’s Roman Catholic
Church, Raleigh, N.C. Paper, pp. 46.
From ROBERT CLARKE & CO., Cincinnati: Who is the Pope? And Who is
Pius IX. among the Popes? By F. X. Weninger, D.D., S.J. Paper,
pp. 15.
From THE FREE PRESS ASSOCIATION, New York: Appeal to the People of
the State of New York, adopted by the Executive Committee of
Citizens and Taxpayers for the Financial Reform of the City and
County of New York, etc. Paper, pp. 16.
From D. APPLETON & CO., New York: Philosophy of Style: An Essay. By
Herbert Spencer, author of “First Principles of Philosophy,” etc.
Pp. 55.
International Congress on the Prevention and Repression of Crime,
including Penal and Reformatory Treatment. By E. C. Wines, LL.D.,
Commissioner of the United States. Paper, pp. 28.
THE 577
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XIV., No. 83.--FEBRUARY, 1872.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
REV. S. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.
THE DUTIES OF THE RICH IN CHRISTIAN SOCIETY.
NO. I.
IN REFERENCE TO COMMUNISM.
Under the foregoing title, we propose to present to the careful
attention of the wealthy class of American citizens a series of essays
on some topics which concern them very nearly. We intend to make each
one short, that it may be easily read, and that the reader who is
interested in the matters we discuss may have time to think over each
topic by itself. We address them principally to Catholics, and shall,
therefore, always take for granted and appeal to Catholic principles
and doctrines. Yet we are convinced that others not Catholics will
find a great deal in them which they must acknowledge to be true, and
likely to do them good, if they are at all earnest and conscientious.
Since we expect to say some things to the rich, and to those who are
by other advantages besides wealth in an elevated social position,
which will be severe, and perhaps to some unpalatable, we may as well
begin by placing a guard against a possible misunderstanding of our
intent. No careful reader of our magazine can suppose that we would
sympathize with or encourage any movement hostile to the just rights
or reasonable privileges of the wealthy class. Moreover, we cherish a
deep respect for all the hierarchical institutions of the political
and social order, as well as for their more sacred and elevated
counterparts in the ecclesiastical system. We recognize the necessity,
even in our republican commonwealth, of a certain elevated social
class, in which men of wealth must unavoidably have an eminent
position. Whatever we have which can check our ultra-democratic
tendencies, infuse a conservative spirit into our public opinion, give
dignity, decorum, and stability to our institutions, elevate and
refine our social tone, and add a becoming splendor to our
civilization, calls forth our sympathies, and receives our deliberate
and reasoned approbation. Whatever censures, therefore, we may
pronounce upon the vices, follies, and delinquencies of the rich and 578
the otherwise highly placed in social rank, and whatever admonitions
we may address to them respecting the duties and dangers of their
position, must be taken as coming from a friend, not only to
themselves as individuals, but to their class. With these
preliminaries, we address ourselves to our task.
We have placed the title “In Reference to Communism” at the head of
our first article for one special reason. Communism threatens the
wealthy class with a war of extermination. It is obvious, therefore,
that the rich have more need to reflect on the duties and dangers of
their position, at the present time, than they have ever had before.
So, then, we call their attention at the outset to the war which the
fanatics of revolution are preparing for them, in order that our words
may have more weight, and that they may give more serious thought to
the subjects we intend to discuss with them. And here we will explain
that we employ the single terms “rich,” “rich people,” etc., for
convenience’ sake, including under this designation other
qualifications besides moneyed wealth, and other persons besides those
who possess great fortunes; namely, all those who possess any species
of privilege or power which gives them social dignity and influence.
We say, then, to the rich: your class, your privileges, your
possessions, your lives, are threatened by an enemy whose character is
disclosed by the bloody orgies of the Paris Commune. What application
do we make of this grave and alarming fact? Simply this. The rich
members of society ought to reflect seriously on all the questions
which relate to their position in the commonwealth. They ought to
think of their duties, to examine their own delinquencies, to consider
the line of conduct they ought to adopt, to use their power and
influence rightly and rationally, to educate their children carefully,
and in every way to prevent and defeat the nefarious plots of the
party of revolution. We say, earnestly and emphatically, that there is
now a special necessity and obligation to use wealth, education,
intellectual power, social influence, political power, moral and
religious force, to avert the dangers which threaten society, and to
promote its solid and firm establishment on a right basis. Moreover,
the self-interest of the rich demands this of them most imperatively.
All their private and personal interests depend on the peace and good
order of society. Their own safety demands of them that they should
work for the salvation of political and social order, when they are in
danger, just as they would bear a hand at the pumps on board a leaking
ship, or man the batteries of their own beleaguered city. Hostility
between the wealthy and the laborious classes is a great evil in
society. When the hostility of the masses against the aristocracy
becomes violent, and tends to produce a revolution and an exterminating
war of the former against the latter, there is a deadly sickness in
the body politic which threatens its dissolution. This state of things
exists at present in Christendom. We are not so deeply affected as yet
in this country; but we are not altogether sound or safe from the
infection, and there is reason enough to be on the alert to protect
ourselves from it. The rich have duties toward society in general, and
toward its several classes and individuals in particular. And they
have, at the present time and in present circumstances, a special
obligation to give these duties careful attention.
All this would he strictly true and sufficient to arouse the rich to a 579
greater vigilance in fulfilling the duties of their high position,
even if they were free from blame, as a class, for the disorders and
evils of modern society; but, if they are chiefly to blame for these
evils through their past neglect and delinquency, there is an
additional and imperative motive in this fact for a strenuous effort
on their part to repair the past in the present and the future by a
redoubled fidelity and energy. We think they are to blame. It is our
deliberate judgment that communism, and the whole mass of social
disorders which have lately come to the surface of the body politic
under this loathsome and deadly form, are principally to be traced to
the abuse of power and wealth by the governing classes. Kings, nobles,
rich men, authors, politicians, have, in part by their gross abuse of
the trust committed to them, and in part by their neglect and
indifference, generated the moral _petroleum_ to which demagogues
and leaders of revolution, the Mazzinis, Garibaldis, Karl Marxes,
Dombrowskis, and Raoul Rigaults, have applied the torch. There have
been many great and good things done by kings, and by the members of
the political, social, and intellectual aristocracy. There have been
many admirable and excellent persons, many heroes and saints, among
these elevated classes in society. Nevertheless, on the whole, they
have been, especially for the past three centuries, grievously
delinquent, and continually becoming worse; and even more extensively
delinquent by neglect than by positive criminality. The greatest part
of the miseries and crimes which darken the annals of history may be
traced to kings and their associates in government. Their ambition,
their selfish policy, their unjust or unnecessary wars, their disregard
of the happiness of the common people, their haughtiness of demeanor,
their personal vices and corrupting example, have been the fruitful
causes of misery and vice among their subjects. They have reacted
against themselves by producing hatred and contempt of thrones and
kings, of authority and government. The aristocracy have followed
closely the royal example set before them. And the men of genius and
intellectual culture, the princes and rich men of the realm of arts
and letters, since the fatal epoch of the _renaissance_ of paganism,
have prostituted their heaven-born gifts to the service of every
destructive error and every corrupting vice. The greater number of
those who have not positively aided the work of ruin have been
apathetic and indifferent, and have not positively aided the work of
salvation, at least with the zeal and energy which might justly be
expected from them.
Moreover, kings, nobles, and the wealthy class have made war on the
church. They have revolted against the Holy See, enslaved the
hierarchy and the clergy, and despoiled the church.
They have robbed and well-nigh suppressed the monastic orders. In this
way, they have sapped and undermined the foundations of their own
stability; for it is the principle of religious obedience and
reverence, first of all toward God, and then secondarily toward all
powers established and sanctioned by the law of God, which is the
source of the sentiment of loyalty. The rebellion of the state against
the church must, therefore, terminate in the rebellion of the lower
against the higher classes in the state. The monastic institution was
the strongest of all links between rich and poor, great and humble, by
reason of the fact that its members belonged to both classes at the
same time. The destruction of monasticism, therefore, resulted 580
necessarily in a hostility of these two classes toward each other. So
it has come about that the aristocracy, excited by kings against the
church, turned next against the kings, the commercial and middle
classes turned against the aristocracy, and now the masses are turning
against the men of wealth, or, as their own leaders express it,
against “the supremacy of cash.” The condition of the laboring classes
is, at best, in many respects a hard one. It is a great and an arduous
thing which is required of them; to submit patiently to the supremacy
of the higher classes. Religion alone makes their position tolerable;
religion, binding together both the superior and the inferior classes
in divine love. The hierarchy and the aristocracy must be recognized
by the people as holding their high position for the common good of
all, and as working with a self-denial equal or superior to their own;
that is, as really _laborers_ in another sphere of action, but with a
common end in view, in order that they may contentedly acquiesce in
the inequality of rank, wealth, and social privileges which prevails
in society. So soon as the people are convinced, whether wrongly or
rightly, that the privileges of their spiritual or temporal superiors
are mere privileges of a caste, which despises, rules, and taxes the
people for its own selfish aggrandizement and pleasure, they begin to
hate them with a deadly hatred. The Catholic people are content that
the Pope govern, rebuke, and punish them; that he possess the wealth
and splendor of a spiritual and temporal sovereign; that he reign as
the vicegerent of God on earth--because they believe that all this is
for their own highest good. They are content that bishops and priests
possess all the honors and privileges of their office, and willing to
sustain them in these, for the same reason. Take away this belief, and
it is not long before they begin not only to withhold their
contributions, to withdraw their allegiance, to refuse obedience, to
lose respect and love for their spiritual superiors, but to cry out
for their overthrow and even clamor for their blood. It is the same in
respect to the secular privileged classes. And, at the present moment,
since the greatest amount of external and material privilege,
splendor, and worldly good in general has passed into the hands of the
wealthy class, it is this class which is most immediately exposed to
the brunt of the attack which is directed against caste and privilege.
We will quote the language of one of the official organs of the
International Society, the _Egalité_ of Geneva, in order to show with
the utmost clearness what is their spirit and aim:
“When the social revolution shall have dispossessed the
_bourgeoisie_, in the interests of public utility, as the
_bourgeoisie_ dispossessed the nobles and the clergy, what will
become of them?
“We cannot answer with positive certainty, but it is probable
that the new order of things will give them, to borrow an
expression from one of our friends, an infinitely more precious
wealth, that of labor, well paid, at their discretion; so that
they may be no longer obliged to live by the labor of others, as
they have hitherto lived. In case some of them should be
incapable of labor, which will happen to a good many, seeing that
_hitherto they have never learned the use of their ten fingers,
what then_? Well, then they will be given tickets for soup.
“‘But that is too little,’ the _bourgeois_ will howl.
“‘Too little!’ the workman will reply--‘too little to have work,
at your discretion, well paid, and soup for the invalids! The
deuce! You are hard to please. We could have been well satisfied
with such terms formerly.’”[119]
This is the unavoidable conclusion, and the practical as well as 581
unavoidable conclusion, to which the whole mass of the people must
come, unless they are convinced that the rich labor more usefully for
the common good, and for the good of the poor, by means of their
wealth with its attendant privileges, than they would by manual labor.
They cannot be convinced of this, unless rich and poor alike recognize
the truth of religious and Christian principles, and act on them
practically. On the materialistic, anti-theistic ground, you cannot
get a foothold against communism. It is all a waste of words to show
that civilization, art and science, social and political splendor,
national greatness, etc., require the concentration of wealth in a few
hands. What does the poor man care for these, if this life is all,
material good the _summum bonum_, and he himself miserable? His
condition becomes insupportable, and he would rather burn the world
with petroleum than bear it. It is very true that his desperate
efforts will make his condition far worse. But he will not listen to
you when you try to prove this to him, and, if you should even
convince him, you would only render him more desperate. He must
believe that he is under the government of God, that he has been
redeemed by Christ, that heaven is opened to him by faith, that this
world is a place for gaining merit by labor and suffering, that the
difference in rank, wealth, and privilege is ordered by God for the
good of all and every one, if he is to be contented with his lot. For
him is the Pope, the bishop, the priest, the splendid church, the
glittering vestments and chalices. For him, too, is government, for
him is commerce and trade, for him science and art, for him are some
men rich. The church and the state are necessary for his good, and
both church and state have need of men in whose hands wealth and power
are deposited.
If the people are to be convinced of this, they must see that their
spiritual and temporal superiors are convinced of it, and act
accordingly. The rich as well as the poor must act on Christian
principles--act as men who have a trust committed to them for the
common good. They must, in a word, be zealous _laborers_ in their own
sphere. And it is especially incumbent on them, at the present time,
to do everything possible to ameliorate and elevate the condition of
that class of society who are not merely doomed to a life of manual
labor, but to a life of misery and degradation. The people have been
taught that they possess political sovereignty, and universal suffrage
has given them the right and power to exercise it. Can they be
expected, then, to remain content for ever with a sovereignty which is
united with a state of social abjectness and misery? Is it safe or
prudent to neglect, despise, or insult them; or to swindle them and
defraud them of their rights, and at the same time to flaunt before
their eyes the gaudy insignia of what they believe to be ill-gotten
wealth? Especially when we consider that they read the newspaper every
day. We leave it to our rich merchants and our educated men to think
over and answer to themselves these questions.
For ourselves, we are convinced that the only safety for the wealthy
class, and for society, is to be found in a return to purely Christian
and Catholic principles. And we shall proceed to give our views more
definitely and in detail upon the part which devolves on the rich in
this work of social regeneration, in our future articles.
[119] See the _Dublin Review_, Oct., p. 459.
----------
THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 582
CHAPTER XXI.
AMONG THE BREAKERS.
When the boat had slipped away from Indian Point, at one side, and
Carl Yorke had strode off through the woods, at the other, Captain
Cary lifted again the dingy canvas, and entered the wigwam that Edith
had just quitted. In doing so, he was obliged to stoop very low, for
the opening scarcely reached as high as his shoulders, and, had he
stood erect inside, he would have taken the whole structure up by the
roots.
Dick still lay with his arms thrown above his head, and his face
hidden in them.
His friend bent over him, and spoke with an affectation of hearty
cheerfulness which was far from his real mood. “Come! come! don’t give
up for a trifle, my boy. You’re more scared than hurt. All you need is
a little brandy and courage. Everything will turn out rightly, never
fear!”
“Don’t talk to me!” said Dick.
Captain Cary’s heart sank at the sound of that moaning voice. When
Dick Rowan’s spirit broke, there was trouble indeed, and trouble which
could neither be laughed nor reasoned away.
“Do take the brandy, at least,” he urged; “and then I won’t talk to
you any more till the boat comes back. You must take it. You’re in an
ague-fit now.”
Dick was, indeed, trembling violently. But, more to relieve himself
from importunity, it would seem, than for any other reason, he lifted
his head, swallowed the draught that was offered him, and sank back
again.
His friend leaned over him one instant, his breast, strongly heaving,
and full of pity, against Dick’s shoulder, his rough, tender cheek
laid to Dick’s wet hair.
The poor boy turned at that, threw his arms around Captain Cary’s
neck, drew him down, and held him close, as a drowning man might hold
a plank. “O captain, captain!” he whispered, “I’ve got an awful blow!”
When the sailor went out into the air again, all the Indians had
retired into their wigwams, except Malie, and her father and mother.
The child, wide awake, and full of excitement, was swinging herself by
the bough of a tree, half her motion lost sight of in the dark pine
shadow, half floating out into the light. Now and then, she stretched
her foot, and struck the earth with it. When the stranger appeared and
looked her way, she began to chatter like a squirrel, and, lifting her
feet, scrambled into the tree, and disappeared among its branches.
Mr. and Mrs. Nicola crouched by the fire, and sulkily ignored the
intruder. When he approached and stood by her side, the woman did not
turn her head, but tossed a strip of birch-bark into the coals, and 583
watched it while it writhed, blackened, turned red, shrivelled, and
disappeared.
“I wonder if she would like to serve me that way?” he questioned
inwardly; and said aloud, “I am going up to meet my man at the ship,
and come back with him. It may save a little time, and I don’t like to
keep you up any longer than I must.”
The man uttered a low-toned guttural word, the woman nodded her head
in reply, but neither took any notice of Captain Cary.
“I am sorry to intrude,” he added stiffly; “but when a man is sick, he
must be taken care of. Captain Rowan, in there, doesn’t half know
where he is, nor what he is about. I will get him away as soon as I
can. You shall be paid for your trouble.” He tossed a silver piece
down between the two. “When I come back, you shall have more,” he
said, and, turning his back upon them, walked off into the woods.
Neither of the two elders stirred till he was out of sight; but Malie
slipped from her tree, darted at the money, and snatched it up. She
was escaping with it, when her father seized her, took the money from
her hand, and put it into his pocket. She only laughed when he let her
go. She had no use for money, except to wear it on a string around her
neck, and a string of beads was prettier. Besides, she had her
treasure--the book the lady had given her that day. She threw herself
on the ground, near the fire, drew this book from the loose folds of
her blouse, and turned the leaves, reading here and there. The page
looked like all sorts of bird-songs written out. Doubtless the birds
and beasts had had a good deal to do with making the language of it.
Who would not think that _k’tchitbessùwìnoa_ was a verse from a
feathered songster? Malie would tell you that it means a “general.”
Probably the birds call their generals by that name. One looks with
interest on a child who can read this chippering, gurgling,
twittering, lisping, growling “to-whit, to-whoo!” of a thought-medium.
While she read, Captain Cary, tramping through the strip of woods
between the encampment and South Street, recollected for the first
time that his clothes were dripping wet. “What a queer, topsy-turvy
time we are having!” he muttered, wringing the water from his cravat,
as he hurried along. “The whole affair reminds me of that fairy play I
saw last winter. There must be something unwholesome in this
moonshine.”
The play he meant was _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_. But there was now no
clamor of rustic clowns in a hawthorn brake, nor sight of Titania
sleeping among her pensioners the cowslips. There were but his own
steps, muffled in moss, and the lurking shadows, creeping noiselessly
away from the pursuing light.
By that short road across the Point, it was less than half a mile to
the wharf where the _Halcyon_ lay, and in ten minutes Captain Cary had
reached his ship. His crew were all on board, and, as he walked down
the wharf, he heard the refrain of one of their songs:
“And they sank him in the lowlands, low.”
The verse ended in that mournful cadence that sailors learn from the
ocean winds--those long-breathed, full-throated singers!
At sound of the captain’s step, silence fell, and at his call a little
imp of a Malay cabin-boy appeared, stood with twinkling eyes to take
his orders, then shot away to execute them. When the sailor who had
gone up to the bridge with the ladies came back to the ship, the yawl 584
was out, and Captain Cary sat in it waiting for him.
“Major Cleaveland wants to see you when you come up, sir,” the sailor
said, as they sped down the river. “He says you’d better bring Captain
Rowan right up to his house. He will send the carriage down for you.
He is obliged to leave town at four o’clock in the morning, in the
Eastern stage, something about a trial of his in a court somewhere, so
he can’t see you in the morning.”
“Did anybody else say anything?” the captain asked.
“Mr. Carl Yorke said that, as soon as he had gone home with the
ladies, he would come back to see Captain Rowan. He got up to the
bridge just as we did.”
Captain Cary bent low over his oars, and muttered a word he did not
choose to speak aloud. Plain men are almost always ready to have a
jealous dislike of accomplished men, and a simple nature like Captain
Cary’s can never do justice to a complex one like Carl Yorke’s. At
that moment the sailor was thinking that, had Carl been the one to
fall overboard, he would not have cared to wet his skin for the sake
of saving him. And yet Carl had treated this man with friendly
courtesy, and had admired and appreciated him thoroughly.
“Well, did any one else say anything?” he asked presently.
“Miss Edith felt pretty bad, sir. She leaned over the rail, and looked
back to the Point, wringing her hands all the way, as we came up. She
told me to say to you that she was sorry she had left Captain Rowan. I
guess, sir, she is pretty fond of him, after all,” the sailor said
confidentially.
“What business have you guessing or thinking anything about it?”
demanded his superior, with a haughty sternness that would have
delighted Clara Yorke. “Keep your opinion till I ask for it!”
“All right, sir!” responded the sailor, and shut his mouth. If he was
angry, he did not venture to show it.
“Well?” said the captain sharply, after waiting a minute.
“Why, sir, there isn’t much of anything else,” the man answered. “Miss
Yorke said that they ought to have taken Mr. Rowan up with them, and
that she did not understand how they had allowed themselves to be sent
away in such a manner. And Miss Clara she said that you--isn’t there a
boat ahead, sir?”
“No. What if there is? Go on.” He could not help being impatient.
“Well, Miss Clara she said that you knew best, and she wasn’t afraid
of leaving Mr. Rowan to your care.”
The captain sat with his oar suspended, and stared straight ahead. The
seaman hesitated, then returned good for evil. “Miss Clara was
mightily taken with the way you went overboard, sir. She thought that
you did it in a very splendid fashion. I told her I didn’t know any
other way you could have done it, unless you had gone over back’ards,
like Captain Rowan. She tossed up her head at that, and marched off,
and got into the carriage.”
The captain’s oars flashed down into the water, and he gave a pull
that made their boat skim the wave like a bird.
When they reached the Point, the fire was out, and no person was in
sight. Captain Cary hastened up the bank to the wigwam where he had
left Dick Rowan, but as he laid his hand on the fold of canvas a gruff
voice inside challenged him.
“I want Captain Rowan,” he called out. 585
A brief “He not here!” was the reply.
“Where is he, then?”
“Don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” cried the sailor. “None of your nonsense, sir! If
any harm has come to him through you, I will hang you all to the
branches of these trees. Come out here, and tell me where he has gone,
if you don’t want to be dragged out.”
He tore open the canvas, as he spoke, and in the dim light saw a
swift, dark pantomime acted inside. One shadowy figure was springing
forward, with the flash of a blade in the uplifted hand, when another
caught him round the neck, and a slim arm ran up his arm, that held
the weapon. The knife flashed an instant in that silent struggle of
the two to possess it, then Mrs. Nicola pushed her husband back, and,
leaning forward, caught the canvas from the sailor’s hand.
“The young man took Philip Nicola’s canoe, and went down the bay in
it,” she said angrily. “That is all we know about him.”
It was not likely, indeed, that they would do him any harm: whatever
their feelings might be, they would not dare to. There was nothing to
do but return to the boat, and row down the bay in search of Dick. The
light was still radiantly clear, and the whole surface of the bay
plain to be seen. The group of islands showed like ashen blotches on
that mirror. The sailor pointed out to his captain a black speck that
floated away from among these islands.
“It is a boat, sir,” he said; “but there is no one in it.”
“Make for that nearest island,” the captain ordered; and muttered to
himself, “Dick wouldn’t do it! he wouldn’t.”
No, Dick would not, in any depth of misery, have thrown his life away.
They found him there, lying prone in the sand, where, years before, he
had buried his father. What attraction had drawn him to that spot
would be hard to tell. Possibly, now that he knew the meaning of
failure, there was some blind feeling of compunction toward one whose
failures he had reproachfully thought of.
Dick made no resistance when Captain Cary lifted him, and, after a
moment, walked to the boat with him. He sat there, with his head bowed
forward, while they rowed back to the ship. He was like one who is but
half-aroused from sleep, and has a mind to fall back into it. He
submitted to all that was required of him, took what they gave him,
did what they bade him. It was not much they prescribed--only dry
clothes and a bed.
There is a power of instinctive recoil by which some natures are saved
from being destroyed by the shock of a great blow. The senses shut
their inner doors at the jar of the enemy’s approach, and the soul, in
some remote privacy of its being, arms itself before coming forth to
see who knocks at its portal and bids it to battle. But for this
merciful interposition, it would have fared hard with Dick Rowan,
when, struck by the lightning of a glance, the framework on which all
his life had been built up gave way without a moment’s warning.
His friend left him after awhile, and went up to the Cleavelands.
Hester had expected Dick, but was too much occupied with her husband
to be very curious regarding the accident. The young man had been
knocked over by the boom, she had been told, and the result was
nothing worse than a wetting. A wetting was bad, to be sure; she was
so sorry; she hoped that Mr. Rowan had put on dry clothes at once, and 586
taken something hot. He must really take care of himself. But--and
here Mrs. Hester evidently considered herself returning to the subject
in hand--was there ever anything more provoking than this journey? Why
could not that tiresome case have been tried at Seaton instead of
Machias? Why did not the judge see about it? Why did not her husband’s
lawyer let him know in season, so that he could have driven through in
his own carriage by day, and not be obliged to post over the road by
night in those horrible coaches?
“In short,” laughed the husband, “why is not all the machinery of
civilization regulated with an eye single to the convenience of Mrs.
Hester Cleaveland’s husband?”
When no one else was present, the gentleman could take these absurd
cares with an equally absurd complacency, and really seem to believe
that he was a pining invalid instead of a stout, rubicund man; but the
grave and wondering face of his visitor made him a little ashamed of
such coddling.
The business did not take long to settle. All the preliminaries had
been fully arranged before, neither gentleman being prone to leave his
affairs at loose ends. In a few minutes they shook hands, dissolving
all connection, except a friendly one, and wishing each other very
heartily success and happiness. The _Halcyon_, which they had owned
together, was sold, and, if the sailor went to sea again, he had a
mind to go in a new ship of his own, and be quite independent.
Hester also took a kind leave of her guest, hoping to meet him again
before long, since, for the present, he was going no further than New
York. “You know we all go to Boston soon,” she said, “and it would not
be very hard for you to come on purpose to see us.”
Then he went. Everything was quiet as he walked down through the town.
It was late, and only two lights were visible. One, burning red, a
cyclopean eye, close to the ground, showed that the incentive to any
and every possible sin was to be sold by the bottle or glass, mixed or
neat, according to the taste of the person having a soul to lose.
The other light was in three windows, at the top of a building, where
the Know-Nothings held their secret meetings. Captain Cary knew what
that light meant. He stood awhile on the bridge, and watched it,
wondering how a nation was to preserve its honor if governed by such
men and such means. A secret conclave, met with closed doors and
pass-word, and not one man of proved integrity inside!
“If they are patriots, then Washington was not one,” was the
conclusion the sailor came to; and, having reached it, he walked on,
and left that nest of slanderers and plotters to do their evil work.
“I’d like to clean out that hall!” he mused as he went.
When he reached the ship, he found that Dick Rowan had roused himself
sufficiently to have one wish, and that an imperative one. “Take me
away from here, Cary!” he begged. “There is nothing to keep you now.
Clark says that you have seen Major Cleaveland, and that all is ready
to sail. Don’t wait. Sail early in the morning.”
It was true. There was nothing to keep them till noon, except their
engagement with the ladies of Mr. Yorke’s family, and it was certainly
for Dick to say whether that should be kept. There was some discussion
on the subject, but Dick was inexorable, and the captain yielded. He 587
wrote a note of explanation and apology to Mrs. Yorke; and so it
happened that, when that lady’s messenger reached the wharf in the
morning, the _Halcyon_ was miles below, standing out through the
Narrows, with a blue, sunny sea stretching in front of her straight to
the South Pole. On the deck sat Dick Rowan, leaning on the rail, and
watching the foam toss and drop, toss and drop, with a lulling motion,
like the to-and-fro of white, mesmerizing hands. And the face that
watched that motion looked half-mesmerized, pale and dreamy, with only
a groping of thought in it.
The ship went well, and within a few days they saw the rising sun
shine on the masts and spires of New York. The evening of that very
day, Father Fitspatrick, of Boston--Father John, his friends called
him--coming in rather late from a lecture, was told that a gentleman
was waiting in his room to see him. He went in, and found Dick Rowan
sitting there, but not the Dick Rowan he had baptized the year before,
and welcomed home, and talked gayly with within a few short weeks.
This man might have been Dick’s elder brother, and a stern, pale man,
too.
“Father,” Dick said faintly, “I want you to keep me a little while. I
have come here for sanctuary. If there is any help in religion when
other help fails, I want to know it now.”
“But what has happened? What is the matter?” the priest exclaimed.
Dick sank back into the seat from which he had risen. “I’ve lost
Edith, sir, and my life has all gone to pieces.”
“Is she dead?” the priest asked.
“No, sir; but she loves some one else.”
Father John drew his chair close to the young man’s side, and took his
hand. “My dear son,” he said, “are you going to despair because a
woman has been false to you?”
Dick looked up as though not sure that he heard aright. What! any one
call Edith false?
“No, sir, she was not false,” he said. “It was something that she
couldn’t help. She would marry me now, if I would let her.”
“Why, then, do you not marry her?” the father asked. “This is probably
a fancy, which will pass away; and if she is good and true, she will
do her duty by you.”
Dick stared at the priest in an almost indignant astonishment. “What,
sir!” he exclaimed, “do you think me mean enough to marry a woman who
loves another man? I always feared this, at the bottom of my heart,
though I would not own that I did. And it was always true, I suppose,
only she did not know it. I made a great mistake. I thought that, if I
tried to be good to God and to her, she would love me. But I have been
thinking it all over during the last week, and I have found out that
we choose by our hearts, not our heads, and that we do not really love
a person when we can tell the reason why. I had no right to _buy_
her. She belonged to some one else.” He shivered, looked down a
moment, then said huskily, “Yes, Edith was true!” and, dropping his
face into his hands, burst into tears.
“My dear son!” Father John said, putting his arm around Dick’s
shoulder, “don’t give up so! You have youth, and health, and friends,
and a work to do in the world. Don’t let this discourage you. She is
only a woman.”
“And I am only a man!” said Dick.
“What about your ship?” the priest asked, after a little while.
Dick raised his face, and controlled himself to speak. “Captain Cary 588
is to take charge of her,” he said. “I couldn’t sail in the _Edith
Yorke_ again, sir. I would not trust myself off alone in her, with
nothing else to think of, and no escape, unless I jumped into the
ocean. It is haunted by her. Every plank, and spar, and rope of that
ship is steeped in the thought of her. I have fancied her there,
speaking, and laughing, and singing, just as I expected she would some
day, and asking me the names of everything. When I used to walk up and
down the deck, I’d imagine her beside me. I could see her dress
fluttering, and the braid of hair, and two little feet keeping step.
Why, sir, it was so real that I would sometimes shorten my steps for
her sake. I never neglected my duty for her; but I looked at
everything through a little rosy thought of her, and that made hard
work pleasant. No, I can never again sail in the _Edith Yorke_. Have
patience with me, father. Recollect, I have to overturn all that was
my world, and have not a point to rest my lever on.”
“You a Christian, and say that!” the priest exclaimed. “Where is your
faith? Where is your reason?”
Dick started up fiercely, and began to walk the floor. “I cannot bear
it! I will not bear it!” he exclaimed. “You preachers, with your
reason, that tramples on all feeling, are as bad as the scientists,
whose science tramples on all faith. God made the tide, sir, as well
as the rock, and the storm as well as the calm, and it is for him to
say whether either is a foolishness. People who are wise, when they
sit in their safe homes, and hear the wind howling, pity the sailor,
and tremble for him; but, when you see a soul among the breakers, you
scorn it. I tell you, I will not bear such scorn! What do you think
this loss is to me?” he demanded, stopping before the priest, who sat
looking steadfastly at him. “It means that all the brightness and
sweetness of life, everything that is dear to human nature, are torn
away from me for ever. If I were a dissolute man, I could find a
miserable substitute; if I were fickle, I could fill her place; but I
am neither. I stand here, twenty-eight years old, and--I call God to
witness!--as stainless as when I was an infant in my mother’s arms. It
was Edith who kept me so. ‘Only a woman,’ you say; but that may mean
more than an angel. She was my guardian angel incarnate. ‘Only a
woman;’ but that woman’s shape walked with me through paths that might
have led to perdition, and kept me safe. If, in anger, an oath rose in
my teeth, I felt her hand on my mouth, and did not utter it. If I was
tempted with wine, I remembered her, and pushed the glass away. I can
be bloodthirsty, sir, if I am provoked, but many a sailor escaped the
lash and irons for her sake. Once I had my hand at a man’s throat,
with a mind to wring his vile life out of him, but I thought of her,
and let him go. The memory of this is not to be reasoned away. Do you
remember, sir, the time when you first thought of your vocation, and
sat down to count the costs? When you called up the vision of your
life before you, and stripped from it, one after another, wife,
children, and home, and all that they mean, did you want any one to
preach to you, in that hour, of common sense and reason? Didn’t you
feel that you must let nature have way a little while, and didn’t you
find it go over you like a wave?”
While Dick Rowan, bold with passionate feeling, poured forth this
torrent of words, the priest sat perfectly motionless, and looked at 589
him. There was no sign of anger, no consciousness of insulted dignity,
in his face, but only a profound sadness. This was no haughty
churchman, as his many lovers know, but a worthy follower of that
lowly One who said, “The servant is not above his master.” When Father
John towered in the pulpit, or spoke from the rostrum, with his “Thus
saith the Lord!” and “I am Peter, and James, and John!” there was an
authority which could not be defied, and a loftiness which would not
have bent before Cæsar; but in things temporal, and when winning and
comforting souls, his was a charity most tender, and a humility most
imposing.
Something in that face, now sleeping with Abraham and the fathers,
arrested the young man’s impetuous speech. He faltered, and stopped;
and, when the arms were stretched out to him, dropped on his knees,
and leaned his face against that kind bosom.
“Forgive me, dear father!” Dick said. “I did not mean to be rude, nor
to forget the reverence due to you. I know that all you would say to
me is true; but--I die hard!”
CHAPTER XXII.
EXPLANATIONS.
Meantime, what had been going on in the Yorke family at Seaton? Mrs.
Yorke had not feared that there was any serious trouble till she
learned that Dick Rowan had gone away. She was in bed when her young
people returned the night before, and knew only what Clara came to her
door to say:
“We have had a delightful sail, mamma, and are all well. I hope that
you have not been anxious. Mr. Rowan fell overboard, for a diversion,
and, of course, got wet; but Captain Cary got him out, and he is all
right now. Good-night, mamma, for me and the girls, and Carl. We are
all here.”
However late her children might be out, Mrs. Yorke could not close her
motherly eyes till she knew that they were safe under the home-roof
again. Then she turned upon her pillow, and dropped asleep, giving
thanks. She felt a slight uneasiness when Melicent, before breakfast
the next morning, asked her to send Patrick down to enquire for Dick.
“Why, was he hurt? Is he not coming up, this morning?” she asked.
“I presume that he is very well, mamma,” the daughter replied. “But it
would look pleasant to be attentive.”
This was said with an air of reserve, and the young woman evidently
did not wish to say any more. In an equally diplomatic manner, she
announced that Edith had a headache, and was not coming down to
breakfast. Melicent was one of those persons who, when in possession
of a secret, as James Russell Lowell has said, “will not let the cat
out of the bag, but they give its tail a pull to let you know that it
is there.”
Mrs. Yorke said no more. She found this manner annoying. But she
observed at breakfast that Carl ate nothing, and that Clara kept up a
constant stream of talk, that seemed designed to cover some
embarrassment. She noticed, also, that no mention was made of Dick
Rowan or their sail of the day before. When she arose from the table,
and went toward the entry-door, her eldest daughter interposed, with 590
an air of being in the charge of affairs. “I would not disturb Edith
now, mamma.”
“Melicent!” exclaimed her mother haughtily, and waved the young woman
aside.
Edith was lying on her bed, dressed as on the day before, her face
hidden in the pillow. She started when her aunt spoke to her, and
turned a pale and tear-wet face. It did not need this to tell Mrs.
Yorke that her niece’s headache came from the heart.
“My head does ache, Aunt Amy,” Edith said. “But I am distressed about
Dick. He is displeased with me. I do not wish to speak of it to any
one but him.”
“I have sent Patrick down, my dear,” her aunt said; “and you shall
know as soon as he returns.”
Mrs. Yorke and her two daughters sat together, pretending to read and
sew, but all watching the avenue gate for the return of their
messenger. When he had delivered his news, and gone, the mother spoke
with authority.
“Girls, I insist on knowing, at once, the meaning of this!”
“You had better ask Carl, mamma; he is the one to explain,” answered
Melicent. “But I must say that Mr. Rowan has behaved ill. A young man
whom one of our family has promised to marry should at least act like
a gentleman.”
“Send Carl to me,” Mrs. Yorke said, rising. “And, Clara, say to Betsey
that I shall see no one to-day, then go up and tell Edith.”
Carl was pacing one of the garden paths, and, for the first time that
day, his manner showed agitation. He had already heard Patrick’s news,
and his first thought was to echo Melicent’s opinion that one who had
been connected with their family should at least act like a gentleman.
This sudden withdrawal not only gave occasion for gossip, but it was
rude to Edith. That it left him in the position of a culprit, Carl
would not allow himself to care.
“I thought the fellow had more spirit!” he muttered. “But it isn’t in
him to act like anything but a rustic.”
As he said this, an inner voice made answer; not the voice of
conscience, for that acquitted him, but the voice which he expected to
hear from without: “Neither is it in him to speak or sing love to
another man’s promised wife, though silence should break his heart.”
“And what if it broke hers?” asked Carl, as though he had been spoken
to.
He glanced up at the window of Edith’s chamber. The curtain was down,
hanging in close, white folds, shutting her in.
Then came Melicent to call him.
Carl found his mother in a tiny room, where she always took her siesta
in summer, and where she held all her private conferences. It was a
cosy, shady nook, with only a sofa, and table, and chair in it, and
seemed intended as a place for confidential communion. In that room,
with nothing to save him from her steady eyes, Mr. Griffeth had
stammered out his apologies to Mrs. Yorke for misleading her son;
there, her daughters came for advice and admonition; and there she
herself retired when she wished to be alone. It was a place where a
rebel could be brought to submission, or a penitent comforted. It is
almost impossible to be confidential in a large, well-lighted room.
“Have you had any quarrel with Mr. Rowan, Carl?” his mother asked, the
moment he appeared.
“Not an unpleasant word has passed between us, mother,” he answered. 591
She had been standing, but sank back into the sofa as he spoke, and he
closed the door, and came and stood before her, doubting, at first,
what the tone of their interview would be. Her question had been
imperative, and that he could not bear. There are times in the life of
the most dutiful when they feel that there is for them then no
legitimate human authority outside themselves. But he saw that her
face was pale, though the red curtain lowered over the one window
behind her warmed all the light that entered; and her voice was
entreating when she spoke again:
“My son, have you nothing to tell me?”
He sat down on the hassock at her feet, and leaned on her lap; and she
knew all before he had uttered a word.
“My child,” she whispered, leaning toward him, “your happiness is my
dearest wish; but there is honor!”
He took her trembling hands, and met her look firmly. “Yes, mother,
there is honor,” he said. “But listen to me, before you conclude that
it should be mentioned here in the subjunctive sense. You know,
mother, I could not speak of love to a child. I did not wish to. It
was enough for me to see that Edith was surely, though unconsciously,
drawing toward me. If you had a rare plant, with a single bud on it,
would you thank the one who would pluck that bud open before its time
for blooming? And what flower is so delicate and sacred as a young
girl’s heart? Besides, such a thought comes to a man also, when it
comes first, with a feeling of silence. To my mind, it would have been
rude and indelicate to speak hastily. There was time, and, meanwhile,
I guarded myself and her. Of course I saw what Rowan wanted and meant,
and he also understood me; I am sure of that. I never dreamed, though,
that he would succeed. I was not prepared for that passion of pity and
gratitude which Edith has shown for him. When I knew, last year, that
he had proposed, it was all I could do to control my anger. I knew
that he must have seen in her some instinctive recoil at first, and
yet have appealed to her pity. He did not leave her free to choose. I
do not say that he realized that. He is an honest, noble-souled
fellow, and he loves her deeply; but he lacks a certain fineness which
should have told him when urging was proper, and when it was coarsely
selfish. I am willing to admit that it may have been only a mistake on
his part; but people who make mistakes have to suffer by them, and, if
they are not to blame, no one else is. I, too, made a mistake then,
mother, and I have suffered for it. I had a thought of saying to
Edith, ‘Since you are to think of him as a suitor, think of me also,
and choose between us.’ Two motives prevented me. One was pride. I
would not enter into competition with him; and there I was selfish.
But the other was better. I saw that she was incredibly childish, and
looked upon his proposal rather as a request that she should go and
live with him and his mother, as she had lived with them before, than
as a proposal that she should be his wife. I waited till she should
perceive the difference, and this summer I thought that she was
beginning to. The night before he came, I wanted to speak to her. I
could hardly help it. I would have spoken but for him. But no, I
thought. Let her answer him fairly first. I supposed I knew what that 592
answer would be; and when she came down-stairs the next morning to
meet him, I felt sure that it was to refuse him. I stood in the entry
when she passed, and she knew that I was there, but would not look at
me. She was very pale, I saw, and I thought it was for his sake. It
seems it was for her own sake. No matter what I felt when I heard the
words with which they met. I went away, you know; I did not choose to
make a scene. When I came back, I had made up my mind to speak to him
clearly, and as friendly as I could, and ask that he should give her
back her promise, and leave her free to choose again. He would have
done it, mother; I am sure he would. Had he been too loverlike, I
should have made no delay; but, as it was, I thought best to wait till
his visit was over. You could scarcely expect me to be perfectly cool
and reasonable always. Under the circumstances, I think that I have
shown as much fairness as any one has a right to require of me. I
meant to see him last night, after the girls had come home--went to
the sail with that intention. But he made me angry at starting. He
stood there, and sang that ballad from _Le Misanthrope_,
‘_Si le roi m’avoit donné_’
--sang it before _me_, and with such an air of triumph and certainty
as made me feel anything but pitiful toward him for a little while.
Edith was offended, too. I saw her color with resentment. ‘_Ma mie!_’
It was too public a claiming. When we came back--you know what a night
it was, mother.” Carl stopped, his face growing very red. “There are
some things not easy to tell,” he said.
Mrs. Yorke put her arm around him, and drew his head to her bosom.
“Not even to your own mother, dear?” she whispered, with her cheek
resting on his hair. “It was my heart that taught yours to beat,
Carl.”
In that sweet confessional, he went on with his story. “It was such a
scene as gives one that faint swaying of the brain that just shows the
points in our prudent resolutions. The moonlight, the music, the air,
the water, our very motion, were intoxicating. And Edith was there,
and so beautiful!--an Undine, drooping over the boat-side, as though
she might any moment slip into the water, and disappear, if I did not
stay her. I sang what I would have said. I called her, and she turned
to me!”
Carl lifted his head, caught his mother’s hands, and kissed them
joyfully, then stood up before her with an air as triumphant as Dick
Rowan’s own. “The time had come, and she was mine!” he exclaimed.
“Edith belongs to me, mother!”
For the moment, everything else was forgotten; and the mother forgot,
too, till she saw his face cloud over.
“Poor fellow!” said Carl, and knelt on the hassock again. “My heart
aches for him. When he saw Edith look at me, he fainted. It seems
cruel to be so happy at such a cost. I went up to Hester’s, last
night, to see him, but he was not there, and it was too late to go to
the ship. I would have borne any reproach from him. I would have been
patient, and have explained everything to him. I think, mother, that I
could even have made a friend of him. He is generous. But it is too
late now.”
“You must go away at once, Carl,” Mrs. Yorke said presently. “It is
the only proper thing to do. The family are pledged to Mr. Rowan, and,
till all is settled between him and Edith, you must have no intercourse
with her here. My position is one of great delicacy. I cannot even 593
advise Edith.”
While they talked, Edith had risen, and written two letters, one to
Dick Rowan, the other to Father Rasle. Both were short, the former
only a line.
“You have no right to treat me so,” she wrote. “If you go away without
seeing me, never call yourself my friend again!”
It seemed hard; but she had said to herself: “If he leaves me here
with Carl, I shall not be able to be true to him.”
She dressed herself to go out and post these letters, and had just
come down-stairs, when she met Carl in the entry. She stopped abruptly
at sight of him, and a deep crimson mantled her face as she waited for
him to let her pass.
It was a new blush for Edith, for she knew why she blushed. But the
Spartan spirit he had admired in the child was not dead, and she was
herself the next moment. She bade him a quiet “Good-morning, Carl!”
and was passing on, when he asked to see her in the parlor.
“Certainly!” she said, too proud to shrink.
Carl smiled as he held the door open for her to pass, and closed it
after them. He was pleased with her dignity.
“I have been talking with my mother,” he said, “and she tells me that
I must go away immediately. Do you agree with her?”
Possibly she had seen, and misunderstood his smile, for she chose to
be very high with him. “I do not know why you should go,” she said
coldly.
“Shall I tell you why it seemed to us that I should?” he asked.
Her look changed at the tone of his voice, which seemed reproachful.
Why should she assume with him what was not true? When had he ever
shown himself unworthy of her confidence?
“No, Carl,” she said, “you need not tell me, and you must say nothing
to me that you would not say to a married woman. I trust you, Carl.
You have always been honorable. You are very dear to me, and I trust
you perfectly. It is best that you should go.”
The last words were spoken rather faintly, and she had turned from
him, and opened the door.
“I shall go to Boston,” he said, “and stay there. In a few weeks you
will all come up, and I shall see you.”
She stood in the door now, with her face half turned, and her forehead
resting against the door-frame, so that he saw only her profile. And,
so leaning, as though from faintness, she put her hand back, and held
out her letters to him, and he took them.
“Read them both,” she said, “and mail them for me. And, Carl, I shall
not see you again before you go. And”--she stopped, as though her
voice had failed her.
“I will not ask you to,” he said.
“And, afterward,” she went on, “I shall not see you in Boston. If you
are at home, I shall go to stay with Dick’s mother.”
She did not look round again, but went up-stairs quickly, and shut
herself into her room. It is not for us to intrude in that privacy
wherein a young heart fought its first battle.
No one saw her that day; but the next morning she came out, and went
about her usual employments, much in her usual manner. Whether, like
that Russian empress, she was “too proud to be unhappy,” or she had
been soothed by that trust in God which makes every yoke easy and every 594
burden light, or the elasticity of youth made continued pain seem
impossible, we do not pretend to say. Human motives are not always
easy to be read by human eyes.
Everybody tried to act as though nothing were the matter, and there
was enough for all to do. Many things had to be planned and arranged
in preparation for their leaving Seaton, and Edith had her own
business to attend to. There were the Pattens needing double care
since they were so soon to lose her; and the Catholic school to visit,
that being permitted now; and a great deal of shopping to be done for
her little flock of pensioners.
Within a fortnight came a letter from Carl to his mother, taken up
chiefly with business details. But he wrote: “I called yesterday on
Mrs. Williams to ask for her son. He was not at home, and I have not
seen him yet. He has given up his ship, for this voyage, to Captain
Cary.”
Carl could have added, but did not, that the call had not been a
pleasant one. Mrs. Williams had just seen Captain Cary, and gleaned
from him all that he had thought best to tell, which was, merely, that
there seemed to be a slight misunderstanding between Dick and Edith.
Her suspicions pointed at once to Carl, and she had not scrupled to
express them to him when he came to her house.
“I am sorry not to see Mr. Rowan,” he had said, when he got a chance,
ignoring her accusations and reproaches; and, with that, had taken a
ceremonious leave.
“A pretty mother-in-law for Edith!” was his conclusion.
A few days after came a letter from Mrs. Williams to Edith. It was
what might have been expected from her. Dick had not been to see his
mother; was stopping with a priest, and had refused to see her. What
had Edith and those proud Yorkes done to her son, that he gave up
everything and everybody, and went to hide himself in a Catholic
priest’s house, instead of coming to his own home?
Poor Dick! could he have foreseen that such a letter would be written,
he would have sacrificed himself a good deal in order to prevent it.
Edith dropped the letter at her feet after reading it, and said, not
for the first time since Carl went away, “Oh! that Father Rasle would
come!”
As she said it, and for a moment let slip the leash that held her
hidden feelings, one could see that, however calm she might have been
outwardly, there had been an inward gnawing all the time. A smile and
bright words can mask a good deal. When she dropped them, there was
visible a whiteness about the mouth, shadows under the eyes, and even
a thinning of the cheeks--the work of that short time.
Hearing her aunt’s voice at the chamber-door asking admittance, Edith
caught the letter up again, and her self-control with it.
Mrs. Yorke came in with an air of quiet decision, and took a seat by
her niece. “I saw the outside of your letter, my dear girl, and know
whom it was from,” she said; “and I have no intention of allowing you
to be killed by others, or to kill yourself. I understand and respect
a mother’s feelings, Edith, and I respect the obligation of a promise.
But there are common sense and justice to be taken into account.
Feelings, and, especially, the feelings of a young person who has
scarcely learned to know herself, are not to be weighed and measured, 595
like iron and lumber, and stored away, and left unchanged, till called
for. You know, my dear, that I have a great affection for Mr. Rowan,
and would do him no unkindness nor injustice, do you not?”
“You were very kind to him, aunt,” Edith replied quietly. “I am not
afraid of anything that you will say or do.”
“You need not be,” Mrs. Yorke said. “I will not ask you if you have
learned to think that promise of yours a hasty one; but there are
certain points which I wish to insist upon. They are of general
application. Honor does not require that one should keep a bad
promise. The fault, if fault there be, is in the making, not the
breaking. Also, a woman cannot make a worse promise than one to marry
a man whom she does not love. Many very good and pious people will
tell you that esteem is enough, and that you will grow to love your
husband after a time. That is false. You may learn to endure him, but
it will be after all the bloom is wiped from your feelings, and love
and delicacy both are dead in you. Let no one make you believe that
your feelings are romantic folly. Believe, rather, that your adviser
is coarse, though honest. One other dictum: there is no favor, nor
obligation, nor affection which a man can confer on you, for which
your hand is not too high a price to pay. Give gratitude, affection,
even service, but not yourself. Do not sell your hand for any price:
it should be a free gift. This is all that I can pronounce positively
upon. For the rest, do not act hastily and without advice; for, aside
from the question of your personal good, you might bitterly wrong some
one else. If you have been hasty, it is a pity; but that cannot be
helped now, and should not be too deeply mourned. There must have been
some doubt in Mr. Rowan’s mind that you did not know what you were
promising, for his first word to you was, ‘Are you willing, Edith?’
Your answer was, ‘I am more than willing.’ If you deceived him then,
unconsciously, from a loving and generous feeling, it was pardonable.
But do not deceive him nor yourself again. He deserves from you a
perfect frankness, and he has too fine a nature to take your hand if
it is reluctant.”
“But, Aunt Amy,” Edith said, after a moment’s thought, “if a woman,
out of gratitude, and from an utter impossibility of allowing herself
to give such pain to a friend, should promise never to marry any one
else, would that be right?”
“A man worthy of inspiring such a resolution would not accept the
promise,” was the reply; “and the woman has no right to make it. But
if she should offer to wait till he is reconciled, that might be
soothing to both. Is there anything else you wish to say?”
“Nothing now, thank you, aunt. You are very kind.”
This conversation soothed Edith; but, still, she returned to her
wishing for Father Rasle; not entirely for his own sake, though that
was much, but because her need of confession and communion had become
a great longing.
Her wish was destined to be speedily gratified; for the very next day,
when Mr. Yorke came home to dinner, he brought his niece a letter from
the priest.
She read it immediately, in presence of the family, and her face
brightened. “How delightful!” she exclaimed. “He will say Mass here
next Sunday. He is to come Saturday, that is, the day after to-morrow
He sends his regards to you all. Let no one know that he is coming, he 596
writes, but Miss Churchill, and Mr. and Mrs. Kent, at whose house he
will stop. There will be time enough to notify the people when he has
arrived. How glad they will be! That was a letter worth bringing,
Uncle Charles!”
Looking up with her smile of thanks, she saw his face clouded. “Is
there any trouble?” she asked anxiously.
“If he had come while Carl, and Rowan, and Captain Cary were here, I
should have been better pleased,” Mr. Yorke replied evasively. “He
has, however, the right to come whenever he chooses. Answer his letter
to-day, Edith, and invite him to stop with us.”
“Dear Uncle Charles!” murmured Edith, and glanced enquiringly at her
aunt.
“Tell him, for me, that we should all be very happy to have him as a
guest,” said Mrs. Yorke.
A smiling nod from Melicent and from Clara confirmed this assertion.
“Dear me!” Edith sighed out, wiping her eyes, “I do think that you are
the most beautiful people I ever knew.”
They all laughed at her way of saying it, and the little cloud
disappeared. Mr. Yorke did not think it best to tell them that the
Know-Nothings had called a public meeting for the next evening. There
had been no such meeting for several months, and this might not be of
any consequence.
The invitation was written, and sent, and on Saturday morning the
answer came, only a few hours preceding Father Rasle.
He thanked them for their kindness, but found it necessary to decline
their invitation. He must be where all the Catholics could come to
him, bringing their infants to be baptized, and going to confession
themselves. Besides the distance, he could not think of subjecting
their house to such a visitation, which was likely to continue till
late in the evening. His flock needed every moment of his time.
But, meanwhile, between the letter and its answer, the public meeting
had taken place, and it had been of consequence.
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
THE NEW “OUTSPOKEN STYLE.”
We looked for dewy flower, and sunny fruit:--
He serves us up the dirt that feeds the root.
AUBREY DE VERE.
----------
POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO PAPAL INFALLIBILITY. 597
I have read carefully, my dear Philo, your very welcome letter, and
cordially reciprocate the kind feelings it expresses. It has recalled
our early friendship, which, with me, at least, has never been
forgotten or diminished. I see, from your observations on the recent
definition of the Papal Infallibility by the Council of the Vatican,
that you still think as we both thought in our school-boy days, when
we wondered what sort of people Catholics must be to believe that a
man could be infallible, to take their faith from a man called the
Pope, and to obey and even worship him, as we were told, as God. We
were then in some measure excusable for supposing that they must be
exceedingly stupid and destitute of reason and of every grain of
common sense; for neither of us had then ever seen a Catholic, and
knew nothing of their faith or worship except what our Protestant
masters, who held them to be no better than the heathen, told us; but
are you, my dear Philo, equally excusable for thinking now as you did
then? Have you had no opportunity of correcting the error into which
we were both led?
You say, “The Council, by its decree defining the Pope when teaching
the universal church to be infallible or exempt from error in all
matters pertaining to faith and morals, makes the Pope God, clothes
him with the incommunicable attributes of the Divinity, and
consequently requires us to reverence and worship him as God.” Are you
not a little hasty in this conclusion? You tell me that you believe in
the plenary inspiration and consequent infallible authority of the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; you then, of course, believe
in God and the supernatural order, or that Christian faith is
supernaturally revealed to man, and recorded in a book called the
Bible. But through what medium was the revelation made and recorded?
Certainly through men who spoke or wrote as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost, or what they were taught by our Lord himself, and enabled
by the Spirit to commit truthfully and without error to writing. All
this, you tell me, you believe and hold.
Now, were these inspired penmen, prophets, apostles, and evangelists
each God, or clothed with the incommunicable attributes of the
Divinity? You do not believe it. Why, then, does the declaration of
the Pope’s infallibility declare him to be God? The sacred penmen, you
believe, were infallible in what they wrote, and yet without becoming
God, or ceasing to be men; why may not the Pope, then, be infallible
without being God, or ceasing to be a man like you and me? Do you say
the sacred writers were infallible by the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, not by nature? Well, do Catholics pretend that the Pope is
infallible by nature, or otherwise than through the supernatural
assistance of the Holy Ghost protecting him from error in teaching the
faith taught by the prophets and apostles? I am not aware that they
do.
Catholics, I am told, make a distinction between divine inspiration
and divine assistance. The prophets and apostles were divinely 598
inspired to reveal truth; the Pope, according to Catholics, is
divinely assisted to teach infallibly the truth revealed through the
prophets and apostles, or as taught to the apostles by our Lord
himself while he was yet with them. Now, if the inspiration which
rendered the prophets and apostles infallible in revealing the truth
which was hitherto hidden did not clothe them with the incommunicable
attributes of God, how can you pretend that the assistance of the
Spirit to teach infallibly what God revealed through them, which is
far less, makes the Pope God, or clothes his nature with the
attributes of God? If more did not do it in their case, how can less
do it in his?
You say, “All men are fallible, and no man can teach infallibly.” All
men are fallible, it is true, in their own nature; but that no man by
supernatural inspiration and assistance can teach infallibly, neither
you nor I believe. We both hold, for instance, that St. Peter was a
man, and yet that he was an infallible teacher of the word of God. We
hold the same of St. Paul, of St. John, of St. Matthew, of St. Mark,
and of St. Luke. Say you they were infallible not by their natural
endowments, but only through the supernatural external assistance of
the Holy Ghost? But Catholics, if I understand them, hold the Pope to
be infallible not by nature or by his own natural powers, but only by
the supernatural assistance of the Holy Ghost. Grant the supernatural
assistance of the Holy Ghost, and there is no more difficulty in
believing the Pope is infallible in his teachings than in believing,
as you and I do, that St. Peter and St. Paul were infallible in
teaching the revelation of God, whether by word or letter.
Do you not, my dear Philo, confound, in the case of the Popes,
infallibility with omniscience, and assume that the Vatican Council,
in declaring the Pope infallible in matters pertaining to faith and
morals, has actually declared him to be omniscient, and therefore God?
This is a mistake: first, because the infallibility declared is not
universal; and, second, because the infallibility declared is
supernatural and by divine assistance and protection. The Pope is
declared to be infallible only when he is teaching the universal
church faith and morals, and in condemning the errors repugnant
thereto, and even then only by supernatural assistance and protection
of the Holy Ghost. The Pope, as a man, is no more infallible than
other men: he is infallible only in exercising his function of
universal doctor, or teacher of the whole church, and, as this is by
the Holy Ghost, the infallibility, like omniscience itself, pertains
to God, not to him as a man, and is attached to his function, not to
his person. If our Lord, who is perfect God as well as perfect man,
has appointed him to the office of universal teacher, and promised him
the assistance and protection of the Spirit, there is no difficulty in
believing him infallible, even if his personal knowledge should turn
out to be no greater than yours or mine. The Pope is simply guided by
the Spirit to the truth already revealed and deposited with the
church, and, for the most part, at least, contained in the Holy
Scriptures, and is simply protected from error in declaring it.
Indeed, my dear Philo, Catholics claim no more for the Pope than our
old Presbyterian parson claimed for himself and for each and every
individual of the regenerate or true people of God. He taught us, as
you well know, that the regenerate soul is guided by the Spirit into 599
all truth, and protected from all error, at least as to essentials.
Some, perhaps most Protestants, go farther than this, and claim to
have an infallible authority for their faith in the Bible interpreted
by private judgment, and therefore claim for private judgment pretty
much the same infallibility that the Council of the Vatican claims for
the Pope. Either, then, all regenerate souls, nay, all men, if
Protestants are right, are each God, or else the declaration of the
Council does not, actually or virtually, declare the Pope to be God,
or anything more or less than a man supernaturally assisted by the
Holy Ghost to perform the duties of the office to which the Council
holds he is supernaturally appointed by Him who has all power in
heaven and earth, and is King of kings and Lord of lords.
You say, “The supposition of an infallible Pope is repugnant to the
rights and activity of the mind.” I do not see it. The human mind can
hardly be said to have any rights in presence of its Creator. If any
right it has, it is the right to be governed by the word of God alone,
and not to be held subject to any human authority or opinions of men.
My mind is outraged when it is subjected to the fallible opinions of
men, and obliged to hold them as truth, when I have no adequate
authority for believing that they are not erroneous. How then its
rights can be denied by its being furnished with an infallible guide
to the truth, to the word of God, its supreme law, instead of the
words of man, is what I do not exactly comprehend, and I do not
believe you can comprehend any better than I. An infallible authority
lessens the activity of the mind in groping after truth, if you will;
but truth being the element of the mind, that for which it was created,
and without which it can neither live nor operate at all, cannot very
well destroy its activity by being possessed. Does the possession of
truth leave no scope for mental activity? If so, what is to constitute
the beatitude of the blest in heaven? Your objection strikes me as
absurd; for the real activity of the mind is in knowing, appropriating,
and using the truth to fulfil the purpose of our existence and to gain
the end for which God has made us.
You say, again, that “an infallible authority destroys man’s free
agency and takes away his moral responsibility.” The intellect, you
are aware, my dear Philo, if prescinded from the will, is not free. I
am not free in regard to pure intellections. I cannot, if I would,
believe that two concretes are five, or only three; and I am obliged
to admit that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right
angles. I may refuse to turn my attention to one or another class of
subjects, but I see and judge as I must, not as I will or choose. Free
agency and moral responsibility, therefore, attach to the will, not to
the intellect, and are enhanced in proportion to my knowledge or
understanding of the truth. The authority teaching me infallibly the
truth, I am bound by the law of God to accept and obey. So far from
destroying free agency, it manifestly confirms it, and, instead of
taking away moral responsibility, raises it to the highest possible
pitch; for it leaves the mind without the shadow of an excuse for not
believing. You forget, my dear Philo, that infallible authority
presenting infallible truth is not only a command to the will, but the
highest possible reason to the understanding. But at any rate, the
objection is as valid against the infallibility of the Bible, asserted 600
by Protestants, as against the infallibility of the Pope, asserted by
Catholics.
You say, furthermore, “The claim of infallibility for the Pope is
incompatible with civil and religious liberty. If the Pope is
infallible in all questions touching faith and morals, his authority
is supreme, overrides all other powers, and subjects to him our whole
life, religious, moral, domestic, social, and political.” But if so,
what, then, if he is infallible? You forget that this is no more than
Protestants themselves claim for the Bible. Do you admit that any
state, sovereign prince, head of a family, or individual has the
right, in thought, word, or deed, to contradict or go counter to the
law of God as contained in the infallible Bible? Do you not hold that
every one is subject in all things whatsoever to the infallible
authority of the Holy Scriptures? Well, how can the subjection of our
whole life--religious, moral, domestic, social, and political--to the
authority of an infallible book be less incompatible with civil and
religious liberty than its subjection to an infallible Pope? If the
Pope is really infallible, he can enjoin nothing in faith or morals
not enjoined by the law of God. Do you pretend that subjection to the
law of God is incompatible with civil and religious liberty? If so,
you must say with Proudhon, “God is a tyrant, and you must either
abolish God or give up the defence of liberty. Once admit God, and you
must admit the Catholic Church, Pope, and all.” Now, I am not in the
habit, any more than Catholics are, of regarding God and liberty as
antagonistic, the one to the other. I have always been accustomed to
regard liberty not as freedom from all restraint, but as simply
freedom from all unjust restraint, or restraint not imposed by the law
of God, which is the law of right and justice. His law is the basis,
and obedience to it and it alone is the necessary condition, of all
true liberty in any and every department of life. Why, then, should
the assertion of the infallible authority of the Pope to declare the
law of God, which you and I both hold binds all men and nations, be
incompatible with liberty? The law of God is just, and the measure or
standard of justice, and justice is the foundation and guarantee of
liberty. Your objection is not well taken.
What you really object to, my dear Philo, is not, it strikes me, an
infallible, but a fallible Pope claiming to be infallible. But suppose
the Pope to be infallible in the sense defined by the Council, it is
absurd to object to him as dangerous to liberty, civil or religious,
because the Holy Ghost prevents him from declaring anything to be the
law of God which is not so, and because, being assisted by the same
Holy Ghost, he is always able to decide infallibly what that law does
or does not require; and as long as the law as he declares it is
observed, no one can be subjected to an unjust authority, oppressed,
or deprived of any of his rights.
“You concede,” you say, “the supremacy of the law of God, and that all
laws which contravene it, or are not transcripts of it, are violences,
not laws, and are null and void from the beginning; but this is
something very different from subjecting all individuals and the whole
secular order to the authority of an infallible Pope upheld by the
whole hierarchy, and backed by a huge corporation that extends over
the whole world.” But where is the difference, if the Pope, by divine
assistance and protection, is really infallible? The Pope, if
infallible, can be so only from the supernatural appointment and 601
assistance of God as his vicar, and, if infallible, he can declare and
apply only what is the law of God or authorized by the law of God. You
are wrong, then, old friend, in objecting to the infallible authority;
for that is what is needed to establish the divine order in human
affairs, and to make the church really the kingdom of God on earth.
Your objection and your reasoning are misdirected, and should be
directed to prove that Catholics assert infallibility for a Pope who,
in fact, is not infallible, but fallible.
You and all Protestants claim infallible authority for the Bible read
and interpreted by each individual for himself, or, rather, by each
sect for itself. Unless this interpretation is by an infallible
authority, which it confessedly is not, you have in the Bible
practically only a fallible authority, yet claim to have an infallible
authority; and hence you claim and seek to enforce in the name of the
Bible your own very fallible and contradictory opinions or theories.
You are guilty, then, of precisely the offence you charge against
Catholics, that of claiming infallibility for a fallible authority,
and of which it is possible Catholics are not guilty, and, if the Pope
be infallible, not only are not, but cannot be guilty. You have, as I
have said--even conceding, as I do, the Bible in its true meaning to
be infallible--practically no infallible authority. You have no
infallible authority to determine and declare the law of God contained
in the Bible. You have not the law itself, but only your view of it,
which is only a human view, and therefore fallible. To subject men to
a mere human view or to a mere human authority, I need not say, is
intolerable despotism; and hence your Protestantism is incompatible
either with civil or religious liberty, for all men are born equal,
and no man or body of men has, except by divine appointment or
delegation, any dominion over another.
Hence, as you and I both know, there is no solid basis or security for
liberty under Protestantism. If Protestants grow indifferent and do
not attempt to govern in the name of the Bible, there may be license,
anarchy, a moral and political chaos; but if they are in earnest, and
attempt to enforce the authority of the Bible as they understand it,
they only enforce their own view of it, and, consequently, can
establish only a spiritual despotism either in church or state. In
Geneva, Scotland, in every state in Europe that became Protestant, in
Virginia, in Massachusetts, in Connecticut, the dominant sect, you
know, in early times established an odious tyranny, and would tolerate
no opinion hostile to its own. Owing to certain reminiscences of
principles inculcated in pre-Reformation times, and to the growing
indifference of Protestants to their religion at the time our republic
was instituted, and still more to the dissensions among Protestants
themselves, civil and religious liberty were recognized here in the
United States, but it had and has no basis and no guarantee, except in
parchment constitutions, not worth the parchment on which they are
engrossed, and which the people may alter at will; and even now the
Evangelical sects are trying to unite their forces to abolish
religious liberty, without which civil liberty is an empty name. The
founder of Methodism was no friend to civil liberty, and he proved
himself the bitter enemy of religious liberty by creating, or doing
more than any other man to create, the shameful Gordon riots in
England in 1780. Let the Methodists become, as they bid fair to
become, the dominant sect in the country, and able to command a 602
majority of the votes of the American people, and both civil and
spiritual despotism will be fastened on the country, for Methodism has
only a human authority.
The sort of security Protestantism gives to religious liberty may be
seen in the proceedings of the general government against the Mormons.
It does not interfere with their religion: it pretends it only
enforces against them the laws of the Union--laws, by the way, made
expressly against them. All the government needs to suppress any
religion or religious denomination it does not like is to pass laws
prohibiting some of its practices on the plea that they are contrary
to morality or the public good, and then take care to execute them.
Queen Elizabeth held religious liberty sacred, and abhorred the very
thought of persecuting Catholics. She only executed the laws against
them. She enacted a law enjoining an oath of supremacy, and making it
high treason to refuse to take it, and which she knew every Catholic
was obliged in conscience to refuse to take; and then she could hang,
draw, and quarter them, not as Catholics, but as traitors. Her judges
only executed the laws of the realm against them. I have, as you well
know, no sympathy with the Mormons, and I detest their peculiar
doctrines and practices, but the principle on which the government
proceeds against them would justify it, or any sect that could control
it, in suppressing the church, and all Protestant sects even but
itself.
Laws in favor of liberty amount to nothing, for all laws may be
repealed. The Bible is no safeguard. Under it and by its supposed
authority, Catholics have suffered the most cruel persecutions; even
when not deprived of life, they have been deprived of the common
rights of men by Protestant governments led on by Protestant
ministers. Thus the Bible commands the extirpation of idolaters. But
Protestants, by their private judgment, declared Catholics to be
idolaters, and hence in the name of the Bible took from them their
churches, their schools, colleges, and universities, confiscated their
goods, and imprisoned them, exiled them, or cut their throats. The
pretence of legislating only in regard to morality avails nothing for
religious liberty; for morality depends on dogma, and is only the
practical application of the great principles of religion to
individual, domestic, social, and political life. You cannot touch a
moral question without touching a religious question, for religion and
morality are inseparable; your only possible security for liberty is
in having a divinely instituted authority that is infallible in faith
and morals, competent to tell the state as well as individuals how far
it may go, and where it must stop.
You object, finally, my dear Philo, that the assertion of the
infallibility of the Pope is incompatible with the assertion of the
sovereignty of the people and the independence of secular government.
The people and all secular governments, you have conceded, are subject
to the law of God. Neither the people nor secular governments are
independent of the divine law, and have only the authority it gives
them, and the freedom and independence it allows them. How can they
lose any right or authority they have or can have by having the divine
law, under which they hold, infallibly declared and applied? It is
singular, my old schoolfellow, that so acute, subtle, and so able a
lawyer as I know you to be, should have the misfortune, as a
theologian, to object to the very thing you really wish to maintain, 603
and which can alone save you from the evils you seek to avoid. Now,
what it is necessary to know in order to determine the rights and
powers of government, is to know precisely what in relation to
government the law of God--including both the natural law and the
revealed law, which are really only two parts of one and the same
divine law--ordains, what it prescribes, and what it forbids. This
knowledge can only in part be derived through natural reason, because
the law is in part supernatural, and can be known only by faith: it
cannot be derived with certainty from the Scriptures interpreted by
our own fallible judgment or by any human authority: it can be
obtained infallibly from the teaching and decisions of an infallible
Pope, if really infallible. The infallible Pope will give to the
people all the sovereignty they have under the law of God, and
maintain for civil government all the rights and powers, all the
freedom and independence of action, the law of God gives it. What more
do you want? What more dare you assert for civil government or for
popular sovereignty? Would you put the people in the place of God, and
raise the secular order above the spiritual, man above God? Certainly
not, at least not avowedly either to yourself or to others. Then, how
can you pretend the Papal infallibility is incompatible with the
sovereignty of the people and the independence of civil government? Do
you want the line unsettled, and the law of God left undefined, and
remitted, as you remit the Bible, to the private judgment of each
people or each government, to be interpreted by each for itself, and
as it sees proper? But that were to make the divine law practically of
no effect, and to leave each people and each government without any
law but what it chooses to be to itself. It practically emancipates
the secular order from the law of God, and asserts complete civil
absolutism.
The fact is, my dear Philo, you and many others in your own minds
regard liberty and authority as mutually hostile powers. It is the
error of the age, and hence we see the nations alternating between the
mob and the despot, each hostile alike to liberty and authority. Both
liberty and authority are founded in the divine order, and without
recognizing and conforming to that order neither can be maintained. To
restrain liberty by an authority that rests on a human basis alone is
to destroy it; as to restrain authority by liberty not defined by the
law of God, or by popular sovereignty to be defined by popular
sovereignty, is to lose all authority, and to rush into anarchy and
universal license. There is no true liberty and no legitimate
government independent of the divine order; consequently, none without
an infallible authority to present and maintain it. The question is,
Has God, or has he not, established an infallible authority to declare
his law? Yours affectionately,
DAMIAN.
----------
THE FOXVILLES OF FOXVILLE. 604
A TALE OF THE PERIOD.
I.
At a huge country-house, not many years ago, some few days after the
close of the Christmas and New Year’s festivities, the usual family
circle, with one exception, met at the breakfast-table. A man on
horseback had just pulled up at the house-door with the family
letter-bag from the nearest town. The letters and papers were handed
to the head of the family, who glanced over the addresses with the
quick eye of a practised man of business, and placed one of the
letters on an empty plate reserved for the absent member of the party.
“Oh! For Susy!” exclaimed a young lady, who seemed put to her wits’
end to make herself still younger, for she was the elder daughter of
the house, past twenty-six, and disengaged. “I should like to know
whom that’s from! A gentleman’s hand, I declare!” And she eyed the
characters with a searching scrutiny, but they would tell no more
tales.
“Don’t be so curious, Matilda. I shall recommend Susy to keep her
letter a secret,” said an obnoxious brother, by name Augustus, one
year the junior of the first speaker.
“Yes! you would encourage her in every kind of deception, you would!
She is quite artful enough,” answered Matilda. “If I were papa, I would
soon see who sends the letter. What can make Susy late, this morning?
She is invariably so regular.”
“No, child!” said a white-headed old gentleman, Mr. Foxville, the
happy father of Matilda, Augustus, and Susan, his stock of direct
descendants, and all told, “I never meddle with other people’s
business. Susy is a good girl, and she will let me have any news that
may interest me.”
“You are quite right; but she has a duty to her mamma,” said Mrs.
Foxville, with a grand matronly air. “Papa allows me to open all his
letters, though he never opens mine: and that’s as it should be. If
Susy does not come down soon, as I am privileged, I will open the
letter. It is a genteel hand, I perceive.
“Well, well,” observed Mr. Foxville, “patience, patience! We can
wait.”
“She is my child, Mr. Foxville,” replied the matron.
“Shall I fetch Susy down?” asked Matilda, with curiosity fermenting
within her.
“Do, my dear,” said Mrs. Foxville, laboring under the same complaint,
but affecting more indifference.
With much nimbleness the sprightly Matilda dashed out of the room,
having first made an attempt to carry off the letter.
“Stop!” cried Augustus, putting his hand on it. “Suppose you bring 605
Susy to the letter, and not the letter to Susy! Fair is fair,” he
added, with something like distrust in the fair letter-carrier.
In a few seconds Matilda and Susy entered the room, the arm of the
elder affectionately wound round the waist of the younger sister.
“Are you not well, Susy?” asked Mr. Foxville kindly.
“Perfectly!” replied Susy, giving her papa his morning kiss.
“There is a letter for you,” said the enviable father.
“Thank you,” answered Susy, and she slipt the letter unopened into a
little dress pocket, coloring and tremulous as she did so.
“I could not wait like you for the news, Susy,” said her mother
frankly, as she watched her daughter closely.
“I would not be so rude as to read letters before others,” answered
Susy.
“Not at all rude!” observed Mrs. Foxville, with one of her grand airs.
“There is nobody here but the family: that makes all the difference. I
would wish to make you sensible of that, my child. Etiquette should
not be pushed too far when we are _en famille_.”
The last words were delivered with a deal of self-importance, as if
she had just solved a new problem of politeness and was vain of her
discovery.
“Of course!” cried Matilda. “Do not hesitate, Susy. I should not. I
could not take matters so coolly. The letter may be from some dear,
dear friend!”
“Take my advice, Susy,” said that horrible Augustus. “Breakfast first,
and dessert afterwards.”
“Dessert indeed! It may be some dreadful intelligence. So none of your
interference, Gussy!” rejoined Matilda.
“Then I would not spoil my appetite; and my recommendation holds
good,” pursued that provoking brother.
“Ay! ay,” said Foxville senior; “your breakfast first, girl.” And this
put an end to the dispute, for the old gentleman saw that Susy was
pained at the discussion.
II.
It was true, as Miss Matilda Foxville had observed, that her sister
Susy was the most regular in that exemplary household whenever there
was a demand on her energies in domestic affairs, or on her good
nature in diffusing happiness and cheerfulness around her. The fact
that she had deviated from her usual course into the exceptional
irregularity referred to, naturally called for comment such as any
strange occurrence would provoke; and the uninitiated as naturally
puzzled themselves with unsatisfactory conjectures. But the plain
truth was this: Susy’s absence was caused by nothing less than a
consciousness that a particular letter would arrive for her that
morning. She imagined that she should betray less concern about the
letter, and keep her nerves more under control, by an apparently
accidental absence of a few minutes from the breakfast-table, than if
she ran the risk of being present at the opening of the post-bag, and
of manifesting her expectation and her too probable excitement at its
realization.
Susy had, as we have seen, only partially succeeded; but, under
shelter of the timely command of her father, she managed to conceal a
great deal of her uneasiness at the expense of a charge of indifference
toward her correspondents--a charge she was disposed to invite rather 606
than disprove.
This little ruse, however, she was unable to carry very much further;
for Matilda, more and more perplexed, and proportionably more curious,
than ever, became, after the morning meal, more endearing in both
manner and speech towards her sister than was customary with one who
generally adopted the language of admonition or complaint. It was very
clear that these famous time-honored weapons for eliciting obedience
and respect would fail in the present instance; and Matilda had not
spent twenty-six years of her valuable existence without acquiring an
amount of knowledge that led her to that certain conclusion. But
wheedling and an implied solicitude for her sister’s welfare were more
insidious and keener instruments to open the confidence-chest of the
unsuspecting Susy.
“I hope you will have good news,” began Matilda when the sisters were
alone. Then she added, as if some sudden idea struck her, “But I
forgot! I will leave you and come again presently, Susy dear; you
would like to read and answer your letter?”
What it was that Miss Matilda professed to have forgotten would puzzle
most men; but it was a phrase habitual to her, and coming from a
person of her experience, it probably conveyed all she intended to
those of her own sex who enjoyed her familiarity. Susy, whether she
understood the form of expression or not, was attracted by her
sister’s winning ways and most unusual condescension, and was quite
prepared to open her heart to her.
“Don’t go, Till,” she said, blushing. “I have something to say to you.”
“To me!” exclaimed the delighted Matilda with well-feigned surprise.
“Pray tell me what it is!”
“It is the letter,” said Susy.
“Oh! that’s quite private,” pursued Matilda, “if I might judge by your
putting it aside unopened.”
“But there is confidence between sisters?”
“Most undoubtedly. Would I not unbosom myself to you?”
“You shall, then, be the first to learn the news, but it must soon be
family property,” said Susy, opening the letter, and reading it as
Matilda looked over her shoulder. “I ought, perhaps, to show it to
papa first,” she added, as a glow diffused itself over her face and
neck.
“Yes; it is indeed matter for papa’s consideration: it is meant for
him. But whom is it from?” said Matilda, in a fever to see the name on
the last page, which Susy had not yet turned to.
“Nathaniel Wodehouse!” said Susy, in trembling accents, as she sank
down on a chair to support herself in her novel situation.
“That trumpery fellow! faugh!” exclaimed Matilda boldly. “I would soon
settle his business. Let me pen you a reply, will you?”
“Matilda! sister Till!” cried Susy in amazement, and recalled to
herself. “How often have I heard you say what a charming, handsome man
he is!”
“I! I!” said Matilda, ascending the gamut in her ejaculations. “I call
him charming and handsome!” Then, with tremendous emphasis inspired by
rage, she added, “Never!”
“Well, then,” followed up her merciless witness, roused by her
sister’s vain denial, “he _is_ charming and handsome! And you
know it.”
III. 607
Mr. Foxville was a retired butcher who had made a fortune, and still
did a little business on ‘Change to keep his hand in, and preserve his
mental faculties from rusting. Besides the newspaper, which many will
contend was his “best public instructor,” he had not many intellectual
resources; and as he allowed himself little recreation, he devoted a
great deal of time to journal-reading and the study of stocks and the
share-list. Here was a fair amount of work for a busy mind; and very
busy was Mr. Foxville in keeping a sharp eye on his investments.
Being fond of a country life, he bought several acres of land when he
gave up business; and he had built himself an unwieldy mansion, and
was erecting smaller houses and cottages at a respectful distance from
his own. This cluster of dwellings he proposed to call Foxville, while
his own big, special habitation he called Foxville House. The name was
not adopted without reflection, and more than one debate between
himself and wife.
Foxville’s patronymic was simply Fox. That did very well for business,
but it was deemed unsuited for higher exigencies. Foxtown was invented
and discussed, but it gave no satisfaction. Was there anything
distinguished in Foxtown? Nothing! Husband and wife were one on that
point.
At length, Mrs. Fox bethought her of a French tutor to her girls, and
that excellent gentleman bore the name of Portville. Monsieur
Portville was a very agreeable man, to ladies especially; and that
circumstance associated something pleasant with his name to the ear of
Mrs. Fox. It was a habit with Mr. Fox, who could not remember names,
to put the cart before the horse in endeavoring to call names to his
recollection, and he always spoke of the Frenchman as Villeport. In
facetious moments he would reduce this again to Vile Port, maintaining
that this was the original name. Although it was by no means a
complimentary cognomen, Mr. Fox had no intention of showing
disrespect, for he had a rough kind of regard for the tutor, and only
vented a poor joke at his expense, deriving his inspiration perhaps
from the remembrance of a compound beverage familiar to Fox in his
younger days in the country which had the honor of his birth. If
Portville was euphonious, why not Foxville? Such was the argument of
Mrs. Fox, and that settled the question.
Mrs. Foxville was the daughter of a grocer, who had so many daughters
that all he could do for them was to make them a home and allow them a
limited portion for their wardrobe--totally insufficient, according to
their unanimous opinion, for their position! Mrs. Foxville was the
oldest, and was the first to enter into wedlock. She would have
scorned an alliance with a butcher, so superior did she think her
father’s calling, though on what grounds she never clearly stated; but
the prosperity of young Fox proved a compensation strong enough to
convert a woman’s uprising negative into a positive affirmative.
The correctness of the lady’s judgment could not be questioned in the
days that lengthened Fox into Foxville. She continued, however, to
regard herself as more than the equal of her husband; and she always
spoke of my house, my family, my children Matilda, Augustus, and Susy,
as if poor Foxville had no concern or partnership in the property. 608
Sometimes he would slip in ‘our’ in place of ‘my,’ and he always spoke
in this manner himself, but both the correction or amendment and the
example had no effect on the ‘singular’ appropriation, which seemed,
it may be supposed, to convey higher origin and standing than if
lowered by a joint ownership.
Miss Matilda Foxville’s characteristics have sufficiently developed
themselves, and Augustus, beyond being a plague to his elder sister,
had no character at all. He was an existence, and little more; still,
he was not without importance as the heir of a goodly estate.
Foxville House never failed to throw open its hospitable portals
during Christmas week, and, not many days before the receipt of Susy’s
letter, a large number of guests had found a warm welcome within them.
Nathaniel Wodehouse was invariably the life of these social
gatherings, and in the estimation of the Misses Foxville evidently he
possessed qualifications for the prominent part he took. He stood high
in favor with Miss Matilda, there is no denying the fact. For him more
than for any other male thing, she chignoned, and painted, and got
herself up in the best style of fashion. She nearly succeeded in
reducing twenty-six to twenty by other than arithmetical rules. But
what, after all, are twenty-six summers? No great span in the life of
a really handsome woman; yet, in Miss Matilda, so unpliable was her
disposition, and so set was her general deportment, that candor must
admit that the six years beyond twenty had produced a perceptible
difference. She made the best of them, however, for Nathaniel
Wodehouse.
Can it be wondered at, therefore, that she thought he had some
appreciative taste? He was charming and good-looking most certainly;
and he was very gallant, as he ought to have been, to Miss Foxville.
No one invited him with more _empressement_ than Matilda did to
revisit Foxville House. Susy was shy and reserved; Matilda had
outlived all that, and safely pronounced Nathaniel excellent company:
so did Mrs. Foxville--so did Mr. Foxville. Augustus had no settled
conviction on this head; and Susy was silent.
Even when Matilda spoke to her under sisterly secrecy, and used the
epithets which she subsequently wished to revoke, Susy committed
herself no further than by an exclamation of “Do you think so?”
accompanied by a smile of doubtful acquiescence. When, however,
Matilda, repenting of her admission, boldly denied it, Susy, as we
have seen; held her to it unflinchingly.
It is sometimes good to come after others, and Scripture, politeness,
and good sense forbid our presumptuously taking the best places. Susy
enjoyed in this respect an advantage which nature had given her. She
had all the benefit of being eight years younger than her sister, for
she was at once the youngest, the prettiest, and the most amiable of
the Foxvilles. Nathaniel would have been blind indeed if he had not
made that discovery; and what that discovery led to, the intimated
tenor of his letter has abundantly proved. One result, however, he had
not foreseen, and that was the burning jealousy it excited in the
bosom of Matilda Foxville, although he _was_ prepared to incur her
displeasure.
IV.
Foxville House always was in commotion when Matilda had a hand in it. 609
When she was agitated, her agitation vibrated in every part of that
spacious dwelling; and now she was stung to madness in such a way by
Susy’s taunt that she rushed about like a maniac on fire. It was her
worst policy, but she had lost the rudder of her discretion, and she
cast herself adrift on the surging waves of her own fury.
From one apartment to another she flew in a whirlwind of passion in
search of her mother, whom she would have found very near to Susy’s
room if she had not darted downstairs with headlong precipitation.
Up-stairs she flew again, and at length flounced into the room in
which Mrs. Foxville was eagerly awaiting the issue of the consultation
between her daughters.
“What has happened, Matilda?” asked Mrs. Foxville. “Your look startles
me.”
“You will be startled!” gasped Matilda.
“Calm yourself, my child, and tell at your leisure what is amiss,”
replied the mother, her words being at variance with her feverish
anxiety for the news.
“What do you think, mamma? Nathaniel Wodehouse has had the audacity to
propose to Susy!”
“Nathaniel Wodehouse! Without means! A beggar! I shall put a stop to
that. No genteel poverty for me or either of my girls!”
“I was sure that you would save poor Susy! What is the use of his
gentility with nothing to support it?”
“You always were sensible, Matilda; and no doubt Susy is wise enough
to see the matter in the same light.”
“There you mistake, mamma; Susy is such a weak fool! The silly thing
is over head and ears in love with him. She idolizes him! It is
positively awful--wicked!”
“Oh! that’s it, is it? And without asking my opinion? Deliberate
disobedience! Let me see her this moment. I must talk to her!”
Forthwith the mother and elder daughter sought out the unfortunate
Susy, and joined in giving her one of those ‘talkings to,’ as they
termed them, which only ladies can inflict on one another. Susy let
fall a tear or two, made very short replies, for she could scarcely
squeeze a word in, and bore her rebukes with exemplary patience,
contenting herself with asserting that she would comply with the
request of the letter and lay it before her father.
“Let me catch you showing the letter to your father this day!”
exclaimed Mrs. Foxville indignantly.
“To-morrow will do,” replied Susy. “Papa must see it.”
It was then agreed that Susy should reserve the letter for her
father’s perusal next day, on Mrs. Foxville consenting to take the
blame for delay on her own shoulders; and it was finally stipulated
that both the elder Foxville and Augustus should be kept in the dark
for the next twenty-four hours.
Mrs. Foxville did not, however, consider herself bound by this
contract, though not the least important of the high contracting
parties. In fact, she intended to turn the interval to what she deemed
the best account. Accordingly, she seized the opportunity which Mrs.
Caudle, as depicted by Douglas Jerrold, devoted to curtain lectures,
and plainly gave Mr. Foxville to understand that “she wouldn’t have
it,” meaning the match in question, for she stated she knew that
Wodehouse was as poor as a church mouse. “He was all outside show,”
she said--“all flimsy, with no backbone.” She added that “that 610
wouldn’t do for her girls,” and, having warned her husband at great
length and with great force, she concluded her lecture by observing,
“And now you know your duty to my child, and I shall expect you to
perform it.”
“Our child, my dear--our dear Susy is entitled to the best counsel I
can give her.”
“I knew you would take her part!” cried Mrs. Foxville. “Dear Susy,
indeed! She is a very bad Susy. I would have you, Mr. Foxville,
respect a mother’s feelings!”
“Well, well; yes, yes, to be sure I will,” replied the husband, who
was as valiant as an ox and nearly as strong in muscle, but was now in
dread of a second lecture. “I will, you may depend upon it.”
With this promise on his lips he composed himself to sleep, after
having first noticed its soothing effect--for which he took credit to
himself--on his partner.
The next day, Mr. Foxville had some conversation alone with Susy. A
little kindness soon reassured her, and, like a true-hearted daughter,
she did not attempt to conceal her attachment to Nathaniel from her
father. She opened her mind to him, and promised to abide by his
advice; and on the question of questions--that of fortune--she
professed her belief that Nathaniel Wodehouse would not be found in
the forlorn condition in which her mamma and sister, in spite of her,
had insisted. She acknowledged that she had no proof of this but her
lover’s word, which, she said, Matilda had derided. Her lover’s word!
that was all--sufficient for Susy! But she approved of her father’s
fully satisfying himself on this point, as a duty to his family and to
her.
There are several ways of giving advice. It is a favorite plan with
some to administer it as they would physic, and the more nauseous it
is, the more they seem to like administering it; and they would
quarrel with their best friend for not taking it. Even among the more
considerate, not every one has the modesty not to have his equanimity
disturbed by having his advice asked and then disregarded. Mr.
Foxville was not one of either of these classes. He might allowably be
a little more positive in counselling his own daughter, but
practically he followed in her regard his usual method, heedless of
all the admonitions of his better half. That method was to pile up all
the pros and cons which occurred to him on both sides of a question,
and leave his client very much to his own decision. In effect, this
was to offer no advice at all, but the course of proceedings looked
grave and offended no one, while it enabled him to remain true to his
maxim of never meddling in other people’s business. The only
stumbling-block with Mr. Foxville, in the present instance, was a
suitable position for his daughter, and that he would look into as a
matter of imperative necessity. The rest he would leave to those most
vitally interested, after his usual formal statement of all the
disadvantages, which always came first, and then the advantages of the
case under consideration. Susy was accordingly much comforted by her
father’s good sense and feeling, instead of being cowed and
heart-broken as Mrs. Foxville and Matilda had expected to see her.
“You are a perfect fool!” said Mrs. Foxville to her husband on
observing Susy’s cheerful face after the _tête-à-tête_. “You have
not the nerve to manage my child! I must take her in hand, poor noodle 611
that she is. Ha! she is just like you. There’s a nice pair for you!”
Mr. Foxville attached little importance to these disparaging remarks,
with the like of which he was familiar; but he invariably did things
his own way, and left consequences to take care of themselves. He
responded, therefore, good-humoredly:
“Not too hasty, my dear! I shall see Nathaniel Wodehouse, whether you
approve of it or not. That is all I have to say.”
And Foxville kept his word, for he resolutely refrained from opening
his lips to renew the discussion. Not so Mrs. Foxville. She had a very
great deal to say, but eventually wound up by the following menace:
“Beware how you ruin my child! You shall answer for it. I’ll let you
know whether I am to be nobody in my own house!”
The tremendous ferment which shook the Foxvilles at length began to
act upon Augustus. That young man had his own view of Susy’s conduct.
“I tell you what, Susy,” said he, “Wodehouse is no gentleman. He is a
sneak. Didn’t he get the better of me in an examination before old Dr.
Playfair, and when I challenged him to fight it out, and prove who was
the better man, didn’t he decline? A pretty thing to marry a man like
that. Marry him, Susy, and see what I will do!”
Poor Susy was now regarded by all her family, with the exception of
her father, who remained silent, as a reprobate and outcast. When she
sat down to her meals, she was treated as if she were supported by
charity. At other times she was watched like a criminal. Her fortitude
and good conscience, nevertheless, sustained her under her unmerited
wrongs.
In the meantime, the two gentlemen, Foxville and Wodehouse, conferred
together. Mrs. Foxville at first insisted on being present; but it was
to no purpose. Mr. Foxville’s hardihood gave him the victory. He was
declared to be the most obstinate of men; he bore the imputation and
triumphed.
“What good have you done?” sneered Mrs. Foxville, when the meeting was
over.
“Our Susy and Nathaniel will be man and wife!” replied the
imperturbable Foxville.
“Oh!” was the sole response, in a tone that boded little harmony if
the baffled Mrs. Foxville could have her way.
“Ay, ay,” continued Foxville. “Nat’s the richest man within a dozen
miles of this place. I tell you, I have proof of it. Look, there’s a
_little_ present, as he called it, for you!”
Foxville pulled out of his pocket a magnificent set of jewels in the
neatest of morocco cases, and handed the gift to his wife.
What a transformation on the countenance and in the manner of Mrs.
Foxville! Who could have suggested such a happy idea to Nathaniel as
the magical present which turned out to be such a talisman of power?
That secret was never known but to Susy and Nathaniel, and it cannot
be divulged.
As Mrs. Foxville gazed with rapture on the jewels, her eyes vied in
sparkling with the diamonds.
“Well, I cannot help forgiving him!” exclaimed the pacified lady. “Who
would have thought this of Nathaniel Wodehouse? Twelve months ago I
know he was scarcely worth a penny. But are you quite sure that you
have not been taken in?”
“Trust old Foxville for that, eh? I have seen how he came by his 612
money. Old Simpson, his uncle, died last March, and left him sole
heir.”
“Simpson his uncle! A good family! My father knew him well.”
Mrs. Foxville’s was not altogether a vain boast: the late Mr. Simpson
had been the best customer at her father’s grocery.
Augustus now joined his parents unexpectedly.
“Gussy, my boy,” cried his father, “Nat is the happy man, after all!
He could buy up all of Foxville if he chose. He wants you to dine with
him at his club to-morrow. Do as you like. I meddle in no man’s
business!”
“Of course I will! He is a better fellow than I took him to be,” said
the sensible Augustus. “And here comes Susy,” he added, seeing his
sister approaching.
“Susy, we congratulate you,” exclaimed the overjoyed father. “The
course of true love runs smoothly a little too soon, eh?”
Susy blushed scarlet.
“Kiss me, my darling girl,” said Mrs. Foxville.
“Bravo!” sang out Augustus.
“But Till must hear the news! Let me fetch Matilda!” And he ran off
with all speed, and soon returned with his sister.
“I told you I had something to show you,” said he, addressing Matilda.
“Look at that picture! We only want Nat to make us thoroughly jolly.
You will make a superb bridesmaid, Till, though I say it!”
“Not I indeed!” replied Matilda, with a grand toss of her head.
“You won’t for Susy?” the terrible Augustus went on. “That’s cruel of
you; but I’ll give you a chance. So don’t despair; it’s often a first
step to matrimony!”
Matilda bit her lip till it nearly bled, but she suffered not a word
to escape her.
“For shame, Gussy!” cried Susy, as she flung herself, half-smiling,
half-crying, on her sister’s neck.
* * * * *
With great adroitness Nathaniel eventually made his peace with
Matilda, though it was rather a truce than a peace; but sufficient
harmony was in a little time restored to Foxville House to make Susy’s
wedding go off with _éclat_.
----------
THE MARTYRS OF ARCUEIL. 613
[The following narrative of the imprisonment and execution of certain
Dominicans, by the Paris Commune, in May of last year, is translated
from an account drawn up in French, under the eyes and, in a measure,
at the dictation of witnesses who shared the captivity of the martyrs,
and survived their fate only by a providential interposition which
seems little less than miraculous. It was written merely to preserve,
in the archives of the order, an authentic record of the circumstances
which it, commemorates; but it glows with examples of Christian
heroism and charity which ought not to be lost to the world at large.
The branch of the Dominicans which gives this company of martyrs to
the church was founded by Father Lacordaire shortly after the passing
of the law of 1850, which, by abridging the exclusive privileges of
the university of Paris, conferred upon the religious orders in France
the right of opening schools and colleges, a right for which
Lacordaire and Montalembert had battled for twenty years. Father
Captier was one of the original company of four novices with whom
Father Lacordaire founded, in 1852, the new order of Teaching
Dominicans.]
In the spring of 1863, eighteen months after the death of Father
Lacordaire, certain religious of the Third (Teaching) Order of
Dominicans, having as their head the Rev. Father Captier, were sent to
establish, in the house formerly belonging to Berthollet, a college
under the name of the Blessed Albertus Magnus. It was a difficult task,
and from the outset was met by the government with an opposition
equally obstinate and hypocritical. In order to prevent the virtual
abrogation of the law of 1850, to which France is now indebted for
such a gallant multitude of faithful instructors, the contest opened
by Father Lacordaire, in 1831, in the matter of the free schools, had
to be commenced anew. Deprived of their religious habit, and harassed
by incessant and discreditable vexations, Father Captier and his
companions nevertheless stood bravely at their post of honor. At last,
after two years of labor and experiment, they were permitted to enjoy
in peace the protection of the law, and to speak freely to their
pupils according to the inspiration of their hearts and their faith.
The establishment at Arcueil, founded in trouble, thenceforward
prospered without interruption, and grew apace under the watchful and
affectionate care of Father Captier. He seemed to know every member of
the community to his inmost heart. He cared for every one with a
religious and at the same time manly tenderness. There was not one to
whom he failed to do good. With the performance of these duties he
combined an active interest in all questions relating to the education
of youth, and opposed with all his might the encroachment of the
system of godless schools which has since been so audaciously imposed
upon Parisian families. Appointed a member of the Commission
d’Enseignement Supérieur, as the most thorough representative of the 614
free schools, he brought to the service of that board the experience
of twenty years, the devout aspirations of his holy community, and the
enthusiasm of a spirit earnest in the cause of enlightenment and holy
liberty. When he returned to his cell, he resumed the cares of a soul
which aimed to be wholly and profoundly immersed in the religious
life. He concerned himself about the progress of all his brethren and
pupils in observing the rules of the community, well knowing that the
best means of doing good to souls is to draw from God the courage and
the light which one needs in order to serve them.
Such was the state of affairs at Arcueil when the war broke out. The
school then contained nearly three hundred pupils. In an establishment
where religion and patriotism were both so warmly cherished, the first
thought of every one was to do his utmost to aid France in her
struggle against the foreigner. The pupils raised a large contribution
for the relief of the victims of the coming campaigns. The religious
gave their persons. Three of them joined the ambulances and passed the
winter on the fields of battle, while the others devoted themselves in
the college premises to taking care of the wounded victims of the
siege of Paris. About fifteen hundred sick and wounded soldiers were
thus treated in the college ambulance; and it was a devotion all the
more meritorious because Arcueil, situated on the French outposts, was
constantly under the fire of the German artillery.
After the siege, the school of Arcueil reopened its doors to pupils,
and in March resumed its classes and its regular life. Then came the
civil war. Placed between Fort Montrouge, Fort Bicêtre, and the
redoubt of Hautes Bruyères, the school found itself within the lines
of the Paris Commune. Instead of abandoning their house, the fathers
resolved to continue their services to the wounded. They displayed on
the front of the building the flag of the Geneva Convention, and, with
the aid of the assistant masters whom the peace had collected around
them, they began to traverse the battlefields on the south of Paris,
gathering up the wounded and burying the dead. Within the college, the
poor soldiers, whether regulars or federals, were tended by the
charitable hands of the Sisters of St. Martha. At first the communists
respected this self-sacrifice. The less violent of them were pleased
to be so well cared for by the Dominicans of Arcueil. Many
requisitions, nevertheless, were made upon the institution, and the
house was ransacked from top to bottom, but nothing was found in it
except the evidence of a charity which no rebuffs could discourage.
The religious continued with unremitting zeal to relieve the wounded
on the field of battle, and awaited patiently the triumph of justice
and liberty. A number of battalions of the National Guard were thus
brought into contact with the school. Several of them showed gratitude
and even a sort of sympathy, but so far as that went everything
depended upon the officers. Thus, the 101st Battalion, commanded by
one Cerisier, a convict “who had been three times sentenced to death,
and believed neither in God nor in man,” far from showing any
good-will, seemed hardly willing to forgive the religious for their
charitable labors in its behalf.
On the 17th of May, several events happened which greatly excited and
alarmed the insurgents. A cartridge factory exploded in the Avenue
Rapp, that is to say, within the _enceinte_ of Paris, and at least
six kilometres from Arcueil. Several posts in the valley of the Bièvre 615
were surprised and overpowered at the point of the bayonet. Finally, a
few paces from the school, the château of the Marquis de Laplace,
occupied by the federals as a barrack, was burned. It was determined
that the communists of Arcueil should be held to an accountability for
these wholly unconnected occurrences, and the federals required
nothing more to justify them in ordering an arrest.
On Friday, the 19th of May, between four and five o’clock in the
afternoon, the school of Arcueil, which then contained twenty wounded
brought in the night before from the field of battle, received a visit
from Citizens Leo Meillet and Lucy Pyat, envoys from the Commune of
Paris, and wearing the red scarf; Thaler, a Prussian, sub-governor of
the Fort of Bicêtre; and Cerisier, commander of the 101st Battalion of
the Paris National Guard. While these gentlemen were entering at the
main door, the 101st and 120th Battalions surrounded the premises,
broke down the enclosure, and forced their way in at every entrance,
leaving sentinels here and there with orders to shoot anybody who
attempted to go out. At the demand of Leo Meillet, Father Captier
presented himself. An order from the Commune was shown him, setting
forth no complaint or legal excuse, but commanding all the members of
the community, from the prior down to the last of the kitchen
servants, to submit themselves to the commands of the delegates. Half
an hour was granted them for the necessary preparations. The bell was
rung to call the household together, and Lucy Pyat, taking this for a
suspicious signal, threatened to shoot the child who had committed
such a crime. One by one, the religious, the assistant teachers, the
sisters, the domestics, and the seven or eight pupils remaining in
the house gathered around Father Captier. When the word was given to
depart, they all fell down upon their knees, and with tears in their
eyes asked his blessing. “My children,” he said to them, “you see what
has happened. No doubt you are going to be questioned; be frank and
sincere, as if you were speaking to your parents. Remember the counsel
they gave you when they trusted you to our care; and whatever happens,
bear in mind that you must be men who can live and can die like
Frenchmen and like Christians. Adieu! May the blessing of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost descend upon you, and remain with you
always, always!”
Then the fatal journey was arranged. The horses and wagons of the
school were seized, and the vehicles were first filled with the
sisters and female domestics. They were forbidden any communication
with each other by word or gesture, or any signal of farewell, under
penalty of being shot. They were taken first to the Conciergerie and
afterwards to Saint Lazare (the prison for abandoned women), whence
they were released on the Tuesday following by the arrival of the
Versailles troops, before the miscreants of the Commune could execute
the horrid threats of which they were the objects during these four
days. The pupils were also to have been carried off, but, thanks to a
misunderstanding on the part of the federal chiefs, their arrest was
suspended. Later it was proposed to convey them to the Hôtel de Ville,
and even to the barricades, but nothing was done, and they remained
tolerably at ease in a remote part of the house, under the signally
intelligent and devoted care of the young Jacques de La Perrière,
whose conduct in these trying days was above all praise. 616
When all the others were gone, the fathers, the professors, and the
male servants were brought down into the first court, and surrounded
by the men of the 101st and 120th Battalions. The door opened, and the
sad cortège began its march towards the Fort of Bicêtre, situated
three kilometres from the school. They first passed through the
streets of Arcueil. The inhabitants looked on in silence, though their
sympathies were all with the prisoners. “When they passed our door,”
said a poor woman, “and I saw Father Captier and all these messieurs,
who had done us so much good, marching in the midst of the muskets, I
imagined it was Jesus Christ with his disciples going to Jerusalem to
be crucified.” At Gentilly, which they were next obliged to traverse,
the popular feeling was very different, and the most outrageous
language was used towards the prisoners.
It was seven o’clock in the evening when the column arrived at the
fort. The captives were first locked up in a small room where,
insulted in the grossest manner, they were forced to wait their turn
to appear before the governor of the fort, and go through the
formality of registering on the books of the prison. These formalities
lasted a long time, the number was so large. Each man was submitted to
the pretence of an examination, though there was no question of any
crime or misdemeanor, nor any indictment whatever. Then they were
searched, and stripped of everything they carried (even the breviaries
were taken away), and conducted to Casemate No. 10, which faces the
entrance to the fort.[120] It was nearly midnight when Father Captier
and the other religious were placed here. Their companions followed in
small parties, and about two o’clock the door closed upon the last of
them. It was never to open for them again till they went out to their
death.
This first night was very severe. The casemate contained only a few
remnants of damp straw, already spoiled and broken up by some Bavarian
soldiers, and each man had to grope for a clean spot on the bare
floor. When morning came, they sought for some alleviation of their
wretched condition. By dint of earnest representation, they got some
bundles of fresh straw, and after a few days the breviaries were
restored to the religious. Father Captier succeeded in obtaining paper
and pencil, and addressed a communication to the governor of the fort.
He thus secured the liberation of two lads, Emile Delaitre and Paul
Lair, who had been imprisoned with the other servants of the school.
He had more difficulty in obtaining the favor of a serious
examination, for thus far the twenty-five prisoners were absolutely
ignorant of the cause of their arrest. Something, at any rate, was
granted: on Sunday afternoon, Fathers Captier and Cotrault were led
before Citizen Lucy Pyat, who, after a long conversation, informed 617
them that they were to be considered neither as condemned nor accused,
nor even prisoners, but they were merely held as witnesses. He was a
prophet, though he did not know it; for God had chosen them to bear
witness, with their blood, to the glory of his holy name.
It was hoped that the examinations would be resumed on the following
day (Monday), but this was not done. On the contrary, the officers in
command at the fort held no further communication with the prisoners.
It is probable that in thus keeping away they yielded to the wishes of
their men; for, while the officers preserved an appearance of civility
in the presence of the fathers, their subordinates constantly
redoubled their outrages, and took all pains to render them more and
more gross. Drunken and infamous creatures showed themselves every few
minutes before the windows of the casemate, jeering at the prisoners,
loading them with unmentionable epithets, or reading aloud, with
infinite gusto, the most shameless articles from the Communist
newspapers. One day, they saw the sub-governor of the fort, cap in
hand, ushering Father Captier into his prison after some sort of an
examination. This mark of respect so exasperated the federal soldiers
that they raised a great disturbance at the door of the casemate, and
thenceforth the provisions for the prisoners were regularly plundered
or intercepted on the way; for two days the captives were denied even
a cup of water. On Wednesday, the 24th, an execution took place in the
courtyard of the fort, directly under their eyes. It was made the
occasion of redoubled menaces and heartless allusions. The same day,
the Abbé Féron, chaplain of the Hospital of Bicêtre, went in search of
the governor of the fort, and asked to be entrusted with the custody
of the members of the Arcueil community, offering to answer for them
with his life until they could be judged. This generous effort was
unavailing. The Commune had already settled everything. The school was
to be pillaged and burned.[121] As for the prisoners, they belonged to
the 101st Battalion and its commander, who would dispose of them
according to circumstances.
What were the thoughts of the victims during this long week of agony?
Their companions in captivity tell us that a gentle cheerfulness never
ceased to prevail in that wretched dungeon. With the exception of some
of the servants, married men and fathers of families, whose attitude
and manner were somewhat gloomy and dejected, every one pursued his
ordinary way of life--not that they forgot or despised death, but
because they had offered to God the sacrifice of their lives for
France. The religious redoubled their usual devotion, encouraged each
other and exhorted their companions. Every evening they said the
rosary together, adding the usual mementos for their absent brethren.
From time to time, Father Captier, though completely broken down by
fatigue and privation, roused himself to give a pious reading, or to
address the words of life and salvation to those who looked up to him
as their chief. Outside, the federals gathered around to mock at their
prayers. One morning, when the horizon was red with flames in the
direction of Paris, Father Captier was pacing to and fro, saying his
office, and some one cried to him through the window, “Oh, yes! you
had better pray God not to let the torpedoes that the city is full of
explode!” “I am doing it,” answered the good father sadly and quietly;
and then, finishing his breviary, he asked his companions to pray with 618
him.
On Thursday, the 25th, at daybreak, an extraordinary activity was
observed inside the fortress. Guns were removed and spiked, and the
bugles blew the assembly. At one time, the prisoners believed that the
fort had been wholly evacuated, and they had only to wait the arrival
of the Versailles troops to secure’ their liberty.
But this hope was of short duration. A body of armed men appeared at
the door of the casemate in considerable confusion. As they had not
the keys, they forced an entrance with blows from the butt-ends of
their muskets, and ordered the captives to start immediately with the
column, which was retiring into Paris. “You are free,” said they,
“only we must not leave you in the hands of the Versaillists. You must
follow us to the _mairie_ of the Gobelins, and then you will go
to Paris, or wherever you like.”
The march was long and painful. Every instant the prisoners were
threatened with death. The women showed themselves especially furious,
and eager to witness the death of these men who wore a sacred garb.
They moved down towards the gate of Ivry, and on the road a few
rifle-shots from Bicêtre caused a little disturbance, of which Father
Rousselin took advantage to slip away and return to Arcueil. The
others continued their journey towards Paris. Arriving at the
_mairie_ of the Gobelins, in the midst of cries of “death!” from the
crowd maddened at the approach of the regular army, it was in vain
that they reminded their guard of the liberty promised them. They were
told, “The streets are not safe; you will be killed by the people;
remain here.” They were taken into the court of the _mairie_, and
made to sit on the ground, exposed to the falling shells. Here the
federals brought the corpses of their victims, to show “_ces canailles_”
how the Commune served its enemies. At the end of half an hour an
officer appeared, and took them to the _prison disciplinaire_ of the
9th _secteur_, No. 38 Avenue d’Italie. As soon as they entered, the
captives of Arcueil recognized the 101st Battalion and its chief,
Citizen Cerisier, that is, the same who had made their arrest. It was
then ten o’clock in the morning. About half-past two, a man in a red
shirt threw open the door of the hall, and cried out, “Get up,
_soutanes_; they are going to take you to the barricade.” The fathers
went out, and, with the Abbé Grancolas and the others, were conducted
towards the barricade thrown up in front of the _mairie_ of the
Gobelins. There they were offered muskets to fight with. “We are
priests,” said they, “and, besides, we are non-combatants in virtue of
our service in the ambulance. We shall not take arms. All that we can
do is to relieve your wounded and bear away the dead.” “Is this your
fixed purpose?” asked the officer of the Commune. “It is.” Then they
were taken back to the prison, with an escort of federals and women
armed with muskets. Once locked up, they thought of nothing but
preparations for the last journey. They all knelt, made a final
offering of the sacrifice of their lives, confessed, and received
absolution. They were not to have the dying Christian’s last
consolation, the divine viaticum. God did not judge this grace
necessary for them; and, besides, from the prison to heaven the
journey was to be so short!
About half-past four, a new order came from Citizen Cerisier. All the
prisoners filed out into the lane which leads up to the prison, while
the federals of the 101st Battalion loaded their muskets with 619
significant noise. Already every man was at his place. Platoons were
stationed at the corners of all the neighboring streets. It is said
that Citizen Cerisier sat in a carriage on the avenue, with a woman by
his side. This is the manner in which he presided over executions
under the Commune of Paris. Then the word of command was heard: “Go
out into the street, one by one!” Father Captier turned half round
towards his companions, and said, “Come, my friends; it is for the
good God!”
The massacre began at once. Father Cotrault went out first, and fell
mortally wounded. Father Captier was hit by a ball which broke his
leg, and was struck down by another ball at a distance of more than a
hundred metres, near the spot where the insurgents of June, 1848,
massacred General Bréa. Father Bourard, also, after receiving one
wound, was able to go a few steps in the same direction before he fell
under a second discharge. Fathers Delhorme and Chatagneret were shot
down instantly. M. Gauquelin fell with them. M. Voland and five of the
servants (Aimé Gros, Marce, Cheminal, Dintroz, and Cathala) went out
of the lane behind the fathers, and had time to cross the Avenue
d’Italie, but were killed before they could find shelter.
The other prisoners managed to escape.[122] The Abbé Grancolas, barely
touched by a bullet, got into a house, where a woman disguised him in
her husband’s clothes. M. Rézillot was only slightly wounded. MM.
Edouard Bertrand, Gauvin, Delaitre, Brouho, and Duché found shelter in
some of the houses or neighboring caves, and afterwards in the ranks
of the national army. How impenetrable are the designs of God! If he
had permitted our soldiers to arrive only one hour sooner, all the
martyrs of Arcueil would have been saved.
The fury of the assassins was not sated by the massacre. They fell
upon the bodies of the dead, tore off their clothing, pierced them
with bayonets, and with their axes broke their limbs and crushed their
bleeding heads. The soldiers of the 113th Regiment, who passed this
spot in triumph after surmounting the barricades, comprehended the
glorious fate of the martyrs, and, bending over them, took the
rosaries from their girdles, and divided them, bead by bead, as sacred
relics. But after they had gone their way, the work of profanation was
resumed, and for more than fifteen hours the bodies remained exposed
to every imaginable outrage.
The next morning the Abbé Guillemette, a priest of that quarter, came
across the corpses, and, noticing that they wore a religious habit,
made inquiry into the circumstances of the assassination. He caused
the sacred remains to be immediately collected, and taken to the house
of the brethren in the Rue du Moulin-des-Prés. There a professor from
Arcueil, M. d’Arsac, identified the bodies, indicated the name of
each, and claimed for them the respect due to martyrs in a holy cause.
At the same time, M. Durand, curé of Arcueil, and M. Eugène Lavenant,
the Mayor, were informed of the death of the Dominicans, their friends
and their companions in the hour of danger. They both came together to
ask for the remains of the victims, and removed them to Arcueil. It
was desired to bury them within the enclosure of the school, where
Father Rousselin awaited them, with Jacques de La Perrière, and the 620
pupils who had remained faithful to the house. But it would have been
necessary to submit to long formalities, and the bodies were so
dreadfully bruised that there was no time even to make them coffins.
The hearse, followed by a great crowd of people deeply agitated with
grief and anger, was driven to the common cemetery. There the martyrs
lie side by side in one grave, with no shroud but their blood-stained
vestments.
This undistinguished tomb ought not to be the last resting-place of
the martyrs of Arcueil. Father Captier and his companions will sleep
in the shadow of the school which their labor founded and their blood
renders henceforth illustrious. Not only the religious who were the
brethren of the victims, and the pupils who were their children, but
all who care for religion and country, will come to pray at their
sepulchre, and meditate upon the lessons of their death.
[120] The following is a list of the prisoners:
_In the Fort of Bicêtre_.--Father Captier, prior of the
school of Arcueil; Bourard, chaplain; Delhorme, regent of
studies; Cotrault, procurator; Rousselin, censor;
Chatagneret, professor--all professed religious of the Third
(Teaching) Order of St. Dominic, except F. Bourard, who
belonged to the Order of Preaching Friars; MM. Voland,
Gauquelin, L’Abbé Grancolas, Edouard Bertrand, Rézillot,
Petit, and Gauvin, assistant masters; MM. Aimé Gros, Marce,
Cathala, Joseph Cheminal, Dintroz, Simon Brouho, Duché,
Bussi, Schepens, Delaitre (father and son), and Paul Lair,
servants of the school. _In the Prison of Saint Lazare._--Mother
Aloysia Ducos, superior of the Sisters of St. Martha;
Sisters Elisabeth Poirier, Louise Marie Carriquiry, Louis de
Gonzague Dorfin, and Mélanie Gatineaud; Mmes. Angèle Marce,
Marguerite Cathala, Clara Delaitre, and the widow Guégon;
Miles, Gertrude Faas, Catherine Morvan, and Louise Cathala
(aged 8 years).
[121] In point of fact, the school was plundered on
the 25th of May. There was no time to burn it.
[122] To this day the fate of M. Petit is not
positively known. There is reason to believe that he escaped
the first fusillade, but was recaptured by the federals and
shot by them at one of the barricades. It is apparently of
him that the Abbé Lesmayoux speaks in a letter to the
_Univers_.
----------
VEILED.
“Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi.”[123]--CANT. ii. 16.
No bridegroom mine of change and death:
My orange-flowers shall never fade:
Immortal dews shall gem the wreath
When crowns of earth have all decayed.
No bride am I that plights her troth
With touch of doubt, or trust too fond;
And risks the present, wisely loath
To search too far the veiled beyond.
To me ‘tis but the past is veiled:
The world that mocks with joys that fleet;
The “Egypt” that so long has failed
To make its “troubled waters”[124] sweet:
The world with all its sins and cares,
Its sorrows gained and graces lost;
The garden of a thousand snares,
The barren field of blight and frost.
But shines the future clear as truth:
A few swift years of prayer and peace,
Where hearts may know perennial youth,
And virtues evermore increase:
And then my Lord, my only love,
Shall come, and lift the veil, and say:
“Arise, all fair, my spouse, my dove!
The rain is over--haste, away![125]
“The rain is o’er, the winter gone,
That sun and summer seemed to thee.
If sweet the toilsome journey done,
How sweeter now thy rest shall be!”
[123] “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.”
[124] Jer. ii. 18.
[125] Cant. ii. 10, 11.
----------
A VISIT TO MAMMOTH CAVE. 621
A sleepy and forlorn bachelor, about to set forth on this expedition
_solus_, some special providence sent to our relief a party of gay
young friends, whom we found already assembled in the Louisville depot
of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Upon this pleasant rencontre
we did not cease to congratulate ourself, having been previously
warned that the cave is seen to greater advantage by a large party;
the number of lights carried, extra guides, etc., all tending to
enhance picturesque effects, and promote the comfort of the
sight-seers.
Leaving Louisville at the early hour of seven A.M., a very enjoyable
ride lay before us; at first through the celebrated blue grass region
of Kentucky, and afterward skirting the wilder, more picturesque
country, famous, or infamous, as the scene of guerilla warfare during
the war and after. Here these desperadoes, entrenched in some of
nature’s impregnable fortresses, sallied forth at will, cutting the
railroads, stopping trains at all hours of the day and night, and
plundering farms for miles in every direction. But we have changed all
that! The road boasts a tunnel of some extent. Here the young men of
our party perpetrated the time-honored joke of kissing their hands
with a resounding smack, bringing out the roses on the cheeks of our
pretty girls; when we emerge from darkness, each one of them being
fully conscious that she is suspected as the guilty recipient of that
kiss.
At noon we reach a station bearing the imposing name of Cave City;
a close corporation, consisting of one establishment, for the
refreshment of man and beast destined for the Mammoth Cave. A poor
dinner, after the manner of such wayside inns, awaits us, and at two
P.M. we hear the welcome sound, “All aboard stage for the cave!” Two
vehicles, filled inside with ladies, and outside with the adequate
complement of gentlemen and baggage--a nice point, by the way, in
these days of woman’s rights and Saratoga trunks! But, ladies, we warn
you not to undertake the cave without at least one man whom you own or
have a lien on--there are points in the explorations before you when
one man, and perhaps several others, will be convenient to lean on.
With a mighty creaking, a few preliminary false starts, resulting in
some new and jerky experiences to those unaccustomed to the
old-fashioned stages, at last we are fairly off, beginning almost
immediately a winding and gradual ascent. We are told by our sanguine
driver that there had been an attempt to macadamize the road--then
certainly it has been an attempt, and nothing more; on several
occasions we rode over smooth stones so large that it was quite a
relief from the deep ruts which seamed the road on every side.
High hills surround us, luxuriant in the foliage of June; at rare
intervals a farm-house is seen in some distant valley, but there are
few evidences of cultivating the soil, which is doubtless of too
cavernous a nature to repay the farmer his toil.
After riding a distance of three or four miles, the wildness of the 622
scene is increased by huge formations of rocks; many streams murmur in
the distance, and near the only house we approach on the route, a
little maid, hurrying barefoot from the spring, presents a pail of
water for the benefit of the thirsty stagers. There have been sundry
flasks of _eau de vie_ on top, and the gentlemen evince no desire for
the milder fluid, quaffed by the ladies with such avidity.
The half-way point is a platform for shade built across the road, and
here those who wish to explore Osceola, or Indian Cave, take a short
walk down the hill. Not caring to receive any subterra impressions
before the great cavern dawned upon us, we joined the ladies in
picking wild flowers, which are of great beauty and variety in this
region. The exploring party on their return reported Osceola to be
mainly a dugout cave, having some interest, but, like its illustrious
namesake, very dirty! Nearly an hour having been devoted to resting
the horses, we resume the stages, and, the road improving, proceed
with accelerated speed, when a sudden halt causes us to look back--the
second stage has broken down! What is to be done? Nothing but to
squeeze two more ladies in our coach, while we gentlemen resign our
places on top to the rest of the feminines, who really make the
alarming ascent with grace; but after a short walk our gallantry oozes
out at the very tips of our boots, and, one by one, we jump on the
steps to talk, thence clamber to the roof to find seats as best we
may.
After a nine miles’ drive, we approach a long, low frame-building. An
air of quiet and rustic simplicity pervades the spot! This is the
“Cave House.” The apartments to which we are conducted have lost none
of the rusticity of the exterior surroundings, but everything is
scrupulously neat, and there are excellent negro servants in
attendance--desirable features in a hotel. Not less so is savory
broiled chicken, to which we were speedily introduced.
Being all impressed with the idea that about nine extra hours of sleep
were requisite to fit us for the labors of the morrow, we denied
ourselves the pleasures of the large ball-room, whence issued the
strains, evoked by some black musicians, wooing to the giddy mazes of
the dance! Loose flannel suits are kept at the hotel for those who
come unprepared for the cool climate and rough climbing of the cave;
but we found our baseball toggery to be the very thing we wanted, and,
arrayed therein, immediately after an early breakfast assembled on the
wide veranda, which surrounds the house and makes a pleasant
promenade.
The ladies look charming in their picturesque costumes of bright
colors. Being a modest man, we merely mention that our stalwart frame
does credit to the uniform of the “Yellow Garters,” of which glorious
nine we boast ourself a member.
All in high spirits, we descend a thickly wooded ravine to the right
of the house: beautiful ferns and mosses carpet the sides of the
funnel-shaped opening surrounding the mouth of the cave, to the bottom
of which our winding path is gradually leading us, a descent of forty
or fifty feet. Around and above, tall trees stand sentinel on the only
approach to this secret underworld.
Our guide remarks that the present is not the original mouth of the
cave, which is distant a quarter of a mile on the south bank of Green
River. Many, many years ago, the upper crust must have given way, 623
forming this opening into which we are now descending, and filling
with earth and stones that first part of the cavern, now called
“Dickson’s” and rarely visited. The present entrance was discovered,
in 1809, by a hunter running a bear into it. So little was the extent
or value of the cave known, that it was soon afterward sold, with two
hundred acres of land, for forty dollars. A short, sharp turn in the
path brings us facing an archway of rock, over which a silver thread
of water is falling. A cold wind rushes from a dark opening, above
which the condensed atmosphere floats like a veil. With a sort of awe
we descend some rough stone steps, and enter the cave. Already
darkness is becoming visible: our party, numbering twenty-five, are
furnished with lamps, and all with our “pilgrim staves” set forth on
the “short route.”
To give some general idea of the outlines of the cave, we cannot do
better than quote the simile of a scientific gentleman who, in writing
on this subject, asks the reader to “imagine the channel of a large
and winndig river, with tributaries at intervals, some of them the
size of the main stream, emptying into the chief river, as, for
instance, the Missouri and Ohio joining the Mississippi; these
tributaries also receiving their support from creeks and rivulets,
some of them quite small and extending but a short distance, while
others are much longer, larger, and more beautiful. Now, it is easy to
imagine these rivers as being under ground, or having a surface
covering of earth and rocks, and that their rugged channels and banks
have long ceased from some cause to be bathed with the waters which in
ages long past flowed so freely along them; in fact, that they are
quite dry, except in a few of the avenues.”
From this illustration it will be seen that we cannot “cut across
country” from one point to another, but must explore each avenue, and
then retrace our steps to the point where we left the main cave.
Necessarily there are many avenues well known to the guides rarely
seen by visitors, because too much time would be consumed in visiting
any but the most interesting. To see the cave at all satisfactorily,
one day should be devoted to the “Short,” another to the “Long Route.”
And from our own experience, we would suggest that these two tramps
should not be made one immediately after the other, but let an
intervening day be devoted to some other of the many minor expeditions
of this region; then you are rested, and fresh for all the day in the
cave of the “Long Route.”
While indulging in these practical and retrospective reflections, we
have left our party in the narrow archway, about seven feet high,
which is just within the mouth, and called the Narrows. Here there was
a slight detention caused by the lamps blowing out: Mat, our black
guide, explains this by saying, “The cave’s breathin’ out.” To explain
which still further means that, the atmosphere of the cave being at
59°, when the exterior air at the mouth is of a higher temperature, a
strong current sets outward; in winter, of course, the current sets
inward: thus the cave breathes once a year. This action is felt a
short distance. Soon we leave behind everything reminding us of the
upper world.
Before the eye has become accustomed to the darkness, a great sense of
disappointment is felt in groping through scenes of such interest with
insufficient light. This feeling, however, gradually wears off, and
the guides burn oiled paper, blue-lights, etc., when we stop to inspect 624
some special marvel.
After leaving the Narrows, we soon enter the Rotunda, the ceiling of
which is one hundred feet high, and its greatest diameter seventy-five
feet. This chamber is said to be immediately under the dining-room of
the hotel. The floor is strewn with the remains of vats, water-pipes,
etc., used by the saltpetre miners in 1812. From the entrance to this
point, wheel-tracks and the impressions made by the feet of oxen used
to cart the saltpetre more than fifty years ago may still be seen. At
the time these indentations were made by the cleft foot of the ox and
the cartwheels, the earth was moist from the recent process of
lixiviation in the saltpetre manufacture, and upon drying had attained
the stony solidity of petrifaction; and the indentations aforesaid are
yet distinct, though they have been walked over by thousands of
visitors for many years. Leaving the Rotunda, we pass huge overhanging
rocks, called Kentucky River Cliffs, and enter the Methodist Church,
where services have been frequently held. The pulpit is formed by a
ledge of rock twenty-five feet high: the logs used as benches were
placed in the church fifty years ago, and are still in a good state of
preservation. In this part of the cave, and in all the avenues near
the entrance, millions of bats make their winter quarters. We saw only
a few flitting about, but were told they returned in the autumn by
hundreds. What wonderful instinct wakens these creatures from a
winter’s sleep, with tidings that the glorious summer is at hand?
Various objects of minor interest are noted, and we pass on to Giant’s
Coffin, an immense rock, forty feet long, twenty wide, eight in
depth--fit sarcophagus for one of the giants of old; but Kentucky has
herself of late years produced an individual who will nearly fill it.
In many parts of the cave, and more particularly in this region, some
striking effects are produced by the efflorescence of black gypsum
upon a surface of white limestone. On the ceiling and walls these
black figures thus produced stand out in bold relief. Quite startling
is a gigantic family group--man, wife, and infant. Another is a very
perfect representation of an ant-eater.
Soon we notice several enclosures, formerly occupied by invalids, who
vainly imagined that this pure and unchanging atmosphere would restore
them to health.
Up to this point walking has been an easy matter, the way quite level,
a path winding among loose stones of some size, and in many places a
smooth, broad avenue offering no obstruction; but when, one by one, we
climb a steep ladder placed against the wall to the right of Giant’s
Coffin, there is a realizing sense of “rocks ahead.”
The Gothic Arcade, which we have now entered, has a flat ceiling,
smooth and white as if it had received a coat of plaster, and leads to
Gothic Chapel--a very beautiful room, yet not purely Gothic in its
style of architecture, the roof being quite flat, supported by
gigantic stalactites, extending so nearly to the floor that they
present the effect of fluted columns and graceful arches. Here was
once performed a marriage ceremony under romantic circumstances. A
young lady, having promised her mother that she would never marry
Snooks “on the face of the earth,” evaded the letter of her contract
by marrying the same in the bowels thereof. Two of the stalactites in
this chapel, called the Pillars of Hercules, are said to be thirty
feet in circumference. These stalactites being peculiar to caves, it
may interest the general reader to note their formation. If water, 625
holding bicarbonate of lime in solution, drop slowly from the ceiling,
exposure to the air allows one part of carbonic acid gas to escape,
the lime is then deposited in the form of proto-carbonate of lime, and
the stalactite, similar to an icicle, is slowly formed; if the deposit
accumulate from below upward, it is termed a stalagmite; sometimes,
meeting in the centre, they become cemented and form a solid column.
An instance of this is given in the illustration of the Devil’s
Arm-Chair. These forms are made more interesting from their variety of
color: if the limestone is pure, the stalactite will be white, or
semi-transparent; if it contain oxide of iron, the result will be a
red or yellow color; black stalactites containing a large proportion
of oxide of iron. Many other things of interest, but too numerous to
mention, are pointed out before we reach Lake Purity, a pool of
shallow water, so perfectly transparent that stalactites are seen at
the bottom. Gothic Arcade terminating a short distance beyond the
lake, we retraced our steps to the ladder by which we had reached this
upper and older portion of the cave, and found ourselves again in the
main cave near the Giant’s Coffin, passing behind which we enter a
narrow crevice, where, half crawling and stooping, a descent is made
to Deserted Chamber. At this point, the water, after it had ceased to
flow out of the mouth into Green River, left the main cave to descend
to the lower regions and Echo River. Here we again leave the regular
route to visit Gorin’s Dome, to us far the most beautiful of the many
so-called domes.
Passing over a small bridge, and ascending a steep ladder, we are, one
by one, assisted by the guide to a point where it is not easy to
retain a foothold; but here is nothing to be seen--we seem to be
against a black wall. “Why, Mat, what did you bring us here for?” But
not so fast. Mat has been preparing blue-lights for an illumination,
and now he directs us to grasp the rock, and, one at a time, peer
through a small opening. What wondrous vision is this! A hundred feet
above is the arched dome, from which depend stalactitic formations and
shafts, of varying size and shape; facing us hangs a curtain-like
mass, terminating abruptly in mid-air. In it you seem to trace the
folds and involutions of drapery veiling this mysterious place from
vision. Far below, more than two hundred feet, unfathomable depths are
revealed by blue-lights thrown down, while shafts, curtain, and dome
are frescoed in colors of pale blue, fawn, rose, and white. This dome
is three hundred feet high, and sixty feet across its widest part;
but, alas! the “lights departed, the vision fled,” and we are forced
to descend from our eyrie. Leaving this sublime spectacle, we return
to the main cave, and, following it around Great Bend, are soon in the
famous Star Chamber. This is an apartment sixty feet in height,
seventy in width, and about five hundred in length, the ceiling
composed of black gypsum, studded with numberless white points, caused
by the efflorescence of Glauber’s salts. This is what we learned of
this remarkable spot after leaving the cave. We now will tell you what
we saw. We were first seated on a narrow ledge of rock forming a bench
on one side of the chamber, the guide taking away our lamps to a
distant mass of rocks, behind which he leaves them, to shed a “dim,
religious light” on the scene. As our eyes become accustomed to the
change, we discover ourselves to be in a deep valley with gray, rugged
sides, of course outside of the cave, else why is the sky above so 626
deeply, darkly blue? those countless stars shining?--shining, did we
say? We vow they twinkled. The Milky Way is there; we will not vouch
for the Dipper, but other constellations are visible, even a comet
blazes across the heavens. The guide retires with his lamp to some
mysterious lower region to produce shadows, and suddenly clouds sweep
across the horizon, a storm is brewing, the stars are almost hidden,
now they are out, utter darkness prevails, until we hear Mat stumbling
about, a faint light is in the east, and a fine artificial sunrise, as
he appears with his lamp. All this may read like child’s play, yet so
complete is the optical delusion that, when the lamps were all
returned to us, the mystery dispelled, we drew a long breath of relief
that we were not really shut up in that lonely defile, looking up
longingly to the stars, but actually several miles underground, and
merely under the influence of Glauber’s salts! Beyond is Proctor’s
Arcade, a natural tunnel, nearly a mile long, a hundred feet wide,
forty in height; the ceilings and sides are smooth and shining,
chiselled out of the solid rock. This tunnel leads past several points
not specially interesting, to Wright’s Rotunda, which is four hundred
feet in diameter. It is astonishing that the ceiling has strength to
sustain itself, being only fifty feet below the surface of the earth;
but no change need be anticipated, for at this point the cave is
perfectly dry. A short distance beyond, several avenues branch off
from the main cave, none worthy of note, except that which leads to
Fairy Grotto, a marvellous collection of stalactites, resembling a
grove of white coral. Here indeed might the fairies have held high
revelry, with glow-worm lamps suspended from each pillar, and fire-flies
flitting from branch to branch.
The Chief City or Temple, situated in the main cave beyond the Rocky
Pass, is rarely visited by strangers now, yet, before the discovery of
the rivers and the wilderness of beauty beyond, it was considered one
of the great features. It is an immense chamber, excelling in size the
cave of Staffa. The floor at different points is covered with piles of
rocks, presenting the appearance of an ancient city in ruins.
Three miles beyond Chief City, the main cave is terminated abruptly by
rocks fallen from above, which, if they could be removed, would no
doubt open communication with a cavern similar to the one we have been
exploring. So many wonders, viewed in a few hours, leave the mind in a
chaotic state, and the weary explorer is now ready to return to the
creature comforts of the hotel, there to ruminate, and, if he can,
arrange in some sort of order, in his “memory’s mansion,” sights and
sensations so new and strange. In returning to the upper world, the
appearance of the mouth is very beautiful. To eyes so long accustomed
to darkness, the light is a subdued radiance, a fairy land in the
distance, until we emerge from the cave into the outer world, which
seems, since we left it, to have been dyed in millions of rainbow
hues; everything, the leaves, the trees, shone and sparkled in the
blessed light! But--the air! the pure atmosphere we have been
breathing all the morning, renders the senses painfully conscious of
the decomposition of vegetable matter, causing such a feeling of
oppression that fainting may be the consequence if issuing from the
entrance is not made a matter of easy stages.
As a result of the wise maxim, “Early to bed and early to rise,” we 627
find ourselves on the following morning breakfasting in our cave
dress, and prepared before nine o’clock for the “Long Route.”
We now feel quite at home in the under-world, and, should any stranger
join our party, he would doubtless be much impressed by our manner of
going over the familiar ground; evidently we know all about this;
nothing can impress us now but “fresh fields and pastures new.” On
this day we are to realize something of the geography of the cave,
therefore a word on the subject of its formation.
Green River, only a few hundred yards from the entrance of the cave,
has evidently cut out the channel through which it runs. On either
side, its rugged banks tower above the water three hundred feet, and
this the only valley of the plain, proving conclusively that the river
has excavated its bed to the present level by the chemical and
mechanical agency of water. The avenues of the cave, no doubt, were
cut through in the same manner, the lowest and last formed being Echo
and Roaring rivers, which are now on a level with Green River, and
with which they have subterraneous communication.[126] As Green River
deepens the valley through which it passes, the rivers in the cave
will also continue to descend, until the avenues through which they
now flow shall become as dry as Marion Avenue, which, in ages past,
must have been the most beautiful of subterranean rivers.
Limestone, or carbonate of lime, which constitutes the strata of rocks
through which the cave runs, is soluble in water when it combines with
an additional proportion of carbonic acid, and is changed into the
bicarbonate of lime.
In this way the process of excavation continued until communication
with running water was established, and the mechanical agency made to
assist the chemical. Another disintegrating power is the
crystallization of sulphate of lime, known also under the names of
gypsum, plaster-of-Paris, alabaster, etc. The force of gypsum in the
act of crystallizing is equal to that of water in freezing, and, when
it occurs between ledges of rock, they are fractured in every
direction. Many instances of this may be seen.
As to the mechanical agencies in the excavation of the cave, they are
instanced in the transportation of gravel, clay, and sand from one
part to another. By observing the points at which they are deposited,
and the order in which they come, it is possible to tell the direction
in which the water formerly ran in many of the avenues, and the
rapidity of its motion. But enough of technicalities--the entrance to
the “Long Route” is before us in the crevice before mentioned,
situated behind Giant’s Coffin.
The first new name which strikes upon the ear is that of Wooden
Bowl--an apartment deriving its name from the fact of a bowl being
found here, such a one as was used by the Indians. Various traditions
of this race meet the explorer in other parts of the cave; among
others, that of a mummified female and child found in Gothic Avenue,
in 1815, said to have been sent to the Antiquarian Society of
Worcester, Massachusetts, and to be still there in a dilapidated
condition; another still more remarkable mummy is said to have been 628
exhumed in one of the neighboring small caves, and sent to Cincinnati,
where it was burnt in the museum many years ago.
If such discoveries were really made, it is a matter of profound
regret that these relics of an unknown past should have been removed
from their resting-places, where they were secure from the ravages of
time, and would, at the present day, greatly enhance the interest of
Mammoth Cave.
We descend the Steps of Time, which is an unpleasant reminder to those
of us who already feel stiff in the joints, and enter Martha’s Palace,
not so palatial as its name implies, but near by is a spring of clear
water, which all hail with pleasure. Side-Saddle Pit and Minerva’s
Dome are soon passed, and we reach Bottomless Pit. Do not shudder!
there is no necessity of descending, and there is bottom at the
distance of one hundred and seventy-five feet. It was not until the
year 1838 that it was supposed possible to bridge this fearful chasm;
it was then crossed by Stephen, the celebrated black guide, who is
identified with most of the discoveries. We now cross on a substantial
wooden structure, known as the Bridge of Sighs. This leads to the
Revellers’ Hall, and, judging from the number of empty and broken
bottles on the floor of this wild-looking room, all visitors have done
their part to perpetuate the name. A low archway, the Valley of
Humility, leads to Scotchman’s Trap, a circular opening, through which
you descend a flight of stone steps. Directly over the opening hangs a
huge flat rock, which would, should it fall, completely close the
avenue to the river. The number of slight, slippery ladders we have
descended gives a very realizing sense that we are getting down, down,
deep into the bowels of the earth.
We now enter a narrow avenue serpentining through the solid rock for
fifty yards, varying in width from eighteen inches to three feet, in
height from four to eight feet. This passage has evidently been cut
through by the mechanical agency of water. Any lady or gentleman
weighing three hundred pounds had better not attempt Fat Man’s Misery,
for he may sigh in vain for “this too solid flesh to melt,” and this
remarkably solid rock will not yield a hair’s-breadth to anything less
than water charged with carbonic acid. Such squeezing and groaning,
broken backs, etc.! but these are forgotten when we emerge in Great
Relief. The avenue which leads thence to River Styx is River Hall, but
we leave this for the present, and on our right enter Bacon Chamber,
where may be seen a fine collection of limestone _hams_ depending
from the ceiling. After walking three-fourths of a mile in Sparks’
Avenue, we reach Mammoth Dome, the largest in the cave; it is two
hundred and fifty feet in height. Climbing over immense shelving
rocks, whose jagged sides and yawning crevices offer slight foothold
and a very unpleasant prospect in case of a fall, we reach the top of
a terrace forty feet from the base, where the view is taken. A grand,
solemn spectacle it is! At the left extremity are five large pillars,
called Corinthian Columns. A vast, solitary waste stretches out before
the eye on every side; gloomy recesses and yawning abysses,
illuminated by the weird blue-lights, form a sublime picture. One can
only fancy it to be the primal state of chaos. The descent from the
terrace of rocks is even more perilous than the ascent, but, once in
the avenue, we return quickly to River Hall. Our attention is now
drawn to a body of water forty feet below, called Dead Sea, a gloomy 629
spot, deserving its name. Passing on, the distant roar of invisible
waterfalls strikes the ear, and at the foot of the slope we are
descending lies the River Styx:
“Where the dark rock o’erhangs the infernal lake,
And mingling streams eternal murmurs make.”
This river is one hundred and fifty yards long, from fifteen to forty
in width, and in depth varies from thirty to forty feet. It has a
subterranean communication with other rivers of the cave, and, when
they rise to a great height, an open communication with all of them.
The Natural Bridge spans River Styx about thirty feet above it.
The next body of water we approach is quite peaceful, and, the ceiling
being ninety feet above the surface, one loses the cavernous sensation
of the gloomy overhanging rocks. Lake Lethe is one hundred and fifty
yards long, and, being crossed in boats not large enough to convey all
of the party at once, some of our number embark, with Charon himself
at the helm. All are hushed by the solemnity of the scene, the lamps
shed a dim light upon the rippling water and phantom boat, which
silently glides outward and on around a projecting angle of rock, when
it is lost to vision. For those who wait upon the shore the return of
the boat, this is a solemn moment; we felt ourself a ghost, doomed to
wander a hundred years ere Charon would ferry us over Avernus! After a
brief interval of this musing, a faint light appears from behind the
rock which before intercepted our view. Charon with his solitary lamp
in the prow of the boat is returning; soon we also embark, but not
before we had drunk of the waters of Lethe, that all experience of the
upper world might be forgotten, for now we enter into dream life. Our
friends who had preceded us formed a picturesque group waiting as we
neared the shore. The bright dresses, the lights throwing fitful gleam
and shadow into the darkness beyond, and our own gliding motion, form
a picture not soon forgotten. Upon disembarking we enter Great Walk,
extending from the Lake to Echo River, the floor of which is covered
with yellow sand. Reaching the river, we all embark in a large boat,
and soon find ourselves in a very contracted space, the rocks overhead
being only three feet above the surface of the water. Stooping under
the narrow archway for fifteen or twenty feet, we finally emerge into
the open river, with the ceiling about fifteen feet above. At some
points the river is two hundred feet wide, in depth it varies from ten
to thirty feet. The water is now transparently clear, rocks can be
seen twenty feet below, and the boat seems passing through the air.
The illusion is heightened by the fact of our guide using no oars
here, propelling the boat by a staff applied at intervals to the
ceiling or side walls. We avoided looking at him, that we might still
fancy ourself wafted over these mysterious waters by some invisible
agency. Here is no feeling of danger, only a dreamy, delicious content
to float on thus for ever into the “Silent Land.”
An occasional song to wake the far-famed echoes is the only sound to
disturb the stillness and the unutterable thoughts which fill the
soul. Echo River is an idyl! Alas! that it should be so short--yet
three-quarters of a mile of bliss should compensate poor human nature
for many ills. Some of the gentlemen, in the adventurous spirit of
youth, made their passage through a rugged avenue called Purgatory;
from their description of which we prefer journeying to paradise by
the river. Landing on the farther banks, we enter Silliman’s Avenue, 630
extending a mile and a half to the Pass of El Ghor, the walls and
ceilings of which, being of recent formation, are rugged and
water-worn. Here is Cascade Hall, a circular chamber with vaulted
ceiling, from which falls a stream of sparkling water, disappearing
through a pit in the floor. The avenue leading to Roaring River takes
its rise in this hall.
The Infernal Region is an irregular down-hill passage, the floor
covered with wet clay. Such essentially and persistently sticky mud
was probably never known above ground. The scrambling, slipping,
miring, ejaculating crowd made an amusing scene. Our black guide, Mat,
is a character, rarely relaxing into a smile, but displays a grim
humor by saying “Sot her up,” when some heavier slush than usual
reveals the fact that somebody is down. Now, sotting her up is not
nearly as easy as sotting her down. In some places the water is
ankle-deep. Here the gentlemen pick up the ladies, and carry the fair
creatures to dry ground. Several laughable incidents were the
consequence of this manœuvre. One gentleman, feeling the mud slipping
under his feet, fancied himself in a quicksand, and hurriedly set his
wife down in the water to rescue himself. Another, a bashful young
swain, felt a delicacy about the manner of picking up his young lady,
so carried her under one arm, her heels on a line with her head. What
a funny picture those little dangling boots presented! Alas! for the
uncertainty of human events. When we started out fresh in the morning,
we had observed the secret pride with which that young woman
contemplated her jaunty tasselled boots, the neatest fit in the party,
and amply displayed by her short dress.
We are now quite willing to climb the Hill of Fatigue, leading to dry
ground. Among many names and objects of interest we shall only mention
Ole Bull’s Concert-Room, where the great violinist performed, on his
first tour through the United States. The Pass of El Ghor, two miles
in length, is one of the most picturesque avenues in the cave, its
narrow and lofty sides changing into every variety of uncouth,
fantastic shapes; again, the hanging rocks overhead suggest the idea
of imminent danger, but we are assured by the guide that no rocks have
fallen during his time, a period of thirty years.[127]
This pass finally communicates with a large body of water, the “Mystic
River,” which has not been explored by visitors. Ascending a very
high, steep ladder, we enter Martha’s Vineyard, twenty feet above the
Pass of El Ghor. Here a stalagmite, extending from the floor to the
ceiling, forms the stem of a _grapevine_, from which all over the
walls and ceiling depend bunches of black _grapes_--nodules of
carbonate of lime, colored with the black oxide of iron--and here the
vintage never fails, for is there not sulphur at hand?
An avenue directly over Martha’s Vineyard, which we did not explore,
is said to contain a miniature chapel of stalactites, in a dark room
adjoining which, without ornament of any kind, is a grave hewn out of
the rock. This was considered so suggestive by a Catholic priest that
he named it the Holy Sepulchre.
The next place of great and general interest is Washington Hall, where
were unpacked the hampers carried by the extra guide, detailed for that
purpose. Keen appetites were brought to bear upon the liberal luncheon 631
supplied by the proprietor of the hotel. Some of the party had added
champagne, so we filled generous bumpers to the genii of the cave.
After an hour spent in rest and refreshment, we leave Washington Hall,
and, passing through Snow-Ball Room, covered with nodules of white
gypsum, enter Cleveland Cabinet, an avenue two miles in length, and so
beautiful that the sight of it alone would fully repay for the fatigue
and time devoted to the cave.
It is a perfect arch of fifty feet span, averaging the height of ten
feet in the centre. Thus every part may be viewed with ease. From
summit to base is a dazzling expanse of alabaster bloom--a grand
conservatory where the Snow Flora moulds her _flowers_ ere she
transports them to the upper world and endows them with a soul. Here
are clusters of pale white roses sprinkled with diamond dew, waiting
only the enchantress’ wand to convert them into a coronal for some
fair bride; again, a perfect cross of flowers, which may yet be the
only companion of a rare soul entombed. Stately lilies, nodding
tulips, graceful fern shapes, are showered in endless profusion on
these fairy walls. Here and there are little niches lined with
flowers, a feathery veil of rock bloom hanging over the entrance. We
peep in curiously, but no Peri is there. This seems truly the
“Enchanted Palace of Sleep,” but the princess is too deeply hidden for
mortal eyes to discover.
Lingeringly we leave this wondrous scene. At the very end is pointed
out the last rose of summer, resting against the ceiling; it is of
snowy whiteness, about eight inches in diameter, and is really the
last to be seen in the avenue. A short distance beyond is Rocky
Mountain, one hundred feet high, composed of large rocks which have
evidently fallen from above. On top of the mountain is a stalagmite
called Cleopatra’s Needle--why a needle, and wherefore Cleopatra’s, I
am unable to explain. We are now nearing the end of the cave, and to
the weary of our band the mountain seems an insurmountable obstacle,
therefore only the more adventurous scale the heights, and, passing
Dismal Hollow, a gorge seventy feet deep and one hundred wide, enter
Crogan Hall, which constitutes the end of the “Long Route.” It is
covered with stalactites, very hard and white, fragments of which are
worked into ornaments.
This part of the cave is evidently near the surface of the earth, and
from the comparative abundance of animal life it is probable there is
an open communication at some point not far distant. The rat found
here differs from its Norway brother in that it is a size larger; the
head and eyes, which are black and lustrous, resemble those of a
rabbit, while its soft fur is of a bluish gray and white. Crickets and
lizards are numerous; they are sluggish in their movements, and the
cricket never chirps. Why should he, indeed, having neither hearth nor
tea-kettle to inspire him? All these animals, although provided with
large eyes, seem quite blind when first caught. The fish found in the
various rivers are of the class known as viviparous; they have
rudiments of eyes, but no optic nerve. There are also eyeless
crawfish; both these and the eyeless fish are nearly white.
At certain seasons ordinary fish, crawfish, and frogs are washed into
the rivers of the cave from Green River, the inference being that they
also in due course of time lose the power of vision.
At the end of Crogan Hall we are said to be nine miles from the mouth
of the cave, and somewhere under ground near Cave City. Here is the 632
Maelstrom, a frightful pit, one hundred and seventy-five feet deep,
and twenty wide. It has been explored by two or three adventurous
spirits, the first of whom was a son of the late George D. Prentice.
It is needless to describe our return, which was over the ground
already explored; devoting less time, of course, to the examination of
wonders, and not at all tired, for exercise in this exhilarating
atmosphere is unlike that of the upper world. We finally reach the
entrance, and emerge--into darkness again--for it is nine
P.M., and only a few twinkling stars remind us that we are not still
underground.
I shall not do more than mention Proctor and Diamond Caves, which we
explored on the following day, but they excel in stalactitic formation
and well repay a visit. They are on the direct route to Glasgow, a
station three miles nearer than that of Cave City, and where there has
been recently built a comfortable hotel on the site of the ancient
“Bell’s Tavern,” well known to Kentuckians in former days. Those who
have never visited Mammoth Cave will scarcely credit the assertion of
the guides that two hundred and fifty miles of travel are necessary to
see all of the known avenues of the cave. When we add to this the
statement that new discoveries are constantly being made which reveal
the fact that there is still a wilderness of cave untrodden by the
foot of man, speculation passes all bounds.
None but a soul absolutely impervious to the impressions of the
sublime and beautiful handiwork of the world’s great Architect, can
fail to realize the highest expectations in an exploration of this
greatest of caves now known.
[126] The cave should be visited in summer and early fall
months; at other seasons, the waters of the cave being
influenced by all the movements of Green River, a sudden
rise in the latter will, in a few hours, cut off
communication with the largest and by far the most
interesting portion of the cave.
[127] “Old Mat” is now off duty, but may still be seen about
the hotel. He thinks he knows more about the cave than any
man living, and still better qualified than the younger
guides to exhibit its wonders!
----------
OUR EPIPHANY.
What though we cannot, with the star-led kings,
Adore the swaddled Babe of Bethlehem!
Behold, as sweet a Benediction[128] brings
A new Epiphany denied to them.
The Mary Mystical ‘tis ours to see
Still from his crib the little Jesus take,
And show him to us on her altar-knee,
And sing to him to bless us for her sake.
Shall we the while be kneeling giftless there?
In loving faith a richer gold shall please,
A costlier incense in the humblest prayer,
Nor less the myrrh of penitence than these:
And there between us holy Priesthood stands,
Our own Saint Joseph, with the chosen hands.
[128] Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
----------
THE COSMIC PHILOSOPHY.[129] 633
Herbert Spencer has often been alluded to in our pages, and one of his
works, that on _Biology_, has been specially noticed by us. He is
usually classed with the positivists, and we have ourselves so classed
him; but he protests against this classification, and, after studying
carefully, or as carefully as our patience would permit, the volume
before us, we confess the classification appears to be inexact, and
even unjust to the positivists. There are considerable differences
between his philosophy and the _Philosophie Positive_ as we find it
set forth by M. E. Littré, its greatest living chief; for, as set
forth by its founder, M. Auguste Comte, in his own works, we would
rather not speak, for, to confess the truth, we have never had the
patience to read them so as to master their doctrines. Yet, as far as
we do know the system, it differs on several points, and much to its
advantage, from the cosmic philosophy set forth in Mr. Spencer’s
_First Principles_, especially as to the relativity of knowledge and
the theory of evolution. It is the product of a higher order of mind
than Mr. Spencer can boast, and of a mind originally trained in a
better school.
Mr. Herbert Spencer is a man of considerable native ability, of
respectable attainments in what is called modern science, and a fair
representative of contemporary English thought and mental tendencies;
but he has made a sad mistake in attempting to be a philosopher, for
he lacks entirely the _ingegno filosofico_, and we have not discovered
a single trace of a philosophic principle, thought, or conception in
any or all of his several works. He is or might be a physicist, or
what old Ralph Cudworth terms a _physiologer_, perhaps not much
inferior to old Leucippus or Democritus, but he has not in him the
makings of a philosopher, and his cosmic theories are not even
plausible to a philosophic mind.
“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king.” The not
inconsiderable reputation Mr. Herbert Spencer seems to have acquired
is probably due not to his merits so much as to the low state into
which philosophical studies have fallen in the Anglo-Saxon world, and
the tendency to anti-Christian and anti-religious theories and
speculations which Protestantism, when it begins to examine its own
foundation and to account for itself, everywhere encourages. The party
we meet here and in England, with “advanced views” as they are called,
and which every day grows in numbers and strength, welcomes with
enthusiasm any and every writer who helps or promises to help them to
explain the problem of the universe on physical principles, without
recurring to the supernatural or the fact of creation. The party,
profoundly ignorant of Christian theology and philosophy, and devoted
to the study of physical facts and phenomena alone, have persuaded
themselves that Christianity is unscientific, and that it tends to
degrade men, to enfeeble reason, and to prevent the free expansion of 634
thought; and they regard as their benefactor whoever is able to
strengthen their cosmic or atheistic tendency. Such a man they esteem
Mr. Herbert Spencer. He is apparently just the man to be accepted as
the chief of the sect, or the philosopher of negation. Its adherents
wish not for their leader an avowed atheist or pantheist, for the
world is not just yet advanced enough for that, but they do wish one
who is skilful in disguising his atheism or pantheism in the forms and
terms of science; and who can do this more successfully than Herbert
Spencer?
Mr. Spencer divides his book into two parts. In Part I. he treats of
what he calls “The Unknowable”; in Part II. he treats of what he calls
“The Knowable.” Under the head of “The Unknowable” he seeks the
relation of science and religion, to ascertain the ultimate verity or
ideas of each, and to show the ground on which they meet and are
reconciled. He asserts that all knowledge is relative, is knowledge of
phenomena alone, which are nothing outside of their relation to
consciousness, itself phenomenal, and to a Something underlying them,
and of which they are the appearances or which they manifest. We are
compelled to admit, he says, this Something, because the phenomena
cannot be thought without it; and as we can assign no limit to these
manifestations, we are compelled to assert this Something, Power,
Being, or Reality is infinite. But this Infinite Something which is
the reality of the cosmos is absolutely unknowable and even
unthinkable. How, then, can it be asserted?
Every religion seeks the solution of the problem of the universe, the
explanation of the great cosmic mystery that surrounds us on all
sides, and all religions agree that the solution is in this infinite
Reality or Something, which is absolutely unknowable, absolutely
inscrutable. The ultimate religious ideas or highest and most
comprehensive generalizations of religious conceptions are, first, the
assertion of this incognizable and incogitable Something; and, second,
that the solution of the problem exceeds all human powers.
Science deals with the same cosmic problem, and, rising by
generalization to generalization of the cosmic phenomena up to the
higher and broadest possible, is compelled to admit the same Infinite
Something, and to admit that it is not cognizable nor cogitable.
Consequently, the ultimate scientific ideas are identical with the
ultimate religious ideas. Both religion and science are fused
together, and reconciled without any compromise, and the old feud
between them extinguished, in the bosom of the Infinite Unknowable.
“He makes a solitude, and calls it peace.”
As we have no predisposition to accept the new system of philosophy,
we cannot find this conclusion perfectly satisfactory. The cosmists
object to the Comteans or positivists that they absorb the cosmos in
man and society; the cosmists, on the other hand, seem to us to absorb
man and society in the cosmos, and subject them to the same physical
law Mr. Emerson does when he asserts the identity of gratitude and
gravitation. By asserting that only phenomena are cognizable, and
subjecting man to the common cosmic law, they include him in the
cosmic phenomena, and make him simply an appearance or manifestation
of the unknowable, without any real or substantive existence of his
own. We thus lose in the infinite variety of the cosmic phenomena both
the thinking subject and the object thought. The soul is a cosmic 635
appearance.
Furthermore, by declaring the phenomenal cannot be thought in and by
itself without the Infinite Something that underlies it as its ground
or reality, and then declaring that something to be unknowable,
unthinkable even, the new system declares that there is no knowable,
and consequently no science or knowledge at all. The new system of
philosophy, then, reconciles science and religion only in a universal
negation, that is, by really denying both. This can hardly satisfy
either a scientist or a Christian.
In the second part, Mr. Spencer defines philosophy to us, as near as
we can come at his sense, to be the unification of the several
religions and several sciences in their respective or special
generalizations in a generalization that comprehends them all.
Generalization with him means the elimination of the _differentia_,
or abstraction. He therefore, in making philosophy a generalization,
makes it an abstraction, and, so to speak, the abstraction of all
particular abstractions. But abstractions in themselves are nullities,
and consequently philosophy is a nullity, and science and religion are
nullities. Mr. Spencer maintains that we have “symbolic conceptions,”
in which nothing is conceived--symbols which symbolize nothing. Is his
“new system of philosophy” anything but a generalization and
unification of these “symbolic conceptions”?
Mr. Spencer starts with the assumption that all religions, including
atheism, have a verity in common as well as an error. The verity must
be that in which they all agree; the error, in their differences, or
in the matters in which they do not agree. Eliminate the differences
and take what is common to them all, and you will have the universal
verity which they all assert. But what verity is common to truth and
falsehood, to theism and atheism? The verity common to religion and
science, that the solution of the cosmic mystery is unknowable? But
that is not a verity; it is a mere negation, and all truth is
affirmative.
Atheism is not a religion, but the negation of all religion. Exclude
that, take all religions from fetichism to Christianity inclusive;
eliminate the _differentia_, and take what they all agree in asserting.
Be it so. All religions, without a single exception, however rude or
however polished, agree in asserting the supernatural, and that, if
the cosmic mystery is inexplicable by human means, it is explicable by
supernatural means. A true application of Mr. Spencer’s rule, the
_consensus hominum_, would assert as the common verity the supernatural,
that is, the supercosmic, which is precisely what the cosmic
philosophy denies and is invented to deny. Mr. Spencer does not appear
to be master of his own tools.
All religions concede that the cosmic mystery is inexplicable by our
unassisted powers, by secondary causes, or by physical laws; but none
of them admits that it is absolutely inexplicable, for each religion
professes to be its explanation. Mr. Spencer is wrong in asserting
that all are seeking to solve the cosmic mystery; for each proposes
itself as its solution, and it is only as such that it claims to be or
can be called a religion. The question for the philosopher is, Do any
of these religions give us a solution which reason, in the freest and
fullest exercise of its powers, can accept, and, if so, which one is
it?
Mr. Spencer tells us, p. 32: “Respecting the origin of the universe,
three verbally intelligible suppositions may be made. We may assert
that it is self-existent, or that it is self-created, or that it is 636
created by an external agency.” The second supposition he rejects as
the pantheistic hypothesis, which is a mistake, for no pantheist or
anybody else asserts that the universe creates itself. The pantheist
denies that it is created at all; and the philosopher denies that it
creates itself; for, since to create is to act, self-creation would
require the universe to act before it existed. The third supposition,
which the author calls “the theistical hypothesis,” he denies, because
it explains nothing, and is useless. He explains it to mean that the
universe is produced by an artificer, after the manner of a human
artificer in producing a piece of furniture from materials furnished
to his hand. “But whence come the materials?” The question might be
pertinent if asked of Plato or Aristotle, neither of whom was a
theist; but not when asked of a Christian theologian, who holds that
God creates or created all things from nothing, that is, without
pre-existing materials, by “the sole word of his power.”
The first supposition, the self-existence of the universe, the author
denies, not because the universe is manifestly contingent and must
have had a beginning, and therefore a cause or creator; but because
self-existence is absolutely inconceivable, an impossible idea. He
says, p. 35: “The hypothesis of the creation of the universe by an
external agency is quite useless; it commits us to an infinite series
of such agencies, and then leaves us where it found us.” “Those who
cannot conceive of the self-existence of the universe, and therefore
assume a creator as the source of the universe, take it for granted
that they can conceive a self-existent creator. The mystery of the
great fact surrounding them on every side they transfer to an alleged
source of this great fact, and then suppose they have solved the
mystery. But they delude themselves, as was proved in the outset of
the argument. _Self-existence_ is _rigorously inconceivable_, and this
holds true whatever be the nature of the object [subject] of which it
is predicated. Whoever argues that the atheistical hypothesis is
untenable because it involves the impossible idea of self-existence,
must perforce admit that the theistical hypothesis is untenable if it
contains the same impossible idea.” But who ever argued that the
atheistical hypothesis is untenable because it involves the idea of
self-existence? Atheism is denied because it asserts the
self-existence of that which cannot be, and is known not to be,
self-existent.
But it is evident that the author rejects alike self-existence and
creation; that the cosmos is self-existent, or that it is created by
an independent, self-existent, and supercosmic creator. How, then, can
he assert the existence of the cosmos, real or phenomenal, at all? The
cosmos either exists or it does not. If it does not, that ends the
matter. If it does, it must be either created or self-existent; for
the author rejects an infinite series as absurd, and self-creation as
only an absurd form of expressing self-existence. But as the author
denies self-existence, whatever the subject of which it is predicated,
and also the fact of creation, it follows rigorously, if he is right,
that the cosmos does not exist. The author cannot take refuge in his
favorite _nescio_, or say we do not know the origin of the cosmos,
for he has positively denied it every possible origin, and therefore
has by implication denied it all existence. A moment ago, we showed
that he denied by implication all science or knowledge, and now we see 637
that, if held rigorously to his system as he explains it, he denies
all existence, and, by implication at least, asserts absolute
nihilism. Surely there is no occasion to apply to his new system of
philosophy the _reductio ad absurdum_.
The author is necessarily led to the assertion that at least nothing
is knowable by his doctrine, that all knowledge is relative. The
Comtists restrict, in theory, all knowledge to sensible things, their
mutual relations, dependencies, and the conditions and laws of their
development and progress; but they at least admit that these may be
objects of science and positively known. But our cosmic philosopher
denies this, and asserts the relativity of all knowledge. We know and
can know only the relative that is, only what is relative to the
absolute, and relative to our own consciousness. In this he follows
Sir William Hamilton, J. Stuart Mill, and the late Dr. Mansel,
Anglican Dean of St. Paul’s. But relative knowledge is simply no
knowledge, because in it nothing is known. The relative is not
cognizable nor cogitable in and by itself, because it in and by
itself, or prescinded from that to which it is relative, does not
exist, and is simply nothing. What neither is nor exists is not
cognizable nor cogitable. The relativity of all knowledge, then, is
simply the denial of all knowledge. It is idle, then, for Mr. Spencer
to talk of science. His science is only a laborious ignorance.
Mr. Spencer labors hard to prove the relativity of all knowledge. He
either proves it or he does not. If he does not, he has no right to
assert it; if he does, he disproves it at the same time. If the proof
is not absolute, it does not prove it; if it is absolute, then it is
not true that all knowledge is relative; for the proof must be
absolutely known, or it cannot be alleged. We either know that all
knowledge is relative, or we do not. If we do not, no more need be
said; if we do know it, then it is false, because the knowledge of the
relativity of knowledge is itself not relative. The assertion of the
relativity of all knowledge, therefore, contradicts and refutes
itself. No man can doubt that he doubts, or that doubt is doubt, and
therefore universal doubt or universal scepticism is impossible, and
not even assertable. The same argument applies to the pretence that
all knowledge is relative.
The relativists are misled by their dealing with the abstract and not
the concrete. They regard all that is or exists either as relative or
absolute. But both absolute and relative are abstract conceptions, and
formed by abstraction from the concrete intuitively presented or
apprehended. They exist, as St. Thomas tells us, only _in mente, cum
fundamento in re_. There are no abstractions in nature or the cosmos,
and there is and can be neither abstract science nor science of
abstractions, for abstractions, prescinded from their concretes, are
simply nullities. The absolute is, we grant, unknowable, and so also
is the relative, for neither has any existence in nature, or _a parte
rei_. They are both generalizations, and nature never generalizes.
Whatever exists, exists _in concreto_, not _in genere_. Hence, the _ens
in genere_ of Rosmini is no _ens reale_, but simply _ens possibile_,
like the _reine Seyn_ of Hegel, which is the equivalent of _das
Nichtseyn_; for the possible is only the ability of the real.
Now, because the abstract absolute is unknowable, unthinkable even, it
by no means follows that the concrete, real and necessary being,
cannot be both thought and known, or that things cannot be both thought 638
and known in their relations to it, without reducing it to the
category of the relative. Sir William Hamilton says the absolute is
the unconditioned, and is incogitable, because our thought necessarily
conditions it. This would be true if the absolute is an abstraction or
mental conception, but is false and absurd if applied to real,
necessary, infinite, and self-existent being, which, as independent of
us and all relation, is and must be the same whether we think it or
not. The thought does not impose its own conditions and limitations on
the object; certainly not when the object is real and necessary being,
and in every respect independent of it. We cannot, of course, think
infinite being infinitely or adequately, but it does not follow that
we cannot think it, though finitely and inadequately. The human mind,
being finite, cannot comprehend infinite being; but, nevertheless, it
may and does apprehend it, or else Mr. Spencer could not assert the
Infinite Something, which he says we are compelled to admit underlies
the cosmic phenomena and is manifested in them. The human mind can
apprehend more than it can comprehend, and nothing that is
apprehensible, though incomprehensible, is unthinkable or unknowable,
except in Mr. Spencer’s _New System of Philosophy_.
Sir William Hamilton says, in defending the relativity of all
knowledge: “Only relations are cogitable. Relation is cogitable only
in correlation, and the relation between correlatives is reciprocal,
each is relative to the other. Thought is dual, and embraces at once
subject and object in their mutual opposition and limitation.” This
merely begs the question. Besides, it is not true. Relations are
themselves cogitable only in the related; correlatives connote each
other, so that the one cannot be thought without thinking the other;
but not therefore are all relations reciprocal, as the relation
between phenomenon and noumenon, cause and effect, creator and
creation. Here are two terms and a relation between them, but no
reciprocity. When we think cause and effect, we do not think them as
mutually opposing and limiting each other. The effect cannot oppose or
limit the cause, or the creature the creator, for the creature depends
on the creator and is nothing without his creative act, and the effect
is nothing without the cause which produces and sustains it. The
creature depends on the creator, but not the creator on the creature;
the effect depends on the cause, but not the cause on the effect.
There may, then, be relation without reciprocity.
It is true, Mr. Spencer denies creation, and relegates all causative
power to the dark region of the unknowable, and calls the origin of
the universe in the creative act of being or God “an hypothesis,” and
rejects it with ill-concealed scorn; yet creation is not “an
hypothesis,” but a scientific fact, and a necessary principle of all
science. Without it the cosmos would not be cognizable, for it would
have no dialectic constitution. It could not even be thought, for
every thought is a judgment, and no judgment is possible where there
is no copula that joins the predicate to the subject. Rejecting
creation, the author cannot assert the relation of cause and effect;
rejecting cause and effect, he cannot assert even the cosmic
phenomena. They are not able to stand on their own bottom, and
therefore not at all, unless the Something of which they are, as he
says, manifestations, is a cause producing and sustaining them. We
submit, then, that Mr. Spencer’s doctrine of the unknowable, and the 639
relativity of all knowledge, estops him from asserting anything as
knowable, for it really denies all the knowable and all the
real--_omne scibile et omne reale_.
The second part of Mr. Spencer’s work on “The Knowable” we might well
omit, but as it is that in which he claims to be original, and in
which he supposes he has made most valuable contributions to the
philosophy of the cosmos, an omission to examine it might seem
ungracious. Besides, the inventors of new systems of philosophy must
not be held too rigidly to the logical consequences of their own
doctrines, _non omnia possumus_. It is impossible for the founder to
foresee all that his doctrine involves, and it is but fair, if he
really has said anything new that is true, that it should be
recognized, and he receive due credit for it, even if it is an anomaly
in his general system of philosophy. We proceed, therefore, to
consider Part II.
In this second part, the author professes to treat the knowable, not
indeed in its several details, but in its first principles, or
ultimate generalizations. The generalization of a group of phenomena
is science; the generalization of the several groups of phenomena
observable in the cosmos constitutes the several special sciences; and
the combination of these special sciences into one higher and more
comprehensive generalization, which embraces them all, is philosophy.
In constructing philosophy, the author, be it observed, like the coral
insect, begins below and works upward, and bases the universal on the
particular.
The great point, or novelty, in this second part, however, is
unquestionably, as the author claims, the doctrine of Evolution. By
evolution, the author does not understand evolving or unfolding, as do
ordinary mortals; but the aggregation or contraction and diffusion,
according to certain laws which he has determined, of matter, motion,
and force. Evolution consists, therefore, of two processes,
contraction and diffusion, and is either simple or compound. Simple
evolution is where concentration and diffusion follow each other
alternately; compound evolution is where the two processes go on
simultaneously in the same subject, which may be said to be growing
and decaying, or living and dying, at one and the same time.
Minerals, plants, and animals, including man, are all formed by the
evolution of matter, motion, and force. The elimination or loss of
motion, mechanical, chemical, or electrical, is followed by the
concentration of matter and force, which may assume the form of a
pebble, a diamond, a nettle, a rose, an oak, a jelly-fish, a tadpole,
a monkey, a man. Life is simply the product of “the mechanical,
chemical, and electrical arrangement of particles of matter.” The
concentration of motion is followed by a diffusion or dispersion of
matter and force, and the disappearance of the several groups of
phenomena we have just named; but as matter is indestructible, and as
there is always the same quantity of motion and force, they disappear
only to reappear in new groups or transformations. The diffusion of
the mineral may be the birth of the plant; of the plant, the birth of
the animal; of the ape, may be a new concentration which gives birth
to man. Nothing is lost. The cosmos is a ceaseless evolution; is, so
to speak, in a state of perpetual flux and reflux, in which diffusion
of one group of phenomena is followed by the birth of another, in
endless rotation, or life from death, and death from life. Dissolution 640
follows concentration “in eternal alternation,” or both go on
together. This is not a new doctrine, but substantially the doctrine
of a school of Greek philosophers, warred against both by Plato and
Aristotle, that all things are in a state of ceaseless motion, of
growth and decay, in which corruption proceeds from generation, and
generation from corruption, in which death is born of life, and life
is born of death. Our cosmic philosophers only repeat the long since
exploded errors of the old cosmists. But pass over this.
The author is treating of the knowable. We ask him, then, how he
contrives to know that there is any such evolution as he asserts? He
assumes that matter, motion, and force are the constituent elements of
the cosmos; but he can neither know it nor prove it, since he
maintains that what matter is, or what motion is, or what force is, is
unknown and unknowable. He denies the relation of cause and effect, or
at least that it is cognizable; how, then, can he assert the cosmic
phenomena are only concentrations and diffusions of matter, motion,
and force? A certain elimination of motion and a corresponding
concentration of matter and force produces the rose, another produces
an ape, another produces a man, says the author of this new system of
philosophy. Does he know that he is only a certain concentration of
matter and force, resulting from a certain diffusion or loss of
motion? Can he not only think, but prove it? But all proof, all
demonstration, as all reasoning, nay, sensible intuition itself,
depends on the principle of cause and effect; for, unless we can
assert that the sensation within is _caused_ by some object without
that affects the sensible organism, we can assert nothing outside of
us, not even a phenomenon or external appearance. How does the author
know, or can he know, that he differs from the ape only in the
different combination of matter, motion, and force?
Mr. Spencer, in his work on _Biology_, asserts that life results from
the mechanical, chemical, and electrical arrangement of the particles
of matter. If this were so, it would, on the author’s own principles,
explain nothing. It would be only saying that a certain group of
phenomena is accompanied by another group, which we call life, but not
that there is any causal relation between them. That the supposed
arrangement of the particles of matter originates the life Mr. Spencer
cannot assert without the intuition of cause and causes he either
denies or banishes to the unknowable. Analytical chemistry resolves,
we are told, the diamond into certain gases; but is synthetic
chemistry able to recombine the gases so as to produce a diamond?
Professor Huxley finds, he thinks, the physical basis of life in
protoplasm. Protoplasm is not itself life, according to him, but its
basis. How does he know, since he denies causality, that life is or
can be developed from protoplasm? Protoplasm, chemically analyzed, is
resolved into certain well-known gases; but it is admitted that
synthetic chemistry is unable to recombine them and reproduce
protoplasm. Evidently, as in the case of the diamond, there is in the
production of protoplasm some element which even analytic chemistry
fails to detect. No synthetic chemistry can obtain the protoplasm from
protein, and there is no instance in which life, feeling, thought and
reason, are known, or can be proved, to result from dead matter, or
from any possible combinations of matter, motion, and force. If it
could so result, the fact could not be proved, and would remain for 641
ever in the unknowable.
The new philosophy resolves all the cosmic phenomena into the
concentration and diffusion of the unknowable elements called matter,
motion, and force. The quantities of these elements remain always the
same, but they are in a state of constant evolution, and all the
cosmic phenomena result from this evolution, and are simply changes or
transformations of the same force. Now, the evolution either has had a
beginning or it has not. If it has not, we must assume an infinite
series of evolutions, or concentrations and diffusions; but an
infinite series is absurd, and the author himself denies it. Then it
must have had a beginning; but no phenomenon can begin to exist
without a cause independent of the phenomenon, or the _causatum_. But
the author denies the cause in denying the origin of the cosmos in
creation, or its production by a supercosmic creator. We are sadly at
loss, then, to conceive how he contrives, consistently with his new
system, to assert either the law of evolution, or even evolution
itself. Will he tell us how he does it?
We need not follow the author through the alleged facts and
illustrations by which he seeks to explain and sustain his system of
evolution; because evolution is not assertable on his own principles,
nor is it provable _aliunde_ by any possible deductions or inductions
of science. So far from being science, it is not even an admissible
hypothesis; because it contradicts and refutes itself. Mr. Spencer has
attempted to construct a system of philosophy or explication of the
cosmic phenomena, and the law of their production or transformation,
without recurrence to any metaphysical principles, and from physical
principles alone, or by the generalization of the physical phenomena
as they appear to the human consciousness in space and time, and has
necessarily failed; because the physical principles themselves, and
consequently the physical phenomena, are inexplicable and
inconceivable even, without the principles discarded as metaphysical.
The author’s whole theory of evolution depends on the assumed fact of
the indestructibility of matter, the continuity of motion, and the
persistence of force, not one of which can be asserted without the
ideal intuition of being, substance, and cause, all three metaphysical
principles, and as such relegated by the author to the region of the
unknowable. The indestructibility of matter can be deduced or induced
from no possible observation of sensible phenomena. The continuity of
motion or the persistence of force is no fact of consciousness. Mr.
Spencer himself says, to science or the explication of phenomena, the
present must be linked with the past and with the future, and hence he
argues the indestructibility of matter, the continuity of motion, and
the persistence of force; but not one of them is a fact of
consciousness. Consciousness is the recognition of one’s self as
subject in the present act of thought, and looks neither before nor
after, takes cognizance neither of the past nor of the future, and
consequently of no link connecting them with the present.
Indestructibility, continuity, persistence, all of which imply
cognitions of the past and future, are not and cannot be facts of
consciousness, which is cognition only of the present. Matter and
motion, the author says, are derivative, derived from force, which
alone is primitive. The indestructibility of matter and the continuity
of motion depend, then, solely on the persistence of force, and are
apprehensible, therefore, only in apprehending that persistence; but 642
that persistence is not a fact of consciousness. How, then, can it be
asserted, unless force is, and is apprehended as, a persistent
substance? But substance is unknowable.
The author adopts the method of the physicists, the so-called
inductive method, and proceeds from particular phenomena to induce by
generalization their law; but no induction is valid that is not made
by virtue of a general principle, which is not itself inferable from
the phenomenal, and must be given and held by the mind before any
induction is possible. This is the condemnation of the method of the
physicists, for, from phenomena alone, only phenomena can be obtained.
A method without principles is null, and leads only to nullity. The
author does not understand that the reason why the cosmic phenomena
are not cogitable without the assumption of the cosmic reality
underlying them, is because the mind intuitively apprehends them as
dependent on something which they are not, and at the same time, and
in the same intellectual act, intuitively apprehends a reality beyond
them, which by its causative act produces and sustains them. He is
wrong in declaring that the something real is unknowable; it may be
incomprehensible, but, as we have seen, it must be cognizable, or
nothing is cognizable.
That the men who follow in the physical sciences the physical or, as
they say, the inductive method, inducing general conclusions from
particular facts or phenomena, have really advanced those sciences,
and by their untiring labors and exhaustless patience achieved all but
miracles in the application of science to the mechanical and
productive arts from which trade and industry have so largely
profited, we by no means deny; but they have done so because the mind,
in their investigations and inductions, has all along had the
intuition of the ideal principle which legitimates their
generalizations, that of being or substance, and its creative or
causative act, but of which they take no heed, or to which they do not
advert; as St. Augustine says, the mind really has cognition of God in
the idea of the perfect, but does not ordinarily advert to the fact.
They suppose they obtain the law they assert by logical inference from
the phenomena, because they do not observe that the mind has intuition
of the causative or creative act, which is the ideal principle of the
induction. The mind is superior to their philosophy, and they reason
far better than they explain their reasoning. We may apply to them the
advice Lord Mansfield gave to a man of good sense and sound judgment,
but of little legal knowledge, who had been recently appointed a judge
in one of the British colonies: “Give your decisions,” said his
lordship, “without fear or hesitation; but don’t attempt to give your
reasons.” So long as they confine themselves to the proper field of
scientific investigation, they are safe enough; but let them come out
of that field and attempt to explain the philosophy or the principles
of their physical science, and they are pretty sure to make sad work
of it. _Ne sutor ultra crepidam._
Mr. Spencer protests against being regarded as an atheist, for he
denies the self-existence of the universe, and neither affirms nor
denies the existence of God. But _atheist_ means simply _no-theist_,
and, if he does not assert that God is, he certainly is an atheist. It
is not necessary, in order to be an atheist, to make a positive denial
of God. His disciple, Professor John Fiske, who has been lecturing on
the cosmic philosophy before Harvard College, contends that the cosmic 643
philosophy is not atheistical, because it asserts in the unknowable an
infinite power, being, or reality, that underlies the cosmic
phenomena, of which they are the sensible manifestations; yet this
does not relieve it, because what is asserted is not God, and is not
pretended to be the God of theism, but the reality or substance of the
cosmos and indistinguishable from it. It is the real, as the phenomena
are the apparent, cosmos.
The author denies that he is a pantheist, for he denies the hypothesis
of self-creation; but, if he is not a pantheist, it is only because he
does not call the unknowable infinite power or being he asserts as the
reality of the cosmos, that is, the real cosmos, by the name of God,
Deus, or Theos. But asserting that power as the reality or substance
of the cosmic phenomena is precisely what is meant by pantheism.
Pantheism, in its modern form, is the assertion of one only substance,
which is the reality of the cosmic phenomena, and the denial of the
creation of finite substances, which are the real subject of the
cosmic manifestations. Pantheism denies the creation of substances or
second causes, and asserts that all phenomena are simply the
appearances of the one infinite and only substance; and this is
precisely what Mr. Spencer undeniably does. The only difference
between atheism and pantheism is purely verbal. The atheist calls the
reality asserted cosmos or nature, and the pantheist calls it God, but
both assert one and the same thing. The power Mr. Spencer asserts is
simply the _natura naturans_ of Spinoza, and that is nothing the atheist
himself does not accept, and, indeed, assert. Neither asserts, nor
does Mr. Spencer assert, any supercosmic being, or power on which the
cosmos depends, and the power they do assert is as much cosmic as the
phenomena themselves. Mr. Spencer’s protest betrays rare theological
and philosophical ignorance, or is a mere verbal quibble, unworthy a
man who even pretends to be a philosopher.
Mr. Spencer hardly once refers to Christian theology, and, without
ever having studied it, evidently would have us think that he
considers it beneath his attention. Yet he, as evidently, has
constructed his system for the purpose of undermining and disposing of
it once for all. This may be seen in the fact that, when he refers to
religion at all, it is always to some heathen superstition, which he
assumes to be the type or germ of all religion, carefully ignoring the
patriarchal, Hebrew, or Christian religion. He tells us “the earliest
traditions represent rulers as gods or demigods.” This is not true
even of heathenism, which is in fact an apostasy from the patriarchal
or primitive religion, or its corruption. The apotheosis of Romulus,
according to tradition, took place only after his death, and it is
only at a later period that the pagan emperors were held to be gods
during their lifetime. Mr. Spencer’s real or affected ignorance of the
whole order of religious thought is marvellous, and we cannot forbear
saying:
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
There is no philosophy or science, if God and his creative act are
excluded or ignored, because there is no cosmos left, and neither a
subject to know nor an object to be known.
Mr. Spencer misapprehends the relations of religion and science, and
consequently the conditions of their reconciliation. He says they are
the two opposite poles of one and the same globe. This is a mistake. 644
Religion and science are indeed parts of one whole; but religion,
while it includes science, supplements it by the analogical knowledge
called faith. The truths of faith and of science are always in
dialectic harmony, and between the Christian faith and real science
there is no quarrel, and can be none; for religion only supplies the
defect of science, and puts the mind in possession of the solution of
the problem of man and the universe, not attainable by science.
There is a quarrel only when the scientists, in the name of science,
deny or impugn the supplementary truths of revelation, and which are
at least as certain as any scientific truths or facts are or can be;
or when they reject the great principles of reason itself, which are
the basis of all science. Let the scientists confine themselves, as we
have said, to the study and classification of facts, or the
development and application to them of the undoubted principles of the
intuitive reason, and not attempt to go beyond their province or the
proper field of scientific investigation, and there will be no quarrel
between them and the theologians. The quarrel arises when men like
Spencer, Darwin, Huxley, and others, profoundly ignorant both of
philosophy and of theology, or the teachings of revelation, ignoring
them, despising them, or regarding them with sovereign contempt, put
forth baseless theories and hypotheses incompatible with the truths
alike of reason and faith; and it will continue till they learn that
an unproved and unprovable theory or hypothesis is not science, nor a
scientific explanation of the facts either of the soul or of the
cosmos, and is quite insufficient to warrant a denial of the belief of
the great bulk of mankind from the first man down to our own day. Then
there may be peace between the theologians and the scientists, but not
till then.
We said, or intended to say, that a philosopher is known by his
principles. We add that he is also known by his method. The physical
method is unscientific and illogical; for it seeks through phenomena
to arrive at being, and from particulars to obtain general or
universal conclusions. Induction that is not based on a universal
principle can never attain to anything but the particular.
Generalizations of particulars are only abstractions, and
abstractions, prescinded from their concretes, are nullities, as the
possible, without the real to actualize it, is nothing. There is no
rising from particulars to the universal unless we start with a
universal principle intuitively given. It is impossible to conclude,
by logical inference, substance or being from phenomena. The reality
which Mr. Spencer says we are compelled to assert, though itself
unknowable, as underlying the cosmic phenomena, is no deduction nor
induction from these, but is given intuitively as the ideal or
intelligible in the very act in which the phenomena themselves are
apprehended. Mr. Spencer is wrong in asserting it, as we have said, to
be unknowable, and still more so in asserting it as the subject of the
cosmic phenomena, which is simply pantheism. These phenomena are not
the appearances or manifestations of the Infinite Power or Being which
Mr. Spencer asserts as unknowable, but of the finite and dependent
substances which God, the Infinite Being, creates and upholds as
second causes.
The universal is not contained in the particular, the infinite in the
finite, the identical in the diverse, the immutable in the mutable,
the persistent in the transitory, unity in plurality, or the actual in
the possible, and therefore cannot be concluded from it. The two 645
categories are not obtainable, either from the other, by any possible
logical inference, and therefore must be given intuitively or neither
is cognizable; for, though not reciprocal, they connote, as all
correlatives, each the other, since neither is knowable without the
other. This is the condemnation of the physical or inductive method,
when followed as a method of obtaining the first principles either of
the real or of the knowable. We say only what Bacon himself said. He
said and proved that the inductive method is inapplicable in
philosophy, or out of the sphere of the physical sciences. The great
error has been in attempting to follow it in philosophy, or the
science of the sciences, where it is inapplicable, for no science can
start without first principles.
We feel that some apology is due our readers for soliciting their
attention to anything so absurd as Herbert Spencer’s _New System of
Philosophy_; but they must bear in mind that Mr. Spencer is a
representative man, and has only attempted to bring together and
combine into a systematic whole the anti-Christian, anti-theistical,
and anti-rational theories, hypotheses, and unscientific speculations
which, under the name and forms of science, govern the thought of the
modern non-Catholic world. Mr. Spencer’s book, which is a laborious
effort to give the philosophy or science of nothing, and ends only in
a system of “symbolic conceptions,” in which nothing, according to the
author, is conceived, has, after all, a certain value, as showing that
there is no medium or middle ground between Catholicity and atheism,
as there is none between atheism and nihilism. Mr. Spencer, we should
think, is a man who has read comparatively little, and knows less of
Christian theology or philosophy; he seems to us to be profoundly
ignorant of his own ignorance, as well as of the knowledge other men
have. He is only carrying out the system of Sir William Hamilton, Dr.
Mansel, and providing a philosophy for the Darwins, the Huxleys, the
Galtons, the Lubbocks, the Tyndalls, _et id omne genus_, and has
succeeded in proving that no advance has been made by the non-Catholic
world on the system of old Epicurus, which is rapidly becoming the
philosophy of the whole world outside of the church, and against which
the Bascoms, the Hodges, and the McCoshes, with honorable intentions
and a few fragments of Catholic theology and philosophy, protest in
vain. This is our apology for devoting so much space to Herbert
Spencer’s inanities.
[129] _First Principles of a New System of Philosophy._ By
Herbert Spencer. Second Edition. New York: Appleton & Co. 1871.
12mo, pp. 559.
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ST. CECILIA’s DAY IN ROME. 646
St. Cecilia is one of the few figures among the representative throng
of virgin-martyrs that strike us at once as the most familiar, the
most lovable, and the most to be exalted. Every one knows the legend
of her life, and the conversion of her husband and his brother,
brought about by her prayers, as also by the miracles she obtained for
their further confirmation in the faith. Her death, in itself a
miracle, needs no retelling, neither does the history of her
wondrously preserved remains, that are now laid in the shrine beneath
the altar of _Santa Cecilia in Trastevere_, a church erected, by her
own wish and behest, on the spot where her palace stood. This church
is a basilica, and has its altar raised many steps above the level of
the mosaic floor of the nave, and the front of the altar turned away
from the people so that the celebrant at Mass stands facing the
congregation, as in many other ancient Roman churches. Under the
altar, on the lower level of the nave, is the shrine of the saint, and
there lies her marble image, small and frail, though it is said to be
life-sized, and reverently and truly copied from the sleeping body,
whose form remained entire and uncorrupted, at least until the last
time it was solemnly uncovered. To the right of the church is a dark
side-chapel, floored with rare mosaic, once the bath-room of the young
and wealthy patrician, and the consecrated spot where heathen cruelty
twice endeavored to put an end to the sweet singer’s life. The actual
bath is said to be within the railings that divide a narrow portion of
the chapel from the rest. There was the first miracle performed, of
her preservation from the boiling water; there also the second, of the
prolongation of her life after the three deadly yet ineffectual
strokes of the unskilful executioner’s sword. One can fancy the young
matron, so childlike in years, so experienced in holiness, lying in
meek and chaste expectation of the embraces of her heavenly
Bridegroom, and of the purified reunion with her earthly and virgin
spouse--while, all the time the wondrous, angel-sustained life lasted,
the Christians, her brethren in the faith, her children through
charity, would be coming and going, silently as to an altar,
rejoicingly as to a saint, and learning, from lips on whom the kiss of
peace of the glorified Jesus was already laid, lessons of fortitude
and love most precious to their faithful souls. We are told, also,
that Urban, the pope, visited her on her glorious death-bed, and, no
doubt, he learnt from her entranced soul more than he could teach it
in its passing hour; learnt, perhaps, things whose sweetness became
strength to him in the hour of his own not far distant martyrdom.
Cecilia, in her short and heavenly life, seems a fitting model for all
women, and especially for young maidens and wives. She was of those
who know well how to put religion before men in its most beautiful
garb and most enthralling form; purity with her was no ice-cold stream
and repellent rocky fastness: it was beauty, it was reward, it was
glory. Crowns of lilies and roses, heavenly perfume, and angelic
companionship were to be its lovely guerdon; and not otherwise should 647
it ever be preached, nor otherwise surrounded, when its precepts are
presented to man. Had we more Cecilias among our Christian women of
to-day, there would be more Valeriani and Tiburtii among our men, and
virtue would be more readily deemed an honor than a yoke; home would
be more of a temple, rather than a mere resting-place; home-life more
of a prayer, rather than a simple idyl. For blamelessness is not
Christian purity; righteousness is not Christian faith. We want the
visible blessings of the church on our daily lives, even as Cecilia
brought into the circle of home the visible, angelic gifts of flowers;
and we know that to those who seek them where Valerian and his brother
sought the heavenly apparition--that is, through faith and
prayer--these blessings, these gifts, these blossoms, these
safeguards, are never denied.
And to pass from these aspirations after a more Christian ideal of
home to the impressions made on an eye-witness by the feast of St.
Cecilia in Rome, we will merely say that this feast had been eagerly
looked forward to, and had always held a special charm over the mind
of the writer of these pages.
On this day, the 22d of November, Mass is said from dawn till noon in
the catacomb chapel, where the martyr was first buried. This chapel is
one of the largest and most interesting in the Catacomb of St.
Callixtus. The distance from the Eternal City to this shrine is not
long, but the old Appian Way that leads from the one to the other is
crowded with memories and monuments, each a history in itself.
The most noticeable of these is very near the catacomb, and is none
other than the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella, the mysterious and
oft-sung pile that Byron has made strangely familiar to us. One cannot
help being struck by the familiarity of the two names, and the
proximity of the two shrines, of the Cecilias of Rome. The proud
mausoleum, stately as a palace, strong as a fortress, built by some
ostentatious patrician, or by some sorrowing husband, for the merely
worldly end of perpetuating the memory of an illustrious house, or of
the domestic virtues of a spouse a little above the common run of
licentious Roman matrons, stands now deserted and unvisited, its real
history lost and forgotten, and a fictitious one attached to it
through the imaginative efforts of a foreign poet. The lonely
sepulchre in an earthen wall, the hidden recess in an underground
chapel--dug out by silent, persecuted men for the proscribed body of a
so-called criminal--remains to this day the pilgrimage of thousands,
the well-remembered and well-loved spot where devout followers of the
faith Cecilia followed come to beg her intercession as they kneel
before the same sacrament, and assist at the same sacrifice, whose
blessings were Cecilia’s only strength. Cecilia Metella, the rich
Roman lady, is unknown save to antiquaries; Cecilia, the
virgin-martyr, is honored all over the world, by all races and all
nations. The wealth of the first has rusted away and is heard of no
more, because its last emblem was a palatial tomb; the riches of the
second have increased a hundred-fold, and have been sown broadcast
over the earth, because their abiding symbol lies in a church built
over her former dwelling; and the harvest her prayers have reaped is
gathered year after year in the riches untold, of virgins crowned with
miraculous flowers, of wives laden with the conversions of those dear
to them, of women of all ages, all ranks, all nations, bearing in 648
their hands the charity born of Cecilia’s death-bed generosity, and in
their hearts the faith of her death-bed professions.
And so, past the stately tomb worthy of Egypt’s solemn magnificence,
the road leads to a small door in a wall, which opens on to a field. A
path fringed with red and purple flowers, the last-born children of a
southern autumn, winds through the field, to the head of a steep but
wide flight of stairs, at the foot of which is the entrance to St.
Callixtus’ Catacomb. The pure air, just mist-veiled in the morning
coolness, shows the landscape around to its utmost advantage; the
omnipresent dome of St. Peter’s basilica clears the line of the blue
horizon; the wide purple plain is crossed here and there by
dust-whitened roads and arched aqueducts, as by the gigantic bones of
a decayed and now powerless monster; the distant hills, darkened at
their base by chestnut woods, and dotted with white villas, as with
the loosened beads of a string of pearls, throw bluer shadows on the
dusky, olive-spotted expanse: and we pause, and wonder whether, after
all, things looked so very unlike this on the dawning day when the
Christians bore the happy Cecilia to her first resting-place. Their
hearts surely must have felt as ours do now, full of joy and
thanksgiving, and, above all, full of peace. There would have been a
silent throng, a quiet gradual gathering of the future martyrs around
the narrow grave of their blessed-forerunner; for in those days no one
knew how soon he or she might be called from the altar to the stake,
and summoned to carry the unconsumed sacrament within his bosom to the
tribunal of an unjust and ignorant judge.
The avenues of the perplexing labyrinth of the catacomb are
all guarded by the government on this day of St. Cecilia’s, so that no
one may stray from the one chapel where service is going on. Close to
the entrance is the small recess where the saint was laid in her first
sleep. It is low and reaches far back into the damp earth-wall; myrtle
and bay-leaves are strewn over its floor, and flowers and little
oil-lamps are spread about like stars. As each person leaves the
chapel, he takes away a leaf or flower as a holy remembrance. Two
altars are erected, one close to the martyr’s grave, just beneath a
Byzantine fresco head of our divine Lord, the other on the opposite
side of the chapel. The space, small enough for a modern congregation,
though large for a catacomb chapel, is so crowded that it is difficult
for the priests to pass in and out from the altars to the temporary
sacristy, and the worshippers almost lean upon them when they stand to
say the “Judica me, Deus.” No noise is heard, save the murmured words
of the Mass and the tinkling of the elevation-bell. Foreigners are
there with fair-haired boys serving the Mass of some favorite friend
and accompanying chaplain; Romans are there with their intense, if not
deep, southern devotion; rich and poor, prince and beggar, student and
peasant, are alike crowding the virgin-martyr’s shrine. A few hundred
years ago, this was the church’s cradle, and patrician and slave came
to be baptized together and wear for one day the white robes that
to-morrow twilight would see red with blood on the deserted sand of
the gladiator’s amphitheatre. The priest who said Mass in those days
hardly knew, when he came to the consecration, whether the hand of the
pagan soldiery might not be upon him before the communion; the mother 649
who knelt in tears, half of natural sorrow, half of heavenly joy, and
thought of the fair young boy she had but yesterday given back to God
on the scaffold, did not know whether tomorrow’s dawn might not find
her herself prostrate and headless on the same place of execution.
Partings then were seldom for long, and, even when the Christians
parted with our Lord on the hidden altars, they knew they would meet
him soon again at the right hand of his Father. Not unfrequently, the
Blessed Sacrament was kept in a silver vessel made in the shape of a
dove, and one cannot help thinking how sweet a union must have existed
between this custom and the idea of the protection and the teaching
the Holy Spirit was to afford to his spouse, the church. “When the
Spirit of truth cometh,” Jesus had said, “he shall teach you all
things.” And so the Dove of heaven taught the church the hidden
beauties of the ineffable sacrament, and protected this greatest
treasure of the Bride in its integrity of doctrine and its continuity
of love. May we not so interpret, lovingly and reverentially, the
olden custom of the dove-shaped tabernacle?
Beautiful as the day was, it was a sore trial to leave the darksome,
silent chapel, where generations of older and braver Christians than
ourselves had spent their triumphant vigils and been brought back to
sleep their peaceful hero-slumbers--it was a trial, I say, to return
to the carelessly beautiful earth, the unheeding theatre of such
wondrous mysteries. To leave the catacombs in Cecilia’s times was to
go forth to almost certain death; to leave prayer and solitude, the
catacombs of the heart in our day, is to encounter certain sorrow and
possible sin. It is hard to leave God’s temple and mingle with the
chattering throng; it is hard to lift the curtain of silence and mix
with the wrangling world. Yet it is our duty. Few are privileged to be
hermits, and those few not until the privilege is turned into a trial,
and the apparent retreat is no other than a hard-won stronghold. In
the battle, we must fight, and fight manfully, in the foremost rank;
it is only the generals and the chiefs among us that watch from afar,
and feel, like wearied Moses, the weight of victory or defeat hanging
on the issue of their prayers. Our part seems the harder, but it is
only because our nature is so little that dissatisfaction with our
present lot is the very air we breathe. After all, if we could look
around us, we should see many beautiful things; if we are bound in
fetters of duty, they are golden fetters, with the word of God carved
all over their sunlike sheen; if we are led in one way and forced to
wear the harness of unalterable circumstances, the reins are broidered
with fair work that tells the story of how the angel led the ass of
Balaam, and how palms were strewn on the path of Jesus; the way is
emblazoned with rarest flowers and sweetest fruits, the heraldry of
grace; if we bear a yoke and a burden, they are but spices and
ointments, wine and oil, and milk and honey, all fair and gracious
merchandise from the great mart of heaven, to be borne over the world,
as the clouds bear the rain, in fertilizing charity and fruit-bearing
meekness. So let us leave the dear catacomb, where even Music hushed
her sighs, and come forth across the Roman Campagna, with the
mist-veils rolled off it, and the noonday sun, with its reminiscences
of summer, gilding its fringe of distant mountains, and its strange
rifts of sudden, unsuspected valleys. Here and there, an aqueduct or a
proud stone pyre, a mound of stones, each of which bears an imperial 650
inscription, a rude shepherd’s fence, or irregular stone wall, that is
all you see. Not far from here, in a cornfield whose waves of brown
and gold a few months ago kissed the foot of an ilex-crowned hillock,
is the fountain of Egeria, a grotto, fern-clothed, with a broken
goddess of mouldering stone. The water and the “maiden-hair” fern are
there still, as beautiful as when the king of Rome is said to have
wandered here in search of wisdom; the sage himself and the
problematic nymph of tradition are dead and gone, forgotten by the
owner of the corn-field, ignored by the peasant who drinks at the
fountain, unknown to the brown, barefooted child who gathers the
feathery fern.
Of what use is it to say any more? Facts are more cruel commentaries
on the past than any words.
Yet we have just seen children and peasants, women from northern
lands, men from eastern climes, bearing away as a relic a leaf of bay
or a starry flower from the once filled recess where Cecilia lay in
peace-sealed slumber.
Where is the difference, and why?
A little child can tell, but the philosopher will not listen.
The feast of St. Cecilia, though to the writer of these pages it ended
on the threshold of the catacomb, is not completed here.
At her church in the _Trastevere_, the church already mentioned,
takes place the ceremony of solemn vespers, in which the artists of
Rome assist and take part gratuitously, out of homage to the queen of
music. The antiphon “Cantantibus Organis” is magnificent in art, but
unresponsive in devotion. The phantom of the unhappy _Renaissance_
breathes in these strains, religious only in so far as they are a
fabric built on sacred words. The simple solemnity of the church’s
service dwells not in them, and the touching silence of the catacomb
recalls the saint to our mind far more sweetly than these outbursts of
paganized minstrelsy within the halls she once called her own. Still,
if honor to God be meant by this concourse of the artist fraternity,
let us be simple of intention, and see in it, as God does, the
first-fruits of what they have offered to the God of all.
Reader, if you ever pray before the early shrine of the virgin-martyr
in St. Callixtus’ chapel, remember the writer of these few words, and
let our prayers go up to God together, “as a morning sacrifice” and
“as incense in his sight.”
----------
FLEURANGE. 651
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MRS. CRAVEN,
AUTHOR OF “A SISTER’s STORY.”
PART FIRST.
THE OLD MANSION.
I.
“Young, beautiful, poor, and alone in Paris, what will become of her?”
It was the third time Dr. Leblanc had repeated these words in the
presence of his sister, Mademoiselle Josephine, who remained so mute
that she might have been thought deaf, had not the irregular click of
her knitting-needles, and two or three indistinct exclamations as she
paused in her work, testified to a preoccupation quite equal to that
of her brother. The latter at first manifested his by swiftly striding
up and down the apartment in which they were, but now he resumed his
usual place in the chimney-corner opposite his sister, opened and shut
his snuff-box noisily, taking a useless profusion of pinches, which he
forgot to convey to their destination, and tapping the floor with his
foot in a manner that expressed great agitation or extreme perplexity.
Mademoiselle Josephine continued to knit without replying, and seemed
no less absorbed than her brother. At length she said:
“At least, if she were not, as you say, so young and so beautiful!”
“And so poor and alone in the world, you should add. A sensible
remark, indeed! It is evident if she were old, ugly, rich, and
surrounded by friends, her situation would be very different. I am
indebted to you, Josephine, for the discovery.”
“Do not be impatient, brother. I am only repeating what you have just
said. To continue the subject: if she only had a different air--”
“Well, go on!”
“And another name--”
“Another name! Why so? What has her name to do with the matter?”
“A name which was not ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous! The name of her father? Poor Gerard d’Yves’ name was very
respectable, and even noble, I believe. He committed a thousand
extravagances and ruined himself. He then became an artist, and
displayed talent enough to have repaired his fortunes had he been
wise. Besides, he was of a good family, and his name--”
“I am not alluding to his name, but to his daughter’s.”
“Well?”
“Well, brother, do you think this young girl’s name bears any
resemblance to a Christian name?”
“Fleurange? I acknowledge it is perhaps an odd name. Her father had a
taste for odd things, and hearing the name of Fior Angela in Italy, he
translated it.”
“Her mother should have had more sense.”
“Her poor mother died when she was born, so she had nothing to do with 652
it.”
“Did you not say her mother had a brother who was a professor in some
city in Germany?”
“Yes, at Leipsic; but who knows where to find him now? Her whole
family disapproved of her marriage, which was finally effected without
her father’s consent. Poor Margaret lived only a year, and Gerard, who
remained a widower, declined all intercourse with his wife’s
relatives. He remained many years in Italy, and placed his daughter,
as soon as she was five years old, in some convent near Perugia. He
took her away only two months before he came here, already ill, to
linger and die three days ago in this poor child’s arms, leaving her
entirely alone in the world.”
“But was it not very injurious to his daughter’s interests to withhold
her thus from all intercourse with her maternal relatives?”
“He began to realize it himself, but only when it was too late. During
his illness, finding his case daily growing more serious, he made some
efforts to ascertain what had become of Ludwig Dornthal, of whom we
have just spoken, who was Margaret’s favorite brother, and never
faltered in his affection for her. But he could ascertain nothing
respecting him. Ludwig had married, and, long before, left Leipsic to
settle in some other part of Germany, he could not find out what, and
this fruitless effort was a source of pain, which was not the least he
suffered during his last hours. He reproached himself, and not without
reason, for the frightful loneliness in which he was about to leave
his daughter. The poor, unhappy man bitterly expiated the imprudent
and thoughtless act of alienating himself from those whose pardon he
should rather have implored, or at least accepted. But it was the
consequence of his disposition, which was affectionate, enthusiastic,
and fascinating, I imagine, when he was young, but weak, violent, and
thoughtless. He was born neither to be happy himself, nor to make
others happy, and his daughter would have been almost as great an
object of pity, had he lived, as she is now.”
“Poor child!” said Mademoiselle Josephine, raising her small black
eyes, with an expression almost celestial lighting up her pale and
wrinkled face. After a moment’s silence, she added: “God tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb! You will see, brother, that some good luck
will befall her, or we shall have some fortunate inspiration.”
“Well, the sooner the better, for I have none. Your confidence truly
excites my admiration.”
“I trust in God,” simply replied Mademoiselle Josephine.
“Parbleu! and I too,” said the doctor. “I truly believe in his
goodness; I hope in his mercy; but in this case--”
“You would prefer to have the affair in your own hands?”
“Come, come, Josephine, let us stick to the point this time. It is
eight o’clock, and we must positively go for that poor child. She is
more lonely than ever to-day, for the sister who nursed her father,
and remained with her after his death, left this morning. She must
not, after so sad a day, pass this first night all alone up there.”
“Certainly not,” said the other.
The doctor continued: “She has not left that little room in the fourth
story for a fortnight, with the exception of this morning, when she
followed her father to the grave, and since her return how do you
imagine she has been occupied? Here, look at this.”
Mademoiselle Josephine took the paper her brother held out, and 653
glanced over it. It was a list of the poor artist’s debts.
“The whole amounts to five hundred francs, which are here. She asked
me to settle the bills and procure the receipts.”
“I see that, according to her calculation, one-fourth of this sum is
intended for the physician who attended her father,” said Mademoiselle
Josephine slowly.
“Who, in such a case, will not accept it, of course.”
“Of course not,” said his sister. “Out of this sum one hundred and
twenty-five francs will be returned to her, then?”
“Yes, sister, and that will be the amount of her fortune.”
“While we are talking, then, she has absolutely nothing?”
“Nothing at all.”
Their conversation at this point was interrupted by a low knock at the
door, and almost immediately the girl of whom they had been talking
appeared before them. She stopped and leaned against the wall. The
doctor sprang toward her.
“Poor child!” he exclaimed. “While we were idly talking, she was faint
from exhaustion and fatigue.”
She had, in truth, fallen into a chair against the wall, and seemed
losing consciousness. Mademoiselle Josephine hastened to support her
head, and bathe her pale brow and colorless cheeks with cold water.
Every movement of the doctor’s elderly sister had become prompt and
decided. At a sign from her brother, she disappeared an instant, but
returned almost immediately with a vial and a glass of water in her
hand.
“That is it,” said the doctor. He let fall a few drops into the glass,
which he then held to the young girl’s lips. Two or three swallows
seemed to revive her.
“Excuse me,” she said, raising her head, and forcing herself to rise.
“Excuse me, both of you. I did not think myself so weak, and did not
intend to give you so much trouble when I came to see you.”
“Do not talk now, but drink the remainder of this.”
Fleurange put the glass to her lips, but returned it to the doctor
without tasting it. “I cannot,” she said, “I feel dizzy. I do not know
what ails me--perhaps it is the surprise I have just had. Here,
monsieur, read this. It was to show you this letter I came down.”
The doctor took the letter, but, before reading it, led Fleurange to
the fire, while the active Josephine, divining her brother’s wishes,
placed on the table a bowl of soup and some bread and wine.
Fleurange took Mademoiselle Josephine’s hand between her own: “Thank
you,” she said in a low tone. “Yes, I think it was that: I am
generally strong, but--but--”
“I dare say you have not eaten anything since yesterday?”
“No; and I am hungry.”
The doctor briskly rubbed his spectacles, and abruptly opened his
snuffbox, while the young girl hastily took the slight repast, which
brought a lively and unusual color to her cheeks. Her face was
generally very pale. Her large eyes, calm and mild, gray rather than
blue, shaded by lashes black as her hair, gave her a peculiar and
striking appearance. But notwithstanding this peculiarity,
notwithstanding her paleness, the delicacy of her features, and the
pliancy of her form, which swayed like a reed at every movement, if
obliged to characterize in two words the general impression produced
by the appearance of Fleurange d’Yves, those words would be:
simplicity and energy. Doctor Leblanc was doubtless right in thinking 654
that one so young, beautiful, and destitute needed protection, and yet
it required only a glance to see that she, better than any else, could
protect herself.
The doctor still held in his hand the letter she had given him. It was
dated at Frankfort.
“MY DEAR NIECE: It was only yesterday, and by the most
unforeseen chance, we at last learned the state of your father’s
health and where he lives. None of us have seen him since his
marriage with my poor sister Margaret twenty years ago. You know
there was at that time a profound hatred against France
throughout our country, and my father would never consent to
receive a Frenchman as his son-in-law. Then my poor sister (God
forgive her!) left the paternal roof to marry the man of her
choice. My father was exceedingly grieved, very angry, and at
first implacable, but before his death he forgave her. She was
past knowing it. From that time we lost all trace of your father.
We only learned he had left Pisa with his child, and, for a long
time, had given up all hope of ever seeing him again, or knowing
my poor sister’s daughter, when yesterday a stranger, passing
through this city, accidentally showed me a picture he had just
purchased at Paris--the work, he said, of a dying artist. This
painting represented Cordelia kneeling beside her father, and the
canvas bore the name of Gerard d’Yves. The painter’s address was
given us by the owner of the picture, and I hasten to profit by
it to tell you, my dear child, that your mother’s relatives have
not forgotten the tie that binds them to you. If you ever need a
shelter, you can find one beneath our roof. My wife and children
already regard poor Margaret’s daughter with affection. The latter
have thought of her from infancy as an absent sister whose return
they awaited. If God restores your father’s health, bring him
among us. If otherwise ordered, come yourself, my dear child. The
stranger who put us on your track told us the artist’s daughter
was the original of his Cordelia. If the resemblance is correct,
it does not diminish our desire to see you. Come soon, then, my
dear niece. At all events, answer this letter promptly, and be
assured of the affectionate regard of your uncle,
“LUDWIG DORNTHAL.”
“Josephine! Josephine!” exclaimed the doctor. “Here, read this: but,
first, embrace me. Yes, you were right. Your trust was better than my
wisdom! Yes, yes, God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. Poor child,
embrace me also.”
Fleurange rose: “Oh! very willingly,” said she as she threw herself
sobbing into the doctor’s arms. Fatigue, grief, and the emotion caused
by the unforeseen and unhoped-for offer of a refuge at the very moment
of extreme need, all combined to agitate her mind, excite her nerves,
and exhaust her strength. Her heart swelled with the emotion she could
not repress, and tears unrestrained came to her eyes, rolled down her
cheeks, and fell like rain on her clasped and icy hands, while a
convulsive movement agitated her breast, and her trembling lips gave
utterance to a feeble cry.
The doctor allowed her to weep a long time in silence, not uttering a
word to increase her agitation, and yet saying nothing to repress it.
At length the paroxysm subsided, and Fleurange rose quite confused.
“Excuse me once more,” said she; “I am distressing you, instead of
showing my gratitude as I ought. I could not restrain myself, but I
think I can safely promise it will not happen again. I seldom give way 655
to tears.”
She uttered these words in a firm tone, drying her tears, and throwing
back her hair with her two hands as if to cool her brow, then she
rose.
“Where are you going, pray?” asked Mademoiselle Josephine in an abrupt
tone of authority.
“Why,” stammered Fleurange, “I am going up-stairs. I--”
“Perhaps you are thinking to spend the night all alone in the cabinet
next the chamber--the chamber--” She stopped. Fleurange turned pale,
and her lips trembled as she replied:
“What can I do? It is sad, it is painful, I know well; but it must be
done. Besides, I am not afraid: I feel I am under your roof.”
“Well, for the present you shall also be under the protection of our
lock and key,” said the kind Josephine: and, taking Fleurange by the
arm, she led her into a little chamber next her own, where a small bed
surrounded by white curtains was in readiness for the young girl. This
little chamber, with its walls covered with blue paper, and lit up
with a good fire, had a most cheering aspect.
“Here, child, is your chamber and your bed,” said she. “Come, come, no
thanks, and, above all, no tears! Go to bed at once without giving
yourself the time to think, still less to say a word. You think you
are not going to sleep, but you are mistaken. On your knees? Well, I
consent to that, but let it be a short prayer. That is right. Now stop
till I gather up your thick hair. Is your head easy on that pillow?
Well, I am glad. May God, and all good angels, watch over you! Allow
me to kiss your forehead. Good-night!”
Mademoiselle Josephine lowered the curtains of the bed, and softly
left the chamber, while the poor orphan, in fact, lost all remembrance
of the sorrows and joys of the day in a profound and beneficent sleep.
The chamber to which Mademoiselle Josephine had taken Fleurange
rightfully belonged to the doctor’s niece, now at school in one of the
convents at Paris, but which she occupied during her vacation.
However, it was far from being vacant the remainder of the year.
Mademoiselle Leblanc was one of those persons who are devoted to the
searching out of the unfortunate, and the alleviation of their woes.
In such cases, he who seeks finds, and that without difficulty,
consequently a week seldom passed without offering a good reason for
opening the blue chamber for a few days’ shelter to some poor girl out
of work and destitute of a home, or to a poor abandoned child, or some
one recovering from illness but too feeble to resume work. The doctor
heartily approved of this. He would gladly have added to his dwelling
a veritable _succursale_ for the accommodation of his poor
patients, and if he was not yet rich enough for that, though he reaped
the benefit of his skill and celebrity, it was partly because he gave
away with one hand what he received in the other, and that with a
generosity not always in conformity with prudence. When there was a
question of benevolence between the brother and sister, one was not
more disposed than the other to count the cost. They had invented a
proverb, worthy of the Gospel, which they made use of in reply to the
remonstrances of their friends: “He who gives alms, grows rich,” they
said; and they continued to enrich themselves in this way by giving
themselves up, both of them, to a noble excess of charity. Fortune, in
fact, had not been unfavorable to them, and thus far had remained 656
unfulfilled the sinister prophecies of those who take as a _devise_
quite a different proverb, respecting charity, too well known and too
often acted upon in the world. Doctor Leblanc and his sister knew
nothing, it is true, of the luxury of elegant quarters and fine
equipages. They still lived in a street of the Latin quarter where
they were born; an old servant was the sole assistant of the cook; and
Mademoiselle Josephine continued to preserve order and neatness around
her with her own hands. But at all times they were magnificent in
their own way; and the artists they encouraged, the scholars
befriended, and the sick gratuitously attended and generously aided,
added to the renown of the distinguished physician and gave to his
name a reputation he did not seek. Simple and learned, healing the
body and respecting the soul, he loved his profession as a mission
from heaven, and practised it as a sacred ministry with respect and
with love.
II.
When Fleurange opened her eyes on the following morning, it was late,
for it was broad daylight and in the month of December. She must have
slept very profoundly, for she had not heard any one kindle the fire
already blazing in the chimney. Her slumbers must have been such as in
youth succeed great fatigue or prolonged efforts to endure anxiety and
grief in silence. The fit of weeping the evening before and the long
repose of the night had brought double refreshment to the exhausted
strength of the young girl, and her first sensation was one of
delicious comfort.
But her remembrances soon became more distinct, and the anguish of the
first awakening after a great misfortune made her heart sink within
her. She had, it is true, known her father but little. The convent
where she had been reared was not even in the town where he dwelt, and
she saw him but seldom during her childhood. But the days when he
appeared at the convent were to both great festivals. It was difficult
to understand how a father so glad to see his child could voluntarily
have allowed her to grow up away from him. But the time of reunion
came at last, and for several weeks they rambled around Italy
together. In unveiling all its wonders to a mind naturally capable of
appreciating them, the artist felt all the enthusiasm of his youth
revive. But it was a flame only rekindled to be extinguished. Soon
came symptoms of illness, the sad return to Paris, the fluctuations of
disease, which enfeeble the mind as well as the body, and separated
the child from her father while he was yet alive, and she night and
day at his bedside. His look that gave back no answering glance, the
words she murmured in his ear without making him understand, convinced
her of her loss before the separation by death which soon followed.
“O father! father scarcely known and so soon lost!” Such was
Fleurange’s cry, and perhaps an involuntary reproach mingled with her
accents of grief. She did not suspect it was a sublime and paternal
instinct that had influenced the poor artist in separating from his
child. He wished her to be self-reliant; he wished her to be pious and
pure; he wished her rare mental gifts only to be developed when order,
an immutable and divine order, was established in her soul; finally, 657
he desired her to be all that he himself lacked, and God blessed this
desire.
In a beautiful spot near Perugia, he found at the head of a charity
school one of those women whom the world itself would honor and
venerate if it comprehended them. By the _world_, I mean the mass of
light and scoffing people who are hostile to every sentiment in which
they have no share, and, above all others, to religious sentiments.
Yet this world is, on the whole, suspicious rather than unjust, and
incredulous than false: if it sees the semblance of evil, it
immediately supposes it real; if it sees the appearance of goodness,
it at once imagines this appearance deceitful; but when virtue is
unquestionably manifest, irrecusable in its simplicity and truth, and
succeeds in being regarded in a true light, the world--even the world
of which we have been speaking--generally bows down before it. The
thing is rare, it is true, more so than it should be, because the most
perfect natures aim not at displaying themselves, but at concealment;
and the world to which I refer seeks not to discover, but to deny,
their existence.
Madre Maddalena was one of these great hidden souls. No one ever spoke
of her, or of her little monastery, intended for the education of poor
children, but where a limited number of girls of a more elevated class
were also admitted. Like so many other monasteries in Italy, this one
was in a poetic and charming situation, but not one of those visible
afar off on the lofty summits that command views which ravish the eye
and transport the soul--views that kindle a desire in the most
indifferent heart to keel before them, and that have inspired
Christians to perpetuate prayer amid them in permanent sanctuaries.
The Convent of Santa Maria al Prato was, on the contrary, in a deep
valley, and surrounded by a landscape like those in which Perugino and
Raphael placed their divine creations or their sacred representations.
Afar off were mountains whose outlines were clearly defined on the
horizon in soft and harmonious colors; a stream wound through olive
groves, now and then encircling rustic dwellings--the evident
handiwork of a people with an instinctive taste for the arts; the
sombre verdure of a knot of pines or cypresses contrasted here and
there with the azure of the morning sky or the purple tints of
evening: such were the principal features of the landscape. The beauty
of such a scene subdues and reposes, as that of sublime summits
transports and exalts, and seems designed for meditation and labor, as
the other for contemplation and ecstasy.
It was to this retreat Fleurange’s father was providentially
led--perhaps guided by the protective inspiration we love to attribute
to mothers who are fond of their children. It was in the hands of
Madre Maddalena that he left his daughter as soon as she was five
years old, and, until the day she was eighteen, he only saw her twice
a year. But from year to year he felt more sure of having realized the
aim he had proposed respecting her. Fleurange had, nevertheless, no
proof to give him of her progress under the form of prizes obtained or
crowns conferred. The solemn occasions when such trophies are
distributed were unknown at Santa Maria al Prato, as well as the
examinations for which the memory is burdened for a day with facts
that are often remembered no longer. In fact, they did not aim at
giving her varied instruction, but they taught her how to learn, and 658
gave her a taste for study, work, and silence.
She was naturally sincere and courageous; she also became skilful and
active. Madre Maddalena seemed to have foreseen that this young
person, so sheltered in her early years, would one day be unusually
exposed to the rough combat of life. She probably did not foresee that
Fleurange would soon be left alone; but what she had read of her
father’s nature, what she knew of his history, made her comprehend
that prudence and a certain premature experience would serve as a
safeguard to his daughter. What would have been true had her father
lived, was no less so now his death left her entirely to herself.
Fleurange resisted the temptation of remaining in bed absorbed in sad
thoughts. She hastily rose, and was quite ready when Mademoiselle
Josephine entered her chamber for the third time. A smile enlivened
the features of the elderly maiden when she saw the effect of a good
night’s rest on the countenance of her _protégée_. The latter,
affected and grateful, and retaining the Italian habits of her
childhood, bent to kiss the hand of her benefactress.
“Do not kiss my old hand,” said Mademoiselle Josephine, “but my cheek,
if you like; now, let us not keep my brother waiting. It is nine
o’clock, our breakfast-hour which never varies.”
Fleurange followed her hostess to the breakfast-room, which was next
the parlor. The furniture of these two rooms had not been renewed for
more than fifty years, but nothing seemed dilapidated, thanks to the
exquisite neatness that everywhere reigned.
The doctor was already seated at the table. His sister took her place
opposite, giving Fleurange a seat between them.
“You have quite recovered,” said the doctor, extending his hand to the
young girl. “I am very glad to see it; but, for fear of relapse, you
must remain under my eye for some days to come. Everything has been
arranged, and from this time till your departure you will return no
more to the fourth story.”
“What can I say, monsieur? You are both so kind, and I love you so
much that I accept alms from your hands without shame and almost
without pain.”
“I forbid you making use of so shocking a word,” said Mademoiselle
Josephine.
“Yet it is really alms,” said Fleurange in a sad but firm tone, “for I
have nothing of my own, and if in want of a piece of bread to-day, I
should have to extend the hand of a beggar.”
“Come, come! you are not reduced to that yet, thank God! But let us
drop this, and speak of something more important. You must answer your
uncle’s letter without delay.”
“Yes, indeed,” said Fleurange. And after a short silence, she added:
“I am going to ask him to be kind enough to receive me for a month.”
“But from his letter, he seems disposed to offer you a much more
extended hospitality than that.”
“Perhaps so, but I am only willing to accept it till I have found the
means of living without being a burden on him.”
“What is your intention, then?”
“I do not know,” said Fleurange; “but there are many means of gaining
a, livelihood, are there not? Well, I shall endeavor to find one not
beyond my strength.”
The doctor looked at her, and then said: “There are certainly many
things not beyond your strength, but yet unsuitable for you.” 659
“Why?” asked Fleurange.
“They would be unsuitable for one of your age and condition.”
“Why so?” repeated she.
“I will explain myself after you tell me what you think of doing.”
“Come!” said Mademoiselle Josephine impatiently. “There is no need of
so much circumlocution in telling her that, when one is young and
pretty, caution is needful. If the child does not know that, the
sooner she is warned, the better it will be for her.”
“Young and pretty,” repeated Fleurange quietly without the slightest
embarrassment. “Yes, I know that will be a great obstacle to me in my
position. It would be much better to be homely and ten years older. I
had already thought of that. It is very unfortunate; but what can be
done?”
The doctor smiled. He had never heard any woman admit her own beauty
with so little vanity. Fleurange’s simplicity, the childlike candor of
her large eyes, the expression of which was yet grave and thoughtful,
struck him, and he felt an increase of the interest which up to this
moment had been excited by the young girl’s destitute condition,
rather than herself. He resumed, still smiling:
“As to this misfortune, you must resign yourself to it, at least for
twenty years to come.” But seeing that Fleurange did not smile in
return, but, on the contrary, became more and more thoughtful, he
continued: “Besides, if you ever come to that, we will find a means
for surmounting the difficulty.”
Fleurange’s face expanded. “Oh! thank you, monsieur; if you could
realize how much courage I have. And then,” she added, “I assure you
there are a great many things I know how to do.”
“For instance?” said the doctor.
“First, the instruction of children, to which I think myself adapted.
I love them, and they are generally fond of me also, and readily obey
me.”
“What else?”
“I know Italian and German (for I have made it a special point to
understand my mother’s native language thoroughly). My father thought
me also a good reader, and preferred my voice and accent to those of
any of the numerous readers and speakers he had heard. His fondness
perhaps blinded him to my defects; yet he might have been right, and I
could try.”
“Hem!” said the doctor. “There is much to be said for and against that
talent.”
“Finally, monsieur, I can do all kinds of work. I know how to sew
well--to wash, iron, and sweep. I could even cook a little.”
The doctor again regarded the noble countenance of the young girl
while she thus complacently enumerated the humble and laborious
employments she thought herself capable of. She was evidently sincere.
Her ability and willingness to do all she said could not be doubted.
He was affected, and remained silent.
But Mademoiselle Josephine exclaimed with enthusiasm: “That is what I
call an education! And who, my dear child, taught you so many
reasonable and useful things?”
Tears of emotion filled Fleurange’s eyes. “It was my dear Madre
Maddalena,” she replied.
This answer elicited fresh inquiries, to which Fleurange replied by
minutely relating the way in which her childhood had passed. The
doctor’s satisfaction increased with every word of her account, which,
nevertheless, made a breach in two of his prejudices. 660
Without any antipathy to pretty faces, they inspired him with a kind
of mistrust, or at least of solicitude, which his long experience had
doubtless very often warranted. But in regarding this young girl, so
self-reliant and so modest, so courageous and so delicate, and who
seemed ready to struggle so bravely against the difficulties of life,
how could he be angry with her for being beautiful, and how help
overlooking it in one sense?
The doctor had also a singular and, considering his belief as a whole,
an inconsistent prejudice against convents. He seemed to have retained
this point of agreement with those whom he habitually opposed on every
other subject. And here was an education which accorded not only with
all his ideas, but with all his whims--a conventual education. He
would be obliged to somewhat modify his opinions on this subject, as
well as on some others, and he resigned himself to it with a good
grace.
They finally resumed the subject of the letter to Frankfort. The
doctor and his sister already began to look forward with sorrow to the
departure of their young _protégée_, but they felt it was for her
interest not to delay joining the relatives who had invited her at so
opportune a moment. By their advice, Fleurange immediately began her
letter. Short and to the point, it was soon completed, and she gave it
to Mademoiselle Josephine. The latter began to read it with an air of
satisfaction, but when she came to the signature, a cloud suddenly
appeared on her face.
“What is it?” said Fleurange. “I have made some mistake or blunder?”
“No, you have not: the letter is very well, it could not be better,
but, but--”
“What, then? Tell me frankly, I beg of you.”
“Well, it is--indeed, I dare not tell you.”
“Pray tell me,” said Fleurange, “what has displeased you? There is
nothing in the letter I am not willing to correct according to your
advice.”
“It is--but you cannot change that.”
But what is it, then, dear mademoiselle? You really frighten me,”
insisted Fleurange with a disturbed air.
“You cannot change your baptismal name,” said the other, at length.
“My baptismal name?” exclaimed Fleurange with surprise. “Does my name
displease you to such a degree? I am sorry, for Madre Maddalena liked
it so much! She said it signified _the flower of the angels_--the
fairest of all the angels--the angel Gabriel, whom she considered my
patron. And she called me Gabrielle as often as Fleurange.”
“Gabrielle!” cried Mademoiselle Josephine eagerly. “Gabrielle! Ah!
that is a name everybody can understand. So that is the meaning of
Fleurange, according to your Madre Maddalena? Then I beseech, I
conjure you, to assume that name and give up the other!”
The doctor had for some minutes been occupied in reperusing Professor
Dornthal’s letter, which he kept the evening before; he now raised his
eyes, and attended to the conversation. While Fleurange was still
hesitating what reply to make to Mademoiselle Josephine’s singular
request, he said:
“I do not understand my sister’s persistency on this point. As to my
own opinion, it is opposed to hers. But it may be that the simpler of
the two names will be more in conformity with the tastes of the good 661
German family that awaits you, and perhaps Gabrielle would have a
better reception than Fleurange. Besides,” he continued, smiling,
“your young cousins beyond the Rhine would doubtless pronounce the
name in a way to diminish its charm and deprive it of all meaning
according to the pious and poetical interpretation you have just given
it.”
“That might be,” said Fleurange, smiling in return. “Anyhow, I will do
as you advise respecting it.”
“We will take it into consideration,” said the doctor. Then, glancing
once more over the professor’s letter, he continued: “Do you know the
name of the stranger who, by buying the last picture your father
painted, has unwittingly rendered you so great a service?”
“I do not. That picture was sold with the remainder when, at the
beginning of his fatal relapse, my father saw his finances
diminishing, and lost the hope of ever repairing them. My poor
father!” she continued with a trembling voice, “he was very ill the
day he made me sit in order to finish that picture--” Fleurange
suddenly stopped and blushed. The doctor’s look seemed to demand an
explanation, and she continued artlessly, but not without confusion:
“The owner of the picture is perhaps the stranger who visited the
studio that day. At least, I acknowledge the idea has repeatedly
occurred to me.”
“For what reason?”
“Because he was so delighted with Cordelia, and begged permission to
see it after its completion. But my father, from that day, was obliged
to give up the use of the brush, and the picture was sold as he left
it, with the others.”
“Was this amateur a German?”
“I do not know. He spoke French very well, but with a slight accent, I
know not what.”
“Was he some great lord?”
“I do not know--I have never seen a great lord.”
“But what kind of an air had this visitor--God bless him!” interrupted
Mademoiselle Josephine.
“A lofty and noble air, a remarkable physiognomy, and a grave and
sonorous voice,” replied Fleurange. “But, in spite of the gratitude I
perhaps owe him, the remembrance of his visit always troubles and
depresses me.”
“Why so?” said Josephine.
“Because it was the cause of the last and fatal crisis of my father’s
malady, who at that time even could not bear the slightest agitation.
I do not know the words the stranger murmured as he glanced at me, but
they greatly excited my father, who requested me in a tremulous voice
to leave the studio. As a general thing, he never allowed me to enter
it at the hour for visitors. The evening of that day he spoke to me in
an agitated manner of the lone condition in which I should soon be
left, and gave me some incoherent counsels, which were his last words.
He never recovered his full mind after that.”
“Poor man!” said the doctor; but he did not pursue the subject that
led to this account. Fleurange’s fleeting blush disappeared, and she
was again pale and calm as before, her pen in hand ready to correct
her letter according to the doctor’s advice. After a final
deliberation between the young girl and her elderly friends, it was
decided that the letter should be sent after it was signed
_Gabrielle d’Yves_.
III. 662
The day Margaret married Gerard d’Yves, the aged Sigismund Dornthal
blotted out his daughter’s name from his will, and gave orders that it
should never be uttered in his presence. Notwithstanding this,
softened by illness, and urged by his second son Ludwig, Margaret’s
favorite brother, he soon consented to send her his forgiveness and
blessing, but when they reached Pisa poor Margaret had just expired!
In the fury of his despair, which increased the impetuosity and
thoughtlessness of his character, Gerard tore up the letter containing
the long-delayed pardon, and only replied in these two words: “Too
late!”
It was thus the aged Dornthal was informed of his daughter’s death. He
himself died shortly after, ignorant of the existence of the child to
whom she had given birth. His property was divided between his two
sons, but Ludwig, devoted to study, and already in possession of a
professor’s chair at Leipsic, entirely abandoned to his elder brother
the administration of their common fortune, and Heinrich Dornthal
became the sole head of the commercial and banking houses founded by
Sigismund. He thenceforth made use of his brother’s capital as well as
his own, paying him regularly his income, without any interference in
his business on Ludwig’s part. The latter was at the same time
pursuing so brilliant a career as to attract the attention of all the
learned men of Germany to his labors. One of these, a resident of
Frankfort, invited him to pass at his house the annual vacations of
the numerous students who attended his lectures. The result of these
visits was that this professor’s daughter became Ludwig Dornthal’s
wife, and, in the course of time, the mother of his five children.
The professor, when he married, resigned his position at Leipsic to
settle in his wife’s native place. There, free from a professor’s
duties, he had leisure to write books that constantly added to his
reputation and increased his income, which the flourishing business of
the commercial house alone made sufficient.
Such was, in a few words, the condition of the new home that awaited
Fleurange. A second letter came promptly in reply to hers. Her uncle
expressed the liveliest joy at having found her, and invited her very
particularly to arrive at Frankfort in time for Christmas, so dear to
the Germans as the time of family reunions. To do this she would have
to leave Paris, at the very latest, on the twenty-first of December,
for at that time it took three days and nights for the journey to
Frankfort. The doctor and his sister, though sorry to part with their
young _protégée_, hastened the preparations for her departure. They
were touched by the cordial tone of this unknown uncle’s letters, and
predicted a happy life for her in his family, which they did not wish
to defer. But every day added to their attachment to Fleurange and to
her tender gratitude to them.
“If this continued a week longer,” said the doctor, “I could not part
with that child.”
“Then she must start soon,” replied Mademoiselle Josephine; “it is for
her good, and we should do wrong to keep her with us.”
Fleurange said nothing, but her eyes turned sadly from one of her old
friends to the other. At length came the last day she was to pass with
them. She made an effort to repress her tears, that she might not
distress them, and quietly put up her modest packages, actively aided 663
by the doctor and his sister.
“An English proverb which I think very reasonable,” said the doctor,
“places the hospitality which speeds the parting guest on a level with
that which welcomes his coming: it is that which I am now showing you,
my dear Fleurange.”
Fleurange had just hastily finished the repast always so sad before a
journey. The doctor perceived her courage failing. He was himself
greatly affected by her pale and youthful countenance, and in thinking
of the long and lonely journey she was about to undertake, at the end
of which she would be received by people, perhaps kind, but wholly
unknown. Nevertheless, he resumed with an encouraging voice:
“Come, come, child, everything looks favorable yonder; show your
courage, and do not allow yourself to be cast down.”
“You are right,” said Fleurange, rising. “I feel I have reason to
bless God, and I only desire to be grateful. Be sure, at all events,
that I shall be courageous.”
It was eight o’clock in the evening: the fiacre was waiting at the
door to take her to the diligence. She went out, accompanied by the
doctor and his sister, who entered the carriage with her. The night
was dark, and the snow falling in great flakes, which the young girl,
reared beneath the sky of Italy, now saw for the first time in her
life. The spectacle excited curiosity mingled with fear. The new and
the unknown seemed to surround her on every side, and these two
things, generally so attractive to those of her age, bore now an
aspect more calculated to depress her young heart than to expand it.
She involuntarily shivered, and drew around her slender form the thick
cloak that felt too thin to protect her from the severity of the
weather, to which she was so unaccustomed. They all remained silent
for some moments. Fleurange pressed Mademoiselle Josephine’s hand, and
carried it from time to time to her lips, in spite of the efforts of
the latter to prevent it.
Mademoiselle Josephine, on her side, with a faltering voice renewed a
multitude of counsels, which had already been repeated a thousand
times--among others, to write to them often and regularly. Then she
slipped on her arm a small basket which her provident kindness had
filled with everything that could be useful to her on the way, as well
as more than one souvenir which, when far distant, would recall her
old friends.
They arrived too quickly at their destination. “I have bespoken a
place for you in the coupé,” said the doctor, getting out of the
carriage. “You will be in company with one of my patients, still very
feeble, but who will absolutely go to Germany to rejoin her husband.
She has two children with her, and they will be your only travelling
companions.”
“Thank you,” said Fleurange. “The prayers of the orphan are said to
draw down blessings: may you both experience the effect of mine!” She
could not utter another word. She threw her arms for the last time
around Mademoiselle Josephine’s neck, and the next instant, leaning on
the doctor’s arm, she was crossing with some difficulty the littered
court at the end of which they found the diligence. The snow had
delayed them on the way, and now rendered every step difficult. The
other passengers had taken their places, and they were only waiting
for Fleurange. The horses were harnessed, and to the noise of their
stamping the driver added his impatient exclamations. “Come, come! We 664
are off!” he repeated in a rough voice. Fleurange, hurried, pushed
about, stunned, and frightened, had only time to press the doctor’s
hand once more and spring into the coupé. The door was instantly shut.
A fearful clashing of irons, mingled with cries, blows of the whip,
and vociferations, above which could be heard: “Adieu! à revoir! à
bientôt!” with other exclamations much less harmonious, and the heavy
diligence was in motion. Fleurange, now free from the necessity of any
restraint, allowed herself the solace of giving vent to her feelings
and letting her tears flow freely and abundantly.
She continued to weep for a long time without the least attempt at
repressing her emotion. Why should she? She was alone, entirely alone
now. She had never been so to such a degree before. All the events of
the past faded away in the distance, and the future offered nothing to
replace them. She was separated from all whom she had loved from her
infancy, either by death or indefinite absence. Would it be so always?
Was that to be her lot on earth? Would she never be permitted to love
with assurance, trust, and a sense of repose? Was she to be always
thus torn from places and persons at the very moment her heart began
to cling to them?--her heart, so tender and ardent, which she had so
often felt beating with tenderness and joy, with admiration and
enthusiasm? And while her eyes peered out through the darkness of
night at objects that seemed in the obscurity like pale phantoms, her
imagination set before her, as in a magic mirror, all the different
scenes of her past life: the beautiful cloister of Santa Maria al
Prato, with the terrace at the top, where the eye could wander so far,
and the sweet and noble features of Madre Maddalena; then came the
varied remembrances connected with her father; first, the rapid vision
of Italy in all its splendor, then the terrible and dismal days at
Paris, and finally, at the darkest hour of all; the beneficent forms
of her old friends, whom she never wished to leave, but whom she had
just bidden farewell--perhaps farewell for ever!
It was impossible for Fleurange, at this moment, to control her sad
thoughts. But, now and then, her reason recalled those who awaited
her, the welcome she had a right to expect, and the goodness of Divine
Providence in opening such a refuge; but in vain--consolation seemed
unable to find an entrance into her soul, and, in spite of her nature,
despondency obtained the mastery.
“If they are kind, and I love them,” she said to herself bitterly, “I
shall soon have to leave them. If, on the contrary, they --” Here her
imagination had free course and depicted the future in the darkest
colors. But this new reverie had not the clearness of the first, and
before long her anticipations began to mingle in vague confusion with
her remembrances. Little by little, fatigue, the motion of the
vehicle, and the influence of night lulled the young girl asleep, and
transformed into uneasy and indistinct dreams all the thoughts that
had successively assailed her.
Fifteen minutes after, she was suddenly awakened. Something quite
heavy had fallen against her shoulder and thence into her lap. She sat
up, and, groping in the obscurity, her hand came in contact with the
long silky hair of a child. From the first, she had rather supposed
than seen a pale, sick young woman in the opposite corner of the
coupé, with her arm thrown around a child beside her, against whom
slept another still smaller. It was the latter who had just suddenly 665
changed his position. Fleurange began to comprehend the case, and bent
down to raise him softly to a more comfortable seat in her lap. Then
she drew his little sleepy head against her, and kissed the sweet face
now near her own. This trifling incident had the sudden and unforeseen
effect of putting to flight all the phantoms her imagination had been
conjuring up to increase her sorrows. She recalled her interior
murmuring with remorse.
“O my God!” she cried, pressing the child in her arms, “if I love this
poor little one, whose features I have not yet seen, if I am ready to
watch the night long over his slumbers, what wilt not thou, who art
_my Father_, do for thy child?” She raised her eyes a moment in prayer,
not with her lips, but in her heart. The snow had ceased falling. The
clouds passing away, the heavens appeared brilliant with stars. The
cloud had also passed away from Fleurange’s soul, and a mysterious
light from on high was infused therein. She gazed at the starry sky
with delight, then closed her eyes, and again slept sweetly, the child
in her arms sleeping as profoundly as herself.
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
SEVERAL CALUMNIES REFUTED; OR, EXECUTIVE DOCUMENT No. 37.[130]
In addition to the secular press, which seldom misses an opportunity
of saying something ungracious of the Catholic Church, we have
published in the United States over a hundred so-called religious
newspapers, the principal stock-in-trade of which seems to be
unlimited abuse of everything Catholic, and unqualified
misrepresentation of all who profess or teach the doctrines of our
faith. No dogma or point of discipline of Catholicity ever finds favor
in the eyes of the individuals who fill the columns of those
publications, and no man or woman who may see fit to devote his or her
life to the dissemination of the Gospel is safe from the malice or
scurrility of their pens.
For the honor of the American character we are sorry to say that we
have daily evidence of this blind prejudice and reckless disregard of
truth on the part of this class of editors, many of whom arrogate to
themselves the title of “reverend”; but we have some consolation in
knowing that the more intelligent members of the sects are fast
growing tired and ashamed of such senseless appeals to their passions
and ill-founded traditions and that the time is not far distant when
such efforts to sustain a sinking and indefensible cause will be
encouraged only by the ignorant and wilfully blind.
These repeated and continuous attacks on the church are not the work
of any one sect or confined to any particular locality, but are general
with all Protestants, and extended over the whole country. As long as 666
they are confined to newspapers, and afford employment and
remuneration to a number of persons who probably could not gain a
livelihood in any other manner, we scarcely consider them worthy of
serious attention; but we have had recently placed before us an
official document, printed at the public expense for the edification
of the United States Senate--and no doubt widely circulated throughout
the Union under the convenient frank of many pious members of
Congress--in which are reproduced calumnies so gross, and falsehoods
so glaring, that we consider it our duty not only to call public
attention to it, but to demand from our rulers in Washington by what
right and authority they print and circulate under official form a
tissue of fabrications, misrepresentations, and even forgeries,
against the religion, and the ministers of that religion, which is
professed by five or six millions of free American citizens.
This document, known as _Executive Document No. 37_, XLI_st
Congress_, III_d Session_, was furnished by Mr. Delano,
Secretary of the Interior, in compliance with a resolution of the
Senate, passed February 2, 1871, and is composed exclusively of
information supplied by Rev. H. H. Spaulding to A. B. Meacham,
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who in his letter of transmittal
says:
“I am respectfully requested by the Rev. H. H. Spaulding, the
oldest living Protestant missionary in Oregon, to place on file
in your department the accompanying documents, giving a history
of the early missionary work and labors of Dr. Marcus Whitman,
himself, and others; the progress and civilization of the Indians
under their charge, without aid from the government; also, a
history of the massacre of Dr. Whitman and others; also,
resolutions of Christian associations in answer to _Executive
Document No. 38, House of Representatives_, and a variety of
historical information, which it would seem proper to have on
file, or placed in some more permanent form for future history.”
It may be remarked that the letter from which the above is an extract
is dated on the 28th of January, just five days before the passage of
the Senate resolution, and evidently in anticipation of such action on
the part of that body. “No one,” says a distinguished senator, “except
the few in the secret, knew anything of the matter until the document
was printed. All the previous proceedings were as of course.” The
documents that were thus to be “placed in a more permanent form for
future history,” apart from their uniformly infamous character, are
perhaps the strangest in origin and composition that have ever been
presented for the information of any deliberative body, much less one
of the gravity and importance of the Senate of the republic. They
consist mainly of extracts from the religious press, so-called;
inflammatory letters from jealous and disappointed preachers,
including the Rev. H. H. Spaulding himself; depositions written out by
that indefatigable hater with his own hand, and changed in many
essential points after having been sworn to and removed from the
control of the deponents; false quotations from _The Account of the
Murder of Dr. Whitman_, by the Very Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet, V.G., and
others’ statements of the massacre; an address from the professors of
that advanced educational institution called Oberlin College, Ohio;
answers to leading queries addressed to Oregon officials, based on a
false and supposititious statement of facts; and, lastly, a report
adopted and endorsed by eight associations, including the Old School,
New School, Cumberland, and United Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, 667
Congregationalists, and the “Christian Church of Oregon,” and claiming
to represent thirty thousand brother members, all of whom, though
differing radically in other respects, are suspiciously unanimous in
denouncing the “Jesuits,” and equally positive in affirming a previous
condition of affairs, their knowledge of which must of necessity have
depended solely on the statements of the veracious Rev. H. H.
Spaulding. In style, the documents are unique, and have a very strong
family resemblance. It is a judicious mixture of sanctimonious cant
seldom heard outside of a camp-meeting, with a dash here and there of
Shakespeare and the modern poets, to give it variety, we suppose.
Now, whence this solemn assembly of presbyteries and conferences, this
pile of affidavits and newspaper extracts, and the desire of the
Senate to be enlightened as “to the early labors of the missionaries
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Oregon,
commencing in 1836”? Simply this. On the week commencing on the 29th
of November, 1847, more than twenty-four years ago, a certain
missionary to the Cayuse Indians, named Dr. Whitman, who had resided
among them for several years, was, with his wife and twelve other
Americans, brutally murdered by the savages; and it is now attempted
by Spaulding, who was his friend, and missionary to the Nez Perces, a
neighboring tribe, to fix the guilt of this foul outrage on the
missionary priests who in that year accompanied the Rt. Rev. A. M. A.
Blanchet, Bishop of Nesqualy, to Oregon, and who, it is alleged,
instigated the Indians to commit the deed in order to get rid of the
Protestant missions. At the time of the slaughter, there was with
others under Dr. Whitman’s roof a young woman named Bewley, whom one
of the chiefs desired to have for his wife; and it is also asserted
that not only did the priests encourage her to yield to the Indian’s
wishes, but forced her from the shelter of their home and refused her
any protection whatever. Other charges growing out of this sad
calamity, such as baptizing children with the innocent blood of their
victims on their hands, inhumanity to the prisoners left unharmed,
attempting the precious life of Spaulding, supplying the Cayuses with
guns and ammunition, etc., are likewise alleged, but the first two are
the principal counts in this clerical indictment.
The slaughter of so many persons naturally created a great sensation
in Oregon at the time, but for months after no one thought of
attributing it to the interference of the Catholic missioners.
However, Spaulding, whose mind had become disturbed by the
contemplation of the dangers he had escaped, and having to abandon his
mission among the Nez Perces, and finding himself unemployed,
gradually began to give a new version of the affair, and in
conversation, preaching, and writing at first hinted, and next broadly
asserted, that the “Jesuits” were at the bottom of the whole matter.
Considering that the shock to his nervous system was so great that he
never entirely recovered from it, and that the repetition of the
falsehoods was so persistent, it is charitable to suppose that he
eventually came to believe them as truths; for no man in his right
senses would persist in forcing on the world such a compilation of
improbable statements and downright falsehoods as are contained in
_Pub. Doc. No. 37_.
As there are always many persons, made credulous by ignorance or
prejudice, willing to credit any anti-Catholic slander, the Rev. 668
Father Brouillet, the only priest near the scene of the crime, wrote
and published, in 1853, a full and authentic account of the whole
transaction, which was so clear and circumstantial that even the
greatest opponents of the Catholic priesthood were silenced. In 1857,
a special agent of the Treasury Department, J. Ross Browne, made a
tour in the far West, and in reporting on the condition of the
aborigines, and the potent causes of war between them and the white
settlers, embodied in his statement Father Brouillet’s pamphlet, which
together formed _Pub. Doc. No. 38_, against which all the powers of
the presbyteries and conferences of Oregon, under the fitting
leadership of a crazy preacher, are now directed, after a silence of
more than ten years. Is it any wonder that it is so often remarked
that the only bond of union, the sole vitalizing principles, of the
sects are their hatred to Catholicity?
A glance at the history of the early Indian mission in Oregon is
necessary to a clear understanding of the subject. It is well known
that for many years that portion of our common country was debatable
ground, and, while our government claimed the sovereignty and
appointed officials to administer its affairs, the Hudson Bay Company
held possession and virtually controlled the inhabitants, nearly all
of whom were Indians or half-breeds. Under the direction of the
company, the natives were honest, peaceable, and well disposed.
Captain Bonneville, who visited the Nez Perces in 1832, says of them:
“Simply to call these people religious would convey but a faint
idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades their
whole conduct. Their honesty is immaculate, and their purity of
purpose, and the observance of the rites of their religion, are
most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more like a
nation of saints than a horde of savages.”
“This was a very enthusiastic view to take of the Nez Perces’
character,” says a Protestant authority, Mrs. Victor, “which appeared
all the brighter to the captain by contrast with the savage life which
he had witnessed in other places, and even by contrast with the
conduct of the white trappers. But the Nez Perces were intellectually
and morally an exception to all the Indian tribes west of the Missouri
River. Lewis and Clarke found them different from any others; the
fur-traders and the missionaries found them the same. To account for
this superiority is indeed difficult. The only clue to the cause is
the following statement of Bonneville. ‘It would appear,’ he says,
‘that they had imbibed some notions of the Christian faith from
Catholic missionaries and traders who have been among them. They even
had a rude calendar of the fasts and festivals of the Romish Church,
and some traces of its ceremonial. These have become blended with
their own wild rites, and present a strange medley, civilized and
barbarous.’”[131] It was in this happy and quiet condition that the
first Protestant missionaries from the United States found the
Indians. They were Methodist, and arrived in 1834, remaining for ten
years. “No missionary undertaking,” says Rev. Stephen Olin, himself
one of the laborers, “has been prosecuted by the Methodist Episcopal
Church with higher hopes and more ardent zeal.... This particular
mission, involved an expenditure of forty-two thousand dollars in a
single year. At the end of six years, there were sixty-eight persons 669
connected with this mission, men, women, and children, all supported
by this society.”[132] And the same writer adds: “How such a number of
missionaries found employment in such a field it is not easy to
conjecture, especially as the great body of the Indians never came
under the influence of their labors.” Dr. E. White, Sub-Indian Agent,
writes, in 1843: “The Rev. Mr. Lee and associates are doing but little
for the Indians.... With all that has been expended, without doubting
the correctness of the intention, it is most manifest to every
observer that the Indians of this lower country, as a whole, have been
very little benefited.”[133]
The two Methodist stations established, at Clatsop’s Plains and
Nesqualy were speedily abandoned, and that at the Dalles is described,
in _Traits of American Indian Life_, as being in a most fearful
condition. “The occurrence,” the author says, alluding to a murder by
a converted Indian which he had witnessed, “is but the type of a
thousand atrocities daily occurring among these supposed converts.”
And we have the authority of Mr. Gray for saying that “the giving of a
few presents of any description to them induces them to make
professions corresponding to the wish of the donor.” The success of
the missionaries at Willamette was, if possible, still more
disheartening. Mr. Olin says that of those who held relations with
them none remained in 1842; and Alexander Simpson, who visited the
valley about the same time, found the mission to consist of but four
families, those of a clergyman, surgeon, a schoolmaster, and an
agricultural overseer. It is not strange, then, that two years
afterwards the missions were entirely abandoned, and have never been
attempted to be re-established. “Had they met vice with a spotless
life,” says Gray, “and an earnest determination to maintain their
integrity as representatives of religion and a Christian people, the
fruits of their labor would have been greater.” We are forced,
therefore, to conclude that the author of _The River of the West_
is justified in saying on this and other indisputable authority, “so
far from benefiting the Indians, the Methodist mission became an
actual injury to them”--the Indians.
Thus ended the first chapter in the history of the progress and
civilization of the Indians in Oregon, to which we desire to call the
respectful attention of the United States Senate. We have the
testimony of Captain Bonneville, endorsed by Mrs. Victor, regarding
the honesty and piety of the natives in 1832, before the arrival of
the Methodists. After nine years of missionary labor, we have the
following grave statement from no less an authority than one of their
own clergymen:
“The Indians want pay for being whipped into compliance with Dr.
White’s laws, the same as they did for praying to please the
missionaries during the great Indian revival of 1839” (p. 157).
“As a matter of course, lying has much to do in their system of
trade, and he is the best fellow who can tell the biggest
lie--make men believe and practise the greatest deception” (p.
158).[134]
The Methodists having selected Lower Oregon as the field of their
labors, the Presbyterians chose the upper or eastern portion of the
territory. They arrived in 1836, three in number, afterwards increased
to twelve, and backed up by the Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions. Dr. Marius Whitman settled at Wailatpu among the Cayuses 670
and Walla Wallas, and Messrs. H. H. Spaulding and W. H. Gray at
Lapwai, with the Nez Perces. In 1838, the Spokane mission was
established by Messrs. Walker and Ellis. Their prospects of success
were at first most brilliant. The savages received them kindly and
listened to them attentively. “There was no want of ardor in the
Presbyterian missionaries,” says _The River of the West_. “They
applied themselves in earnest to the work they had undertaken. They
were diligent in their efforts to civilize and christianize their
Indians.” But they made a fatal mistake at the very beginning, which
not only reflects on their personal honesty, but shows that they knew
nothing of the character of the people they came to instruct. Mr. John
Toupin, who was for many years interpreter at Fort Walla Walla, gave,
in 1848, the following account of the establishment of those missions:
“I was there when Mr. Parker, in 1835, came to select places for
Presbyterian missions among the Cayuses and Nez Perces, and to
ask lands for these missions. He employed me as interpreter in
his negotiations with the Indians on that occasion. Mr. Pombrun,
the gentleman then in charge of the fort, accompanied him to the
Cayuses and the Nez Perces. Mr. Parker, in company with Mr.
Pombrun, an American, and myself, went first to the Cayuses upon
the lands called Wailatpu, that belonged to the three
chiefs--Splitted Lip, or Yomtipi; Red Cloak, or Waptachtakamal;
and Tilankaikt. Having met them at that place, he told them that
he was coming to select a place to build a preaching-house, to
teach them how to live, and to teach school to their children;
that he would not come himself to establish the mission, but a
doctor or a medicine-man would come in his place; that the doctor
would be the chief of the mission, and would come in the
following spring. ‘I come to select a place for a mission,’ said
he, ‘but I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After
the doctor is come, there will come every year a big ship loaded
with goods to be divided among the Indians. These goods will not
be sold, but given to you. The missionaries will bring you
ploughs and hoes to teach you how to cultivate the land, and they
will not sell, but give them to you.’
“From the Cayuses Mr. Parker went to the Nez Perces, about one
hundred and twenty-five miles distant, on the lands of Old
Button, on a small creek which empties into the Clearwater, seven
or eight miles from the actual mission, and there he made the
same promises to the Indians as at Wailatpu. ‘Next spring there
will come a missionary to establish himself here and take a piece
of land; but he will not take it for nothing; you shall be paid
for it every year: this is the American fashion.’ In the
following year, 1836, Dr. Whitman arrived among the Cayuses and
began to build. The Indians did not stop him, as they expected to
be paid as they said.
“In the summer of the year 1837, Splitted Lip asked him where the
goods which he had promised him were; whether he would pay him,
or whether he wanted to steal his lands. He told him that, if he
did not want to pay him, he had better go off immediately, for he
did not want to give his lands for nothing.”[135]
But the doctor and his co-laborers did not pay for the lands, nor
indeed fulfil any of the promises of Mr. Parker, and thus the expected
neophytes received their first lesson in duplicity, which eventually
destroyed all confidence in the honesty and truthfulness of their
teachers, and led directly to the massacre of Whitman and some of his
companions, and to the total destruction of the Presbyterian missions.
This latter event occurred late in 1847. Let us see what had been done
in the eleven previous years by the agents of the Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1842, they had but three
stations. “At each of these,” says _The River of the West_,
“there was a small body of land under cultivation, a few cattle and 671
hogs, a flouring and saw mill, and a blacksmith’s shop.” In 1843, Mr.
Spaulding writes to Dr. White, the Sub-Indian Agent: “But _two_
natives have as yet been admitted into the church. Some ten or twelve
others give pleasing evidence of having been born again.”[136] It
seems, then, that it took twelve missionaries seven years to convert
two savages, at an expense of over forty thousand dollars for one year
at least! Can the English Protestant mission for converting the
Hebrews in Jerusalem show any return more preposterous than this?
But the years intervening between this time and their entire
discontinuance show no converts at all. Business was entirely
suspended, as far as spiritual affairs were concerned. Mr. Thomas
McKay, an intimate friend of Whitman, under date September 11, 1848,
says, “The doctor often told me that for a couple of years he had
ceased to teach the Indians, because they would not listen to him”;
and John Baptist Gervais about the same time assures us that “Mr.
Spaulding told me himself, last fall, that for three or four years
back he had ceased entirely to teach the Indians because they refused
to hear him”--a fact which that unscrupulous apostle corroborated in a
conversation with Dr. Ponjade, in the preceding August. “The Indians,”
he said, “are getting worse every day for two or three years back;
they are threatening to turn us out of the missions. A few days ago,
they tore down my fences, and I do not know what the Missionary Board
of New York means to do. It is a fact that we are doing no good: when
the emigration passes, the Indians run off to trade, and return worse
than when we came among them.”[137] Even as early as 1839, a missionary
of the Spokanes, writing to Dr. Whitman, said that the failure of that
mission was so strongly impressed on his mind, he felt it necessary
“to have cane in hand, and as much as one shoe on, ready for a move.”
“I see,” he adds, “nothing but the power of God that can save us.”
When we consider this condition of affairs in connection with the
brutal massacre at Wailatpu by Dr. Whitman’s immediate neighbors and
even some members of his household and congregation, at a time of
profound peace, we can form some adequate idea of the benefits of the
“progress and civilization of the Indians under their [Presbyterian]
charge.” Will the United States Senate, in its laudable search after
information, consult some of the authorities, who are with one
exception Protestant, which we have quoted?
The Catholic missions may be said to have commenced in 1838. In that
year, two Catholic priests passed Walla Walla on their way from Canada
to Fort Vancouver. In 1839 and 1840, one of them, Father Demers,
occasionally visited Walla Walla, for a short time, to give
instruction to the Indians, many of whom were in the habit of visiting
him, particularly the Cayuses and Nez Perces at the fort. This
presence excited the wrath of Dr. Whitman, and he presumed so far as
to reprimand in severe language the gentleman in charge of the post.
“From the time the Jesuits arrived,” says Gray, “his own [H. H.
Spaulding’s] pet Indians had turned Catholics, and commenced a quarrel
with him. These facts seemed to annoy him, and led him to adopt a
course opposed by Smith, Gray, and Rodgers.” The visits of the
Catholic missionaries were, however, few and far between, till the 5th
of September, 1847, when the Rt. Rev. Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet arrived 672
at Fort Walla Walla, accompanied by the Superior of the Oblates and
two other clergymen, to establish permanent missions in Eastern
Oregon. It was the design of the bishop to locate a mission on the
lands of Towatowe (Young Chief), a Catholic Indian, who had offered
him his own house for that purpose. The Young Chief, however, being
absent hunting, Dr. Blanchet was delayed at the fort, longer than he
anticipated, and while there was visited by Protestant missionaries
and Indian chiefs alike. The former treated him with great incivility
and disrespect. Dr. Whitman, we are told by an eye-witness, “made a
furious charge against the Catholics, accusing them of having
persecuted Protestants, and even of having shed their blood wherever
they had prevailed. He said he did not like Catholics; ... that he
should oppose the missionaries to the extent of his power.... He spoke
against the _Catholic Ladder_ (a picture explaining the principal
points of Catholic faith), and said that he would cover it with blood
to show the persecution of Protestants by Catholics. He refused to
sell provisions to the bishop, and protested that he would not assist
the missionaries unless he saw them in starvation.”[138] The temper of
the savages was milder than their would-be evangelizers. On the 26th
of October, Young Chief came to the fort, and asked for a priest to be
sent to teach his young people. He repeated the offer of his house,
but suggested as a substitute the lands of his relative Tilokaikt,
upon which Dr. Whitman was settled. On November 4, the four chiefs of
the Cayuses assembled at Walla Walla, and after a long “talk” agreed
to let the bishop have a site for a mission and as much ground to
cultivate as was necessary to support the priests. The bishop “told
them,” says Father Brouillet, “that he would not make presents to the
Indians; that he would give them nothing for the land he asked; that
in case they worked for him he would pay them for their work and no
more.” The author just quoted was sent among the Cayuses to select a
proper site, but, not finding one suitable, accepted Young Chief’s
offer, a camp fully twenty-five miles from Dr. Whitman’s residence, in
the midst of another tribe altogether. As one of the many traits of
Christian charity which distinguishes the Catholic missionaries in
every part of the world, it may be mentioned that, during the
conference at the fort, one of the chiefs spoke of Dr. Whitman in very
harsh terms, accusing him of dishonesty and mercenary motives. Bishop
Blanchet reproved him instantly, sternly telling him that the doctor
was a good man, and that he, the chief, had a bad heart to say so; and
when Father Brouillet was offered, by Tilokaikt, Whitman’s own mission
for Catholic purposes for nothing, he positively and peremptorily
declined it. And yet _Pub. Doc. No. 37_ would have us believe that the
Catholics coveted Whitman’s Station, and were resolved to have it at
any cost. On November 27, the bishop, with his secretary and Father
Brouillet, proceeded to the new station at Umatilla. On the day
following, Sunday, they were visited by Whitman, and on Monday by
Spaulding, who remained for supper, both these gentleman, it seems,
having modified their views during the previous two months’
intercourse with the missionaries. It was on this latter day, between
two and three o’clock in the afternoon, that Whitman and his
companions were murdered. The account of that horrible event, as 673
related by Father Brouillet, who was on the ground two days after, is
still highly interesting. In a letter to Colonel Gilliam, three months
later, when the facts were fresh in his memory, and every resident of
the neighborhood was in a position to disprove anything he might say
that was false, he writes:
“Before leaving Fort Walla Walla, it had been decided that, after
visiting the sick people of my mission on the Umatilla, I should
go and visit those of Tilokaikt’s camp, for the purpose of
baptizing the infants, and such dying adults as might desire this
favor; and the doctor and Mr. Spaulding having informed me that
there were many sick persons at their missions, I was confirmed
in the resolution, and made preparations to go as soon as
possible.
“After having finished in baptizing the infants and dying adults
of my mission, I left on Tuesday, the 30th of November, late in
the afternoon, for Tilokaikt’s camp, where I arrived between
seven and eight o’clock in the evening. It is impossible to
conceive my surprise and consternation when, upon my arrival, I
learned that the Indians the day before had massacred the doctor
and his wife, with the greater part of the Americans at the
mission. I passed the night without scarcely closing my eyes.
Early next morning I baptized three sick children, two of whom
died soon after, and then hastened to the scene of death to offer
to the widows and orphans all the assistance in my power. I found
five or six women and over thirty children in a condition
deplorable beyond description. Some had lost their husbands, and
others their fathers, whom they had seen massacred before their
eyes, and were expecting every moment to share the same fate. The
sight of those persons caused me to shed tears, which, however, I
was obliged to conceal, for I was, the greater part of the day,
in the presence of the murderers, and closely watched by them,
and, if I had shown too marked an interest in behalf of the
sufferers, it would only have endangered their lives and mine;
these, therefore, entreated me to be on my guard. After the first
few words that could be exchanged under the circumstances, I
inquired after the victims, and was told that they were yet
unburied. Joseph Stainfield, a Frenchman, who was in the service
of Dr. Whitman, and had been spared by the Indians, was engaged
in washing the corpses, but, being alone, he was unable to bury
them. I resolved to go and assist him, so as to render to those
unfortunate victims the last service in my power to offer them.”
The reverend father then goes on to relate how, after comforting the
women and children as well as he could, and having been told by the
chief “to say to them that they need fear nothing, they shall be taken
care of and well treated,” he set out toward his mission, in order to
intercept Spaulding and warn him of his danger. He was accompanied by
his interpreter, and closely followed by a son of the chief, who, it
afterward appeared, was going to his uncle Camastilo to acquaint him
of the slaughter. His meeting with Spaulding is graphic, and, if not
for the hideous surroundings, would be amusing. He says:
“In a few minutes after, while they were thus engaged in smoking,
I saw Mr. Spaulding coming toward me. In a moment he was at my
side, taking me by the hand and asking for news. ‘Have you been
to the doctor’s?’ he inquired. ‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘What news?’
‘Sad news.’ ‘Is any person dead?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Who is dead--is it
one of the doctor’s children?’ (He had left two of them very
sick.) ‘No,’ I replied. ‘Who, then, is dead?’ I hesitated to
tell. ‘Wait a moment,’ I said, ‘I cannot tell you now.’ While Mr.
Spaulding was asking me those questions, I had spoken to my
interpreter, telling him to entreat the Indian in my name not to
kill Mr. Spaulding, which I begged of him as a special favor, and
hoped that he would not refuse it to me. I was waiting for his
answer, and did not wish to relate the disaster to Mr. Spaulding
before getting it, for fear he might by his manner discover to
the Indian what I had told him, for the least motion like flight 674
would have cost him his life, and probably exposed mine also. The
son of Tilokaikt, after hesitating some moments, replied that he
could not take it upon himself to save Mr. Spaulding, but that he
would go back and consult the other Indians, and so he started
back immediately to his camp. I then availed myself of this
absence to satisfy the anxiety of Mr. Spaulding. I related to him
what had passed. ‘The doctor is dead,’ said I; ‘the Indians have
killed him, together with his wife and eight other Americans, on
Monday last, the 29th, and I have buried them before leaving
to-day.’ ‘The Indians have killed the doctor--they will kill me
also if I go to the camp!’ ‘I fear it very much,’ said I. ‘What,
then, shall I do?’ ‘I know not. I have told you what has
happened. Decide now for yourself what you had best do. I have no
advice to give you in regard to that.’ ‘Why has that Indian
started back?’ he inquired. ‘I begged him to spare your life,’
said I, ‘and he answered me that he could not take it upon
himself to do so, but that he would go and take the advice of the
other Indians about it; that is the reason why he started back.’
Mr. Spaulding seemed frightened and discouraged. ‘Is it possible!
is it possible!’ he exclaimed several times. ‘They will certainly
kill me.’ And he was unable to come to any decision. ‘But what
could have prompted the Indians to this?’ he inquired. ‘I know
not,’ said I; ‘but be quick and decide, you have no time to lose.
If the Indians should resolve not to spare your life, they will
be here very soon, as we are only about three miles from their
camp. ‘But where shall I go?’ ‘I know not; you know the country
better than I. All I know is that the Indians say the order to
kill all Americans has been sent in all directions.’ Mr.
Spaulding then resolved to fly. His asked me if I were willing to
take charge of some loose horses he was driving before him. I
told him I could not, for fear of becoming suspicious to the
Indians. I told him, however, that if the interpreter was willing
to take them under his charge at his own risk, he was perfectly
at liberty to do so. To this the interpreter agreed. I gave Mr.
Spaulding what provisions I had left, and hastened to take leave
of him, wishing him with all my heart a happy escape, and
promising to pray for him.... The interpreter had not left
Mr. Spaulding (after pointing out a byroad) more than twenty
minutes, when he saw three armed Cayuses riding hastily toward
him in pursuit of Mr. Spaulding. Upon coming up to the
interpreter, they seemed much displeased that I had warned Mr.
Spaulding of their intentions, and thereby furnished him an
opportunity to escape.’ The priest ought to have minded his own
business, and not to have interfered with ours,’ they said in an
angry tone, and started immediately in pursuit of him.”[139]
This Spaulding escaped to tell the tale, and to traduce the character
of the priest that saved his life at the risk of his own. At first, he
was inclined to acknowledge the obligation, for in a letter to his
“reverend and dear friend,” as he styles Bishop Blanchet, eight days
after, he writes: “The hand of the merciful God brought me to my
family after six days and nights from the time _my dear friend_
furnished me with provisions and I escaped from the Indians.” This
effort of gratitude was, however, too much for him to sustain, and,
accordingly, we find published in _The Oregon American_ (p. 13) the
following choice specimen of bigotry and base ingratitude, “worse than
the sin of witchcraft.” He says:
“It has been said by some of my friends in this country that they
felt greatly mortified to see me in the dust at the bishop’s feet
begging for my life.... This is not the first time that
Protestants (that is, heretics) have lain prostrate at the feet
of the Pope of Rome. I saw my life, under God, in the hands of
the bishop and the priests. I had a right to ask it again. I
seemed to see the hands of these priests wet with the blood of
our associates.... I stopped not to ask whose hands placed the
bishop’s foot upon my neck, the lives of so many human beings
were worth the struggle.”
Can the force of prejudice and deception go further than this? Here is
a man, who, if not an open enemy of the missionaries, was certainly a 675
violent opponent, whose life was saved by one of them at a most
critical moment at imminent danger to his own, who was shown the
pathway by which he might escape the fury of the savages whose hatred
he had awakened by long years of injustice, and who was even supplied
with food from the poor priest’s scrip, turning round on his
benefactors when he attained a place of safety, and vilifying the
church and religion to whose lesson of charity he owed his miserable
existence. This is the man, too, upon whose authority the “Christian
Associations of Oregon” have undertaken to brand the heroic priests of
that section as instigators of murder; and who has undertaken to
inform the Senate, and provide Mr. Delano with matters for history “in
a more permanent form.”
And here it may be well to dispose of some of the minor charges.
_Pub. Doc. No. 37_, at page 30, says of the scenes of the Whitman
massacre:
“They [the Indian children] leaped and screamed for joy, throwing
handfuls of blood around, drinking down the dying agonies of
their victims as a precious draught. These blood-stained little
savages were to receive the sacred ordinance of baptism a few
hours after, at the hands of the priest of God--the mangled
bodies yet lying unburied around, the food of dogs and wolves by
night, and of hogs and vultures by day, seeming to pay down to
the Indians for what they had done.”
We are not aware that in the whole course of Protestant history there
is to be found a more deliberate, cool, and atrocious tissue of
falsehoods than the above. Two days, not a few hours, after the
murder, _three_ sick children were baptized, of whom two were so ill
that they died the same day. Are those some of the children who leaped
and screamed for joy? The baptism took place two miles from Whitman’s
Station, so that the bodies of the slain could not well have been
lying around. The dogs and wolves, hogs and vultures, are purely the
creation of the Rev. H. H. Spaulding’s imagination, and would, in
vulgar parlance, be styled “piling on the agony.” Before the arrival
of Father Brouillet, Joseph Stainfield had already washed the corpses,
and, with the assistance of the good priest, they were buried. The
insinuation in the last line is worthy of Spaulding, and shows to what
extremes a man will go whose sense of truth and even decency has
become completely blunted.
Another charge against the missionaries is that they acted inhumanly
with the captives, and that Father Brouillet, who promised to return
to them, neglected to do so. It is true he did not do so, and the
prisoners may thank Mr. Spaulding for his not returning. Had he not
been as solicitous about saving that individual’s life, and thereby
enable him to go down to the grave at an old age with a load of
falsehood and forgeries on his soul, he would never have incurred the
ill-feeling of the Indians of Wailatpu, or be himself kept a prisoner
in Young Chief’s tent for two or three weeks. But his thoughts and
those of his fellow-missionaries were with the unfortunates, and his
every effort was used, and successfully too, for their liberation.
While Spaulding, from his mission with the Nez Perces, was writing
lying letters to his “reverend and dear friend,” Bishop Blanchet,
soliciting his good offices with the Indians with regard to the
captives, amongst whom was his own daughter, that ecclesiastic was
calling around him the chiefs of the Cayuses, admonishing them to
treat their captives kindly, promising to write to the American
governor for terms of peace, and attending a council at Fort Walla 676
Walla, at which the Indians consented and actually did liberate the
prisoners, the ransom being paid by the agents of the much abused
Hudson Bay Company. Spaulding himself was then virtually a prisoner
among the Nez Perces, with whom he lived eleven years, and “was very
much beloved,” if we may believe his own statement.
We now come to what we may be permitted to call the first grand
falsehood, as set forth in _Pub. Doc. No. 37_, for the information of
the Senate and the benefit of history, namely, that the Whitman
murderers were instigated by the “Jesuits.” This calumny is repeated
in several places and in many forms in this extraordinary public
document, and may be supposed to be crystallized in the two following
paragraphs:
“When the Jesuits and English had, by means of Indian runners,
excited the surrounding tribes to butcher the Protestant
missionaries and American emigrants at Wailatpu, and to
exterminate the American settlements on the Pacific, the Nez
Perces refused to join them, and rushed at once to the defence of
their beloved teacher, Mrs. Spaulding, and rescued her and her
infants from a band of forty of the murderers; then, second, fled
to the scene of the eight days’ carnage, and by their influence
stopped the bloody work of the Jesuits.” (_Resolutions adopted by
the Pleasant Butte Baptist Church of Linn Co., Oregon, Oct. 22,
1869._)
“This Brouilette [Brouillet], it is proved in part by his own
testimony, was present at the massacre, doing nothing to save the
victims, but baptizing the children of the murdering Indians, and
otherwise stimulating them to their work of death.” (_Report of the
Committee of the Presbytery of Steuben, adopted by the Christian
Associations of Oregon, 1869._)
Surely this is history run mad. In fact, so gross are the
misstatements that we are inclined to think that Spaulding either
forged the signatures or interpolated the resolutions of the
associations--a proceeding which, it will appear further on, he was
perfectly capable of doing. Now, it is well known, and stated even by
Spaulding (_Pub. Doc. No. 37_), that the so-called “Jesuits,” namely,
Bishop Blanchet and his priests, had only been in that part of the
country a short time--Father Brouillet says two months, but Spaulding
reduces it to six weeks; that no Catholic mission had been established
within hundreds of miles of Whitman’s Station till two days previous
to the mission, when one was commenced at Umatilla, twenty-five miles
distant, among a tribe of the Cayuses, who had no act or part in the
crime; that there never was a Catholic missionary, Jesuit or
otherwise, in the camps of Tilokaikt, where Whitman resided till two
days after the massacre, but once, and that for a short time when
Father Brouillet was invited by the chief to go and procure a site for
a mission, in which he failed; and, finally, that the Indians who did
the bloody deed were near neighbors of the doctor, the worst being a
member of his household; and that _every one of them were Protestants_,
as Spaulding himself partly admits[140] (_Ex. Doc. No. 37_). Even the
Rev. Gustavus Hines, who is named as one of the assistants in the 677
compilation of this document, says in his _History of Oregon_, in
describing a council of chiefs in 1843: “Tilokaikt, a Cayuse chief,
rose and said, ‘What do you read the laws for before we take them? We
do not take the laws because Tanitan says so. He is a Catholic, and as
a people we do not follow his worship!” The story of Father Brouillet
having been on the scene of massacre stimulating the Indians in their
work of death is a poor fabrication, for the doctor visited the bishop
and his two priests at Umatilla, twenty-five miles distant, late on
Sunday, the 28th, and on the 29th, the day of the slaughter, Spaulding
himself supped with them at the same place. The ridiculous reference
to the Nez Perces, under the supposition that they were Protestants,
is simply absurd. The fact is that Spaulding says, in his letter to
his “reverend and dear friend” the bishop, the Nez Perces only
promised to protect him and the American settlers if troops were not
sent against the Cayuses, and that they demanded and received from Mr.
Ogden, of Walla Walla, clothing, ammunition, and tobacco before they
would release their “beloved teacher,” her husband and infants. The
only Nez Perces who fled to the scene to stop “the bloody work of the
Jesuits” were two messengers of that tribe who bore his treacherous
letter to the bishop, begging him to assure the Cayuses that he would
use every effort to prevent the troops from being sent against them,
and which he afterwards declared was meant to deceive both the bishop
and the Indians.[141] No sooner, however, was he out of danger than he
used his best efforts to bring on a war. “I recollect distinctly,”
says Major Magone, “that he was not in favor of killing _all_ the
Cayuses, for he gave me the names of four or five that he knew to be
friendly, and another whom I marked as questionable: the balance, if I
am not very much mistaken, _he would have to share one fate_.” Truly,
this was strange advice from a minister of the Gospel of peace, and
from one who wished the bishop to assure the Indians “that we do not
wish Americans to come from below to avenge our wrongs,” etc.
But apart from the credibility of the witness Spaulding, and the
impossibility of the Catholic missionaries stirring up the Protestant
Indians to the work of death, even if they so desired, not to speak of
their early, continuous, and indignant denials of every statement and
assertion put forth by the Oregon fanatics, we have the evidence of
several persons, all Protestants we are inclined to believe, who were
either in the neighborhood at the time, or arrived soon after. R. T.
Lockwood, an old resident of Oregon and a prominent contributor to the
press, relates the following conversation which he had in 1851 with
one of the Indians who was a spectator of the murder:
“Q. Do the Indians generally want the Catholic priests among
them, and, if so, why do they prefer them to such men as Dr.
Whitman?
“A. No, not generally; yet a considerable number do, and prefer
them because they do not try to get our land away from us.
“Q. Did the priests that came among you, a little before the
massacre, encourage the killing of Dr. Whitman and the others?
“A. No. The killing of Dr. Whitman was resolved on before the
priests came.
“Q. Are you a Catholic Indian?
“A. No, sir.”
Some time after, Mr. Lockwood met a Mrs. Foster, one of the survivors.
“I asked her,” he says, “if she thought the priest had anything to do 678
with the massacre, and she said she did not think he did, as he
appeared very much pained, and was very kind and tender towards the
survivors. I asked her, also, if she thought that the priest did all
he safely could, and she answered, ‘I do.’” This impartial and
well-informed gentleman winds up his letter thus: “Suffice it to say
that, in all I ever heard said in regard to this lamentable massacre
(and it has been much) _prior to the last two years_, there was not
the slightest intimation of you or any other Catholic priest being
implicated, or in any way responsible therefor.”[142]
“Why is the Catholic exempt from danger? Why can the Hudson Bay
Company employee remain amid these scenes of blood and Indian
vengeance against the white race, at peace, undisturbed, and, what is
more loathsome, neutral in such a conflict?” asks the Hon. Elwood
Evans of Spaulding, in 1868. The answer is simple. Because the
Catholic priests treat the Indians with uniform kindness and justice;
because they neither deceive them with false promises nor appropriate
their lands and labor without payment, and because, being ministers of
peace, they are opposed to strife; all of which Whitman, Spaulding,
and his missionary companions did not and were not. And this brings us
to the real cause of the massacre. For the sake of the Senate which
desires information, and for Mr. Delano’s future history, we will give
a few extracts from authorities which, if at all prejudiced, would be
on the side of the Protestant view:
“‘I came to select a place for a mission,’ said he, ‘but I do not
intend to take your lands for nothing. After the doctor is come,
there will come every year a big ship, loaded with goods to be
divided among the Indians. These goods will not be sold, but
given to you. The missionaries will bring you ploughs and hoes,
to teach you to cultivate the land, and they will not sell but
give them to you.’... And there [among the Nez Perces] he made
the same promises to the Indians as at Wailatpu.” (_Mr. John
Toupin’s Statement, in 1848, of the Foundation of the Presbyterian
Missions by Mr. Parker, in 1835._)
“Two years ago. 1846, a Cayuse came to my house in the Willamette
settlement, and stopped with me over two weeks. During that time
he often spoke of Dr. Whitman, complaining that he possessed the
lands of the Indians, on which he was raising a great deal of
wheat, which he was selling to the Americans, without giving them
anything; that he had a mill upon their lands, and that they had
to pay him for grinding their wheat, a big horse for twenty
sacks. He said they told him to leave, but that he would not
listen to them.” (_Ib._)
“A man of easy, don’t-care habits, that could become all things
to all men, and yet a sincere and earnest man, speaking his mind
before he thought the second time, giving his views on all
subjects without much consideration, correcting them when good
reasons were presented, yet, when fixed in the pursuit of an
object, adhering to it with unflinching tenacity. A stranger
would consider him _fickle_ and _stubborn_.” (_Character of Dr.
Whitman by a brother missionary, Rev. W. H. Gray._)
“The Americans had done them much harm. Years before, had not one
of their missionaries suffered several of their people, and the
son of their chiefs, to be slain in his company, yet himself
escaped? Had not the son of another chief (Elijah), who had gone
to California to buy cattle, been killed by Americans for no
fault of his own?... So far as regarded the missionaries, Dr.
Whitman and his associates, they were divided, yet so many looked
on the doctor as an agent in promoting the settlement of the
country with whites, it was thought best to drive him from the
country, together with all the missionaries, _several years_
before. Dr. Whitman had known that the Indians were displeased
with his settlement among them. They had told him of it; they had 679
treated him with violence, they had attempted to outrage his
wife, had burned his property, and had several times warned him
to leave their country, or they should kill him.” (_River of the
West_, p. 400.)
“The fulfilment of the laws which the agent recommended for their
adoption, ... occasioned suspicions in the minds of the Indians
generally that the whites designed the ultimate subjugation of
their tribes. They saw in the laws they had adopted a deep-laid
scheme of the whites to destroy them and take possession of their
country. The arrival of a large party of emigrants about this
time, and the sudden departure of Dr. Whitman to the United
States, with the avowed intention of bringing back with him as
many as he could enlist for Oregon, served to hasten them to the
above conclusions.... The great complaint of the Indians was that
the Boston people [Americans] designed to take away their lands,
and reduce them to slavery.” (_Rev. Gustavus Hines, D.D., assistant
of Spaulding, in Pub. Doc. No. 37, on the Nez Perces in 1843,
History of Oregon_, p. 143.)
“They [the Indians] were demanding unreasonable pay for their
lands upon which the stations were erected, and paying but little
or no attention to their American teachers.” (_Gray’s History of
Oregon_, p. 365.)
“The fact is also shown that, as far back as 1835, the Indians
west of the Rocky Mountains protested against the taking away of
their lands by the white races, and this was one of the alleged
causes of the murder of Dr. Whitman.” (_J. Ross Browne, Special
Agent of the Treasury, Report to the Com. of Indian Affairs_,
Dec. 4, 1857.)
Thus we find that, whatever credit may be claimed for Dr. Whitman as a
colonist, his course toward the people whom he was sent to evangelize
was anything but just or Christian; for he not only did not pay for
his own land, but helped others to steal also, and he admits himself
that for some years he had utterly neglected the spiritual and mental
duties of his mission. But there were other and not less potent causes
at work. Of his “esteemed friend Dr. Whitman,” Sir James Douglass,
chief factor of the Hudson Bay Company, writes on December 9, ten days
after the massacre:
“He hoped that time and instruction would produce a change of
mind--a better state of feeling toward the mission, and he might
have lived to have seen his hopes realized, had not the measles
and dysentery, following in the train of immigrants from the
United States, made frightful ravages this year in the upper
country. Many Indians have been carried off through the violence
of the disease, and others through their own imprudence. The
Cayuse Indians of Wailatpu, being sufferers in this general
calamity, were incensed against Dr. Whitman for not exerting his
supposed supernatural power in saving their lives. They carried
this absurdity beyond the point of folly. Their superstitious
minds became possessed of the horrible suspicion that he was
giving poison to the sick instead of wholesome medicine, with the
view of working the destruction of the tribe, his former cruelty
probably adding strength to their suspicions. Still, some of the
reflecting had confidence in Dr. Whitman’s integrity, and it was
agreed to test the effects of the medicine he had furnished on
three of their people, one of whom was said to be in perfect
health. They unfortunately died, and from that moment it was
resolved to destroy the mission. It was immediately after burying
the remains of these three persons that they repaired to the
mission and murdered every man found there.”
Several other contemporary writers confirm this calm statement of
events, which in themselves were enough to drive ignorant and
desperate savages (for it must be borne in mind that Dr. Whitman had
given up instructing them for some years to attend to his wheat and
horses) to commit any act of murder or rapine. To show that the
“horrible suspicion” of having been poisoned was not a mere groundless
suspicion on the part of the Indians, we present the following
testimony:
“I spent the winter of 1846 in Dr. Whitman’s employment. I 680
generally worked at the saw-mill. During the time I was there, I
observed that Dr. Whitman was in the habit of poisoning wolves. I
did not see him put the poison in the baits for the wolves; but
two of his young men of the house, by his order, were poisoning
pieces of meat, and distributing them in the places where the
wolves were in the habit of coming, at a short distance around
the establishment of the doctor. The doctor once gave me some
arsenic to poison the wolves that were around the saw-mill....
Some Indians who happened to pass there took the meat and ate it;
three of them were very sick, and were near dying.... Mr. Gray,
who was then [1840] living with the doctor, offered us as many
melons to eat as we liked, but he warned us at the same time not
to eat them indiscriminately, as some of them were poisoned. ‘The
Indians,’ said he, ‘are continually stealing our melons. To stop
them, we have put a little poison on the bigger ones, _in order
that the Indians who will eat them might be a little sick_.’”
(_Statement of John Young, corroborated by Augustine Raymond._)
In addition to these acts of imprudence, the doctor, it seems, had
earned for himself an unenviable unpopularity. He was constantly
extorting overpay in horses from them, and threatening them with
soldiers and emigrants if they refused it. After having a quarrel with
them on one occasion, “during which they insulted him, covered him
with mud,” and even attempted his life, “he started for the United
States, telling the Indians that he was going to see the great chief
of the Americans, and that when he would return he would bring with
him many people to chastise them; the Indians had been looking to his
return with great fear and anxiety.”[143] At another time, in the fall
of 1847, he said to the Indians at Walla Walla in the presence of
several white men, “Since you are so wicked, such robbers, we shall
send for troops to chastise you, and next fall we will see here five
hundred dragoons, who will take care of you.” But even Doctor Whitman,
“fickle and obstinate” as he was, could not entirely overlook the
dangers that beset him for so many years, and at the solicitation of
his friend had been preparing to leave his station long before the
arrival of the Catholic missionaries. Mr. Thomas McKay, whom the
doctor had invited to stop the winter of 1847-8 with him for
protection, says, “He told me repeatedly, during the last two years
especially, that he wished to leave, as he knew the Indians were
ill-disposed toward him, and that it was dangerous for him to stay
there; but that he wished all the chiefs to tell him to go away, in
order to _excuse himself to the Board of Foreign Missions_.” Dangerous
and fatal mistake, which cost the lives of thirteen innocent people,
and closed the unfortunate man’s earthly career!
Now for the affair of the young woman Miss Bewley, who is described in
_Pub. Doc. No. 37_, p. 35, indifferently as an “amiable young saint,”
a “dear girl,” and “an angel.” It is charged that, when Five Crows
demanded her for his wife, and she refusing to go with him, the
bishops and priests urged her to go, and even thrust her out-of-doors
when she refused. So little credence was given this specific calumny,
for many years after the alleged occurrence, that the only mention we
find made of it in _The Murder of Dr. Whitman_ is the following
paragraph:
“Before taking leave of the chiefs, the bishop said to them all
publicly, as he had also done several times privately, that those
who had taken American girls should give them up immediately. And
then all entreated Five Crows to give up the one he had taken,
but to no purpose.”
Now let us hear Father Brouillet’s account of the affair in 681
contradiction to Miss Bewley’s deposition:
“We did,” says the reverend gentleman, “all that charity could
claim, and even more than prudence seemed to permit. We kept her
for seventeen days in our house, provided for all her wants, and
treated her well, and if she had minded us, and heeded our advice
and entreaties, she would never have been subjected to that
Indian. When she came first to our house, and told us that Five
Crows had sent for her to be his wife, we asked her what she
wanted to do. Did she want to go with him, or not? She said she
did not want to go with him. ‘Stay with us, then, if you like; we
will do for you what we can,’ was our offer. When the evening
came, the Indian chief called for her. The writer then requested
his interpreter to tell him that she did not want to be his wife,
and that, therefore, he did not want her to go with him. The
interpreter, who was an Indian, allied by marriage to the
Cayuses, and knew the chiefs disposition well, would not provoke
his anger, and refused to interpret. The writer, then making use
of a few Indian words he had picked up during the few days he had
been there, and with the aid of signs, spoke to the Indian
himself, and succeeded in making him understand what he meant.
The Indian rose furiously and without uttering a word went away.
The young woman then got frightened, and wanted to go for fear he
might come back and do us all an injury. The writer tried to
quiet her, and insisted that she should remain at our house, but
to no avail; she must go, and off she went. The Indian, still in
his fit of anger, refused to receive her, and sent her back. She
remained with us three or four days undisturbed; until one
evening, without any violence on the part of the Indian, or
without advising with us, she went with him to his lodge. She
came back the next morning, went off again in the evening, and
continued so, without being forced by the Indian, and part of the
time going by herself, until at last she was told to select
between the Indian’s lodge and our house, as such a loose way of
acting could not be suffered any longer. That was the first and
only time that she offered any resistance to the will of the
Indian; but, indeed, her resistance was very slight, if we can
believe her own statement.”
This is a very different account from that sworn to by Miss Bewley,
but written by Spaulding, as he says himself, _Ex. Doc. No. 37_, p. 27:
“I would go to an individual, and take down in writing what he or she
knew, and then go before a magistrate, and the individual would make
an oath to the statement, the officer certifying.” There is no mention
that the parties were permitted to read what their amanuensis took
down, and all who are acquainted with such _ex-parte_ depositions know
how easily it would be to alter their sense and meaning by an
unscrupulous person--which we are about to show Spaulding to be. In
this very statement there are two interpolations, one of eight lines
on page 35 of _Ex. Doc. No. 37_, beginning with the words “I arose,”
and one of six on the following page, at “The next day,” which
materially alter the whole meaning of the document. This alteration of
a sworn statement by any but the affiant is at common law _forgery_,
and ought to entitle the person who makes it to the delicate attention
of the prosecuting attorney of his county. Whether the saint and
angel, Miss Bewley, is now aware of the forgery connected with her
name we know not, but we trust that the Senate will make a note of it
for the benefit of future historians. But Spaulding, who is described
by his co-missionary Gray as “quite impulsive and bitter in his
denunciations of a real or supposed enemy,” in endeavoring to make out
a case, is not content with altering one affidavit. That of Mr.
Osborne (_Ex. Doc. No. 37_, p. 32) is also materially changed in
several places from the original, and the official reports of Mr.
McLane (_Ex. Doc._ p. 33) and of Dr. White are doctored in a manner 682
that we venture to say would render it difficult for the writers
themselves to recognize them. Even the plain statements of _The Murder
of Dr. Whitman_ are garbled in a most palpable and scandalous manner.
As to the other auxiliary charges against the Catholic missionaries,
and the answers of Abernethy and a few others to questions propounded
by Spaulding, we do not consider them worthy of serious attention.
They are all directly or indirectly the creatures of Spaulding’s
fertile imagination, who, if not crazy as Colonel Gilliam said, has
allowed his hatred of Catholicity to carry him down to fearful depths
of crime, to calumny, falsehood, and forgery. His motives are
apparent, the gratification of his lust for revenge, and his hatred of
our faith; that of the associations who have signed his outrageous
statements is the present flourishing existence of the Catholic
missions in every part of Oregon; and the end proposed is to compass
their destruction by appealing to the religious prejudices of the
authorities at Washington. We have too much confidence in the wisdom
and good sense of the Executive and Congress to suppose that they will
be influenced by such inflammatory appeals--bearing on their face the
palpable impress of dishonesty and prejudice--and attempts to disturb
the good fathers in their labor of love, as well as of hardships and
suffering; and we expect soon to hear of those fanatics receiving a
fitting rebuke in our Senate for attempting to make that august body
the vehicle of perpetuating the vilest sort of falsehoods and slanders
against the Catholics of this country.
[130] _Ex. Doc. No._ 37, U. S. Senate, XLIst Cong., IIId
Session. 1870-1.
[131] Victor’s _The River of the West_, p. 400.
[132] _Works of Stephen Olin_, vol. ii. pp. 427, 428.
[133] Gray’s _Hist. of Oregon_, pp. 231, 246.
[134] _History of Oregon._ By G. Hines.
[135] _Murder of Dr. Whitman_, pp. 23, 24.
[136] Gray’s _History of Oregon_, p. 235.
[137] _Murder of Dr. Whitman_, p. 89.
[138] _Murder of Dr. Whitman_, p. 46.
[139] _Murder of Dr. Whitman_, pp. 53-55.
[140] The five Cayuses who were hung in Oregon City, June 3,
1850, as accomplices in the massacre, were all Protestants,
and remained so till they received their death sentence. All
the others who are known as murderers, among whom were
Lumsuky, Tamahas, and the two sons of Tilokaikt, were also
Protestants. Joseph Stainfield, Jo Davis, and the other
half-breed, who, it is said, plundered the dead, if
anything, were certainly not Catholics. Three of the
condemned on the morning of the execution solemnly declared
that the Catholic missionaries had nothing whatever to do
with the murder. The following letter to the Bishop of Walla
Walla, from the Archbishop of Oregon City, will be found
interesting:
OREGON CITY, June 2, 1850.
The supposed Cayuse murderers will be executed to-morrow.
They have abandoned Dr. Whitman’s religion and have become
Catholics. I am preparing them for baptism and for death.
F. N. BLANCHET,
Archbishop of Oregon City.
[141] _Oregon American._
[142] Letter of R. T. Lockwood to Very Rev. J. B. A.
Brouillet, V.G., Sept. 29, 1871.
[143] Toupin’s statement.
----------
AFFIRMATIONS.
“Why does man go about organizing systems, when he himself must be
reorganized?”
“The thing to be done will not unite the doers.”
“When man forgets what he is, he soon is put into a state of uneasiness,
and made to suffer in pain what was designed for him to be pleasure.”
“We are always learning the way that heaven acts, but are very shy to
invite it to act upon us, and are very unwilling to submit to the
preparatory process.”
“Self-improvement by the selfish spirit is the most deceitful of all
deceits.”
“While you persevere in washing a man’s face with dirty water, it will
never be clean; you must get pure water to wash with.”
“A child is a religious being prior to its being an intellectual being;
and must not be turned away from the divine order.”
----------
AN AFTERNOON AT ST. LAZARE. 683
We paid a visit yesterday (Sunday) to St. Lazare, and all that we saw
and heard there struck us as so interesting, and so entirely different
from our preconceived notions concerning that ill-famed centre of
crime and punishment, that we cannot but think our readers will
likewise be interested in hearing a detailed and accurate account of
it.
We had been told that the famous _pétroleuse_, charged with the murder
of Monseigneur Surat, was still there, and we could not resist the
opportunity offered us by a friend of going to see this extraordinary
type of female ferocity--the woman who put a pistol to the prelate’s
head, and, when he mildly asked her what he had done to her that she
should hate him so, replied: “You are a priest!” and shot him on the
spot. On arriving, however, we found that she had left for Versailles
the night before. There were still fourteen of her terrible compeers
remaining out of the four hundred and thirty that had been taken on
the barricades and in the general saturnalia of the Commune and locked
up in St. Lazare.
We visited the prison from beginning to end. Nothing surprised us so
much as the gentleness of the _régime_, and the absence of all mystery
or personal restraint in the management of the prisoners. The jail had
nothing of the repulsive paraphernalia of a prison about it, and but
for its massive walls, its vast proportions, and a certain
indescribable gloom in the atmosphere, inseparable, we suppose, from
the mere presence of such a population, one might very well have
mistaken it for an orphanage or any ordinary asylum conducted by a
religious community.
The _salles_ are magnificently spacious and lofty, with broad, high
windows opening on courts; there are four courts--_préaux_ they are
called--one after another, within the precincts of the prison; the
beds are like hospital beds; and there was nothing in the dress of the
women, or the manner of the nuns toward them, to tell an uninitiated
visitor that they were not patients rather than prisoners and
malefactors of the worst kind. There was the same silence brooding
over the place, the same quiet regularity in all the arrangements, the
same supernatural sort of cleanliness that one never sees anywhere but
in convents. The population of the prison varies from 1,200 to 1,800,
and the government of these dangerous and desperate subjects is
committed to the sole charge of a community of religious called
_Sœurs de Marie-Joseph_. They are fifty in all. Their dress is black
serge, with a black veil lined with a light-blue one. They were
founded at the close of the last century by a Lyonnese lady, whose
name the superioress told us, but we forgot it.
It was just two o’clock when we arrived, and the superioress and
another nun gave up assisting at vespers in order to show us over the
house, which from its immense size takes two hours to visit in detail.
The prisoners are divided into several categories, and are kept
distinctly separate from each other. There are first the
_Prévenues_, who are put in on an accusation which has not been 684
investigated; then the _Détenues_, against whom proof is forthcoming,
and who are awaiting their trial; then there are the _Jugées_, of whom
the categories are various, as will be seen. These classes are never
allowed to come in contact, even accidentally, with each other; they
do not even meet at meals. Those who are condemned to one year’s
imprisonment remain at St. Lazare, but if the sentence extends to a
year and a day, they are sent off to one of the _Succursales_. When
their term is expired (those who are sentenced to a year only), they
may continue at St. Lazare if they choose. Many of them, touched with
grace, and sincerely converted from their evil courses, dread going
back to old scenes and temptations that have proved so fatal to them,
and beg to be kept as _filles de service_ for the work of the house,
or in the workshops, etc., and they are never refused. The superioress
said they made very active official servants, and it is very seldom
they fall away from their good resolves, and have to be expelled or
punished. We were passing through one of the passages when a sudden
noise of voices from the court made us go to the window and look out.
We saw a troop of prisoners pouring out into the yard; they were
running about, laughing and chatting, and apparently enjoying their
momentary liberty with the zest of school-boys.
“Who are these, _ma mère_?” we inquired.
“_Hélas!_” The exclamation was accompanied by a sufficiently expressive
gesture.
“They are generally a very numerous class here,” she explained; “but
just now there are but some two hundred of them; the _pétroleuses_
were largely recruited from their ranks, and great numbers of them
have been sent on to Versailles.”
Some one asked if these unfortunates were more refractory than the
other prisoners, thieves, etc.
“As a rule, they are less so,” replied the nun; “we hardly ever are
obliged to have recourse to the _gardiens_ with them, and we have more
frequent conversions amongst them than any other class of prisoners.
There comes a time to many of them, especially if they have had any
seeds of religious belief sowed in their minds in childhood, when the
future both of this world and the next comes on them with a sense of
horror, and then grace has an easy task with them. I could tell you of
miracles wrought in the souls of these poor sinners that would sound
like tales out of the lives of the saints, and we have had deathbeds
among them little short of saintly. But, again, we too often see all
our efforts fail, and they reject grace with a sort of demoniacal
obduracy, and go back to their old lives without a moment’s passing
compunction: nothing seems to touch them or frighten them.”
We asked if the nuns were not afraid of them, if they never threatened
or insulted them.
“Oh! never!” replied the superioress emphatically; “the command we
have over them, and the way they yield obedience and respect to us, is
almost miraculous. You see these poor outcasts down there; I suppose
there is nothing in the world more lost or degraded than they are;
they are the lowest specimens of the lowest stratum of vice and every
species of depravity. Well, the youngest nun in the community is as
safe in the middle of them as if they were all honest _mères de famille_.
I have been a religious twenty-two years, and out of that ten years at
St. Lazare, and I have never known them use an expression to any of 685
us that called for reprimand.”
We may add that she said the great majority of these offenders were
girls from the provinces, young and inexperienced for the most part,
and who come to Paris expecting to make their fortune, and unprepared
for the temptations awaiting them in this great trap for souls.
We saw the words _Oratoire Israelite, Oratoire Protestant_, painted
over two doors, and the latter suggested the inquiry whether there
were occasionally any English women amongst the inmates of St. Lazare.
“Oh! yes, I am sorry to say we have a good many English,” said the
mother; and then, shaking her head and smiling, she added: “And I am
sorry to tell you that they are the most unmanageable of all, for they
are generally given to drink, and when this is the case they are like
mad-women and we can do nothing with them. A little while ago we had
one who got into such a fearful fit of fury that it was necessary to
put her in the lock-up; her shrieks were so loud that they were heard
half over the place, and terrified the young _détenues_; toward evening
she grew so outrageous that the _gardiens_ were sent to put her into
the strait-waistcoat--they are powerful men with strong hands and iron
nerves, and trained to the work--but she baffled four of them for two
hours; they were not able to seize or hold her; at last they gave it
up in despair, and said: It is no use, we must go for _les sœurs_!
One of them came to fetch me, and beg me to come or send some one to
help them. He was trembling in every limb, and the perspiration was
pouring from his face as if he had been wrestling with a wild animal.
I took one of the nuns with me, and we went down to the prison, where
we were obliged to spend the whole night with the prisoner, coaxing
and caressing her, before we got her to calm down and cease
shrieking.”
We asked to what class in life the English culprits generally
belonged--if they were exclusively of the lowest? The superioress
said, on the contrary, they were often persons very _comme il faut_
in their manners, and evidently had had an education far above the
class of domestic servants--some of them were in fact quite like
ladies; she believed they were mostly governesses, or teachers who
come over to Paris in search of situations or lessons, and, not
finding either, are driven by hunger and despair to steal, or do
worse; but theft is generally the offence of the English prisoners.
“Sometimes, indeed,” said the superioress, “it makes us laugh to hear
the account of the thefts they commit, there is often something so
comical in the way they do it, and the cunning and dexterity they
display are beyond belief; the most accomplished French _filou_ cannot
hold a candle to them.”
Sad as this testimony was, it could not be quite a surprise to any one
living in Paris who had seen much of the class of English alluded to,
but it will come probably as a new and terrible revelation to many in
England; and if this paper should fall into the hands of any lone,
friendless English girl hesitating about coming to Paris to earn her
bread, the writer prays God she may ponder on the foregoing statement,
and think twice before embarking on so perilous a venture.
Several _salles_ are filled with a class of prisoners called _jeunes
insoumises_; they are all very young, some merely children of the day;
they are not always actual criminals, sometimes they are only subjects
with dangerous propensities beyond the control of parents, and they
are sent here to be trained to better ways; especial pains are directed 686
to these juvenile offenders, and the result is often very consoling.
The superioress said they had lately had a baby of six years old
brought in for stealing. “It was only a cake that tempted the poor
little mite,” said the mother deprecatingly, “but she was very naughty
and unmanageable otherwise, and the parents were glad of a pretext to
get rid of her for a time.”
It was not only of such innocent culprits as this that the superioress
spoke with indulgence, her large-hearted charity took in all the lost
inhabitants of the dismal abode in which she dwelt and toiled; and
there was something unspeakably touching in the way she every now and
then seemed to try as it were to excuse the worst among them, to plead
for them indirectly by showing up any remnant of good in them. We met
the women we mentioned our seeing out at recreation on their way along
a corridor; they walked singly, with their arms crossed; we were quite
close to them as they passed us; and anything more ignoble than their
features it would be difficult to conceive--the expression of the
faces was scarcely human; they resembled vicious animals in human
shape rather than women. This struck us all so forcibly that we could
not help making the remark to the superioress. She seemed positively
hurt, as if we had said something personally unkind to her, and, on my
expressing some pagan surprise at it, she broke out into such a tender
pleading for “those dear souls whom our Lord longs for and that cost
him so dear” that, though I felt thoroughly rebuked, I could not be
sorry for having called out her protest. It was like having laid one’s
hand roughly and unawares on a vibrating instrument that sent out a
strain of heavenly music.
“Oh!” she continued, with such a look as I shall never forget, “if we
only knew what the value of a soul is, how precious it is in the eyes
of God, we would never look with disgust at the poor wretched body
that holds it; but I assure you when one comes near to those poor
sinners the disgust soon wears off, and we think of nothing but their
souls, their precious, immortal souls, that were bought at such a
price!”
The more we listened to her and observed her, the less surprised we
were at the universal respect, worship I might almost call it, that
greeted her presence everywhere--it was so spontaneous and so free
from anything like fear or servility. As soon as she appeared at the
door of a work-room, or a class, or a dormitory, the prisoners rose
immediately to salute her; and several times I noticed some of them
make signs to others who were not looking, or touch them on the
shoulder, to stand up and welcome the mother. She generally said a
word to them _en passant_: “Good-morning, my children! Are you behaving
well?” etc., and then there was a ripple of curtsies and a perfect
clamor of “Yes, mother, thank you!” and the hard, bad faces would
brighten for one moment with a smile.
The influence of the nuns with the prisoners is indeed little less
than a permanent miracle, Among other instances of it, the superioress
told us the following: “A desperate woman, charged with misdemeanors
of the worst kind, was brought to the prison. She was the daughter of
a butcher, and,” added the superioress, laughing, “I beg you to
believe that her manners were just what might have been expected.” A
few days after her arrival she broke out into a fit of mad fury, and
the _gardiens_ had to be sent for to take her to the _cachot_; but as
soon as she saw them enter the _salle_, she drew a huge pair of scissors 687
from her pocket--how she came by it we never discovered--and, holding
it open and pointed at them with one hand, she beckoned them with the
other to come on, yelling all the while like a raging lioness. The men
tried to terrify her, to dodge her, but it was all useless, she
baffled every attempt to seize her. They gave it up as hopeless, and
came for me. She no sooner saw me than she cried out: ‘Send them away,
and I will go with you; but I will never move a foot with these men!’
I sent them away, and told her to give me the scissors; she gave it at
once, and then I took her by the hand and led her off without a word.
“On another occasion, one section of prisoners got up a scheme for
killing the _gardiens_. They were to tie their wooden _sabots_ into
clusters of eight together, and when the _gardiens_ came to convey
some refractory subject to the _cachot_, the others were to fling
several batches of these formidable missiles at their heads. The
effect must have been fatal, but fortunately there was some delay in
the appearance of the _gardiens_, and the prisoners, having all ready,
grew impatient, and at last, losing all control, they began to yell
and call out for them and brandish their _sabots_ furiously. The nun
who was in waiting ran down to warn the _gardiens_ not to come up, and
then came to tell me what had happened, and to consult about sending
for the soldiers, who are always ready at the _poste_ outside the
prison; the _gardiens_ were frightened, and advised this being done. I
thought, however, the storm would subside without having recourse to
such an extreme measure. I was not the least afraid of the women
personally; I knew they would never lay a finger on one of _us_,
whatever their fury might be, so I walked into the midst of them.
“‘What is this row about?’ I said. ‘I am ashamed of you; let me hear
no more of it.’ Then taking the ringleader--we always know the one to
pitch upon--I told her I must put her in prison; she made no
resistance, only stipulating that the _gardiens_ were not to touch
her.”
“Are the _gardiens_ cruel to them that they hate them so much?” I
asked.
“No, never,” she answered; “they have no opportunity for it if they
felt so inclined; but they represent strength and justice, whereas the
nuns represent only weakness and pity; the prisoners resent the one,
but not the other.”
Some one asked the superioress if she had ever known a conspiracy
attempted to kill or hurt any of the sisters. She replied never, on
which we related to her an episode of the Roman prisons, told us
recently by the Papal Nuncio. The female prisons in Rome are, like St.
Lazare, conducted entirely by nuns, without even the moral support of
a _poste_ at the gates to enforce their authority. One day a plot was
organized for doing away with the nuns and making their own escape
from the prison. The prisoners were sixty in number and the nuns
twelve, so the scheme offered little serious difficulty. It was agreed
that on a certain day when all the community were assembled with the
prisoners in the workroom, the latter were to seize the nuns and fling
them out of the windows into the yard. The signal agreed upon was the
close of the work-hour, when the superioress clapped her hands for
them to put aside their work. The secret was so well kept that not a
hint transpired, but the superioress felt instinctively there was
something abnormal brewing. She had no apprehension at the moment, 688
however, and gave the signal as usual when the clock struck the hour.
No one moved. She repeated it. Still no one stirred. She gave it a
third time more emphatically, and then the leader of the band walked
straight up to her and struck her a blow on the face. The meek
disciple of Jesus quietly knelt down, turned the other cheek, and
said:
“If I have done you any harm, tell me so, but if not, why do you
strike me?”
The woman fell upon her knees, burst into tears, and confessed
everything. When the superioress had heard her to the end, she said:
“Now, my daughter, I must take you to the dungeon; you know this is my
duty.”
“Yes, mother, I know it is,” and she gave her hand, and let herself be
led away as meekly as a lamb.
How omnipotent is the power of love, and how lovely this world would
be if love were allowed to rule over it everywhere!
Before we had finished our inspection of the house, we went to
benediction in the prison chapel. There was a short sermon first on
the gospel of the day. About eight hundred of the prisoners were
present. Some were yawning, and evidently only there because they
could not help themselves, others assisted with edifying devotion, but
all were respectful in their attitude and demeanor. The organ was
played by one of the nuns, and the choir, was formed of prisoners from
the class already alluded to. The singing was not very scientific, but
it struck us all as peculiarly touching, the more so, no doubt, from
the associations connected unconsciously with the choristers. The
superioress said it was looked upon as a great privilege to sing in
the choir, and it is held out as a reward for sustained efforts and
good conduct. As we saw the little altar lighted up, and the golden
rays of the monstrance shining down upon the singular congregation,
one could not but think what a grand and beautiful manifestation of
redeeming love it was, this presence of the God of holiness, a willing
prisoner in such a temple. There were the Sisters of Marie-Joseph,
women of the purest, most unblemished lives, self-devoted victims to
the God who died on Calvary for outcasts and sinners, kneeling side by
side in unloathing sisterhood with the vilest offscourings of this
great Babylon. A sight wonderful beyond all human understanding if the
mystery were not explained to us by the voice from out the little
crystal prison-house: “I came to seek sinners, and to dwell with
them.... And whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do likewise
to me.... And there is more joy in heaven for the return of one sinner
than for ninety-nine of the just.”
And many are the joys given to him and his saints by the inmates of
this great emporium of sinners. Last All Saints’ day five hundred of
the prisoners approached the sacraments, some in the most admirably
penitent spirit, but all of their own free will, and for the moment at
least with hearts touched by grace and turned away from evil. They
were prepared for the feast by a retreat of eight days, preached by a
Marist father.
After benediction we resumed our inspection, and came finally to the
_pétroleuses_. There was nothing in the room where they were, or their
surroundings, to distinguish them from the other prisoners, and if the
superioress had not whispered to us as we were entering the dormitory
that these were the women, we should never have suspected the bright,
orderly room to be the den of wild beasts it was. An American lady who 689
was of our party amused the nuns by asking repeatedly: “But where are
the wicked ones?” She could not persuade herself--and indeed it was
difficult--that the hundreds of women we saw so gently ruled, and held
as it were with silken cords, were the most dangerous and abandoned
characters of the metropolis. The fourteen _pétroleuses_ were not
dressed in the prison livery, but wore their own clothes: some of them
were very spruce and comfortable, but all were tidy and clean--none of
them had a poverty-stricken look. They were nearly all of them
standing in sullen silence beside their beds; one woman was dandling a
baby, a white-faced, shrivelled little object, tricked out in a fine
blue frock with little flounces. We think we said there had been four
hundred and thirty of these _pétroleuses_ in the prison. The superioress
said they had behaved very well there, and never once obliged the
soldiers to interfere. They were cold-blooded, defiant creatures, but
this was not their sphere of action; they bore no ill-will to the
sisters; quite the contrary, many shed tears on going away. They fell
into the discipline of the prison with great docility as to hours and
rules, and seldom broke silence. On one point only they were
intractable--they would not work.
“It’s bad enough to be conquered and butchered by Versailles,” they
would answer, “but we are not going to work for them.” And neither
threats nor entreaties could induce them to take a needle in their
hand, or to sit down to a sewing-machine. It was no use explaining to
them that they would not be working for Versailles, that they would
work for themselves, and might buy extra food at the _cantine_ with
their day’s earnings; no, they got it into their heads that Versailles
would in some way or other be the better for their working, and
nothing could get it out of them. The very name of Versailles used to
rouse them to fury; it was like a red rag to a bull. They boasted of
their exploits during the Commune as things to glory in. One swore she
had set fire to five buildings, and her only regret was that she had
been too late to set fire to St. Lazare. Many of her companions
expressed the same regret with quiet effrontery, that would have been
amusing if it had not been so appalling. Every one of them declared
that if it were to begin over again, they would do just the same, only
better, _because now they had more experience_.
“And what is your opinion, _ma mère_?” we said; “do you think it will
begin again, and that the _pétroleuses_ are still in existence, or was
it a type born with the Commune, and passed away with it?”
She replied unhesitatingly that she believed it would begin again, and
that the _pétroleuses_ would come out in greater force than ever; that
they were neither daunted nor disarmed by the failure of the Commune,
but rather infuriated by defeat, and more resolute and reckless than
before--reckless to a degree that only bad women can be, and ready to
stake body and soul on their revenge. She said that the conduct of
Versailles was weak and ill-judged beyond her comprehension; that they
had far better have left these women free at once on the plea that
they were women, if they did not mean to deal out their deserts to
them; but now these desperate creatures were exasperated by
incarceration, and by a mockery of a trial that either liberated them
or sentenced them to a punishment they knew perfectly well the 690
government did not mean to carry out. It was like letting loose so
many bloodhounds on France to set these women at large again.
“We have seen them _de près_,” continued the superioress, “and we are
one and all convinced that the next attempt will be worse than the
first; we have terrible days in store--the _pétroleuses_ have not said
their last word.”
Speaking of the Commune led to our asking about her own experiences
under it. It appears that the employees at St. Lazare, the director,
inspector-general, and their assistants, were among the first turned
out, and agents of the Hôtel de Ville installed in their places. The
first thing these guardians of public justice did was to set free
one-half of the population, such as were available for the public
services; and able servants they proved themselves on the barricades
and as incendiaries. To account for and in some measure palliate the
superhuman ferocity displayed by the women of the Commune, we may as
well mention here a fact not generally known, and which was told to us
by a distinguished medical man, who was here all through that terrible
saturnalia, and by a Sister of Charity, who could also speak from
personal knowledge. It would seem that the snuff dealt out to the
people from the government manufactories was mixed in large
proportions with gunpowder. The effect of this ingredient, taken in
very small quantities, is to excite the brain abnormally, but taken in
large ones it brings on a kind of savage delirium tremens. The wine
distributed to the _pétroleuses_ on the barricades and elsewhere was
also heavily charged with some such element of madness. It seems to us
that it is rather a consolation to hear this, for though it reveals a
diabolical instinct of soul-hatred in the few, it explains, on the
other hand, how it was that occasionally we saw young and hitherto
mild, inoffensive women suddenly transformed into demons.
The superioress said that for the first three weeks that the nuns did
duty for the Commune, nothing could exceed the respect and
consideration they received from them.
“They were as docile as little girls to us,” she said, “and never did
anything without coming to consult us. The _inspecteur-general_ named
by the Commune happened to have formerly been a clerk at the prison.
My surprise when I saw him in his new character, and with such
credentials, was great; but he seemed himself very much ashamed, and
when I asked him what had induced him to join the Commune, he replied
that it was really devotion to the nuns; he had accepted the office
because he knew we would want a protector, and he preferred being on
the spot to watch over us. It was not laughing matter, or I could have
laughed at his audacity. And he actually pleaded this argument on his
trial at Versailles, and was acquitted on it! He had always been a
well-conducted, honest man, and I am not sure but in the bottom of his
heart this good intention toward us may not have been mixed up with a
great many other less worthy ones. During all the time he was in
constant communication with me, he never had the courage once to raise
his eyes to my face. He told us a good deal about what was going on
outside, and especially what the women were doing. He spoke in
enthusiastic praise of their spirit and courage. He said the fort of
Montrouge was lost one day but for a girl of seventeen, who, seeing
the soldiers demoralized, and the gunners abandoning their guns and
turning to fly, rushed up to one of them, and seized a light and put 691
it to the cannon, and so mocked the cowards, and taunted them all with
cowardice and want of mettle, that she rallied every man of them and
saved the place. But for this Versailles would have taken it. Ten
minutes later, and the defence was abandoned. ‘Had it not been for
this plucky little _diablesse_, we were lost!’ he exclaimed. Such
traits as this prepared us for the _pétroleuses_ of a few weeks later,
but he only saw patriotism and valor in them.”
Things went on very amicably between the gentlemen of the Commune and
the sisters for three weeks. Then a change came over them. They were
not openly rude, but there was what the superioress described as
restrained fury in their manner toward the nuns, and the latter felt
that the blood-fever was rising in them, and that they would soon
break out into open mutiny. The superioress felt this more strongly
than the rest, and she was sorely perplexed how to get her flock out
of the way of the wolves while it was yet time. It was no easy matter,
for, as she quaintly said, “One cannot send off fifty religious like
fifty pins, in a box by mail,” and in the present state of mind of the
Communists, to awake suspicion was to have the whole community seized
and locked up forthwith. The first thing to be done was to procure
permission from the Hôtel de Ville. She had been obliged to go of late
several times to the prefecture on one business or another connected
with her functions in the prison, so the authorities there knew her,
and had always treated her with marked civility. She said that the
first time she went there the faces of the so-called officials struck
her as demoniacal, they were all of them half-drunk--men taken from
the gutters of Belleville and Villette to fill offices of whose
commonest outward forms they had no idea, yet they were as deferential
to herself and the nun who accompanied her as so many priests might
have been. This did not prevent her saying to her companion as soon as
they were alone: “Well, if we did not believe in hell, the faces we
have seen to-day would have revealed it to us.”
She applied for a permission to leave, and got it without any
difficulty. She kept it in her pocket all that day, and the next
morning she seemed to hear a voice saying to her interiorly: _Now is
the moment_; send them off! The exodus was planned well, and carried
out so discreetly, the nuns going in threes and fours at a time, that
not a shadow of suspicion dawned on the employees--their jailers as
they now considered them. All that day the superioress kept constantly
with them, never letting them lose sight of her for a quarter of an
hour at a time, coming and going perpetually, and making future
arrangements for one thing or another, so as to put them more
completely off the scent. It was only when evening came and there were
but eight nuns in the house besides herself, that the flight was
discovered. The rage of the director was undisguised. But if he could
not catch the fugitives, he could revenge himself on the devoted ones
who had shielded their flight at the peril of their own lives. The
superioress was at work in the midst of the little remnant of her
flock, when he rushed into the room, pistol in hand. A few words
passed between them, angry on his part, calm and resolute on hers,
then with an oath he left the room abruptly.
“I knew as well as if he had told me,” she said, “that he was gone to
see if there was a vacant cell to put me in. I did not feel
terrified--God gives such strong graces in moments like that!--but I 692
felt the same kind of internal voice saying to me: Now is your time;
take the others and fly!
“We hurried down the stairs just as we were and went out. We turned to
the left, and walked on as fast as we could, without running, toward
the _Gare du Nord_. We could hardly have turned the corner of the
street when the director was in pursuit of us. _Les Détenues_, who
saw us leave the house and take to the left, called out to him: To the
right, citoyen! They are not forty yards ahead! He followed the
direction, and this saved us. We reached the station just as the train
was about to move. The guards saw us coming, and cried out to us to
make haste and jump in. ‘But our tickets! We have not taken them!’ I
said.
“‘Never mind, jump in! You will pay at the other end,’ and they
hustled us into the nearest carriage. We had not seated ourselves when
the director appeared on the platform pistol in hand, and crying out
frantically to the train to stop. But it moved on, and landed us
safely at Argenteuil.”
A few days after the _Sœurs Marie-Joseph_ had cleared out from St.
Lazare, the nuns of Picpus were taken there. This the superioress
thought was one reason why the officials were anxious to get them out
of their way; they meant to put the others there, and they did not
want any inconvenient witnesses of their own proceedings.
When we had seen all that was to be seen in the vast building, the
superioress took us to the private chapel of the community. It was
formerly the cell of St. Vincent of Paul, that is to say, the space
occupied by the sanctuary; the altar stands where his little bed used
to be, and the window step is worn away by the pressure of his feet,
when his increasing infirmities obliged him to have recourse to the
solace of a footstool. The prison itself was formerly a Lazarist
monastery; the refectory is exactly as it was in the time of St.
Vincent, unchanged in all except its occupants; and the great, sombre
corridors echoed for twenty years to the footsteps of the sweet
apostle of charity. His memory is held in great veneration throughout
the prison, and the population speak of him with a sort of rough,
filial affectionateness that, the nuns told us, is often very
touching; they seem to look on him as a friend who ought to stand by
them.
I had nearly forgotten one incident in our visit that had a peculiar
beauty of its own. We were passing by the open door of what seemed an
infirmary; all the beds were occupied, and there were several nuns
sitting in the room, when one of them ran out and said:
“Oh! _ma mère_, you will not pass without coming to say _bonjour_ to
our old women. Ever since they heard you were showing the house, they
have been watching for you.”
The superioress said it was late, and she really had not time just
now, but the nuns begged harder, and said that the old women knew she
was going into retreat that evening, so they would not see her for
eight days, and the old women, seeing they were in danger of being
refused, began to cry out so piteously that the mother, asking us if
we would not mind walking down the ward, yielded, and we went in.
These old women are all infirm and incurable, and have been sent as
such from one hospital or another to St. Lazare. Their delight when
the superioress came in and spoke a word to each was almost rapturous.
I stood to speak to one old soul, but instead of detailing her own
aches and pains after the usual manner of those dear, blessed,
garrulous poor people, she burst out confidentially into ecstatic 693
praises of _notre mère_--how sweet and kind she was, and how she loved
them all, and what she did for them, and what an angel she was
altogether, “as indeed all the good sisters were,” the good soul made
haste to assure us. We found, on comparing notes with our friends,
that those to whom they spoke had improved the opportunity in the same
way. It seemed quite a treat to them to find an audience for their
grateful praises of the _Sœurs_. Indeed, as far as our view of them
went, the Sisters of Marie-Joseph fully justify the love they receive
so plentifully. The superioress is what the French would call _une
maîtresse femme_, a combination of energy and gentleness, with a
certain frank brightness of manner that is very winning to a stranger,
and must be a great help, independent of stronger agencies, in
enabling her to win the confidence and disarm the rebellious spirit of
the women she has to deal with. It was wonderful to watch her as she
passed on from _salle_ to _salle_, saying just the right little word
to all of them, and bringing a smile on all the faces, old and young,
good and bad. Her manner, while it was perfectly simple and familiar,
never lost its dignity; but there was not the faintest shadow of that
spirit which too often hinders the salutary influence of virtue over
vice--keep off; for I am holier than you! With these infirm old women
she was affectionate and caressing as a mother, petting them like
children, and encouraging their fearless familiarity toward herself.
They had been here all through the Commune, they told us, and
witnessed from their windows--the infirmary is on the ground
floor--all the scenes enacted in the court by _ces dames_, as they
mockingly styled them, who had come to replace the _Sœurs_. But the
worst of that terrible interval to them was the terror they were in of
being burnt to death. They saw the flames rising on all sides from the
conflagrations in the neighborhood of St. Lazare, and they were in
momentary expectation of seeing the prison itself fired. The doors
were opened for them to fly, but “_à quoi bon, puisque nous n’avions
pas de jambes pour fuir?_” they observed jocosely. This was the last
_salle_ we saw. Before the superioress took leave of the incurables,
she asked them to pray for the nuns during their retreat, which was to
begin that evening. They promised in chorus that they would, and one
said: “We will offer up all our suffering this week for the good
sisters,” and all the others pledged themselves to do the same.
So ended our visit to St. Lazare. It was a sad and yet an unutterably
consoling one. We hear a great deal about the atheism and immorality
and wickedness of Paris--and God knows there is plenty of them--but
there is much also that is bright and pure and beautiful mixed up with
the bad, if only we looked for it and proclaimed it. We would find the
pearls of purity, and the rubies of charity, and the emeralds of hope,
and the salt of the Holy Spirit, scattered everywhere amidst the
general corruption, healing and redeeming it.
----------
THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION [144] 694
The Labor Question has become one of the most formidable
questions--perhaps the most formidable question--of the day; and the
worst feature of the question is that, though it has been looming up
in the distance for nearly a century, and constantly coming nearer and
nearer, and more and more pressing for a solution, the statesmen,
reformers, and philanthropists of no country seem to know what answer
to give it, or how to treat it. There is no lack of nostrums, and
every petty politician is ready with his “Morrison pill”; but no one
gives a satisfactory diagnosis of the case, and the remedies offered
or applied have served thus far only to aggravate the symptoms of the
disease.
There is a very general conviction among the workingmen themselves
that, in the distribution of the joint products of capital and labor,
capital gets the lion’s share. Capitalists, or they who can command
capital or its substitute, credit, grow rich, become millionaires,
from the profits of the labor they employ, while the laborer himself,
with the most rigid economy and frugality, can barely keep soul and
body together, and not always even that. Yet, if we look at the
millions deposited by the laboring classes in our savings-banks, and
the large sums collected from them for eleemosynary and other purposes
not necessarily included in the expenses of living, this statement seems
exaggerated. Then, too, the majority of the millionaires with
us, and, perhaps, in England and France, began life as workmen, or, at
least, without capital and with very little credit.
It is not easy to say precisely what the special grievances of the
workingmen are, at least in our country, since comparatively few of
the wealthy or easy classes of to-day inherited their wealth, or had
to start with any appreciable advantages, pecuniary, educational, or
social, over their compeers who have remained in the proletarian
class. The International Association of Workingmen do not tell us very
distinctly what their special grievances are, nor can we gather them
from the eloquent lecture of their mouthpiece, Mr. Wendell Phillips,
the candidate of the labor unions of Massachusetts for governor of
that state. The evils he complains of, if evils, grow out of what is
called “modern civilization,” and seem to us to be inseparable from
it. This is also clearly his opinion, and _The Dublin Review_ shows
that it is the view taken by the Internationals in England and France.
Mr. Phillips says:
“Modern civilization is grand in seeming large and generous in
some of its results, but, at the same time, hidden within are
ulcers that confront social science and leave it aghast. The
students of social science, in every meeting that gathers itself,
in every debate and discussion, confess themselves at their wits’
end in dealing with the great social evils of the day. Nobody
that looks into the subject but recognizes the fact that the
disease is very grave and deep; the superficial observer does not
know the leak in the very body of the ship, but the captain and 695
crew are suffering the anticipation of approaching ruin.
Gentlemen, I am not here with the vain dream that we shall ever
abolish poverty. My creed of human nature is too bitter for that.
There will always be men that drink, and as long as there are
such, there will always be poor men--shiftless men. There are
always half-made men--nobody knows why they were born.
“Is civilization a failure? Stretch out your gaze over all the
civilized world. There are, perhaps, in Christendom two or three
hundred millions of people, and one-half of them never have
enough to eat. And even in this country one-half of the people
have never had enough of mental food. All over the world one-half
of Christendom starves either bodily or mentally. That is no
exaggeration. You may go to France or England, and find a million
of men that never saw meat once a year. Take your city, and go
down into the very slums of existence, where human beings by the
thousands live year in and year out in dwellings which no man in
Fifth Avenue would trust his horses in for twelve hours. I will
take the great social spectre that confronts social science the
world over--prostitution, the social ulcer that eats into the
nineteenth century. And everybody who studies the subject will
confess that the great root from which it grows is that the
poverty of one class makes it the victim of the wealth of
another. Give woman her fair chance in her own fields of
enterprise, and ninety-nine out of a hundred will disdain to buy
diamonds and velvets with the wages of shame. Give man his fair
chance in the world of labor and enterprise, and ninety-nine out
of a hundred men will disdain to steal. The grog-shops of the
great cities have always appointed the municipalities as their
own standing, committees. And this is at once the cause and
effect of the poverty of the masses. I have known men who were
intemperate in Boston cured by being sent to Paris. Why? Because
in the brighter life, the more generous stimulant, the great
variety of interest in the European capital, he found something
that called out his nobler nature, starved out his appetites. So
it is with the intemperance of a nation; and to cure it, you must
supplement their life with the stimulus of the soul. Why is it
that three-fourths of the criminals are of the poorer classes?
Why do the students of crime tell you that when you have taken
out about fifteen per cent. of the criminals, consisting of the
enterprising, energetic, and intelligent, the rest are below par
bodily and mentally? Because they are the children, grandchildren,
or great-grandchildren of persons who were bodily and mentally
weak. Out of these weak ones the devil selects his best tools.
Feed that class better, and you will empty your prisons.”
This plainly enough attributes the evils the workingmen seek to remedy
to modern civilization, which enables the few to become rich and
leaves the many poor, destitute, festering in ignorance and vice. M.
Desmoulins, in his _Apology for the Internationals_, as quoted by _The
Dublin Review_, says: “The Parisian Red, far from being out of the
pale of human nature, is only a spontaneous product of what is
pompously styled modern civilization--a civilization that, resting to
this hour on war between nation and nation, town and town, farm and
farm, men and men, is still in many respects sheer barbarism.” As far
as we are able to collect the views of the Association, it attributes
the undefined grievances of the proletarian class to no one specific
cause, but to modern civilization in general. In this, if the
workingmen confine their objection to material civilization--the only
civilization the age boasts or recognizes--we are not disposed to
quarrel with them. Yet we all remember the outcry raised in all
classes of society and from all quarters against the Holy Father,
because he refused to form an alliance of the church with modern
civilization, and for his supposed condemnation of it in the Syllabus.
The International Association of Workingmen, whose members are spread
over nearly the whole world, and are numbered by millions, is a vast 696
organized revolt against this boasted civilization of this nineteenth
century. And so far it is not wholly without excuse, and even much may
be said in its defence, though their proposed substitute for it may be
utterly indefensible.
Modern material civilization, dating from the Peace of Utrecht in
1713, and more especially from the accession of the House of Hanover
to the English throne, and the accession to power in England of
what in the time of Swift and Addison was called the Urban
party--money-changers, bankers, traders, merchants, and
manufacturers--has been based on capital employed in trade and
industry, in opposition to capital invested in land and agriculture.
It is a shopkeeping and manufacturing and maritime civilization,
essentially and eminently a burgher civilization, and resulting
especially in the burgher class, or, as the French say, the
_bourgeoisie_. A civilization based on material interests, and
proposing the multiplication and amassing of material goods,
necessarily produces the state of things which excites the opposition
of Mr. Phillips and the Internationals. It creates necessarily an
antagonism between the interests of capital and labor, and therefore
between the employers, as representatives of capital, and the
employed, or workmen. The interest of capital is to get labor at as
low a rate of wages as possible; the interest of labor is to get as
high a rate of wages as possible. This antagonism is inevitable.
Employers in vain pretend that the interests of capital and labor are
the same. They are not so under a civilization based on Mammon, or
under a civilization that seeks only the advancement of material
interests, and invests capital only for the sake of material profit.
In the struggle, the stronger party, under a material system, is
always sure to succeed. And this is always the party of capital; for
labor seeks employment to live--capital, for profit or gain; and the
capitalist can forego profit more easily than labor can forego
employment, since to live is more urgent than to gain. This secures
the advantage always to the capitalist. The inequality which
necessarily results cannot be overcome by equality of suffrage, or the
extension of suffrage to the proletarian class, as politicians
pretend; for, though numbers may triumph at the polls, the stronger
interest, as our American experience proves, is sure to carry the
victory in the halls of legislation. “The stronger interest in a
country,” said Mr. Calhoun to the writer, “always in the long run
wields the power of the country.”
Universal suffrage, which was defended on the ground that it would
tend to protect labor against capital, has in fact a contrary
tendency, and in practice almost invariably favors capital. The whole
of our legislation--which so favors capital or its substitute, credit,
or which mortgages the future for the present, and makes debt supply
the place of capital, covers the towns with money or business
corporations, and builds up huge monopolies--has grown up under a
system of universal suffrage. In an age and country where material
interests predominate, what the people, capitalists or proletarians,
ask of government is, laws that facilitate the acquisition of wealth;
but when such laws are enacted, not more than one man in a hundred can
avail himself of the facilities they afford.
The great scientific discoveries of which we boast, and which have
wrought such marvellous changes in our modern industrial world, were,
as to their principles, made in a less material age than the present, 697
before the modern burgher civilization was fairly inaugurated; but
their application to the mechanic arts, to production and
transportation, whether by sea or land, has been made since, and
chiefly within the last one hundred years. The introduction of
labor-saving machinery has, to an extent not easily estimated,
superseded human labor, broken up the small domestic industries, as
carding, spinning, and weaving, carried on in the bosom of the family,
and securing it a modest independence, and small farming, carried on
chiefly by the father and his sons, and built up in their place large
industries and large farming, beyond the reach of people of no means
or small means but their labor, and in which human labor is employed
only in the form of labor at wages. The introduction of machinery, or
the working of mills or farms by machinery driven by steam or by
horse-power, requires capital, or an outlay possible only to large
capital or combinations of small capital. Take, for instance, the
steam carder, spinner, and weaver; the mule, jenny, and power-loom;
the patent mower, reaper, and horse-rake; threshing and winnowing
machines--hardly any of them heard of or only beginning to be heard of
in our own boyhood, at least in this country; take the railway and the
locomotive--and you can easily see that modern industry, and in a
measure even agriculture, fall necessarily into the hands of large
capitalists, individual or corporate, and cannot be prosecuted on a
small scale, at least profitably. We have corporations for condensing
milk and making butter and cheese, regardless of our youthful friend
the dairymaid, and for supplying us with ice. Perhaps nothing has
tended so much to enlarge the inequality between capital and labor as
the introduction of labor-saving machinery in nearly all branches of
industry.
We do not make war on labor-saving machinery, which, we have heard it
said, increases the power of capital six hundred million fold, though
that seems to us hardly credible. We could not now do well without it.
We could not well dispense with our cotton and woollen factories, and
go back to the hand-cards, and spinning-wheel, and hand-loom which, in
our own boyhood, were in every farmer’s house; but we cannot forget
that the independence of the laborer--now a laborer at wages, and
obliged to make cash payments for what he consumes--has gone with them
to the advantage of the capitalist. We could not well dispense with
railways, and yet there is no denying that they are monopolies, that
labor cannot compete with them, and that they impose a heavy tax on
labor. They also tend to convert the independent laborer into a
workman at wages, and the freeman into the slave of machinery, to
enrich a few railway presidents and directors, and stock-jobbers.
Then, those great corporations, without souls, are not only stronger
than the laborer, but stronger than the government. No great feudal
lords in France or England were ever more formidable to the crown than
such corporations as the Pennsylvania Central, the New York Central,
the Union Pacific, with our National Bank system, are to the
government, state or general. Neither state legislatures nor Congress
can control them, and they have already made both simply their factor
or agent.
There is a truth which cannot be denied expressed in the following
paragraph from Mr. Phillips’ lecture:
“Now, look at it. You say, why do you find fault with 698
civilization? Tonight is a cold night, and you will go home to
parlors and chambers warmed with the coal of Pennsylvania. Why
don’t you have it here for $3 and $4 a ton? Why don’t you have it
here at an advance of $1 or $2 over what it is sold for at the
mouth of the pit? Because of the gigantic corporations and vast
organizations of wealth. The capitalists gather three or four
millions of tons in your city--sell it when they please, at such
rates as they please, and the poor man struggling for his bread
is the sufferer. A rich man is careful; he won’t put his foot in
any further than allows of its being pulled back. If he heard a
groan coming from the people at something he did, he would
withdraw his investment, for nothing is more timid than wealth.
But let that man take $100,000 or so and put it in with nine
others, and make a capital of $1,000,000; then he is as bold as
Julius Cæsar. He will starve out 13,000 coal miners. The London
_Spectator_ says that the colossal strength of Britain has reason
to dread the jointure of $456,000,000 of railroad capital. How
much more should America have reason to dread such combinations,
when Britain has more than ten times our wealth!”
Yet is there not some compensation to the proletarian class in the
very system which tends so fearfully to increase their numbers and
dependence? Grant that coal might be delivered from the mines in
Pennsylvania in this city at $3 a ton; but suppose there were no
railroads and no railway monopolies, could or would coal from the same
mines be delivered in this city as cheap as it now is? Suppose there
were no railways between this city and the great West, would wheat,
flour, beef, pork, and the other necessaries of life be cheaper for
the laboring class in this city than they now are? Railway companies
may charge exorbitant rates of freight, and yet the laboring classes
get the chief necessaries of life cheaper than they would, other things
being equal or unchanged, without them. Those things might be cheaper
in the localities where they are produced, but not elsewhere. The evil
of these monopolies and corporations is not so much in the enhanced
cost of living chargeable to them, as their multiplication of the
class dependent on capital for employment; and in their power to shape
the action of the government to their special interests. It is far
better for the workman to depend on a single wealthy individual who is
likely to have a soul than on a soulless corporation. The combination
of capital in corporations for industrial or trading purposes founds
an aristocracy, or ruling class, far more humiliating and crushing to
the class below them than aristocracies founded on land and birth,
education and manners.
This is the view taken by the Internationals. They war specially
against the rule of the burgher class, which is now supreme in
society, as formerly were the church, kings, and nobilities. In this
opposition to the rule of the burgher class, supposing the means and
methods of their warfare just and honorable, we confess we might
sympathize with the Internationals, as we have always sympathized with
the working-classes. We never have been able to get up much liking for
an aristocracy based on Mammon, who, Milton tells us, was the meanest
of all the angels that fell, and who, even in heaven, went about head
down, and his eyes fixed on the gold of heaven’s pavement. It is well
for no country when its ruling class are the moneyed or business
class. Yet it would be difficult to say, as to our country at least,
what class can be better trusted with the government, or what class
has more virtue, more nobility of sentiment, chivalric feeling, nobler
aims, or higher purpose. Nothing better from the proletarian class 699
could be expected, and, judging from the Paris Commune, nothing so
good. The workingmen have all the love of money, all the sordid
passions, low views, and degrading vices that can be charged to the
burgher class, and, perhaps, fewer redeeming qualities. Civilization
has descended to the burgher. What would it gain by descending to the
proletary? But let us listen once more to Mr. Phillips:
“I think our civilization is better than anywhere in the world.
Now, gentlemen, you say to me, What do you intend to do? Every
man has a different theory, and I have no panacea. My theory is
only this: I know that a wrong system exists, and that the only
method in these states of turning the brains of the country on
one side is to bring it into conflict, and organize a party. If I
should ask one of your editors to-night to let me indite an
article on labor and capital, very likely he would refuse me, or
if he granted it, it might be because a fanatic like me would
sell a copy or two. But if you will give me 50,000 votes on one
side, and the balance impartially divided between your Fentons
and Conklings and Seymours, I will show you every journal in the
city of New York discussing the question with me. Labor is too
poor to edit a column in a New York journal, but when it comes in
the shape of votes, then those same journals cannot afford to
disregard it. Now, let us organize it. The ultimate view which we
aim at is co-operation, where there is no labor as such, and no
capital as such--where every man is interested proportionately in
the results. How will you reach it? Only by grappling with the
present organizations of power in the nation. It is money that
rivets the chains of labor. If I could, I would abolish every
moneyed corporation in the thirty states. Yet I am not certain
that that would be a wise measure, because it seems probable that
the business of the nineteenth century can hardly be carried on
without corporations; but if it be true that facility and
cheapness of production are solely to be reached by the machinery
of corporations, then I say, gentlemen, that the statesmanship of
this generation is called upon to devise some method by which
wealth may be incorporated and liberty saved. Pennsylvania has
got to find out some method by which Harrisburg may exist without
being the tail to the kite of the Pennsylvania Central.
“I think, in the first place, we ought to graduate taxes. If a
man has a thousand dollars a year and pays a hundred, the man
that has five thousand a year ought to pay five hundred. I would
have a millionaire with forty millions of dollars taxed so highly
that he would only have enough to live comfortably upon.”
That our civilization is the best in the world, it is patriotic to
believe, and under several aspects it no doubt is so, or at least was
so, a few years ago; but the burgher influence, which decides the
action of government, is fast preventing this from continuing to be
so. We were intended by nature to be a great agricultural people, and
we have labored with all the force of the government and artificial
contrivances to become, spite of nature, a great manufacturing and
commercial people, like the people of Great Britain, as if our
territory were as limited as that of the British Isles. Whatever
advantages we possessed over the nations of the Old World in the
beginning, we owed to the extent, cheapness, and fertility of our vast
tracts of unoccupied lands, which enabled the working-man, after a few
years of labor at wages, to become a land-owner, and to become the
cultivator of his own Sabine farm. But the influence of the ruling
classes, with its chief seats in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, has
been steadily exerted since 1824 to deprive the country of these
advantages, and to create as large a proletarian class as possible, so
that no doubt, if, aside from the vast public works, or rather, the
so-called internal improvements undertaken by private corporations, 700
and which give for the time employment to large numbers of workmen,
skilled and unskilled, we now offer any advantages to the laborer over
those he has abroad--at any rate, if we do, those advantages are fast
disappearing.
We are no more favorable to the system of corporations than is Mr.
Phillips; and the writer of this for years opposed with whatever
abilities he had their creation and multiplication. He did so till he
saw opposition could avail nothing to check their growth. No
opposition can avail anything now, since the abolition of slavery has,
in a great measure, identified the great planting interests of the
South with the burgher interests of the North, as it was intended to
do. For this Mr. Phillips is himself in no small degree responsible,
and as an International, or a leader in the labor movement, he is only
trying to undo what he hoped to do as an abolitionist. Philanthropy is
an excellent sentiment when directed by practical wisdom and
knowledge; but, when blindly followed, it creates a hundredfold more
evil than it can cure, even if successful in its special aims. Even
Mr. Phillips doubts if the corporation system can be safely abolished.
We tell him there is no power in the country that can abolish it,
because it governs the general government and nearly all the state
governments. Give Mr. Phillips the fifty thousand votes he asks for,
and the party he wishes to organize, he would, no doubt, become a
power in elections, and could command an important place in the
government for himself, and places also for his friends; but, however
important the place to which he might be elected or appointed, he
would find himself impotent to effect anything against the system he
opposes, or in favor of the system he approves.
Mr. Phillips tells us that his main reliance is on the “education of
the masses.” So do we, only we protest against calling the people who
have rational souls “the masses,” as if they were piles or heaps of
brute matter. But education given by the burgher civilization as
educator, or suffered to be freely given by it, will tend to
perpetuate that civilization, or the very system, social and
industrial, which Mr. Phillips and the Internationals war against, not
to displace or reform it. Let the education of all the children of the
land be entrusted to a society whose principles were so admirably
summed up and approved by a former governor of Massachusetts, namely,
“Let the government take care of the rich, and the rich will take care
of the poor,” how much would the education given do to elevate or
meliorate that society? No order of civilization or society ever does
or ever can educate in reference to a higher ideal than its own. Hence
the reason why the state or secular society cannot be a fit educator
of children and youth, and why all education can be safely entrusted
only to the spiritual society whose ideal is the God-man, perfect, and
the highest conceivable.
Purely secular education proceeds on the assumption that men and
nations always act as well as they know, or that all individuals and
nations will act uniformly in reference to their own interests so far
as they know them--an assumption disproved by every one’s daily
experience, as well as by the universal experience of mankind. Mr.
Phillips ought to know that men who ought to know better are often
carried away by their lusts, their passions, the force of events, and
social and other influences, to act in direct opposition to their 701
better judgment. There are comparatively few of us who cannot say with
the heathen poet:
“Video meliora, proboque,
Deteriora sequor.”
Men do wrong or fail to follow the right less from ignorance than from
passion and infirmity of will. Society could not subsist if founded on
what the philosophers in the last century called enlightened
self-interest, or what Jeremy Bentham called “utility,” or “the
greatest happiness” principle. What is wanted is something stronger
than interest, something stronger than passion, which, while it
enlightens the intellect, gives invincible firmness to the will.
The only power that can control this system, the evils of which Mr.
Phillips points out, while its social and industrial tendencies he
deplores, and adjust the various conflicting interests of society on
the principles of justice and equity, is and must be supernatural. The
English system of checks and balances, of restraining or balancing one
interest by another, is a delusion, as the failure of the experiment
fully proves. It restrains the weaker interests, but strengthens the
stronger, makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer, and hence in no
country do you find larger accumulations of wealth, and side by side
with them a deeper or more widespread poverty or more squalid
wretchedness. There are no resources in the order of nature for a
people that adopts the burgher system, and makes material interests
the great aim of life, from which power can be drawn adequate to
overcome the evils of the system against which the Internationals wage
their relentless war. We can find no deliverance in the natural order,
and must seek it, if anywhere, in the supernatural, that is, in
religion--and in a religion that speak with a supernatural authority,
infuses into the soul a supernatural energy, and lifts it above the
world and its systems or civilizations, above all earthly goods, and
fixes its affections on the Unseen and the Eternal--a religion that
gives light to the intellect and firmness to the will. It is only
education in and by this religion that can avail anything.
But religion is precisely what the Internationals reject, hate, or
despise--what the great body of the workmen in our towns, cities, and
manufacturing villages have ceased to believe, and even with those of
the so-called proletarian class generally who do not formally reject
religion, it has ceased to be a power, to have any hold on the
conscience, and has become a vague tradition or a lifeless form. It is
pretty much the same with the burgher class, and was so with them
before it was so with the proletarian class. Modern civilization
itself is based on atheism, or the purely material order. Hence the
evils the Internationals seek to remedy are the natural and inevitable
result of the new order of civilization, not yet two centuries old.
The Internationals see it, and make war on the existing civilization
for that very reason. But on what principles, and in what interest? On
the principles and in the interests of that very civilization itself.
Their success would simply oust the burgher and put the proletary in
his place. They introduce or propose not a higher and a nobler
civilization, but, so far as there is any difference, a still lower
and more degrading civilization.
The revolution that has been going on in society since the close of
the fourteenth century has had several phases. The first phase was the
union of the burghers and the sovereigns against the Pope and the
feudal nobility, and resulted in the triumph of absolute monarchy 702
in the sixteenth century and the seventeenth. The second phase was the
union of the burghers, or the _tiers état_, and the people or a
portion of them against monarchy and the church, which issued in
establishing the supremacy of the burghers. The third phase is that in
the midst of which we now are, and is--monarchy and the church gone or
assumed to be gone--that of the proletaries against burghers. Neither
of the preceding phases of the revolution effected the good hoped for,
or satisfied the revolutionary appetite, but really aggravated the
social evils it was sought to remedy. The friends of the revolution
said it did not go far enough, and stopped short of the mark. It has
now descended to the bottom, to the lowest stratum, or to the lowest
deep, and proposes to wrest the power from the burgher class and rest
it in the proletarian class. It is some consolation to know that we at
length have reached the last phase of the revolution, and that after
its failure, as fail it will, nothing worse is to be feared. “When
things are at worst, they sometimes mend.”
The principal objection to the Internationals is not that they oppose
what is called modern civilization, or that they seek to remedy
undeniable social evils; but that they seek to do it on false
principles, by inadequate means, and unlawful and even horrible
methods, and can only lose even by success.
The International has absorbed all the other labor unions, and may be
said to represent the whole proletarian class in Europe and America,
and its leaders are avowed atheists; they reject the entire
supernatural order, disdain or contemn all forms of religion, and seek
to redress the material by the material. This alone is sufficient in
itself to condemn them. They reject not only religion, but also
government, or the entire political and civil order. They will have no
God, no king, no aristocracy, no democracy, no law, no court, no
judges, but simply--we can hardly say what. Practically, they will
fall under the authority of irresponsible and despotic leaders,
governing in the name of nobody, and by their own passions or
interests alone. They may aim at positive results, but at present
their means are only adequate to the work of destruction. Thus an
organized and secret, and, when practicable, open war on all religion,
on God, on all authority, all law, and especially on capital or
individual property. What positive result is to follow, Mr. Phillips
confesses his inability to tell.
From Mr. Phillips we learn that they aim at the destruction of the
whole modern industrial system, and propose that the workmen shall
take possession of the establishments created by capitalists,
incorporated or not, and run them on their own account, and share the
profits among themselves, without any indemnification to the owners.
As to land, no individual is to own it or any portion of it--it is to
be made common, and open, as to the usufruct, to any one who chooses
to occupy it. Mr. Phillips says:
“I have another proposition. I think when a man has passed five
years in the service of a corporation, though he may not have
bought a dollar of its stock, he is in a certain sense a
stockholder. He has put his labor and persistency there, and I
think every man who has been employed in a corporation for a year
or two should have a voice in its financial management. In Japan,
when a man dies, his land is left to the state. Do you not think
that is a wiser plan than ours? The land becomes more valuable
through the labor of the whole country, and not by that of the
man who eats off of it. Our great hope in the future is in the 703
education of the masses, for they will yet be our rulers. New
York stood aghast at the defalcation of millions of dollars, but
will you submit to be robbed of hundreds of millions by
monopolists? Fifth Avenue cannot afford to let the Five Points
exist. You cannot get wealth enough to fortify you against
discontented ignorance within your reach. The lesson taught by
Chicago is that wealth cannot afford to neglect poverty.”
How the matter would be adjusted if two or more men should happen to
insist on occupying the same house and lot we do not know. They would
all have an equal right, or one would have as good a right to it as
another, and, there being no authority, no law, and none of them
having any moral or religious principle, they would most likely, all
having the pride and obstinacy natural to the human heart, be obliged
to settle the question by fighting it out, and leaving the house and
lot as the prize to the victor. Might or craft would then settle the
right. Society and mankind would fall back into a state of war, in
which might is the only rule of right, and which Hobbes contends was
their natural state, out of which they were happy to get by the
surrender of all their natural rights or natural liberty to any one
who would consent to be their king, and in return would maintain them
in a state of peace.
The Paris Commune, endorsed by Mr. Phillips, and which was led on and
approved by the Internationals, tells us not only the principles of
the Association, but its method of carrying them out and reducing them
to practice. We cite here a passage from _The Dublin Review_ on the
principles and spirit of the Commune:
“M. Auguste Desmoulins is one of those fanatical believers in the
infallibility of the unknown, to whom the past is all
superstition, the present all corruption, and the future the one
reality of life. He is inaccessible to conviction either in the
way of holy water or the way of petroleum; and with him, as with
all those of his school, the mind has become so far softened that
the terminology which has hitherto served not merely among
Christians and Jews, but among such heathens as the Greeks and
Romans, the Turks, the Indians, the Red Indians, to distinguish
between right and wrong, has ceased to convey a meaning. The
world is not a mere Babel of tongues nowadays: it is, outside the
church, a far worse Babel of thought. In the following passage,
which really sums up the argument of his paper in a sufficiently
trenchant and complete form, M. Desmoulins does not hesitate to
convey his opinion that the coveting of one’s neighbor’s goods is
suggested by, or at least connected with, a sentiment of justice;
that the daily bread earned by labor is much more keenly enjoyed
by a man who does not believe in God, or heaven, or hell; and
that as neither the French workman nor his master believes in a
future state, it is only natural and quite right that the workman
should heal the difference between them here by robbery:
“‘The Parisian workman is often obliged to visit the
handsome quarters of the town, while new buildings are
ever thrusting him further away beyond the old barriers
into vile habitations. In this condition, which is made
for him. anything helps to irritate him. How can he find
content in a home that is narrow, ill-lighted, foul,
nearly without air, when he compares this wretched hole,
for which he pays so dear, with the sumptuous chambers
that he has either built or decorated in the rich
quarters? It is easy to denounce in eloquent homilies the
spirit of envy that devours the lower classes. We should
recognize that a true notion of justice mixes with the
feeling.
“‘The desire to enjoy the fruits of his labor is
especially likely to spring up in the mind of the French
workman, who does not believe, any more than his master,
in the reparations of a future life; who does not
perceive for the right of the master any other sanction
than the material fact of possession; and whom, besides,
universal suffrage invests with a share of sovereignty
equal to that of the capitalist. Whatever may be said by
those who have been justly called mammonite writers, we
can easily understand that the proletary who has just
given his vote finds it hard to resign himself to social
serfage at the very moment when he feels himself
politically sovereign. This striking contrast between his
rights as citizen and his condition of pariah in society,
accompanies him everywhere, reproduces itself in every
act of his life, and adds a perpetual gloom to exhausting
labor and never-abating privations.’
“This passage contains the essence of M. Desmoulins’ apology for 704
the Commune; and it supplies, we submit, matter for reflection in
its every line. The statesmen and the classes in society who
delight in seeing the influence of religion weakened or
destroyed, never seem to realize until it is too late that they
are sure to be the especial victims of their own success. The
great truths of life hang together and sustain each other:
‘All is contained in each:
Dodona’s forest in an acorn’s cup.’
The man who scorns to love God, how shall he continue to love his
neighbor? The man who has said, ‘There is no God,’ is he not on
the point of also saying, ‘Lust is lawful,’ ‘Property is
robbery’?”
We copy also from the same _Review_ a letter from General Cluseret
from this city to a member of the Society:
“NEW YORK, 17th February.
“MY DEAR VARLIN: I have just received your welcome letter of the
2d. It explains the delay in replying to my application. Need I
say that I accept, and will set to work at once in endeavoring to
be useful to my brethren in poverty and toil? The newspaper which
I told you of is not yet established. I think it better not to
renew my attempts in that direction, considering the late events
in France, and the numerous letters I have received from my
friends, who are unanimous in recalling me to Europe.
“In all probability, I shall be there next summer, but, in the
interval, I shall have arranged international relations between
the different French and American groups, and selected one person
or several persons (at the discretion of the French committee) of
proved zeal and capability, to replace me. As you say, we shall
surely, infallibly triumph if we persist in demanding success
from our organization. But we must remember that the aim of our
Association is to associate (_solidariser_) the greatest number
for action. Let us, then, be liberal; let us round off our
angles; let us be really brethren, not in words, but in deeds;
let not such mere terms as doctrine and individuality separate
those whom common suffering, which means a common interest, has
united: we are all and all, we must acknowledge that; if we are
beaten, it is our own fault. I have not been able to picture our
people to myself during the late troubles. What has been the
attitude of the workmen’s societies, and what are their present
dispositions? Certainly, we must not sacrifice our ideas to
politics, but we must not detach ourselves from them, even
momentarily. In my mind, the meaning of all that is going on is
simply this, that the Orleans are slipping little by little close
to power, and paring his nails for L. N., so that one fine
morning they will merely have to substitute themselves for him.
“Now, we ought to be ready, physically and morally, for that day.
_On that day, we, or nothing_. Until then I shall probably remain
quiet, _but on that day, I affirm_--and you know my ‘Nay’ never
means ‘Yea’--_Paris shall be ours, or Paris shall exist no longer_.
This will be the decisive moment for the accession of the
people.--Yours ever, CLUSERET.
“You are mistaken in believing, for a moment, that I am
neglecting the socialist in favor of the political movement. No;
it is only from a purely socialistic point of view I am pursuing
the revolutionary work; but you must thoroughly know we can do
nothing in the direction of social reform if the old political
system be not annihilated. Let us not forget that at this moment
the Empire exists merely in name, and that government consists in
party abuse. If, under these grave circumstances, the socialist
party permits itself to be lulled to sleep by the abstract theory
of sociological science, _we may wake up one fine morning to find
ourselves under new masters, more dangerous for us than those we
have at present, because they would be younger, and consequently
more vigorous and more powerful_.”
We have personally known General (?) Cluseret, and we know him to be a
man who acts from deliberation, not impulse, who means what he says,
and who can be restrained from going straight to his end by no
religious principle, moral scruple, or sentiment of mercy, pity, or
compassion. His disposition is as stern and inexorable as a physical 705
law of nature. When he threatened to burn Paris rather than surrender
it, he meant it, and he was the man to do it or to see that it was
done if within the limits of the possible. Mr. Phillips seems also to
appear, at least, to threaten incendiarism as a means of accomplishing
his purpose. What means this, the closing sentence of his lecture:
“The lesson taught by Chicago is that wealth cannot afford to neglect
poverty”? Does this mean that the Internationals burnt Chicago? or
does it simply mean that other cities may be burnt as well as Chicago,
and will be, if wealth continues to neglect poverty or refuses to
yield to the demands of the International Association of Workingmen?
This gives the question a startling aspect. Certain it is that the
Association holds itself free to introduce its socialism or communism
by murder, assassination, robbery, plunder, and conflagration at the
pleasure or dictation of its chiefs. Take the following letter, read
and endorsed by Mr. Phillips before a New York audience:
“Before proceeding to speak of it, you will allow me to read a
notice which has been placed in my hand, and in the object of
which I sympathize cordially, because the great foreign movement
can be commemorated by it. The French Commune has always seemed
to me to deserve the cordial respect of every lover of the
progress of the masses throughout the world. I have no doubt that
in due time its good name will be vindicated, and its leaders
lifted to the unqualified respect of the civilized world. The
notice I hold in my hand is as follows:
“‘_To the Workingmen of New York, friends of humanity,
enemies of bloodshed, and lovers of justice_: Citizens!
The recent barbarous executions in France, in cold blood,
six months after all struggles are over, and the ferocity
with which the conquerors pursue their victims, are a
disgrace and shame to humanity. We must not allow the
human race to be stained by the shedding of its own blood
without a protest. You, workingmen, would you let your
friends the workingmen be murdered because they have
defended our rights in any part of the world? No!
certainly not without raising your voice and making it
heard across the ocean. To give effect to these purposes,
a grand funeral procession will take place in New York on
Sunday, the 10th of December, at 1 o’clock, forming
opposite the Cooper Institute. All men, without
distinction of party, of race, of nationality, friends of
justice and freedom, are invited to join. By order of the
Committee of Arrangements of the Federal Council.’
“I hope every man who loves his fellow will show himself there.
There was never nobler blood shed, never more high-minded and
disinterested effort made in the long history of Freedom’s
struggle, than in Paris, when, in defiance of all the oligarchies
of Europe, that city stood up for the individual and for liberty
in the nineteenth century.”
The impudence of the writers of this letter is sublime, and only
surpassed by that of the lecturer in endorsing it. Why, these fellows
would persuade us that they are “enemies of bloodshed and lovers of
justice,” meek as lambs, timid as sheep, and harmless as doves--they
who, without a shadow of justice or excuse, made the streets of Paris
run with the blood of the innocent, the noble, and the saintly.
“Enemies of bloodshed”!--they whose hands are reeking with blood! Yes,
to having their own blood shed, but not to the shedding of the blood
of others. “Enemies of bloodshed and lovers of justice”! Good God! can
hypocrisy or self-delusion go so far? Let the assassination of
Generals Le Comte and Clement Thomas, the horrible murders, when it
was known that the cause of the Commune was lost, of the holy and
unoffending Archbishop of Paris, of Jesuit fathers, and a dozen
Dominican friars and lay brothers, to say nothing of other murders
hardly less horrible, reply to that false pretence. It would seem that
these miscreants count for nothing the blood they shed without
authority, in violation of law, religion, morality, and every
principle of justice, and every sentiment of humanity; it is only when 706
justice overtakes them, and, after trial and conviction by legitimate
authority, orders them and their fellow-criminals to be shot or sends
them to the guillotine in punishment for their crimes, that they have
a horror of bloodshed! Then, and only then, they ring out their
dastard cry against injustice and for the sympathy of that humanity
they have so greatly outraged! The men who have been executed by the
government at Versailles deserved their fate--men without a single
virtue or noble quality except personal bravery in face of death.
Deluded were they? Yes, as every great criminal, murderer, or assassin
is deluded.
What most excites our indignation is to find an educated and refined
American gentleman, of no mean ability and rare eloquence, and past
middle age, coming forward before an American audience to express in a
written lecture deep and unreserved sympathy with, and approval of,
these horrors and abominations, equal to those of ‘93, and applauded
by his auditors for such an outrage on common morality and decency.
Yet it is no more than we might have been prepared for, since Mr.
Phillips only gave a logical expression to the principles he had
always defended as an abolitionist; and while there are fools enough
among us who imagine that the issues of the war have endorsed them and
they have been sanctioned by the God of battles. We love our country,
and have been proud of our countrymen; but, if they have fallen so low
as to applaud the Paris Commune and its horrid butcheries and
profanations, we can only say, Alas for them!
It may have become unsafe to oppose the Internationals, since the
police has taken them under its protection, and granted them their
impudent demands. We are surrounded by Internationals--our city is at
the mercy of men who are restrained by no law, by no religion, by no
morality, by no sentiment of humanity, from using any means or methods
they judge likely to serve their ends, and New York is hardly less
wealthy and more combustible than Paris. Herein is there a grave
danger. At its head are men who are in dead earnest, desperate men,
who shrink from nothing likely to further their ends. We are not
surprised that Prussia and Austria have taken the alarm--consulted
together as to the means of protecting themselves and society against
their machinations. France keeps them in check only by her army, and
knows not how soon even the army may fraternize with them--and
fraternize with them it certainly will if it loses all hope of
restoring the Empire or the monarchy. Great Britain is now using them,
but will soon find herself obliged to suppress them, as she did or as
she attempted to suppress the Thugs in India, if she means to preserve
her institutions. Here they will make trouble, for each party will bid
for their votes, and fear to offend them for fear of losing an
election; but they can acquire less power out of our cities here than
elsewhere, unless they enroll in their ranks the recently emancipated
negroes, and rouse their savage instincts to dispossess the planters
and to take possession of their plantations; for the passion for
individual property is too strong in our agricultural laborers, and
the facilities for individuals to rise from proletaries to
capitalists, or to the ownership of land, are too great to afford
them, when it comes to the test, any appropriate support. Yet they
will confuse our politics, corrupt still more the morals of our
community, and defeat any wise and salutary action of the government.
They will strengthen the burgher class and corporations in towns by 707
compelling many who are not favorable to these classes and interests
to support them, as the only means left of saving society from lapsing
into complete barbarism.
We shall probably return at an early day to this subject, for it is
really the great question of the hour.
[144] 1. _The Dublin Review._ Article IX.: The International
Society. London. October, 1871.
2. _The Labor Movement._ Lecture of Wendell Phillips.
Steinway Hall. _New York Tribune_, Dec. 7, 1871.
----------
ON CATHOLIC LIBRARIES.
It must be confessed that the Catholics of this country, in
proportion to their numerical strength and untiring zeal for the
interests of religion, do not present that proportionately large
class of readers which we find among the Protestant sects. Their
exertions in building churches, schools, and charitable institutions
have been beyond all praise, and have constantly elicited the
admiration and astonishment of their opponents; but as yet very
little organized effort has been made by the influential portion of
the laity to place within easy reach of their humbler co-religionists
the means of cheap and instructive reading. The more intelligent and
wealthy are too often content to purchase a few standard Catholic
works, and after perusing them with more or less attention place them
with their other books on the shelves of their libraries, there to
remain secluded from public view, and of comparatively little value
to any person but their owners. The less favored class, who for
obvious reasons are unable to indulge in this luxury, are still
practically cut off from one of the chief sources of knowledge and
amusement--good books--and are necessarily compelled from
uncontrollable circumstances to go through life with their minds and
tastes undeveloped, and their time dissipated in idleness, or wasted
over the trashy and deleterious contents of the many cheap story
newspapers and novels which the American press is constantly
scattering broadcast over the land.
This melancholy fact is most observable in the ranks of our adult
immigrant population, who, coming from countries where education was
almost unattainable, money scarce, and books dear, have not generally
acquired either ability or taste for reading, though it has been
remarked that even among them, when an opportunity is at all
presented, the desire for information is excited in a remarkable
degree, and only requires a reasonable impetus to develop it still
more. Still, from the fact of their usually limited means and
comparatively unsettled modes of life, they are as yet unable to
purchase or retain any appreciable collection of desirable
publications.
The remedy for this defect in our growing Catholic society lies, in
our opinion, in the formation of local libraries, suitable in variety
and extent to the wants and capacity of particular localities. There
are at least twenty-five hundred centres of Catholic population in
America where very respectable collections of books could be purchased
and placed in some safe and accessible place, say in the school-rooms
or church basements, and half as many more, particularly in our
Western settlements, where at least a few good books would be of great 708
advantage to the hardy tillers of the soil, and where, even if there
be no public place to deposit them, there is always some prominent
settler who would willingly assume the honorary office of librarian.
Experiments of both plans have been tried in many of our large city
parishes, and in a few isolated instances in the country, with marked
success.
The advantages of libraries conducted on this system are numerous, and
ought to be apparent to every one, not the least of which would be
_cheapness_. Let us suppose, for instance, that, in any given locality,
fifty persons would each subscribe two dollars. This would create a
capital of one hundred dollars, or sufficient to purchase, on an
average, one hundred and fifty volumes, great and small, of readable
books, from any of our large publishing-houses in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, or Baltimore. Thus, for two dollars, a subscriber would
have, for reading or reference, the practical ownership of works at
least fifty times the value of his contribution, and, by charging new
members a small fee for the use of each volume, a fund might be
created to purchase new books as they appeared from time to time. In
this manner, and with proper attention, a library of dimension
commensurate with the growing wants of the neighborhood would be
brought into existence without much expense to any particular class of
the community.
But the moral effect of the establishment of such small centres of
intelligence would be incomparably greater. For the adults, it would
at once be an attraction and a source of occupation, tending
powerfully to withdraw them from those pursuits, not always edifying,
in which unoccupied minds too often indulge, to the detriment of their
health and morals. It would be the means of generating a taste for
mental improvement, and of making them more confident among their
companions, and more proficient and reflective in their various
pursuits; for it is a well-recognized truth, that as a man, be he
artisan, trader, or farmer, acquires those habits of thought which can
only be derived from study, he becomes more skilful and methodical in
his peculiar calling. The youth of both sexes, however, would reap the
greatest advantages. There are hundreds of thousands of children of
Catholic parents among us who can read, and, what is more, _will_ read.
The young American mind, no matter of what parentage, is a hungry and
an investigating mind, and must have some sort of food, do or say what
we will. If it cannot have good literary food, it will have what is
poisonous, and in this lies the secret of the success of the
sensational story papers, and the no less deleterious tales that, in a
few years, have made fortunes for their publishers. It is well known
that one of the former class, published in this city, boasts of a
weekly circulation of three hundred thousand copies, and another of
nearly as great a number. If we go into the large workshops of the
principal cities, or the factories of New England, where so many young
persons are engaged, at the hour allotted for dinner we will see every
second boy and girl devouring with more eagerness than their food the
contents of some flashy journal or specimen of what is generally known
as “yellow-covered literature,” in which vice is hidden under a thin
veil of romance only to make it the more seductive. Now, the way to
check this insidious and widespread evil is not by complaining of or
railing at it, but by placing within easy reach, and in accessible 709
places sound and attractive Catholic works. The impetuous mind of
youth may be compared to a rapid stream, which, dammed up or checked
in its career, is sure sooner or later to overflow its boundaries to
the destruction of its surroundings, but which, if its course is
directed by skilful and experienced hands, not only ceases to be
dangerous, but becomes a source of usefulness and power. To give this
direction to the expanding intellect of the rising generation, and to
turn to good use what might by neglect or repression become an evil
and a curse, is one of the first and plainest duties of parents, for
the proper performance of which they will be held to a strict
accountability. It is not enough for them to see that their offspring
attend church on Sundays and holy-days, that they go to Sunday-school
regularly, and say their prayers night and morning, if they allow them
afterwards to ponder from hour to hour over sickly romances; nor will
it serve to send their children to school to learn to spell and read,
if the knowledge thus gained be turned to the enervation of their
minds and the corruption of their morals. Education is not in itself
an end, it is only the means to an end, and that end is the knowledge
of God’s law, and the best way of conforming one’s conduct to its
requirements so as to secure our eternal salvation. There is no excuse
for a Catholic parent for not putting into the hands of his children
entertaining and moral books, nor is there any palliation for any one
professing our holy faith, and who has arrived at the years of
discretion, for encouraging or reading the thousand-and-one works of
fiction which we see every day exposed on news-stands and in cheap
book-stores, and which are not only immoral in tone and spirit, but in
effect positively anti-Christian. Besides books of a serious and
practical character, we have numerous works of fiction, published in
this country and easily obtained, of the highest order of talent
united to rare dramatic force and interest, which are detrimental
neither to morals nor religion. The writings of Griffin, Banim,
Huntington, Julia Kavanagh, Mrs. Sadlier, Mrs. Anna Dorsey, Lady
Fullerton, Lady Herbert, and many others that we could name, are of
this character, and are worthy to be read by the highest as well as
the lowest in society. Of works treating on history, science in its
various departments, biography, travels, etc., Catholic in tone, and
elaborate or elementary in arrangement, we have a large and varied
supply; and new productions under these heads are constantly
appearing, more fascinating to the cultivated taste than even the
productions of our best novelists. But it has been objected that these
publications are too dear; that poor people cannot afford to spend ten
or fifteen dollars on a few books. Granted; but, if they can have the
use of four or five score for a couple of dollars by subscribing to a
parochial library, is not the objection removed? This is what local
libraries, and they alone, can do.
Now, what would be the effect of this system of libraries on the
general tone of public opinion? Decidedly most salutary. In addition
to driving from circulation many of the demoralizing newspapers,
periodicals, and books which even non-Catholics denounce as immoral,
and for the suppression of some of which the aid of legislative action
has been invoked, it would create and foster a pure literary taste
among no inconsiderable portion of our diverse population, and, apart
from its direct moral effect, would render it more valuable and more 710
reproductive in a material point of view. Many of the most important
political, social, and commercial problems of the day, on the true
solution of which depends the future welfare of our republic, can only
be properly comprehended by reference to the history of the past, and
to the biographies of the great statesmen who succeeded or failed in
founding or destroying nations and empires. And even in the discussion
of minor questions affecting our interests or liberties, some
acquaintance with the antecedents of our country is absolutely
necessary to enable us to form proper opinions of their merits. In
individual cases, one of the compensations for declining years and one
of the highest claims to respect is experience; but to the reader of
history, no matter what his age, the accumulated experience of at
least thirty centuries is accessible, and not only controls his
judgment and enlarges his knowledge, but vastly enhances his social
and political status. But this experience, to be of any value, must be
based on truth and undoubted facts. It must arise from the just
appreciation of unbiassed statements and philosophical deductions,
stripped of all that false assertion and unlimited prejudice which
have characterized so many European and American writers for the last
three centuries. Hence the need of Catholic books and Catholic
readers--for, in this as in commercial matters, the demand regulates
the supply--and the creation of new facilities for the spread of
reliable information.
Take the case of the _History of England_ by Lingard. Before the
appearance of that excellent work, we venture to say that
seven-eighths of the reading population in every part of the world
believed more or less in the falsehoods and forgeries with which the
pages of the English historians of the post-Reformation period were
crowded. Many more such instances of recent successful vindication of
the truth of history might be cited, not the least valuable and
complete being the production of our own countrymen, such as that very
able and learned refutation of D’Aubigné’s _History of the
Reformation_[145] and the _Life of Mary, Queen of Scots_,[146] which
has lately appeared, and in which the slanders and aspersions so
repeatedly heaped on the memory and character of that beautiful but
ill-starred sovereign are condemned, exposed, and, it is to be hoped,
finally disposed of. The first of these works is the most elaborate
and reliable book we have on that important epoch, when every throne
in Europe was shaken to its base, and when men’s passions, let loose
by the preaching of the heresiarchs of England and the Continent,
threatened to destroy every vestige of temporal and spiritual
authority. There is no period in the history of Christendom about
which so many falsehoods and such mendacious calumnies have been
invented and circulated by prejudiced writers; and it was only on the
appearance of the book in question that we have had, at least in
English, any comprehensive and truthful account of the origin and
progress of that rebellion against God’s church and laws. This
country, from its settlement to the present, the origin and growth of
its institutions from their inception in the early part of the
seventeenth century till their fruition in our present constitution,
though full of incident and fraught with lessons of the highest
political wisdom, is yet imperfectly known and but little understood. 711
Is it not, then, worth a little sacrifice on the part of parents to
place before their children, who ere long are to become the rulers of
the state, a correct and impartial account of the birth of religious
liberty on this continent, of the dangers, trials, and struggles our
forefathers endured in order to build up and transmit to posterity the
blessings of a free government? Yet such knowledge can only be
obtained through books, and books, so far as the majority of Catholics
are concerned, are almost unattainable, except through co-operation.
Then, again, we are often taunted by such hackneyed phrases as the
darkness of the middle ages, the ignorance of the monks, the
corruption of the Papacy, the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and
such other fabrications of Protestant authors. Are we to allow our
children to go forth in the midst of a reading and, in a religious
sense at least, a hostile people, unprepared to intelligently refute
such calumnies, and unable to account for the various agencies by
which the Catholic Church at all times sought to eliminate
civilization from barbarism, light from darkness, and Christianity
from paganism at first, and from heresy and infidelity subsequently?
They must have great--too great, perhaps--confidence in the faith of
their children thus to submit them to so severe a test; and yet how
few reliable books dealing with those subjects do we find provided for
young Catholics by those whose duty it is to direct their conduct and
shield them from the temptations and snares of the world! How many
parents, intent on rewarding their children by presents, ever think of
presenting them with good books, which would not only gratify their
tastes and improve their minds, but would be, at least to them, a
perpetual source of consolation?
Far different are the tactics of our opponents, who are never tired of
devising measures to instil into the minds of the youth of their own
faith all the errors of Protestantism under the most attractive guise
possible, and at the same time to weaken the faith and pervert the
judgment of our children. It is perhaps not generally known that every
school district in this state, outside the large cities, is supplied
with a library of select works, under the charge of the school
trustees, and every child in the district is allowed free access to
it, with the privilege of borrowing one volume at a time. These
libraries were originally supplied at the expense of the public, and
are annually increased by new purchases, the funds being derived from
the state library fund. When we state that those libraries were
furnished by a publishing-house in this city the first success of
which in business was due to the production of Maria Monk, the works
of Eugene Sue, and others of a kindred character, and that the
compilers and abridgers, who claim the authorship of them, have been
remarkable for bigotry even in this age of Protestant intolerance, it
is scarcely necessary to point out the danger to our young Catholics
of the free circulation of such books among them. In country places,
the absence of the noise, excitement, and attractions of city life
naturally leads to a desire for reading and a remarkable tendency to
discussion, and it is there that good Catholic books are most
required. Our children must mix with those of the sects, and will be
compelled to listen to a repetition of the fabrications and falsehoods
against their religion which are weekly dealt out in the Protestant
churches, daily commented on in the household, and which fill the
pages of the books of the district libraries and local newspapers.
This is the poison that is carrying off so many of our juvenile 712
co-religionists, more dangerous to their souls than the deadly upas
would be to their bodies, and against which we must provide some
antidote. If one of our boys is confronted with quotations from Hume
or Macaulay, he must be prepared to answer them on the undoubted
authority of Lingard; if he be taunted with the poverty or ignorance
of the Catholics of Ireland, he can show whence came this penury and
destitution by reference to McGee’s, Cusack’s, or any of the numerous
histories of that country; he ought to be prepared to oppose
Archbishop Spalding to D’Aubigné, Meline to Froude, the history of the
Maryland settlers (the founders of religious liberty on this
continent) to the eulogiums on the intolerant Puritans, the “Irish
Settlers” to the Know-Nothing organs--in fact, truth and light
wherever falsehood and darkness are to be found. The truth has nothing
to lose, but everything to gain, by full and free discussion. It is
only error that shrinks from thorough investigation. But we must take
care that our sons and daughters are well supplied with plain and
useful facts regarding their faith and religion before they are
subjected to the ordeal through which all young Catholics must pass
who mingle freely in Protestant society, lest through their ignorance
the cause they espouse should be weakened by their imperfect advocacy.
Neither ought we to hesitate in learning lessons from our adversaries
when it is possible to do so. If the children of darkness are wiser
than the children of light in their generation, it is no reason why we
should be guilty of folly. Apart from the falsity of their teachings,
we have often had occasion to admire the systematic perseverance with
which the Protestant sects have endeavored to disseminate their peculiar
views throught the medium of cheap and attractive publications. All
that art and skill can do has been done to render them pleasing to the
eye and agreeable to the mind. The highest literary talent is employed
and well rewarded, because the result of their labors is extensively
circulated, and, even when persons are unable or unwilling to
purchase, the purse of the wealthy is always open to enable them to
obtain books free of cost, while our children are too often allowed to
begin life but half-instructed, and to continue in it illiterate and
untaught. Were our schools as efficient and as numerous as we wish and
as we hope one day to see them, we might assure ourselves that all
this might be taught in them; but they are not, nor can they be for
some years, and we cannot ignore the fact or wait for the slow
operation of time to perfect and extend their influence. We must
endeavor by some means or other to supply the deficiency, so far, at
least, as this generation is concerned. Besides, there will always be
a large number of children of the working-classes who cannot remain
long at any school, but must go into the world to earn their bread.
With these the most critical period of their lives is from the time
they pass from the control of the teacher till they reach manhood or
womanhood, for then their characters for good or evil are formed. For
this class of toilers, good books are not only a recreation and a
solace, but an absolute necessity; but, being limited in means, we
hold that it is only through the means of local libraries that they
can gratify their wishes and find opportunities for mental
improvement.
Literature itself would also gain much by the establishment of these
libraries. How often has it been remarked that, out of the large number 713
of Catholic young men of brains and education which our colleges and
academies turn out annually, there are so few writers. The explanation
is that for them authorship is neither a remunerative nor an
appreciated employment. The professions of law and medicine and the
attractions of commerce and trade are constantly drawing into their
vortices the best energies and talent of our young graduates, many of
whom with proper encouragement and patronage might, as authors, render
incalculable service to the cause of truth and morality. What is
required to utilize this large amount of natural gifts and acquired
knowledge is simply the more extensive circulation of works already
published; the increase in the number of new books on subjects of
general interest, in style and treatment more in accordance with
modern forms than those published years ago; but, above all, the
cultivation of a correct standard of literary excellence among the
people, and the creation of a widespread class of readers and
thinkers.
The objection to the dearness of Catholic publications would also be
removed by this means. It is well known to those conversant with the
publishing business that, in proportion to the increase of the
circulation of a given book, the expense of its production per copy is
diminished in an inverse ratio. A book of which three thousand copies
are sold at two dollars each would be more remunerative to both
publisher and author at even one dollar if twenty thousand copies were
disposed of. The publisher, also, in his contract with the author and
in view of the uncertainty of his sales, naturally adds to the cost of
production and to his fair percentage of profit a certain amount for
probable losses by having a portion of his edition left on his shelves
unsold. The establishment of local libraries would obviate the
necessity of this additional cost. With, say, twenty-five hundred of
these institutions, each ready and willing to subscribe for one or
more copies of any really meritorious book that might appear, its
success would be assured beyond doubt, the outlay of the publisher
would be nearly reimbursed, and his risk, for which all book-buyers
have now to pay, would be sensibly and materially diminished if not
altogether done away with. Thus even individual purchasers as well as
subscribers to libraries would be benefited in the reduction of price;
and, while the bookseller would not suffer in the profits of his
sales, the general public as well as the author would be sensibly the
gainers.
As to what ought to constitute the necleus of a small library, some
difficulty may be experienced in diverse tastes and opinions. In view
of the multiplicity of good books constantly being imported or
published in this country, it is nearly impossible to make a list of
such as would be most desirable and useful without leaving out others
perhaps as equally deserving of attention. Of works of fiction we have
enough and more than enough in the productions of the authors above
named and others of a less pretentious order, but, as this sort of
reading is simply a matter of choice, each one must judge for himself
in the selection.
Devotional and controversial works are numerous, and a few at least,
such as the writings of St. Liguori, Father Faber, Dr. Manning, and
Cardinal Wiseman, the _Guide for Catholic Young Women_, _Following of
Christ_, _Catholic Christian Instructed_, _Lenten Monitor_, as well as
several others, should be always found in Catholic libraries. In
history, as far as the English language is concerned, we are not so 714
rich. We have, it is true, four or five histories of Ireland,
possessing peculiar merits, and exhibiting more or less defects, but
all full of useful information. Lingard’s _England_, entire or abridged,
is decidedly the best of that country. Shea’s _History of the Catholic
Missions in the United States_, McSherry’s _Maryland_, Bishop Bayley’s
_Church in New York_, McGee’s _Irish Letters_ and _Catholic History_,
De Courcey’s and Shea’s _Catholic Church in America_, go far to supply
the defect, at least in part. Then there are the _Works of Archbishop
Hughes_, one of the great prelates of the church in America, and the
writings of Dr. O. A. Brownson, particularly his _Essays_ and _American
Republic_, than whom no man of our day, it is safe to say, writes with
more vigor or with a clearer understanding of his subject. The works
of Bishop England are, we regret to say, too little known, and, being
for some time out of print, are now almost unattainable. Darras’s
_Church History_, the only complete history of the church yet published
in our language, should, if possible, be read by every Catholic, and
find a conspicuous place in all our libraries. _The Lives of Deceased
Prelates of the United States_, by Clarke, which has just been
published, is a very valuable book, containing a great deal of remote
and contemporary history; and if Mr. Shea could be induced by proper
encouragement to further develop the subjects he has selected for his
books, as we feel certain of his ability to do so, a great deal of
additional matter connected with the struggles and sufferings of the
early pioneers of religion, now almost forgotten or unknown, would be
placed before the public. In biography, which maybe called history in
detail, our resources are abundant. We have, besides numerous lives of
Christ, a complete _Lives of the Popes_, Butler’s _Lives of the Saints_,
several of St. Patrick, _St. Vincent de Paul, Curé of Ars_, and some
two hundred separate lives of the holy men and women who in every age
of the church were conspicuous for their sanctity, wisdom, and
devotion to the faith, a list of which may be chosen from the
catalogue of any of our principal publishers; and last, though not
least, is Montalembert’s great work, _The Monks of the West_, an
American edition of which is just published.
So far as materials are concerned, we have a plenitude of them of
every variety and in all departments of literature, and we have
endeavored to show that very little money is required to purchase
them. What is wanted is organization and action. For these we must
depend to a great extent on the local pastors, and on the half a dozen
leading laymen who are most generally to be found in every
congregation. There is a homely proverb, but nevertheless true, that
“what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” Let one or two
influential men in each parish think seriously over the matter, call
their associates together, and explain to them the advantages to be
derived by themselves and their children from cheap and good reading,
collect the subscriptions, put themselves in communication with any of
our Catholic booksellers, and the work is done. The first and most
important step thus taken, the future welfare of the library is
assured. It is unnecessary to say that such a movement ought to and
would receive the warmest encouragement from their spiritual
superiors. Apart from the benefits arising from the reading of moral
books to the cause of religion, the spirit of mutual intercourse,
interchange of thought, and friendly co-operation engendered by reading 715
the same book, and meeting at stated times for a common object, would
lead insensibly to the formation of a compact and efficient
organization, exceedingly useful when the interests of charity,
education, or the church are to be subserved. Not only this, but,
knowing how overtaxed are the attention and time of so many of our
missionary priests in providing the means of building churches and
schools, as well as attending to the spiritual wants of their
scattered flocks, we consider that an intelligent body of young
people, such as we would naturally expect to see connected with a
library society, would form a valuable lay staff of workers whose
pleasure it would be to aid their pastor in all his material
transactions. The more intelligent Catholics become, the less trouble,
in two ways, they entail on their spiritual guide. They become aware
easily of his wants, or rather the wants of the church of which he is
to them the representative, and need little inducement to contribute
their means freely for the benefit of charity or religion, while, at
the same time, they make the most efficient agents in influencing the
actions of others with whom they are daily brought in contact.
Firmly believing that the spread of these societies throughout this
country would have a most marked and beneficent effect, morally and
mentally, on our rapidly growing Catholic population, we submit these
remarks to the serious consideration of the reverend clergy, and of
those laymen who have been favored with more wealth and a better
education than the majority of their fellow-Catholics. We must not
forget that we live in an age of great mental activity and progress,
so-called. Let us keep pace with our neighbors in everything that
leads to the acquisition of true knowledge, but let our progress be in
the right direction, and worthy of the name we bear, and of the
religion we profess.
[145] _History of the Protestant Reformation._ By the Most
Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D. Baltimore.
[146] _Mary, Queen of Scots._ By James F. Meline. New York.
1871.
----------
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE LIFE OF PHILIP THOMAS HOWARD, O.P., CARDINAL OF NORFOLK, ETC. By
Father C. F. Raymond Palmer, O.P. London: Thomas Richardson & Son.
New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
It affords us sincere pleasure to be able to speak of this book in
terms of unqualified praise, without in the least being subjected to
the charge of flattery. The subject chosen by Father Palmer is the
career of an ecclesiastic who not only filled a prominent part in the
history of his times in his native country, England, but of the church
throughout Europe; and whose private virtues were even more edifying
than his mental capacity was remarkable. The scion of one of the
noblest houses in Great Britain, and living at a time when every lure
was held out to genius and rank to join the so-called Reformers, he
not only remained true to the Catholic traditions of his family, but,
forsaking the world altogether, he became, in spite of all opposition,
an humble friar and a follower of the illustrious St. Dominic. His
labors for the good of his order on the Continent as well as in
England were incessant, and so successful that in a few years he was 716
raised to the dignity of a prince of the church. Several times he was
entrusted with important diplomatic missions by his sovereign, Charles
II., and for many years occupied the position of grand almoner to
Catharine of Braganza, the queen-consort. In addition to the biography
of Cardinal Howard, we have a very full and interesting sketch of the
history of the Dominican order, that glorious corporation of
friar-preachers, whose labors extended to every part of the known
world, and whose blood may be said to have been shed in the cause of
Christ wherever the foot of man has trod. Father Palmer’s treatment of
the subject is in every way worthy of so great a theme. He does not,
as too many biographers are apt to do, fall in love with his hero, and
lose himself in senseless rhapsody and panegyric, but lets deeds and
their results speak for themselves. Neither does he assume for the
order, of which he himself is a worthy member, too much credit for its
long-continued and extensive propagandism of the faith; but, keeping
his praise within just bounds, makes the amplest acknowledgment to
other missionaries when an opportunity offers. The author’s style,
also, is admirable. It is plain, bold, and exceedingly clear, and
reminds us a good deal of the old days of classic English, which, we
are sometimes tempted to fear, have departed for ever.
SERMONS BY THE FATHERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE.
New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1872. 12mo, pp. 331.
This, the sixth volume of sermons, twenty-two in number, delivered by
the Paulist Fathers of this city, has just been published, and in
point of variety, ability, and adaptability to the everyday wants of
Catholic congregations, may fairly be said to be equal, at least, to
any of the preceding volumes from the same source. On first reading
this valuable collection of sermons, the impression most likely to be
produced on a layman is surprise at the remarkable simplicity of
style, earnestness of argument, and, above all, the practical
application to the present condition of society, of the inspired texts
upon which the sermons are based. Men of the most ordinary
comprehension can understand them, and we can imagine few minds so
contracted or hearts so callous as to be proof against their unadorned
logic and impressive appeals. It has sometimes been our good fortune
to have heard, as we have often read, exhortations of more brilliancy,
pathos, and even intellectual power, but we are not aware that,
compressed within the limits of an ordinary-sized book, there is to be
found in the English language a greater amount of wholesome truths,
well and clearly stated, or better calculated to go directly to the
heart and conscience of the reader. Of this character pre-eminently
are the sermons on “How to Pass a Good Lent,” “Humility in Prayer,”
and “The Sins and Miseries of the Dram-Seller.” In some respects the
latter differs from all others in the collection--in its forcibleness
of rhetoric, and vividness, almost painful, of description. Reading it
in the silence of our library, we almost shudder at the, alas! too
truthful picture drawn therein of the drunkard’s fate in this world,
and the not less certain retribution which awaits his mercenary
tempter, here or hereafter. It is one of the most powerful arguments
against the use and sale of intoxicating liquors we have read since
the days of Father Mathew, and ought to be in the hands of every
advocate of temperance, clerical and lay, in the land. The three
sermons treating of the temporal and spiritual authority of the
Sovereign Pontiff are clear, distinct, and well-timed, and, besides
being historically accurate, are replete with logical deductions, one
following and hinging on the other so harmoniously that conviction, 717
even to a biassed mind, seems to follow as a matter of course.
But on a second and more critical perusal of this book, we are certain
to discover new and equally commendable features. We feel as if we
were in the presence of Catholic priests speaking to their spiritual
children. There is an absence of all harshness or terrorism, and of
that bitterness which too often accompanies the discussion of
controversial subjects. While our errors are reproved and our sins
denounced, hope and mercy are not denied us; the path of duty is
plainly pointed out, but we are encouraged to tread its thorny ways,
and we rise from the study of the _Sermons_ conscious of our faults
and weaknesses, without despairing, and with a renewed purpose of
amendment. No one can read attentively the first and last of this
series, on “Remembrance of Mercies” and “Fraternal Charity,” without
feeling softened and chastened in spirit. It is not, however, the mere
contents of the sermons that we most admire. It is their
suggestiveness. To a reflective mind there is matter enough in them to
form the groundwork of a hundred discourses, and still the subjects
would not be exhausted. This feature alone will extend their good
influence far beyond the limits of one book or one pulpit. As we have
come to a grand truth boldly stated, or a deduction logically and
lucidly drawn, we have frequently found ourselves closing the book,
and, following the drift of the reverend preacher’s argument,
preaching sermons to ourselves. If such be its effects on ordinary
minds, how much more valuable will be the uses of this book to the
younger members of the priesthood in the performance of the duties of
their holy calling? And it is for them especially, we presume, it is
intended.
Besides, as we are all aware, there are many persons with the best
dispositions who, from family or other reasons, are frequently unable
to hear a sermon on every Sunday and holyday of obligation, not only
in country parishes, but even in our crowded cities. To this class the
present volume ought to be of great value, affording them, as it does,
an opportunity of reading in the seclusion of their homes, what they
are debarred from hearing delivered orally. It is one of the rules of
the faithful to consecrate a portion of each Sunday to hearing
sermons, but, when this cannot be done, the reading of pious books is
substituted, and we know of none recently published better calculated
to edify and instruct a devout Catholic, or one so practical in its
application to the wants and necessities of the present generation, as
this collection of sermons; and it is for this reason that we heartily
commend it to the laity of the United States.
MACARONIC POETRY. Collected, with an Introduction, by James Appleton
Morgan, A.M. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1872.
Of the many excellent specimens of the typography of the Riverside
Press, the above-named work is one of the handsomest; and this merit
is enhanced by the fact that the great variety of languages and
characters, ancient and modern, used in its pages called for the best
efforts of typographical skill and resources.
The title of the work gives but a modest idea of the wealth and
diversity of its contents, which are creditable to the taste and
industry of the author. We find in it not only all the most celebrated
macaronic masterpieces, from the “Pugna Porcorum,” of about three
hundred lines, every word of which begins with the letter P, thus:
“Plaudite, Porcelli, Porcorum pigra propago
Progreditur, plures Porci pinguedine pleni.
Pugnantes pergunt, pecudum pars prodigiosa,” etc., etc.,
down to Dr. Maginn’s “Second Ode to Horace,” commencing,
“Blest man, who far from busy hum, 718
Ut prisca gens mortalium.”
Then there are the literary trifles of the dipogrammatists and the
pangrammatists, and curiosities in acrostics, telestics, anagrams,
palindromes, sidonians, rhymed bagatelles, cento verses, chain verses,
alliterative verses, and epitaphs. There are also some specimens of
queer prescriptions, the whole family of which are but imitations of
the celebrated recipe pasted on the door of the pharmacy in the
Convent of the Capuchin Friars at Messina:
“Pro presenti corporis et æterna animæ salute.
RECIPE.
“Radicum fidei
Florum spei
Rosarum charitatis
Liliorum puritatis
Absynthé contritionis
Violarum humilitatis
Agarici satisfactionis
Ano quantum potes:
Misceatur omnia cum syrupe confessionis;
Terentur in mortario conscientiæ;
Solvantur in aqua lacrymarum;
Coquantur in igne tribulationis, et fiat potus.
Recipe de hoc mane et sera.”
Any one may find much literary amusement in the volume, and to the
Latin scholar in particular it affords material for many an hour of
pleasant relaxation.
THE TAKING OF ROME BY THE ITALIAN ARMY, considered in its Causes and
Effects. By C. M. Curci, S.J. Translated from the Italian by the
Duke Della Torre. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1871.
It is a matter of congratulation that we have among us at least one
Italian gentleman of high rank, character, and education, who is a
thoroughly loyal and devoted adherent of the Holy See. We are greatly
indebted to the Duke Della Torre for translating F. Curci’s
_brochure_, prefixing to it a most sensible and excellent preface,
and getting it published by our most eminent New York firm. The
pamphlet itself is an able production of an able and celebrated
writer. The only great fault in it is the discouraging tone it takes
regarding the prospects of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope in the
future--a point which has been strongly animadverted upon already in
Europe. In so far as past facts are concerned, it is a thorough and
unanswerable exposure of the fraud, violence, and perfidy of the
Sub-Alpine government, and of the treachery and timidity of the policy
of other European cabinets in their relations with the Pontifical
States.
FLORENCE O’NEIL; or, The Siege of Limerick. By Agnes M. Stewart.
Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co.
The eventful life and troublous times of James II. of England must
always be a period of history mournfully interesting to every Catholic
heart--those days of persecution, when throughout England a price was
set upon the head of any priest who dared labor for the salvation of
souls, all the penal laws against Catholics (some of them but lately
repealed) being in full force.
The touching story of Florence O’Neil, who is represented as living in
very constant intimacy with the royal exiles, carries us through those
dark days, and gives us pictures of the court of the reprobate,
hard-hearted daughter of James, where Florence was kept an unwilling
captive for many months. Her journal during that time is written with
charming simplicity, and the whole story has sufficient mingling of
truth with the narrative to fill us with pity even for those crowned
heads who lived harassed with anxious fears lest the sceptre so
hastily and unjustly assumed should be as hastily snatched from their
grasp; trusting nobody, never at rest from plottings and replottings
even in their own household. In contrast with this, we have the
devoted domestic life at the Château St. Germaine, sketched with a
delicate and refined touch, giving us a lovely picture of wedded bliss
in the union of James with his beautiful and tenderly attached
wife--more perfect than usually falls to the lot of common mortals, 719
not to speak of royalty. It is cheering to know that these good
hearts, to whom life brought so much disappointment and trouble, found
rest and peace and hope in the bosom of the church, which offers to
her faithful children the kingdom of heaven and an imperishable crown.
_Florence O’Neil_ appears in a beautiful dress, and is well worthy of
careful perusal.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE IRISH FRANCISCAN MONASTERIES, AND MEMOIRS
OF THE IRISH HIERARCHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By the Rev. C.
P. Meehan, M.R.I.A.
A MEMOIR OF IRELAND, NATIVE AND SAXON. By Daniel O’Connell, M.P.
Dublin: James Duffy. New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
The second edition of these two small works, which have attained a
well-deserved popularity in Ireland and England, will doubtless be
equally appreciated in this country, particularly by our adopted
citizens, who, claiming the former nation as their birthplace, love to
look back on her past glories and her continuous struggles for civil
and religious freedom. Father Meehan’s book, though ostensibly
confined to the history of the Franciscan establishments and the Irish
hierarchy, contains also a brief but lucid and well-arranged account
of the principal events of the seventeenth century in Ireland,
embracing the wars of the Parliamentarians and Cromwell against the
Nationalists, and the inception of the contest between the partisans
of William and James. On such subjects Mr. Meehan is a reliable and
judicious authority, for he has made them the study of a life-time. We
remember him fully a quarter of a century ago, when curate of SS.
Michael and John’s Church, Dublin, and when every moment that he could
spare legitimately from the duties of his calling was devoted to his
loved studies--the history and archæology of his native land; and we
are happy to find that time has neither quenched the fire of his
patriotism nor weakened that mental activity which characterized his
earlier works.
O’Connell’s memoir, like everything that fell from the pen or lips of
that great agitator, is full of vigor and sound logic. A portion of
the book is devoted to a general summary of the wrongs and struggles
of the Irish race from the invasion in 1172 down to our day, but the
greater part is occupied by historical quotations and running
commentaries, illustrating that long, dreary period of war,
desolation, and persecution. Though in fact contained in a
comparatively small compass, it is a masterly indictment against
England, prepared with all the system and acumen of an able jurist,
and is invaluable as a historical document from the number of
references it contains. It was only issued towards the close of the
great author’s career, and may be supposed to be an epitome of his
varied readings and long personal experience.
THE PEARL OF ANTIOCH: A Picture of the East at the End of the Fourth
Century. By the Abbé Bayle. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. 1871.
In the preface to this interesting story of the early times, we have a
bright and truthful comment on the different claims of works of
fiction that have been written to make religion attractive: giving to
Cardinal Wiseman (what rightfully belongs to him) the glory of having
been the author of the truly Christian romance in the fascinating
narrative of _Fabiola_. The writer of _The Pearl of Antioch_ professes
to follow at a modest distance that illustrious dignitary of the
church. He gives us in the story of Pelagia a graphic description of
life in Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople at the close of the
fourth century, when the church, resting from the fierce persecutions
that had marked her earlier years, was surrounded with master-minds
who committed themselves to no religion, condemning none formally, 720
endeavoring to possess at the same time the esteem of both Christians
and pagans. The delineation of the vacillating spirit of many of the
finest intellects among the Greeks, their proud, patronizing ways
towards God’s church, cannot but remind the careful reader of the
position of many of the so-called _intellectual giants_ of to-day.
The multiplicity of characters introduced, and the demand for
mythological research which is necessary to make the story clear in
all its parts, are rather detrimental to the unity of the tale;
nevertheless, the story of Pelagia herself, and Nicephorus her lover,
with their remarkable conversion and subsequent abandonment of the
world, is very touching, and wrought out with simplicity and
earnestness--the wonderful faith of Pelagia contrasting with the
criticisms and doubts, and the ingenious hypotheses of Hypatia, whose
strange life and fearful death have been the comment of historian and
novelist.
The book contains many pages full of interest concerning Simon
Stylites and the wonders of his life, besides several chapters devoted
to charming descriptions of the monks who flocked in those times to
monasteries in the deserts of Nitria and Tabenna, along the borders of
the Nile, and even to Mount Sinai. One of the most attractive features
of the volume will be found in the delightful conversations of these
monks, enlivened with legends of those olden times, and pervaded
throughout with a lovely, Christ-like spirit, which makes their
religion an object of admiration even to the wise pagans around them.
JAPAN IN OUR DAY. Compiled and arranged by Bayard Taylor. New York:
Charles Scribner & Co. 1872. 1 vol. 12mo.
This is the first volume of the _Illustrated Library of Travel,
Exploration, and Adventure_, now in course of publication by Messrs.
Scribner, & Co. and edited by Bayard Taylor. To those who take an
interest in Japanese affairs the volume will prove interesting, as
containing the latest information with regard to that country so long
almost unknown.
SADLIERS’ CATHOLIC DIRECTORY, ALMANAC, AND ORDO FOR THE YEAR OF OUR
LORD 1872. With full Report of the various Dioceses in the United
States and British North America, and a List of the Archbishops,
Bishops, and Priests in Ireland. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co.,
31 Barclay Street.
The _Almanac_ for this year has appeared. The sewing, type, and paper
are much better than in former years. There are not so many mistakes
in this as we noticed in the previous volume. We are aware there are
many difficulties connected with the publication of a statistical work
which nothing but the utmost patience and perseverance will overcome,
and are therefore pleased to notice even slight improvements.
THE AMERICAN HOME BOOK OF IN-DOOR GAMES, AMUSEMENTS, AND OCCUPATIONS.
By Mrs. Caroline L. Smith (Aunt Carrie). Illustrated. Boston: Lee &
Shepard. New York: Lee, Shepard & Dillingham. 1872.
This book is one of the best of its kind. The selection of games,
amusements, etc., is very good, and the directions given in regard to
them are short, simple, and clear. It cannot fail to add to the
happiness of any home it may enter.
THE WONDERS OF WATER. From the French of Gaston Tissandier. Edited,
with numerous Additions, by Schele De Vere, D.D., LL.D. New York:
Charles Scribner & Co. 1872. 1 vol. 12mo.
A most interesting and useful little volume, containing valuable
information in regard to the uses of water, the history of artesian
wells, ancient and modern water-works, etc., etc. The book is
elegantly got up and well illustrated.
----------
THE 721
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XIV., No. 84.--MARCH, 1872.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.
AN UNCIVIL JOURNAL.
The activity and universality of the American press are proverbial.
Leaving out of sight the innumerable political organs which dabble in
everything, there is not a department of human knowledge, not a
recognized theological creed, not a leading foreign nationality, not a
prominent _ism_ of the day, that has not its daily or weekly to
represent it. And they all speak and investigate with unlimited
freedom. The race of Robert Burns’s “chiel” who was “takin’ notes” has
been multiplied until they here outnumber the sands on the sea-shore.
Nothing escapes them. All shortcomings of whatever origin are certain
of detection by some of them, and they are not restrained by any false
modesty from instant proclamation thereof. Everybody is held
accountable to everybody else. Republicans and Democrats keep up
permanent mutual inquisition, Protection and Free-trade spy out each
other’s defects, and rival sects seem firmly to believe in the
chastening influence of announcement of their neighbors’ faults.
More than any of these, more than all put together, is Catholicity in
the United States subjected to the most ceaseless and penetrating
surveillance. The curiosity prompting this surveillance is sometimes
friendly, but generally the reverse. English literature, essentially
anti-Catholic and bigoted, has made its mark upon American education,
and with many people the intolerant falsehood of much English history
still passes for truth. So-called religious (Protestant) papers are
never at a loss for a leader topic--“Abuse the Catholics.” Protestant
ministers find heads of discourse always ready in anti-Popery
admonitions. We personally know many excellent men among them who
conscientiously strive to do their duty as they understand it, and are
above such wrong; but there are large numbers of Poundtexts and
Brandlighters, obscure in position, of uncertain education and
wretchedly paid, who make of “Popery” a stalking-horse, and seek to
fill their empty pews and depleted pockets with the fruits of
anti-Popery excitement. Added to such editors and such preachers as we
describe, there is a small army of literary and theological stragglers, 722
bummers, and disgraced deserters hovering on the rear of these regular
forces, always in the field with lectures, pamphlets, keys to Popery,
horrible disclosures, and all the pestilent riff-raff of anti-Catholic
literature. One would think the Protestant army of observation on such
a footing sufficiently well-organized, active, and effective to guard
the walls of the American Zion and sound a timely alarm.
But the publishing firm of Messrs. Harper & Brothers is not of that
opinion, and they appear to have discovered that it is their duty
to take under their special protection and keeping the public
schools, the Bible, the Protestant religion, and the liberties of
America;--thus demonstrating the wretched incapacity and utter failure
of our civil authorities, our religious press, and the Protestant
ministry to do their plainest duty. The gentlemen in question publish,
here in New York, _Harper’s Monthly Magazine_, and a hebdomadal called
_Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization_. These periodicals
contain a variety of light literature, papers on current topics,
poetry, anecdotes, and highly-flavored anti-Popery articles. Besides
these last, the _Weekly_ generally has one or more caricatures
calculated to disseminate the worst falsehoods, and to excite hatred
towards Catholics and contempt for their religion.
For years past, a constantly recurring subject of its most offensive
form of caricature has been the person of the venerable Pontiff Pius
IX. It is difficult to conceive how any man of even ordinary instincts
of propriety--we care not what his religious prejudices might
be--could have for this revered personage any feeling but one of
profound respect. An aged bishop, fourscore years of age, whose
purity of character is without speck or stain, whose long life has
been one of labor and usefulness, piety and virtue, beginning his
sacerdotal career as a missionary in a foreign land, then serving
faithfully as the director of charitable institutions and hospitals,
whose first acts of power were those of benevolence and universal
amnesty, toward whom, on the part of the tens of thousands of
Protestants who have seen and spoken with him, no sentiments but those
of profound admiration and veneration are ever expressed--such a
character as this is selected by the _Journal of Civilization_ as the
favorite butt of its indecent ribaldry.
We here leave entirely out of sight all consideration of the question
of outrage upon the religious sensibilities of millions of Catholics
in the United States, and place the judgment of the offence upon the
broad ground of civilized propriety. The men who perpetrate this
outrage seek to justify themselves on the plea that it is as king or
temporal sovereign of Rome they caricature him. Their offence is
aggravated by so flimsy and paltry a pretext. The merits of the
disputes among the monarchs of Europe do not concern us here in
America to that extent, and if they did, as a question of monarchical
right and precedence of seniority, the kings and emperors of Europe
are all new-comers and upstarts by the side of the Roman Pontiff.
While these caricatures are essentially addressed to a sentiment of
religious bigotry, their authors seek, by the false association of
some political idea, not only to excuse them on that ground, but to
reinforce that bigotry with all the strength of political hatred.
Take, for instance, the filthy crocodile picture. There is an appeal
whose falsity is only exceeded by its beastliness. Then the “Roman 723
Catholic mission from England to the heathens of America” (_Weekly_,
Dec. 30, 1871), in which the pure Christian, the devoted
philanthropist, the perfect gentleman--Most Rev. Archbishop
Manning--is portrayed with iron shackles in his hand, which he holds
concealed behind him, striving to entice the negroes to come to him;
to whom a negro replies (so naturally!): “No, thank you. We have just
been emancipated, and, if England is responsible for slavery in the
United States, I don’t care to jump from the English frying-pan into
the English fire.”
The favorite device of the _Weekly_ gentlemen is to represent the
perpetrators of offences against law and order, and the participators
in municipal robbery and corruption, as Catholics, and, in their
persons, to hold the Catholic Church responsible for such offences. It
is not necessary to dwell on the absurdity of such a charge, nor on
the hardship and injustice of such a responsibility.
There are thousands of men in this city, supposed to be Catholics--nay,
who, if asked the question, will say that they are--who have not been
inside of a Catholic Church nor spoken to a priest for long years, men
whose lives are scandalous in their irregularities and crimes. Such as
these bring disgrace upon the church whose precepts they trample under
foot. If arrested for violation of the laws of the land, we sincerely
trust they may have legally meted out to them the fullest measure of
punishment. The properly constituted authorities will have our thanks
for so doing. The _Weekly_ writers are ignorant of much that touches
Catholic faith and practice, but they are not ignorant of the fact
that the custom among Protestant churches of considering as members
those only who make avowed profession, and live up to the requirements
of strict church membership, does not prevail in the Catholic Church.
The difference with us is between _practical_ Catholics and those who,
neglecting their religious duties, live in sin; and we state with
profound regret that the number of this latter class is very much
larger than any one who loves his church cares to see.
But it is all the same thing to the Harper scribes, and the
indifferent Catholic, the bad Catholic, the Catholic who is a scandal
to his church, is a “good enough Morgan” for our _Weekly_, which
constantly represents him as an active and devout member of the
church, in direct communication with the Holy See. How if a similar
rule were to be applied generally, and we should in every case of
moral dereliction seek out the sect with which the sinner has some
real or supposed affiliation, and charge the crime upon the religious
teachings of that sect?
Is the Presbyterian Church to be made responsible for New York
municipal defalcations because connection with them is charged on the
Presbyterian, Mayor Hall? Is the Methodist Church answerable for
Tammany frauds because Tweed is a Methodist? Let us suppose for a
moment a man so devoid of all sense and decency as to compile a
narrative of crimes and outrages perpetrated by people known to be
Methodists, beginning years back with the well-known (Avery-Cornell)
seduction and murder case in which a Methodist minister was the
criminal, and coming down past the scandalous publication by Methodist
printers of the infamous book of Maria Monk, to the late horrible
story, in a Western city, of torture through long years of an
unoffending child by its unnatural Methodist parents, to the shameful 724
malversations of a religious Book Concern, to the gigantic thefts in
our city administration, to the Drew complication of the Erie
abomination, which shines by its absence in all the late _Harper_
chronicles; and, having completed his catalogue, to present and
denounce these crimes as the legitimate result of the teachings of the
Methodist Church. It would be waste of words to point out the false
reasoning, the injustice, the malice of such a performance. For,
however Christian sects may differ on doctrinal points, and whatever
may be alleged as to the extent of their theological errors, none of
them deliberately teach immorality, and all inculcate the precepts of
the decalogue.
What, then, shall be thought of a journal which, week after week,
loudly and persistently, not only accuses the Catholic Church in the
persons of her ministers of teaching the most flagrant immorality, but
seeks--coupling with this grave charge the imputation of striving to
create civil discord--by every artifice of rhetoric, by every device
of exaggeration, by every appeal of gross caricature, to arouse the
wildest passions and the fiercest bigotry? The journal in question
labors to stir up, and it does stir up, bad blood and hot strife among
hitherto peaceful neighbors.
The charge is a serious one, and we make it knowingly. Instances and
illustrations in its support may be found in nearly all the numbers of
the _Weekly_ for years past.
For its anti-Catholic operations, the _Journal_ is used as a sort of
tender to the heavy transport, the _Monthly_, which frequently gives
its readers long, elaborate, and malicious articles, made up mainly of
exploded calumnies, threadbare anti-Popery rhetoric of the school of
Brownlee and the early Know-Nothings, and the extraordinary
lucubrations of a contributor whom we can only describe as Harper’s
comic historian. This singular writer undertakes to demonstrate, for
instance, that the Apostle of Ireland was not a Catholic missionary at
all, but in religious faith a sort of Old-School Presbyterian, who
went about distributing Bibles among the “savage Irish,” making strong
“anti-Popery” speeches, and delivering lectures on popular education
to the serfs of his day!
Absurd as these articles are from a literary point of view, they are
yet full of inflammable material, and play as recklessly with fire as
the more brutal incentives of the _Weekly_. For it must be borne in
mind that most of these direct appeals to religious bigotry are
intended not so much for home consumption as for their effect upon the
general rural mind, and that their evident purpose is to arouse
another Know-Nothing revival throughout the country.
There are, unfortunately, too many people thoughtless enough, or,
perhaps, wicked enough, to respond to these incentives--people so far
forgetting themselves as to imagine that their own religion, or
something which they imagine stands for it, must be the state church
in America, and that it is free to them to persecute and outlaw the
professors of a faith which, in their ignorance, they despise and
hate.
But we are satisfied that, on the other hand, there is too much
intelligence, moderation, forbearance, and patriotism among American
citizens to permit the success of schemes aimed at once against
liberty of conscience, the peace of society, and the true freedom of
our institutions.
And among these citizens we rank--by no means the last--the
CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED STATES. 725
We can only qualify as impertinent the coolness with which these
scribes of the Messrs. Harper talk about “receiving” Catholics
“hospitably into this free Protestant land.” When and how were these
gentlemen constituted the dispensers of the hospitalities of this free
country? When and how did this country become a “Protestant land”? At
what period of the history of America were Catholics strangers here?
Under somewhat similar provocation, the great Montalembert, from the
tribune in the Chamber of Peers, told certain Frenchmen: “We are the
sons of the Crusaders, and we fear not the progeny of Voltaire.” And
we, Catholics of the United States, say to these gentlemen who seek to
inaugurate another Know-Nothing campaign, that here in America we are
neither strangers nor new-comers of yesterday.
We came in the caravels of Columbus, we came with the Cartiers and the
La Salles, the Brébœufs and the Jogues, the Joliets and the
Marquettes, with the men whose blood of martyrdom moistened the soil
of New York, with the men whose bones had mingled with the savannas of
the South and the prairies of the West long before Plymouth Rock was
heard of. We came--not with the Hessians of George--but with the army
of Rochambeau and the fleet of De Grasse, with the arms of Catholic
France and the gold of Catholic Spain, to aid our American struggle
for liberty. The largest fortune risked in signing our Declaration of
Independence was a Catholic fortune. As Catholics, we have proved our
devotion to our country in three wars. The ranks of our army and the
ships of our navy are full of our people, and if, at this moment, you
undertake to blot the names of Catholic officers from naval and army
registers, you will be compelled to deface entire pages. We are of all
the walks of life, from the humblest to the highest, pursuing our
legitimate business, and fulfilling our duties as citizens, fathers,
husbands, sons, and brothers. We have schools, seminaries, and
colleges successfully active, increasing in number and usefulness, and
only not entirely filled with Catholic pupils because of the great
number of youths sent to them by non-Catholic parents. We are
merchants, bankers, editors, clerks, mechanics, artists, farmers,
lawyers, physicians, legislators, and laborers. We fill professors’
chairs and seats on the judicial bench. We have among us thousands of
cultivated men and refined and elegant women, the peers of any in the
land. We are, as a body, good and law-abiding citizens. We respect
ourselves. We mean to be respected. And we protest against the bigoted
and senseless denunciation and caricature of our faith in the
pretended exposure of fictitious plots against the institutions and
liberties of our country.
There exists evidently, among the Know-Nothing writers referred to,
some faint appreciation of these facts, and, with labored display of
politeness, they seek to turn the difficulty by reference to
“respectable citizens,” appeals to “intelligent Romanists” (thus
designating us, in their clumsy courtesy, by a nickname), and such
declarations as “we do not in any just sense accuse all adherents of
that church of hostility to our institutions” (“_our_ institutions!”)
We distinctly decline to accept any such qualification or apology. So
far as our religion is concerned, we are all, lettered and unlettered,
rich and poor, on a footing of perfect equality. The lady in the 726
parlor and the servant in her kitchen abide by the same religious
observances, the rich banker and his poorest clerk hold precisely the
same faith, and the wealthy merchant and his drayman out there in the
street, kneel at the same altar. We are aware that all this is
“horridly ungenteel,” but it is an old habit of our people. Eighteen
hundred years ago and more, we were assured that the poor we have
always. And we have them. They never leave us, and are not likely to.
Poor-houses came in with the Reformation, and then poverty first
became disgraceful. For poverty, and, yet more, for the shame of
poverty, the needy and wretched cannot enter elegant Protestant
conventicles.
And now that we have seen the nature and complexion of the attempted
revival of Know-Nothing violence, it may be asked, Who are the men who
promote it, creating prejudice, fostering bigotry, inflaming religious
rancor, arraying neighbor against neighbor, and endangering the peace
of the community? Have they a special mission from on high? Are their
scribes inspired writers? Or, perchance, are the antecedents of those
publishers and proprietors such as to have established a character for
pure patriotism and disinterested virtue so pre-eminently superior as
to authorize them to set themselves up the self-constituted guardians
of American liberty and evangelical Christianity?
We propose to examine these questions in the light of the printed
record of the responsible proprietors of the _Journal of Civilization_.
To that printed record we shall strictly confine ourselves. And in
taking the first step toward the fulfilment of our duty, we regret
that circumstances will compel the revelation of some
AWFUL DISCLOSURES.
The excitement and violent denunciation of Catholicity produced many
years ago by the publication of an infamous book said to have been
written by one Maria Monk are still remembered among us, as well as
the thorough exposure of its utter falsehood, made by Colonel Stone of
New York, and other Protestant gentlemen.
The book was entitled _The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk_, and from
its title-page purported to be published by _Howe and Bates_. Howe and
Bates! Who were Howe and Bates? There was none to make reply. For
neither to the book trade nor in the flesh were “Howe and Bates” ever
known of mortal man.
As to the character of the book in question, we are further enlightened
by the author of a work entitled “_Protestant Jesuitism_, by a
Protestant,” published by the Harpers in 1838. At page 34 of the book,
Maria Monk’s work is described as “one of the most arrant fictions
that was ever palmed upon the community,” and the author adds: “The
people of this land--and it is the common attribute of human
nature--love excitement, and unfortunately there are those who know
how to produce it, and profit by it.” Unfortunate, indeed, it is that
there are those who stand ready to profit by foul slander and
malignant falsehood concerning their neighbor. Unfortunate, indeed,
that men can be found who, for the sake of a few dollars, could
consent to spread, broadcast upon the world, printed vilification and
outrage of noble, pure-minded women, who, solely for the love of God
and out of their own abundant charity, devote their lives to
alleviating the sufferings of the needy, the afflicted, and the sick.
Who are they who profited by it? If we can obtain a satisfactory 727
answer to that question, we may probably be far on the way toward
solving the mystery which hovers over the existence of “Howe and
Bates.”
Maria Monk’s disclosures were not all made in the book published by
that somewhat nebulous firm. The most “awful” of all her “awful
disclosures” were made in the dignified form of a bill in equity which
she filed against her publishers, who, by their own admissions and
declarations, turn out to be not “Howe and Bates,” who from this
moment for ever disappear from view, but Messrs. James, John, Joseph
W., and Fletcher Harper.
The bill filed for discovery and account against the defendants as
booksellers and publishers by Maria Monk, a minor, through her next
friend, shows that complainant was authoress of a work which she had
copyrighted and stereotyped, and that said stereotype plates were paid
for by her with money belonging to her, and that she was liable for
any balance unpaid; that after the copyright had been so taken out,
the said plates got into the possession of the defendants, and that
they had published the work under the title of “_Awful Disclosures of
Maria Monk_, as exhibited in a narrative of her sufferings during a
residence of five years as a novice, and two years as a black nun, in
the Hôtel Dieu at Montreal.” Further, that she was a minor, was
entirely unacquainted with the modes of doing business, that she
believed that persons professing to be her friends had made some
bargains for her in relation to said work, that this was known to the
defendants, and yet they pretended to take out another copyright of
the same work in the District of Massachusetts, and published a large
number of impressions from the plates, and issued the book; and that
they had large profits in their hands which belonged to the
complainant.
Prayer that the said James, John, Joseph W., and Fletcher Harper make
full statement, etc., and deliver over all sums of money and property,
with account of sales and amount received for same.
We have had occasion to see that the proprietors of the _Journal of
Civilization_ are fiercely patriotic. And they were so, long before
that civilizing journal was founded. Their first impulse on receiving
a copy of this latest “awful disclosure” by Maria Monk was an impulse
of patriotism, of indignation that a foreigner should presume to
expect copyright protection in the United States. Thrice is he armed
who has statutory law, patriotism, and an act of Congress upon which
to fall back, and the defendants, in such panoply as that, straightway
filed a demurrer.[147] Maria Monk’s copyright was first issued and had
precedence of seniority, but respondents demurred, first and
principally, on the ground that “the complainant did not show herself
to be a citizen entitled to take out a copyright.” The demurrer also
set up other matters in avoidance.
In deciding the case, the Vice-Chancellor closed the delivery of his
opinion by saying: “It [the bill] does not show any privity of
contract or dealing between the parties; no agreement expressed or
implied by which the defendants can be held to account to the
complainant for the profits of the work. It rather shows that, by fraud 728
or wrong, the defendants obtained possession of the stereotype plates,
and, altering the title of the book to that of _Awful Disclosures_,
etc., published it in defiance of her rights. If she has sustained
loss by such conduct of the defendants, she must persuade a jury to
give her compensation in a verdict of damages against them, when,
perhaps, the merits of her _Awful Disclosures_ and _Nunnery Unveiled,
and the motives of those who have promoted and prompted the_
publication, will duly be considered.”
Demurrer sustained, and bill dismissed at costs of complainant.
All of which, and more, may be found in _Edwards’s Chancery Reports_,
vol. iii., p. 109.
PAST AND PRESENT.
Within the past twelve years, a new generation of readers has grown up
in the United States--a generation far outnumbering its predecessor,
and the circulation of the journal published by the Harper Brothers
has increased immensely. The great body of its readers of to-day are
profoundly impressed with a sense of its unvarying and undying
patriotism, and it probably never occurs to the soldier who, when a
mere boy, shouldered his musket in defence of the Union, that his now
furiously patriotic _Harper’s Weekly_ was originally, and as long as
it was found to pay, the advocate of secession and the apologist of
slavery. How sadly true this is, we propose to show by presenting the
results of our examination into
THE JOURNAL IN THE HOUR OF TRIAL.
On opening the volume of the _Weekly_ for the year 1861, we felt quite
confident of finding an admirably executed full-length picture of the
then President-elect of the United States, and confess to some
disappointment when, instead thereof, occupying the entire first page,
we discover portraits of “The Georgia Delegation in Congress,”
followed by sketches highly laudatory of the seven gentlemen composing
the delegation. The same number makes calm and commentless record of
“The South Carolina Proclamation of Independence,” and the spread of
secession through the South.
_January 12, 1861._--Under the heading “The Great Southern Movement,”
the publishers “beg to draw attention to the following list of
illustrations of the _Pending Revolution_,” such unseemly words as
rebellion and treachery being left to the unprincipled Abolition
papers of that day. In the same number we have “The Revolution at
Charleston” in cuts of “Anderson at Sumter” and “The Charleston
Militia taking Fort Pickens”--thus making a nice balance. Doubtless
the Lincoln portrait will come in our next number.
Why, what are these? Portraits and laudatory notices of Governor
Pickens, Honorable Judge McGrath, and “Rev. Dr. Bachman, who asked a
blessing on the Secession Ordinance,” the signing of which, according
to the fervid account cited from a Charleston paper, was a scene
“profoundly grand and impressive”; there were “patriarchs in age--the
dignitaries of the land--the high-priests of the church of
Christ--reverend statesmen--and wise judges of the law”--in the midst
of whom “the President advanced with the consecrated parchment”--which
holy document was the ordinance of secession. We continue turning leaf
after leaf with but slight edification--Skating Park--Old
Fashions--Humors of the Day--Rarey the Horse Tamer--Love Story--etc. 729
Pleasant reading for people sitting over a volcano.
_January 26_ gives us “The Prayer at Sumter,” a drop of mournful
comfort. Then an editorial, “WANTED, A CAPITAL.” It opens
impressively: “_Some practical people, viewing the dissolution of the
Union as a fixed fact_,[148] and assuming that all or nearly all the
Border States will go with their Southern slave sisters, are already
casting about in search of a new capital.” The vigorous patriotism of
this idea is strengthened by a sweet allegory, in a column of small
type, entitled “John Ardens and James Placens.” You see the delicate
joke in the mild Latin? Ardens is a fiery fellow, who absurdly insists
on having what he is entitled to. Placens is a gentleman, a practical
philosopher, who very sensibly submits to any imposition on pocket or
principle for the sake of peace. The placid moral is, “In things
indifferent yield rather than quarrel.” Logically enough, two pages
further on we have “The Firing on the Star of the West,” as a mere
passing incident of the day. Meantime Fort Sumter does heavy duty on
the illustrated pages, and is served up without intermission, from
sea, from land, by day, by night, _en barbette_, _en côtelette_, and
in every other conceivable way.
_February 2, 1861._--Another grand page of portraits--not of Lincoln
and Seward, but of “The Seceding Mississippi Delegation in Congress,”
followed by a page in small type of fulsome praise of the seven
members--Jefferson Davis, Brown, Barksdale, Lamar, R. Davis,
Singleton, and McRae. With the praise we also have copious and labored
arguments for slavery and secession, thus: “Personally, Senator Davis
is the Bayard of Congress, _sans peur et sans reproche_; a finished
scholar; a high-minded gentleman; a devoted father; a true friend. He
is emphatically one of those ‘born to command,’ and is doubtless
_destined to occupy a high position either in the Southern Confederacy
or in the United States_.” On which we would merely remark that as to
the non-fulfilment of this prophecy there has been some disappointment
in the first-named country, and great dissatisfaction in the second.
This Mississippi article closes with the assurance from one of the
seven that slavery is not only national, but “a universal institution
of God and man, nature and Christianity, earth and heaven--having its
origin in the law of God, sustained by the Bible, sustained by
Christianity,” etc., etc.
We continue turning the leaves. And now that we have had quite enough
of “the Seceding Delegations,” we naturally hope that room may be
found for a portrait of the President-elect. At page 76 we come to
“Portrait of the South Carolina Minister of War,” which is not the
object of our search.
_February 9._--What, again? “THE SECEDING ALABAMA DELEGATION IN
CONGRESS.” A full-page of portraits of nine gentlemen who do not look
at all amiable. Following this comes the regulation two and a half
columns of praise in small type, interspersed with extracts from their
speeches. Of one of these delegates--a party by the name of Curry--we
are assured that
“Nature has endowed him with a mind so active that he can
apparently discover, by a glance so rapid as to seem intuition,
those truths which common capacities struggle hard to comprehend,
while his genius enables him to enforce by argument, and his
accomplishments to illustrate, those topics upon which he 730
addresses the House.”
Naturally enough follows, on page 88, a View of the City of Montgomery,
showing the state-house where “THE CONGRESS OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY
MEETS.”
_February 16, 1861._--Concerning so-called stay-laws passed in the
South, which were at the time generally understood to mean practical
repudiation of mercantile debts due to the North, hark how sweetly
sings the Northern secession siren with elaborate Harp accompaniment:
“We trust that our Southern friends will believe that we have no
partisan purpose in view if we direct their attention to the fatal
consequences of the stay-laws, etc., etc. For many years our Southern
States have enjoyed first-rate credit, both at the North and abroad.
Southern obligations have always been preferred in New York to
obligations from the East or West.... Southern men have been
considered here as good under all circumstances. Their honor has been
relied on to any extent. _Houses which would not trust Western or
Eastern dealers a hundred dollars have been delighted to give credits
of thousands to Southerners._ The simple reason was that people have
had an undying faith in the honor of the Southern people--a firm
conviction that under no circumstances would they seek to evade
payment of their debts.” And here the siren’s song is broken by a gush
of tears--“Is this faith, is this conviction to be demolished now by
the passage of stay-laws?” Then follow the perennial “View of Sumter,”
double-page Paris fashions, etc., until we reach (p. 109) Views of the
“Mint and the New Custom House,” New Orleans, “of which the United
States have had only a brief occupancy”--“both of which have been
seized by the state authorities.” There is no comment on this
“seizure” by the state authorities, but more than three months
afterward we shall find “civilization” waking up in wrath and
fulminating thus: “All that the rebels of New Orleans wanted when they
stole the mint was to be let alone.” In this same number (p. 112) we
have the sneering caricature of the calamity of the country which at
the time afforded the enemies of the American Union exquisite delight
and “prolonged shouts of laughter.” It is entitled “_The Crippled
American Eagle, the Cock, and the Lion_.” To the eagle, dilapidated,
lame, and on crutches: “LION.--Why, Brother Jonathan, you don’t
look so fierce as you used. How about the Monroe Doctrine now?
COCK.--Yes, my good Jonathan, what you tink of PRIVATEERING under de
present circumstance?”
At last, in the number of February 23, we reach portraits of
“President and Vice-President”--what? surely we must be mistaken!
No--the print is very clear in its large capitals--“Of the Southern
Confederacy.” And very good portraits they are, too, but not of the
President and Vice-President we were expecting to see. The number of
March 2 gives us a full-page woodcut of “The President-elect
Addressing the People.” The “people” are represented by twenty-six
hats and the scanty outlines of eleven men, but in compensation we
have a thrilling view of two gigantic lamp-posts, and, in exaggerated
disproportion, the pillars of the balcony over the centre of whose
summit appears the upper half of a small, lean figure supposed to be
that of A. Lincoln. This is somewhat disappointing, but, by way of
consolation, the next page enlightens us on the subject of patriotism:
“This subject of patriotism is in a fair way of being more thoroughly 731
ventilated than it ever was before. Everybody appears to admit that
patriotism is a virtue, and that a man should love his country. But
the question arises at every corner, What is our country?” The topic
is illustrated by watery hypotheses from Smith, Jones, and Thomson,
and the editor adds some strong milk to the water with--“Can he claim
the title of patriot if he loves his state only, and confesses no
obligation to the rest of the confederacy?”
For men who have progressed far enough in constitutional law and
patriotism to call the Union a confederacy we have strong hopes.
Further on, under heading, “The Southern Confederacy,” we are advised
that “the President has nominated”--so and so--“to his cabinet.” Then
follows “President Davis’s Inaugural”--not the President we are
looking for. Then come “Snake Stories,” “Aunt Maria,” “The Mazed
Fiddler,” “Romance by Lever”--pleasant reading for perilous
times--until, at last, our search is ended, our patience rewarded, and
at page 144, in the number of March 2, 1861, we have a full-length
portrait of Abraham Lincoln, President-elect of the United States. It
is
A REMARKABLE PICTURE.
It is indeed a picture so remarkable that we would advise every
American who voted for Mr. Lincoln, every American who, whether he
voted for or against him, yet credited him with the reputation of
being at least a decent person, and every man, of whatever
nationality, who considered him not positively a degraded loafer--we
would advise all such, if they can find a copy of _Harper’s Weekly:
A Journal of Civilization_, of March 2, 1861, to contemplate and
study that picture, and then form their opinion of the Christianity
and the patriotism of the men who, at that crisis of the country’s
fate, and in that dangerous hour of feverish excitement and political
passion, could, in cold blood, spread such a firebrand sketch
broadcast through the land. We further commend this counsel more
especially to those present readers and approvers of the _Journal of
Civilization_ who cherish the memory of a murdered President whom they
remember as at least blameless in life, pure in character, kind of
heart, charitable in impulse, and noble in patriotism.
We will endeavor to describe the drawing. Mr. Lincoln is represented,
in a room at the Astor House, standing, or rather staggering, under
the influence of liquor, with a just emptied glass in his hand. He is
surrounded by four boon companions, two of them with drunken leer and
Bardolphian noses; a third in the background looks vacantly on with
expression of maudlin stupidity; while the fourth, like the rest,
glass in hand, stands at the open window, and--partially sobered by
the shock--gazes at a passing funeral procession. On the moving
hearse, accompanied by mourners and decked with solemn black plumes,
are inscribed the words:
UNION,
CONSTITUTION.
Under this work of art--a wretched, scratchy woodcut--we read:
OUR PRESIDENTIAL MERRYMAN.
“The Presidential party was engaged in a lively exchange of wit
and humor. The President-elect was the merriest among the merry
and kept those around him in a continual roar.”--_Daily
Paper._
Now, let it be borne in mind that this very suggestive piece of malice 732
was published just on the eve of Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration at
Washington, whose atmosphere was black with lowering clouds of
rebellion, where threats were rife that he would never take his seat
in the Presidential chair, and where men’s minds were already warped
and inflamed by misrepresentations and falsehoods concerning him, the
belief in which by a large portion of the community would seriously
blunt any sharp opprobrium of murder, and soften down assassination to
the meritorious taking off of an unworthy drunken demagogue. If the
conductors of this organ of “civilization” are capable of giving the
greatest publicity to a horrible caricature on such a subject, and at
a moment fraught with such dreadful contingencies, need there be any
room for surprise that they do not stickle at far worse when the
subjects of their defamation are “only Catholics”?
ANOTHER PICTURE.
But we have not yet done with this number of March 2. It was the
strongest bid of the journal for Southern favor and patronage. On the
same page with the cut we have described is another, a more elaborate,
more artistic, and better executed picture. Scene: Interior of a
church--pews full of worshippers--minister officiating--administration
of the sacrament. At the chancel railing kneels George Washington.
With one hand, the clergyman standing in the sanctuary holds away the
cup from the would-be communicant, and with the other contemptuously
waves him off. The Father of his Country makes a gesture of indignant
remonstrance, while the minister’s assistant with a long stick points
to a tablet in the wall, on which are engraved the words:
THE HIGHER LAW.
NO COMMUNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.
Is the reader edified? There is more to come. The officiating minister
is Henry Ward Beecher--an unmistakable portrait. His assistant is John
Brown--an excellent likeness--and the pointer he uses is one of the
well-known “Harper’s Ferry Pikes.” Under the engraving we read:
NO COMMUNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.
“Stand aside, you Old Sinner! We are holier than thou.”
Will the members of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, who now see the
efforts of the journal to misrepresent Catholics in doctrine and in
morals, please read these efforts by the light of this George
Washington picture?
We also commend careful examination, of this picture to the friends
and admirers of Mr. Beecher. Let them ask themselves this question:
Would the men who, for the sake of a little larger circulation, do not
hesitate to caricature their own Protestant co-religionists--would
these men, we say, be reasonably expected to be very scrupulous in the
vilification of those whose Catholic faith they detest?
And for similar reasons, we commend consideration of both these
pictures to all readers of a _Journal of Civilization_ which, week
after week, by innuendo, assertion, falsehood, and caricature, strives
to awaken the lowest prejudices of religious intolerance, the vilest 733
passions of religious bigotry, and the sweeping persecution of
American citizens who choose to worship God according to the dictates
of their conscience.
We see that, in 1861, the proprietors of the _Journal of Civilization_
held sentiments looked upon in this latitude as rebel and pro-slavery.
We freely admit that they had a perfect right so to do, accepting, of
course, the legal and social consequences flowing from such holding.
Open to them to assume the social and moral superiority of Southern
gentlemen over Northern traders. Free to them to vaunt Southern honor
at the expense of Northern honesty. But surely they might advocate, as
they did, with all the eloquence of their editorials and all the
influence of their wide circulation, the dissolution of the Union and
the strong reprobation of anti-slavery sentiment, without insinuating
that Eastern and Western merchants are swindlers, without calumniating
Mr. Lincoln, and without vilifying Mr. Beecher?
The journal’s proprietors were perfectly well aware how grossly Mr.
Lincoln was misrepresented, and how utterly he was misunderstood in
the South. To what extent sectional bitterness was intensified against
him was shown by the free application of the epithet “gorilla.” Under
these circumstances, was it--we will not say considerate--but was it
honest, was it fair, to picture him as a drunken clown to men who did
not know him, and were all too ready to believe it? Was it respectful,
was it decent, to caricature the President-elect to those who did know
him, as celebrating in drunken orgies the death of the Constitution
and the funeral of the Union?
Henry Ward Beecher was looked upon in the South as the ardent apostle
of an Abolition evangel which taught servile insurrection and midnight
murder--not an enviable reputation surely. But was it fair, was it
honest, to give shape, body, and unnatural proportions to this belief
by picturing him as insulting the Father of his Country, aided by John
Brown as his henchman, armed with a Harper’s Ferry spear?
And so we reach the journal’s issue of March 9, 1861, but have thus
far found no portrait of President either elect or _de facto_, except
as a drunken clown (Mr. Merryman). We learn, however, by way of
explanation, that he is a sectional President! A long editorial of
this number is headed RECONSTRUCTION, and contains such vigorous Union
sentiment as this:
“Granted--if you will, for the sake of argument--that the
Southern rebellion against the election of a sectional President
is treason, and liable to punishment--is it wise, is it prudent,
is it possible to punish it?”
Again:
“It would undoubtedly be a very mischievous undertaking to keep
half a dozen states in the Union against the deliberate wishes of
their people. Whatever popular feeling--roused to frenzy by the
seizure of forts, arsenals, revenue cutters, and mints--might
prompt on the spur of the moment, _there can be no question but
the enterprise of holding the Union together by force would
ultimately prove futile_. IT WOULD BE IN VIOLATION OF THE
PRINCIPLE OF OUR INSTITUTIONS!”
An interesting number, this of March 9, with a fine portrait of
“General David E. Twiggs, late of the United States Army,” a
whole-page view of “Inauguration of President Jefferson Davis of the
Southern Confederacy,” and an article explanatory of the same.
No “sectional President here,” and the inauguration is described as 734
“solemn and impressive.”
At page 160 (March 9) we have a cartoon of four vulgar caricatures,
entitled collectively “The Flight of Abraham” (as reported by a Modern
Daily Paper), and separately: (1.) THE ALARM.--A gaunt figure sits
upright in bed with nightcap on. A lantern is held in at the open
door, from which come the words: “Run, Abe, for your life, the Blood
Tubs are after you!!!” (2.) THE COUNCIL.--General Sumner, with a pair
of large cavalry boots in one hand, and in the other a handkerchief
which he holds to his eyes, weeping vociferously--boo-o-o, stands near
“Abe”; on the other side is Mrs. Lincoln in dowdy dishabille, crying
bitterly, “Do go!” (3.) THE SPECIAL TRAIN.--” He wore a Scotch plaid
cap and a very long military cloak, so that he was entirely
unrecognizable”--an ignoble picture. (4.) THE OLD COMPLAINT.--Lincoln
presents himself to the astonished Buchanan dissolved with fright,
while Seward whispers to Buchanan, “Only a little attack of ager, your
excellency.”
Editorial correspondence at page 162 gives us the valuable information
that “Senator Wigfall is a finished orator--probably the most charming
in the senate,” and that he is “the exact opposite of Chandler and
Wilkinson”--“very unpleasant speakers to listen to.” Senator Mason, we
are told, “with all his faults is perhaps the nearest approach in the
present senate to the beau ideal of a senator.” At page 168 (March 16)
we have a large cut representing “The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
_as_ President of the United States,” and we cannot help contrasting
the phraseology of this announcement with a previous one:
“Inauguration of President Jefferson Davis of the Southern
Confederacy.”
And so we progress to April 27, 1861, page 258, where we find
President Lincoln’s Proclamation of April 15 thus announced: “War is
declared. President Lincoln’s proclamation, which we publish above, is
an absolute proclamation of war against the Gulf States.” Better late
than never, we at last, after long, weary waiting, find in this
number, page 268, the long-looked-for “Portrait of the President,”
accompanied by a biographical sketch of Mr. Lincoln. It was really
high time that the readers of the _Civilization_ should be told
something of their President nearly two months after he had assumed
the reins of government. To make everything pleasant and impartial,
however, the opposite page gives us the copy of a full-length
photograph of General Beauregard. Having paid your money, choice is
optional.
We have thus seen with what persistence and industry the _Journal_,
during the long, critical months of the beginning of that eventful
year 1861, was the ardent panegyrist of everything Southern, the stern
rebuker and enemy of anti-slavery, the mocker and caricaturist of
Northern Union sentiment, and the contemptuous sneerer at Abraham
Lincoln. But all this fine talk about principle and lofty assumption
of stern virtue was a mere question of circulation, and the sympathy
of the _Journal_ went with its pecuniary benefit, so far and no
farther.
The immutability of its principles was subject to be disturbed by just
such considerations as those which carried conviction to the
understanding of Hans Breitman, and which he so admirably explained in
his great political speech:
“Dese ish de brinciples I holts,
And dose in vitch I run:
Dey ish fixed firm and immutaple
Ash te course of de ‘ternal sun:
Boot if you ton’t abbrove of dem-- 735
Blease nodice vot I say--
I shall only be too happy
To alder dem right afay.”[149]
From an editorial leader of May 25, we hear that the _Weekly_ is in
receipt of abusive and threatening letters from various persons in the
Southern States, the cause assigned for which rude conduct is “the
statement in _our editorial of March 4_, to the effect that civil war
between the _Free States on one side and the Slave States on the other_
will inevitably, sooner or later, become a war of emancipation,” etc.,
etc. The reader may notice here that the expression, “Free States on
one side and the Slave States on the other,” just as clearly and
forcibly puts forth the doctrine of state sovereignty and the right of
secession, as does the title of Alexander Stephens’s late work, which,
in the smallest of nut-shells, gives the same doctrine in the few
words, _The War between the States_. But what is of as great importance
is that the contingent danger of emancipation was not presented by the
journal at so early a date as _March 4_. There is no such editorial of
March 4, there is no editorial of any kind of March 4, and, moreover,
there was no number of _Harper’s Weekly_ published on that date. The
editorial referred to appeared _May 4_. And here we would frankly say
that we are quite willing to accept this March 4 for May 4 as the
result of mistake, oversight, or careless proof-reading.
With the abusive and threatening letters came advices that “In
Tennessee vigilance committees forbid its (_Harper’s_) being sold.”
“In Louisiana, the governor prohibits its distribution through the
post-office.” And now, the Harpers, like Macbeth, have heard enough,
and, seized with the frenzy of patriotism, thunder after this fashion:
“As for _Harper’s Weekly_, it will continue, _as heretofore_, to
support the government of the United States,[150] the stars and
stripes,[151] and the indivisible union[152] of thirty-four states.
“We know no other course[153] consistent with the duty of citizens,
Christians, and honest men. If any subscriber to this journal expects
us to give our aid or countenance to rebellion[154] against the
government, he will be disappointed. If any man buys this journal
expecting to find us apologize for treason,[155] robbery, rebellion,
piracy, or murder, he will be disappointed. That is not our line of
business. The proprietors of _Harper’s Weekly_ would rather stop this
journal to-morrow than publish a line in it which would hereafter
cause their children to blush for the patriotism or the manhood of
their parents.”
This sharp change of sentiment, this sudden right-about face, may be 736
best illustrated by the notes we have appended and by the utterances
of the _Journal_ before and after certain occurrences.
BEFORE. AFTER.
_Editorial (leader) March _Editorial (leader) May 18,
30, 1861, entitled “The Two 1861._
Constitutions.”_
“Mr. Jefferson Davis,
“The Constitution of the Ex-Senator from Mississippi,
Southern Confederacy has has transmitted to the
been published. It is a copy select council of rebels at
of the original Constitution Montgomery a document which
of the United States, with he calls ‘A Message.’ It is
some variations. The a most ingenious and
principal variations plausible statement of their
are”--nineteen of these are case. Mr. Jefferson Davis is
then described, and the renowned for having made the
article concludes: “We have most specious argument on
thus enumerated the record in justification of
principal alterations in the Mississippi repudiation. He
Constitution effected by the has not forgotten his
Congress at Montgomery. cunning. His ‘Message’ would
_Most of them would receive almost persuade us--if we
the hearty support of the would forget facts and
people of the North. But law--that rebellion is
comment is superfluous._” right, and the maintenance
of government and the
enforcement of law a
barefaced usurpation.”
_Editorial (leader) April _Editorial (leader) June 8,
20, 1861._ 1861._
It begins by stating that “The rebellion in this country
Virginia affirms “the right has not half the excuse that
of a state to secede from the Sepoys had. The Indian
the Union at will,” and that soldiers were at least
Missouri and Kentucky standing upon their own soil
“declare that, in the event and opposing a foreign race
of forcible measures by the which had vanquished them by
general government to resist arms. It was a blind stroke
the dismemberment of the for the independence of their
Union, they will take sides nationality. But the Davis
with the seceded states.” rebellion is the resistance of
a faction of citizens against
“It seems questionable,” the government of all; and the
continues the _Weekly_, liberty for which they claim
“whether the continued that they are fighting means
alliance of these states, on baldly and only the liberty of
these conditions, is an holding other people in
unmixed gain. If this Union slavery.”[156]
of ours is a confederacy of
states which is liable to be
dissolved at the will of any
of the states, and if no
power rests with the general
government to enforce its
laws, it would seem that we
have been laboring under a
delusion these eighty years
in supposing that we were a
nation, and the fact would
appear to be that,” etc.,
etc., etc.
_Editorial “Better than _Editorial May 18, 1861,
Dollars,” April 20, 1861._ headed “In Memoriam.”_
Portrait of the typical “They have led us by the nose,
Northern man in contrast and kicked us, and laughed at
with the typical Southern us, and scorned us in their
man, in which the first is very souls as cravens and
described as mean, tuppeny tinkers. They have
avaricious, and swelled, and swaggered, and
unprincipled. “Cotton Pork sworn, and lorded it in
is a Northern man, mostly Washington and at the North,
from New England, though as if they were peculiarly
often transplanted to New _gentlemen_[157] because they
York, and doing well in our have lived by the labor of
climate. Some varieties of wretched men and women whom
his genius have been tried they did not pay--whom they
at the South, but they don’t sell to pay their debts, and
thrive there. They can’t stand whipped and maimed savagely at 737
so much sun.” their pleasure. They have
snorted superciliously about
“At the South--an odd their rights, while they
region--dollars are well deprived four millions of
thought of, to be sure, but human beings of all rights
still they don’t govern.... It whatsoever, and have sought to
seems ridiculous, but people gain such control of the
talk and think much more about general government that they
honor at the South than about might override altogether the
dollars.” state laws which protect the
equal rights of men. They have
Cotton Pork, we are told, “is aimed to destroy the
_for his country if dollars beneficent, popular system
are on his country’s side, which peacefully and patiently
otherwise he crawls on his and lawfully was working out
belly to lick the feet of the the great problem of
enemy who offers him civilization; and while they
dollars_.” have been digging about the
foundations of the temple to
“Strange how differently they make sure of its downfall,
talk down South! They spend no they have loftily replied to
energy in denouncing civil our inquiries, ‘We only want
war. They do not want to to be let alone.’”
fight. _They seek peace._ But
if it comes, they will make no
wry faces. It will cost them
much, but they utter no such
philanthropic shrieks as
proceed from the mouth of
Cotton Pork. They seem to
think that there are things
worse than fighting in this
world, and better than
dollars. An odd people, surely.”
We trust that the Southern gentleman and Cotton Pork, Esq., “a
Northern man,” are pleased with their respective portraits.
We have long and patiently borne with the insults and aspersions upon
our faith and conduct as Catholics persisted in for years by
_Harper’s Weekly_. Trusting that better counsels would prevail, and
unwilling to add by controversy a single spark to the fire already
kindled, we have deferred from day to day, and from month to month,
saying what we might at any time have said.
Fully aware of the by no means reputable “anti-Popery” antecedents of
its proprietors, of their palpably governing motive, and of the
speculation they saw at the bottom of the movement, we might, so far
as we were personally concerned, have looked upon the malicious
movement as not meriting serious attention.
But we are also aware to how great an extent the prestige of the
wealth and commercial standing of a large publishing-house, the
widespread circulation of their periodicals, and most especially their
noisy and incessant proclamation of a patriotism claimed as at once
unvarying, inflexible, unselfish, and devoted, had misled or blinded
the general public, ignorant of their real precedents, and we have,
therefore, found it our duty to enlighten as well our own readers as
those of the _Weekly_ as to the real state of the case.
In so doing, we wish to call attention to the fact that we have here
confined ourselves to the information furnished by public judicial
decisions, and to their own record as published by themselves.
Finally, we most earnestly, and in the spirit of charity, urge these
gentlemen to devote themselves to their plain, and what they may make
their noble, duty as journalists. Let them be advised for their own
good to cease fanning the flame of a hateful bigotry, and to pursue in
the future such a course as may induce right-minded men to look upon
their title-page illustration as indeed the flambeau of civilization,
and not the torch of the incendiary.
[147] Demurrer is thus defined: “A stop or pause by a party
to an action for the judgment of the court on the question,
whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the
opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the
action, and hence whether the party resting is bound to
answer or proceed further.”
[148] In passages here quoted from _Harper’s Weekly_, the
italics are ours.
[149] We give this passage not only because we think it apt,
but also to vindicate the witty Hans from the inept
aspersions of the _Harper’s_ critic, who deliberately reaches
the solemn opinion that “in Hans Breitman there is nothing
funny but the grotesque dress. Translate his poetry into
English, and it is, with here and there a solitary
exception, the baldest of all commonplaces.”
[150] “Wanted, a Capital.”
[151] “The Crippled American Eagle.”
[152] “There can be no question but the enterprise of
holding the Union together by force would ultimately prove
futile. _It would be in violation of the principle of our
institutions._”--_Harper’s Weekly, editorial leader of
March 9, 1861._
“If the Union is really injurious to them (our Southern
friends), heaven forbid that we should insist on preserving
it.”--_Harper’s Weekly_, 1861, p. 146.
[153] “Most of them” (“alterations in the Constitution
_effected by the Congress at Montgomery_”) “would receive
the hearty support of the people of the North.”--_Harper’s
Weekly, March 30, 1861._
“Some practical people, viewing the dissolution of the Union
as a fixed fact.”--_Weekly, Jan. 26, 1861._
[154] “Is it wise, is it prudent, is it possible to punish
it?”--_Harper’s Weekly_, p. 146, 1861.
[155] “He [Jeff. Davis] is emphatically one of those ‘born
to command,’ and is doubtless destined to occupy a high
position, either in the Southern Confederacy or in the
United States.”--_Weekly, Feb. 2, 1861._
[156] “Stand aside, you Old Sinner! We are holier than
thou!”--OUR COMMENT.
[157] So italicized in the article.
----------
THE HOUSE OF YORKE. 738
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE TOWN-MEETING.
Before allowing her husband to go to the town-meeting, Mrs. Yorke had
given him a word of admonition, not the usual wifely charge to keep
himself out of danger, but an exhortation to justice and reason.
“Justice and reason!” he exclaimed. “Why, for what else have I been
contending, Mrs. Yorke?”
“True!” she answered gently. “But may it not be possible that there is
more cause than you will allow for this upheaval, and that it is not a
superficial excitement which can be easily soothed or beaten down?
These sailor friends of ours have told me that, when the water is
dimpled and green, it has a sand bottom, and, when it is black and
easily fretted into foam, there are rocks underneath. Now, this
anti-Catholic excitement is dark and bitter enough to show that there
is some fixed obstacle, which breath, though it be ever so wisely
syllabled, will not remove.”
“So there is,” Mr. Yorke replied promptly. “The devil is there.”
“Charles, the devil, or human weakness, lurks under the surface of
every side of every question,” his wife said with earnestness. “Good
men are not entirely good, nor bad men utterly bad. There are men, and
not ignorant ones, either, who have engaged in this movement from an
honest conviction that there is need of it. They may be prejudiced and
short-sighted, but they are” worthy of a patient, if not a respectful,
hearing. My wish is that to-night you would be in no haste to speak,
and that, when you do speak, you would address the real meaning of the
trouble, and not the miserable froth on the surface.”
What man likes to be told that he is not reason personified,
especially by his wife? Not Mr. Charles Yorke, certainly. But the
little lady was not one to be scouted, even by her liege lord, and he
heard her respectfully to the end. Manhood must be asserted, however,
and he compensated himself for the mortification after a manner that
is often adopted by both men and women: he first absurdly exaggerated
the charge made against him, and then answered to that exaggeration.
“I am much obliged to you, my dear, for explaining the matter to me,”
he said with an air of meekness. “I am afraid that I cannot stop to
hear more, for it is time to go. But I will remember your warning, and
try not to make a fool of myself.”
Nine women out of ten would have made the reply which such a pretence
is calculated to call forth--a shocked and distressed denial of having
had any such meaning, a senseless begging pardon for having been so
misunderstood, and a final giving up of the point, and temporary utter
humiliation and grief, followed later, on thinking the matter over, by
a mental recurrence to their abandoned position, and a disenchanting
conviction that men are sometimes artful creatures, after all, and 739
only to be pleased by flattery.
Mrs. Yorke was not to be so entrapped. She accepted her husband’s
submission with perfect tranquillity, as though she believed it both
proper and sincere, and laughed a little as he went away. “My poor
Charles!” she said, looking after him with tender indulgence.
Those little faults are so endearing!
The hall where the meeting was held was filled in every part; a dense
mass of people struggled up or down the two flights of stairs leading
to it, and a throng of men obstructed the street outside. Edith Yorke
had been in the lane to see a sick woman, and, hearing that Miss
Churchill also was in the neighborhood, had lingered longer than was
prudent, hoping for her company home. Starting off alone, at last, she
soon found herself in the midst of this crowd. They surged about her,
muttering insults and maledictions on “that Catholic Rowan girl,” and
seemed every moment on the point of stopping her. Not far in advance
was Miss Churchill. An enthusiastic boy threw a stone at her, and the
teacher wiped from her cheek a stain of blood where it struck. Edith
held her head up, and walked straight on, looking neither to the right
nor left, and, whatever ruffianly intention any one may have had,
those who looked in her face stood aside, and kept silence while she
passed. If the spirit that hardened her brow to the likeness of
marble, shone in her eyes, and curved her red lips with a still scorn,
was less Christian humility than natural loftiness, it was at least no
petty pride, and it needed but the sense of actual personal danger to
change it to supernatural lowliness. Her conviction, “They dare not touch
me!” prevented the advent of that martyr-spirit which brings
with it every virtue.
Humility is a flower that grows on the mountain-tops of the soul, and
is reached only by striving and endeavor. That is not true humility
which the mean heart plucks in the lowlands, calling on God ‘twixt
swamp and slough; nor does the child’s hand bear it, nor yet does it
shadow the untried maiden’s brow, over her lowered eyelids. We must
come out above the belt of pines and the gentian meadows, we must
scale the dizzy track where to look down is destruction, and face the
bitter cold of the glacier, and, over all, we shall find that
exquisite blossom, its pure blue drooped earthward under the infinite
blue of heaven.
Therefore we claim not humility for Edith, for she was not wise enough
for that, and she was too true and brave for its counterfeit; but she
had that scorn for meanness and tyranny which is one of the first
milestones on the road to humility.
While his niece was walking unprotected through the crowd without, Mr.
Yorke was in the hall, seated near the platform, on which were all the
ministers, and the prominent Know-Nothings, several of the latter
town-officers. One after another spoke, and was loudly applauded. The
excitement and enthusiasm were immense. Mindful of his wife’s charge,
Mr. Yorke restrained his indignation, and listened attentively,
sifting out what was essential in this commotion and common to all its
participants. As he listened, the vision of a possible future of his
country appeared before him, and made the hair rise on his head. He
saw the anarchy and bloodshed of a religious war more terrible than
any war the world had seen--a massacre of innocents, a war of
extermination. This was possible, was probable, was inevitable, unless 740
men would listen to reason. And why would they not? He weighed all
that was said, carefully attending to the most revolting and worthless
arguments, and under all that foam and roar saw the one rock. However
different might be the principles and feelings of those anti-Catholic
speakers, they all converged, consolidated, and struck fire on that
one point.
It was not that they were fanatic, for fanaticism cannot exist without
some strong religious conviction, and by far the largest number of
them had no religious belief; while many interpreted religious freedom
to mean freedom from religion. It was not that they were intolerant of
any man’s simple belief. The majority were more likely to laugh at
faith than to be angry with it. Indeed, their scepticism made them
incapable of practising real religious toleration, for that is to
bear, without any manifestation of resentment, that your neighbor
shall tacitly scorn what you hold sacred; a virtue most difficult to
the faithful, but comparatively easy to the sceptic. It was not that
they cared for its own sake whether the Bible was read in school or
not, for the larger number of them never read it at home, many quoted
it only in mockery, and every one denied the truth of some of its most
plainly uttered tests. In short, the rock on which this tempest rose
and dashed was a deadly fear and hatred, not of the Catholic Church,
but of the Catholic clergy. The only question which interested these
men in connection with any Catholic dogma was, How much temporal
influence will it give to the priest? The supernatural side they cared
not a fig for. To their minds it was impossible that a Catholic priest
should be a truthful, plain-dealing, straightforward man. He shuffled,
evaded, intrigued. His aim was less to christianize the world than to
govern it, less to enlighten than to direct.
Let us give the Know-Nothings and their sympathizers their due. Bad as
they were, slanderers and law-breakers, and absolutely irreligious for
the most part, the worst fault of many of them was that they knowingly
used bad means to what they believed to be a good end. There was some
sincerity in the movement, though it was, at its best, irrational,
inconsistent, and un-American, as alien, indeed, to our republic as it
charged the church with being. They believed that the Catholic clergy
acquire power by insidious means, and that, once in power, they will
destroy all that makes our dear country the abode of freedom and equal
rights, and the bountiful home where all the starving, shivering
exiles of other lands may feed and warm themselves. Once prove that
the church is friendly to the republic, and the vertebra of their
opposition is broken.
Mr. Griffeth was the only one of these speakers who cleared the
question from the _débris_ of personal slander and misrepresentation
of doctrine.
“You mistake, gentlemen,” he said, “if you think that the doctrines of
the Catholic Church are either ridiculous or bad. Such an opinion
would show you ill-informed or incapable of comprehension. On the
contrary, they are glorious. But they are such as can be safely
preached and enforced only by saints and angels, or by men of such
exalted holiness as the world seldom sees. In the hands of weak men,
they may be, and have been, perverted to base uses. The dogma of the
Infallibility of the church is a crown of living gold on the head of
the mystical Spouse, and a mantle of cloth of gold about her form; but 741
the priest has drawn the shining folds about his own human shoulders,
and made it a sin to criticise _him_. Confession, which I proclaim to
be, in its essence, one of the most comforting and saving institutions
that ever existed, they can and do use to learn the secret workings of
society and obtain power over individuals. I need not detain you to go
over the list, for all are the same. It is St. Michael’s sword in the
hands of Satan.
“No, gentlemen, it is not because their theology is bad that I say,
Down with the church! It is because its fair niches and shrines harbor
thieves, and robbers, and tyrants--because, though the pope can sit
there enthroned, with his lofty tiara, and the bishops stand with
mitres, and the priests lift their haughty foreheads, the people
cannot walk erect as God made them to walk, but must crawl on the
pavement like worms. And therefore, though the walls of the temple
were of jasper, its pillars of malachite, its ceiling of sapphires,
its pavements of beaten gold, and its gates like the gates of the New
Jerusalem, I still would cry, Down with the temple!
“From the time when peoples first began to crystallize upon the face
of the earth, God has looked out from heaven, and asked each in turn,
‘Where shall my children find peace, and freedom, and room to grow?’
and each in turn has answered, ‘Here, Lord!’ lying to his face. And in
his own time, after patient waiting, the Almighty has stretched forth
his hand, and has effaced the boundaries of that perjured nation, and
touched her people with blight. The kingdoms of old lied to the Lord,
and they have perished; and in our own day there is a wavering and
tottering in the battlements that wall the nations in.
“One hundred years ago, America rose up and made the covenant: Here,
Lord, shall thy children find peace and freedom, and here shall they
grow to the stature of the perfect man and woman! It is for us,
brethren, to see that the pact is kept. It is for us to watch that the
oppressor gains no foothold here, lest we perish for ever. For there
is no Phœnix among the kingdoms of earth, from whatever cause they
die. When a nation lies in the dust, it rises no more, save to walk, a
ghost, in the dreams of its orphaned children. Ireland, Poland,
Hungary,--they sleep the sleep that knows no waking. They are in the
past, with Greece and Rome, with Babylon and Nineveh:
‘Youthful nation of the West,
Rise, with truer greatness blest!
Sainted bands from realms of rest,
Watch thy bright’ning fame!’
“Brethren, when we in turn shall join that company of silent watchers,
God forbid that we should hear rising from our beloved land such a
lamentation as went up for that ruined city of the East: ‘Nineveh is
laid waste! who will bemoan her? She is empty, and void, and waste;
her nobles dwell in the dust; her people are scattered upon the
mountains, and no man gathereth them.’ For the sake of humanity, may
God forbid!
“There is now but one name written in living characters on the future,
and that name is America. It was writ in blood by our fathers, and
accepted in fire by the God of nations. Palsied be the hand that would
quench one letter of that sacred legend!”
During the loud applause that followed, Mr. Yorke mounted the
platform.
Had they not known that he was soon to leave them, and had not his
manner been quite unlike what he had shown on former occasions of this 742
sort, they might have refused to hear him. As it was, a reluctant and
impatient silence was accorded. Some listened, doubtless because they
wished to be exasperated, and hoped for another pretext for outbreak.
But he looked like one who fully appreciates the strength of his
opponent, and does not hope for a speedy victory.
“Gentlemen,” he said, with a certain grim emphasis on the word, “after
Mr. Griffeth’s pyrotechnic display of eloquence, I cannot hope that my
words will not fall with a dull sound on your ears. He has gone up
like the rocket, and I must come down like the stick. I promise,
however, to be brief, and to speak to the point. First, I thank him
for having spoken like a gentleman, and left the subject clear enough
for a gentleman to touch. On all that preceded him, I have but two
comments to make. Concerning the attacks on the personal character of
the Catholic clergy, I will only say, ‘Set a thief to catch a thief!’
To the misrepresentations of their creed, I would say, theologians
should be better educated than to make them sincerely, and honest men
should not fear to tell the truth, even of a foe.
“I come, then, to Mr. Griffeth’s argument: that these men, simply from
human weakness, not from personal depravity, have always abused their
power, and, being men, always will abuse it, and that, therefore, we
must, in self-defence, either banish them from the country, or deny
them the rights of citizenship; their doctrines all the time being
perfect, or, at least, tolerable.
“I am not here to defend the character of the Catholic clergy. I know
well that your deep-rooted prejudice will not yield to any word of
mine or theirs. They must live down your enmity with what patience
they may; and the day will come, believe me! when the still, small
voice of those lives that have been consecrated to God will silence
and put to shame the blatant accusation and pseudo-patriotism which
now overwhelm it. Whatever may have been proved against some, the
whole world knows that that clergy has given for its admiration many a
model of Christian behavior, and that among its missionaries have
been, and are, men worthy to stand beside Peter, and Paul, and
John--men enamored of the things of God, and dead to the attractions
of earth. If it be true that you can find Judases in their company, it
is equally true that apostolical laborers are not found outside of
their fold. It may still be the apostolical church, though one in
twelve were a Judas.
“This part of the question is, however, irrelevant. We stand here, if
we are worthy to speak, for principle, and not for men. If the faults
of partisans are to be used as an argument against an institution, no
institution on earth can stand, and Protestantism and freedom must
shake to their foundations.
“Assuming, though, that his assertion is true, and that the clergy
have always been the enemies of freedom and enlightenment, though that
would be strong circumstantial evidence against their future
trustworthiness, still the conviction which he invokes is too grave
and arbitrary for so just and enlightened a judge as our country
promises to be. But I deny the truth of his premises, and, since proof
is out of the question in this place, set my bare denial against his
bare assertion.
“But if his assumption and conclusion were both true, if these men
were untrustworthy, and if we had therefore the right to refuse them 743
equality, we are still bound to give that refusal, not with the
howling of wild beasts, not with mobs and threatenings, but decently,
and according to law, or we are ourselves unfit to be trusted with
that freedom which we deny to them.
“No, I am not here to prove that the clergy of the Catholic Church are
all saints, or even all good men; but I am here to say that, hate them
as you may, you cannot, in these United States, under the constitution,
you cannot with impunity persecute them, nor deprive them of any of
the privileges which that constitution guarantees to them as rights.
‘Work in secret,’ do they? ‘Undermine,’ do they? And from whom does
this accusation come? What of that society in which this movement
takes its rise?--that society which now dominates the land, stirring
up riots from Maine to Louisiana, making laws and changing laws, and
setting the off-scouring of the earth in our high places? What of
those lodges where men assemble to concert measures for governing the
country, yet where no citizen can enter without the pass-word and oath
of secrecy? Josiah Quincy, Senior, of Boston, a man whose name carries
as much weight as any name here in this hall, has said of these same
societies, ‘_The liberties of a people are never more certain in the
path of destruction than when they trust themselves to the guidance of
secret societies. Birds of the night are never birds of wisdom....
They are for the most part birds of prey. The fate of a republic is
sealed when the bats take the lead of the eagles._’ Our atmosphere is
black with these same bats!
“To Mr. Griffeth’s parting anathema, I respond, ay and amen! Palsied
be the hand that would quench one letter of that sacred legend! But
whose is the hand that threatens it in this town? Is it Father Rasle,
who asked a right of you, and, when you refused it, asked it of the
law--in a neighboring town, mark, there being no law here!--and when
the law refused it, submitted in silence? Is it the few hundreds of
harmless Catholics among you, not one of whom has raised a hand in
violence? Or is it your brutal mobs, who have insulted both priest and
people, destroyed their property, and threatened their lives? Think of
this, citizens! If the laws are dear to you, keep them! If you love
freedom, do not practise tyranny! If you claim to be an intelligent
people, think for yourselves, and do not let demagogues do it for you!
Who is he who truly loves and honors his country? Not that man who
holds its constitution to be a pretty myth, fine to quote, but
impossible to act upon; but he who demands that its most generous
promise shall be fulfilled, and is not afraid that in sincerity will
be its destruction.
“Mr. Griffeth has uttered his war-cry, ‘Down with the church!’ and you
have applauded it with enthusiasm. While I have listened to-night,
there has risen before my vision the possible demolition of another
edifice--a demolition which is inevitable, if such counsels are to
prevail. Our fathers raised in this land a temple to civil and
religious liberty, and pledged to its support their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honor. That was no empty pledge, for the
structure was cemented with their blood from corner-stone to pinnacle.
And the genius whom they enthroned in the centre was no idol of wood
and stone, to be used as a puppet by the designing, but a living
creature. She was strong, and pure, and generous, and she had eagle’s
eyes. She opened her arms to the world. She feared no alien foe, for 744
her strength could be shorn and her limbs manacled only by her own
renegade children. It is you are her foes. These narrow and violent
counsels which pretend to protect, do contradict her; the manacles
which you forge for others, will fetter her; with the violence which
you do to others, will her strength be shorn; and the spirit which you
obey under her name will dethrone her. But do not fancy that you can
blind and make sport of her with impunity. The time may come when that
insulted spirit will take in her mighty arms the pillars of the
nation, and pull it down in ruin on your heads. No, the foe is not the
orphan she has cherished, nor the stranger within her gates, but the
children she has nourished at her bosom.
“Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak;
for him have I offended.”
When Mr. Yorke went home that night, though it was late, he found his
wife and Betsey waiting for him at a turn of the road. He expressed no
surprise nor disapprobation, but walked slowly homeward with them.
“What have they done?” Mrs. Yorke asked. She perceived that her
husband’s arm trembled.
“Nothing can stop their running but themselves,” he answered. “They
must fall by their own speed.”
“They listened to you?” she asked.
“Yes, they were civil, and even applauded a little. But what of that?
In spite of all that I could do, they have passed a resolve, passed it
unanimously, that, if Father Rasle comes here again, they will give
him a suit that is not to be bought at the tailor’s.”
“What does that mean?” was Mrs. Yorke’s wondering question.
“You little goose! it means tar and feathers! Well, don’t let us talk
any more about it. I am done with words.”
“Edith got into the crowd to-night,” Mrs. Yorke said, “and they were
impudent. She took it very quietly then, I think, but after she got
home she was quite hysterical. I thought the child would sob herself
to death.”
“She had no business to be out,” her uncle exclaimed. “Neither had you
and Betsey. How do you know what they may do?”
“You are right, dear,” she said soothingly. “In future, we will stay
in the house, and you will stay with us.”
CHAPTER XXIV
“CELUI-LA FAIT LE CRIME A QUI LE CRIME SERT.”
Mr. Yorke was at the Seaton House when the Western mail-coach came in
Saturday morning, but Father Rasle was not a passenger. The mail
brought a letter from him to Edith, however, and her uncle took it
home to her immediately. She read aloud to the family his thanks for
their invitation, and his reasons for declining it. He would drive
over in his own buggy, he wrote, and would probably reach Seaton
before ten o’clock in the forenoon. Edith had better come to see him
in the morning, as he would then be more at leisure.
“Why, he must be here now!” Edith exclaimed, and ran up-stairs to
prepare herself for the visit.
If Mrs. Yorke and her daughters felt any sense of relief on learning 745
that they had escaped the danger which would have threatened them had
the priest been their guest, they did not express that feeling. They
were quite ready, in spite of the danger, to repeat the invitation.
Mr. Yorke alone sincerely regretted Father Rasle’s decision. Even
Edith, who knew nothing of the action of the town-meeting, perceived
that the priest’s place was with his own people.
“I have seen the sheriff and Dr. Willis, this morning,” Mr. Yorke
said, after his niece had left the room, “and they both agree in
thinking that Father Rasle will not be molested for coming here to
stay over one Sunday. They are probably right. The great objection is
to his settling here. Besides, he comes so quietly, his being here
will not be widely known. Half of his own people do not know that he
is coming.”
The two gentlemen named by Mr. Yorke were among the few who secretly
condemned the conduct of the town, but did not publicly avow their
sentiments, possibly because they knew that such a proclamation would
harm themselves without doing any good to Catholics. Aside from the
risk of violence to person or property, the physician would be accused
of bartering his principles for an increase of practice, the
politician of intriguing for the Irish vote. That any one could speak
a good word for the church or the Irish from a disinterested motive,
was not for a moment admitted.
The day was overcast, threatening rain; but to Edith Yorke it was as
though spring and sunshine were at the door; for Mother Church, long
exiled, bent once more toward her bereaved children.
“What I do not tell him voluntarily, he will ask,” she said to herself,
thinking of Father Rasle. “He will point out what has been wrong in
me, and reprove me once for all, and have done with it; and the fault
that is not mine, he will lift off my shoulders. It is very heavy!”
she whispered tremulously, and for a little while could say no more.
Edith was not breaking under her burden, but she was bending wearily,
and the constant weight of it had taken away all her elasticity, not
of spirits alone, but of body. While making her last examen of
conscience, she felt too weak to kneel, and sank into an arm-chair
instead, dropping her head back against the cushion, and closing her
eyes. So seen, the change in her face was startlingly evident. Her
manner was always so fresh, and her eyes and teeth lighted up her
smile so brilliantly, whether she spoke or listened, or only looked,
that one could not see that she was pale and thin. But the face that
lay against the chair-back was very pallid, and even the hands
stretched out on the arms of the chair looked sick.
“There are six sins that I am sure of, besides all the doubtful ones,”
she said presently, sitting up. “That takes all my right hand, and the
forefinger of my left hand. And now it is time to go.”
The shortest way to the house where Father Rasle was to stop led
through the wood-path that Edith and Dick had taken when he left her
after his first visit to Seaton. She recollected that walk as she
passed again through the forest, and murmured a tearful “Poor Dick!
where are you now?”
The trees were not, as then, bright with a prodigal splendor of color,
and steeped in mellow sunshine. The gold was tarnished, the reds
looked dark and angry, and the lowering sky seemed to press on the
branches. That silence which, in the glory of autumn, expresses 746
contentment with finished work and wishes fulfilled, seemed now to
mean only suspense or endurance. No leaf came floating trustfully down
to give its earth to earth, and free the imprisoned gold into its
native air; no gray squirrel was discovered gathering its store of
beech-nuts for the coming winter; no bird flitted about to take one
more look at its summer haunts. All was silent and deserted.
“You poor old woods! I know just how to pity you,” Edith said, looking
about. “But cheer up! These are the days in which Nature tells over
the sorrowful mysteries in her long rosary. Your garments are rent
away, and the thorns are on your head; but after all is ended, then
comes the glorious mystery of the spring resurrection. There! now I
have exhorted you, you may exhort me. If you have anything to say,
please to say it!”
And then the woods answered: “Child, I know my rosary all by heart,
for I have said it six thousand times--six thousand times, child, and
yet man will not listen. I tell of resignation and hope, and still his
ears are dull. I tell him that in obedience is wisdom, and in wisdom
contentment, and he does not cease to rebel. That is a sorrowful
mystery over which I grew sad many a time before the cross became the
sign of salvation. My very birds are wiser than the children of men;
my beasts less cruel. Do not blush, little one! It was your ignorance
that spoke, and not presumption. No fairer flower has bloomed in my
shadow than your loving thought. Cheer up! Hearts will find the way
when heads cannot; for when true love is blind, then an angel leads
it.”
“I thank you!” Edith said after having listened. “It is very true, our
teachers have a hard time with us. There is you, Mother Nature, with
your book full of pictures, to catch our eyes; and the church,
speaking our own language, to catch our ears; and conscience, with its
two words only, yes and no, to catch our thoughts, and we fight
against you all. I am very, very blind! Will some good angel lead me?”
She came out into East Street, and stood a moment on the spot where
she and Dick had stood to look at that exquisite bit of meadow. The
violet mist that had hung over it, like a parting soul over its body,
had long since dissolved, and the little incarnate song that had
floated there, yellow-winged and feathered, had been loosed into the
heavenly orchestra. Half-way down the hill, a footpath led off to the
left of the street, passed a few back-doors of houses on High Street,
and ended at the door of the house where Father Rasle was. She knew by
the buggy standing in the yard that he had come. If it had not been
there, the smiling face of the woman who stood in the door would have
told the story.
The woman stepped out to make way, and Edith ran in through the narrow
entry to the square room that was both kitchen and parlor.
“O father, father! A hundred thousand welcomes!” And then, between
grief and gladness, her voice was stopped.
“Dear child!” he said affectionately. “So you needed me very much?”
Several women were in the room. Some of them had arrived before the
priest came, nearly all of them had made their confession, but not one
could persuade herself to go away while she was allowed to remain.
They meant to stay till he should bid them go, and even then wait for
a second telling. To see their beloved pastor, to hear him speak, to 747
repeat over and over their demonstrative welcome, was a happiness
which they would fain prolong.
The host and hostess were in their best attire. They had given up all
other occupation to the supreme one of entertaining their priest.
Their faces shone with a proud delight, their poor house was
scrupulously clean, and, though Father Rasle was known to be
abstemious, they had gone to the extent of their means for his
entertainment.
The priest talked jestingly to the women to cheer them. “What is it
that you cry about? But you need not tell me, for I know. It is
because you have had nothing but hard words and the absence of your
priest to bear. You cry because you were not blown up in the
schoolhouse, or did not have your heads broken in the church. Or
perhaps you were in hopes that I should come, and find you all strung
up to the branches of trees. That is the finest fruit that a tree can
bear--a martyr. The Bread of Life grew on the tree of the cross.
Courage! They have not done with you yet. Make a good communion
to-morrow, and afterward keep yourselves free from sin, and then, when
I come again. I may have the happiness of finding all your bodies hung
to trees, and all your souls in Paradise.
“Now, you two who have not been to confession will confess at once.
Then I want every one of you to go home. I have to talk to that little
girl.”
“That little girl” seated herself in the midst of these poor women,
who smilingly made room for her--they were not jealous of her--and all
turned their faces away from Father Rasle, and sat silently looking
into the fire while the confessions were finished. And at last Edith
found herself free to tell all her story to the priest.
The Catholics of Seaton could not, if they would, have concealed from
their enemies that Father Rasle had come. Their joyful faces would
have betrayed the secret if their lips had remained silent. All who
could do so laid their work aside, and gathered in knots in the lane,
or visited each other’s houses, to talk the matter over. They smiled
and nodded to each other in the street with a significance which every
one understood. Poor souls! to the cruel eyes that watched them their
pathetic and sacred delight was a crime; their silence, treachery.
Toward evening the scattering visitors who had taken their way during
the day to the house under the hill became a steady stream. It looked
as though every Catholic in Seaton was going to confession. It looked,
too, as though every Protestant in Seaton was willing that they
should, for no one molested them, and the town was perfectly quiet.
Those who had been anxious ascribed this quietude to the weather, and
congratulated themselves that the threatening rain prevented any
gathering of their persecutors.
At nine o’clock the crowd around the house where the priest was began
to thin off. The road by which they sought their homes that night was
a _via sacra_; for, newly shriven, and moved to the depths of their
hearts, they carried with them, every one, the memory of an earnest
exhortation to humility and forgiveness, and resignation to the will
of God. At half-past ten only three or four women were left in the
house, and the rain was beginning to fall outside. The confessions
were over, Mrs. Kent had set out a late supper for Father Rasle, since
he would have to fast till noon of the next day, and he was standing 748
to say good-night to the last of his visitors, who even now seemed
unwilling to leave him. While he spoke to them, some one was heard
running toward the house, and the next minute a man burst into the
room, breathless, and bespattered with mud.
“They are coming!” he gasped out. “Run for your life, father!”
In the midst of the outcry that rose from those present, Father Rasle
stood fixed and silent. Perhaps he was startled at the sudden and
unexpected announcement; perhaps his color had changed; but there was
no other sign of excitement. He calmly questioned the man, and learned
that a mob of fifty or more masked men were rapidly approaching the
house.
“And they will kill you, father,” the messenger concluded. “They don’t
put on masks and come at night to break windows. They can do that in
broad daylight. For God’s sake, save yourself!”
“They shall take me where I am,” the priest said firmly. “It is the
will of God. I will not resist, and I have nowhere to fly to.”
“Here is hot water. Put on more!” cried one of the women. We’ll scald
them!” And instantly they took the boiling tea-kettle from the fire,
and put cold water to heat.
“Run over to the lane, and rouse the people!” cried another. “They’ll
kill everybody in the town in your defence, father, if you say the
word.”
“My children, I command you to use no violence, and make no
resistance,” the priest said with authority. “If the people rise, it
will be to their own destruction. Pray! It is all that you can do.”
They fell on their knees, weeping loudly as they heard the muffled
tramp of many feet outside. But one said, “The cellar! the cellar!”
and Mr. Kent, catching the priest’s arm, almost forced him toward the
cellar-door. It was a pitiful hiding-place; but Father Rasle had no
time for any thought except that, if there were a chance of escape, it
was his duty to take advantage of it.
Scarcely had he disappeared, before the outer door was thrust open,
and the room was filled with men wearing crape masks. They came in
silently and swiftly, and as swiftly their companions outside
surrounded the house, and stationed themselves at each window to bar
all egress.
It was not in the hearts of these poor people to utter no word of
reproach to the perpetrators of such an outrage, even though the
priest had commanded their silence. Mrs. Kent pointed to one man after
another, calling him by name. “I know you under your mask!” she cried.
“And the Almighty would find you if I didn’t.”
No one replied to her. The only one of the mob who spoke was he who
seemed to be their leader. “Where is the priest?” he asked.
Of course no one told him.
The lower rooms and the attic were searched, and there remained but
one place. The hearts of the Christians died within them as the leader
of the mob took a candle from the table, and went toward the
cellar-door. A girl who was near the door caught up a chair to defend
the passage, but another took it from her, and pulled her down to her
knees. The next moment Father Rasle was led out amid the sobs and
prayers of his children. He was very pale, but perfectly calm, and,
like his divine Master, he uttered not a word. But as the mob
surrounded and led him away, he cast one glance on those who knelt and
stretched their clasped hands toward him, and raised his hand in
silent benediction. That he was being led to death, neither he nor 749
they doubted. And they had no reason to doubt it. What violence, short
of murder, had these men any reason to fear to do in open daylight?
And might they not well believe that even the murderer could escape if
he had only the law against him? This was not true only of Seaton.
Many a Catholic priest in the United States, at that time, owed the
preservation of his life, not to a fear of the law, but to a fear of
Catholic vengeance.
They did not take their victim through the lane which Edith had
followed, but through a shorter one leading to High Street. The family
living in the house at the corner of this street were well-bred
people, and, though Protestants, friends to Father Rasle. He had been
received in that house as a guest; and now, seeing a light in one of
the rooms, the instinct of preservation rose, and forced a cry from
him. “Save me!” he cried out, calling the man by name.
Those nearest immediately silenced him with threats. If he spoke
again, they said, they would kill him on the spot.
His voice had not been heard, and the faint hope faded as quickly as
it had risen.
They avoided the thickly-settled part of the town, and took their way
down one of the back streets leading to the river. Half-way down they
met a man on horseback, carrying a lantern. He held the light up, and
asked whom they had there.
“No one,” they replied, making haste to conceal their prisoner. “We
have no one with us.”
Not till too late did Father Rasle know that he had missed another
chance of escape, and that it was the sheriff who had met them.
The mob, feeling now secure of their prey, could indulge in revilings.
“So they persecuted Jesus of old,” said one, with a laugh.
“Will the Virgin save you?” asked another.
But enough. One does not repeat the talk of those through whose lips
the arch-fiend speaks without disguise. They reviling, and he praying,
disappeared in the darkness and the storm.
Edith Yorke had passed that evening in her own room. It had been her
custom to keep the eve of her communions in retirement, and to-night
she had more than ordinary food for reflection. It was almost eleven
o’clock when she began to prepare herself for bed, but she still heard
her aunt and Clara up downstairs. Mrs. Yorke had not been well, and,
unwilling that her husband should lose his rest, had sent him upstairs
to sleep, and kept Clara with her. Edith was just thinking that she
had a mind to go down and see how her aunt was, when she heard the
small gate of the avenue open, and shut again instantly, as if some
one had run through.
Her window was partly raised. She threw it up, and stepped out on to
the top of the portico. Her heart divined the danger at once. Already
the messenger was half-way up the avenue, and, before she could see
that it was a woman, she heard her panting breath and half-exhausted
voice: “Help! They are killing Father Rasle!”
A faintness as of death swept over Edith. She would have spoken, but
could only sink on her knees and lean over the railing. Mrs. Yorke,
too, had heard the click of the gate, and had opened the sitting-room
window, and Edith heard her voice and Clara’s. To them the woman told
her story.
“Do not speak loudly,” Mrs. Yorke said. “Mr. Yorke and Edith must not 750
know. They can do no good, and would only make trouble. Clara, go and
wake Patrick, and do it quietly. I tell you, my poor woman, my husband
could do nothing, and I shall not allow him to be called.”
Edith grew strong the moment she knew the truth. The woman had left
the house before Father Rasle did, and a rescue might still be
possible. She opened her door noiselessly, stepped out, and closed it
after her; then fled down the back-stairs, out through the back-door,
and down the avenue to the upper gate. Reaching the road, she flew
over it with winged feet. At North Street, instead of going down
toward the centre of the town, she crossed to a lumber-road leading to
the river. The bridge was far below, but one who dared could go over
here on the boom that kept the logs. Edith dared, considering the
peril not worth a thought. When some bugle-toned reveille of the soul
wakes up our slumbering faith, then miracles become possible.
The bank was high on the eastern side, and the descent was by two
immense timbers, or masts, chained together and chained to the shore
at the upper end, and to the boom at the lower. The inclination was
steep, and those who walked through the air on that slippery bridge
stepped warily even by day, timing their steps to the heavy vibrations
of the timber. But Edith ran fleetly down, and sprang on to the
swaying boom ankle-deep in water. Lumber-mills above and below sent
out their long lines of red light through the misty darkness, and the
noise of their saws was like the grinding of teeth. The logs knocked
against each other with a dull thump as the river flowed, and here and
there little spaces of water glistened. To slip into one of those black
holes was death. You miss the boom, and step on a log instead, and,
unless you are a practised log-walker--possibly, too, if you are--the
log rolls, you go under, and there is an end of you. You cannot scream
when you are under water; you cannot rise to the surface, for the logs
keep you down, or close together and crush you, and no one can see
you.
The boom did not reach straight but zigzagged across the river, the
lengths chained together, but not closely, and hidden under water. In
those spaces, the logs, trying to get through, pushed their bobbing
ends up, and tempted the foot. More than once Edith’s foot was in that
trap, but she did not sink till just as she reached the western bank.
Then, as she went down, she caught an overhanging sapling, and drew
herself to land, wet to the waist.
Irish Lane did not reach so far up, by about a quarter of a mile, and
there was no road, the way being pasture and ledge. As Edith reached
the upper end of the lane, some one else came into it from the lower
end, next the bridge, and she heard a woman’s voice lamenting. She did
not stop for lamentation, but ran from house to house, bidding them
come out and save Father Rasle.
They gathered immediately, asking questions all in confusion, knowing
not which way to go, but ready to follow her lead. Had they no rifles
nor pistols? No; why should they have them? An Irishman’s weapon was
his fist and a cudgel, and whatever he could catch by the way.
An Irishman, indeed, usually goes into battle first, and arms himself
afterward.
But the enthusiasm which Edith’s words had kindled the other messenger
soon quenched. It was too late to save him, she said. He had been 751
carried away, they knew not whither. Of course he must be dead long
before that time. And he had bid them farewell, and commanded them to
use no violence--to do nothing but pray.
Edith heard no more. The hand that, in her earnestness, she had laid
on some one’s arm, slipped off, and she dropped to the ground without
a word.
It was more than half-past eleven o’clock, and raining quite hard, and
the wind had begun to rise. Broken and dispirited, the Catholics went
into their houses again, but not to sleep. In one of these houses
Edith opened her eyes, and saw about twenty persons gathered, some
bending over her, others praying, others walking about and wringing
their hands. She got up. “I wish that you would all kneel down, and
say the litany of our Lord Jesus,” she said. “I am going to find
Father Rasle.”
It needed only that something should be proposed for them to do. The
man of the house took his prayer-book, and they all knelt. Others came
in and filled the room, frightened children cowering close to their
elders, and watching the door, as if they expected to see a foe enter.
Edith went slowly out. One of the women had kindly put a shawl over
her shoulders, but she was quite unconscious of the storm. The town
clock was striking twelve, and as she stopped to count its strokes,
the chorus of praying voices reached her through the open door:
“Jesus, King of Glory, have mercy on us!
Jesus, the Sun of Justice, have mercy on us!”
“O Sun of Justice!” she repeated, and lifted her clasped hands.
She went on, but heard again, in a pause of the storm:
“Jesus, most patient, have mercy on us!
Jesus, most obedient, have mercy on us!”
“Ah! yes, patience! It is not for us to invoke justice,” she thought.
“‘Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord! for in thy sight
shall no man living be justified.’”
The road was heavy with mud, and in the darkness she scarcely could
find her way. Only the occasional twinkle of a lighted window told
where it did not lie. She went wearily, for the spirit that had
sustained her while there was hope failed now, and the storm grew
every minute worse. In another lull there came again, more faintly:
“Jesus, the good Shepherd, have mercy on us!
Jesus, the true Light, have mercy on us!”
At that tender petition the tears started forth, and she walked on
weeping. They were indeed as sheep among wolves. The blast almost
swept her off her feet, and in some sudden current snatched the sound
of prayer, and brought it to her once more, clearly as if it had been
cried in her very ears:
“Jesus, the Strength of martyrs, have mercy on us!”
The wind went sighing off to right and left, and opened a pathway of
calm before her, in which she walked firmly, wiping her tears away,
and taking courage again.
At the entrance to the lane, near the bridge, she paused and looked
back. All was darkness there, but out of the dakness came faintly,
“Lamb of God--” It was all she heard, and it was all! It meant
patience, humility, immolation, and final triumph.
The cottage where Father Rasle had been was all alight when Edith came
in sight of it, and as she approached the door a man came out and
almost ran against her.
“Where is he?” she asked. 752
“Why, Miss Edith!” exclaimed Patrick Chester.
She only repeated her question.
“He has come back,” Patrick answered, “and Dr. Willis is with him.”
“Will he die?” she whispered.
“No, Miss Edith; but he has been vilely used. He was out two hours in
this storm. He found his way back more dead than alive. He has been
tarred and feathered.”
She cried out in disgust: “The brutes! They were, then, too base for
murder!”
“You may say that,” Patrick answered. “But now come home. You can’t
see him, you know.”
But she would not go till she had heard his voice, and Patrick was
obliged to go back to the entry with her. The entry was filled with
men and women, all listening for any news that might reach them. The
door was ajar into the kitchen, where two or three men were admitted.
The priest was with the doctor in an inner room.
“You had better drink this,” they heard Dr. Willis say; and Father
Rasle’s voice replied: “No, doctor. It is after twelve o’clock, and I
must say Mass to-morrow.”
“But, if you do not take it, you may be very sick,” the doctor
persisted.
“I cannot take it,” Father Rasle said again. “My people must not be
disappointed.”
“Thank God, it is really he!” Edith exclaimed. “Come, Patrick, we will
go home now.”
Mrs. Yorke, fearing to alarm her husband, had put out the lights, and
Edith, seeing the house all dark, took no precaution to conceal
herself in approaching it. The first notice she had, therefore, that
any of the family were awake, was her aunt’s frightened voice calling
from the open window of the sitting-room, “Is it Edith? Has Edith been
out?”
“Yes, but I am safe back, auntie,” she made haste to say; “and
everything is right.”
Clara, Melicent, and Betsey were there. No one in the house slept but
Mr. Yorke and the two Pattens, and, since the worst was probably over,
it was not so much matter now if they waked. So a large fire was
kindled, and Edith’s dripping garments taken off, while Patrick told
his story. Then she also told where she had been, and smiled at their
terror.
“But to cross the river on the logs and boom!” her aunt cried. “Why,
child, your escape is a miracle! If you had fallen in, you would
surely have been drowned.”
“I could not have drowned tonight,” Edith answered. “If I had fallen
in, I should have set the river on fire.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
----------
THE DUTIES OF THE RICH IN CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. 753
NO. II.
POLITICAL DUTIES.
In order to discuss clearly and profitably the various duties of the
rich in Christian society, it is necessary to distinguish and divide
them into distinct classes, and under the classes to separate
particular duties from each other. We shall make our division on the
principle of proceeding from the most general, or those which relate
to society in its most extensive sense, to those which are less
general, relating to society in its more specific and determinate
sense, and finally to those which are the most particular, relating to
separate portions and members of society, to the family and to the
individual.
Society, in the most extensive sense with which we are concerned in
these essays, is political society as organized in our own republic by
federal, state, and municipal constitutions and laws. We venture to
assume that it may be called a Christian society. It is so, however,
in a wider, more general, and less determinate sense than the church,
or than a purely Catholic state. We call it a Christian society, in
this sense, that its fundamental moral principles have been derived
from the Christian law; that its organic life is an outcome from
Christian civilization. It does not, however, exclude from itself
those who are not Christians, provided they conform to its moral
principles and to the laws founded upon them. A Catholic citizen has
duties to a state which is pagan. He has duties to a state which
professes to be Christian, but adopts a schismatical or heretical
perversion of Christianity as the religion of the state. But he has
many more duties, because he stands in a much closer and more
honorable relation to a state which is based on the moral principles
of Christianity, and not identified with any ecclesiastical form which
is hostile to his conscience. All Catholic citizens of our republic
have political duties, modified, multiplied, and intensified by the
extent and quality of the rights which they possess, and the greatness
of the interests which they have at stake in the welfare of the
commonwealth. The wealthy class have in common with their
fellow-citizens all these duties, and additional ones peculiar to
themselves.
The general reasons which prove this last proposition apply with equal
force to all who belong to the wealthy class, even though they do not
profess to be, in any sense of the term, Christians. The first of
these reasons is, that the rich have succeeded in great measure to the
advantages formerly possessed by the class of nobles. Even in those
countries where the noble class still subsists, it is chiefly as a
wealthy and educated class, and by the personal superiority of
individuals belonging to it in the professions of arms and
statesmanship, that it wields actual power. Moreover, the wealthy
_bourgeoisie_ has gained ground upon it and invaded its formerly
exclusive sphere, winning for itself, as in England, for instance, a 754
place in the real aristocracy. In our own country, where hereditary
rank does not exist, it has a clear field. It has no special rights in
the political order, and is not, therefore, strictly and completely
the successor of the noble class in our ancestral British
constitution. Yet, by the very fact of being a wealthy class, it does
possess, and ought to possess, a certain pre-eminence, influence, and
real though indirect power in public affairs. Men of superior
intellectual ability, men of learning and letters, those who fill the
higher professional positions, and office-holders, belong to the same
class; partly because their position in many instances gives them at
least a moderate share of wealth, but chiefly because they have power
by their very position, and are able to influence and direct the
disposition of wealth even when they do not personally possess it. By
this very fact, they have duties to the commonwealth--they are not
mere private persons, but public persons. They are important and
distinguished members of the community, and, as such, have a greater
responsibility to society and the state than others. This will not be
disputed as a general statement. We do not intend to go into a minute
and detailed exposition of all the particulars which it includes and
comprehends. We confine ourselves, for the present, to certain
specific duties of those who are rich in the literal and technical
sense. And what we have to say of them is, that they ought to fulfil
the duties which were annexed to the privileges of the class to which
they succeeded, in so far as they have inherited those privileges.
However grossly feudal barons may have in a multitude of instances
abused their privileges and their powers, the Christian idea of their
state was always that their privileges and powers were entrusted to
them for the common good. Sound political philosophy and common sense
accord with the higher teaching of Christianity. It would be,
therefore, a great change for the worse, a miserable regression in
civilization, if a mere moneyed aristocracy, possessing privileges
without corresponding duties, took the place of an aristocracy of
birth, obliged by its nobility to render the most important services
to the state. A mere _caste_ existing for itself, having no end but
the selfish exaltation and enjoyment of its members, with no purpose
except to live in fine houses, wear fine clothes, drink choice wines,
drive about in sumptuous equipages, and finally get buried in great
pomp under stately monuments, would be the most anti-Christian, the
most despicable, the most odious of constitutions--and would be
_succeeded by Communism_.
The rich have political duties: they are bound to be a bulwark and a
tower of strength to the state, an ornament to the commonwealth not
only bright, but useful; as a quaint epitaph of the seventeenth
century designates a certain eminent citizen, “_of Hartford Town the
Silver Ornament_.” We presuppose in those men of wealth of whom we
speak, as a matter of course, honesty and probity. Swindlers,
gamblers, dishonest speculators, bribe-takers, and the whole set of
vampires swollen with the blood of the state and of individuals, are
excluded. It is those who have inherited or acquired their wealth
honestly who are able to serve the state. It is not necessary to go
more into detail regarding the ways and methods in which they can do
so. We are content merely to indicate their ability and obligation to
do it in general terms, and pass on to other topics.
One of these other topics relates to a duty of Catholic citizens which 755
is properly classed under the head of political duties, but which we
do not consider precisely as a duty to the state as such, but as one
which Catholics owe to themselves, to their own personal rights of
conscience, and to religion. We call it, nevertheless, a political
duty, because it has to be performed by them as citizens, and in the
exercise of their political rights. This is the duty of guarding and
defending their liberty of conscience against any encroachment which
may be attempted by any political party, or any legislation contrary
to the letter or spirit of our fundamental law. This duty, which is
one of all Catholic citizens indiscriminately, devolves especially on
those whose wealth, education, intellectual power, or social and
political position gives them a special opportunity and ability to
fulfil it. Such persons are the natural chiefs and leaders of the
Catholic laity; they are in the front rank; and they are bound to give
the example, encouragement, and direction to the great body which they
need and justly look for.
What can be more base and cowardly than for those who have a higher
place in society than their fellows, and who have ordinarily risen
from the ranks of the poor, laboring class of our Catholic people, to
desert or regard with apathy that sacred cause for which their
ancestors suffered and died, and for the sake of which they have
sought an asylum in this free country, where they have found success
and prosperity? Here they have found that inestimable boon, liberty of
conscience, freedom to profess and practise their religion, and to
provide for their posterity the means of doing the same. They are
bound to use all the power and influence which God has given
them to preserve and perpetuate these rights, and to protect the more
helpless classes of their fellow-Catholics, the poor, the orphans, the
sick, the outcasts of society, in the enjoyment of their religious
rights. This includes a great deal. First and foremost at the present
moment is liberty of education. Besides this, there are the rights of
religious instruction and sacraments for those who are in the army and
navy, in hospitals, asylums, and prisons, and in those institutions
where children are justly or unjustly placed by the civil authority as
vagrants. In short, everywhere, where the state takes hold of the
individual, or exercises a right of control over any lesser
corporation which takes hold of him, in such a way that there is a
chance for tyranny over his conscience, and the violation or
abridgment of his religious rights and liberty in the interest of
sectarianism or secularism, it is the duty of the most eminent
Catholic laymen to become, together with their bishops and priests,
the champions of the oppressed.
Does any one say that there is no need of vigilance or action, because
there is no danger that our rights will be disregarded or infringed?
We think he is in error. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
And as one proof that Catholics in this republic have need to exercise
this vigilance, we will cite an example of the disastrous consequences
which have followed from the neglect of it in another republic.
The Confederation of the Swiss Cantons established and guaranteed in
the most solemn and explicit manner the liberty of religion for
Catholics and Protestants alike. Nevertheless, the liberty of the
Catholic Church has been taken away in the most flagrant manner, even
in the Catholic Cantons, by tyrannical federal and cantonal 756
legislation. Fifty religious establishments were suppressed at one
blow. Since that time,--that is, since 1848--religious houses and
schools have been forcibly suppressed at Ascona, Lugano, Mendrisio,
and Bellinzona, and the diocesan seminaries at Pollegio and Aargau.
Nearly all the Catholic schools in most of the mixed cantons have been
changed into mixed schools, and in Thurgau they have been all
suppressed. No priest can be admitted to the exercise of his functions
who has studied at any Jesuit college. The catechism of the bishop in
whose diocese Aargau is situated, the Bible History of Schuster, and
the Moral Theologies of Gury and Kenrick, have been interdicted by the
civil authority. Prohibitions have been issued against missions,
retreats, the publication of the Jubilee, and the devotions of the
Month of Mary. In Aargau, no youth can embrace the ecclesiastical
state without the leave of the cantonal assembly, before which august
and holy tribunal he must pass two examinations. In the Catholic
canton of Ticino, the cantonal assembly arrogates to itself the right
of changing the destination of religious foundations, fixing and
regulating the election, installation in benefices, and official
functions of beneficiaries, erecting new parishes and abolishing
existing ones. The _placet_ of the civil authority is requisite for
all ecclesiastical decrees of the bishops and the Pope under penalty
of fines varying from five to five thousand francs. In several cantons
civil marriage is obligatory. In short, the Catholics of Switzerland
are in an enslaved and insupportable condition, as is proved by a
memorial of the whole body of the Swiss Episcopate, in which these and
many other particulars are given.[158]
The profession of liberalism affords no guarantee to Catholics against
the most flagrant and cruel oppression. Neither is there any security
in the mere fact that the form of government is democratic or
republican. Everywhere, as well in countries called Catholic as in
those which are not, under republican as well as under monarchical
constitutions, the price of liberty is unceasing vigilance and
activity. Catholics must rely entirely on themselves, and not delegate
the office of protecting them to any party or ruling power. This is
necessary in the United States as well as in Switzerland. We do not
ascribe to the majority of the non-Catholic citizens of our federal
republic or of any state a disposition to abridge our liberty. But it
is not the majority which really governs. Principles, maxims,
arguments, watch-words, measures, are initiated by a few persons.
Majorities are carried along by leaders, orators, writers for the
press, they know not why, how, or toward what end. There is danger,
therefore, though not from the American people, from the masters of
state-craft, but from restless, revolutionary spirits, from violent
sectarian leaders, from ambitious demagogues, from parties which may
start up and be violently impelled by sudden excitements.
The conclusion of all this is, that the _élite_ of the Catholic laity
are bound to understand the sound Catholic principles of public law
and right which are involved in the relation of liberty of conscience
and religion to the sovereignty of the state, under our American
republican institutions. They are bound to instruct those who are
uneducated in their rights and obligations as citizens. They are bound
to set before the public the grounds and reasons of Catholic rights, 757
as based on the natural and divine law, and the American constitution.
And they are bound to exclude unprincipled, ignorant demagogues from
the leadership of the Catholic people by taking it themselves, and in
that position opposing with all their might every political scheme for
giving the state a usurped power over conscience and religion. Those
who are incapable of doing anything else in this direction can at
least aid by their wealth the Catholic press in diffusing true and
just ideas, and advocating Catholic rights.
[158] See _Dublin Review_ for October, 1871.
----------
TRAVELS IN THE AIR.
About ninety years ago, on the memorable 21st of November, 1783, the
Parisian world had a sensation which can never be repeated. On that
day, men for the first time dared to trust themselves in a balloon,
which was to be freed entirely from the earth, and take, as we may
say, its chance as to the time and manner in which it was to return to
it. One can easily imagine the intense excitement and admiration which
must have filled the hearts of the spectators, and the feelings of
triumph, though mingled, it must needs have been, with some
apprehension, on the part of the occupants of the car, the Marquis
d’Arlandes and M. Pilâtre de Rozier, when they for the first time,
trusting themselves to the care of their new machine, invented only a
few months previously, were carried by it into the unknown region of
the clouds. Fortunately, this first free ascent was a success; if it
had not been, who knows how long further experiments in aeronautics
might have been postponed by prohibitory laws or by the fears of men,
both of which would certainly have been quite justifiable? As it was,
this first excursion served as a stimulus to other attempts, and the
number which have been made since then is beyond all estimate. It is
certain, however, that the immense majority of them have been every
way as successful as this first one was, and many, of course, very
much more so. The danger of balloon ascents is really very trifling;
accidents occur hardly once in a hundred times, and very seldom, when
they do occur, involve the loss of life. It is hardly more dangerous
to travel by balloon than by railway or steamer, and certainly very
much more agreeable.
If our reader desires a most convincing proof of this last statement,
we cannot do better than to refer him to a book bearing the title
which stands at the head of this article, and imported by Lippincott &
Co. We must confess to having become somewhat enthusiastic on the
subject of balloons since reading this book, and hardly think any one
else who even looks at it can fail to have something of the same
feeling. By a mere glance at it one is introduced to quite a new
world, and to read it is the next best thing to going up above
the clouds one’s self. It is illustrated by six beautiful
chromo-lithographs, and has a hundred and twenty other illustrations.
Mr. Glaisher, the editor, is a thoroughly scientific man, possessed of 758
remarkable steadiness and coolness, as his name would imply, and as
the accounts of his voyages sufficiently demonstrate. He is one of the
best meteorologists in the world, and it is in the interests of
science that his ascents have been made. But, together with the
accounts of his own excursions, he gives others by three French
gentlemen, also accomplished aeronauts, and whose enthusiasm on the
subject almost equals our own, and practically perhaps surpasses it,
for we find that M. Tissandier seems to have had no objection to
starting from Calais when the wind was blowing straight out toward the
German Ocean. These gentlemen, MM. Flammarion, De Fonvielle, and
Tissandier, just named, often made long journeys, landing at a point
quite remote from that of starting--a thing almost out of the question
for Mr. Glaisher, for, as he pathetically remarks, “whatever part of
England we start from, in one hour we may be over the sea.” His
endeavor rather was, in the short time allotted him, to rush for the
upper regions of the atmosphere, in order that he might there, as well
as on the way up and down, make observations on temperature,
electricity, magnetism, sound, solar radiation, the spectrum, ozone,
direction of wind (for this, as before remarked, his opportunity was
limited), actinic effects of the sun, density of the clouds, etc., and
he consequently went up quite beleaguered with instruments, as the
illustration “Mr. Glaisher in the car” clearly shows. The effects of
great elevation on the human constitution naturally did not escape his
attention, nor that of his companion and aeronaut, Mr. Coxwell; he
says that, on one occasion, “at the height of three miles and a half,
Mr. Coxwell said my face was of a glowing purple, and higher still,
both our faces were blue. Truly a pleasing state of things!”
But three miles and a half was a small elevation for Mr. Glaisher. In
several of his ascents, he rose to the height of about five miles, on
one occasion meeting with dense clouds all the way up. Certainly such
clouds are not common, except in “our old home”; but such a day as
that must have been even an Englishman could hardly have called
“fine.” His third ascent, on September 5, 1862, was the most
interesting of all; in this he rose to the astonishing height of
_seven miles_, or 37,000 feet. Probably our readers have generally
been accustomed to see in their atlases, by the side of the enormous
congeries of mountains which usually forms the frontispiece, a small
picture of a balloon, with “highest point ever reached by man,” or
words to that effect, appended to it, at the elevation of 23,000 feet;
with a reference to the name of Gay-Lussac. But this ascent, made on
September 15, 1804, is entirely insignificant now, compared with this
stupendous one, to a point a mile and a half above the summit of the
Himalaya Mountains, into regions where only one-quarter of the
atmosphere lay above the aeronauts, and where it was rarefied about in
the same proportion. If their faces were blue at four miles, what were
they now?
The account of this ascent is very exciting, and at the same time
places Mr. Glaisher’s qualities as an observer in the most favorable
light. In company with Mr. Coxwell, who was his pilot as usual, he
left Wolverhampton at about one o’clock, and attained the height of
five miles in about fifty minutes. Think of that, compared with the
trouble of ascending an Alpine peak, where, after many hours of most 759
exhausting labor, one can only get three miles above the sea! And Mr.
Glaisher, instead of having to strain every muscle in his body, was
able to sit quiet, and calmly observe the barometer, thermometer, etc.
The balloon was, however, revolving so rapidly that he failed in
taking photographic views. Mr. Coxwell had more exhausting work in the
management of the balloon, and was panting for breath when they were
three miles high. For two miles more, however, Mr. Glaisher “took
observations with comfort.” But, “about 1h. 52m., or later,” he made
his last reading; after this he could not see the divisions of the
instruments, and asked Mr. Coxwell to help read them. They probably
were beginning to think it was time to see about coming down; but in
order to do so, the valve-rope had to be pulled, and it was caught in
the rigging above, owing to the rotatory motion of the balloon. The
thermometer was about ten degrees below zero; Mr. Glaisher was fast
becoming insensible, and Mr. Coxwell’s hands were almost useless from
numbness. Still, something had to be done, for they were rising a
thousand feet every minute; and accordingly, Mr. Coxwell climbed into
the ring of the balloon, and pulled the rope with his teeth. He has
the proud distinction of having been five or six feet higher above the
earth than any other man, for of course they immediately began to
descend. On coming back to the car, he found his companion quite
insensible; after a few minutes, Mr. Glaisher came to himself, as they
sank from that terrible elevation, to which it is probably impossible
for man safely to ascend. But, like a thoroughly scientific man, as he
is, he had observed his sensations to the last. First, his arms and legs
gave out; and his neck became weak, so that his head fell over to
one side; he shook himself, and noticed that he “had power over the
muscles of his back, and considerably so over those of the neck.” This
suddenly left him, however, and the sense of sight immediately
afterward; as for hearing, he could not tell, as there was probably
nothing to hear at that height. He fell back helpless, resting his
shoulder on the edge of the car. The next words he heard were
“temperature” and “observation”; it can hardly be supposed that these
were the first words Mr. Coxwell employed to rouse him, though they
were probably the best. Then “the instruments became dimly visible.”
Immediately on recovering, he says: “I drew up my legs, which had been
extended, and _took a pencil in my hand to begin observations_.” Is
not this characteristic?
Perhaps it may not be clear how it can be proved that the height of
seven miles was attained on this occasion. It is, of course, well
known that the elevation of a balloon is determined, as that of a
mountain-peak usually is, by the barometer; and this method is very
accurate, though, if there be a rapid motion upward or downward, the
barometer may lag a little. Still, it gives the absolute height, and
also the rate of ascent or descent, with sufficient accuracy for all
practical purposes. By this instrument Mr. Glaisher had found that,
just before he became insensible, they were 29,000 feet high, and
ascending at the rate of 1,000 feet a minute; when he recovered after
the lapse of thirteen minutes, they were 26,000 feet high, and
descending 2,000 feet a minute. These data are sufficient to determine
the greatest height attained; but Mr. Coxwell also, on coming down
from the ring, happened to glance at the aneroid barometer, and 760
afterward remembered pretty nearly the direction of its hand; its
reading confirms the conclusion got by the other method. A minimum
thermometer agreed in the same result. They landed safely at about
twenty minutes to three, the whole excursion having taken only a
little over an hour and a half. The illustration called “Mr. Glaisher
insensible at the height of seven miles” is one of the most remarkable
in the book, and most readers will probable turn to it repeatedly. It
represents the supreme and critical moment; Mr. Coxwell is in the
ring, and is just loosening the valve-rope. His hands, his companion
tells us, were black when he came down; and Mr. Glaisher generally
means what he says.
It is not every one who will care to compete with these gentlemen in
making lofty ascents; and it is not probable that they had any merely
ambitious motives in undertaking to soar so high. Mr. Glaisher’s
enthusiasm for and interest in science are perfectly genuine; and his
results, which are of course only hinted at in these popular accounts
which he gives of his excursions, are very valuable. It is not likely
that any one else could have accomplished so much as he did. Still,
though they were not led on by ambition, their achievement on the
occasion just mentioned is one which must discourage others who may
be; for it would be very difficult and dangerous to attempt to do
purposely what they did only as it were accidentally, and which they
would not have done had they known its peril. There are, it is true,
some remarkable effects, such as the blackening of the sky (as well as
of the hands of the aeronauts), which cannot be so well attained at
lower altitudes; but still, substantially the same can be enjoyed at
heights of four or five miles, and really the most beautiful ones are
presented as soon as we rise above the clouds. The effect seems to us,
judging from the illustrations, to be especially magical when the
canopy (or carpet, as it may more properly be called from our new
point of view) is complete, so as to reach to the horizon, and shut
out all view or idea of the earth completely. Many of the pictures
illustrate this well. One would seem to lose all sense of height or of
being in a dangerous position; the quiet sea of clouds beneath can
never seem very distant, owing to the impossibility of judging of the
real dimensions of its rolling waves; and these waves seem, by their
apparent solidity yet softness, almost to invite a fall. And one seems
to be entirely in a new state of existence; the change is more
complete than could be obtained by travelling to the other side of the
globe; and yet it can be realized in the space of five or ten minutes
on any ordinary cloudy day. There above, with the dark-blue sky
overhead, with the glorious bright sun in it lighting up the masses of
white vapor below, far from all the dust, noise, and confusion of the
lower sphere, what an exhilaration must the aeronaut feel, if indeed
his eye is not entirely employed on the divisions of his barometer and
the pages of his note-book! The idea of such a vision is almost enough
to make one’s enthusiasm for ballooning equal that of M. de Fonvielle,
who, however, was willing to put up even with lower elevations; for he
says that in his younger days he “was ready to be shut up in a
sky-rocket, provided that its projectile power were carefully
calculated, and that it were provided with a parachute”! If the
sky-rocket could only be sent above the clouds--but, on the whole, one
would probably be calmer, enjoy the view more thoroughly, and take in 761
its various features better, in the car of our present beautiful and
majestic, though somewhat unmanageable, vehicle.
And yet in all respects the balloon is not unmanageable. Its rise and
fall can be regulated with great exactness; and by means of the pretty
invention of the guide-rope, due to the celebrated English aeronaut,
Mr. Green, its final fall to the earth, if a violent wind is not
blowing, can be made very easy. This rope hangs down three or four
hundred feet below the car, and as it touches the ground, and then
coils up upon it, the weight and the descending power of the balloon
are continually and gradually lessened. And by parting with gas or
ballast, the ascent and descent can always be most carefully adjusted;
so much so, indeed, that one has to be somewhat careful. Once M.
Tissandier, on making a second ascent with no more ascending power at
his disposal, was obliged to regret that he had not gone without his
breakfast; the least little alteration of weight affects the
equilibrium so much that the loss of a chicken-bone which he
thoughtlessly once threw out, he says, “certainly caused us to rise
from twenty to thirty yards.” One can certainly rise or fall without
much difficulty; the only danger is that too much gas may escape after
the ballast is exhausted, or when there is only a small supply on
hand, and that the descent may be too rapid. Mr. Glaisher twice at
least came down so hard as to break nearly all his instruments; but
once this was in a manner intentional, for the wind had been drifting
him out toward the sea, and on discovering through an opening in the
clouds that it was almost directly under him, he had only the
alternative of coming down with a rush or being drowned. On another
occasion, M. de Fonvielle descended with a party in the _Giant_
balloon in a rapid and inevitable manner, owing to the escape of gas;
but records, besides the breaking of the instruments, only that “one
of the travellers had his face covered with blood, another was wounded
by a thermometer, and a third complained of a pain in his leg.” One
curious danger there is, however, about even a quiet descent which is
worth noticing. The last-named gentleman had just made a very
successful excursion without an aeronaut; and, on coming down, his
grapnel had caught in a tree near the edge of a forest. The sequel
shall be in his own words:
“At this moment, I was deceived by an optical illusion which
might have had dangerous results, and I call the attention of my
readers to it in case they may ever be tempted to undertake the
management of an aerostat. Let them never get out of the car till
it is fairly landed upon the soil. Let them be perfectly sure
that no solution of continuity exists between the car and the
earth before they think of stepping out of it, for their eyes,
accustomed to the immense proportions of things above the clouds,
have lost their power of appreciating dimensions. Objects appear
so small on the earth’s surface during a descent that great trees
look like mere blades of grass. At this moment I believed we had
descended upon heath bushes, and we were at the top of the high
trees. I had actually got one leg out of the car, and was
preparing to leap down!”
If a strong wind is blowing, it is not so easy to descend. The
horizontal motion of the balloon is beyond the control of gas or
ballast. MM. de Fonvielle and Tissandier set out once in a high wind;
they came down on a plain, were dragged across it, and over the tops
of some trees, which broke and crashed as they passed; again they
rushed over some ploughed ground, where they were finally rescued by 762
some peasants. What was their velocity during this remarkable trip? On
consulting maps and watches, they found they had come forty-eight
miles from Paris in thirty-five minutes, or the rate of eighty miles
an hour; in the air, however, they probably travelled faster, and in
the last five minutes of “dragging” not so fast.
But “dragging” is not the worst thing that can happen when there is a
high wind. Let aeronauts beware how they attempt to anchor in such
circumstances before coming tolerably near to the ground. The grapnel
was once let out at the height of about sixty yards when they were
skimming along with great velocity, and at first took no hold, but
finally caught in the edge of a small pond. The wind, however, took
revenge on the balloon, which now suddenly refused to obey its impulse:
“I was busily engaged,” says M. Tissandier, “in stowing away the
loose bottles, that might have injured us seriously in case of
bumping, when I heard a sharp cracking sound, and Duruof [their
pilot] immediately cried out, ‘_The balloon has burst!_’ It was
too true; the _Neptune’s_ side was torn open, and transformed
suddenly into a bundle of shreds, flattening down upon the
opposite half. Its appearance was now that of a disc surrounded
with a fringe. We came to the ground immediately. The shock was
awful. Duruof disappeared, I leaped into the hoop, which at that
instant fell upon me, together with the remains of the balloon
and all the contents of the car. All was darkness; I felt myself
rolled along the ground, and wondered if I had lost my sight, or
if we were buried in some hole or cavern. An instant of quiet
ensued, and then the loud voice of Duruof was heard exclaiming:
‘Now come from under there, you fellows!’ We hastened to obey the
voice of the commander, and found that the car had turned over
upon us, and shut us up like mice in a trap!”
What next? They had fallen from a height of about two hundred feet,
and yet were not much bruised: but the very wind that had caused their
disaster helped them out of it; in fact, their balloon was transformed
into a kind of gigantic kite, and let them down pretty easily.
But let us get up above the clouds again. That is the place really to
enjoy life. Once there, one hardly thinks about coming down or its
difficulties; the earth is out of sight, and almost out of mind. We
are sailing along, perhaps at a quicker rate than that of an express
train; but the motion is as imperceptible as that immensely more rapid
one of the magnificent planetary projectile on which we are whirling
through space. For the clouds are moving with us, and, though they are
breaking up and changing their forms, we cannot see that they move as
a mass. Occasionally, through a break, we may see the earth, or be
saluted from it, as M. Flammarion once was to his great surprise, by
cries of “A balloon! a balloon!” when he was quite unaware of there
being any hole through which the balloon could be seen. Sounds, by the
way, will go up much better than they will come down; the reason of
this is the lesser density of the air above. Of course we feel no
wind, for the wind is taking us with it: so that even the cold at any
ordinary height and at any season usual for ballooning is not
troublesome. Sometimes, indeed, it is warmer aloft than below; on the
occasion of the eighty-mile-per-hour voyage, just mentioned, the
thermometer was actually at eighty-two degrees at the height of a
little over half a mile, while below it stood at fifty-five. The
balloon is as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar; M. Flammarion assures
us that he once filled a tumbler with water till it was brimming over,
so that not another drop could be added; but not a drop was spilled 763
by the movement of their vehicle, though it was travelling with the
speed of a locomotive, and alternately rising and falling to the
extent of several hundred yards.
His account of a journey from Paris into Prussia, made in a beautiful
moonlight summer night, gives a most delightful idea of this most
agreeable of all modes of travelling. They left Paris about two hours
before sunset, and had a fine afternoon sail. The weather was cloudy,
and rain came on at half-past nine; but what of that? One is quite
superior to rain in a balloon, or, if not, may easily become so. They
throw out a little ballast, and rise above the rain-cloud. The cloud
soon breaks away, finding that it cannot embarrass their movements,
and the country beneath becomes visible. They see a bright light in a
house, and hear the sound of dance music played by an orchestra. It is
a ball. They cross the frontier at Rocroi. The lines of its
fortifications are dimly seen in the moonlight. No examination of
passports or luggage for them. (On another excursion, however, we are
told, when they were sailing along near the ground, two gendarmes rode
up in hot haste, calling out, “_Vos passe-ports, messieurs!_” but were
dismissed with a polite request to step up and verify them,
accompanied by a shower of ballast.) The moon comes out brightly as
they enter Belgium. They sail over the Meuse, and M. Flammarion greets
enthusiastically the home of his youth:
“Beautiful river, I welcome thee! Near thy banks, on the old
mountain which overlooks thy fertile plain, I was born. Little
did I think, whilst playing some childish game within sound of
the murmur of thy ripple, that I should some day cross over thy
stream suspended to this light, aerial globe! Thy peaceful waters
flow towards the Rhine and the North Sea, into which they fall,
and are lost for ever. Thus is it with our own brief existence,
flowing towards the regions of cold and mystery, to vanish some
day in that unknown ocean into which we must all descend.”
Certainly, it is a pity that he takes such a gloomy view of life.
The pilot, M. Godard, rouses him from his reverie.
“See, _mon ami_, how beautiful this is! Do not dream of days gone
by. Are not those the lights of Namur, some six or eight leagues
distant? And see, there is Huy, and beyond it again Liège! Here
we are right over Belgium, and we may cross a corner of Holland,
perhaps, before we enter Prussia!”
The Belgian blast-furnaces soon light up the landscape beneath them,
and the noises of the workshops, mingled with the deep sound of the
river, rise to their ears.
The dawn begins to break. In fact, through the whole night a faint
gleam of twilight has been seen in the north; but now it begins to
take effect on the clouds and air around them. The light increases.
“Although the air above is more or less veiled by light mists, we
can distinguish the country before three o’clock as clearly as at
mid-day. Our course follows the edge of some considerable forests
situated on our right hand. These plains (are they plains?) have
a very different aspect from those on French territory. In place
of the regular patches of fields which lie upon the surface in
parallel lines, the country here is composed of fields of every
size and form, like the various provinces on a colored map; most
of which are surrounded by hedges as they are in England.”
They are wafted along into Prussia. On the right, Luxemburg and Trèves
are visible; on the left, Holland, even to the shore of the North Sea.
“The Rhine flows along with its silver ripple in the distance.... 764
All nature is silent, save from time to time the timid chirping
of some little bird; when, suddenly, a vast golden streak of
light breaks forth from the east, and caresses the highest clouds
of the atmosphere, clothing them in rosy and golden tints.”
The illustration representing this sunrise is magnificent, as the
sight must have been in the highest degree. What could be more
inspiring than to be borne along amid the glorious clouds of morning
toward the rising sun--the cheering influence of whose beams the
balloon itself seems to feel, as, dried and expanded by their heat, it
rises proudly into the sky--with the Rhine glistening before us, and
the green plains and forests of Germany inviting us to continue our
voyage?
They hear the sound of church-bells, and, soon after, that of cannon.
“From minute to minute the voice of this gracious apparatus of
civilization and progress growled among the clouds. It was the
artillery of Mülheim preparing itself for the next war.
“The ancient city of Cologne forms beneath us a regular
semicircle soldered to the left bank of the Rhine. Unless one
examined it attentively, it might be taken for a moderate-sized
snail sticking to the thin branch of a tree.”
Poor M. Flammarion thought he was going to enjoy his sail some time
longer, perhaps all day. But his inexorable aeronaut thought
differently. There was very little ballast and no breakfast; it was
probable that the wind would rise, and that they would come to grief.
His word was law; so the valve-rope was pulled, the French flag run
up, and down they came at Solingen, near Düsseldorf, 330 miles from
Paris, which distance had been accomplished in twelve hours and a
half. The good-natured Germans rushed up to help them; the greatest
difficulty was to prevent them from smoking near the balloon.
This journey is a fair example of what balloon travelling may be in
skilful hands. Of course it has its disadvantages. The principal one
is obvious; that you can only go just where the wind will take you;
but there is an advantage corresponding to this in the quietness and
steadiness of the motion, and it is not at all improbable that, with
the rapid advances which are being made continually in the science of
meteorology, the laws of winds will be ascertained sufficiently to
enable the aeronaut to find one which will carry him in the general
direction in which he wants to go, on most occasions, by choosing a
proper elevation. Certainly this can often be done, as in the case of
M. Tissandier’s trip from Calais over the German Ocean. A lower breeze
brought them back to land. The difficulty remaining is that of
changing our elevation. On the present system, this requires a loss of
gas or ballast, which cannot be kept up indefinitely. An ingenious
plan has been proposed by Gen. Meusnier--to have a double balloon, one
outside the other: the inner one is filled with gas, the space between
the two with air; into the outer one more air is forced by an air-pump
when we wish to descend, and allowed to escape when we wish to rise.
The compressed air is itself heavier than the air surrounding, and the
compressed gas in the inner balloon is also less buoyant than before.
This is applying the principle of the bladder of the fish to
aerostatics. The _Giant_ was constructed on this plan, but it does
not appear that the practicability of using it in this way was ever
tested.
“Still, notwithstanding the great utility and advantages of the balloon
pure and simple, we certainly shall never be able to lay out our 765
course with it with all the accuracy that could be desired, and it is
probable that we shall never be able to bring it down precisely at the
point we wish to reach. To accomplish this, we must have something
that will go against the wind; we must have something which takes hold
on the air; we must, in short, be able to fly. It should be noticed,
however, that a flying machine, when invented, will not necessarily
supersede the balloon; it will have its advantages, and the balloon
will have its own; probably, for mere pleasure travelling, the latter
will always be preferable, or certainly would be except for the
inconveniences attending its landing, especially when the wind is
high.
It may be said, perhaps, as above, “a flying machine, when invented”;
for it really seems as if some practical invention of this kind must
before long be realized. It can hardly be doubted that the bird must
be the model, to some extent, of its construction; and it would seem
to be worth while to take instantaneous photographs of birds in
flight, in order to discover what really are the positions which the
wing successively assumes. The photographs of this kind, of men
walking, which have been taken, told us a great deal which we did not
know before about a movement which seems so very familiar and easy. It
seems probable, with regard to flying, as M. Flammarion intimates,
that the impulse is a very sudden one, at least during a part of the
stroke; so that the thin resisting medium has, as it were, a certain
kind of solidity and firmness.
Various machines for flying have been made, and a tolerable success
attained. One is lately reported in Philadelphia. There seems to be no
impossibility in taking up enough force, at least by the aid of
balloon power, to give a considerable velocity in a calm to our
air-ship; but it may as yet be doubted whether it would be able to
contend against the ordinary velocity which winds have even a short
distance above the surface of the earth. In Mr. Glaisher’s ascents,
the wind was blowing, on the average, four times as fast above as
below. This could generally be avoided by keeping near the ground.
But after all, what aspiring man really longs for is not to have a
flying machine to carry him, but to have his own wings, and some power
strong enough to move them. With the motive powers known at present,
this seems to be beyond our reach; but who knows? Heat and motion are
now understood to be convertible, and perhaps the sun’s rays may yet
be found powerful enough to raise us into the air. But then--look out
for clouds. The sun melted the wings of Icarus; the shade would melt
ours.
Flying may yet be realized; and it is well enough to look forward to
what may be in store in the future; but let us also not undervalue
what we already have. The beauty of the form of the balloon
necessarily implies a certain perfection in it, as the majesty of a
full-rigged line-of-battle ship clearly shows a perfection which no
actual results gained by cheese-box Monitors can ever gainsay. Our
present air-ship is a noble product of human genius, and its resources
are by no means yet exhausted.
Even a captive balloon is not a bad affair, and may be used for
travelling purposes, though it may seem a contradiction to say so. A
“captive” is simply one which is fastened by a rope so that it cannot
ascend above a certain height. If fastened to a fixed object, it
serves only as a means to take people up for a view or to make 766
scientific observations: but if attached to a moving body, it is a
very pleasant vehicle to ride in, or could easily be made so. Our
French aeronauts were once pulled in this way through the streets of a
town, and at another time were towed for some distance at the height
of five hundred feet by a number of their excitable countrymen. But it
must be acknowledged that on the whole a captive is not so pleasant to
ride in as a free balloon. Besides the feeling of exultation
accompanying a free ascent, it also has the advantage of being really
a great deal more comfortable. The captive, being restrained by the
rope, feels the full force of whatever wind there is, and is moreover
apt to be tipped over considerably when the breeze is strong.
Nevertheless, going up in one is a tolerably popular amusement when
the opportunity is offered, though hardly enough so to make it
profitable for the proprietors. This is one of the miserable
difficulties about the pursuit of science, that experiments cost
something, and often it is very troublesome to raise the necessary
funds. Free ascensions have, however, been common enough for a good
deal more to have been accomplished in the way of experiment and
observation than has usually been the case, and Mr. Glaisher’s example
deserves to be generally followed. The balloon itself may do a good
deal towards the investigation of the laws of the atmospheric
currents, the knowledge of which would be so useful for its own
guidance, as well as in answering questions concerning storms and
climate. Mr. Glaisher, on January 12, 1864, met with a warm current of
air from the southwest, more than half a mile in depth; and he
considers that this may, perhaps, be an aerial Gulf Stream, and
increase the warming effect which that celebrated current no doubt
produces on the western and northern coasts of Europe.
But we must not dwell longer on his scientific results, or those of
his friends on the other side of the Channel. In fact, it is time that
we should come down from the clouds, and occupy ourselves with the
affairs of this base and grovelling lower world. We should like to do
it gradually, but, as is the case with the balloon itself, our descent
must needs be accompanied by something of a shock. It is with
difficulty that we can persuade ourselves to quit, even in imagination,
those magnificent regions so near to us and yet practically so far
away; which all of us could see even now in ten minutes if our balloon
was ready--would that it were!--and which, if the art of flying
progresses with due rapidity, we may yet see some time before we die.
----------
THE LEPER OF THE CITY OF AOSTA. 767
BY THE COUNT XAVIER DE MAISTRE.
“_Le Lépreux de la cité d’Aosta_ est une larme, mais une larme qui
coule toujours!”--LAMARTINE.
“Ah! little think the gay, licentious proud
Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround:--
Ah! little think they, while they dance along,
How many pine!--how many drink the cup
Of baleful grief!--how many shake
With all the fiercer tortures of the mind!”--THOMSON.
The southern part of the city of Aosta is now nearly deserted, and
appears to have been never very thickly peopled. Cultivated fields and
meadows may be seen, hedged in on one side by the ancient bulwarks
which the Romans raised as a wall, and on the other by garden fences.
This solitary spot, however, affords wherewithal to interest the
traveller. Near the gate of the city are the ruins of an old castle,
in which, if popular tradition is to be relied on, Count René de
Chalans, infuriated by jealousy, left his wife, the Princess Marie de
Braganza, to die of hunger, in the fifteenth century. Hence the name
of _Bramafan_, which signifies the _cry of hunger_, given to
this castle by the people around. This tradition, which may be
disputed, gives an interest to the ruins in the eyes of people of
sensibility.
A hundred steps further on is a square tower, built of the marble that
once covered the antique walls beside it. It is called the Hold of
Terror, because it is commonly believed to be haunted. The ancient
dames of Aosta can still remember seeing a tall woman robed in white,
with a lamp in her hand, issue from the tower on dark nights.
About fifteen years ago, this tower was repaired by the order of the
government, and surrounded by an enclosure, for the purpose of lodging
a leper, through fear of contagion if left at large, and at the same
time affording him every comfort his sad condition allowed. The
Hospital of St. Maurice was ordered to supply his wants. It furnished
him with some articles of furniture and the implements for cultivating
a garden. Here he lived for a long time, left completely to himself,
and never seeing any one, except the priest who came from time to time
to administer the consolations of religion, and the man who, every
week, brought him his provisions from the hospital.
During the war in the Alps in the year 1797, a soldier, who was in the
city of Aosta, happened to pass by the leper’s garden. The gate was
ajar, and he had the curiosity to enter. He saw a man in a simple
garb, leaning against a tree, as if lost in profound meditation. At
the sound of the officer’s steps, the recluse, without turning around
or looking up, cried in a sad tone: “Who is there? and what do you
wish?”
“Excuse a stranger,” replied the soldier, “whom the attractive
appearance of your garden has induced to commit an indiscretion, but
who by no means wishes to disturb you.” 768
“Do not come any nearer,” replied the inmate of the tower, motioning
him back with his hand. “Come no nearer: you are in the presence of an
unfortunate being afflicted with leprosy.”
“Whatever may be your misfortune,” replied the traveller, “I shall not
go away. I have never shunned the unfortunate. But, if my presence
annoys you, I am ready to withdraw.”
“You are welcome,” replied the leper, suddenly turning around.
“Remain, if you have the courage after looking at me.”
The officer remained for some time motionless with astonishment at the
frightful aspect of the unfortunate man so completely disfigured by
leprosy.
“I willingly remain,” said he, “if you will accept the visit of a man
led here by chance, but detained by a lively interest.”
“Interest!--I have never excited anything but pity.”
“I should be happy to offer you any consolation.”
“It is a great one to behold a human face and hear the sound of a
human voice, for every one flies from me.”
“Allow me, then, to converse with you awhile and to visit your house.”
“Very willingly, if it can afford you any pleasure.” Saying which, the
leper put on a large felt hat, the flattened brim of which covered his
face. “Go to the south,” added he. “The few flowers I cultivate may
please you. There are some rather rare. I have procured the seeds of
every kind that grow among the Alps, and try to make them grow double
and more beautiful by cultivation.”
“You have flowers which are indeed entirely new to me.”
“Look at this little rose-bush. It is a rose without thorns, which
only grows on the higher Alps, but it is already losing its
peculiarity, and putting forth thorns in proportion to its cultivation
and growth.”
“It should be considered the emblem of ingratitude.”
“If any of these flowers please you, you can take them without any
fear: you will incur no danger by gathering them. I sowed the seed. I
take pleasure in watering them and looking at them, but I never touch
them.”
“Why not?”
“I fear I might infect them, and should no longer dare give them to
any one.”
“For whom do you raise them?”
“The people who bring me food from the hospital are not afraid to
gather them. And sometimes children from the city stop before my
garden-gate. I immediately ascend the tower, for fear of frightening
or infecting them. They look up as they go away, and say with a smile:
‘Good-by, Leper,’ and that gives me a little pleasure.”
“You have succeeded in collecting quite a variety of plants; and you
have vines yonder, and several kinds of fruit-trees.”
“The trees are still young. I set them out myself, as well as that
grape-vine, which I have trained to the top of the old wall, you see:
it is thick enough for me to walk on, and is my favorite resort.--Go
up on these stones. I am the architect of this staircase. Hold on to
the wall.”
“A charming nook! the very place for a hermit to meditate in!”
“It suits me, too. I can see the country around, the laborers in the
fields, and all that is going on in the meadow, and no one can see me.” 769
“It is a delightfully quiet and secluded place. You are in the city,
and yet might fancy yourself in a desert.”
“Forests and cliffs are not the only resorts of the solitary. The
unfortunate are alone everywhere.”
“What succession of events brought you to this retreat? Are you a
native of this country?”
“I was born on the sea-coast in the principality of Oneglia, and have
only lived here fifteen years. As to my history, it is only one long
succession of calamities.”
“Have you always lived alone?”
“I lost my parents in my infancy, and do not remember them. I had one
sister who died two years ago. I never had a friend.”
“Poor man!”
“It was the will of God.”
“What is your name, pray?”
“Ah! my name is a terrible one! I call myself _The Leper_! No one in
the wide world knows the name I derived from my family, or that which
I received on the day of my baptism. I am _The Leper_, and this is the
only title I have to human kindness. May it remain for ever unknown
who I am!”
“Did the sister you lost live with you?”
“She remained five years with me in my present habitation. As
unfortunate as I, she participated in my sorrows, and I endeavored to
alleviate hers.”
“How do you employ yourself in such utter solitude?”
“The details of my lonely life would only be very monotonous to a man
of the world who seeks happiness in the activity of social life.”
“Ah! you little know the world--it has never made me happy. I am often
solitary from choice, and there may be more similarity in our ideas
than you suppose. And yet, I acknowledge, perpetual solitude frightens
me. I can hardly conceive it endurable.”
“‘The cell continually dwelt in groweth sweet,’ says _The Following
of Christ_. I am beginning to realize the truth of these consoling
words. Loneliness is also relieved by labor. A laborious man is never
absolutely unhappy, as I know by experience. During the pleasant
season, the cultivation of my flowers and vegetables is a sufficient
occupation. In the winter I make baskets and mats. I try to make my
clothes. I daily prepare my own food from the supplies brought me from
the hospital, and prayer fills up the vacant hours. Thus the year
passes, and, when gone, it seems short.”
“I should think it would seem a century.”
“Affliction and sorrow make the hours appear long, but the years
always fly with the same rapidity. Besides, there is one enjoyment
left in the lowest depths of misfortune which but few can understand,
and may seem strange to you--that of living and breathing. In warm
weather, I pass whole days motionless on the ramparts, enjoying the
air and the beauties of nature: my thoughts are vague and fluctuating;
sadness dwells in my heart without oppressing it; my eyes wander
around the country, and linger on the rocks that surround us; all
these objects are so imprinted on my memory that they form, as it
were, a part of myself: each site is a friend I greet with pleasure
every day.”
“I have often experienced something of this kind. When trouble
depresses me, and I do not find in the hearts of others what my own
craves, the aspect of nature and inanimate objects consoles me. I
become attached to the very rocks and trees, and it seems to me that 770
all created things are friends whom God has given me.”
“You encourage me to explain, in my turn, what passes within me. I
have a genuine affection for the objects that are, so to speak, my
daily companions, and every night, before going to my tower, I come
here to take leave of the glaciers of Ruitorts, the dense woods of
Mont St. Bernard, and the fantastic peaks that overlook the valley of
the Rhine. Though the power of God is as evident in the creation of an
ant as in that of the whole universe, the grand spectacle of yonder
mountains fills me with greater awe. I cannot look at those lofty
elevations, covered with eternal glaciers, without being filled with
solemn wonder. But in the vast landscape spread out before me, I have
favorite views to which I turn with special pleasure. Among these is
the hermitage you see yonder on the top of Mount Charvensod. Alone in
the woods, near a deserted pasture, it catches the last rays of the
setting sun. Though I have never been there, I feel a peculiar
pleasure in looking at it. When the daylight is fading away, seated in
my garden, I turn my eyes toward that lonely hermitage, to seek rest
for my imagination. I have learned to look upon it as a kind of
property. It seems as if I had some confused reminiscence of once
living there in happier days which I cannot fully recall. I love
especially to gaze at the distant mountains, which look like a cloud
on the horizon. Distance, like the future, inspires me with hope. My
overburdened heart imagines there may be a far-off land where, at some
future time, I may at length taste the happiness for which I sigh, and
which a secret instinct is constantly assuring me is possible.”
“With such an ardent soul as yours, you must have passed through many
struggles in resigning yourself to your lot, instead of yielding to
despair.”
“I should deceive you in allowing you to think I have always been
resigned to my lot. I have not attained that self-abnegation to which
some anchorites have arrived. The entire sacrifice of all human
affection has not yet been accomplished. My life has been one
continual combat, and the powerful influences of religion itself are
not always able to repress the flights of my imagination. It often
draws me, in spite of myself, into a whirlpool of vain desires, which
tend toward a world I have no knowledge of, but strange visions of
which are ever present to torment me.”
“If you could read my soul and learn my opinion of the world, all your
desires and your regrets would instantly vanish.”
“Books have vainly taught me the perversity of mankind, and the
misfortunes inseparable from humanity: my heart refuses to believe
them. I am continually representing to myself circles of sincere and
virtuous friends; suitable marriages full of the happiness resulting
from health, youth, and fortune. I imagine them wandering together
through groves greener and fresher than the trees above me, with a sun
more dazzling than that which brightens my world, and their lot seems
worthy of envy in proportion to the misery of mine. At the beginning
of spring, when the wind from Piedmont blows through our valley, I
feel its vivifying warmth penetrating me, and a thrill passes over me
in spite of myself. I have an inexplicable desire, and a confused
notion of a boundless happiness that I am capable of enjoying, but
which is denied me. Then I fly from my cell, and wander in the fields,
that I may breathe more freely. I avoid the very sight of the men whom 771
my heart longs to embrace, and from the top of the hill, concealed
among the bushes like a wild beast, I gaze towards the city of Aosta.
With envious eyes I see afar off its happy inhabitants, to whom I am
scarcely known. I stretch forth my hands towards them, and, with
groans, ask for my share of happiness. In my agony--shall I
acknowledge it?--I have sometimes thrown my arms around the trees of
the forest, imploring Almighty God to infuse life into them that I may
have a friend! But the trees make no response, their coldness repels
me, they have nothing in common with my throbbing heart, which is
aflame. Overcome by fatigue, weary of life, I drag myself back again
to my asylum, I lay my torments before God, and prayer restores
somewhat of calmness to my soul.”
“So, poor, unfortunate man, you suffer at once all the ills of soul
and body?”
“The latter are not the most severe!”
“Then you are sometimes freed from them?”
“Every month they increase and diminish with the moon. I generally
suffer most at its first appearance. My disease then abates and seems
to change its symptoms: my skin grows dry and white, and I feel nearly
well. But my malady would be endurable but for the terrible
wakefulness it produces.”
“What! does even sleep abandon you?”
“Ah! sir, the sleepless, sleepless nights! You have no idea how long
and sad they are when I cannot get a moment’s sleep, and my mind
dwells on my frightful situation--with no hope for the future. No! no
one could realize it. My restlessness increases as the night advances,
and, when nearly at an end, my nervousness is almost unendurable: my
mind is confused. I experience an extraordinary sensation that never
comes over me but at such sad moments. Sometimes it seems as if an
irresistible power was drawing me down into a bottomless gulf:
sometimes I see black clouds before my eyes, but while I am examining
them they cross each other with the quickness of lightning, they grow
larger as they approach, and then look like mountains ready to
overwhelm me with their weight. At other times, I behold clouds
issuing from the earth beneath me like swelling waves, which rise one
above the other and threaten to engulf me; and, when I wish to rise in
order to throw off these sensations, I feel chained down by some
invisible force that renders me powerless. You will perhaps think
these are dreams; but you are mistaken. I am really awake. I see all
this again and again, and with a sensation of horror that surpasses
all my other sufferings.”
“It is possible you are feverish during these long, sleepless nights,
and this, perhaps, causes a kind of delirium.”
“You think this may be the result of fever? Ah! I wish it might be
true. Until now I have feared these visions were symptoms of madness,
and I acknowledge this greatly worried me. Would to God they were the
effects of fever!”
“Your case inspires me with a lively interest. I acknowledge that I
had never imagined anything like your situation. I suppose, however,
it was less sad when your sister was living.”
“God alone knows what a loss her death was to me. But are you not
afraid to come so near me? Sit down there on that rock, and I will
conceal myself beneath the vines, so we can talk without seeing each 772
other.”
“Why so? No, you shall not leave me. Come nearer.” In saying these
words the traveller involuntarily put out his hand to take the
Leper’s, but the latter hastily withdrew his.
“Imprudent man! You were going to take hold of my hand!”
“Well, I would have pressed it heartily.”
“It would have been the first time such a happiness was granted me: my
hand was never pressed by any one.”
“What! Have you never formed any ties, except the sister of whom you
have spoken--never been loved by any of your own condition?”
“Happily for the human race, there is not another in my condition on
the earth.”
“You make me shudder.”
“Pardon me, compassionate stranger! You know the unhappy love to speak
of their misfortunes.”
“Go on, go on: you interest me. You said your sister lived with you,
and aided you in bearing your sufferings.”
“She was the only tie that bound me to the rest of mankind! It pleased
God to break it, and thus leave me isolated and alone in the midst of
the world. Her soul was ripe for the heaven where she now is, and her
example sustained me under the discouragement which has often
overwhelmed me since her death. But we did not live in that delightful
intimacy which I so often imagine, and which should bind together the
unfortunate. The nature of our disease deprived us of this
consolation. When we came together to pray, we avoided looking at one
another, for fear the sad spectacle might disturb our meditations: our
souls alone were united before God. After prayer, my sister generally
retired to her cell or beneath the nut-trees at the end of the garden,
and we lived almost constantly apart.”
“But why did you impose so cruel a restraint upon yourselves?”
“When my sister was attacked with the contagious disease to which all
our family were victims, and came to share my asylum, we had never
seen one another. Her fright was extreme when she beheld me for the
first time. The fear of afflicting her, and still more of increasing
her malady by approaching her, made me resolve on this sad kind of a
life. The leprosy had only attacked her breast, and I had still some
hopes of her being cured. You see the remains of a neglected trellis:
it was then covered with a hop-vine that I trained with care, and
divided the garden into two parts. On each side of this, I made a
little path where we could walk and converse together without seeing
or coming too near each other.”
“It would almost seem as if heaven wished to embitter the sad
pleasures it still left you.”
“But at least I was not then alone. My sister’s presence gave some
cheerfulness to my asylum. I could hear the sounds of her steps. When
I returned, at dawn, to pray beneath these trees, the door of the
tower would softly open, and my sister’s voice would imperceptibly
mingle with mine. In the evening, when I watered my garden, she
sometimes walked here at sunset, in the same place where we now are,
and I could see her shadow pass and repass over my flowers. Even when
I did not see her, there were everywhere traces of her presence.
Sometimes it was only a withered flower in the path, or some branch of
a shrub she had dropped, but now I am alone, there is neither movement 773
nor life around me, and the path that led to her favorite grove is
already overgrown with grass. Without appearing to observe me, she was
constantly studying what could afford me pleasure. When I returned to
my chamber, I was sometimes surprised to find vases of fresh flowers,
or some fine fruit she had taken care of herself. I did not dare
render her similar services, and had even begged her never to enter my
chamber, but who can place a limit to a sister’s affection? One
incident alone will give you an idea of her love for me. I was
walking rapidly up and down my cell one night, tormented with
fearful sufferings. In the middle of the night, as I was sitting
down a moment to rest, I heard a slight noise at the door. I
approached--listened--imagine my astonishment! it was my sister who
was praying on the outside of my door. She had heard my groans. She
was afraid of annoying me, but wished to be at hand if I needed any
assistance. I heard her repeating the _Miserere_ in a low tone. I
knelt down by the door, and, without interrupting her, mentally
followed her words. My eyes were full of tears: who would not have
been touched by so much affection? When her prayer was ended, I said
in a low tone: ‘Good-night, sister, good-night: go to bed, I feel a
little better. May God bless and reward you for your piety!’ She
retired in silence, and her prayer was surely answered, for I at last
enjoyed several hours of quiet sleep.”
“How sad must have been the first days after your beloved sister’s
death!”
“I remained for a long time in a kind of stupor that deprived me of
the faculty of realizing the extent of my misfortune. When at length I
came to myself, and was able to comprehend my situation, my reason
almost left me. It was a season doubly sad for me, for it recalls the
greatest of my misfortunes, and the crime that came near resulting
from it.”
“Crime! I cannot believe you capable of one.”
“It is only too true, and, in giving you an account of that period of
my life, I feel too sensibly I shall fall in your estimation; but I do
not wish to appear better than I am, and perhaps you will pity while
condemning me. The idea of voluntarily leaving this world had already
occurred to me in several fits of melancholy, but the fear of God had
hitherto made me repel the thought. The simplest circumstance, and
apparently the least calculated to trouble me, came near causing my
eternal loss. I had just experienced a new affliction. A little dog
had been given us some years previous. My sister was fond of him, and
after her death the poor animal was, I acknowledge, a real comfort to
me. We were, I suppose, indebted to his ugliness for his making our
house his refuge. He had been rejected by everybody else, but was a
treasure in the asylum of a leper. In gratitude to God for the favor
of such a friend, my sister called him _Miracle_, and his name--such
a contrast to his ugliness--and his constant friskiness often
dispelled our sorrows. In spite of my care, he sometimes got out, and
it never occurred to me it might injure any one. But some of the
inhabitants of the town became alarmed, thinking he might bring among
them the germ of my disease. They sent a complaint to the commander,
who ordered the dog to be killed immediately. Some soldiers followed
by several civilians came here at once to execute this cruel order.
They put a cord around his neck in my presence, and dragged him away. 774
I could not help looking at him once more as he was going out of the
gate; his eyes were turned towards me, as if to beg the assistance
which it was not in my power to give. They wished to drown him in the
Doire, but the crowd waiting on the outside stoned him to death. I
heard his cries, and took refuge in my tower more dead than alive; my
trembling knees refused to support me; I threw myself on my bed in a
state impossible to describe. My grief made me regard the just though
severe order only as a cruelty as atrocious as it was needless, and,
though I am now ashamed of the feeling that then excited me, I cannot
yet think of it with coolness. I passed the whole day in the greatest
agitation. I had been deprived of the only living thing I had, and
this new blow reopened all the wounds of my heart.
“Such was my condition when, that same day, towards sunset, I came
here, and seated myself on the very rock where you are now sitting. I
had been meditating awhile on my sad lot, when I saw a newly-married
couple appear yonder, near the two birches at the end of the hedge.
They came along the foot-path through the meadow, and passed by me.
The sweet peace that an assured happiness confers was imprinted on
their handsome faces. They were walking slowly arm-in-arm. All at once
they stopped; the young woman leaned her head upon her husband’s
breast, who clasped her in his arms with joy. Shall I confess it? Envy
for the first time penetrated my heart. Such a picture of happiness
had never struck me before. I followed them with my eyes to the end of
the meadow. They were nearly hidden by the trees when I heard a joyful
cry. It came from the united families who were coming to meet them.
Old men, women, and children surrounded them. I heard a confused
murmur of joy. I saw among the trees the bright colors of their
dresses, and the whole group seemed enveloped in a cloud of happiness.
I could not endure the sight: the torments of hell seized hold of my
heart. I turned away my eyes, and fled to my cell. O God! how
frightfully lonely and gloomy it seemed. ‘It is here, then,’ I said to
myself--‘I am to live for ever here. After dragging out a wretched
existence, I must await the long-delayed end of my life! The Almighty
has diffused happiness, and in torrents, among all living creatures,
and I--I alone!--am without support, without friends, without a
companion.--What a terrible destiny!’
“Full of these sad thoughts, I forgot there is one Being who is the
Comforter. I was beside myself. ‘Why,’ I said to myself, ‘was I
permitted to behold the light? Why has Nature been so cruel a
step-mother to me?’ Like a disinherited child, I saw before me the
rich patrimony of the human race, of my share of which heaven had
defrauded me. ‘No, no,’ I cried in my fury, ‘there is no happiness for
thee on earth. Cease, then, to live, poor wretch! Thou hast disgraced
the earth long enough with thy presence: would it might swallow thee
up and leave no trace of thy miserable existence!’ My fury continuing
to increase, a mad desire to destroy myself took possession of my
mind. I resolved at last to set fire to my dwelling, and allow myself
to be burned up in it with everything else that might recall my
memory. Excited and enraged, I went forth into the fields. I wandered
for some time in the darkness around my dwelling. I gave vent to my
overburdened heart in involuntary shrieks, and frightened myself in the 775
silence of the night. I reentered full of rage, crying: ‘Woe to thee,
Leper! Woe to thee!’ And, as if everything conspired for my
destruction, I heard the echo from the ruins of the Château de
Bramafan repeating distinctly: ‘Woe to thee!’ I stopped, seized with
horror, at the door of the tower, and a faint echo from the mountains
repeated a long time after, ‘Woe to thee!’
“I took a lamp, and, resolved to set fire to my dwelling, went into
the lowest room, carrying with me some twigs and dry branches. It was
the room my sister occupied, and I had not entered it since her death.
Her arm-chair was in the same spot where I moved it for the last time.
I shivered with fear at the sight of her veil and some of her clothing
scattered around. The last words she uttered before her departure came
back to my mind: ‘I shall not forsake you when I die: remember, I
shall always be with you in your sufferings.’ Placing the lamp on the
table, I perceived the cord which held the cross she wore on her neck.
She had placed it herself within her Bible. I drew back, filled with
awe at the sight. The depths of the abyss into which I was about to
plunge were at once revealed to my unsealed eyes. Trembling, I
approached the sacred volume. ‘Here, here,’ I cried, ‘is the aid she
promised me!’ Drawing the cross from the book, I found a sealed note
which my dear sister had left for me. My tears, which grief had not
hitherto allowed me to shed, now escaped in torrents: all my
detestable projects vanished at once. I pressed the precious letter to
my heart a long time before I could read it: then, falling on my knees
to implore the divine mercy, I sobbingly read the words that will be
for ever graven on my heart: ‘Brother, I shall soon leave you, but
not forsake you. From heaven, which I hope to enter, I will watch over
you, praying God to give you the courage to endure life with
resignation till it pleases him to reunite us in another world. Then I
shall be able to show you how much I loved you. Nothing will prevent
me any longer from approaching you: nothing can separate us. I leave
you the little cross I have worn all my life. It has often consoled me
in my sorrows and been the only witness of my tears. Remember, when
you look upon it, that my last prayer was that you might live and die
a good Christian.’
“Cherished letter! it shall never leave me. I will carry it with me to
the grave. It will open to me the gates of heaven which my crime would
have closed for ever. When I had finished reading it, I felt faint,
exhausted by all I had undergone. My sight grew dim, and, for some
time, I lost both the remembrance of my misfortunes and the
consciousness of existence. When I came to myself, the night was far
advanced. In proportion to the clearness of my mind, I experienced a
feeling of profound peace. All that had taken place the evening before
seemed like a dream. My first impulse was to raise my eyes heavenward
in thanksgiving for having been preserved from the greatest of
misfortunes. The heavens had never appeared so serene and glorious:
one star before my window outshone the rest. I gazed at it a long time
with inexpressible delight, thanking God for granting me the pleasure
of beholding it, and felt interiorly consoled at the thought that some
of its rays were permitted to cheer the gloomy home of the Leper.
“I went up to my cell in a calmer frame. I spent the remainder of the
night in reading the Book of Job, and the sublimity of his thoughts at 776
length entirely dispelled the gloomy ideas that had beset me. I never
experienced such fearful moments during my sister’s life. To feel her
near me made me at once calmer, and the very thought of the affection
she had for me afforded me consolation, and inspired me with courage.
“Compassionate stranger! may God preserve you from ever being obliged
to live alone! My sister and my companion is no more. But heaven will
grant me the strength to endure life courageously; it will grant it, I
trust, for I pray for it with all the earnestness of my heart.”
“How old was your sister when she died?”
“She was barely twenty-five, but her sufferings made her look much
older. In spite of her fatal disease, which changed her features, she
would have been handsome, had it not been for her frightful pallor,
the result of a living death which made me groan whenever I looked at
her.”
“She died quite young?”
“Her delicate and feeble constitution could not resist so many
sufferings combined: for some time I had perceived her loss
inevitable. Her lot was so sad that I could not desire her to live.
Seeing her daily languishing and wasting away, I felt, with a fearful
kind of joy, that the end of her sufferings was approaching. For a
month she had been growing weaker; frequent swoons were constantly
threatening her life. One evening (it was about the first of August) I
saw her so weak that I was unwilling to leave her. She was in her
arm-chair, not having been able to lie down for several days. I seated
myself near her, and in the profound darkness we held our last
conversation. I could not restrain my tears. A sad presentiment
agitated me. ‘Why do you weep?’ she said. ‘Why distress yourself? I
shall not forsake you when I die. I shall always be with you in your
sufferings.’
“A few moments after, she expressed a desire to be carried out of the
tower, that she might offer her prayers in the grove of nut-trees
where she passed the greater part of the pleasant season. ‘I wish,’
she said, ‘to die looking at the heavens.’ But I did not imagine her
end so near. I was about to take her in my arms, when she said, ‘Only
support me. I am, perhaps, strong enough to walk.’ I led her slowly to
the nut-trees. I made a cushion of the dry leaves she herself had
gathered together, and, covering her head with a veil to screen her
from the dampness of the night, I seated myself near her. But she
desired to be left alone during her last meditation, and I went to a
distance, but without losing sight of her. From time to time, I could
see the flutter of her veil and her white hands raised to heaven. When
I drew near the grove, she asked for some water. I carried her some in
a cup. She wet her lips, but could not swallow. ‘I feel the end has
come,’ said she, turning her head. ‘My thirst will soon be assuaged
for ever. Support me, brother: aid me in crossing this gulf--so long
desired, but so terrible. Support me, and say the prayers for the
dying.’ These were her last words. I drew her head against my breast,
and said the prayer for the departing soul: ‘Go forth from this world,
my beloved sister, and leave thy mortal remains in my arms!’ I held
her in this way for three hours, during the last throes of nature. At
length, she quietly passed away, and her soul left the earth without a
struggle.”
At the end of this account, the Leper covered his face with his hands. 777
Sympathy deprived the traveller of the power of speaking. After a
moment’s silence, the Leper rose. “Stranger,” said he, “when grief or
dejection comes over you, think of the Leper of the city of Aosta, and
your visit will not have been a useless one.”
They walked towards the garden-gate. As the officer was about to go
out, he put his glove on his right hand. “You have never pressed any
one’s hand,” said he. “Do me the favor to press mine. It is the hand
of a friend who is deeply interested in your lot.”
The Leper drew back some steps with a kind of terror, and, raising his
eyes and hands towards heaven, he cried: “O God of goodness! pour down
thy blessings on this compassionate man!”
“Grant me another favor, then,” resumed the traveller. “I am going
away. We may not see each other again for a long time. Can we not
write one another sometimes, with the necessary precautions? Such a
correspondence might divert you, and it would afford me great
pleasure.”
The Leper reflected for some time. At length he said, “Why should I
cherish any delusion? I ought to have no other society but myself, no
friend but God. We shall meet in his presence. Farewell, kind
stranger, may you be happy! Farewell for ever!” The traveller went
out--the Leper closed the door and drew the bolts.
----------
ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HOLY FATHER.
FROM LA CIVILTA CATTOLICA.
Some fourteen months ago, a breach was made in the _Porta Pia_, and
an entry effected into Rome in the name of Italy.
The machinations of those who effected that entry in order to subvert
the authority of the Pope are still at work, and most assiduously, in
endeavoring to convey the impression that this act of theirs now
stands before the world simply as _an accomplished fact_, and as
such is, if not approved, at least tolerated by those most interested
in contesting it. Thus they endeavor to delude the world and lull to
sleep the misgivings of Catholics; for in order to confirm and
strengthen this impression there is scarcely a stratagem or subterfuge
to which the government (itself the author of the fact) does not
resort, through the journalism notoriously in its pay, not only
throughout the Peninsula, but elsewhere.
This government, which sprang from _accomplished facts_ and _falsehoods_,
hopes by means of these same _accomplished facts_ and _falsehoods_ to
place on a firm foundation its sway in the _Campidoglio_, which now
rests on a very insecure footing; therefore it endeavors to persuade
the world, and especially Catholics, that the Supreme Pontiff, while
in its hands and under the law of its Guarantees, is actually more at 778
liberty, more independent in action, and more useful to the church,
than he was when he reigned as a sovereign prince and was
_bona-fide_ ruler in his own state.
The absurdity of this claim is manifest; but what absurdity is there
of which the government of the Subalpinists in Italy does not avail
itself, in order to attach credit to itself, by means of the arts
learned in the school of its great father and master, Bonaparte?
It is important, therefore, or rather we should say it is absolutely
necessary, that an honest and Christian journalism should
perseveringly oppose manifest truths to this interminable repetition
of falsehoods, paid for by the Subalpine rulers, respecting the
present condition of the Holy Father; and thus, by ventilating fraud,
undeceive simple and credulous minds.
With this intention, we shall in few but veracious strokes of the pen
describe the undisguised reality of the state in which the head of the
church, the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IX., finds himself at the present
moment in Rome, six months after the solemn publication of the laws of
the _Guarantees_.
II.
We assert, then, that the Pope endures imprisonment in Rome at the
hands of the Subalpinists, and that his captivity, instead of being
mitigated, is every day aggravated. This is proved by the following
facts:
1. He is in the hands of an _inimical power_, or, as he himself has
defined it, he is _sub hostili dominatione constitutus_. Now, he who
is in the hands of an enemy, however much that enemy may affect
humanity and regard towards him, is beyond all contradiction his
prisoner.
2. The Holy Father fell into the hands of this inimical power through
sheer force. This is rendered evident by the formal declaration made
by the Subalpine ministers before taking up arms against him, in which
they affirmed that to invade or take Rome with bomb-shells and cannons
would be an act contrary to the rights of nations, an act so
iniquitous that it would be unworthy even of a barbarian government:
yet in the very face of these declarations they did take Rome with the
argument of bomb-shells and cannons, and with the same argument they
continue to occupy it.
3. The Holy Father, being in the hands of an inimical power, which has
dispossessed him by violence of all sovereignty, and substituted its
own in lieu of his, is now by this same power subjected to every kind
of ridicule in his double majesty as pontiff and as king: burlesque
honors are proposed to him, which would by preference be offered to
him publicly, in order to induce the idea that the Holy Father, by
accepting them, is reconciled to the government, and has basely ceded
to it the inalienable rights of God, of the church, and of the
Catholic world. Moreover, the obligation resting on the Sovereign
Pontiff of preserving his own dignity keeps him shut up in the
Vatican: the outer doors of which are guarded _by a guard of honor_
formed of the self-same wretched soldiery who, led on by Subalpine
leaders, made the breach in the _Porta Pia_, and struck to the earth
his own sovereign banner in Rome.
4. Finally: The inimical power in whose hands the Holy Father now
finds himself is, either from weakness or malice, incapable of
protecting his august person from any kind of insult. So that,
supposing it to be _morally_ possible for him without compromising
his dignity to leave the cloisters of the Vatican, yet would a 779
_material_ obstacle present itself in the outrages and dangers,
threatening life itself, to which he would be exposed amid the crowds
of cut-throats, atheists, and the lowest rabble of every country,
which this power has congregated together and maintains in Rome, to
represent in that city the people of the plébiscite; that is, a people
hostile to the Papacy and rebellious to its throne.
These are the principal facts which most clearly demonstrate the state
of imprisonment into which the Sovereign Pontiff was thrown, by the
events of the 20th September, 1870, in his own city of Rome: and we
defy all the sophistry of all the journalists, politicians, and
diplomatists of the government, seated as it is in the metropolis of
the Catholic world, to deny it, without denying the light of the sun
at mid-day.
Besides this, that the captivity of the Holy Father has been
aggravated during these fourteen months is seen and felt by every one
who is not under the influence of the Subalpinists, those men who have
carried their effrontery to the length of placing the centre of their
government in the city of Rome itself, and with one of their laws of
_guaranty_ for the independence of the Pope have arrogated to
themselves the right of imposing the future conditions of his
existence in the Vatican, as if they were the rulers of the Holy See.
Whoever considers the forces of moral and material hostility that
these Subalpinists have accumulated in Rome against his prerogatives,
cannot fail to perceive that the rights which in this city are most
readily trodden under foot, are, after those of God, those of the
Pope: and the person who is the most insulted therein is, after that
of Christ, precisely the person of the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IX.,
_decreed sovereign and inviolable_, by the law, as the person of the
king himself.
From this it follows that the Holy Father is at the present moment the
legal prisoner, in Rome, of the Subalpine government, since by the
aforenamed laws, termed those of the Guarantees, not only has that
government confirmed the violent spoliation of himself, but, in spite
of the opinion of the world, has dared to justify the act by defining
in those laws the limits of the liberty it intends to concede to him.
This is neither more nor less than the usage commonly observed towards
a prisoner of state or of war.
By this means, the present condition of the Pontiff in his own Rome is
in truth that of the strictest imprisonment by the anti-Christian
sect, headed by the government of the Subalpinists now lording it over
Italy.
III.
Neither is the Holy Father, Pius IX., the prisoner of an inimical
power solely on account of his civil prerogatives: it is his
ecclesiastical jurisdiction that is aimed at more than anything else:
while usurping the regal crown, it seeks equally to abolish the Papal
tiara; and, if, after having barbarously dispossessed him of his
kingdom, it does not also make a barbarous assault on the majesty of
his Pontificate, this reserve arises only from the hindrance
occasioned by very strong and extrinsic causes, and not from good-will
or any other than a reprobate sentiment.
This profound enmity of the Subalpine rulers to the Pope as the
supreme pastor of the Catholic Church is so well-known as to need no
demonstration. Yet for superabundance of proof, we will say that it is 780
shown:
1. By all that has been previously done against Catholicity for
twenty-two years past in Piedmont, and for half that time throughout
the rest of Italy, by the faction to which these rulers belong--a
faction whose politics are expressed by an obstinate war, sometimes of
a Julianistic character, sometimes of that of a Nero--a war which
attacks directly or indirectly the church itself, and all connected
with it, and this in such a manner as to render it palpable that not
even the Unity of Italy is desired for its own sake, but rather as a
means by which to work the destruction of Catholicity and the
overthrow of the Papacy.
2. It is shown by the special mandate which the Subalpine faction
superintending the Masonic government of the Peninsula have received
from the General Masonic Order--a mandate bidding them become the
immediate (because proximate) instruments of the downfall of Papal
Rome, the centre of the Catholic Church; and which then bids them
proceed to the utter spoliation of the Sovereign Pontiff himself--two
events which it hopes will lead (if that were possible) to the
annihilation of Catholicity, that being the ultimate end of all the
conspiracies of the order.
3. It is shown by the open confessions made in Rome, throughout Italy,
and in all Europe, by journalists united by the bonds of faction to
our Subalpine patrons; and even more by the discovery, lately made,
that persecution is already well established in Rome against
everything ecclesiastical or Catholic--whether in things or persons.
From these facts, it is demonstrated that the Holy Father is now the
prisoner in Rome of a government which in his person hates above
everything, and as far as it dare makes war against, his prerogatives
as Pontiff, and as Head of the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion.
Pius IX. is in the hands of Turks embittered to the last degree.
Against him and his tiara every tool is made use of, and with equal
skill--whether it be cannons or sophistry, buffoonery or the
judgment-hall, the pick-axe or calumny.
IV.
The war of Nero carried on against the Holy Father and the church is
at the present moment tempered by the war of Julian. It was for this
purpose that our Subalpinists devised the law of the Guarantees,
behind which they know how to mask the ugliness of their rascalities,
at least for a time. “Do you see?” they exclaim in every tone, and
have had written in every language: “We have surrounded the Pope with
so many _privileges_ that the like was never seen. Of what do you
complain, O you insatiable Catholics? Have we not constituted the Pope
_inviolable_ as is the king? What more would you have?”
We would have--simply that the Pope should be inviolable, because he
is a king in earnest truth, and not a mere semblance of one. But to
this question of to-day concerning the sovereign and personal
inviolability of the Pope, facts are the best reply. These show that
_practically_ he is as inviolable as the first article of the statute,
and has been inviolable throughout the kingdom.
This privilege of inviolability implies that the person sovereignly
inviolable can, in no manner whatsoever, be publicly insulted without
the offenders being repressed by force and punished according to law.
Meantime, first, it is a notorious fact that every day the sheets 781
belonging to this faction, not excepting those of the government
throughout the kingdom, and particularly in Rome, insult, hold up to
derision, and vilify the inviolable person of the Pope: and that he is
exposed to ridicule by means of most infamous caricatures; and all
this with impunity. For it is notorious that newspapers are very
rarely sequestrated on account of this continuous and general
contravention of the laws of the Guarantees; and up to this period not
a single sentence has been issued from the tribunals against the
insulters of his Pontifical Majesty. On the other hand, the exchequer
is most rigorous against any one suspected of insulting the royal
majesty through the press; chiefly, however, against the Catholic
journalists who defend the inviolable Pontiff. Thus (a fitting
commentary), of ten law-suits against offenders by means of the press,
eight are commonly to the prejudice of Catholics accused of offences
against the king or of illicit voting. The inviolability of the Holy
Father, therefore, practically resolves itself into the fact that
every miscreant may insult him with impunity, while it is dangerous
for an honest Catholic to defend him through the press.
It is a notorious fact, and of very frequent occurrence, that groups
of ribald men, escaped from every Italian galley, stroll along the
avenues, singing shameful verses, nay, even menacing ones, in regard
to the Supreme Pontiff, and it is no rare thing for a rabble to
provoke and utter cries of a character most outraging to his name and
honor. And yet the police, ever ready to hinder similar outrages in
regard to the king, become deaf or soften down the words when they
hear the Holy Father vituperated in this fashion. No one has ever been
arrested for such a crime, and no one has ever been cited before the
tribunals. The inviolability of the Holy Father, we repeat it,
consists practically in the freedom with which every vagabond is
permitted publicly to insult him.
3. It is a notorious fact that large bands of these miscreants have
often gathered together beneath the walls of the Papal palace to load
the guard stationed inside with foul language, that guard being placed
there by the consent of the laws of the Guarantees to the Pope. Yet
here they hurl their blasphemies and imprecations against the sanctity
of the Pope, in the very hearing of the _guard of honor_ placed there
by the government, and these have never been known to discompose
themselves on this account even to the extent of a gesture of
disapprobation toward the rogues thus possessed by the devil. Yet woe
to the wretch who should commit any such atrocity at the portals of
the Quirinal, when inhabited by certain other inviolable persons in
the kingdom of the Subalpinists! Therefore, once more: the
inviolability of the Pontiff is practically converted into a tacit
license for the lowest rabble to insult his person beneath the very
portals and under the windows of the Vatican.
We might enumerate many other facts, equally well known, to
demonstrate how little is the practical value of the sovereign
inviolability decreed to the captive Pope; but let those already
brought forward suffice. These being admitted, it will be understood
that his Holiness, thanks to the distinguished privilege conferred on
him by our Subalpine gentlemen, not only could not make his appearance
in the streets of his own Rome without manifest risk of life, but he
could not even descend to the basilica of the Vatican to perform a 782
sacred function, without exposing himself to contumely and insult by
the very side of St. Peter’s tomb, and even on the altar itself. The
occurrences of the 8th December, 1870, in the vestibule of the
Pontifical residence; of the 10th March, 1871, within the Gesù; and of
the 23rd, 24th, 25th August, close to the Lateran and the Church of
Maria soprà Minerva, confirm what we assert.
This, then, in its veritable reality, is the present condition of Pope
Pius IX. in Rome, after the oft-repeated promulgation of the law
declaring him an inviolable sovereign like to the king.
Nor may the salaried apologists of our patrons treat these matters as
a jest in order to exculpate themselves from so horrible an
abomination. Facts are facts, while words are but breath. The most
irrefutable facts prove that if our Holy Father were to show himself
publicly in the Rome of to-day, uncivilized as it is by these
Subalpine rulers, the treatment he would receive would be no other
than such as is given alike to the clergy as to the most holy things,
nay, to Christ himself, in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
Now, it cannot be denied, for the Roman journals attest it, citing
days, time, places, names and surnames, that every day priests or
religious, bishops or prelates, are attacked or ill-used in the most
populous districts of Rome; that almost every day sacred images are
stoned or profaned at the corners of the streets; and not unfrequently
the adorable eucharist, when borne as a viaticum to the sick, is
exposed to mockery in the public square, even by those who wear
military badges; and all this occurs with the tacit consent of the
officers charged with keeping order in the city, no one of whom has
ever imprisoned a single person guilty of such misdeeds. And after that
they would have us believe that Pope Pius IX. would be safe either in
the city or in the Vatican from the outrages or even from the blow of
these most civilized gentlemen who form the new Roman people!
Be silent, as long as we live, O whited sepulchres!--race fit only to
patronize assassins!
V.
Moreover, the Holy Father, by the noble munificence of his jailers, is
reduced to that degree of poverty that, were it not for the oblations
of the faithful, he must either pine in misery or suffer the
degradation of his majesty. The glorious conquerors of Rome have taken
everything from him, excepting the Vatican. And if, up to this time,
they have refrained from sacking this edifice, it is owing to that
_veto_ of potentates which, as yet, has forbidden them access to
it. Jugglers are in possession of the Quirinal; and they drew near to
the public treasury of the Pontificate with the sword of guardianship.
In one flash of lightning, the Pope saw himself deprived of
everything. With a simple substitution of voters, the Pontifical
estate is become the Subalpine estate--a magnificent example! since
then magnificently imitated by the Commune of Paris!
Is is true that, in their law of the Guarantees, they have deigned to
assign to him a species of civil list amounting to several millions of
lire. But this was done for the sake of appearance alone; for well
they knew that, in practice, this article would have precisely the
same effect as that other article prescribing the famous
inviolability. How in fact could these persons, who for five-and-twenty
years have known the magnanimous firmness of character of Pius IX., 783
persuade themselves that he would lower his dignity to accept an
obolus from their criminal and sacrilegious hands, in compensation for
the kingdom they have taken from him? They understood beforehand that
this would be impossible, because, even admitting that the Holy Father
had been willing to admit their civil list, under the title of
restitution, a thing not unlawful in itself if done without prejudice
to his rights, they perceived only too clearly that he could not have
done so in view of the malignant interpretations which would have
followed the act, occasioning an immense scandal and clamor; as if the
Pope by receiving a modicum of that property the whole of which
belongs to him by right had conceded the rest, over which he has
immemorial claims.
The matter, however, took such a shape that these brave gentlemen had
an ample field in which to display large figures, and even to acquire
the name of prodigality in offering round numbers to their victim.
Yes, indeed, they were prodigals, like unto those who offered vinegar
to the crucified Saviour.
God, ever adorable in his providence, has so disposed events that the
hearts of Catholics throughout the world have been moved to
compassionate their father in chains, and the gold of their filial
charity has abounded so wonderfully in his hands, that he has been
able to succor most plentifully those of his faithful servants who
have fallen into straits for conscience’ sake, together with many
indigent persons who have no other resource for a livelihood than the
heart of the imprisoned Pontiff.
The glory of this munificence is due to God alone, and the merit of it
is to be ascribed to the faith of good Christians. On the other hand,
the infamy of having embittered the captivity of the Holy Father, by
reducing him, with the Sacred College and his whole court, to a state
of absolute want, if he would not wear the appearance of dishonor,
this belongs exclusively to the Subalpine rulers, who at the foot of
the Campidoglio are enjoying the spoils of the Pontificate, as the
crucifiers on Mount Calvary enjoyed the spoils obtained by rending the
garments of Christ.
VI.
The jailers, and the friends and servants of the jailers of the Holy
Father, boast very much of the ample liberty he enjoys, which he can
use during his imprisonment for the regulation of the church and for
performing his office as Pope.
Let us examine a little in what this charming liberty consists. This
at the very first glance resolves itself into the following very clear
formula: The Pope is at liberty to do that--and that alone--which the
inimical power whose prisoner he is permits him to do.
And, in point of fact, the Holy Father is under this power, which
holds him in its hands, being _sub hostilem potestatem redactus_, as
he himself lately expressed it again in the Encyclical of May 15,
1871, in which he formally repudiates the _Guarantees_ offered him in
exchange for his principality. He who is under is _dependent_, and can
do only that to which he who is above consents. Thus the liberty of
the Pope is subject to the limits which the inimical power, his
oppressor, pleases to impose on him. And this same law of the
Guarantees is the proof of the fact, inasmuch as it contains only a
concession of hypothetical privileges. But he who concedes accounts 784
himself superior to him to whom the concession is granted. Whence the
true measure of the liberty of Pius IX. as Pope, is now simply the
arbitrary will of Italian Masonry, governed by the Subalpinists. This
is a certain fact as to matters in general.
With regard to particulars, the Holy Father uses such liberty as he
owes to his own courage and diligence, and the inimical power, his
jailer, cannot hinder him, though it would willingly do so, because a
power stronger than itself, or certain human respects, forbid such
opposition. As, for example, the Subalpine patrons would gladly hinder
his Holiness from publishing bulls or encyclicals, in condemnation of
their lofty enterprises against God, religion, and the Apostolic See.
His Holiness, not being at liberty to publish them in Rome under their
very nose, sends them out of Italy to be printed, and in this way
publishes them.
Now, what can these very liberal gentlemen do in a case like this?
Drag the Pope before the courts, and imprison him in the Castle of St.
Angelo? Most willingly would they do this; but the rulers of Europe
would oppose it. There is, then, no course left to them except to
interdict the publication of them within the state by sequestrating
the papers which reprint these acts of the Pope; and this they did
with the Encyclical of November 1, 1870. If for others of later
appearance they have shut their eyes and left them to their course, it
has been because they have at last been obliged to pay some regard to
public opinion, and have found their account in putting on a semblance
of toleration.
In a similar manner, the Holy Father, finding that the Subalpine
masters trumpeted forth loudly to the world that he was left at
liberty in the creation of bishops throughout Italy, embraced the
opportunity to exercise his right and to fulfil his duty. With
prudence certainly, but yet with boldness, he addressed himself to the
work. The matter was very displeasing to our gentlemen. But how were
they to hinder it? They wanted to give the Christian world to
understand that they are honorable men, not only in the modern sense
of the word, but also somewhat in the ancient sense: they wanted to
prove that they knew how to keep their word without being compelled by
cannons so to do. So _for this time_ it does not appear that they will
refuse entrance into their dioceses to the new pastors.
But thieves and loyalists as they are, they have taken advantage of
this act of the Holy Father, turning it to their own interest by
cowardly proclaiming in every direction that the Holy Father, by thus
using the privileges comprised in the law of the Guarantees respecting
the induction of bishops into their sees, has, _ipso facto_, _accepted_
their law, and thus retracted his refusal of the 15th of May, 1871,
and thus (according to them) the conciliation between themselves and
the Holy See is in good progress; and it will not be long before the
august Pontiff will give up his kingly crown into the hands of John
Lanza: and in this manner the Italy of the Subalpinists will enjoy the
distinguished honor of having the supreme head of the church for the
court-chaplain, and most humble servant of his ministers: an honor
certainly due to their merits as against faith, morality, and Catholic
worship.
This attempt at imposition is the more senseless in that it supposes
that the Holy Father had no other right to nominate the bishops than
as a state privilege; while the contrary is the case: the insertion of 785
the state in these nominations is merely a privilege granted by the
Pope: and the fact that the Pope has not thus recognized the Subalpine
gentlemen outside of their own territory proves that he, far from
accepting their _Guarantees_, does not even recognize them as
juridically masters of the district in which they compiled the
documents.
But the senselessness of the attempted imposition serves to prove how
determined they are to prevent the Holy Father from exercising any
true liberty.
VII.
Excepting the above-named use of his liberty, which the Holy Father
courageously exercises in spite of the useless repugnance of his
jailers, he in everything else remains in all the bonds and
perplexities with which they think fit to surround him. And thus:
1. Pius IX. is not at liberty to have a journal in Rome, in which he
may contradict the infinite number of falsities which the inimical
power, through its officious and official oracles, utters against his
person, against his acts, those of his court, or those of the
ministers of the Holy See.
Should he do so, the executive would subject him to all those rigorous
measures and sequestrations to which all the Catholics sheets of Rome
have been subjected which have endeavored to defend his honor or his
cause.
2. Pius IX., as we have already pointed out, is no longer at liberty
to publish his bulls, encyclicals, or allocutions in Rome: the fact
being that the inimical power, in this same law of the Guarantees, has
reserved to itself the faculty of judging them; and hence, either by
way of legal or illegal confiscations, has full and absolute power to
suppress their publication by main force. This obliges the head of the
church to make public his acts regarding the universal government of
Catholicism, by despatching them to be divulged outside the dominion
of his jailers; as he has done up to this date, and will continue to
do _donec transeat iniquitas_.
3. Pius IX. in Rome is not at liberty to contradict publicly by
telegraph the inventions concerning himself and his Pontifical acts
which the inimical power, his jailer, diffuses through the world by
this said telegraph; because the telegraph is under the express
authority of said power, and the use of it can be denied or rendered
difficult at its pleasure. Thus, last March the world received through
the telegraph fabulous accounts of a consistory held by the Pope, of
an allocution and other particular acts, all invented on the spur of
the moment; and before the world can detect the disgraceful imposture,
it may expect that for many days the falsehoods will be printed even
in Catholic journals, because our Subalpine gentlemen have it in their
power to mislead by means of the telegraph the Catholic community with
any kind of misrepresentation concerning the words and deeds of the
Pope, without the possibility of the Pope’s being able immediately to
undeceive them. Whence the necessity that _no reliance at all_ should
be placed on any telegram that the agency of the Subalpine government
transmits from Rome respecting the words or affairs of the Supreme
Pontiff.
4. Pius IX. in Rome is not at liberty to carry on a private
correspondence securely with the bishops and faithful of the world by 786
means of letters or telegrams; because both mails and telegraphs
belong to the inimical power which holds him captive. As an inimical
power, precisely because it is inimical, believes itself licensed to
take every precaution regarding its imprisoned _enemy_, so no one can
ever feel certain that the secrecy of the letters interchanged has not
been violated, or that the telegrams have not been altered or refused.
All this is _a question of trust_. But meanwhile, setting aside the
case of telegrams directed to the Pope, and refused by the telegraph
officials, it is a fact that the Holy Father is obliged to keep his
missives away from the mail-bags of Italy when he has any important
correspondence to carry on, as also other persons are obliged to do
when they wish to communicate with the Holy See. We repeat it: _it is
a question of trust_: and how much those who now command in Rome may
be trusted is attested by the honesty they have thus far exhibited.
5. Pius IX. in Rome and in the Vatican is not at liberty to receive
every one who wishes to visit him, or whom it may be necessary he
should see. All the approaches to the Pontifical palace are guarded by
bailiffs of the inimical power. And these men, though they may often
allow the goers and comers to be insulted by the rabble, never,
however, omit to play the spy. This office they perform so well that
certain journals written by those who are doubly linked with the
police of the Subalpine gentry would be able to furnish, if needed,
the daily list of all those admitted to the vestibule of the apostolic
residence. It is clear from these circumstances that it depends solely
on the arbitrary will of the inimical power to forbid any one the power
of ingress, or, if it prefer, to expel the individual from the city,
and thus save him the trouble of the journey to the Vatican.
In addition to these facts, the stonings, menaces, hootings, and
similar acts of urbanity practised in the streets of Rome and in the
neighborhood of St. Peter’s toward the numerous Catholic deputations
which came this year to pay their homage to the august prisoner, by
the rabble introduced through the breach of the _Porta Pia_--these
attest how great is that beautiful liberty enjoyed by the Pope in
receiving visitors, whether they come of their own accord or that he
sends for them.
6. Pius IX. in Rome will not long be at liberty to regulate the
religious institutions, and to employ them in the service of the
churches, as is right and proper he should do; because the inimical
power is already on the alert to deprive the Holy See of this strong
spiritual garrison: it is abolishing the orders, and depriving them of
their property. The superiors-general of these orders, which are
immediately subject to the Pontiff, will in a short time have no bread
to eat, no room to shelter them; they will wander homeless over the
earth, and lose their subjects on all sides. In this way, one of the
instruments of the Pontiff, most useful to him in the administration
of the church, will be, as it were, broken in his hand, and in the
city in which the Head of the Catholic Church has his seat the
profession of the evangelical state will be prohibited; and the Pope
will not be even able to give shelter to the various missionaries who
are toiling in the cause of Christianity among the heathen of Asia and
America, when they come to render an account of their newly founded
missions; for in all Rome he will no longer have a religious house of 787
hospitality at his disposal.
We will not lengthen details in order to enumerate the various other
particular modes of liberty which the Holy Father can no longer
exercise in the fulfilment of his supreme office. The exposition we
have already given suffices to prove that he has no liberty, save such
as the author of his affliction permits, either from his own authority
or from other causes; the permission being compulsory on the part of
the enemy, and most unwillingly given. And this is the marvellous
liberty now enjoyed by the Sovereign Pontiff, thanks to the
Subalpinists, who have dethroned him and uncrowned him in Rome itself,
out of love, as they say, for the holy church!
VIII.
Let us be just. Our Holy Father might be in a much worse condition
than the present one. His jailers as yet do not do him all the wrong
they would wish, but are not able to do him. This is true enough. They
have not as yet assailed the Vatican, and dragged Pius IX. to the
Fortress of Ancona, as they have done to the illustrious Cardinal
Morichini, Bishop of Jesi; or to a convent of Turin, as they have done
to the imperturbable Cardinal de Angelis. We repeat it: they would
like to do this, but are not able; they would like to do this and
worse, but the governments of Europe have absolutely forbidden them to
set foot in the Vatican, or to lay hands on the Sovereign Pontiff.
This and nothing else restrains them in the frenzy of their hatred
from beheading him at once. This and nothing else constrains them to
moderate the impetuosity of their hatred in carrying on their
persecutions against the Papacy. Fear compels these little Neros to
don the mantle of Julian; for, while under the eyes of two diplomatic
bodies in Rome, they dare not carry their outrages on the Pope and his
dignity beyond a certain limit.
From this we may infer that the only and _ultimate_ safeguard remaining
at the present moment to the Holy Father in the Vatican is not the law
called the law of the Guarantees, nor is it trust in the governors,
but the corps of diplomatists who have received from their various
governments instructions to maintain inviolate the asylum of the
octogenarian Pontiff, and to protect his august person.
Were it not for this only and ultimate safeguard, Catholics throughout
the world would now be weeping over their Father exiled from Rome, and
perhaps as having already expired from the bullets or sword of the
enemy.
IX.
But how long will this only and ultimate safeguard endure?--this
protection which renders the life and person of the Holy Father secure
in Rome?
As long as the Subalpinists hold the reins of government in Italy,
there seems no reason to fear that the security will become less.
These men know too well that, were they to lose Rome, they would lose
everything; and the only mode of keeping possession of Rome a little
longer is not to violate the Vatican. But on that day on which the
Italian faction shall get tired of being led by these ten or twelve
Piedmontese who form the perpetual Zodiac of the ministry; on that day
when this faction is weary of seeing all the master-machinery of the
state, the army, finance, bureaucracy, and diplomacy regulated by
Piedmontese; on that day when it takes it into its head to render the
government of this factious Italy _Italian_ in its manner of rebellion, 788
rather than provincial--on that day the danger will arise that even
this said only and ultimate safeguard may lose its force. For in such
a case, the mobocracy would come to the surface, and a scene of
destruction would be inaugurated varying little from that carried out
by the Commune of Paris.
The dilemma is this: either the Subalpinists or the Socialists must
prove fatal to our poor Italy, prepared as it is for revolution. God
alone knows what is to happen in the proximate future. But it is
certain that the present condition of the Holy Father in Rome cannot
endure much longer: it is certain that any agreement between him and
his spoilers is utterly out of the question. It is also certain that
Europe could not tolerate for a series of years that the Head of the
Catholic Church should be held as a prisoner by the men who at the
present day hold dominion throughout the Peninsula; and, finally, it
is certain that in his own time God will interfere, and his
intervention will not be to reward the persecutors of his Vicar on
earth. These four certainties keep the world in suspense, and the
authors and approvers of the transitory triumph of the _Porta Pia_
in uneasiness.
But in this extremity of affairs and in this intense trepidation of
mind, what is the duty of Catholics?
Is it to wish for an agreement between the Pope and the inimical power
which oppresses him?
This is but to assume the office of members of the faction, under the
disguise of zealous Catholics. He only who hath his part in the leaven
of the Pharisees can believe it possible for the successor of St.
Peter to sacrifice the eternal rights of Christ to the interests of
Belial.
Is it to recommend the Holy Father to abandon his own state and seek
compensation in some Catholic country outside of Italy? This is the
advice of the imprudent. The Holy Father has received from God the
grace of office to determine what is the best for the Apostolic See
and for the church. No one need trouble himself to give advice
unasked. He has his natural counsellors, and above all he has the
Spirit of the Lord, with whom he is in daily and fervent communion. If
Pius IX. remains in Rome, notwithstanding the satanic tempest which
howls so wildly and so furiously against him, it is a sign that he
knows such to be the will of God, and therefore makes it his duty to
remain. In the course of events, we shall see that, if the Pope has
remained in Rome, it is because it was best that he should remain
there.
The real duty of Catholics is, on the other hand (besides assiduous
prayer, conformably to the example of the primitive Christians when
St. Peter was _in vinculis_), to unite and so work as to hasten the
liberation of our common Father.
The Italian factionists reproach us Catholics of Italy with being
parricides because we implore from God and men this sighed-for
liberation. But it seems to us that it is they who commit parricide
who, having imprisoned the Pope after officially declaring such an act
to be contrary to the laws of nations and more than barbarous, have
brought injury and evil upon the country which we are ever praying God
to diminish. As for the rest, we Italian Catholics do not understand
how the independence, glory, and prosperity of our country can be made
properly to consist in the spoliation and captivity of the Supreme
Pontiff, and in being trod under foot by the Subalpinists.
We, imploring the liberation of our Holy Father, have not the remotest 789
idea that that liberation will cost any part of Italy its
independence. The honor of calling foreigners into Italy, to subject
it to personal advantage, and to pay for such power by presenting
these foreigners with Italian provinces, nay, with the keys of Italy
itself--we Catholics leave this to the idol of the Subalpinists, to
their Cavour, and to their sheep of every color.
We Italian Catholics, we say it again, do not desire that the
domination of our Father should bring with it any foreign domination,
not even over a hand’s-breadth of Italian territory. The shameful
traffic in people and in Italian territory could not be for us a means
of liberating the Pope, as for the Subalpinists it has been a means of
the so-called liberation of Italy. In this we are all agreed; we wish
for the independence of justice, because justice alone ensures the
happiness of nations.
But we Italian Catholics can of ourselves do little, because the
dominant inimical power, being the enemy of the Pope, is naturally our
enemy also, although we are the immense national majority. We are the
deplorable victims of modern liberty, which wholly consists in the
oppression of the many, who are honest but weak, beneath the feet of
the few, who are crafty and strong. Besides this, very serious and
insuperable difficulties of conscience oblige us to abstain from using
the most powerful of legal arms which liberalism says it has left in
the hands of that majority which is trodden under foot by the
minority. So that, if we may from this take occasion to cherish more
solid hopes that God will at length assist us in effecting means of
safety, yet in actual combat we now find ourselves unequal to the
contest.
This is not the case with the Catholics of the other countries of
Europe. It is their peculiar privilege so to address themselves to the
work that their governments may not only preserve and strengthen the
only and ultimate safeguard of the life and person of the Holy Father
in Rome; but that they may use their power for his liberation; that
thus with his full liberty the true liberty of the people may again
flourish--that liberty which is now enchained with Pius IX. in the
Vatican.
----------
ELINOR’S TRIAL. 790
“I do think John Lloyd is very weak in giving in to his wife so much!
To think now of his letting her send Elinor to a convent school! Such
a risk for a Protestant! Ten chances to one that Elinor comes back a
Papist. And then her _reasons_ are so absurd, that Protestant
boarding-schools cultivate too much of folly and fashion, etc.! I have
no patience with Elizabeth. If she were a Catholic herself, there
might be some excuse for her wanting her daughter educated among them,
but as she is a Protestant, I think Protestant schools might serve her
purpose.”
Thus speaks Mrs. Robert Lennox of her husband’s sister. She is talking
to her husband while they are going home from a fashionable church in
New York. She is a stately, handsome lady, to whom her rich attire
seems well adapted. Just now she appears displeased and somewhat more
haughty than usual, but the face is refined and the bearing polished.
More gentle than his wife in the treatment of the question in hand is
Mr. Lennox.
“Well, I cannot say Elizabeth is so very far out of the way. You know
John’s means are very limited, and these convent schools are cheaper
than ours. Besides, Elizabeth knows Elly cannot compete in dress and
all the furbelows, as our Lizzie does. So she prefers not to have her
exposed to the uncomfortableness of being the subject of derogatory
comparisons. You know young folks are keenly sensitive on such
points.”
“But, Robert, must such reasons weigh against the risk of perverting
the girl’s faith, the undermining of her religion? Would you trust
those sly, insinuating sisters with our daughter?”
Mr. Lennox smiles significantly as he replies: “I would not object to
Lizzie’s receiving some of that peculiar, modest, quiet air which
those sisters have and so often impart to their pupils. There is some
nameless charm, I cannot describe it better than by saying it is the
opposite of that which the young ladies of the present day cultivate
for their deportment, and which seems to belong almost exclusively to
this training.”
“Pshaw! Mere affectation of meekness. The girls are all the same at
heart. Why should not they be? I tell you it isn’t worth the risk!
Mark my words, you’ll see the effect on Elly’s religion.”
“Well, you know Elizabeth said that even that change of religion was
better than the irreligion or isms of the day.”
“Now, Robert, it is just to oppose me that you so persistently uphold
Elizabeth in this. Is it to be supposed that girls of sixteen are
going to take to isms in Protestant schools or irreligion either? Why,
they don’t know enough for that, at their age!”
“I do not dispute you. I only think that Elizabeth has preferred for
Elly this risk rather than have her of John’s state of mind. And that
is why John is so easy in the matter. Being of no faith himself, he
prides himself on being also of no prejudice. ‘The greater the faith,
the greater the bigotry,’ he says.”
“And I think you are just about as bad as John,” says the lady. “I 791
don’t believe you listened to the sermon at all to-day.”
This last charge passes unanswered, because they have arrived at their
own door, where we leave them.
II.
Two years after this, the cousins, Lizzie Lennox and Elinor Lloyd,
have returned from their respective schools: Lizzie from her
fashionable seminary, where she has received every advantage that
money could purchase, and where she has associated with the daughters
of the wealthiest, if not the most refined, families in the land. And
if wealth will not purchase the means and open the way for refinement,
pray what will? Does it not free the path from the thorns of toil,
give time and means for culture and for travel, and to surround
ourselves with the ennobling influences of art? And, above all, does
it not grant us the free indulgence of generous impulses? Do not all
the mortal ills of flesh which bear upon the rich bear also on the
poor, with more added to stand in the way of their refinement? It
would seem so.
Lizzie Lennox has all these advantages of wealth in her case, but her
cousin Elinor Lloyd is the daughter of a poor man. Poorer now than he
was two years ago, when he let his prudent wife have her way in the
choice of a convent school for her daughter. Elinor has been very
happy with the sisters, to whom she has become sincerely attached.
Their good example has not been lost upon her, but she denies
indignantly that any under-handed means have been used to warp her
religious feelings. They have simply and honestly acted out the
dictates of their own faith, exacting from her only such general
compliance as would be required in the schools of any denomination
among Protestants. If her affections have been won, and her young
heart drawn toward the religion of these gentle teachers, that was the
risk her mother took when she sent her willingly among the Sisters of
Charity.
The cousins are nearly of an age. Lizzie is named after her father’s
sister, Mrs. Lloyd, and Elinor after her aunt, Mrs. Lennox.
These cousins are strikingly alike, and yet singularly unlike in their
appearance. Their faces seem to have been cast in almost the same
mould, so exactly does every feature correspond, but the coloring is
so different that they present opposite types of beauty. For they are
very beautiful. Lizzie is exceedingly fair, with light auburn hair and
hazel eyes; the same reddish tint seeming to lurk in the eyes and
lashes as in the hair, which peculiarity any close observer of faces
may often see in this type. But Elinor’s eyes are a dark brown, and
her hair is very dark. She is too fair and pale for a brunette, and
her eyes are not black enough. Despite this difference in color, they
are very like her cousin Lizzie’s light orbs in expression. It is as
if a painter should take two sketches of the same face, and simply
change his colors for the touching of them. Indeed, a cast of each
might pass for the same person, so like are they, even to the carriage
of the head, the turn of the throat, the curve of the shoulders. I am
thus exact in my description, because out of this wonderful likeness
and difference of face and form came Elinor’s trial. But now, at
eighteen, Elinor’s face is softer and sweeter than that of her blonde
cousin. This difference is seen as they are listening or talking, more
than while their faces are in repose. Shall we say that it is the 792
result of training and education that Elinor seems the more refined
and modest? Or is it only a matter of inheritance, or a trick of
manner betokening nothing? I present them thus to the reader, who may
guess somewhat of their respective characters, as they sit chatting
their cousinly talk in Lizzie’s room. Lizzie is dressing to go out
with Elinor, and talking while she proceeds with her toilet.
“But, Elly, where is the harm of flirting a little, so long as you do
nothing serious, and never commit yourself?”
“I think you do commit yourself, Lizzie, when you put pen to paper to
answer a stranger’s letter, and when you cannot tell whether he is
true or false. More likely he is the latter, from the very fact of his
trying to draw you on. How do you know how he may use your letter?”
“But I haven’t signed my name, only my own initials. I use E. L., not
L. L. And you know I am known rather as Lizzie Lennox than Elizabeth
Lennox. No one ever thinks of me as Elizabeth--I don’t seem to be that
to myself. Now, you are either Elinor or Elly, but I am just Lizzie.
So you see I can hide under my own honest initials.”
“Ah Lizzie! why hide at all? Give it up. I don’t like this kind of
thing. I don’t believe the men who write to girls in this way care one
bit for them, except to make them contribute to their own amusement,
and feed their conceit. What good does it do when you don’t even see
each other?”
“But we may, after, if we want to, you know.”
“I shouldn’t want to see him, Lizzie; I hope you will never meet.”
“Now, Elly, it is just being with those sisters that makes you talk
so. Why, all the girls do so. It is only for fun, and the young men
know we don’t mean wrong. I could say ‘Evil he who evil thinks,’ only
I know you are not evil, only sisterified in this matter.”
“But, Lizzie, sisterified or not, you know I like fun as much as other
girls, only I don’t think this _is_ fun: I think it isn’t just right.
It is making yourself too cheap. I don’t like men well enough to do so
much for their amusement. I may be peculiar, but I certainly hate a
covert thing, and personals in the newspapers are very covert and very
cowardly. Mamma says a respectable paper will not publish them.
Besides, you dare not let your father and mother know this, dare you?”
“Oh! of course they would get a great scare, and think I was going to
do something much worse than I mean. But that doesn’t prove I would do
wrong.”
“No; but, Lizzie, don’t you hate to deceive them when they trust you
so freely? Is this stranger to be trusted and they not?”
“Well, I don’t want to give pain to either papa or mamma; and so if
they don’t know it, they will be spared all pain and fuss in the
matter, and nobody hurt. Now I’m ready. Let’s go.” And the two leaving
the house, the subject is dropped for the time.
* * * * *
Only one month has passed since the cousins have had this morning’s
talk together, but it has brought a great change in their feelings and
relations to each other.
First, Elinor has quietly but courageously avowed herself a Catholic.
Alone and unsupported she has made the great step--alone she goes to
Mass and Vespers--and without sympathy from her family she practises
faithfully all the observances of her church. In all this, she has 793
shown her aunt Lennox a wise prophet, but that lady is no less
indignant on that account. She enlarges upon her favorite text, and
congratulates herself that she has taken no such risk for her own
daughter’s falling into Popish pitfalls, and traps set for the young
and innocent. Lizzie chooses to consider herself called upon to give
up the intimacy and nearly all intercourse with her cousin. In this
she is secretly governed by a sense of annoyance at Elinor’s
persistent discountenancing of her clandestine correspondences, but
she makes a show of setting herself against “Popish influences.”
The parents of Elinor have taken the matter with seeming indifference.
She loses none of their love in consequence of the change in her
faith, and they are sure she is quite as good a daughter as ever. But
a greater trouble, if this is a trouble, now absorbs their minds. John
Lloyd has failed in business and failed in health. He is a broken-down
man. In this emergency, Elinor has determined to accept a situation as
musical governess in a wealthy family. She has felt the tug at her
heartstrings, no less from her wounded pride in the matter of her
changed social position, than in the hard necessity to leave her home
and parents. She is no saint, only a good, pure-minded girl, who is
scrupulously conscientious in all things. She battles against a bitter
feeling of almost envy toward the better luck and easier life of her
cousin. She does not really wish Lizzie to be as poor as herself, and
she is sure she would rather be herself than Lizzie, but she does wish
her father and mother were in the same comfortable ease that her uncle
and aunt enjoy. Her uncle is disposed to be very kind to her, but he
is hampered by his wife and daughter in their bitter opposition to
her. He has sent her a check to defray all necessary expenses in her
wardrobe. So she goes to her new home so nicely clad that at least no
air of shabbiness clings to her. Brave as she may be, this feminine
sensitiveness to her appearance is very acute in her. Foolish vanity
concerning dress she may not have, but, being young, she is only
natural in liking to look well, to pass criticism which she cannot
ignore at least creditably. If a young woman has not this much of
feeling concerning her toilet, she is probably slovenly, or else she
affects an eccentricity which is more disagreeable than a love for
finery. Elinor is refined in her nature, and she is not strong-minded,
so she likes the good opinion of others.
Elinor soon settles into the new and changed relations of her life,
the more easily because her employer proves exceedingly kind. As her
forte is music, she is of course, in the exercise of that
accomplishment, brought into more constant contact and intercourse
with the guests at the house than the mere instruction and supervision
of her pupils would demand. Her seat at the piano calls to her the
attention and brings upon her the criticism of many who otherwise
might never notice her. And so it has happened that young Mr.
Schuyler, the brother of her hostess, has more frequently than any
other turned the leaves of her music, sang to her accompaniment, and
gazed admiringly upon the pretty hands moving over the keys and upon
the charming face turned to the pages before it. Mr. Schuyler is an
agreeable young gentleman, good-looking enough, graceful enough, and
flattering enough in his address to ladies to win their pleased
recognition of his attentions. But buzzing in his admiration around 794
each sweet flower like the veriest male coquette of a bee, he is just
unstable enough also to tantalize the fair recipients of his
attentions. Elinor likes him, but with a little reserve. She is not of
a distrustful nature, but she does not quite like Mr. Schuyler’s
manner to her. He has been very unreserved in his admiration. He has
attempted some sentimental love-making, but there has always been a
sort of holding back--a non-committal manner, which has not seemed to
her straightforward and manly. It has appeared to her that he has been
attempting to gain her regard without making any actual avowal
himself, and that he is trying to amuse himself or feed his own vanity
at her expense. Yet she is so afraid of being unjust to him, knowing
that her position in the family may make her unduly sensitive, that
she strives against this feeling. He really is very kind in a great
many little ways which she would be ashamed not to acknowledge, and
she thinks, if she were not a governess for his sister, she might
receive his attentions in a less cavilling spirit.
In the meantime, Mr. Schuyler studies Elinor from quite a different
point of view from any she imagines. He has found by repeated
experiment that he cannot make her understand or respond to various
little devices which he has been in the habit of using to flirt with
certain school-girls whom he has met often in his daily walks and
rides. All these signals pass unnoticed upon the convent girl. But in
fluttering thus around this innocent, cold light, the gay moth has got
his wings singed. He does really love Elinor as much as such a nature
is capable of loving. Just because she has _not_ responded to any of
his advances, he has become more seriously interested in her. But just
when an honorable feeling of choosing her from all others is dawning
as a possibility on his mind, a wonderful discovery bursts upon him.
He has been amusing himself by conducting a correspondence with some
unknown lady who has signed herself “E. L.” This incognita has at last
yielded to an oft-urged request to send her picture, and a fine
photograph of a beautiful girl has come to him. Whose face does he
see? “By all that is astounding,” he says, “Miss Lloyd!” He cannot be
mistaken. The very same. It is a Rembrandt shadow picture, by which he
studies every line of the profile, while it shows also the contour of
the full face. There is the dark hair waving from the same fair
forehead. The eyes are the same dark orbs with the long lashes, only
he has never seen just this bright, coquettish, laughing look in them
before. It is wonderfully charming in the picture, but he really does
not like it as well as the other thoughtful, intent gaze he has lately
come to love so well.
“The demure little cheat!” he says. “Well, she is very versatile, it
must be confessed. Who would have thought it? But stop. This may be a
cheat. The whole thing is so unlike her. I do believe the writer has
sent Miss Lloyd’s picture instead of her own. ‘E. L.’ L for Lloyd
certainly, and I saw Elinor Lloyd written on her music, and, by Jove!
I think it was the very writing. I’ll look again”--which he does, and
finds it to be just the very same E and L; and no wonder, for Lizzie
Lennox wrote it in other days, when she gave that music to her cousin.
Then he observes, what careless Lizzie has never once thought of, the
name of the photographer, to whom he goes at once, and by no very
adroit means discovers the name of the fair original. And here he is 795
again astonished. He finds he has the photograph of Miss Lizzie
Lennox. “L. L.,” he says to himself, “and not E. L., after all,” and
in his bewilderment it is actually some days before it occurs to him
that Lizzie is the pet name for Elizabeth.
Now, having arrived thus far in his pursuit of information under
difficulties, he is unable to decide whether she is Miss Lennox or
Miss Lloyd. In this dilemma he questions his sister, Mrs. Wood, and
determines that she can scarcely be any other than the Miss Lloyd she
professes herself. So the false name has been given the photographer,
he thinks; and he makes up his mind that Miss Lloyd, though
unquestionably very charming, is about as profound a coquette as he is
ever likely to meet.
And so believing, his manner toward Elinor takes on a new phase, which
pleases her so little that it has the effect of making her more
reserved than heretofore. She now avoids him as much as possible, and
yet she is conscious of a sharp pain in thus being driven to an
attitude of defence. She is young and frank, and would be
light-hearted if in her true position. She has really liked Frederick
Schuyler because she found him companionable in a house where all are
either older or younger than herself except him. Their tastes are
similar in many things, and of late he had seemed to her more honest.
But now he treats her with a certain familiarity of look and tone
which offends her nice sense of propriety. She cannot guess at the
false position in which she is placed. She has been very reticent
concerning herself and her relatives. True pride and dignity have made
her forbear to allude to her wealthy relations, the Lennoxes, now that
she is supporting herself. She does not wish to seem to make any claim
for consideration outside of her own individual merits. This is not
vanity, but proper self-respect; and this feeling is increased by the
utter silence which Lizzie has preserved toward her. But as she
withdraws from even the slight friendship which she had allowed to
spring up between herself and Mr. Schuyler, she feels more lonely. Her
religion separates her also from a closer confidence with Mrs. Wood,
who goes to a fashionable Unitarian church.
But Frederick Schuyler does not give up his interest in this baffling
coquette, for so he firmly believes Elinor to be. Does he not hold the
proof? He has sent his own picture to E. L. at the usual address, and
he firmly believes that Elinor Lloyd has that picture in her
possession. He waits until he receives an acknowledgment from E. L.;
and then he watches Elinor. He is prepared to see her betray her
overwhelming confusion at discovering who her unknown correspondent
is. What, then, is his amazement, his disappointment, at seeing no
ripple of disturbance in her composed demeanor! He is exasperated at
this assurance. He determines to shake her composure by direct means.
The opportunity offers only too soon.
As the last music lesson for the day is finished and the pupil bounds
from the room, Mr. Frederick Schuyler presents himself with a peculiar
and, to Elinor, an offensive smile on his face.
“Miss Lloyd,” he says blandly, “do you not think it is time to drop
this masking?”
Elinor looks at him with wondering and offended eyes. They are not the
eyes of either the picture, or the soft brown ones he has known
hitherto as hers. They flash up to him in angry brilliancy as she 796
replies:
“I do not understand you, sir!” So sure is he, and so amazed at this
stubbornness, that he almost as indignantly replies:
“And I am sure I cannot understand you!”
“I do not desire that you should,” she retorts: “but I think it due to
myself to demand why you presume to thus address me, Mr. Schuyler.”
The offended tone remains, but blended with it is a little faint touch
of grieved feeling, which his nice ear detects.
“Can you pretend to still treat me as if you did not recognize me? Is
my picture so unlike me that you do not know the original?”
“Your picture!” and such a world of wonderment is expressed in her
voice that he thinks she ought to be on the stage for consummate
acting.
“Perhaps you do not recognize this,” and he holds before her a picture
so like herself that she is confounded. For the moment, she really
does not see her cousin Lizzie as plainly as herself. The photograph,
like one of those libellous stories which are true in detail, but
false in implication, has given the reddish tint in Lizzie’s hair,
brows, and lashes dark as her own, and there is the blonde cousin
presented, the very counterpart of the brunette, one. The light hazel
eyes are in the photograph, dark as Elinor’s own.
Elinor gazes speechless for a moment. Then she recognizes the dress of
her cousin, and the expression _not_ her own which she knows so
well. It all rushes upon her perception at once--the cruel
mistake--Lizzie’s clandestine correspondence, of which she disapproved
so much--the well-known resemblance between them--the picture more
like herself than Lizzie--she sees it all, and she sees Mr. Schuyler’s
triumph in her discomfiture. Guilty Lizzie would not look so guilty as
innocent Elinor looks now.
“Checkmate!” says Mr. Schuyler. His tone stings her.
“Mr. Schuyler, this is not my picture. I never sat for it.”
“Miss Lloyd!”
“I repeat, sir! This is not my picture, and I wear no mask.”
“But you are ‘E. L.,’” he says, showing her his last missive with that
signature, “and you acknowledge receiving one like this,” and he
confronts her with a duplicate of his own picture.
“My name is Elinor Lloyd, and I have never written to you, and this is
the first time I have seen either of these pictures,” she replies,
glancing disdainfully at each of them.
“Do you know whose this is?” he asks.
At this point-blank question, Elinor bursts into tears. The cruelty of
the position in which she finds herself is too much for her. She will
not betray her cousin, and she knows that on her own denial alone,
against overwhelming evidence, rests her defence of herself. And in
tears, distressed beyond measure, she rushes from the room. Mr.
Schuyler gives a long, low whistle. He is inclined to believe she has
told him the truth, in spite of all he knows and has seen. For why
does she wish to deny it? What girl who could do this thing would so
spurn the accusation? Her proud assertion, “My name is Elinor Lloyd,
and I have never written to you,” rings in his ears. He believes it,
as we will all of us sometimes believe, apparently against reason. He
knows that he wishes to believe in her truth, despite his vanity.
A little book lies near a roll of music on the piano, with her gloves
and hat. He takes up this book and examines it, for no reason except 797
that it appears to belong to her. A copy of Dickens’ _Barnaby Rudge_,
with a mark at the description of the Lord George Gordon Riots, and
pencil marks on the margin. He turns idly to the fly-leaf, and sees
written, “Elizabeth Lennox, from her brother Robert.” O cruel
evidence! “Circumstance, that unspiritual god and miscreator,” again
shows Elinor as a liar. What can he do now but doubt her word? Elinor
meanwhile is pacing her room in a tumult of agitation. Her first
impulse is to abandon her engagement with Mrs. Wood at once, and go to
her parents. But poverty among other hard impositions forbids us
acting on the dictates of pride, be it ever so honorable. Elinor
shrinks from staying, but also shrinks from giving her reasons for
leaving to her parents or to Mrs. Wood. To give false ones, covering
her real one, never for one moment occurs to her. She feels keenly the
cruelty, the injustice of the false position in which Lizzie’s folly
has placed her. Yet she is too generous at heart to betray Lizzie even
to her mother. She knows that when Lizzie told her of this “bit of
fun” it was in confidence, and troublesome as the trust has proved,
she will keep it until she is released. But she feels how hard it is
to know how to act rightly, unaided, uncounselled. One refuge,
however, she has--one counsellor who never betrays his trust, and who
does not require her cousin’s name or identity. O blessed privilege of
a Catholic! The safe, sure refuge of the confessional is Elinor’s.
What better human guide and comforter than her pastor can she seek? No
fears of a betrayed trust is here. So to him she goes, and from him
she receives the needed strength to bear her heavy trial--for heavy
trial it is on such a young heart, all the more so because she cannot
suppose her silence has put a stop to this disgraceful affair. She has
written to Lizzie explaining what has happened, and begging her to
lift this weight from her, and at least free her from this blame. And
Lizzie has indignantly replied that she will not interfere, and that
she believes Elinor to be the betrayer of her name to Fred Schuyler,
and moreover hints that it has been done to win him to herself.
This rouses Elinor to such a degree that she nearly forgets her
counsel to “return good for evil.” Prayer and meditation, however,
those best of medicines for disturbed souls, work their good effect
for her, and she is able still to bear in silence, trusting that time
will lift the stigma off her. So she shuns as best she can all
intercourse with Mr. Schuyler.
And thus about three unhappy weeks pass. Mr. Schuyler gives up trying
to enlist Elinor’s attention, and he leaves the last communication of
E. L. unanswered. He receives no more of those interesting missives.
Lizzie, thoroughly frightened, stops this amusement for herself.
But at last the Nemesis, circumstance, overtakes her--the circumstance
of meeting Mr. Frederick Schuyler at a party. A very small
circumstance apparently, but pregnant with much for three individuals.
He sees her standing not far off from him, in all the blaze of
gas-light and full dress. He has never seen Elinor at this advantage,
but the perfect profile and the proud carriage of the head impress him
at once. Yet those blonde locks and the light laughing eyes--these are
neither like Elinor’s nor the picture. Lovely this face certainly is,
but he remembers the darker one as pleasing him more. The remarkable 798
resemblance, however, has so startled him, that he actually trembles
as he asks a friend who has been talking with her to tell him her name.
“Miss Lennox.”
“Do you know her first name?” he says, with forced composure.
“Oh! yes. Lizzie Lennox and I are old friends; let me introduce you.”
And in the brief interval before he is presented, he only remembers
that it is L. L. and not E. L., the lady of the photograph but not of
the correspondence.
Lizzie passes this ordeal with a frightened, throbbing heart, but a
polite, calm exterior, thankful to be very soon claimed for the next
dance, and to leave Mr. Schuyler for the present at least. She is a
foolish coquette, but not an evil-minded girl. Weak, vain, selfish,
but not bad-hearted--she has really felt troubled by the mean way in
which she has refused to clear her cousin of the suspicion which she
has brought upon her, but her selfishness has prevailed in the matter.
To protect herself has seemed to her of more consequence than to clear
Elinor. And the possible consequence of her parents knowing all about
this little escapade has not seemed to her at all pleasant to
contemplate. And so she has been vacillating between the desire to do
right and the fear of exposure ever since she has received Elinor’s
letter. She is equally ignorant of how much she may be known to Mr.
Schuyler, or how far she may be protected by her cousin’s magnanimity.
She moreover finds Mr. Schuyler better than his photograph on
inspection, as a handsome face generally is better than a photograph
of it. Meanwhile, that gentleman has recollected that Elizabeth and
Lizzie are the same name. He has been watching this airy, graceful dancer,
and he has seen that she has been observing him. Elinor is
absolved from all blame in his mind. The only shred of mystery left is
the name in that book of hers. Lizzie, resting after her last round
dance, sees him approach with both dread and pleasure. He wastes no
time in prefatory remarks, but says, “Miss Lennox, are you related to
a Miss Elinor Lloyd?”
Lizzie has the command of this situation better than Mr. Schuyler. She
knows the full purport of the question, but being asked by Elinor in a
letter to speak the truth while she can yet hide it, and by handsome
Fred Schuyler looking into her eyes, and knowing her for the girl he
has been flirting with, are two very different matters. Here she may
make a virtue of necessity, and perhaps a conquest at the same time.
Ah! if our good deeds are viewed by the light of our motives, how very
much the virtue in them seems to pale.
Lizzie says with charming candor, “Oh! yes, she is my cousin; do you
know her?”
“Yes, Miss Lennox, and I saw your name in a book she had--_Barnaby
Rudge_--and it appeared to have been quite attentively read, from
the marginal notes I saw.”
Lizzie shows a momentary astonishment. “Why, Mr. Schuyler, the only
copy of Dickens’ _Barnaby Rudge_ I have is at home in the New
Riverside set papa gave me only lately--since”--she pauses a little
confused--“since I have seen Elly last. Besides, I don’t make notes on
the margins of my books, and I am quite sure Elly would not in mine. I
think it could not have been my name you saw.”
“Indeed, I saw it, ‘Elizabeth Lennox,’ and from your ‘brother Robert.’”
Lizzie laughs merrily, and she looks the very image of innocent fun as 799
she responds to this triumphant assertion.
“Oh! that’s a good joke! My _brother_ Robert! Why, that’s papa! And
the name is his sister’s. She is Elinor’s mother. Why didn’t she tell
you! I hate such mysteries.” And she shoots such a glance as would
once have been a challenge irresistible. He keeps up the badinage, but
he is answering that question, “Why did she not tell you?” in a manner
not flattering to Miss Lennox, but very much so to Miss Lloyd. The
former young lady is not quite pleased with his abstracted manner.
True, he dances with her, chats with her, compliments her, but she is
not satisfied. She is wishing that this was the first intercourse she
has had with Mr. Schuyler, and that he had nothing to remember of
Lizzie Lennox, and no previous knowledge of her--she has an intuitive
sense that she does not stand as well as her cousin in his estimation,
and that her chance would have been better if she had never written to
him. He, however, generously makes no allusion to that correspondence.
He is ashamed of it for her, and heartily wishes it had never been. He
is thinking how he can make his peace with her cousin, of whom he
feels glad to think so well, when he is startled by the words.
“Elinor and I are not friends now as we were once--before she became a
Catholic.”
“Miss Lloyd a Catholic!”
“Yes, Mr. Schuyler, did you not know that? All of the family are
Protestants except her. Her mother was so very liberal as to allow her
to be educated at a convent of those Sisters of Charity, and this is
the result. I have never been intimate with her since.”
Mr. Schuyler is very uncomfortably astonished by this information.
He has had pleasant thoughts of the possible consequence of his
reconciliation with Elinor. She has so much risen in his estimation by
this solution of the picture mystery and her generous, honorable
forbearance toward Lizzie, that he is thinking how very pleasant it
would be to pass his life with such a companion. She certainly has
proved herself very trustworthy. But a Catholic! That changes the
aspect of affairs. Does he want a wife of that faith? Would not the
coquettish blonde beauty be more desirable? And yet he cannot say that
the ways of Miss Lennox altogether please him. He has been willing to
amuse himself by a clandestine correspondence with the unknown beauty,
but the known writer of those entertaining epistles does not seem to
him just the one to trust with his life’s chance of domestic bliss.
The trust is not for just such as she. He really believes no harm of
Lizzie, but he knows a worse man might think worse of her than she
deserves. He wishes she were the Catholic and Elinor the Protestant.
Why now, for the upholding of all his cherished beliefs and
prejudices, could not the result of the two different systems of
education have been reversed? Surely, he thinks, “Popery would, as a
rule, have made such a girl as Lizzie rather than one like Elinor.
After all,” he concludes, “the difference is in their own natures, and
would have shown itself had they both had the same training,” and in
this we cannot dispute him. But possibly, although Elinor might never
have condescended to such a course, Lizzie might with better teaching
have been saved from it also. The girl is not evil, only young, weak,
vain, and she has needed just that which Elinor has had to sustain and
strengthen her. Lizzie relies on herself, on her own crude knowledge 800
of the world, and on just as much advice as she chooses to accept. She
never bares her conscience and her soul, as Elinor does, to any one.
Therefore, she not only robs herself of the counsel of wiser heads,
but she never brings upon herself that searching self-examination
necessary to the seeing of herself rightly. Had she done that, had she
been forced to look with this introverted gaze upon herself, she would
have shrunk from placing herself in this doubtful position. She will
remember this in after years with a sense of annoyance, if not of any
deeper sentiment. And yet her present feeling toward Elinor is one of
irritation. She knows that Elinor was right in her advice to her, and
that she can look down upon her from a more exalted height. The fact
that she has not taken airs of superiority on herself has not lessened
Lizzie’s resentment. The feeling that she is on a lower moral plane
than that of her Catholic, convent-educated cousin, is a sufficient
grievance of itself, and admits to her unregulated mind of no
extenuation in Elinor’s behalf.
It is not very easy for Mr. Schuyler to find an opportunity to explain
to Elinor his enlightenment and change of views. She shuns him so
sedulously that he begins to think he will have to tell her at the
table, in the presence of the family, that he has met her cousin.
True, he could do this without any indelicacy, but he has planned a
little programme of a _tête-à-tête_, which he thinks more pleasant,
to himself at least, than leaving her to draw her own conclusions from
such meagre information as he can give her in the presence of others.
Moreover, he does not wish to startle her before others by mentioning
Lizzie’s name--a sore subject to her, he suspects. So he bides his
time, although impatiently. If Elinor were like her cousin, he thinks
he would not wait so long for opportunity to speak. His man’s nature
is aroused by the necessity of pursuing.
But Mr. Schuyler has not made up his mind that he is willing to take a
Catholic wife. He is at present only desirous of establishing the old
pleasant, friendly footing between Elinor and himself--possibly a more
tender one; but he will not yet commit himself. Not until he has seen
how deeply rooted is her Catholicism--only an ism, it seems to him. He
is getting impatient, however, at her continued indifference toward
him. He sees that he must make his opportunity; and, being a young
gentleman fertile in expedients, he resorts to waylaying her at the
hour when her last music lesson is ended for the day.
Elinor’s face flushes and her brow contracts--a little indignant flash
is in her brown eyes as he confronts her. She remembers the last scene
between them at that hour by the piano, and it does not tend to soften
her manner. Evidently he has got all the work to do, unhelped by her.
So he starts off, as is his usual manner, with an abrupt introduction
of the subject.
“Miss Lloyd, I owe you an apology for declaring that I had your
picture in my possession. I know now whose picture it is.”
“You should have known it was not mine, sir, when I told you so,” and
she blushes again at the thought of Lizzie’s being known. Even when
the blame is lifted from herself, she does not rejoice in her cousin’s
exposure.
“I did know it, Miss Lloyd; I did believe you, on my soul, against all
the wonderful evidence of the remarkable likeness to you. I did believe
that picture was not yours, or that at least you did not send me it, 801
or know of my having it. But how could I know that it was your
mother’s name in your book?”
He stops confused. Elinor has never yet known of that added testimony
against her. Had she known it, she would at once have told him it was
her mother’s name. There was no reason for any mystery concerning
that, it being no part of Lizzie’s confidences to her. If he had had
that clue, perhaps he might have come to some imperfect glimpse of the
truth. In answer to her wondering inquiry, “What book?” he says now
humbly:
“You left a book you appeared to own on the piano. I took the liberty
of looking at it, and read a name in it which I knew belonged to her
whose picture I mistook for yours. Your cousin, Miss Lloyd, is very
like and very unlike yourself. I met her a short time since at a
party; and even seeing her before me, the original of that picture, I
could scarcely believe it was those fair locks which the sun made so
dark in her picture. I may certainly be excused for not remembering
this trick of photography, especially when you two are in features so
very similar.” He says this last pleadingly, because the displeased
look is not gone from her face.
“Mr. Schuyler,” she says, “your mistake concerning that picture was
more natural and more excusable than your supposing me the writer of
that letter, or the giver of that picture. I think, whatever the
evidence you may have supposed yourself to possess, my uniform bearing
and manner toward you should have freed me from any such supposition
on your part. I could not tell you whose picture you had, but I was
free to tell you whose name was in my book.”
“But, Miss Lloyd, even if you had given me the chance to ask you, I
could scarcely take upon myself the liberty of seeming to make you
accountable to myself for any name written in your book. The very
asking of that would have seemed an accusation.”
Elinor’s quick sense of justice sees this readily, and her brow
clears. Hard as it has been against herself, she admits that it was an
entanglement for him. So she says more graciously: “We will let it
pass, Mr. Schuyler. I wish the whole matter for all parties could be
disposed of as easily as I can pass out of it.” And she endeavors to
leave him, with a provoking air of taking no further interest in him
or his changed footing toward herself. He gently makes a motion of
barring her way. She stands waiting to hear what he has further to say
to her, but there is no evidence of any desire to remain.
“It is so long since we have spoken together in this friendly fashion,
that I think you need not be in such haste to shorten our
conversation.”
He says this in such a flattering way, implying that to talk with her
is the one great delight for him, that her girl’s sense of pleasing
and being pleased is quickened, but she only toys with the tassel of
the curtain near which she is standing, and says nothing.
Again Mr. Frederick finds he has all the advances to make toward
conversation, unaided by her.
“Miss Lennox tells me you were educated at a convent. Is that the
reason you are so shy of me, or is it because I am a Protestant, Miss
Lloyd?”
“My parents are Protestants, and all my relatives. It would be strange
for me to be afraid of a Protestant.”
“And yet you can be of so very different a faith. May I ask, is it a 802
matter of conscience with you, or only one of taste?”
“I do not understand religion being a matter of only taste, Mr.
Schuyler,” she says simply.
“Why, don’t you think it is taste, preference only for the gorgeous
and ceremonial, which makes the Ritualists of St. Alban’s and St.
Mary’s do as they do?”
“I cannot decide upon their motives, Mr. Schuyler. I only know that if
my conscience were not in this, I should not separate myself in my
faith from that of my family.” She says this with a firm bearing and a
lofty look at him which abashes him. He begins to suspect that this
young convert _will not_ swerve from her path from any regard for him.
He has a full share of conceit, fed by his success with the girls of
his acquaintance. He has won their smiles so readily heretofore, and
he has pleased and flattered them so easily, that he is piqued at
making no better impression now when he really tries.
Again Elinor moves to the door. He lets her pass with the words, “We
are friends now, are we not?”
“Friends, oh! certainly,” she says, but her tone does not seem so
delighted at this change in their relations as he thinks it should be.
The truth is, Elinor has thought much over Mr. Schuyler’s little
flirtation with her cousin, and he has not come out from that
inspection of his conduct with any great credit, in her way of looking
at it. She thinks that although he may pass unscathed by such
indulgence, it is not honorable in him to tempt one younger and weaker
than himself into such practices. She thinks if Lizzie could find no
one like him to entice her into this folly, she must perforce amuse
herself in some other way. It seems to her that his motives were bad.
And she suspects that if she would have lent herself to this sort of
thing, he would have been just as ready to conduct an affair of the
kind with herself. Her native good sense shows her this, and she is
thankful for the different example and teaching which has hedged her
in from ever giving a chance for such a thing. The amount of all this
is, that the little inclination to like Mr. Fred Schuyler which she
had once is now gone, she has no trust in him, and without, trust
there can be no abiding love.
Therefore, when, some days after that gentleman overcomes his dislike
of her religion so far as to absolutely offer his heart, hand, and
fortune to her, this disdainful Catholic astonishes him with these
words:
“I think, Mr. Schuyler, that these protestations are more due to my
cousin Lizzie than to me. If you speak truth to me, you have spoken
false to her. If it is truth to her, what am I to believe? Mr.
Schuyler, ‘I must trust all in all,’ or not at all.”
----------
OWEN ON SPIRITISM.[159] 803
Mr. Owen, though he has since been a member of Congress, and an
American minister at Naples, was formerly well known in this city as
associated with Frances Wright in editing the _Free Enquirer_, as the
author of an infamous work on moral physiology, and as an avowed
atheist. He now claims to be a believer in the existence of God, and
in the truth of the Christian religion; but his God has no freedom of
action, being hedged in and bound hand and foot by the laws of nature,
and his Christianity is a Christianity without Christ, and
indistinguishable from unmitigated heathenism. How much he has gained
by his conversion, through the intervention of the spirits, from
atheism to demonism and gross superstition, it is not easy to say,
though it is better to believe in the devil, if one does not mistake
him for God, than it is to believe in nothing.
Mr. Owen makes, as do hundreds of others, a mistake in using the word
_spiritualism_ for _spiritism_, and spiritual for spirital or
spiritalistic. Spiritualism is appropriated to designate a system of
philosophy opposed to sensism or materialism, and spiritual stands
opposed to sensual or carnal, and is too holy a term to be applied to
spirit-rapping, table-tipping, and other antics of the spirits. Mr.
Owen is unhappy in naming his books. He holds that the universe is
governed by inflexible, immutable, and imperishable physical laws;
that all events or manifestations take place by the agency of these
laws; that the future is only the continuation and development of the
present; and that death is only the throwing off of one’s overcoat,
and the life after death is the identical life, without any
interruption, that we now live. We see not well how he can assert
another world, or a debatable land between this world and the next. If
all things and all events are produced by the agency of natural laws,
and those laws are universal and unchangeable, we are unable to
conceive any world above or beyond nature, or any world in any sense
distinguishable from the present natural world. His books are
therefore decidedly misnamed, and so named as to imply the existence
of another world and a world after this, which cannot on his
principles be true.
Mr. Owen’s first book was mainly intended to establish the fact and to
show the character of the spirit-manifestations; in his last work, his
design is to show that these manifestations take place by virtue of
the physical law of the universe, that they are of the same nature and
origin with the Christian miracles, inspiration, and revelation, and
are simply supplementary to them, or designed to continue, augment,
and develop them; and to show, especially to Protestants, that, if
they mean to make theology a progressive science, and win the victory
over their enemy the Catholic Church, they must call in the spirits to 804
their aid, and accept and profit by their inspirations and
revelations.
This shows that the author leans to Protestantism, and seeks its
triumph over Catholicity; or that he regards Protestantism as offering
a more congenial soil for the seed he would sow than the old church
with her hierarchy and infallibility. Certainly, he holds that, as it
is, Protestantism is losing ground. In 1580 it held the vast majority
of the people of Europe, but is now only a feeble minority. Even in
this country, he says, if Catholics continue to increase for a third
of a century to come in the same ratio that they have for the last
three-fourths of a century, they will have a decided majority. As
things now go, the whole world will become Catholic, and the only way
to prevent it, he thinks, is to accept the aid of the spirits. We are
not so sure that this aid would suffice, for Satan, their chief, has
been the fast friend of Protestants ever since he persuaded Luther to
give up private Masses, and has done his best for them, and it is
difficult to see what more he can do for them than he has hitherto
done.
Mr. Owen, since he holds the spirit-manifestations take place by a
natural law, always operative, and always producing the same effects
in the same or like favorable circumstances, of course cannot
recognize in them anything miraculous or supernatural; and, as he
holds the alleged Christian miracles, the wonderful things recorded in
the Old and New Testaments, are of the same order, and produced by the
same agency, he, while freely admitting them as facts, denies their
miraculous or supernatural character. He thinks that the circumstances
when these extraordinary events occurred were favorable to
spirit-manifestations; the age was exceedingly ignorant,
superstitious, and semi-barbarous, and needed new accessions of light
and truth, and the spirits, through our Lord and his apostles as
medium--God forgive us for repeating the blasphemy--made such
revelations as that age most needed or could bear or assimilate. This
age also needs further revelations of truth, especially to enable it
to throw off the incubus of a fixed, permanent, non-progressive,
infallible church, and secure an open field, and a final victory for
the rational religion and progressive theology implied in the
Protestant Reformation. So the spirits once more kindly come to our
assistance, and reveal to us such further portions of truth as man is
prepared for and especially needs. Very generous in them.
This is the doctrine, briefly and faithfully stated, of Mr. Owen’s
_Debatable Land_, which he sets forth with a charming _naïveté_, and
a self-complacency little short of the sublime. There is this to be
said in his favor--the devil speaks better English through him than
through the majority of the mediums he seems compelled to use; yet not
much better sense. But what new light have the spirits shed over the
great problems of life and death, time and eternity, good and evil, or
what new revelations of truth have they made? Here is the author’s
summary of their teaching:
“1. This is a world governed by a God of love and mercy, in which
all things work together for good to those who reverently conform
to his eternal laws.
“2. In strictness there is no death. Life continues from the life
which now is into that which is to come, even as it continues
from one day to another; the sleep which goes by the name of
death being but a brief transition-slumber, from which, for the
good, the awakening is immeasurably more glorious than is the
dawn of earthly morning, the brightest that ever shone. In all 805
cases in which life is well-spent, the change which men are wont
to call death is God’s last and best gift to his creatures here.
“3. The earth-phase of life is an essential preparation for the
life which is to come. Its appropriate duties and callings cannot
be neglected without injury to human welfare and development,
both in this world and in the next. Even its enjoyments,
temperately accepted, are fit preludes to the happiness of a
higher state.
“4. The phase of life which follows the death-change is, in
strictest sense, the supplement of that which precedes it. It has
the same variety of avocations, duties, enjoyments,
corresponding, in a measure, to those of earth, but far more
elevated; and its denizens have the same variety of character and
of intelligence; existing, too, as men do here, in a state of
progress. Released from bodily earth-clog, their periscope is
wider, their perceptions more acute, their spiritual knowledge
much greater, their judgment clearer, their progress more rapid,
than ours. Vastly wiser and more dispassionate than we, they are
still, however, fallible; and they are governed by the same
general laws of being, modified only by corporal _disenthralment_,
to which they were _subjected_ here.
“5. Our state here determines our initial state there. The
habitual promptings, the pervading impulses, the lifelong
yearnings, in a word the moving spirit, or what Swedenborg calls
the ‘ruling loves’ of man--these decide his condition on entering
the next world: not the written articles of his creed, nor yet
the incidental errors of his life.
“6. We do not, either by faith or works, _earn_ heaven, nor are
we sentenced, on any day of wrath, to hell. In the next world we
simply gravitate to the position for which, by life on earth, we
have fitted ourselves; and we occupy that position _because_ we
are fitted for it.
“7. There is no instantaneous change of character when we pass
from the present phase of life. Our virtues, our vices; our
intelligence, our ignorance; our aspirations, our grovellings;
our habits, propensities, prejudices even--all pass over with us:
modified, doubtless (_but to what extent we know not_), when the
spiritual body emerges, divested of its fleshly encumbrance; yet
essentially the same as when the death slumber came over us.
“8. The sufferings there, natural sequents of evil-doing and
evil-thinking here, are as various in character and in degree as
the enjoyments; but they are mental, not bodily. There is no
escape from them, except only, as on earth, by the door of
repentance. There as here, sorrow for sin committed and desire
for an amended life are the in dispensable conditions-precedent
of advancement to a better state of being.
“9. In the next world love ranks higher than what we call wisdom;
being itself the highest wisdom. There deeds of benevolence far
outweigh professions of faith. There simple goodness rates above
intellectual power. There the humble are exalted. There the meek
find their heritage. There the merciful obtain mercy. The better
denizens of that world are charitable to frailty, and
compassionate to sin far beyond the dwellers in this: they
forgive the erring brethren they have left behind them, even to
seventy times seven. There, is no respect of persons. There, too,
self-righteousness is rebuked and pride brought low.
“10. A trustful, childlike spirit is the state of mind in which
men are most receptive of beneficent spiritual impressions; and
such a spirit is the best preparation for entrance into the next
world.
“11. There have always existed intermundane laws, according to
which men may occasionally obtain, under certain conditions,
revealings from those who have passed to the next world before
them. A certain proportion of human beings are more sensitive to
spiritual perceptions and influences than their fellows; and it
is usually in the presence, or through the medium, of one or more
of these, that ultramundane intercourse occurs.
“12. When the conditions are favorable, and the sensitive through
whom the manifestations come is highly gifted, these may supply
important materials for thought and valuable rules of conduct.
But spiritual phenomena sometimes do much more than this. In
their highest phases they furnish proof, strong as that which
Christ’s disciples enjoyed--proof addressed to the reason and
tangible to the senses--of the reality of another life, better
and happier than this, and of which our earthly pilgrimage is
but the novitiate. They bring immortality to light under a blaze 806
of evidence which outshines, as the sun the stars, all
traditional or historical testimonies. For surmise they give us
conviction, and assured knowledge for wavering belief.
“13. The chief motives which induce spirits to communicate with
men appear to be--a benevolent desire to convince us, past doubt
or denial, that there _is_ a world to come; now and then, the
attraction of unpleasant memories, such as murder or suicide;
sometimes (in the worldly-minded) the earth-binding influence of
cumber and trouble: but, far more frequently, the divine impulse
of human affections, seeking the good of the loved ones it has
left behind, and, at times, drawn down, perhaps, by their
yearning cries.
“14. Under unfavorable or imperfect conditions, spiritual
communications, how honestly reported soever, often prove vapid
and valueless; and this chiefly happens when communications are
too assiduously sought or continuously persisted in: brief
volunteered messages being the most trustworthy. Imprudence,
inexperience, supineness, or the idiosyncrasy of the recipient
may occasionally result in arbitrary control by spirits of a low
order; as men here sometimes yield to the infatuation exerted by
evil associates. Or, again, there may be exerted by the inquirer,
especially if dogmatic and self-willed, a dominating influence
over the medium, so strong as to produce effects that might be
readily mistaken for what has been called possession. As a
general rule, however, any person of common intelligence and
ordinary will can, in either case, cast off such mischievous
control: or, if the weak or incautious give way, one who may not
improperly be called an exorcist--if possessed of strong magnetic
will, moved by benevolence, and it may be aided by prayer, can
usually rid, or at least assist to rid, the sensitive from such
abnormal influence.”--(_Debatable Land_, pp. 171-176.)
We have no intention of criticising this creed of the spirits as set
forth by their learned medium. It is heathen, not Christian, and we
have discovered in it nothing new, true or false. It denies the
essential points of the Christian faith, and what few things it affirms
that Christianity denies are affirmed on no trustworthy or sufficient
authority. A man must have little knowledge of human nature, and have
felt little of the needs, desires, and aspirations of the human soul,
who can be satisfied with this spirits-creed. In it all is vague,
indefinite, and as empty as the shades the heathen imagined to be
wandering up and down on this side the Styx. But in it we find a
statement that dispenses us from the necessity of examining and
refuting it. In Article 4 we find it said: “Vastly wiser and more
dispassionate than we, they [the spirits] are still, however,
_fallible_.”
Whether the spirits are wiser and more dispassionate than we or not
may be questioned; they do not seem to be so in the author’s
illustrative narrations, and the fact that they have undergone no
essential change by throwing off their overcoat of flesh, and living
the same life they lived here, and are in the sphere for which they
were fitted before entering the spirit-land, renders the matter
somewhat doubtful, to say the least. But it is conceded that they are
_fallible_. Who or what, then, vouches for the fact that they are not
themselves deceived, or that they do not seek to deceive us? By
acknowledging the fallibility of the spirits, Mr. Owen acknowledges
that their testimony, in all cases, when we can have nothing else on
which to rely, is perfectly worthless. We can bring it to no crucial
test, and we have no vouchers either for their knowledge or their
honesty. Even supposing them to be what they profess to be, which we
by no means concede, it were sheer credulity to take their word for
anything not otherwise verifiable.
Mr. Owen and all the spiritists tell us that the spirit-manifestations
prove undeniably the immortality of the soul; but they prove nothing 807
of the sort. We need, in the first place, no ghost from hell to assure
us that the immortality of the soul follows necessarily from the
immateriality of the soul; for that is demonstrable from reason, and
was generally believed by the heathen. What was not believed by the
heathen, and is not provable by reason, is the Christian doctrine of
the resurrection; and this, and supernatural life and immortality, the
spirits do not even pretend to teach. Look through Mr. Owen’s
statement of their teaching, and you will find no hint of the
“resurrectionem carnis” or “vitam æternam” of the apostolic symbol.
Are we to reject the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and the
life and immortality brought to light through the Gospel--which is
something far different from a simple continuation of the soul’s
physical existence--a doctrine so necessary to virtue, and so dear and
consoling to the afflicted, on the authority of fallible spirits,
whose knowledge or veracity nothing vouches for, and who prove
themselves not seldom to be lying spirits?
In the second place, what proof have we that those rapping or
table-tipping spirits are the spirits of men and women once in the
flesh? Mr. Owen undertakes to establish their identity, but he does
not do it and cannot do it; for no proof in the case is possible
except by a miracle, and miracles the author rejects, and declares
the argument from them in all cases a _non-sequitur_. The
spirit-manifestations of which the spiritists make so much, and in
which they fancy they have a new inspiration and revelation, are
nothing new in history, and are not more frequent now than they have
been at various other epochs. They were more common amongst the
polished pagan Greeks and Romans than they are in any real or nominally
Christian nation now. They are nothing new or peculiar to our times.
Tertullian speaks of them, the author of the _Clementine Recognitions_
was acquainted with them, and so was St. Augustine. The trance was one
of the five faculties or states of the soul recognized by the
Neo-Platonists, and was the principle of the Alexandrine theurgy. The
church has in every age encountered them, been obliged to deal with
them, and she has uniformly ascribed them to Satan and his angels. She
has had from the first, and still has, her forms of exorcism against
them, to cast them out, and relieve those who are troubled by them.
Every day she in some locality even now exorcises them, compels them
to acknowledge the power of the name of Jesus, and sends them back
discomfited to hell.
The spiritists cannot say the doctrine of the church is impossible or
prove that it is not true. It certainly is a possible hypothesis, if
nothing more. Then spiritists cannot say that Satan does not personify
the spirits of the departed, or that it is not Satan or some one of
his angels that speaks in those pretending to be the spirit of
Washington, of Jefferson, of Franklin, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of
Byron, or of some near and dear deceased relative? You must prove that
it is not so, before you can affirm the identity claimed. The great
Tichborne case now before the English courts proves that it is no easy
matter to establish one’s own identity even while in the flesh, and it
must be much more difficult for a ghost, which is not even visible.
The spiritists admit that the spirits are fallible; that there are
among them lying, malevolent spirits. A gentleman with whom we were
well acquainted, a firm believer in the spirits, and himself a medium,
holding frequent communications with them, assured us that he held 808
them to be evil spirits, and knew them to be lying spirits. “I asked
them,” he said, “at an interview with them, if they could tell me
where my sister then was. ‘Your sister,’ I was answered, ‘has some
time since entered the spirit-world, and is now in the third circle.’
It was false: my sister was alive and well, and I knew it. I told them
so, and that they lied; and they laughed at me: and then I asked whose
spirit was speaking with me. I was answered, ‘Voltaire.’ ‘That is a
lie, too, is it not?’ Another laugh, or chuckle rather. “I assure
you,” said our friend, “one can place no confidence in what they say.
In my intercourse with them, I have found them a pack of liars.”
This pretension of the spiritists that the spirits that manifest
themselves through nervous, sickly, half-crazy mediums, or mediums
confessedly in an abnormal or exceptional state, are really spirits
who once lived in the flesh, is not sustainable; for they cannot be
relied on, and nothing hinders us from holding them to be devils or
evil demons, personating the spirits of deceased persons, as the
church has always taught us. This, certainly, is very possible, and
the character of the manifestations themselves favors such an
interpretation; for only devils, and very silly devils too, dealing
with very ignorant, superstitious, and credulous people, would mingle
so much of the ludicrous and ridiculous in their manifestations, as
the thumping, knocking, rollicking spirits, tipping over chairs and
tables, and creating a sort of universal hubbub wherever they come.
The spirits of the dead, if permitted at all to communicate with the
living for any good purpose, we may well believe, would be permitted
to do it more quietly, more gravely, and in a more open and direct
way; it is only the devil or his subjects that would turn all their
grave communications into ridicule by their antics or comic
accompaniments. These considerations, added to the fact that the
spirits communicate nothing not otherwise known or knowable, that is
not demonstrably false, and that they tell us nothing very clear or
definite about the condition of departed souls, nothing but what their
consultors are predisposed to believe, convince us that, if they prove
the existence of powers in some sense superhuman, they prove nothing
for or against the reality of a life after this life. They leave the
question of life and immortality, of good and evil, rewards and
punishments, heaven and hell, where they were.
Mr. Owen places the spirit manifestations, and the Biblical miracles,
and Christian inspiration and revelation, in the same category,
attributes them all alike to the agency of the spirits, and thinks he
has discovered a way in which one may accept the extraordinary events
and doings recorded in the Old and New Testaments as historical facts,
without being obliged to recognize them as miracles. This is absurd.
The resemblance between the two classes of facts is far less than
honest Fluellen’s resemblance of Harry of Monmouth to Alexander of
Macedon, “There is a river in Macedon, so is there a river also in
Wales.” The man who can detect any relation between the two classes of
facts, but that of dissimilarity and contrast, is the very man to
believe in the spirit-revelations, to mistake evil for good, darkness
for light, and the devil for God. We find both classes of facts in the
New Testament. The Christian miracles are all marked by an air of
quiet power. There is no bluster, no rage, no foaming at the mouth,
no fierceness of look or gesture, no falling, or rending, as in the 809
case of the demoniacs; and no rapping, no table-tipping, no antics, no
stammering, no half-utterances, no convulsions, no disturbance, as in
the case of the spirit-manifestations described by Mr. Owen in his
books. In the one case, all is calm and serene, pure and holy; there
is no effort, no straining, but a simple, normal exercise of power.
Our Lord rebukes the winds and the waves, and there comes a great
calm; he speaks, the leper is cleansed, the blind see, the deaf hear,
the lame walk, the dead live. What like this is there in Mr. Owen’s
ghostly or ghastly narratives of trances, thundering noises, and
haunted houses? Every one of his narratives shows, so far as it shows
anything not explicable by simple psychical states and powers, the
marks which the church has always regarded as signs of the presence of
the devil. Some of the cases he describes are clearly cases of
possession, and others are as clearly cases of obsession. Unhappily,
Mr. Owen, who formerly believed in no God, now takes, knowingly or
not, the devil to be God.
Mr. Owen has hardly improved on the heathen Celsus, who was refuted by
Origen. Celsus charged the miracles of our Lord to magic. Mr. Owen
ascribes them to necromancy, and regards the apostles and saints each
as a person with a familiar spirit, or, in the language of the
spiritists, a medium. The Jews also ascribed the miracles of our Lord
to the agency of the devil, and charged that it was by Beelzebub, the
prince of devils, that he did his wonderful works. But there is a
striking difference between the Jews and Celsus and our late minister
to Naples. They sought to prove the satanic origin of the miracles of
our Lord as a reason for rejecting him and his teaching; he attempts
to do it as a reason for believing him and reverencing his doctrine
and character. But they lived in an age of darkness, superstition, and
semi-barbarism, and he in an age of light, reason, and civilization,
and the distance between him and them is the measure of the progress
the world has made since their time--a mighty progress indeed, but a
progress backward. The Bible tells us all the gods of the heathen were
devils, and Mr. Owen agrees and takes the devil for God, and demon
worship as true divine worship. What the Jews and Celsus falsely
alleged against our Lord as an objection, he reasserts as a
recommendation. He has discovered that evil is good.
The class of facts which the spiritists call spirit-manifestations are
recognized in the Bible from beginning to end, but always as the works
of the devil or evil spirits, always as works to be condemned and to
be avoided; and any communication with those who do them is forbidden.
Necromancers, or those who consult the spirits of the dead, are
mentioned and condemned in the Book of Genesis. The Mosaic law
ordained that a witch or a woman with a familiar spirit--that is, a
medium, whether a rapping or a clear-seeing, a talking or a writing
medium--should not be suffered to live. The church has always
condemned everything of the sort, and requires a candidate for baptism
to renounce the devil and his works, and expels the devil from him by
her exorcisms, before receiving the postulant to her communion. And
yet Mr. Owen would have us believe that the Bible and the church
sanction his doctrine, that the Christian miracles and the
spirit-manifestations are produced by one and the same agency! Verily,
Mr. Owen throws a strong light on the origin of the great Gentile
apostasy, and shows us how easily men who break from the unity of 810
divine tradition, and set up for themselves, can lose sight of God,
and come step by step to worship the devil in his place. The thing
seemed incredible, and we had some difficulty in taking the assertion
of the Holy Scriptures literally, “All the gods of the gentiles are
devils”; but since we see apostasy from the church running the same
career, and actually inaugurating the worship of demons, actually
exalting the devil above our Lord, the Mystery of Iniquity is
explained, and the matter becomes plain and credible.
It is curious to see what has been the course of thought in the
Protestant apostasy in regard to the class of facts in question.
Having lost the power of exorcism with their loss of the true faith,
the Protestant nations had no resource against the invasions of the
spirits but to carry out the injunction of the Mosaic law, “Thou shalt
not suffer a witch”--that is, a medium--“to live.” Hence we find their
annals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries blackened with
accounts of the trials and cruel punishments of persons suspected of
witchcraft, sorcery, or dealings with the devil, especially in
England, Scotland, and the Anglo-American colonies. Having no
well-defined and certain criteria, as the church has, by which to
determine the presence of Satan, many persons, no doubt, were put to
death who were innocent of the offences of which they were accused.
This produced a reaction in the public mind against the laws and
against the execution of persons for witchcraft or dealing with the
devil. This reaction was followed by a denial of witchcraft, or that
the devil had anything to do with matters and things on earth, and a
shower of ridicule fell on all who believed in anything of the sort.
Then came the general doubt, and then the denial of the existence of
the devil and all infernal spirits, save in human nature itself.
Finally came the spirit-manifestations, in which Satan is no longer
regarded as Satan, but is held to be divine, and worshipped as God, by
thousands and millions.
We must be excused from entering into any elaborate refutation of Mr.
Owen’s blasphemous attempt to bring the Christian miracles under the
general law, as he regards it, of spirit-manifestations. He has proved
the reality of no such law, and if he had, the spirit-manifestations
themselves would prove nothing more than a gale of wind, a shower of
rain, a flash of lightning, or the growth of a spire of grass. Could
we prove the Christian miracles to be facts in the order of nature, or
show them as taking place by a general law, and not by the immediate
act of God, and therefore no miracles at all, we should deprive them
of all their importance. The value of the facts is not in their being
facts, but in their being miraculous facts, which none but God can
work. The author does not understand this, but supposes that he has
won a victory for Christianity when he has proved the miracles as
facts, but at the same time that they are no miracles.
It is clear from his pages that the author does not know what
Christians understand by a miracle. He cites St. Augustine to prove
that a miracle is something that may take place by some law of nature
to us unknown, but St. Augustine, in the passage he cites, is not
speaking of miracles at all; he is speaking of portents, prodigies, or
extraordinary events, which the ignorant, and the superstitious
ascribe to a supernatural agency; but which may, after all, however
wonderful, be produced by a natural cause, as in our days not a few 811
believe to be the case with the spirit-manifestations themselves, and
no doubt is the case with most of the wonders the spiritists relate.
The devil may work portents or prodigies, but not miracles, because he
has no creative power, and can work only with materials created to his
hand.
It is necessary also to distinguish between what is simply superhuman
and what is supernatural. Whatever is creature is in the order of
nature. Nature embraces the entire creation--whatever exists that is
not God or distinguishable from him. Whether the created powers are
above man or below him in the scale of existence, they are equally
natural, and so is whatever they are capable, as second causes, of
doing. The angels in heaven, the very highest as the lowest, are God’s
creatures, distinguishable from him, and therefore included in nature.
The same must be said of the devils in hell, or the ghosts, if the
spirits of the departed, and hence whatever they do is within the
natural order. The devil is superior, if you will, by nature to
man--for man is made little lower than the angels, and the devil is an
angel fallen; he may know many things beyond human intelligence, and
do many things beyond the power of man; but what the devil does, is,
if superhuman, not in any sense supernatural, but as natural as what
man himself does. We agree with Mr. Owen, though not for the same
reason, that there is nothing miraculous in the spirit-manifestations,
even supposing them to be facts, and therefore are of no value in
relation to the truth or falsehood of Christianity as a revelation of
and by the supernatural.
God alone, and what he does immediately by his direct act and
immediate act, is supernatural. God alone can work a miracle, which is
a supernatural effect wrought without any natural medium, law, or
agency, in or on nature, and is, as far as it goes, a manifestation of
creative power.
Miracles do what portents, prodigies, spirit-rappings, etc., do
not--they manifest the supernatural, or the existence of a real order
above nature. They do not indeed directly prove the truth of the
Christian mysteries, but they do accredit our Lord as a teacher sent
from God. As Nicodemus said when he came by night to Jesus, “Rabbi, we
know that thou art come a teacher from God, for no man can do the
miracles thou doest, unless God were with him,” God in the miracles
accredits the teacher, and vouches for the truth of what he in whose
favor they are wrought teaches. What our Lord teaches, then, is true.
If he teaches that he is perfect God and perfect man in hypostatic
union, then he is so, and then is to be believed, on his own word,
whatever he teaches, for “it is impossible for God to lie.” The
facts, then, are of no importance if not miracles. Hence the
“natural-supernaturalism” of the _Sartor Resartus_ is not only a
contradiction in terms, but utterly worthless, as are most of the
admired utterances of its author, and aid us not in solving a single
problem for which revelation is needed.
Deprive us of the prophecies under the Old Law and the miracles under
the New, and we should be deprived of all means of proving
Christianity as a supernatural religion, as supernaturally inspired
and revealed, and should be reduced, as Mr. Owen is, to naked
rationalism, or downright demonism. The prodigies of the devil do not
carry us above nature. They are indeed Satan’s efforts to counterfeit
genuine miracles, but at best they only give us the superhuman for the 812
supernatural. If the author could prove the Christian miracles are not
miracles, though credible as facts, or if he could bring them into the
category of the spirit-manifestations, he would in effect divest
Christianity of its supernatural character, and render it all as
worthless as any man-constructed system of ethics or philosophy. His
Christianity, as set forth in his pages, has not a trace of the
Christianity of Christ, and is as little worthy of being called
Christian as the bald Unitarianism of Channing, or the Deism of
Rousseau, Tom Paine, or Voltaire, or the Free Religion of Emerson,
Higginson, and Julia Ward Howe.
What Mr. Owen regards as a highly important fact, and which he
urges Protestants to accept as the means of triumphing over the
Catholic Church, namely, that the Christian miracles and the
spirit-manifestations are worthy of precisely the same respect and
confidence in a Christian point of view, is far less important than he
in his profound ignorance of Christianity imagines. How far he will be
successful with Protestants we know not; but his success, we imagine,
will be greatest among people of his own class, who, having no settled
belief in any religion, who know little of the principles of
Christianity, are, as all such people are, exceedingly credulous and
superstitious. These people hover on the borders of Protestantism,
have certain sympathies with the Reformation, but it would be hardly
just to call them in the ordinary sense of the term Protestants. Yet
Protestantism, being substantially a revival in principle of the
ancient Gentile apostasy which led to the worship of the devil in the
place of God before our Lord’s advent, there can be no doubt that
Protestants are peculiarly exposed to Satanic invasions, and there is
no certainty that they may not follow Mr. Owen back to the
devil-worship from which Christianity rescued the nations that
embraced it. But we have said enough for the present. Perhaps we may
say more hereafter.
[159] 1. _The Debatable Land between this World and the
Next._ With Illustrative Narratives. By Robert Dale Owen.
New York: Carleton & Co. 1872. 16mo, pp. 542.
2. _Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World._ With
Narrative Illustrations. By Robert Dale Owen. Philadelphia:
Lippincott & Co. 1860. 16mo, pp. 528.
----------
THE ANNUNCIATION.
MARCH 27TH.
She kneels in prayer--a childlike, virgin form;
What purity is mirrored in her eyes!
Her dove-like glances, with devotion warm,
Are raised in worship, to the midnight skies--
But look! a heavenly radiance bright has shone
Around the virgin chosen of the Lord;
In her rapt prayer she hears the angel’s tone,
“Hail! full of grace! for lo! upon the word
Of thy consent waits now the heavenly dove,
Whose wings o’ershadowing thee shall lightly rest
One moment on thy pure and humble breast,
And make thee by that awful seal of love
The mother of thy God!” She bows her head,
While _fiat mihi_ in meek tones is said.
----------
FLEURANGE. 813
BY MRS. CRAVEN, AUTHOR OF “A SISTER’s STORY.”
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, WITH PERMISSION.
PART FIRST.
THE OLD MANSION.
IV.
When daylight appeared, Fleurange awoke first, but in a few minutes,
while she was admiring the child still sleeping in her arms, his large
eyes opened in their turn. Their first expression was one of extreme
surprise, somewhat mingled with fear, but Fleurange’s look and voice
soon had a reassuring effect. His eyes grew smiling, his mouth half
opened, his little arms stretched towards her and were soon clasped
around her neck, and the acquaintance was made. During this time the
pale and languid young mother was endeavoring to shake off a heaviness
more difficult to overcome than sleep. She slightly blushed and
murmured some words of excuse when she perceived her child in the arms
of the beautiful stranger. But Fleurange protested with an accent of
indubitable truth that the child did not trouble her in the least. She
soon perceived she could be of some service to the poor convalescent.
The children, aroused from a long night’s sleep, were now wholly
awake. Every one knows that children awake, and, confined within a
narrow space, soon arrive at a degree of turbulence whose only
advantage is to produce lassitude and then sleep. During the first of
these two phases, the poor mother made a vain and feeble effort to
restrain them. After a few minutes she fell back, not only exhausted,
but faint. Fleurange drew near, and began to improvise a pillow for
her head out of the shawls scattered around. Then she opened the small
basket Mademoiselle Josephine had given her, and took out a flask, the
contents of which, poured on a handkerchief and applied to the sick
woman’s pale face and temples, soon revived her.
“Thank you,” she said; “you have done me a great deal of good. I am
feeble, that is all, but I did not suppose myself so much so.”
“Do not exert yourself,” replied Fleurange. “I will take care of the
children.”
The mother smiled, and touched her head, showing by this gesture how
fatiguing she found the noise she had not succeeded in quieting. At
that very moment, the younger of the two children was standing on the
seat, trying to reach the net, of painful memory, suspended like the
sword of Damocles over the travellers’ heads, and which served as a
receptacle for everything that could not be stowed away elsewhere. 814
The child was not climbing without a motive. His brother had already
successfully preceded him, and found means of seizing, through the
meshes of the net, a small hunting-horn, on which he was now executing
a flourish. Why could not he also get his drum, almost within reach?
If he could only stretch a little farther--and he looked at Fleurange
with a supplicating air; but the latter, instead of heeding his mute
appeal, laughingly laid hold of him and drew him on her lap; then
skilfully bearing off the hunting-horn from the other, she promised to
relate them the most charming of stories if they would be quiet. In an
instant they were both leaning beside her, and then, in a low tone,
she related one story after another, keeping them silent and attentive
till the hour of sleep returned.
By the end of the second day the travellers had made great progress in
their acquaintance. “How can I thank you sufficiently?” said the young
mother. “How fortunate I was to meet you!”
“Do not thank me: your children have done me more good than I can
return.”
This reply, of course, did not at all diminish the gratitude mingled
with admiration with which she had inspired her companion, and as
there is only a step from attraction to confidence, the latter soon
related the whole story of her uneventful life to Fleurange. She had
met with a severe fall three months before, and her life was despaired
of; then her husband took her to Paris to consult Dr. Leblanc, who
effected a cure. Fleurange’s eyes brightened. It was such a
gratification to be able to talk about her dear old friends!
“He is so skilful and kind,” she said.
“Oh! yes, indeed! he is more than a physician: he is a benefactor, and
yet I disobeyed him in starting so soon! He said I was still too
feeble, which I denied; but I see he was right.”
“Why did you do so?”
“Because my poor Wilhelm is alone and impatiently awaiting me.”
“Your husband?”
“Yes.”
“Could he not have come for you?”
“No; he is M. Dornthal’s head clerk, and it is very difficult for him
to leave his post.”
Fleurange’s heart gave a leap at this name. “Are you alluding to M.
Ludwig Dornthal?” said she.
“No; to his brother, the rich banker.”
“And the other--the professor--do you know him?”
“I have never seen him, but Wilhelm is well acquainted with him, and
is sometimes invited to the soirées he gives. They are not balls--they
are not fond of dancing there--but réunions for conversation, reading,
music, and looking at engravings. Wilhelm says they are all learned,
the girls as well as the boys, and madame as much so as her husband.”
Fleurange slightly shuddered at this brief communication respecting
her uncle’s family. She was very fond of study, still more so of the
arts; she had a taste for reading she was often obliged to repress,
but this word “learned” she did not find attractive.
“Learned!” she said to herself. “That means pedantic, grave, and
tiresome. Well, I must make the best of it. Perhaps that does not
prevent them from being good, which is the essential point, and I
certainly should not aim at amusement in this short life.”
Another night--another long day now drawing to a close--when lights 815
more frequent and bright, and more numerous dwellings, announced the
vicinity of a large city. As each moment brought them nearer their
destination, the joy of the mother and her children became more
expansive.
“He will be waiting for us, will he not?” said the elder of the
children.
“Yes, yes, we shall see him as soon as the carriage stops, but that
will not be for an hour.” Soon the cry was: “In half an hour, now!”
and at last: “Here we are!”
Poor Fleurange listened to her travelling companions, and envied them
the certainty of being greeted at their journey’s end by a dear and
well-known face. Sadness and a fearful timidity came over her. At
last, the carriage stopped. As at their departure, there was a great
uproar, a variety of cries, and vacillating lights, which illuminated
everything, but nothing distinctly. Fleurange sought in vain among all
the persons who crowded around the carriage, for a face that might be
her uncle’s. The door opened. A tall man with flowing hair and a long
blonde beard presented himself. “Was it he?” No, the joyful cries of
the children at once informed Fleurange it was their father.
“Bertha, Bertha!” he exclaimed, and, even before embracing his
children, he pressed both her hands and looked anxiously in her face.
“You are very pale, dear Bertha.”
“It is only with joy, Wilhelm,” replied she, weeping. “I am cured, and
I behold you once more!”
He then stretched out his arms to his children, but before leaving the
carriage they both cried “Adieu! adieu!” in childlike tones and threw
their arms around Fleurange’s neck.
“Wilhelm,” said his wife in a low tone, “thank this kind young lady,
who has been an angel of goodness to them and to me on the way.”
He turned with a soft and grateful look toward Fleurange: “May God
reward you, fair and gentle maiden,” said he, taking off his hat. Then
he added hesitatingly:
“Doubtless some one is waiting for you here, and I cannot have the
pleasure of rendering you any service?”
“I thank you,” said Fleurange quickly. “I am, indeed, expected by my
relatives.” While speaking she anxiously cast her eyes around. No one
seemed to be seeking her in the crowd of unknown faces that surrounded
her. Was there any mistake? Had they forgotten her? What should she
do?
Meanwhile her travelling companions left the carriage, and the happy
group was already at a distance. She followed them with her eyes, her
heart sinking within her. At that instant a small open carriage, drawn
by a fine horse, drove swiftly up. In it was a youth of eighteen or
nineteen years. He threw the reins to some one standing near and
sprang out. Seeing him, Bertha’s husband took off his hat, and a cap
is hastily raised in return, displaying an abundance of light hair of
rather a warm shade. But the new-comer did not stop. He was in a great
hurry and out of breath. He ran up to the diligence and said
inquiringly:
“Mademoiselle Gabrielle!”
“That is my name,” said Fleurange, at first struck dumb at hearing
herself so-called, and especially at the sight of him who had come to
meet her.
“Very well,” said he, “let me help you descend.”
Fleurange silently prepared to obey, but after another glance at him
as he held out a firm hand, she said: “There is no mistake, is there?
It is my uncle, M. Ludwig Dornthal, who has sent for me?”
The only reply she received was an affirmative nod of the head; a 816
moment after, a concise order, promptly obeyed, brought down from the
heights of the imperial the modest luggage belonging to Fleurange. In
an instant it was fastened behind the light carriage which he
afterward assisted her in entering, then, carefully and silently
wrapping around her a large fur cloak which he had brought, he took
his seat, and the horse set off, as he came, at a fast trot.
Fleurange at first felt giddy with the rapid motion of the carriage,
but it soon became agreeable, contrasted with the heavy movements and
violent jolting of the diligence. The weather was sharp, but the warm
cloak that covered her prevented her from feeling it, and, thus
protected, the keen air, so far from being unpleasant, gave her, on
the contrary, an unaccustomed animation which was like a fresh
infusion of youth and life. The sky above was sparkling with stars. It
was one of those brilliant winter nights which we love to imagine like
that which witnessed the coming of Christ, and saw angels hovering
over the heights that surround Bethlehem, to convey the glad tidings
to the shepherds, and sing on earth their divine hymn.
In about twenty minutes the horse slackened his pace a little, and the
young coachman turned around and seemed to make some attempt at an
explanation which Fleurange tried her best to comprehend, but the
rattling over the pavements rendered this nearly impossible, and she
only seized the words “My father” and “_Christ Kindchen!_” after which
his head, turned around for an instant, resumed its former position,
and the horse his usual pace.
But Fleurange gathered from this that the youth was one of M.
Dornthal’s sons, and her uncle had not been able to meet her for some
reason connected with the festival of the following day. Her first
impression was that her cousin’s manners were rather abrupt, and his
face somewhat peculiar, but on the whole he had shown himself very
efficient and attentive. As for his skill in driving it was
unrivalled, the reins could not have been in better hands.
After this short interruption, they kept on their way without
slackening an instant, notwithstanding more than one turn through the
winding streets, and at length arrived at a place planted with trees,
where the carriage stopped before a flight of steps leading to an
oaken door adorned with a massive brass knocker.
Some one was evidently watching for them, for the door instantly flew
open. Fleurange caught the glimpse of a bright light and many forms!
Her cousin hastened to aid her in alighting. Confused voices were
audible, all having a cordial accent of welcome. A strong hand
supported Fleurange as she ascended the six stone steps and entered
the passage. A tall woman dressed in gray, and wearing a cap trimmed
with flowers, approached and embraced her. “It is my turn now!” said a
deep and sonorous voice, “for I am her uncle.” Fleurange raised her
eyes toward a noble countenance which had too young a look to be
crowned with such white hair, and her uncle embraced her, murmuring in
a softened tone the name of Margaret. Beside him stood a lovely young
girl, grave and blonde, while another, fair as her sister but younger,
divested Fleurange of the heavy fur cloak and untied her bonnet. A boy
of seven years ran out into the street to aid his brother, and a
little girl of four or five clung to her mother’s skirts, looking
curiously, but with delight, at the strange visitor.
Fleurange, dazzled by the lights, and confused by the very cordiality 817
of her reception, was incapable of uttering a word, but her large
eyes, full of tears, were more expressive than any words, and the
unusual brilliancy of her complexion, owing to the keen night air, and
her long tresses falling over her shoulders when her bonnet was
removed, gave her an unusually striking appearance which would have
conciliated the most malevolent. How, then, must she have been
regarded by those so ready to welcome her heartily?
They led her, triumphantly, as it were, into a spacious drawing-room
which was still more dazzling. In the centre of the apartment stood a
tree brilliantly illuminated and hung with toys, flowers, jewels, and
fruit of all kinds. Two chandeliers added their light to that of the
illuminated tree, under one of which half a dozen children were
gathered around a table loaded with cakes. Several young ladies, as
well as others who were older, were grouped here and there.
In short, Fleurange suddenly found herself, and for the first time in
her life, in the midst of what seemed to her a very brilliant reunion,
in which all the faces, even those of her hosts, were strange. The
least timid would have been disconcerted, and Fleurange was completely
abashed. The lady in gray with a cap trimmed with flowers, whom she
supposed to be her aunt, took her by the hand, and hastily led her
back into the passage, and thence into a small parlor lighted by a
single lamp. In crossing the hall, they met Fleurange’s young guide.
“Is she ill? Does she need anything?” he asked in a kind and eager
tone.
“Yes, she needs rest,” and with this reply Madame Dornthal shut the
door in her son’s face.
Fleurange sat down and breathed more freely. Hitherto she had been
unable not only to utter a word, but even to collect her thoughts.
Now, thanks to the quiet room, she at once grew calm, and in a few
minutes felt quite recovered. She was young and vigorous. She had
scarcely felt the fatigue of the journey, and it was not in her nature
to yield long to emotion and embarrassment, especially when in the
depths of her heart she felt so happy! Had not a single glance, quick
as a flash, sufficed to dissipate the burden which weighed on her
heart, and to light it up with a transport of joy and hope? Her
uncle’s voice, the words he murmured as he embraced her, “O Margaret,
is it you?” gave her a thrill; then the soft glances of those fair
young girls, the sight of the children gathered under the
Christmas-tree, even the abrupt attentions of her young cousin--all
gave her a delicious sensation of safety, an assurance of protection
which in her moments of desolation she had desired more than joy or
happiness.
She raised her head, and looked at her aunt, who stood silently
regarding her. The latter was decidedly ugly--astonishingly so, yet
even before she spoke or smiled there was an expression more desirable
than beauty visibly imprinted on her face, otherwise devoid of all
charm--an expression of intelligence and kindness.
“Remain here perfectly quiet, will you?” said Madame Dornthal,
_tutoyant_ Fleurange as if she had known her from childhood.[160]
“There, look at the clock; a quarter of an hour will be sufficient. Do
not try to talk, only listen to me. You are at home, you must 818
understand: remember that. No thanks are necessary. You are one of our
children. We had five: now we have six. It was Clement, my oldest son,
who went to meet you, because his father could not leave the children
this evening. You saw Hilda and Clara at your arrival, as well as the
two little ones, Fritz and Frida, who were also there to receive you.
There is Gabrielle besides: that is all. Your uncle has mourned so
much for his poor sister Margaret! Now he has found her again, it is a
happy day for us all!”
Fleurange quietly wiped away her tears without replying. Just then
some one knocked at the door.
“Who is there?”
“It is I.”
It was Clement with a cup of coffee, which, at her aunt’s injunction,
Fleurange drank with docility.
“Will you now go up to your room for the night, or will you return to
the drawing-room among the others?”
Fleurange replied without any hesitation: “I prefer to go back to the
drawing-room and see them all, at once.”
A pleasant smile lighted up Madame Dornthal’s face. “I like you very
much, Gabrielle, not because you are handsome, that has nothing to do
with it; I should love you quite as much were it otherwise; but
because there is so much simplicity about you--which is quite to my
taste. Now, let me see: it is eleven o’clock, our friends are going to
take their children home, and our youngest are going to bed. As to the
rest of us, we shall presently go to the Midnight Mass, and not sup
till our return. Make your own choice--to follow the children’s
example, or go with us.”
“Oh! with you, with you!” cried Fleurange. “Pray, take me to church;
I am neither feeble nor fatigued.”
“And yet you are fatigued,” replied Madame Dornthal, “only you do not
yet feel it. But as it will do you no harm, you shall do as you wish.
So save your strength, and do not return now to the drawing-room. You
can remain here and wait for me.”
She left the room, and Fleurange remained where she was, happy to obey
such kind orders without any resistance. Five minutes after, the door
opened. It was Clement again, holding his little brother by the hand,
and carrying his young sister in his arms.
“Fritz and Frida wish to bid you good-night,” he said. The little boy
timidly approached. Fleurange immediately spoke to him in that
language which all children understand, and which can only be learned
and spoken by those who love them: he was speedily reassured. She then
took Frida, and kissed her blue eyes, which, while looking at her with
surprise, began to close. When she gave the child back to her brother,
she was asleep, and he bore her away without awakening her, holding
her with an ease that showed how accustomed he was to the care. His
little brother followed him out of the room.
Half an hour of silent repose succeeded this interruption. It was more
beneficial to Fleurange than sleep, which strong excitement kept her
from feeling the need of. At the end of that time, Madame Dornthal
reappeared with her two daughters. Clement and his father were waiting
for them in the passage. They set off by starlight on foot, for the
church was near. They were all silent and thoughtful, for the
children’s festival had not made them forgetful of the solemnity of
this great night.
In church, once more in church, Fleurange felt, as she knelt down, 819
that her overburdened heart could now find relief, and when solemn,
harmonious, and accordant voices made the magnificent arches resound
with unearthly chants, which seemed to be the spontaneous expression
of universal prayer, the young girl bowed her head still lower: all
the joy and gratitude of her heart overflowed in sweet tears and
fervent prayers of thanksgiving. When Mass was over, one voice, which
surpassed the rest--a voice sweet and manly--intoned beside her the
Psalm _Laudate Dominum_. She involuntarily joined in the strain, and
the two voices seemed for an instant to form but one.
When she turned around, she saw that this singer was her cousin,
Clement Dornthal.
V.
When a friendly hand aids a shipwrecked traveller in reaching the
shore, his first impulse is to express his boundless gratitude. Rest
is sweet, even on the sand, to him who has just escaped the perils of
the ocean; but if he finds no place of refuge on the shore, if his
only hope of an asylum is the vague glimmer of some distant beacon, he
is tempted to doubt his strength to reach the half-seen light, and if
it will really prove a haven. Such had been the mixture of gratitude
and apprehension the poor orphan felt the day she accepted from
Mademoiselle Josephine the hospitality of the blue chamber, and it did
not leave her the whole time of her stay in that first harbor of
safety. But to-day, roused from her slumbers by the merry Christmas
chimes, her first thought was: “Thank God, I have arrived at port”;
and she rose from her spacious couch eager to begin her new life. She
began the day by writing to Mademoiselle Josephine. Her old friend
must be informed of her happiness before she could enter upon its
enjoyment. It seemed only a debt of gratitude to share with her all
her new and pleasing impressions. She also wrote to Madre Maddalena:
she must without any delay link all the friends and joys of the past
with her present happiness and truly transformed life.
Her aunt, in assuring her the previous evening she was among her
own--that is, at home--seemed to have constituted her, as by magic, a
child of the house. Everything around her was new and somewhat
strange, but everything pleased her as if naturally conformed to her
tastes; and yet the walls of her room, hung with sombre colors, the
old press of carved wood, which easily contained her limited wardrobe,
the high-backed chairs ranged around, the antique bureau in one
corner, and in the other a great monumental stove, the spectral aspect
of which alone was surprising--all this might easily have offended an
eye accustomed to the smiling magnificence of Italy, but not an object
in the house seemed capable of imparting any sad impressions. The word
welcome appeared inscribed on every side, as on all faces, and in this
sweet atmosphere she instinctively felt that the material comfort was
only a type of the mental freedom much more necessary than the other
to the happiness of life.
“You must not dress in black today, Gabrielle,” said her two fair
cousins, as they entered her chamber for the third time since she rose
an hour before, bearing a basket which contained garments similar to 820
their own.
“Why not?” said Fleurange, somewhat astonished.
“Do you not know that, in Germany, mourning is laid aside on great
festivals?” replied Clara, the younger of the two. “You must dress
like us to-day, as you will always do when the time for this sad
mourning is over.”
The elder of the two sisters noticed that her cousin made no reply:
she approached her and said affectionately:
“Excuse Clara if she has distressed you. She is so gay and happy
herself, that she cannot comprehend misfortune and sadness.”
“I do not wish to remind her of them to-day,” said Fleurange, “and
will do as she requests. But you, dear Hilda,” continued she--looking
with admiration at her cousin’s golden locks and grave brow, which a
queen’s diadem would have suited, or the aureola of a saint--“are you
not as gay and happy as your sister?”
“Yes, as happy,” said Hilda, “but not as gay.”
After some explanations, Fleurange conformed to her cousins’ wishes.
But when, before dinner, the beautiful Hilda, clothed in white,
brought a garland like that she wore herself and wished to place it on
her head, she objected: “As to this garland, Hilda, you must excuse me
from wearing it.”
“Why so?”
“Because I have never worn any ornament of the kind: because, after
all, I cannot and do not wish to forget I am a poor orphan, who should
not dream of adorning herself, or mingling in the world.”
“But, Gabrielle, you must know we only adorn ourselves to celebrate at home
the great annual festivals, and we never mingle in the world.”
“Never? But then, why wear flowers without any reason?”
“It is not without a reason. My father likes us to wear the flowers of
the season at every feast. This poor wreath you have refused,
Gabrielle, look at it: it is, like mine, of holly, reflecting the
brightness of Christmas, with its shining leaves and berries red as
coral. There, see if it is not becoming in your raven hair?” As she
spoke, Hilda held the wreath over her cousin’s head: at that instant
Clara appeared, and hesitation was no longer possible. She instantly
took her sister’s place: the bright leaves and red berries were placed
like a crown on Fleurange’s brow, who laughed and only made a feeble
resistance, while the mirror reflected the forms of the three young
girls--as graceful a picture as ever haunted an artist’s dreams.
“There,” cried Clara, “you are both beautiful--one fair as the day and
the other brilliant as night. And I,” continued she, arranging her
long curls, among which holly leaves were also twined--“let me see
what I resemble myself.”
“A flower, a star, dear Clara: everything that is best worth gazing at
by day or night,” said Fleurange affectionately.
She preferred the elder of the two sisters, but there was an
irresistible grace about the other, whom she could not help caressing
with her eyes and tones, as if she were a child.
“Ah! that is charming, poetic, and very applicable! Thank you, Cousin
Gabrielle. I will presently ask our poet to divine my emblems. We
shall see if he agrees with you.”
“If our poet is in a fit of abstraction, you must ask some one else
who certainly will not be,” said Hilda.
Clara blushed. “Come, come!” said she, “let us talk no longer about 821
me, but go down. There is Frida coming for us. They have doubtless all
arrived.” And taking her little sister by the hand, she ran off,
scarcely touching the massive balustrade as she flew down the stairs.
“You did not tell me you were expecting visitors,” said Fleurange.
“Only some friends and relatives. Since my Uncle Heinrich lost his
wife, he and his son have taken their Christmas dinner with us. The
family formerly assembled at his house. You are going to make his
acquaintance, and that of our fine cousin Felix. The rest are our
friends, and will soon be yours.” Hilda paused. “You doubtless know
that Hansfelt is my father’s friend, and was the companion of his
youth?” she continued at length.
“Hansfelt!” exclaimed Fleurange. “What! Karl Hansfelt, the great
poet?”
We have already remarked that Fleurange perfectly understood her
mother’s native tongue. The poems of the person just mentioned were
sufficiently celebrated at that time for her to be familiar with them,
and even know some of them by heart.
“And he is your friend? And shall I see him?”
“Yes,” replied Hilda, “you will see him often. And you will also see,”
she added, as if eager to change the subject, “a young artist who is
beginnings be quite popular. His name is Julian Steinberg, and he is a
friend of Overbeck’s. I will leave Clara to introduce him to you.” A
significant smile accompanied the last words, and Fleurange,
comprehending, or nearly so, the state of affairs, descended with her
cousin into the large drawing-room, which, as well as the dining-room,
was on the ground floor.
The house M. Ludwig Dornthal inhabited is probably no longer standing.
Modern improvements have swept away, one by one, those old houses in
all our cities to which time had given an aspect too much at variance
with the tastes and requirements of a new generation. Even at the
period in which our story opens--that is, in 1824--the house of which
we are speaking already began to be pointed out as the _Old
Mansion_--the name, _par excellence_, by which it was known in the
city. But, as it was spacious and commodious, its situation quiet and
retired, and it had a large garden which all the windows on one side
overlooked, it was admirably adapted to the professor’s studious
habits. The picturesque color it had acquired with age was also quite
to his taste, and, above all, as it was here Ludwig Dornthal passed
the first years of his married life, and where his children were born,
nothing in the world would have induced him to leave it, and on this
point they were all agreed. The Old Mansion was dear to those who
inhabited it, as well as to all who frequented it, and every one, like
Fleurange, uttered more or less fervently these words, which are
always vainly repeated in this world when our faculties are all for an
instant in a state of happy equilibrium: “It is good for us to be
here: let us set up our tabernacle, and here remain.” This impression,
it may be supposed, was not wholly owing to the exterior aspect of the
Old Mansion. There was a harmony between it and its occupants; and,
with various results, this effect is produced almost everywhere.
Inanimate objects seem to imbibe and communicate something of the life
that passes around them, and this language, though silent, is, to
those who heed it, a source of genuine revelation.
When Fleurange entered the drawing-room, she perceived her Uncle 822
Ludwig was rather impatiently awaiting her, for the moment she
appeared he advanced, and, taking her by the hand, led her to the
other end of the apartment, where stood a gentleman whose features
bore some resemblance to his own; but with so different an expression,
that the likeness, which at first was apparent, grew less and less as
the two brothers were better known.
“This is our sister Margaret’s daughter,” said Ludwig to the banker.
“She is doubly your niece now, for I have adopted her as my child.”
M. Heinrich Dornthal bowed and cordially embraced the young girl, but
he could not resist saying: “Another daughter, when you have three
already, is a great addition.”
This cool and unpleasant remark disconcerted Fleurange, and she had
not recovered from her painful sensation of embarrassment when a young
man of rather a fine figure approached and offered her his arm.
Fleurange looked at him with an air of astonishment. She had never
been to a large dinner-party, and knew nothing of the usages common to
all countries on such an occasion. She slightly retreated, and,
opening her large eyes, said: “Who are you, monsieur, and where do you
wish to conduct me?”
This question and movement caused a general smile around her, in which
she saw her Uncle Ludwig join, and with that simplicity which was her
greatest charm she began to laugh herself, and so innocently, that he
who had involuntarily caused this little scene exclaimed half aloud:
“This is truly the most charming piece of rusticity I ever met with;”
and then, bowing to her with mock gravity, and an air at once gallant
and bantering, he said:
“Mademoiselle, my name is Felix Dornthal: I have the honor of being
your cousin, and I offer you my arm to conduct you to the dining-room;
but I acknowledge there would have been more propriety in first making
us acquainted with each other.”
Fleurange, blushing and smiling, accepted the arm offered her, and,
once seated at table beside this new cousin, and freed from the
embarrassment of this little incident, she looked around and began to
enjoy her novel position.
Was it really her own self, who recently felt so isolated? She who had
stood face to face with want and abandonment? Could she be the same
person now, surrounded by numerous relatives, a member of a large
family, feeling herself beloved by all, and loving all in return--yes,
all, excepting the cousin seated beside her, who caused her
involuntary confusion; and yet he had just said some words to her in
Italian, pronounced with so pure an accent that she experienced a
lively sensation of surprise and joy, for Italy was her native
land--her own country almost, left only a few months previous for the
first time. But her cousin’s words embodied a compliment to which she
did not know how to reply, and when she raised her eyes toward him she
met a look that disconcerted her still more. She therefore only
uttered a few words in return, and then silently resumed her
examination of the company, beginning with her Uncle Ludwig. As to
him, she thought she had never seen a nobler and sweeter face. It was
impossible not to be struck by the contrast in this respect between
him and his wife, which must have been even more striking in their
youth than now. While she was dwelling on this thought, she met her
aunt’s eye resting on her for a moment, and saw her smile. That look 823
and smile seemed to answer her, and give a clue to the mystery, for
they revealed the traits that constitute the indestructible bond of
genuine sympathy. Beauty adds nothing to such characteristics, or at
least only a charm the heart disregards, and which even the eye soon
ceases to dwell on, for they who are capable of loving a soul soon
love the form, whatever it may be, in which it is clothed.
The only one of the children who had not inherited the beauty of the
Dornthals was Clement, who looked more like his mother than the rest.
He had the same ugliness and the same smile, and yet, as he was tall,
slender, active, and robust, his form, without being elegant, was not
devoid of grace, and when his thick hair was thrown back, the shape of
his forehead gave a marked character to his face, and his look was, in
flashes, expressive, decided, and intelligent. It was astonishing,
therefore, to find young Dornthal so apparently incapable of
self-assertion: the more so because he possessed great aptitude for
the arts and sciences, and as a student he stood in the highest rank.
But it seemed to be an effort for him to converse, and he was so
absolutely silent in the drawing-room that his friends habitually
avoided speaking to him. Elsewhere it was different. His father found
it difficult to conceal the secret preference he felt for his eldest
son, and the affectionate pride with which he regarded him was
manifest in his looks on all occasions, in spite of himself. And
Clement’s mother showed a confidence in him almost strange,
considering his youth, and often seemed more disposed to consult than
direct him. As to his brothers and sisters, they idolized him and were
constantly recurring to him; he had a remedy for every difficulty, a
means for every end, and nothing exhausted his patience. In spite of
this, as we have said, he scarcely attracted any attention in company.
We can therefore understand why Fleurange, in continuing her
inspection, did not stop long to consider her cousin, but, on the
contrary, directed all her attention to a person at his side whose
face was singularly remarkable. He was a man about fifty years old,
perhaps older, for his bald head, gray beard, and pale face, marked by
sickness, showed he was no longer young. But a something indefinable
attracted attention, and induced people to inquire his name, and the
name seemed so much in harmony with his countenance that, when known,
it was not unusual to hear the exclamation: “So had I pictured him to
myself.” Such, in fact, was that of Fleurange when, in reply to her
question, her cousin Felix told her his name was Hansfelt.
“Karl Hansfelt!” she repeated for the second time; “is it he?--what!
is that he?”
“Yes, my fair cousin, he himself,” replied Felix in a mocking tone.
“In truth, I ought to consider myself fortunate in having at length
found a subject of conversation that can interest you, but I did not
think of being under obligations to old Hansfelt!”
“But is it not natural to regard a celebrated man with interest, and
one so justly celebrated as he?” said she, turning her eyes once more
toward her cousin. But she lowered them immediately, for the look
fastened on her was more displeasing than any she had yet met--a look
expressing at once impertinent admiration and entire want of kindness.
She wished, nevertheless, to continue the conversation, and timidly
said: “No one can deny that he is a poet whose name is familiar to 824
every one, and whose songs are in every memory.”
“As for me,” replied Felix Dornthal, “I am not fond of rhymsters; this
one is particularly disagreeable to me; and his approaching departure
does not at all afflict me.”
“Is he going away?” said Fleurange.
“Yes, it seems he has been offered a place at the court of ----, I
hardly know what position, but one that will allow him to fully
gratify his taste for old books, and at the same time--a thing by no
means to be disdained, even by a poet--give him ample means of
livelihood. He has suffered sweet violence, and in a short time we
shall be deprived of the honor of receiving him within our walls--for
ever deprived, it seems, for the kind prince, who is taking him away,
insists on his not quitting his post.”
Fleurange made no reply: her glance had just fallen on her cousin
Hilda, who was sufficiently near to hear the conversation, but not
enough so to be able to take any part in it. She saw her suddenly
stoop down to pick up a flower just fallen from her hand, and when she
rose up there was a lively color in her face. This was a natural
consequence of the movement she had just made, but what was less so
was the paleness which gradually succeeded, and the trembling of her
hand when she endeavored to raise a glass of water to her lips.
Fleurange was observing this with a vague uneasiness, when her
attention was suddenly called away by a question her Uncle Ludwig
addressed to a young man seated at Clara’s side.
This question led to a reply which momentarily deprived Fleurange of
the power of thinking of anything else.
“Steinberg,” the professor said, “look at my niece, and tell me if you
can see the resemblance spoken of.”
The young artist turned toward Fleurange, and looked at her with an
attention that, till now, had been exclusively absorbed by his fair
neighbor. All at once he exclaimed: “Yes, certainly; I remember, and I
see Count George was right. That is truly _Cordelia_ herself before
us!”
Every eye was turned toward Fleurange, and it was her turn to blush.
But why did she thus tremble from head to foot? What were the mingled
remembrances, sweet and poignant, that were suddenly recalled by the
name of _Cordelia_? Of course it was natural that she should be
affected by hearing her father’s last work mentioned--that picture
connected with so many painful associations. On the other hand, it was
that same picture which enabled her uncle to find her, and now,
appreciating more than ever the extent of this happiness, it was
perhaps natural that the name of her unknown benefactor, suddenly
pronounced in her presence, should inspire this lively and
inexpressible emotion--but was this all?
However that might be, she remained the rest of the evening troubled
and absorbed in the same thought. She had not, then, been deceived. It
was really the stranger she had seen in the studio who now owned the
picture, for he not only knew she served her father as a model, but
said the likeness was perfect. And his name was Count George! Count?
Then he was a man of high rank? What was his other name? Where did he
reside? And was he still in this city?
Fleurange wished to give utterance to these questions, but an
invincible embarrassment restrained her, and the evening passed without 825
being able to bring the conversation back to this subject. This
curiosity aroused, but only imperfectly satisfied, left a kind of
uneasiness which she reproached herself for as a fault and a want of
gratitude, when, before falling asleep that night, she recalled all
that had signalized the day when for the first time she celebrated in
the midst of her own relatives the great and memorable festival of
Christmas.
VI.
Four months had passed away, and spring had returned. It was now the
eve of Clara’s marriage and Hansfelt’s departure, and these two events
diversely preoccupied all who lived in the Old Mansion. Fleurange was
leaning over her balcony, allowing her thoughts to wander at will, but
this reverie was by no means melancholy. She felt very happy in spite
of the ideas which vaguely crossed her mind at times, like phantoms
she could not grasp. The vernal air caressed her cheeks, and the sun
gaily lighted up the old furniture in her chamber. She looked
complacently around, and gave herself Up to a sweet and overpowering
sensation of comfort. All at once, without any apparent cause, without
any particular reason for this new impression, a piercing and bitter
thought replaced all these delicious reveries: “If I had to leave this
place for ever, as I have left all the others!” she said to herself
with sudden anguish, and for some moments she could not repress the
fearful thought. She covered her eyes with her hand, and endeavored to
shake off the kind of nightmare which had seized her. She was still in
this attitude when she heard a voice under her balcony, the sound of
which was more disagreeable to her than any other.
“If I were a poet,” said the voice, “or if I only knew some of their
effusions, it would be a suitable time to quote Shakespeare:
‘Oh! that I were a glove upon that hand!’
and so forth. Prompt me, Clement: I know Italian well, but very little
English.”
These words were addressed to her by her cousin Felix Dornthal, who
was in the garden with Clement, and had stopped beneath her balcony.
The latter had his head cast down, but Felix, as usual, gazed at her
with the admiration he had displayed from the very, first day--which
was the only disagreeable and annoying thing she had known beneath her
uncle’s roof. But then, she seldom saw Felix. The company that
assembled two or three times a month in the professor’s drawing-room
was not much to the taste of his nephew, and if he had come oftener
since Fleurange’s arrival, he seldom had an opportunity of conversing
with her, for she avoided him with a care in proportion to the
increasing aversion she felt for him. Felix had, nevertheless, all the
advantage a fine figure and the manners of the world confer, with
sufficient knowledge on various subjects to appear well-informed, and
coolness and assurance enough to direct a conversation so as to shine
in it. It might, therefore, seem surprising that he inspired such a
degree of antipathy, especially when, for the first time in his life,
he seriously endeavored to produce the contrary impression.
Sympathy and antipathy are in part instinctive and uncontrollable, and
sometimes they are wholly inexplicable. They are both experienced
without always knowing the cause, and sometimes, later, they are 826
transformed and modified to such a degree as to efface the first
impulse they inspired. Perhaps it would not be impossible to prove
that upright souls are less rarely deceived in this respect than
others. However it may be, and independent of this instinctive
repulsion, the antipathy Fleurange felt was owing, among other good
reasons, to the constant irony which was so strong an ingredient in
Felix’s nature, as to wither every feeling of kindly impulse or flow
of reason around him. Goodness found no attraction in his nature, and
those who conversed with him almost ceased to believe in it
themselves. He had not discernment enough to see that Fleurange was
one of those persons who may be wounded by a compliment as well as by
an insult, and more than one flash of her large eyes was necessary to
make him comprehend it. And when he suddenly stopped, his silence
excited anxiety to know the cause of his sudden preoccupation and what
sombre cloud enwrapped him. Some insinuated with a nod of the head
that M. Heinrich Dornthal’s only son should yield with more reserve to
his love for play, and his father had repeatedly remonstrated with him
on this point. But as, apart from his whims and irregularities, Felix
had a remarkable capacity for commercial affairs, the banker was
blindly indulgent to him, and often remarked that being “perfectly
satisfied, and sure of his son in matters of _serious_ import
(meaning thereby his aptitude for business), he did not trouble
himself much about the rest, and only patiently awaited the epoch when
the marriage of his choice would lead him back to a more regular
life.”
It should be added that, for several months, the health of the head
of the Dornthal family had, without his acknowledging it, been
seriously declining. The greater part of the business formerly done by
himself was now transacted by his son, and his confidence, or his
weakness, in this respect, increased to a degree unsuspected by any
but him who was its object. The banker occasionally felt, with a
return of his former cautiousness, some anxiety on this point, but
Felix knew how to reassure him by a few words, and he now felt only
one desire, which grew stronger and stronger--to see his son married,
and settled down to a life of greater conformity with the importance
of the affairs he could transact so skilfully, and to which he had
only to give his undivided attention. He could have wished him to
choose one of his two cousins, but Felix did not find them to his
taste, and often declared that it would not be within the walls of the
Old Mansion he should find her to whom he would sacrifice his
independence. But after Fleurange entered them he suddenly changed his
tone, and his ill-concealed admiration now directed toward her all the
banker’s matrimonial hopes respecting his son.
We left Felix beneath his cousin’s balcony, his riding-whip in hand:
“Away with poetry, which is not in my line,” he soon said, “and deign
to listen, fair cousin, to the petition I am about to address you in
humble prose.”
Fleurange, still leaning on the balcony, replied: “I am listening.”
“See what a lovely spring day! My horse stands yonder: will you not
have yours saddled, and allow me to ride in your company?”
Fleurange drew herself up with an air of surprise, and shook her head
without otherwise answering.
“No?” said Felix.
“No, certainly not. How could you think of such a thing? And what claim 827
have you to become my mentor?”
“Your mentor!” repeated Felix with a frown. “I am your cousin, that is
all. Clement often has the honor of accompanying you in this way, and
I should have a share in his privileges.”
“You are mistaken,” said Fleurange tranquilly: “Clement is my brother,
and you are not.”
The smile habitual to Felix--a smile at once impertinent and
satirical, hovered on his lips:
“Assuredly not,” he said; “that is a title I am by no means ambitious
of, and am far from claiming of you.”
Fleurange blushed, and made no reply, but, at a sign from her cousins
who were in the room, she almost immediately left the balcony and went
down into the garden.
Clement remained motionless during the preceding dialogue, with his
head bent down, making flourishes on the sand with the stick in his
hand.
“Her brother!” repeated Felix in a mocking tone, as soon as Fleurange
disappeared. “Well, I have no reason to be offended. She looks upon
you as a boy, that is quite clear. It is for you to complain, if this
does not suit you.”
“It does suit me, on the contrary;” said Clement in a decided tone. “I
accept the title she gives me, and I know, when occasion requires it,
how to fulfil the obligations it imposes, and when to claim my
rights.”
“Rights! What rights?”
“The right, certainly, of protecting her! You see, boy as I am, she
has conferred it on me. It is one which I will never surrender, and
would quite willingly maintain against you, Felix, if necessary.”
“What source of inspiration have you drawn from to-day, my fine
scholar? You are not generally so fluent. Indeed, if you were only a
few years older, I should imagine the large gray eyes of our fair,
disdainful cousin had fascinated you in your turn.”
Clement did not look up; he neither blushed nor was vexed.
“Felix,” said he, “I am only nineteen years old, it is true, and you
are ten years older; but I have one advantage which the younger does
not generally possess: you do not know me. But I,” continued he,
looking him full in the face, “as you are aware, I know you well.”
At these words a black look came over Felix’s face, he bit his lips,
and would perhaps have made some angry reply had not the three girls
appeared at the end of the alley. At the sight of them Felix abruptly
turned around, and, leaping on his horse, galloped off, slightly
waving his hand to Julian Steinberg, whom he met at the garden gate.
Fleurange and her two cousins approached to meet Clara’s betrothed. “I
am late,” said he to Clara, “but you must not think it is my fault. I
have been detained by an unexpected meeting. Count George is here.”
“Count George de Walden?” said Clement, “the same one who visited the
gallery about a year ago?”
“The very one,” replied Julian; “and it was he who showed us the
beautiful Cordelia that resembles you so much, mademoiselle,” he
added, turning to Fleurange.
“And the source of our good luck in finding her,” said Hilda.
“But, since he has seen you, Gabrielle,” said Clara, “you must know
him.”
Fleurange, strangely surprised, moved, and confused, nevertheless
replied in a tolerably calm tone: “I did not know who purchased the
picture until I came here.”
“But,” persisted Clara, “you saw him, however?” 828
“Yes, once, but without speaking to him.”
“In that case, you must remember him, for Julian pretends his face is
the most remarkable one he ever saw.”
“Yes, his features are not only fine,” said Julian, “but there is in
his physiognomy and his whole appearance something--something--”
“Striking and noble,” said Clement.
“Yes, that is true.”
“Assuredly,” replied Julian; “but that is not all. There is something
extraordinary about him--how shall I express it? heroic--yes, that is
the word, he looks like a hero.”
“Of romance?” said Clara.
“No, of history: if I had to paint a celebrated soldier, or the leader
of some famous exploit, I should choose him for the original.”
“And then, he is a great lover of art,” said Clement.
“Yes,” responded Julian, “he seems, indeed, gifted in every way.”
“And is he going to remain here?” said Clara.
“Unfortunately he will not, for in that case he would be at our
wedding, but he is obliged to go to St. Petersburg without any delay.”
“What! is he a Russian?” said Clara.
“No, not wholly.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean he is a Livonian or a native of Courland, I do not know
exactly which. But he is one of the emperor’s subjects, and cannot
trifle with his orders, which obliged him to leave Florence suddenly,
where he was, and now forces him to keep swiftly on his way.”
The conversation took another turn, of which Fleurange did not hear a
word. As soon as she had an excuse for leaving her cousins, she
returned to her chamber, where she took a small note-book from her
pocket, and carefully inscribed therein the name of Count George de
Walden.
[160] The use of the second person singular, indicative of
familiarity in most European languages, has not been
retained in this translation.
----------
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. AGNES.
“Sancta Agnes! ora pro nobis.”
Calm she stood,
An ivory statue, yet instinct with life,
So stately was that gently breathing form
Of grace and dignity so perfect, yet
With all youth’s pliant softness.
On her brow,
White as the ocean pearl when first the waves
Complaining cast their treasure on the shore,
Was stamped the seal of that creating hand
Whose spirit dwelt within that temple rare,
Her holy virgin heart; and from her eyes,
Soul-lit, beamed forth the splendor and the depth
Of that informing mind whose lights they were,
Until you heeded not their violet hues,
Their lashes long, or nobly arching brows. 829
Her flossy hair was colored like the sun,
Her cheeks were opal-tinted, like the hues
Of rosy sunset mingled with the pure
Soft paly whiteness of the maiden moon.
Her mouth was a pomegranate-flower, with all
Its crimson sweetness, and her rounded chin,
Love’s finger touching, had impressed therein
A lovely dimple, thus completing well
The virgin beauty of that angel face.
A young and princely Roman knight drew near,
And bent upon the noble maid his glance,
Wherein the fire of earthly passion blazed,
Yet tempered by a tear of pity born.
“Agnes! my Agnes!” in a suppliant voice
He spake; “Oh! dost thou shun my clasping arms,
And rather choose this grim and ghastly death,
To dower with all thy charms? Oh! let me place
Upon that fairest hand this spousal ring,
Pledge of our future nuptials; then shall all
This dark and bloody pageantry of death,
The axe, the block, the gloomy lictors, all
Pass from thy sight for ever. Agnes! speak!”
The virgin answered not nor seemed to hear,
Her eyes in raptured trance raised to the skies,
Till from her parted lips in angel tones
Low murmuring music broke: “O thou my Lord!
Jesus! my Spouse! my All! my only Love!
Am I not thine alone? upon my brow
Hast thou not left thy signet? on this hand
Hast thou not placed thy ring, the golden ring,
Of our divine espousals heavenly pledge?
Come, O my Love! I long to view thy face,
Come, take thine Agnes to thine own embrace;
For ever with the Lord!” The thrilling tones
Lapsed into silence. On the lictors all,
She smiled--a heavenly smile; and then she knelt,
Bowing her gentle head upon the block,
Her golden tresses, parted for the blow,
Swept the dry sand so soon to drink her blood.
An instant, and the dazzling gleam of steel
Flashed through the air; it fell, and rose again--
All--all was o’er; e’en then the virgin bride
Stood on the sea of glass before her Lord.
The martyred virgin bride, crowned by his hand
With palms of triumph, and the lilies white,
Meet emblems of her purity and faith.
----------
CATHOLICITY AND PANTHEISM. 830
NO. XIII.
THE COSMOS IN TIME AND SPACE--CONTINUED.
In the preceding article, we have seen that, in consequence of the
sacramental extension of the Theanthropos in time and space,
substantial creation in its highest and noblest element, which is
personality, has received its last initial and inchoative perfection
of being, by the union of human persons with the Theanthropos by means
of his substantial and sacramental presence, and through that union
the elevation to a higher similitude of and communication with the
three persons of the infinite. Now, this last complement of the
cosmos, this union of the Theanthropos, with human persons, through
his sacramental extension in time and space, constitutes the Catholic
Church, which may be defined to be:
_The Theanthropos present in the cosmos through the sacraments, and
through them incorporating into himself human persons in time and
space, raising them to a higher similitude of and communication with
the three personalities of the infinite, and thus not only realizing
the highest initial perfection of the cosmos, but also unfolding and
developing that initial perfection, and bringing it to its ultimate
completion in palingenesia._
The Theanthropos, therefore, has placed himself in the very centre of
the cosmos by his sacramental and substantial presence, as became his
great office and prerogative of mediator. By those moments of his
sacramental presence to which he has only attached his infinite energy
and power, he disposes and fits human persons for the real
incorporation into himself in the following manner: By the sacramental
moment of order, through the moral instrument in whom this moment is
realized, he propounds and explains his doctrine, the _gnosis_
respecting God, and the cosmos which he came to reveal to men. By the
sacramental moment of regeneration, he infuses into human persons the
term of the supernatural order in its essence and faculties, and thus
raises them to a higher state of being, and to a closer communication
with the Trinity, but all this in an initial and inchoative state. By
the sacramental moment, called confirmation, he brings that essence
and its faculties to a definite and determinate growth. When human
persons are thus fitted and prepared, he by his substantial presence
incorporates them into himself, and enables their supernatural being
to live and develop itself by being put in real, actual communication
with all the proper objects of its faculties. Thus, the cosmos of
personalities, perfected in its initial supernatural state, can act
and develop itself--the Theanthropos himself, through his moral
agents, organically constituted, governing and directing its action to
the safest and speediest acquirement of its last perfection.
From this metaphysical idea of the church, derived and resulting from 831
its very essence, it follows:
First, That, next to the Theanthropos, the Catholic Church is the end
of all the exterior works of the infinite. The supreme end of the
exterior works was the highest possible communication of the infinite
to the finite. This was primarily realized in the hypostatic union
which bound all created natures to the infinite, and is realized next
in the union of all personalities with the Theanthropos, and through
him with the Trinity. Now, the very essence of the Catholic Church
consists in this union. Consequently, as such it is the _last supreme
imperative_ law of the cosmos. The last, because with it closes the
cycle of the creative act, and begins the cycle of the return of the
terms to their principle and cause. Supreme, because no higher initial
perfection of the cosmos can be realized after supposing its
existence. Imperative, because it is a necessary complement of the
plan of the cosmos.
Hence, without the Catholic Church the cosmos of personalities would
have no aim or object. It would stand alone, and unconnected with the
other parts of the cosmos, the particular end of each personality
could never be attained, and the whole would present a confused mass
of elements, without order, harmony, or completion.
It follows, in the second place, that the Catholic Church is fashioned
after the hypostatic moment, and is its most lively representation.
For as that moment implies the bringing together of a human and divine
element, finite and infinite, absolute and relative, necessary and
contingent, independent and subject, visible and invisible, in the
unity of one divine personality, so the Catholic Church is the result
of a double element, one human, the other divine; one visible, the
other invisible; one finite, the other infinite; one necessary, the
other contingent; one immutable, the other variable; the one
independent and authoritative, the other subject and dependent, in the
union of the Theanthropos with the sacramental element. This union of
the Theanthropos with the sacramental element, both moral and
physical, is, as we have said, the very essence of the Catholic
Church, and which endows it with that double series of attributes and
perfections, one belonging to God, the other essentially belonging to
the finite, but which are brought together in one being in force of
that union; and all the difficulties brought against the church hinge
upon that very thing--the sacramental union of all the divine
attributes of the Theanthropos with the finite attributes of the
sacramental element. All those who object to all or some of the
Theanthropic attributes of the church object to the possibility and
existence of that union.
But that union, as the last supreme imperative law of the cosmos, is
such a strict consequence of the plan, is so connected and linked with
all the other moments of God’s action _ad extra_, depends so entirely
upon the identical principle which originates the others, that once we
deny it we are obliged to yield up all the other truths, and take
refuge in nihilism, and proclaim the death of our intelligence. For
once we admit the impossibility of the union of the attributes or
substance of the Theanthropos with the sacramental element, on the
plea that the attributes of each are opposite and contradictory, for
the self-same reason we must admit the impossibility of the union of
the Word of God with the human nature, and sweep the hypostatic moment
clean away; because, if it is impossible to bring together opposite 832
attributes in one sacramental being, it is much more impossible, so to
speak, to bring not only attributes but two natures quite opposite
together, into one subsistence and personality, and entirely exchange
attribution and names, and call man God, and God man, and attribute
exclusively divine acts to human nature, and _vice versa_. But, having
denied the hypostatic moment in consequence of that pretended
impossibility, we cannot logically stop here. We must generalize the
question, and deny all possible union between the finite and the
infinite. For what can there be more opposite and more contradictory
than these terms, absolute and relative, necessary and contingent,
immense and limited, eternal and successive, immutable and changeable,
universal and particular, self-existing and made, infinite and finite?
And could they possibly be brought together into any kind of union?
Nay, we must go further, and deny the very coexistence of both terms,
because one certainly seems to exclude the other--the universal being,
for instance, including all possible being, must necessarily imply the
impossibility of the coexistence of any particular, circumscribed,
limited being. Arrived at this, we must conclude that all finite
things which come under our observation, not being able to coexist
with the universal being, must be only modifications and developments
of that same, and throw ourselves into pantheism. But once pantheism
is admitted, we must, to be logical, suppose the existence of a
universal something impelled by an interior instinct of nature to
unfold and develop itself by a succession of efforts, one more
distinct, marked, and perfect than the other. Now, taking this
substance at one determinate stage of development, and going backward,
from a more perfect development to one less perfect, and from this to
one still less perfect, we must necessarily arrive at the most
indeterminate, indefinite, abstract _something_, at the idea-being of
Hegel--that is, at nihilism.
Nihilism is consequently the logical product of the denial of the
union of the infinite attributes of the Theanthropos with the
sacramental element, the very essence of the Catholic Church. _The
Catholic Church, therefore--or nihilism._
And we beg the reader to observe that this logical conclusion which we
have drawn is simply the history of the errors of the last three
hundred years, and consequently our conclusions receive all the
support which the gradual unfolding of error for three hundred years
is able to afford.
The impossibility of the union of the infinite attributes and
substantial presence of the Theanthropos in the sacramental element
was proclaimed in the sixteenth century by Protestantism, when on one
side it denied the authority and infallibility of the church, and
consequently denied the union of these Theanthropic attributes with
the moral instrument, the hierarchy, and on the other side denied the
real presence, and thus refused to allow a union of the substance of
the Theanthropos with the sacramental elements of bread and wine. It
did not then see the full meaning of its denial, but yet established
the principle of the impossibility of the union of the Theanthropos in
action or substance with the sacramental elements. Deism followed,
and, making the Protestant principle its own, added a logical
application to it, and asked: How can the uncreated, infinite, and
absolute being be united to a nature created, finite, and relative?
or, in other words: How could the finite and the infinite be united so 833
as to form the God-man? And then, like Protestantism, in reference to
sacramental union, not being able to conceive that possibility, deism
denied the hypostatic moment. But the question did not stop here.
Pantheism followed, and, being gifted with as much logical acumen as
deism, generalized the question, and asked: How can the finite coexist
with the infinite, which comprehends all? And not being able to see
the possibility of such coexistence, it refused all existence to the
finite, and admitted the identity of all things and the unity of
substance, allowing the finite no other existence but one ephemeral
and phenomenal. This was the pantheism of Spinoza and others. But
Hegel, with more acumen than all the rest, saw clearly that it was
impossible to admit an _infinite_ substance subject to modification
and development, unless it was supposed to be, previously to any
development, altogether abstract, and shorn of all determination and
concreteness, among which determinations must be ranked existence
also; because development implies limit, definiteness, determination,
circumscription; hence, that primitive something could not be supposed
infinite, except it was shorn of everything, even existence.
Consequently, he proclaimed nihilism as the principle of all things.
And nihilism, and along with it the death of the intelligence, we
repeat, must be admitted, or the Catholic Church--all truth or no
truth.
We conclude: Deny the Catholic Church, or the union of the attributes
and substance of the Theanthropos with the sacramental elements,
because those opposite things cannot be brought together, and you must
deny the union between human nature and the eternal Word for the same
reason. Deny the hypostatic moment, and you must deny every kind of
union between the finite and the infinite for the same identical
reason, and you must deny the very coexistence of the finite and the
infinite, and throw yourself into pantheism.
We defy any one to find a flaw in the logical connection of these
conclusions, or to prove that we have misstated the genesis and
development of error for the last three hundred years.
From the essence of the Catholic Church, it follows that she is
necessarily divided into two moments--the active moment, and the
passive moment.
The first is the Theanthropos acting through his moral instruments,
proposing and expounding to all human persons, in time and space, the
_gnosis_ of the whole cosmos, in its cause, term, effect, and
destiny, actualizing through the same moral instruments all the other
sacramental moments in human persons, and through the same moral
instruments governing and directing the whole elevated cosmos. This
moment is called in theological language _ecclesia docens_, or teaching
church. The second are all human persons to whom the doctrine is
taught, and who are the recipients of all the sacraments and the
subjects of the government of the church. This moment is called
_ecclesia audiens_, or hearing church.
The first is essentially active, the other passive; the one
communicates, the other receives--though some members, in different
relations, belong to the one or the other.
Though in demonstrating the essence of the Catholic Church, as we
flatter ourselves, quite in a novel aspect, we have at the same time
demonstrated all the Theanthropic attributes belonging to and resulting
from that essence, yet, for the sake of those who cannot see all the 834
consequences included in a general principle, we shall dilate at some
length upon all the essential attributes of the church, and those
characteristic marks which constitute her what she is, and point her
out from any other body pretending to the same name.
The first attribute, which evidently emanates from the essence of the
church, is its externation, and capacity of coming under the
observation of men. For, if the essence of the church consists in
being the Theanthropos, incorporating his power, as well as his
substantial presence, in physical as well as personal instruments, and
through them incorporating all human persons unto himself, who can
fail to perceive that church must be visible, outward, able to come
under the observation of men, in that double relation of sacramental
extension of Christ and of having men as objects of incorporation with
him?
An invisible church would imply a denial of any sacramental agency,
and would be absolutely unfit for men, who are _incarnate_ spirits.
Hence, those sects which hold that the saints alone belong to the
church have not the least idea of its essence. Holiness being
altogether a spiritual and invisible quality, the saints could not
know each other, nor, consequently, hold any communication with each
other; the sinners could not find out where the saints are to be heard
of; and therefore there could not be any possibility of discovering
the church or any moral obligation of joining it.
The next attribute essentially belonging to the church is its
_permanence_, in theological language called indefectibility, which
implies not only duration in time and space, but also _immutability_
in all its essential elements, attributes, and rights. The church must
continue to be, as long as the cosmos lasts, whole and entire in all
time and space, in the perfect enjoyment of all its attributes,
characteristic marks, and rights.
The reason of this attribute is so evident and palpable that we are at
a loss to understand how it could enter men’s minds that the church
could and did fail or change in its essential elements. When
Protestantism, to cloak over its rebellion in breaking loose from
allegiance to the church of the living God, alleged as reason that it
had failed and changed in its essential elements--when Protestantism
repeats daily the same assertion, it exposed and exposes itself to an
absurdity at which the merest tyro in logic would laugh. It is one of
the first axioms of ontology that the essences of things are immutable
and eternal: immutable, inasmuch as they can never change; eternal,
inasmuch as they must be conceived as possible from eternity, whether
they have any subjective existence or not. Essences are like number.
Add to it, or subtract from it, and you can never have the same
number; likewise add to the essence of a thing, or subtract from it,
and you may have another thing, but never the same essence.
Now, what is the essence of the church? It consists in the
Theanthropos incorporating his infinite power and his substantial
presence in physical and personal instruments, and through them
uniting to himself human persons, elevating them to a supernatural
state, and enabling them to develop and unfold their supernatural
faculties until they arrive at their ultimate perfection, and all this
in time and space.
Now, how can we suppose the church to fail when its very essence is
founded on the union of the Theanthropos with the sacraments? The only 835
possible failure we can suppose is if the presence of the Theanthropos
were to be withdrawn from the sacraments; and this could happen either
because the Theanthropos may be supposed powerless to continue that
presence or unwilling; in both cases, the divinity of the Theanthropos
is denied; because the first would argue want of power, the second a
senseless change. Protestantism would do much better to deny at once
the divinity of its founder, instead of admitting the failure of the
church he founded. It would be by far more honest and logical. We can
respect error when it is logical and consistent, but we must despise
obstinate nonsense and absurdity. The same attribute is claimed by the
end of the church--which is, to communicate to human persons in time
and space the term of the supernatural moment. As long, then, as there
are men on earth, so long must the church continue to possess
invariable and unchangeable those elements with which it was endowed
by its divine founder. Should it fail or change, how could men after
the failure be incorporated into the Theanthropos? Should it fail or
change, how could men believe in the possibility of their attaining
their end? Should it fail once and at one period only, men would no
longer possess any means of knowing when, and how, and where it might
not fail again, and therefore they could not but look upon the whole
thing with utter contempt.
The next attribute is infallibility.
Certainty objectively considered is the impossibility of error in a
given case. Infallibility also, considered in itself, is the
impossibility of error in every case within the sphere to which that
infallibility extends. This attribute is essentially necessary to the
church, but before we enter upon its vindication we will say a word
about its nature, the subject in whom it resides, the object it
embraces, and the mode of exercising it. The nature of the
infallibility claimed by the church does not consist in a new
inspiration: because inspiration implies an interior revelation of an
idea not previously revealed or known. Now, this does not occur, and
is not necessary, in order that the church may fulfil its office. The
revelation of the whole _gnosis_ respecting God, the cosmos, and their
mutual relations in time and in eternity, was made by the Theanthropos
in the beginning. The church carries it in her mind, heart, and life,
as she traverses centuries and generations. But as all the particular
principles constituting that _gnosis_ are not all distinctly and
explicitly formulated and set in human language, so it becomes the
office of the church from time to time to formulate one of those
principles. In this she is assisted by the Theanthropos in such a
manner that she may infallibly express her mind in the new formula she
utters. Again, an error may arise against the revealed gnosis she
carries in her mind. Then it is her office to proclaim what her mind
is upon the subject, and condemn whatever may be contrary to it.
Again, she is assisted by the Theanthropos in such a manner as to
effect both these things infallibly. Infallibility in the present
case, therefore, may be defined a permanent assistance of the
Theanthropos preserving the church from falling into error in the
exercise of her office.
The object of this attribute is limited to these three:
1. She is infallible in teaching and defining all theoretical
doctrines contained in the revelation, be it written or not, but
handed down socially from the beginning.
2. In all doctrines having reference to morality. 836
3. In the choice and determination of the external means of embodying
that doctrine, theoretical or practical; whether the external means
which embodies the doctrine be used by the church, or, used by others,
must be judged by the church.
This last object of infallibility is so absolutely necessary that
without it the other two would become nugatory and fictitious. If, in
propounding a doctrine, the church could err in fixing upon such
objective expressions of language as would infallibly exhibit her
mind, men could never be assured whether the church had expressed
herself correctly or not, and could never, consequently, be certain of
her meaning. Likewise, if the church could err in teaching whether
such and such expression of language, intended to embody a doctrine,
contains an error or a truth, men would be left in doubt whether to
embrace or reject it, and could never, in embracing it, be absolutely
certain whether they were holding a revealed doctrine or a falsehood.
From this it follows that: First, the church is not infallible in
things belonging exclusively to natural sciences, and in no way
connected with revelation; second, she is not infallible in reference
to historical facts, and much less in reference to personal facts,
unless these are connected with dogma. The subjects in whom this
attribute resides are the following:
1. The Supreme Pontiff, the head of the hierarchy, who, independent of
the rest, enjoys this attribute, in reference to all the objects above
explained. Because, by the interior organism of the church, as we
shall see, he is made the source of all authority in teaching and
governing.
2. The hierarchy, together with the Supreme Pontiff, either assembled
in council or agreeing through other means of communication.
We almost blush to have to remark that this, infallibility, centred in
the Pope or bishops, does not render them personally impeccable. The
two things are as distant as the poles, and can only be brought
together and confounded in minds who, according to the expression of
Dante, have lost the light of the intellect, and live in a darkness
which is little short of death.
The modes of exercising this attribute are three:
She is infallible as teacher, as witness, and as judge.
As teacher: when she proclaims and expounds to the faithful the
revelation of the Theanthropos.
As witness: when she affirms what belongs or does not belong to that
revelation.
As judge: when she pronounces final judgment on controversies and
disputes which arise in relation to revealed doctrines.
Having thus given a brief idea of all that belongs to the subject of
infallibility, it seems to us that no one who has understood the
nature and essence of the church, and the object for which it was
established, can fail to perceive not only the entire reasonableness,
but also the absolute necessity of such a doctrine.
We have said that the church in its active element is nothing less
than the Theanthropos himself, communicating the term of the
supernatural moment, which includes teaching, through the agency of
secondary agents, both physical and personal. The church, therefore,
under the aspect from which we are now regarding her, is the
Theanthropos teaching his revelation, expounding his revelation,
affirming and witnessing to his revelation, declaring what agrees
with it, and what is contradictory to it, through the agency of the 837
Supreme Pontiff, or of the Pontiff and the rest of the hierarchy. And
can anything be more reasonable than the assertion that she is
infallible? Protestantism has boasted, and boasts yet, of having
emancipated reason, of having brought it to the highest possible
degree of culture and development. But when will Protestantism begin
to exercise its vaunted reason?
Is it reasonable to suppose that the Theanthropos, the God made man,
the infallible wisdom of God, the very intelligibility of the Father,
who established the church, that is, united himself, either as to
action or substance, with a sacramental element, be it material or
personal, in order, among other things, to teach all men in time and
space what was absolutely necessary for them to know to attain their
ultimate perfection--is it reasonable to suppose, we say, that the
Theanthropos should, through his personal agents, teach anything but
absolute truth?
Deny the divinity of the Theanthropos, deny that the Theanthropos ever
did or could unite his activity with personal agents, deny the essence
of the church, and then you would be logical, then you would be
consistent, then we could understand you. But to admit that the
Theanthropos _is_ God, to admit that he _did_ unite his infinite and
divine activity to the sacramental element, to admit that he did so on
purpose to teach all men in time and space, and then to affirm that
the church is not and cannot be infallible--that is, that the
Theanthropos cannot teach infallibly through his personal agents--is
such a logic as only the highly cultivated reason of Protestantism can
understand. It is above the reach of that reason which is satisfied
with a moderate share of culture and refinement, and cannot claim to soar
so high.
We beg the reader to reflect for an instant on this single question:
Is it the Theanthropos, or is it not, who teaches through the agency
of his personal instruments? To this simple question, a simple answer
should be given. Say you answer, It is not. Then you deny that the
Theanthropos united his infinite energy to a sacramental element. Then
you deny the essence of the church, and, in denying that, you must
deny every other union between the infinite and the finite, as we have
demonstrated. If you say it _is_ the Theanthropos who teaches through
the agency of his personal instruments, then what can be more logical
or more consistent than to say that he teaches infallibly? What is
there more reasonable than to say that a God-man should know what is
truth, and should express his mind so, should embody it in an external
means so, as to represent that mind infallibly?
Then, why so much opposition against this plainest attribute of the
church? Why so much obloquy, so much sneering, except that the so
boasted Protestant reason is nothing but a vile, unmanly prejudice,
except that those who boast so much of exercising their reason
resemble those innocent and unconscious animals of which Dante speaks:
“As _sheep_, that step forth from their fold, by one
Or pairs, or three, at once; meanwhile, the rest
Stand fearfully, bending the eye and nose
To ground, _and what the foremost does that do
The others, gathering round her if she stops,
Simple and quiet, nor the cause discern_”?
--_Cary’s Translation._
The next attribute of the church is authority. This, like the rest,
flows from her very essence. That essence consists in being the
sacramental extension of Christ incorporating unto himself all human 838
persons in time and space, communicating to them the term of the
supernatural moment in its essence and faculties, and aiding them to
develop those faculties, and to bring them to their ultimate
completion. The church, therefore, as sacramental--that is, outward
and sensible extension of the Theanthropos intended for men--is a
visible, outward society of human persons with the Theanthropos. Now,
what does a visible society require? That the external relations of
the associates should be determined and governed by the authority
legitimately constituted in the society. For, if those relations were
not determined and directed by proper authority in a visible society,
it is evident that no order could be expected, and that all the
members could not form one moral body, by a proper external
communication. The church, therefore, as a visible society, must have
authority to determine all the external relations of the members, and
to govern and direct them.
This authority or power of establishing the external polity in the
church is, of course, essentially residing in the Theanthropos, who
communicates it whole and entire to the Supreme Pontiff, and through
him to the whole hierarchy and the rest of the active church.
Having vindicated the essential attributes of the church, we think it
necessary to dilate at some length upon the interior constitution, the
internal organism of the same, in order to exhibit a fuller and more
adequate idea of this masterpiece of the infinite. And in order to do
it thoroughly, we must give a cursory glance at its eternal type, the
supreme exemplar of everything--the Trinity. The reader will remember
that the genesis of God’s life takes place as follows: There is in the
infinite essence and nature a first subsistence, unborn, unbegotten,
which terminates in the first person. This is the supreme, active
principle of the second, and both are the active principle of the
third. In this third termination closes the cycle of infinite life.
The production of the second person is brought about by intellectual
generation. For the primary unbegotten activity, being infinitely
intelligent, can scan with his glance the whole depth, breadth,
height, and length of his infinite nature. Now, to intelligence means
to produce an intellectual image of the object which is understood.
Consequently, the primary unbegotten principle, by intelligencing
himself, produces an intellectual image, absolutely equal to himself,
the act of intelligencing being infinite, and also distinct from him,
inasmuch as they are opposed as principle and term. The first
contemplates himself in his substantial image, and is attracted toward
himself and his image. The second contemplates himself in his
principle, and is attracted toward himself and his principle. This
common, mutual attraction or love, being also infinite, is
consequently substantial, and results in a third termination of the
infinite essence.
From this brief explanation of the genesis of God’s life, it follows:
1st. That the infinite, though one in nature, has three distinct
terminations or persons.
2d. That, though these three persons are absolutely equal, because
possessed of the same identical nature, we find in them a necessary
subjection of order founded on the law of origin and production, the
second being originated by the first, and being in this respect
subject to him; the third being originated by both, and under this
respect being subject to both.
3d. The three persons, possessing the same identical nature and 839
substance, possess, consequently, all the perfections and attributes
flowing from the substance in the same identical manner. Hence they
possess in common all the metaphysical attributes of the substance,
such as infinity, eternity, immensity, immutability; all the
intellectual attributes, such as truth, wisdom, etc.; all the moral
attributes of the substance, such as goodness, etc.
4th. As nature is the radical principle of action and life, it follows
that, as the three persons possess the same nature, they possess one
identical action and life. But as the termination is the immediate
principle of action, and the three persons have a distinct
termination, their one identical action receives the impress of the
distinct termination of each.
5th. Finally, the essence being identical in all the three persons,
and the second and third being originated by an immanent action, and
all being essentially relative to each other, it follows that they all
live in each other by a common indwelling.
Now, the interior constitution, the internal organism, of the church
must be modelled, both in its active and passive moments, after this
supreme type of everything; always granting the necessary distance of
proportion intervening between the infinite and the finite. For, if
the whole cosmos is and must be fashioned after that supreme pattern,
how much more must the church, which is the inchoative and initial
perfection of the whole cosmos, the cosmos of personalities!
Consequently, we must find in its interior organism all the laws of
the genesis of God’s life--laws which in the whole cosmos are
reflected in those of _unity_, _variety_, _hierarchy_, _communion_.
And, first, as to the active moment of the church. As in the infinite
we find one nature and essence, the abyss of all perfections, the
_Being_, so in the active church we must find one nature and
essence, the reflex of the essence of God. And that one nature
consists in the fulness of the priesthood of the Theanthropos,
communicated to the whole active church in the sacrament of order, and
in the fulness of his authority.
As in the infinite the divine nature is possessed in common by a
multiplicity of persons, the three terminations constituting the
Trinity, so in the active church the priesthood of Christ and his
authority must be possessed in common by a multiplicity of persons,
some possessing it in its fulness, some partially, because distinction
in the finite is by gradation, and cannot be by perfect equality, but
all having the same identical priesthood as to its nature.
As in the Trinity, we find the law of hierarchy absolutely necessary
in organic and living beings, which hierarchy consists in this, that
the three divine persons, though absolutely equal as to nature, are
distinct as to personality--a distinction which arises from opposition
of origin. Now, this opposition of origin necessarily gives rise to a
hierarchical superiority of order; the Father as such being
necessarily superior in order to the Son, and the Son as such inferior
to him; both as the aspirants of the third person necessarily superior
to him, and _vice versa_.
Now, this hierarchical law must be found also in the church, and we
must find a superiority of one over the other, not merely of order,
but of gradation; the finite, as we have said, not being distinct
except by gradation of being. Hence, we find the Theanthropos to have
established three distinct elements constituting the hierarchy, and 840
organically brought together. The first, a primary principle of
authority from whom all receive, and he receives from none--the
Supreme Pontiff, his own vicar on earth, the visible head of the
church. The second, who receive from the first in measure and
limit--the episcopate, who receive from the Supreme Pontiff their
authority and its extent. The third, also, receive from both in a more
limited manner--the priesthood.[161]
As in the Trinity the divine nature, being the radical principle of
action and life, and the termination, the proximate principle, there
is one common action and life, but the same bearing the impress of the
constituent of each person; so in the church the authority being the
same as to nature, the Pontiff, the episcopate, and the priesthood
have one common life and action radically, but each one displaying it
according to the degree resulting from his dignity--the Pontiff in its
fulness, the episcopate within the range of their dioceses, the
priesthood within the limits appointed by the episcopate--the second
as holding it from the first, the third from both.
The reader can see by the theory we have just explained, and which
cannot be gainsaid, how the late definition of the infallibility of
the Supreme Pontiff is in accordance with and flows from the
principles we have laid down. The Pontiff in the church of Christ is
the first and primary visible principle of all authority, as in the
interior of infinite life the eternal Father is the first primary
principle of authority over the Son and the Spirit, as we have
explained above.
From the Pontiff all must receive authority, and he can receive from
none, as the Father in the internal organism of the infinite
communicates and receives from none. Consequently, the Supreme Pontiff
being the first, primary, supreme, visible principle of authority in
the church of Christ, is the first, primary, supreme, visible
teacher--the office of teaching being essentially included in the
fulness of authority communicated to him by Christ.
And as the office of teaching in the church of Christ would be of no
avail except it were endowed with the attribute of infallibility, it
follows that the Supreme Pontiff is the first, primary, supreme,
_infallible_ teacher in the church of Christ. He must teach all, and
can be taught by none. He teaches by himself the whole universal
church, and none has and can have any authority for disputing,
objecting to, and gainsaying his teaching.
We cannot perceive how any persons holding the supremacy and
independence of his authority could ever have reconciled with their
logic the dependence of his authority with reference to teaching.
We come to the interior organism of the passive church, to which the
active church also belongs in different relation, and we find in it
also a reflex of the Trinity.
For as in the infinite there is one nature common to all, communicated
by the first person to the second, and by both to the third, so in the
passive church we find the same nature, the term of the supernatural
moment, consisting in a higher similitude of and communication with
the Trinity; this term communicated by the active church; primarily by
the episcopate, and secondarily by the priesthood. 841
As in the Trinity, the nature being the same, the three persons
partake of all the attributes flowing from the nature, likewise, and
with due proportion in the church, the nature of the supernatural
moment being the same, all the members partake of the same attributes
and faculties flowing from that nature; hence they have one common
supernatural intelligence, one common supernatural will.
As the Trinity, the nature being the radical principle of action, and
the personality the proximate, all have the same action, but each acts
according to the constituent of his personality; so in the church, the
term of the supernatural moment, constituting its nature, being the
same, all have the same supernatural action and life; but personally,
some members belonging to the active church, and some to the passive,
it follows that those who belong to the first display that life in
that relation, and those who belong to the second display it in the
second relation.
As in the Trinity we find an indwelling of all the persons in each
other, and a living perpetual communication founded on the identity of
nature and on the relation of personalities; so in the church of
Christ we find a perpetual communication of its members with each
other, founded on the identity of nature, the term of the supernatural
moment, and on the relation of personalities, all members of the
passive church communicating with and living, as it were, in the
active church, because proceeding from it.
We see, therefore, what is the interior organism of the church. As to
the active church, the fulness of the priesthood of the Theanthropos
is given to the whole active church. The organism is constituted and
established by authority. The fulness of his authority is communicated
to one, the Supreme Pontiff, the visible head of the church. From him,
and from him alone, all others must receive authority. And hence the
unity of the whole active church, unity of authority, of action and
life, and the proper hierarchical order. The passive church is
established upon the bestowal of the supernatural nature and faculties
and acts. The two are brought together by the community of the same
supernatural nature, faculties, and acts; and, by the dependence of
origin, the second proceeding and being originated by the first. Both
have one common life and action, but hierarchically exercised, the
passive being governed and directed by the one which originates it,
and thus exhibiting a most perfect image of the Trinity.
We have only been commenting upon those words of the Theanthropos:
“Holy Father, keep these in thy name whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one, as we also are.” Here we have the necessity of the
church being modelled after the Trinity, the archetype of everything.
“As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the
world.” The common nature of the active church, the mission and
authority of the Theanthropos.
“And not for these only do I pray, but for all those who, through
their words, shall believe in me.” The continuation of that authority.
“Sanctify them in truth.” The common nature of the passive church, the
term of the supernatural moment.
“That they may be one, as thou Father in me and I in thee, that they
may be one in us.” The completion of the inchoative society, brought
about by the supernatural element of union, and by the incorporation 842
with the Theanthropos.
To complete the theory of the church, we have now to point out the
characteristic marks which distinguish it from any counterfeit
institution of men. These marks are four: unity, holiness,
catholicity, and apostolicity.
_Unity._ What is the church, viewed in its essence, attributes, and
interior organism? It is the Theanthropos annexing his infinite energy
and his substantial presence to a sacramental element, both physical
and personal, and through them first elevating human persons to a
supernatural being, with its essence and faculties of supernatural
intelligence and supernatural will in an incipient and inchoative
state; secondly, through his sacramental, personal element proposing
and expounding his _gnosis_ to their supernatural intelligence; by a
second sacramental moment elevating this supernatural essence and
faculties to a determinate and definite growth: by the sacramental
moment of his presence incorporating all elevated persons unto
himself, and thus putting them in immediate contact with himself, and
through him with the Trinity on one side and with all the cosmos in
nature and personality on the other side, and thus affording their
supernatural faculties proper objects on which they may feed, expand,
be developed, and arrive at their ultimate perfection. Finally, by the
personal sacramental element governing and directing all their
exterior relations and communication to one social final end; and all
this not in any particular spot or period of time, but in all space
and in all time. From this it is evident that the church of Christ is
_one_ in force of the unity of the Theanthropos with the sacramental
element; _one_ in consequence of the interior unity of organism, both
of the active and passive church; _one_ in consequence of the unity
of the supernatural being and faculties, the end of the church;
_one_ in force of the unity of the object of the supernatural
intelligence; _one_ in consequence of the unity of the object of the
supernatural will--God and his cosmos, in their relations to each
other; _one_ in consequence of the real communion and intercourse
between the members of the church; _one_, finally, in consequence of
the oneness of the visible government of the church, all emanating
from one invisible and one visible head.
The second distinctive mark of the church must be holiness. For the
end of the church is to impart to human persons in time and space the
term of the supernatural moment, together with its faculties, and
especially the faculty and habit of supernatural intelligence and
supernatural will or charity, in which, as we have demonstrated in the
tenth article, the very essence of holiness consists. If the church,
therefore, were deprived of this distinctive mark, she would fail in
that very object for which she was instituted.
But it is to be remarked that not any degree of holiness would be
sufficient to constitute a distinctive mark of the church, but a
certain fulness of it is required in some of its members, for a
twofold reason.
Like every moment of God’s exterior action, she is subject to the law
of variety by hierarchy. This involves the necessity of the church
ranging between the lowest degree of sanctity to the very pinnacle of
sublimest and loftiest exhibition of it; otherwise, those two laws
could not be realized.
Secondly, an ordinary degree of holiness can easily be counterfeited.
But none could for any length of time or any extension of space assume
a sanctity which soars far above the ordinary and common level, and 843
which exhibits itself as such. _Nemo personam diu fert_ could be
applied in this case more than in any other.
The next distinctive mark is _catholicity_ or _universality_. She is
such not only because she contains all truth; not only because she
embraces all the moments of God’s action, as the finishing stroke of
them all; but because she is intended for all time and all space.
Finally, the last mark is _apostolicity_. The first members of the
hierarchy chosen by the Theanthropos to communicate as moral
instruments the term of the sublimative moment, with the power and
authority to transmit to others that very same dignity of being moral
instruments, were the _apostles_. Therefore, that church alone can be
the church of the Theanthropos which to this day and for ever can show
that her own hierarchy are the legitimate successors of the apostles,
by an uninterrupted communication. For we have said that the essence
of the church is to be the Theanthropos acting in time and space,
through the agency of the hierarchy and other sacraments. Now, suppose
a hierarchy who cannot claim or make good their claim to be the
legitimate successors of the first ones who composed it, who could not
claim any communication or union with them, how could we suppose them
to be those very instruments in whom and through whom the Theanthropos
lives and acts?
Before we draw the consequence which follows from all we have said
concerning the church, it is necessary to recapitulate in a few words
all we have written in these articles.
We set out with the question of the infinite, and after refuting the
pantheistic idea of the infinite, and showing that pantheism in its
solution of the problem destroys it, we gave the Catholic idea of the
infinite. Here another problem sprang up--multiplicity in the
infinite. No being can be conceived endowed with pure, unalloyed
unity. It must be multiple, under pain of being inconceivable. What is
the multiplicity which can be admitted in the infinite? We
demonstrated that the pantheistic solution which says that infinite
becomes multiple by a necessary interior development, destroys both
terms, the unity and the multiplicity. We proceeded to lay down the
Catholic answer to the problem, and explained, as far as lay in our
power, the mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity. The question next in
order was the finite. And we showed the finite to be the effect of an
absolutely free act of infinite power, free both to its creation at
all and also with regard to the amount of perfection to be created;
though we admitted and proved that it was befitting on the part of the
Creator to effect the best possible manifestation of himself. Here we
found ourselves in face of a duality which claimed reconciliation. How
could the finite and the infinite be united together, so as to
preserve whole and entire the two respective natures, and at the same
time to effect the best possible manifestation of the infinite? We
answered by laying down the Catholic dogma of the hypostatic union,
which raised the finite to a hypostatic or personal union with the
infinite, and elevated finite natures to the highest possible dignity.
But as the hypostatic moment raised to a personal union only nature,
and left out personality, another duality arose: how to unite human
persons with the Theanthropos, and through him with God, and make them
partakers as far as possible of the dignity and elevation of the nature 844
hypostatically united to the _Word_. The sublimative moment
answered the question. This moment, medium between the Theanthropos
and substantial creation, by bestowing upon human persons a higher
nature and faculties, enabled them to unite in close contact with the
Theanthropos and through him with the Trinity. But what was the medium
chosen to transmit the term of the sublimative moment to human persons
in time and space? The Theanthropos himself, the essential mediator
between God and the cosmos; and to that effect he united his infinite
energy and his substantial presence to personal and physical
instruments, and through them imparted to human persons in time and
space the term of the sublimative moment; and thus the cycle of the
procession of the cosmos from the infinite was perfected in its being
and faculties, to begin a movement of return to the same infinite as
its supreme end. The sacramental extension of the Theanthropos in time
and space we have demonstrated to be the Catholic Church, and from its
essence we have drawn her essential attributes of visibility,
indefectibility, infallibility, and authority, and also its intrinsic
marks of unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.
After this necessarily imperfect sketch of all our articles, we submit
to the reader this necessary consequence--_the Roman Catholic Church
is the only true church of God_.
First, because it is in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church
alone that the life of the intelligence is possible. We have shown
throughout our articles that in every question which the human mind
raises, there is no possible alternative--either embrace the Catholic
solution, so coherent with reason; or the pantheistic solution, and
the death of the intelligence. Now, when we speak of the Catholic
solution, we mean of the solution which is given by the church whose
head is the Bishop of Rome, for no other pretended Catholic Church
gives all the true solutions.
Second, because it is the Roman Catholic Church alone which knows her
own essence and attributes. All others are more or less ignorant of
the essence and attributes necessary to the church of the
Theanthropos.
Thirdly, it is to the Roman Catholic Church alone to which the
essence, attributes, and marks which we have shown _à priori_ to
belong necessarily to the Church of Christ apply. Consequently, the
Roman Catholic Church is the real cosmos of God in its perfection of
being and faculties, and men have no possible alternative but to join
it, to submit to its authority, under pain of the death of the
intelligence, of being a creature out of joint with the whole system
of God’s works, of being in the impossibility of attaining their last
end in palingenesia. The Roman Catholic Church or pantheism--all truth
or no truth--death or life here and hereafter.
[161] We have said _authority_ and not sacerdotal character,
because as to that there is no difference between the
Supreme Pontiff and the episcopate, but only between the
episcopate and the priesthood.
----------
THE LAST DAYS OF OISIN, THE BARD. 845
BY AUBREY DE VERE.
III.
OISIN’S YOUTH.
“Patrick! thy priests do ill to jeer,
Not me, but Oscar’s self, and Fionn:
Wise are they; but the dead are dear:
This deed is not well done.
“Who dares to say the King lies bound
By angel hosts in bonds abhorred?
Had these lain bound, great Fionn had found
And freed them with his sword!
“Had Fionn but heard thine Eve lament
The apple stol’n--the curse on men--
For _eric_ apples he had sent,
Shiploads threescore and ten!
“Likewise that serpent slain had he!
Fionn ever said this way was best,
To kill the bad that killed should be,
And be loving to the rest.
“Patrick, a pact with thee I make:
Because my warriors they deride,
With thee to heaven my father take,
And leave they priests outside!
“Patrick, this other boon I crave,
That I to thee in heaven may sing
Full loud the glories of the brave,
And Fionn, my sire and king!”--
“Oisin, in heaven the praises swell 846
To God alone from Soul and Saint:--”
“Then, Patrick, I their deeds will tell
In a little whisper faint!
“Who says that Fionn his sentence waits
In some dark realm, the thrall of sin?
Fionn would have burst that kingdom’s gates,
Or ruled himself therein!”
“Old man, for once thy chiefs forget”
(Thus oft the Saint his rage beguiled):
“Sing us thine own bright youth, while yet
A stripling, or a child.”
“O Patrick, glad that time and dear!
It wrought no greatness, gained no gain,
Not less those things that thou wouldst hear
Thou shalt not seek in vain.
“My mother was a princess, turned
By magic to a milk-white doe:--
Such tale, a wondering child, I learned:
True was it? Who can know?’
“I know but this, that, yet a boy,
I raced beside her like the wind:
We heard the hunter’s horn with joy
And left the pack behind.
“A strength was mine that knew no bound,
A witless strength that nothing planned:
When came the destined hour, I found
Some great deed in my hand.
“Forth from a cave I stept at Beigh:
O’er ivied cliffs the loose clouds rushed:--
With them I raced, and reached ere they
The loud seas sandhill-hushed.
“By Brandon’s cliff an eagle brown
O’erhung our wave-borne coracle:
I hurled at him my lance, and down
Like falling stars he fell.
“On that green shore of Ardrakese 847
An untamed horse I made my slave,
And forced him far o’er heaving seas,
And reinless rode the wave.
“Methinks my brow I might have laid
Against a bull’s, and there and then
Backward have pushed him up the glade,
And down the rocky glen!
“So ran my youth through dark and bright,
In deeds half jest. Their time is gone:
The glorious works of thoughtful might
For Oscar were, and Fionn.
“When met the hosts in mirth I fought:
My war-fields still with revel rang:
My sword with such a god was fraught
That, while it smote, it sang.
“My spear, unbidden, to my hand
Leaped, hawk-wise, for the battle’s sake:
Forth launched, it flashed along the land
With music in its wake.
“A shield I bore so charged and stored
With rage and yearnings for the fight,
When foes drew near it shook, and roared
Like breakers in the night:
“Then only when the iron feast
Of war its hungry heart had stilled,
It murmured, like a whispering priest
Or frothing pail new-filled.”
“Say, knew’st thou never fear or awe?”
Thus Patrick, and the Bard replied:
“Yea, once: for once a man I saw
Who--not in battle--died.
“I sang the things I loved--the fight--
The chance inspired that all decides--
That pause of death, when Fate and Flight
Drag back the battle tides:
“The swords that blent their lightnings blue-- 848
The midnight march--the city’s sack--
The advancing ridge of spears that threw
The levelled sunrise back.
“And yet my harp could still the storm,
Redeem the babe from magic blight,
Restore to human heart and form
The unhappy spell-bound knight.
“And some could hear a sobbing hind
Among my chords; and some would swear
They heard that kiss of branch and wind
That lulled the wild-deer’s lair!
“I sang not lies: where base men thronged,
I sat not, neither harped for gold:
My song no generous foeman wronged,
No woman’s secret told.
“I sang among the sea-side flocks
When sunset flushed the bowery spray,
Or when the white moon scaled the rocks
And glared upon the bay.
“My stately music I rehearsed
On shadowing cliffs, when, far below,
In rolled the moon-necked wave, and burst,
And changed black shores to snow.
“But now I tread a darker brink:
Far down, unfriendlier waters moan:
And now of vanished times I think;
Now of that bourn unknown.
“I strike my harp; I make good cheer;
Yet scarce myself can catch its sound:
I see but shadows bending near
When feasters press around.
“Say, Patrick of the mystic lore,
Shall I, when this old head lies low,
My Oscar see, and Fionn, once more,
And run beside that Doe?”
----------
LETTER OF MONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP, BISHOP OF ORLEANS, TO M. GAMBETTA. 849
FROM L’UNIVERS.
Sir: After having read the speech which you have recently delivered at
St. Quentin, I waited a few days to see if some one would come forward
and do justice to the words you uttered. But since they have been
allowed to pass without protest from any one, I will, albeit I have
not much taste for it, say what I have to say about them.
Your speech treats both of politics and religion, and you deal with
these two great matters as if you were bound very shortly to become
their lord and master. I shall not say much about your politics,
although their threatening character adds to the already grave anxiety
with which our poor country is burdened; but, as a bishop, I have a
right to call you to account for the war which you declare against the
church and against religion.
For war, indeed, it may be called, and accompanied with such
accusations and such outrageous insults, that, if your words were
true, we should deserve to be driven not only out of the school-house,
as you demand, but out of the church itself.
I must admit to have been at first misled by the apparent moderation
of your words. Taking interest, as I do, in conversions when they are
sincere, I asked myself, while reading your discourse, in which you
appeared to me so calm, so insinuating, and so circumspect, though at
the same time so devoid of modesty--I asked myself if the time had
come when the National Assembly was about to present the spectacle of
a reconciliation of parties in the presence of the image of an ideal
republic. What abundance of honey flowed from your lips! Even at
times, how much toleration in your maxims!
In this statement, this programme, this message, the manifesto, or by
whatever name it should be called, which you addressed to your
assembled guests at St. Quentin, you proceed in this wise:
You call for “a strong and stable government, that will vigilantly
protect the interests of _all_, and be able to _regenerate the morals_
of the French family.” On this point, sir, we certainly all agree.
This government, you go on to say, will pacify souls, bring the social
classes closer to one another, and will restore to France her rank in
Europe. This is also very fine. But let us see further.
To bring about this end, you appeal even to the disabused voters of
the _plébiscite_; even to the legitimists, who, by their wealth and
education, are to be the _ornament of the state_; even to the
conservative men, who are to be as a bridle of restraint on a policy
which your friends are to urge forward.
And what is to be this policy? The _policy of labor_, very different
from the policy of conquest, the triumph of the _idea of justice_ in
the fulfilment of social duties. I cannot forbear remarking here that
these expressions, _policy of labor_, _idea of justice_, are in daily 850
use by the _Internationale_, and not in a sense particularly intended
to tranquillize society. But let us go on.
But this form of government, this policy, how is its establishment to
be brought about? Why, by universal suffrage, that foremost of rights,
that sole and sovereign tribunal, that army of peace. And how is
universal suffrage to be persuaded and drawn to the desired end? By
giving to public opinion, through _democratic intermingling_, proofs
of the _morality_, the _political value_, and the _adaptation_ for
_business_ of the republican party; by demonstrating that the _republican
government is the most liberal of all forms of government_, etc.
Really, sir, all this must have appeared admirable to your audience,
and, if your republic is of that sort, many of our most upright
conservatives will tell you: Let us clasp hands, for that is the very
republic which the National Assembly, acting with and through M.
Thiers, is endeavoring to realize at the cost of so much self-denial,
disinterestedness, and honesty.
But let us be frank.
You have no right to claim that your republic answers this
description. Your sweetness is purely oratorical and Platonic; for two
sentences of your address reveal you and show who you are.
“No one,” you say, “must ever give his opinion except as a means of
adding to the general good; and each one must convert his mind into,
as it were, a memorandum tablet for himself, in which he puts down,
with a view of obtaining them, the institutions which the people have
a right to expect from the democratic republic.”
If a priest had uttered these words, which seem more befitting the lips
of an Italian than of a Frenchman, he would be charged with hypocrisy
and mental reservation. It would be said that he is playing saint;
that he is concealing his game by not revealing his innermost
thoughts. But everything is forbidden to the cleric, while to the
radical any and everything is allowed. This everybody knows. I confine
myself to merely quoting this first sentence, without further dwelling
on its merits; and I pass on to a second one, which gives me a right,
not only to suspect you, as in the case of the former one, but to make
a direct attack on you; its tenor is as follows:
“What I have done in the past is the true pledge of what I will do in
the future, toward definitively establishing the republic.”
It is here, sir, that I must challenge you.
In the first place, I have to express my amazement that, having to
account to your country, under so grave a responsibility, and for
misdeeds for which you might have been rendered far more seriously
liable, you can be so ready to accuse others and to glorify yourself,
that you go so far as to dare to say: “What I have done in the past is
the true pledge of what I will do in the future.”
What have you done in the past?
You were a young lawyer, and were turned all of a sudden, and in
consequence of a tumultuous lawsuit, into a political character. The
audacity of your revolutionary opinions enabled you to become a
candidate for the Corps Législatif, and in the next place to take your
seat as a deputy by the side of your friends Blanqui, Raspail, and
Rochefort.
On the 4th September, you seized upon the governing power, and,
without consulting with your colleagues, you assigned to yourself the
Ministry of the Interior. Did you, as soon as you got into the 851
ministry, extend to all good citizens those arms which you seem now to
be opening so widely? Not at all. In the Hôtel de Ville,[162] you
installed such men as Etienne Arago, Ferry, and Rochefort; in the
_mairie_, such characters as Delescluze, Mottu, Bonvalet, Clémenceau;
in the _préfectures_, such as Duportal, Engelhard, and Jacobins of
all sorts. You filled these places with your friends--your friends
only, and these of the most excitable kind. Afterward, when your
colleagues, in order to get rid of you, were so signally weak as to
give you the entire realm to operate upon, when, through a fortunate
contingency, you had suddenly entrusted to you that magnificent part
which, to a heroic and truly patriotic heart, would have been
unsurpassable, what did you do? You sought rather to force the
republic--your republic--on the country than to save France. It is
well for you to talk about universal suffrage. You have treated it as
naught. By a first decree, you broke up the _conseils-généraux_, and
did not re-establish them. By a second decree, you adjourned the
elections. By a third decree, you abridged the legal qualifications
for election. What have you, sole ruler everywhere obeyed, done with
the treasure, the men, and the blood of her children which the nation
lavished upon you? Was it not a republican who called your fatal rule
the _dictatorship of incompetency_?
Though only three months in power, you had become almost a greater
burden upon us than the late Imperial Government; and when you assert
that the National Assembly has completed its work, which was to put an
end to the war, you forget that the Assembly had received from France
not one mandate only, but three. The Assembly had, and has still,
given it the charge to rid our country of the Prussians, of
demagoguism, and of yourself.
After the dreadful catastrophes in which the Empire sank to ruin, do
you know, sir, what proved to be France’s greatest misfortune?
It was that just then, in that so terrible a crisis, you stood the
absolute master of France. I make no reference to the two aged men who
were at Tours with you. It was from you, a lawyer, that our generals
received their orders; it was you who dictated plans for campaigns; it
was you who scattered our forces, and blindly hurled our armies right
and left, multiplying your lying bulletins, and at the same time and
to the same extent as our reverses.--But I must turn away my thoughts
from those disasters, as also from the remembrance of those poor
soldiers, without clothes, without shoes, without food, without
ammunition! How great an organizer, my dear sir, you proved yourself
to be! How fortunate you turned out to have been in the selection of
your contractors for supplies!
Nevertheless, the nation, ever generous, might have measurably
accepted, as an offset to this, your personal activity, and your
efforts, although unsuccessful; it had given you credit for having
withdrawn yourself momentarily; but you reappeared too quickly, only a
short time before the day when the Commune of Paris was putting
forward your friends, your lieutenants, your teachers, or your
disciples, such as Delescluze and Millière, Rigault and Ranc, Cavalier
and Mottu, all those fellows who have made themselves as ignominious 852
and ridiculous as possible, some of whom are still around you; in
fine, all that party which you have never, even to the extent of a
single word, disavowed, and the members of which you called upon to
give evidence of their morality, their political worth, and their
aptitude for the business of government! That evidence has been given,
and really, sir, you rely too much on the frivolity, the folly, or the
credulity of the public. You preach to it about a debonair republic,
but that public has not forgotten the grotesque, ruinous republic,
accompanied with bloodshed, which during six months was fastened on
France.
You have avoided with prudent care to call your republic _social_ as
well as _democratic_; and why? In order to enjoy the happiness of a
fleeting hour of dictatorship, I suppose it is worth your while to run
the risk of more calamities. Alas! unfortunate land, fated to be thus
perpetually the dupe and the victim of most guilty ambition!
No, in spite of all that you may say or leave unsaid, your promises
are contradicted by our memories. We need, in order to be persuaded,
something else than sonorous words. It is true that, in one point
only, you depart from the vague style of your programme. You declare
that you seek, above all things, to lay the foundation of the future
of democracy on a reform, to wit, in education; and with this idea,
you proclaim that you and your friends are alone capable, alone
worthy, to bring up youth. You seek to turn out _just_, _free_,
strong-minded and able men. This is very fine. But how? By means of a
national education given after a _truly modern_ and _truly democratic_
manner.
And here you dare to affirm that the church and preceding governments
have done nothing for public instruction, that they view every person
who knows how to read as an enemy, and you claim to reform the world
with your schools.
Allow me to reply that in this matter you are taking advantage of
ignorance instead of combating it. For it argues a singular reliance
on the ignorance of an audience to attempt to make it swallow at one
and the same time, and in the same sentence, calumny and nonsense.
The governments that have ruled France for the past sixty years have
in that period established more than 50,000 schools, and have trebled
the appropriations for primary instruction.
As to the church, she is founded on two things: a book, the Gospel,
and a divine command, to wit: _Ite et docete_, Go and teach. This
sentence, which has become commonplace, “_Ignorance is the source of
all evils_,” was uttered by a pope, and he added besides, “_particularly
among the working-classes_.” These were the words of Benedict XIV.,
uttered more than a century before you were born.
The calumny is consequently shown to be dull-witted, and the nonsense
still more so. It would seem that you also, M. Gambetta, hope, by
means of schools, to stamp your effigy on future generations, just as
if they were coin. But men versed in the subject know, and experience
shows, that such a design is absurd, and may become a horrid tyranny.
The instruction, whether primary or secondary, even with as much as
you can add to it of the higher sciences, such as algebra, chemistry,
etc., will not produce morals; and the parties who flatter the
teachers expect, after all, much more from their influence on voters
than from their action on their scholars.
Would you like to know what above all things, exerts an influence on 853
the family and on society? It is education, whether it be moral or
immoral, religious or atheistic. And do you know why I mistrust your
reform? Because it will be neither a moral nor a religious one.
In sober truth, what sort of tuition is a _really modern_, a _really
democratic_, one? Is there such a thing as modern geometry? a democratic
grammar? moral teachings of recent growth, and a geography not yet
published? All these big words are but windy oratory, empty and
obscure, which affords no meaning to the mind when it attempts to
analyze it.
Nevertheless, after having thrown off these sentences to your hearers,
you go on and recite the mottoes of the party, the watchword of the
day. It is a pity that you left out tithes and forced service under
feudal law. You say tuition is to be _free of cost_--that is
equivalent to adding thirty millions to our budget of expenditure;
but what does that signify? You have managed to spend a large sum
besides. The poor will pay for the rich; but the lower classes will
delude themselves with the belief that they are not paying at all, and
that they are indebted to you for the benefaction. Tuition is besides
to be _compulsory_. Well, let it be so, if you can devise some
adequate sanction for the contemplated enactments, a reliable
protection for the liberty of families, and, in particular, a reliable
guarantee for the teachers, so that you can feel sure enough of them
to venture, without practising the most abominable of all tyranny, to
compel parents to entrust to them, what they prize most in this world,
their children. But then, minor details do not stop you. To conclude,
the tuition is to be by _laymen_--and now the cat is let out of the
bag.
It is an easy matter to attack and calumniate absent priests,
religious who make no defence. To do so is neither fair nor generous,
but much popularity is to be got in that way in your party, and the
hard flings at the church will offset the sweetness displayed toward
other persons. So let us strike hard on this spot. The church is
henceforward to be separated from the state--that is not enough, the
church is besides to be separated from the school, and the school from
all religion.
You have said, sir, that your republic would be a liberal one. If you
accordingly begin by excluding from the common right to teach an
entire class of citizens and of women, solely because their religious
belief is not the same as yours, do not call yourself liberal, and do
not charge the church with being intolerant, or else be logically
consistent, and separate the _state from the school_. For the state,
in this connection, means the budget; that is to say, the moneys which
are got of all of us by taxation. You cannot, without being
tyrannical, compel families to send their children to the school of
the state. Lay aside these high-sounding phrases, and call things by
their right names. By the church you mean _us_. By the state you mean
yourself. To deprive us and our doctrines of our money, in order to
bestow it on yourself and your doctrines--that is what is called
separating the church from the state. But I feel pretty easy as to the
choice families will make when I learn from you what the programme of
this teaching is to be.
The programme is this: “It is an extensive and varied one, so that,
instead of mutilated learning, man will have dealt out to him
_entire truth_, so that _nothing which the human mind can grasp_ will 854
be concealed from him.” _De omni re scibili!_ Well, that is wonderful
indeed! No doubt you will have the power to create minds capable of
taking in this encyclopædia! You are equal to so many undertakings! So
that which you have in view, gratuitous, compulsory, lay tuition,
integral besides for every one and complete to an impossible
degree--this is the formula of socialism, and is also the formula of
absurdity.
“In the schools,” you add, “children will be taught scientific
_truth_ in its rigor and _its majestic simplicity_,” and by this
process “you will have reared citizens _whose principles will rest on
the same bases on which our entire society is founded_.”
What do you mean by these big words? What are these _principles_? what
are these _bases_? Whether it be that _those principles rest on these
bases_, or that these bases are fast to those principles, how much of
this will you teach to children from the ages of seven to eleven
years? I call upon you to give me plainly the text of the _programme
of science_ which our worthy village teachers, who are to seek to
instil into children of from seven to eleven years the sense of duty
and sacrifice, will have to substitute for the Ten Commandments of
God, and for the sublime and popular Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is it, pray, sir, that renders you so ungrateful towards the
voters of Paris or of Lyons, who nearly all have been educated by the
Brothers, so severe on the priests, who perhaps have done something
for your early education, and so unjust towards the church?
It is my duty to insist on this point, and to protest against your
calumnies.
What! though the clergy of France have devoted themselves, as they have
done, to the service of our soldiers and our prisoners, and though
when, only four months ago, our chaplains and our Brothers of the
Christian Schools had served and died on the battle-fields, and though
all our female religious have devoted themselves to the care of our
ambulances, you have the heart to come and tell us that we are no
longer French! And it is immediately after the massacre of the
hostages that you repeat these calumnies, and represent us as
constituting for modern society “the greatest peril.” Such are your
very words, and you hold us up anew to the blind fury of our enemies.
And you direct your calumnies not against us alone, but, besides,
against the Pope. Ah! I admit, the horrors, treachery, meanness, and
falsehood by which he has been surrounded during the past twenty-five
years have not brought him to look with favor on the charms of that
sham liberty which you promise him, and he may well fail to admire
that Garibaldi for whose sake you, perhaps, sacrificed our army of the
East. But in the Encyclical which your hearers have never read, the
Pope has not condemned the various forms of government as they exist
in the laws of various nations. He has condemned liberty unrestrained,
rights without countervailing duties, and societies that know not God.
As to the family and property, sir, is it becoming _your_ friends to
style themselves their virtuous defenders?
But what is singular in this pell-mell gathering of confused and
incoherent ideas, is your alleged motive for denying to French priests
the right to teach which belongs to them in common with all their
fellow-countrymen: “When you have appealed to the energies of men
reared by such teachers, when you seek to arouse in them ideas of 855
sacrifice, of devotedness, of patriotism, you will find that you have
to deal with an emasculated, debilitated class of men.” And the reason
you assign for the emasculation and debilitation of this class reared
under our care is still more singular: it is because _we teach them to
believe in Providence_, and because teachers that believe in Providence
_are only fit to emasculate and debilitate the human race_. At this
point, sir, you set “the doctrine which accustoms the mind to the idea
of a Providence” in opposition to “revolution, which teaches the
authority and responsibility of the will of man and free agency.” But,
sir, these things are not incompatible with one another. Both are
taught by Christian doctrine, and, by setting them in opposition as
you do, you show that you neither understand yourself nor the matters
of which you are treating.
But you, who do not believe in Providence, and who are consequently
neither emasculated nor debilitated, do you know of any other belief
that can better teach mankind to bear with life and brave death? You
have this year ordered many men to rush to destruction. Would you have
dared to recommend our soldiers to go forth to meet death, mocking
God? And do you believe that the souls of the Pontifical Zouaves, and
of the Breton _francs-tireurs_, were enervated by their faith in
Providence?
But be cautious. In order that your reasoning be consistent, a belief
in Providence appertains not to priests alone, but to whoever
professes the Christian faith; consequently, if priests are to be
banished from the schools because they teach that emasculating dogma,
then all Christians must be kept out as well, and henceforward you
must exact from every teacher and every professor not to believe in
Providence.
Avow, sir, that seldom have calumnies and absurdities been mixed up
together with greater facility than you have done in these words of
yours.
Nevertheless, you manage to go on still further, and you attempt to
create a division between the _higher clergy_, whom you traduce, and
those whom you call the lower clergy, whom you flatter, by endeavoring
to excite them to envy. You labor in vain, sir; and, besides, I do not
recognize any lower clergy as such. The rank of the priesthood is the
highest to which we can attain; no bishop, not even the Pope himself,
has a sacerdotal character different from that of the most humble
priest. All ecclesiastical dignities are, in one sense, beneath the
title of priest, which leads to the highest offices and dignities of
the church. So that, in this regard, it may be said that no
institution is so democratic as the church. Sprung from the people as
we nearly all of us are, educated together and fed together on the
words of him who died for the people, we will suffer ourselves to be
neither divided nor deceived.
Our fraternity is of the right sort. Our God is the true God, and you
are without any. Be sincere, sir: come out of this mere talk, and
answer me plainly and without oratorical precaution, whether, yes or
no, _the free thought_ in which you are a believer, and _human science,
which, according to you, has nothing to equal it_, recognize the
existence of a personal and living God? Candor leaves you no
alternative but to reply. Either dare to declare to your friends that
you do believe, or dare to proclaim to our land that you do not
believe, in God.
If indeed your sham science denies God, I pity you, sir; but you must 856
admit that it hardly becomes you to talk about religion, and to
endeavor to beguile and divide priests who have consecrated their
lives to him. You assert that, if they dared to disclose their
convictions, they would own themselves democrats. Do you know what our
village priests would tell you if they were to make disclosures to
you? They would inform you that in every hamlet is to be found a
handful of petty rhetoricians, tavern orators, fellows who lead
municipal councils, who drive away the Christian Brothers and Sisters
of Charity, and do their best to deprive the curate of the small
pittance without which he cannot subsist, who forbid teachers to take
children to Mass, refuse to have churches repaired that need it most,
recommend mutual-guarantee-association marriages and burials, and know
no better way of serving a republic than by hating priests and by
persevering in a low and silly infidelity. Now, in every village these
very rhetoricians are your friends.
It is with their assistance that you contemplate establishing that
education, “national and truly modern,” in which, in order to teach
children “their duties as citizens, to excite in them ideas of
sacrifice, of devotion to country, to make out of them an
unemasculated race,” you will have not only to avoid speaking to them
of God and of _Providence_, but besides to combat and root out of their
minds the idea of _Providence_, and, in fine, to force upon French
youth a _teaching without religion_, and a moral instruction without
God.
Well, would you have me tell you what such education will turn out for
you? Instead of rearing men, it will give us monsters, and a learned
barbarism, armed with abundant means of destruction, barbarism in the
heart and in manner--in a word, just what we have witnessed during the
reign of the Commune; young men and girls from eighteen to
twenty-three years old ruling Paris and destroying it by incendiarism;
and, lo, it is after having witnessed such scenes of horror and the
lessons which they teach, that you have nevertheless ventured to
deliver the address to which I am replying, and your audience went so
far as to applaud your words!
In my view, this latter fact is an indication of the disorder in which
at this very moment we still are. No, the end of France’s afflictions
is not yet!
But I have said enough, sir. I have sought, as the only reply to your
harangue, to put facts in opposition to words. I have sought, while
replying to you, to defend the church; and I think I have at the same
time defended public peace. In theory, as against this or that
government, neither my faith, my reason, nor my patriotism would raise
great objections, were it not that I have seen your party at work, and
that my sight is still filled with those sombre scenes, and my memory
with the recollection of your deeds. In vain do you try to cover them
over with clever words and honeyed insinuations. My knowledge of the
preacher spoils the effect of the sermon on me. And my recollection of
the whilom dictator puts me on my guard against the impressiveness of
the candidate who is aspiring not to establish liberty, as he
pretends, but to destroy religion and to get into power. You are not
an apostle, you are a pretender. _The republic is I!_--that is your
programme and the sole object of your discourse. Well! depend upon it,
France has a republican government now, the need of a change to another,
even though accompanied with the advantage of having you for its 857
president, is not at all felt.
Please accept, sir, with the expression of my regret to be compelled
to thus combat you, that of the sentiments of respect which, as your
colleague, I have the honor to offer you.
[Illustration: Maltese Cross] FELIX, Bishop of Orleans,
Deputy at the National Assembly for the
Department of Loiret.
[162] The Hôtel de Ville is the seat of head municipal
authority for the city of Paris; the _mairies_ are the
subordinate seats of local authority for the arrondissements
into which Paris is divided.--TRANSLATOR.
----------
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE ARIANS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. By John Henry Newman, formerly
Fellow of Oriel College. Third Edition. London: E. Lumley. For
sale by The Catholic Publication Society, New York.
This work was written in 1832, and saw the light in the following
year. The author had already made his mark in Oxford as a keen and
deep thinker, as a scholar of wide and accurate erudition, and as a
clear and vigorous writer. He was a prominent leader in the Oxford or
Puseyite movement, and was, as we know from his _Apologia_, a stanch
Anglican. The work, looked for at the time with interest, was received
as fully equal to the high reputation of the author. Its singularly
lucid treatment of a subject involving the most abstruse questions of
ancient theological controversy, as well as the intricate and shifting
phases of a very eventful period of ecclesiastical history, was a
valuable addition to English theological literature. The author had
evidently thrown his soul into the work. The history he was treating
seemed to him to present many points of parallelism to their own
living struggle in the Anglican Church. The Anomœans and kindred Arian
sects were representatives of the Socinianism which had reached even
the highest dignities, and the rationalism and humanitarianism which
were beginning to spread among the clergy and the laity of its fold.
The Semiarians with their compromises and varying phrases and formulas
of faith, which might mean much or little, as each one chose to
understand them, were equally good representatives of the modern Broad
Church compromisers. The Eusebians, ever seeking to bask in the
imperial favor, and to guide or to wield the civil power for their own
interests, were the type of the modern Erastians, who look for nothing
higher than an act of parliament or an exercise of the royal
supremacy. And the continual assumption of ecclesiastical authority by
the Arian and Semiarian emperors in the fourth century, and their
often tyrannical action towards faithful bishops and clergy, who would
not give to Cæsar the things that are God’s, made the Puseyites think
of the enthralled condition of their “own branch,” in which the
sovereign claims and exercises the exclusive right of appointing the
archbishops and bishops, and of deciding finally all questions of
doctrine, discipline, or church law, and without whose sanction
convocations cannot meet, nor synods be held or pass decrees. In the
fourth century, the church, though long and sorely pressed, ever
struggled on, and finally succeeded in vindicating her own liberty,
and casting the heresy out of her fold. It was hoped that the example
might teach them how their English Church might similarly struggle and
eventually triumph.
A few years sufficed to convince Dr. Newman that such hopes were futile, 858
and that his position was false. He and others sought refuge in the
fold of the true church. Meanwhile, within the Anglican Church, the
successive decisions in the Gorham case and in several other cases
that have since come before the Privy Council, show that the evils he
lamented and feared have increased in strength, while the power of
opposing them has grown gradually weaker.
The present is a third edition of the work under the care of the
author; we can scarcely say, revised by him. German professors, in
publishing successive editions of their works on any subject to which
they devote continuous study, have no scruple in retracting,
cancelling, or directly confuting what they had previously published,
as often as they may be led to change their opinions on material
points, so much so that you must be sure you have the right edition
before you can quote it. We turned to this edition to see if Dr.
Newman had followed such a course. He has not. With him, _litera scripta
manet_. The book is the same now as when it first appeared. In a few
instances he changes the structure of a sentence, that his thought may
stand out more clearly. He has added a few more references in the
foot-notes, scrupulously indicating such additions by enclosing them
in brackets. He has enlarged the table of contents at the beginning
and the chronological table at the end of the volume. No change has
been made affecting the opinions, sentiments, or speculations of the
original edition. There are expressions which now, of course,
displease him as a Catholic; but he lets them hold their place. He has
cast out only two sentences, as needlessly put in originally, and even
these he has, in signal humility, pilloried, as it were, in a page by
themselves at the end of the appendix. This appendix, at the close of
the volume, is mostly made up of extracts from subsequent works of his
own, and are intended to throw further light on several points touched
on in the original work.
The volume presents an admirable critical, theological, and historical
summary of the whole Arian controversy in the fourth century, and was
a turning-point in English Protestant literature on the subject. Dr.
Newman was the first to establish what has since been generally
accepted, that Arianism was connected, historically and
intellectually, with the Judaic Aristotelic schools of thought
prevailing at Antioch and through Asia Minor, and not, as had been
previously held by many, with the Platonic schools of Alexandria.
The work deserves and will amply reward a careful study. The Catholic
reader will, of course, find himself in something of a Protestant
atmosphere. The authority and action of the Roman Pontiffs is scarcely
glanced at. Twice or thrice reference is made to the important support
which the Roman See gave to St. Athanasius, and to the determined
resistance which honorably distinguishes the primitive Roman Church in
its dealing with heresy, and the ground is taken that the acute and
sophistical training of the Eastern intellects led them to indulge in
abstruse distinctions and discussions which the calmer and more
practical minds of the Western Church entered into with difficulty,
and could scarcely express in their Latin tongue, so much less pliable
than the Greek. Theologically speaking, as well as historically, the
controversy in the fourth century was Eastern, rather than Latin.
Still, we are sure that, were Dr. Newman to write afresh this history,
now that he is a Catholic, the important part acted by the Roman
Pontiffs would be more strongly set forth. Writing as a Protestant, he
was sufficiently emphatic on the case of Liberius--so much so that he
has added a footnote to say that there is a difference among writers 859
which was the Sirmian formula that Liberius subscribed; and the
appendix further shows that there is also a discrepancy as to the
number and the chronological order of the various formulas, and that
in some cases alterations and additions were subsequently made in the
original text. It might also be added that there are grave reasons for
doubting the fact of any such subscription by Liberius, inasmuch as
the charge seems to have been first put forth by heated
controversialists long after his death, and is scarcely reconcilable
with the undoubted facts of his life after the date of the alleged
subscription.
Here and there the Catholic will meet phrases implying or stating some
special Anglican view or Protestant principle. To all these Dr.
Newman’s present position is a practical and sufficient refutation. In
the clear and lucid arrangement of the topics, in accurate and subtile
tracing of the various and varying forms of the Arian heresy, and in
the vivid portraying of that greatest and most earnest battle in the
early life of the church, the work is worthy of Dr. Newman, and claims
a place in every theological library.
MEMOIR OF ULRIC DAHLGREN. By his Father, Rear-Admiral Dahlgren.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1872.
Though war, in whatever light we may view it, cannot but be considered
a national calamity, it must be admitted that it has a tendency to
generate certain mental and social qualities which are unknown or of
slow growth in civil life. Personal courage, disinterested friendship,
and patient self-sacrifice, no mean qualities in themselves, are
doubly valuable when enlisted in the cause of one’s country on the
side of law and justice, and hence we consider the soldier, no matter
what may be his rank, who bravely and intelligently risks and loses
his life in defence of his nation’s integrity, deserving of a high
meed of praise. Young Dahlgren, the subject of this memoir, was one
of this character, and though he had scarcely attained the years of
manhood at the time of his death, in his attempt to liberate the Union
prisoners in Richmond, in 1864, he had risen from civil life to the
rank of colonel, and had repeatedly distinguished himself for his
skill, tact, and heroism. The account of his short but eventful career
was written by his father, the late Admiral Dahlgren, and is now
published under the auspices of his stepmother, the gifted widow of
that naval hero. It is very minute in details, and composed with a
richness of coloring and a warmth of affection such as might be
anticipated of a fond and gallant father in describing the deeds of a
son in every way worthy of him. During his short military career,
Colonel Dahlgren made many friends, some of whom survive him, who will
be glad to be put in possession of the particulars of his brilliant
and edifying career.
THE INTERNATIONALE--COMMUNISM. A Lecture by Rev. F. P. Garesche,
S.J., of St. Louis University. St. Louis: P. Fox. 1872.
This is a lecture both logical and eloquent. The learned Jesuit traces
Communism to Protestantism through materialism and false civilization.
He shows its horrid and dangerous nature, and administers a
well-merited castigation to that arch-agitator and firebrand of
mischief, Wendell Phillips, who has made himself its apologist. All
persons ought to read this, and especially those who pretend to call
themselves Catholics, and yet, by joining Masonic or other condemned
societies, have renounced their allegiance to the church and become
accomplices in the conspiracy against religion and society. Every good
Catholic who reads it will have his horror deepened against this
conspiracy in all its forms, and will learn what estimate is to be
placed on those who seek to palliate and extenuate doctrines and acts 860
which have been condemned by the Holy See.
LENTEN SERMONS. By Paul Segneri, of the Society of Jesus. Vol. I.
12mo, pp. 361. New York: The Catholic Publication House,
9 Warren St.
This is a translation of a portion of the celebrated _Quaresimale_, or
course of forty sermons for Lent, of Father Paul Segneri, S.J., who
was one of the most remarkable missionaries that the church has
produced, and also a man of great sanctity and austerity of life.
These discourses are models of eloquence, and lose but little of their
original force by the translation, which is a very good one. They are
fourteen in number; but it is intended that the remaining ones shall
be published, should the present volume meet with sufficient
encouragement. They are admirable examples of what sermons for Lent,
or for a mission, should be, and will be of great assistance to
clergymen. They are now for the first time made easily accessible to
the American public. The volume is of a convenient size, and well
printed, and such as we can in every way commend to the attention of
our readers.
THE SPOUSE OF CHRIST: Her Privileges and Her Duties. Vol. I. By the
author of _St. Francis and the Franciscans_, etc., etc. Boston:
Patrick Donahoe. 1872.
This is a volume of spiritual conferences or reading, specially
intended for female religious. The piety and talent of its authoress
are well known to the Catholic world. The present work has the
_imprimatur_ of the Bishop of Kerry, accompanied by a handsome
tribute to the writer.
THE VESSELS OF THE SANCTUARY: A Tale of Normandy.--THE
INHERITANCE. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1872.
Two charming little stories, translated from the French. We can
heartily recommend them as affording pleasant and instructive reading
for children.
“The Catholic Publication Society” has just published in _Tract_ form
the _Pastoral Letter_ of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland on the
School Question. The price of this document is $3 00 per 100 copies.
The same Society will also publish in pamphlet form _Several Calumnies
Refuted, or Executive Document No. 37_. This will also be sold at $3 00
per 100. No less than 100 copies of either of these pamphlets will be
sold at any one time.
“The Catholic Publication Society” has just issued a list of new books
to be published by the Society this spring. It comprises fifteen books
altogether. These are: _Lenten Lectures_, by Father Segneri; _The
Liquefaction of the Blood of St. Januarius_; _Sermons on Ecclesiastical
Subjects_, Vols. II. and III., by Archbishop Manning; _French Eggs,
in an English Basket_; _Little Pierre, the Pedlar of Alsace_,
illustrated by twenty-seven first class woodcuts; _Maggie’s Rosary_;
_Constance Sherwood_, by Lady Fullerton, illustrated; _The House of
Yorke_, with illustrations; _The Eighth Series of Sunday-School
Libraries_, illustrated; _The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier_,
by Rev. H. J. Coleridge, S.J.; _Madame de Chantal and Her Family_;
_St. Jerome and his Correspondents_; _Bibliographia Catholica
Americana_, by Rev. J. M. Finotti--this book is published by
subscription; and _The Men and Women of the Protestant Reformation in
England_. All these books, as soon as ready, will be announced in our
_Literary Bulletin_, as well as all other new Catholic books published
in this country or in England.
Mr. P. O’shea, New York, announces as in press, _Lectures on the
Church_, by Rev. D. W. Merrick, S.J., of St. Francis Xavier’s Church,
New York.
Received: _Landreth’s Rural Register and Almanac_--1872. Published for
gratuitious distribution. David Landreth & Son, 21 South Sixth St.,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Transcriber’s Note:
Volume 14 contains six monthly issues of the publication. At the
bottom of the first page of each issue is a notice that it was entered
into the Library of Congress. This notice was moved to follow the
issue number and date.
Page numbers are displayed in the right margin. Footnotes and anchors
were renumbered sequentially. The footnotes were moved to the end of
the article, poem, or item. There are three anchors for Footnote 113.
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_.
A column header key was added before the table on page 513 so that the
display of the table would fit many e-reader screens.
Unprinted punctuation and accents, missing spaces between words, and
missing letters were added where appropriate. Duplicate letters and
words, where text continued from one line to the next, were removed.
On page 404, ‘Pharao’ was changed to ‘Pharaoh’ for consistency with
other instances in the article. In the Contents, under the entry of
‘Catholicity and Pantheism’ the page number was changed from 829 to
830. On page 504, the anchor for Footnote [110] is missing; it was
added where it may likely have belonged. On page 530, italic markup
was twice added to ‘aqua fortis’ for consistency with the remaining
text. Obsolete, archaic, and other misspelled words were not changed.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Catholic World, Vol. 14, October 1871-March 1872 - A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science" ***
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