The Catholic World, Vol. 25, April 1877 to September 1877

by Various

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Public Libraries in the United States of America; their History, Condition, and Management. Special Report. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. 1876.

In 1874 the Commissioner of the Bureau of Education in the Department of the Interior at Washington began the preparation of a complete Report on the Public Libraries in the United States; on the 31st of August, 1876, the report was submitted; it was printed, and it makes a volume of 1,187 pages. A careful study of the contents of this unique work compels us to express, in the first place, our most cordial appreciation of the great labor which has been expended upon it, and of the value of the information which it contains. The size of the volume, we fear, has deterred many into whose hands it has fallen from more than glancing over its pages; we confess for ourselves that we shrank, for a while, from the task of reading it. But we have been amply repaid for our toil, which soon became a pleasure; and we may say here that we have seen in foreign periodicals and journals a number of highly eulogistic and discriminating reviews of the report. We propose to make our readers share in the satisfaction we have derived from our study of this work; but our space will permit us only to give a condensed summary of a portion of its contents.

No less than 132 pages of the report are taken up with a table giving the statistics of all the “public libraries” in the United States and Territories numbering 300 volumes or more, excepting common or district school libraries. The table is as complete as it could be made from the returns received in 1875-76; but it is incomplete, because many of the libraries named in it do not report the date of their foundation, their average annual increase in books, their financial condition, or their yearly expenditures. But with all these defects the table is extremely valuable. It shows, to begin with, that the total number of these libraries is 3,647, having as their total number of volumes 12,276,964. We pause here for a moment to say that the report also shows that in the district-school libraries, not included in the table, there are 1,365,407 volumes, and that in all the libraries there are about 1,500,000 pamphlets not classed as “volumes.” The census of 1870 showed that there were 107,673 private libraries, containing 25,571,503 volumes, exclusive of those which may be in the State of Connecticut, from which State no returns on this subject were received. Here, then, we have a total of 39,213,874 volumes of books in the public, private, and school libraries of the country—a mass of printed matter large enough, estimating each volume to weigh a pound, to fill nine merchant vessels of 2,000 tons burden each. Let us also in this place give the following list of the number of volumes in several noted libraries in other countries, with the remark that, as the statistics of these libraries differ widely according to different authorities, we have in each case taken the highest number given, and that this number relates only to books, and not to manuscripts or pamphlets, fugitive publications, etc.:

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris	2,000,000
Mazarin Library, Paris	160,000
Royal Library, Madrid	200,000
Convent Library of the Escorial, Madrid	130,000
Vatican Library, Rome	1,000,000
Magliabecchíana Library, Florence	200,000
Laurentian Library, Florence	120,000
Museo Borbonico, Naples	200,000
University Library, Bologna	200,000
Brera Library, Milan	200,000
Ambrosian Library, Milan	140,000
University Library, Turin	150,000
Royal Library, Berlin	700,000
Royal Library, Dresden	500,000
University Library, Breslau	350,000
University Library, Göttingen	400,000
Ducal Library, Wolfenbüttel	300,000
University Library, Freiburg	250,000
Royal Library, Stuttgart	450,000
Royal Library, Munich	900,000
Royal Library, Copenhagen	550,000
Bodleian Library, Oxford	700,000
Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh	300,000
University Library, Edinburgh	130,000
Imperial Library, St. Petersburg	1,100,000
City Library, Augsburg	150,000
University Library, Cambridge	400,000
City Library, Frankfort	150,000
Ducal Library, Gotha	240,000
City Library, Hamburg	300,000
City Library, Leipsic	170,000
University Library, Leipsic	350,000
British Museum, London	1,020,000

In these 33 libraries in the Old World there are 14,110,000 volumes, exclusive of manuscripts, or 1,833,176 more volumes than we have in all of our 3,647 public libraries. We say nothing of the comparative value of the collections, for of course there is no comparison between a collection which has been accumulating for a thousand years and one which was made yesterday. But we have no reason to be ashamed of our American public libraries; on the contrary, as the report which we are reviewing abundantly shows, we have every reason to be proud of them. We take from this report the following table:

Whole number of public libraries	3,647
Whole number of volumes	12,276,964
Average number of volumes	3,366
Yearly additions (1,510 reporting)	434,339
Yearly use of books (742 reporting)	8,879,809
Amt of permanent fund (1,722 reporting)	$6,105,581
Yearly income (830 reporting)	$1,398,756
Yearly expenditures for publications (769 reporting)	$562,407
Yearly expenditures for salaries, etc. (643 reporting)	$682,166

The 3,647 libraries are distributed among the various States and Territories as follows; and here we make our only complaint against the report—to wit, that its laborious and faithful editors have not furnished the footings, which we have been compelled to make for ourselves:

Alabama, 31 libraries; Alaska, 1 (the post library at Sitka, and now removed since the garrison has been withdrawn); Arizona, 3 (two of them being military libraries); Arkansas, 6; California, 87; Colorado, 8; Connecticut, 125; Dakota, 4 (two being military libraries); Delaware, 18; District of Columbia, 57 (31 of them belonging to the federal government); Florida, 6; Georgia, 44; Idaho, 1; Illinois, 177; Indiana, 133; Indian Territory, 4 (two of them military libraries); Iowa, 80; Kansas, 19; Kentucky, 72; Louisiana, 31; Maine, 85; Maryland, 77; Massachusetts, 453; Michigan, 89; Minnesota, 39; Mississippi, 23; Missouri, 87; Montana, 2; Nebraska, 14; Nevada, 6; New Hampshire, 86; New Jersey, 91; New Mexico, 4 (one of them a military library, and two of the others belonging to Catholic academies); New York, 617; North Carolina, 37; Ohio, 223; Oregon, 14; Pennsylvania, 367; Rhode Island, 56; South Carolina, 26; Tennessee, 71; Texas, 42; Utah, 5; Vermont, 65; Virginia, 63; Washington Territory, 2 (one of them a Catholic library); West Virginia, 23; Wisconsin, 73; and Wyoming Territory, 3.

These figures are suggestive in various ways, and many interesting and valuable inferences might be drawn from them. But a careful analysis of the other portions of the table would also be necessary in order to avoid mistakes; and the wholly unknown quantity in the problem—the comparative value of different collections—would imperil the accuracy of any deductions which might be made from the statistics in this table. For instance, the 31 libraries in Alabama contain 60,615 volumes—nearly 5,000 less than are in the New York Society Library alone. A library is a library, for the purposes of this report, if it contain 300 or more volumes, just as a book is a book although there may be nothing in it. Who is to say whether some of the smaller collections in the South are not really more valuable than the larger and newer libraries in the North? We fear it is not so; but there is no test by which to decide the question. If we leave this point, and turn our attention to the statistics relating to the principal libraries, we shall come upon more satisfactory ground.

The thirty-eighth chapter of the report, filling 273 pages, is devoted to a review of the public libraries of ten principal cities—Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Charleston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Francisco. In these ten cities there are 471 public libraries with 3,447,628 volumes, viz.:

Name of City.	No. of Libraries	Volumes.
Charleston	6	26,600
Chicago	23	141,910
San Francisco	30	164,228
Brooklyn	21	165,112
St. Louis	31	170,875
Cincinnati	30	197,890
Baltimore	38	230,342
Philadelphia	102	707,627
Boston	68	734,741
New York	122	906,203
	—-	————-
Total	471	3,445,528

To this list we add, in order that the South may have justice done to her:

Name of City.	No. of Libraries	Volumes.
New Orleans	15	94,080
Louisville	6	65,897
Richmond	17	63,526

A library containing 10,000 volumes or more, if well selected, may be said to be a respectable collection. Now, there are no less than 266 libraries of this class in the United Slates, and they contain a total of 6,984,882 volumes—an average of 26,259 volumes in each. These 266 libraries, it will be seen, account for more than one half of the total number of volumes in all the public libraries, and they reduce the average number of volumes in the remaining 3,381 libraries to 1,565. But even a library with 1,500 good books is not to be despised.

The largest library in the United States is that of the National Congress at Washington, which has 300,000 volumes; and then follow:

Social Law Library, Boston	299,869
Harvard University	227,650
Mercantile, New York	160,613
Astor, New York	152,446
Mercantile, Philadelphia	125,668
House of Representatives, Washington	125,000
Yale College	114,200
Athenæum, Boston	105,000

These are the only libraries which have 100,000 volumes and more. Those which have 50,000 and less than 100,000 volumes are the

State Library at Albany	95,000
New York Society, New York	65,000
Antiquarian Society, Worcester	60,497
Peabody Institute, Baltimore	57,458
Apprentices’, New York	53,000
Dartmouth College	52,550
Mercantile, Brooklyn	50,257
State University, Baton Rouge	50,000

There are 10 libraries having more than 40,000 and less than 50,000 volumes; 23, with more than 30,000 and less than 40,000; 49, with more than 20,000 and less than 30,000; 52, with more than 15,000 and less than 20,000; 100, with more than 10,000 and less than 15,000; 264, with more than 5,000 and less than 10,000; 156, with more than 4,000 and less than 5,000; 236, with more than 3,000 and less than 4,000; 362, with more than 2,000 and less than 3,000; 762, with more than 1,000 and less than 2,000; and 925, with more than 500 and less than 1,000.

Of the whole number of 3,647 public libraries mentioned in this report, we find 221 which we recognize as those of Catholic institutions. There are no doubt others in the list, but there is no mark by which they can be certainly recognized. Of these 221 distinctively Catholic libraries the following are the chief:

Place.	Name.	Origin.	Vols.
San Francisco,	St. Ignatius’ College,	1855	11,000
Santa Clara,	Santa Clara College,	1851	10,000
Georgetown,	Georgetown College,	1791	32,268
Washington,	Gonzaga College,	1858	10,000
New Orleans,	Libraire de la famille,	1872	15,000
Baltimore,	Archiepiscopal,	....	10,000
Baltimore,	Loyola College,	1853	21,500
Baltimore,	St. Mary’s Seminary,	1791	15,000
Hagerstown,	St. James’ College,	1842	11,000
Worcester,	College of the Holy Cross	1843	12,000
St. Louis,	College of the Christian Brothers,	1860	22,000
Brooklyn,	St. Francis’ College,	....	13,970
Fordham,	St. John’s College,	1840	15,000
New York,	St. Francis Xavier’s College,	1847	21,000
Cincinnati,	Mount St. Mary’s,	1849	15,100
Cincinnati,	St. Xavier’s College,	1840	17,000
Latrobe, Penn.,	St. Vincent’s College,	1846	13,000

In these 17 Catholic libraries there are 264,838 volumes. It is a very respectable number, and, when the probable quality of the books contained in these collections is taken into account, the value of such comparatively small libraries will be seen to be great. The number of volumes in the other 204 Catholic libraries, as we have ascertained by a laborious examination of the tables, is 448,688, so that the total number of volumes in the distinctively Catholic libraries is 713,526. It is a large number of books; but one might complain that it was not larger. We are not sure that these complaints would be well founded. As Catholics we establish our own libraries, but as citizens we aid in the labor and share the cost of forming the general libraries, and we have our part in the advantages which they afford. It will always be our duty, of course, to exert our influence in preserving these collections of books from the contamination of the works of authors whose aim is to undermine morals and to destroy faith; and to introduce to their shelves the writings of the best and most able defenders and advocates of truth and religion. But this duty being well performed, we are free to aid in the work of building up our general libraries and in enjoying the pure intellectual delights which they may afford.

Thirty-eight pages of the report before us are devoted to a chapter upon Theological Libraries. A table is given of 44 of the principal theological libraries in the United States; they contain 528,024 volumes. Eight of them belong to Catholic theological seminaries and contain 71,600 volumes. The two largest of the theological libraries are those of the Union Theological Seminary of New York, and the Andover Theological Seminary, each of which contains 34,000 volumes. The report states that, with a few exceptions, the public theological libraries in this country are the libraries of theological seminaries. The exceptions are the General Theological Library in Boston, established in 1860, and now containing 12,000 volumes; and the library of the Congregational Association in the same city, which contains 22,000 volumes and 80,000 pamphlets. None of the theological libraries are 100 years old. The eldest of all of them is the library of St. Mary’s Theological Seminary of St. Sulpice in Baltimore, founded in 1791 by the Sulpician Fathers. It now contains 15,000 volumes. The report devotes considerable space to a dissertation upon “Catholic Libraries,” and its remarks upon this head are conceived in a kindly and enlightened spirit. “All learning,” writes the reporter, “is welcome to the shelves of Catholic libraries, and nothing is excluded from them that should not equally be excluded from any reputable collection of books. Nor will anti-Catholic works be found wanting to them, at least such as possess any force or originality. The history of the church being so interwoven with that of the world since the days of Augustus Cæsar, there is no period which is not redolent of her action, and consequently no history which does not have to treat of her, either approvingly or the reverse. In regard to general literature, she preserved ... all that has come down to us from classic sources, and therefore works of this character can be no strangers to shelves of Catholic libraries. Still less can the Sacred Scriptures be, which Catholic hands collected, authenticated, and handed down for the use of the men of our time. Nor will the sciences be overlooked by ecclesiastics in forming their libraries; for in past ages it was the care of their brethren, with such limited facilities as were at their command and in days inauspicious for scientific investigation, to cultivate them.” No new truths these; but they are well expressed, and it is worth something to have them set forth in a volume prepared by federal authority and published with federal approval. The report goes on to speak of the general characteristics of Catholic theological libraries. They contain, it says, abundant versions of the Sacred Scriptures in all languages, with copious commentaries and expositions; and the writer adds that the professors of our Catholic theological institutions “are generally graduates of the best theological schools in Europe.” He thus proceeds:

“Next in authoritative rank come the Fathers and Doctors of the church, from those who received instruction from the apostles themselves and committed their doctrine to writing, down to almost our own day; for St. Alphonsus Liguori, the latest on whom the Holy See has conferred the title of Doctor of the Universal Church, died only in the latter part of the last century, and his authority is that which is principally followed in the treatment of moral questions. Works also by later writers, principally on dogmatic subjects, are constantly appearing. The study of dogma embracing an investigation into all revealed truths, and therefore essential to those who are to instruct others authoritatively, involves a reference to many learned books in which proofs and illustrations are elaborated to the last degree of exactness, side by side with every possible difficulty or objection that can be brought to bear against each doctrine treated of. Some works are occupied with the discussion of but a single point; others take in a wide range, and some voluminous authors have published an entire course of dogma....” “The study of moral, the other great branch of Catholic theology, embraces a scrutiny into every question of morals that needs to be investigated by those who have the direction of consciences, or whose duty it is, in the tribunal of penance, to adjudicate upon matters affecting the rights of others. As solutions in these cases are sometimes attended with considerable difficulty, and a grave responsibility is attached to the delivery of an opinion, authorities for reference must be ample and exhaustive. Such authorities will be found in the theological libraries, and are relied upon in proportion to their world-wide repute, as representing the opinions of prudent, learned, and experienced men.”

The report goes on to speak of the reasons why every complete Catholic library must have copies of the published acts of the general councils of the church, and of national and provincial councils, as well as of the decisions and solutions of the various congregations at Rome, and other documents emanating from the Holy See. The supply of “works on ritual,” and those necessary for a thorough course of rational philosophy, must be ample, and there must be works on mathematics, physics, astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, and other sciences. We again quote:

“The attention given in these schools to sacred eloquence—for practice in which students are required to prepare and deliver sermons in presence of the community—calls for the best models of sacred oratory, besides works on rhetoric and elocution. As models of composition, arrangement, and intrinsic solidity, the sermons of the ancient fathers share equal attention with those of the great French orators of the last century, and no library for the use of ecclesiastics will be without a copious supply of the works of those and others of the best pulpit orators in the church. Catholic libraries in general—and not those alone which are attached to theological schools—will be found amply supplied with controversial works written by Catholic authors. These are needed, however, not so much for the use of the owners as for that of non-Catholic inquirers who wish to be enlightened in regard to some controverted point, or who desire to learn the evidences upon which the Catholic Church bases her claims to the credence of mankind. Catechetical works, of which there are a great number, answer this purpose still better when the polemic spirit has been allayed, and it is impossible to conceive of a Catholic library, large or small, without an abundance of both these classes of books. The controversial works discuss every objection which can be alleged against the church or the practice of members of it, and are necessarily very numerous. Every age has left behind it these testimonies to the controversies that agitated it, and the present age is no less prolific than its predecessors, though the grounds of dispute are shifting now rather from dogma to historical questions and matters of science, indicating the lessening hold which doctrine has on the non-Catholic mind.”

And again:

“Ecclesiastical history, of course, forms an important element in Catholic libraries; but this history not only includes the exhaustive tomes of writers who take in the whole history of the church, but of others who illustrate a particular age, country, event, or transaction. Works concerning the history of the church in the United States, or in particular States, form a growing collection. The current of contemporary Catholic history is well shown forth through the monthly and weekly publications which appear in many countries and languages. The Catholic quarterlies, however, and some of the monthly publications, are devoted chiefly to literary or scientific criticism. The Catholic weeklies in this country are now so numerous that their preservation in libraries is seldom attended to. If this apology is needed for the absence from such libraries of publications that will form an important reference hereafter for others besides Catholics, it ought to be coupled with the suggestion proper to be made in a work which will be placed in the hands of persons of all religions: that a general Catholic library ought to be established at some central point where every Catholic publication, at least among those issued in this country, may have a place. Materials for history would gather in such a collection that might not readily be found combined in any other.

“Having thus touched upon the more important characteristics of Catholic libraries, it would be well, perhaps, to observe that while the leading ones in this country are attached to seminaries, colleges, or religious houses, there are many private collections of considerable value, especially those in episcopal residences, or belonging to gentlemen of the clergy or laity who, together with literary tastes, possess the means to gratify them. Catholic libraries are also beginning to be formed in cities and towns, chiefly under the auspices of associations that seek to provide a safe and pleasant resort for young men in the evenings. In these libraries will be found the lighter Catholic literature, to which no reference has so far been made in this paper—travels, sketches, poems, tales, etc., a few of which are by American and some Irish authors, but the majority by English writers, chiefly converts, or translated from the French, German, Flemish, and other Continental languages. Finally, it would be well to observe that Catholic libraries are accessible for reference, if not for study, to all inquirers. In most cases non-Catholic visitors would doubtless be welcomed to them with great cordiality. Those who have these libraries in keeping rather invite than repel scrutiny into whatever is distinctively Catholic in their collections.”

We regret that the limits of our space forbid us to dwell further upon the contents of this really fascinating volume. To use such an adjective in speaking of a “Blue-Book,” or an official report, may seem extravagant, but in this case it is not so. Its chapters upon the growth of libraries in the United States; college libraries; law, medical, and scientific libraries; libraries in prisons and reformatories; libraries of the general and State governments; libraries of historical societies; and upon “catalogues and cataloguing,” are crammed with useful and important information; and whatever may have been the sins of omission or commission that may be laid at the door of the “Department of the Interior at Washington,” we are willing to bear witness that its Bureau of Education, in the preparation and publication of this report, has done much to atone for them.

Elements of Geometry. By G. M. Searle, C.S.P. With an Appendix containing Problems and Additional Propositions. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1877.

The object of this work is to place geometry on a more perfectly logical basis than it has been usually considered worth while to adopt in text-books. Geometers at the present day generally agree as to the unsatisfactory nature of the axioms usually adopted, some being superfluous, and others, especially the famous one about parallels, not being clearly self-evident.

The reduction in the number of axioms has of course introduced some complexity into the reasoning in this book, and the difficulty about parallels is not completely removed; nor does the author pretend completely to remove it. Some new views, however, are presented which may be worthy of consideration.

Elements of Ecclesiastical Law. Adapted especially to the Discipline of the Church in the United States. By Rev. S. B. Smith, D.D., formerly Professor of Canon Law, author of “Notes,” etc., etc. New York, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Einsiedeln: Benziger Brothers, Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 1877.

This work of Dr. Smith’s cannot fail to be a welcome addition to any theological library. There are a great many works on canon law, it is true, but very few which give much information on the discipline of the church here, which is what priests in this country and those who are preparing for the priesthood principally need to understand.

The present volume goes far to supply this deficiency, and the author promises to supplement it soon by another, for which we shall look with interest. He has made a good choice in writing in English; there seems to be no need of choosing Latin for a book on this subject, and intended for this nation chiefly.

Footnotes

[1]. Meline, Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, pp. 225-226.

[2]. Noticias., pp. 15, 16.

[3]. Bancroft, Native Races, iii. 173, 174.

[4]. Piron, L’Ile de Cuba, pp. 48-52.

[5]. Hist. de la Louisiane, i. p. 335.

[6]. Missionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico.

[7]. Thus in the Mass she asks that the offerings be carried on high by the angels; in the Asperges, and Complin she begs God to send down his angels to cherish, guard, and protect all within the building; in the Itinerary she calls St. Raphael especially to protect all who travel; in the baptismal service she asks God to send an angel to guard the catechumen and lead him to the grace of baptism; in Extreme Unction, to give all dwelling, in the house a good angel guardian; the Commendation of the Departing Soul is a constant appeal to the holy angels; and the prayer after death asks that the departed soul may be received by the holy angels and brought to Paradise, her real country. She even asks that an angel be deputed to guard the grave.

[8]. La Sœur Natalie Narischkin, Fille de la Charité de S. Vincent de Paul. Par Mme. Augustus Craven. Paris: Didier et Cie., 35 Quai des Augustins.

[9]. Our Protestant readers will excuse, we trust, a want of precise accuracy in some of these expressions, very easily accounted for by the fact that Madame Craven is a Catholic Frenchwoman, to whom all the various phases of Protestantism are confused in one vague and indistinct form.

[10]. Filioque.

[11]. Language which comes from heaven, limpid and beautiful, And which the world understands, but does not speak.

[12]. Ah! my soul would fain cling to her wings, and keep her still!

[13]. “He who is well off stays where he is.”

[14]. Thomas McCrie, minister of the Gospel, Edinburgh.

[15]. Moreover, the favor with which that parody of Catholic ceremony and Catholic truths known as ritualism has been received in England, especially among the common people, is an evidence of the imperfect manner in which the Reformation there has done its work.

[16]. See The Catholic World for February, 1877, page 616.

[17]. The English in Ireland, vol. ii. p. 453.

[18]. Tone’s Memoirs, vol. i. p 205.

[19]. The English in Ireland, vol. iii. p. 348.

[20]. Harold: A Drama. By Alfred Tennyson. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. 1877.

Queen Mary: A Drama. By Alfred Tennyson. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. 1875.

[21]. The following from the London Weekly Register may tend to show whether this doubt is reasonable or otherwise: “The vicar of St. Barnabas, Leeds, is fatigued with parochial work and wishes to take a little rest. He asks his Lordship of Ripon to let him name a clergyman who shall take his duties for a few weeks or months. His lordship replies that he cannot do so, because—but the language is too episcopal to be misquoted: 'If there is truth in the reports which, from time to time, appear in the public papers, you are in the habit of breaking what you must know to be the law.’ His Lordship of Ripon reads the papers, and, finding it inconvenient to leave his palace at Ripon and make a call upon a clergyman in Leeds, he refuses leave of absence to that clergyman, on account of newspaper reports.” The church-wardens take up their vicar’s cause, and, in a very proper “memorial,” represent the needs of his case to his paternal diocesan. But all is useless. “The law, the law,” says the bishop, and remains comfortably in his palace, while he forbids his hard-working vicar to take a holiday, though he does not even condescend to specify his offence. And yet the Anglican bishops do not apparently object to a due amount of repose for themselves, if we may judge from the fact that at the very time we write there are no fewer than fifteen of the “missionary bishops” of the Establishment who, after a few years of absence, and even these years agreeably diversified with visits to their friends in England, have returned thither “for good,” and are now settled with their wives and families in comfortable rectories at home—an arrangement more convenient for croquet-parties than “conversions.”

[22]. See Christianity in Erastianism. A letter to Cardinal Manning. By Presbyter Anglicanus.

[23]. Hentzner furnishes us, by the way, with a singular testimony to Elizabeth’s “goodness” when, among other things of the same nature, he tells us that, in the latter years of her reign, executions for high treason (this being the term applied to denial of the royal supremacy in the church fully as much as in the state) were so frequent that he counted at one time on London Bridge no fewer than 300 heads. She herself on one occasion pointed out to the French ambassador the same ghastly trophies adorning the gates of her own palace.

[24]. A writer in the London Times gives the following answer to the ecclesiastical assumptions of Mr. Tooth: “I will enumerate some of the acts on ecclesiastical matters which have become law without the consent of the priesthood, and which therefore the present agitators bind themselves to disallow and disobey: The act of Edward VI. on the Sacrament, on Chantries, on Images, on Fasting; the Acts of Uniformity, both of Edward VI. and Elizabeth; the Act of Toleration; the act abolishing the burning of heretics, under William III.; the acts, both of Charles II. and William III., for the observance of Sunday; the various Marriage Acts of William III., George II., and Queen Victoria; the various acts both for the repression and the relief of Roman Catholics during the same range of time; the acts during the late and present reigns against pluralities and against non-residence; the acts suppressing the Irish bishoprics, suppressing half the cathedral dignitaries in England, and, finally, revolutionizing the Irish Church; the act for abolishing the services drawn up by Convocation for the political anniversaries of the seventeenth century. These and many other laws, many of them of unquestioned beneficence, most of them of unquestioned obligation, all of them passed by Parliament, and by it alone, must be set aside by those who make it a point of conscience to disobey any law which has been imposed on the church by secular authority.”

[25]. Certain evicted Ritualists, however, do not appear to be much affected by the measures taken to repress them, if it be true that the Rev. R. P. Dale, who has been suspended for three years, and his former parish merged into another, takes the matter very philosophically, and, in default of his own parish, finds every Sunday in one place or another a complaisant brother-clergyman, who lends him his church and his pulpit, from which he braves the pseudo-episcopal thunders.

[26]. Two Chancellors, etc. By Julian Klaczko. Translated by Frank P. Ward. New York: Hurd & Houghton.

Pro Nihilo and other pamphlets on the Arnim question.

[27]. Hail, holy face of our Redeemer, in which shines the image of the divine Splendor, imprinted on a veil white as snow, and given to Veronica in token of his love!

Hail, glory of the world, mirror of the saints, whom the celestial spirits long to behold. Purify us from the stain of every vice and bring us to the society of the Blessed!

Hail, our glory, in this rough, uncertain life, so soon to pass away! Lead us to our true country, O blessed symbol! that with a pure heart we may behold the face of Christ.

Be to us, O Lord! a sure help, the sweet refreshment and consolation of our woes, that the efforts of the enemy may not injure us, but that we may enter into the fruition of true rest. Let us say: Amen.

[28]. This article is condensed from one which appeared in the Revue Canadienne, by M. de Bellefeuille.

[29]. The author writes: From this excellent and faithful priest I have obtained the greater part of my information on this subject. In addition, M. Gauvreau has allowed me free use of his notes and documents.

[30]. Hist. Nat., l. xxvi. c. i. proem.

[31]. The Catholic World, Dec., 1876, p. 371 Jan., 1877, p. 523.

[32]. Father Newman has, I think, remarked that in the Protestant scheme there is not room for Mary.

[33].

Yes, this our life is plentiful in tears.

Though I am young, still I have suffered much.

My God, I thirst! and this world’s weary ways

Are but an arid desert unto me.

But at thy feet my soul finds her repose,

O tender Friend and Comforter Divine!

What matters it to me if I lose all,

But still keep thee, my dearest Saviour’s love!

[34].

Jesus, for my sole happiness, oh! give me tears

Which thou wilt wipe away.

[35]. The mother of the young wife who died.

[36]. Maia, or Majesta: not to be confounded with Maia, the mother of Hercules.

[37]. Cybele was the “Mater Deûm” of the Greeks and Romans.

[38]. L’Héroïsme en Soutane. By General Ambert. Paris: E. Dentu, Palais Royal. 1876.

[39]. Tu l’auras maigre et non pas gras (grasse—grâce).

[40]. At Ménilmontant a woman named Lefêvre proposed, amid cheers and bravos, to undermine the Cathedral of Notre Dame, fill it as full as it would hold with priests and nuns, and blow it up. At a club-meeting another woman—Leblanc—cried: “We must flay the priests alive and make barricades with their carcasses”; and at Trinity Church a woman argued thus on the existence of God: “Religion is a farce got up by men, and there is no God; ... if there were, he would not let me speak so. Therefore he is a coward, and no God....” And there were other and even more revolting things said and done.

[41]. The Catholic World, March, 1877, p. 777. We regret to be informed by the publisher that this really great drama is now out of print.

[42]. In the Roman triumphs a captive slave was bound to the car of the conqueror, into whose ear his office was to whisper of fortune’s instability.

[43]. Pie IX.: sa vie, son Histoire, son Siècle. Par J. M. Villefranche. Lyons. 1876.

Rome: its Ruler and its Institutions. By John Francis Maguire, M.P. New York. 1858.

Italy in 1848. By L. Mariotti. London. 1851.

The Secret Societies of the European Revolution, 1776-1876. By Thomas Frost. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1876.

[44]. For a full account of this mission see The Catholic World for January, 1876.

[45]. The Jew of Verona. English translation, 2 vols. 12mo. Baltimore. 1854.

[46]. Villefranche.

[47]. When the Pope launched a bull of excommunication against the spoliators of his territory, Napoleon forbade its publication in France. He allowed the official and radical journals, however, to publish a forged bull, and to ridicule and denounce at pleasure the extravagant language which it imputed to the Holy Father. The bishops tried to expose the forgery, but the press was closed to them.

[48]. The Examiner (London), March 31, 1877.

[49]. The Nineteenth Century (London), March and April, 1877.

[50]. Petri Privilegium. London. 1871.

[51]. If any one cares to know what became of the picture, he may be interested to hear that it hangs now over the altar of a private oratory in the same city where it was painted. The Greek merchant took it to Constantinople, where it remained in his family till the siege, twenty-eight years later. It was then given by him for safe keeping to his Venetian friend and transferred to Venice, whence the Greek himself, having become a resident of that place, took it back to Bruges and offered it to the canon, on condition of no further mention being made of the circumstances connected with it. The offer was gratefully accepted, and it remained till the priest’s death in his private collection, the Greek having declared that, what with having paid no price for it and its being a Scriptural subject, he preferred that it should in some way belong to the church rather than to the world. At the canon’s death it was sold to a dealer, who sold it again for a high price to an Italian collector, whose descendants, in “hard times,” parted with it to a rich Englishman. It happened, strangely enough, that it returned to the native city of its unlucky author by an intermarriage between the family of the English connoisseur and that of a passionate lover of art in Bruges, and this time it was transferred as a gift. It has been freely shown to any and every one who asked to see it, and the story attached to it made it one of the “sights” of the old city.

[52]. Ps. ci.

[53]. Ps. cxxi.

[54]. Ps. cxxvi.

[55]. Gabourd.

[56]. Ps. xliii.

[57]. Louis Veuillot.

[58]. In the cathedral of Orleans.

[59]. A few hours after tracing these lines Georgina learnt of the death of René. Of the five brothers, two had given their lives for France. Adrien and Gertrude rejoined each other in heaven.

[60]. The Abbé Perreyve.

[61]. “Could you but know how small a thing is life, and also by what sweetness death is followed!”

[62]. More is naught to me; naught is aught to me more.

[63]. After religion there is certainly no greater means of civilization than commerce; and commerce in the middle ages began with fairs, at which merchants employed the seductions of minstrelsy and music to draw numbers together, and thus be able to display and sell their goods.

[64]. This plaintive Psalm was turned into most musical English verse by Donne, who makes it touchingly suggestive; and later, and better still, by Aubrey de Vere in his beautiful drama, Alexander the Great.

[65]. A person who was present has feelingly described the deep effect produced on some of our poor wounded soldiers who had been brought to a church in Fredericksburg on their way North, after one of the battles in the Wilderness, when some person sat down at the organ and played “Home, sweet Home.”

[66]. Blessed Peter Claver, Apostle of the Negroes, used to contrive that the sufferers in the hospitals at Cartagena, in South America, should be solaced with music; and for centuries it has been a custom at Santo Spirito, in Rome, to have the magnificent organ which is set up in the main ward play three times a week for the patients.

[67]. The adventure of Ulysses and the melodious Sirens was a subject early seized upon by Christian art within the Discipline of the Secret to convey an idea of the cross (Ulysses attached to the mast of his vessel), the church (under the figure of a ship), and the seductions of the world (of the flesh particularly) in this voyage of life. See De Rossi's Bulletin of Christian Archæology for 1863, page 35, in which a curious monument bearing on this strange rapprochement is described.

[68]. One of these old statues having come to light in good condition while the palace of Monte Citorio, designed by Pope Innocent XII. for the seat of the higher tribunals of law at Rome, was being built, it was appropriately placed on the landing at the head of the great stairway. The Italian Deputies have doubtless removed it, as too significant of divine vengeance.

[69]. We find in this story the origin of the Phrygian cap which came to be a symbol of slavery and degradation among the Romans, by whom the Phrygians were considered a stupid people—whose rulers even had asinine qualities; and it never quite lost this character, but was used in France up to the time of the Revolution by galley-prisoners, and it is well known that an irruption of escaped convicts into Paris during the Reign of Terror, carrying one of their caps at the end of a pole and singing the Marseillaise, gave rise to the absurd custom of the liberty-pole and cap now so common.

[70]. Dr. Burney, History of Music, vol. i. p. 436, has a note which bears too quaintly on this part of the subject not to be reproduced. He says: “Master Thomas Mace, author of a most delectable book called Musick’s Monument, would have been an excellent Pythagorean, for he maintains that the mystery of the Trinity is perspicuously made plain by the connection of the three harmonical concords 1, 3, 5; that music and divinity are nearly allied; and that the contemplation of concord and discord, of the nature of the octave and unison, will so strengthen a man’s faith 'that he shall never after degenerate into that gross subbeastiacal sin of Atheism.’”

[71]. Shakspere, from an American Point of View: including an Inquiry as to his Religious Faith and his Knowledge of Law; with the Baconian Theory considered. By George Wilkes. London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. 1877. 8vo, pp. ix. 471.

[72]. Of whom 24,452 landed at New York.

[73]. Of whom 13,314 landed at New York.

[74]. What part not stated.

[75]. Conf. de Notre Dame, tome i. conf. iv. at the end.

[76]. Dante, Disc. Prelim., sec. v.

[77]. Hist. Univ., ep. x. epilogue, tome ix. p. 478.

[78]. Zacharias i. 10, 11.

[79]. See Mr. Ticknor’s Life, vol. i. p. 436.

[80]. We make here our acknowledgment of indebtedness to the series of articles in the Civiltà Cattolica entitled “I Destini di Roma,” which was begun Aug. 19, 1871, for a great part of what is to follow in this article.

[81]. A dispensation may have been granted, but Hugo afterwards disavowed the marriage on the plea of the ecclesiastical impediment.

[82]. Virginity and Maternity, long at variance, have made peace in the womb of the Virgin.

[83]. Strew this sacred tomb with flowers. Here, near Virgil, lies Syncerus, his brother in the Muses.

[84]. Farewell, adored Parthenope; sweet siren, farewell! Farewell, enchanted gardens of the Hesperides! Farewell, Mergellina, be mindful of me; accept these tears of regret from the master who has naught else to offer thee! Farewell, shade of my mother; my father’s shade, farewell!

[85]. Let me be depicted in the immortal works of my glorious Sannazzaro, so worthy of the name of Sincerus, and I shall be exalted to the very stars.

[86]. Audin.

[87]. See essay of M. de l’Epinois.

[88]. Frederick Leopold, Count Stolberg, since his return to the Catholic Church, 1800-1819. From hitherto unpublished family documents. By John Janssen. Freiburg in Breisgau: Herder & Co.

[89]. The disease of the age.

[90]. Servant; meaning here a second-rate chronicler.

[91]. Adel, nobility, from edel, noble, our Saxon Ethel and Atheling. The word is here translated by aristocracy rather than nobility—the former being a word of wider signification, and embracing the class of untitled gentlemen (which of course Stolberg included), as well as that of strictly so-called noblemen.

[92]. The italics are ours.

[93]. See The Catholic World, July, 1877: “Marshal MacMahon and the French Revolutionists.”

[94]. See Count von Arnim’s pamphlet, Pro Nihilo.

[95]. If any of our readers wish authentic information on this point, they will find it abundantly in a book entitled Les Libéraux Peints par Eux-Mêmes. Par G. Lebrocquez. Paris: Victor Palmé, 1876.

[96]. An Exposition of the Church, in view of recent Difficulties and Controversies and the present Need of the Age. London: Pickering. 1875. The Catholic World, April, 1875, p. 128.

[97]. Letter of Pope Pius IX. to Mgr. Lachat, April 27, 1876.

[98]. Cesar Cantù’s Univ. Hist., French translation, vol. vii. p. 418, vol. viii. p. 214.

[99]. The term exarchate is here used in its restricted sense.

[100]. “The Iron Age of Christendom,” The Catholic World, July, 1877.

[101]. Eastlake, p. 5.

[102]. History of the Gothic Revival, p. 6.

[103]. History of the Gothic Revival, p. 71.

[104]. Eastlake, page 88.

[105]. Page 122.

[106]. P. 145.

[107]. An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture, p. 12.

[108]. History of the Gothic Revival, p. 153.

[109]. A sol Morlaas was worth about 2.4 francs.

[110]. Read the monarch’s usual menu in the memoirs of the Princess Palatine, who seems to look with a certain naïve admiration on the trencher prowess of her august kinsman: “The king devours with ease at a single meal four basins of different kinds of soup, a pheasant whole, a partridge, a dish of salad, two slices of ham, some mutton with gravy, a plate of pastry, and for dessert (O dura messorum ilia!) a quantity of hard-boiled eggs and fruits of every sort, the whole washed down with abundance of wines.” Here, at least, he might justly claim to be nec pluribus impar.

[111]. It should be said here that the main incident on which this tale is founded is true, and that this sacrilegious disguise was in those days frequently assumed by French robbers the better to disarm suspicion. The fact is in itself a striking testimony to the implicit confidence which the clergy of France have always inspired, and deserved.

[112]. These figures, as far as they relate to the institutions of the church in England, are probably not entirely correct. The Register from which we have quoted contains no tabular statement of these institutions, and we have been compelled to arrive at the totals by an enumeration of our own, the accuracy of which has been rendered doubtful by the confused manner in which the statistics of each diocese were given. However, our figures cannot be very greatly at fault.

[113]. A very ingenious statement was published some time ago in one of our journals, setting forth what was believed to be “the constituent elements of the population of the United States in 1870.” This statement may be thus summarized: In 1784 the entire white population of the United States was 3,172,000 persons; of these 1,141,920 were of Irish birth, 751,280 were of other Celtic races, 841,800 were of Anglo-Saxon extraction, and 427,000 were of Dutch and Scandinavian birth. The total immigration to the United States from 1790 to 1870 was 8,199,000 persons, of whom 3,248,000 came from Ireland, 796,000 from Anglo-Saxon races; and 4,155,000 from all other sources. The total population in 1870 was 38,500,000; and this vast number was thus analyzed:

Joint product in 1870 of Irish colonial elements and subsequent Irish immigration, including that from Canada	14,325,000
Joint product in 1870 of Anglo-Saxon colonial elements and subsequent Anglo-Saxon immigration	4,522,000
Joint product in 1870 of all other colonial elements and all subsequent immigration, including the negroes	19,653,000
	—————
	38,500,000

From these figures was drawn the somewhat startling deduction that the population of the United States in 1870 was composed of 24,000,000 of Celtic birth or origin (Irish, Scotch, French, Spanish, and Italian), and that of these 14,325,000 were of Irish birth or origin, 4,522,000 of Anglo-Saxon birth or origin, and that the remaining 9,978,000 were of neither Celtic nor Anglo-Saxon extraction. We are not in any way responsible for the accuracy of these figures; but that they express at least an approximation to the truth we do not doubt.

[114]. “The European Exodus,” The Catholic World, July, 1877.

[115]. During the year ended December 31, 1876, 157,440 immigrants arrived in the United States, of whom 102,960 were males and 54,480 females. Their ages were: under fifteen years, 26,608; fifteen and under forty, 111,764; forty years and upward, 19,068. The countries of last permanent residence or citizenship of the immigrants were: England, 21,051; Ireland, 16,506; Scotland, 4,383; Wales, 294; Isle of Man, 8; Guernsey, 1; Germany, 31,323; Austria, 6,047; Hungary, 475; Sweden, 5,204; Norway, 6,031; Denmark, 1,624; Netherlands, 709; Belgium, 454; Switzerland, 1,572; France, 6,723; Italy, 2,980; Malta, 2; Greece, 24; Spain, 597; Portugal, 816; Gibraltar, 16; Russia, 6,787; Poland, 854; Finland, 22; Turkey, 59; Arabia, 13; India, 22; Burmah, 9; China, 16,879; Asiatic Russia, 83; Japan, 6; Asia, not specified, 14; Egypt, 3; Liberia, 14; Algeria, 9; Africa, not specified, 17; Quebec, 15,545; Nova Scotia, 3,200; New Brunswick, 1,494; Prince Edward Island, 437; Newfoundland, 58; British Columbia, 484; Mexico, 532; Central America, 14; U. S. of Colombia, 20; Venezuela, 37; Guiana, 3; Brazil, 28; Argentine Republic, 6; Chili, 20; Peru, 11; South America, 10; Cuba, 880; Porto Rico, 17; Jamaica, 23; Bahamas, 559; Barbados, 32; other West India Islands, 43; Curaçoa, 14; Azores, etc., 960; Bermudas, 29; Iceland, 30; Mauritius, 3; Sandwich Islands, 20; Australasia, 1,261; East Indies, 16; and born at sea, 23.

During the month ended April 30, 1877, there arrived at the port of New York 7,353 immigrants, of whom 4,553 were males and 2,800 females.

The countries or islands of last permanent residence or citizenship of the immigrants were as follows:

England, 1,500; Scotland, 191; Wales, 46; Ireland, 1,364; Germany, 2,184; Austria, 286; Sweden, 415; Norway, 67; Denmark, 171; France, 241; Switzerland, 183; Spain, 58; Italy, 350; Holland, 60; Belgium, 26; Russia, 35; Poland, 34; Hungary, 37; Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, 25; Cuba, 19; Sicily, 18; India, 14; Mexico, 8; U. S. of Colombia, 4; Venezuela, Bermuda, and born at sea, 3 each; Greece, China, and Peru, 2 each; Turkey and Iceland, 1 each.

[116]. Song of Solomon viii. 8, 9.

[117]. The Unknown Eros, and Other Odes. London: George Bell & Sons. 1877.

[118]. “The Angel in the House,” The Espousals, p. 61.

[119]. The Espousals, p. 73.

[120]. The Unknown Eros, pp. 63-65.

[121].

“Even as the ilex, lopped by axes rude

Where, rich with dusky boughs, soars Algidus,

Through loss, through wounds receives

New gain, new life—yea, from the very steel.”

—Horat. Carm. iv. 4, Lord Lytton’s Trans.

[122].

“Constant I praise her, but resign

With equal mind her gifts.

When, swift deserting me and mine,

Her ready wing she lifts,

And, wrapped up in my virtue, wait

Fair Poverty’s undower’d estate.”

—Horat. Carm. iii. 29.

The original of the line italicized Pitt modestly omitted.

[123].

“Conscious of no wrong done, no crime to pale at remembered.”

—Horat. Ep. 1. i.

[124].

“Rise from our ashes thou unknown, the predestined avenger.”

[125].

“Was there no dead man’s place for you on that Sigeian plain?

Had ye no might to wend as slaves? Gave Troy so poor a flame

To burn her men...?”

—Æneid, vii. 294 seq., Morris’ Trans. p. 175.

[126]. “And Rome reads Ennius while Virgil lives!”

[127]. See Warton, Hist. E. P. sec. 1.

[128].

“My piece you’ve been spouting! I ne’er should have known:

Next time, if you love me, do say it’s your own.”

—Mart. Epigr. i. 39.

[129]. Carm. i. 12.

[130].

“Nor word for word translate with painful care.”

—Horat. De Arte Poet., Francis’ Trans.

[131]. Horat. Carm. i. 9. One of the best versions of this ode is that of Allan Ramsay, in the Scotch dialect.

[132]. Gave is the general name of these mountain streams.

[133]. V. Le Rédempteur et la Vie Future, dans les Civilisations Primitives. Par M. l’Abbé Ancessi. Paris: Leroux.

[134]. The Catholic World, Nov., 1876, p. 213.

[135]. Job viii. 2. Take, for instance, the description of the papyrus (Job viii. 11); the allusion to the rush-boats which are used on the Nile (ch. ix. 26), and to the hippopotamus, under the name of Behemoth, the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian pihémout, or river-horse, and which is described as “sleeping in the shadow of the lotus, in the covert of the reeds, and in the marshes;... compassed about by the willows of the brook” (Job xl. 16). Again, in ch. xxviii. 1-11, there may be an allusion to the mines worked by the Egyptians on Mt. Sinai, where also are numerous inscriptions left by that people on the rocks.

[136]. Job iii. 13-15. In the papyri of Neb-Qed in the Louvre, in a gallery parallel to the great hall where the sarcophagus is placed, we see a coffer, a mirror, a collyrium-case, a pair of sandals, a cane, a vase for unguent, another for ablutions, a third for perfumes. The kings and queens took with them into the tomb also their jewels and richest garments, so sure were they of their resurrection. The ordinary dwellings of the Egyptians were small, built of wood or unbaked bricks, but their tombs, the “Eternal Abodes,” were of granite. Not a house, not a palace of ancient Egypt is now standing, but their tombs and sepulchral pyramids will probably last as long as our planet. The Hebrews, after the example of the Egyptians, appear to have had treasure buried with them. Josephus relates that Herod, being in want of money, made a nocturnal descent into the tomb of King David. He found there no money, but “aurea ornamenta multumque supellectilis prætiosæ, quæ omnia abstulit.”—Ant. Jud. lib. xiv. cap. vii. p. 724, Ed. Oxford.

[137]. The faithful in the middle ages were frequently interred with their profession of faith, the Credo and Confiteor, or sometimes also the very text from the Book of Job which we are about to consider.

[138]. Bunsen, Egypt’s Place in Universal History, vol. v. p. 110.

[139]. Catalogues des MSS. Egyptiens, p. 51.

[140]. Notice des Princip. Monum. Par M. Mariette.

[141]. As this formula recalls the Lux perpetua liceat eis of the Catholic, so also we find on the tombs of Egypt the Requiescat in pace.

[142]. An historical fact which exercised considerable influence on the religion of Egypt, and which helps to explain the multiplicity of the names given to the Deity, was that the whole of Egypt which Menes united under his sceptre was divided into nomes, each having its capital city; and each of these regions had its principal god, designated by a special name, but under these different names the same doctrine always remains of a divine unity. Thus by the side of the political there was also a kind of divine feudality. Tum reigned at Heliopolis, Osiris at Theni and later at Abydos, Ammon was over Thebes, and over Memphis Phtah. Each of these gods, identical in substance with the gods of the other nomes, easily allowed this fundamental identity. Ammon of Thebes gave hospitality in his temple to Min or Khem of Coptos, to Tum of Heliopolis, and to Phtah of Memphis, who on their part received Ammon with equal readiness into their own sanctuaries.

[143]. “The habit of reuniting in one worship the different forms of the Divinity continually led to their fusion into one personality. Sevek, of Fayom, associated with Ra, became Sevek-Ra; Phtah was fused with Sokari under the name of Phtah-Sokari, and Osiris, being afterwards joined to these, made Phtah-Sokar-Osiris. All the divine types were reciprocally interpenetrated and absorbed into the supreme deity. The names and forms of God were indefinitely multiplied, but God, never.”—G. Maspero, Hist. Anc., ch. i. p. 29.

[144]. See papyri in the museum of Boulag.

[145]. Conf. Job xxxviii. 39-41.

[146]. At Heliopolis the divinity appears under three forms: Atoum, the Inaccessible God; Choper, the Creator (the scarabæus God); and Ra, the Manifestation of God—the visible sun. It was not until later that we find a feminine divinity.

[147]. We seem to have here a vague idea of the Holy Spirit, with his Seven Gifts, which are resplendent in the world of nature as well as in the world of grace.

[148]. “And the spirit of God moved over the waters” (Gen. i. 2). “And God saw the light that it was good” (Gen. i. 4).

[149]. Hymn to Ammon-Ra.

[150]. This fact, which appeared inexplicable temerity on the part of Tertullian, is justified by what has of late years been discovered from original documents, which correct the classical misrepresentations of Egyptian theology.

[151]. It is of these innumerable names that the Egyptians formed their long litanies, which are, as it were, the type of those of the Catholic Church. M. Ancessi mentions having heard at Cairo some wandering musicians chanting under his window an old legend in the simple rhythm in which the melodic phrase, incessantly repeated, has a close resemblance to the Catholic litanies.

The following is a comparatively small portion of the papyrus of Neb-Qed, where the departed, arrived in the hall of Supreme Justice, enumerates the faults which he has avoided, proclaiming, at the same time, some of the titles of Osiris:

“O thou who marchest, [who art] come forth from An! I am without fault.

“O consumer of shadows! come forth from the double retreat; I have not slain any man.

“O purity of the face! come forth from Rastou; I have committed no fraud on the measures of corn.

“O Two Lions! come forth from heaven; I have committed no fraud in the dwelling of justice.

“O Flame! come forth in turning backwards; I have told no lie.

“O Rampart! come forth from the mysterious abode; I have done nothing worthy of condemnation.

“O thou that vivifiest the flame! come forth from Hat-Phtah; my heart has had no evil intentions.

“O thou that turnest back the head (etc)!... I have been no detractor.

“O mystery of the leg! come forth from the night; I have not given way to anger.

“O light of the senses! come forth from the mysterious region; I have had no intercourse with a married woman.

“O blood! come forth from the chamber of the lotus; I have not been depraved.

“O thou who perpetually renewest that which is! issued from Khem; I have not been violent....

“O thou who hidest words!... I have not been prodigal of words.

“O Nofre-Toum in Ha-Phtah-Ka. I have not committed abomination.

“O thou who art unchanging! issued from Dadou; I have done no outrage against the gods.

“O thou who sendest forth the heavenly river! come forth out of Saïs; I have not made the slave to be maltreated by his master.

“O thou who vivifiest intelligent beings! I have not defrauded the loaves in the temple.

“O beautiful Neb-Ka! I have not profaned the meat of the gods.... I have not taken off the wrappings of the mummies.... I have not taken away milk from the mouth of the infant.

“O thou whose eyes are like a sword! I have committed no fraud in the abode of justice.”

Each title given to Osiris alludes to some mystery or teaching in the Egyptian theology.

[152]. Music amongst the ancients was, far more than it is with us, an agreeable pastime. Socrates declares that philosophy is nothing but a sublime music: ὡς φιλοσοφίας μεν οὔσης μεγίστης μουσικῆς. In the third book of his Republic Plato goes much further, and affirms that the musician alone is truly a philosopher: ὄτι μόνος μουσικός ὁ φιλόσοφος. The chanted poems and traditions were for ages the depositaries of the laws, ritual and history of a nation.

[153]. It has hitherto been difficult to discover the circumstances of the death of Osiris, or the primitive tradition of his sufferings, about which several legends have successively prevailed. The one given by Plutarch cannot be of great antiquity. In the Isle of Philæ, which, if we may so express it, had a special devotion to Osiris, the history of his life is given in a series of bas-reliefs in a small sanctuary on the west of the great temple, his death and resurrection forming the principal subjects.

There is a splendid passage relating to this god in Plutarch, ch. lxxix., Treatise on Osiris and Isis.

[154]. Most nations of antiquity have known the traditional mystery of a god suffering, dying, and rising again. The worship of Adonis, long prevalent among the Syrian races, penetrated, under the name of Thammuz, even into the sanctuary of Israel (Ezek. viii. 14). Macrobius speaks of it also among the Assyrians, and of the lamentations of Proserpine; and the same belief is to be found in the long poems of India. It is also probable that the Moabite worship of Beelphegor was analogous to that of Osiris, Adonis, and Thammuz (see Numb. xxv. 2). Women are here, as in Egypt, at Byblos, and Athens, especially charged with his worship.

[155]. In the papyrus Neb-Qed we find as follows: “Words, on entering the Hall of Double Justice to see the face of the gods, spoken by the Osiris Neb-Qed. He said: Hail to thee, great God, Lord of justice! I come into thy presence to behold thy beauties ... on the day of the giving account of words before the Good Being. I place myself in your presence, my lords; I bring you the truth.”

[156]. Cf. Job xxix. 12-17, and xxxi. 16-22.

[157]. M. Deveria has given a summary of this book, in his Notice des Manuscrits du Musée du Louvre.

[158]. It is also a panther that Dante encounters at the entrance of the forest which is the commencement of the mysterious realm of Death. The Egyptian texts mention also the lion, of which the Catholic liturgy retains the remembrance in the Offertory for the Mass for the Dead: Domine Jesu Christe, libera animas defunctorum ... de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas Tartarus.

[159]. Each hour of this night has a name, according to the mystery accomplished in it. The eighth hour is characterized by the defeat of the great serpent, cast into the abyss. One of his names is Apep—he who lifts the head, the proud one, represented by a serpent pierced with arrows.

[160]. “In that day, fear ye before the sword; the vengeance of the sword is burning; that ye may know that there is a judgment” (Job xix. 29).

[161]. Cat. of Egypt. MSS., Book of the Lower Hemisphere, p. 15.

[162]. Osiris surrounded his children with so much solicitude that he is represented as even sending his attendants to visit their sepulchres. We find, for instance, the following in papyrus 3283 of the Louvre: “Said by Osiris to the gods of his suite: Go, then, and see this dwelling of the departed, that it may be thus constructed; hasten it for the moment of his heavenly birth with you; respect him; salute him, for he is honorable.” It is curious to find so early the dies natalis of our martyrologies.

[163]. “How often would the Catholic faith have hopelessly foundered amidst the innovations which the heretics and sectaries of all times have attempted to foist upon her, had not an infallible authority watched over her and secured her integrity! I know nothing more convincing as to the necessity of this doctrinal magistracy than the incessant variation of the religions of antiquity. From a distance, and at first sight, they seem to have changed the least; whereas, on the contrary, their history has been nothing but a gradual and perpetual change, the laws of which it may not be impossible some time to discover.”—Le Rédempteur et la Vie Future.

[164]. Chap. xii.

[165]. V. Alcuin in Vita Willibrordi ap. Mabillon. Acta Sanctorum, Ord. S. Benedicti, t. iii. p. 567, Venetian edition.

[166]. Wilwerwiltz is a contraction of Willibrordswiltz. As to Kleemskerk (Clement’s Church), we know that in Rome Willibrord received the name of Clement, as did Winfrid that of Boniface, under which he is venerated.

[167]. This, at least, is the plausible conjecture of a scholar of the first rank—F. Alexander Wiltheim—in his fine book, Luxemburgum Romanum.

[168]. Ibi usque hodie divinâ operante misericordia signa et sanitates ad sancti viri et sacerdotis reliquias fieri non cessant.—Alcuin O.C., iii. p. 571.

[169]. Id. in Mabillon, iii. p. 575.

[170]. Id. ib. iii. p. 572.

[171]. Theofridus vita S. Willibrordi, c. 24 (sæc. xii.) This life of St. Willibrord is still unpublished; only a few fragments having appeared in Mon. Germ. Hist., t. xxiii. Script. The fact I mention is taken from M. Krier’s pamphlet, Die Springprocession, p. 33, from the MS. life.

[172]. M. G. xxiii. Script., Catalogus abbatum Epternacensium primus.

[173]. On the basilica of Echternach read a good notice by Prof. Namur inserted in t. xxii. of Annals of the Archæological Academy of Belgium; and another by M. Bock, in Rheinlands Baudenkmale des Mittelalters.

[174]. According to the Echternachter Anzeiger of June 5, the number of dancers was 10,600; of other pilgrims 1,800. This does not include 188 musicians, 72 priests, 1,100 chanters, and various corporations. There were, moreover, 14,000 or 15,000 spectators, making a total of about 30,000 people. Comparing these numbers with those of former years, we shall see that the ancient ceremony increases in importance and éclat. This conclusion is correct, as M. Krier’s statistics show, Die Springprocession, p. 148. Since the beginning of this century the number of dancers had not before reached 10,000.

[175]. I have given the two current opinions on the origin of the dancing procession. I share neither, and hope my different explanation clear by weight of proof.

[176]. Krier, Dancing Procession, p. 55. This author wrote his work first briefly in French, then in German with more details. The latter is a serious and interesting work as regards the ceremony. It is also an edifying appeal from a Christian priest to his brethren.

[177]. See The Catholic World for April.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.

Typographical errors were silently corrected.

Spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant form was found in this book; otherwise it was not changed.