Providence.
When I remember all my days,
And note what blessings each displays,
What words can speak my grateful praise?
What varied beauty thrills my sight!
What sounds my listening soul delight!
What joys of touch and appetite!
And, more than any joy of sense,
The happiness serene, intense,
That comes to me, I know not whence,
Unless it be that He is near,
And speaks some words I cannot hear,
But which unto my soul are clear.
For there are times—ah! who can tell
The gladness inexpressible
With which my soul doth overswell!
Ev'n sorrows that once seemed to press
My soul to brinks of wretchedness,
I know were but his means to bless.
Out of the deeps of pain and fear,
He led me to a higher sphere,
Where all his purpose is made clear.
Had not such sorrow struck my ways,
I had lived out my earthly days,
Barren of either prayer or praise.
Wherefore each day, when I recall
The blessings which his hands let fall,
For this I thank him most of all;
And would not, if I could, forego
The sorrow which he made me know,
For unto it so much I owe.
This happy life, this lovely earth,
These joys which every day brings forth,
Are now to me of tenfold worth.
Such wondrous love all things disclose,
Such joy through all my being glows,
That in my soul a longing grows
That I might see this One All-Good,
And tell him all my gratitude,
In words however weak and rude.
But ah! I fear it cannot be
That I this loving God can see,
For he fills out infinity;
And out of him there is no place
Where I can stand to see his face:
Enough, I lie in his embrace,
And sometimes, albeit dimly, feel
That he is near, and doth reveal
Himself in joy unspeakable.
I said, indeed, 'I shall not see
Him face to face;' yet it may be
That joy of joys awaiteth me.
For when this grossness, that doth fence
My being in the bonds of sense,
Falls off when I am taken hence,
New powers of which I do not know
May be revealed in me, and show
The One to whom myself I owe,
And I may see him face to face.
Lord, grant it of thy boundless grace,
The crown of all my happiness!
From The Etudes Religieuses,
Historiques Et Litteraires,
Par Des Peres De La Compagnie De Jesus.
The Pre-historical Congress Of Paris.
An "International Congress of Anthropology and Pre-historical Archaeology" assembled in the amphitheatre of the Ecole de Médecine, at Paris, on the 17th of last August, and held sessions until the 30th. The meaning of the terms anthropology and archaeology is familiar; but the word pre-historical, being of recent origin, requires an explanation. It is used to designate either material objects, or events and epochs, or even men, anterior not only to written history, but also to all oral tradition and to every monument having a certain date and an origin historically determined.
In the lowest strata of the earth which we tread, in caverns unknown for centuries, under the tumuli or heaps of shells and fossils; in the bottom of lakes where formerly dwellings and villages were built on piles; and in cromlechs and raths, are found, with the bones of animals now extinct, arms, instruments, and utensils of stone, evidently fashioned by the hand of man. In the next stratum above, the same stone objects are found; but this time the stone is polished and accompanied with bones of a different character—most frequently the bones and horns of the reindeer. Human remains, skulls, jaw-bones, and teeth, begin to appear in greater quantity. But in these two first layers of the earth no metal is discovered. It is only in the third stratum that brass, then iron, often all the other metals, are met. These singular fossils, and the invariable order of their existence, in France as well as in other countries, are the facts of which the present essay treats.
The epoch in which iron begins to appear in the layers of the earth is one the date of which is known to us either by the relations of historians, or by traditional recollections, or by inscriptions and medals found in the soil. These strata, therefore, and their antiquities, belong to the historical epoch. But the lower strata, of more ancient formation, all the fossils found in them, curious specimens of primitive industry, monuments of the social state and manners of the first men; human remains also which bear testimony to man's physical conformation; all these, anterior to history, belong to pre-historical archaeology and anthropology. These sciences are very young in years and manners, but very old by their object and the age to which they carry back our thoughts.