standard value, much of the Jesuit-discipline to be detailed in the sequel:

At the agent's request I wrote for testimonials to St. Cuthbert's college, stating to the president my intention of joining the society. I forgot to give my address in the letter; and not having received the reply on the expected day, I went to the agent to tell him of my disappointment. On being admitted, he pointed to a letter on the mantelpiece; I opened it and found that it was the president's letter. I read it off to the Jesuit: it began with stating why it was sent to the agent's well-known address, viz., on account of my omission; and proceeded to testify that, in the absence of any moral fault, I had given indications of considerable mental extravagance, impatience to discipline, &c.; and he left it to the agent to decide whether my subsequent trials in the world had sobered my mind to the requisite submission.

Having read the letter aloud, I handed it to my judge, saying, "Will this character' do, sir?"

Certainly," said he; "these are not impediments: means will be given you in the Novitiate to conquer and govern your mind."*

I should, perhaps, inform the reader that I had already presented my testimonials of success in my academical career at college.

I often tried to gain his ideas on his profession; but a very laconic answer, which referred me to the

*This opinion was perfectly in accordance with the declar. b. Part i. cap. 3. Const. Sed quia accidere posset, aliquem hujusmodi defectum aliis præclaris Dei donis compensari, &c.

"Constitutions," was all that I could ever get from him. I remember, on one occasion, I alluded to the charges made against the Society. "What do they accuse us of?" said he, freezingly. I was rather startled by this apparent ignorance, and, in self-defence, stumbled on the Paraguay affair. "It is all false, sir," said he, "from beginning to end ;" and he began to give me some spiritual advice. This is curious; but the fact is, I believe, that the Jesuits are, for the most part, kept in total ignorance of their own history in general. A discretion is used in this matter, as in the permission to read the Scriptures generally among Roman Catholics; and only "the great and glorious deeds" of Holy Father IGNATIUS (as he is called, par excellence) of Father XAVIER, Father CAMPION, Father PARSONS, &c., are familiar to the uninitiated. I say uninitiated; for the members of the society, like the wheels in a clock, have different stations, more or less removed from the main-spring; and it is only after a long and severe probation that the favoured members are admitted to the grand concerns of this mysterious body.* Even the spiritual books written by accredited Roman Catholic divines are not permitted to be read

* Primum ne libellus iste (Compendium Privilegiorum) uspiam rursus typis sine permissu nostro edatur. Deinde ut exemplaria, quæ singulis Domibus et Collegiis distribui curavimus, ut Superiorum, et Consultorum usui præcipué inserviant: in suis quæque Domibus, et Collegiis semper retineantur, nec inde ad alia loca asportentur. Poterunt tamen cum facultate Provincialis commodato nostris ad ea perlegenda concedi-sic tamen, ut diligenter priùs admoneantur, ne ea circumferantur, neve ostendantur, et multò magis, ne dentur externis. Ordin. Præp. Gen. c. xi,

without extreme caution. I need not state the fact, that no Jesuit is allowed to read a book without the permission of his superiors;* this is an all-important rule of the "Institute."

The Provincial I saw seldom, except at meals, during the few days in question; and but very few words passed, otherwise than professional, when he admitted me into the society. He seemed eminently a man of business, and one who knew the value of a flattering hint; for when, on referring to the Jesuit calendar of remarkable socii, he observed the name of the one for that day—which, as chance would have it, was just the half of my own patronymic†—he wished me joy of the good omen, and shook hands with gratifying emotion. I afterwards met him in the Novitiate, when he spoke very feelingly on the downfall of the society.

But, for the most part, I saw few indications of talent, or even of extensive information, amongst the "Fathers" introduced to me. To one of them I put the question, "How it happened that, amongst so many clever men of the society, no triumphant answer was put forth to meet the Provincial Letters' of Pascal?" "There was," said he; "but Father Daniel's reply was heavy-it lacked the wit of Pascal." I expected this answer, and dropped the subject. The same gentleman was, I remember, very anxious to prepare my mind to submit, as he said, to the Novitiate. One of his remarks I think worth recording. He said "Sir, I am only anxious lest a mind, used to inquiry, should compel you to ask too frequently, † Andrew Metz, a German.

* Reg. viii.

in the practices of the Novitiate, Cui bono?" "But," said I, "the object-the end-how sublime!—to the greater glory of God! Shall I not thus answer the rebellious cui bono of pride?"

I was sincere, and he exulted in my devotion to the sacred cause.

Whilst passing through the library of the "seminary," I observed some works on geology; and upon my asking the "master" if he favoured a science so replete with strange inductions, he replied, "We must keep pace with the age; these are eventful times; we must be armed at all points."

I must confess that, notwithstanding the kindness shown to me on all sides, my enthusiasm-nourished as it had been by the study of the "Constitutions" of the Society, and by preconceived ideas of Jesuit intellectuality and austerity,-suffered considerable diminution during the few days that I spent as "a guest" at the college, previously to my entrance on probation. It was not, perhaps, the fault of the Jesuits to whom I allude, that I found them less intellectual, less austere, than my ideal model; but it is in accordance with the promised scope of this narrative that I should signalise the minutest fact that can throw its reflected light on the system to which those men belong. In my intercourse with them, it was assuredly their object to influence my mind so as to fall in with their views on every subject;-the conduct, the manners of each member, therefore, were to me the criterions of what the "training," which I was to undergo, had left in the Jesuits in question. From the

impressions made on my mind by the "Constitutions," I expected to find extraordinary virtue; from their history, I looked for extraordinary men: in both expectations I was painfully disappointed. Few men could be more indulgent to poor human nature than I always have been, and am at the present time; but I was certainly "scandalised" at hearing, on the Sunday after my arrival, a daily newspaper read, over 66 our wine" after dinner. I was unedified at the irrepressible merriment of one of the fathers, when ridiculing the manner and expression of some absent individual on whom the conversation turned. Had I found these Jesuits as austere as LA-TRAPPISTS, I should have been more at ease, with regard to my "vocation," than I was at finding them, in the matter and manner of their conversation, passable "men of the world." Indications of bodily "mortifications" were certainly invisible: the men alluded to were decidedly well-conditioned, evidencing that the good things and comforts of this world are not always "of none effect" on the bodies of those whose minds are systematically devoted " to the greater glory of God." Whether the phenomena alluded to were equivocalin fact, whether there was a "mental reservation" in what seemed of the world so worldly,—I will not undertake to decide. I state impressions: apparent inconsistencies, which damped the ardour of my enthusiastic devotion.

On the other hand, turning to my own individual tastes and habits, there was much to console methere was much to flatter hope. I was to live among