year: one was, as I was told, a "convert." In general they were kept entirely apart from the novices; but this gentleman was permitted to take his meals in the Refectory, and thus was doubtless edified by the pious demeanour of the novices. I think, however, that the public penances were suspended during that week: but I cannot speak with certainty as to this fact. Of course their retreat consisted in meditation, confession, and communion. A strange occurrence connected with these strangers' retreats once" frightened us out of our proprieties.” One morning, during the most solemn part of the mass, the Superior's door was thrust open, and we heard some one crying out in the tones of a madman, "Father! Father! Oh, Father!”

We were terrified, of course: but the laybrother went into the Superior's room whence the noise proceeded, closing the door after him, and we endeavoured to "recollect ourselves" for the "awful sacrifice" that was thus interrupted. As we were forbidden to speak of such unpleasant, unedifying occurrences, I never heard any explanation of this most unaccountable manifestation. Still I was reminded of it on one occasion, when a novice told me the following anecdote. He said that when inquiries were instituted to discover the "pretended" diabolical influences of the Jesuits, one man, in evidence, was asked what he saw in his "retreat" among the "holy fathers." His reply was: "I saw a huge beast, a hideous monster!" Highly gratified with the prospect of finding irrefragable evidence as

to the supposed malpractices, the inquisitor winked to his assistants, chuckled, and mended his pen to take down the desired evidence with extraordinary

care.

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Well, my man, let us hear exactly what beast, what monster you saw."

The man replied:

"I saw myself!"

A decidedly pretty story; which shows that EPICTETUS was quite right, when he said that " every pitcher has two handles:" in other words, that the Jesuits have always had, as they have, friends as well as enemies; only, unfortunately for them, one handle was wrenched off altogether when the pitcher got full-a casualty that may chance again.

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CHAPTER XV.

MORTIFICATIONS.-REPRIMANDS.-BRIEFS.-THE

CHAPTER. MANIFESTATION.

If the reader is accustomed to contemplate, to study the growth and development of plants, he has an inexhaustible source of pleasure and instruction. Last summer I remarked a beautiful sprout of honeysuckle rapidly intertwining the trellis of my verandah: it was then a brilliant purple, soft and succulent; today I observed it again it has become tough, yellowish wood, as hard as a brick. What time and growth effect in the plant, time and training produce in the Jesuit. There are all manner of plants in the Society, and the skilful gardeners that have this interesting conservatory in charge know by what soil, manure, and temperature to guarantee the production of the desired bloom and fruit. Chesterfield tells us that the Superior of the Roman College, after having exultingly alluded to his philosophers, mathematicians, orators, &c., exclaimed, "Ed abbiamo anche

martiri per il martirio se bisogna-and we have men for martyrdom if they be required!"* This is very fine, it is the very moral of my exposition: the Jesuits have men adapted for every enterprise. The boast of the Roman Superior, if it does not reduce the whole argument to the capacity of a nutshell, certainly gives us the kernel thereof without the trouble of cracking.

To produce men who shall be fit for every situation, so that they shall come off without "being cut themselves," as the good father observed to me, they must be used to bear without shrinking, as the Spartan youths bore the lash, that severe ordeal of our nature, the rebuke, the reproaches of friends and enemies. Many a public character would deserve well of the present generation, and of posterity, were it not for this pusillanimity, this coward-vanity. Not that I believe the Jesuits become insensible to such pangs: I believe nothing of the sort. They retain they have "temper;" but they learn to curb it: to cover it with smiles: hence they are true men of the world." LAINEZ certainly belaboured BEZA and

Letters to his Son, L. 236. In letter 176, alluding to these chevaliers d'industrie, he says:-"Among your graver company, I recommend (as I have done before) the Jesuits to you; whose learning and address will both please and improve you. Inform yourself, as much as you can, of the history, policy, and practice of that Society, from the time of its founder, Ignatius of Loyola, who was himself a madman. If you would know their morality, you will find it fully and admirably stated, in Les Lettres d'un Provincial, by the famous Monsieur Pascal, and it is a book very well worth your reading."

his fellow-reformers with splendid abuse; and the Provincial and London agent were rather severe with me when I left; but then "circumstances alter cases:" there was no necessity for "dumb-show" on these occasions. I allude to these facts without the slightest acrimony: seven years have been quite sufficient to make me "forget and forgive:" besides I think "'t was all quite natural."

And this particular training, how is it applied?

First, as to the external man. Our habiliments, during manual works, were sublimely ridiculous: I was often reminded, when working in company with another "brother," of certain crustaceous animals in the West Indies, which I have seen lugging a shell five times too large, into which they had insinuated their tiny bodies, doubtless without a thought of the previous in-dweller. Coats vastly too large; trousers decidedly too wide or too narrow, too short or too long; waistcoats in the same predicament, all patched, greased, threadbare; and the greenish trousers that I had on when I went to the Novitiate, I brought away with an extensive cataplasm of sober quakerbrown.

This appears ridiculous enough: still the thing tried us-it tried me, this beggar's garb; but soon I got used to it, and the object was gained. This was the only thing, among the Jesuits, that ever virtually reminded me of the vow of voluntary poverty. So much for the mortification of the outer, or rather the external, man; for there were three gradations: the