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erudition of its professors, and in a short time he distinguished himself in the various sciences, sacred and profane. Poetry also was a favorite study, and he became, perhaps, too passionately devoted to les belles-lettres; yet even in the eager pursuit of learning he lost none of his early piety, it remained as fervent as in the days of his childhood, exalted and deepened by the dawn of maturity.

Bernard returned home just at this critical age, but there a bitter trial awaited him. Six months had barely passed when his mother, his idolized mother, was borne to the grave. Her death was the cause of keen sorrow to all her dear ones, but to Bernard the blow was heavier than he could bear without flinching. She had been to him mother, sister, friend, companion, all in one, and now that she was taken the sweetness of life was gone, no human consolation could reach the depths of that grief, and even religion seemed cold and silent in the hour of desolation. All the fervor which but a short time ago had animated his devotion vanished, and nothing remained save a sense of duty and unutterable weariness. Earth and even heaven itself had grown dark for him; yet his faith stood firm, shining like a star through the darkness, reminding him

How sublime a thing it is
To suffer, and be strong.

To distract his thoughts it was deemed well that he should adopt some new way of life and sphere of activity. Now came the eventful moment. Would he try to grasp and realize the dream of happiness in this world, or resign it here and secure its substance in eternity? Natural inclination pleaded for the former; the secret whispers of his conscience for the latter. Young, handsome, clever, and the son of a brave and chivalrous knight, how brilliant a career was open to him—yet that importuning whisper!

Thus assailed by contrary forces, he remained for some time undecid

ed, when one day, as he rode along unaccompanied, and in deep thought, the world and its vicissitudes appeared to pass before his sight as a mere show, and spirit voices filled the air repeating, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." These words penetrated Bernard's heart with a new force, and seeing a church close by he alighted from his horse and went in and prostrated himself before the altar. Then a deep peace fell upon his weary soul; the old fervor of his love returned, and he vowed to consecrate himself to God forever. Comforted and at peace with himself, he returned home and announced his resolution to bid adieu to the world. Shortly afterwards he went to Chatillon to prepare for the great change in his life. There his words and example produced such an effect that numbers of the students determined to follow him wherever he went, and among these there were four of his brothers. All that had then to be done was to fix on an order, and Bernard's favorite maxim being Si incipis, perfecte incipe, "If thou beginnest, begin well," he chose the most austere-that of Citeaux, and his companions readily concurred in his choice. They settled their worldly affairs like men preparing for death, and Bernard and his brothers went to Fontaines to take leave of their father.

Having obtained the old man's blessing, they left him and rejoined their companions, with whom they set out for Citeaux, where we have already heard of their arrival at the gates of the monastery.

From the time of his entrance into religion Bernard's constant endeavor was to realize in himself his favorite maxim, Si incipis, perfecte incipe, and so prepare himself by practice for all that he was afterwards to teach. His observance of rule was unvarying, exact, and united with a simple joyfulness in the performance of the most humiliating and painful exercises of

St. Benedict's discipline, and the aged Saint who governed this nursery of laborers for Christ, watched with mingled admiration and surprise, the daily increase of his young novice's virtue.

At length the ardently longed for day of profession arrived, in the month of April, 1114. Bernard and his companions pronounced their final vows with deep emotion. They tasted the joy of attaining to the highest summit of one's desires, of the repose which can only come where the heart's void is filled.

Bernard's example drew so many novices to Citeaux that the monastery could hardly contain them, and St. Stephen was obliged to seek a place for a new foundation. In the province of Langres there was a marshy desert where it was suggested the religious of Citeaux could easily obtain permission to establish themselves. St. Stephen knew no one in that diocese who would help to maintain the new foundation, nevertheless he resolved to begin it and trust to God for its success. Accordingly he chose a certain number of monks, with St. Bernard as their leader, and desired them to go forth in God's

name.

.

Bernard was only five and twenty, and his appointment as superior in so difficult an undertaking was looked upon by all with astonishment.

After the touching ceremony which invested him with the rank of abbot, Bernard left the church, and carrying his crosier, and followed by a little band of twelve monks, set out on a long and weary journey. They were obliged to cross tracts of uncultivated country and dense forests before they reached the swampy valley of Absinthea, and there, in spite of innumerable difficulties, founded the new monastery, and changed its name of Absinthea to Clair-Vallée (Clairvaux).

Years passed and St. Bernard became the most eminent man of his time. He was consulted by kings and princes, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the strong and the weak—all sought this man of God. He was the adviser of the one, the consoler of the other, the revered of all. He was ever ministering to others, though constantly suffering himself from severe and prolonged attacks of illness, thus his whole life became one of uninterrupted devotedness and activity in the great cause of good.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE Dublin University Magazine is orange-colored, both in external covering and symbolically also, as its articles on the Church abundantly testify. The "Silent Sister," as Trinity College is called, does not keep her tongue when she has any opportunity of berating the Church. Then she is a veritable shrew. A leading article in the February number, entitled "The Hands that hold the Keys of Peter," is a coarse and vulgar critique upon the life and character of Pope Pius IX, of blessed memory. The article, of course, was written previously to the death of the Sovereign Pontiff. It charges him with the misfortunes of the Church, with infidelity and apostasy, and continues in a strain of weak and malicious invective. What the University means by misfortunes must be interpreted according to the Protestant idea, which seems to

regard temporal loss as far more to be regretted than spiritual bankruptcy. A favorite Protestant argument for the Reformation is a comparison between the great earthly prosperity of Protestant countries and the poverty of Catholic ones. Macaulay said, you can tell the difference between the two religions in passing from a Protestant county in Ireland to a Catholic county, and from a Protestant Swiss canton to a Catholic one. Money is not one of the marks of the true Church, so far as our theological studies inform us. Spiritual growth in holiness is not parallel with the growth of manufactories, nor does purity of heart depend upon the excellence of underground drainage. There is no point in the argument. Catholicity is not an element of political economy; yet, even on their own grounds, we can challenge Protestants to a

comparison. They make the fallacy of mistaking effects for causes, and vice versa. What has Protestantism to do with the prosperity of England, as compared with Catholicity and the prosperity of France? It may be said that religion has very little, if anything, to do with either. The stock market and the chapel, whether Protestant or Catholic, are not on the best of terms. Christianity came to teach men not how to save money, but how to save their souls. There is no parity between the Church and sects. The Church civilized mankind ages before Luther. She had all the heavy work to do. She was the pioneer of civilization. Protestantism coolly appropriated the results of her labors, even to the meanness of stealing her cathedrals and churches, robbing her religious orders, and, most cruel of losses, spiriting away her children.

But to return to the University Magazine. The Church unfortunate under Pius IX! Hear it, ye heavens, and give ear, O earth! Why, she never enjoyed such glory. His was the grandest Pontificate since the days of St. Peter. Never did the unity, apostolicity, holiness, and catholicity of the Church-her four glorious suns--make such brilliant showing in the world before. The heavens and the earth were filled with her glory. Obscured by the clouds of the French Revolution, she was led out radiant as a bride by the hand of Pius IX. Unfortunate, forsooth! He canonized more saints, preconized more bishops, held the greatest of councils, and paid the most glorious of honors to the Blessed Virgin, that history records. We only hope that the Church will continue to be overwhelmed by such misfortunes as marked the reign of the great and blessed Pontiff who has passed

away.

A WRITER in one of our popular monthlies has a sensible article upon "What our Boys Read," and he calls attention to the dangerous quality of the boys and girls' weeklies that flood the country. This sort of literature is shown to be mawkish in sentiment, extravagant in statement, and fatal to morality. The idea of boys and girls being introduced to a class of ideas and sentiments that children of a large growth cannot entertain without danger to their souls, is clearly brought out. Our juvenile reading was confined to such books of healthy adventure and interest as Robinson Crusoe, the Swiss Family Robinson, and the stories of Mayne Reid. Now, we understand, instead of the glorious prairie and the desert island, boys revel in luxurious apartments, and are frantically enamored of fair Dulcineas, shoot their rivals, run off with the damsel, and at the precocious age of thirteen speak solemnly of

passing their declining years with love in a cottage. The idiots that write these tales should be summarily strait-jacketed, and some move should be made on the part of parents and heads of families, and of educational institutions, to prevent the issue and sale of the more notorious and deleterious of these papers. If Swift is right when he tells us that no man has ripe sense until he is forty, and if not then, he is hopelessly a fool, what sense have children just emerging from the nursery? What a miserable impression is left upon their receptive minds by the perusal of these infamous papers! The less children know about certain subjects the better, and as childhood and youth vanish, alas, too suddenly, a wrong is done them by acquainting them at an earlier age with the trials, crimes, and "general cussedness that will soon enough assail them in maturer life.

THE two recent appointments to vacant sees in the United States are of such importance that we could not omit making mention of them here, notwithstanding the fact that their lives have been so circumstantially detailed in the more ephemeral daily and weekly press. The Sees of Vincennes and Richmond have been supplied with pastors who, before their elevation, were eminent beyond their peers. Mgr. Chatard, as rector of the American College at Rome, may have become more widely known by his recent tour of the United States in favor of the institution in the government of which he showed the eminent qualities that fit a priest to rule a diocese; whilst Father Keane displayed the same rare talent by his prudent management of the important parish of St. Patrick, Washington, where he has been a faithful shepherd over a faithful flock ever since his ordination. Indeed, the Catholics of both dioceses have every reason to be grateful in piety for the excellent choice which the Holy See has made in the case of each; and we hope that this mission is only a preparatory step to high honors.

ON the first of April the daily papers announced the death of Cardinal Louis Amat di San Felippo e Sorso. He was bishop of Ostia and Velletri, dean of the Sacred College, archpriest of the patriarchal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Born at Cagliari, Sardinia, on June 21st, 1796, he had almost completed his eighty-second year at the time of his death. Gregory XVI raised him to the cardinalate on May 10th, 1837, intrusted him with the See of Palestinia on March 15th, 1852, and made him vice-chan

cellor of the Roman Church soon after. been laboring among the Flathead and Requiescat in pace.

AT the early age of thirty-seven the Rev. Philip Rappagliosi, S. J., has been called to his reward. For the last five years he had

Blackfeet Indians of the Far West. On Thursday, February 7th, he died in a rude hut in a camp of half-breeds on Milk River, Montana. Father Decorby, O. M. J., attended his last moments and administered the last sacraments to him. May he rest in peace.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE FALL OF RORA. The Search after Proserpine and other Poems, Meditative and Lyrical. By Aubrey de Vere. Henry S. King & Co., London, 1878.

The name of Aubrey de Vere is familiar to the Catholic world as one written high in the temple of poesy. The characteristics of this great poet are his deep religious feeling, his powerful dramatic genius, and his consummate skill in the composition of the sonnet-a form of poetical composition in which few, even eminent poets, are successful. It is observable that Tennyson carefully avoids it.

The mention of the poet laureate's name suggests a comparison between him and De Vere, a comparison which results in giving the palm to the Catholic poet. Both belong to the same school, the Wordsworthian, and both have put forth their powers in the same field. Tennyson's place among the Victorian poets, at no time. secure, has been of late years seriously threatened by the younger generation of poets. His Arthurian Idyls, on which his fame will ultimately rest, have been growing more turgid from year to year, while the chaste and elegant poems of Aubrey de Vere show a marked growth of the poetic talent and metrical skill. All critics are agreed that Tennyson's dramatic attempts have proved most unfortunate to his reputation, whilst De Vere's Alexander and Thomas à Becket

abound in dramatic beauties and tours de force.

In this collection of his poems we have seventy-five exquisite sonnets on a vast diversity of subjects and themes, all treated with an eye to the enforcement of some deep moral truth or Catholic sentiment. The following on the saints as painted by Perugino, is very beautiful :

"Glory to God, of all fair things the maker,
For that he dwelleth in the mind of man!
Glory to man, of that large grace partaker
For that he storeth thus his spirit's span
With shapes our earth creates not, neither can,
Till like a flood, her vanished youth o'ertake her,
And Heaven's New Song' to loftier labors wake
her,

High artist then, as now poor artisan.

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POEMS. By "Eva," of The Nation. San Francisco. P. I. Thomas, 1877.

The poems contained in this volume were originally contributed to the Dublin Nation, and relate to the heroic but ill-fated struggle of 1848, for the vindication of Ireland's

right to all the liberties and prerogatives of a free country. The poems vary in character, tone, and sentiment, but in the main they are the expression of the writer's intense sympathy with the national movement for freedom, and their natural and fervid tone indicates the depths of her hope and grief as called forth by the varying fortunes of her country's cause. There are also several very well-executed translations of some of Beranger's songs, though no subsequent writer can hope to equal Father Prout's or Thackeray's success in this sphere. There is a monotonous lilt in many of the songs and poems, and a rigidity of metre that indicates a certain inexperience in the writer; but there are many poems which have an ease, vigor, and melody that show no uncommon poetic talent. This, on Our Older Tongue, is truly melodious:

"From dim tradition's far-off opal fountains,
Where clouds and shadows loom,

Deep in the silence of the tall, gray mountains'
Primeval gloom,

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WITH this number the further publication of the CATHOLIC RECORD will cease. We have been brought to this conclusion reluctantly, not by want of sufficient support and encouragement to continue the RECORD, but by the conviction that it seriously interferes with our other publications, the Catholic Standard and the American Catholic Quarterly Review. It divided with those publications the time, attention, and energy which we feel it is necessary to give them, and which we desire to concentrate upon them.

These considerations have been in our mind for some time, but we were loath to yield to them. We are naturally attached to the RECORD, grateful for the generous patronage that has been accorded to it, and impressed with the conviction that it was an efficient instrumentality for good in supplying, along with other Catholic monthlies, a species of literature greatly needed in this country.

But looking at our relation to the other two publications already mentioned, each extending from different sides over the field occupied by the RECORD, we have been forced to the conclusion that it would be better for the cause of Catholic literature in the United States, and the general interests we have at heart, if the time, attention, and labor required to maintain the RECORD in the position which, with the co-operation of many warm and earnest friends and supporters, we have succeeded in gaining for it, were concentrated upon our two other publications.

The Catholic Standard, as we have already intimated, covers the greater portion of the ground occupied by the RECORD, and what it does not is effectually covered by the American Catholic Quarterly Review. In discontinuing the RECORD, and concentrating our time and energies upon the Review, we do not, therefore, feel that we are abandoning to neglect any portion of the field we have heretofore endeavored to occupy; but rather that we are preparing the way for deeper and more thorough culture.

In conclusion, we thank gratefully and most sincerely the patrons and readers of the RECORD for the kind and warm affterest they have ever manifested in our efforts to supply them in its pages with healthful and salutary Catholic literature, and for the generous support they have ever accorded us. We indulge the hope, too, that though the bond between us and them, which the RECORD formed, will no longer exist, yet that it will continue still, and be strengthened and drawn closer through the columns of the Catholic Standard and the pages of the American Catholic Quarterly Review.

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