Pontiff, unless it is imaged before his mind as a very different object from what well-informed Catholics hold it to be. Our conception of a court requires a judge, and we feel no contempt for a ship because she has a captain, or for an army because it has a commander. Looking from the same point of view upon the Church as an organized body, we do not find it strange or unnatural that she should have a head. Although we know that the Pope is a man, and that consequently he may enjoy no personal immunity from the weaknesses that belong to our common humanity, we reverence his authority because we know that our Lord will not allow him to lead us wrong in matters of faith. The venerable character of our High Priest, the personal virtues and merits of many, nay, of most of those who have occupied the Papal Chair, the fact that the line of Papal succession connects us with the Apostles and with Christ, and the firm belief that whoever may rise or fall, he will always stand safe under the protection of his Divine Master, make us feel a reverence and a love for the Pope that Protestants do not take into account, or can scarcely understand.

Add to this that the Papal office is the bond of unity that keeps all parts of the Church together, or is rather the very rock on which she is built, and you will perceive that we can never bring the Church fairly and fully before our minds, never explain at any length all her goodness and greatness, without assigning a paramount position to the authority of Peter and his successors in the Apostolic See. Nor is this all, for this personage so beneficent, so venerable, so exalted in our eyes, is on all occasions the first to be rudely attacked by all who would rob us of our religion, and turn into a reproach what we regard as our dearest birthright, the glorious faith of our fathers.

This is especially true of the attacks of Protestantism, for which we as Catholics have no reason to nourish any extravagantly warın feelings of gratitude or affection. What is the consequence? Why, that every manly principle of honor, every chivalrous sentiment and generous impulse of our nature is enlisted in behalf of our Holy Father, and we are ready to die in his defence.

Our Protestant friends cannot understand how the person of our religious chief should come to be so dear to us, and we in turn cannot make out where they manage to pick up all the horrible ideas that fill their minds, in connection with his authority. They cannot understand why we are so

proud of him, and so full of devotion to his person, and we cannot see why it is that they should so bitterly hate him. Perhaps after all they only think they hate his spiritual office, and what they object to in reality, is the old European sys tem of secular government with which his cause has been identified in their minds.

The opinion has been expressed in this Review before now, that a community of interests between Papal power and absolute monarchy is not a matter of necessity, and that a separation of the interests of Church and state may occur without causing the destruction of either. We shall pursue the subject no further. The history of the last half of the Nineteenth Century is before us like a scroll, a small portion of which only is revealed to our sight. When the balance comes to be unrolled, and the fate of nations made clearly known, we are perfectly sure that the Spiritual Father of the human race will be safe, and we can only pray that God may grant peace and happiness to Italy and to the world. J. W. C.

ART. IV-Vie du R. P. XAVIER DE RAVIGNAN, de la Compagnie de Jésus. Par le P. A. DE PONTLEVOY, de la même Compagnie. Deuxième édition. Paris: Charles Douniol. 1860. 2 tomes. 8vo.

THERE are probably very few of our readers who have not heard of Father Xavier de Ravignan, though equally few of them know much of him beyond his name. Yet he is a man well worth knowing, a man who has had great influence on his age, and produced effects which will not soon pass away. He had the happiness to see during his lifetime an abundant harvest reaped to the Lord from the seeds of good which he had sown during a long and laborious career; and those seeds still remain fruitful, the leaven he introduced into French life is still working, and the memory of his preaching and of his noble example will for years to come add a new lustre to virtue, a new dignity to the practice of piety. Having made his acquaintance through these two volumes of Father de Pontlevoy, we now in turn introduce him to our readers.

Gustave-Xavier de Ravignan was born at Bayonne, the

His

1st of December, 1795, of noble parents. He early showed a seriousness of character and maturity of judgment which distinguished him from other children of his age. progress at school was rapid, and after the first rudiments learned at Bayonne, he was sent with an older brother to continue his studies at Paris. Here he was placed, at the age of eleven years, at the college most à la mode in the Rue de Matignon, near the Champs Elysées. The first year that he was at this college he obtained the prize for application, and he well deserved it; for the author tells us that besides passing through four classes in one year, in which he was often the first, he also studied "English, German, drawing, music, dancing, fencing, swimming, and riding." How strong a hold religion already had on his mind may be seen by the following extract from a letter to his parents, dated June 9th, 1809: "Yesterday, Thursday, June 8th, I made my first communion and received confirmation. The exhortation which the priest made us before the communion caused me to shed many tears, and at the time when I ought to have read the Acts, I could only get through two lines, I was so overcome. Another

them for me."

person said

At the close of his collegiate studies, de Ravignan entered a law school at Paris, to prepare himself for admission to the bar. He had scarcely entered on his peaceful studies before the news of Napoleon's return from Elba reached Paris. Among the many who offered their sword and their life for the defence of royalty, was young de Ravignan, and he was among the very few who were found to appear when their services were needed. During the "Hundred Days" he followed the Duc d'Angoulême, and rose to a lieutenancy in the cavalry. But with the final defeat of Napoleon, despite the brilliant offers of his general, de Ravignan returned to the study of the law. Aided by his own merit and by the favor of others, his rise in his profession was most rapid; there seemed no dignity too high for his ambition to aspire to. In the world of Paris he was well received: noble and dignified in his manners; graceful in his bearing; earnest and frank while lively and entertaining in his conversation; with his motto, Soyons distingués, he everywhere attracted attention, followed by esteem and admiration. Still, at the very moment when the world seemed to smile most brightly on him, he is thinking of leaving it, and writes to his brother: "I am

almost decided to enter the Seminary. This idea has been strongly awakened within me for the last six months. I have reflected on it during this time, but have not, as yet, come to any final determination. My mother is worried by it, and she worries me. You may suppose that once my resolution taken, nothing on earth can stop me. I have looked at the project under all points of view. If God calls me, I shall obey."

His mother's opposition still retained him for some time longer in the world. Promotion followed promotion, undesired by him and unenvied by others; he no longer cared for the gayeties and amusements of Paris, but an idle spectator, he moralized on the folly and thoughtlessness of those who, in the pursuit of life, learning, pleasure, or fortune, forgot death and immortality. The world had ceased to attract him: he felt he was not of it, that he was created for something nobler, and he hastened more readily to the bedside of some dying friend, exhorting, consoling, and preparing him to depart to a better world, than to the salons of the rich and the great, where he was ever gladly welcomed. Life seemed to him but slow decay and death, and death he viewed as the passage to life.

Thus passed two more years of de Ravignan's life, to him tedious and unsatisfactory; but they were the necessary preparation for the future career of one who was destined in after years to teach so many the emptiness of worldly pleasure, and to console so many kindred souls forced by the exigences of their station to live in a world they despised and to assist in the hollow masquerade of life.

But when this lesson was sufficiently learned, God called de Ravignan to his service. At the end of April, 1822, he went to the Seminary of the Sulpitians, at Issy, just on the outskirts of Paris. Here he made a retreat of eight days, for the purpose of examining his vocation. The letter in which he announces to his mother his decision cannot fail to edify and interest our readers.

"MY DEAREST MOTHER:-God, as you know, has for a long time and on many occasions inspired me with the desire of devoting nyself wholly to his service; and his goodness has always protected me.

"The time came when a decision had to be made. I asked the advice of M. Frayssinous, and of other enlightened clergymen, and they all told me to seek in a retreat the light which I wanted. I

came to the country-house of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, at Issy. My reception was full of the most Christian kindness. Forgive me, my excellent mother, for hiding from you the cause of my absence; it was necessary for me to do so; I knew too well your extreme affection for the least deserving of your children.

"I shall not recount to you all the strong and consoling impressions made on me, through God's grace, by the consideration of my life and the contemplation of the great truths of religion, under the direction of a humble priest animated with the Spirit of God, and endowed with all the world esteems and with all that it knows not enough how to esteem. My reflections and my fervent prayers were wisely and prudently guided. Believe me, all illusions disappear, at the view of a future so formidable as the life of a priest.

"M. Mollevaut, the Sulpitian of whom I speak, is the man of God whom I needed. M. Frayssinous said to me at Paris when directing me to him: 'When he shall have said what is your vocation, I shall be as easy as though God himself had spoken.'

"God has spoken, my dear mother; I obey with joy. I thank him for drawing me from the world. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for my repentance and for the peaceful life for which, I believe, he destines me. Permit your son to say to you, mother, obey also. Suffer me to believe and to know better than you, that the prayers of a Christian mother have called down on me the special protection of God which I now experience.

"Entirely given to my duties and my sacred occupations, my affection for you will fill a still greater part of my existence: far from the dissipation and tumult of the world and of its affairs, whether near you or far from you, I shall ever bear you in my heart, and shall never cease importuning God with my prayers for that which is my dearest wish, your preservation and your sal

vation.

"Consecrated also in a special manner to the worship of the most august model of the religious mother, I shall, like a good son, recommend to her my beloved mother, and the blessings of Heaven will fall upon you and the whole family.

All is de

"Such, dear mother, is what I had to say to you. cided. My resolution rests on God, and nothing can shake it.

"It now only remains for me to accomplish a duty which your kindness and indulgence render a less painful one: it is to humbly beg you to forgive all the sorrows I have caused you by my rudeness, my pride, and my want of respect for you, my kind mother. Forgive and bless me."

Having abruptly separated himself from a world he had long loathed, de Ravignan sought only to widen still more the gulf which parted them. He remained six months in