Returning to Paris, de Ravignan resumed his wonted labors; but they were soon to end; he had run the good race. During twenty years of public ministry he had worked incessantly, save when at rare intervals his health forced him to rest for a short time; he had during those twenty years given to religion and to virtue an impetus such as they had scarce ever before known in the capital of France. Laboriously, and mid sorrows and obstacles arising from every side, he had carried out the mission with which God had entrusted him, and now he looked forward to his end with the calm joy of a well-founded hope. Every time that he had felt his malady approach, he had hoped for death, this time he knew it was near. Still he worked on, growing feebler and feebler. The last time that he sat in the confessional was on the 3d of December, 1857, the of St. Francis Xavier, his patron saint, and the anniversary of his baptism, sixty-two years before. It was in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart. The last ties that bound him to earth were on the point of snapping asunder; on the confines of eternity, he addressed his penitents like one who had already passed the barriers which separate death from immortality; he exhorted them to delight in their sorrows and sufferings as the means of uniting them more closely with Christ, assuring them that there alone would they find the silence of the heart, the solitude of the soul, where fleeting things fear to enter, and all fades from the sight save God and conscience. Forced to quit the confessional before his usual time, he walked with difficulty back to the Rue de Sevres, and awaited death. During the few hours that he was able to sit up during the day, he arranged his papers, burning those he wished destroyed, and prepared himself then for his long journey. His suffering and weakness daily increased; death was every day nearer; at last it had arrived; the Sacraments had all been administered; the prayers for those in agony were just completed; he kissed the crucifix presented to his lips, raised his eyes to behold for the last time the image of the Saviour, his head bowed, and his soul returned to the bosom of God. Thus passed away from earth one who in our own days has rivalled the heroic deeds of those great men whom the Church offers to our imitation. Whether we regard him in his interior and private character, or consider him as he appeared to the world, we cannot but love him and esteem him. All his actions appear to us regulated by the highest principles of

reason and of the Gospel; we see in him none of those petty weaknesses which ordinarily obscure the character of men placed in prominent positions. His life, his character seem every where consistent. In the first years of his religious life, in his novitiate at Montrouge, he had fully imbued his mind with the lofty principles laid down in the Exercises of St. Ignatius, which guided him during his whole after life. Fully convinced, not only in his head, but in his heart too, of the vanity of worldly ambition, he devoted himself, wholly and with all the energy of a strong character, to the true objects for which he lived. With the same energy with which we see men incessantly tending toward some visible object which they are fully determined to reach, Father de Ravignan constantly aimed at the attainment of his end. In this we find the distinguishing trait of Father de Ravignan's character and the cause of all his success: he was in downright earnest. His earnestness is the principal feature in his eloquence, and the means by which he persuaded. The great evil of this age, he said, was clearly marked; it consisted in vagueness of the intellect and languor of the will: against these he fought. His whole appearance was a protest against them; there was a nobility, a manliness in every feature of his countenance; force was seen in his broad high forehead; there was energy in his clear eye, ordinarily mild and attractive, but at times sparkling with the fire within; in the strong-marked lines of his nose, in the close-pressed lips, and in the firm, deep tones of his voice.

Such men are never satisfied with half attaining their object; every thing with them becomes subordinate to their principal aim, to which they tend incessantly. No labor is esteemed sufficient, no rest is possible. Thus the amount of work performed by Father de Ravignan would seem almost incredible; we have spoken of only a few of the more prominent acts of his life; but Father de Pontlevoy represents him to us as travelling from one end of Europe to another; now preaching in Belgium and again at Bordeaux; at one time at London, and another at Nantes; one day at Rome, a few days after at Ajaccio in Corsica, and next at Besançon. During Lent we find him not only delivering his conferences at Notre-Dame in Paris, but at one time he adds to them three retreats preached during the same week to three different congregations. We find him giving retreats to the Sisters of the Visitation, the La

dies of the Sacred Heart, the Carmelites, or the Children of Mary: if any one takes the habit or makes her profession, he is ever ready to assist and to deliver an instruction for the occasion. He preached on Sundays in the Chapel of the Tuileries, and during the week to the beggars supported by the "Little Sisters of the Poor," and quitted the pulpit of Notre-Dame to instruct the orphans of St. Nicholas. If a college of the Society was suppressed by the government, it was he that spoke with the Emperor and obtained permission for its continuance; his assistance was felt in almost every thing that was undertaken for the good of religion; he interested himself greatly in the establishment of the Oratory of the Immaculate Conception, concerning which he had been consulted by Fathers Gratry, de Valroger, and Pététot, and in the foundation of the Monastery of Pierre-quiVire. He wrote a series of articles in a religious journal in defence of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception; he drew up a memorial to the government, asking for freedom to preach the Gospel to the Arabs of Algeria, which was refused for reasons of state policy. He took part in several Councils as theologian for different Bishops. His correspondence was enormous; he received letters, which he answered, from every country of Europe, and from every class of persons; to the Duchess of Hamilton alone he wrote as many as two hundred letters in seven years; and nearly all these various letters, written in a few moments which he could get at a time, are in a careful and appropriate style, al

came to consult him on spiritual matters, and the porter was every few moments at his door to announce women who were to see him in the parlor. When, in connection with

waiting this variety of labors, we consider the hours he spent in the confessional, and by the bedside of the dying, we must admit that the life of Father de Ravignan was a full one, and although he spent but twenty years in the Apostolic miuistry, during that period explevit tempora multa. He might well, at the end of this time, look confidently forward to the crown of life" which had been laid up for him.

His loss was deeply felt at Paris, and by all who knew him throughout France. A sad crowd filled the Church of SaintSulpice, where his obsequies were performed, and where the Bishop of Orleans, dressed in mourning, gave vent to his feelings in a burst of eloquence which reminds us of the best efforts of Massillon or Bossuet. Defunctus adhuc lo

quitur, was the well-chosen text of the funeral orator, and it is still true; that which was mortal in De Ravignan has passed away, but his immortal spirit still lives and preaches. In these two volumes of Father de Pontlevoy, we still see the great preacher of Notre-Dame, we feel his presence as that of a living man. H. F. B.

ART. V. Les Moines d'Occident depuis Saint Benoit jusqu'à Saint Bernard. Par le COMTE MONTALEMBERT. Paris: Lecoffre et Cie. 1860. Tomes I. et II. 8vo.

COUNT DE MONTALEMBERT is one of those pure and noble characters that go far to redeem and even to give a lustre to an age of weakness and frivolity in which they sometimes make their appearance. He takes life in earnest, and feels that it has serious aims and solemn duties. He believes every man, whatever his rank or condition, has been placed in this world to work, to do and to suffer the will of his Maker, not to fritter away his existence in the frivolous pursuit of pleasure, or the sordid pursuit of gain. Liberally endowed by nature, he has invigorated and enriched his rare gifts by assiduous culture and solid studies. Descended from a noble family with an historical name, heir of a peerage when France had an hereditary peerage, he generously devoted from his youth his name, his rank, his lofty character, his genius, his learning, and his great powers as a writer and an orator, to the defence and promotion of Catholic interests, and for thirty years he has stood first and foremost among laymen as their bold, firm, consistent, and persevering champion.

It is not easy to estimate the value of the services rendered to religion by this eminent layman. Without his free spirit, independent thought, liberal action, and bold and energetic words, always on the side of the right, the wronged, the oppressed, the downtrodden, in the House of Peers, the National Assembly, in books, pamphlets, periodicals, journals, and a world-wide correspondence, few of us would have been what we are. There are few living, acting, earnest men among us who have not been quickened by him. Whoever has labored to promote or secure Catholic interests by calling in the aid of free thought and

free speech, political liberty, social progress, and the rights and independence of nations, has found in him a wise and hearty co-operator, and an intrepid defender: and whoever has seen his hopes in the good cause overclouded, and felt his heart saddened and his arm unnerved by the baseness, treachery, desertion, or cowardice of pretended friends, or by disappointments and unmerited defeats, has found in him a generous sympathizer, and heard from him words that have not only soothed his grief, but revived his hopes, rekindled his ardor, and inspired him with fresh courage and energy to renew the combat. None of us can say how much we owe him, or measure the influence he has exerted for the last thirty years, or is destined hereafter to exert on the Catholic body throughout the world. The influence of such a man is sure ultimately to be felt by the whole human race; and it can die only to live again forever in the bosom of Him from whom it went forth.

There is probably no man among our contemporaries so well fitted to write the history of the labors and influence of the Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard, as our illustrious author, who adds to the science, erudition, and literary taste and culture of our times, the faith, the piety, the chivalric sentiments, and the robust character of the great ages of the Church. He is a layman and a secular; he has taken an active and a brilliant part in the political movements in his own country and in Europe; he knows his age; he knows all it knows, can speak its language, and interpret it by his own experience; but he has retired so often to commune with the Fathers of the Desert, and with the Basils, the Chrysostoms, the Benedicts, the Gregories, and the Bernards, has been so charmed with their heroic life, entered so fully into their spirit, and become so imbued with their love of suffering and of sacrifice, that he speaks with their wisdom, power, sweetmess, and unction. He is at home with them, knows them, understands them, and is able to interpret them to the understanding, and, we would fain hope, to the admiration and love of the men of our own times, weak, effeminate, frivolous, or sordid, as for the most part we unhappily are.

The author has not designed his work-intended to be completed in six volumes, of which only the first two are as yet published-to be a history of the Monks of the West from the purely ascetic point of view, so much as a history of their labors and influence from St. Benedict to St. Ber