and to behold the rising sun lighting up the eternal snows
and ice of the surrounding heights, is enough to realize
some of the brightest dreams of early youth; and there,
too, as on St. Bernard's Mount, religion had her solemn
temple and her early sacrifice in harmony with all around.
In cities, in forests, on islands in the green ocean, or
'washed by the wave of some placid lake, the Church was
zealous to meet the loveliness of nature with all her peace-
ful charms. Amadis and his companions set out by day-
break, that they may hear mass from the good hermit at
the chapel of the three fountains. Even in cities, the
churches, always open, offered a beautiful and quiet spot,
like a paradise, removed from the noise and vanities of
the crowd. It is told at Winchester how Bishop Wyke-
ham was influenced in selecting the precise spot where
stands his tomb. When a student in his youth, he had
been accustomed every morning to attend the mass that
was celebrated at a very early hour of the morning by a
devout monk of the monastery, by name Pekes, at a cer-
tain altar dedicated to God, under the patronage of the
blessed Virgin Mary, in that very spot of the ancient ca
thedral; hence he chose it for his burial. To be insensi-
ble to this spiritual harmony, was regarded as an evil in-
dication. George de Chastellain says, in speaking of the
faults of Philip the Good, "Alloit tard à la messe et hors
l'heure fit célébrer deux heures après midy, voire trois
souvent, et en ceste manière de faire, il excéda toute ob-
servance Chrestienne." When Petrarch first saw Laura,
it was at six o'clock in the morning at mass, in the church
of the convent of St. Claire, near Avignon. It was great
wisdom in the Church to invite the faithful to approach
her altars, at these sweet hours of prime, when nature
seemed to announce her mysteries; for it was at such an
hour that the poet sung,

"Methinks it should have been impossible
Not to love all things in a world like this,
Where even the breezes and the common air
Contain the power and spirit of harmony

* Coleridge.

How devout was Dante when he walked through the fo

rest

"O'er the ground, that on all sides

Delicious odour breath'd. A pleasant air
That intermitted never, never veer'd,
Smote on my temples, gently as a wind
Of softest influence; at which the sprays,
Obedient all, lean'd trembling to that part
Where first the holy mountain casts his shade ;
Yet were not so disordered, but that still
Upon their top the feathered quiristers
Applied their wonted art, and with full joy

Welcom'd those hours of prime, and warbled shrill
Amid the leaves, that to their jocund lays

Kept tenor

Nor did Religion err in accepting the innocent service of children to precede her solemn processions, and to wait upon her priests. It was shewn by devout writers + how the Son of God testified his love for the young; calling them to him, blessing them, working the most remarkable cures in favour of them; such as the ruler's son, he that was tormented by the devil; the Centurion's servant, and the daughter of the Cananean, the daughter of Jairus, and the son of the widow of Naim. The purity and innocence of such a soul as that of the young Aloyscius Gonzago, seemed to account for this distinction. The very heathens had a conception that piety in youth was peculiarly graceful. The lo of Euripides possesses a great charm, from the portrait which it gives of candour and sacerdotal innocence united in a child, who, leading a pure life, is seen coming out as the morning sun gilds the inaccessible summits of Parnassus, to sweep the marble steps of the temple with branches of laurel, and to drive away the little birds without killing them which perch on the walls, singing his simple song of gratitude for being employed to serve Heaven and not mortals, and for his daily food which he receives from Apollo. The Church taught her ministers to treat youth with great tenderness, and to forgive the sallies and levity of childhood. It would have been an evil day for children if her discipline had been abolished, to make way for that of the Manichæans or Calvinists, who saw an evil principle in the most innocent features, * Purgatory, Cant. xxviii.

+ Gobinet Instructions of Youth," p. 11.

and in whose breast a dark fanaticism had killed all sweet

ness and mercy.

The poet Wordsworth can discern in youth the evidence of our celestial origin; for in being born we come from God, who is our home:

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy;

But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy!

The youth who daily further from the East
Must travel, still is Nature's priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended.

At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day."

As says St. Augustin of himself: "Audivi vocem tuam post me, ut redirem, et vix audivi, propter tumultus peccatorum." But this sad picture does not resemble those who bore their palm, which had been blessed with a prayer that they might imitate the innocence of the youths who bore them before our Lord: who knew not the haughtiness of pride, nor its self-sufficient stiffness; who could admire beauty and grace every where, and who, like Sophocles, would not have disdained to act a part among the companions of Nausicaa; whose infancy had not been schooled to the maxims of avarice, but who had been suffered to exalt their imagination, and to warm their hearts with the love of nature and of God; who did not seek, like the sophist, "intelligere carnalia et videre spiritualia quod fieri non potest*, to make the eye discharge the office of the mind, and the mind that of the eye, to have a sensual philosophy and an abstract imagination; to be enslaved by the senses in things belonging to heaven, and to effect spiritual abstraction in matters which pertain only to this present life. Michel scorned David for dancing before the ark; but he replied, " Ante Dominum et ludam et vilior fiam plus quam factus sum, et ero humilis in oculis meis t." This was the language of genius as well as piety. "Bonus ludus," cried St. Bernard, " quo Michel irascitur, et Deus delectatur ‡."

When the bishop of Rheims conducted the King of the Francs to be baptized at Rheims, the streets being adorned with tapestry, the pavement strewed with flowers, the air sweet with frankincense, the question of the Franc, “Est hoc regnum Dei *?" need not have scandalized the moderns; for in one sense, the sweet delights of the assembly and ceremonies of the faithful did constitute the kingdom of God; and after a faithful hearing, did impart somewhat of the beatific vision according to the thought of St. Bernard: "Auditus ad meritum, visus ad præmium ;" and even the charity of the faithful is that vision, as St. Bernard says, "Caritas illa visio est t." I shall never forget one evening when I beheld the procession of the blessed sacrament from a college of the Jesuists at St. Æcheul, near Amiens. It was a lovely summer's evening, and there must have been twenty thousand people in the fields to accompany it. Each of the students carried a little banner, surmounted with a cross. There you saw the Labarum and its motto, "In hoc signo vinces." Fifty acolythes at short intervals cast up their silver censers, and scattered roses and other flowers. The priests were in their richest vestments, which shone with double splendour as gilded with the setting sun. On passing through a little village, the poor people had cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. After going through fields of corn, they descended upon a little green pasture, one side bounded by the blue waters of the Somme, and the other by the side of a gentle flowering hill. Near the edge of the river an altar was erected. But what no painter could represent, was the effect produced at the final benediction from a high altar, which being placed at the western extremity of a rising ground, appeared to be raised into the golden sky. Then, as the eye was directed to that quarter of the heavens which the sun, though already set below the earth, still lighted up, the priests and acolythes ascending the steps of the altar, seemed to be going up into the regions of the blessed, whose dwelling was in that light; and the solemn benediction to descend from that heaven resplendent with all

* Vita Remagii apud Script. Rer. Franc. III.
In Cantica Serm. 83.

Such

beauty and joy, upon this innocent assembly, the flower of the youth of France. To many it will always seem barbarous and unnatural to wish that youth should be kept in ignorance of the divine philosophy which produced these beautiful fruits. The calm of evening has its charms; but do we not lament the fate of that prisoner who is prevented from beholding and feeling the golden rays of the morning sun, and who is permitted for the first time each day, to look upon the face of nature when the sun has set, and the blossoms of the garden are closed, and the woods and the rivers and the mountains are already lost in deep shade? Alas! he can only guess, by the aid of imagination, how lovely was the scene. is their fate, who are first brought out to the light of faith, when the spring of their years is past, and their days are in the sear and yellow leaf. They secure, indeed, their future and eternal felicity; but they have wandered in trouble and darkness during that sweet hour of their life's prime which God had given them to be spent in peace and brightness! So I have heard of one who was converted to the faith, young indeed, but when consump tion had brought him to the verge of an early grave. He was ignorant of his danger, till the priest took him affectionately by the hand, and said with that tone and look of truth which belong to his blessed order, "My dear friend, you are going fast; you have but a short time; you ought to employ it to a good use." His whole soul was enlightened by the heavenly rays of that holy man's wisdom he had but one wish, that he might be able to hear mass on the approaching Sunday, the festival of Pentecost. He grew better; he was able to rise from his bed; he entered the church; he beheld the lighted altar and the assembled multitude of the faithful; he heard mass; his heart felt like St. Austin's, "Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi." The following day he departed to our Lord.

Religion, in adopting this philosophy, was guided by prudence as well as by truth; for let men beware how they argue and dogmatize against the laws of the Creator. "Sine delectatione anima non potest esse: aut infimis delectatur, aut summis *;" a truth which did not escape

*St. Greg. Moral. xviii.