Carmelite monks. She wrote like one of the Fathers of the Church. She died Oct. 4, 1582, the same day on which the reform of the calendar happened; the day after becoming the 15th. Pope Gregory XIII. rendered this service to science and to civilisation, and the Gregorian calendar was received everywhere, except by the schismatic Greeks and by the English, who retained a wrong computation, 1 in opposition to the Pope.

The seventeenth century brought to light many dangerous errors, which, under the appearance of a more profound 2 respect for the grace of God, tended to destroy the liberty or free will of man, and, as a necessary consequence, to overthrow religion.

Baius, a doctor of Lou-vain, had begun to teach erroneous doctrine, but submitted to the sentence which condemned it. His pupil, Jan-se'-ni-us, a Dutchman, and Bishop of Ypres, set forth maxims3 still more dangerous; and after his death five propositions, taken from a book he had written, called " Augustinus," were proscribed. Many men of great learning and talent, such as Ar-nauld, Ni-cole, Pascal, and others, were misled by the subtle 4 errors contained in Jansenism, but very few at the present day hold these false opinions.

The So-cin-ians, the Qui ́-e-tists, the Freethinkers, tried to introduce wrong principles and doctrines. But the popes and bishops exposed the danger of them.

Saint Charles Bor-ro-me-o, Saint Francis of Sales, Saint Vincent of Paul, Bos ́-su-et, Fé-né-lon, Bour'-da-loue, permitted no error to escape their notice, and opposed and gave a check to the spirit of innovation by their writings or their institutions.

The Priests of the Order of Lazarists, the Congregation of Foreign Missions, the Sisters of Charity, the Religious of the Visitation, the Trap-pists, the Order of St Basil of Poland, the Brothers of Beth'-le-hem in Mexico, ministered to the religious necessities, both moral and intellectual, of the people, and in proportion to the spread of education, books were multiplied to supply the call for them.

Besides the great writers already named, we may mention Mas'-sil-lon, Male-branche, Thomas-sin, De Tille-mont, Fléchier,

1 Con, together; puto, I make clear, I think.

2 Pro, before; fundum, the bottom. Syn.-deep.

3 Chief opinions, principles; from maximus, most, chief.

4 Sub, under; tela, a web, a woof. Subtilis, fine; hence close, fine judgment and thought.

G

Rod-ri-guez, Su-a-rez, with a hundred others, who formed an imposing cohort1 against ignorance and error. To these, if we add the productions of the Bol-land-ists, 2 of the Benedictines of St Maur, the translations of the Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers, besides the researches and discoveries relative to general and foreign 3 literature, 4 we see that the age of Louis XIV. was, under all points of view, very important.

We find in the eighteenth century the effects of the errors which had been so spread abroad during the last 200 years, in the denial of all revealed religion which now took place. The Deist 5 admitted no authority but reason; the Pan-the-ist 6 found his God in the universe; the Atheist7 acknowledged no God whatever; and the Sceptic8 looked on all truths as uncertain. These aberrations were advocated by Tol-land and Collins in England, Hel-ve'-ti-us and Vol-taire in France, and by the Mystics and Freethinkers of Germany; whilst other fallacies were advanced by Swedenborg in his revelations. Spin-o'-sa deified9 the world, and the mad revolutionaries of 1793 deified a woman, and called her the Goddess of Reason.

Whilst it was permitted by God that many hundred Catholic missionaries in China and Japan should fall victims to the barbarity and superstition of the people, it was also allowed that irreligious civilisation in Europe should raise scaffolds on which to sacrifice those who were still faithful to the voice of conscience, in order that the martyrs and confessors of the faith should once more seal the Christian dogmas with their blood, as well as prove to the world the necessity of Christ's Church, with her supernatural elements and her teaching, as the only bulwark of order and true liberty.

1 A Latin term given by the Romans to a body of foot soldiers, answering to our regiment.

2 From Bollandus, a Jesuit of Antwerp, who began the work, "Acts of the Saints," A.D. 1629.

3 Literally out-door, from fores, an opening. It means stranger.

4 Letters, that is, books.

5 From Deus, God.

Pan, all; Theos, God.

7 A, without; Theos, God.

8 Skeptomai, I look around.

Skepsis, looking into, inquiring.

• Deified, made into God, raised to a God.

CHAPTER III.

THE nineteenth century began under happier influences. Rome recovered her pontiffs, of whom her enemies had hoped to deprive her for ever. Churches were once more opened, fresh religious communities formed, and pious works of all kinds begun.

The present illustrious pontiff, Pius IX., was born May 13, 1792, at Sini-ga-gli-a, in the States of the Church, and was elected Pope, June 16, 1846, by the almost unanimous vote of the conclavel of Cardinals. His accession was hailed with the greatest joy and enthusiasm by the Roman people, and by the whole of Italy, to whom his enlightened mind and noble heart were already well known.

Among the leading events of the present pontificate are the re-establishment of the hierarchy 2 in England and Holland, the concordats entered into with several Catholic as well as Protestant powers, the return to a more zealous reception of Roman tradition, with an increase of attachment towards the Holy See, and, above all, the glorious outburst of faith which defined the dogma of the Immaculate3 Conception, and raised it into an article of belief.

As the Church is militant 4 on earth, she will never triumph absolutely in this world; but, as she is the work of God, she can never be vanquished. Whatever persecutions the Church may still have inflicted on her by her enemies, we may feel sure that she will be sustained by the same spirit of endurance which has ever distinguished her from all heresies and sects. This she derives from the faith she has in herself, and in the promises of our blessed Lord, who, in transmitting to her His cross and sufferings, also conferred on her the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, which renders her the only source in this life of a blessed immortality in the next.

Notwithstanding every drawback, Christianity has increased. from the time of the apostles to the present century, and now the gospel is preached throughout the whole globe.

In Europe Christianity is almost universal, and even in those

1 Con, together; clavis, a key, Council of cardinals. Literally, a chamber. 2 From hiereus, a priest; archo, I govern. It means Church government. 3 In, not; macula, a spot. Spotless.

4 Warring, from miles, a soldier.

countries which are not Catholic our bishops and missionaries are tolerated.

In Asia there are archbishops' or bishops' sees, at Smyrna, the Leb'-anon, at Babylon, A-gra, Calcutta, Bombay, Pon-dicher-ry, Verapolly, Madras, the Birman Empire, at Tonquin, in Cochin-China, Co-re'-a,1 Manchooria,2 and Japan; whilst missionaries traverse Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, Hin'-dos-tan, Thibet, and Tartary in all directions.

In Africa bishops preside over the faithful at the two Guineas, the Cape of Good Hope, and at Tunis, Trip'-oli, and Egypt in the north, besides our missionaries in Abyssin'-ia, Sen-a-ar, Madagascar, and other islands, and the French establishments at Senegal, where negro priests evangelise their own people.

Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, Nova Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada, more than twenty towns of the United States, the Tex-as,3 the British An-til-les, Hay'-ti, Jamaica, Gui-an'-a,4 besides Mexico, and the south of America, solicit the help of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith5 for their bishops and missionaries, in order to carry on the work of regeneration. Oregon has seven dioceses, governed by an archbishop-primate.

In O-cean'-i-ca our missionaries have penetrated from Van Diemen's Land to New Caledonia, and our bishops continue the apostleship of St Francis Xavier in most of the islandgroups of the Pacific Ocean.

1 A peninsula of Asia, situated north of China, projecting into the Pacific, and belonging to the Chinese.

2 That part of Tartary situated immediately north of China Proper. The Manchoo Tartars conquered China and established the present dynasty about two hundred years ago.

3 A territory to the south of the Mississippi, once belonging to Mexico, and lately annexed to the United States.

British, Dutch, and French Guiana are colonies of those nations on the east coast of South America, north of the Amazon river.

5 This Society is assisting in the apostleship six large communities, whose labours are devoted to the sta ions confided to them. The missionaries of the Rue du Bac are in Thibet, Japan, and Malaysia; the Lazarists are in the Levant; the Jesuits at Jamaica, Demarara, at Madagascar, and in the Rocky Mountains; the Marists proceed to Oceanica, New Zealand, and New Caledonia; the Picpucians to the Sandwich Islands, Pomatoo, and the Marquesas; the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to the Red River, to Natal, Texas, and Ceylon.-Annals of the Propagation of the Faith.

6 A territory in North America, to the west of the Rocky Mountains, belonging to the United States.

The greatness of God is thus made manifest in the moral world, and in the sanctification of man. We will now contemplate 1 His physical works and their wonderful secrets, which science, guided by revelation, has disclosed to us.

CHAPTER IV.

THE earth we inhabit forms part of a vast system, of which the sun is the centre and luminary, having all the planets revolving round it at different distances, and in different periods of time.

Two principal motions belong to our planet, one of rotation 2 upon its axis, called its diurnal3 motion, producing the succession of day and night, and another of progression 4 in space, or revolution round the sun, called its annual motion, causing the changes of the season.

The time occupied in the diurnal rotation is about twentyfour hours, and the course of the earth's annual revolution round the sun is completed in 365 days and about 6 hours. This forms the solar year.

The planets are erratic,5 opaque 6 bodies resembling our earth, and, having no light of their own, shine only by reflecting the light of the sun. The primary planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, 7 and Neptune.

The minor primary planets are Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, with about forty more recently discovered.

Secondary planets are those bodies which revolve round their respective primaries as their centre of motion, in the same manner as the primary planets circulate 10 round the sun. The number of satellites 11 at present known are- -the moon, which attends on our earth, four belonging to Jupiter, seven to Saturn,

1 Karcher derives this word from con and templum, a space; a holy spot. It means to look at, or think upon.-Schulwörterbuch der Lateinischen Sprache in Etymologischer Ordnung. 1826. Page 247.

2 Turning round, from rota, a wheel.

4 Pro, forward; gradus, a step. Advancing.

5 Erratic, wandering, from erro, to wander.

3 Daily, dies, a day.

6 Opaque, dark, shady; what cannot be seen through.

7 Uranus means heaven in Greek.

8 Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune were the names of heathen

gods.

9 Lesser.

10 Circum, around; latus, carried.

11 Attendants.