quirements of the age. If the Jesuit owes his youth to the spirit of the "Constitutions," he has to thank the obloquy of fame, the design of his order, his segregation from humanity, for his manhood-that manhood which no honest man envies in the mind of him whose greatness stoops to craft—whose virtue dallies with vice-whose gifts to humanity are bribes to the frivolous, and whose religion, if it is not the advancement, the aggrandizement of his order, is certainly the lever which is made to work to that unconquerable lust of his burning heart—that advancement, that aggrandizement of his order!

The "Constitutions" require twelve or twenty days, and even a longer period, as the Superior may think fit, to be spent by the future novice in this preliminary probation. Formerly a separate part of the establishments was consecrated to this ordeal. No intercourse was permitted with any one not deputed by the Superior, and those who had the candidate in charge were to instruct him in those concerns of the Society which he might safely know; whilst by the same intercourse the Society would become more fully cognisant of his character "in our Lord." This is a convenient set-phrase which may be called the talisman of IGNATIUS; for almost every page of the "Constitutions" iterates it with such seeming solemnity, that one is well nigh apt to believe that the "Constitutions" are one thing, and the Jesuits another-a belief to which I admit my inclination.

Notwithstanding the rule of the "Constitutions" just given, I was not kept longer than three days as a guest:" very few questions were put to me. I could gain but little information concerning the Society from my companions; so that although my time passed, so to speak, very agreeably, I was not sorry when I received the order to start for the Novitiate.

I think I am fully justified in saying, in the introduction, that the Order is changed to suit the changes of society: perhaps the sequel will further attest this judgment. The changes may be small, but they show a clever adaptability to meet the re

*Const. Part i. cap, 4. et Decl. A. Part i.

quirements of the age. If the Jesuit owes his youth to the spirit of the "Constitutions," he has to thank the obloquy of fame, the design of his order, his segregation from humanity, for his manhood-that manhood which no honest man envies in the mind of him whose greatness stoops to craft-whose virtue dallies with vice-whose gifts to humanity are bribes to the frivolous, and whose religion, if it is not the advancement, the aggrandizement of his order, is certainly the lever which is made to work to that unconquerable lust of his burning heart-that advancement, that aggrandizement of his order!

16

CHAPTER III.

IMPRESSIONS.

THE impression made on my mind by the "Fathers" of the Society, at my first interview and in subsequent conversations, was by no means such as I had expected to receive from the sons of IGNATIUS. BONAPARTE said, "Qu'il ne faut jamais se faire de tableaux;" but I am a physiognomist: I love a fine face, and still more a fine head. Aware of what the "Constitutions" require on that score, I was disappointed with the specimens of Jesuits who had me in charge for the few days before I went to Hodder-house. I had pictured them to myself as keen-eyed, quick, and intellectual: I found them generally the reverse. This may, perhaps, be accounted for by the fact (which should be known), that the Jesuits in England send out their best men to work " in the vineyard;" apparently conscious that, if the out-posts be well defended, the inner fortress must be secure. The agent in London and the Provincial were thus exceptions. The former, from the very first interview, seemed to me a something of former days: there was that in his flashing

eye, massive brows, and dark features, which told a history to come that might be not unlike the past. He was a man of few words, and spoke without "superlatives," according to the practice of Ignatius.* He seemed to me a man of strong passions, and yet eminently prudent. His glance was vivid, but it did not centre in my eyes: it fell somewhere below the eyelids. I never enjoyed that pleasure, to me most gratifying, of mingling glance with glance in the heart's uprightness. His exterior, though rather portly, was imposing from its altitude; and he sat like one whose mind is never idle, and whose portrait, if taken by a hundred different pencils, would still present in each the same expression-like that of Dr. Johnson, or Napoleon.

Of his acquirements I was unable to judge, my visits being very short-shorter than I wished. Of his natural endowments I am perfectly convinced: he has tact, energy, and penetration. His extreme caution was exhibited in the fact, that he positively refused to apply for an introduction to the library of the Museum for me: "he did not wish to come forward." I asked him to lend me the "Constitutions;" this, he said, he was not allowed to do. Hence my successful attempt to "dispense" with the regulations of the library-an attempt which would be very difficult in the present organization of the reading-room.

A curious incident, which I will now relate, may enable the reader to appreciate, according to its true

* Bouhours, La Vie de St. Ignace, liv. vi.

† According to Rule xxxviii.