morass teeming with immundicities that spring up incessantly and scatter their disastrous seeds in every direction. You admit every desire, every thought, every suggestion of your soul's enemy. You dally with him-you expose to him the source of your weakness, and behold! the infernal Dalilah despoils you of your only defence-then she exclaims in glee, the Philistines are upon you!-you are taken, thrown down, your eyes plucked out!—that is, you are blinded by your passions, now become unruly. If your conscience were well, your will would not be diseased. I cannot imagine how you can remain in your present condition, seeing yourself thus without God, utterly unable to bear up against the afflictions of life. It has pleased God to give you riches, &c. What, if by a single stroke, very possible if not probable, He deprived you of all, and left you naked! God in his mercy avert so terrible a visitation! But, my dear friend, are you in the right way to avoid the exterminating angel? Do you expect to confirm God's temporal mercies by the most inveterate spiritual barrenness? And if the Almighty, provoked by your hardness, (which your present calamity ought to soften,) fulmined against you the avenging terrors of his justice, what corner of the earth would shield you when the breath of His name strikes dismay in the uttermost caverns of hell? Look, my dear friend, to yourself, to your poor soul, to your true earthly comfort! To yourself-you have bad health-is this not a sufficient warning? To your soul, if you die suddenly in your present

condition, can you expect heaven, or purgatory, or hell? Three tremendous alternatives! To your bodily comfort, for, in truth, from your obduracy, I do really fear for you, my friend. O beware of the judgments of God! They are terrible. He hath made some to wither away and hath destroyed them, and hath made the memory of them to cease from the earth.' Again I say-again I intreat you, haste to be reconciled! For God's wrath may be at hand, and may His mercy protect you in the day of trouble. If you have sinned, have we not all sinned? The Apostle exclaims 'in multis offendimus omnes,' and if you have not been ashamed to sin, why be ashamed to own your sin? This is ungenerous, unworthy of you! Beware of the secret passion that perchance clings with you still to the flesh! Oh! spare no pains to eradicate the hellish monster-the hideous Gorgon whose very face is death to the soul. * *

"From considerable experience in this world, I am sometimes inclined to hold it for certain that disappointment in every affection of the heart is the only certainty of our existence here, death alone excepted. Certes, I have had my desires, and many, perchance most of them, accomplished, but I can confidently assert that I was disappointed in all. I would particularly recommend this consideration to you. The hearts of the young and ardent may be said to teem with desires, as the bottom of the sea with weeds. They are all doomed to be disappointed. The fact is that we form our notions of things, at second hand-on se fait de tableaux-and was there ever a fool who,

in his particular pursuit, owned himself at fault?

"For the rest, my dear friend, be not offended at my freedom with you. You know my heart, what would I not do to bring you to God! I have commenced a Novena for your consolation and reconciliation with offended Heaven, and under the patronage of our blessed Lady and St. Francis Xavier, I hope for success. Be of good heart! Remember, Quem diligit Dominus castigat; flagellat autem omnem filium quem recipit "

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CHAPTER XII.

THE FEAST OF IGNATIUS.

Ar length the joyous holiday came-the Feast of IGNATIUS. The novices whose probation was ended took their vows, and fresh aspirants to the blessings of IGNATIUS knocked at the gate. The novices whose second year was ended took the vows in the morning. The other novices did not know when this ceremony was performed; but, as all the usual occupations of the day were suspended, we saw them depart to the seminary, all apparently glad of the change. I was told by one of them that only the lay-brother-the cook of the establishment-was present, besides the Superior, when each novice was admitted to the room to take his vows. He also said that the object of the vows being taken in private was to guarantee the Jesuit from legal conviction, inasmuch as it is contrary to law to take such vows in England. This was perfectly new to me, and the intelligence was at least unpleasant: it reminded me of the agent in London, who, finding from what I had said to him that I made no secret of my intention to become a

Jesuit, cautioned me "not to say anything about the matter to any one." He gave me no reason for his caution, but I have no doubt now that he alluded to the clause of the Act of the 10th Geo. IV., c. 7, which makes it "a misdemeanour in any Jesuit, or member of other religious body described in the act, to admit, or to aid in or consent to the admission of, any person within the United Kingdom, to be a member of such body; and any person admitted or becoming a Jesuit, or member of other such body within the United Kingdom, shall, upon conviction, be banished from the United Kingdom for life." It may be questioned whether the law against smuggling is more stringent-but there can be but one opinion as to which is enforced. Verily, the act is a thoroughfare, and the Jesuits "drive their coach-and-six through it" with admirable dexterity.

The following is the formula of the simple vows taken by the novices, who then become scholastici or scholars of the Society :—

Omnipotent, Eternal God! I, N., although in every respect most unworthy of thy Divine presence, still, confiding in thy infinite bounty and mercy, and impelled by the desire of serving thee-vow, in the presence of the most holy Virgin MARY and thy universal celestial court, to thy Divine Majesty POVERTY, CHASTITY, and OBEDIENCE perpetual, in the Society of JESUS; and I promise to enter that Society in order to live and die in it,* taking all things in the sense of the Constitutions of the same Society. Of * Ut vitam in eâ perpetuò degam.