Poems, with copious notes, also an introd. and biographical sketch by Mrs. J. Sadlier

Front matter

O

S

OF

Introduction To The Poems 41

A Fragment 160

A Harvest Hymn 99

Along the Line 161

A Malediction 69

A mere Irishman's Lament 79

Am I Remember' d 159

An Apology to the Harp 61

An International Song 164

An Invitation Westward 146

Another Year 143

A Profession 157

Arm and rise ! 163

A Salutation 138

A Salutation to the Free Flag of America 131

A Song for the Sections 71

A Vow and Prayer 123

Change 89

Death of the Homeward Bound 102

Deeds done in Days of Shame 84

Dream Journeys 140

Freedom' s Journey 160

Freedom's Land 75

Hail to the Land 67

Home Sonnets — Address to Ireland 125

Hope 96

It is easy to Die 92

Lord Gl — gall's Dream 154

Midsummer, 1851 151

Native Hills 141

New- Year's Thoughts 87

No Surrender 83

Ode to an Emigrant Ship 93

O'Donnell of Spain 147 yj CONTENTS.

PAGE

Oh ! blame me not 128

Prologue to St. Patrick at Tara H*

Question and Answer 1

Rise and go I55

Rocks and Rivers 86

Salutation to the Celts I35

Song of the Sikhs 74

Song of the Surplus I49

Sonnet I30

Sonnet— Return 139

The ancient Race 132

The Army of the West 73

The Celt's Consolation 82

The Dawning of the Day 90

The deserted Chapel 77

The Emigrant at Home 64

The Exile's Devotion 108

The Exile's Meditation 105

The Exile's Request 134

The Gathering of the Nations 85

The Heart's Resting-place 127

The Living and the Dead 101

The Parting from Ireland 10G

The Pilgrims of Liberty 65

The Reaper's Song 98

The Recusant 81

The Saint's Farewell 110

The Search for the Gael 91

The Song of Labor 112

The Three Dreams 104

The Three Minstrels 63

Time's Teachings 142

To Duffy, Free 120

To Duffy in Prison 116

To my Wishing-cap Ill

Try again 156

Union is Strength 136

When Fighting was the Fashion 95

Wishes 148

A Ballad of Pxinnow 271

Address to Milesius . 171

CONTENTS. vij

PAGE

After the Flight 312

A Legend of Dunltice Castle 265

A Legend of St. Patrick 192

Amcrgin's Anthem on discovering Innisfail 174

An Invocation 170

A Prayer for Feargal O'Gara 323

Brother Michael 317

Bryan, the Tanist *. . 213

Carolan the Blind 329

Cathal's Farewell to the Eye 223

Charity and Science 338

Death of Art M'Murrough 267

De Courcy's Pilgrimage 258

Epithalamium 256

Execution of Archbishop Plunkett 328

Feagh M'Hugh 297

Flan Synan's Game of Chess 209

How St. Kiernan protected Clonmacnoise 214

In-felix Felix 325

lona 219

lona to Erin ! 221

Ireland of the Druids 181

Kildare's Bard on Tournaments 283

King Brian's Ambition 246

King Brian's Answer 248

King Brian's Lament for his Brother Mahon 248

King Malachy and the Poet M'Coisi 245

Lady Gormley 211

Lament of the Irish Children imprisoned in the Tower 298

Lay of the last Monk of Mucruss 306

Lost, lost Armada 304

Margaret O'Carroll 277

Mileodh Espagne 172

Origin of the Isle of Man 179

Queen Mary's Mercy 283

Randall M'Donald 279

Rory Dall's Lamentation 314

Saint Bees .• y . 860

Saint Columbanus in Italy to Saint Comgall hi Ireland 231

Shawn Na Gow's Guest 345

Sir Cahir O'Dogherty's Message 309

Song of " Moylnn's Dragoons " 336

Song of O'Donnell in Spain 303 fill

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Sonnet — to Kilbarron Castle 324

St. Brendan and the Strife-sower 199

St. Cormac, the Navigator 229

St. Patrick's Death 198

St. Patrick's Dream 187

St. Patrick's first Converts 189

St. Patrick's of the woods 351

The Abbey of Lough Key 357

The Banshee and the Bride 285

The Battle of Ayachucho 352

The Battle of Clontarf 249

The Caoine of Donnell More 228

The Captivity of St. Patrick 185

The Celts 17G

The Coming of St. Patrick 184

The Coming of the Danes 235

The Connaught Chief's Farewell 326

The Croppies' Grave 334

The Death of Donnell More 225

The Death of King Magnus Barefoot 237

The Death of O'Carolan 333

The Famine in the Land 339

The flying Ships 342

The four Masters 320

The Gobhan Saers 178

The Harp of King Brian 169

The haunted Castle 355

The Irish Homes of Illinois 348

The Irish Wife 282

The Landing of the Normans 255

The Last 0' Sullivan Beare 315

The Legend of Croagh Patrick 195

The Love Charm 286

The outlawed Earl C.Q-.

The Penitence of Don Diego Bias . 262

The Pilgrimage of Sir Ulgarg 280

The Poet's Prophecy g00

The Praise of Margaret O'Carroll of Offally 274

The Rapparees 01 A

The Saga of King Olaf, of Norway, and his Dog 240

The Shanty ' 349

The sinful Scholar .. 05"

The Summons of Ulster i

CONTENTS. i

PAGE

The Testament of St. Arbogast 233

The Voyage of Eman Oge 201

The wild Geese 332

The ' ' Wisdom-sellers ' ' before Charlemagne 205

The woful Winter 343

Three Sonnets for St. Patrick's Day 194

To the River Boyne 330

'Tvvas something then to be a Bard 284

An Eastern Legend 373

A Plea for Spain 407

Caleb and Joshua 374

Columbus 383

Diephon 365

Hannibal's Vision of the Gods of Carthage 368

Jacques Cartier 387

Jacques Cartier and the Child 389

'; Our Ladye of the Snow !" 393

Re-conquest of the Spanish Land 380

Sebastian Cabot to his Lady '. 385

The Answer of Simonides 370

The Death of Hudson 398

The Jews in Babylon 372

The Launch of the Griffin 404

The Maccabees 376

The Star of the Magi and of Bethlehem 378

The Virgin Mary's Knight 381

Verses in honor of Margaret Bourgeoys 391

A Death-song 419

A Dream of Youth 445

A Monody on the Death of Gerald Griffin 436

An Invitation to the Country 429

Cead mille failthe, O'Meagher ! 435

Consolation 439

Edward Whelan 465

Eugene O'Curry 457

Home Thoughts 428

I love thee, Mary ! 425

CONTENTS.

Lines written in a Lady's Album 424

Live for Love 42°

Mary's Heart

Memento Mori

Memento Mori 4

Memories '

Requiem JSternam 4G^

St. Kevin's Bed 416

Sursum Corda 455

The dead Antiquary, O'Donovan 448

The Death-bed 430

The Exile 421

The Parting "413

The Priest of Perth 463

Thoughts of Ireland 414

To a Friend in Australia 444

To Mary in Ireland 417

To Mary's Angel 423

To Mr. Kennedy, the Scottish Minstrel 461

William Smith O'Brien 446

Wishes ,- 460

Words of Welcome 443

A Contrast 495

Ad Misericordiam 505

An Epicurean Ditty 489

A Plea for the Poor 492

A small Catechism 532

Autumn and Winter 531

Contentment 501

Dark blue Eyes 478

Donna Violetta 493

False Fear of the World 488

God Bless the Brave ! 514

Grandma Alice 506

Graves in the Forest 491

Hallowe'en in Canada— 1863 510

Icebergs • 522

Impromptu 523

Independence , 530

CONTENTS. x

PAGE

Irish Proverbs 480

Lines, written on the eighty-second Anniversary of the birth of

Thomas Moore 500

Lines written on the Fly-leaf of a Book — 493

" Lough Derg." 482

My Round Table 473

Peace hath her Victories 625

Prima Vista 533

Rich and Poor 496

Sunset on the Corso at Rome 518

Tasso's Tomb at Rome 520

The Charter Song of the Tom Moore Club 498

The farther Shore 511

The Lord and the Peasant 479

The Man of the North Countrie 484

The Minstrel's Curse 527

The Mountain-laurel 477

The Old Soldier and the Student 516

The Ponitent Raven 508

The Romance of a Hand 475

The Sea Captain 523

The Star Venus 512

The Students 490

The Student's luckless Love 476

The Sunless Land 526

The Trip over the Mountain " 499

Thomas Moore at St. Ann's 513

To Miss M. S 508

Woman's Praise 503

Youth and Death 487

A Christmas Prelude 557

A Prayer for the Dead 565

Christmas Morn 560

Eternity 639

Hymn to Saint Patrick 541

I will go to the Altar of God 571

Life, a Mystery to Man 553

Shrines on the Shore 545

Soldier ! make your Sword your Cross ! 567

St. Bridget of Kildare.. . .544

Xll

CONTENTS.

Sunday Hymn at Sea 570

The Saints of Erin 540

The Celt's Prayer 542

The Prayer to St. Brendan 543

The dying Celt to his American Son 547

The Cross in the West 548

The Hermit of Croagh Patrick 549

Winifred of Wales 551

The Christian Brothers 552

The Arctic Indian's Faith 556

The Midnight Mass 561

The Rosary 563

The Three Sisters 564

The first Communion 568

The Pearl of great Price 572

Boyhood's Dreams 577

Canticle of the Irish Christian 579

Lines addressed to Mr. A. M'Evoy, of Boston, one of the Author's

first Friends in America 585

Lines dedicated to the Memory of a beloved Mother and two dear

Sisters 577

Lines sacred to the Memory of John Banim 589

Lines to the Petrel 580

Lines written on the Fly-leaf of a copy of "The Spirit of the Na tion , 590

Sea Song 581

Song of the American Repealers 586

Song supposed to be sung by one of the Seamen during a stormy

Night 582

To Ireland 533

To Wexford in the Distance 578

Trees 587

BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

THOMAS D'AECY McGEE, whose poems are now for the first time presented in a collective form to the public, was born at Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland, on the 13th day of April, 1825. His father, Mr. James McGee, then in the Coast Guard Service, had married Miss Dorcas Catherine Morgan, the highly-educated daughter of a Dublin book seller, who had been imprisoned and financially ruined by his participation in the conspiracy of 1798.* Of this union, Thomas D'Arcy was the fifth child and second son. Born and nurtured amid the grand and lovely scenery of the Eosstrevor coast, his early childhood fleeted by in a region of wild, romantic beauty, which impressed itself forevermore on his heart and mind, and tended not a little, as we may well suppose, to foster, if not create, that poetic fancy which made the charm of his life, and infused itself into all he wrote and all he said. He was eight years old when the family removed to the historic town of Wexford, where the elder Mr. McGee had received a more lucrative appointment.

* " Both on the father and mother's side," says a biographer of Mr. McGee, " he was descended from families remarkable for their devotion to the cause of Ireland. With the exception of his father, all the men of the families on both sides were ' United Irishmen.' " — See " Short Sketch of the Life of Hon T. D. McGee," by H. J. O'C. Clarke, Q. C., Montreal.

IQ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE A UTHOR.

Soon after their removal to Wexford, the McGee family sustained a heavy blow in the death of the accomplished and most exemplary wife and mother. The rare worth and the varied attainments of this lady may be estimated by the profound respect, the more than filial affection, so to say, with which her eminent son cherished her memory all the days of his life. Of his father he was wont to speak as an honest, upright, religious man ; but his mother he loved to describe as a woman of extraordinary elevation of mind, an enthusiastic lover of her country, its music, its legends, its wealth of ancient lore. Herself a good musician and a fine singer, it was to the songs of her ancient race she rocked her children's cradle, and from her dear voice her favorite son, the subject of our sketch, drank in the music — the sweet old Gaelic melody — that rings in all his poetical compositions, as a lingering echo from the past. His pas sionate and inextinguishable love for the land of his birth, her story and her song, may be traced, and was ever traced by himself, to the same source. Even the strong and vigor ous, yet simple religious faith, which was one of the mother's characteristics, was no less discernible in her son — at every stage of his life manifesting itself in profound respect for religion and its ministers, and for everything that men should hold sacred here below ; while the fervent piety of the true Irish mother is happily found reflected in the truly religious tone of all his latest poems.

The loss of such a mother, it is needless to say, was keenly felt by such a son ; and through all the changeful years of his after-life, her gentle memory shone like a star through the clouds and mists that never fail to gather round the path of advancing life.

But the mother slept in her quiet grave in the old Cister cian Abbey, and years rolled over the head of our young poet, each one bringing sorrow and change — his mighty

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE A TJTHOR. 17

genius developing itself year by year without other aids than a day-school in Wexford afforded, the higher advantages of education being as yet beyond the reach of the middle classes in Ireland, unless a religious vocation called their sons to Maynooth. But the boyish years of the future statesman and historian were not passed in mean or frivo lous pursuits. His love for poetry and for old-world lore grew with his growth, and by the age of seventeen he had read all that had come within his reach relating to the his tory of his own and other lands. He had read of Wash ington, and of the great country beyond the Atlantic where Freedom had established her throne, and where the oppressed of all nations found a welcome, a home, and equal laws for all. He knew that many of his race had there found fame, and wealth, and honor ; and seeing little prospect of ad vancement at home, he emigrated to America, with one of his sisters. He was little over seventeen when, after a short visit to his aunt in Providence, R. I. (the only sister of his much-loved mother), he arrived in Boston, just at the time when the " Repeal movement " was in full strength amongst the Irish population of that city, warmly aided by some of the prominent public men of America of that day. It was in June, 1842, that our young Irish poet arrived in Boston. "When the 4th of July came round, the roar of artillery and the gladsome shouts of the multitude, the waving of flags, and the general jubilation of a people whr. had freed themselves, fired his youthful imagination. It seemed to him that what he saw that day was but the fore shadowing of similar scenes in his own beloved land.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee addressed the people that day, and the eloquence of the boy-orator enchained the multi tudes who heard him then, as the more finished speeches of his later years were wont

" The applause of list'ning senates to command."

A day or two after, our young exile was offered, and accepted, a situation in connection with the Boston Pilot, of which widely-circulated Irish-American journal he became chief editor some two years later, just when the Native- American excitement was at its height, and the American people were about to witness the disgraceful riots in Phila delphia which resulted in the sacking and burning of two Catholic churches. It was a critical period in the history of the Irish race in America ; they were proscribed and perse cuted on American soil, and were once again, as of old in their own land, obliged to defend their lives, their property, their churches. Few were then their defenders in the press of America, but of those few stood foremost in the van Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a host in himself. With all the might of his precocious genius, and all the fire of his fervid eloquence, he advocated the cause of his countrymen and co-religionists, and so scathing were his fiery denunciations of the Native Americans, as the hostile party were styled, that all New England rang with their unwelcome echo. This outburst of fanaticism at length subsided and passed away, but the popularity which the young Irish editor and orator had gained during the struggle continued to grow and flourish. The Eepeal agitation was then at its height both in Ireland and America, and again the Boston Pilot and T. D. McGee took a leading part. By his speeches at Kepeal meetings, his lectures delivered all through New England, and his already powerful pen, our young " Wexford boy,'' as he was often called, rendered so good service to the cause he loved, that his fame crossed the Atlantic and reached O'Connell himself, who, at some of the public meetings of the day, referred to his splendid editorials as "the inspired writings of a young exiled Irish boy in America." So mightily had his fame increased, that he was invited by the proprietor of the Dublin Freeman's Journal—

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE A UTHOK. 19

then as now one of the leading Irish journals — to become its editor. No offer could be more acceptable to Mr. McGee, as none could have been more nattering, or more in accord ance with his heart's dearest wish, to do something for the advancement of his native land. But what a change in his fortunes! Three years before he had left his home by the Slaney side to better his fortune in the New "World : he had left Ireland unnoticed and unknown ; he returned radiant with fame, his youthful brow already crowned with the laurels he had won in defence of his people at home and abroad, called to aid the greatest of patriots and his asso ciates in the cause of Irish freedom.

So, at the age of twenty, our poet-journalist took his place in the front rank of the Irish press. But the Freeman was too moderate in its tone, too cautious, as it were, for the fervid young patriot ; and finding that he was not at liberty to change its character or its course, he gladly accepted the offer of his friend Charles Gavin Duffy to assist him in edit ing the Nation, in conjunction with Thomas Davis, John Mitchel, and Thomas Deviu Reilly.

In such hands the Nation soon became the great organ of the National party, the mouth-piece of all the fervent aspira tions of what was called "Young Ireland." Perhaps no journal was ever published in any country with such a galaxy of genius shining on its pages. Like a magnet, it drew to itself men and women of all their race the most brilliantly endowed with the gifts of mind. Their names became household words — words of pride and power — amongst the Irish people. The poetry of the Nation, even more than its prose, was read and quoted everywhere, and its voice stirred the people like a trumpet's sound. The im mediate result was the secession of the War party, repre sented by the Nation, from the ranks of the National or Old Ireland party, so well and wisely led by the great O'Connell,

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

who had done much for his country, and would have done more, in all human probability, were it not for this fatal secession of the younger and more ardent spirits who had been wont to follow his banner.

But the end came, and a sad end it was. The great "Liberator" died, while on foreign travel, a broken-hearted man. Famine had stricken the land of Erin, and her peo ple, made desperate by despair, were judged by the " Young Irelanders" ripe for rebellion. Mr. McGee, who was secre tary of the Committee of the Confederation, was one of those deputed by his party to rouse the people to action ; and after the delivery of a stirring address at Roundwood, in the county of Wicklow, he was arrested, but succeeded soon after in obtaining his release. Nothing daunted by this first mishap, he agreed to go to Scotland for the pur pose of enlisting the active sympathies of the Irish in the manufacturing towns, and obtaining their co-operation in the contemplated insurrection.* He was in Scotland when the news reached him that the "rising" had been attempted in Ireland, and had signally failed — that some of the leaders had been arrested, and a reward offered for the apprehen-

* Amongst other accusations brought against Mr. McGee by his bitter and unscrupulous enemies, is that of having betrayed his trust, or, at least, sadly mismanaged his Scotch mission — " the Dumbarton aft'air," as they call it. Happily, we have on record the public testimony of Mr. Duffy, by whom, amongst others, he was sent on that mission, that he had acquitted himself •with honor and fidelity of the duties it imposed upon him. These are hia words, well known indeed, but ever fresh, because so true :

"To forty political prisoners in Newgate, when the world seemed shut ou< to me forever, I estimated him" (meaning Mr. McGee) " as I do to-day. I said, ' If we were about to begin our work anew, I would rather have his help than any man's of all our confederates. I said he could do more things like a master than the best amongst us since Thomas Davis; that he had been sent, at the last hour, on a perilous mission, and performed it not only with unflinching courage, but with a success which had no parallel in that era ; and, above all, that he Las been systematically blackened by the Jacobins to an extent that would have blackened a saint of God. Since he has been in America, I have watched his career, and one thing it has never wanted— a fixed devotion to Irish interests.' "

BJOGEAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, 21

sion of himself, and others who had effected their escape. These were sad tidings for our ardent young patriot — sadder all the more for that he had married less than a year before, and a fair young wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, anxiously awaited his return in their quiet, happy home, in a pleasant suburb of Dublin. A few short months before he had been a gay and happy bridegroom, spending the first bright days of married life with his young bride amid the romantic solitudes of Wicklow, dreaming proud dreams for Ireland, and fair ones for himself and her he loved. All that was past now. Ruin had already come on the national cause, and death or exile awaited himself. The dreams he had dreamed and the hopes he had cherished were all flown, it might be, forever. But something must be done, and that quickly. He succeeded in crossing in safety the narrow sea between Scotland and Ireland, and in the far North found a generous friend and host in the late everlamented Dr. Maginn, the gifted and patriotic Bishop of Derry. Protected and sheltered by that great and good prelate, Mr. McGee awaited the visit of his wife, whom he had contrived to make acquainted with his place of conceal ment. He could not and would not leave Ireland without seeing and bidding her farewell. Sad indeed was their part ing, for the young wife was soon to become a mother, and who might tell if she were ever to see her husband's face again ? Yet with the unselfishness of true affection she urged him to hasten his departure for America, and he once again sailed, in the disguise of a priest, for what he fondly and proudly called the Land of Freedom. He landed in Philadelphia on the 10th of October, in that memorable year of '48, and on the 26th day of the same month appeared the first number of his New York Nation, the advent of which was hailed with enthusiasm by the great majority of the Irish in America. The prestige of the Dublin Nation, of

22 I* W a HA PHICA L SKETCH OF THE A UTHOR.

\vhich Mr. McGee was known to have been one of the editors, the idat he had before gained as editor of the Bos ton Pilot, and, lastly, the great want the American Irish had of a powerful organ, all combined to make the first issue of the New York Nation an event most anxiously looked for.

As far as ability and power were concerned, the Nation fully realized the most sanguine expectations of Mr. McGee's friends, and it took, as it were by right, the place of the great Irish organ of America. But unfortunately for him self and the prospects of his paper, Mr. McGee — naturally feeling sore on account of the utter and most ignoble failure of his party in Ireland, and the imprisonment of his dearest friend, Gavin Duffy, and others of the leaders — in writing on the causes of the revolutionary collapse, threw the blame .on the priesthood and hierarchy of Ireland, who had, he said, used their boundless influence in dissuading the people from joining the insurrection. As might be expected, the illus trious Bishop Hughes, then happily governing the diocese of New York, took up the defence of the Irish clergy, and triumphantly proved, through the columns of the press, that in acting as they had done, they saved their people from utter ruin by rushing into a rebellion for which no adequate preparation had been made. Mr. McGee stoutly maintained his own opinion, and many took sides with him ; but all the religious sympathies of the Irish people, and their profound reverence for their clergy, were arrayed against him, and he found, when too late, that he had lost ground considerably in the favor of the best portion of his countrymen in America. To do him justice, his own truly Irish respect for the clerical order speedily regained its paramount place in his mind and heart, and he not only desisted very soon from writing against the Bishop, but ever after deplored this con troversy with him as one of the false steps of his life. What few men so greatly endowed would have done, he frequently expressed, both in public and in private, his un qualified regret that he had so far given way to the irrita tion consequent on the soreness of defeat, as to raise his voice 'or wield his pen against a prelate whose greatness none knew better than he, or more fully acknowledged.

But the New York Nation never recovered the effect of this unwise controversy, and, yielding to the wishes of his numerous friends in Boston, Mr. McGee removed, with his wife and an infant daughter, to that city, and commenced, in the year 1850, the publication of the American Celt. During the first two years of the Celt's existence, it was characterized by the same, or nearly the same, revolutionary ardor ; but there came a time when the great strong mind and far-seeing intellect of its editor began to soar above the clouds of passion and prejudice into the regions of eternal truth. The cant of faction, the fiery denunciations that, after all, amounted to nothing, he began to see in their true colors ; and with his whole heart he then and ever after aspired to elevate the Irish people, not by impracticable Utopian schemes of revolution, but by teaching them to make the best of the hard fate that made them the subjects of a for eign power differing from them in race and in religion ; to cultivate among them the arts of peace, and to raise them selves, by the ways of peaceful industry and increasing en lightenment, to the level even of the more prosperous sisterisland. Who will say that he was less a patriot, less a lover of Ireland after than before this remarkable change from out-and-out radicalism to that calm conservatism which was the result of no selfish motive, but simply of matured thought and the sage counsels of such profound Christian thinkers as the late most eminent Bishop Fitzpatrick of Boston? As this change in Mr. McGee's principles has been, and still is, grossly misrepresented by the revolution ary party, whose ranks he quitted then and forevei*. and as

24 BIO G EA PIIICA L SKETCH OF THE A UTHOE.

many even of those who most admired his genius and his poetry have accepted the views of his unscrupulous enemies, I think it my duty to dwell at more length on this particular point than the limit of this introductory sketch might seem to warrant. In justice to his memory, I will leave him to explain in his own terse and vigorous style the reasons, or rather the chain of argument, by which he arrived at the new set of principles which governed his whole remaining life. It was in the Augtist of 1852 that he addressed, through the columns of the Celt, a "Letter to a Friend" on what he aptly styled "the recent Conspiracy against the Peace and Existence of Christendom." This friend, we have reason to think, was the late brilliantly-endowed Thomas F. Meagher.* The second paragraph of this remarkable letter reads as follows :

"Let me beg of you, in the sacred name of God, your Author and Redeemer, and in the dear name of Ireland, that you use this interval of exemption from a decided course to review the whole field of European politics, and to bring the proposals of the most conspicuous organs of power and agi tators of change in our time to the only test of a Christian — the beam and scales in which St. John saw the angels weigh ing men, actions, and motives. This standard of right and wrong, a Protestant Christian might say, does not exist in this world ; but a Catholic knows better. You are a Cath olic. For you there is an exact and infallible standard, to which nothing is too high and nothing too low — which will detect a grain wanting in a pennyweight, or a stone missing from a pyramid. The field of that standard is Christendom —Christ's kingdom — that is, his Church, and the angels of