(a very bad judge of such merchandise); thus preferring ostensible to spiritual benevolence; fasting, penances, corporeal austerities, to gentleness, modesty, and self-government, which are of infinitely more value.

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Sixthly, He also reproved those who would not seek to obtain any virtues which were unsuited to their inclinations, to the neglect of what their duties more particularly required; serving God as it pleased themselves, and not in the manner which he commands. So common is this error, that a great number of persons, some very devout, suffer themselves to fall into it."

WE MAY BE VERY REGULAR IN DEVOTION, AND VERY WICKED.

“Do not deceive yourself,' said my friend: 'it is not impossible to be very devout, and yet very wicked.'—'Very hypocritical,' I replied,' and not sincerely pious.'- -'No: Ispeak of intentional devotion. This enigma appearing to me inexplicable, I begged he would explain his meaning more clearly. 'Devotion of self and of nature,' he answered, 'is only a morally acquired virtue, and not a heavenly one, assisted by grace: otherwise it would be theological, which certainly it is not. It is a quality subordinate to what is termed religion; or, as some say, it is only one of its effects, or fruits, as religion is in itself subordinate to that one of the cardinal virtues called justice, or righteousness.

"You well know that all moral virtues, and also faith and hope, which are theological, may subsist with sin. They are then without form or life, being

deprived of CHARITY, which is their substance, their soul, and on which all their power depends.'

“I lamented bitterly to St. Francis of the very hard treatment which I had received. 'To any other person,' he said, 'I should apply the unction of consolation; but the consideration of your situation in life, and the sincerity of my affection for you, render any such expression of affection needless. Pity would inflame the wound you have received. I shall, therefore, throw vinegar and salt upon it." [Is not this affected cruelty, and truly flattering candor, admirable?]

"You said that it required amazing and well-tried patience to bear such an insult in silence.'

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Certainly yours cannot be of a very ament, since you complain so loudly.'

fine temper

"But it is only in your friendly bosom, in the ear of your affection, that I pour out my sorrows. To whom should a child turn for compassion but to a kind parent?'

""Oh, you babe! Is it fit, do you suppose, for one who occupies a lofty station in the Church of Christ, to encourage himself in such childishness? "When I was a child," said St. Paul, "I spake as a child; but, when I became a man, I put away childish things." The imperfect articulation, so engaging in an infant, becomes an imperfection if continued in riper years. Do you wish to be fed with milk and pap instead of solid food? Have you not teeth to masticate bread, EVEN THE BITTER BREAD OF GRIEF?

"What! can you delight in bearing on your breast a golden cross, and then let your heart sink beneath

the weight of slight affliction, and pour out bitter lamentations?'"

WE ARE APT TO GIVE THE NAME OF CALUMNY TO UNPLEASANT BUT WHOLESOME TRUTHS.

anew.

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them: every day, begin the task The best method of attaining to Christian perfection is to be aware that you have not yet reached it, but never to be weary of recommencing. For, in the first place, how can you patiently bear your brother's burden, if you will not bear your own?

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Secondly, How can you reprove any one with gentleness, when you correct yourself with asperity?

Thirdly, Whosoever is overcome with a sense of his faults will not be able to subdue them: correction, to answer a good end, must proceed from a tranquil and thoughtful mind." He means a mind made tranquil by its own consciousness of good intention, and a mild consideration of what is best.

Erasmus said, that, when he considered the life and doctrines of Socrates, he was inclined to exclaim "Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis" ("Saint Socrates, pray for us"); that is, to put him in the saintly and Christian calendar. We do not live under a Catholic dispensation; but certainly, while reading this book, we have been inclined to exclaim, "Would to God there were but one Christian Church, and such men as Saint Francis de Sales were counted saints by everybody, not to be imitated by them in by-gone,

ascetical customs, much less in opinions that must have perplexed such natures more than any others, but in the ever-living necessities of charity and good faith, and the hope that such a church may come! And it may, and we believe will; for utility itself will find it indispensable, to say nothing of those indestructible faculties of man that are necessary to render utility itself beautiful and useful. If earth is to be made smoother, most assuredly the sky cannot be left out of its consideration, nor will appear less lovely; and we never see an old quiet village church among the trees, under a calm heaven, such as that, for instance, of Finchley or Hendon, -without feeling secure that such a time will arrive, with "Beauties" such as those of St. Francis de Sales preached in it, and congregations who have really discovered that " God is love.”

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THE EVE OF ST. AGNES.

HE reader should give us three pearls, instead of three half-pence,* for this number of our publication; for it presents him with the whole of Mr. Keats's beautiful poem, entitled as above, to say nothing of our loving commentary.

St. Agnes was a Roman virgin, who suffered martyrdom in the reign of Diocletian. Her parents, a few days after her decease, are said to have had a vision of her, surrounded by angels, and attended by a white lamb, which afterward became sacred to her. In the Catholic Church, formerly the nuns used to bring a couple of lambs to her altar during mass. The superstition is (for we believe it is still to be found), that, by taking certain measures of divination, damsels may get a sight of their future husbands in a dream. The ordinary process seems to have been by fasting. Aubrey (as quoted in "Brand's Popular Antiquities") mentions another; which is, to take a row of pins, and pull them out one by one, saying a Pater-noster; after which, upon going to bed, the dream is sure to ensue. Brand quotes Ben Jonson:

*The price of the journal in which the article first appeared.