Spanish Life and Character.

"In eastern lands they talk with flowers,And they tell in a garland their loves and cares;Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowersOn its leaves a mystic language bears."

And in joyous youth who has not dreamed of that "bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream," so sweetly sung by the Irish bard? The very name of India reminds one of Nourmahal and of that most enchanting of all feasts, "the feast of roses."

It will then scarcely surprise any one to be told that Asia, the birthplace of the great human family, is also the birthplace of more varieties of roses than all the other parts of the world put together. Thirty-nine species have been discovered indigenous to this favored portion of the globe, fifteen of which belong to the Chinese empire.

One of the prettiest of these fifteen is the Lawrence rose, (rosa Lawrenceana,) a fairy-like bush, six inches high, with flowers not much larger than a silver dime, blooming all the year round. By the side of this pigmy tree, which we must not forget to observe is remarkable for the symmetry of its proportions, is often found the many-flowered rose, (rosa multiflora,) whose flexible branches, rising sometimes to the height of sixteen feet, are covered in the early summer with magnificent clusters of pale pink double flowers.

Among the many double Chinese roses, the small-leaved one (rosa microphylla) is highly prized and most assiduously cultivated in its native land. Its delicate foliage and pale pink very double flowers are well known also to the rose-fanciers of the United States. Another beautiful variety, therosa Banksiae, climbs the rocky fells of China, hiding their rugged barrenness with a living curtain of verdure, enamelled with multitudes of little drooping flowers of a yellowish white, which exhale the sweet odor of violets.

Cochin-China, with these same species, lays claim to two others that we must notice; the very thorny rose, (rosa spinosissima,) with scentless flesh-colored petals, and the white rose, (rosa alba,) which we also find indigenous in France, Lombardy, and other parts of Europe. Japan, besides the roses of China, possesses therosa rugosa, the only one peculiar to the clime.

Passing on to Hindostan, we may believe that the tiger which prowls along the burning shores of the Bay of Bengal ofttimes crouches under the boughs blooming with the lovely white corollas of the many-bracted rose (rosa involucrata) to make his deadly spring, and that the crocodiles of the Ganges find secure hiding-places to lie in wait for their prey, beneath the ever-succeeding red blossoms and never-fading luxuriant foliage of therosa semperflorens. How often, all the world over, are sweetest things but lurking-places for pain and death!

Among the hills of the peninsula we meet the large-leaved rose, (rosa macrophylla,) the tips of whose white petals are each stained with a small bright red spot; and on the margin of the sunny lakes of cool Cashmere, the milk-white flowers of Lyell's rose, (rosa Lyellii,) a beautiful species that has been successfully acclimatized in France.

In the gardens of Kandahar, Samarcand, and Ispahan the rosetree(rosa arborea) is cultivated; a real tree, with wide-spreading branches, covered in the spring with snowy flowers of the richest perfume, making fragrant the surrounding hill and dales. In Persia we also find the barberry-leaved rose, (rosa berberifolia,) a singular variety which displays a star-like yellow corolla marked in the centre with a deep crimson stain. So unlike is this flower to all others of the family that one feels almost inclined to deny its claim to any relationship with the queen of flowers. Science, however, has decided that therosa berberifoliais a true rose.

Further on to the west, beneath "the sultry blue of Syria's heaven," we encounter the lovely corymbs of the damask rose, (rosa damascena,) with crimson velvet or variegated petals and gold-colored stamens. It is said that the valiant knights who accompanied the French king Saint Louis to the Crusades brought back with them to France this beautiful flower, an ever-living witness of their prowess in the Holy Land. It is as beloved by the honey-bees of Europe as its wilder sisters on the sweet banks of Jordan have ever been by the blossom-rifling rovers of Palestine.

As the rose-seeker wanders forth from Syria toward the north he is arrested for a moment by the vivid yellow double flowers of therosa sulfurea, but has scarcely time to admire them, graceful though they be, before he catches sight of the loveliest and most fragrant of all roses, therosa centifolia, the hundred-leaved rose, the rose of the nightingale, the rose of the poet!

"Rose! what dost thou here?Bridal, royal rose!How, 'midst grief and fear,Canst thou thus discloseThat fervid hue of love which to thy heart-leaf glows?"Smilest thou, gorgeous flower?Oh! within the spellsOf thy beauty's powerSomething dimly dwellsAt variance with a world of sorrows and farewells."All the soul forth-flowingIn that rich perfume,All the proud life glowingIn that radiant bloom,Have they no place buthere, beneath th' o'ershadowing tomb?"Crown'st thou but the daughtersOf our tearful race?Heaven's own purest watersWell might wear the traceOf thy consummate form, melting to softer grace."Will that clime enfold theeWith immortal air?Shall we not behold theeBright and deathless there?In spirit-lustre clothed, transcendently more fair!"

The valleys of Circassia and Georgia are the birthplace of this most beautiful of flowers, of whose exquisite form, color, and perfume even Mrs. Hemans's rapturous verses can give no idea.

The fierce rose (rosa ferox) is sometimes found mingling its great red flowers with those ofrosa centifolia, and the pulverulent rose (rosa pulverulenta) dwells near them on the declivities of the Peak of Manzana.

As we hasten on through the dreary steppes of Russian Asia, we meet the sad-looking yellowish rose, dismal in aspect as the land it lives in, and more remarkable for its great pulpy hip than for its flower. A little nearer to the north, the handsome, large-flowered rose (rosa grandiflora) expands its elegant corolla in the form of an antique vase, and on the plains lying at the foot of the Ural mountains the reddish rose, (rosa rubella,) with petals sometimes rich and deep in color, but more often faint and faded-looking, gladdens for a moment the heart-sore Polish exile as he wends his weary way to his living grave, faint and faded-looking as the flower that reminds him of his distant home.

Despite the cold breath of the frozen ocean, the acicular rose (rosa acicularis) lives and thrives on its shores, and regularly opens its pale-red solitary blossoms at the first call of the short-lived Siberian summer. The icy breezes of the frigid zone may have done much, however, toward developing the ill-natured tendency to long, needle-like thorns to which this rose owes its uncouth name.

Omitting ten or twelve other varieties, we will conclude the list of the indigenous roses of Asia with the rose of Kamtschatka, (rosa Kamtschatica,) a beautiful solitary flower of a pinkish white color, and bearing some resemblance to therosa rugosaof Japan.

The roses of Africa are still to be discovered; its vast unexplored regions perhaps contain many as beautiful as those we possess, but at present we are only acquainted with four or five species, one of which, the dog-rose, so common all over Europe, is a native of Egypt. Among the mountains of Abyssinia blooms a pretty red variety with evergreen foliage, and on the borders of that "wild expanse of lifeless sand," the great Sahara in Egypt, and on the plains of Tunis and of Morocco, the corymbs of the white musk-rose (rosa moschata) perfume the ambient air. This charming flower is also indigenous to the Island of Madeira.

We have thus taken a bird's-eye view of the rose'shabitat, passing over much of interesting, much of curious that has been written about the favorite flower. We might go on and mention the singular and marvellous virtues attributed to it by the ancients; we might (were we learned) learnedly discourse on the Island of Rhodes, whose coins are found bearing the effigy of the rose; of the rose-noble, and the old English fashion of wearing a rose behind the ear; we might describe the gardens of Ghazipour and the whole process of extracting the delicious attar of roses; we might hint at the mysterious influence the scented blossom appears to exercise over some strangely organized individuals, who seem capable "of dying of a rose, in aromatic pain;" but we prefer to conclude here our sketch of the geography of roses.

Unlearned and superficial as we well know it is, it may show some pleasant meanings to the young lover of flowers, and awaken his curiosity to examine for himself the floral treasures that bloom in every field, garden, and grove. Such a study will do more toward filling his heart with a spirit of love and peace, and elevating his mind above purely material cares, than any other pursuit; for

"Where does the Wisdom and the Power divineIn a more bright and sweet reflection shine?"

"From nature up to nature's God" is the natural result of all scientific investigations which are carried on with a real capacity of observation and a sincere love of truth. Feeling and thought, purified and sanctified by constant intercourse with the high objects of life, with the enduring things of nature, fail not to recognize the "Wisdom and the Spirit of the universe" in his works.

"Were I, O God! in churchless lands remaining,Far from all voice of teachers or divines,My soul would find, in flowers of thy ordaining,Priests, sermons, shrines!"

[Footnote 120]

[Footnote 120:Impressions of Spain. By Lady Herbert. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1869.Letters from Spain. By William Cullen Bryant. 12mo. New York: D. Appleton & Co.Voyage en Espagne. Par M. Eugène Poitou. 8vo, pp. 483. Tours: A. Mame et Fila. 1869.]

Lady Herbert strikes the key-note of her narrative of Spanish travel about the middle of the book. "Catholicism in Spain," she remarks, "is not merely the religion of the people:it is their life." Precisely because she feels this life, and, despite her English common sense, sympathizes with the Spanish people in their strong religious sentiment, she describes them with a rare fidelity, and gives us, if not a highly colored, a very vivid picture. No traveller who is not a Catholic can paint Spain as she is. Mr. Bryant looked at the people with a kindly eye; but he did not understand them. From him, as well as from the common run of English and American tourists, we get mere surface sketches—pleasant enough to read, perhaps, but that is all. Protestant travellers see no more of the popular life and character than if they sailed over the country in a balloon. They find the diligences marvels of antiquated discomfort; the railways, miracles of unpunctuality and slowness; travel, a hardship which there is little attempt to alleviate. They find that in Spain no Spaniard is ever in a hurry, and no stranger is allowed to be so either. If they are kept shivering at a roadside station three or four hours in the midst of the night, waiting for some lumbering railway train, on a seatless, unsheltered platform, they get no commiseration from the surly officials but an exhortation to "paciencia." If government is bad and robbers are bold, the Spaniard goes on sipping his sugared water and repeats, "Paciencia, paciencia!" If the country is two or three generations behind the rest of Europe in all the appliances of material comfort, why, "Paciencia, paciencia!" That is the great panacea for all the ills of human life. These peculiarities, the wretchedness and extravagant charges of all the hotels, and the horrors of the Spanishcuisine, fill most of the travellers' journals. But Lady Herbert found a plenty of religious beauty underneath this dilapidated exterior. God and the church are so near to the people's hearts that the mixture of religion with the language and business of every day shocks a stranger at first as something irreverent. Pious traditions are familiar to every Spaniard from his cradle. They come up every hour of the day. They color every man's conversation, they affect, more or less intimately, everybody's conduct; nay, it is difficult sometimes to separate them from the Spaniard's faith, for he clings to a pious legend almost as stoutly as he holds to an article of the creed. The peasant woman plants rosemary in her garden, because there is a story that when our Lord was an infant the Blessed Virgin hung out his clothes upon a rosemary bush to dry. Red roses get their color from a drop of the Saviour's blood which fell on them from the cross. A swallow tried to pluck the thorns from the head of the crucified Christ, and therefore no Spaniard will shoot a swallow.The owl was present when our Lord expired, and since then has ceased to sing, his only cry being "Crux, crux!" Half the dogs in Spain are called Melampo, because that was the name of the dog of the shepherds who came to Bethlehem. Protestants may laugh at the credulity which listens to such legends, but to our minds there is the simplicity of real piety in the national belief, and we cannot think that God will be angry with the people if they believe a little too much in his honor. Protestants may sneer at the public reverence which is paid to sacred things, and call it a gross mark of superstition to show as much respect to the Blessed Sacrament as to a governor or a general in the army; but we confess our sympathies are with Lady Herbert when she describes the sentinels at San Sebastian presenting arms as he passes before the chapel door, or the shopkeeper who interrupts a bargain to rush out into the street and kneel down before the Viatacum, exclaiming "Sua maesta viene!" What a sweet flavor of real piety there is in the popular term for alms, "la bolsa de Dios," "God's purse!"—a purse, by the way, which is never empty. Beggars are treated with a tenderness that is felt for them nowhere else but in Ireland. The poor peasant may have little or nothing to give; but if he refuses, he begs pardon for doing so. There is no city without its charity hospitals, marvels of cleanliness, comfort, and order. There is hardly a town without its asylum, where religious mea or women tend the unfortunate, shelter the destitute, feed the hungry, and rear the orphan and the foundling. Convents have been depopulated and monastic orders banished throughout the kingdom, but the more active brotherhoods and sisterhoods are spared, and are doing magnificent work. The deserted convents, magnificent in their decay, speak eloquently of the zeal and piety of the people, whose greatest fault it is as a nation that they have trusted too much to weak and unworthy rulers. Every one of these religious monuments is the scene of some holy legend, and most of them are hallowed by incidents in the lives of saints, of whom Spain has been the birthplace and home of so many hundreds. Lady Herbert tells a significant story which shows how closely religion is bound up with the thoughts of the people. She was visiting the ancient palace of Toledo, when a peasant woman, sitting by the gate, asked the guide if the strange lady was an Englishwoman, "because she walked so fast." On being answered in the affirmative, she exclaimed, "Oh! what a pity. I liked her face, and yet she is an infidel!" The guide pointed to a little crucifix which hung from a rosary at Lady Herbert's side, whereat the peasant sprang from her seat and kissed both the cross and the visitor.

Spanish courtesy even has a religious flavor. Ask a Spaniard to point out the road, and nothing will do but he must go with you on your way, and pray God's blessing on your head when he leaves you. No matter how poor he may be, you must not offer money for such services; he will be either grieved or indignant, at what seems to him an insult. There is piety also in the Spanish reverence for age. If an old man passes the peasant's door at meal-time, he is offered a place at the table, and begged to ask a blessing on the repast.

There is, in fine, a lovable and engaging side to Spanish character from which we cannot but expect a great and beneficial influence upon the national destinies. Faith has its rewards even in this life, and we cannot believe that a nation which adhered so firmly to religion will be overthrown without some very grave offence of its own.The reverential tendency of Spanish character has no doubt overpassed, in political affairs, its legitimate barriers, and loyalty has done some mischief as well as good. Respect for legitimate authority has not always been distinguished from a fanatical devotion to the persons of bad or incompetent rulers. There is a great deal of truth, albeit much falsehood likewise, in Mr. Buckle's explanation of the causes of Spanish greatness and Spanish decay. Give the kingdom a great sovereign, like Charles V., and with an obedient and devoted people the nation may be raised to the pinnacle of greatness and prosperity. But no people which has not been taught to depend upon itself can long keep in the van. Greatness is not inherited with titles and possessions; weak rulers are sure to come sooner or later, and then the country finds that it leans upon a broken reed. Spain discovers now that she has suffered her kings to monopolize the responsibilities which ought to have been divided among the whole people, and their duties have not been fulfilled. The nation has slept a sleep of centuries in the comfortable confidence that government would take care of everything, do all the thinking, make all the needed improvements, and educate the country as a father educates his children. It seems to have been forgotten that this was a task which only those mighty geniuses who appear once in a century are strong enough to perform. An indolent, weak, and careless ruler under the Spanish system allows his people to lag behind in the struggle for national preëminence; a bad ruler plunges them into misery and disgrace. Spain has suffered terribly from both these afflictions; we do not believe, however, that her case is desperate. While there is much in the present condition of the kingdom to fill all thoughtful men with alarm, there is promise in the awakened activity of national life, and in the very spirit of revolution which is driving the liberal party into such lamentable excesses. It is dirty work to clean up the dust of three or four centuries. Great political changes are almost always accompanied by disorder; but when the uproar subsides, and new parties crystallize out of the fragments of the present tumult, when the people feel that to be great and prosperous they must use their own power, and cease to be fed with a spoon, we believe that there is so much faith and piety at the bottom of the Spanish heart, and so much real nobleness in the national character, that a brighter destiny will be within their reach than has beamed upon them since the days of Charles and Philip.

We have wandered far away from the volume with which we began our remarks, and left ourselves little room to praise Lady Herbert's narrative as it deserves to be praised. We shall content ourselves here with citing a description of a man who has occupied a prominent place in the recent history of Spain. We mean Father Claret, the queen's confessor:

"One only visit was paid, which will ever remain in the memory of the lady who had the privilege. It was to Monsignor Claret, the confessor of the queen and Archbishop of Cuba, a man as remarkable for his great personal holiness and ascetic life as for the unjust accusations of which he is continually the object. On one occasion, these unfavorable reports having reached his ears, and being only anxious to retire into the obscurity which his humility makes him love so well, he went to Rome to implore for a release from his present post; but it was refused him.Returning through France, he happened to travel with certain gentlemen, residents in Madrid, but unknown to him, as he was to them, who began to speak of all the evils, real or imaginary, which reigned in the Spanish court, the whole of which they unhesitatingly attributed to Monsignor Claret, very much in the spirit of the old ballad against Sir Robert Peel:

'Who filled the butchers' shops with big blue flies?'

He listened without a word, never attempting either excuse or justification, or betraying his identity. Struck with his saint-like manner and appearance, and likewise very much charmed with his conversation during the couple of days' journey together, the strangers begged at parting to know his name, expressing an earnest hope of an increased acquaintance at Madrid. He gave them his card with a smile! Let us hope they will be less hasty and more charitable in their judgments, for the future. Monsignor Claret's room in Madrid is a fair type of himself. Simple even to severity in its fittings, with no furniture but his books, and some photographs of the queen and her children, it contains one only priceless object, and that is a wooden crucifix, of the very finest Spanish workmanship, which attracted at once the attention of his visitor. 'Yes, it is very beautiful,' he replied in answer to her words of admiration; 'and I like it because it expresses so wonderfullyvictory over suffering. Crucifixes generally represent only the painful and human, not the triumphant and divine view of the redemption. Here, he is truly victor over death and hell.'

"Contrary to the generally received idea, he never meddles in politics, and occupies himself entirely in devotional and literary works. One of his books,Camino recto y seguro para llegar al Cielo, would rank with Thomas a Kempis'sImitationin suggestive and practical devotion. He keeps a perpetual fast; and, when compelled by his position to dine at the palace, still keeps to his meagre fare of 'garbanzos,' or the like. He has a great gift of preaching; and when he accompanies the queen in any of her royal progresses, is generally met at each town when they arrive by earnest petitions to preach, which he does instantly, without rest or apparent preparation, sometimes delivering four or five sermons in one day. In truth, he is always 'prepared,' by a hidden life of perpetual prayer and realization of the unseen."

For the rest, it is only necessary to add a word upon the admirable manner in which the American publishers have presented Lady Herbert's book to their patrons. It is beautifully printed upon thick, rich paper, and illustrated with excellent wood-cuts, and will easily bear comparison with the choice productions of the secular press, as a book for the parlor table and for holiday presents as well as for the library.

"Honor thy father and thy mother,that thou mayest be long-lived in the landwhich the Lord thy God will give thee."

In a remarkable work, entitledMémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, etc., etc., des Chinois, written by two natives of China who had spent their early years in Europe, and had there added the sciences of the west to the learning of the east, and hallowed their knowledge with "the love of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge," the greater part of a quarto volume is devoted to the "Teachings of the Chinese concerning filial affection."

What follows is taken fromLi-ki, a very ancient Chinese work, written long before the time of the great Confucius. Confucius was born in the year of the world 3452, before Christ 551, in the twenty-eighth year of the lifetime of Cyrus.

"Be ever penetrated by religion and your exterior will bespeak a man whose regard is directed inward upon his soul; and your words will be the language of one who controls his passions." …

"Religion alone can render indissoluble the ties that attach the subject to his prince, the inferior to the superior, the son to the father, the younger brother to the elder."

"A son filled with filial affection hears the voice of his father and mother, even when they are not speaking with him, and he sees them even when he is not in their presence."

"At the first call of a father, all should be forsaken in order to go to him."

"Mourning for parents should continue three years."

"A son had murdered his father in the kingdom of Tochu. The authorities reported the crime to King Ting-kong. He rose from his mat; sighed, Alas! the fault is mine! I know not how to govern! He issued an edict for the future. Such a murderer must be instantly put to death; the house must be razed, and the governor must abstain from wine during a month."

"The peace of the realm depends on the filial affection entertained for parents and the respect shown to elder brothers."

The following are extracts from a canonical book of the Chinese entitledHiao-king, the last work of Confucius, written 480 years before the birth of Christ, during the time of Xerxes.

"Filial affection is the root of all virtues, and the fountain head of all teaching."

"Whosoever loves his parents can hate nobody; whosoever honors them can despise nobody. If a ruler evinces unlimited respect and affection to his parents, the virtue and wisdom of his people will be increased twofold. Even barbarians will submit to his decrees."

"If thou entertainest toward thy father the love thou hast for thy mother, and the respect thou hast for thy ruler, thou wilt serve thy ruler with filial affection."

"O immensity of filial affection! how wonderful thou art! What the revolutions of the planets are for the citadel of heaven, what fertility is for the fields of the earth, that, filial affection is for nations. Heaven and earth never deceive. Let nations follow their example, and the harmony of the world will be as indefectible as the light of heaven, and as the productions of the earth!"

"A prince who causes himself to be loved, and who improves the morals of men, is the father and mother of nations! How perfect must be the virtue which guides nations to that which is greatest of all, whilst they are following the inclinations of their hearts!"

The emperors of China have been giving examples of filial affection from time immemorial. It is an ordinance of the ancients that the new sovereign shall, during the first three years, make no changes in the administration of his father. The emperors of China, the mightiest potentates of the earth, show the most profound reverence to their mothers before the eyes of the whole people.

The great Emperor Kang-hi published, in 1689 of our chronology, a large work, in one hundred volumes, on filial affection. In the preface, written by himself, he says, amongst other things:

"In order to show how the filial affection of an emperor should be constituted, it is here shown to what tenderness for his people, interest in the public good, solicitude for health, contentment, and the happiness of his parents bind him. Everything in life is filial affection, for everything refers to respect and love."

What a beauty and depth of meaning in these words!

Together with filial affection this comprises the corresponding love of parents for their children, and the reciprocal duties of both. From these are also deduced the reciprocal obligations of rulers and subjects.

All is ultimately referred to God.

"Who is to be feared, who is to be served,and who is to be regarded as the Fatherand the Mother of all men."

China is the only empire in which public censors of the acts of the emperor are appointed. Their number, which originally was seven, has been increased to forty. Their office is to warn the emperor when he has transgressed or neglected his duty, and to admonish him. In a work composed by the Emperor Kang-hi, and published in 1733, several instances of these admonitions and remonstrances are mentioned:

"It is the cry of all ages, O Sovereign!that it is the most imperative dutyof the son to revere his parents!"

After explaining how one must prove himself concerning the fulfilment of this duty, and describing various evidences by which to judge, the sage continues:

"Such, O Sovereign! is the nature of genuine filial affection, of the filial affection of great souls, of the kind of filial affection that makes the world pleasant, gains all hearts, and secures the favor of heaven. … Thy subject, O Sovereign! has heard that a good ruler attributes to himself whatever disturbs good order in the realm; that he is made sad by the smallest misdemeanors of his subjects, and that he devotes the best days of his life to the sole object of obviating whatever might interfere with the public weal."

This remonstrance was presented in the year 1064, of our chronology, to the Emperor Ing-tsong by the Censor See-ma-kuang, one of the greatest statesmen China has ever had, who was at the same time a historian, a philosopher, and a poet. The people loved him so that after his death the entire realm was disposed to go in mourning. Another censor very boldly reprimanded the Emperor Kuang-tsong, because in a journey to his country chateau he had passed by the villa of his mother without calling to see her.

At a later period this censor upbraided the same emperor in terms of the deepest sorrow for not accompanying his mother's funeral and wearing mourning in her memory, notwithstanding that all the magnates of the empire had been plunged into the most profound grief by the death of that excellent woman. The censor accused him of having feigned indisposition on that occasion, whilst it was generally known that he was engaged in his customary pastimes.

Another emperor was reproached with a noble intrepidity, for having weakly permitted a favorite daughter to squander a part of the revenues of the state in embellishing her country residence and gardens.

The Emperor Kang-hi, one of the wisest and greatest rulers the world has ever seen, practised filial piety in a most perfect manner toward his grandmother and mother during their lifetime and after their death. When appointing one of his sons heir to the throne—a right accorded him by the constitution—he declared that he was guided in his choice by the wisdom of the two empresses, his mother and his grandmother.

When his grandmother was sick, this emperor wrote to one of the grandees of the realm, Hing-pu, who was probably minister of justice:

"My cares do not quit me, whether by day or by night. I have no relish for food or sleep; my only consolation lies in raising my thoughts to Tien, (Heaven, or the God of Heaven.) With tearful eyes I have prostrated myself on the ground, and buried myself in meditation on the manner of most surely obtaining his holy assistance; and it appeared to me that the preservation of men, the objects of his love, would be the surest means of obtaining, from his infinite goodness and mercy, the prolongation of a life that we would all be willing to purchase with our own."

Hereupon he reprieved all criminals not excluded from the favor by the laws of the state. He concluded with these words:

"I pray Tien thathe may be pleased to bless my wish."

He walked in solemn procession, accompanied by the nobles, and offered sacrifices for the empress. As her condition grew more alarming, he spent day and night at her bedside, where he slept upon a mat, in order to be always near to attend to her wants. To the remonstrances of his court and the requests of the invalid herself, he replied by answering them that he could not control his grief, and could find consolation only in nursing his beloved grandmother, who had nursed him in youth with so much wisdom and tenderness.

Many a reader may consider this intense and openly acknowledged sentiment of filial devotion as exaggerated; in China, men thought differently. And the man of whom it is related was one of the greatest princes that ever lived, a greatsavant, a philosopher upon a throne, an undaunted hero, and during the whole of his long reign the father of his country, the admiration and joy of his numerous people. When he was besought by the princes of the royal house and by the nobles of the realm to permit the sixtieth anniversary of his birthday to be solemnly commemorated, he replied:

"I have never had any taste for and have never found any pleasure in grand festivities and entertainments. Yet I feel reluctant to refuse what the love of the princes and nobles requests from me. But as these festivities would fall upon the days whereon my much revered father and mother died, their memory is too vividly present in my heart to suffer me to allow them to be converted into days of rejoicing."

At the Chinese court it is customary for the emperor, on New Year's day, to go in company with the princes and nobles to the palace of his mother. A master of ceremonies called a mandarin of Lizu, walks in front and reverently prays that it may be her serene pleasure to ascend her throne, in order that the emperor may throw himself at her feet. She then takes her place upon the throne. The emperor enters the hall and remains standing with his arms hanging down and his sleeves pulled over his hands—a mark of reverence amongst this people. The imperial retinue remain below in the ante-chamber. The musicians sound some thrilling notes, whereupon the mandarin cries in a loud voice, "Upon your knees!" The emperor and retinue fall upon their knees. "To the floor!" The emperor bows his head to the floor, as also the entire court. "Arise!" And all rise up together. After performing three prostrations in this manner, the mandarin again approaches the throne of the empress and reaches her a written request from the emperor to be pleased to return to her apartment.

During the ceremony the sound of the bell from the great tower announces to all the inhabitants of Pekin that the emperor of China, "the ruler of the thousand kingdoms," as they style him, is paying homage to humanity.

When the empress has returned to her apartment, the ringing of the bell ceases, and then the emperor receives the felicitations of the court in his own palace.

The idea of the relation between parents and children is, in fact, the soul of the constitution of China, a constitution that has continued unchanged for more than three thousand years. Through this idea the chains of despotism, so galling in other countries of the east, are rendered tolerable; by it a powerful influence is exercised over the rulers of the mightiest empire of the earth, so that most of them, even in modern times, devote themselves to their exalted duties with the greatest care, and look upon the empire not as their own possession, but as a trust committed to them as vicegerents of heaven.This idea is so deeply rooted that even the victorious Tartars were forced to respect it and adopt it as their principle of government, as we are shown by the example mentioned of the great Kang-hi.

We subjoin some selections from a number of Chinese moral proverbs relating to this subject,

"Filial affection produces the same sentiment, the same solicitude, under every clime. The barbarian, compelled by want to wander through wildernesses, learns more easily from his own heart what a son owes to his father and mother than sages learn it from their books."

"The most invincible army is that in which fathers are most mindful of their children, sons of their parents, brothers of their brothers."

"The filial piety of the ruler is the inheritance of the aged, of widows, and of orphans."

"Whosoever raises the staff of his father with reverence, does not strike the father's hand. Whosoever yawns at the old man's oft-repeated tales, will hardly weep at his death."

"All virtues are threatened when filial affection is sinned against."

"A good son never looks upon an enterprise as successful until it has received the approbation of his father."

"Rocks are converted into diamonds where father and son have but one heart; harmony between the elder and younger brothers changes the earth into gold."

"Subjects revere their parents in the person of the emperor; the emperor must revere his parents in the person of those of his subjects. The love of princes for their parents guarantees to them the love of their subjects."

"The Emperor Gin-tsong was counselled by his minister to declare war. What, replied the emperor, am I to answer fathers and mothers when they ask their sons of me? and to the widow who mourns her husband? and to fatherless orphans? and to so many disconsolate families? I would willingly sacrifice a province to save the life of one of my own children; all my subjects are my children."

"Whosoever cuts down the trees planted by his father, will sell the house that was built by him."

"It is not the threats, nor the reproaches, nor the violence of a father that are dreaded by a dutiful son. He fears his silence. A father is silent either because he has ceased to love or because he believes that he is no longer loved."

"The one who first shed tears was an unhappy father."

"Much to be pitied is the son who is displeasing to his parents; but the unhappiest of all is he who does not love them."

"A good son is a good brother, a good husband, a good father, a good cousin, a good friend, a good neighbor, a good citizen. A wicked son is simply—a wicked son."

"Reverence and tenderness are the wings of filial affection."

"When brothers will not come to an agreement before the sentence of the judge, public morals have already deteriorated. If father and son go before the mandarin that he may decide between them, the state is in danger. If children plot against the life of their parents, and brothers against that of each other, all is lost."

This tender reverence for parents instils into the Chinese a similar regard for aged persons, for authorities, and for national customs. Their empire has been in existence for almost four thousand years!

The contrary disposition, which denies to old age its becoming deference, which impels youth to contemn the experience of the past, and to wish, in its immaturity of judgment, to pass sentence upon all subjects, destroys social relations and undermines and ultimately ruins empires. It robs youth of its true grace; destroys the modesty and thirst for knowledge of the young man as well as the blushing diffidence of the maiden; defrauds age of its dignity; renders customs and laws altogether powerless.

Quid leges, sine moribusVanae, proficiunt.

said Horace.

The young man trifles with the gaudy display of ever-changing fashion, a pest of our country from which the more serious east never languished. His philosophy is of the fashion as well as his clothes; and though, at present, he considers them as the very best, he is nevertheless ready to change them both and decry them as unsuitable, reserving the liberty, however, of resuming them as soon as the wand of the enchantress Fashion will have given the sign.

The religion of Jesus Christ confers a pure dignity upon the worthiest and most tender relations of nature. It teaches us to revere a father in the Being of all beings, to love him tenderly whose eternal Son did not disdain to become our brother, to become the Spouse of his church. It sanctifies every relation of nature, every relation of society. But in attempting to picture to ourselves a state of the world in which the great majority would be doing homage to the religion of Jesus Christ, not merely in words, but in spirit and in deed, a feeling of sadness takes possession of the soul like to that which might come upon a prisoner, highly gifted with musical genius, while reading with the eye the harmonies of Handel and Gluck, when his ear was denied the rapture of hearing their enchanting melodies.

Daily Meditations, by his Eminence, the late Cardinal Wiseman.Vol. I.Dublin, James Duffy, 1869.For sale at the Catholic Publication House,126 Nassau Street.

There is a peculiar charm about all the writings of Cardinal Wiseman. It is the touch of genius, and of a great genius, whose loss the world mourns. The present volume, now published for the first time, comprises a series of meditations useful for all classes of devout persons, but more especially designed for the clergy and students in our ecclesiastical seminaries. They were written, as the Most Rev. Archbishop of Westminster informs us in a short preface, when the cardinal entered upon his first responsible office as rector of the English college in Rome. The subjects for the first six months of the year are taken from and arranged under a certain number of heads, generally repeated each week. These are,

"The End of Man,""Last Things,""Mystery of our Saviour's Life,""Personal Duties,""The Passion,""Sin.""Means of Sanctification,""Self-Examination,""The Decalogue,""The Blessed Eucharist,""The Blessed Virgin."

Each meditation consists of two or three reflections, and closes with an affective prayer. "Preparations" are given, after the method of St. Ignatius, before the meditations upon the mysteries of our Lord's life. As a book of meditations, or for spiritual reading, we could earnestly commend it to the laity, who will find the greater part of it eminently suitable for these purposes, while to the clergy it will be especially acceptable, furnishing, as it does, subjects sufficiently amplified to aid them in the ready preparation of a sermon or pious conference. We have few works in good English of this kind, and the reading of authors whose style is remarkable for purity and vigor cannot fail of improving the style of a speaker. The works of the great cardinal need no praise from us on these points, and we are sure that it is only necessary to call attention to a new work from his master hand to ensure its rapid sale.

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