priesthood. In 1835 he began his famous "Conferences" in the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame, in which he discussed the religious, social, political and philosophical questions that were then agitating the minds of France. These sermons were distinguished for their literary excellence, their religious fervor and enthusiasm, their insight into all the intellectual and moral temptations which beset the youth of the present age. They gave their author a wonderful influence over young and cultivated minds. Besides these "Conferences, " his admirable “Letters to Young Men ” have been translated into English.

YOUNG men, I turn towards you. It is an old habit

which you must forgive in me. I have so often called you to the road of great things, that it is difficult for me to keep your remembrance and your name from my words. You have a long career before you; but if you prefer life to justice, if the thought of death troubles you, that career which you paint so brightly, will sooner or later be darkened by weaknesses unworthy of you. Citizens, magistrates, soldiers, a time will come for you when contempt of death is the sole source of good in word or action, when private virtues no longer shelter man, but when it is needful to possess the fearlessness of a soul which looks above this world, and which has placed there its life with its faith. If that faith be wanting to you, in vain will truth and justice look down upon you from heaven, their eternal abode; and in vain will Providence bring under your feet events capable of immortalizing your life. Glory will pass before you, offer you its hand, and you will be powerless to call it even by its name. But what is glory? Times are greatly changed since it had altars. The future of truth, of the universal expansion of justice in the world, is henceforth the question amongst us.

Christianity has opened ways to us which antiquity knew not; all is enlarged, right, duty, responsibility, man, and the world. Consequently higher virtues are

required, greater sacrifices, and more virile souls. When the three hundred Spartans awaited the innumerable horde of effeminate barbarians at Thermopylæ, they knew well that they must die, and one of them, desiring to leave an epitaph upon the tomb of his fellow soldiers, with the point of his spear cut upon the rock the famous inscription: "Traveller, tell Sparta that we died here to obey her holy laws." This, from whatever point of earth or heaven it may be seen, is an heroic spectacle, and the Christian ages have not refused to it their admiration.

But they had nearer to them another Thermopylæ, a Thermopyla bathed with purer and more plenteous blood. Like Greece, Christianity has had its barbarians to conquer, and the narrow passes of the catacombs were the Thermopyla where its faithful ones saved it by their death. Surely they also might have graven upon the rock an inscription worthy of their martyrdom; and it would not have been, "tell Sparta," but, "tell the human race that we died to obey the holy laws of God!"

But he for whom they died had taught them that modesty of which ancient heroism knew nothing. They died then without pomp, unknown to Greece and to themselves, and at length, when glory sought them underground, it found only their blood.

Here, gentlemen, you will perhaps stop me: you ask me where is the happiness whose name charmed your ear at the beginning of this discourse, as the object of your life and the final end of man? We have come to blood, to martyrdom, to sacrifice, under the most. austere form. Is not this a strange road? Strange, if you will, but I do not swerve from it. In the glorious path where the course of ideas has led us, I feel, like you, the thorns which threaten or wound my flesh; they are sharp, they form a road of which you may say all, save

that it is not the road of heroes and saints, the road of all those who have honored their nature, immortalized their life, saved their brethren, and respected God.

COMPOSITION.

Write the following sentence in four ways:

"If you prefer life to justice, if the thought of death troubles you, that career which you paint so brightly, will sooner or later be darkened by weaknesses unworthy of you."

Write sentences containing the following words: death, brightly, universal, expansion, virtues, required.

But who is he, by years

Bowed, but erect in heart,

Whose prayers are struggling with his tears?

“Lord, let me now depart.

Questions:

"Now hath thy servant seen

Thy saving health, O Lord,
"Tis time that I depart in peace,
According to thy word."

Yet swells the pomp, one more
Comes forth to bless her God:
Full fourscore years, meek widow she
Her heavenward way hath trod.

She who to earthly joy

So long had given farewell,

Now sees, unlooked for, heaven on earth,
Christ in his Israel.

In what sermon of Christ are the first words in first stanza found? What question is asked in second? Give the fourth in your own words. How was Christ attended (fifth)? What invisible attendant present (sixth)? How do they appear to spiritual eyes (seventh)? What was the most fitting earthly throne for Christ (eighth)? What question is Mary's guileless husband (Joseph) asking himself? What vow had been made? Who made it? Who is spoken of as " by years bowed"? In what part of the Testament do you find "Lord, let me now. . . . . word"? Who else appears? Who are in the