13 0 0 K S.

A SAINT'S CORRESPONDENCE.* As excellent preface by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Menevia and Newport introduces this first volume of the translated works of St. Francis de Sales, last of the Bishops of Geneva, to English readers with well deserved praise. Father Mackay has done his work with loyal skill, and as far as is possible he has given some idea of the antique, delightful style of the Savoyard noble who has recently been enrolled as a Doctor of the Church by a Roman decree. And the writer of the preface and the trans- lator show alike appreciation of the special value of St. Francis de Sales' influence, by their choice of his "Letters to Persons in the World," as the opening volume of a complete translation of his works.

We do not propose in our notice of this book to enter on the large question of how far "direction," as understood by Catholics, helps men and women on the upward path, though, no doubt, it is by his learned skill and trained sympathy as director of human souls that St. Francis holds his place in the procession of the world's eminent men. Nor do these letters suggest any of the points in dispute between his detractors and his admirers, except as they prove his loving craft and the wise humanity by which he rescued and protected his flock from by-paths of heresy during the troubled times of his episcopate. But the growing demand in our own day for his help in mastering the art of devout living is noticeable, and the application of the science of theology to social progress, in which St. Francis is so skilful, is worth the consideration even of those indifferent to that theology. Born with the dawn of the new order of European life, of which the dangers are its private antagonisms, its cruel egotism, and unsocial repudiation of the laws of brotherhood—from which we have seen so many abortive reactions—Francis de Sales devoted himself with a prescience that might well be deemed supernatural to find a remedy for these besetting evils of the new civilisation. He is the apostle of those virtues by which modern society can be best disinfected of its covert criminality. He enforces the interior but not the less heroic austerity by which the evils which mine the smooth surface of " respectable" existence can be counteracted. He teaches how we can acquire that amenity which is desired by the most advanced sociologists among us. Gentleness, in its highest sense, is the quality most insisted on by the Savoyard noble in our dealings with each other; be bids his spiritual children not fear the faithful use of life, wherever circumstances place them, if they be armed with charity. Indeed, sweet reasonableness is the key-note of his writings, and he preaches that affectionate sociableness main- tained by self-abnegation, which is singularly fitted to meet the requirements of our complex and fermenting, though well- policed existence.

Bridging, as St. Francis did, the widening and dangerous rift between those who believed that piety could only exist by with- drawal from the ordinary social life and by clinging to the discipline of the dying " ages of faith," and the men and women of the actual world, there were many to complain that his plan of life was too easy. It was said, even hefore Jansenism was the fashion among the unco' pious, that he forgot how narrow is the path of perfection. The grace of his style, influenced by his training among the Humanists of Padua, and inspired by his own broad sympathies, offended some strait sectarians ; and the infinite capacity for loving, ensuring his own loveableness, which characterised him, was disagreeable to lesser dogmatists, who are nothing, if not condemnatory. But no man as he did required from his disciples the heroism of what he calls the little virtues. While he taught the lightness of the Christian burden and the easiness of its yoke, he insisted on "patience, bearing with our neighbour, submission, humility, sweetness of temper, affability, toleration of our imperfections," and called all his children to that brotherhood of duty and self-sacrifice which is, perhaps, more necessary to modern society, and hardly less difficult, than the martyrdoms and penances of the earlier Christians.

The increasing popularity of his manuals among persons who desire guidance amid the perplexities of modern life witnesses to the practical foresight of his advice. He anticipates our revolu- tions and our emancipation from mediaeval formulas. No one

• Library vf St, Frauds ds Sulu. 1. Letters to Persons in nu World. Trans- lated by the Rev. H. B. Mackay. 0.8.B., with Preface by the Right Rev. J. C. Medley, 0.8.5., Bishop of Xenon's and Newport.

would have his followers aim at more perfect liberty and equality than he does, but he would teach men to attain it through con- formity to the Divine idea, as manifested in the natural order of duties and affections approved by conscience. To his disciples'„ existence remains externally the same as to other men; but they have the key of its riddles. He rises to as great heights of mysticism as any of the saints, but his words are so intelligible and sober, he is so steeped in humility and treads so firmly the- dusty highway of life, that his mysticism seems quite natural and ordinary sunshine. He does not hide from us thathe was him- self often weary and foot-sore, and with the authority of experience- he shows ns how to invest the commonest actions of every day with the wonder and beauty of sanctity. In these familiar " letters," we perceive his skill as a physician of souls who suffer from the moral epidemics that obtain in our time. and they show us the loveableness of the man, while they explain his way of working,.

which may be said to be exhortation to that fructifying love of God which can be to us not only a motive and an end, but also a method and a means towards our right action. His correspondence. gives us glimpses of the society of the day and of those antique French manners which were probably the noblest yet seen in the world, and which maintained the traditions of St. Louis even in the reigns of the Valois. The solid and devout virtue, polished to a grace of which there are so many examples during the century of Fe:Aeon, and practised in the circle of " Persons in the World " to whom these letters were written, is as evident as is the Saint's delight in it. He vindicates human society, and„ armed alike against the rampant Calvinism and latent Jan- senism of which the atmosphere was full, he set himself to heal the breach between the ideal and the real life of Christ- ians, between our imperfection and the Divine standard: "Do not desire," he says, "not to be what you are, but to be very well what you are." We are to accept the limits of our actual circumstances as expressions of God's wilt,. but our devotion to him will prevent contentment from becom- ing apathy. Love will be the spur to action, and the remedy

for discouragement in apparent failure. The pupil of St. Francis, becomes an untiring labourer in the advance of humanity..

Throughout these letters, be they grave or playful, there are lessons of the truest altruism coincident with the highest individualisation of which only mystics have the key. Of their literary value, the reader of however good a translation can hardly judge. He must be content to take Sainte-Benve's estimate, who places St. Francis in the foremost rank of letter- writers, and, indeed, it is easy to trace much of Madame de Sevigny's charm and of the wit and wisdom of her contemporaries to the knot of friends who gathered round her grandmother St.

Jeanne de Chantal, and St. Francis, twin lights of the dawning century. Before his age, as he was, in the science of social Christianity, he was also before it in the easy grace and 'simple directness of his style. Gems of wisdom sparkle throughout his affectionate fatherliness. To a lady who was vexed because he dissuaded her from a law-suit, by which she expected to gain a sum sufficient to found a religious house, he writes :—" I knew very well that your piety was making a plank for your self- love, so piteously human is it. In fact, we do not love crosses, unless they are in gold, with pearls and enamel." He warns another young lady, who indulged in repartee, " It is not good to walk on tip-toe, either in mind or body." It has been said, in his disparagement, that St. Francis is the apostle of the upper classes. In truth, he preaches a spiritual refinement which creates the truest upper class, whether its members be poor or rich, and which is the radical cure for Philistinism.

Much of his advice to persons in the world is summed up in a;

letter to " a gentleman who was going to live at Court," and in 1610 it was not easy to live well at any European Court:-

"Atlast," be writes, "yon are going to make sail, and take the open sea of the world at Court. I am not so fearful as many others, and I do not think that profession one of the most dangerous for those of noble souls and manly hearts, for there are but two principal rocks in this gulf,—vanity, which ruins spirits that are soft, slothful, feminine, and weak ; and ambition, which ruins audacious and pre- sumptuous hearts."

Warning his correspondent of many varieties of these "prin- cipal rocks," he recommends,-

" The gentle and sincere courtesy which offends no one and obliges all ; which seeks love rather than honour; which never rallies any one so as to hurt him, nor stingingly ; which repels no one, and is itself never repelled." " Imagine that you were a courtier of St.. Louis," he continues, as a summary of his advice ; "this holy King loved that every one should be brave, courage, us, generous, good- humoured, courteous, affable, free, polite; and still, he loved above alit that every one should be a good Christian. And if you had been with him, you would have seen him kindly laughing on occasion, speaking boldly at proper time, taking care that all was in splendour about him, like another Solomon, to maintain the royal dignity, and a moment afterwards serving the poor in the hospitals, and in a word, marrying civil with Christian virtue, and majesty with humility. In a word, this is what we must try after ; to be no less brave for being Christian, and no less Cla:stian for being brave ; and for this, we mast be very good Christians,—that is, very devout, pious, and, if possible, spiritual, for as St. Paul says, the spiritual man discerneth all things ; be knows at what time, in what order, by what method, each virtue must be practised."

St. Francis appraises the incalculable force of gentleness in the issues of life, and in our isolated struggle with the pressure of social facts, immediate relief is gained by our recognition of patience and humility as not only negative, but most active factors towards our well-being. " When shall we all be steeped in gentleness and sweetness towards our neighbour P" St. Francis exclaims. He only asks of us goodwill towards men and towards ourselves in the common affairs of life. He is never tired of preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is within ns. " To be dis- satisfied and fret about the world, while we must of necessity be in it, is a great temptation," he says. " We fancy that by changing our ships, we shall get on better; yes, if we change ourselves." Yet no man impressed more urgently than he did on his corre- spondents that they must prepare for difficulties. " If the violence of the tempest sometimes disturbs our stomach, and makes our head swim a little, let us not be surprised, but as soon as we can, let us take breath again, and encourage ourselves to do better true virtue does not thrive in exterior repose, any more than good fish in the stagnant waters of a marsh."

The very humility of the Saint makes him sometimes choose the homeliest similitudes, and it is clear that he did not trouble himself about the exactness of his physical science when he spoke in parables of his friends the bees, and hares, and doves; but his suavity is essentially so dignified that our smile is never contemptuous when we read his zoological heresies. No doubt, his extraordinary familiarity with Holy Writ, nearly every sentence of which finds a place in his works, adds to their durable influence over all, of whatever creed, who aspire to the higher life, and who seek a solution of the riddle of pain elsewhere than in blank pessimism. We have not disclaimed for St. Francis the cruelties of which he is accused during his mission in the Chablais, or tried to show how poisoned at the source are the authorities who have been quoted by writers eager to throw a stone at the persuasive apostle of sweetness and light. It is not strange that those who condemn the doctrines and system he upheld should try to counteract his charm. But it must remain potent, in our generation of latent hatreds ; and we do wisely, even on the lowest ground, in welcoming the Doctor who teaches that devotion must be made "amiable, useful, and agreeable to every one." He, to use his own words, "always said that he who preaches with love preaches sufficiently against heretics, though he say not a single word of controversy against them." And this is a method of prose- lytism efficacious now, as three hundred years ago, emphasised as it is by the history of the Saint's own self-conquest, and by his marvellous success, both in reconciling his enemies, and in attaching the friends to whom these charming letters were written.