The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1849-05-09
THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
BY MACAULAY,


listed an hundred years, it had filled tho
whole world with memorials of great
things done and suffered for the faith
No religious community could produce
q list Of men SO variously distinguished
none had extended its operation over
80 vast a space; yet in none had there
ever been such perfect unity of feeling
and action. There was no region Of
the globe, no walk of speculative or Of
active life, in Jesui.s were not to be
found. They guided the councils Of
Kings. They dcciphercd Latin inscrip
tions. They observed the motions OF
Jupiter's satellites. They published
whole libraries, casuistry, history, treat,
ise on optics, Alcaicodes, editions OF
the fathers, madrigals, catcchisms and
lampoons. The liberal education of
youth passed almost entirely into their
hands, and was conducted by them with
conspicuous ability. They appear to
have discovered the precise point to
which intellectual culture can be carried
without risk Of fintelccual emancipation.
Ennity itself was compelled to owl,
that in the art Of managing and form
ing the tender mind, they assiluous'y
and successfully cultivated the clio.
quencc ofthc pulpit. With still great
er assiduity and still greater success
they applied themselves to the ministry
of the confessional. Throughout Cath.
olic Europe the secrets of every yov-
ernmcnt, and of almost every family
were in their keeping. They gldcd
from one Protestant country to another
under innuncrable DISCUSSES, as gay
cavaliers, as simple rustics, as Puritan
preachers. They wandered to coun-
tries which neither mercantile aviditv
nor liberal curiosity had ever imncllcd
any stranger to explore. They were
to be found in the garb Of Nandarins,
experimenting the observatory Of Pc
kin. They were to be fund, spade in
hand, teaching the rud!mcnts Of agri-
culture to the savaSes of Paraguay.
Yet whatever might be their residence,
whatever might be their employment,
their spirit was the same: entire dcvo-
ton to the common cause. implicit obc.
dicncc to the central authority. None
Of them had chosen his dwclling-p!ac
or his avocation for himself. Whether
the Jcsuits should live under the artic
circle or under the equator, whether he
should pass his lie in arranging gems
and collating manuscripts at the Nuti-
can, or in pcrsuading naked barbarians
in the southern hemisphere not to cat
each other, were matters which lie left
with profound submission to the decision
Of others. If he was wanted at Lima.
he was on the Atlantic in the next feet
Ifhc was wanted at BagAad, he was
toiling through the desert with the next
caravan. Ifhis ministry was needed
in some country where his life was
moro insecure than that of wolf; where
it was crime to harbor him, where the
heads and quarters Of his brethcn, fix
cd in public places, showed him what
he had to cxpcct--hc went without re-
monstrancc or hesitation to his doom.
Nor is this heroic spirit yet extinct.
When in onr own time new and ter
riblc pcstllcncc pass around the globe:
when i'll some great cities fear had dis
solved all the ties which hold society to-
gcthcr; when the secular Clergy had
deserted their hocks; when medical sue.
cor was not to be purchased by gold;
when the strongest natural affections
had yielded to the love Of life, even
then the jesuit was found by the pallet
which bishops and cura!c, physician
and nurse, father and mother had de-
serted, learning over infected liIs to
catch the faintcst accents Of confession
and holding up to last before The cxpi.
ring pcnitcnt the image Of the expiring
Rcdccmcr.
CURIOUS FAcT.--An Indian, says
an observing writer, lad tanned black
snake, which he kept about him during
the summer months. In autumn he let
the creature go whittier it ch,sc tc
crawl, but told it to come to him again
upon certain day, which he named
in the spring. A white man was pres
ent, and saw what was dcnc, and hear,
Al r