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 tn.
whole world with memorials of grea
things done and suffered for the faith
No religious community could produce
a list Of men 80 variously distinguished
none had extended it's operation owe,
80 vast space; yet in none had there
ever been such perfect unity of feeling
and action. There was no region o.
the globe, no walk of speculative or o.
active life, in Jesuiss were not to be
found. They guided the councils ol
Kings. They deciphered Latin inscrip
lions. They observed the motions Of
Jupiter's satellites. They published
whole libraries, casuistry, history, treat
ise on optics, Alcaicodes, editions ol
the fathers, madrigals, catechisms 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 ofintellccual emancipation.
Enmity itself was compelled to own
that in the art of managing and form
ing the tender mind, they assiduously
and successfully cultivated the clo.
quencc Of the 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 gov
ernment, and Of almost every family
were in their keeping. They glidcd
froai one Protestant country to another
under innumcrable DISCUSSES, as gay
cavaliers, as simple rustics, as Puritan
preachers. They wandered to coun-
tries which neither mercantile avidity
nor liberal curiosity had ever impcllcd
any stranger to explore. They were
to be found in the garb of Mandarins,
experimenting the observatory of Pc
kin. They were to be fund, spade in
hand, teaching the rudimcnts Of agri-
culture to the savagcs Of Paraguay.
Yet whatever might be their residence,
whatever might be their employment,
their spirit was the same: entire devo-
tion to the common cause, implicit obc.
dicncc to the central authority. None
of them had chosen his dwcling-placc
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 Vati-
can, or in persuading naked barbarians
in the southern hemisphere not to cat
each other, we're matters which he left
with profound submission to the decision
Of others. If lie was wanted at Lima,
he was on the Atlantic in the next feet.
If he was wanted at Bagdad, he was
toiling through the desert with the next
caravan. Ifhis ministry was needed
in some country where his life was
more insecure than that of a wolf; where
it was crime to harbor him, where the
heads and quarters Of his brethcn, fin
cd in public places, showed him what
he had to eXpcct--hc went without re-
monstrancc or hesitation to his doom.
Nor is this heroic spirit yet extinct.
When in our own time a new and ter
riblc pestilencc pass around the globe;
when in some great cities fear had dis
solved all the ties which hold society to-
gcther; when the secular clergy had
deserted their focks; 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 curatc, physician
and nurse, father and mother had de-
serted, learning over infected lips to
catch the faintest accents Of confession
and holding up to last before the cxpi.
ring pcnitcnt the image Of the expiring
Rcdccmer.
CURIOUS FACT.--An Indian, says
an observing writer, had tanned black
snake, which he kept about him during
the summer months. In autumn he let
the creature 60 whittier it chose tc
crawl, but told it to come to him agail
upon certain day, which he named
in the spring. A white man was pres
ent, and saw what was done, and hearC
the Indian affirm that the serpent would
return to him the very day he had ap
pointed, had no faith in the truth Of Iii
prediction. The next spring, retaining
the day in his memory, curiosity lee
him to the place, where he found th