The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-10-05
a Talk with the Pope.

therc, Immediately in front of ME, stoOC
the successor Of St. Peter. Knowing tha
l was not Catholic, suppose, and wish.
Ing to save me all tho embarrassment in re-
gard to the three genuilcxions and tho
kneeling which all Catholics perform, his
holiness had come to meet us to the yery
door. lie sauted us with blessing and
then made us enter. When we did so.
and he found l knew Italian, he said he
was very glad to see me, and thanked my
companion for having brought me- He said
he understood was interested in philoso-
ply, aud replied, eyes, especially in that
OF Aristotle. This drew from him very
warm eulogium of Aristotle, to all Of which
l most fully agreed, but meanwhile was
trying to make up my mind about the Pore 3
personal appearance. had seen, think ]
may safely say, thousands of portraits of
him. now found that not one of them
gave any notion of his living presence. Leo
NIL, If not handsome man, Is certainly
very imposing one. He is about middle
height, straight, thin and wlrY, with some
thing OF the ascctic look of Cardinal Man.
ming, only in a less degree. There is a
peculiar curve in his eyes and mouth, and
his nose is very large and prominent. His
manner Is thoroughly regal, free, easy and
confident. lte speaks with great dignity
and tlucncy, and with long, almost hexa-
metric, cadence. He gives the impression
OF being man OF tremendous will, coupled
with gentlcmanly prudence. He was
dressed, when saw him, in white, with
out adornmcnt Of any kind, save number
OF very large rings on his fingers. AS soon
as he had finished his panegyric on Aris-
totio, took occasion to say that wished
to thank him for his eucyclical restoring
the philosophy of st Thomas. This was
exactly the right chord to touch, and my
friend nodded assent. The Pope, taking
me by the arm with his lett hand and
raising his rigl in the mir, burst out into a
real flow Of cnt lusiasm. ''Qucsta mia en-
ctcttcd," he began, anu shall never for
get the satisfaction with which lie empha-
sized the mia. | had often heard that
he was very proud of his ency-
cliical Aterni PATHS, but l had no
notion that the mention Of it by hereto
would call forth 80 much eloquenco. lie
spoke for, [ should think, ten minutes,
with real inspiration, Of the great value of
st. Thomas philosophy. Of its depth,
unity and conformity to revealed truth, of
the motives that induced him to issue his
ency clical, of the favor with which that
document had been received III all parts of
Europe, and even America. and of the good
he hoped would result from it.
Then placing his right hand on my
shoulder he inquired how long had been
in Rome and how much longer | meant to
remain. hen, in answer to the second
OF these questions, | SAID only a few days,
he looked at me very kindly and said:
'But you mran to return, surely" replied,
Every probably" Then he said; 'sYes,
yes, you must return in the autumn and
study st. Thomas and Aristotle along with
my professors and with the same aim. You
will help them and they will help
you." He then went on to say that his
great aim was to place philosophy OH a
sound basis, and to gather round him in
Rome number of profound thinkers who
should thoroughly discuss all difficult ques
tions and bring as many of them rs posi-
blct definite solution. With this view
lie had founded III academy of Thomstic
philosophy which, lie had hoped, would
be of great service. When l told him
had been present at the Inauguration of
that institution, and had listened with
much pleasure to the speech of
his brother Cardinal Pccci, he seemed
greatly pleased, and invited me TO attend
phlosol hi al dispute, soon TO be h Id in the
library f t e Vatican, at which he intcn-
ded himself to be present. My companion
undertook to give INC notice of the date.
After few ore questions, manly of a
personal nature, he grasped my hand firm
ly, saying, ''Pu 8tringO la ma,,O" Q
press your hanO, gave us his benctliction,
and conducted us, still holding my hand,
to the door. My audience had lasted
something less than half ali hour The
room in which it took place was a small
study, comfortable. but by no means cx-
pcnslvcly furnished. Italian rooms are
never. as ours often are, domestic mu-
scums. 4, handsome carpet, few chairs,
two arm-chars and an oval table COW
cred with red cloth aud carrying cruci-
fix, few books, writing materials and one
or two silver vessels, possibly recent pres
cnts constituted the entire furniture. am
inclined to thing that Leo XIII is trying,
50 far as he may, to do away with the
vanitics and absurd ccrcm onials which have
for ages surrounded the person of the pom
tiff. He has, however, a hard battle to
fight and Is closely watched by reprcsen-
tativcs of body that scouts all progress,
would fam return to the middle ages,
and would hardly hesitate to send to
better world any one who stood
in their way in this. 1t Is openly
affirmed in Rome that near the beginning
OF the ponti6catc OF Leo XIII, when his
reforming tendencies began to show them.
selves, an attempt was made to destroy
him by means Of poison slowly admins
tered; but that, being discovered in time,
the attempt was batlicd, not, however, un-
til after the Pope's health had suffered con-
s,derably, and he began to tottcr like an
intirm Old man. can testify that there
Is no sign of infrmity about him now. lie
Is vigorous, active, alert, and the fittcst
man to be Pope of all the Catholics have
ever seen.