The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-21
The Desire for Love and for
knowledge Live in tho
PontiH.
He Prefers Wournful Subjects-His Prose
Wriungs Arc Poleinla aud Dog
matte in Character.

veritable diary of his personal emotions ana
struggles. This poet never eat laurel
crowned with floating mantle at the feet Of
Apollo and the Muses.. He never took part
in the inspired dances of the favorites OF
the gods. lie sits humbly at the feet OF tho
grave muse Of the church, and with tho
gospel in one hand and tho palm branch in
the other, sings religious hymns and in
dites laudations to the Almighty and
the saints. Instead Of the waving
mantle he wears the cnssock; Apol-
ize but i'll with the t%onsure. The mightiest
impulses of the human heart. the desire for
hove and the desire for knowledge, live IN
him as in all of US. A priest. 80 to speak,
from his boyhood, in the first flush OF
ures of life. As IS often the case, the poet
puts his own woes into the mouth of others,
but it ia not difficult to recognize the author
himself in the heroes OF these sutferings.
A considerable number of his poems treat
of sensual love, and they ara all alike
frosty. Once he comments on the words of
st. Johns ~epistle: 'Omne quod in mundo
est concupiscentia carnis est ct c%oncupls-
oentia oculorum. ct superbia vite,' string
ing together n Il number of poetical medita-
tions on this verse. And this is not the work
of the young rriest or of the older bishop.
hot of the grny-haired pope"
It is but natural that the successor OF 81.
Peter shout prefer scorn and mournful
subjects to themes Of Joy and eladness.
'Our poet has mover indited q spring
held the splendid nature Of his land faunt
in bridal bloom; he never beheld Italy en-
veloped in snowy, wintry dress-a sight but
rarely seen, for even among the Umbrlan
mountains. amid which the cardinal bishop
lived for thirty years, the earth 10 seldom
wrapped in wintry linen. Yet never does
the Italian sky smile on our clerical poet
for him it is ever covered with clouds, and
when he gazed on the unfathomable night
sky glimmering with silver stars. he saw
in these stars the shining lights
luminaries of the middle ages, such
as Dante, francesca of Assist. Thomas
Aquinas. Albel tus Magnus. St. Dominic of
Bonaventura. 4 = Even when paint
ing the torments of the martyrs. Leo de-
historical legends, but never loses sight OF
TINT central idea he seeks to enforce, that
the power of martyrdom is greater than
that of individual might. The cure of souls.
Catholic science, ecclesiastical charity-in
these lies the happiness Of Pecci. He is no
common character-neither in his actions
nor in his verses is there a trace of egotism
his only ambition ia for the church, his
love. No modern philosopher ia he, seeking
cheap popularity; he is not devoted to science
as a sport. If he is not an artist either in
the highest sense of the term, he is per-
chance something higher-he is a man. a
complete man, living n acting within his
narrow world of solid ability. He is as self
contained as come Christian house of wor-
ship which forms a harmonious whole
self-contained, and at the same time re-
stricted."
In perusing the prose writings of the
present pope, and especially in reading his
episcopal lctters-for his encyclicals are
more polemio and dogmatie in character,
rs becomes his changed positlon-it is in
faroutinu tn phaarva how eytAnQlVply PeCCl
read during those years of his tenure OF the
Perugian diocease. His reading was, of
course. limited to French, Italian and Latin,
for he is ignorant of Greek, and is unac-
quainted either with German or English.
The French writer's seem especially to have
attracted him, and he would appear to have
been a regular reader. of the Revue des
Deu1 Mondes.
His pen, when speaking of some of these
writer's, is not always urbane, and his Judg-
ments on some of the finest spirits of our
age are often sweeping and unjust. Thus
he tilted, in an episcopal letter dated 1868,
against one of the most eminent writer's OF
the day, Ernest Renan, whom | should like
to call the Raphael among authors. Peoci
speaks of "La Vic du JesUs'' as "un libro
inverecca de Q blasphemo." re%aroaching its
author with sacrilegie bestemmie, or calling
him, not certainly without reason or with
out wit, an Arius KediviyUs. For the mod
ern philosophers he has no sympathy; be
calls them lying philosophers. and Taine he
considers as zone of the most impious of
this ruthless school,"
In vain does one search in Leo's writings
for any mention of English and German
classical writer's and thinkers. Tho liter
ary world his split embraces is the Latin.
OF the Teutonic he hns evidently no knowl-
edge, nor would he be able to 'sympathise
with it. And even in reading French md
Italian authors it is manifest that Pecci
peruses them entirely for polemical pur-
poses and that he fails to extract from
them aesthetic enjoyment.
al through his life Leo XIII. kept up
good relations with his family and has al
ways remembered his birthplace, on which
he has alrendy spent several millions of
francs. lie has restored old churches and
erected new ones; he has built a school in
which pious sisters educate the village chill
dren, and a hospital in which pious breth-
ron tend the sick.
"They we're n devout family these Pecci,
conferred III a quiet domestic life, having
little contact with the outer world. The
boys early impression were confined to the
family circle, the world of mountains that
surrounded him, and the peace of dogmas
thnt pervaded the establishment. A Carpi-
neto nature does not reveal herself in Italian
wealth and Italian glory of color. The boys
visual horizon was circumscribed by rugged
hills, whose slopes are clothed with olive gnr-
dens, while chestnuts and beeches overspread
the upper portion. In the shadow of these
woods tho future pope and his brothers and
sisters played in the days of their early
childhood. No orange or lemon trees thrive
herein this high spot winter is rigid; hence
the nature which surrounded Leo's infancy
was stern rather than tender, andthe nature
of his parents resembled that of the noun
tains. Their portraits show lineaments
full of serious gravity; that of the mother
especially, though not Indicative of special
intelligence or spiritual gifts, reveals solid
ability and strong religious sense.
''The pope's personal appearance is what
we should suppose from his poems. The
writer saw him for the first time in the Sis
tine chapel, when he WAS praying for the
soul OF King Alphonso, of Spain. After
the mass tho pope turned to the congrega-
ton and gave his papal bsnediction. |
kept my Dyes fastened on the high priest.
A cool diplomat, n rigid monk, a medieval
thinker stood before me and blessed the
assembly. The voice with which no spoke
the benediction WAS like himself,
firm, severe, hard. Was this really the
benediction of n gentle hearted priest? 1t
ring in my ears like Dies irm. dies ire.'
What Il duet there was in That chapel! tho
voice of the last Judgment which spoke to
US in tones of rich color from above, md
the blessing of that monkish diplomat who
wears tho tiara. Was he speaking TO us
ordinary menp Was he not rather blessing
those gaily dressed diplomats and black aud
brown-cowled friars? No passionate Italian
stood before me, but the writer OF the
poems in " hich tho holy father revenla HIM