The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-08
POPE LEO WRITES.
KEY TEEY GIVE TO BIS PERSONAL
EMOTIONS AND AIMS.


Pictures Given.
An article by DIR. Sigmund MINI in
Blackwood's treats of "The Pope and His
Writings" The poet-pontiff has told the
story of his life in Latin distichs while he
was bishop of Perugia, and he has published
numerous other poems in Latin and Italian.
Here is picture given by the writer of the
poet-Pope.
"In order to understand Leo's character
we must peruse his poems, which form
veritable diary of his personal emotions and
struggles. This poet never sat 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. He sits humbly at the feet of the
grave muse Of the church, and with the
Gospel in one hand and the palm branch in
the other, sings religious hymns
and indltes laudations to the
Almighty and the saints. In
stead of the waving mantle, he wears the
cassock; Apollo's laurel wreath would har-
monte but i'll with the tonsure. The
mightiest impulses of the human heart, the
desire for love aud the desire for knowl-
edge. live in him as in all of us. A priest,
30 TO speak. in his boyhood in the first flush
of youth. Leo had known none of the
pleasures Oh lie, AS Is OFTEN the case, the
poet puts his own woes into the mouth
of others, but it is not difficult to recog-
nize the author himself in the heroes
of these sutferings. A considerable num-
Der Of his poems treat of sensual love,
and they are al alike frosty. Once he com
ments on the words in st. Johns Epistle:
'Omne quod in mundo est concupiscentia
carnis est ct concupiscentia oculorum, ct
superbia VITAE, stringing together a number
of poetical medltations on this verse. And
this is not the work Of the young priest or
of the older bishop, but Of the gray-haired
pope"
it is but natural that the successor of st.
Peter should prefer stern and mournful
subjects to themes of joy and gladnoss:
"Our poet has never iudited spring song:
this son of Italy never consciously beheld
the splendid nature Of his land flaunt in
bridal bloom; he never beheld Italy en-
veoped in snowy, wintry dress-a sight but
rarely seen, for even among the Umbrian
mountains. amid which the cardinal bishop
lived for thirty years, the earth is seldom
wrapped in wInGry 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 Of the church,
the holy ecclesiastical luminaries
OF the middle ages, such
L
Aqulnas, Albertus Magnus, st. Dominic or
Bonaventura. Even when paint
ing the torments of the martyr, Leo de-
picts them coolly, effectively, az in some
historical legends, but never loses sight of
that 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 char
ity-ln these lies the happiness of Pecci.
He is no common character in his
actions nor in his verses is there "a trace of
egotism--his only ambition is for the
church, his love. No modern philosopher
is he, seeking cheap popularity he is not
devoted to science as q sport. II he is not
an artist either in the highest sense of the
term, he is perchance something higher
he is a man, q complete man, living and
acting in his narrow world Of solid ability.
He is as self-contained as some Christian
house of worship which forms harmonious
wbOle-self-contained and at the same time
restricted"
In perusing the prose writings of the
present pope, and especially in reading his
episcopal letters-for his encyclcas are
more polemic aud dogmatic in character,
as becomes his changed position-it is inter-
estiug to observe how extensively Pecci
read during those years of his tenure of the
Perugian diocese. His reading was, of
course limited to French, italian and
unacquaint ID either with German or En-
glish. The French writer's seem especially
to have attracted him, and he would ep.
pear to have been a regular reader of the
Revue des Deur NondeS
His pen, when speaking of some of these
writers, is not always urbane, and his judg-
ments on some of the finest spirits of our
age are often sweeping and unjust. Thus
be tilted, in an episcopal letter dated 1868,
against one of of the most eminent writers
OF our day. Ernest Renan, whom l should
like to call the Raphael among authors,
Pecci speaks of LA Vie du Jesus" as l.7l
libro ipUereconde e blaSphemo, approaching
its author with SdcriJegs beStenl,hie, and
calling him, not certainly without reason or
without wit, an Arius Redivivus. For the
modern philosophers he has no sympathy
he calls them lying philosophers,
and Taine he considers as lone of the most
impious of this ruthless school,
In vain does one search in Leo's writings
for any mention sof English and German
classical writers and thinkers. The literary
world his spirit embraces is Latin. OF the
Teutonic he has evidently no knowledge,
nor would he be able to sympathize with it
And even in reading French and Italian
authors it is manifest that Pecci peruses
them entirely for polemical purposes, and
that he fails to extract from them aesthetic
enjoyment.
''All through his life Leo Kill kept up
good relations with his family and has al
ways remembered his birthplace, on which
be has already spent several millions OF
francs. He has restored old churches and
erected new ones; he has built a school in
which pious sisters educate the village
children, and hospital in which pious
brethren tend the sick.
They were a devout family, these Pecci,
conferred in quiet domestic life, having lit
tie contact with the outer world. The boys
early impressions were confined to the fam
lily circle, the world Of mountains that sur
rounded him and the peace of dogmas that
pervaded the establishment. At Carpineto
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
gardens, while chestnuts and beeches over
spread the upper portion. In the shadow of
THESE woods the future pope and his broth
ers 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
Leos infancy was stern rather than tender,
and the nature of his parents resembled
that OF the mountains. Their portraits
snow lineaments full of serious gravity
1hat OF the mother especially, though not
INDICATIVE of special intelligence or spiritual
gl1ts, reveals solid ability and strong re-
Hgious sense.
The pope's personal appearance is what
we should suDDose from his noems The