The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-10

tude. His Judgment is as prompt and sure,
his reasoning power as vigorous and his
command of language as perfect as they
were twenty years ago. The faculty of
reminiscence 10, according to psychologists,
the first to show signs of weakness: vet so
tenacious is the memory of Leo XII. that
after many years ne can recall the name
and appearance Of a person he has seen but
once in the course OF his long life.
One other personal touch deserves stten-
lion. The present pontiff does not fail to
receive visitors with affability, but there is
in his language and manners none of the
familiarity which distinguished Plus TX.
While he was simply archbishop of Perugia
people who for many years had been
brought into close contact with him ound
that he was never easily approachable. He
is one of those men whose bearing holds
you at a distance and forbids any sort of
intimate intercourse. He has seldom been
seen to laugh. This reserve, which in him
is natural, not studied. enhances the dignity
of the tiara. Ii gives him al in~timidating
aspect. as the younge German emperor dis
covered. When the latter entered the
pope's apartment, in October, 1888, he was
SO disconnected that he first dropped the
snuff box intended for a present to the pope
and then let fall the helmet that he held in
his left hand. Scarcely could the young
kaiser stammer out some incoherent words,
and an eye witness has recorded that he
tlSlEiDISh LIMO a lCil.
According to Mr.. Stead, the present pom
tiff is distinguished from most of the recent
wearers of the tiara by having in his mind
the VISION OF a higher and nobler ideal than
that ct being tho mere temporal muster of
the Eternal City. He has seen, so ~testities
the London journalist, as it were in a
dream, the prospect of a wider sovereignty
than any which the greatest of his prede-
cessors comprised. and before his eyes
there has been unfolded a magnificent con-
ception of a universal church.
Mr. Staads conception OF the true rela-
ton of the pRpacy to TIE world is summed
up IN two sentences which conclude the
remarkable article in the Review of Re-
views: IF there be any real substance
of truth in the pope's belief that the Cath
olic church is the chosen instrument whereby
infinite wisdom inspired by eternal love
works out the salvation of the world, then
as certainly as it was necessary for persecu-
ton to scatter the first Christians from
Jerusalem, so that they might carry the
seed of the faith over the Roman world,
not less certainly shall we see in a few
years, or even it may be n few months, the
breaking of storm which will compel the
pope to fly from the Eternal City, never to
return. In That hour, when those who hate
the church fill the air with insult and ex-
hortatlon, and when those who love her
more III Ler accidents than in her essence
nfe abased TO tho dust with shame and hui
mi!lat!on, then TO the eve of faith the en-
forced heRlra of the pope from the Latin to
the English world will be regarded rs the
supreme affirmation of the pruvidentiai
mission OF the church, u new divine com
mission for her to undertake on u wider
basis the task of rebuilding the CITY of
God