go to a Bramhunee of unsullied character, he must tie straw round the different parts of his body, and cast himself into the fire. The woman must be placed on an ass and led round the city, and then go the Great Way: the meaning of this is, she must wander to those sacred places of the Hindoos where the climate is exceedingly cold, and proceed till she actually perish with cold. This is a meritorious way of terminating life, and is mentioned as such in the Hindoo writings."- WARD, vol. i. p. 427.

Unto the blessed Gods with hands

to sacrifice, most pure.

"Which oracle thus delivered, Aristinus, having well pondered and considered, committed himself as an infant new bora unto women, for to be washed, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and to be suckled with the breast-head: after which all such others, whom we call Hysteropotmous, that is to say, those whose graves were made as if they were dead, did the Sometimes the law is frustrated by its own severity. "It is semblable. Howbeit some do say that, before Aristinus was a dogma of general notoriety, that if a Jungum has the mis- born, these ceremonies were observed about these Hysterochance to lose his Lingum, he ought not to survive the misfor-potmoi, and that this was a right ancient custom kept in the tune. Poornia, the present minister of Mysoor, relates an semblable case." - PLUTURCH'S Morals, tr. by Philemon Holincident of a Ling-ayet friend of his, who had unhappily lost land, p. 852. his portable god, and came to take a last farewell. The Indians, like more enlightened nations, readily laugh at the absurdities of every sect but their own, and Poornia gave him better counsel. It is a part of the ceremonial, preceding the sacrifice of the individual, that the principal persons of the sect should assemble on the banks of some holy stream, and placing in a basket the lingum images of the whole assembly, purify them in the sacred waters. The destined victim, in conformity to the advice of his friend, suddenly seized the basket, and overturned its contents into the rapid Caveri. 'Now, my friends,' said he, 'we are on equal terms: let us prepare to die together.' The discussion terminated according to expectation. The whole party took an oath of inviolable secrecy, and each privately provided himself with a new image of the lingum."- WILKS, vol. i. p. 506.

In 1790, when the Mahrattas were to have cooperated with Lord Cornwallis at Seringapatam, their general, Parasu Ram Bhao, became unclean from eating with a Bramin who had — kissed a cobbler's wife. There was no stream near holy enough to wash away the impurity; so he marched his whole immense army to the junction of the Tungha and the Badra. Major Moor, who was with him, says, " During this march, uncalled for in a military point of view, the army laid waste scores of towns and thousands of acres, indeed, whole districts; we fought battles, stormed forts, destroyed a large army, and ran every military risk. Having reached the sacred place of junction, he washed, and having been made clean, was weighed against gold and silver; his weight was 16,000 pagodas, about 70007., which was given to the Bramins. They who had eaten with the Bramin at the same time, in like manner washed away the defilement; but the weighing is a ceremony peculiar to the great."-MOOR's Hindu Infanticide, p. 234.

"The present king of Travancore has conquered, or carried war into all the countries which lay round his dominions, and lives in the continual exercise of his arms. To atone for the blood which he has spilt, the Brachmans persuaded him that it was necessary he should be born anew: this ceremony consisted in putting the prince into the body of a golden cow of immense value, where, after he had lain the time prescribed, he came out regenerated, and freed from all the crimes of his former life. The cow was afterwards cut up, and divided amongst the seers who had invented this extraordinary method for the remission of his sins."-ORME's Fragments.

A far less expensive form was observed among the ancient Greeks, in cases wherein a second birth was deemed indispensable; "for in Greece they thought not those pure and clean who had been carried forth for dead to be interred, or whose sepulchre and funerals had been solemnized or prepared; neither were such allowed to frequent the company of others, nor suffered to come near unto their sacrifices. And there goeth a report of a certain man named Aristinus, one of those who had been possessed with this superstition; how he sent unto the oracle of Apollo at Delphos, for to make supplication and prayer unto the god, for to be delivered out of this perplexed anxiety that troubled him by occasion of the said custom, or law, then in force, and that the prophetess Pythia returned this answer :

"Look whatsoever women do,
in childbed newly laid,

Unto their babes which they brought forth,
the very same, I say,

See that be done to thee again;

and after that be sure,

The lamps went out. p. 543, col. 2.

There is the authority of a Holy Man, in the Romance of Merlin, which is as good authority for such a fact as any thing in the Acta Sanctorum, -that the Devil, like other wild beasts who prowl about seeking what they may devour, is afraid of a light. The Holy Man's advice to a pious damsel is never to lie down in the dark: "garde que la ou tu concheras il y ait tousjours clarté, car le Diable hait toutes cleres choses; ne ne vient pas voulentiers ou il y a clarte."— vol. i. ff. 4.

And white is black, and black is white. — p. 547, col. 1. Satan might have been reconciled to St. Basil's profession if he had understood, by his faculty of second-sight, that this, which it is sometimes the business of a lawyer to prove, would one day be the duty of the Romanists to believe, if their church were to tell them so. No less a personage than St. Ignatius Loyola has asserted this. In his Exercitia Spiritualia, the 13th of the Rules which are laid down ad sentiendum cum Ecclesia, is in these words:

"Denique, ut ipsi Ecclesia Catholicæ omnino unanimes, conformesque simus, si quid, quod oculis nostris apparet album, nigrum illa esse definierit, debemus itidem, quod nigrum sit, pronuntiare. Indubitate namque credendum est, endem esse Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et Ecclesiæ orthodoxe, sponsæ ejus, spiritum, per quem gubernamur ac dirigimur ad salutem ; neque alium esse Deum, qui olim tradidit Decalogi præcepta, et qui nunc temporis Ecclesiam hierarchicam instruit atque regit."-p. 141. Antwerpiæ, 1635.

Such is the implicit obedience enjoined in those Spiritual Exercises, of which Pope Paul III. said in his brief, sub annulo Piscatoris," Omnia et singula in eis contenta, ex certa scientiâ nostrâ, approbamus, collaudamus, ac præsentis scripti patrocinio communimus.” The Romanists are to believe that black is white, if the Roman Church tells them so: morally and politically it has often told them so, and they have believed and acted accordingly.

The impious scroll was dropp'd, a blank,
At Eleemon's feet. p. 547, col. 2.

This is not the only miracle of this kind recorded of St.
Basil.

"There was a certain woman of noble family, and born of rich parents, who was wholly made up of the vanities of this world, and beyond measure arrogant in all things; she, becoming a widow, wasted her substance shamelessly, living a loose and profligate life, doing none of those things which are enjoined by the Lord, but wallowing like a swine in the mire and filth of her iniquities. But being at length, by the will of God, brought to a consideration of her own estate, and her mind filled with consciousness of the immeasurable offences which she had committed, she called to remembrance the multitude of her sins, and bewailed them penitently, saying, 'Woe to me a sinner, how shall I render an account of the multitude of my sins! I have profaned a spiritual temple; I have defiled the soul which inhabiteth this body! Woe is me, woe is me! what have I done! what hath befullen me! Shall I say, like the Harlot or the Publican, that I have sinned? But no one has sinned like me! How, then, shall I be assured that God will receive my repentance?' While

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she meditated in herself upon these things, He, who would parted from his body.' Then the woman commended herself that all should be saved and brought back into the way of to the holy Confessor Ephram, and returned to Cæsarea. truth, and would have no one perish, was pleased to bring "But when she entered that city, she met the persons who unto her remembrance all the sins which she had committed were bearing the body of St. Basil to burial; seeing which, from her youth up. And she set down in writing all these she threw herself upon the ground, and began to cry aloud offences, even all that she had committed from her youth to against the holy man, saying, 'Woe is me a sinner, woe is this her elder age; and, last of all, she set down one great and me a lost wretch, woe is me! O man of God, thou hast sent heinous sin, the worst of all; and having done this, she folded me into the desert, that thou mightst be rid of me, and not up the writing, and fastened it with lead. After this, having | wearied more; and behold I am returned from my bootless waited till a convenient season, when holy Basil was ac- journey, having gone over so great a way in vain! The Lord customed to go to the church that he might pray there, she God see to this thing, and judge between me and thee, inran before to meet him, and threw the writing at his feet, and asmuch as thou couldst have interceded with Him for me, prostrated herself before him, saying, 'O, holy man of God, and have prevailed, if thou hadst not sent me away to another.' have compassion upon me a sinner, yea, the vilest of sinners!' Saying this, she threw the writing upon the bier whereon the The most blessed man stopt thereat, and asked of her where- body of holy Basil was borne, and related before the people fore she thus groaned and lamented: ' and she said unto him, all that passed between them. One of the clergy then desiring Saint of God, see, I have set down all my sins and iniquities to know what this one sin was, took up the writing, and in this writing, and I have folded it, and fastened it with lead; opened it, and found that it was clean blotted out: whereupon do not thou, I charge thee, open it, but by thy powerful he cried with a loud voice unto the woman, and said, 'O prayers blot out all that is written therein.' Then the great woman, there is nothing written herein! Why dost thou and holy Basil held up the writing, and, looking toward consume thyself with so much labor and sorrow, not knowing Heaven, said, O Lord, to Thee alone all the deeds of this the great things of God unto thee ward, and his inscrutable woman are manifest! Thou hast taken away the sins of the mercies?' Then the multitude of the people, seeing this world, and more easily mayst thou blot out those of this glorious and great miracle, glorified God, who hath such single soul. Before thee, indeed, all our offences are num- | power, that he remitteth the sins of all who are living, and bered; but thy mercy is infinite.' Saying thus, he went into giveth grace to his servants, that after their decease they the church, holding the aforesaid writing in his hand; and should heal all sickness and all infirmity; and hath given unto prostrating himself before the altar, there he remained through them power for remitting all sins to those who preserve a right the night, and on the morrow, during the performance of all faith in the Lord, continuing in good works, and glorifying the masses which were celebrated there, entreating God for God and our Lord and Savior."- Vita Patrum, pp. 159, 160. this woman's sake. And when she came to him, he gave her the writing, and said to her, Woman, hast thou heard that the remission of sins can come from God alone?' She answered, Yea, father; and therefore have I supplicated thee that thou shouldst intercede with that most merciful God in my behalf.' And then she opened the writing, and found that it was all blotted out, save only that the one great and most heinous sin still remained written there. But she, seeing that this great sin was still legible as before, beat her breast, and began to bewail herself, and falling at his feet again, with many tears she said, Have compassion upon me, O Servant of the Most High, and as thou hast once exerted thyself in prayer for all my sins, and hast prevailed, so now intercede, as thou canst, that this offence also may be blotted out.' Thereat holy Basil wept for pity; and he said unto her, 'Woman, arise! I also am a sinner, and have myself need of forgiveness. He who hath blotted out thus much, hath granted thee remission of thy sins as far as hath to him seemed good; and God, who hath taken away the sins of the world, is able to take from thee this remaining sin also; and if thou wilt keep his commandments, and walk in his ways, thou shalt not only have forgiveness, but wilt also become worthy of glory. But go thou into the desert, and there thou wilt find a holy man, who is well known to all the holy fathers, and who is called Ephræm. Give thou this writing to him, and he will intercede for thee, and will prevail with the Lord.'

"The woman then commended herself to the holy Bishop's prayers, and hastened away into the desert, and performed a long journey therein. She came to the great and wonderful Hermit, who was called Ephrem by name, and knocking at his door, she cried aloud, saying, 'Have compassion on me, Saint of God, have compassion on me!' But he, having been forewarned in spirit concerning the errand on which she came, replied unto her, saying, Woman, depart, for I also am a man and a sinner, standing myself in need of an intercessor.' But she held out the writing, and said, 'The holy Archbishop Basil sent me to thee, that thou mightst intercede for me, and that therethrough the sin which is written berein might be blotted out. The other many sins holy Basil hath blotted out by his prayers: Saint of God, do not thou think it much to intercede with the Lord for me for this one sin, seeing that I am sent unto thee to that end.' But that confessor made answer, No, daughter! Could he obtain from the Lord the remission of so many other sins, and cannot he intercede and prevail for this single one? Go thy way back, therefore, and tarry not, that thou mayst find him before his soul be de70

"In the days of the blessed Theodemir, Bishop of Compostella, there was a certain Italian, who had hardly dared confess to his own Priest and Bishop a certain enormous crime which he had formerly committed. His Bishop having heard the confession, and being struck with astonishment and horror at so great an offence, dared not appoint what penance he should perform. Nevertheless, being moved with com passion, he sent the sinner with a schedule, in which the offence was written, to the Church of Santiago at Compostella, enjoining him that he should, with his whole heart, implore the aid of the blessed Apostle, and submit himself to the sentence of the Bishop of that Apostolical Church. He therefore, without delay, went to Santiago in Galicia, and there placed the schedule, which contained the statement of his crime, upon the venerable altar, repenting that he had committed so great a sin, and entreating forgiveness, with tears and sobs, from God and the Apostle. This was on Santiago's Day, being the eighth of the Kalends of August, and at the first hour.

"When the blessed Theodemir, Bishop of the See of Compostella, came attired in his pontificals to sing mass at the altar that day at the third hour, he found the schedule under the covering of the altar, and demanded forthwith, wherefore, and by whom it had been placed there. The Penitent upon this came forward, and on his knees declared, with many tears, before all the people, the crime which he had committed, and the injunctions which had been laid on him by his own Bishop. The holy Bishop then opened the schedule, and found nothing written therein; it appeared as if no letters had ever been inscribed there. A marvellous thing, and an exceeding joy, for which great praise and glory were incontinently rendered to God and the Apostle, the people all singing, 'This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes!' The holy Bishop then of a truth believing, that the penitent had obtained forgiveness with God through the merits of the Apostle, would impose upon him no other penance for the crime which he had committed, except that of keeping Friday as a fast from that time forth, and having absolved him from all his other sins, he dismissed him to his own country. Hence it may be inferred, that if any one shall truly repent, and, going from distant countries to Galicia, shall there, with his whole heart, entreat pardon from God, and pray for the aid of the blessed Santiago, the record of his misdeeds shall, without all doubt, be blotted out forever."-Acta SS. Jul. t. vi. p. 48.

There is a miracle of the same kind related of St. Antonio, -and probably many other examples might be found.