ROBERT PARSONS

[Robert Parsons, Jesuit, was born in Somersetshire in 1546, and was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where in 1572 he took the degree of M.A. For religious reasons resigning his fellowship, he travelled abroad, where, falling under the influence of the Jesuits, he joined that order, then in the pride of its full strength, and set about the designs entrusted to his conscience with a remarkable fervour. He travelled to England with Edmund Campion, and after the execution of that celebrated Jesuit, he fled the country, established a short-lived Catholic School at Rheims, which latter was revived at St. Omer, and after a residence in Rome as rector of the English College he died there in 1610. His works are very numerous, but of a somewhat fragmentary character, and he frequently wrote anonymously both in Latin and in English. His two most notable contributions to the letters of his time may be considered more carefully here, inasmuch as they afford the best test of his possible claim as a master of literary art.]

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FOR a certain directness of speech and acuteness of thought, Robert Parsons' famous Apology of the Catholic Hierarchy. give it a summary title-achieved the distinction of praise from the pen of Dean Swift. It would be no difficult task to discover the reasons of such praise from such a writer. Parsons, from conscious or unconscious art, was before all things simple, lucid, and without the slightest taint of obscurity-qualities pre-eminent in the writer that praised him. Yet there is not very much further to say of this writer. His life seems to have been too full of fervent restlessness to leave him leisure for the long contemplation which usually results in the composition of thoughtful literature that literature which claims the highest recognitions of a critical posterity. Parsons wrote for other sakes than the sake of his art. It is doubtful if he even regarded his writing in any artistic light. He wrote for a purpose. He had the affairs of this world (and the other for that matter) very much at heart; his impulsive bent of disposition which overflowed in this channel and in that channel, overflowed also in writing; and because he saw very clearly that which he desired to achieve, whether by

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word of mouth or by his pen, and because his mind was absolutely untrammelled by afterthoughts and delicate questionings, by uncertainties or hesitant flutterings of spirit, he did, in fact, produce a kind of literature, strong, incisive, and crystal clear.

He was a man that, had he been gifted with a more placid and philosophic temper, might have proved a rare and consummate artist. Hidden somewhere away, and treated very indifferently by himself, he possessed a striking gift of clear vision, which at times surprises and convinces his readers by its astonishing clarity. Take that sentence in a passage to be quoted later, in which he sets himself on high over the earth, watching our planet, “moistened,” as he says, "with rivers, as a body with veins." The quick, and as it seems, unconscious quality of the metaphor, is sweeping in its effect, yet singularly simple in its essence. such a passage he is seen at his best, since it is here that he realises himself most acutely. Now he himself was a person who, by reason of his strength of purpose, was worthy of realisation.

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To set him in a definite place of literature would be to grant him too much honour. He is a free lance, and cannot be ranked among the regular armies of art. Even as a writer of his own time it is difficult to appraise his relative worth. He is full of platitudes; his thought is usually quite obvious; and he is incapable of large sympathies. As a writer of controversy-it was in this province that he usually laboured he is ever at a fever heat; so that he scarce ever takes account of his own words. He pours out all the bitterness he can conceive on the moment, and sets it down for good or evil; being a strong man he often spoke bitterness with wonderful effectiveness. Too often he was merely puerile. But, take him all in all, he must be described as a man who often wrote excellently well, because his vision was excellently clear, and his intentions perfectly plain to his own roughly strong, though somewhat conventional, mind.

VERNON BLACKBURN.

THE EARTH TEACHES GOD

If we cast down our eyes from Heaven to earth, we behold the same of an immense bigness, distinguished with hills and dales, woods and pasture, covered with all variety of grass, herbs, flowers, and leaves; moistened with rivers, as a body with veins; inhabited by creatures of innumerable kinds and qualities; enriched with inestimable and endless treasures: and yet itself standing, or hanging rather, with all this weight and poise, in the midst of the air, as a little ball without prop or pillar.

At which surprising and most wonderful miracle of nature, God Himself, as it were, glorying, said unto Job: "Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth? tell me, if thou hast understanding. Who set the measures thereof, if thou know? or who stretched out the line upon it? upon what are the foundations thereof grounded? or who let down the corner stone thereof, when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made jubilation ?"

THE SEA SHOWS GOD

IF we look neither up nor down, but cast our countenance only aside; we espy the sea on each hand of us that environs round about the land. A vast creature, that contains more wonders than man's tongue can express. A bottomless gulf, that, without running over, receives all rivers, which perpetually flow. A restless sight and turmoil of waters, that never repose neither day nor night; a dreadful, raging, and furious element, that swells and roars, and threatens the land, as though it would devour it all at once. And though in situation it is higher than the earth, as the philosopher shows (Arist. lib. de mirabilibus), and makes assault daily towards the same, with most terrible cries and waves

mounted even to the sky: yet when it draws near to the land, and to its appointed borders, it stays upon the sudden, though nothing be there to stop it; and is forced to recoil back again, murmuring, as it were, because it is not permitted to pass any farther.

Of which restraint, God asks Job this question: “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it breaks forth, proceeding as it were out of a matrice?" Whereunto no man being able to give answer, God answers Himself in these words: “I compassed it with my bounds, and put bars and doors. And I said, Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt not proceed further: and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves.”

THE THINGS IN MAN DECLARE GOD

THIS, in short, may be sufficient to prove the existence of a God, from these things we see without us. But if we should leave these, and enter to seek God within our own selves: whether we consider our bodies, or our souls, or any one part thereof, we shall find so many strange things, or rather so many seas of miracles and wonders, that preach and show the glory of their Maker, that we shall not only perceive and see God most evidently, but rather, as a certain old heathen has written, "We shall feel and handle him in his works" (Iamblicus de myst. c. 1).

(From the Christian Directory.)

THE SECURITY OF ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER

HERE then is our censure of the issue of this matter, that broken heads will follow of all sides, but there may perhaps be some doubt or difference of opinions, where most broken heads are likest to light. But he that on the other side will consider indifferently who they are and of what number, condition, and quality, against whom our discontented brethren (so few in number and green in credit) do make this voluntary war, he cannot greatly doubt of the event thereof. For as for the Archpriest, his assistants, and all the rest of the English clergy joined

with them, being men of that virtue, learning, and approved gravity, which all the world knoweth, what great hurt can they receive at these men's hands, but only some little scratches in their names for a time (a thing of no moment) and some exercise of their patience, as before out of St. Augustine hath been touched? And much more may this be said of the Jesuits, who are a body conjoined by charity and rules of virtue, and dispersed over the world, and exercised in divers places with like contradiction to this, whereby they grow rather in perfection of life, and diligent guard over their own actions, than be overthrown, or greatly hurted. And with those two bodies are joined also, for defence of peace, order, and discipline, all higher superiors of spiritual government, so as our brethren are like to break few heads here, but only their own (if we be not deceived), but rather after they have wearied themselves, must expect the issue before mentioned in the fourth consideration, of hurts and damages to themselves and the common cause.

And albeit some of them perhaps may be encouraged to go forward in this contention, by the applause or approbation which they have found in some good men or women at this beginning, seduced or impressioned upon their own sinister informations, yet when matters shall come to more mature examination, and the evil effects before mentioned be seen and discovered, it is probable that these being good and godly Catholics and prudent people, will be of another opinion, and by little and little enter into due consideration, where authority, where obedience, that is to say, where God's part goeth; on which side order, subordination, and discipline do consist, where and with whom the body and multitude of our Church standeth, where peaceable or passionate minds do bear rule. They will look also with time into the difference of men's lives and manners, to wit, where modesty, humility, and mortification are to be seen, what priests are given most to prayer, patience, longanimity of mind, tranquillity of spirit, and who to the contrary. They will ponder also who are most hated and pursued by the enemy for their labours and endeavours against them in the Catholic cause, and who are most favoured or tolerated by them: which is no small mark to know how matters go.

(From a Briefe apologie or defence of the Catholike Ecclesiastical Hierarchie and subordination in England.)