A National Academy of music, for teaching sacred and secular music, is to be established at Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The National Portrait Gallery has been moved from its former location in Great St. George St. to South Kensington. VARIETIES. Married Clergy.-In Protestant countries where the marriage of the clergy is fully recognized, it has, indeed, been productive of the greatest and most unequivocal benefits. Nowhere, it may be confidently asserted, does Christianity assume a more beneficial or a more winning form than in those gentle clerical households which stud our land, constituting, as Coleridge said, "the one idyl modern life," the most perfect type of domestic peace, and the centres of civilization in the remotest village. Notwithstanding some class narrowness and professionai bigotry, notwithstanding some unworthy but half-unconscious mannerism, which is often most unjustly stigmatized as hypocrisy, it would be difficult to find in any other quarter so much happiness at once diffused and enjoyed, or so much virtue attained with so little tension or struggle. Combining with his sacred calling a warm sympathy with the intellectual, social, and political movements of his time-possessing the enlarged practical knowledge of a father of a family, and entering with a keen zest into the occupations and amusements of his parishioners, a good clergyman will rarely obtrude his religious convictions into secular spheres, but yet will make them apparent in all. They will be revealed by a higher and deeper moral tone-by a more scrupulous purity in word and action-by an all-persuasive gentleness, which refines, and softens, and mellows, and adds as much to the charm as to the excellence of the character in which it is displayed. In visiting the sick, relieving the poor, instructing the young, and discharging a thousand delicate offices for which a woman's tact is especially needed, his wife finds a sphere of labor which is at once intensely active and intensely feminine, and her example is not less beneficial than her ministrations.-Lecky's "History of European Morals." The Popes of Rome.-The Neue Freie Presse, of Vienna, thus summarizes the history of the popes:- -"Since St. Peter (supposing that he ever was in Rome), there have been 297 popes, of whom 24 were anti-popes and one female pope. Nineteen popes quitted Rome and 35 reigned abroad. Eight papal reigns did not exceed each a month's duration, 40 extended over one year, 22 over two years, 54 over five years, 51 over 15 years, 18 over 20 years, and only nine exceeded that duration. Of the 297 popes, 31 were declared usurpers and heretics, and of the remaining 266 legitimate occupants of the Holy See, 64 met with violent deaths, 18 having been poisoned and four strangled. Independently of the Avignon popes, 26 were deposed, expelled from Rome, and banished; 28 others were maintained in power by foreign aid." I cannot but admit that many men of genius have, from some cause, repudiated matrimony alto. gether. When Michael Angelo was asked why he did not marry, he replied, "I have espoused my art; and when a young painter told Sir Joshua Reynolds that he had just taken a wife, and was preparing to pursue his studies in Italy, he exclaimed, "Married! then you are ruined as an artist!" It was an axiom with Fuseli that the marriage state is incompatible with the high cultivation of the fine arts, and such appears to have been the feeling of many distinguished painters and sculptors. The great metaphysicians, Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, and Butler, are as solitary as Spinosa and Kant, and the celibate philosopher Hume conducts us to the other bachelor historians -Gibbon and Macaulay. The account given by Gibbon of his first and last love is exceedingly characteristic: "I hesitate from the apprehension of ridicule when I approach the delicate subject of my early love. I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness which is inspired by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being. I need not blush at recollecting the object of my choice; and though my love was disappointed of success, I am rather proud that I was once capable of feeling such a pure and exalted sentiment." The lady was afterwards Madame Necker, and though Gibbon "might presume to hope that "he "had made some impression on a virtuous heart," his father would not hear of it. "After a painful struggle I yielded to my fate. I sighed as a lover; I obeyed as a son." The appli cation of such a style to such a subject paints the man almost as well as the black figure snipped out by Mrs. Brown's scissors, and exactly corresponds with the notion of him which his history suggests. The bachelor Bishop Butler brings us to Barrow, Chillingworth, Hammond, and Leighton-princes of English divinity. The poets Ariosto, Akenside, Beranger, Collins, Cowper, Gay, Goldsmith, Gray, Herrick, Lamb, Petrarch, Pope, Swift, Shenstone, Tasso, Thomson, Voltaire, et cum multis aliis, were all celibates, not, however, from belief in the truth of the ancient scandal, that "Marriage, as old men of note, hath likened been The Perils of Fashion.-In ascribing the ungainly, feeble, and tottering walk of our modern fine ladies and their middle-class imitators to the decrepitude induced by tight-lacing, we omitted to mention another fashionable folly which assists in the production of this evil, and has also other sins of its own to answer for. The custom of wearing high boot-heels, and those, too, so much smaller than the actual heel of the wearer as to afford no solid support, but only a balancing-point, is a source of much mischief. In the first place, it throws the centre of gravity of the body so far forward that a free and gracefully erect carriage is impossible. Secondly, there being no firm support to the heel, ladies are very apt. to twist the ankle suddenly by overbalancing themselves; and this is not only bad in itself, but the fear of its occurrence makes them assume a timid, mincing gait. And, thirdly, the effect of driving the foot constantly forward into the toe of the boot is to produce a very ugly and painful distortion of the great-toe joint. There is little need for wonder at the almost fierce contempt with which young men whose characters are at all above the lowest grades of conventional inanity regard the average "girl of the period." It cannot be denied that there is a significant correspondence between the aesthetic hideousness and the degrading effects on physical health which are produced by tight stays and crippling boots, and a certain mental and moral tone in female society of the present day, which is no less surprising than it is repulsive. The whole dress and carriage of our fashionable women, for several years past, has been modelling itself, with less and less concealment, upon the idea furnished by Parisian lorettes of the consumptive Traviata. Bacon's Chronological and Geographical Family Guide to the Bible. This is the latest and one of the most valuable examples of the advantage to be derived from applying Charts to the study of History. It is a map 24 by 30 inches, finished and mounted like an ordinary wall-map; and contains a vast amount of facts concerning the Chronology, Geography, and Topography of the Sacred Narrative. The division and subdivision of the different departments are made with great skill, and the Chart contains a much greater amount and variety of knowledge than one would be led, at first sight, to suppose. In the centre is a map "containing all the localities mentioned in the Sacred Narrative, together with remarkable sites in profane history; and a great number of interesting facts and incidents referring to the various places whose positions are shown." In the right-hand corner is a "map of the Journeyings of the Israelites" from Egypt to Canaan; and on the left hand another one exhibiting the distribution of Canaan according to the Syrian division. There are Genealogical Trees of the family of Jacob on his arrival in Egypt, and of the Kings of Judah and Israel; and the Border even is made to contribute to the general store of knowledge. The "Guide" is very handsomely printed, and will unquestionably render very valuable assistance in the study of the Bible, and to all students of Ancient History generally. It is sold only by John Beardshaw, 15 Laight St., New York City. Greek Brigands at Home.-A correspondent of the Lemberg Gazette, a Polish paper published in Austria, gives some interesting information respecting the Greek brigands. He says that the principal band is composed of several hundred shepherds in the mountains of Hymettus and Pentelicus. These brigands maintain friendly relations with men of all classes at Athens, and have influential supporters among the various political parties, and especially in the army. Their victims are almost always either foreigners or Greek merchants and bankers. They look upon the native nobility as their patrons, and sometimos invite them to be godfathers to their children—an invitation which is seldom refused, as the relationship thus produced establishes a sort of freemasonry between the brigands and the nobles, and protects the estates of the latter against depredations. One of the most popular of the old Greek families among the brigand bands is that of Prince Soutzo. The head of this family, Prince Demetrius, is the godfather of upwards of 60 brigand children. One day the Prince was hunting in the vicinity of Athens, when a brigand deputation invited him to the marriage-feast of a member of their band named Andrea. The Prince followed the deputation to a secluded spot in the mountains, where Andrea presented to him his bride, who, according to the custom of the country, had sat for three days in a hut covered with green boughs, into which only women were admitted to offer her their farewell salutations on the approaching termination of her maiden life. Andrea unveiled the girl before the Prince, upon which she kissed him on the forehead, and invited him to take part in the marriage banquet. The Prince then sat down with the brigands, and various meats were brought in on silver dishes, with wine in golden goblets, the Prince eating and drinking with his hosts till night. Shortly afterwards Andrea became notorious as one of the fiercest of the brigand chiefs, and a price of 1,000 drachmas was set on his head. Notwithstanding this no one dared to betray the bandit, and the Government at length ordered Prince Soutzo to go in pursuit of him with a detachment of soldiers. The Prince, however, begged the Government to relieve him of this duty, representing that if he accepted it the brigands would take a fearful revenge on his family. His petition was granted, and some one else was appointed to take the command, but all his efforts to capture Andrea failed, and ultimately the Government was compelled to send Prince Soutzo to negotiate with him, as the bandits declared they would not trust any one else. The correspondent adds that King George himself has had to show the bandits an amount of consideration which proves how powerful they are in the country. During his last tour in his dominions he was surrounded by a number of them in the mountains, headed by a notorious chieftainess named Kara Janina. Advancing boldly to the King, she asked him to stoop down to her from his saddle, and after kissing him on the forehead wished him a pleasant journey, and recommended her children to his care.-Pall-Mall Gazette. A French Prelate on the Ecumenical Council.-An able and bold letter upon the Ecumenical Council has appeared in the columns of a leading French Journal (Le Constitutionnel), purporting to emanate from the pen of an eminent prelate, who is stated to be one of the leading members of the French Episcopate. We print the following extracts from its text: "I. Gallicanism is not a doctrine, nor even an opinion: it is the simple negation of pretensions born in the eleventh century, and resists these pretensions in the name of the Church's ancient and continuous traditions. Ultramontanism, on the other hand, is a doctrine; an opinion which, grafted on the old stock, has given out shoots of positive belief. This opinion, muzzled at the Florentine Council, set aside at that of Trent, has reappeared full of fury at the Vatican Council. "II. Gallicanism, is a misnomer; its veto belongs to every Catholic nation. Spain sus tained its ancient force, St. Francis de Sales vindicated its rights in the name of the privileges held by the House of Savoy, and we Frenchmen nowadays deem it feeble chez nous, in comparison with the vitality it manifests in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Portugal, America, and the East. "III. Our weakness, at the present moment, does not proceed from Holy Writ, from the traditions of the Fathers, nor from the monuments left us in history by General Councils. It proceeds from our 'lack of liberty, which is radical.' An imposing minority, representing the faith of more than a hundred millions of Catholics (nearly half the entire Church), is crushed by the yoke of restrictive regulations that are contrary to Conciliar traditions, by deputations which we have not really chosen to represent us, and which dare to introduce non-discussed paragraphs into the discussed text of measures under consideration; by a committee for the treatment of interpellations, imposed upon us by authority; by the absolute non-existence of discussion, reply, objection, and interpellation; by journals encouraged to hunt the minority down, and to exasperate the diocesan clergy against it; by nunciatures that rush to the rescue when journals prove insufficient to turn everything topsy-turvy--that is to say, to invoke priests as witnesses of Faith against bishops, leaving to the latter the rôle of representatives of the secondary clergy under a commission, subject to blame if they do not execute that commission. The minority is, above all, annihilated by the weight of the supreme authority, which oppresses it by the praises and encouragement it distributes per Breves to priests; and by such manifestations as that addressed to Father Guéranger against M. de Montalembert and others. "IV. The majority itself is not free: for it is constituted by a considerable supplement of prelates, who are by no means competent to serve as witnesses to the faith of new-born or expiring churches. This supplement, composed of an enormous number of Apostolic Vicars, and of a number, relatively far too large, of Italian and Roman Bishops, is not free. It is an army reg ularly formed, acquired, indoctrinated, divided into regiments and disciplined, which, if it falter, is menaced with famine or half-pay: deserters from it have even been induced to return to their colors by gifts of money! It is, therefore, evident that there is not sufficient liberty; and the ulterior conclusion is that there is not a clear and plausible œcumenicity. This does not invalidate the true principle, that the Church is infallible in its General Councils; but those Councils must possess all the characteristics of cecumenicity, i. e, legitimate convocation, full liberty of judgment, and Papal confirmation. If one of these conditoins be wanting, the whole may be called in question. The brigandage in Ephesus did not prevent the subsequent holding of a genuine Council under that name. There may be a ludibrium Vaticanum; but that would not preclude the possibility of remedying all the evil done in the course of new and serious assizes. I believe that, at the present time, the great remedy must come to us from outside of the Council." The Boy who was his own Grandfather.-The "Family Puzzle" in the March "Leisure Hour," where a boy was shown to be not only the brother of his own mother, but his own uncle, recalls a curious case once reported in "Hood's Magazine." There was a widow and her daughter-in-law, and a man and his son. The widow married the son, and the daughter married the old gentleman. The widow was, therefore, mother to her husband's father, and consequently grandmother to her own husband. They had a son, to whom she was great-grandmother. Now as the son of a great-grandmother must be either a grandfather or a great uncle, this boy was one or other. was his own grandfather. This was the case with a boy at school at Norwich. He Japanese Cosmical Ideas.—In a paper read before the Asiatic Society at its last meeting, Mr. F. V. Dickens gave "A brief account of the Chief Cosmical Ideas now current among the better educated classes in Japan." The account given by the writer is taken for the most part from the "Yeddo Oho Setsyo," published at Yeddo in 1861. This work is a kind of encyclopædia hand-book, in two volumes, the first being a dictionary, the second, the chief source of this paper, a sort of compendium of useful knowledge, illustrated with numerous and excellent woodcuts. The Great Primary Principle (Tai-Kyoku) separating into its parts, the the earth is supposed to be surrounded, as the result was the Firmament (Tai-Yoten), by which yolk of an egg is surrounded by the white. There are two elemental principles, from either, or the combination of which, everything originates,—a Male, or developing, and a Female, or receptive by the condensation of the Female principle in one. The Earth is supposed to have been formed the middle of the heavens, and generally believed to be square in form, though in reality it was spherical. The Sun, on the contrary, was the ball of fiery matter moving round with the revoproduct of the Great Male principle; it was a lution of the heavens, in which it was fixed; the way thus described is called the Yellow Way. being a condensation from moisture. Its path is The moon originated in the Female principle, called the White Way. Besides these there are five planets, which derive from the Male principle, and neither wax nor wane. The views of the Setsyo are then explained regarding the origin and nature of the principal natural phenomena, showing a good deal of their original cosmical and astronomical notions and superstitions, not a little affected, it would seem, by an acquaintance with the result of European science. The writer concludes in briefly criticising the Japanese sysgin and nature of the Tai-Kyoku, or Primary tem as propounded by the Yeddo Setsyo. The oriPrinciple, of which the two elementary forces were considered to be parts, were not even plain everything, even itself, by a reference theretouched upon, and the mind was satisfied to exPrime Cause, and though there were innumerable to, even the Divine Beings descended from this gods, there was no God in Chinese and Japanese philosophy. It was thus easily comprehended that the better educated, freeing themselves from the more vulgar superstitions, should become utter indifferentists to everything except material comfort and the dictates of a code of honor for the most part traditional and artificial. |