to be one scene taken from others. Considering that it conveys a good argument for us, our readers will excuse the term Romanism," thrown in as a reproach. We quote: The schoolroom of a boarding-school. Time, the hour of religious instruction. Bible to be read and explained without inculcating the dogmas of any particular denomination. Teacher certificated, unsectarian, highly conscientious. Class consisting of children from thirteen down to six or seven, and of various grades, from respectable poor to gutter children. Schoolroom and teacher span new. Teacher a little nervous. Childrensome looking curiously about them, some disposed to loll and idle, some attentive. Teacher opens the great Bible, and begins to read St. Matthew i., as being a narrative likely to interest the auditory, and easy to explain in an undenominational sense. First, however, a little preliminary explanation is neces sary. Teacher. You must know, my dear children, that Joseph and Mary were two very good people who lived a very great many years ago in a country far away from London, and I am going to read to you about them and their son (reads slowly verse 1. of the chapter). Ragged Arab (not accustomed to ob serve much ceremony). Please, sir, who's that? Teacher (aghast, and wishing to gain time). Whom do you mean, my boy? Arab. That there Jesus. Teacher (aside). [How can this question be answered in an undenominational sense? This is the religious difficulty, full blown. If I say "a good man," that will hardly do, for I know several of the boys are the children of the church peopleand Romanists; and if I say" the son of God," that won't do, for Tommy Markham is a Unitarian, or, at any rate, his parents are; besides, such a dogmatic statement is sectarian.] (Aloud.) I will explain all about him when I have finished the chapter. Continues to read. The class listens with various degrees of attention until the 11th verse is finished, and then A Boy. Please, sir, who's Mary? The mother of the little baby, wasn't she? Teacher. Yes; she was his mother. Boy. Oh! and what does "wusshupped" mean? Teacher. It means paying great re spect, kneeling down and bowing, as we should to God. Another Boy (better taught than boy No. 1, and jumping at once to a sectarian conclusion). Then, that there baby was God, sir? Tommy Markham (stoutly). No, that he wasn't! Teacher. Silence, boys, the lesson cannot go on if you talk and quarrel. (Struck by a bright idea.) You know that a great many people believe that he was God; but some do not; but we must not quarrel because we do not all think alike. First Boy (disagreeably curious). Well, but what do you think, master? [Terrible dilemma! Teacher hesitates. At length, desperately]— I think he was God. Teacher (aside). [Perverse youth. Pest take his questions and him too! If I'd known what "unsectarian" teaching involved, I'd sooner have swept a crossing. What will the Board say? Why, the very essence of our principle is to know nothing and think anything. But you can't make the boys reason.] (Aloud.) My dear boy, it is very difficult to say what we know. I can only teach you what I think, and teach you how to be good and do what is right, and obey all that God tells you to do in this Holy Book. A Boy (interrupting, sans cérémonie). Did God write that there book? Teacher. Yes; and he tells us what we are to do to get to heaven; and his son came, as you see, as a little child, and when he grew up, he preached and told us how we ought to love one another, and all we ought to do to lead a good life. Boy (interested). And was he a very good chap? Teacher (a little shocked). 'Yes, of course; you know he was-[pauses; his haste had almost betrayed him into a dogmatic explanation, and the forbidden word know" had actually passed his lips]. Another Boy (with vexatiously retentive memory. You said afore, master, that he was God, and the gentlemen wusshupped him-was he reelly God? Teacher (boldly, taking the bull by the horns). Yes. Boy. And did God's mother wusshup him too, master? Teacher. You must not call her the mother of [interrupts himself; recollects that it is as sectarian to deny to the Blessed Virgin the title of Mother of God as to bestow it upon her; continues]: yes, she worshipped him too; but I want you to learn about the things that he told us to do. Another Boy (doggedly). But we wants to know fust who he be, 'cause we ain't to do jist what a nobody tells us; only, if that there gentlemen be God, there's somethin' in it, 'cause I've 'eard parson say, at old school, where I was once, that what God said was all right. Teacher (aside). [Certainly that poor Arab has got the root of denominational education. It is, I begin to think, a failure to attempt the teaching of morality without first making manifest what that morality is based upon, and the moment you come to that you are in for denominationalism at once. (Wipes his brow and continues) Of course, my boy, you must know why it is right to tell the truth and do what is right, but then if I tell you God commanded all this and read to you what his Son said about it, there is no need for troubling so much about-about Boy (interrupting). Oh! but I likes to ax questions, and it ain't no sort of use you telling us it's wrong to lie-nobody at 'ome ever told me that-if yer don't say who said it, 'cause I ain't bound to mind what you say, is I? [Teacher checks the indignant "Indeed you are" that rises to his lips, arrested by the terrible and conscientious thought whether it be not a new and strange form of denominationalism for the teacher to make his own dictum infallible in matters of morality. Would not this be to elevate into a living, personal dogma an unsectarian teacher?-a singular clash, surely. Teacher shivers at the bare idea. Soliloquizes: How can I meet this knock-down reasoning? These Arabs are so rebellious, so perverse; why must they ask so many questions, and require to know the why and wherefore of every; thing? (Glances at the clock.) Ah! thank my stars, the time is almost up! but this dodge won't do every time. I'm afraid I shall have to give up the whole thing as a bad job.] (Aloud.) We have only five minutes more to-day, lads, so you must let me finish the chapter without asking any more questions. (Boys relapse into indifferent silence. Curtain falls.) In conclusion, we insist that the state shall obey its own constitution, and let religion alone. In purely state institutions, the consciences must be left free, and no experiments with religion can be tried. Every child in such institutions must enjoy liberty of conscience and free access to its own ministers and sacraments. If any sect undertakes to help the state to do its work, by establishing reformatories, protectories, and asylums for its own children, excluding all other religions and the children of other religions, we shall not object to its receiving a just per capita from the state; and under this system we claim the same and no more for purely Catholic institutions the work of the state in respect to doing Catholic children. If, however, sectarian, unsectarian, or non-Catholic institutions receive support from the state, and receive the children of the Catholic Church and of other persuasions, they must be conducted upon the same principle with state institutions, and in them "no law respecting the establishment of a religion" must be made or enforced, but the most perfect liberty of conscience must prevail. We ask no special favors for ourselves or our church; all we claim is perfect equality before the law and the state, and the full benefit of that fair play which we extend to others. DANTE'S PURGATORIO. CANTO SEVENTH. [STILL among souls, on the outside of Purgatory, who have delayed repentance, Dante, in this Canto, is conducted to those who had postponed spiritual duties from having been involved in state affairs. The persons introduced are the Emperor Rodolph, first of that Austrian house of Hapsburg, Ottocar, King of Bohemia, Philip III. of France, Henry of Navarre, Peter III. of Aragon, Charles I. of Naples, Henry III. of England, and the Marquis William of Monferrat. To know more of these men the curious reader must consult more volumes than we have space to mention in this magazine. He may spare much research, however, and find the most accessible information by turning to the interesting notes which Mr. Longfellow has appended to his translation.-TRANS.] THREE times and four these greetings, glad and free, Had been repeated, when Sordello's shade Drew from embrace, and said: "Now, who are ye?". My bones Octavian gathered to the tomb. Virgil I am, and for none other sin But want of faith was I from heaven shut out." Something that wakes his wonder, whence, in doubt, Lifting his eyelids, turned and clasped his knees. "O glory of the Latin race!" he cried, "Through whom to such a height our language rose, Oh! of my birthplace everlasting pride, What merit or grace on me thy sight bestows? Tell me, unless to hear thee is denied, Com'st thou from hell, or where hast thou repose ?" VIRGIL. He to this answered: "Grace from heaven moved me, My sight is barred from that supernal Sun, From torment, sad alone with want of light, And there I dwell with guiltless ones that still Though all the rest they knew, and did fulfil. But if thou knowest, and may'st us apprise, SORDELLO. "We have," he answered, "no set place assigned; My guidance far as I may go I lend: And in the night none ever can ascend: And thou shalt know them not without delight." And good Sordello drew along the ground May'st thou pass over when the sun hath gone: One may go back again, and grope below, Gold and fine silver, ceruse, cochineal, India's rich wood, heaven's lucid blue serene,* Had all been vanquished by the varied sheen "Indico legno, lucido e sereno:" Whatever kind of richly tinted wood is referred to in this passage, lucid and serene do not seem very descriptive epithets, applied to wood, and it is not much after the manner of Dante to qualify any object with two vague adjectives. As he is presenting an assemblage of the most beautiful and striking colors, and since we do not imagine (as Mr. Ruskin suggests) that by Indico legno" he could have meant indigo, it seems most natural that he should have mentioned blue. We have therefore ventured to translate as if the verse were written, "Indico legno, lucido sereno." In a Preceding Canto (V.) the poet has used sereno in the same way, without the article-"fender sereno". Also in Canto XXIX., v. 53: -Trans. "Più chiaro assai che Luna per sereno." Of this bright valley set with shrubs and flowers, SORDELLO. "Ere yon low sun shall nestle in his bed " As though some duty he had left undone, Was Rodolph, Emperor, he who might have healed Those wounds which Italy have so far spent That slow relief all other helpers yield. The other, that on soothing him seems bent, Died flying, and in dust his lilies laid. Look! how he beats the breast he cannot calm: Mark too his mate there sighing, who hath made For his pale cheek a pillow of his palm! One is the Father of that pest of France, Father-in-law the other: well they know His lewd, base life! this misery is the lance. That to the core cuts either of them so. And he so stout of limb, in unison Singing with him there of the manly nose, Of every virtue put the girdle on; And if that youth behind him in repose Had after him reigned in his Father's stead, Through the tree's branches: He hath willed it so |