It was on in the villages after it has vanished was a native of the county. St. Vinfrom the town, artists may console cent de Paul seems affected to the Sacré themselves with the reflection that it is Cœur. Saint Nicholas contributed one the best that will survive. For the of the most numerous contingents а dress of the Portelaises is even more remarkably picturesque one. striking than that of their sisters. is practically the same in "cut;" but girls, representing various schools in their skirts are red instead of the normal black, and their fichus remind one of highly ornamented Satsuma. The Portel contingent opened the procession which set out from the cathedral to perambulate Boulogne on August 23, 1891; and the following transcript from the official programme may enable those who have not chanced upon such a function to form an idea of the picture presented : It distinguished specially by groups of The Swiss. The Cross and Acolytes. Group of Seamen. the district; and the fact that two of these groups were English might heighten the interest to the English onlooker. Nor was St. Pierre behind the rest, with its contingent of seamen and boys bearing models characteristic of their profession, its banner of NotreDame Auxiliatrice carried by matelottes in their characteristic dress, and its group of Daughters of Mary also with the banner of their patroness. But when all these have passed by, there comes yet another section, the most distinguished of all, and the Banner of the Sacred Heart, carried by most widely representative - the cor little boys. Banner of our Lord blessing children. Associates of the Holy Angels. Votive offering, group of girls in white. in red and white. The mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Group of girls in red. tège d'honneur, having in its midst the famous hand of the miraculous statue, and a silver model of the boat in which it is supposed to have drifted to Boulogne. Here are groups of old men Pauvres; Sisters of Saint Vincent de pensioners of the Petites Sœurs des Paul in their dark blue gowns (vieux bleu de France) and curious white headdress; Sisters of St. Joseph in grey, with black veil and scapulary, white cord around the waist and black rosary pendant; Sisters de Bon Secours in sombre black, scarcely relieved by the edge of a white coif; Sisters de la Retraite Chrétienne in grey, as their Multiply by eight, for the number of pseudonym of Sœurs Grises implies. parishes engaged, and you have an ap- And then a succession of relics: relics proximate conception of the picture of Ida, Countess of Boulogne, mother displayed as the great procession defiles of Godfrey de Bouillon, and builder of through the Porte des Dunes. There the first church that had pretensions to are variations, of course, and speciali- be a cathedral; of St. Maxime, a faties. The parishioners of St. Michel mous bishop and "secondary patron distinguish themselves by an abundance of the ancient diocese; relics of other of flowers. Saint François de Sales sanctified bishops, popes, and martyrs; sends a group of dames-jardinières car- prominent among all, however, the farying the "madone de Notre-Dame du mous hand, surrounded by an escort of Saint Sang " which is another cele-young girls who take in turns the honor brated local image, and a group dressed of carrying it. It is hard to say whether as crusaders carrying a banner bearing the arms of Jerusalem - with reference, of course, to Godfrey de Bouillon, who the hand or the silver boat is the object of greater import, though the latter is indicated as the chief object in the dis play. Containing a statue of the Virgin | ing with a Salut Solennel to the central crowned as Queen of Heaven and of the figure of the festival. Then the lilies Seas, this is borne, as is most fit, by the are removed from around her shrine, sailors who trust so especially to her and the flowers from before her altar; protection. It is followed by a group and the silver boat is returned to the of the clergy of the diocese and other sacristy, and the pilgrimage is over. dignitaries of the Church. And then, Vale Regina ! last figure of all, supported by the Plato was probably not first to recogcanons of the cathedral, comes Mgr. nize that, though it is a hard thing to Toulotte, the Bishop of Tagaste, a get people to change radically their missionary from the regions of the creed, it is easy to get them to accept Sahara, who has been preaching in be- new names if they are permitted to half of Cardinal Lavigerie's crusade, retain old things; but the utterance and to whom has been assigned the sounds almost prophetic in view of the presidence and the post of honor on hagiological transmutations that were to the present occasion; a young man still be effected during the ensuing age. a man at any rate not past middle And if ever the task is undertaken of age, but pale and worn-looking; a strik-tracing out these transmutations in deing figure, however, with gilded mitre tail, some of the most interesting results and pastoral crook, and acolytes bearing the wings of his gorgeous robe; and an object of intense interest to one section at least of the spectators; for the most touching characteristic of the procession was the anxiety of mothers, nurses, and all who had children in charge, to present them for his blessing. "Suffer little children to come unto me;" not a little head was presented in vain. It was a constant succession of quick, short rushes, from this side and from that; a constant outshoot from the serried ranks of spectators of a woman lifting a child for the episcopal benediction; a perpetual ceremony of touching a little head, varied by an occasional sign of the cross to the address of the assembled crowd. It began with the first step of the outward march, and it lasted till the moment of return; the canons' backs must have ached with catching up and presenting little waifs who came within range but had no one to lift them up-and the bishop himself! one's own hand and arm were mony · -seems to point not indistinctly inclined to ache for sympathy. The day of the procession is the last day of the fair. The pilgrimages continue; but the climax has been reached. The end comes a week later, and is marked by a Procession aux flambeaux through the labyrinth of the crypt (which has been surmised by some to be the very temple of Clothaire), end will assuredly be found to centre round the personality of Our Lady. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that there have come to be grouped around her, in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, all the higher attributes of the female divinities whose cult she has effaced. The Italian sailor calls on Madonna just as his ancestors appealed to Amphitrite or the Oceanides. It is good to pray to her in illness, as it was good to pray to Hygieia of old. And Dr. Draper1 is surely premature in asking who is there, now, that pays fees to a relic or goes to a saint-shrine to be cured, for the name of Notre-Dame de Lourdes rises spontaneously to our lips. Notre-Dame de St. Foy, whose image was found in the heart of an oaktree, proclaims aloud that she has taken the place of a hamadryad. The legend told at Samer- of a white deer that came out of the forest to lead a procession in honor of Notre-Dame being killed by the inhabitants after the cere to the end of the reign of Diana. The reconsecration of the temple of Cybele and Neptune, at Rome, to San Maria ad Martyres marks a theological transmutation as well as an artistic purpose to preserve a noble edifice. There is no more dramatic incident in the history of 1 The Intellectual Development of Europe. 1 From Temple Bar. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. ANY one who attempts to form a just estimate of the character of James Russell Lowell, must necessarily take into particular account his attitude and action in public affairs; for here, more perhaps than in any other aspect, the distinguished sincerity and courage of the man are made visible. The same sincerity and courage did no doubt characterize him in his other relations. He was not afraid to speak out boldly on any subject. His literary criticisms are a the early Church than the proclamation of Mary as "Mother of God," in the city once sacred to Artemis; nor is there a brighter wreath in its chaplet than the exquisite purity of the new ideal by which it has replaced the tainted cult of the Ephesian goddess. Much might be written-much has been written - about the true inwardness of this change. Mr. Lecky has pointed out that, whatever may be thought of its theological propriety, the Catholic reverence for the Virgin has done much to elevate and purify the ideal of women, and to soften the man-as fearless as his declarations on slavners of men, exercising in this respect an influence which the pagan goddesses could never exercise because they were destitute of moral beauty. We may go further, and admit that the position gradually assigned to the Virgin as the female ideal was the consecration, cr expression of the new value that was attached to the feminine virtues. Yet it is also true that, in so far as purity was one of those virtues, a higher standard had already been set up by the Germanic nation before Christianity had reached them; nor can it be well maintained that the standard is higher among Catholic nations, where Mariolatry still prevails, than among the Protestants who have excluded it from their ritual. But this lands us at once in presence of the question whether it is the religion which makes the man or the man who makes the religion, and would lead us far beyond the scope of the present paper. We are concerned, here, with the Lady whom we find reigning at Boulogne through war and conquest and centuries of religious turmoil and political strife, doing her part to furnish the world with a female ideal, and to "supply the ennobling element in that strange amalgam of religious, licentious, and military feeling which was formed around women in those chivalric "2 when her renown was ages ery and corrupt government. His judgment may be called in question, but never the honesty of his intention. In public affairs, however, even more than in things literary, bold speech and independent action cause man to be branded. Men of letters form themselves into cliques, but they have no such hard and fast party bonds as are borne by men of affairs. The independent politician is something of an Ishmael among partisans and office-seekers. To his own country Mr. Lowell's particular service was that he was a politician without being a partisan; a statesman who did not seek office. He belonged to those "Independents" in politics whose place and function he has himself described; men who are called to "look after the politicians," to "ask disagreeable questions and to utter uncomfortable truths." What we want, he said, Is an active class who will insist, in season and out of season, that we shall have a country whose greatness is measured, not only by its square miles, its number of yards woven, of hogs packed, of bushels of wheat raised, not only by its skill to feed and clothe the body, but also by its power to feed and clothe the soul; a country which shall be as great morally as it is materially. To do this was his own continual effort; and the party-leaders whose at its greatest, and the importance of plans he may have thwarted, and the her favorite city at its height. R. S. GUNDRY. 1 History of European Morals. rank and file who think mostly as their leaders tell them to think, could not be expected to love him. He was often unpopular. Had he been a politician, but less prominent, or not a politician at all, it is likely his repute even as a man of letters and a man of wit would, among his countrymen, be higher than it now is. One cannot easily admire either the shaft of ridicule hurled against oneself or the person who hurls it. Now he is dead, much that is good will be said of him as a man of affairs; but while he was yet a living force in American politics he had not that measure of honor in his own country which we, who look quietly on, feeling none of the friction, think was rightfully his due. not chary of pointing out their faults to his own people; but when the occasion came was prompt to back America against the world. For heroism anywhere he had a keen instinct, but of the American hero he could speak only in superlatives. Abraham Lincoln was a man worthy of every one's admiration for his honesty, which was invariable if not always for sagacity; but if Abraham Lincoln had not been an American, he could hardly have appeared to Mr. Lowell's eyes, not simply a great man or a very great man, but as one "whom posterity will recognize as the wisest and most bravely human of modern times." And if Benjamin Franklin had not been an American, it is not likely Mr. Lowell would have failed to prick the popular superstition about one who, setting aside his other demerits, was the father of that corrupt political system of "spoils to the victor," which, when practised by the modern politician, Mr. Lowell has been the foremost to denounce. Appreciated or not, this attitude of Mr. Lowell did much to purify the political atmosphere of the United States. He was always on the right side, by which is meant, not that his “isms " and he had many - were always correct, for as to that opinions differ, but that the spirit which actuated him, in advocacy and in antagonism alike, was a good and true spirit. He was one of those who converted the great Civil War from a war of faction to a war of principles, and during the progress of The same intensity of American that war, he was constant in his en- spirit shows itself in the second series deavor to keep the true issues that were of "The Biglow Papers." These paat stake well to the front. More re-pers were written during the Civil War, cently he helped to break the long as- when the relations between America cendency of the Republican party, when and England were so severely strained. that ascendency had become corrupt. In particular, it will be remembered, His was the broad view and the high the seizure of two Confederate commisaim. No petty intrigue for private gain sioners on board a British steamer, by a could bias him. He took his stand on Federal war-vessel, caused much exprinciple, and his single purpose was to citement and the demand was promptly secure its triumph. He was a man who and resolutely made by the British govfelt strongly. He had prejudices of his ernment that the men should be given own, difficult to shake. Men as good up. England's known or alleged symand wise as himself were often ranged pathy with the rebellion was taken to against him. But withal he was one of explain her action, which, however, was those " men of character" of whom quite lawful and, as was afterwards adEmerson said they "are the conscience mitted, justified. Meantime, preparaof the society to which they belong." tions for war were actually in progress Herein is the special service he was before the government at Washington able to render to his own country. yielded. The event gave Thackeray occasion for one of his "Roundabout Papers," in which he reviewed the occurrence, and approved the result. His may have been the British standpoint, but even if so, his statement was made with dignity and a judicial recognition of the merits and the provocation on both sides. In contrast is the Amer In his political action Mr. Lowell was a very decided American. He could be tolerant, at times could be intolerant, of the conduct of other nations; but in either event his view of such conduct was from the American standpoint. The virtue of patriotism was never in any danger of dying in him. He was VOL. LXXX. 4131 LIVING AGE. ican view, as set forth by Mr. Lowell, in | Wordsworth he does, indeed, pass into the name of Hosea Biglow: I tell you, England's law on sea an' land, and this in spite of the fact that in the We giv' the critters back, John, 'Cos Abram thought 'twas right; It warn't your bullyin' clack, John, Provokin' us to fight. No doubt there was "bullyin' clack" on both sides of the ocean just then; but the point to be noted is that while our own broad-minded Thackeray could, even in the heat of the moment, rise superior to it here, Mr. Lowell who, as a man of letters and of culture might be fairly classed with Thackeray, became, where the interests of his own country were opposed to those of another, a fiery partisan. a phase of English literature which is not American, but Wordsworth, if British born, belongs to the world. Unless an American student limits himself to the extremely modern literature of his country, to such authors as Washington Irving, Fenimore Cooper, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Howells, he is of necessity on the same ground as the British student. Consequently, if Mr. Lowell the man of letters is not distinctively American, it is because he is cosmopolitan, not because he is British. When we read his essays closely, we certainly do find that what he has written even of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton, has a touch and tone essentially American. That is to say, a British writer as nearly his parallel as possible, would not have said the same things, or, saying them, would have said them in a different way. But then an essay written under pine-trees would no doubt absorb some flavor different from an essay written under the light imparted by the "midnight oil." If nowhere else, Mr. Lowell's turns of expression, and the illustrations he uses, must have been determined by his American environment. As a writer on literary subjects, whether as student or critic, Mr. Lowell had an immense advantage in his way of putting things. His wit, his fine style, vigorous and direct, like the man himself, his genius for happy phrases, display his ideas in the best manner. When one has a good thing to say, it is surely a great gain to be able to say it in an attractive way. There would doubtless be fewer "mute inglorious Mil When we turn from Lowell the man of affairs to Lowell the man of letters, there is still some of the same American bias, but it is much subdued. Every mother thinks her own child has at least some slight superiority over all other children. Men and women possessed of the patriotic spirit in far less abundance than Mr. Lowell, are disposed to thank God for their nationality, whatever it may be; to think gratefully sometimes, "This is my own, my native land." After allowing for such a natural bent, Mr. Lowell proved himself to be, in the sphere of letters, less a citizen of America than a citizen of the world. It has been said of him that he was more Brit-tons" but for difficulties in the way of ish than American, by persons who clear and emphatic expression which no think American literature to be genuine external circumstance of birth and trainmust have its peculiar and distinctive ing can account for. On the other hand, flavor strongly indicated, forgetting that a smart style, with little or nothing American literature as a separate thing behind it, has made some men's reputahas existed for scarcely a hundred tions. The parable of "that blessed years, and that it and British literature word Mesopotamia," has an extended have their ancestry in common. Mr. significance. Mr. Lowell knew well Lowell is as well entitled as Mr. Furni- the value of a fine style. His references vall to claim Shakespeare; Professor to the subject are frequent. Masson has no rights in Milton which speaking of Chaucer, he says, he may not share. When he discusses not merely what he has to say, Thus, "It is but even |