SIMPLE PATRICK.

THE individual who occupied the apartment adjoining mine was a youth from Munster, with soul incult, as the heather on the hill. What he dreaded were creatures of another world; beings who, instead of solacing themselves in the free fields of space, evinced unconquerable predilection for certain haunts, to the confusion and dismay of every beholder. He would not have passed a night alone were it to be made pope of Rome. Oft have I been roused from

deepest slumber by yells emitted by poor Patrick in his dreams. you hear, do you see them?" he would exclaim.

us!"

"Do

"Oh, Mother of mercy, save

Nor was it easy, so much was he impressed by frantic fancy, to rouse him; and when aroused, it was long indeed ere he regained tranquillity.

Even yet I cannot call to mind without a

shudder his distorted conceptions of the invisible world. Gracious heaven, he and those who resembled him peopled the infinite universe with spectral horrors, as grotesquely remote from the glorious reality, as deformity is remote from beauty, falsehood from truth.

66

Patrick," I have accosted him in the still night, "how has your mind been so fraught with these absurdities?"

"Hush, Michael, hush, you know not who is listening; speak them fairly, Michael, and they will do you no harm."

66 Speak whom, Patrick! What mean you by these crazy wanderings?"

His voice would then assume a character of piteous entreaty, mixed with threats as to what might befal did I not respect the hour and the place. Was I mad? Had not a Dunboyne scholar died in that very room? Father Durlachan, did not he still look in at nights? And

"Patrick," said I, interrupting him, "are you not aware that by the fiat of the Creator, once soul and body sever, the former has no power over its companion-that it enters into new relations, very different from those with perishing matter?" I tried to show him that we had no direct perception of spiritual natures, however the senses might be occasionally imposed on. Were there not irrefragable instances of individuals who saw sights and heard sounds that had no existence save in a perverted imagination? Was it likely that beings who had passed into eternity should so demean themselves, had they the power, as to torment children, feeble-minded persons, and even the inferior animals? If the Deity suffered the immediate visible commerce of men and angels, would it not be for some great and good pur

pose, to soothe the miserable, to deter the wicked; in a word, for the common solace and instruction of mankind? It would be during the glorious day, not mid darkness and gloom, when terror assails the weak, and the ill-instructed forget God's precious care!

FATHER MOONAN.

My teachers presented the usual alternations of pedantry, egotism, and sterling worth. Owing to insufficient prior instruction, much time was unavoidably lost in the weary iteration of elementary culture; and the not to be sufficiently valued hours were squandered without appeal. What was really learned for the most part should have been learned before; then would there have been leisure to expatiate in the great fields of knowledge, human and divine: there would have been created accurate thinkers, accom

plished scholars; able and willing workers in the regeneration and amelioration of mankind.

Among the rest was Father Moonan. Heedless of the stirring, striving world about him, he lived but in visions of the dim and distant past: yet no one was more earnest in the duties of his post. He would repeat, were it for the hundredth time, the most commonplace passage of the most commonplace author. Dulness must rouse in spite of herself, indolence cast off her leaden wings. He never upbraided in word or deed; it was only "Well, my dear, you seem unacquainted with this passage, let us try it again;" and they did try, and again try, till doubts and difficulties were equally dispelled. Youths, alike indifferent to praise or blame, yielded to Father Moonan's irresistible sway. If they could have elicited the faintest impatience, the slightest reproof-but his dignified gentleness withstood every shock. Did I say