there was no swagger, no invective; far from it, every one was treated with sweetest courtesy. For it was a maxim with him that all could learn-wished, in fact, to learn, and would learn too if the right way were taken; and this, it was plain to see, he held to consist in unwearying patience, firmness, and love.

But his daily duties once performed, he was seen no more. Me, indeed, he was pleased to notice, and occasionally invited to the privacy of his chamber. Here, far on in the night, a meagre, ascetic, yet cheerful man, might be seen poring over a volume of the fathers, or some Arabic manuscript brought by him from Spain. He would read awhile, then dashing an arm aloft, exclaim" Beautiful exceedingly, perfect, just and true: Ruler of heaven and earth, I thank thee for this so clear perception, vouchsafed to the humblest of thy servants." Sometimes morning surprised him midst these reveries,

which contrasted strangely with the even tenor

of his daily life.

The ignorant and sensual, and such are every where, neither understood the man nor his harmless though unusual ways. Father Moonan, they said, must have that on his mind which keeps him stirring at dead of night! He watched, indeed, but it was in accordance with spiritual wants which had little scope during the day; while they, forgetful or unwitting that this existence is but the portal to a higher, dozed away the hours in emulous obliviousness.

Father Moonan was a Pythagorean, in so far that he lived on the fruits and roots of the earth. His mild grey eyes would beam when pacing the floor or sitting by his frugal table, he averred that princes fared less sumptuously. "I consume," said he, "the blameless produce of the soil: no creature expires in agony that I may feast. The recorded thoughts and aspi

F

rations of the noblest, wisest, best, are ready at my call. Supported without excess, a mind ever clear, what were daintiest cates that inflame ere they nourish, in comparison ?"

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Thou, Ireland," he would exclaim, while he looked through his casement on the tame though fertile fields of Kildare, "shalt one day shine. Thy plains shall glow with yellow corn; thy sons and daughters shall cast off the fetters of poverty, and the worse fetters of superstition and ignorance. Stand forth, then, once more before the nations-happy, glorious, free. Precious consummation, come quickly, come soon!"

He expatiated on our Hibernia, its unequalled harbours and matchless position, linking the Old World with the New; the genial mildness of the climate, burnt up by no summer's drought, chilled by no winter's cold; together with the quick and versatile genius of its teeming inhabitants. What prevented the just and natural

results? What, but want of prudence, want of patience, and, above all, those infamous broils between professed followers of one common master. "Men, countrymen, be united, true -just to each other, and others will be just to you. Plunge no more the sword of discord into the bosoms of brethren, and the world shall not prevail against you."

DUBLIN.

HAVING completed my studies at Maynooth, I proceeded to Dublin, and became an officiating priest in the chapel of St. Cross. In the cure of souls in that great city, I should have all the scope that heart could wish, for the inculcation and practice of principles of universal benevolence. I had never abode in the metropolis before. If its dimensions surprised me, still more did the ever-restless inhabitants. Gaunt

poverty stalked side by side with lordly opulence and splendour. There were palaces replete with luxury, hovels the abode of dreariest misery. Pleasure seemed the rule with those that had the means; vilest sustenance-enough that it kept body and soul together-the exclusive object of the poor. And, gracious heaven, thought I, this has been going on for generations! Every enjoyment was drained to the lees, the revolting lees of exhaustion and bitterness. During the day, keen-eyed, faminepinched vagrants at night, swarming courtesans, harlot children

young men in all the savagism of intemperance, uttering yells, or daring those they met to rude encounters: houseless wretches cowering in porches, or with piercing intreaty imploring vain charity at the areas!

Day by day an insatiate desire to plumb the depths of human suffering led me through lanes