useless monument to Victor Emmanuel I. on the Capitol, a true abîme de dépenses in an impoverished city, build a new palace for the sovereigns of their own choice, whose coming they heralded with such joy? "You cannot treat with a robber who is still living in another man's house!" is the contemptuous answer of the clerical party to the question why the Papacy is so adverse to any attempt at reconciliation, or even arrangement, with the present ruling house in Italy; and we can but admit that there is a scintilla of reason and truth in the reply.

On the other hand, it is said—and none will deny it-that the spiritual power and prestige of the Papacy have increased enormously since the loss of the temporal power in 1870; that the possession of Rome was an incubus attached to the Holy See, a moral mill-stone round the neck of the Vicar of Christ on Earth, which hindered and prevented the best schemes of the Papacy; that, instead of attending to its world-wide duties, to its great task of ruling and caring for its numberless adherents in all parts of the globe, the time, money, and energy of the Vatican were usually consumed in futile and sometimes not very creditable efforts for the maintenance of the Sovereignty in Rome. Now that this stumbling-block has been removed and the Roman Church is free, what more can she require or demand?

What, indeed, does the Roman Church want? We do not know, and it is useless here to speculate as to what might, or what might not, ultimately satisfy the Pope and the Papal Curia; but we may assume that the first thing required to open the way to a friendly and final arrangement between the two Governments in Rome is a true guarantee-not by the Italian Parliament and King alone, but by all the nations that at present have envoys accredited to the Vatican that the independence of the Pope shall always be respected, so that, no matter what political changes may occur in Italy, or even in Rome itself, the head of the Roman Church shall for ever be permitted to continue in peace his great duties towards all of the Roman faith throughout the world. The great power of the Pope for good or evil is not an Italian possession alone, and it would be an unfortunate and most dangerous state of affairs should he, with bis universal and peculiar influence over so many millions of mankind, ever become a puppet or a prisoner in the hands of the rulers of Italy, whosoever they may be, as the Popes of the fourteenth century became the tools of the French kings at Avignon.

It is as much to guard against the possibility of this danger, as on the actual merits of the case itself, that I should rejoice to see all the nations of Europe and America, Protestant as well as Catholic -for all Protestant nations have Catholic citizens, and are therefore more or less interested in the fate of the Papacy-combine

together and solemnly agree to maintain the inviolability of the Pope, especially with regard to the changes and chances of modern Italian politics, since the chief causes of this present condition of things in Rome, as I have already pointed out, are the untrustworthiness of the Italian Government and its scarcely-veiled hostility to the Vatican, which, though quite defenceless, and possessing neither troops nor guarantee for its defence against encroachment, yet prefers not to run further risk by again trusting to the promises of so capricious and (apparently) unfriendly a neighbour.

The well-wishers of Italy have every reason to expect great things of the young King Victor Emmanuel II., and we can only hope that in his undoubted desire to serve his country he may set himself to work to do all in his power to conciliate that imperium in imperio which, it must be confessed, both his father and grandfather before him have treated with marked unfairness. But, do what he will, Victor Emmanuel II. cannot of himself accomplish this end that is so desirable for modern Italy. The pride of the Popes has been deeply wounded, and, doubtless, at present the Vatican would hold itself aloof from any attempt, however well meant, at reconciliation from its old enemy, that enemy that has risen from the rule of a petty State to the sovereignty of all Italy. The greatest caution and ceaseless tact are required in the first place. But this is not all. The king must look beyond the bounds. of Italy to effect a lasting compromise, for the present political parties in Italy itself, under whatever name they hold office, all persist in annoying and humiliating the Papacy. He must appeal, as I said before, to the other Christian Powers of the world, who all have an interest in the affairs of the Pope and consequently an interest in his relations with the Power in whose territory he is situated. Whether such an appeal fail or succeed, it is at least worth the trying, and every honest attempt at promoting peace, however unsuccessful, must tend to help the situation.

The present condition of affairs in Rome is indeed intolerable, and its full solution on paper is far beyond the scope of this short article; but I have endeavoured to point out some facts and to make one suggestion that may possibly be of service to those in England who desire to study this important and really international question without prejudice.

H. M. VAUGHAN,

world but by the still, small voice of solitude and refection ?

However perplexing to the philosophies mind may be this problem however saying the verdict of the world, its decree La fie ling centuries, grze birth and like the angst proclamation of a Cesar sa obeyed without questio—that marriage is perforce joined to morality—then whatever the cralitires with which this Kolena Jezte and corecent re seiled, it is right, frting, and mora', and that benefirmari neither the man for the woman has anything to fear-they are of the elect, and so pre-destined to salvation. But what of the verdier which is given, not by the Is it true that a marriage is sured, or even binding, because the world happens to approve and to wag its head in an ecstasy of righteous fervoor? What are the conditions spart from the world's voice, which makes marriage a sacrament? What are the conditions which make it but a vile prostitution of human beings, who thus, with careless and criminal prodigality, squander their heritage? Before I attempt to answer this question I should perhaps explain it is solely of the upper and middle classes that I am speaking-the kower classes so-called err in an entirely different way, of which it is not my present intention to speak-but the coltivated classes sin far more grievously in an opposite direction, and their scrdid and ignoble calculation—so much money, so exsked a rank, equal to so much beauty or so much youth-is a graver sin against morality than are the hasty and consequently ill-assorted marriages of the poorgraver, because they represent the class from which should spring

the best men and women, the future rulers of our state, the strength of our empire-graver, because through education their instincts should be purer, their desires more ardent and of greater strength, at once more passionate and more controlled.

With regard to this question Nature, I think, teaches us a great lesson. She teaches us that one of the strongest instincts man possesses, his desire to propagate his kind, is not implanted in us for the mere gratification of a passing desire, it is indeed for a great and noble object, no less an end than the harmonious and complete development of the species through the survival of the fittest, though this may be at the sacrifice of the welfare of the individual. We may call this instinct what we will-love, passion, sexual impulse, irresistible attraction-it is all one and the same thing; but we must obey it in its integrity and purity, or we must forfeit our place in the great scheme of Nature's development. We may clothe its form with radiant beauty, we may encircle its brow with a halo of glory, but it is, though under the ideal covering we recognise it not, the summons of Nature to take our part in the progress of nations.

Let me not be misunderstood. This constraining power of lovewhich makes either a man or woman long with infinite passion for one particular person of the opposite sex, and to be satisfied with no other, is no beautiful mysticism, it is an actual truth. On this matter poets have probed deeper into the heart of humanity than have great men of science or hoary-headed philosophers; they, through the purest source of knowledge-intuition--have realised that love is the strongest, the most original, the most universal forcewe possess. We may disregard its voice, or we may turn our back on its beacon-light, but if we refuse to listen or to be guided, it is at our own risk we do so, and not at our own risk alone, but at the risk and at the peril of unborn generations. For this reason this instinct has as its great end the welfare of the species, and its intensity is in proportion to its power of individualisation. The strong attraction which at first draws a particular man and woman towards each other, developing as their natures mingle into a deep and absorbing passion, shows that he and she are perfectly adapted to each other, that their mental and moral qualities and their physical characteristics are not so much in accord as in harmonious complement to each other, and thus the child or children produced by these two will be completely developed human beings. Nor will such passion be transitory, it has its origin in Nature, its root, its culture, in the spiritual identity which, amid superficial differences, unites these two, and it is only through these spontaneous methods that the best men marry the noblest women. Therefore, I repeat, a marriage cannot be moral, sacred, or even binding, if this great original instinct be perverted from its purity, if other questions are

allowed to affect the issue. If position, place, title, fortune—if any one of these add but a pennyweight to our decision, we cease to possess our humanity, we are prostituting our bodies, corrupting our souls; we are, so far as progress is concerned, at a standstill, or, rather, we are retrograding, and we are carrying with us think of it, you careless women of fashion-the children that should be the bulwark of our empire, and the foundation of our national wellbeing.

And so that marriage should promote, rather than be inimical to the welfare of the future generations, and so that it should assume its sacred character, each child, so soon as it arrives at adolescence, should be taught the awful responsibility that rests on each member of the Commonwealth; and that the mind of each child may be in a healthy condition it should receive, whether it be a boy or girl, the same thorough education, physical and mental, begun at home in its most impressionable years, continued, with due regard to individuality, at school and college. And, further, considering how great are the inherited disadvantages of our daughters, how artificial their nature has become through centuries of unnatural forcing and neglect, considering how supreme should be their influence in the nursery, how powerful the effect upon their children of their intellectual force, we must give them not less but even more attention than we now give to their brothers, we must accord to them, not with less generosity but with greater, a thorough training and education.

But so long as present conditions exist, and so long as women are trained from their earliest childhood to be artificial instead of natural, to loiter out their existence instead of labouring in the vineyard of life; so long as marriage is looked upon as a woman's inevitable destiny, as a means of maintenance and as a prop to keep her at all times from falling; so long as she heeds nothing of the welfare of the race, nor listens to the promptings of her own heart, nor concerns herself with the purity of her own intuitions, so long will marriage and morality be divorced, and the consequence, the lowering of the standard of the race, inevitable. When men and women can forget their worldly prudence, when they can listen to the voice of Nature, although their marriage may be, and often is, a failure so far as their own happiness is concerned, seeing how rare is the union of passionate love with spiritual identity, they may console themselves with the reflection that they have done their best, inasmuch as they have not thwarted Nature in her great scheme.

AGNES G. LEWIS.