plan of the celebrated institution which he afterwards established. At the same time he composed his famous book, entitled "Spiritual Exercises," which drew down upon him such severe persecutions. In 1524, he travelled into the Holy Land. On his return to Europe, being then thirty-three years of age, he commenced his studies under Jerome Ardebala, professor of grammar at Barcelona. At the end of two years, although he had acquired very little Latin, he resolved to go through a course of philosophy and theology at the university of Alcala. Some proselytes, that he had made at Barcelona, wished to follow him, but he dared not to take them with him, for fear of offending the Inquisition at Toledo. However, he ventured on being accompa nied by three, named Caliste, Artiaga, and Cazeves: the hospital of Alcala furnished him with a fourth; he was a young Frenchman, called Jean, who, having been wounded in a duel, in passing through that town, in the suite of the viceroy of Navarre, whose page he was, had been carried to the hospital to get cured of his wounds. The master and his disciples were clothed in a long flowing coat of grey serge, with a hat of the same colour; they were lodged through charity, sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, and lived upon alms. Loyola, disheartened by the slow progress that he made in his studies, abandoned Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and, with his four disciples, who were as ignorant as himself, he began to catechize infants, deliver exhortations to the most licentious of the students, and teach the Christian doctrine to the common people. These proceedings excited great murmurs; he was imprisoned, but soon released; finally, by a public sentence pronounced in June, 1527, Loyola and his companions were ordered to wear the academical dress, and to desist from expounding the mysteries of religion, before they had studied theology for four years, under the penalty of excommunication and banishment. This prohibition was, as a clap of thunder, to Ignatius; it reduced him to the humble condition of a student, and made him pass for an ignorant charlatan, who pretended to teach what he did not know. He was so nettled at this affront, that he retired to Salamanca to continue his studies; but he had no sooner arrived, than he forgot the object of his journey, and began to preach, as he had done at Alcala. Arrested a second time with his disciples, he remained twenty-two days in prison, and only quitted to hear his sentence pronounced. Not finding them guilty of any irregularity in their morals, or of any heresy, the judges permitted them to teach the catechism, but strictly prohibited their touching on the delicate distinctions between deadly and venial sins, until they had studied theology four years. Disgusted with so many interruptions, Loyola determined to leave his ungrateful country, and repair to France. He communicated this intention to his companions, who, being heartily sick of the miserable life they led with him, refused to accompany him on this new expedition. He set out alone, and on foot, driving an ass before him, which carried his books and papers, all of which he had composed in the time of his greatest ignorance. He arrived at Paris in the month of February, 1528, and recommenced his studies. At the college of Montaigu, he applied to general knowledge, and at the college of St. Barbe, to philosophy. In this last establishment, he so distracted the students by his doctrines, that the professors sentenced him more than once to severe penalties. He again began theology at the college of the Jacobins, but his zeal for making proselytes being kindled anew, he suceeded in making six converts. These were Pierre Lefevre, a poor Savoyard priest; Francois Xavier, a Navarrese gentleman, who professed philosophy at the college of Beauvais; a Portuguese, named Simon Rodriguez d'Azevedo, and three Spaniards, James Lainez, Alphonso Salmeron, and Nicholas Alphonso, surnamed Bobadilla, from the place of his birth. Fearful lest their ardour might cool, he conducted them to the church of Montmartre, on the day of the assumption, 1534, when the Roman Catholic festival was held, to commemorate the ascension of the virgin to heaven. Pierre Lefevre solemnized the mass, and administered the sacrament to each of them in a subterranean cavern ; they, then, all made a vow to visit Jerusalem at a fixed date, and labour to convert the infidels. If they found that they could not remain in the country with safety, they agreed to go to Rome, throw themselves at the feet of the pope, and beseech him to dispose of their persons, according to his good pleasure. Loyola was now joined by three other disciples Claude Le Jay, a Savoyard, and Jean Codure, and Pasquier Brouet, Frenchmen, and they took the same vows at Montmartre, when the rest of the fraternity renewed theirs for the second time. These ten persons, the nucleus of a society which afterwards became so famous, repaired to Rome at Easter, 1538. There they held a meeting, in which they laid the foundations of their mystic edifice. Ignatius, in a long harangue, declared that they would never effect any thing on a grand scale, unless they were incorporated into an order capable of increasing their numbers in all places, so as to continue in existence to the end of time, and, as they would fight under the banner of Jesus Christ, they could not adopt a more appropriate name than that of the divine Redeemer. Persuaded that, without the support of the great, he would never arrive at any considerable power, Loyola employed flattery to attach them to his interests, and he so far succeeded as to be enabled to submit the plan of his society to Pope Paul the Third, in 1539. The holy father refused at first to sanction this institution; but, being urgently pressed, he at last consented to take the new scheme into consideration. Guidiccioni, one of the three cardinals appointed to examine these proposals, decidedly opposed them, and his advice prevailed. Ignatius struggled in vain to conquer this opposition; all that he could obtain from the pope was, permission for his disciples to be employed in such places as the church might appoint, but they had no general commission, nor could they lawfully exercise any discretionary power. Two of them, Xavier and Rodriguez, were sent into Portugal, from whence the former passed into India. Paul the Third, thinking, after some time, that the holy see, now attacked on all sides, could not have too many defenders, closed his ear to the wise remonstrances of Guicciodini, and finally yielded to the pressing solicitations of Loyala. On the 27th of September, 1540, was published the fatal and too famous Bull "Regimini militantes ecclesiæ," which sanctioned and legalized the new society under the name of the "Company of Jesus," but limited their numbers to sixty, a restriction which another Bull, issued three years afterwards, rescinded. It has been often remarked, that as the Roman emperors assumed the cognomina of Africanus, Germanicus, &c., because they were not the friends of those nations whose names they assumed, in like manner the Jesuits assumed the name of Jesus, because they were the greatest enemies of his doctrines. The ambition of Loyola was not yet satisfied; he earnestly desired to receive an unequivocal mark of the gratitude of his companions, and be openly acknowledged the supreme chief of the order that he had founded. His wishes were crowned with complete success, for his companions proclaimed him their general on the 22nd April, 1541. His profession of faith commenced with these words: "I, Ignatius of Loyola, promise before God, and our holy Pontiff, his vicar on earth, before the glorious virgin mother and the celestial hosts, and before you, my brethren, to live in perpetual poverty, chastity, and humbleness, according to the form of life contained in the Bull of the Institution of the Company of Jesus." Arrived at the height of power, Loyola determined to secure his authority by compiling a code of laws for the regulation of his subjects. On this subject, he laboured night and day in conjunction with Lainez, who had read the rules of every society that had been formed, and from them he extracted those which were best suited to the objects and discipline of the Jesuits. As he pretended not to write a single article without having first implored the protection and enlightment of God, his disciples boldly announced that their constitution was the inspired work of the Holy Ghost. What that constitution was, we will explain in our next, only remarking, at present, that it was a model of political sagacity. AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND. ON THE NEW YEAR. DEAR Tom, your affectionate letter Yourself to sweet Mistress O'Leer, What a season is this for good wishes, I declare that the gros lot at Bish's Scarce would pay for the grog, cheese, and beer, My maid all the day rinses glasses, Troops of nephews, and cousins, and nieces, And leave me a happy New Year. Then come duns of all trades and professions; Whose charge more than bayonets I fear, My lawyer, too, on this occasion, Claims the costs of my law-suits of course, A draft for my draughts of his beer! But ends with "a happy New Year." My time-vender and mender now tells me, That my credit he'll cut with his shears,- My cobler vows ere he's much older, Long before I've worn out my tough sole, Now our sixties, both married and single, A non-sixty with these may not mingle- What's a sixty? methinks you are crying,- But this Sarnia, dear friend, I assure thee, This Sarnia's a sweet little spot, Where my friendship from care would secure thee, Where silently charity glideth To dry wretched poverty's tears ;- Fare thee well, my dear Tom, and if ever J. D. PIERCEY. ANECDOTES OF VENTRILOQUISM VENTRILOQUISM is the art of vocal deception. It is a quality, possessed by some few persons, by means of which they are enabled to speak inwardly, having the power of forming speech by drawing the air into the lungs; and to modify the voice in such a manner, as to make it seem to proceed from any distance, or from any direction whatever. The following anecdotes are related by the Abbé de la Chapelle, one of the members of the French Academy. This gentleman having heard many surprising circumstances related concerning one M. St. Gille, a grocer, at St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, whose astonishing powers as a ventriloquist had given rise to many singular and diverting scenes, formed the resolution to see him. Struck by the many marvellous anecdotes concerning him, the abbé judged it necessary first to ascertain the truths of these reports by the testimony of his own senses, and then to inquire into the cause of the phenomena, and investigate the manner in which they were produced. After some preparatory steps, (for M. Gille, he had been told, did not chuse to gratify the curiosity of every one,) the abbé waited upon him, informed him of his design, and was cordially received. He was taken into a parlour on the ground floor, where M. St. Gille and himself sat on the opposite sides of a small fire, with only a table between them, the abbé keeping his eyes steadily fixed on his companion. Half an hour had passed, during which that gentleman diverted the abbé with the relation of many comic scenes which his peculiar talent had produced; when, all on a sudden, the abbé heard himself called by his name and title, in a voice that seemed to come from the roof of a distant house. He was almost petrified with astonishment: on recollecting himself, however, and asking M. St. Gille whether he had not just given him a specimen of his art, he was answered only by a smile; but while the abbé was pointing to the house from which the voice had seemed to proceed, his surprise was augmented on hearing himself answered, "It was not from that quarter," apparently in the same kind of voice as before, but which now seemed to issue from under the earth, at one of the corners of the room. In short, this factitious voice played, as it seemed, every where about him, and seemed to proceed from any quarter, or distance, from which the operator chose to transmit it. The illusion was so very strong, that, prepared as the abbé was for this sort of conversation, his mere senses were absolutely incapable of undeceiving him. Though conscious that the voice proceeded from the mouth of M. St. Gille, that gentleman appeared absolutely mute, while he was exercising this talent; nor could the author perceive any change whatever in his countenance. He observed, however, at this first visit, that M. St. Gille contrived, but without any studied manner, to present only the profile of his face to him, while he was speaking as a ventriloquist. Another equally curious anecdote is the following:-M. St. Gille, returning home from a place whither his business had carried him, sought shelter from an approaching thunder storm, in a neighbouring convent. Finding the whole community in mourning, he enquired the cause, and was told that one of their body had lately died, who was the ornament and delight of the whole society. To pass away the time, he walked into the church, attended by some of the ecclesiastics, who showed him the |