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end in view. The association is one of PRAYER, not of Temperance, and founded on confidence in the power of prayer; founded too with a view to get all to pray-the strong for the weak, and the weak for themselves. I fear some of your readers overlooked the concluding sentence last month. Several have asked for tickets in order to establish a temperance society. This is a mistake; ours is a different work totally, and I am sure a few words from you will clear up all doubts and misunderstandings. The good who will pray, who will aid in saving friends and strangers, the known and the unknown, must form the bulk of the association; but none are more welcome or more desired than those whose one chance, for time and beyond it, lies in prayer. "With the utmost respect and gratitude, we are, Rev. Gentlemen, your humble servants,

"The Members of the Association of PRAYER for the
CONVERSION of those addicted to Intemperance".

II.

Institution for Poor Converts.

IT may be useful to some of our readers to know that an "Institution has been established for poor Catholic convert ladies". We cannot better make known its purport and advantages than by inserting its circular, which has just come to hand:

"The special object of this religious work, directed by the Nuns of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, is to aid young convert ladies, and Catholics persecuted for the faith, who may be compelled to leave their families and seek an asylum in a foreign land.

"To this end the religious are at all times ready to receive for a certain period, converts who feel the necessity of further religious instruction, and who are glad to find it under the protection of a convent home.

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They offer to give at the same time, to such young persons as may desire it, and to the children of converts, the advantages of a liberal education and careful training, which may qualify them ultimately to undertake the duties of teachers and governesses, or enable them in some honourable way to provide for their own maintenance, and thus escape the destitution which in too many cases follows upon their reception into the true Church.

"The ordinary course of education pursued in the convent comprises English and French in all their branches; music and drawing; plain and ornamental needlework. Foreign languages are taught by natives. The religious instruction is superintended by a resident chaplain appointed by the Bishop of Versailles.

"In order to extend the benefits of this institute as widely as

possible, the expenses of the pension are limited to very mode rate charges for board, as also for furnishing the trousseau. These charges can be regulated by mutual consent, according to the age and circumstances of each applicant.

"To all who are thus trained in the convent, every aid will be afforded in procuring them suitable situations in respectable Catholic families, and in assisting them when out of employ ment, or in sickness.

"The call for an institution of this nature has long been felt, from the fact that great numbers of these young converts are exposed to dangerous temptations, perilous alike to their faith and morals, from their inexperience, want of resources, and isolation on their arrival in a foreign country, where they are strangers alike to the customs and language of those around

them.

"The convent is situated in a beautiful and elevated position called Les Bruyères, between Sèvres and Bellevue, near Paris. It is distant from Paris fifteen minutes by railroad. Being close to the capital, and yet in the midst of the most picturesque country, surrounded by large and beautiful gardens, it offers all the most important conditions for health, convenience, and an agreeable residence.

"Patrons or benefactors, willing to contribute to this work by their means or personal influence, participate as auxiliary nembers, by virtue of a recent grant of His Holiness Pope Pius the Ninth, in all the indulgences and spiritual favours, as well as in the masses and prayers offered by the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, canonically established in the convent chapel, an affiliation from the Archconfraternity of the same name in Rome, which has existed above two hundred years, and has been largely indulgenced by the Sovereign Pontiffs Pius the Seventh and Pius the Ninth.

"Patrons and benefactors are entitled to place a child under fifteen years of age for every yearly subscription of £12. A donation of £20 entitles the donor to the education and maintenance of a young person for three years.

"Patronesses:-Her Grace the Duchess of Norfolk, the Castle, Arundel; the Countess of Denbigh, 49 Eaton Square, London; the Countess of Buchan, 27 Park Street, London; the Lady Herries, Evringham Park, York; the Lady Blanche Noel, Exton Hall, Oakham; the Honourable Mrs. Alfred Montgomery, Ifield Lodge, Crawley, Sussex, and 346 Rue St. Honoré, Paris; Miss Fortescue Turville, 11 Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square, London; Mrs. John Young, 47 Mark Lane, London, E.C.

"For full particulars address to La Révèrende Mère Supérieure, Convent de l'Immaculée Conception, Sèvres, près Paris; also to the above-named patronesses".

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WHAT is the true meaning of the Mosaic Days? This question
brings at once before us the second branch of the inquiry in
which we are engaged; and it will, therefore, form the subject of
discussion in our present paper. At the outset we have to notice
that a very remarkable diversity of opinion prevailed on this
subject among the early Fathers of the Church. Some modern
writers seem to think that the meaning of this word Day is so
plain and obvious as to leave no room for doubt or controversy;
that a Day can be nothing else than a period of twenty four
hours, marked by the succession of light and darkness; and that
in this sense the Mosaic narrative was universally understood
until quite recently, when a new explanation was invented,
to meet the requirements of modern science. All this, how-
ever, is far from true. The meaning of the word Day, in
the first chapter of Genesis, has been, in point of fact,
a subject of controversy from the earliest times. And Saint
Augustine tells us that the question appeared to him so diffi-
cult that he could pronounce no decisive judgment upon it.
As to these Days", he says, "what kind they were, it is very
difficult, nay, it is impossible to imagine, and much more so to
explain".'

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"Qui dies cujusmodi sint, aut perdifficile nobis, aut etiam impossibile est cogitare; quanto magis dicere". De Civitate Dei, Lib. xi. cap. 6.

Again: "Arduum quidem et difficillimum est viribus intentionis nostrae, voluntatem scriptoris in istis sex diebus mentis vivacitate penetrare". De Genesi ad Litteram, Lib. iv. cap. 1.

VOL. V.

13

Nevertheless, this great Doctor, having long pondered over the subject, and considered it on many sides, does not hesitate to express his own opinion. And in this opinion he departs very widely, indeed, from the literal and obvious interpretation. He maintains at great length,' as we had before occasion to observe, that God created all things in a single instant of time, according to the words of Ecclesiasticus, "He who liveth for ever created all things at once". And thus he is led to infer that the Six Days commemorated by Moses were in reality but one day; and this not such a day as those which are now measured by the revolution of the sun, for we find three successive days recorded by Moses before the sun appeared in the Heavens. It was in fact nothing else than that one single instant of time in which all things were created together.3

Nor was this opinion peculiar to Saint Augustine. At the very dawn of the Christian Era it was set forth by Philo the Jew; and afterwards it was maintained by Clement of Alexandria, and by Origen. The great Saint Athanasius

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1 See De Genesi ad Litteram, Lib. iv. capp. xxvi.-xxxv. Lib. v. cap. i. n. 3, and cap. iii. n. 6.

2 Ecclesiasticus, xviii. 1.

3" Ac sic per omnes illos dies unus est dies, non istorum dierum consuetudine, intelligendus, quos videmus solis circuitu determinari atque numerari; sed alio quodam modo, a quo et illi tres dies, qui ante conditionem istorum luminarium commemorati sunt, alieni esse non possunt. Is enim modus non usque ad diem quartum, ut inde jam istos usitatos cogitaremus, sed usque ad sextum septim. umque perductus est; ut longe aliter accipiendus sit dies et nox, inter quae duo divisit Deus, et aliter iste dies et nox, inter quae dixit ut dividant luminaria quae creavit, cum ait, Et dividant inter diem et noctem'. Tunc enim hunc diem condidit, cum condidit solem, cujus praesentia eumdem exhibet diem: ille autem dies primitus conditus jam triduum peregerat cum haec luminaria illius diei quarta repetitione creata sunt". De Genesi ad Litteram, Lib. iv. cap. xxvi. “ De quo enim Creatore Scriptura ista narravit, quod sex diebus consummaverit omnia opera sua, de illo alibi non utique dissonanter scriptum est, quod creaverit omnia simul (Eccles. xviii. 1). Ac per hoc et istos dies sex vel septem, vel potins unum sexies septiesve repetitum simul fecit qui fecit omnia simul. Quid ergo opus erat sex dies tam distincte dispositeque narrari? Quia scilicet ii qui non possunt videre quod dictum est, 'Creavit omnia simul'; nisi cum eis sermo tardius incedat, ad id quo eos ducit, pervenire non possunt". Ib. cap. xxxii.

4 Tum igitur omnia simul sunt condita. In quo quidem universali opificio necesse erat servari ordinem". De Mundi Opificio, Edit. Francofurti, p. 14. This passage may, at first sight, appear somewhat obscure; but the meaning of it is made clear enough when we read elsewhere in the same writer: "Rusticanae simplicitatis est putare, sex diebus, aut utique certo tempore mundum conditum. Ergo cum audis: 'Complevit sexto die opera', intelligere non debes de diebus aliquot, sed de senario perfecto numero". De Legis Allegor. Edit. Francofurti, p. 41.

5 Stromatum, Lib. vi. Edit. Bened. p. 291; Edit. Migne, Patrum Graec. Cursus Completus, vol. 9, p. 370-5. See also Dissertatio de Libris Stromatum by the learned Benedictine, Nicholas le Nourry, Cap. viii. Artic. 1.

"Quod autem prima die lucem, secunda firmamentum creaverit, tertia aquae quae sub coelo erant, in suis fuerint collectae receptaculis, atque ita terra solius nature administra tione suos fructus protulerit; quod quarta creata fuerint luminaria et stellæ, quinta vero natatilia, sexta demum terrestria et

seems to throw the weight of his authority in the same direction, when he says, speaking of the Creation, that "no one thing was made before another, but all things were produced at once together by the self-same command". And after the time of Saint Augustine this figurative interpretation was defended by Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons, in the course of the fifth century, and by Procopius of Gaza in the sixth. In the days of the schools we find it approved by Albertus Magnus,* and treated respectfully by Saint Thomas; and later still, homo, haec omnia, prout facultas tulit, in nostris in Genesim commentariis explicavimus. Quin et supra contra eos qui obrio sensu Scripturam interpre tantes asserunt sex dies ad creationem mundi insumptos fuisse, adduximus hunc locum: 'Iste est liber generationis coeli et terrae quando creata sunt, in die quo fecit Deus coelum et terram'". Contra Celsum, Lib. vi. Edit. Bened. pp 678, 679. Edit. Migne, Putr. Graecor. Cursus Completus, vol 11, p. 1390: for the passage referred to at the close of the extract see p. 1378. The Commentary upon Genesis of which Origen here speaks no longer exists, but the following passage has been preserved. Aliqui jam absurdum existimantes Deum architecti more non aliter, quam plurium dierum labore, fabricam valentis absolvere, intra multos dies mundum perfecisse, uno cuncta momento ac simul extitisse aiunt, et hinc illud adstruunt; ordinis autem causa, et ut series constet, dierum et rerum quae in illis factae sunt, numerum dictum putant. Hi probabiliter sententiam stabiliunt ea auctoritate qua dictum est: Ipse dixit, et facta sunt; ipse mandavit, et creata sunt'". Selecta in Genesim, Edit. Bened. p. 27. Edit. Migne, Patr. Graec. Cursus Completus, vol. 12, p. 98. Again, in his Treatise De Principis, Lib. iv., he says: Quis igitur sanae mentis existimaverit primam et secundam et tertiam diem, et vesperam, et mane sire sole, luna, et stellis, et eam quae veluti prima erat, diem sine coelo fuisse ?" Edit. Bened. p. 175. Edit. Migne, vol. 11, p. 378. See also P. Danielis Huetin Origeniana, Lib. ii. cap. ii. Quaest. 8, § 6. Edit. Migne, vol. 17, p. 979.

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"Cum ex supra dictis constet, nullam e rebus creatis prius altera faclam esse, sed res omnes factas uno eodemque mandato simul extitisse". Oratio II. Contra Arianos, n. 63. Edit. Bened. p. 418. New Edition, p. 528. Edit. Migne, Patr. Graecor. Cursus Completus, p. 275.

Or, speaking more strictly, we should say the author of a Commentary upon Genesis belonging to a very early period of the Church, ascribed by some to Saint Eucherius, and usually published with his works. This author says, no doubt, that God first, in the beginning, created the substance of all things, and afterwards developed the various forms on successive days (Gen. ii. 4): but then he tells us expressly that the substance did not precede the forms by any priority of time, but only by priority of origin. (Gen. i. 2). Thus his view coincides pretty nearly with that of St. Augustine, whose words, indeed, he seems to borrow. "Terra autem erat inanis et vacua'. Id est, adhuc informis erat ipsa materia: quia necdum ex ea coelum et terra, necdum omnia formata erant, quae formari restabant: haec enim materia, ex nihilo facta, praecessit tamen res ex se factas, non quidem aeternitate vel tempore, sicut praecedit lignum arcam; sed sola origine, sicut praecedit vox verbum, vel sonus cantum: nam qui vivit in aeternum creavit omnia simul' ". Edit. Migne, Patr. Latin. Cursus Completus, vol. 50, p. 894.

3 In Genes. cap. ii. See Pererius in Genes. cap. ii. v. 4, n 179.

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4 Videtur mihi Augustino consentiendum". Summa 5. 1, Quaest. 12, art. 6. See Pianciani, Cosmogonia Naturale, p. 23.

Summa, pars. 1. Quaest 74, art. II.: Also in an earlier work, Super Libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi Commentarius, Distinct. xii. art I. and III. Having explained the opinion of Saint Augustine that there was no real succession in the order of time between the various works of the creation, but that all were created together; and also the opinion of other Holy Fathers, that there was

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