84 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636. 



selves, — and many, too, who, in the sophistry of 

 the human heart, thought themselves true soldiers 

 of Heaven, while earthly pride, interest, and pas- 

 sion were the life-springs of their zeal. This 

 mighty Church of Rome, in her imposing march 

 along the high road of history, heralded as infal- 

 lible and divine, astounds the gazing world with 

 prodigies of contradiction : now the protector of 

 the oppressed, now the right arm of tyrants ; now 

 breathing charity and love, now dark with the pas- 

 sions of Hell ; now beaming with celestial truth, 

 now masked in hypocrisy and lies ; now a virgin, 

 now a harlot ; an imperial queen, and a tinselled 

 actress. Clearly, she is of earth, not of heaven ; 

 and her transcendently dramatic life is a type of 

 the good and ill, the baseness and nobleness, the 

 foulness and purity, the love and hate, the pride, 

 passion, truth, falsehood, fierceness, and tender- 

 ness, that battle in the restless heart of man. 



It was her nobler and purer part that gave life to 

 the early missions of New France. That gloomy 

 wilderness, those hordes of savages, had nothing to 

 tempt the ambitious, the proud, the grasping, or the 

 indolent. Obscure toil, solitude, privation, hard- 

 ship, and death were to be the missionary's portion. 

 He who set sail for the country of the Huron s left 

 behind him the world and all its prizes. True, 

 he acted under orders, — obedient, like a soldier, 

 to the word of command : but the astute Society 

 of Jesus knew its members, weighed each in the 

 balance, gave each his fitting task ; and when the 

 word was passed to embark for New France, it was 



