106 CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESUITS. [1637. 



labored at it for five years with scarcely a sign of 

 progress. The Devil wliispered a suggestion into 

 his ear : Let him procure his release from these 

 barren and revolting toils, and return to France, 

 where congenial and useful emplo}Tiients awaited 

 him. Chabanel refused to listen ; and when the 

 temptation still beset him, he bound himself by a 

 solemn vow to remain in Canada to the day of his 

 death.^ 



Isaac Jogues was of a character not unHke 

 Garnier. Nature had given him no especial force 

 of intellect or constitutional energy, yet the man 

 was indomitable and irrepressible, as his history 

 will show. We have but few means of character- 

 izing the remaining priests of the mission otherwise 

 than as theu' traits appear on the field of their 

 labors. Theh's was no faith of abstractions and 

 generalities. For them, heaven was very near to 

 earth, touching and mingling with it at many 

 points. On high, God the Father sat enthroned; 

 and, nearer to human sympathies, Divinity incar- 

 nate in the Son, with the benign form of his im 

 maculate mother, and her spouse, St. Joseph, the 

 chosen patron of New France. Interceding saints 

 and departed friends bore to the throne of grace the 

 petitions of those yet lingering in mortal bondage, 

 and formed an ascending chain from earth to heaven. 



These priests lived in an atmosphere of super- 

 naturalism. Every day had its miracle. Divine 



1 Ahr€ge de la Vie du Pere Noel Chabanel, MS. This anonymous 

 paper bears the signature of Ragueneau, in attestation of its truth. See 

 also Ragueneau, Relation, 1650, 17, 18. Chabanel's vow is here given 

 verbatim. 



