THE MOVEABLE FESTIVALS. 369 



would have the same effect upon us ; whereas sudden changes from 

 one extreme to another are often attended with dangerous con- 

 sequences. 



HymnuSi 



Audi benigne Conditor, 

 Nostras preces cum fletibus, 

 ]n hoc sacro jeJQuio 

 Fasas quadragenarlo. 

 Scrutator alme cordium, 

 Infirma tu scis virium, 

 Ad te reversis exhibe 

 Remissionis eratiara. 

 Mnltfiin qnidem peccavimUS, 

 Sed parce confitentibus : 

 Ad nominis laudem tui 

 Confer medelam languidis. 

 Concede nostrum eonteri 

 Corpus per abstinentiam, 

 Culpae ut relinquant pabulum 

 Je juna corda criminum. 

 Praesta beata Trinitas, 

 Concede simplex Unitas, 

 Ut fnictuosa sint tais 

 Jejuniorum munera.— Amen. 



3. ASH WEDNESDAY and Lent. 



Dies Cinerum. Caput Jejunum. 



Obs. Penance, fasting, and voluntary suffering in expiation of 

 sins are practices as ancient as any religion whatever, and, like 

 prayer, are coeval with the true worship of Almighty God. In the 

 earliest accounts of Judaea we find fasting in sackcloth and ashes 

 mentioned among the penitential practices of the children of IsraeL 



On fasting, much is to be said in a medical point of view. If 

 not carried too far, it is very useful in clearing the blood of redun- 

 dant and vicious humours, and in relieving the stomach from the 

 too great action into which it is habitually called by our habits of 

 repletion. By lessening the impetus of the circulation, likewise, it 

 relieves the brain from pressure, and qualifies the mind in an emi- 

 nent degree for the holy meditations and offices of the season of 

 penance. Abstinence from flesh meat is also a salutary adjunct to 

 fasting, and we are persuaded that the periodical fasts and absti- 

 nences of the Church have a good physical effect on the body, as 

 well as on the mind; and thus, in the consolidated wisdom of our 

 forefathers, was contemplated the threefold benefit of health of 

 body, vigilance and purity of mind, and salutary penance for sins, 

 by a periodical observance, which nothing but the idle, lazy, and 

 dissipated gourmand of an age of refinement would venture to 

 impugn. 



A work has been advertised in the Catholic Miscellany, on Absti* 

 nence and Fasting, by Dr. Forster of Chelmsford, with a view of 



