WAiî. 103 



us. It is not a cofllc of slaves, Gentlemen. These are 

 soldiers — French soldiers. They had a i)ret()rian guard 

 at Kome: in France we have never had other than 

 soldiers — soldiers who lind, in the sword by their side, 

 in the tlag above their head, the double lesson of obe- 

 dience and of honest pride. 



[lu speaking of tho nature of war, Father Hyacinthe only very 

 slightly indicated its effects. These, he said, would of themselves 

 require an entire discourse. The immediate effects of it are 

 always destructive ; so that it must always be a maxim of na- 

 tional wisdom, " lie who makes two blades of grass grow where 

 only one grew before, has done more for mankind than the vic- 

 tor of a hundred battles." And yet Providence, accustomed to 

 bring good out of evil, has often placed in war the principle of 

 the moral regeneration of society.] 



These are the terrible but incontestable benefits 

 which, in conclusion, I would indicate in a single word. 

 But, great God! what shall I say ? There are hours in 

 the life of nations when peace becomes a peril and 

 almost a scourge. Wealth is too often a fatal thing to 

 individuals, not because it is an evil, — on the contrar}^, 

 it is a great good ; but perverse man turns even good 

 into a curse, especially when this good smiles upon his 

 passions. Thus divine Wisdom has said, '• Blessed are 

 the poor! How hard is it for a rich man to enter the 

 kingdom of heaven!'' Peace, too, is a good yet more 

 excellent, and yet when nations abuse it, it may be as 

 fatal to them as wealth to the individual. Peace, in 

 deed, develops wealth, and sets it circulating through 

 the body of society. Then, with wealth, it develops 

 luxury, in private life as well as public, and especially 

 among women, with whom it puts on its most seductive 

 and "corrupting character. And all the time, as in a 

 splendid but infected sepulchre, the morals of the peo- 



