CHARLES WATERTON, ESQ. Xxiii 



Jesuits' college in St. Omers, having learned that 

 these inestimable disciples of St. Ignatius had put 

 things in a proper train for the instruction of youth, 

 took me to Stonyhurst, and placed me under their 

 care. 



Voltaire had said repeatedly that he could not sub- 

 vert Christianity until he had destroyed the Jesuits. 

 Their suppression was at last effected ; partly by his 

 own impious writings, and partly by the intrigues of 

 kept mistresses at the different courts, who joined 

 their influence to the already enormous power in the 

 hands of the infidel ministers of the day. The woes 

 unutterable which these poor followers of Jesus 

 Christ had to endure at the hands of the wretches 

 who had caused the breaking up of their order, 

 seemed to have made no alteration in their disposi- 

 tion ; for, on my arrival at Stonyhurst, I found them 

 mild and cheerful, and generous to all around them. 

 During the whole of my stay with them (and I 

 remained at their college till I was nearly twenty 

 years old), I never heard one single expression come 

 from their lips that was not suited to the ear of a 

 gentleman and a Christian. Their watchfulness 

 over the morals of their pupils was so intense, that 

 I am ready to declare, were I on my death-bed, I 

 never once had it in my power to open a book in 

 which there was to be found a single paragraph of 

 an immoral tendency. 



My master was Father Clifford, a first cousin of 

 the noble lord of that name. He had left the world, 

 and all its alluring follies, that he might serve Al- 

 j^mighty God more perfectly, and work his way with 

 a 4< 



