Il6 CHARACTER OP THE LAST 



<c your, order to ruin. Your maxims, and the fpinf 

 cc which animates you in all your deligns and actions 

 ** are too univerfally known. All the oppolition you 

 may make will only ferve the more to exafperate 

 " your foes, already too potent, till at laft you bring 

 (C on your demolition with redoubled violence, by 

 cc making them haften their plot, after deepening their 

 ** contrivances. No pope will be able td fave you. I 

 €c myfelf, mould ere this have been trie iriftrument of 

 ce your extirpation, if the mightieft monarchs had not 

 cc loved me too much to force me to embitter the few 

 " days I have yet to live with this odious undertaking. 

 * c I myfelf, with uplifted hands, implore you to refolve 

 <( ona ftgnal reformation. You will Hill be confpicu- 

 " ous beyond the reft of the orders. But, when once 

 if the ax which is now laid to the root, fhall have 

 " given the final ftroke, you will be reduced to no- 

 u thing; and fo many eftimable perfons, who at pre- 

 " fent do honour to your fociety, will wander about 

 " like difperfed fheep, and figh out their days in lan- 

 f( guor and difguft." 



To this fatherly admonition, Ricci was as blind and 

 deaf as a hardened Pharaoh. It nothing availed to- 

 wards opening the eyes of his mind, that the good pon- 

 tif faw himfelf compelled, almoft in his laft moments, 

 on the earneft follicitations of the court of Portugal, to 

 fend off a brief to the cardinal Saldanha to effect a re- 

 form of the jefuits in that kingdom, at the fame time 

 commanding him to forbid them to preach, and to 

 hear confeffion. Then was the laft time they had it in 

 their power voluntarily to fubmit to a general reform. 

 He would thus have deprived his enemies of the means 



of 



