AUGUST. 
THE OAK.—MANHOOD. 
‘It seems idolatry with some excuse 
When our forefather Druids in their oaks 
Imagined sanctity.’—C owper. 
V OYALTY, according to St. Paul, is not simply a dignity which, 
raises a man above his fellows ; it is also a ministry of re¬ 
ligion to God, of justice to the people, of love to the miserable, 
severity to the wicked, gentleness to the good. Such were 
the principles on which St. Eouis founded the glory and the 
holiness of his reign. He felt the weight of his crown from 
the first moment that he wore it; he recognised^ the difficulty 
of his work, and, like Solomon, he prayed for wisdom to aid 
him. The first truths which he learned were, what he owed 
to God as a man, what he owed to his people as a king. 
His first thoughts were, to make his kingdom happy, and to 
make himself holy ; his first actions were actions of clemency and justice ; 
and when he began to reign, he sacrificed his repose, and jeopardised 
his own life to put an end to the civil wars. Shall I sketch out to you 
the sad picture of a minority and a troubled regency ? Shall I represent 
to you that fatal division which jealousy and the desire of command 
excited in the first years of his reign ? Princes appeared in arms under 
the common pretext of the public good; the English had penetrated 
to the very centre of France; the authority of the king was violated, 
good subjects oppressed; and this flourishing kingdom ready to fall a 
prey to enemies both foreign and domestic. What desolation ! Louis, 
without consulting flesh and blood, without excusing himself on the score 
of youth, fearing neither the hardships of the seasons, nor the dangers 
of war, set out on the campaign, implored the help of the God of armies, 
went to meet and fight his enemies:—I am wrong, went to comfort 
his subjects, and to restore them peace by gaining a battle. It was then 
that, assisted by Heaven, and moved more by the justice of his cause 
than by his own interests—in spite of the terror of foreign lands and 
foreign troops—he showed that true piety is not contrary to true valour, 
