are questions which man is organically framed and forced to ask himself,
and that would not be the case if they could not be answered. As for
churches depending on councils, the first council was held more than
three centuries after the Sermon on the Mount. We Syrians had churches
in the interval; no one can deny that. I bow before the divine decree
that swept them away from Antioch to Jerusalem, but I am not yet
prepared to transfer my spiritual allegiance to Italian popes and Greek
patriarchs. We believe that our family were among the first followers of
Jesus, and that we then held lands in Bashan which we hold now. We had a
gospel once in our district where there was some allusion to this, and
being written by neighbors, and probably at the time, I dare say it was
accurate; but the Western Churches declared our gospel was not
authentic, though why I cannot tell, and they succeeded in extirpating
it. It was not an additional reason why we should enter into their fold.
So I am content to dwell in Galilee and trace the footsteps of my Divine
Master, musing over his life and pregnant sayings amid the mounts he
sanctified and the waters he loved so well."

BEAUMARCHAIS

(1732-1799)

BY BRANDER MATTHEWS

Pierre Augustin Caron was born in Paris, January 24th, 1732. He was the
son of a watchmaker, and learned his father's trade. He invented a new
escapement, and was allowed to call himself "Clockmaker to the
King"--Louis XV. At twenty-four he married a widow, and took the name of
Beaumarchais from a small fief belonging to her. Within a year his wife
died. Being a fine musician, he was appointed instructor of the King's
daughters; and he was quick to turn to good account the influence thus
acquired. In 1764 he made a sudden trip to Spain to vindicate a sister
of his, who had been betrothed to a man called Clavijo and whom this
Spaniard had refused to marry. He succeeded in his mission, and his own
brilliant account of this characteristic episode in his career suggested
to Goethe the play of 'Clavigo.' Beaumarchais himself brought back from
Madrid a liking for things Spanish and a knowledge of Iberian customs
and character.

[Illustration: Beaumarchais]

He had been a watchmaker, a musician, a court official, a speculator,
and it was only when he was thirty-five that he turned dramatist.
Various French authors, Diderot especially, weary of confinement to
tragedy and comedy, the only two forms then admitted on t