us to perplex the distinctions which a religious mind
wishes to observe between truth and illusion; yet it seems inevitable to
narrate that which comes before us, as an integral and important portion
of the history we have to do with. And yet incidents such as these,
while they will be very far from availing to bring us over as converts
to the system which they are supposed supernaturally to authenticate,
need not generate any extreme revulsion of feeling in an opposite
direction. Good men, ill-trained, or trained under a system which to so
great an extent is factitious, demand from us often, we do not say that
which an enlightened Christian charity does not include, but a something
which is logically distinguishable from it; we mean a philosophic habit
of mind, accustomed to deal with human nature, and with its wonderful
inconsistencies, on the broadest principles.

Some diversities of language present themselves in the narratives that
have come down to us of this vision. In that which, perhaps, is worthy
of the most regard, the phraseology is such as to suggest the belief
that its _exact_ meaning should not easily be gathered from the words.
Loyola had asked of the blessed Virgin, "_ut eum cum filio suo
poneret_"; and during this trance this request, whatever it might mean,
was manifestly granted.

From this vision, and from the memorable words "_Ego vobis Romae
propitius ero_," the society may be said to have taken its formal
commencement, and to have drawn its appellation. Henceforward it was the
"Society of Jesus," for its founder, introduced to the Son of God by the
eternal Father, had been orally assured of the divine favor--favor
consequent upon his present visit to Rome. Here, then, we have exposed
to our view the inner economy or divine machinery of the Jesuit
Institute. The Mother of God is the primary mediatrix; the Father, at
her intercession, obtains for the founder an auspicious audience of the
Son; and the Son authenticates the use to be made of his name in this
instance; and so it is that the inchoate order is to be the "Society of
Jesus."

An inquiry, to which in fact no certain reply could be given, obtrudes
itself upon the mind on an occasion like this; namely, how far the
infidelity and atheism which pervaded Europe in the next and the
following century sprung directly out of profanation such as this?
Merely to narrate them, and to do so in the briefest manner, does
violence to every genuine sent