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boyhood still lingers about him; his smile chromatosphere), and consists in the main is as winning as ever; it is only in his eyes of glowing hydrogen, but in its lower that their is a shadow of patient waiting strata contains the glowing vapours of and a memory of pain. He will meet life sodium, magnesium, and many other elebravely, for that other life is near at hand; ments. These, however, are ordinarily so he walks through the woods where they low down that they can scarcely be recogwandered hand in hand as little children, nized under the ordinary conditions of the and across the meadows where her feet have new method of observation, except here trod; the lilies which they planted blos- and there round the sun's disc. It is as som every spring under the garden wall, though our earth were examined by some and the blessed memories are close around highly ingenious astronomers in Venus or him. He will pass through life alone; and Mercury, who could recognize at times the yet not alone, because Christina is near vapour of water in our air, where it rose him still. She will live for ever in his pretty freely and to a considerable height heart, though hidden from his sight. above oceans, but not over the continents, because less vapour there arose into the air. Only, in the sun's case the vapours are not, like the vapour of water on earth, at a cool and pleasant temperature, but are such vapors as rise above the molten surface of metal in our furnaces. They are at so high a temperature that a wind of such vapour, blowing, as such wiuds do, over the surface of the sun, would be competent to reduce our earth in a few seconds to vapour likewise.

"It is the living we have ceased to love;

Not the beloved dead are lost to us."

And she has passed from Death to Life; passed to her rest: above the imperfect harmonies of earth; beyond the sunsets, beyond the hills.

From The Spectator. Now certain Italian spectroscopistsSOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SUN. Respighi, Secchi, Tacchini, and othersWHEN we consider the intense heat have set themselves the task of keeping a which has prevailed in Europe during continual watch upon the solar chromatoJuly, and the circumstance that in America sphere. They draw pictures of it, and of also the heat has been excessive, insomuch the mighty coloured prominences which that in New York the number of deaths are from time to time upreared out of, or during the week ending July 6 was three through, the chromatospheric envelope. times greater than the average, we are They note the vapours which are present, naturally led to the conclusion that the as well as what can be learned of the heat Sun himself is giving out more heat than at which these vapours exist, their presusual. Though not endorsing such an sure, their rate of motion, and other like opinion, which, indeed, is not warranted by circumstances. It was while engaged in the facts, since terrestrial causes are quite some of the more difficult and delicate of sufficient to explain the recent unusual these tasks that Tacchini noticed the heats, we cannot refrain from noting, as at strange occurrence now to be described. the least a curious coincidence, that at the very time when the heat has been so great, the great central luminary of the Solar system has been the scene of a very remarkable disturbance, - an event, in fact, altogether unlike any which astronomers have hitherto observed.

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It will not be unknown to our readers (in these days, when every one knows everything about the Sun) that astronomers no longer confine their attention to the actual aspect of the solar orb. By a contrivance which need not here be described, the astronomer can tell what is going on in a certain gaseous envelope surrounding the sun, which to ordinary telescopic research is altogether invisible, except during eclipses. This envelope, some four or five thousand miles deep, is called the chromosphere (by purists, the

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"I have observed a phenomenon," he says, "which is altogether new in the whole series of my observations. Since May 6, I had found certain regions in the Sun remarkable for the presence of magnesium." Some of these extended halfway round the sun. This state of things continued, the extension of these maguesium regions gradually growing greater, until at length, on June 18," says Tacchini, "I was able to recognize the presence of magnesium quite round the sun, that is to say, the chromatosphere was completely invaded by the vapour of this metal. This ebullition was accompanied by an absence of the coloured prominences, while, on the contrary, the flames of the chromatosphere were very marked and brilliant. It seemed to me as though I could see the surface of our great source of

light renewing itself." While this was going on Tacchini noticed (as had frequently happened before in his experience) that the bright streaks on the sun which are called facula were particularly brilliant close to those parts of the edge of the disc where the flames of the chromatosphere were most splendid and characteristic. The granulations also, which the astronomer can recognize all over the sun, when a large telescope is employed, were unusually distinct.

and lamp of the planetary system, may be seriously affected.

If we only remember that our Sun is one of the stars, not in any way distinguished, unless perhaps by relative insignificance, from the great bulk of the stars which illuminate our skies at night, or are revealed by the telescope, we shall learn to recognize the possibility that he may undergo marked changes. There are stars which, after shining with apparent steadiness, for thousands of years (possibly for Tacchini concludes (and the inference millions of years before astronomy was seems just) that there had not been a num- thought of), have become suddenly much ber of local eruptions of magnesium va- reduced in brightness, or after a few flickpour, but complete expulsions. Only we erings (as it were) have gone out altowould venture to substitute for the word gether. There are others which have shone "expulsion" the expression "outflow or with equal steadiness, and have then sud"uprising," since it may well be that these denly blazed out for awhile with a lustre vapours rise by a quiet process resembling exceeding a hundred fold that which they evaporation, and not by any action so violent that it could properly be regarded as expulsive.

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In whatever way, however, the glowing vapour of magnesium thus streamed into the envelope of the sun, it would seem that the aspect of our luminary was modified by the process, not indeed in a very striking manner, or our observers in England would have noticed the change, yet appreciably. More than one person, says Tacchini, "has told me that the light of the sun has not at present its ordinary aspect; and at the Observatory we have judged that we might make the same remark. The change must be attributed to magnesium."

It is impossible to consider attentively the remarkable occurrence recorded by Tacchini without being struck by the evidence which it affords of solar mutability. We know that during thousands of years our sun has poured forth his light and heat upon the worlds which circle around him, and that there has been no marked intermittence of the supply. We hear, indeed, of occasions when the sun has been darkened for a while; and we have abundant reasons for believing that he has at times been so spot-covered that there has been a notable diminution of the supply of light and heat for several days together. Yet we have had no reasons for anticipating that our sun might permanently lose so much of his heat and lustre that the inhabitants of earth would suffer. Tacchini's observation reminds us, however, that processes are at work upon the sun which admit of being checked or increased, interrupted altogether or exaggerated so violently (as it were), that the whole as pect of the sun, his condition as the fire

formerly possessed. It would be equally unpleasant for ourselves whether the sun suddenly lost the best part of his light, and presently went out altogether, or whether he suddenly grew fifty-fold brighter and hotter than he now is. Yet in the present position of sidereal astronomy, it is quite impossible to assert confidently that one event or the other might not tako place at any time.

Fortunately, we may view this matter (just as astronomers have learned to view the prospect of mischievous collisions with comets), as a question of probabilities. Among so many thousands of stars there have been so many sudden outbursts of light and fire, so many sudden defalcations of splendour. Our sun is one of those thousands, and so far as we know takes his chance with the rest. Precisely, then, as we derive confidence from the law of probabilities, that since so many only out of so many millions perish by lightning or any other specified form of injury, any individual person is unlikely to perish in that particular way; so may we reason about our sun, that since only a small proportion of his fellow suns undergo disastrous changes, he is unlikely to be one of the unfortunates. It may be that one of these days, when we obtain clearer ideas of the structure of the sidereal universe than we at present possess, we may obtain more satisfactory reasons for confidence. The analysis of stars with the spectroscope, the recently proposed processes of stargauging, the application of new methods of determining star-motions, these and other researches may show what are the conditions which render a sun's tenure of office precarious. Let it be hoped that when this has been accomplished, a large

majority of the conditions in question will sweetmeats. Jane took them gravely

be found, in the case of our own sun, to be favourable to the permanence of his position as fire, light, and life of the planetary system.

From The Athenæum. SAINT JANE FRANCES-FREMYOT DE

CHANTAL.*

of spiritual adulation in which saintly biographers feel themselves bound to indulge.

from his hands, and going straight to the fireplace, she flung them into the flames, saying, "Look, my Lord! that is how heretics will be burned in the fire of Hell, because they do not believe what our Lord has said!"

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was married to the head of a considerable

A most uncompromising little miss! She had through life a strain of fierce, overbearing strength and austerity in her nature, which it needed many years, much sorrow, and the gentle culture and exTHE present volume of "The Life of St. ample of St. Francis de Sales to temper Jane Frances de Chantal" is a very read- before she became the loving and wellable and interesting compilation from balanced character which she subsequentmore voluminous works, not readily accesWe are told that Jane's educasible to general readers. It is, of course, tion was carefully attended to - that she highly condensed, and gives only a slight learned to read, write, dance, and to play on insight into much that we should have de- several instruments; but that, above all, sired to read at greater length. The au- she was instructed in religion that she thor intrudes very little of herself upon loved the Catechism, and "delighted in the reader, and has done her work faith- the definiteness and accuracy of dogmatic fully and conscientiously. A woman of teaching." She had early dreams and asgenius would have made a more interesting pirations after self-sacrifice, and the entire book out of the materials. Although we dedication of her life to the service of are thankful for what we have received, God; sometimes she desired to be a we are left with an earnest desire that martyr for her faith, and at others to give somebody would write the life and times of herself up to the service of the sick and Madame de Chantal, without the medium poor. In 1587 Jane's elder and only sister family in Poitou, and Jane, then about sixJane Frances de Chantal was born at both to see society and to be out of the teen, was sent to live with her for a while, Dijon, on the 23rd of January, 1572. Her father was Bénigne Fremyot, the stout- at home. It was the time of the League of the religious and political troubles hearted President of the Burgundian Par- and the Civil Wars. The President, liament, and of a good old Burgundian Fremyot, was devoted to the party of family. Her mother died when Jane was Henry the Third, and when his Parliaonly a year-and-a-half old. Jane was brought up in considerable independence, he left Dijon and retired to the country. ment revolted, and joined the insurgents, and associated more with her father and He was a high-minded old man, and had his friends than with children or young an uncompromising sense of honour and people. The religious and political dis- loyalty, which Jane inherited from him. cords between the Catholic party and the In her sister's family she was placed under Calvinists at that period ran very fiercely at Dijon. Jane was early imbued with very dangerous influences for so young a the short, sharp dogmatic elements of the tended to take care of her, tried to entice girl. The dame de compagnie, who was inCatholic faith, and she took them in with her into the use of magic, in order that the undoubting belief of a child. It is told that one day her father and a Calvinist visitor had been for a long time disputing about "the Real Presence" before Jane, who was then not quite five years old. After a while, she rose from her seat,

and going up to the Calvinist with flashing eyes, she said, "But, my Lord, we must believe it." The gentleman, after a playful reply, suited as he thought to such a juvenile adversary, gave her a pocket of

The Life of Saint Jane Frances-Fremyot de Chantal. By Emily Bowles. Quarterly Series, Vol. II. (Burns, Oates, & Co.)

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she might marry one of the great noblemen of Poitou. She encountered other dangers, more insidious, in the admiration are told that she put herself under the and flattery which she met with; but we protection of the Blessed Virgin, and gave duties. She seems also to have stoutly herself more resolutely to her religious resisted the love of magnificent attire, although many years afterwards St. Francis waged war against the lace and embroidery in which she indulged, and the elegant fashion of her dress, also against her long and beautiful hair, which he in

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duced her to cut off. Jane was endowed was a model chatelaine, and had a genius with much good sense, and she evinced for administration and organization. She her judgment in the matter of her suitors. was singularly kind and merciful to all her She refused two brilliant marriages be- husband's prisoners, brought, for whatever cause one of the gentlemen was a con- offence, to the dungeons of the castle; for cealed Huguenot, and the other a man of course the Baron exercised all the pow without any sense of religion. In 1591, ers of justice and execution like the other she was recalled home to Dijon, and there Seigneurs of those good old times. Four she met the individual whom her father children were born of the marriage, one had selected as her husband,- one of his boy and three girls: it was the boy, Celse own friends and companions in arms, Bénigne de Chantal, who became in after Christopher de Chantal, Baron de Rabu- years, the father of Madame de Sévigné, tin, who, though under thirty, had fought and narrowly escaped being hanged for no less than eighteen duels, which Bussy his share in a duel, in his quality as secde Rabutin ascribed to the great meekness ond to Bouteville de Montmorency. and suavity of his demeanour. One of The message came to him on an Easter Madame de Chantal's grandchildren (Ga- Sunday, whilst he was in church with his brielle de Toulougon) became the first family, receiving the Communion: he wife of Bussy de Rabutin; and that fas- jumped up from his knees, left the church, cinating scapegrace led her such a life, and ran, in his velvet shoes and gala dress, that the Capuchin Friar who preached her just as he was, to the Porte St.-Antoine, funeral sermon declared "that he scarcely fought his duel with Montmorency's secknew which of the two, Madame de Chan- ond, as was the rule in those days, killed tal or Madame de Rabutin, would receive his man, and fled for refuge to his sister, the brightest eternal crown"! but this was Madame de Toulougon. Bouteville de all long after the time we were speaking of. Montmorency was arrested and executed. Madame de Chantal found her own hus- Celse Bénigne de Chantal was sentenced band a religious, cultivated, witty, and to death by the Parliament of Paris, and agreeable man, with whom she lived very Madame de Chantal had actually made her happily, and whose death was the greatest preparations to go to him, to help him to grief in her life. Madame de Chantal had sustain his punishment. He, however, esvery noble elements in her character: she caped that danger, and was killed not long had an ever-present sense of duty; she afterwards at the siege of La Rochelle, a had the courageous faculty of estimating death which his mother considered an honthings and people at their proper worth; our. Madame de Chantal's brief married she had a sense of the relative value of life came to an untimely end. Her husthe different claims on her time and at- band went out one day shooting into the tention; she understood the beauty of woods round Bourbilly with a friend and proportion in all things. In after-life she relative, M. d'Anlézy; his friend's gun became remarkably gentle and loving; went off by accident, and M. de Chantal but as a young woman she was harsh, im- was so dangerously wounded that, after perious, and austere. The young couple lingering for nine days in great agony, he resided at Bourbilly, a lovely country-seat, died, after adding a clause to his will, in which afterwards came to Madame de which he declared his death purely acciChantal's granddaughter, Madame de dental, and disinheriting any of his chilSévigné. The civil wars of the League dren who should seek to revenge it. Maagainst Henry the Fourth were at their dame de Chantal nearly died of grief, but height; and the Baron de Chantal, one her mind regained its balance, and she deof the king's warmest adherents when he voted herself to her children, and to folbecame a Catholic, was called to Paris, lowing out the wishes of her husband in where he went, leaving to his young wife the management of their property. Nearthe sole administration of his large_but ly her first action, we are told, was to seal dreadfully encumbered property. Jane her love to her lost husband by a vow of showed herself equal to the trust; and her perpetual chastity. She reviewed all her skilful economy and wise government, her goods, and gave her wedding-dress and all bright and cheerful spirit for when not her rich clothes to the Church, made bunopposed she was fascinating, and her dles of her husband's clothes, and gave care for the servants, both in the castle and them to the poor; pensioned off all the on the outlying portions of the estate, servants not absolutely necessary; and brought order, peace, and prosperity out placed her household on a most moderate of the confusion, and they form a pleasant footing. She had at this time a singular picture of domestic life of the period. She prevision of the friend and director who

was to exercise such an influence over her after life. Like all religious Catholics, she felt the need of a wise director to guide her. One day, as she was riding alone on the outskirts of a little wood, whither she had gone to look after some workpeople, she saw at a short distance a person who looked like a bishop coming towards her, dressed in cassock, rocket, and biretta. His countenance, serene and heavenly, gave her a sense of great inward peace and consolation. At the same moment, the thought was suggested within her, "This is the guide and man in whose hands you will place your conscience." On riding up to the spot, she found no one; but in after years, when she first saw Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, she recognized him as the one whose appearance she had seen on this occasion. We are also told that at that same time, the bishop, being rapt in prayer in the old Castle de Sales, saw the vision of a young widow, whose face was unknown to him, and as if a curtain had been drawn up, he saw gathered together a new religious congregation, of which he was assured the young widow was to be the mother, and himself the guide and director. Signs and miracles were plentiful in the lives of both of them. Madame de Chantal's widowhood was spent partly with her old father at Dijon, and subsequently with her father-in-iaw in his gloomy old Castle of Monthelon. The Baron Rabutin de Chantal was a dreadful old Turk, who often made his household tremble for their lives; he, however, in his turn, lived in bondage to his housekeeper, a terrible virago, who wasted his substance, and reigned supreme in the castle along with her five children. Of course she hated Madame de Chantal, and resented her right to interfere. The Baron took the part of his tyrant, and when Madame de Chantal spoke once to him about the disorderly condition of things he exploded into such a burst of rage and insolence that she never again attempted to interfere, and the housekeeper enjoyed the power to mortify her in every possible way. But Jane was already in training for becoming a Saint; she took her new position patiently; tried to educate the five children along with her own, and even washed and dressed them, for their mother neglected them, and seems to have been an essentially bad, vulgar wo

man.

We cannot go into the details of her first meeting with St. Francis, nor the rule of life he gave her. It was mixed up with austerities, and a nun-like detachment from the world, and was the beginning of the

religious life she afterwards embraced. For some years longer, however, she continued to live in the Castle of Monthelon, bringing up her children wisely, and trying, by the force of example, to bring the Baron and his household gradually into some sort of order. Francis de Sales was much attached to all the children of Madame de Chantal, especially to Marie Aymée, who became, whilst still almost a child, the wife of his youngest brother, Bernard de Sales. The letters that Madame de Chantal wrote to St. Francis are unfortunately lost, for when her letters were returned after his death, fearing they might be published, she destroyed them. In the beginning his influence upon her was admirable; he softened the vehemence and the asperities of her strong character, and under his guidance she became a matured and noble christian woman. He helped her with counsels in the management of her children, softening her severity, and preventing her from making them hate religion by over-much anxiety. Nothing can be wiser or more beautiful than his watchful care over them. He says of himself — “I think I have that kind of fatherly heart which is motherly too." To Françoise, the youngest of the family, he writes thus:

ments.

"I conjure you, my dear child, from day to day wean your heart from frivolous amusefrivolity the voluntary inclination to things I am not scrupulous, and I only call which turn away the mind from thoughts and meditations upon eternity."

He even interceded with her mother that the young creatures might be allowed to have the pretty things and fine clothes appropriate to their station, and which their hearts desired, although he seems to have been very scrupulous that the dress should not be "cut too low" for modesty. That which her Catholic biographers regard as the crowning virtue and great claim to sanctity in Madame de Chantal, we can only look upon as a great and grievous error. Led away by her love and over-estimation of the virtue of a conventual life, she left her father, who was then near eighty years old, she left her father-in-law, the old Baron Rabutin de Chantal, she left her children, in order to embrace the life of a nun, in the first convent of the Visitandines, an order founded for her by St. Francis himself. The account given of her departure and farewell to her family treats of the consent wrung with tears from the old father; of the poor old sinner, the Baron, who was nearly "senseless with

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