Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 146.djvu/384

First of all, a few worrds of personal explanation. I was eight years among the Jesuits—two as a novice, three as a student of philosophy, and three as teacher or assistant in their colleges. I left them of my own accord, though not without their consent, and after having asked their advice on the matter. Our regret was, I believe, mutual. Our relations since that time, though infrequent, have not been unfriendly, and I am still in communion with the Church. My position is therefore characterised by perfect independence on one hand, and on the other by the want of any incitement to injure an Order with which I parted on good terms. Startling revelations will be wanting, as I have neither talent nor motive for inventing lies. Private, possibly even trivial, details—all depends upon taste —will be found in abundance. Jesuits, so far as they are known to me, are neither good nor bad angels, but men; and it is as men that I intend to portray them. This would seemingly imply a certain amount of indiscretion, and something like a breach of confidence on my part. Some points, indeed, seemed to me so private that I hesitated about writing these pages; for all or nothing ought to be the motto of every faithful memoir. But on perusing narratives of a similar sort, composed by expelled members, and others whose knowledge of the Society must have been inferior to mine, I found all these particunlars already in print, and often enough with exaggerations, alterations, and additions. This put an end to any reluctancy that I might have had before; for when I found those "family matters" long ago exposed to the public gaze, I saw that my silence was immaterial, and that it was perhaps better for me to write all.

I ought Lesides to olserve, that the following account cannot be considered as correct except as a statement of facts in one particular Novitiate of one particular Province, and at one particular time. Many, even considerable, differences are to be found between one Province and another. I noticed that myself whilst spending a few days in a Spanish Novitiate during a pilgrimage that we had to make. I am, told, moreover, that between the English Province and the others the difference is still more strongly marked. It is, for instance, the custom throughout the Society to give the "kiss of peace" whenever a member comes to or goes away from one of their houses. An English novice, who was visiting Pau on account of his health, came to see us, and went through the ceremony. I saw that he did not like it, and asked whether it was done in England. "Never," answered he; "we only shake hands." Now the "fraternal embrace" is explicitly alluded to in the very text of St Ignatius's rules. So this sketch, though I can vouch for its faithfulness, might convey a very false idea, if supposed to picture any other Province or any other time.

Any person at all acquainted with Pau knows the Rue Montpengsier, and has probably noticed the Jesuits’ chapel, next door to which stands the Residence and Novitiate. The chapel is a fine enough building, in the Romanesque style,