11. Two other sensations must by no means be forgotten. You become very cold and desperately hungry. Of the increased coldness which you feel on passing from a bright cloud into a dark one the balloon is quite as sensitive as you; and probably much more so, for it produces an immediate change of altitude. 12. We are now nearly three miles high! We may assume that you would not like to be "let off” in a parachute, even on the improved principle; we will therefore prepare for descending with the balloon. 13. The valve-line is pulled out rushes the gas from the top of the balloon; you see the flag fly upward. Down through the clouds you sink, faster and faster, lower and lower. Now you begin to see dark masses below: there's the dear old earth again! The dark masses now discover themselves to be little forests, little towns, treetops, house-tops. Out goes a shower of sand from the ballast-bags, and our descent becomes slower; another shower, and up we mount again in search of a better spot to alight upon. 14. Our guardian aëronaut gives each of us a bag of ballast, and directs us to throw out its contents when he calls each of us by name, and in such quantities only as he specifies. Moreover, no one is suddenly to leap out of the balloon when it touches the earth, partly because it may cost him his own life or limbs, and partly because it would cause the balloon to shoot up again with those who remained, and so make them lose the advantage of the good descent already gained, if nothing worse happened. 15. Meantime the grapnel-iron has been lowered, and is dangling down at the end of a strong rope a hundred and fifty feet long. It is now trailing over the ground. Three bricklayers are in chase of it. It catches upon a bank; it tears its way through. Now the three bricklayers are joined by a couple of fellows in smock-frocks, a policeman, five boys, followed by three little girls, and last of all a woman with a child in her arms, all running, shouting, screaming, and yelling, as the grapnel-iron and rope go trailing and bobbing over the ground before them. At last the iron catches upon a hedge-grapples with its roots; the balloon is arrested, but struggles hard: three or four men seize the rope, and down we are hauled and held fast. The "Vauxhall Gardens" are a pleasure-resort in London (3). The "Father of Rivers" here referred to is the Thames (těmz), the Lesson being taken from "Household Words," an English magazine which for many years was edited by Charles Dickens (8). Let the pupils tell in their own words, from what they have seen, if possible, or from what they have read, all they know about balloons and balloon-ascensions. 1. dăl lý ; . linger. LESSON X. 1. trăv'ĕrse; v. wander over ; cross in traveling. 7. på pĭsts; n. an offensive name given to Catholics by Protestants. 1. Ŏb lĭt' ĕr åt ĕd; v. blotted 8. mo lěst'; v. to trouble. Catholicity and American Liberty. 1. In passing so rapidly on the direct line of my subject, I have been obliged to leave unnoticed innumerable incidents, many of which possess attraction enough to have made one turn aside and dally by the way. For instance, the missionary labors of the Jesuits and other apostles of the cross. who, thirsting not for gold, but for souls, had not ceased to traverse this country, in every direction, from the earliest period. Time has, to a great extent, obliterated their footsteps on the soil; but the reason is, in part, that the Indian tribes, among whom they labored, are gone-shrinking away into the deeper or more distant wilderness. 2. The memory of the illustrious Jesuit Fathers, who labored for their conversion, has accompanied their descendants even to their present remotest hunting-grounds. But it has become comparatively weak, and is now reduced to a symbolic term, which they cherish with great affection, and express in their words "black-gown," or "robe noir." Two hundred years ago the poor Franciscans trod the golden sand of California beneath their bare feet, without noticing or appreciating its value. They looked more to heaven than to earth; and it would have been almost out of keeping with their character to make the discovery which has recently startled the minds and whetted the cupidity of the world. 3. Two hundred years ago Father Le Moyne, laboring among the Onondagas of this State, discovered the salt springs which abound near Salina and Syracuse. Neither the descendants of the Virginia Colonists nor those of the Pilgrim Fathers have allowed their ancestors to pass away "unwept, unhonored, and unsung." They are proud of being the descendants of such parentage. Nor need a Catholic be ashamed if he is told that he was born near the site of old St. Mary's in Maryland. As a colony and as a State she has had her distinguished men. 4. Of the primitive colony of Catholic Maryland, what shall I say? Of course I shall invite your attention to those features which show that if civil, but especially re ligious, liberty be a dear and justly cherished privilege of the American people, the palm of having been the first to preach and practice it is due, beyond all controversy, to the Catholic colony of Maryland. The history of the whole human race had furnished them with no previous example from which they could copy, although Catholic Poland had extended a measure of toleration to certain Protestants of Germany which had been denied them by their own brethren in their own country. 5. George Calvert, known as Lord Baltimore, was the projector of the Catholic colony of Maryland, although it was actually settled under the leadership of his brother Leonard Calvert, "who," says Bancroft, "together with about two hundred people, most of them Roman Catholic gentlemen and their servants, sailed for the Potomac early in 1634." Their landing is described as having taken place on the 27th of March. On the spot on which they landed, and in their first humble village of St. Mary's, the historian goes on to state that "there religious liberty obtained a home, its only home in the wide world." 6. From the impartial pen of a Protestant historian, a native of New England, of whose reputation the whole country may well be proud-I mean the Hon. George Bancroft, I give the following character of Lord Balti more: 7. "Calvert deserves to be ranked among the most wise and benevolent lawgivers of all ages. He was the first in the history of the Christian world to seek for religious security and peace by the practice of justice, and not by the exercise of power; to plan the establishment of popular institutions with the enjoyment of liberty of conscience; to advance the career of civilization by recognizing the rightful equality of all Christian sects. The asylum of Papists was the spot where, in a remote corner of the world, on the banks of rivers which, as yet, had hardly been explored, the mild forbearance of a proprietary adopted religious freedom as the basis of the State." 66 8. He goes on further to remark that at that period every other country in the world had persecuting laws; 'I will not,'-such was the oath of the Governor of Maryland, I will not, by myself or any other, directly or indirectly, molest any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of religion.' Under the mild institutions and munificence of Baltimore, the dreary wilderness soon bloomed with the swarming life and activity of a prosperous settlement; the Roman Catholics, who were oppressed by the laws of England, were sure to find a peaceful asylum in the quiet harbor of the Chesapeake; and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against Protestant intolerance." ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. What is said of the motive which caused the Jesuits and other apostles of the cross to wander over this country (1)? The discovery here referred to is that of gold in California; this was made about the time the address which forms this lesson was delivered (2). Who discovered the salt springs in the State of New York (3)? The quotation "unwept, unhonored, and unsung " is from a poem by Sir Walter Scott (3). Who was George Calvert (5) ? Under whose leadership was Maryland actually settled (5)? Who was George Bancroft (born 1800; died 1891) (6)? Tell in your own words what he has said of Calvert and the settlement of Maryland. The Onondagas (on'on da'gas) were Indians (3). FALSEHOOD. Let falsehood be a stranger to thy lips. Shame on the policy that first began To tamper with the heart to hide its thoughts! |