CONTENTS OF No. I. I.-The Mission of the Benedictine Order. By VERY REV. J. H. II-On the influence which the Physical Geography, the Animal and Vegetable Productions, etc., of different regions exert upon the Languages, Mythology, and early Literature of Mankind, with reference to its employment as a test of Ethnological Hypotheses. III.-Structural Characteristics of the Basilicas. By JOHN H. I-On the Influence of the Great Inequalities of Jupiter, Saturn, etc., upon the Motions of the other Heavenly Bodies. By REV. W. II. On the Physical Structure of the Earth. By HENRY HENNESSY, IIL-Note on the differences of level (seiches) observed by M. Strabowski on Lake Onega in Russia. By HENRY HENNESSY, IV. On the formation of several Acids of the series CaHO1, by the Destructive Distillation of Peat. By WILLIAM K. SULLIVAN. Being Part I. of the Chemical History of the Products of the Destructive Distillation of Peat, V.-Observations on some of the products of the Putrefaction of Vege- table and Animal Substances, and their relation to Pathology. On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion.-By W. THOMSON and J. P. JOULE, 213. On the Influence of Temperature on the Elasticity of Metals.-By M. KUPFFER.-And on the Thermal Effects of Longi- tudinal Compression of Solids.-By J. P. JOULE, 214. On the Electro- Dynamic Qualities of Metals.-By W. THOMSON, 214. Optics and Painting.-By M. JAMIN, 215. Electro-Chemistry.-By DR. W. A. MILLER, 218. On Proto-Sulphide of Carbon.-By M. E. BAUDRIMONT, 219. Researches on the Phosphorus Bases.-By A. W. HOFFMANN and A. CAHOURS, 221. On Caproic Acid.-By M. A. WURTZ, 224. Re- searches on the Hygroscopic Properties of the Minerals of the family of the Zeolites.-By M. DAMOUR, 225. On the Gases evolved by the volcanic vents of Southern Italy.-By MM. CHARLES SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE and FELIX LEBLANC, 225. Researches on the nature of the Crystalline Humour in the different classes of Animals.-By MM. A. VALENCIENNES and FREMY, 229. On the Inhabitants and Dialect of the Barony of Forth, in the County of Wexford.-BY VERY REV. C. W. RUSSELL, D.D., President of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, 235. V. "The Sick-bed of Cuchulainn, and the only Jealousy of Eimer". V. Observations on the Motions and Sounds of the Human Heart during life, as witnessed in the case of M. GROUX. By ROBERT VI. On the Function of Sömmering's Yellow Spot in producing unity of visual perception in binocular vision. By THOMAS HAYDEN, M.D. The REV. DR. LLOYD on the Direct Magnetic Influence of a distant Luminary upon the Diurnal Variations of the Magnetic Force at the Earth's Surface, 491. On the best Unit of Length.-By MR. JAMES YATES, 492. In- vestigation of Croton Oil.-By DR. THOM. SCHLIPPE, 493. On the forma- tion of Succinic Acid during Alcoholic Fermentation.-By M. Pasteur, 493. Note on Hesse's Experiments on the Products of Putrefaction of Beer Yeast, and on the Probability that some of the Compound Ureas are usually present in Common Urea, 494. On the Penetration of the Sper- matozoa into the Ovum during the act of fecundation.—By P. J. VAN THE ATLANTIS. ART. I.-The Mission of the Benedictine Order. S the physical universe is sustained and carried on in and in dependence on certain centres of power and laws of Agency operation, so the course of the social and political world, fuence and of that great religious organization called the Catho- of Perlic Church, is found to proceed for the most part from the sons presence or action of definite persons, places, events, and institutions, as the visible cause of the whole. There has been but one Judæa, one Greece, one Rome; one Homer, one Cicero; one Cæsar, one Constantine, one Charlemagne. And so, as regards Revelation, there has been one St. John the Divine, one Doctor of the Nations. Dogma runs along the line of Athanasius, Augustine, Thomas. The conversion of the heathen is ascribed, after the Apostles, to champions of the truth so few, that we may almost count them, as Martin, Patrick, Augustine, Boniface. Then there is St. Antony, the father of monachism; St. Jerome, the interpreter of Scripture; St. Chrysostom, the great preacher. tian Ci Education follows the same law: it has its history in the Church, and its doctors or patriarchs in that his in Christory. This is the subject on which we propose to make vilizasome remarks in the pages which follow, taking Educa- tion. tion in its broadest and most general sense, as the work contemplated in the august command, "Go, teach all nations", and as more or less connected with civilization, social advance, the cultivation of learning, sacred and profane, and similar great facts, which are its historical interpretation. The outline of what we have to say on the subject is Of three simple enough; it is the filling up of details, which will especi- demand diligence in the writer, and patience in the ally: reader. There are three main periods, then, of ecclesiastical history, the ancient, the medieval, and the modern; so far is plain: and there are three Religious Orders in those periods respectively, which succeed, one the other, on the public stage, and represent the teaching of the Catholic Church during the time of their ascendancy. The first period is that long series of centuries, during which society was breaking, or had broken up, and then slowly attempted its own re-construction; the second may be called the period of re-construction; and the third dates from the Reformation, when that peculiar movement of mind commenced, the issue of which is still to come. Now, St. Benedict is the Patriarch of the ancient world; St. Dominic of the medieval; and St. Ignatius of the modern. And in saying this, we are in no degree disrespectful to the Augustinians, CarDomi- melites, Franciscans, and other great religious families, which might be named; for we are not reviewing the whole history of Christianity, but selecting a particular aspect of it. Bene dict, nic, Ig natius, with their respec tics, Perhaps as much as this will be granted to us without great hesitation. Next we proceed, after thus roughly mapping out our view of history, roughly to colour it, tive cha- by way of contrasting these three patriarchs of Christian racteris teaching with each other. To St. Benedict then, who may fairly be taken to represent the various families of monks before his time and those which sprang from him (for they are all pretty much of one school), to this great saint let us assign, for his discriminating badge, the Poetical; to St. Dominic, the Scientific; and to St. Ignatius, the Practical and Useful. corres ponding These characteristics, which belong respectively to the works of the three great Masters, grow out of the circumto their stances under which they respectively entered upon them. respec- Benedict, entrusted with his mission almost as a boy, intive his- fused into it the romance and simplicity of boyhood. tories, a Dominic, a man of forty-five, a graduate in theology, priest and a canon, brought with him into religion the maturity and completeness of learning, which he had acquired in the schools. Ignatius, a man of the world |