- , T y OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO m*m ?*o nun : ! M Mil Mi I ill 3 1822 01073 7260 rf 2 V £ <\ l ^ CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE THE STORY OF AN IRISH PARISH PRIEST AS TOLD CHIEFLY BY HIMSELF IN BOOKS PERSONAL MEMOIRS AND LETTERS BY HERMAN J. HEUSER, D.D. OVERBROOK. SEMINARY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. FOURTH AVENUE fcf 3OTH STREET, NEW YORK 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917 BY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. All rights reserved THE-PLIMPTON-PRESS NOHWOOD-HASS-U'S-A FOREWORD THE story of Patrick Augustine Sheehan is that of a modest country pastor in the south of Ireland who made a great name as a writer of fiction, poetry, and thoughtful essay. Between 1895 and 1910 he had published fifteen volumes. They are: Geoffrey Austin, The Triumph of Failure, My New Curate, Luke Delmege, The Blindness of Dr. Gray, Glenanaar, Lisheen, Miriam Lucas, The Queen s Fillet, Under the Cedars and the Stars, Parerga, The Intellectuals, Cithara Mea (a volume of poems), and Mariae Corona (sermons in honor of Our Lady). Besides these, he wrote a number of Essays and Criticisms. Another novel, dealing with the Irish uprising in 1867, and bearing the title The Graves at Kilmorna, was published after his death. Some of his books gained at once an international reputation, and were translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Hungarian, Slavonic, and Russian (Ruthenian). These writings not only reveal his special gifts as a thinker and writer, but they allow us to form a fair estimate of his character as a man; of his aims and ideals as a priest and pastor of souls; and they record many actual experi- ences which gave direction and emphasis to these aims. Canon Sheehan wrote his novels as a travelled man tells his adventures to young folk. His poetic gift made him clothe the incidents in the vesture of romance, with a moral vista behind the action of his story, to draw the attention of the reader to higher things. Although his figures were mostly copied from the life around him, a certain sense of fitness and a natural delicacy caused him so to modify the form of his character-play as to make it impossible for the general public to point the finger to vi FOREWORD any individual and say: This is the man. But those who knew the Canon and the relations that shaped his visions or influenced his motives in writing, could in many cases trace the sources of his immediate inspirations to definite places and persons. Now that he is dead, and it is possible to compare the varied expressions of his genius, as well as to note the occasions that gave rise to them, there come to the surface spontaneously numerous evidences to show that he habitu- ally painted from life. An illustration of this may be found in his collection of short stories under the title of The Story of a Spoiled Priest. Almost all the incidents portrayed there are literally true. The author lays the scene of the school, in the first story, "in the County Waterford," but the description of the place is actually that of Mallow, his native town, as he depicted it elsewhere in almost identical terms. The father of "the spoiled priest" is Patrick Sheehan's early teacher at the National School; the young curate who discovers Dr. Everhard is Father Sheehan himself; and Kevin O'Donnell who enters a monastery in Florence is a priest whom the Canon befriended to his last hour. Similarly we recognize in the story of "Rita the Street Singer" a barely disguised incident that happened while the author was attached as curate to the cathedral at Queenstown, between 1881 and 1889, although he lays the scene at "Reineville" (an obvious translation of "Queenstown") and dates it about 1880. In like manner numerous details in the story of Glenanaar present occurrences and scenes taken from the immediate nieghborhood of Doneraile. It is not necessary to assume that Canon Sheehan, when writing, was always conscious of the fact that he was projecting the likeness of this or that individual. He did not write as a professional man of letters, that is to say with artistic attention to definite methods and models. His compositions were wholly spontaneous, and done as a recreation from the fatiguing and, to him, most serious obligations of his pastoral ministry. On this fact oppor- FOREWORD vii tunity will offer to enlarge, when speaking of his particular gift as a writer; here it suffices to say that his observant mind acted for him as does the sensitized plate of a camera. It mechanically took images and reproduced them. The records thus traced give us not only his itinerary through the broad ways of life but also specific indications of his inner soul action. Beyond this fragmentary and unconscious revelation of his personality by himself the general public has hitherto known little of Canon Sheehan. His mode of life tended toward retirement, and apart from an absorbing devotion to his duties as parish priest, the outside world saw him rarely, and then only as the interpreter of some particular message, such as his office as a preacher or lecturer led him to take up for the time. To the few who were intimate with him we owe the main data of his earlier life. These are chiefly — his younger brother, Mr. Denis B. Sheehan, of Queenstown, who kindly read and corrected the MS. of this biography and, as literary executor of the Canon, was able to supple- ment it with valuable notes and letters. Next I am in- debted for information to Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., the friend of Father Sheehan's boyhood, and his associate at school. Likewise to that most lovable of literary Irish priests, the late Father Matthew Russell, S.J., founder in 1873, and editor for more than thirty-five years, of the Irish Monthly, to which magazine Father Sheehan was an occasional contributor. When in later years the author of My New Curate of necessity drew attention upon him- self, Father Russell was induced to tell what he knew of him, in a brief article for The Dolphin (1902). Modest as was the account, he had managed to speak of the author in a way which delighted the curious reader, and gave a fair estimate of Father Sheehan's personality and char- acter as "the most literary of Irish priests since the author of The Prout Papers." A second biographical sketch came from the pen of the Rev. Michael Phelan, S.J., of the Limerick community, viii FOREWORD who also enjoyed the personal friendship of the author. He wrote his impressions while Canon Sheehan was in his last illness and unable to revise them. This fact no doubt accounts for some inaccuracies which I shall have occasion to correct in the course of the biography. A third account of Father Sheehan appeared simultaneously in the Irish Monthly and the Catholic World, and was reprinted by the Catholic Mind. The latter attributes the sketch to the Rev. John J. Horgan, S.J. The fact is, the author is an Irish solicitor, whose uncle, as curate of Mallow parish, had young Patrick Sheehan in his church choir. Mr. Horgan himself began his literary career under the influence of Canon Sheehan, and is the author of Great Catholic Laymen and a number of monographs. His close acquaintance with the pastor of Doneraile enabled him to give a true appreciation of the latter; but he does not touch upon the Canon's domestic or pastoral relations. Beyond such friendly reminiscences, and detached details of the Canon's career in the Irish and English press on the occasion of his death, there has been no attempt at a complete biography. Apart from these gleanings which put me in the way of further sources of information, I owe much thoughtful aid in obtaining the requisite material for this sketch to Mother Mary Ita O'Connell of the Presentation Convent at Doneraile, whose generous devotion to the interests of education and religion during the years of Canon Sheehan's pastorate gave her exceptional opportunities of forming an accurate and sympathetic judgment of his life among the people of Doneraile. I have likewise to acknowledge the services of Dr. Grattan Flood, who permitted the use of some unpublished MSS. and letters, and other information which made it possible to obtain accurate accounts of the transactions relating to the "Land Settlement" in the district of Doneraile, in which the Canon had taken a leading part as representative of his flock. The Bishop of Cloyne, through his secretary the Rev. William F. Browne, kindly furnished me copies of FOREWORD ix my correspondence with the author of My New Curate covering the period between 1897 and 1910, and other pertinent information. To Lord and Lady Castletown of Doneraile, whose respect and friendship the Canon enjoyed to the close of his life; Colonel Grove White, member of the Cork Historical Society; the Rev. John Burton, P.P., of Donoughmore; Brother P. A. Mulhall, director of the Doneraile Boys' School; Lady Gilbert (Rosa Mulholland), Miss Agnes Clune Quinlan of Lim- erick, resident in America; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, of the Supreme Court of the United States, and others who, being personally acquainted with the Canon, kindly replied tojny inquiries directly or indirectly, I also return thanks. Lastly I wish to express my indebtedness to Mr. Edward Galbally, associate editor and manager of the Ecclesiastical Review, for his aid in completing this bi- ography by undertaking a journey, amid the trying con- ditions of the European war, in order to verify certain details of locality and other data connected with the late Canon's life. Overbrook, March, 1917. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER Foreword v Introductory — Discovery of Father Sheehan ... 3 PART I. THE FORMATION I. Patrick Sheehan — The Boy Motto of the Sheehans Munster Clans Baptism Home-Folk The Schoolmaster Dr. McCarthy and "Father" Horgan Music Glimpses of a Vocation Dreamer and Patriot The Fenian Brotherhood Hurling Matches and Cricket "By the Singing River" Mallow Celebrities First Sorrow II. St. Colman's — Fermoy l6 The Collegian "Mayfield" Home on Vacation The Muse of Irish History Margaret's Death Proficiency in Studies III. Maynooth 2 3 Intellectual and Economic Condition The Faculty "Manutiae Umbrae" Entrance Examination Reform of Studies Foreign Influences The "Quanta Cura" Philosophy, "dry as dust" "Jumps" the Physics. The Study of Theology xi xii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Dunboyne Establishment Desultory Reading Thomas Carlyle Jean Paul Richter Tennyson Dante The Compass of Faith Among the "Class Pieces" The Discipline of Pain Sister Mary Stanislaus Dies Patrick's Illness Too Young for Ordination Pastoral Theology at Mallow Theory and Practice Defects ot Seminary Training Piety and Culture The Teaching of Philosophy IV. Priesthood, 1875 45 His Guardian made Bishop of Cloyne Dr. Russell's Testimony Ordination First Mass Off to England Plymouth Mission "Quant Je Puis" Father Sheehan's Preaching Controversy or Doctrine? A Prominent Convert Sent to Exeter Becomes Administrator Learns more Theology Pastoral Duties A Visit to Lourdes The Church and the Clergy of France At the Irish College in Paris Back to Southampton Devonshire Society "Priest Hobson" Dr. Oliver. Incentives to Literary Work Canonical Counsels Dignified Exeter The Gospel of Work Philanthropy Homiletics Exiles Dartmoor — Michael Davitt CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER V. Back to Ireland, i 877-1881 73 Appointment to Mallow as Curate At the Hotel in Dublin Silent Yearnings Ideal Reforms Tries "Punctuality" A "Via Media" The Young Men of Mallow Educational Pitfalls VI. Called to Queenstown, 1881-1888 87 At the Cathedral Educational Projects Writes on Christian Art German Thought Pere Didon's "Les Allemands" Newman and Pusey Matthew Arnold Augustinian Studies "The Irish Ecclesiastical Record" "The Irish Monthly" Gelasius di Cilia An American Convert Pastoral Work at Queenstown Doctor Orders him to GlengarifF Returns to Mallow as Curate Work among the Young Men Bishop McCarthy dies Aubrey de Vere PART II. LITERARY LIFE I. Parish Priest of Doneraile 105 An Idyllic Parish II. His First Book IIQ Hopes and Fears Dedication Disappointment Sunshine Through Clouds Matthew Russell, S J., lends a friendly hand "The Catholic World" "The Ave Maria" "The Triumph of Failure" A Rejected MS. xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE III. Favorite Themes 122 Three Chapters of Clerical Studies Work and Wants of the Irish Church Appeal to the Clergy Value of Literary Criticism IV. The Genesis of "My New Curate" and its Reception 13 2 Irish Witchcraft Popularity of "Daddy Dan" The Monks of Trabolgan Criticisms Name of Author revealed Power of the Pen Proposal to write "My Old Pastors," next "Ye Shepherds" V. "The Triumph of Failure" 145 VI. "My New Curate" Appears in Book Form . . 157 Appreciations True Measure of Success "Ye Shepherds" VII. "Luke Delmege" and Other Volumes .... 168 "Idiota" Vanishes "Hie jacent Ossa Lucae" "Cithara Mea" American Bait A New Departure "Under the Cedars and the Stars" "Father Mac on Retreat" Congenial Company "Glenanaar" VIII. A Holiday in Germany 195 Anticipations Impressions IX. "Lisheen" 204 Estimates A Rhythmic Leitmotif X. Religio-Political Discussions 210 Struggle for Home Rule in Ireland Dr. Michael O'Riordan and Sir Horace Plunkett CONTENTS xv CHAPTER PAGE XI. Political Convictions 218 A Contrast Peace and Conciliation Ireland's Political Profit New Irish Journal — Ideal and Practical Principle of Liberty Democracy of Ireland Influence of Irish Genius To-day XII. "The Intellectuals" — Attempts at Drama . . 232 The "Irish Rosary" Drama XIII. The Canon at Home 239 Appearance — Conversation In the Canon's Den A Suggested Visit to the United States Fish Supply for Ireland Autobiographical Memoir "The Blindness of Dr. Gray" The Final Law XIV. Proposed for a Bishopric 252 Letter to the Archdeacon Justice Holmes of the U. S. Supreme Court XV. Last Books 256 "The Queen's Fillet" Two Theories "The Graves at Kilmorna" Facts not Fiction Prophecies Criticism XVI. Literary Methods 263 XVII. Echoes from Foreign Lands 267 One of the "Most Read" Portraits xvi CONTENTS PART III. PASTORAL LIFE CHAPTER PAGE I. The Parish of Doneraile 275 Illustrious Predecessors Bridge House The "Curse of Downeraile" St. Coneela's Well At the "Stations" II. Shepherd of His Flock 289 On Sundays Public Spirit A Practical Guide III. The Land Purchase Act 304 The Wyndham Act of 1903 Prudent Management and Patient Drilling The "Feis" of Douglas Hyde The Canon and the Gentry Triumph after Difficulties Lord Castletown's Tribute IV. The Canon's Political Influence 313 V. Educational Work 320 The Boys' Schools Technical and Manual Schools Scientific Laboratory Intermediate Examinations The Girls' Schools of the Presentation Nuns Lace and Industrial Departments School Visitation Canon Sheehan's Theory of Popular Education The Scheme of National Schools for Ireland Irish Teachers and Methods Reading Essentials and Accomplishments Physiology Misleading Ambition Lectures at Home and Abroad University Education CONTENTS xvii CHAPTER PAGE VI. Care of the Parish Church 345 The Parish Church Liturgical Observances Devotions Music "The Emigrant's Return" VII. Relationship to Priests and Religious .... 360 The Curates Clerical Friends The Brothers of His Schools Estimate of the Catholic Priesthood Respect for the Nuns Casual Visitors PART IV. THE END I. Forebodings 375 The Children's Prayer At the South Infirmary, Cork The Return Home II. Preparation for Death: The End 388 His Tombstone Aftermath Index 393 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Canon Sheehan of Doneraile Frontispiece At the Time of His Ordination, 1875. .Facing page 44 Curate at the Queenstown Cathedral, 1886. . . 86 Canon Sheehan in His Garden 108 Facsimile Letter 194 Pastor of Doneraile, 1898 238 " Father Pat " among the Children 290 Presentation Convent and Girls' School, Doneraile 320 " Bridge House," and Boys' School, Doneraile . . 320 Parish Church, Doneraile 346 Main Street, Doneraile 346 Headstone Marking the Grave of Canon Sheehan 388 XIX CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE INTRODUCTORY INTRODUCTORY IN midsummer of 1897, while on a journey to Europe, I incidentally became interested in Geoffrey Austin, a volume which had been published anonymously two years before, and a belated copy of which had reached me for review before leaving America. It purported to be the story of a young student who gives his reminiscent impressions of teachers and their methods in one of the private tutoring colleges preparing boys for the Civil Service Examinations in Ireland. The purpose of the book was frankly critical; but so skillfully interwoven was the theme with the reflections of a cultured mind, while the scenic setting and diction had all the charm of romance, that one could not escape its attraction as a novel. A feature of the story was the realism with which the author sketched his characters, as it were from life. Among these were three priests — Father Thomas Costello, Geoffrey Austin's guardian; Father Bellamy, the rector of May- field school; and Father Aidan, a parish priest from the county Clare. These figures were typical in a measure of the Irish clergy. As editor of an ecclesiastical periodical which was gradually gaining in popularity among the English-speaking clergy, I had for some years past been in search of a writer capable of drawing a series of clerical sketches. These were to depict the Catholic priest occu- pied with the various functions in his parish, that is amidst his people, with the children in school, in his relations to his fellow priests, in his contact with the outside world, and finally as reflecting the spirit of prayer and study within the privacy of the presbytery. Such a series, it was hoped, would become the vehicle of varied pastoral and theological teaching, and at the same time introduce into the magazine a feature of entertainment free from 3 4 INTRODUCTORY those didactic elements which, when continuous, are apt to weary the average reader. The writer of Geoffrey Austin appeared to possess the qualifications for the desired work. He evidently excelled both in the art of illustrating principles through pleasing narrative, and in emphasizing whatever contributed to the moral and religious betterment of the people. His writing showed, beneath a slightly pessimistic enthusiasm, a clear perception of both lights and shadows in our modern religious and public life. At the same time he had the wit and humor which allowed him to apply correctives without greatly irritating the reader. In short, here were the genial temperament and balance of judgment that could, despite certain prepossessions, discriminate between the extreme views of the optimist and the misanthrope in matters of ethics and religion. I had no doubt of the author's willingness to fall in with my proposal to write the desired series. It would be necessary, however, first of all to find him. The obvious way was to inquire from the publishers, the Messrs. M. H. Gill and Son, of Dublin. This I did. To my amazement I learnt that Geoffrey Austin had had but a limited sale. The ostensible reason lay in the fact that the author had criticized the system of educa- tion in Ireland, and in doing so had seemed to cast asper- sions upon Irish character and faith. His picture of a modern intermediate school under clerical management had been declared to be extraordinary, unreal, and imagi- nary, not to say distorted. Although the literary merit of the novel was recognized, the critics thought that it was calculated to do more harm than good, by leaving the impression that the condition depicted as existing at May- field College was typical of private schools throughout Ireland. As a matter of fact only a few literary journals had taken notice of the book, while some of them had ex- pressed open resentment of the implied charges. There was a species of truth in the general impression as here indicated. The writer of Geoffrey Austin had said some INTRODUCTORY 5 hard things about the apathy of Irishmen and their re- pugnance to certain wholesome changes; but it must have been clear to any unprejudiced reader that it was not the author's purpose, even in the remotest sense, to disparage his country. Indeed the extraordinary qualities of the narrative, the writer's accurate delineation of certain types of human nature, his power of poetic expression, were but the vehicle of the plainly revealed purpose to arouse in- terest in the work of raising the educational standard of his country. This design formed the core of the story, as might have been patent to anyone who was not pre- occupied with an oversensitive estimate of existing values. Having obtained the author's address, I promptly com- municated with him for the purpose of engaging his serv- ices for our magazine. Of the results I shall have occasion to speak later on. The subject of Geoffrey Austin has been introduced here mainly because it became the occasion of that literary activity which not only produced a new type of clerical novel in the English language, and at once made its author famous, but at the same time established that friendly and intimate relation between the pastor of Doneraile and myself which has led to the writing of this biography. PART I AN ACCOUNT OF PATRICK SHEEHAN's CHILDHOOD, HIS TRAINING, STUDENT LIFE, AND EARLY YEARS AS A PRIEST IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND I 85 2-1 894 I PATRICK SHEEHAN — THE BOY THE Sheehans and O'Sheehans * are very numer- ous among the clans of old Munster, and with- out attempting to trace the particular sept to which Patrick Aloysius, the father of our subject, belonged, it may be noted that the escutcheon of the ancient Sheehans is singularly suggestive of the character and life-purpose of Patrick junior. It bears on an azure field a dove carry- ing an olive-branch above a green mound; the motto beneath is "Pro Virtute Patria." Nothing could be more apposite than this device, if the disposition and char- acter of Canon Sheehan were to be translated into sym- bolic language. He was the gentlest of men, a bearer of peace, and a true Sheehan in the sense in which the Irish word is commonly used for a "lover" of his kind and of his country. The Baptismal Register of the parish of Mallow in the diocese of Cloyne states that Patrick Sheehan, 2 son of Patrick Sheehan and Joanna Regan, was baptized on the 17th day of March, 1852, by the parish priest of St. Mary's Church, Dr. J. C. Wigmore, the sponsors being Timothy Cronin and Mary Ann Relehan. The best testimony to the worth of the Sheehan family is to be found in the virtues of mind and heart which the parents of young Patrick transmitted to and developed in their children, and which led three of them to consecrate their lives to the service of religion. Two elder sisters, Hannah and Margaret, became nuns in the Order of Mercy; Patrick entered the priesthood; a younger brother, 1 The name is variously spelled, and different interpretations may be read out of Sheaun, Sheehun, Sheehan, Sheean, Shean, and Sheahan. 2 The name is here spelled Sheahan. 9 io CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I Dennis Bernard, is still living, and is engaged in the Irish Civil Service as Auditor of the local Government Board. They have all given evidence of literary talent. A fifth child, John, died at the age of five years, and is buried with his parents in the Mallow cemetery. As soon as Patrick was competent he was sent to the local National School. In one of his stories he gives us a glimpse of his early teacher, Michael Francis O'Connor, whose "range of attainments was limited; but what he knew he knew well, and could impart to his pupils. He did his duty conscientiously by constant, unremitting care; and he emphasized his teaching by frequent appeals to the ferule." The little pupil was "fair-haired and delicate," like his sister Maggie, but of a wholly different type from his elder sister Hannah, who was dark and of an active turn. Patrick was silent and meditative. He had "large wistful blue eyes that looked at you as if they saw something behind and beyond you." As he sees himself in later years, he was "a bit of a dreamer, and when the other lads were shouting at play he went alone to some copse or thicket, and with a book, or more often without one, would sit and think, and look dreamily at floating clouds or running stream; and then, with a sigh, go back to his desk." His natural and early bent appears to have been toward the priesthood, though at one time — so we are told — he expressed a desire to study for the Bar; but in this he did not receive encouragement, for the outlook was unprom- ising. The first evidence of a vocation to the priesthood reveals itself through the boy's admiration for a "great tall student" from Maynooth. He recalls this hero's homecoming to his native town for vacation. One summer night the seminarist "took the sleepy boy on his shoulders and wrapped him round with the folds of his great May- nooth cloak that was clasped with brass chains running through lions' heads, carrying him out under the stars, as the warm summer air played around them." 1 1 A Spoiled Priest and other Stories. Chap. II. Chap. I] PATRICK SHEEHAN — THE BOY n Although naturally of a reserved and solitary disposition, the little lad took an occasional, and then not merely platonic but thoroughly active interest in all kinds of sport. He was also fond of music, and had a remarkably sweet voice, which did good service in the Boys' Choir of the parish church, organized by Father Horgan, the junior curate. The pastor was the Rev. Dr. McCarthy, who later became Bishop of Cloyne. To him Patrick's father at his death left the guardianship of the four children, together with the income of a modest property. Both parents died within a few months of each other when Patrick was only ten years of age. In a memorandum of his boyhood days, under the title of "Moonlight of Memory," partial repetitions of which are to be found throughout his various writings, he says: How beautifully do the plain prosaic limestone walls of the old market house at Mallow, which crowned and terminated the New Street in which I was born, stand out amid the scenes of the little theatre of my existence. I well remember it in the sunlight and in the moonlight — the exact flat stone which we singled out for our balls; the niches which were such a trouble to me; the old weighing machine; the vast and tremendous circuses whose splendours, as of Arabian nights, were hidden within, under locked gates. How romantic, seen in the light of memory, was the dear old glen, where we first learnt the art of poetry in its wild flowers — the primrose and the cowslip, and the wild hya- cinth whose fragrance, like the perfume that hangs around old letters, comes back across the years. And the brook narrowing and broadening, which we leaped in the summer days, where we fished for dollies and sticklebacks, and where we wondered at the gorgeous dragonflies that swam and sang in the air of the hot noon. And the little chalet on the cliff, with its fringe of firs, that looked so beautiful and poetical against the sunset, and the notes of the cuckoo and the throstle, recalling the lines of Words- worth: "Come forth into the light of things, Let nature be your teacher." From such surroundings the naturally contemplative and poetic mind of the boy received constant nourishment. 12 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I His childish observations became incentives to meditation on the significance of nature and its relation to the actu- alities of life, and these reflections formed a marked trait of his later writings. There was another sentiment which began to take root at this period in the boy's nature — that of intense pa- triotism, steadily growing with the realization of the wrongs which his people had suffered for centuries. This feeling made him all through his life deeply sensitive to the dangers that would beset his countrymen, if they should fail to be prepared for a right use of that freedom which the promise of Emancipation was apparently bring- ing within actual reach. Many a summer evening we watched and envied the little batches of Fenians going up to drill in the dark recesses of Buckley's wood. For the sublime and sacred feeling that took these trades- men away from work and pleasure was also the passion of our youth. The shadow of '48, and the wild music that came out of that shadow were upon us, and we were watching with beating hearts and kindling eyes the preludes of 1867. Among other things he relates an experience on one of the dark winter nights of the year 1865: I see now the short well knit figure of the ballad-singer in the Main street; I see the gaslight from the shop flickering on his coat, shining and glistening because the rain was pouring in cataracts upon his clothes. I see his pale and stern looking face, his black hair falling down in ringlets on his shoulders, the short black mustache; the right hand hid away in his breast; I hear his voice ringing up along the deserted street, that fine ballad of Innominatus, called in the Irish Anthologies The Fenian Man. I remember how it thrilled us to hear the words: "But once more returning, Within our veins burning The fires that illumined dark Aherlow's glen; We raise the old cry anew, Slogan of Con and Hugh: Out and make way for the Fenian men." Again we find him describing a youthful member of the Fenian brotherhood, a manly lad who would gather the Chap. I] PATRICK SHEEHAN — THE BOY 13 boys of the town in a corner of the old market house and address them thus: Look, boys, at those captains of the Irish Brigade, their white faces, their hands trembling, their hearts throbbing. And why? Because the sorrow of Ireland and the sadness of Ireland, and her eternal hopes, so often defeated, have come down upon them. And they remember what a little thing was between them and victory but for the traitor. Believe me, boys, you needn't much mind the man who flings his caubeen in the air and shouts that he'll shed his last drop of blood for Ireland. But whenever you hear: "God save Ireland" or "God prosper old Ireland," and you see the man's fingers twitch and the lines drawn down on his face and the color fly from his cheeks — ah yes, boys, mind him. Those Fenians were silent, strong men, into whose characters some stern and terrible energy had been infused. There were no braggarts among them. Their passion was too deep for words; it was an all-consuming, fierce, unswerving and unselfish love for Ireland. They did not love their motherland because it gave them a scrap of her bogs or fields or mountains; or because they could sell her interests at a brigand's valuation; but because she was Ireland who had wrongs to be avenged, and sorrows to be redressed, and because they hoped — every man and boy among them — to see the day when they would help to crown that dear old motherland with the royal symbols of independence. Yes, indeed the blood runs freely in the veins of boys' youth, and our veins ran fire under the influence of that glorious passion. But these were sober thoughts that substituted them- selves only on occasions for the ordinary enthusiasms of a boy's life. It is pleasant to hear him tell of the youthful sports, for it betokens his sturdy admiration of prowess and an active interest in the public games of his town, though one would hardly have expected it in a delicate lad who was so fond of solitude and books. At that time football was almost unknown at Mallow. Hurling and handball in winter, cricket in summer, were the universal games. Every lane, every street, had its cricket club; and high above all, and dominating all, was the M. C. C, the magic letters that floated on the flag hanging above the little shanty in the 14 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I field to the east of the "monastery." What then must have been the mighty attraction that took us schoolboys away from such an arena on a certain hot summer afternoon, and flung us, a wild disordered mass, into the Main Street? Nothing but the report that the police had surrounded the house of John Sullivan, at the corner of Carmichael's lane, and had placed him under arrest while searching every room for papers. We were not disappointed. There, inside the shop at the window we could see the prisoner, erect as usual and unconcerned, chatting with the constables that filled the place. He had on his usual white coat (he was a baker), and was stroking his short beard. Presently the District Inspector came downstairs. He had found nothing "to compromise the prisoner." "No wonder," he adds, "for among the constables present were a number of sworn Fenians." Patrick Sheehan, together with another boy l of nearly his own age, thus came to imbibe certain ideals which made them look on their native town with pride. Their ambition was no doubt also kindled by the knowledge that Mallow had given birth to some famous men of recent times. There was the venerable Archbishop Purcell of the American Catholic Church, the late Sir Edward Sullivan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir Richard Quain, the great medical authority, and Thomas Davis, the Irish poet and patriot. Later on, our two young Irish striplings were to add their own names to this list of Mallow celebrities. These glimpses of his boyhood give us a fair idea of his early surroundings. From them he imbibed very readily that sense of partnership with nature which in time made his communings with the land and sea and sky a daily habit; they fostered that liking for outdoor exercise which, while in seeming contrast with his ingrained prefer- ence for cloistered life, preserved in him the freshness that marked all his tastes. They also throw light upon the diffident ardor of his patriotism, and explain a certain sadness that clung to his sanguine hopes of the ultimate regeneration of his people by the baptism of a glorious liberty won through hard struggle. 1 William O'Brien. Chap. I] PATRICK SHEEHAN — THE BOY 15 There is ample proof, however, that the boy did not altogether miss the elixir of joys that come to the average child under wholesome conditions of life; and the at- mosphere of his home and school was an eminently healthy one, particularly in its moral aspect. In later years he took a deep and absorbing interest in the children com- mitted to his care, and he used to say: 'We should pour into young lives all the wine and oil of gladness we may, consistently with the discipline that will fit them for the future struggle." A former schoolmate of Patrick Sheehan writes of him: "As a boy he was remarkably gentle in manner, and somewhat reserved. In school he was known to be very attentive and always prepared his lessons well. He was also fond of cricket and at times took a lively part in our youthful sports." His talent for mathematics was exceptional, and during the last two years at the National School he gave most of his attention to geometry and algebra. The fruits of this application showed themselves not only in his subsequent fondness for the study of the physical sciences, especially astronomy, but in his clear and logical reasoning on any practical subject that offered room for difference of opinion as to consequences. The period of boyish gladness was not to be long for him ere the clouds began to appear and bade him note the more sober aspects of things around him. In the summer of 1863 his father died, and in February of the following year the widowed mother followed her husband. For a little while, during the days of bereavement, the management of the young family devolved upon the elder sister, who was still at school. Soon after this Father John McCarthy, guardian of the children, sent the two daughters to complete their education at the Loreto Convent in Fermoy. II ST. COLMAN'S — FERMOY IN the spring of 1866, at the age of fourteen, Patrick Sheehan was sent to St. Colman's College, whither his younger brother followed him. In a memorandum he noted the day of his entrance, the sixth of April, as an important anniversary. 1 St. Colman's is a preparatory training school in the diocese of Cloyne, where boys receive a classical educa- tion fitting them for entrance to the philosophical depart- ment of the Theological Seminary, or to the academic courses that lead to the learned professions. The college 1 All through his life he retained an affectionate attachment to this his early Alma Mater. Almost the first income he derived from his literary labors was devoted to partly rebuilding and decorating the college chapel in which he placed a beautiful altar as a token of gratitude. The act has, since his death, been memorialized in an inscription which meets the visitor at the entrance of the chapel. IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF VERY REV. P. A. CANON SHEEHAN, D.D., P.P. DONERAILE, WHOSE GENEROSITY LARGELY HELPED TO BUILD THIS CHAPEL HE DIED OCT. 5, I913. BY ORDER OF THE MOST REV. R. BROWNE, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF CLOYNE, AN ANNIVERSARY REQUIEM MASS IS TO BE CELEBRATED FOR THE REPOSE OF HIS SOUL ON THE 5TH DAY OF OCTOBER EACH YEAR. R.I.P. 16 Chap. II ] ST. COLMAN'S — FERMOY 17 was then, as it is now, conducted, under the supervision of the bishop of the diocese, by a competent staff of secular priests and laymen as professors and tutors. The fact that Canon Sheehan in his novels frequently relates personal experiences and impressions may lead readers of Geoffrey Austin, who are not familiar with the circumstances, to suspect that St. Colman's furnished him with the characteristics of college life described in that story. This would be an error. So far as the detailed descriptions of "Mayfield" correspond to any actual lo- cality, they are those of Gayfield House, at Donnybrook, Dublin, a school of that time founded to meet the require- ments of secondary education for students preparing to enter the higher Civil Service. This institution was for a time attended by our author's brother, and it was thus that Patrick Sheehan became acquainted with some of its features. They are not and were not, of course, peculiar to any one establishment of the kind. With this reservation, however, we may assume that the characteristic tendencies in the student life of Geoffrey Austin are identical with those of young Sheehan during his stay at Fermoy. The teaching staff introduced in his sketch of the Mayfield school naturally offered him a convenient opportunity for enlarging on his preferences. The boy's pre- dominant love for the classics may be traced to his asso- ciation with men of whom he draws admirable pictures in such characters as "Mr. Dowling," the professor of Greek; "Mr. Ferris," the teacher of mathematics, and that odd type of old-fashioned simplicity and self-effacement, "Mr. Messing," who not only engendered in his young pupil's mind a love for music and the beauties of nature, but introduced him to the mysticism of the German poets. Some of the author's notes of this period indicate his growing determination to enter the priesthood, while at the same time they point the direction in which his facul- ties were tending for their further development. After a few months at St. Colman's he returned for his summer vacation to Mallow, where his elder sister had in 18 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I the meantime entered the Convent of Mercy, and where he met once more the former associates of his schooldays. He writes : x I recall how one beautiful night in August of 1866, four of us young lads walked up and down the main street from Tuckey's- hill to Chapel-lane. It was a glorious night, the moonlight flood- ing the whole street without throwing a shadow from the houses. We were chatting about a hundred things. Then the town clock struck ten, and just at the hill we paused. One of our group, the oldest, said to me who was then at home from St. Colman's for the first holidays: "What are you going to do with yourself?" — "I suppose the Church," I answered. "Ah," he said with a sigh, "that was my idea, too. I haven't had much happiness since I abandoned it." The speaker was young James O'Brien. He could not have been more than eighteen; but they had made him captain of the revolutionary forces. — How well I remember him. The strong square face, dimpled all over with curious lines when he smiled; the tall sinewy athletic figure, the broad shoulders, the erect poise and military gait of the boy. — Ay de mi — what might have been. Of this same lad, James O'Brien, 2 our author writes in another place: A few months later, when the snow was thick upon the ground, he put aside his civilian jacket, and, like Emmet, donned his green uniform, slung his revolver around his neck, and having slipped unobserved from the house, trudged along the six miles to Bal- lynockin, where he met Captain Mackey and a contingent of unarmed men from Cork. They brought out the women and children from the police barrack, and when the men refused to surrender, instantly set fire to the place. The sergeant and four constables were only saved from terrible death by the interven- tion of the priest, Canon Neville, who commanded the police to surrender at once, shouting to them that he himself would see them exonerated from all blame with their superiors. Then a detachment of military stationed at Purcell's of Dromore came up; and the unarmed Fenians dispersed. The next day James ^'Moonlight of Memory." 2 A brother of William O'Brien, the author of When we were Boys and member of Parliament successively for Mallow, Tyrone, and Cork. Chap. II ] ST. COLMAN'S — FERMOY 19 O'Brien was arrested and lodged in Mallow Bridewell for three weeks, awaiting trial. These were stirring times everywhere in the south of Ireland, and events, as young Sheehan and his fellow students at St. Colman's witnessed them at intervals, tended to rouse their patriotic feelings to the utmost. It was in March of that year (1867) about the middle of the month, while the long flank of the Galtee mountains was a mass of glisten- ing ice, that the reports reached our college of the Fenian forces having been surrounded in Kilcloony-wood. Peter O'Neill Crowley, they said, had been killed with English bullets on the banks of the mountain stream. He had previously ordered his men to flee and save themselves. They said it was only at his earnest entreaty that captains Kelly and McClure had consented to leave him and withdraw. Peter Crowley himself had con- tinued to keep at bay the entire British regiment and a posse of police, by dodging from tree to tree, and firing steadily at the advancing soldiers until at last his ammunition gave out. When he had fallen, pierced with bullets, he asked one of the men for a priest. Fortunately Father Tim O'Connell, the curate of Michelstown, was near by, knowing of the fray and the danger. He ran to the dying man's aid and gave him the last sacraments. Crowley's own people came to bury him. I remember well the evening on which that remarkable funeral took place. It was computed that at least five thousand men took part in the procession. They shouldered the coffin of the dead patriot over mountain and valley and river, until they placed the sacred burden down by the sea, and under the shadow of the church of Ballymacoda. I recall how a group of us young lads shivered in the cold March wind on the college terrace at Fermoy, and watched the dark masses of men swaying over the bridge, the yellow coffin conspicuous in their midst. We caught another glimpse of the funeral cortege as it passed the sergeant's lodge. Then we turned away with tears of sorrow and anger. He reflects upon the great strength and fierce force that lay in all these men who walked forever under the shadow of the scaffold. Two years later James O'Brien, 1 who had been sentenced to be hanged, 1 This is no doubt James F. X. O'Brien, M.P. 20 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I drawn and quartered, but was afterwards set free, visited the Presentation Convent at Fermoy to see his sister who was a nun there. The bishop, who was in Fermoy at the time, had asked the liberated patriot to dine at the college. Probably at that time Dr. Keane was the most popular and well beloved bishop in Ireland. He deserved it. He had the reputation of being a strong, almost an extreme nationalist. I was too young to understand. I only knew that the newspapers were fond of quoting some words which he addressed to the students at the Irish College in Paris: "Gentlemen, remember that your first duty is to God; your second to your country." This evening Mr. O'Brien was late, and dinner had been partly gone through when he arrived. The little quiet figure dressed in grey had stolen half way up the hall when he was observed. Then the whole body of priests and students sprang to their feet, and gave him an ovation that a king might envy. Canon Sheehan, in recalling these early impressions of his boyhood, mentions the names of the men who were fore- most in the political struggle of which he was a silent but interested witness. He describes among other episodes the popular scenes on occasion of the election of a certain advocate, Sullivan, who had been made Solicitor General for Ireland, and who found it necessary to contest the seat for Mallow. This patriot was a popular speaker who, having reached the high pinnacle of his ambition, passed into oblivion among his people, "for," writes the Canon, it is a remarkable fact and one that I should like to impress on the minds of our youthful generation, that the muse of Irish History has a curious knack of blotting out every name, no matter how illustrious for a moment, that has not served the cause of the motherland; whilst she embalms forever in her pages the very humblest who have given their lives to her sacred causes. I suppose not one man in a million could tell to-day the name of the judge who sentenced the Manchester martyrs to death; but every Irish schoolboy knows the name of Allen, Larkin and O'Brien. Who can tell the names of all the distinguished judges, attorney generals, crown advocates, sergeants at law, who prosecuted or sentenced the patriots of 1798 or 1848 or 1867? And who can forget Emmet, Wolfe Tone, the Sheares, Mitchel, Martin, Kick- Chap. II] ST. COLMAN'S — FERMOY 21 ham? The little town by the Black Water had given not a few able men to the woolsack and bench, to the Church, to medicine, to art, and to history. Yet no one asks where these men are buried, or cares to see the places where they were born. But every school lad in Mallow can point out where Thomas Davis first saw the light; or the high house in which William O'Brien spent his boyhood days. Father Sheehan adverts to the fact that in those days the intercourse between Protestants and Catholics was exceedingly happy and cordial. These relations of intelli- gent fellowship and cooperation in all matters of civil and social interest endured without any loss to the dignity of the Catholic faith; and they were incidentally shown with touching unanimity in the tribute paid to Canon Sheehan at Mallow on the occasion of his death. In 1867, during the second year of Patrick's residence at St. Colman's, his younger sister, who also had entered the Convent of Mercy at Mallow and who in religion was called Sister Mary Augustine, fell seriously ill. She had been a singularly bright child, with a fund of humor that made her a general favorite. She had followed her elder sister into the religious life after their return from the Loreto school, and though of naturally delicate health, had been happy and active in her new sphere. During the summer she contracted a cold which developed into consumption. She died on 7th of November, 1868, after making her vows by a special dispensation, before the expiration of her term of novitiate, on her deathbed. The affectionate relations existing between the two boys and their sisters had been intensified by the temporary separation while the former were at college, and although they saw each other at intervals, the young boyish hearts craved the nearer presence of those who had guarded them ever since the death of their parents. The fresh bereavement, therefore, came upon them as an unlooked-for blow and a deep sorrow. Patrick had still another year at St. Colman's before entering the theological seminary, a step on which he 22 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I was now earnestly resolved, under the direction of his guardian. The latter enjoyed the boy's fullest confidence as well as reverence, and we picture him as the "Father Costello" of Geoffrey Austin, at least in the quality of his gentle and fatherly spirit, the memory of which still lives among the old people of Mallow. The college list of honor students at the end of the summer term of 1868 gives first place to Patrick Sheehan in Geometry, Algebra, Greek, History, and English Com- position. He took second place on the medal list in Chris- tian Doctrine, third place in Latin, and fifth in French. Accordingly he received premiums in all his classes. Strangely his name is omitted from the Elocution class. Father John Burton, parish priest of Donoughmore, who entered St. Colman's in 1868, writes that Patrick Sheehan (or Sheahan, as the name is entered on the college register) was then regarded as the leading student, and occupied the position of prefect in the college. On completing his course at St. Colman's young Sheehan headed the list in the Concursus for entrance to the higher Seminary. There had been some prospect of his obtain- ing a place among those who were being selected to study at the Irish College in Rome; but as there were two va- cancies at Maynooth for students from the Cloyne dio- cese, it was finally decided that he should apply there for admission. In after years he greatly regretted that he had not had the opportunity of completing his studies in Rome, as he considered it an incomparable adjunct to a priest's education to imbibe the ancient spirit of the Church at its fons et origo — to have seen and heard Christ's Vicar, and to have lived and dreamed amidst the glorious monu- ments and temples of the past in the heart of the eternal Mother of Christendom. Ill MAYNOOTH AT the end of August, 1869, young Sheehan went /-\ to Maynooth to take his examination for the "*- -*- class of Philosophy. The intellectual and economic life at Maynooth was at this time in a state of transition and unrest. The pass- ing of the Irish Church Act that same year (1869) had changed the civil status of the college. The allowance hitherto made for its support by the Government, first under the annual grant of 1795, and again in 1845 under the permanent endowment fund proposed by Sir Robert Peel, was converted by the Gladstone Act into a temporary subsidy, only partly sufficient for the maintenance of this great seat of learning. Whilst it was a distinct advantage to have the college withdrawn from the control of the State, and placed ex- clusively under the management of the bishops of Ireland, the problem of its future support had to be solved. It became necessary, for the time, to charge a limited tuition fee at least for students who were not nominated to pre- viously established burses. The new status called for a revision and amendment of the Constitutions and Rules governing the college. It also necessitated certain depar- tures from the traditional program of studies; and this in turn involved some changes in the staff of professors. Those in charge of the great central Seminary for Ireland at that time were men of exceptional qualifications. Most of them had made their mark in the literary and scientific world. Among the best known was Dr. P. A. Murray, author of the Tractatus theologici; Dr. Gerald Molloy, whose Geology and Revelation was just then being pub- lished and making considerable stir by its originality and 23 24 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I thoroughness as a scientific analysis of exegetical difficulties. There were also Dr. James O'Kane, a recognized authority in Christian Liturgy; Dr. George C roily, author of De Jure et Justitia, and a number of other works. The professor who probably exercised most influence on the student body was Dr. Charles William Russell, the scholarly presi- dent. He was well versed in modern languages, was an accomplished writer in English, translator of Leibnitz's System of Theology, of Canon Schmid's Tales for the Young, a regular contributor to the Dublin Review, Edinburgh Review, North British Review, Chambers' Journal, The Month, etc. To him someone had applied the medieval text Ultra modum placidus, dulcis et benignus, Ob aetatis senium candidus ut cygnus, Blandus et affabilis et amari dignus, In se Sancti Spiritus possidebat pignus. Of him Newman, who affectionately dedicates to him his Loss and Gain, says: "My dear friend Dr. Russell, the President of Maynooth, had perhaps more to do with my conversion than anyone else. . . . He was always gentle, mild, unobtrusive, uncontroversial. He let me alone." Under teachers of such recognized merit Maynooth had strengthened its reputation as a permanent abode of ad- vanced scholarship. The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, es- tablished a few years before (in 1864), was understood to draw its inspiration largely from Maynooth. Nevertheless the authorities made no secret of the fact that there was disagreement among the faculty, besides general dissatisfaction with the management. The routine of studies had become unsettled, and there was a recog- nized neglect of discipline that made student life uncom- fortable for those who needed the strengthening influence of supervision and direction. To a youth of Patrick Shee- han's sensitive disposition the lack of orderly and positive guidance was distressing. His high ideal of what a candi- date for the sacred ministry should be had led him to look for definite incentives in the training of his intellectual Chap. Ill ] MAYNOOTH 25 and spiritual life at the Seminary. The actual state of things proved a disappointment for the time being. Arch- bishop Healy of Tuam, the historian of Maynooth, has left us a candid record * of what the discipline of the col- lege was at this period; and while there is ample pallia- tion in the reasons given to explain the manner in which the Seminary was being conducted, the facts must be reckoned with in accounting for the lack of enthusiasm on the part of our young seminarist, and for a certain distaste for his studies which marked his career at Maynooth and of which he made no disguise. There can be no doubt that Patrick Sheehan had superior talent, and also that he was well disposed to use it. On entering Maynooth he had passed his examination for the Logic class. It should be stated here that this was no easy task; in fact a very large proportion of the students who entered Maynooth failed therein. For these there was an alternative. If they did not pass Greek and Latin (which included the free reading of Demosthenes, Sophocles, Longinus, Tacitus, etc.), History ancient and modern, and Mathematics (Geometry and Algebra), they were tested for Rhetoric, which was less rigorous. To enter in Rhetoric meant an additional year of preparatory study before being admitted to Philosophy. If the student failed in Rhetoric, he was admitted to the lowest depart- ment, that of the Humanities. This arrangement allowed the student an opportunity to review the studies in which he was weak. Later on, the Humanities class was entirely abolished and that of Rhetoric took its place, aiming at proficiency in the classics. To the higher Mathematics, as well as Physics and Astronomy, was given a separate year, following upon the study of Mental Philosophy. Young Sheehan's excellent preparation at St. Colman's enabled him, without much difficulty, to escape both Rhetoric and Humanities, and he was allowed, despite his 1 Maynooth College — Its Centenary History. By the Most Rev. John Healy, D.D., LL.D., M.R.I.A., 1795-1895. — Dublin; Browne and Nolan. Chap. XVI., "Domestic Annals." 26 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I youth, to take up Logic at once. This fact shows him to have been a remarkable boy, for out of a hundred students only about five on the average attained a similar distinction. In estimating his subsequent successes it must be re- membered that he was not only younger than most of his companions, but that the bulk of the students in his class had already spent one or two years at Maynooth, in the preparatory classes. The text-book was Jennings's Logicae sen Philosophiae Rationalis Compendium. William Jennings had taught philosophy at Maynooth from 1852 to 1862. The first half of the annual term was devoted to Logic, the second to Metaphysics and Ethics. To Patrick Sheehan this new branch of study was a sore disappointment. His distaste may be attributed to a variety of causes, apart from the method of teaching in vogue at the the time. The boy's poetic and somewhat contemplative turn inclined him naturally toward an eclectic culture which found little satisfaction in the normal rigidity be- setting the study of Logic as treated in Scholastic Philoso- phy. Here the student had to face the dry-as-dust matter of continuous definitions, categories, and abstract dis- tinctions. For fully a year or more his memory and under- standing were drilled in the rudiments of a science the terminology of which was new, and quite alien to that of his former studies. What added to his difficulties was the fact that the language of the professor and of the text- book was for the most part Latin, which, though he was able to translate it, he had not yet learned to use as a medium of thinking. There was lacking too in the method of teaching these disciplines that concrete form of illus- tration which gives to ordinary studies, even of science, a definite attraction. In short, the student was being taught the methods of abstraction; simultaneously he learnt how to define his impressions and to attain the habit of trans- lating these impressions into inductions or deductions on which to base his arguments for truth. It was a weary process which, whilst not unprofitable as a mental dis- Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 27 cipline, could in most cases be supplied by the spontane- ous development of that natural gift called common sense. Nor was this unattractive novelty of study relieved by the pursuit simultaneously of the higher Mathematics, the physical sciences or Astronomy, and kindred disciplines, sometimes added to the course of Philosophy. Where the program of scholastic studies is not all too absorbing, the tyro in the domain of Logic and metaphysical science is permitted, if not invited, to disport himself in the attractive hortus conclusus of the muses and of polite literature. Here he meets with new and to him delightful philosophical speculations, of which at this age he begins to get his first taste, causing him to appreciate the value of what he had touched or seen, but could not enjoy before. In the case of young Sheehan this latter opportunity was somewhat limited, if not frowned upon by some of the men who had charge of arranging the curriculum of studies. Pope Pius IX had shortly before issued his famous Encyclical Quanta Cura, directed against the modern naturalism, with its crop of Communism- and Socialism. Simultaneously the Syllabus of 1864 had been sent to all the bishops, pointing out that adherence to the old tradi- tions of the Church's teaching and the approved scholastic methods in our seminaries was the only proper antidote to the virus which was being distilled into young minds by the popular philosophies at the secular universities. On the other hand there were also to be combated the in- sinuating doctrines of Jansenism which had strangely clung to the theological seminaries of France. Hither many of the Irish students had been obliged to turn for their ecclesiastical training. These brought back with them to Ireland French books, French manners, and French piety. 1 A third danger was apprehended from the false tradi- 1 At one time the professors at Maynooth were largely drawn from the French clergy expatriated during the Revolution, and French was almost exclusively spoken at table, a fact that caused considerable resentment among those who were not accustomed to the language. Dr. George Crolly in one of his memoirs tells of a conspiracy among the native professors to talk "Irish" only. (Life oj Archbishop William Crolly, p. xxiii.) 28 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I tionalism propounded with much ingenuity by men like Bonetty and his school, who made the Annales de Phi- losophie Chrctienne their organ. In the effort to combat these errors and to promote the reform of studies on the lines prescribed, the authorities insisted on a thorough course of fundamental philosophy in harmony with scholastic tradition. They also deemed it advisable to limit the programs of studies by abolishing the chair of Humanities; and although this measure was not at once carried out, the avowed purpose to do so natu- rally tended to create an atmosphere of discouragement for those who showed some preference for belles lettres. It were not surprising if under these circumstances Patrick Sheehan had failed to correspond at once to the expectations of intellectual alertness to which his previous record at St. Colman's had given rise. He himself, as already stated, was thoroughly disappointed at missing those impulses in the direction of his studies which stimu- late thought and arouse a healthy ambition toward higher achievement. In reality he found that the alternative of the didactic drudgery of the Logic class had to be sought in the equally dry practice of catechetical exercises. The students in Philosophy were required to write at regular intervals essays on moral and doctrinal subjects, much as they might be expected to do in Ethics or Theology. The purpose of this method was, of course, admirable, and may in some cases have produced good fruit. It was cal- culated to supply a systematic stimulus toward the higher ecclesiastical studies which lay before the student, and which would prepare him for the work of orthodox teach- ing in harmony with the general reform movement. But it also accounts for the fact that our collegian "found his scholastic studies dry and uninteresting, not understanding their application and practical importance." As a proof that Patrick Sheehan, despite these drawbacks, gave ample satisfaction to his professor of Philosophy, we have the fact that at the end of the term he was allowed to "jump" the class of Natural Philosophy and enter at once on his Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 29 Theology course. Down to the end of his life he showed a preference for studies in physical science and particularly for Astronomy. His early proficiency in these branches warranted his being dispensed from the regular class drill therein. The theological course proper covered three years. The principal text-book hitherto in use was Thomas de Charmes, an author whose Jansenistic tendencies had not yet been sufficiently modified by the revisions of Desorges and later writers. Subsequently Perrone and Gury were intro- duced, but for a time the two branches of moral and dogmatic theology were still being taught after the mind of the old teachers who had a fair claim to veneration. By a special provision incorporated in the Rules of the Maynooth Seminary, the future professors were to be drawn largely from the Dunboyne Establishment. These students, since they followed a somewhat longer course than the rest, were elected to act as tutors for the others. It seems doubtful whether or no this arrangement con- tributed to the improvement of discipline. Whatever discouraging effect the above mentioned con- ditions had upon the young seminarist, they could not fully strip him of the enthusiasm for the classics in which he had made a success at Fermoy; and indeed he seems to have sought every opportunity which his present position afforded to follow his natural bent in that direction. From some of the instructors he received a certain amount of encouragement. Such were the Rev. Hugh O'Rourke of the Tuam diocese, who also taught the French class; and another Dunboyne man, the Rev. Edward O'Brien. But these were not his regular professors during most of the course. Being an untiring reader, he exercised his intellectual energies in many directions covering a large field of useful information. And although his browsing in the literary close of the college library was both limited and of a desul- tory nature, it afforded him a welcome substitute for the somewhat unpalatable provender of the class-room. 30 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I Far back in the 'sixties literature had to be studied surrep- titiously, and under the uncongenial, but very effective, shadow of Perrone or Receveur. It was a serious thing to be detected in such clandestine studies, and I dare say our superiors were quite right in insisting that we should rigidly adhere to the system of pure scholasticism, which was a college tradition. But was not our President one of the greatest of European litterateurs? And what danger could deter us from the sawpits of logic into the garden of literature — from Barbara, Celarent, Darii, into the moonlight and melody of Tennyson? 1 It was in the library then that he sought the consola- tions of philosophy and the solution of its riddles. The modern literati on the bookshelves were all the more in- viting in that they spoke in the vernacular. The numerous restrictions which the college rules placed on the junior students in the matter of reading may have served to concentrate his attention upon sources that were accessible. Only by special permission were the "philosophers" al- lowed to enter the general library, containing about forty thousand volumes. There were, however, some separate reading-rooms in which a number of select books on vari- ous subjects could be obtained. It was here that the young student found his chief solace. One of the authors that attracted him particularly was Thomas Carlyle, who was then considered among popular critics one of the champions of modern philosophy. Carlyle had made two visits to Ireland; one of which (in 1866) occurred when Patrick Sheehan was still at St. Colman's College. The ovations given to the Scotch philosopher, just then elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh University, over Disraeli, who was also a candidate for the place of ho.nor, had aroused a genuine enthusiasm among the col- legians of Ireland. Apart from the brilliancy of his dic- tion, the rare charm attaching to his theories, ethical, religious, and political, exercised a temporary fascination upon our student. He found moreover many traits in the author of Sartor Resartus that touched a kindred note and 1 Books that influenced Luke Delmege. Irish Monthly, February, 1902. Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 31 wakened his personal sympathy. Carlyle's taste for mathematics, his appreciation of the literature of the ancients, even though he had acknowledged he had only a limited acquaintance with them, his freedom in criticizing, and a touch of serious satire by which he knew how to chastise irreverent flippancy in the advocates of pure ag- nosticism, — these notes exercised a powerful influence over the imagination of the youth. The study of Carlyle taught him, as he tells us, to appreciate German literature. Although in later years Canon Sheehan's estimate of Carlyle's merits underwent considerable modification, bring- ing distrust and even a positive dislike for the Sage of Chelsea, both because of his attitude toward the Church and his disapproval of Gladstone's Home Rule policy, this change did not interfere with his studies of German literature then or later on. He shows a special fondness for Jean Paul Richter, the gentle satirist, who loved little children and who had a delicately sensitive appreciation of the secret beauties of nature, albeit he was able to put a very sharp edge on his really sound criticism of human depravity. During this period Tennyson was writing in the English magazines parts of his Idylls of the King, the dreamy beauty of which cast its charm over our young student, who memorized whole pages of it. In later years he found much to criticize in Tennyson's archaic idealism. But he sought to imitate the exquisite forms of the great word-carver, even though he discovered in them the marks of the chisel and of the file. Wordsworth soothed him, despite the lack of virility that separates the Cumberland poet from great classics like Shakespeare and Goethe, the latter of whom Sheehan found too pagan, and the former too human, to admire without reserve. Swinburne, "supreme melodist of the language, magician who makes music as of heaven out of the discordant elements of the English tongue, master of alliteration and artistic antithesis," is to him but a preacher of voluptuousness and a portrayer of subtle and insinuating passion. 32 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I Next to Milton, Shelley, and Keats he was attracted by- Browning, and even more by Ruskin, as might be expected. When later on he began to study Italian, he became enam- ored of the gems of Tuscan poetry, and especially of Dante's Divina Commedia. How well he assimilated all this, and other attractive literature, is amply apparent from his earlier books, notably his reveries Under the Cedars and the Stars, and among his novels, most perhaps in The Triumph of Failure. The student at Maynooth was by no means hiding the talents God had given him. What he was acquiring was to be of immense service to him in later years both for the effective performance of his pastoral ministry and in the practice of that wider apostolate which he exercised through his writings. For it is quite certain that the habit of reading he indulged while at Maynooth tended to ripen his judgment, and make him familiar with the thoughts and feelings of the actual leaders of his day. Their views, even if not in conformity with the high standard of Catho- lic doctrine, were none the less of great value to him, since they indicated the attitude of the popular mind as con- trasted with the demands of Christian faith. That faith was deeply planted in his heart, together with the in- herited piety which his guardian and parish priest, Father McCarthy, had pledged him solemnly to hold sacred. There is among Sheehan's later descriptions one which seems to reflect his disposition at this period. It is the touching scene in Geoffrey Justin, in which the venerable pastor takes his young pupil, on the eve of his leaving for college, with him to the cemetery of his native town. We strolled along from grave to grave, and he told me the story of the occupant of each, and he vied with the epitaphs in charitableness, until at last we came to the spot where my own father and mother and sisters * were laid. We knelt and prayed together. As I rose he pressed his hand on my shoulder, that I might remain kneeling. Then he said, and it was dreadfully solemn: — "Next after the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, 1 The sisters were buried apart. Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 33 I know no place more sacred than this. You are kneeling near the sleeping forms of those who gave you life, and were linked with you in that love which perishes not nor decays. I make no doubt they are watching you now; and if anything disturbs their eternal peace, it is their anxiety about the years that are speeding towards you, and will be yours to make or mar for better, for worse. But one thing I ask you to promise me in their presence; you will never let a morning pass without placing yourself in the presence of God. Do you promise?" — "I prom- ise." I rose from my knees as the knights rose at the presence of their phantom king, and we went home. And as we went he said many things to me which I had never heard before; and the mysteries of life and immortality were made very plain to me, in lessons which have been as a staff to the hand and as bread in the wilderness to the weary. 1 It was this faith and piety that kept the young man safe from intellectual and moral harm amid untutored wanderings through many a field that might have proved a snare to a less fortified mind. Even while he was drawn to the speculations of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling, as others have been drawn, he began to analyze their theories of life. In this way he made his subsequent study of theology at once interesting and profitable, for he cleared his thought on such subjects of doctrine as required the application of a sterling philosophical test. The instinct of a grace-given faith, and the teaching system of the Catholic Church, preserved him from the allurements of rationalism which breathes through much of the popular German literature cultivated by him at this time. His notes on these sub- jects, collected in later years, and presented without any show of systematic arrangement, just as though they were the outcome of his speculative moods in hours of leisure, give evidence of the care with which he garnered the fruits of his apparently desultory reading and study. Meanwhile he was thoroughly conscientious in his class work, as is evident from the college records. During the three years of his theological course he was invariably 1 Chap. I, "My Guardian," p. 9. (First Edition.) 34 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I among those who were detailed to write the "class pieces," that is to say, the men who, being distinguished in their classes, were selected to compete for honors at the end of the term. Of about a hundred such picked students in the various departments, from all the dioceses of Ireland, he ranked as a rule with the leaders in nearly every class. In the Maynooth premium list of June 1874, during the last year of Patrick Sheehan's residence, his name stands first among the Proxime accesserunt in Sacred Scripture, fourth in Dogmatic, and sixth in Moral Theology. A classmate from Limerick who remembered him well writes: "In my time at Maynooth, Cloyne diocese was accounted creme de la creme of the college. Not to men- tion his Lordship * . . . you had men of sweeping abilities, like the late parish priest of Macroom (Dr. Jeremiah Murphy); you had men of gentle sanctity, like Father Keenan, who joined the Eucharistic Fathers and died among them; and you had men like Canon Sheehan, who scarcely uttered a word, but read the heavens, and thought." We have therefore to modify somewhat Father Matthew Russell's estimate when he writes: "It remains a puzzle to most men who knew Canon Sheehan in after days, and realized that his literary work as well as his pastoral wis- dom were in truth the fruit of a laborious and close appli- cation of the years spent in the Seminary, how a youth of such exceptional ability was able to escape distinction dur- ing his Maynooth course so completely that, since he has become famous, many who were almost his contemporaries at college have been slow to believe that he ever was a student at Maynooth." 2 As Patrick Sheehan had a naturally delicate constitu- tion, his habits of close reading and retirement soon told on his health. He was obliged to spend much of his time 1 Dr. Browne, the present Bishop of Cloyne. 2 " Concerning the Author of My New Curate" in Ecclesiastical Review, Jan- uary, 1902. Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 35 in the infirmary. It was while confined to his bed at the college, during the month of December, 1871, that a letter came to him announcing the death of his cherished and only surviving sister in the Convent at Mallow. Sister Mary Stanislaus, though she had taken her vows as a Sister of Mercy, had yet in many ways continued to act a mother's part to young Patrick and his brother. It had been a great joy to her heart to see him enter the Seminary. She had looked forward with a sister's affec- tionate faith to the day when he would be ordained to the priesthood, and when he might celebrate his first Mass in his native town of Mallow, where she was teaching the little children of the parish school. Meanwhile she had encouraged him by her letters and on his visits to Mallow. It was but natural that he should lean on her, and that she should fill the large void but recently left in the boy's heart by the death of little Margaret, who had given him all the sunshine of her bright disposition while at home and at Fermoy, that she might help him to forget the loss of his parents. One who knew the two girls when they were about to leave school for the cloister speaks of their re- markably sweet and genial dispositions. The nuns who recall them later in the community describe them as cheer- ful, bright, industrious, and as edifying all with whom they came in contact by their sprightliness, their piety, and the high sense of religious obligation which animated them from first to last. They possessed, both of them, exceptional talents, though in directions widely apart, the one being of rather artistic temperament, while the other excelled in teaching and administrative ability. Sister Mary Stanislaus had, after her religious profes- sion, been engaged for some years as directress in the parish schools. Her energetic spirit was concentrated upon her work, which called at the time for the full exercise of her talent as organizer, for the national schools were passing through a new crisis under changed State legislation, which put the bishops at pains to raise the standard of Catholic training. Although not of robust health, her 36 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I cheerful and unselfish disposition amid her work had hid- den all indications that the disease which had carried her sister to the grave was now slowly but surely making her its victim also. When finally she succumbed, and was obliged to take to her bed, she not only retained her spirit of resignation, but seemed to be pleased that God allowed her to make the sacrifice of her life. It meant, too, the sacrifice of her share in the progress of her cherished brother, — but then she would witness his consecration from her home in heaven. 1 And with the approaching trial of death she was to miss even his last visit to her sick-bed. For when her own death came, he was ill and unable to go to her for a last earthly farewell. She had withheld the knowledge of her illness from him to the last, because she knew how it would grieve him; and now it was too late. To his deep attachment and the wound which this be- reavement caused in hi» heart he bore witness in after years. One day, while he was engaged in writing the death scene of young Alice Dean in The Triumph of Failure, a friend found him in tears over his manuscript. When 1 To a nun who was very fond of her, and who on being called to another mission was bidding her farewell, she said: "Whenever you visit the Blessed Sacrament, dear Sister, and kneel before the little lamp in front of the tabernacle, say for me to our dearest Lord: 'May Sister Stanislaus live and be consumed for Thee alone!' ' At a time when the disease had been particularly trying and when she had been left for some time to herself, the nun attending her found on her bed the following reflection, written in pencil, and as though in answer to one who had sympathized with her in the heaviness of her cross. THAT CROSS It comes to me on Angel's wings; It comes from the throne of the King of kings; It comes as an arrow from the Sacred Heart, To wound my soul with its fiery dart. It comes to prove if my heart is His own, If in sorrow as in joy I am His alone. Oh, shall I not think me a favored dove To receive from my God this gift of love, This gift — His choicest, This gift from on high — For Jesus to suffer, for Jesus to die! Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 37 asked the cause of his grief, he answered simply that he had been recalling memories of his elder sister. To the hour of his death he kept near him a small embroidered leather frame containing some strands of his two sisters' hair neatly braided together; and a little before the end came he showed it to his nurse with a touching reminder of the love he bore them. There is a passage in Under the Cedars and the Stars in which he refers to this sister. "Strange, I never felt the proximity of father and mother. But my sisters, one in particular, the only dark haired in the family, has haunted me through life. I no more doubt of her presence and her light touch on the issues of my life, than I doubt of the breath of wind that flutters the tassle of the biretta in my hand. Yet what is strange is not her nearness but her farness." Though he never felt, as he said, the proximity of his par- ents, he not unfrequently referred to their sterling piety, particularly that of his father. He instanced the deep devotion of the latter when approaching Holy Communion. "He invariably remained on his knees for a full half hour," a practice which he taught his children to follow, even while they were still quite young. Shortly after the death of Sister Mary Stanislaus, illness obliged Patrick Sheehan to leave Maynooth for a pro- tracted vacation. He remained absent for the entire term of 1 872-1 873. During the remainder of his residence at the college he suffered almost continually from nervous debility, and at one time complained of defective eyesight. Nevertheless he completed his course the following year, 1874, with honors. As he was still too young to be ordained, he was allowed to return home. During the few months of comparative leisure at Mallow he prepared himself for the reception of Holy Orders, meanwhile reviewing his studies. There were many things undoubtedly that had escaped him in the class-room. These now called for examination, analy- sis, and reflection under the genial direction of the local clergy with whom he was brought into new relationship. 38 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I It gave him a different and definite view of pastoral duties. As a mere looker-on, he could, while accompanying the pastor or curates on sick-calls or during their visits to the stations, compare the theory of the theologian with the practice of the missionary. He had leisure to observe the impressions made by different methods of pastoral minis- tration. Thus this period of his student life was more fruitful perhaps than any other. It caused him to realize how far the Seminary training in ideals ran short of the practical needs of parish life. He saw in a wholly new light many things which he had read of in his text-books or heard from the lecturer's chair; and it roused reflections touch- ing the equipment of ecclesiastical students to which he gave expression later on. Among his unfinished manu- scripts there is one on this subject in which he speaks very plainly of his sense of unpreparedness when confronted with the outside world after leaving the Seminary. His reflections touch upon the matter of both piety and intel- lectual training. The success of a Catholic collegiate institution, if it is to be measured by its adaptability to the end for which it is founded, consists in its implanting principles and habits of piety, which will be proof against the world's seductions; and principles of theology and philosophy, which will serve in the delicate and mysterious work of the salvation of souls. The principles of piety must be not only an armour of defence, but strong and keen weapons of zeal; and the principles of learn- ing must not only serve in the pulpit and confessional, but be also the foundation of newer and higher studies which will always put the secular priest far in advance of his flock, even in worldly learning. 1 Speaking of the Irish colleges in particular, he recognizes that the system which prevails in them, founded as it is on the teachings of the Fathers and the traditions of the Church, is probably the highest and most perfect that could be adapted to the spiritual wants of students. 1 Manuscript on "Clerical Studies." Chap. Ill] MAYNOOTH 39 The seclusion from the world, the regularity of life, the strict apportioning of the student's time between prayer and study, the meditation on holy things, the example of superiors, and the absence of everything that could promote secular desires and worldly ambitions — all these form a catena around the lives of young Levites which keeps afar everything of evil. 1 Nevertheless he believed that the prevalent system in use in the Seminary, the aim of which is to implant posi- tive piety, suffers from a vital defect. That defect is, summarily expressed, the habitual appeal to the motive of fear, rather than to enthusiasm for great and noble achievement in the conquest of souls. There are placed before the candidate for the sacred ministry as incentives to fidelity which demand in him high qualifications, the dangers of missionary life, rather than the spirit of self- sacrifice and zeal for the Church of Christ. Should the young student go forth on the mission without the high ideal always to be dreamed of and sought after, he will soon fall a victim to the worldliness, if not the vices that creep into the life of an easy and sensuous priest. The solvent influences of that secularism which has eaten its way into the Catholic priesthood as into less sacred professions, will speedily dis- sipate a fear that rests not on lofty principles. The spirit of the age will soon scatter to the winds a timidity that dreads danger to self rather than a diminution of God's glory. For there is a fear that is born of selfishness as well as a fear that springs from the dread possibility of being found unfaithful. The former will not survive the sharp test of time and experience. The latter, if it spring from enthusiasm and Divine affection, will not fail in the hour of trial. 2 He discusses the conventional methods of daily medita- tion, spiritual reading, attendance at prescribed devotional exercises in a routine fashion, which produce no other effect on the average student in the Seminary than a conscious sense that he is fulfilling an obligation. What is of much greater importance in the training of the seminarist is that he should learn the tremendous significance of these things 1 Ibid. 2 Ibid. 40 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I in their application to the care of souls. In like manner the student is drilled in the perfunctory performance of the ritual ceremonies, but, except during the annual re- treats, his teachers hardly ever insist on the spirit, the wondrous power that flows from the proper use of these exercises. Hence as a priest he recites his Breviary in a mechanical way and without drawing either edification or wisdom from the sublime truths and maxims which he pro- nounces with his lips. His daily Mass is a mere performance, often hurried; his ministry of the sacramental rites becomes a sort of professional exercise without any spirit of personal devotion. Of course the student is told of the great value of these functions, but he is rarely trained to their appre- ciation by a deeply reverent practice such as will make him aware, while "going through" the ceremonies, that they have any devotional and spiritual fruit. The seminarist is taught silence as a discipline rather than as a principle the value of which is perennial. He is taught punctu- ality as a matter of rule, not as a vital element in priestly perfection. He wears the Roman collar and the ecclesi- astical garb as a distinction that is apt to increase his self- esteem; but he is rarely reminded, unless he violates decorum, that this distinction is intended to bind him to a continuous consciousness of the obligation to cultivate perfection, whereby his conduct and piety shall be lifted above that of the faithful. Father Sheehan would have professors, deans, and especially confessors, insist upon those truisms of religion, which, alas, the young priest will be often tempted to deny or forget: that religion and religious truth are a dread reality; that we cannot serve God and mammon; that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must not be taken figuratively, nor applied with selection and discrimination; that the Divine Teacher meant what He said; and surely if any body of men should follow His counsels of perfection it should be His priests. 1 He recognized a certain stereotyped use of language which leaves one at times under the impression that the student of theology has no practical grasp of certain prin- 1 Ibid. Chap. Ill ] MAYNOOTH 4I ciples, but satisfies himself with their theoretical accept- ance in order to meet the obligation which they impose. He likewise instances certain forms of speech current among the clergy such as "respectable positions in the Church," "high and well-merited dignities," "right of promotion,' etc. These phrases, like others, as "getting a better parish," "a poor living," indicate a worldly view of the apostolate that professes to glory in the humility and poverty of Christ. Only too soon will the young Levite learn to despise the self- effacement, the shy and retiring sensitiveness, the gentleness and humility that are such bright and beautiful ornaments of a real priestly character: and only too soon will he set his heart upon those vulgar and artificial preferments which the world prizes, but God and His angels loathe and laugh at. At least in the Garden of the Beloved, the sanctuary of the Lord, let such things not be even named. Let the only ambition of the student be to serve Christ, his only love that of His Master, his only decoration be his priestly dignity, his only reward that of the Beloved Disciple. 1 With regard to the intellectual training imparted in ecclesiastical colleges, he adverts to its exclusiveness. The general verdict on our Irish Ecclesiastical Colleges is that they impart learning, but not culture — that they send out learned men, but men devoid of the graces, the "sweetness and light" of modern civilization. — It may be questioned whether, in view of their mission and calling, this is not for the best. 2 Nevertheless, advancing civilization makes certain de- mands on our growing population and calls for adjustments in whatever is seen to possess a refining influence on life. Of this culture the priest must take account in the interests of the Christian religion and the Church of which he is a representative. Father Sheehan is careful to define for us the meaning of the culture which he advocates in the train- ing of the seminarist. Culture literally means "tillage of the soil, the artificial improvement of qualities supplied 1 Ibid. 2 Ibid. 42 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I by nature." He quotes John Addington Symonds in cor- roboration of his view that true culture is the raising of previously educated intellectual faculties to their highest potency by the conscious effort of their possessors. Therefore it presupposes learning; and it means in a certain sense moral as well as intellectual training. Thus when the character is formed each mental force, whether it belongs to the contemplative or to the active order, each self, so cultivated, will possess the privilege insisted on by the poet of being able to "live resolvedly in the whole, the good, the beautiful" — not in the warped, the falsified, the egotistical; not in the petty, the adul- terated, the partial; not in the school, the clique, the coterie; but in the large sphere of universal and enduring ideas. 1 He holds that the theological seminary furnishes the first condition of culture; that is, learning such as is requisite for the missionary work of a priest. Our Irish Colleges, if they do not teach philosophy and theology as at Rome; scriptural exegesis as at St. Sulpice; rubrics and cere- monies as at the English seminaries; and elocution as it is taught in America; yet they turn out the best equipped students in the world for the exigencies of modern missionary life. The fact that a priest studied at Maynooth was formerly equivalent to his possession of a degree. And to-day, in spite of adverse criti- cisms, I make bold to say, that the staff of professors at Maynooth . . . gives promise to maintain all the traditions that belong to the teaching staff of the greatest ecclesiastical Seminary in the world. 2 But this recognition does not blind him to the fact that frequently the teaching, especially of Philosophy, is perfunctory. It may be quite right to regard Philosophy as the key to The- ology, or rather the vestibule to the temple of the queen of sciences, and to make it therefore the initial science into which the alumnus is inducted. But considering its importance, its intricacy, and its singular involutions of phrases and ideas, we should be dis- posed to teach its rudiments as preparatory to Theology, and its 1 Ibid. 2 Ibid. Chap. Ill ] MAYNOOTH 43 deeper and more difficult problems as subsequent and supple- mentary. For the importance of Philosophy is derived from the twofold fact, that it is the basis of all intellectual conclusions on the great problems of religion and faith, and that it occupies a place in contemporary thought from which Theology is summarily and almost contemptuously excluded. This cannot be doubted by any one who has the most superficial acquaintance with modern literature. 1 It is important therefore to remember that the popular viewpoint which excludes Theology from the domain of the sciences does not on that account lessen the modern non-Catholic's interest in Philosophy. The thinking man of the world still regards it as the medium for the solution of the moral or religious problems which at all times con- front us. He may feel a natural aversion to the dogmatic attitude with which the Catholic Church approaches such problems; but he also recognizes the fact that there is a dogmatism of infidelity, much less reasonable, which materialism has found to be a convenient pretext for deny- ing the true sources of all being. 2 These facts, continues Father Sheehan, make us realize that the priest of to-day has some definite use for his Phi- losophy. It is supposed to answer all such difficulties as are conjured up by the skeptic and agnostic mind. If a cleric intends to show his contempt for the speciousness of the various theories advanced to support the objections against Catholic truth, that contempt must be "based, not on ignorance of their elemental theories, but on a 1 Ibid. 2 Father Sheehan notes among other characteristics of the modern college curriculum the prominence it assigns to the teaching of Philosophy. There were at the time at the University of Harvard in the United States more than seventy students taking advanced courses in the study of Philosophy. "Many of them," says an American writer, G. H. Palmer, whom he quotes, "intend to devote their lives to the subject. I asked twenty or thirty of them why they had turned to philosophy. Nearly half answered that they hoped for light on religious per- plexity. Others had met some difficulty in mathematics, physics, literary criti- cism, or the care of the poor, which, if followed up, became a philosophical problem." This condition was not peculiar to New England. It existed wherever intellectual education had had some influence and opportunity of expansion. 44 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I complete acquaintance with them. We need to have all the scorn of a superior knowledge, a superior philosophy, together with faith that soars above systems." Elsewhere Father Sheehan adverts to the fact that the study of Catholic Philosophy leads to a spiritual idealism, of great value in the priestly life. This is a feature on which professors rarely insist during the Seminary course. If we could inspire students and priests with a desire for pur- suing these elevating studies, we would also encourage them by saying that there is no necessity of limiting themselves to the dry and rather deterrent scholastic system of question, answer and objection ... In the pages of Catholic philosophers and apolo- gists the great principles and truth of Catholic metaphysics have been presented in a form not more secure by its consistency and fidelity than attractive by its eloquence. This is especially true of the French school. Bossuet and Fenelon in more remote times, Lacordaire, Gratry, Montalembert, Ozanam, Mairie de Biran in our own, have lent to Catholic Philosophy a distinct charm, which has been by too many supposed to be the exclusive privi- lege of heresy. Balmez in Spain, Newman in England, and Brownson in America, have clothed truth with elegance and style. 1 Such were Father Sheehan's convictions long before he had attained that mature wisdom of life which kept him intellectually active in his pastoral retirement at Doneraile. They prove that his reading had not been without reflec- tion, and that his study both in the Seminary and on the mission had been improved by observation in all matters of practical importance. 1 Manuscript. AT THE TIME OF HIS ORDINATION I875 IV PRIESTHOOD I8 75 PATRICK SHEEHAN'S career hitherto appears to have been one of comparative obscurity. Certainly it was a period of disillusionment, broken by spells of illness and the sorrow that came with the death of those whom he loved best. It is difficult to say which of these experiences affected him most. "The worst of our own sufferings in life," he says in Sunetoi, "is disillusion. All along through the upward pathway of life we are dropping fancy after fancy, until in middle age we stand bare of every beautiful idea that helped us to soar above the banalities of existence, and bear our crosses at least with equanimity." He had not enjoyed the full benefit of that "real academy of life" which a boy finds in the domestic circle, nor had he formed any notable new friendships at college that would be a present solace to him. There was indeed one who still took the place of parent in his regard, and whose beneficent influence on the forma- tion of his character was to be of permanent value in his future career. The spiritual guidance, the encouragement and protection of Father McCarthy, had never failed him during all these years of his adolescence; and the associa- tion had had an ennobling effect on the young cleric. While the student from Maynooth was getting a special course in pastoral theology under the tutorship of his guardian at Mallow, the latter was unexpectedly informed of his appointment as Bishop of Cloyne. The consecra- tion took place in October, 1874; and Bishop McCarthy repaired to Queenstown, which city had, since the restora- tion, become the episcopal residence. 45 46 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I In the spring of the following year Patrick Sheehan received a letter from the Bishop bidding him go to the Vincentian Monastery at Sunday's Well (Tobar-an-dom- hnaigh), Cork, where he was to make his retreat preparatory to being ordained on April 18th. The ceremony was to take place in St. Mary's Cathedral, Cork, as the incomplete state of the Queenstown cathedral 1 made any such function there impossible. That our young candidate stood well in the estimation of his superiors at Maynooth is attested by the following note from the President, Dr. Charles Russell, to Bishop McCarthy. St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, April pb, 1875. My dear Lord: I have much pleasure in reporting to your Lordship that at the close of last year Mr. Patrick Sheehan was, unanimously and with- out hesitation, recommended by our council for the Holy Order of Priesthood. We felt the fullest confidence that he would prove a pious and exemplary priest. Understanding that your Lordship proposes to advance Mr. Sheehan to Order I am very happy to give you this assurance as to our judgment regarding him while under our care. Begging your Lordship's blessing, I have the honour to be, Your most obdt. servant. C. W. Russell. In a brief note of a later date we find a record of the ordina- tion: "Ordained in Cork, feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph, 1875." That day was the third Sunday after Easter, April 18th. The ceremony was performed by Bishop Delany, the Ordinary of Cork, whose official at- testation follows: Hisce praesentibus fidem facimus nos, pontificalia exercentes, inter Missarum solemnia die i8vo Aprilis quae Dominica fuit, Rvd'o Dm'o Patritio Sheehan, Cloynensi, a proprio Episcopo 1 Begun under the direction of the English architect, Welby A. Pugin, by Bishop McCarthy's predecessor, Dr. Keane. Chap. IV] . PRIESTHOOD 47 rite dimisso, ordinem presbyteratus contulisse in nostra ecclesia pro-cathedrali. (sigill.) GUILLELMUS DELANY Epus Corcagiensis Datum Corcagiae die 28 aprilis 1875 Joannes Galvin Sec. There is no other account of the solemn occasion. In a diary of that time Father Sheehan mentions the fact that after the ordination he returned to the Vincentian Mon- astery to prepare for his first Mass. Of this latter function, too, apparently no record remains, though we can hardly imagine that the event failed to arouse the devout enthusiasm of the Mallow people among whom the young cleric had grown up. He gives a description in Luke Delmege of a first Mass in the little village of Lislanee, and it is not un- likely that the scene is reminiscent of his own happy es- pousals as a priest. There is no reference among the local records to a celebration in the parish church. This and some indications preserved in the Mallow convent of the Sisters of Mercy lead to the assumption that the newly ordained priest said his first Mass in their chapel. It was the community in which his two sisters had labored and died. APPOINTED TO THE ENGLISH MISSION Like Luke Delmege, Father Sheehan was destined for the English mission. Vocations to the priesthood were at the time more frequent in Ireland than were required for ministrations to her faithful people. Other English-speak- ing countries, on the contrary, felt the dearth of laborers in the vineyard of Christ. Hence it was that the Isle of Saints was still able, as of old, to send missionaries abroad to safeguard the faith of her children in exile. The Bishop of Plymouth, Dr. William Vaughan, had asked for pastoral aid from the Cloyne diocese, and Father Sheehan received his appointment to England. At first he was disturbed at the idea of being sent away from his native home; but soon he found his new field of 48 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I work congenial. He had gone out of the Seminary with an earnest purpose to do his best. What that best was we glean from some verses, a manuscript copy of which was found after his death in an old breviary used by him. The refrain is the present motto used at Stonyhurst College. 1 The years of my life before me lie — What shall my record be? Known or unknown? God knows, not I; Mine to do — "Quant Je Puis" God, Creator, my service claims — What shall my service be? Aim of my life, above all aims, To work for Him — "Quant Je Puis." Christ, Redeemer, bath bought me sure, His must I ever be. My heart's desire, while life shall endure, To render Him — "Quant Je Puis." Mary, Mother, thy servant I, By self oblation, free, A slave indeed, were I not to try To do for her — "Quant Je Puis." Faith of our Fathers, living still, Spite of block and gallows tree, Mine not to rest at ease until I have wrought for Him — "Quant Je Puis." Gospel tidings to tribes unknown, That dwell beyond the sea, Shall I not make their cause my own? Mine to give — "Quant Je Puis." 1 This motto, Quant Je Puis, is originally that of the Shireburn family and was taken over by Stonyhurst College, when, in 1794, Thomas Weld of Lul- worth, heir to the Shireburns of Stonyhurst, gave Stonyhurst Hall to the dis- persed College of St. Omer (Artois), founded by Robert Persons in 1592. Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 49 Poor of Christ, for help they cry, Hark to their piteous plea, For Christ's dear sake then shall not I Do for them — "Quant Je Puis." Children reft of their birthright, Their souls in jeopardy — Who shall come to their rescue if not I? Mine to aid — "Quant Je Puis." God, Christ, Mary, children, poor, Heathen beyond the sea, My heart's desire while life shall endure To do for them — " Quant Je Puis." For a few months the young Irish priest was kept at the cathedral, in Plymouth, possibly to test his ability and dis- position for pastoral work amid conditions quite strange to him. No doubt the old seaport town reminded him in some of its features of his native coast, for the bold rocky ridges of Plymouth Hoe stretching out into the harbor have in them suggestions of the romantic charms that cling to the shores of the Sister Island. But Plymouth did not permit him those protracted and solitary communings with nature which he had enjoyed during his walks in his student days along the rugged coast of Clare. He found abundant labor for souls, and frequently of an unpoetic character, waiting him on every side. Fortunately there were protecting and guiding influences round him. The Bishop was a man of wide experience, having ruled over his episcopal flock for upward of twenty years. Canon Herbert Woollett, the rector of the Cathedral, was a kindly priest of broad judgment and solid piety; and altogether the surroundings proved helpful to the young levite from Ireland. There is a tradition that Bishop Vaughan used to take a humorous delight at table in disputing Ireland's political claims. This was calculated to rouse the curate from Cloyne. The Vicar General had frequently to inter- vene in order to save the young Irishman's feelings. On 50 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I one occasion the Bishop referred to certain "Irish atrocities," when Canon Graham, one of the clerical members of the Bishop's household, good-naturedly came to Father Sheehan's relief by reading aloud from the morning paper a flagrant case of British wife-beating, which turned the conversa- tion to English atrocities. It fell to Father Sheehan's lot to open the course of ser- mons at the Cathedral in honor of Our Lady, on the first Sunday in May. His theme was the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a subject according to his heart, and one to which he appears to have done justice. Indeed the gift which made him an exceptionally impressive preacher in later years showed itself very early in his priestly career. At first, it appears, he was led to introduce into his preaching a certain form of controversy, which he be- lieved to be adapted to the English mind. He gives us a casual glimpse of this in Luke Delmege. Luke preached his first sermon very much to his own satis- faction. He had heard ever so many times that what was re- quired in England was a series of controversial and argumentative sermons that might be convincing rather than stimulating. Then one day he read in a Church newspaper that a certain Anglican divine had declared that Calvinism was the bane and curse of the Church of England. Here then was the enemy to be ex- orcised by a course of vigorous lectures on Grace. Here Luke was master. • The subject had formed part of the fourth year's curriculum in college and Luke had explored it to its deepest depth. He read up his "Notes," drafted fifteen pages of a dis- course, committed it to memory, and delivered it faultlessly, with just a delicious flavor of Southern brogue, which was capti- vating to the greater part of his audience, and delightful from its very quaintness and originality to the lesser and more select. Now Luke was a Molinist and he told his congregation so. He demolished Calvin and Knox first, and when he had stowed away all that was left of them, he told his wondering and admiring audience that the Thomist and Scotist positions had been carried by assault, and that the Molinist flag was now waving above the conquered garrisons. Many more things he told them as their wonder grew; and when Luke stepped down from the pulpit, Chap. IV] • PRIESTHOOD 5 i he felt that the conversion of England had now in reality begun. The opinion of the congregation varied. That very large section in every congregation to whom the delivery of a sermon is a gymnastic exercise, which has no reference to the audience other than as spectators, considered that it was unique, original, but pedantic. One or two young ladies declared that he had lovely eyes, and that when he got over the brusquerie of his Irish education, he would be positively charming. One old apple- woman challenged another: "What was it all about, Mary?" "Yerra how could I know? Shure it was all Latin. But I caught 'the grace of God' sometimes." "Well, the grace of God and a big loaf — shure that's all we want in this world." A rough man, in his factory dress, asked: — "Who is this young man?" "A new hand they have taken on at the works here," said his mate. The opinions of the clergy were not audibly expressed. Luke indeed heard one young man hint broadly at the "windmill," by which he understood his own gestures were meant. And another said something about a pumphandle. A young Irish confrere stole to Luke's room late that night and on being bidden to "come in" he threw his arms around Luke, thumped him on the back, ran up and down the room several times, and went through sundry Celtic gyrations, — then: "Luke, old man, I'll tell you, you've knocked them all into a cocked hat." The Vicar General said nothing for a few days; then: "Delmege, have you got any more of these sermons?" "Yes, sir; I have the series in 'Notes.'" "Burn them. — Take the Dublin Review to your room, volume by volume," he added, "and study it. You have got quite on the wrong tack." l If such was Father Sheehan's early experience, he quickly mended his methods, for we learn that ,his sermons in the Plymouth cathedral were much liked. The local papers pointedly mention a somewhat remarkable incident in 1 Luke Delmege, Chap. IX, "The Realms of Dis." 52 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I connection with his preaching. Among the notables resi- dent in the city at that time was the Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker, former Vicar of Morwenstow, well known in the world of letters, the writer of several volumes of poems and of some favorite hymns for Anglican church service. 1 He had retired from his living owing to impaired health, and was staying for rest in his native town of Plymouth. Whether it was that the restorations then going on at the Episco- palian church 2 prevented him from attending his own de- nominational service, or whether some more positive motive was the cause, it so happened that the Protestant divine, to- gether with his wife and three daughters, was present in the Catholic cathedral one Sunday evening when the young Irish curate preached on the "Sanctity of the Church." A few days later the minister, having succumbed to a severe attack of heart disease, called for the Catholic priest, and on his deathbed made his profession of faith. The news- papers promptly connected the conversion of the Anglican clergyman with his attendance at the cathedral the pre- vious Sunday, and for a time the eloquence of the young preacher became the subject of comment in the town. To this period must be referred also the first records of his experience in attending the sick and dying. The Naval Hospital was at Stonehouse, 3 near the outlet of the Tamar to the sea. The marines at this institution were cared for apparently in the perfunctory way of government estab- lishments at a time when infirmaries, like the South Devon Hospital, with its sanitary accommodations and staff of trained nurses, had not yet been built. The dying man lay in a little cot at the right hand side of the long empty ward. There was no other patient there. An at- tendant in brown cloth decorated with brass buttons, sat on the bed, coolly reading a newspaper. The hand of death was on the 1 The author of the popular poem, "And shall Trelawney die?" 2 St. Andrew's, a fine specimen of the fifteenth-century perpendicular style of architecture, was being renovated under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott. 3 In Luke Delmege, Chap. IX, he locates the incidents at a place called Stoke- port. Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 53 face of the poor consumptive. His eyes were glazed, and the gray shadow flitted up and down at each convulsive breath. "Is this the Catholic patient?" asked Luke anxiously. "Yaas, he be a Cawtholic, I understan'," said the man. "He is dying," said Luke who had never seen death before. "Dead in hexactly twanty minutes," said the man, taking out his watch and measuring the time. He restored the watch to his pocket and continued reading the paper. This awful indifference smote Luke to the heart. He knelt down, put his stole around his neck, tried to elicit an act indica- tive of conscious sorrow from the dying, failed, gave conditional absolution, administered Extreme Unction, and read the prayers for the dying. The attendant continued absorbed in his paper. Then Luke sat down by the bedside, watched the flitting changes on the face of the dying whilst murmuring a prayer. Exactly at the twenty minutes specified the man rose up, folded his paper, stretched himself and looked. A last spasm flashed across the gray, ashen face of the dying; the breathing stopped, fluttered, stopped again, came slowly and with painful effort, stopped again, then a long, deep breath, the eyes turned in their sockets. That soul had fled. A mucous foam instantly gathered on the blue lips and filled the entire mouth. "Did I tell 'ee? Twanty minutes to the second," said the man as we wiped the foam from the dead man's lips and lifted the coverlet, flinging it lightly over the face of the dead man. l It was his first lesson, not only in meeting the icy presence of death among the derelicts of a crowded industrial center, but of what at a later period Canon Sheehan regarded as the characteristic trait of the English people, their "in- dividualism," a disposition which one meets in all strata of British life, and according to which each man goes his own way, unheeding and indifferent — "a solitary in the awful desert of teeming human life." At the close of the summer vacation Father Sheehan was appointed curate to the church of the Sacred Heart at Exeter, better known as "St. Nicholas Priory." The pastor of the church was the Very Rev. George Hobson, later Provost of Plymouth, a saintly and learned priest, 1 Ibid. p. 113. 54 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I who on account of poor health had arranged for a tempo- rary leave of absence. After the young priest had been inaugurated in the details of his duties he was left as ad- ministrator in sole charge of the parish. The work, though not arduous, was sufficiently con- tinuous to engage all his time and energy. His solicitude for the sick, his assiduity in catechizing and preaching, and above all his care for the children of the school attached to the priory, for which work he developed later on a singular predilection, are remembered to this day by the people of Exeter. One of his successors, who went to the parish as curate in 191 2, tells us that "there is still a little group of old people who remember Father Sheehan quite well." The latter seems to have made pretty much the same impression upon all, namely that he was a man of more than ordinary piety; that he was wonderfully ob- servant, no detail being too small to escape his notice. "He was also generally recognized to have been, even in these early days, a splendid preacher, the chief character- istics of his sermons being directness and brevity. He appears to have had the happy knack of seizing upon some particular thought of religious duty. When he had ex- hibited it and presented it clearly to his audience, he made his bow and retired. They remembered in particular his first sermon. It was on charity; very short, hardly five minutes, it would seem* Yet close on forty years after- ward its general outline was almost verbally reproduced by an unlettered woman of eighty-eight, who had heard him deliver it." While the Exeter people remembered him vividly, he was equally clear in his recollections of them. A few months before his death he wrote a letter to the local priest in answer to some inquiries made of him. The accuracy of his recollections was astonishing. "He seemed to be able to give the very dimensions of the houses where he used to visit. He could sketch with marvelous fidelity to detail the little peculiarities and eccentricities of people, and forecast the characteristic traits of individuals, at that time mere boys and girls, who were now dignified Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD ss fathers and stately matrons. And he did this with a humor that disarmed all suspicion of criticism." He expressed his sense of deep indebtedness to those who obliged him to spend his years of priestly apprenticeship in England. "During my curacy at Exeter," he wrote, "I learned more theology than I acquired during my whole college career, and I gained more of practical experience than I have had since then, during all the long years of my ministry." He was happy by all accounts in his work, but the con- stant strain of his zealous activity began gradually to tell on his health. In July of 1876 he found himself obliged to take a brief vacation. He hoped that a visit to Lourdes would bring him fresh strength at the feet of Our Blessed Lady. It would be medicine alike for soul and body. We have his diary of that time. Although the journey occupied little more than the two weeks of the customary summer vacation allowed to missionary priests in England, it gives a glimpse of his habit of observing men and things, and in some sense contains the beginnings of his first book. Here are some of the details : — He leaves Exeter on Monday, July 10th. At Southhampton he takes the boat and gets into conversation with "curious old gentleman from Manchester, dealer in hides." The steward "is very decent," and so forth. Except for a little touch of mat de mer he gets to Havre without incident. There he tries his academical French on the first man he meets, but is not very well understood, and understands "the patois" still less. At Paris he asks for the Hotel d'dngleterre, but lands in the "English Hotel." He looks for the Abbe Choliac, to whom he had, it appears, an introduction, but after sundry failures is made to understand that the Abbe is en vacances. Then he takes refuge with the Passionist Fathers, who speak English. He finds the Paris cab drivers slow, or else he is in too great a hurry to get to the train for fear of missing it. — Plus vite, plus vite, vous etes tres tard. — He gives the driver two francs for having whipped up his horse, and finds that he has missed his train 56 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I after all. A French priest whom he accosts with Je suis un pretre Catholique etranger answers somewhat uncivilly: Et moiy je suis un pretre Catholique, and the Irish curate looks significantly at his companion, who proves to be an English priest "in mufti." The young pilgrim admires Pau, which he thinks is like Torquay. He is enchanted with the beauty of the Pyrenees and of Lourdes. At the sight of the grotto he exclaims: Mere de Dieu, comme je vous aime, et votre Fils! In Lourdes he meets with the usual experiences of the priest pilgrim. He is delighted by the piety of the people; but there are a few shadows. One day a priest serves his Mass, and he is edified. The next day a boy serves, and we read in the notes: "How I would wring the young fellow's ears if I had him in Exeter!" He records what people eat, as well as his own modest fare. "Returned and break- fasted on coffee and omelette. French priest breakfast- ing on salmon and claret." There are quite a number of soggarths from Ireland, some of whom he knows distantly, but they are all older than he. He gets into conversation with a few of them, and they discuss the defects of the Church in Ireland — the lack of piety, the deficiencies of Maynooth education, the characteristics of some of the bishops (Bishop Croke gets a great eulogy), the need of Irish publications. Preaching in Ireland and England is compared, with due reference to the French eloquence they had heard at the grotto. Someone tells the story of a French bishop who invariably "promised his curates a bottle of wine if they succeeded in preaching only fifteen minutes." Finally they all discuss sundry bottles of Bor- deaux in one of the older priest's rooms. But the things that remained in Father Sheehan's mem- ory longest were certain details he heard about former Maynooth students, some of them his own classmates, of whom he had lost sight for a time while in England. One of them had been expelled and gone to America. Another whom he had known long ago had been kept back from ordination at the very end of his course. He had been Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 57 "first of first" in the logic year and then he had done noth- ing until he took second premium in fourth year divinity. He was married now, badly circumstanced, etc. — Such is the account of his momentary impressions and experi- ences, of which he weaves occasional strands into his books later on. The visit to Lourdes seems to have improved his physical condition. His mental impressions of what he saw and heard were a mixture of good and evil. He found much piety and a deep faith, such as he had hardly expected outside Ireland. But then, too, he met the old disappoint- ments where he had looked for consistency. Thus at the bookstands in Lourdes he discovered that, alongside the devotional books and guides which the pilgrims were ex- pected to purchase, by far the largest number of works on sale were those of Dumas and Georges Sand. What the older priests had said about piety in Ireland and in France was not what he should have liked to think. An American from Chicago, who had been cured at Lourdes, two years before, of a serious disease, and who had returned to give thanks to Our Blessed Lady, spoke of France as a place of great iniquity. The American was a publican himself, but he declared that he had found Paris a "hell on earth." What Father Sheehan had heard about some of his class fellows at Maynooth likewise made him sad. On the other hand he had found much good. He felt satisfied that he had profited. "Man to be wise must study the vices and virtues of which human nature is capable, first in himself, and then in all good faith in others." He was sure that he had a right standard to judge by and compare things as to their real value. "The model of all human and Divine perfection was the God-man who stood on Judean soil 1900 years ago, and left His life and His utterances as the highest standard to which the world could attain. By that Life all mental and moral perfection must be judged. It is the criterion of all that is holy and sacred. It is the touchstone of all sterling and unalloyed greatness." On his way back from Lourdes he stops at Paris. There 58 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I he meets some friends, says Mass at the Convent of the "Poor Servants of the Mother of God," who have houses also in Dublin and Cork. He has a fainting spell while making his thanksgiving. Afterward he visits the Senate chamber where he sees the great Mgr. Dupanloup. The principal incident is his visit to the Irish College in the Rue des Irlandais, of which the Vincentian Father Thomas McNamara was then rector. Father Thomas Murphy, the administrator, receives him very kindly and conducts him, in company with Fathers Casy and Power, through the college, giving some interesting accounts of the old "Lom- bard Foundation" and of the remarkable men who had studied in the college during the past two centuries. Among them were three Bishops of Cloyne — McKenna, Cop- pinger, and Keane. 1 Father Murphy could tell him much about the subject, for he had made special studies in the old archives, and had written a sketch of the institution some years before for the Irish Ecclesiastical Record (1866). On his way to his hotel Father Sheehan buys a French book, he Genie du Catholicisme, for a franc, probably because it reminded him of Chateaubriand's work. He also in- vests two pounds in a new cassock. Next day at noon he takes the train for Havre, where he arrives in time to book on the Alice for Southampton. He reaches dock at six-thirty in the morning, and arrives at Exeter in the evening. The following autumn and winter until February Father Sheehan remained at the "Priory." It is not clear that he did any writing here, but he appears to have received some impulses in this direction from the Canon, while the latter was still residing there, if not from the traditions of the place itself. "Priest Hobson" was much respected in Exeter, not merely for his gentle urbanity but also for his charity to the poor of the town irrespective of creed or nationality. He had studied at Clifton and Ushaw, had traveled con- siderably, was a man of wide reading. His reputation was perhaps enhanced also by the glamor of learning that at- 1 The Irish College in Paris from 1578 to 1901. By Rev. Patrick Boyle, CM., 190 1. Document XIV. Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 59 tached to one of his predecessors, Dr. Oliver. The latter was a noted antiquarian, who had been in charge of the parish of St. Nicholas Priory (an old Jesuit mission) for forty-four years, had written a history of Exeter and of the ecclesiastical antiquities of the district (Devon), and had established a name for solid scholarship. From him the old aristocratic society of the town, distinguished by its quiet air of prosperity, had learned to respect the Catholic priesthood; for he had forced upon their remembrance the fact that the glories of the old St. Peter's Cathedral with its wonderful choir screens, misereres, reredos, minstrel gallery, even to its cinquecento front, were still asserting their ancient Roman Catholic proprietorship, despite the present guardian- ship which the Church of England exercised over the edifice. For Father Sheehan, whose mind was just opening to the new impressions from the surroundings in which he found himself, these things had a great attraction. His position as representing Canon Hobson during the latter's absence had naturally drawn him into circles that had a refining as well as an enlightening arid informing influence on his receptive mind. He tells us in Luke Delmege what his estimate of this influence was: Here invariably once a week, sometimes twice or thrice a week, Luke had the inestimable privilege of meeting a small, select coterie of esoterics, representative of every branch of literature, science and art, and even divinity. For here came many soft- mannered, polite, well-read Anglican clergymen, who stepped over from their snug, if dingy, houses in the Cathedral close, and brought with them an atmosphere of learning and refinement and gentle courtesy, which had a perceptible effect on the character and manner of this young Hibernian. And here, mostly on Wednes- day evenings, were gathered celebrities who slipped down from London by an afternoon train and went back at midnight. Luke began to learn that there were in the world a few who might be masters and teachers forever to a "First of First," and he grew humble . . . and his quarter's salary was spent long before he had received it in buying books, the very names of which he had never heard before. And with his plastic Irish nature he had begun to fit in and adapt himself to these new environments. 60 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I In this way the susceptible Irish curate learned many- things of which he had not dreamed amid his wildest am- bitions in college. His opinion of Englishmen, their worth and their character, began to alter gradually. And here we trace the beginnings of that remarkable characteristic in his writings, — the tendency to compare the two races, the Irish and the English. He knew that in his present position he could learn much by observation, as one necessarily does who travels with an open mind. As for the English clergy, his idea at this time seems to have been that they were mostly converts; that whilst they had a deep respect for the apostolic succession, a detailed knowledge of rubrics, especially where ecclesiastical vestments and candles were concerned, they were deficient in the knowledge of the essentials of religion. As for himself he remembered the important fact that he had sat under O'Kane — the O'Kane "on the Rubrics" — and had been obliged to pore over "Murray on the Church," of which the Anglican divines of course knew nothing; nor had they taken draughts of special learning from Crolly, "the tub of theology," not to speak of the scholastic sips that had refreshed his class hours. Here he was, then, ready to enlighten others, with just, perhaps, the faintest misgiving that he might be over- estimating his superiority. The three men who had thus far directed him by kindly advice, given chiefly in an obiter manner, but with a de- cided intonation, such as had left its mark on his memory, were all men of considerable experience — Canons. One of them had impressed upon him the necessity of being "re- spectable" and the importance of observing episcopal statutes. We get a glimpse of this in Father Sheehan's description of the newly ordained priest who had called on his pastor for the purpose of asking leave to say his first Mass under the paternal roof: "Impossible, quite impos- sible, I assure you, my — ah — dear Mr. Delmege. There is an episcopal regulation forbidding it, but we must not discuss the subject." Then, on the young priest's rising to go, the Canon had left this piece of advice with him: Chap. IV ] PRIESTHOOD 61 "You are very young ... If you continue your studies, as every young student should, and try to acquire ease and proper deportment of manner, and if your life is otherwise — ah, correct and respectable, you may in the course of years attain to the honors and — emoluments of the min- istry. You may even in your old age — that is, supposing an irreproachable and respectable career — you may even attain to — ah, the dignity of being incorporated into the — ah, Chapter of your native diocese." That was to be the goal toward which he should aim if he would be successful in his own country — dear, old Ireland. He should aim at being "respectable." But now he was in England. At Plymouth he had met another Canon, a kindly man who had told him to burn his "notes" if they caused him to preach such sermons as the one he delivered in the Cathedral shortly after his arrival. Then he had acted as master of ceremonies and, in helping the Bishop to vest, had found himself deranging the episco- pal cappa magna, that mysteriously complicated garment which someone styles the "most beautiful of all the beau- tiful vestments with which Mother Church adorns her children." 1 By that lapse he had discredited "O'Kane on the Rubrics"; and it left him with a feeling of guilt, but also of resentment. When, a few weeks later, he re- ceived the order removing him from the Cathedral he had a suspicion that the English people, clergy, Bishop and all, were "conceited and formal as well as individualistic." He felt that he had been disappointed even in the best of them. And next he had come to Exeter. It was a place much less noisy than Plymouth. There were no mounted cannon on ramparts, no ill-smelling quarters where drunken soldiers or sailors might be seen carousing, no excited fishwomen discoursing in the market-place, no idle boatmen lounging at the corners. He missed the smoke of ship funnel and factory which had darkened the noonday at the seacoast. Here all was quiet and dignified and lightsome. But under it he recognized the typical smooth English mechanism, 1 Luke Delmege, Chap. XV, " Aylesburgh." 62 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I the same regularity and relentless pressure, even in this sleepy "cathedral town" with its manifold medieval tradi- tions carved in the solid stone, for a perpetual remem- brance. If he gained culture, he learned other things too. While he took his pace from the measured movements round him, a sudden jar would occasionally rouse his sensitive nerves with an uncomfortable twang. The rhythmic voice of the Canon would remind him that there was something amiss; that time and order were different things in England and Ireland. "Quick, quick, Father Sheehan, you are two minutes late this morning. These people won't wait, you know." He felt that his pastor was right; but he could not help thinking, "God be with old Ireland, where the neighbors meet leisurely for a seanachus on Sunday morning, and sit on the tombstones, and talk of old times. And no one minds the priest being half an hour late. Nor does he; for he salutes them all affably as he passes into the sacristy, and they say, 'God bless your Reverence." Or again the faultless little pastor would exclaim: "Look here, look here, Father, now look at that corporal. There you have not observed the folds and it must all be made up again"; or, "Could you manage to modulate your voice a little? This is not the cathedral, and some of those ladies are nervous. I saw Mrs. S start and look pained while you were preaching yesterday. It was like an electric shock." "God be with old Ireland," thought our young curate, "where the people's nerves are all right, and where they measure your preaching powers by the volume of sound you can emit." There were similar encounters in the field of theology, not merely pastoral but higher dogma, from which the youthful Irish champion came forth chastened and humbled; and more so when, quite accidentally, he discovered that the gentle Canon, his pastor, was "actually the author of certain remarkable philosophical papers in the Dublin Review, and that his opinions" (which Luke had tried to Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 63 controvert on the authority of his "notes") "were quoted in the leading Continental Reviews." Thus, whilst he found himself gradually modifying his opinions of things, did he compare the impressions which he received. He endeavored to select what was best for his own mental and moral improvement. He knew that everywhere God's children were working out the eternal destinies with the inherited instruments at their disposal. He began to realize that men were much like the plant creation round them. There were great differences of temper, based on climate, on local surroundings, and on the opportunities that each one received in the matter of light and culture. In some parts the sun of faith and educa- tion had been shining steadily for a long while, whereas in other parts it hardly penetrated the eternal shadows. Yet, as in the vegetable kingdom, so in the social world, all these varieties not only were of God's ordering, but they actually contributed to the improvement of each other and of the whole. All this Father Sheehan was beginning to see, and he labored hard to assimilate what he found ex- cellent in his present surroundings. Whatever his riper judgments did for him in subsequent years, he never ceased to regard his connection with the English mission as the most fruitful, if not the happiest, period of his life as a priest. He learned and unlearned many things, and the lessons remained indelibly fixed in his soul. Thus he demonstrated in his own career what he held to be a truism, namely that "it is only in middle life we begin to take a just view of human things." Meanwhile the knowledge which he acquired gave him a sense of safety and a steady reliance on fundamental principles. There are, as he expresses it, "two certainties in the midst of the mysteries and doubts that beset our lives. One is the certainty of faith, that is, the teaching of a divinely appointed Church. The other is the certainty of action, that is, the duty nearest to hand. All speculations, doubts, surmises, and perplexities are solved by action — the performance of the duty that calls us for the moment." 64 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I For the rest, he was still, in some respects at least, an un- practical idealist. Thus he thought, as he said, that "the unnatural delay in the conversion of England was primarily due to certain narrow, conservative, and petty views which will never allow the appeal, successfully, to the broad human spirit of the age." He believed in the Zeitgeist, which he mistook for progress. All in all he was quite happy because he had made up his mind to work. He remembered what he had put down in his notes at Maynooth, not from the professor of theology but from Carlyle's Past and Present, that "all work, even cotton spinning, is noble. Labor is life: from the inmost heart of the worker rises his God-given force, the sacred, celestial life-essence, breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart he awakens to all nobleness, to all knowledge, self-knowledge and much else, so soon as work fitly begins." "Properly thou hast no other knowledge but what thou hast got by working." And again, "Hast thou valued patience, courage, perseverance, openness to light, readiness to own thyself mistaken, to do better next time? All these, all virtues, in wrestling with the dim brute powers of fact, in ordering of thy fellows in such wrestle, there, and elsewhere not at all, thou wilt continually learn." This philosophy, for the time being, satisfied his aspira- tions. In his present surroundings he had everything that his intellect and taste could require. "He had leisure for thought in the intervals of almost unremitting work; or rather this ceaseless work supplied material for thought, which again interacted and created its own outcome in ceaseless work." To understand how continually the Catholic clergyman's time was occupied in the little mission of Exeter, it is well to recall that Canon Hobson, and probably his predeces- sors, had found it prudent, if not absolutely necessary, to associate themselves with the various philanthropic and civic enterprises of the Exeter community. These were in the hands of numerous associations. There was a society Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 65 for the rescue of discharged prisoners, a society for the supression of public vice, a society for the housing of the poor, a society for the purification of the stage. Besides these, there were the confraternities of the parish, the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul, literary societies, library committees, and so forth, in all of which organizations the priest was supposed to be interested for the benefit and in- struction of his flock, as well as for the opportunities they gave him to defend and explain the Catholic faith to out- siders. Now in the absence, for a considerable time, of the regular pastor, these duties, or some of them at least, de- volved upon the curate as the only representative of the Catholic clergy in the place. Indeed Canon Hobson was anxious that it should be so. He felt it to be a serious duty, though he might make it the subject of mild jest, as did Luke's old rector when he said: "I don't see your name, Father Delmege, on the committee for making statesmen truthful and introducing the Seventh Command- ment on the stock exchange." There was plenty then to keep him busy during the hours available for work. In the intervals Father Sheehan worked at his sermons and addresses. It was important that he should not dis- appoint the Vicar, nor the people who were looking to him for enlightenment and guidance. Though he took regular outings into the country, in order to preserve his health, which, he had been warned by repeated collapses, was not very robust, he generally remained at his desk some hours in the forenoon. He carefully prepared, by writing and committing faithfully to memory, what he had to say in public. On this practice he comments in Luke Delmege: "In after years he wondered at himself, but admitted that he dared not do otherwise. He never knew who might be listening to him in this strange land where every one is so interested in religion because every man is his own pope; and so uninterested, because he cares so little what all the other popes, even the Archbishop of Canterbury, may hold or teach." x At any rate the discipline was good for him. 1 hoc. Clt. 66 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I It gave him that facility in expression which became one of the most striking of his acquirements. The net result of his activity was that a great number of persons habitually came to him for information on re- ligious subjects. He instructed many who professed to become converts — not a few of them were received into the Church; but he admits that of his early converts only half the number remained faithful to their pledges as Catholics. He also got into some controversies. On one occasion the editor of a local paper failed to print the young curate's elaborate protest against a public insult offered to "the Romish clergy" by a Protestant minister. When he found that his eloquent refutations from the Fathers and great theologians had gone into the editorial waste paper basket he was naturally indignant. "Fair play!" he makes Luke say, "British fair play! Pshaw, they are the greatest hum- bugs and hypocrites on the face of the earth. Here is an open attack, uncalled for, without pretense of reason or exciting cause. Here is a reply fair, temperate, judicious, and lo, it is suppressed! It is the old story; they talk of truth when they lie. They talk of religion when they blaspheme. They talk of humanity when they rob and plunder and kill." x Sometimes in the midst of his zealous tirades he discovered that his rector took a different view of such matters, and he was gradually forced to realize that the old man, with his keen insight into human nature, his large-minded tol- erance, his deep and devout faith, was right, and he with his Irish impetuosity was wrong. In truth the Anglo- Saxon character and temperament were a constant enigma to him. At one time it seemed to him that Englishmen, with their intellectual, moral, and social advantages, should be easily gathered into the fold of the true Church. They were quiet, straightforward, dignified; not at once emo- tional and apathetic, like his own countrymen. Ireland of 1 Luke Delmege, Chap. XIII, "Racial Characteristics." See also Chap. XX, "Eclectic Catholicism," p. 255. Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 67 course had inherited the Faith, though her children, he thought, kept it without improving their opportunities; or perhaps they had no opportunities and were satisfied to let things go on in the old groove. But England, with its vitality, with its energies forever reaching out for and ap- pealing in behalf of the higher things; with its genius for organizing, its benevolent supervision, its liberal philan- thropy, its missionary associations, its systems of legisla- tion radiating into every avenue of the commonwealth without trespassing on the liberty of the individual; — how was it that the claims of the Catholic Church, so absolutely irrefragable and invincible, could escape the thoughtful consideration of such a people and fail to attract them power- fully ? It must be that something is wrong with the Catholic method. At other times the pendulum would swing in the oppo- site direction. He would read in the morning paper a statement from a well-known London divine scoring the as- sumptions of the " Italian mission," its insolence in attempt- ing to obtain a foothold in England in order to corrupt the truth, "which the Church of England had kept uncontami- nated by superstition from the days of Augustine until now." The consistency and comprehensiveness of the Anglican Church were set forth, showing how, "despite papal abuses and Romish incursions," it had retained "its beautiful ritual in apostolic simplicity." Charges of this kind would stir the blood of the young Irish curate. Throw- ing down the paper, he would exclaim: "My God, what liars these Britishers are! They are the greatest hypocrites in the world. They are too contemptuous to stoop to lie in private life. They care too little about you to con- descend to lie. But in politics, commerce, religion — when- ever a point has to be gained, they will lie like Satan." The next day he would come across some example of heroic abnegation and sacrifice where he least expected it in a recent English convert; it would reverse all his former judgments about the English. The whole matter was puzzling to a man who looked for consistency, surely. As 68 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I he was an eager reader he became gradually familiar with new sources of information. Some of these in Catholic literature, of a distinctly apologetic nature, he mastered very carefully. His admiration for Mill and Heine and Emerson gave way in time to an appreciation of writers less pre- tentious perhaps but more solidly intellectual. And this, too, it would appear, he owed to the discreet and disciplin- ing guidance of the old Canon. "'That is a valuable and interesting book,' the latter would say, pushing over a volume by some great Catholic author, to Luke; for he was a member of St. Anselm's Society, and this was one of the societies of which Luke was not a member. 'Take it to your room and read it at your leisure." The curate did not always, perhaps, promptly respond to these over- tures to keep him on the right track. He had the notion that "all the poetry of the world is in the Catholic Church; and all the literature of the world outside of it." He would say, meaning the remark to be pregnant and suggestive, that he thought "the whole of our philosophy consists of junks of indigestible propositions, garnished with syllo- gisms of froth." These were momentary convictions which he disowned when in time he began to realize that, while books had been his professors for years, men were becoming his teachers now. Another thing Father Sheehan learned at Exeter was to look personally to the honor of the Divine Tabernacle. Learned and cultured as was his parish priest, he did not disdain to attend to the little things that concerned the sanctuary. " Come," the older priest would say on a Sunday afternoon, "spare me a half hour and help me at the altar." He took a special pride in decorating the altar for Bene- diction on Sunday evenings and on other festive occasions. It was a labor of love. His assistant would often wonder. "I fear the wonder was slightly contemptuous. To see this excellent old man, Doctor of Divinity, Dublin Re- viewer, correspondent with French and Italian philoso- phers, studiously arranging candles and flowers, was a something far beyond Luke's comprehension." It is pos- Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 69 sible that in after years when larger experiences had opened his eyes widely, he "dropped some bitter tears over the recollections of his manner at times toward the venerable pastor, when in reply to some invitation to help, the younger man had said: 'Impossible, sir, I really have some- thing serious to do. Can't you let the ladies or the sacristan attend to these things?' Of course he did not neglect his own countrymen, and the poor in particular. There was, as there is still, a colony of Irish and Italian exiles in Exeter. Their disposition, so very different from the Englishman's, whose habits of thrift and cleanliness stand in marked contrast with the easy- going ways of the immigrants, sometimes caused friction, which Father Sheehan was called on to temper. To him the difference between the quiet, seemingly indifferent, and apathetic manner of the Britisher, and the picturesque and enthusiastic fervor of the Irish and of the Southern races, was a study. He sums up their controversies in a graphic manner thus: To his inquiry: — "Who lives here?" "A family of Hirish peddlers, sa, and a family of Hitalian horgan grinders. They are very huntidy, sa, in their 'abits." "Thim English, yer reverence, they're haythens. They don't go to church, mass, or meeting. They think of nothing but what they eat and drink." * He had some experiences, too, of which he makes record, in the local institutions, with the convicts in Dartmoor prison and the inmates of the Lunatic Asylum; likewise in some little out missions to which he was called from time to time as the needs of the neighborhood prompted. The following episode, taken from the Graves at Kilmorna, is literally true and serves as an illustration of the kind of work which Father Sheehan did in the convict Prison at Dartmoor. In the summer of 1876 a young Irish priest, lent to the Diocese of Plymouth, and just then officiating at Exeter, was ordered to 1 Luke Delmege, Chap. XXI, "The Submerged Tenth." 70 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I proceed to Dartmoor and take up the Sunday duty of the prison chaplain "who was absent on leave." There was to be a service in the morning and another in the evening. Father Sheehan describes his arrival at the place after a drive in the governor's trap from the Tavistock station. His servant at tea was a convict serving his last term. There was but little conversation, and that of a rather gruesome kind. Then the priest retired, though not before having written out the headings of the morning's discourse. The next morning he was conducted to the Lodge, got a heavy bunch of keys from the porter, with strict injunctions that on no account was he to part with them even for a moment, shown how to lock and unlock the heavy iron gates by shooting the bolt twice each way, and again warned that the keys were not for a moment to leave his possession. The chapel bell was pealing out its dismal notes, as he crossed two large yards and entered the prison precincts. Two convicts were just entering the chapel. They were his acolytes. The prisoners filed in . . . Then there was a pause, and the priest, feeling the heavy keys galling his leg, took them out and placed them on the table. He was instantly tapped on the shoulder by the warder who stood by. "You must not leave them off your person, sir, even for a moment." The priest shivered, and just then the heavy clank, clank of chains was heard; and at a quick pace twenty or more convicts, dressed in hideous yellow, were marched in. Each of these was fettered by long rods, ankle to wrist. 1 Whilst the priest, robed in his vestments, was watching the line of prisoners as they filed past him, his attention was arrested by one, with a strong, albeit saddened, face, who was a cripple, lacking his right arm. Suddenly Father Sheehan recognized him. It was Michael Davitt, the political convict, whose history even at that period had thrilled every loyal Irishman's heart with pride in the young patriot's courage. For this was he who, when his people had been evicted from their home, had as a lad of ten sought 1 The Graves at Kilmorna, Chap. XXVII, p. 186. Chap. IV] PRIESTHOOD 71 to earn the daily bread for the family, and in the effort had lost his arm. Later on, at the age of twenty-one, he had joined the Fenians. Within a few weeks he was tried, found guilty of felony, and condemned to penal servitude for fifteen years. Father Sheehan felt his sympathy go out to the youthful hero; but was told that he would not be permitted to speak to him alone. The prisoners might go to confession to their regular chaplain; but that would be at Easter. The Mass began, and what Father Sheehan saw before him froze him, as he says, with terror. The prisoners occupied long forms, and at the end of every two of these, seated on a raised stool, back to the altar and facing the prisoners, was a warder, his right hand on his right knee, holding a revolver. It was horrible in God's own house and in the presence of the Prince of Peace. He got through the Mass as well as he could, preached his little homily 1 from the pulpit of Portland stone — which had been made by the Fenian prisoners — and escaped to the sacristy, carrying with him the doleful image of that scene, and yet "with such music ringing in his ears as he had never heard before." A letter from the prisoner explains this reference to the music. Sunday morning is verily a Sabbath to me. The Mass with all its tender associations, the sermon . . . but above all the music send me on the wings of imagination half way towards heaven ... at Benediction all the prisoners, myself among the number, join in singing the "O Salutaris" and the Litany. There I invariably break down. To hear three hundred of us poor devils appealing to the "Morning Star, the Health of the weak, the Refuge of Sinners," is heartbreaking. And it is nearly always the old litany we used to sing at home when during the May evenings the candles were lighted before Our Lady's statue . . . I have applied to be allowed to serve Mass, as I did of old at home; but as yet I have not had my request. 1 The sermon which Father Sheehan preached on this his first visit to the prison was on the Last Judgment. It was written out in full, as appears from MS. left by him and marked "preached in the Prison at Dartmoor, 1876." 72 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I But the time came when Father Sheehan was to return to his native land, though the bonds he had forged in his new field of labor were growing stronger from day to day. Perhaps it was altogether providential that he did not re- main longer in England, for the transformation might have eliminated from his conscious sympathies that ardor for the welfare of his own people which was to become a passion with him not many years later. BACK IN IRELAND 1877-1881 FATHER SHEEHAN had acquitted himself with credit of his duties as administrator of the Exeter parish. He was liked by the people, especially by the poor and the children. The non-Catholic element recognized his ability and his aesthetic sense in public matters whereby he approved the better and higher things. Those who had heard him preach were attracted by the evident sincerity of his pointed and withal polished elo- quence. People of a religious turn commended his conduct, for they saw he was a priest who regulated his life not merely according to the obligations imposed by conventional rule, but by the more exalted standard of the evangelical counsels. If there were any who were fastidious or intolerant of his Celtic ways, their censure remained unheeded amid the common verdict that the young priest had at all times shown his readiness to cooperate with the best element in the city for the moral and civic betterment of the community. His Bishop, however, had need of him at home. That Father Sheehan was pleased at the thought of getting back to Ireland would appear from a note addressed to Father Edmund Morton, who had given him the unofficial news of his appointment as curate in his native town, Mallow. Catholic Church, Exeter. Tuesday. My dear Fr. Morton, Your letter of yesterday was a surprise and a pleasure to me. It seems too good to be true. I am thinking of going over on Friday or Saturday, but I have not yet heard from the Bishop . . . 73 74 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I The new priest comes here to-day, and I leave on Thursday after inducting him. What a lot of things I have to say. Goodbye till we meet. Patrick A. Sheehan. Thus far he had left himself unreservedly in the hands of his superior, who was sure to have at heart the welfare of his ward. But now there arose some misgivings as to his future. The thought that he would be able to make use of the experiences acquired on the English mission, for the benefit of his own people in Ireland, no doubt appealed to his zeal. On the other hand, his going back to Ireland seemed like beginning the work of self-improvement and adjustment all over again. A curacy in the country offered but little room for the display of talent or for originality and organization. He would simply have to do as others had done before him, or as his pastor bade him. The situation recalls a passage in one of his novels. 1 "Why, man," said the young priest, "if I were to return now I should have to commence all over again." "How is that?" "You see everything in Ireland is fixed in a cast-iron mould. They don't understand change which is progress. Everything is judged by age. You buy a bottle of wine — the first question is: How old is it? You buy a horse: How old? Everything is old and feeble and decrepit; and no matter how distinguished a man may be in England or America, you sink down to a cipher the moment you touch the Irish shore; and a Newman or a Lacordaire takes his place at the end of the queue. No one asks: What can you do? or What have you done? But, How old are you? How long have you been on the mission? Result: After a few spasmodic efforts, which become convulsive, you sink into a lethargy, from which there is no awakening. You become aged, not by years, but by despair." Such would seemingly be the condition awaiting him at home, whereas in England there was a better prospect for him. One of his ideal pictures was that of a chaplain's 1 Luke Delmege, Chap. XXII, "Euthanasia." Chap. V] BACK IN IRELAND 75 quarters in an English mansion at a seaside town, with "books and pen and paper, crowds of converts, a quarterly article in the Dublin Review, select society, an occasional run to the city or to Exeter to preach a great sermon, cor- respondence with the world's literati; then ecclesiastical honors, and beautiful dignified old age." That was not to be, however. He was to go back to the Irish mission and work among his own people. In due time he arrived in Dublin. Father Burton, an old classmate of his, and at this time assigned to Fermoy, writes: "I have a distinct recollection of our meeting at Fitzpatrick's Hotel, where we both put up for a time. Be- fore returning to Mallow we arranged to visit friends in the neighborhood of Kanturk, and thither we drove on an outside car the following day — prorsus jucunde diem protraximus Mam." Another encounter with one of his countrymen immediately upon his arrival is inimitably de- scribed by Father Sheehan in a sort of parody under the title of "Altruism." On repairing, hungry and tired, to the lavatory of the hotel, he is accosted by a lodger who is making his ablutions somewhat demonstratively. To catch the full humor of the situation it must be remembered that Father Sheehan had, during his sojourn abroad, adopted the current pronunciation of English, discarding the rich brogue of his mother tongue, so welcome to the Irish ear. This un-Irish mode of speech he consistently retained through the remainder of his life. The Irishman addresses our young priest from England: "Nice day, sir?" "Yes, rather cold for October." "Oh, I perceive you are from across the Channel. I have the greatest esteem for the English character, sir. I always say we have a great deal to learn from our neighbors. Coming to see Ireland, sir? You will be delighted and disappointed. Going south to Killarney of course?" "Yes, I am going south," said Luke, on whom the familiarity grated. "I am an Irish priest." "Oh. I beg your reverence's pardon," said the other, dropping 76 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I at once into the familiar brogue. "Begor, now, we don't know our priests from the parsons. They dress all alike." "An Irishman always distinguishes," said Luke. "To be sure. To be sure. — Now whenever I'm in England, I always go to Sandringham. I have a standing invitation from the Prince of Wales to stay with him whenever I am in England. 'Wire me, Fitzgerald,' he says, 'and I shall have my carriage waiting for you. No ceremony. One good turn deserves another.' — Are you lunching here, your reverence? As good as you can get in the city. But ask for the undercut of the sirloin. Say Fitzgerald recommended it." Later on we have the following scene in the dining room. "What can I have for luncheon?" he asked the waiter. The waiter jerked the napkin over his left shoulder, placed his two hands on the table and asked confidentially: — "Well now, and what would your reverence like? I suppose ye' re travelling for the good of yer health and ye want somethin' good?" "Quite so. Then let me have a cut of roast beef — the under- cut, you know." "Begor, we're just out o' that. There was a party of gintle- min come in a few minits ago; and divil a bit but the bone they left." "Well, let me see. Have you roast mutton or a fowl?" "Bedad we had yesterday. But this , is the day for the roast beef." "I see. Well look here. I am in a hurry to catch a train. Let me have a chop." "The very thing. While ye'd be saying thrapsticks. Wan or two?" "Two. And some vegetables." "And what will ye dhrink?" "Water." The waiter straightened himself, rubbed his chin, and stared at Luke meditatively. Then he went to the kitchen. When the rest of the course had been served Luke handed him a sovereign. He almost fainted. When he had recovered he went over to the window, Luke calmly watching him, and held the sovereign up to the light. Then he glanced at Luke suspiciously. A second Chap. V] BACK IN IRELAND 77 time he examined the coin, and rang it on the table. Then he bit it and rang it again. Finally he vanished into the kitchen. "You seemed to have doubts about the sovereign?" said Luke when he emerged with the change. "Is it me, yer reverence? Divil a doubt! Doubt a priest indeed! No, yer reverence, I am a poor man, but I knows me religion." "Then why did you ring it, and bite it, and examine it?" "Is it me, yer reverence? Oh no, God forbid that I should forget mesel in the presence of a priest." "But I saw you do it," said Luke, who was fully determined to let no such insincerity pass unreproved. "Ah sure that's a way I have," said the waiter. "They thry to break me of it, but they can't. I got it from me poor father — may the Lord have mercy on his sowl." v All this was very unlike what the homecoming priest had but recently met in England, where everything seemed so straight and deliberate and poised and polished and mechanical. His old familiars noted the change in him. "Where did he get that imperial accint?" — "And his way so stiff and solemn and grand?" — "I wonder if the poor will like him," a nun had said. "They will, Sister, dear, as soon as he gets his bearings and they find him out; for he has the Irish priestly heart underneath all that grand English air which, if it don't wear off, will not prevent the inner wheels of his God-given faith from moving in the regular way of their natural mechanism." Bishop John McCarthy, having watched over the young priest from his infancy, as a true godfather, felt probably an intelligent sympathy with his ideals, and accordingly with the disappointments which must await Father Sheehan in Ireland if he applied himself with anything like the apostolic zeal that was in him. It may then have been part of the Bishop's pastoral wisdom to send the young priest to his native town of Mallow, where any accidental excess of apostolic ardor in 1 Ibid., Chap. XXV, "Altruism," p. 325. 78 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I the attempt at molding people and circumstances upon a foreign pattern would meet with the kindly indulgence and good-natured humor begotten of old associations. If such was the case, we shall see that it took Father Sheehan some time before he could enter into the benevolent designs of his superior and friend. He retained the idea of improving the Irish people after the model he had learnt to admire in England. And if in the attempt he saw at times the humor- ous side of an incongruous situation, he did not give up at once the belief that he was destined to succeed. Eventually he found the proper mean. But it was not until he had reached mature age that he realized how hard it is to carve human nature into perfect lines, and that the more practical plan is to let it grow under the gentle pressure of prayerful direction. Ultimately he adapted himself and his measures so as to reach the mind and heart of those whom he in- tended to improve and elevate. It looked for many a year like failure; but he succeeded, though without the glamor that would have made his triumph jubilant in earlier days. In some ways it was an advantage that he was to be still dependent and under direction. Whatever schemes of re- form on the model of his English experiences he might pro- ject, he should have to consult not merely opportunities but also the views and wishes of his pastor. The spiritual interests of Mallow at this time were in the keeping of the venerable Archdeacon O'Regan. He had been Vicar Forane and Parish Priest of Kanturk, and was now head of the Diocesan Chapter of Cloyne, and Vicar General. There were three curates. Father Sheehan had shown no disappointment at being sent to his native town as curate. He had apparently welcomed the change. Still it would seem that for a while the temptation of a yearning to go back to England some time or other, followed him. "My books are in their cases. I daren't unpack them." "Why?" "Why, because, first I shall not remain here. Secondly, there Chap. V ] BACK IN IRELAND 79 is no room to put them in. Thirdly, those women would ruin them. Fourthly, where is the use in continuing one's studies in such a country?" "Phew," said his friend, an old neighbor of his parish, "you have a lot to learn and unlearn yet which is not found in books." "I have learnt that life is very miserable, whatever." "A priest should not complain. He is a soldier. The outpost duty is not pleasant, but it is a duty. The Church was not created for priests but the priesthood for the Church." 1 Few of Father Sheehan's associates among the Irish clergy, and fewer still of his parishioners, would be likely to attach particular distinction to his having been adminis- trator of a respectable parish across the Channel. To them he was simply a curate in a provincial town in Ireland, lately returned to his native diocese. He himself knew his merits and that moreover he was the ward of the Bishop. One would suspect that all this made him feel a bit restive and perhaps desirous of other arrangements. But he was to remain here in Mallow for several years. The archdeacon was a saintly man, who at his age saw the supernatural side of things as the only one really worth while considering. But holiness of the normal type does not greatly impress younger workers who are engaged in heroic pursuits, and who consider that life is meant for strenuous work, for self-improvement, and for reform. This latter was Father Sheehan's bent and determination, as is very plain from his writings, especially his earlier efforts. The impulse was too strong at the outset to allow him to reflect much. This was a handicap to his priestly zeal. "Surrounded in spirit with the atmosphere which he had brought from abroad with him, he failed to enter into the traditions and beliefs of the people. ' In trying to modify these for better and more modern practices, he was both right and wrong. He could never understand why the people should not fit in their ideas with his; nor the necessity of proceeding slowly in uprooting ancient customs, and conserving whatever was useful in them. Hence he was at 1 Ibid, Chap. XXVI, "The Secret of The King," p. 347. 80 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I times in conflict with the people's ideas. They were puzzled at what they deemed an almost sacrilegious interference with their habits; he was annoyed at their unwillingness to adopt his ideals. But they had too deep and reverential a fear and respect for his sacred character to say anything but what was deferential." How clearly he saw all this in subsequent years he brings out in My New Curate, and to some extent also in The Blindness of Dr. Gray. The vivid realism with which he therein states his sentiments have led many to believe that the Canon Sheehan of later years was the "Daddy Dan" of his first famous book; just as others have seen his earlier life protrayed in Luke Delmege. This is not quite correct. While most of his novels contain actual experiences, and while there are passages here and there in which he puts his own thoughts and sentiments into the mouth of the hero whom he portrays, no one character in any of his books completely reveals the writer as he lived. Much of the convictions of his later years is to be found in the senti- ments of the grave old parish priest of Doonvarragh, Lackagh, and Athboy, Dr. Gray. Yet there are great differences here also. Characters that are sound are like good wines. They be- come more sweet as they mature, whereas selfish natures sour with age. This is exemplified in Canon Sheehan. It explains the apparent contrast between the severe eager- ness with which, in the earlier period of his ministry, he noted and roundly scored defects of national character, and the generous tolerance, and even ingeniousness, with which he apologized for, or turned into virtues, those same faults, during later years, when he was pastor in Doneraile. And this fact alone indicates that his ideals were not begotten of mere conceit or moody egotism, but sprang from a high conception of duty as he saw it. If anything like harsh judgment is found in his later books, it is because these parts represent the earlier period of his activity as a writer, and were only utilized when he was too ill to do any fresh work. But it is interesting, here as Chap. V] BACK IN IRELAND 81 elsewhere, to follow the fashioning of his ideals even when he presents them to us in the slightly exaggerated forms in which writers advocating certain reforms commonly clothe their figures. Like Dickens or Thackeray he sometimes overdraws his characters in order that they may arrest attention. He had, at this time, some fixed ideals. They were excel- lent, if not always practicable. In England he had been given to understand that punctuality was one of the car- dinal virtues of the people, and that if Mass did not begin on the minute most of the congregation would leave the church under the assumpton that there was to be no service. Here in Ireland it was different. But the English way was better; so he sought to introduce it. The at- tempt is pictured in Luke Delmege. The first time the curate found himself obliged to attend a funeral in the country the hour for the rite had been set at eleven o'clock. "Eleven o'clock is eleven o'clock," said Luke with emphasis. "It is not five minutes to eleven nor five minutes after eleven; but eleven, you understand?" "Av coorse, yer reverence. 'Tis a long journey to the abbey and we must start airly." Luke was at the house of mourning at five minutes to eleven. There was no sign of a funeral. He protested. "The hearse and the coffin have not come, yer reverence," was the reply. "But why not? Were they ordered?" "They were ordhered to be here on the sthroke of tin," was the answer. At about half-past eleven the hearse was driven up leisurely. "Why weren't you here at the time appointed?" said Luke angrily. "The toime appinted?" said the driver coolly; "yerra, what hurry is there? Isn't the day long?" Luke gave up the riddle. Half-past eleven came, twelve, half-past twelve; and then the neighbors began to gather. Luke's temper was rising with every minute that was thus lost. And then he began to notice the young girls of the house rushing out frantically, and dragging in the drivers and jarvies to the house of 82 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I mourning, from which these soon emerged, suspiciously wiping their mouths with the back of the hand. Luke seized one. "You have had drink there?" he said. "A little taste agin the road, yer reverence," the man said. "That's enough," said Luke. He tore off the cypress lawn, which the priests of Ireland wear in the form of a deacon's stole, and flung it on the ground, then he turned the horse's head home- ward. There was a cry of consternation, and a shout. But Luke was determined. He peremptorily ordered the man to drive forward. One or two farmers begged and besought him to re- main, and even caught his horse's head. Luke took the whip and drove his horse into a gallop; and never drew rein till he entered the yard. "You're early home," said the old priest. "Yes," said Luke, laconically. "You didn't go the whole way? Anything wrong with the mare: "I didn't attend the funeral," said Luke. "I saw them dis- pensing drink; and the statutes forbade me to attend further." "The wha-at?" said the old man. "The statutes — the statutes of the diocese," said Luke im- patiently. " Phiew-ew-ew-ew," whistled the old man. And, after a pause: "You'll have a nice row over this, young man. They may for- give all your abuse of the country, and your comparisons with England. But they'll never forgive you for turning your back on the dead. And Myles McLoughlin was the decentest man in the parish." "But are not the statutes clear on the point?" said Luke, "and where is the use of legislation if it is not carried out?" "You are not long in this country?" said the old man. The next Sunday a deputation called on the pastor asking for the removal of "this Englishman." He tried to "soother them down." l Whether or not young Father Sheehan had actually to meet such or similar situations at Mallow, it is certain that he was conscious of a contrast between the people's ingrained notions and his aspirations in their behalf. As he says of Luke: » Ibid., Chap. XXVII, "A Great Treasure," p. 352. Chap. V ] BACK IN IRELAND 83 Cast into new environments, how could he fit in suddenly with them? Suave, gentle, polished, cultivated, through secret reflection, large reading, and all that had been filed down into tranquil and composed mannerism, how was he to adapt himself to circumstances, where a boisterous and turbulent manner would be interpreted as an indication of a strong, free, generous mind, and where his gentle urbanity would be equally interpreted as the outer and visible sign of a weak, timid disposition, with too great a bias toward gentility? There was an alternative. He might be able to lead the people by persuasion to adopt the better ways which he had discovered abroad. "Now, I don't want to hurt your feelings, Connor," he would say to a parishioner; "but don't you know that that festering heap of compost is a nest of typhus and diphtheria? The hor- rible miasma pollutes the entire atmosphere and fills the house with disease." "I suppose so, yer reverence; but begor no one died in this house for the past three ginirations, except of ould age." "That is exceptional," Luke would reply; "but apart from the question of sanitation, don't you think that a few flower-beds would look better than that dismal swamp?" "Of course, yer reverence, but we would have to pay dear for them." "Not at all. A few wall flowers in spring, and a few tufts of primroses — there are thousands of them in the springtime in the hedgerows — and a few simple geraniums in the summer, would not cost you one half crown. Now, Lizzie, don't you agree with me?" "I do, Father," Lizzie would say. "So do I, yer reverence; but it isn't the cost of the flowers I am thinking of, but the risin' of the rint. Every primrose would cost me a shillin'; and — " 1 However much he tried, he found it hard to make his purpose understood. Nor could he persuade himself that the methods he was advocating were not in the right direc- tion; he was sure that the pattern was of a superior type, and that in abandoning it he would have to descend. As 1 Ibid., Chap. XXVI, "The Secret of the King," p. 343. 84 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I a last resort — there were the young people. They could learn, and they were not hampered by traditions and obstinacy. They were growing up to be the representa- tives and defenders of the principles for which he himself, like every other loyal Irishman, would have eventually to stand. Whatever the educational opportunities that made the English youth superior, he knew that his own people were as capable as any other in the world. All they lacked was the proper training. And they would need it in the days when political independence should call on Ireland to manage her own affairs. From records in the local press of the time it is evident that Father Sheehan, shortly after assuming his duties as curate at Mallow, undertook to organize the youth of the town who had left school. He did so with the purpose not only of promoting their spiritual welfare, but also of sow- ing, as far as possible, the seeds of intellectual culture. The training he proposed to give them would be of service in their later intercourse with the outside world. Now that he foresaw conditions, in the political as well as the social life of the nation, that seemed to demand preparation on the part of those who were some day to shape the destinies of the race, he had found the opportunity for congenial work. Among the means adopted to give permanence to his efforts to elevate the ideals of Irish youth was the estab- lishment of a Literary Society in the Mallow parish. We have the inaugural address delivered by him on that occa- sion, in the winter of 1880. In outlining the purpose of the society he recalls the two maxims he had found in Carlyle. One is: "Know thy work and do it." This, he says, is the latest message that has come to us from the "Voices and Sages," the men that have thought and spoken and written for the well-being of mankind. The other is: "To make one spot of God's world a little brighter, better and happier, here is work for a god." He believed that the first of these two statements contained the soundest and safest motto for each individual member of society; and Chap. V] BACK IN IRELAND 85 that the second was a perfect embodiment of the ideas that suggested the formation of the society. It is quite ap- parent from this that he did not regard the work to be done by the members as confined exclusively, nor even mainly, to literary culture. His aim was much more com- prehensive and included all that tended to strengthen, chasten, elevate mind and heart, while improving deport- ment. "It is to make you, gentlemen, worthy of your- selves, worthy of your religion, and worthy of your country, that this Institute has been established. We know the vast importance that attends the education of young men, we know what a power they are in every community, what great influence they wield for good or for evil. We utterly disdain the intention of making this Institute a mere place of amusement, where a few hours may be spent with pleasure, but without profit. We have a higher ambition. We desire to make it the means of supplying to you a knowl- edge of all those subjects that are interesting to the modern world, and are familiar to the minds of educated men." 1 There were as a result regular lectures and monthly de- bates, which aimed to elicit the latent talent in the parish, and at the same time to create a taste for literature, while fostering and training the youthful minds to reason closely and logically and to express their thoughts with accuracy and ease. As there were already two confraternities in the parish that supplied the religious wants of the young people, it became comparatively easy to interest the members in the upholding of the noble ideals thus placed before them by their spiritual guide. Other causes helped to stimulate these efforts in the direction of educating the younger generation to higher things. The government had proposed a new program of education, which promised to open certain avenues to civil advancement by competition. This plan had been issued just before Father Sheehan left England to return to his native country. A friend, of whom he writes that "his 1 "Irish Youth and High Ideals," in Early Essays and Lectures (edition 1912). 86 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I rare mind could at a glance foresee consequences," had said to him in regard to the passing of the Intermediate Edu- cation Act in 1878, "The Tories have outwitted the Irish priesthood at last. They have introduced into the Primary and Secondary Schools — and they will introduce into the University scheme — the system of payment by re- sults. The consequence will be that in a short time your whole educational system in Ireland, from the lowest bench in the country school to the aula maxima of the Univer- sity, will be thoroughly secularized." Father Sheehan remembered these words, and, young as he was, he set himself to combat the danger. He devoted all the time he could spare from the practical duties of the pastoral mission to improving the course of religious instruction, both in the schools and among the young people who had passed from the control of the catechism classes. This became one of the marked activities in his life, and he attained thereby excellent results both here in Mallow, and afterward in his own parish at Doneraile. CURATE AT THE QUEENSTOWN CATHEDRAL— 1 886 VI CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN l88l-l888 FOUR years had passed since his return to Ireland. He had added fresh experience to his store of pas- toral knowledge. He had come to understand that the difference of national temper between his own people and their political masters was fundamental, and that this fact could not be ignored in their economic and religious improvement. He had come to see the two nations by- comparison on a common scale, and as a result his love for his countrymen had taken on a degree of deeper affection than he had been conscious of in the years before. Early in 1881 the Bishop called him to the Cathedral in Queenstown. It must have been gratifying to Father Sheehan to find himself now closely associated with his old pastor and friend, the one man who perhaps under- stood him thoroughly and bore him in his heart. It seemed like the return of the old days when Patrick Sheehan was the altar boy and Father McCarthy, now the Bishop, the parish priest of Mallow. The new field of labor thus opened to the young curate's zeal was to be one of varied activities. Whilst unquestion- ably more difficult than the work at Mallow, the duties of his new post were likely to offer him the very oppor- tunities he required for the exercise of his special talents and gifts of observation. He at once bent himself with whole-hearted devotion to his tasks, and in particular to the catechetical work of the schools. To preaching and in- struction he proposed to add now the systematic aid of the pen. Often before he had felt the impulse to write. In fact he had contributed articles from time to time to the local journals. For the rest, his literary work had been 87 88 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I mostly fugitive papers and occasional verse. His efforts had been encouraged by Father Matthew Russell, the genial editor of the Irish Monthly. But now he would turn his energies to an appeal for wider interest in the educational problems of the time in which he was concerned. He felt that there was a field wherein the pen could do more good than either the pulpit or personal efforts confined to his immediate locality. His first article appeared in September, 1881. 1 It was entitled "Religious Instruction in Intermediate Schools." The writer urged the establishment of a system of religious training that would be adequate to the wants of the age. The course should be made correlative with the secular system and in a sense also obligatory, either by episcopal supervision, or by public criticism directed toward re- ligious as well as intellectual advancement. He pointed out the pernicious influences which the standard of com- petition in secular education was apt to exercise on the minds of young men ambitious for success. These needed a wide-reaching knowledge of their faith, so as to allow their meeting on even ground of debate and criticism the skeptics and materialists of modern society. "To prevent contamination from these pernicious doc- trines (of materialistic science) by our Irish youth," he wrote, "must be the proximate and pressing duty of those to whom the faith and morals of the rising generation are largely entrusted. There is sound material for a new knighthood of chivalrous faith and virtue, if all the generous impulses of virgin minds and hearts be swayed by the convictions that have hitherto governed our people. . . . But if re- ligious instruction be practically eliminated from our com- mon schools, by not being raised to a level of importance with secular learning, we shall not remain a high principled race, nor become a cultured one." The position taken by Father Sheehan was of course not new. The subject had been for some time discussed among the bishops, especially in the north of Ireland, where 1 Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol. II, pp. 521-531. Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 89 the proposed legislation would gain more rapid influence over the population, largely Protestant. The Bishop of Down and Connor had prescribed a detailed course of Religious Instruction which covered nine grades, beginning with the infants, not classed, under six years. The scheme provided for regular religious inspection. Of this measure it was said that it did more for the protection of the faith and morals of the Catholic flock than had been effected by all the other measures of zealous pastors. The Very Rev. Daniel McCashin, of St. Malachy's College, Belfast, commented on the scheme. 1 At the same time the matter of Religious Examinations in Primary Schools had been discussed, and a prominent priest in the Dublin archdiocese writing anonymously had pointed out the danger of emphasizing the importance of literary instruction over that of Christian Doctrine. He had cited the evidence of the late Bishop of Cloyne, given in 1870 before the Royal Commission on Primary Educa- tion, when a program of studies introduced in France had been suggested as suitable for the schools in Ireland: Do not take as a model . . . the bill promoted by M. de Faillard (in France) when he was minister of Public Instruction. One of the Committee who sat upon that bill was Mons. Thiers, who had been minister in different capacities under Louis Philippe. In his report to the Corps Legislatif he said: "We have been, up to the present, developing the intelligence of young Frenchmen; we have been imposing no restraints on the passions of hearts, and the result is that France is in a state of constant revolution. The generation trained from 1 772-1 792 brought about a revolu- tion. Another revolution in 1830; another revolution in 1848, and you may be quite sure that France has not done with revo- lutions yet. — Gentlemen, we must retrace our steps. We must make education more religious than it has been up to the present moment; we must put it upon the former basis; and if we do not, I tremble for the future of France." 2 The embers thus glowing in different parts of Ireland Father Sheehan hoped to kindle anew. His article gives 1 See article in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record for 1881. 2 Ibid. 90 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I us in a nutshell the aims and ideals which later on, though in a somewhat altered fashion, he sets forth in Geoffrey Austin and The Triumph of Failure. Perhaps his plea, which indicates remarkable ability to master a difficult situation, might have been taken up with enthusiasm if he had been better known. A certain diffidence and fear of criticism had caused him to withhold his full name from the reader. As the article failed to arouse the expected interest on the part of the clergy, he did not follow it up. But he continued to write. In December of the same year the Irish Ecclesiastical Record published a thoughtful paper by him on the subject of Christian Art. It was meant as a protest against the attempt to substitute Pagan models for the old Christian ideals. The article was occasioned by a picture, exhibited in Dublin in 1880, which had at- tracted the young priest, perhaps because of its Dantesque conception and a certain novelty in its expression of spiri- tual forms. The subject was "Satan Watching the Sleep of Christ." It was from the brush of Sir Noel Paton, the English painter, whose work, on the whole religious in its trend, contradicted the naturalism advocated by contem- porary representatives of the Academy. The analysis which Father Sheehan makes of the picture is of value here only as indicating the aesthetic tendencies shown else- where in his writings. It is in keeping with his predilection for the mystical in poetry, of which element Sir Noel Paton was likewise a recognized exponent. During the following year we find an article by Father Sheehan in the same review on "The Effects of Emigration on the Irish Church" (Oct. 1882). Later, in March 1883, one on "Gambetta"; and another in October, 1884, on "Emerson's Philosophy." Shortly after this, November 1884, he contributed a paper on " Free Thought in America." Then for a time his pen seems to have rested. Two years later he discusses "Education at German Universities," in three articles. 1 1 June, July, and August, 1886, Vol. VII, pp. 496, 617, 685, of the Irish Ecclesias- tical Record. Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 91 These papers mark a further movement in the direction of his studies of German thought and letters. They were intended as a contribution to the discussion of the Irish University question, and treated the subject from the academic rather than the political or economic aspect. He asks: "What ideal should be put before a University of Irish students who hold their country's destinies in their hands?" and whose true ideal is that "Ireland should be once more what it was of old, a nation of saintly scholars." His answer is that we must go for our model to the German universities. There alone of all modern schools do we find "the highest conception of University life, its spheres of thought limited only by the boundary lines of human knowledge, and its work free and flexible, with rigid principles of religion on the one hand, and patriotism on the other." As his guide he takes, strangely enough, a Frenchman, Pere Didon. The latter had, a little while before, given to the world his famous book, Les Allemands, which within a single year passed through thirty editions. Its reasonings were the result of study and personal observa- tion by the French Dominican, and they carried no little weight even in England, where his eloquence had attracted large crowds during the Lenten conferences in 1866. Didon's fame as an orator had been superseded by admiration for his practical patriotism when he took up the duties of the military hospital service on the battlefield during the Franco-Prussian War. Next we see the Friar Preacher attend lectures at the Berlin and Leipzig Universities, os- tensibly to ascertain the secret of German efficiency, not only in war but in economics, of which he had been witness at Metz. On his return from Berlin he set out to teach his people what he had learnt from its Teuton enemy. He was no more in sympathy with Germans than they were with him, in spite of the praise he felt bound to accord to them and their methods. "He made the largest sacrifice," says Father Sheehan, "a Frenchman can make — that of national vanity — for the purpose of teaching a wholesome lesson to his nation." The French scholar's philosophical 92 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I habit of generalization is often broken by an exclamation of pain as he sees some striking instance of German su- periority, or some special manifestation of the patriotic instinct, which is so universal in its extent, and so well directed in its energies. From the day he entered the Ger- man university to the time when "his book came forth from the press, and was received with a scream of agony from his vain countrymen, Pere Didon went through purgatorial pains, with one sentence of solace on his heart: 'You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free/" Father Sheehan in reviewing the conclusions of the French Dominican incidentally compares them on the one hand with those of John Henry Newman in his Idea of a University, and on the other with criticisms by Dr. Pusey. Didon, like Newman, argues for the reestablishment of the theological disciplines as part of a fully equipped uni- versity. He prefers that system to the exclusive training given to students for the priesthood in the French semi- naries, where they are practically cut off from touch with the world and its cultural influences, although they may be free also from its dangers. Strength of character, he argues, such as is required to meet religious antagonism in daily social life, is not developed in the hothouse atmosphere of seclusion, whatever the student may gain in devotion to principle and in the exclusive learning that trains the mind and heart to exalted aspirations and the understanding of the higher life. What Father Sheehan, like Pere Didon, deemed of greatest educational advantage to the people was in direct opposition to the accepted methods at home. These were calculated to train rather a body of anchorites and ascetics whose spiritual aims were too far removed from the actualities of life. The religious leaders of the nation, under this system of schools, would fail to exercise any missionary or intellectual influence on the people at large. He believes it to be of supreme importance for Ireland that she should share the dominion over human thought, by "utilizing to the utmost the varied and inexhaustible Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 93 treasures of talent that lie hidden around us, so that we could explore unknown fields of thought, and garner intel- lectual wealth till the nations of the earth cried out with envy." He thinks "that Ireland's right is to open sanctu- aries of science to strangers, and send apostles of intellect, as we send to-day apostles of faith, to nations that hail the rising, or sadden under the setting sun." And all this intellectual glory Ireland is to acquire whilst the deposit of faith remains intact, the past and eternal glory of Ire- land's fidelity to religion undimmed, whilst her science is not the litter of dead philosophies dug up from the past as the members of a mutilated statue, but the perfection of the fair and living figure that woke to music and immortality when the sunlight of faith had dawned upon it." It will be seen, when we come to speak in detail of Canon Sheehan's attitude toward the educational problems of the day, how false is the estimate which those of his critics have formed of him who characterized him as a tradition- alist, timid of the new, clinging with reactionary instinct to the old. His habitual shrinking from the public gaze by no means implies — as is manifest from his writings on education — that "he lived the Monk," too timid to face the problems of the age, and therefore burying himself out of sight of the world's riddles. During the following year Father Sheehan again takes up the subject of German superiority in methods of educa- tion. In an essay, "The German and Gallic Muse," 1 he compares German with French poetry. His chief purpose appears to be to combat the hero worship of Victor Hugo, whose death that year had provoked a series of apotheoses in England. To Father Sheehan's mind the eulogies were out of keeping with the estimate formed of the French writer in competent literary circles. Father Sheehan's bias in favor of German thought, literature, and methods of education did not blind him to the prevailing militarism of that nation. He realizes that "Germany is a huge barrack where every adult must pass 1 Irish Eccelesiastical Record, Jan. 1887, Vol. VIII, pp. 42-53. 94 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I through the ordeal of a severe and rigid discipline to form part eventually of a colossal and irresistible force that may crush the French on the one hand, and the Slav on the other." But he recognizes under all this the energy that accounts for success in the higher spheres of life, in educa- tion and religion as well as in military discipline. 'The faculties of the German mind are so well balanced that there is a perpetual protest between the two extremes of thought — excessive fancy and excessive logic, idealism and materialism, and the mind is kept in that happy mean where each faculty has its full sweep of exercise without the peril of losing itself in the abysses above or the darker abysses of vulgar materialism beneath." He believed with others that the taste for metaphysical studies among the Germans made it impossible for them to be thoroughly irreligious, as are the Latin races when they abandon dogmatic belief. He appeals for corroboration of this to Renan and Madame de Stael. "Quand un Allemand," writes the former, 1 "se vante d'etre impie, il ne faut jamais le croire sur la parole. L'Allemand n'est pas capable d'etre irreligieux. La religion, c'est-a-dire l'aspiration du monde ideal est le fond meme de sa nature. Quand il veut etre athee, il Test devotement et avec une sorte d'onction." In the papers thus far published Father Sheehan betrays the trend of his special studies. These had furnished him with material for his speculations on the subject of classical and religious education. Apparently he paid little attention to the economic problems which later on, as we shall see, engaged him so largely, and which became a very important factor in the solution of the agrarian difficulties in Ireland. During the summer of 1888 Father Sheehan published 2 a critique of Matthew Arnold's literary work. Shortly after this the Dublin Review brought out an article by him on recent Augustinian literature. 3 To this latter subject he makes reference in a letter addressed to the editor of the 1 Etude d'histoire religieuse, p. 417. 2 Irish Ecclesiastical Record, June 1888. 3 Dublin Review, Vol. XX, July, pp. 88-107. Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 95 Irish Monthly. Father Russell had, as is well known, a remarkable gift for encouraging literary talent. He had befriended among others young William Butler Yeats, who had given indications of superior ability by sundry snatches of romantic poetry and drama, and at this time was engaged in the interpretation of the old Gaelic myths and hero tales, of which Kuno Meyer, the German Celtic scholar, had shortly before given Irish readers an exquisite specimen in his English version of the Kilcormac Manu- script. The Wanderings of Oisin is the title of the ode to which Father Sheehan makes reference in the following letter: Queenstown, February 20, '88. My dear Father Russell, I enclose Postal Order for 5/-, a mite to help your young poet to the light. The title of the forthcoming Vol. would have made me shudder, if I did not remember that A. de Vere (who has been wasted by Providence in this generation) touched the ghostly Ossian and put flesh on him; and if I had not also very kind and pleasant recollections of some of Mr. Yeats' work in the "Dublin University Review," particularly one very pretty dramatic piece called "Mosada." It is not very Catholic in tone, but is very original and delicate. The refrains at the ends of Mosada's dying speech are very touching. "The Irish Minstrelsy" has been, I believe, the most successful publication of this age. It has had a pretty large sale, even here. It is really wonderful. I found in it a ballad which I had been looking for for years — since, in fact, I was a child and followed the singer of it in wet and cold up and down the streets of Mallow. I cannot recommend it to you for publication for it is not min- strelsy in the true sense of the word: but I would like to see "Condemned to Death" by "Bridgid" better known than it is. I think you inserted it in an obituary notice of the poetess in the "Monthly." D. Bernards is 33 years old — a fine German scholar, with excellent taste, and the consciousness that he is not perfect. I have been urging him to try other than National subjects. He has but little time to give to the Muses. As for myself, my time is so occupied that I can hardly read my Office. I have just finished 50 pages of Manuscript represent- 96 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I ing 15 pages of print for the April No. of the Dublin Review; and I have been promised 15 pages for July. I may possibly be seeking your good offices to revise some literary work (very light) in July or August. I am, My dear Fr. Russell, Yours most sincerely, P. A. Sheehan. Father Sheehan's studies in Augustinian literature, of which the above mentioned article gives evidence, were by no means of a passing or perfunctory nature, such as attracts the ordinary book critic. From his boyhood on, the story of St. Augustine had exercised a singular fascina- tion for him. The dramatic contrasts in the life of the African student at Tagaste and at Carthage, and later on his successes as a rhetorician; then his meeting at the instance of his mother, Monica, with St. Ambrose; his conversion and subsequent missionary activity as Bishop of Hippo, had charmed Patrick Sheehan's youthful imagina- tion, and induced him to add to his own baptismal name that of St. Augustine. His sister Margaret had caught the attraction, so that she too consecrated her life to re- ligion under the patronage of the same Saint. When after- ward, at Maynooth, Patrick Sheehan came upon the writings of the great Father of the Church, he found in them fresh fuel to feed the ardor of his intellectual and spiritual aspirations. St. Augustine became to him the exponent of mystical and ascetical theology. It was the Platonic element more than the Aristotelian in theological science that drew young Sheehan during all his studies. Here he found illumination as well as comfort for his soul. "Love and light," he writes, "such was the eternal cry from St. Augustine's lips and heart. Love for an object so high and so sublime, that the intellect could never weary in the contemplation of its transcendent excellence — love for an object so perfect, that the conscience should never scruple its warmest attachment — love so strong that every pulse of the heart should cling to the loved Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 97 object, so that death itself could not break, nor time dimin- ish, the strength of its affection — love so vast that the soul should ever wander through its happy realms without exhaustion, and there find its eternal rest and fruition." In one of his wanderings he had found an old tome entitled " Mensis Augustinianus sive Meditationes in Regulam Divi Aurelii Augustini, Hipponensis Episcopi et Ecclesiae Doc- toris eximii, ex Sacra Scriptura, Sanctis Patribus, Asceseos Magistris, et probatissimis Auctoribus collectae et distributae in singulos Mensis dies. Una cum Regula a Gelasio di Cilia. Cum facultate et licentia Superiorum. Ratisbonae. 1713." The book, it appears, had never been reprinted, and Father Sheehan undertook to copy it, evidently intend- ing it for personal use as a pocket manual of meditation. 1 Throughout his writings he repeatedly speaks of the life of St. Augustine as of a source from which the devout soul may draw inspirations of holiness and divine wisdom, "and the student of humanity will feel new interest in the struggle of the soul, to disenthrall itself from the fierce promptings of passion and the seductions of intellectual pride. For Augustine was a convert. From a sinner he became a Saint, from a doubter and a denier he became a believer and teacher." The simultaneous appearance about this time of several works dealing with the life and doctrine of the Saint had given a fresh interest to the subject among ecclesiastical students; and naturally our young curate at Queenstown took part in the defense of the great champion of Catholic orthodoxy, when that orthodoxy was being distorted into a support for Protestantism. At Cambridge University the Hulsean Lectures had made the topic popular, while in the meantime the London Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge had issued the volume in its series which treats of St. Augustine. In America the subject had been taken up by Professor Philip SchafF, who sought to trace a relationship between the Bishop of Hippo and the sixteenth-century reformers; and Dr. Field Spalding 1 The manuscript in his neat handwriting is not completed. 98 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I of Boston had made a close analysis of the great Church Father's teaching, with a view apparently of emphasizing the latter's independence of Roman authority. Father Sheehan subjects these and some other pub- lications of a kindred nature to a critical examination, and points out that the Protestant contention is far re- moved from a true interpretation of the Saint's mind. In Dr. Spalding's volume he recognizes more than ordinary sincerity, besides a deep knowledge of the Patristic writings and an adherence to the canons of literary as well as his- torical criticism. These qualities were wholly missing in the Protestant writers mentioned above. The article became the occasion of a correspondence with Dr. Spalding, which covered several years and ended in the return of the latter to the Catholic Church. After this, Father Sheehan's contributions to English and Irish periodicals may be said to have ceased, if we except occasional papers, in the main belletristic, written for the Irish Monthly. What he accomplished in other respects while curate at the Cathedral at Queenstown is cherished in the tradi- tions of that parish. There are at this day men, prominent in the community, who unreservedly attribute their suc- cess and place of honor in public life to the encouragement and direction of Father Sheehan. Glimpses of his min- istry, especially among the poor of that cosmopolitan town, may be gleaned from his writings. From all parts of Ireland the emigrants gathered here to take passage on one or other of the outgoing vessels bound for Liverpool, London, Bris- tol, Plymouth, and the far-off countries across the Atlantic. For one who loved his people with an anxiety for theiF future welfare, seeking to safeguard their faith and attach- ment to the old sod, there were a thousand opportunities day after day for the exercise of zeal not only in the church but at the wharves and in the hovels that neighbored them. Years afterwards Father Sheehan had opportunity to revisit the scenes of his early labors whenever called to attend the Conferences of the Cathedral Chapter, as Canon. We are Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 99 told by one who regularly met him on these occasions that, though reticent about his own doings, he seemed to be familiar with every note of the town's history. His shy, reserved manner gave no indication that he could ever have been popular among the humbler class of the parish- ioners; "yet when he died all the older generations had instances to relate of his unostentatious kindness, especially to the poor and the sick." During his stay at Queenstown, which covered nearly eight years, he wrote a number of stories for children, afterward published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland. Occasionally he was induced to lecture at Cork, Limerick, and other towns in the South of Ireland, where his fine gifts of expression had become known. But the strain of overwork soon told upon his constitu- tion. In 1888 he was obliged to desist from all pastoral work. The physician advised him to rest for a while at GlengarifF. Here and at Youghal, whither he went later, he did a good deal of reading and some writing of a frag- mentary character. On his recovery the Bishop deemed it advisable to send him back to the country, and accordingly appointed him once more to his native town, Mallow. Here he acted as senior curate, to whom was also assigned the chaplaincy of the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy. Some changes had taken place since his former residence at Mallow. Archdeacon O'Regan, the old pastor, had been replaced by Canon Wigmore, Vicar Forane. There were two junior curates. If the parishioners recalled Father Sheehan's English ways, they also remembered his Irish heart and his goodness to the sick and the poor. The little boys and girls of the school, on whom he had once set his hopes of carrying out his ideals after his return from England, had grown to be young men and women. Resuming the plans he had formed for their welfare, he now began to direct his chief efforts toward their intellectual and spiritual development by means of social organization. He estab- lished reading circles and clubs. Through lectures, libraries, ioo CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I and the shaping and controlling of their amusements, he stirred the townsfolk to an appreciation of the higher and better things he put before them. This activity is grate- fully remembered by the people of Mallow, though it is many years since Father Sheehan labored among them. It was at this period also that he developed a new scheme of writing. He came to realize that, if he could clothe his ideals in the form of short stories or of a novel that would appeal to the sense of popular curiosity, it might inaugu- rate an apostolate of the Irish press, more attractive and efFective than the didactic methods usually adopted for improving mind and heart. Work of this sort would more- over give the writer an opportunity of showing forth the weakness of the old system by applying to it humorous criticism and corrective illustrations. Cervantes and Father de Isla had done this in one way; Dickens and Mark Twain in another. They got a wide hearing. Why not he with a subject much more vital than theirs? What he had written hitherto, accepted by the editors merely for its literary and ethical value, had hardly been noticed. That might have been due in part to the modesty which failed to employ the art of self-advertising. But there must have been other causes also. At any rate, it was evident that the proper stimulus was wanting to make his proposals for improvement popular. With these thoughts in mind he began gathering material, trusting that it might mature to some purpose. The effort was to take definite shape in Geoffrey Austin and its sequel. Meanwhile, in 1893, his fatherly friend and protector, the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. John McCarthy, had been called to his reward. He had governed the diocese for nearly twenty years, and during that time had proved himself a saintly and zealous father to his flock. He had nearly com- pleted the main building of the beautiful Cathedral begun by his predecessor, and in this he had been greatly helped by Father Sheehan during the eight years of the latter's incumbency at Queenstown. Bishop McCarthy was an able writer and speaker, as well as an organizer and public- Chap. VI ] CALLED TO QUEENSTOWN 101 spirited defender of his people's interests. He had been ill a few days. On Friday he took to his bed, and died on the following day, December 9, 1893. His successor was not installed until the autumn of 1894. In the fall of 1893 Aubrey de Vere, third son of Sir Aubrey, the elder Irish poet, published his volume Mediaeval Rec- ords and Sonnets. The book at once attracted attention, and became the subject of an extended review by Father Sheehan, printed in the Irish Monthly for March, 1894. The Anglo-Irish bard had successfully transposed into the melody of verse the theme of mediaeval Catholic chivalry, just as Mrs. Jameson had done in prose. The appeal, so rich in its power of suggestion, and at the same time so sweetly musical, was meant for readers who knew and could appreciate the inner history of the Church as she speaks through her liturgy. The absence of religious misconcep- tion, or of any lyric trick catering to the commonplace, gave a peculiar charm to Aubrey de Vere's poetry. The nicely balanced phrase was but the echo of nature's own rhythm, with whose measured manifestations the poet dealt. Father Sheehan said so in his criticism. Mr. de Vere was greatly pleased with the analysis and he expressed his appreciation to the editor of the Irish Monthly. Carragh Chase, Adare, Co. Limerick. March 10, 1894. My dear Father Russell, Pray accept my best thanks for having given a place in the "Irish Monthly," to that singularly beautiful paper on my Mediae- val Records. It is most friendly and indeed only too flattering. That one who writes so well himself, should think so well of what I have written, is of course very gratifying to me, and very encouraging also, considering how few seem to like my poetry, the slow circulation of which my Publishers complain of much, af- firming, as all my friends do, that this proceeds mainly from its almost always taking as its theme either Ireland or the Catholic Belgium. When I made my submission to Holy Church I very deliberately selected those two themes for my future poetry, though with a perfect knowledge that they must be unpopular; consequently I am not entitled to complain. If Father Sheehan's 102 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part I friendly prophecy at the end of his paper, shall one day be ful- filled, it will be more than I deserve, though I certainly do deserve the friendly mention he makes of my Poetry as having escaped the prevailing or at least too frequent demerit of being introverted and egotistical. I am also much pleased at his liking that poem on St. Francis, and wishing me to translate the rest of the "Fio- retti." Were I young I might try to do so. In the meantime it is a curious thing that there is just now a person who thinks, I am glad to know, of translating my "Legends of St. Patrick," or some of them, into prose, and out of verse, as being thus made more likely to interest our poorer fellow countrymen, for whose benefit chiefly they were written. He may be quite right in thinking that they would thus have a better chance of learning more than they now do respecting their great Patron, the most apostolic man, I think, of all the saints; for when Messrs. Cassell included that book in their "National Library," and published it for six pence in cloth boards and three pence in paper covers, out of more than 10,000 copies sold only about 100 were sold in Ireland. But one can well imagine Blank Verse, to one accustomed to associate Poetry with Rhyme, appeared only a sort of Prose bewitched. I am especially pleased at the terms in which Father Sheehan speaks of the "Higher Purgatory," and the "Copernicus," the best, or least imperfect poems I believe in the Vol. The "Higher Purgatory" may be a relief to some excellent persons who are so accustomed to what St. Catherine must have regarded as a one- sided view of Purgatory, that the expectation of it must have lain like a perpetual night-mare on their minds. I intended that Poem and "Copernicus" to embody a good deal of Catholic Phi- losophy, and the latter everywhere to imply the sublime idea of Leotus that the Incarnation was for the total universe, both material and angelic, as well as for the Redemption of man from fire(?). But for that idea I should never have written the "May Carols" which admitted of a fuller expression of that conception. Will you give Father Sheehan my best thanks for his Essay, which is full of thoughts truly Philosophical on Art, expressed in very eloquent language — please also to send me his address as I should like to forward my Father's "Mary Tudor" and "Sonnets" to him unless he has them already. Believe me, Yours very sincerely, Aubrey de Vere. PART II WHEREIN IS SEEN SOMETHING OF FATHER SHEEHAN's LITERARY WORK THE MESSAGE AND CHARACTER OF HIS NOVELS HIS EFFORTS IN EDUCATIONAL AND POLITICAL FIELDS, AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE I PARISH PRIEST OF DONERAILE IN August, 1894, on the feast of St. Joachim, Dr. Robert Browne, president of Maynooth College, was consecrated Bishop of Cloyne. The new Ordi- nary was no stranger to the diocese, in which he was born. He had been a student at St. Colman's, Fermoy; and sub- sequently professor in the same institution. During the last twenty years he had held the offices successively of Dean, Vice-President, and President of Maynooth Col- lege. If his position gave him little opportunity of meeting Father Sheehan, who had left Maynooth the year before Dr. Browne entered on his term as Dean, it may neverthe- less be presumed that he was familiar with the young priest's early career, and knew his talent, zeal, and administrative ability. It is not surprising therefore that, when the parish of Doneraile became vacant, and the Bishop was obliged to cast about for a suitable candidate to fill the place, his thoughts should have turned toward the Mallow chaplain. The latter was not actually in line for promotion to the pastorate. There were others who by reason of seniority and pastoral qualifications might set up the claim of a prior right. But the Doneraile parish was some- what encumbered, and there was no likelihood, as the Bishop probably foresaw, of serious competition for the place. Accordingly Father Sheehan was called to the dignity of Parish Priest of Doneraile, and assumed charge on July 4, 1895. Some passages in My New Curate aptly suggest what were his feelings on receiving the appointment. It happened in this wise. The Bishop, the old man, sent for me and said with what I would call a tone of pity or contempt — but he was incapable of either, for he was the essence of charity ios 106 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [ Part II and sincerity — "Father Dan, you are a bit of a litterateur, I understand; Kilronan is vacant. You'll have plenty of time for poetizing and dreaming there. What do you say to it?" I put on a little dignity; and though my heart was beating with delight I quietly thanked his Lordship. But when I had passed beyond the reach of episcopal vision, which is far stretch- ing enough, I spun my hat in the air, and shouted like a schoolboy: Hurrah! You wonder at my ecstasies. Listen. I was a dreamer; and the dreams of my life, when I was shut up in musty towns where the atmosphere was redolent of drink, and you heard noth- ing but scandal, and saw nothing but sin — the dream of my life was a home by the sea, with its purity and freedom, and its in- finite expanse, telling me of God. For from the time I was a child I used to pray that some day when my life's work should be nearly done, and I had put in my years of honest labour in the dusty streets, I might spend my declining years in the peace of a seaside village, and go down to my grave, washed free from the contaminations of life in the daily watching and loving of those "Moving waters at their priestlike task Of cold ablution round earth's human shores.'* He tells how, on returning home, he met some of his young clerical friends who had already heard of his ex- pected promotion. They teased him: "You don't mean to say that you have accepted that awful place!" said one. "You'll have nothing but fish to eat," said another; "the butcher's van goes there but once a week." "And no society but fishermen," said a third. "And they speak nothing but Irish; and you know you can't bless yourself in Irish." "Well," I replied, "my Job's comforters, I've accepted Kil- ronan, and I am going there. If all things go well, and you are good boys, I may ask for some of you as curate — " 'You'll be glad enough to get a curacy yourself in six months," they shouted in chorus. And so I came to Kilronan, and here I have been since. 1 He gives also a glimpse of his ideals of reform, and though the scenes he depicts are not those of the little town of the 1 A Retrospect, p. 14. Chap. I ] PARISH PRIEST OF DONERAILE 107 Ballyhoura hills where he actually worked out his aspira- tions as a parish priest, yet the underlying thought is that of his pastoral visions — some of which found their fulfil- ment in Doneraile. He writes: What glorious resolutions I made the first months of my residence here . . . Alas! circumstances are too much for us all, and here I am . . . poor old Daddy Dan, with no great earthly troubles, indeed, and some few. consolations — my breviary and the grand psalms of hope — my daily Mass and its hidden and unutterable sweetness — the love of the little children and their daily smiles — the prayers of my old women, and, I think, the reverence of the men . . . Then he compares his ideals with the little he had been able actually to accomplish after years of toil, and the sting of disappointment: I suppose it was all my own fault. I remember what magnifi- cent ideas I had. I would build factories, I would ferr the streets, I would establish a fishing station and make Kilronan the favorite bathing resort on the western coast. I would write books and be, all round, a model of push, energy and enterprise. And I did try. 1 The picture he has here drawn of the parish is that of a seacoast town, apparently Kilkee. There he had been in the habit of spending a brief annual summer vacation. It is a place where one might expect to meet the old asso- ciates of his Maynooth days; but the main attraction had been the opportunities which the coast afforded for long rambles along the wild and richly varied western stretches of the Atlantic, such as he graphically describes them in various passages in his later books. If Doneraile was somewhat different from all this in its outer aspects, it offered, besides its picturesque scenery of river and mountain, abundance of that attractive feature of Irish life and character which was soon to become the source of a new inspiration in his work for souls. Doneraile is a small town in the County Cork. It is 1 Ibid., p. 19. 108 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II beautifully situated at the base of a western spur of the Galtee Mountains. This range of hills forms, as it were, a meeting place for the four counties of Limerick, Tipper- ary, Waterford, and Cork. A little stream, the Awbeg, a branch of the Blackwater, passes Doneraile and, above it, separates into small pools and streamlets among rocky and shady declines, giving the country round about a pleasant, idyllic aspect. The vegetation is rich and abun- dant, imparting to the rolling country an alluring beauty, to which old castle ruins add an air of romance. The poet Spenser has made the district famous in his Faerie Queen (Book IV, canto xi), though modern archaeologists are not agreed that the stream "Giveth name unto that ancient cittie Which Kilnemulla clepped is of old." But there is no doubt that the first great Elizabethan poet lived at Kilcoman castle, near by, and sang his musical epics to the accompaniment of "Strong Alio tombling from Slewlogher Steep, And Mulla mine whose waves I whilom taught to weep." Father Sheehan took residence in the parish during mid- summer of 1895. If he felt grateful that henceforth he was to have a free field for his pastoral activity, he experi- enced still more satisfaction, at least for the moment, at being in a position to carry out the scheme which had occupied him for some time past at Mallow, namely of writing the book that would explain his new mode of education. The idea of being an author has its charms at all times. It brings with it the conscious power of creat- ing; the suggestion that we are capable of influencing minds far beyond the limits of our immediate surround- ings; it conjures up visions of fame and immortality, and all that the imagination can picture of true greatness and lasting success. Not that Father Sheehan meant to ex- change his pastoral office and its glories for the occupations and emoluments of " a votary of the desk, — a notched w Q < B w w CO O < Chap. I ] PARISH PRIEST OF DONERAILE 109 and cropped scrivener, one that sucks his sustenance, as certain sick people are said to do — through a quill." On the contrary, he meant to use his pen as an adjunct to his opportunities as a teacher of that divine truth which his apostolic and pastoral mission called him .to preach. He felt that in this way his voice might reach to every county of his native land. There had been nothing to prevent him as curate from appearing in print unless it was the difficulty of finding a publisher willing to take the risks. But he could not have spoken with the same freedom as now that he was pastor; he would have had to consider the feelings if not the opin- ions of his rector and associates. Even if his book were published anonymously, the fact could hardly be kept a secret in the parish; and if he said anything to displease his comrades in arms, it might react disagreeably upon himself. But now, added to the dignity of a parish priest, which fact was likely to recommend him to the sellers of books, he enjoyed the freedom to act without having to consult others; freedom from their criticism, their power to dis- suade or to thwart any enterprise that could make him a true evangelist to his people and nation. He was inde- pendent in a manner even of the Bishop. The worst which that august dignitary could do was "send him a curate who might break his heart." II HIS FIRST BOOK THE book of which the material was all ready was Geoffrey Austin. Doneraile was to be the place of Geoffrey's birth. As the reader will doubtless recall, Father Sheehan had, during the years of his curacy at Queenstown, as also later at Mallow, found special delight in spurring on the young men of the parish to higher efforts and ambitions. His aim had been to withdraw them from attractions that divided their appreciation of those better things which were awaiting them with the dawn of the newly promised emancipation. He would prepare them definitely for the responsibilities which the anticipated independence of Ireland was to bring at least to some of them. He meant to defend his countrymen against the demagogues who saw in the heralded freedom only opportunities to satisfy their greed and selfish ambition. Patriotic Irishmen had been hitherto fed upon hopes; they had made sacrifices; they had followed leaders in whose sincerity they placed absolute confidence. Time and again they had found themselves deceived and defeated through lack of cau- tion or forethought, or of union among the heads of their parties. Now, with the hopes based not only on the justice of Ireland's cause and an ardent patriotism, but on the de- termination of a strong Parliamentary party that could defeat the Unionists, and hold in check the obstruction- ists, the means of eventually wresting from the present government the consent to Home Rule seemed clear. If now the young men of Ireland were to take a successful hand in the affairs of their reborn nation they needed more no Chap. II] HIS FIRST BOOK in than the material strength of numbers and an ardent patriotism. One reason why hitherto their aspirations had been frustrated was their lack, in the past, of opportunities for higher or even ordinary education. Whilst nominally the means for elementary training were not being denied them, the actual conditions rendered it impossible for the poor to avail themselves of it. The prospects of Emancipation were thus beset with dangers that lurked in an unpreparedness to make use of the newly acquired freedom that would reconstitute the nation. There were other dangers. The youth of Ireland were sure to be hampered in their struggle for advancement by traditions that had crystallized in the popular mind. Many of the intellectual leaders, however high-minded and ener- getic, were wedded to methods that threatened to leave the younger generation behind in the struggle for what was conducive to true moral and civic welfare. In Father Sheehan's estimate it was essential that the Catholic priest- hood should take a definite part in and find new ways to strengthen the Catholic conscience of the nation as a de- fense against the schemes of politicians who cared little or nothing for the ancient glory of Ireland. The course to be adopted, to elevate the consciousness of the race to the realization of their high destiny, was, as has already been pointed out, the systematic leavening, through re- ligious instruction, of all the educational forces in the country. The clergy were to emphasize religion as a re- quirement of efficiency in connection with a high standard of intellectual culture in the schools and colleges. Thus an effectual barrier would be placed against the strong materialistic tendency which, in the guise of an advanced science, was beginning to dominate the schools. Moreover, he saw that the new generation was being withdrawn to foreign countries, especially America. The Irish youth was suffering from the practical contamina- tion of an absorbing passion for wealth under the plea of improved industrial conditions. Thence grew the desire 112 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II to leave the home country, and the striving after those purely secular ambitions and comforts of life which must produce not only a weakening of the old faith, but the eventual destruction of native simplicity, domestic affec- tion, and attachment to the motherland. Religion, om- bined with love of country, had been the pride of the Irish race for centuries. It had made the people strong, this clinging to their homesteads and native soil, however poor. The old sod, with its memories of hardship, had become a sacred thing by the very fact that it kept alive the hope of better times. And now that the dawn of these happier days was breaking, the country was being depopulated and deprived of its hardy and simple strength. These re- flections made Father Sheehan anxious to keep his people from emigrating; and he did everything in his power to discourage those over whom he exercised influence from leaving home. He impressed on them the sentiment that Ireland was the home of her children's faith, and to Ire- land they were bound in loyalty to cling. Those who had gone, he regarded as exiles, to be pitied. To a lady from Limerick who had made her home in America and who was visiting Kilkee, he gave, on her bidding him farewell, the following touching lines, expressive of his feeling on the subject: "Child whom the Fates have cast afar — Thine Irish faith thy guiding star — An exile; but with all the rights That bind thee to thy motherland, Whose loveliness, austere but grand, Her children's loyalty requites — Take these few lines from one whose worth Is but his pride of Irish birth, His loyalty to faith and race; Who bids thee in thy life Godspeed; In kindly thought and noble deed, And at the last the glorious meed, The Vision — face to face." Chap. II] HIS FIRST BOOK 113 Father Sheehan gave vent to a similar feeling in another form on an occasion when the writer discussed with him the absence of agricultural industry and of efforts, appar- ently, to cultivate the large tracts left to pasture for grazing sheep. With no little spirit he said, "Do you want to know the reason why our fields are not tilled ? Why, you Ameri- cans who speak of the indolence of our people are your- selves the cause of this lack of apparent thrift. In the first place, you ship over here grain and produce, selling it to our commission merchants at a shilling a bushel less than it costs us to produce it, if we consider the rental of our farms. Next you entice our young men and girls by hold- ing out to them the allurements of the American dollar. They find they can keep the old people more comfortable by leaving them and earning a good income in Yankee land. Of course they don't realize that they are sacri- ficing in many cases their faith and the love of old Ireland, and all that goes with our treasured traditions. But they make money; and then they come back for a visit; to show off their folly, and to entice other young people away from our farms to follow them. It is sad; but we cannot help it." He was averse to the indiscriminate adoption of American standards of living; inasmuch as it meant a depreciation, and in some cases a despising, of the traditions that had made Ireland strong in religious conviction, and that had kindled noble national aspirations, despite the humilia- tions heaped upon her for centuries. His purpose was to prepare the youth for the new crisis, a crisis that involved a determined struggle, — not against the old foe next door, who was beginning to yield of his own accord, but against a double enemy from within, the spirit of indifference on the one hand and the danger of secular and commercial pride on the other. He realized fully how both of these conditions threatened to destroy the deep-rooted sentiments of religious devotion and unselfish patriotism that had distinguished the children of the Isle of Saints in the past above all the nations of the earth. ii4 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II In order to battle successfully against this dual foe it was, as has been said, necessary first of all to warn the educators themselves. Father Sheehan was well aware that he held no special commission to correct his brethren, least of all the professors in the colleges, or the members of the episcopate and the clergy who were responsible for the guidance of the people. He merely meant to speak as one who sensed the coming peril; as one who was willing to help in overcoming it by emphasizing its insidiousness. There could be no offense in an honest effort to popularize the best methods by which to ward off an imminent danger. It was with this purpose that he had studied the problem and found the material which he gradually developed into the form of his story. In this way Geoffrey Austin had been nearly completed, and now that he was a pastor, he saw his way free to getting it published. It would be only a beginning. For here in his country rectory, where the charms of nature, the music of the birds, and the murmur of the mountain stream soothed his nerves, he would continue to put his inspirations into written periods, freighted with the burden of an educational gospel that should carry light and joy to his countrymen. There loomed up, of course, occasional misgivings. He might meet with disappointment. The motto in which he presents this, his first serious literary effort, shows that his state of mind was anything but blindly buoyant. It is taken from Newman's Idea of a University: "Alas, what are we doing all through life, both as a necessity and duty, but unlearning the world's poetry, and attaining to its prose? This is our education as boys and as men, in the action of life or in the closet or library, in our affections, in our aims, in our hopes, in our memories." He dedicated his book "To the Catholic Youth of Ireland, in whose future our highest interests are involved." The in- scription reveals his aims and his hopes. That he was resolved to continue the subject, to carry on the battle in behalf of Catholic education to the very end by means of his pen, is evident from the words that follow the dedica- Chap. II] HIS FIRST BOOK n 5 tion: "These few pages — a prelude to deeper and diviner things," and from the closing sentence of the volume: "The End (is not yet)." Before looking about for a publisher Father Sheehan deemed it advisable to submit his manuscript to the judgment of Matthew Russell, S.J., who had hitherto en- couraged his literary efforts, not only by publishing occa- sional verses and short stories from his pen, but by putting him in communication with other literary people. Among those whose attention had been attracted to the fine thought and literary finish of the verses with the initials signed P.A.S.y was Mother Austin, superior of the Sisters of Mercy in Alabama, America. As the author of a Life of Mother Mary Katherine McAuley, and a number of his- torical papers in English and American magazines, she enjoyed the reputation of possessing discrimination in literary matters. In a letter from Killowen Father Russell writes of her: 1 My dear Father Sheehan, Your American admirer (she has often spoken of you in her letters) is the Reverend Mother Superior of several convents of Mercy in Alabama and that part of the United States of America. Her usual address is Mrs. W. A. Carroll, Convent of Mercy, Selma, Alabama, U.S.A. She is a clever woman, Mother Austin — and very kind besides, and large minded, and fond of literature. She is a great friend of my sister, Mother Baptist of San Francisco. Write a nice letter to Mother Austin at once. It will give her great pleasure. I have at last found my copy of Francis Thompson's Poems. Do you want them? Certainly the current Edinburgh Review has raised my opinion of him. I wonder who will Geoffrey Austin's publisher be? Ever yours affectionately, Matthew Russell, S.J. 1 The letter head is a print of a quaint chapel building, under which is written: "Where I used to serve Mass fifty years ago. M.R." u6 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Father Russell approved of Geoffrey Austin. But who was to publish it? There were a number of respectable Catholic firms in Dublin that might be disposed to take up the manuscript. Eventually the Messrs. M. H. Gill and Son undertook the publication, and the volume ap- peared before the end of 1895. While awaiting the public verdict upon his literary ven- ture, Father Sheehan labored assiduously in the improve- ment of his parish. His people were for the most part farming tenants. Amid the agrarian troubles and the gen- eral political discontent he found it necessary to familiarize himself with the economic and domestic conditions of his people in order to act as intermediary and frequently as peacemaker. For this purpose he had to visit the homes of the farmers, attend their meetings, and confer with the more influential men of the district. There was a con- siderable number of children in the several schools of the parish which also claimed his immediate care. Altogether he found a good deal of work at his hand; and, while he felt that he was free to carry out the schemes of reform with which his mind had been filled during the years of his missionary work as curate, not a few obstacles presented themselves to their immediate realization. Whether he had anticipated the failure of his first book or not, the disappointment came. For nearly two years the edition lay on the bookseller's shelves. The critics at home admitted the literary merit of the volume, but re- sented the faultfinding with a system of Catholic education that had been in vogue from time immemorial without ever provoking adverse comment. What was good enough for the old people ought to be good enough for the young generation who had no experience. Evidently the reviewers in Ireland restricted the survey of their educational re- sponsibilities to what had been approved by the experience of the past. In England the book was practically ignored — perhaps on general principles; and, besides, it had the handicap of anonymity. By way of compensation the story gained some appre- Chap. II] HIS FIRST BOOK n 7 ciation abroad. The Catholic World, of New York, gave a favorable notice of Geoffrey Austin, admitting it to be the work of a brilliant tyro who saw things in a true light, though he betrayed his youth by the superabundant wealth of his imagery and vocabulary. "Were it not for this feature," wrote the critic, "we might be tempted to think that Geoffrey Austin is the work of a skilled and matured literary man." Father Russell, writing from University College, Stephen's Green, Dublin, calls his attention to this critique: . . . The Catholic World, the big New York magazine of the Paulist Fathers, understands Geoffrey Austin's point of view better than your other critics. I will send it, probably not until Tuesday. If you feel inclined to defend your novel in propria persona, our columns are always open to you. In February I supply the blank in "Sentan the Culdee." It may make readers turn back to the greatest poem of our whole career. What about the series thus brilliantly begun? Ever yours affectionately, Matthew Russell, S.J. Other voices, here and there, added their note of praise. But the result was far from what might have been expected, considering the character and purpose of the volume. Singu- larly enough the book found at once a favorable response in Germany. This was due not so much to an apprecia- tion of its literary excellence as rather to the fact that the author had incidentally struck a note in accord with certain pedagogical prepossessions in the Fatherland. Reference has already been made to the fact that discussions had been going on in German academic circles regarding the limitations of religious instruction in the Gymnasia and Universities. There had been disputes as to the preferable method of theological training; namely, whether it should be incorporated in the regular university courses, or in separate seminaries conducted according to the principles of the Council of Trent. Perhaps Father Sheehan had u8 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II been influenced in his opinions by a knowledge of these facts. At all events, a translation of the book was an- nounced in Germany before the author's name was actually known to his readers, generally, at home. Meanwhile Matthew Russell kept on urging the author of Geoffrey Austin to write. He wanted him to write more short articles, over his full signature — also to print his sermons and lectures. Speaking of an address on "Opti- mism" which was subsequently printed in the Irish Monthly, he writes: You will have no difficulty in putting together a new Lecture, and it is a good thing to force you to do so. Very many of your sermons ought to be transcribed and sent as articles to the big American Messenger of the Sacred Heart (27 West 16th Street, New York), or The Catholic World (120 West 60th Street, New York), or The Ave Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana. Get as much of yourself into print as you can and as speedily as you can. Encouraged by these and similar suggestions, and sus- tained no doubt also by the enthusiasm begotten of con- fidence in his mission, he followed the advice of his Dublin mentor. The intercourse with his parishioners rather added fuel to than hindered his literary activity. He had now reached that stage in his command of language, and in the habit of subordinating his reflections and observa- tions, at which expression becomes not simply a pleasure but a sort of necessity. As a result the thoughts that crystallized within sought utterance either in the pulpit or through the pen. What time he could spare from his pastoral duties was next devoted to the sequel of Geoffrey Austin. Probably the doubtful reception accorded to his first book caused him to modify his theories; perhaps it also suggested the title The Triumph of Failure. What he strove to demon- strate was that moral or religious training must be the groundwork of the intellectual structure in education, in order to foster the growth of character which alone leads to real success in the struggle of life. Hence it was, he Chap. II] HIS FIRST BOOK 119 maintained, the duty of Catholic educators not only to insist upon giving the first place to Christian Doctrine in all our schools and colleges, but so to leaven their classical and scientific teaching as to make the secular branches of learning contribute to the exposition of the Christian religion. In other words, he wished to show that the true value of such studies as that of the Greek and Roman classics lies in making them illustrate the worth of natural religion as a basis of revealed truth. Paganism, or what- ever is admirable in its laws, its science, and art, must be regarded simply as material for emphasizing the excellence of Christianity. Geoffrey Austin's entire career was meant to be an illustration of the utter helplessness, spiritually, of a youth issuing from college and facing the practical problems of life, unless he could add the interpreting light of the Christian faith to a comprehensive knowledge of history, literature, mathematics, and physics. That was the conclusion to be drawn from The Triumph of Failure. The manuscript was completed by the beginning of 1898. Before giving the copy to a publisher Father Sheehan submitted it to Matthew Russell for comment and cor- rection. How his friend attended to the matter is shown in the following: 86 Stephen's Green, Dublin, August 25. My dear Father Sheehan, I have galloped through your chapters a little more rapidly than I began. You must have been amused at the useless mi- nuteness of my comments; but that is my proof-reading instinct — I sometimes correct a printed book. In these last chapters I have quietly changed left them in, into let them in, and in ask them go away, I took for granted you omitted to unwittingly, not in- tending an American peculiarity. Your little bits of description as in the page n of Chap. IX are very good, and all the better for being so carefully restrained. But did you mean eyes and eyes to come so near in the next page line 7? Gwendo/zw^ and Gwendo/^w — you use both forms. Give some general direction to the printer. Why did Leviston preserve all those letters in Chap. X.? 120 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Charlie Travers' peroration is splendid: I will use it next summer in introducing "The Two Standards." St. Ephrem will be a revelation to many. Work at such sources, not at Kant. I wonder is your evidence on the Will case taken legally. How dare you put a note of exclamation after yes? Your characters use Christian names perhaps too much. After the Trial would Austin call Mr. Deane Hubert? In the Trial Austin is Collector at Hall; but in several other places Leinster Hall is named. Was it in working order in 1 87-? I think it was perhaps late in the 'Seventies. Would imprisonment for contempt of court involve such con- sequences as in Chap. XVII? But I am ashamed of having helped to keep this beautiful book a day more from the printers. Please God, it will do plenty of good and lead on to even better things. I am not sure that the translations of some of the chapter-mottoes would not do better without the originals. The preaching parts are the best, I think, and the most in- teresting. I am impatient to read it all in type, which is pleasanter even than your excellent manuscript. Take care of your health. God wants a good deal from your voice and pen. Dr. Kolbe is anxious to hear what is thought of his paper on Shakspere's Julius Ccesar in the Irish Monthly for September which will reach you soon. Ever, dear Fr. Sheehan, Yours affectionately Matthew Russell, S.J. The volume was nearly twice the size of Geoffrey Austin. As the latter had not found a very ready welcome in Ire- land, Father Sheehan looked for a publisher in America, the land of free speech, and without traditions to hamper a fair valuation of what he contended for. Here, too, were his own countrymen, with a much broader outlook, and with no less sympathy for the progress of national independence at home. He believed that they would understand and second his plea for the things that contribute to the higher education of youth in the mother country. Chap. II] HIS FIRST BOOK 121 With this hope he sent his manuscript to a leading pub- lisher in New York. After four months it was returned to him with a polite note to the effect that the novel was not available for publication — it was "too voluminous." No doubt the American publisher was well informed as to the slow sale of the author's first book, and felt the risk of undertaking to print the sequel. Ill FAVORITE THEMES MEANWHILE Geoffrey Austin had been given a lengthy and favorable notice in the Ecclesi- astical Review. That was in 1897. Having obtained from the Messrs. M. H. Gill and Son in Dublin the address of the anonymous author, the editor had written to Father Sheehan: Gresham Hotel, Dublin, July 19, 1897- The Rev. P. A. Sheehan, P.P., Doneraile, Co. Cork. Reverend and dear Sir, Having read with much pleasure your book "Geoffrey Austin — Student," and judging that the proposed succeeding volume, of which you give an intimation, is likely to bear some relation to ecclesiastical education, I take the opportunity of asking you to consider the proposal of contributing one or more articles on this or some kindred topic to the American Ecclesiastical Review, of which magazine I am editor. I write this "en route," and shall be able to give you further details as to form, terms, etc., when I learn that you are disposed or free to write for us. In the mean time I would beg you to address me at the American College, Louvain, Belgium, where I hope shortly to be. Trusting that you will find it agreeable to comply with my request, and to indicate if possible some definite subjects on which you would be prepared to write for us, I am yours faithfully in Xt., H. J. Heuser. P.S. — I am sure our terms will prove entirely satisfactory to you. A few days later Father Sheehan sent the following reply: 122 Chap. Ill] FAVORITE THEMES 123 DONERAILE, Co. CORK, July 21, '97- Rev. dear Father: I am in receipt of your kind communication. I shall be very happy to correspond with your wishes. I have been anxious for a long time to get into touch with the American priesthood: and if I had had the opportunity, I should have published the sequel to "Geoffrey Austin" in America. I believe the volume (which is practically a series of essays on the futility of human sciences as compared with the great central science of the Church, linked together by a narrative) would be more widely understood in America than at home. However, as no opportunity arose which would bring me into relation with an American publisher, I have now very nearly completed arrangements with Messrs. Burns and Oates, London, for the publication of the volume, which will extend to nearly five hundred pages. I enclose a list of chapters. I have been engaged for some time in putting together some ideas about clerical education. I have struck out the chapters and designs: and have written the first three chapters. The whole when completed will run thus: — Book I The Student Chapt. I. Clerical Equipment: — Piety Chapt. II. Clerical Equipment: — Culture (Philosophy) Chapt. III. Clerical Equipment: — Culture (Theology) Chapt. IV. Clerical Equipment: — Culture (Eccles. History). Book ii The Priest Chapt. I. The Priest as "Sacrificer." Chapt. II. The Priest as "Custos Domini." Chapt. III. The Priest as "Psalmist." Chapt. IV. The Priest as "Dispenser of Mysteries." Book III The Apostle Chapt. I. The Apostolate of Preaching. Chapt. II. The Apostolate of the Schools. Chapt. III. The Apostolate of the Press. 124 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Chapt. IV. The Apostolate of Literature. Chapt. V. The Apostolate of the Laity. Chapt. VI. The Apostolate of the Religious Orders. The first of these three chapters are written: which I shall be happy to submit to you whenever you come to Ireland. I could not say however in what time I shall have the whole design com- pleted, for I have a great deal to do, both in missionary work and in literature. The volume, too, was intended primarily for the Irish Church: but the Introduction alone is affected by that idea. I shall be very happy to hear from you again, and remain, Rev. dear Father, Yours in Christ, P. A. Sheehan, P.P. An outline of the contents of The Triumph of Failure, the publication of which had not yet been finally arranged, accompanied the letter. As to the articles on Clerical Education, proposed by Father Sheehan, it was impossible to accept them for the Ecclesiastical Review because that magazine was just then running a similar series by the late Abbe Hogan, under the title of "Clerical Studies." Accordingly the editor wrote to him: The American College, Louvain, July 24, '97. The Rev. P. A. Sheehan, PP. ReVEREND DEAR FATHER: Your kind letter has just reached me. I am glad you find it agreeable to comply with my request, and that the nature of your work corresponds with the aim and scope of our Review. As we have but recently discussed the question of "Clerical Studies" (Dr. Hogan, of St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Mass., is continuing the topic in serial papers published at intervals) I should prefer to make selection of some of the topics which are treated in iso- lated chapters of your proposed volume * — any or all of which would be suitable matter for the current numbers of our magazine. In case you agree to let me have the ten papers (comprised in so 1 The chapters which it was thought might be available were pointed out in a note. Chap. Ill] FAVORITE THEMES 125 many chapters) treating of the Priest as "Sacrificer" — "Custos Domini" — "Psalmist," etc., I would make the following propo- sition, presuming that you wish to retain the right of publishing them afterwards in book form: That you will send us one (or more) articles every two months, you to receive two hundred and fifty dollars (in ten or less fre- quent instalments) according to the receipt of the papers. The publication of the articles would no doubt materially advance the subsequent sale of the volume when published, especially if that be done in the States, where the demand for such literature is quickly growing. However I shall be glad to have you write in any case, and would accede to your own terms if you prefer to make them. Awaiting your kind reply, I am, Yours faithfully in Xt. H. J. Heuser. Father Sheehan had at the time written only the first few chapters of his series as designated, and it was never published. What I find of it among his papers is of interest as showing his views on clerical education. The MS. bears the title The Work and Wants of the Irish Church, and deals with equipment of the clerical student in the matter of piety and general culture. As regards the subject of scholastic philosophy Father Sheehan had evidently al- tered his attitude from that entertained by him during his seminary days at Maynooth. Probably subsequent study had taught him its practical value as a medium for the training of the mind. There is an introduction to these ecclesiastical pedagogics, in which, under the title The Isle of Destiny, he dwells at some length upon the providential calling of the Irish race to carry abroad the faith of Christ. At the conclu- sion he inquires why, in the face of new dangers to religion from the insidious attacks of modern civilization, "a race, chosen by the Holy Spirit for such vast spiritual work, should be spiritually dormant in its own home." He asks whether "there are any reasons why energies so visible and far-reaching when transplanted abroad, should remain 126 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II inoperative where we should suppose they would be most highly developed." The sad Miserere that crept around the Irish coast when Irish exiles were departing, has long since burst forth into a glorious Te Deum that is echoed from New York to Melbourne, from Westminster to the City of the Golden Gate: but why is it still but a spiritual Miserere at home? l In eloquently pathetic words he complains of the mu- tilated worship in the churches of Ireland, of the gradual lessening of faith, the decay of fervor, the lowering of spiritual standards in the religious life of the country, the deteriorated morals of the larger towns, and of the fact that in many places religion in its baldest and barest forms does not touch the lives of the poorer and uneducated classes. He laments that the pure and refined lives which under happier conditions were the lot of the Irish peasantry should be considered the dowry only of a past generation. The gentle courtesy, the patience under trial, the faces trans- figured by suffering — these characteristics of our Celtic and Catholic peasantry, which elicited the admiration of even Protes- tant strangers, are rapidly disappearing under the new conditions of life. The abandonment of country life, the emigration to cities and towns, the subtle influences of American intercourse — all these things are wiping out traits and characteristics that were once our happiness and our boast. The lineaments of modern Pagan civilization are making themselves but too apparent in the manners of our people, and the sweet simplicities of the past are yielding to narrower and more complex sensibilities, to curiosity and criticism and that uplifting of the heart which is the most deadly enemy to sanctity. 2 He looks to the clergy for the remedy of this apparent deterioration. It is a question whether the Catholic Church in Ireland is quite prepared to meet these new phases which every day will become more pronounced and defined. To many, deep lovers of that Church in its past history and its present environments, there i From the MS. 2 Ibid. Chap. Ill] FAVORITE THEMES 127 appears to be a sad lack of organization, an unconsciousness of present possibilities and future dangers, and a want of corres- pondence with the magnificent opportunities which the innate piety and faith of our people afford, which augur badly for the future, and which may yet lead to recrimination and regrets. Above all there is a waste of energy that finds its result in tepidity, laxity of morals amongst the people, indevotion, impiety in con- versation, irreverence in the young, irreligion amongst the older members, and a total absence of the "higher sanctity" that might be expected to be general among a people so highly dowered by nature and grace. 1 His appeal is therefore to the priests of Ireland, whom he urges to realize that "the old order changeth," calling for adjustment in the attitude of the leaders of the people. Some of us, not altogether dreamers and idealists, believe it quite possible to make the Irish race as cultured, refined, and puri- fied by the influence of Christian teachings as she was in the days of Aidan and Columba; and we look forward to the time when Ireland, emancipated from the vexatious and harassing con- ditions of the present, shall become a powerful factor in that war between the Church and the world which is becoming more keen and intense the more Protean the forms in which the in- fidelity of the latter reveals itself. But to carry out this high destiny, Ireland needs above all the services of a priesthood, learned, zealous, and disciplined into the solidarity of aim and principle, which alone can make it formidable and successful. 2 If Father Sheehan proposed to point out the defects and to suggest remedial measures in the educational system of the theological seminary, it was in no spirit of criticism or conscious personal superiority. No one could be more keenly alive than the present writer to the self sacrifice, the devotion to duty, the fidelity to their flocks, which have always characterized the Irish priest, and which were never more clearly manifested than in the crucial trials of the last ten years. But we think, with all diffidence and humility, that 1 Ibid. 2 Ibid. 128 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II the system at present in operation in the Irish Church needs re- vision and amendment; and it is hoped that the suggestion made here may stimulate those in whose hands God has placed the power of reformation and reconstruction to modify and organize on a healthier plan the principles that at present are guiding the Irish Church. 1 That is the thought that runs through these essays — a call to the clergy to rise to their high responsibility by making their people at home patterns of moral and intel- lectual achievement, such as their native gifts and inherited graces of faith warrant. The accomplishment of this design called for elevated standards and new methods of ecclesiastical training and these he ventured to propose. Early in 1898 Father Sheehan wrote a paper on the "Value of Literary Criticism." 2 Possibly he was endeavor- ing to revenge himself on his critics who had thus far at- tended chiefly to his shortcomings. DONERAILE, Co. CORK, March 3, '98 Rev. dear Father, Some months ago you were kind enough to request some con- tributions from me for your magazine. I have had neither health nor time to do much since; but perhaps you would allow me to make my debut in your journal with the enclosed paper on "The Higher Criticism." I have personally only too much reason to be thankful for my treatment by yourself in your critique of "Geoffrey Austin" last year. But I think and feel that we are too prone to admire every- thing that comes from the opposite camps of infidelity and heresy, instead of assuming the efficiency of the vast forces at our disposal. It is quite possible however that this paper may not, in some respects, meet your views. In that case you would do me a great favour by returning the MS. as I rarely keep copies of what I write. I am, Rev. and dear Father, Faithfully yours in Xt. P. A. Sheehan, PP. 1 Ibid. * Ecclesiastical Revieio, June, 1898, p. 591. Chap. Ill] FAVORITE THEMES 129 The article referred to points out that "a critic serves a most useful purpose in wisely discriminating between the valuable and useful elements in literature." His first principle in selecting for commendation a Catholic book should be the reverse or rather the direct contradictory of the old scholastic maxim Bonum ex Integra causa: Malum ex quocumque defectu, a perfectly healthy axiom in moral science, but a vicious and pernicious maxim in criticism. He shows that Catholic critics on the whole have over- looked the good to be found in Catholic writers. He in- stances Francis Thompson, who had at the time been noticed only by Coventry Patmore and Wilfrid Meynell, and who was then wearing out his genius in writing little prose sketches for the Franciscan Annals. Another writer whom he mentions as an example of neglected talent is the Reverend Dr. William Barry whose New Antigone, published shortly before, evinced a high order of literary talent, though it fell short, among Catholic critics, of the sympathy it seemed to merit. Next Father Sheehan intimates that the trend of modern writing is toward adopting the novel or story as the best and most attractive vehicle for teaching, not only morals and history, but science as well. He believes that if Buckle, Newman, Ruskin, and men of their genius had been in their prime during the last few years, they would have chosen fiction as the means of putting forward and popu- larizing their favorite theories. He argues, in fine, that the world of to-day should be taught Christianity through the medium of attractive imagery rather than in the di- dactic language of the old schools. And he urges the critics to help the writers who adopt this method and to cease picking flaws. He characterizes negative criticism as being either hyperaemic or anaemic; doing good to neither reader nor writer. While thus absorbingly active in his own projects Father Sheehan did not fail to send a cheerful godspeed to his fel- low workers in a kindred cause. His old schoolmate, William O'Brien, who had entered Parliament some fif- i 3 o CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II teen years before, when barely past thirty, had not allowed his literary gifts to lie idle. He had just at this time writ- ten a political novel, The Wreckers, of which he had sent an advance copy to his friend at Doneraile. Father Sheehan's acknowledgment reflects not merely a genial appreciation, but incidentally his own mental attitude toward the subject of English misrule in Ireland. Doneraile, Co. Cork April 30, 1898 My dear William, I deferred writing to thank you for the great favour done me by sending me an early copy of your new novel, until I should have had the gratification of reading it, and telling you what I thought of it. I have now gone carefully through the chapters; but last night I had to close the book at the 21 Chap. "The Wreckers" quite overpowered me by the dramatic intensity of the descrip- tion. I am not acquainted with any chapter in fiction that equals its dramatic force. It challenges comparison with the famous storm scene in "David Copperfield," which culminated in Steer- forth's death; but the latter is easy reading. "The Wreckers" cannot be read without great nerve tension. I think you have produced a memorable book. It is your greatest step towards realizing the vocation that many have foreshadowed for you — that of being the "Walter Scott" of Ireland. What will strike every one most in the book is its peculiarly Gallic flavour. You did a wise and artistic thing in giving the Irish expressions as they occurred and inserting the Irish idioms in the dialogue. But it must have cost you immense study — in history and in language. It is a grand Irish novel; and will be taken to the hearts of the people. But it is all so piti- ful, so sad — the eternal story of Irish trustfulness and English perfidy. You have done justice to Sir John Perrot — a figure almost too much neglected in Irish History. I hope you will deal yet with my deceased parishioners, Edmund Spenser and Raleigh. 1 There will be a peculiar attraction for the book just now, as it calls up so powerfully our past relations with Spain. And a very 1 This is Sir Walter Raleigh (Ralegh), friend of Spenser and associated with the latter during his sojourn in Ireland. Chap. Ill] FAVORITE THEMES 131 large percentage of our countrymen cling to these conditions, and give all their sympathies in the present war 1 to our old ally. With most grateful thanks for your kind remembrance, and with all good wishes for your future, fraught with such vast conse- quences to Ireland, I am, dear William, Yours affectionately, P. A. Sheehan, P.P. 1 Spanish-American War of 1898. IV THE GENESIS OF "MY NEW CURATE " AND ITS RECEPTION IN accepting Father Sheehan's article on "Literary Criticism" mentioned above, the editor of the Ecclesi- astical Review had taken occasion to suggest "Clerical Types" as a theme for his pen. Overbrook, March 15, 1898. Dear Father Sheehan, . . . Last year I proposed to you to write some papers on Clerical Training. Not hearing from you, and seeing in the mean time some articles in a lighter vein over your name, I concluded that you had abandoned the project of the series; and since I have material from writers here on the same subject, I am satisfied. But I can make another offer to you, if agreeable. We want a series of papers entitled "Types of the Catholic Priest": "My Pastors," "My Curates," etc. These are to be sketches of char- acter and priestly life, written in a mingled vein of humor and serious thought. Where they happen to point out any weak phases, it should be done in a way which could not possibly wound, though it might suggest correction. If you do not find such writing to your taste, could you suggest to us some one who possesses the talent to portray men, and describe their doings in the parish, in the home of the priest, the church, etc., in company with his brother priests, etc. Awaiting your reply, I am faithfully yours in Xt. H. J. Heuser. The following was his answer: DONERAILE, Co. CORK, April 2, '98 Rev. dear Father: Many thanks for your letter and enclosure. I quite approve of your change of title in my paper. I had adverted to it, but I thought to give the paper a catching title. 132 Chap. IV] "MY NEW CURATE" 133 In reference to your suggestion that I should write a series of papers on clerical life, it is rather a curious coincidence that I had already in my portfolio ten chapters on clerical life in Ireland, which I had purposed to develop into a volume. They were in- tended, however, for popular reading: and my thought was to in- troduce my own ideas, suggestions, etc, under the sugar coating of a story. I venture to send you these chapters. It is quite pos- sible they will not meet your views, in which case I would thank you to return them. Should they be considered suitable for your paper, then I could easily divert them from the original purpose, and make the remaining chapters more closely indicative of clerical studies, duties, etc. In any case it was my intention to offer the papers as a serial to some Catholic magazine. With very many thanks, I am, dear Rev. Father, Yours in Christ, P. A. Sheehan. I think Wilfrid Meynell, editor of the London Weekly Register, will be interested in the paper on criticism. He always notices your Review. I suppose I have to thank you also for the fact that Geoffrey Austin is about to be translated into German. Shortly after the foregoing letter, Father Sheehan sent his manuscript. That was the beginning of My New Curate. The first instalment appeared in the May issue of The Ecclesiastical Review. No one but an editor can know the peculiar thrill which answers the receipt of a manuscript that promises to make "a hit" with his readers. He feels that not only has he acquired a good thing, but that he is, in a sense, the pro- ducer of it; he has discovered the mine that holds the precious ore. And there is further the enjoyable conscious- ness that the treasure brought to light by him is sure to give widespread intellectual pleasure, and a happy ex- pectancy for what each new instalment of the story may bring. The sense of satisfaction is enhanced when the work has the quality of originality which is likely to preserve it 134 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II for generations to come. This story promised to be a valu- able and an altogether new departure in ecclesiastical literature. Father Sheehan had sent ten chapters, as a beginning of the proposed serial. Five of these pictured the pastor and his new curate, and the description was most attrac- tively true to life. With the sixth chapter the story began to take on the character of a Celtic romance, by intro- ducing a witch, supposed to hold intercourse with the fairies and to control certain evil spirits. It dealt with a phase of popular superstition unfamiliar to most readers outside Ireland, although in the mind of Father Sheehan the subject happened to have a special apologetic value. Witchcraft, though banished from popular belief on the continent for nearly two centuries, had taken tenacious root in parts of Ireland. 1 The well-known case of the burning of Bridget Cleary at Bally vadlea as late as 1895, in which nine persons were tried at Clonmel for complicity in causing the death of a young woman, under the superstitious belief that she had been carried off by the fairies, and that an evil spirit had been put in possession of her body, was demonstration of the continuance of this superstition. Contemporary journals had charged the clergy with having failed to crush out this species of "ignorance and superstition gathered round the Druidical or Danish rath." Our author wanted to show that the Catholic clergy was entirely opposed to such a practice. Beyond this it was his purpose to eliminate the abuse from among his own people. As the application of the argument was not likely to be 1 Mr. St. John Seymour, a Dublin clergyman, has since published a history of Irish Witchcraft and Demonology (Hodges, Figgis and Co. 191 3), in which he traces its origin and practice. Whilst he shows that "Ireland had been unjustly stigma- tized as a barbarous and superstitious country," he instances examples of witches being tried and convicted there, and allows that the custom of designating persons as fairy witches has taken on new life in modern times, among the ignorant and the superstitiously inclined, who frequently have recourse to the most absurd de- vices for the cure of particular ills, or even the infliction of malicious injuries upon others. Chap. IV] "MY NEW CURATE" 135 understood by the reader unfamiliar with conditions in Ireland, the five chapters in question were returned to Father Sheehan with a statement of the objection and a request, if possible, to modify the presentation of the matter accordingly. His reply was: DONERAILE, Co. CoRK, May 6, '98. Rev. dear Father: I enclose corrected proofs. I received your letter and check (50 dollars) for which accept my thanks. The MS. registered came to hand also to-day, with proofs. My original idea in writing those papers was to ventilate my own ideas on purely ecclesiastical subjects. Then I changed the plan and introduced a little romanticism. Now that you have kindly taken up the papers, I revert to the first design; and will make these papers of Irish life at the same time sermons in miniature. I have rewritten, therefore, the remaining chapters, leaving out the romance — the story of the witch, etc. I have retained the chapter, or rather parts of it, called "The Great House," and renamed it "At the Station." I have also retained the chapter "Our Concert" which is drawn from actual experience; and in which I desire to show what could be done in Ireland if we only wished. I have rewritten the chapter on secret societies, and have added two new sketches, "Severely Reprimanded" and "A Lesson in Resignation." I have expunged all the rest, and confined the chapters to a priest's daily experiences in Ireland with all classes. I think you will find this satisfactory; but of course you can best judge what is suitable for the majority of your readers. If you have any suggestions to make as to the course which these papers ought to take, I shall be most happy to accept them, so far as I am able. I shall send remaining chapters in a few days. Thanking you very much for all your kindness, I am, dear Father, Yours faithfully in Xt. P. A. Sheehan, P.P. The original title of the series had been changed to My New Curate. Since the author had been reluctant 136 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II to write over his name, the story was announced with the subtitle " Stray Leaves from an Irish Parish Priest's Diary." Three weeks later he wrote: DONERAILE, Co. CORK, May 28, '98. My dear Father Heuser: I send you by this mail, leaving Queenstown tomorrow, Sunday 29th, four chapters of "My New Curate." I sincerely hope they will please you, and reach you in time for your July number. I am glad you have preserved my anonymity, although my friends here have guessed at once the author. I would hardly care to write those papers, if I could not make them edifying as well as amusing: and it is therefore a source of great satisfaction to be assured by you that they must do good. I hope I shall succeed in not making my teaching too obtrusive. You will see that I have altogether eliminated the romantic, and cut away all my descriptive passages, which to an author is equivalent to a surgical operation. I have introduced Campion, for he belongs to a class that is likely to give trouble in Ireland. In most of our towns professional men have great difficulty in approaching the sacraments; and I want to show Father Letheby's success there. The Station Picture and Our Concert are drawn from life. Each has its own moral, that of the latter being — the ease with which village choirs may be organized, as I shall show in succeeding papers. The Severely Reprimanded speaks for itself. I enclose syllabus of succeeding chapters that you may know the drift of my work. My great difficulty is to draw from life, and yet avoid identify- ing any character with living persons. And we are so narrow and insular here in Ireland that it is almost impossible to prevent priests saying: "That is so and so," "That is Father ," etc. But I shall steer clear, without wounding charity. I shall leave the correction of proofs in your own hands. A printer's mistake is of no consequence. I hold a short tale on hand, called The Monks of Trabolgan. It was sent back from "The Catholic World" on account of its length (32 MS. pages). It would suit your series of papers as Chap. IV] "MY NEW CURATE" 137 My Curate's First Essay in Literature. With many thanks for all your kindness, I am, dear Father, Yours in Xt. P. A. ShEEHAN P.S. What enormous difficulties lie in the path of Catholic writers. I committed a typewritten copy of The Triumph of Failure, the sequel to Geoffrey Austin to . . . New York four months ago. They have now written to say it is too voluminous for publication. It would form a very modest volume of about 350 pages. I am writing for the typewritten copy by this post: and shall now publish at home. The story of The Monks of Traholgan was not utilized for My New Curate, as its author had intended. After having been declined by the editor of the Catholic World it was offered to Father Thomas Finlay, S.J., for The New Ireland Review, which had been merged with The Lyceum founded by him in 1887. Subsequently the story was withdrawn, as the following letter shows, by the ad- vice of Father Russell, who suggested some revision. Ulti- mately it was published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland. Recent events of the war have given it a special significance. 86 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin Feb. 7 Dear Father Sheehan, Father Tom Finlay demurred a little when I demanded The Monks of Traholgan, but, knowing the congested state of his storehouse, I insisted on restoring it to you with a view to possible changes. I wonder, when it finally appears, will those hexameters survive. I still hold that a man with any taste for Latin verse would not make such impossible ones. Ever, dear Fr. Sheehan, Yours sincerely, Matthew Russell, S.J. Father Sheehan inclosed a syllabus of the succeeding chapters of My New Curate, as he states in his letter of May 28th, given above. The titles differ from those in i 3 8 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONER AILE [Part II the story as finally arranged. The latter ran to thirty- three chapters, the last of which appeared in the September number of the Ecclesiastical Review for 1899. As originally projected, the chapters, beginning with the tenth, ran as follows : Chapt. X. "Over the walnuts and the " (A conversation on fraternal correction, Greek, preaching, the temperance question, etc.) Chapt. XI. "Beside the singing river." (Secret Societies destructive of religion.) Chapt. XII. "My Madonna." (A little pathos about one of the school children: and the use of charms in Ireland.) Chapt. XIII. "Larry McGee." (My curate's attempts at church improvements. His annoyances, etc.) Chapt. XIV. "Winter Studies." (The philosophy of the Tramp world.) Chapt. XV. "The Captain Campion not at his Christmas duty." (My Curate's conference with him.) Chapt. XVI. "Christmas Morning." (The Adeste by the new village choir.) Chapt. XVII. "My Curate on Literature." Chapt. XVIII. "The May Conference." (Gives the pro- grammes, etc., of our Irish conferences; and how Father Letheby startled the Conference by his vehemence.) Chapt. XIX. "The Star of the Sea" is launched. (Great Success — Troubles.) Chapt. XX. "The Factory Opened." (Great Success — Troubles.) Chapt. XXI. "An Eviction." Chapt. XXII. "Father Letheby Bankrupt." (His final success.) Chapt. XXIII: "The Bishop's Visitation." Chapt. XXIV. "I get the Mozetta, and my curate is promoted to the Cathedral." The author's desire to remain anonymous arose not merely from sensitiveness to publicity, but from unwilling- ness to encounter criticism similar to that which had been passed upon Geoffrey Austin. But the identity of the writer of My New Curate could not long remain a secret; and Chap. IV] "MY NEW CURATE" 139 gradually he began to realize that the vast majority of his readers were delighted with his excursions into Irish pastoral preserves. From time to time the favorable criticisms which appeared in the American press, and some private letters from men whose judgment he was sure to value, were sent to him. All are pleased with your happy delineations of priestly life, and with the sparkle and literary finish that characterize them, to say nothing of the graceful touches of your fine whip which finds the sensitive spot to urge or check. Let me add that these papers will do exceptional good, not only because they foster a healthy tendency excelsior in various ways, but also because of the form into which the lessons have been cast through your ingenuity will cause them to be read. When the Lettres d'un Cure de Campagne, by Querdec, appeared some years ago, I anxiously scoured the land to get something similar in English. The subsequent volumes from the same source increased this desire. Now you have just struck the vein which suits the ma- jority of our readers. I wish you were familiar with American modes and models of pastoral life, so as to continue the work indefinitely on kindred lines when you have done with My New Curate. There were, however, a few critics. Some even of those who were amused and edified by the story winced at the author's references to certain defects among the clergy and people in Ireland, and which they took to be a reflec- tion on the national character. But the ever increasing popularity of the story made it quite evident that these defects, if such they could be termed, were outweighed by the good points of the story. At this the author seemed greatly pleased. On June 19, 1898, he writes: I am much gratified at the enclosed slips — "Laudari a lau- datis" is always very pleasant; and I think a good deal of Dr. Stang's and Fr. Hogan's appreciation ... I also have to thank you for the cutting from the Literary Digest. I showed it to Fr. Matthew Russell, S.J., editor of the Irish Monthly, who was staj ing with me at the time. It is a curious fact that Fr. Russell 140 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II and Fr. Finlay, S.J. came simultaneously to the conclusion that the New Curate was my work, from purely internal evidence. I had also had the pleasure of receiving the congratulations of Bishop Brady of Boston, who was in Clare with me, and to whom Fr. Hogan revealed the authorship. His Lordship said that his assistants read the numbers eagerly. If there are any subjects on literature, poetry or philosophy, that you think could be made suitable for your readers in the form of articles, I shall have some spare time, I hope, during the winter months, and I might take them up. I have an article on "Priestly Culture" nearly completed. It was one of a series I projected. It deals with the importance of the study of philosophy. But, I suppose Dr. Hogan (whose papers are learned and attractive) holds the field there. P.S. — I send you a photo that you may know to whom you are writing. Occasionally Father Sheehan, asking that some altera- tions be made in his MS., indicates his anxiety to avoid the criticisms mentioned above: DONERAILE, Co. CORK. Sept. io, '98. There is just one paragraph in the chapter "Beside the Sing- ing River" of the wording of which I am not quite sure. I think it commences: It was a magnificent leap of imagination on Father Letheby's part to connect Jews and Freemasons with etc., etc. What I intended to convey was (1) that, as in Europe, so in Ireland, anti-Catholic journals are run by Freemasons and pos- sibly Jews: (2) That Jewish and Freemason firms in these countries do a large business in manufacturing and selling devotional objects, beads, scapulars, etc.: (3) That Jewish peddlers through the country are often agents for the sale of pornographic literature. It was not my meaning to connect this latter business with the newspapers in Dublin or in Ireland. Would you kindly modify or omit? These papers are attract- ing a good deal of attention in Ireland: and I see the necessity of being very accurate and circumspect in what I publish, especially as I cannot see proof. Yours very sincerely, P. A. Sheehan, P.P. Chap. IV] "MY NEW CURATE" 141 When eventually the author of My New Curate was being everywhere heralded as a genius who had introduced a new type into English literature, the question of the author- ship began to be openly discussed. As it became gradually known that the writer was the parish priest of Doneraile, congratulations poured in upon him, and he was being called upon by visitors at home, and more especially from the United States, Canada, and Australia. The clergy of his diocese were feeling a sense of pride in the acclaim that greeted one of their fellow priests. "The Bishop," he writes, "is taking round with him the May number, and reading it at the Visitation dinners here in Cloyne." His friend, William O'Brien, on his way to Malta, writes: My dear Father Patrick, I cannot resist the temptation to write you a line to let you know how far the fame of "My New Curate" has extended. The Bishop of Mauritius, Dr. O'Neill, who, in spite of his name, has never been in Ireland, is on board and he told me that your book was the delight of many a lonely hour in his exile, and was also read and re-read a dozen times over by the four or five Irish priests who have established themselves in his diocese. The rewards of Irish authorship are not so numerous that one should be deprived of the pleasure of knowing how far the influence of your charming story has made itself felt. It is something very different indeed from vanity to have the consoling knowledge that you have been the means of giving so much delight to so many of your countrymen, and have been, so to say, in such intimate communion with the spirit of our race. I find my own feeling shared everywhere that the curate for all his perfections is not worth the hem of the surplice of his less enterprising but oh, so much more Irish and more human old P.P. Although the public outcry for "More" is often one of the penalties of writing a successful book, I hope, and indeed am quite sure, that the pen which gave us "Father Dan" will not rest before making another rich addition to our not too splendid national literary possessions. I am sure you will be glad to know that the sea trip thus far has served me vastly, and that I have hope of returning in completely restored health. With every good wish, always your old friend and schoolfellow, W. O'Brien. 142 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Mr. O'Brien was quite right. The author of "Daddy Dan" was not to rest before making other rich additions to the national literature of Ireland. Father Sheehan had in the first instance taken up his pen from the conviction that that little instrument is more powerful than the voice. "It lasts longer and reaches farther. The litterateur is a greater power than the politician. He inspires the latter, and outlasts him." As a proof he used to quote the fact that it was by his writings that Rousseau precipitated the French Revolution and survived it; and he was fond of saying that of the two great Englishmen, Newman and Gladstone, the former would still be an active and peren- nial force when men shall remember the latter but as a name. Moreover he was convinced that moral teaching lasts longer than intellectualism, and is far more fertile of good. "Supreme intelligence does not win humanity." For this reason he not only made writing a part of his daily occupation, but urged the same habit on those whom he was able to influence. He did not believe that literature should be cultivated for its own sake, as an art, or that it was an inviting field for a career. All successful writers are unanimous in warning off young as- pirants from the thorny path of literature. Grant Allen would give them a broom and bid them take to crossing-sweeping. Gibbon, de Quincey, Scott, Southey, Thackeray, — all showed the weals and lashes of the hard taskmaster. Amongst moderns Daudet warns that brain work is the most exacting of all species of labor, and must eventuate, sooner or later, in a bad break- down; Mr. Zangwill says somewhat grandiosely: "Whoso with blood and tears would dig art out of his soul, may lavish his golden prime in pursuit of emptiness; or striking treasure find only fairy-gold, so that when his eye is purged of the spell of morning, he sees his hand is full of withered leaves." And dear old Sam Johnson, who certainly passed through his Inferno and Purga- torio before he settled down in the comfortable paradise of Streat- ham, epitomises his hardships as author in the well known line: "Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the gaol." * 1 Under the Cedars and the Stars, Part II, C. Chap. IV] "MY NEW CURATE" 143 He knew others, however, who managed to make fortune if not wealth out of their literary pursuits — such as his favorite, Jean Paul, who saw in poverty but the pain of piercing a maiden's ears that you may hang the precious jewels in the wound. Similarly he appraised Balzac, whose struggles and the agonies of ill-spent genius became the occasion of a most touching sympathy, as revealed in the letters of his sister Laura. On the other hand he instanced Renan, with whom literature and the influence of a sister were for evil. His judgment upon Pascal as a disappointed litterateur is original and interesting: The verdict of a more enlightened age than ours will be that Pascal was no sceptic, though a bold enquirer; that his mar- vellous mental keenness and vigor were only equalled by his rigid asceticism; that nature had made him pious, and circumstances made him proud; that his "Thoughts" which reveal to us his inner life are beautiful and deep beyond words; that they would have even the color of that inspiration which comes from nature and grace united, were it not for a dark shadow which stretches itself over all, making the philosophy of them less clear, the truth of them less apparent, the study of them a task of anxiety and sus- picion, instead of being one of edification and delight. When the Provincial Letters are forgotten or neglected as splenetic sarcasm, and have passed away like the Junius and Drapier Letters, or have become but the study of the connoisseur, his Pensees will remain broken fragments of an incomplete but im- mortal work. 1 The serial My New Curate was gaining in popularity as it was drawing to its completion. The Irish bishops were commending it to each other and to the clergy. Dear Father Sheehan, Dr. Keyes O'Dogherty, Bishop of Derry, was here yesterday. He told me that he had dined lately with the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr. Whiteside, who spoke of "My New Curate" as the best written and most interesting thing of the day. Dr. O'Dogherty got all the numbers from some priest and then wrote to Dr. White- side that he agreed with him. The Bishop of Derry did not know 1 Ibid., civ. i 4 4 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II it was you till I told him. A good omen for "The Triumph of Failure." Ever yours sincerely, M. Russell, S.J. As Father Sheehan had intimated that he would have in all probability some leisure to write during the winter months, a new serial as a continuation of the experiences of Father Letheby, under the title "My Old Pastors," was proposed to him by the editor. It would give the reverse of the medal, and leave room for further discussion of the exploits of the curates. To this he replied: With regard to your suggestion of attempting a new series under the heading "My Old Pastors," I can see no difficulty about it, except that I am pressed for time. I think I could continue the series, as you desire, introducing them with a note from the clerical executors of Father Dan to the effect that they have rushed these foregoing papers through the press because they heard that the Rev. Charles Letheby was about to issue a series of papers entitled "My Old Pastor," and they thought it best to let Fr. Dan speak for himself first. This would introduce the new series by the Rev. Charles Letheby: and I could bring in a good deal of my experience in English missions. "the triumph of failure" IN November of the same year, 1898, The Triumph of Failure was published by Messrs. Burns and Oates of London. Naturally Father Sheehan was anxious about its reception. He was now satisfied to have his name at- tached to his writings, for the popularity of My New Curate had removed the apprehension of further criticism. 1 Father Russell, as usual, was ready to see that the book should get due notice from the men of the press. In November he writes: Nov. 8, '98. St. Stephen's Green, Dublin. My dear Father Sheehan: ... I hope your novel will find kind and gifted critics. We must take pains to get it reviewed (and I have never yet thanked you for your fine Cork review of St. Joseph of Jesus and Mary). You spoke of using my cheque as the price of certain copies. If you do not let it stand as part of your next remittance, let it procure us plenty of presentation and review copies, and bid Burns and Oates send to yourself as many as you are likely to be able to utilize for these purposes. Even a country newspaper's review is far better than an advertisement which costs a good deal and which few read. Miss Katherine Conway of The Boston Pilot comes to Mor- rison's Hotel, Dawson St., to-night, en route from Rome to the Hub. She will be here for ten days. She too must review The Triumph of Failure. When will it be out? No sign of Rosa Gilbert's Nanno, though in type this month or more. Yours ever affectionately, M. Russell, S.J. 1 About this time the hitherto anonymous edition of Geoffrey Austin was re- issued with a new title page bearing the author's name. 145 146 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Again, a month later: 86 St. Stephen's Green, University College, Dublin. Dec. 18. My dear Fr. Sheehan, Though I am "out" since Friday, I have had a great accumu- lation of business to get through and I have done hardly anything for The Triumph of Failure. I gave a copy to Mr. Wm. P. C. whose review will appear in the Freeman's Journal very soon, perhaps tomorrow. I gave a copy to Thomas Arnold to-day when he brought me an interesting letter from his daughter Mrs. Humphrey Ward about Mr. Charles Water's criticism of Helbeck of Bannisdale. She accepts many of his criticisms as fair. I will send her The Triumph of Failure. You speak of Dr. Wm. Barry and Mr. F. Egan of the Catholic University, Washington. Have you sent them copies? You ought, and with letters. I will ask you — but no, it will be enough for me to get from the publishers a list of the review-copies sent out. In supply- ing other journals besides, you and I would not, I think, look in the same directions. Miss Katherine Conway of the Boston Pilot would be one of my selections. The Academy always puts before its Brief Mention Notices an announcement that fuller reviews of a selection of these books will be given hereafter. Your book is announced as A Story of strong Roman Catholic interest. The hero writes towards the end: "I am writing these memories . . . the white, stained face of my Mother." I am sure you will get a long notice hereafter. They gave me a very fine review this week of Nanno, with a beautiful picture of Lady Gilbert, though they had given before a short notice like yours. In great haste With best Christmas Wishes Yours affectionately Matthew Russell, S.J. As a matter of fact Miss Conway did not review The Triumph of Failure. "It was too high for me," she wrote; which probably meant that she did not think it reached up to the standard of My New Curate. She wrote to Father Chap. V] "THE TRIUMPH OF FAILURE" 147 Sheehan telling him that she believed his particular talent as a writer lay in his candid revelation of the English- speaking priest. She thought his pen was needed in this particular field because it was unique therein. To her frank charge he replied that he had been tempted to aban- don the portrayal of clerical characters because many amongst his friends and acquaintances had set them- selves to identifying from his contemporaries some of the men who figured in his books. It troubled him; he feared to give pain, and he was almost, if not quite, persuaded to write no more in the same line. In reply she argued that the suggested identifications were only proof of the life- like qualities of his priests. 1 Father Russell again takes up the subject of The Triumph of Failure in the following: University College, Dublin My dear Father Sheehan, Mr. Coyne told me to-day that he had at last arranged with Mr. Brayden to be the Freeman reviewer of "The Triumph of Failure." Mr. Robert Donovan had undertaken it. He is a good writer but dilatory. Mr. Brayden will warn him ofF. Fr. Henry Browne, S.J., of this house (who has always admired "Geoffrey Austin") has written a wonderful study of the new book which has been offered to Dr. Hogan for the Irish Ecclesi- astical Record. No time for an answer yet — unless it came this evening. If not accepted, I will send it to John J. O'Shea for the American Catholic Quarterly. Fr. Browne is going to Castle island, Fermoy, and Buttevant in the next few days, and may cross your path. In great haste, Yrs. AfFly, M. Russell, S.J. The promised reviews did not all turn out to be favorable to the author. 1 Some of the appreciative criticisms of Miss Conway's books in Irish journals are from Canon Sheehan's pen. 148 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II St. Stephen's Green, University College, Dublin. Jan. 3, 1899. My dear Fr. Sheehan, God bless you for that best of Christmas boxes, a renewed subscription to The Irish Monthly. I am very glad you have the humility and good sense to take in good part such criticism as William Coyne's. Dr. Barry's in The Catholic Times will serve your book immensely. It can hardly be in the issue printing or printed at this moment — from the manner in which he speaks of it in his letter of this morning. He repeats to me all the praise that you shrank from re- porting. I will ask from Burns and Oates the names of the 15 American journals supplied with review-copies, that I may ask Miss Conway of the Boston Pilot to watch them. She herself must write a full review. Burns and Oates did not supply The Independent — yes, they supplied Nation and Irish Catholic, not knowing perhaps that they have the same office and staff. I have just written, therefore, to Mr. D. to poke him up; and I have sent a copy to Mr. John O'Mahony (of Cork) to review in The Independent. At Mr. Gill's and also at Clery and Co.'s I was told the book was selling well. Ever, dear Fr. Sheehan, Yours sincerely, Matthew Russell. Will you take Fr. Hudson at his word and send a paper to the Ave Maria? They pay. How hopeful he was at this time as to the reception of The Triumph of Failure in America may be gleaned from the following letter: DONERAILE, Co. CORK. January 7, 1899. My dear Father Heuser: Your letter just to hand, with enclosure. Very many thanks for all your kind and encouraging words, which are a powerful stimulus to fresh exertions. I am quite disappointed to hear that my book has not yet reached you ... I am happy to say it is attracting some notice at this side. All the papers have been very kind, and extended articles will appear in the New Ireland Chap. V] "THE TRIUMPH OF FAILURE" 149 Review, the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, etc. Dr. William Barry, of Dorchester, Oxford, is taking it up warmly, and is writing a long notice of it. But I look to America for the success of the book. Father Sheehan was much encouraged by the sym- pathetic appreciation of his friend Canon William Barry. In a letter of December 28, 1898, Dr. Barry, after reading The Triumph of Failure, wrote from Dorchester: Long before I had reached the end it was clear to me that no book of anything like the importance which yours may claim, had appeared from Ireland for years. I wrote this morning The Catholic Times proposing a long re- view (signed) which I begged them to put in a prominent place. This, I am hoping, will be out next week; and the American papers are sure to copy or give extracts. It is hard to know what one should attempt with non-Catholic magazines. But somewhere an opening must be found ... Of course the secularist instinct, now widespread, is likely to put editors on their guard against so downright a Catholic treatment of your subject. They will stand anything as literature; religion is another story. Dr. Barry confesses that he had not yet read Geoffrey Austin. It is a sin which can be atoned for; and I shall soon know all about Geoffrey; and your loveable and truly Irish Charlie who will be henceforth a friend of mine . . . Helen Bellamy says with terrible exactness that Irishmen have no imagination. I have thought they had no power of setting down on paper what you describe as "introspection"; that they could shoot and drink and joke and make love and say their prayers and be very de- lightful; but as children they dream; and don't know that they dream. Your touching story is a dream; but conscious of itself — not self conscious. I should be doing it wrong to treat it as empty literature. There are words on some of its pages that come home to me, and express certain intimate feelings vividly as I know them; and what more could the supreme poet achieve? I mean poet in the most serious sense — vates, the prophet that teaches in music . . . but, as I say, it is the hardest thing in the world to conquer the steep escarpment which you have chosen. ISO CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II He adverts in particular to Father Sheehan's citations from St. Ephrem's Homilies which Father Morris had rendered admirably, and ends: Confirma hoc, Deus, quod operatus es in nobis — that, my dear Father, is the prayer I put up for you and myself from a heart as Irish as is your own, and with feelings of hope and thank- fulness. In his article for The Catholic Times Dr. Barry calls upon Irish and English Catholics to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the moral of the book." Whilst The Triumph of Failure was an accepted success as a novel it did not escape severe, if discriminating, criti- cism in so far as it proposed theological reforms. Some of these came from not unfriendly sources. Father George O'Neill, S.J., writing in the New Ireland Review, 1 con- tended that the stress which the latter had laid upon the paganizing tendency of the study of the old classics was somewhat overdrawn. He maintained that the essential Catholic atmosphere, at least in the Irish colleges, acted as a sufficient antidote to any serious harm that could result from the study of the old models of rhetoric, even if the teacher failed to point out the contrast between them and Christian doctrine. In a letter of February 7, 1899, Father Russell bids the author "not to take Father O'Neill's review too seriously. I think it will do us good instead of harm. I will not say a word to him about your letter. He says strong things in your favor." Abroad, the book was everywhere well received. The Indo-European Correspondence of Bombay had an excep- tionally flattering review; and "some Berlin publishers," writes Father Sheehan, "are negotiating for a translation." Some critics have thought The Triumph of Failure the best of Canon Sheehan's literary efforts. He himself in- clined in that direction; though there were times when he thought otherwise. There is no doubt that he took more 1 Father O'Neill, S.J., author of Ireland the Teacher of England and Scotland, later on became a great admirer of Canon Sheehan's literary genius. Chap. V] "THE TRIUMPH OF FAILURE" 151 pains with its literary workmanship than he did with any of his other books. The story in union with Geoffrey Austin has two concurrent morals. It pleads for the infusion, as has already been said in speaking of his first book, of more religion into our classical and professional studies. And it shows also the influence a child may exercise upon the formation of a man's character and entire life. As Dickens appeals most to our sympathy through child characters like Little Nell, Little Dorritt, Florence Dombey, so Father Sheehan rivets our interest in these two stories by making the two figures of Little Ursula and Charlie Travers shine forth, as if woven into it with threads of gold. For the sake of making clearer Father Sheehan's ultimate purpose in all his subsequent pedagogical work, I may here sum- marize the plot of the story that runs through these two volumes : A young lad, anxious to make his way in the world, is sent by his guardian, who is at the same time his parish priest, to a private Catholic school in Ireland. Here he is to be prepared for the English Civil Service examinations. The boy is impressionable, talented, high-spirited, and inclined to assimilate the ideals, particularly of the Greek and Roman classics, set before him by his teachers. Al- though he completes his course at college with credit, he fails in the Civil Service test. Thus he finds himself un- expectedly without any definite aim in the struggle for existence. It is at this stage of his life that we meet the youth in the opening chapter of The Triumph of Failure. He has secured board and lodging in a back room of a snug little house in one of the suburbs of Dublin. A mental audit of his personal condition reveals to him the following: To my credit I could place youth and strength, a splendid con- stitution, a fairly liberal education, a love for learning, and 80 pounds, the balance left after my expenses in Mayfield and London, and which my guardian sent me, at my own request, on my re- turn after my failure at the Control examination. On the debit- side could be placed the dismal failure, the cause which led up 152 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II to it, my utter inexperience of life, and a disposition very prone to extreme and abnormal depression, or the reverse. I should add to my credit account a small but select library; to my debit- account, alas, a faith and religious feeling theoretically intact, practically shattered and undermined. Next he records his first experience in the effort to obtain suitable employment, the cold-hearted and professional indifference to his condition in a world which he had en- tered with buoyant hopes. "It was with a sinking heart, after a few dismal failures, that I put on my overcoat one morning, drew on my faded gloves, and stepped into the dripping streets in search of some decent employment that would merely yield me a competence." The rebuff he meets with in a large mercantile establishment where his appeal to his having enjoyed a liberal education, as a qualification for a sales-clerk, is derided in the midst of sneering employees, is a revelation which sharply wounds his vanity and leaves him utterly despondent. "I went home, but I could not rest there. I took up my favorite philosophers, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Their poor platitudes irritated rather than soothed me." He goes out again into the streets, angry with himself and with the world. Stopping at a bookseller's window he mechanically leans on the brass railing and looks at the titles of the books, reading in them nothing but hostility to mankind and the bitterness of revenge. Thus I raged, leaning on one hand my burning forehead, the other hung dead at my side. I heeded not the stream of people that swept by; I saw but my passion and revenge, when some- thing soft and warm stole into my hand and rested there. I turned round and saw a little girl, who was not more than four years old, looking wistfully into my face. Her hand still nestled confidently in my own. "Please, sir," she said, "take me home." She was a dainty little woman. A small oval face was lighted up by two dark brown eyes, where the peace of heaven shone; and her black hair, with some curious streaks of red or purple gleaming through it, fell in even curves upon her temples. She Chap. V] "THE TRIUMPH OF FAILURE" 153 was well dressed, and a dainty little sealskin cap (which I still hold, and which I would not part with for all the diamonds of Golconda, and which shall be buried with me wherever it pleases God my remains shall be laid) rested lightly on her white forehead. I know not what she saw in me to seek my confidence, for I am sure hell was pictured in my face. But then angels are not sent to angels. Even in this, God's eternal law, the law of contrasts, which is the law of love, was maintained. But a miracle was wrought in me. What all the pagan philoso- phy of Greece and Rome could not bring about, the faith and con- fidence of that little child effected. . . . Even so the touch of that little hand swept from my soul the foul fiend that possessed me, and I resumed in one moment a tranquillity and peace to which, for the last two days, I had been a stranger. I closed my hand gently over the soft, warm fingers. "Come, little one," I said, "we will go home together; and you shall lead me." All through his subsequent life the recollection of little Ursula's face remained the guardian of his nobler nature. He does not very long enjoy her sweet prattle, for the child soon after dies. The scene of her death is described with exquisite pathos. Her spirit hovers about him, for she had promised him in her innocent simplicity that she would come back to tell him all about heaven. "And, Mamma," she said, making her last will, "you'll dive DofF my — my prayer book and my beads; and — and — " The little mind was wandering now, and my heart was tugging away, like a wild beast in its cage. Good God! What a load of sorrow lies on this weary world ! . . . I remained in the house that night. There was no sleep for them or me. When morning came Ursula was better, and I went to work with a light heart. But all day long, as I bent over that weary catalogue and marshalled those dreary ill-smelling books, the thought of the little child choking to death, overcame me, and my tears fell fast and free on the page ... At six o'clock I was scudding across the city, with hope fighting in my heart against desperate forebodings of evil. There was a deeper hush on the house when I entered — the indefinable silence that means but one thing. The angel of death had come and stood by the 154 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Angel of Sorrow. Yes, I needed not the tears of the sorrow- stricken mother, nor the blank white face of Hubert Deane, to know that the child who had rescued me from sin, and who had been sent from heaven to teach me some of the deeper meanings of life, was now resting on a safer and sweeter bosom than mine. I saw her — and if I am not profane, I envied my God His treasure — on the bosom of Him who had said: Suffer the little children to come to Me. The little face was waxen, and showed no trace of the agony which my pet had suffered. The waxen petals of her fingers were intertwined, and her rosary, my rosary now, was woven between them. Time cast Geoffrey's lot in rough places during the sub- sequent years, and taught him the weakness of that sup- port which his own pride and his pagan philosophy had pretended, but were not able, to bring him in his hour of need. Amidst his deepest degradation he unexpectedly comes in contact with a former fellow student, Charles Travers, who has embraced a career of self-sacrifice in the cause of moral reform, similar to that which Ozanam and the founders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society had inaugu- rated in France. Geoffrey compares his own life with that of his friend. The difference is one of day and night. He is forced to reflect and inquire into the causes of this con- trast, and finds them to be, not accidents but principles. Austin feels gradually stealing over him the influence of the wonderful power exercised by Travers, whose habits of life had been directed by a deeply spiritual-minded priest, Father Aidan. This priest, having found in the youth the instinct and courage to follow the higher path of re- nunciation, strove to develop all that was strong and holy in the young soul; and to harden and anneal as by fire all that was weak and sensitive. Then came the time for action, and suddenly, before men were capable of realizing whence the energy proceeded, Charles Travers showed that he was capable of subduing and swaying, by his elo- quence and direction, the destinies of thousands, and to impart to their souls that peace which is to be found only Chap. V] "THE TRIUMPH OF FAILURE" 155 in self-sacrifice. Travers dies at the very time when, after seeming failure and unrequited struggle, the work he had fostered has reached its zenith of success. He takes no part in the triumph on earth, whilst the fruits of his vic- tory are being reaped by others. It is the last of many proofs which Geoffrey had wit- nessed, that the triumphs of the saints, the triumphs of religion, though failures often enough in the eyes of the world, are real and lasting, whilst the victories of science, of civilization, of society, are only apparent or temporary, and afford no genuine basis of peace even in this world. Success is not the mark of progress. And so, running like some secret magic through all human history, inexplicable, powerful, elusive of all human efforts to analyze it, compelling an unwilling admiration, or extorting an unreasonable fear, potent for good, destructive of evil, the spiritual essence and mission of the Church unfolds itself. And whether seen in the quiet life of some such saint and apostle as Charles Travers, or exhibited on larger lines in some great evolution that touches the sympathies or awakens the fears of men, the same uniform and unvarying issues startle the world into a momentary faith in the supernatural. For on no other ground can it in- terpret or explain that which is known in Christian history and ethics as the conquest of the learned by the foolish, of the powerful by the weak, of the great ones by the little — in a word, that apparent defeat which has marked all God's dealings with His world through His Church, which in reality, as time develops His designs, is seen to be perfect and ultimate victory; and which therefore we have ventured to designate — The Triumph of Failure. Geoffrey Austin himself learns the lesson well. He eventually seeks a success that knows no disappointment, and goes in search of peace such as the world cannot give — in the cell of the cloister. There we leave him happy, as a priest in the service of God and his brethren. It is a beautiful story, told with all the literary grace, vividness of scene, and wealth of scattered erudition gained from the author's study of the classical writers. Father 156 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Sheehan shows clearly, and with great felicity, that, to educate youth for actual life, it is not enough to fill their minds with knowledge and with admiration for classical learning; but that, if the teacher would uphold the tradi- tion of pagan ideals, old or new, as models in education, he must make these ideals instinct with the religious spirit that gives them true life and not merely antiquarian record-value. VI "my new curate" appears in book form TO return to My New Curate, which had meanwhile run on serially to its conclusion in The Ecclesiastical Review. In October, 1899, the editor was able to assure Father Sheehan that "there will be no difficulty about rinding a publisher for My New Curate. ... If you paint the sequel, My Old Pastors, in the same colors, we shall have two books for the clergy, containing the sum total of Pastoral Theology in a form that is not only illuminans intellectum but (what is not done by the ordinary text-books) movens voluntatem." Again in December he was informed: American Ecclesiastical Review, Overbrook., Pa. December 29, 1898. 1 Dear Father Sheehan, My New Curate has now become the talk here everywhere among the clergy (and a good portion of the laity who keep in touch with matters ecclesiastical). I hope that you will, now that we have found you out (and introduced your pleasant self to the sanctum of the Eccl. Review), remain thoroughly domesti- cated. Indeed nothing delights me much more than the reflec- tion that I once forecast — from the evidence offered by Geoffrey Austin — your strong points with absolute fidelity, as demon- strated by present results. The last time I was in Belgium I was much in company of one of our most cultured bishops from America. One day I handed him your volume, saying: If this writer were to select clerical types for his story, he would in- augurate a new and most fruitful departure in Catholic literature. ... I propose to ask Longmans, Green, and Co., here (of the London and Bombay firm) to publish your book and will let you know what they say as soon as I can make some headway. . . . 1 Marked by Canon Sheehan, "Received, Jan. 7, 1899." 157 158 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II It was only to be expected that he would be delighted with all the success that made him a thousand friends, as it were, overnight, whereas he had been ignored a little while before. Although he gave full expression to this satisfaction, he reflected on the conditions which put a Catholic author at the mercy of seeming accidents. If Father Sheehan enjoyed his triumph, it did not alter his philosophy that success is not the sign of progress. The man who sets out to labor for the salvation of souls may not always divest himself of the vanity which causes him to relish human applause. None the less he will not make popular favor the standard of his judgments and appre- ciations. But there was another consideration that tended to keep his spirit humble. It arose from the fact that his literary success belonged to a sphere which he considered secondary to that of his duties in the sacred ministry. Writing was a mode of preaching; but apart from this it was a mere recreation with him. If success in this sphere pleased him, it also called forth reflections that aroused a new sense of responsibility. He wrapped up the glory of his new-won literary fame and laid it away, as did old "Daddy Dan" when he put by the robes of his canonical dignity. As his first serial drew to a conclusion, Father Sheehan began to prepare the sequel. This was to embody his experiences on the English mission at Plymouth and Exeter. It offered new material, not merely in point of priestly activity, but in different characteristics and scenes of land and people. Doneraile, March 13, '99. My Dear Father Heuser, Most grateful thanks for your letter and enclosure; for the extra numbers you have sent me; but above all for your kind, encouraging words, which are worth more than gold. Your critique of my book was admirable. Altogether I have reason to be most grateful. Your remarks about Dr. Barry have been echoed here by very many gifted and holy priests ... He is Chap. VI] "MY NEW CURATE" 159 supporting his church and mission by his pen, and just now he is threatened with a bad breakdown in health and must go abroad. I have written to him strongly urging him to take up the line of Christian apologetics; but he answers: who will read him in the department. Yet as in the case of the "Two Standards" he is able, by Protestant sympathy, to get an edition of 4000 copies off his hands before it is in print. I assure you (comparing small things with great) my experience is almost similar. For the years I was writing for the /. E. Record I never received one word of encouragement. You and my dear friend Fr. Russell are the only priests that have ever said a kindly word of my work hitherto. Now I am on the full swing of the tide; and my last book has made me a thousand friends. But it was weary work; only I felt that I was working for our Lord, and He would reward me. And He has, a thousandfold. But venturing into the field of Catholic literature is a greater risk than many are aware of; and many a writer can say, as Dr. Barry says, "aquae inundave- runt animam meam." Probably I shall stretch out My New Curate a few chapters further than I intended; as I want to make the end interesting. And then, with your permission, I think I shall be able to open a new series entitled: YE SHEPHERDS Being the Harvest of a Quiet Eye this time to be told in the third person, and commencing with experiences of English missionary life. Probably I could give you the first chapters for September. You may of course have a more attractive series to offer. I hope you will. But you will let me know in time. I am happy to know that our good nuns are reading my papers. . . . And now thank you again for all your kindness, for your spirit of enterprise, and I hope under heaven that you may be the means of inaugurating quite a new era in Catholic literature. I am, dear Fr. Heuser, Yours always in Xt., P. A. Sheehan, P.P. 160 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II A month later he writes: Bridge House, Doneraile, Co. Cork. April s, '99. Dear Father Heuser, I forward by this mail (Sunday 7th) the final chapters of My New Curate. I hope you will find them a worthy termination of the serial. I ran the XXX Chapter so far — 18 or 19 pages — that I was obliged to pull up the last abruptly. Yet I like closing a story with a certain amount of dramatic action. I also forward printer's proof of first eighteen chapters, corrected for press. Should you think advisable to give English transla- tions (as footnotes) of the Italian and Latin quotations, it can be done. As to the illustrations, I have been looking for photos that might suit Father Dan and F. Letheby; but none comes up to my ideal. And I find that most readers here will be difficult to please in that matter, where faces are concerned. Scenery of course is easily managed; and there could be a few sacred pictures, suggested by the allusions, here and there in the book. I am just recovering from a sharp feverish cold; and much debilitated. Always gratefully, P. A. Sheehan, P.P. In a postscript to the above letter he adds: I have a lingering hope that some of your young priests may take up the syllabus of subjects (given in the March chapters) metaphysical and historical; and build up articles for you, the same as I have suggested for Father Letheby, which eventu- ally would form a comprehensive library on these important subjects. Father Charles J. Kelly, D.D., diocese of Scranton, Pa., called a few days ago to see the author of "Daddy Dan." Some days later he writes: You have taken a great deal of trouble about my book; and I cannot see that I can do better than leave the matter unreservedly in your hands. It would be quite impossible for me to form an opinion so far away from the center of action. But it seems to me that M 's offer should be accepted, unless some other, more advantageous, were offered before publication. The only person whom I consulted about the matter here thought that it would be Chap. VI] "MY NEW CURATE" 161 better to retain the copyright, and arrange only for edition by edition; but I dare say the publishers would not stereotype under these conditions. . . . In a few days I shall forward the remaining chapters (of the proof sheets for the printer of the book). This will leave me free for evolving the ideas of "Ye Shepherds." Should good fortune waft you to this side during the coming summer or autumn, I shall take it for granted that you will pay us a welcome visit here. I am, my dear Fr. Heuser, with many thanks, Yours sincerely. P. A. Sheehan, P.P. With regard to the publication of My New Curate in book form it seemed that the author's rights would be better guarded in the hands of a reputable publisher than in his own. Accordingly Father Sheehan was advised to sell the copy- right for his first popular book; for as he was prepared to write a good deal more, the experience would guide him after that in following the better course. In later years he found it to be to his advantage to sell his copyright, and the Longmans have since then published nearly all his books. As appears from the following note Father Sheehan definitely decided to sell the copyright under the condi- tions offered. DONERAILE, Co. CORK. May 3, '99. My Dear Father Heuser, I am in receipt of your letter and enclosure (£ 12.) for which accept my hearty thanks. In a higher degree I feel intensely grateful for the last words of your kind letter, assuring me that our little serial has gone home to the hearts of the American priest- hood, and that its lessons are likely to fructify there. The same mail brought me a letter from far Melbourne, assuring me of the same thing. And I feel very humble, and most grateful to our dear Lord that He has chosen such a weak instrument for so great a work. As to secular fame, I should hardly value it; for one is always tempted to cry: 162 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Vanitas vanitatum. But to have spoken successfully to my dear brother priests, and to have won their affectionate sympathy, is a reward I have never dreamed of expecting, and which is very sweet and consoling. When Mr. M writes, I shall tell him he can have the copy- right, as I don't care to have too many burdens; and in this matter of copyright and royalty, I shall accept his terms, already offered. Let me add that your Review, has earned unstinted praise (or shall I say its editor) on this side of the Atlantic for its enterprise in rising above the usual leaden level of Catholic magazines. It is a tremendous lesson to many of our home journals. I shall gladly accept any hints as to the future series which you may be pleased to offer; or the line I should follow. My Melbourne friend suggests the imperfections and drawbacks in clerical education, but I feel the subject is overdone, though I have a few papers beside me on the subject. With all gratitude and good wishes, I remain, my dear Father Heuser, Yours in Xt. P. A. Sheehan, P.P. DONERAILE, Co. CORK. June 30, 1899. My dear Father Heuser: The American mail leaves in a few hours; so I am snatching a brief moment to thank you again for all your kindness. We go on retreat tomorrow; and then I go to England for a brief holiday. As I said before, I felt quite humbled and ashamed at all the praise my few papers have received. But my reward lies not there, for I know only too well what a passing thing is human praise or blame. But I feel great gratitude toward our Lord for His having vouchsafed to use me for His own sacred cause; and it is a large and generous reward to be assured, as I have been assured so many times, that I have earned the good will and af- fection of the American priesthood, whom I have always revered since I had the happiness of meeting some of them, during my curacy at Queenstown. This week again Fr. Yorke of San Fran- cisco has been saying kind things of me in Maynooth; and yester- day I had a charming letter from one of your best contributors, Fr. Bruneau, asking permission to translate my books into French. Chap. VI] "MY NEW CURATE" 163 But assuredly all this would have been impossible if I had not had the good fortune of having you as sponsor. No magazine at this side of the Atlantic would have published "My New Curate." They are all old-fashioned and conservative, forgetting that the Church must move with the age and that "The old order changeth yielding place to the new." But I think your enterprise and the success that has attended it, have caused some heart searchings here in Ireland. I shall certainly write a preface to the book; and introduce my obligations to the American Ecclesiastical Review and its editor. I have written to Mr. M accepting his terms, saying that he can have the copyright also. I do not see what use it could be to me, unless, like Rudyard Kipling, I should have to buy it back at a big price in future years. The formal agreements promised by Mr. M , I am expecting by every mail. The book will have a large sale here. I have forwarded to Mr. M a book of sketches and some loose photographs for his illustrations. I had been thinking of asking you to commence the new series in January 1900, instead of next October, partly because it would synchronise better with dates, and partly because I am sometimes hard pressed with work. But I have refused to entertain any proposals until the series "Ye Shepherds" has been ended in your magazine. Let me know what you think. Of course I can supply you with copy for October in case you thought it advisable. I shall be very much pleased if Mr. M and myself can be- come permanent friends, as we shall be. I am very anxious to bring out a volume of sacred poetry next year; and our publishers here are slow and unsatisfactory. I am so sorry I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you face to face this autumn. Perhaps the Fates will yet be kind and let you come. I have a large house and garden, in a very poor village; but the country around is beautiful, and a few weeks here would send you back rejuvenated and refreshed to your desk. May it be so. Again with all thanks, I am, my dear Fr. Heuser, Yours in Xt., P. A. Sheehan, P.P. In compliance with Father Sheehan's wish, the appear- ance of the new serial was deferred to the following Janu- 164 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II ary, 1900. He had in the meanwhile refreshed his memory by revisiting the old scenes in Devonshire. His ideas, too, as to the best manner of presenting the subject of his mis- sionary experiences had changed, and the title of Luke Delmege was to be substituted for that of "Ye Shepherds." Though his name was very well known by this time it was deemed desirable for the nonce to keep up the pretense of anonymity. The preface to My New Curate, in which the author proposed to express his acknowledgments to his American readers for their ready appreciation of his work while it had appeared in the Ecclesiastical Review, did not arrive in time for the first edition, and was never published. Meanwhile numerous were the inquiries whether the author of My New Curate was going to continue writing. Readers wanted more of "Daddy Dan" and of Letheby, who, after becoming a P.P., must surely have got the purple robes which the Canon had promised to keep for him. Other questions related to certain details mentioned in the novel. These questions were soon disposed of. Father Sheehan replied to some of them privately; others e.g. "What was the Kampaner Thai?" were answered through the pages of The Ecclesiastical Review. The Kampaner Thai is a treatise on the immortality of the soul, by Jean Paul Richter. It is a journal supposed to be kept by the author during a tour in France, and purports to detail certain conversations between himself and a wedding party which is making its way to a baronial castle in the Pyrenees. The party make a pedestrian tour through the Kampaner Thai (The Meadow Valley), and at the different halts in the journey the dialogue is sustained by the author; Carlson, a sceptic; the Baron Wil- helmi; Gione, his affianced; and Nadine, her sister. The romance is said to have been suggested to Richter by some doubts, expressed by some ladies of his acquaintance, about their future immortality. It deals with the all-important question from the standpoint of experience and reason and the eternal fitness of things, and argues largely from that intuition which is ever so dear to a poet. Hence the treatise is remarkable, even beyond all Richter's other works, for picturesque descriptions and those practical analogies and Chap. VI] "MY NEW CURATE" 165 images in which he had no equal. A sequel named Selinda deals with the same question from another standpoint — that of philo- sophical investigation as distinguished from mere feeling. The book undoubtedly, if not the greatest, is one of the most interest- ing of the voluminous works that issued from the pen of this difficult and delightful German author. Matthew Russell sent to Father Sheehan some sugges- tions by way of criticism that should prove useful in a new edition of My New Curate. Referring to the character of "Alice" in the chapter "Madonna mia," he writes: "Dr. Brendan MacCarthy (son of the poet Denis Florence) says you should not have made that good girl suffer from polypus but lupus or cancer. Polypus is the most curable of diseases, and the symptoms you describe belong to something far worse. "Dr. MacCarthy thinks you run down our poor people too much. Scott idealized his countrymen and raised the apprecia- tion of Scotland abroad. My friend whom I like so much — Mrs. Francis Blundell — vexes me in some of her Irish sketches with the tone she adopts towards her humbler characters. Kate Douglas Wiggin, a clever American, wrote two charming, bright, witty books Penelope's English Experience and Penelope in Scot- land. I only read the second, and I liked it greatly. But now comes out Penelope in Ireland. It is a very poor book, and while pretending to be good-humored it is offensive. Mr. Justice Madden is an ardent admirer of My New Curate and its author. 1 He also tells Father Sheehan what Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus) wrote to one of his daughters who was at an American convent school: "I am glad your teacher enjoyed the book My New Curate. It is a piece of real literature, and it is the finest book I have read in many a day." Among the criticisms that gave due emphasis to the dis- tinctive features of My New Curate, the following from the late Michael T. Duggan, one of the leading contributors x The Hon. Dodgson H. Madden, Attorney General and M.P., was also Vice Chancellor of Dublin University, and interested in Canon Sheehan's educational schemes for Ireland. He is the author of the Diary of Master William Silence — a Shakesperean study. 166 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II to the New Ireland Review and some English periodicals, deserves mention here: 188, Clonliffe Road, Dublin. 7 April, 1900. Dear Father Finlay, I have read with great delight Fr. Sheehan's book My New Curate. It is simply superb; it is a long time since I read anything so good. I think it shows the possibility, the practicability of dealing literally with Ireland and her people, and with at least as much advantage if not with quite as much success, as Scott did with Scotland and her people. The interpretations of Irish life we have been accustomed to have almost invariably been distorted renderings and gave us a part (and that exaggerated and travestied) and called it the whole. The supernatural shines vividly through almost every character in the book, nevertheless there is not a goody-goody line in it. And every one in it is so delightfully human, with in most cases a "redeeming vice" in him or at least some frailty which makes him out to be flesh and blood. I see from your pencilings that you have read the book your- self and read it critically (I think hypercritically). What does it matter if "our conversation wandered over the whole area of human knowledge"? Others before him have written or spoken "de omnibus rebus" or "de omni scibili." He says "Cui bono?" meaning "what's the use?" or writes carafola. Again, what does it matter? That in itself is a part interpretation of our very complex Irish character. We don't potter over details as a Scotchman would. The latter for instance would consult his Greek lexicon before writing or passing over in proof such a "thing" as eikons! But we Irish are built so. We look to the general effect but we wont take pains. Lever, for instance, who was a doctor and should have known some chemistry, speaks in one of his books of a valuable silver mine in Sardinia. He refers to the ancient workings of it by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, etc. Refers to Pliny as an authority who if consulted will verify what Lever has stated! — and then goes on to say that the very lead extracted from the ore would pay the working expenses of the mine because it was exceedingly valuable, being of that fine kind of which lead pencils are made! There we are in a nutshell — mock learning and shameful ignorance. That is how we appear in literature. Chap. VI] "MY NEW CURATE" 167 Now this book which is the first of Father Sheehan's that I have read has a minimum of these, while it is interesting, in- structive and edifying. And Fr. Sheehan can tell a story and that is a gift which not one in a million possesses. The author of the Chances of War is another of these fortunate people and if he had a bishop we might hope to get him kept busily employed in giving us the most necessary literature to-day (after apologetics), namely, well constructed, well written, dashing, vigorous novels full of the life-blood of our people and with no taint of the fumier in them. The glass of whiskey to some, and the cup of tea to most, are not more craved for than the literature I speak of. God bless all who help to create it. How to Keep Healthy, pp. 1 16-137 (germs, bacilli, etc.) l In Kedar's Tents — very good. If you want My New Curate will you send a card? I am keep- ing it for a week or two (if I can). M. T. D. V. Rev. T. A. Finlay, S.J., University College. 1 It hasn't kept me healthy — I have that vile influenza since Sunday and am trying to put it over on my feet. Aches, pains, fever, depression, cough. VII "luke delmege" and other volumes AS was to be expected, Luke Delmege proved to be hardly less welcome than its genial precedessor, My New Curate. Some critics thought Luke's character lacked the direct heart appeal that had marked Daddy Dan's utterances and ways. Others on the contrary considered the book a superior piece of work, at least in literary technique. Twenth-four chapters of the novel appeared during the course of the year 1900. This completed the first part of the story, covering Luke's experiences on the English mission; at the close of which he was bidden by his bishop to return to Ireland. Although there was more of the story to follow, it was deemed advisable to interrupt its serial publication for some months, in order to whet the appetite of the readers. Soon these began to inquire, "What has become of Luke Delmege?" They were told that he was crossing the Irish Channel on his way to his native diocese, and that he would shortly reappear. After the story had been resumed "Luke" riveted the attention of his readers, until his epitaph had been written. hic • IACENT OSSA ADM • REV • LUCAE • DELMEGE OLIM • IN • SUO • COLLEGIO • LAUREATI NUPER • HUJUS • ECCLESIAE • RECTORIS NATUS • OCT • 20 • 1 854 OBIIT • NOV ■ 20 • 1898 AMAVIT • LABORAVIT • VIXIT REQUIESCIT The references to Delmege's academic attainments as "First of First," together with the inscription on his 168 Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 169 tombstone, "Olim in suo Collegio laureati," were inter- preted by some of Canon Sheehan's critics as a reflection on his old college of Maynooth. If such a thought was in his mind at the time of writing, he gradually came to divest himself of its animus. Toward the end of his life he had nothing but gratitude for those who had been at any time instrumental in shaping his career. Meanwhile he was also experiencing some of the incon- veniences of popularity. On December 20 he writes: Very many thanks for your letter and honorarium. I am very gratified to know that you like the new serial. I propose point- ing out some of the dangers that lie in the paths of young priests abroad, especially when they begin to read or are thrown into dangerous surroundings. I shall complete the serial in five books of seven chapters each, although I may have to prolong it. Would you think it well to close the serial with the year 1900, and the nineteenth century, by giving three chapters in place of two each month ? Or would you prefer to extend it over into the twentieth century? This is a matter of no consequence to me: so decide as you think right. Also, suppress my name altogether, except as "the author of My New Curate" It always gives me the shivers to see my name in print; and the little notoriety I have attained has been productive of annoyance rather than pleasure to me. I am dragged hither and thither by all sorts of demands; and as my health is always an uncertain quantity, I have to refuse all kinds of invitations to preach, lecture, etc. I had a few brief words with an old schoolmate, the Rev. Morgan Sheedy, of Altoona, Pa.; he was very enthusiastic about the method, enterprise and system by which you have brought the Am. Eccl. Review to success. And again a little later: Bridge House, Doneraile, Co. Cork Dear Father Heuser, Many thanks for Postal Order, just received. Yes, I wish to drop "Idiota" altogether. It was a mistake. I had its literal meaning before my mind; and did not sufficiently advert to its modern acceptation. If there be a reprint I shall devise some i;o CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II other title or modification. Print as I wrote: Luke Delmege. Part II, Illumination. In the XXVI chapter, "The King's Secret," there is a passage representing old Father Moore stooping to kiss the forehead of the dead penitent. I should like to change that word "kiss" to "bless," if you thought well. I shall send the remaining twelve chapters to you immediately before or after Christmas, so that there would be time for al- teration or correction. This will run the serial to September. I think Fr. V. in November number did not understand my metaphor. Thus: — "When he spun syllogisms (as a spider spins his webs), and drew unwary flies (antagonists) into their (the syllogisms) viscous and deadly clutches." It makes no difference however. I am, my dear Father Heuser, Yours faithfully, P. A. Sheehan. In another note he also suggests a correction for fear of wounding the sensibilities of his clerical friends: In the chapter entitled "A Great Treasure" (chapt. xxvii), if you decide on retaining the Archbishop, please make him a foreign one, by the insertion of a few words. With your large and liberal views you cannot form an idea of how easily offence is taken at this side. With all good wishes, I am, dear Fr. Heuser, Yours sincerely, P. A. Sheehan, P.P. For the second part of the series the term "Idiota," originally added to the title, was omitted. The story was completed in January, 1902 and at once published in book form by the Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. The volume got a generous welcome from the press. About this time Father Sheehan issued a volume of his poems under the title: "CITHARA MEA" These verses mark the author as a bard who endeavors to solve the problems of life by the light of faith. He Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 171 divides his topic into the "Hidden" and the "Revealed." In the first part he represents himself as groping in the shadows: "And I behold thee; but oh! it is so dark." — "I heard a sound of weeping in the night." — "For what is space but one vast, black abyss." His attitude is the Faust-like search amid the teachings of the ancients for the mysteries of life: — "I ploughed through wastes of faded palimpsests." "At last I looked into my soul and cried: Thou, thou at least, canst tell me naught but truth; Thou oracle of God ..." Then gradually dawns the revelation: "I placed my poet against your scientist; I placed my prophet king against your poet." In doing so he realizes that he has been misled. Then suddenly he hears a voice which, whilst it taunts him for his lack of faith, bids him recognize his heavenly Father smiling upon his untutored zeal and whispering to him: "Come to Me." He finds the answer to the riddle of life, and with it his "dream of death in waking day expires." Besides this exposition of doubt and assurance succeed- ing each other, the verses contain various interpretations of sacred and profane moods. One of these, "A Nocturne," is quite novel in form as well as in conception. It presents the spirit of the poet peering into the future, and consists of twelve sonnets woven into a single theme. Other poems deal with myths and legends of the old Druid rule; and some are fragmentary communings with forgotten Celtic bards. The music throughout is in the minor key, indicating the sense of loss, albeit instinct with prophetic hope. There is a tone of refinement and an air of mystic aloofness in Father Sheehan's verse which separates it from the commonplace. Dr. Barry, having read snatches of Cithara Me a, com- ments: 172 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II "I am touched by your letter and the sight of your beautiful volume which had come to me at this moment. On turning the leaves I catch a happy phrase or a feeling thought, and I seem to understand you even better than from your stories. That is the end of poetry, is it not? I mean: to reveal one's mind, to get a certain comfort by throwing outside of one into clear shape what one has long brooded over." And of Luke Delmege he writes: "Glimpses I have had of Luke Delmege tantalize and strike out many thoughts. Your subject is striking and unhackneyed, and full of tragic elements. I wish the modern reader would bear to be told more about a priest's life . . . Again : "Your paper on Spinoza — I did not see it in full — appears to have sounded at Maynooth as a voice from unknown worlds. Yet the Irish intellect cannot forever be mewed up in such terrible commonplaces and conventionalities as it, or its phantom, submits to, there and elsewhere." Father Sheehan is urged to go on with his poetry, though he also received occasional critical suggestions. St. Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner St. Dublin, Nov. 8, . . . Your Muse certainly does not seem fond of "That swallow- flight of song." The sweep of the eagle's wing is hers. You are a contrast to another poet-priest, Father John B. Tabb of the United States, who throws most of his thoughts into quatrains — and very good quatrains. The fastidious Alice Meynell herself has edited an English selection from his poems lately. I will study all your poems carefully, with little hope that The Irish Monthly can claim the honour of introducing them into the world. In some instances two sonnets form a sequence. In other cases would you allow the sonnets to be printed separately? You are terribly modern. I have studied nothing later than Ten- nyson except Coventry Patmore, if he can be called later. The very last of your sonnets — "I asked the mountain, why art thou so dark?" — I like perhaps best of all. I hope it is a favourite of yours also. Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 173 You ought to publish a second volume of poetry. Lady Gilbert is preparing a second volume. Look at K. Tynan's six or seven volumes of verse — and very good verse. Ever affectionately, Matthew Russell, S.J. Later the same writer returns to him a MS. poem. Feast of St. Lorcan. Dear Canon Sheehan, I hope "Lady Ida" has arrived safely. I made her up in an awkward parcel, to avoid folding. A very sweet poem; but, though it is a story, Monsignor Howley would prefer a story in prose. But you must learn to say: No. Don't attend to such demands which are very unreasonable. Do your sonnets or any of them form a sequence? Must they be published in this fixed order? They are fine. But "The Palace of Sleep" at a first glance frightens one. The metrical scheme is very original, but I am not sure that it is musical. The eye is better satisfied than the ear. Your learned Muse requires study. I have hardly looked at Swinburne and the moderns, so I am an old fogey in such matters. Very wrongly Fr. C took off "A Much Abused Letter" to Limerick, where he went to bed on Sunday with one of his bilious attacks. If he had given it to me, you could have finished it in a day. When he gets back to us, I will send you the ill-omened book. God help poor Fr. Tyrrell. Ever yours affectionately, Matthew Russell, S.J. Despite his opinion that much of Father Sheehan's poetry was caviare to the general, Father Russell published in his magazine a goodly number of the verses not included in Cithara Mea. St. Francis Xavier's, Dublin. Jan. 2, '07. My dear Canon Sheehan, Let me print "Woman and Child" in February. I like Sheila's part best. I understand it. You are a terribly modern poet. I have not even read the moderns, except bits in magazines. One needs to be a poet, and a modern poet, and a learned one to boot, to appreciate duly your mystic "Palace of Sleep." The Dublin 174 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Review is publishing poetry now. Your Muse is dignified enough for a Quarterly. Ever yours gratefully, M. Russell, S.J. Among the best things he wrote in verse is The Canticle of the Magnificat. It consists of a hundred stanzas of six- line pentameter verse and bears in thought and expression a strong likeness to Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven. The poem appeared as a serial first in the Ave Maria and was afterward reprinted by the Irish Truth Society. AMERICAN BAIT It was to be expected that after the success that had marked Father Sheehan's literary work there would be en- ticements held out to him to write for other periodicals. This led to representations being made to him from some Ameri- can publisher which implied that the author of My New Curate had been underpaid, ancl could do much better if he sought more popular mediums than an ecclesiastical monthly. These invitations did not make any impres- sion on Father Sheehan, although he referred to them in his letters. A species of competition, however, which was more effective was the rousing of his suspicions that The Eccle- siastical Review might ultimately take advantage of its preference, and retain the copyright of his books. The immediate occasion of this fear arose from that magazine's securing a separate "copyright" for each article of Luke Delmege as it appeared. The reason was of course plain to anyone familiar with American conditions. Since the series was to be published in book form on its expiration in the magazine, it seemed advisable to forestall the possi- bility of its being pirated. Unless each separate instalment bore expressly the notice that it was copyrighted, the chapters presenting isolated stories might readily be taken by some enterprising publisher and printed before legal protection for the issue of the finished volume could be Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 175 secured. In other words, it was a question of safeguarding the author's rights relative to the publication of his novel in book form. The same reasons did not exist for copy- righting separately other articles of the Review. As Father Sheehan deemed it sufficient cause for complaining, the following explanation is here in place. American Ecclesiastical Review Overbrook, Pa. January 15th, 1900. Dear Father Sheehan, I answer your letter, just now received, without delay to re- move your anxiety about the copyright. As I pay for the articles which I request for the Eccl. Review, I hold according to our law and common practice the copyright for the same. The payment varies according to the position of the writer — his recognized reputation, or the labor involved, or the special character of the topic treated requiring access to documents, journeys, etc., in- volving separate expense to the author. For serials I pay as a rule five pounds each article. For single articles I have paid as high as twenty pounds. But in every case I claim the owner- ship of the MS., as is the practice with all our publications, apart from special stipulation. The reason of this outright purchase is — to avoid contentions with authors, in case they were to get dissatisfied with our disposition of their articles as to the time and manner of publication, and thus attempt to have them published wholly or in part through other mediums before we could issue them. Some of our publications pay only after the articles have appeared in their pages, but the above is our system, and every- thing is done so as to leave no obligations on our part uncovered. But in your case, as in a few others, I made an exception from the very outset, because it seemed plain that if you were to finish the series, it would also be published in book form and prove of financial or other advantage. Such advantage I do not ever contemplate for the Review [next clause illegible because written over, but I think it is "I invariably turn over to"] the author, who will thereby in- crease the working efficiency of the Catholic cause. Thus the Review accomplishes the primary aim for which it was established, in a twofold sense. You see that my insistence upon the copy- right for paid articles means merely protection, not the profit that might come from negotiating with it. Indeed all the articles 176 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONER AILE [Part II which we retain copyrighted are worthless to us and any author could get them back for the asking, when once we have published them. But why did we copyright your articles separately? To facili- tate your obtaining the transfer, if at the end of the series you wish to have the same published in book form. Recently American pub- lishers have adopted the method of copyrighting individual papers although the magazine in which they appear is copyrighted. For it was found that irresponsible parties ostensibly in Mexican and Washington Territories (although living in N.Y.) printed and published and sold at the thoroughfares pirated matter of interest, at a captious price. These publications were stamped "copyright," and a good sale was generally effected before the publishers became aware of the fraud because the titles of these publications were somewhat different from the original titles, and some editions had indeed two or three titles and different covers for different localities, with a view to eluding the pro- prietors' eye. Now, although I did not think that this would be done with your series, I felt that if any unscrupulous publisher (and we have them by the score everywhere) were to print any part of special interest from your papers, I should have no redress, even with the general copyright. . . . Furthermore there was really some difficulty when the Govern- ment of the U. S. was asked to give the copyright over (since I had registered it) to a British subject. I sent a form of transfer to Mr. M which I believe he sent you for signature in which I act as your agent for the transfer to the publisher. These were my motives for registering the articles separately. It is the first series (after My New Curate) which, coming from across the sea, made me familiar with the possible accidents that might pre- vent its ready publication, etc. If you were here I could easily convince you how much I deem it a duty to protect my con- tributors . . . The explanation proved wholly satisfactory. About this time Father Sheehan became acquainted with the Irish poet and novelist, S. R. Lysaght, best known probably by his political sketch, Her Majesty's Rebels (Macmillan). The author, then living in London, at present resides in Doneraile, and bears eloquent witness to the results of Canon Sheehan's labors in the district, as educator and Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 177 parish priest. Acknowledging the receipt of a volume of Mr. Lysaght's poems, the Canon wrote: DONERAILE, Co. CORK May 1st, '01. Dear Mr. Lysaght, A line of grateful acknowledgement to you for your beautiful volume just received. In the midst of great hurry I could not resist the temptation of reading through "The Undiscovered Shore." Whether in their literal or allegorical meaning the poems are very beautiful — just what I should like to have with me some warm afternoon in one of my seanooks down near Ardmore or Youghal. Of course the modern undertone of sadness runs through all, and the eternal yearning after the Infinite and the Ideal — the most touching and sad of all modern symptoms, yet one with which I, standing firmly on the shores of Faith, can readily sympathise. The great notes of triumph, like those of Dante's Paradiso, will yet be heard, and you, as so many others, will come into the harbour under the Great Pilot ... I shall be looking out for the reviews on your book. A few months later to the same: DONERAILE, Oct. I9OI. Dear Mr. Lysaght, After many interruptions I was able to finish the reading of "The Marplot" last evening, and I hasten to thank you for the two volumes, and for the pleasure you have given me especially by your own work. I am not enthusiastic about "Irish Ideals." I suppose I am pretty tired of all the empiricism just now being practised on this poor country, and in which there seems to be one hopeful feature, viz. the return of alienated classes to their allegiance to the mother- land . . . "The Marplot" is an exceedingly clever story. I agree cordially with one of your critics that "the descriptive passages rise to the level of genius." I would have wished for more, but I suppose you have kept that great faculty under restraint. For the first time I have come across our real Munster idioms in print. I feel pretty sure you have been pelted with countless indignant letters from young ladies for having disposed of Elsinora so sud- denly and mournfully. I think the death of O'Connor, and his insane idea about the dice cast, very dramatic, and not at all beyond the reach of experience ... I am going over "One of 178 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II the Grenvilles" again. It is an advance in many ways. You have a unique power of working out the plot of a novel. Some day you will give us a distinctively Irish Romance, but Calliope is your goddess. With renewed thanks, P. A. Sheehan, P.P. A NEW DEPARTURE Whilst the chapters of Luke Delmege were running their course The Dolphin (which hitherto had been a literary supplement to The Ecclesiastical Review) was being or- ganized as a separate periodical. For this purpose it was necessary to secure a fresh corps of contributors, and accordingly arrangements were made with Canon Sheehan for an extension of his contract. The following letter bears on the subject: DONERAILE, Co. CORK. June 4, '01. Dear Fr. Heuser, What kind of story or novel would suit your new enterprise? I hold in the stocks two skeleton forms of stories — one, purely narrative, without any particular motive underlying the tale; the other, dealing with some complex questions about labour, etc. This latter would be the completion of the trilogy, for which My New Curate and Luke Delmege are the first parts. It is an idea of forecasting a perfect civilization founded purely on religious lines. You will notice the refrain running through Luke Delmege — "we must create our own civilization." I am anxious to for- malize such a civilization, founded on simplicity, self-surrender; and as alien as possible to all our modern ideas of progress. - You will perceive that Luke's failure sprang from his want of touch with this supernatural element. Give me your ideas; and let me know is the enlarged Dolphin to be consumed by laics only; or as an occasional Sunday dinner by the ecclesiastics also? Ever sincerely, P. A. Sheehan. The Dolphin appeared as a separate monthly in January, 1902; and the first issue contained a biographical sketch of the "Author of 'My New Curate,'" by Fr. Matthew Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 179 Russell, S.J. The article was to make the readers familiar with Father Sheehan's work in anticipation of the good things which he was sure to contribute. My New Curate and Luke Delmege, though written primarily for the clergy, eventually proved to be books much appreciated by the lay reader. Geoffrey Austin and its sequel now began to share this popularity. The new story did not take shape until, apparently by accident, the material of the historic trial known as the "Conspiracy of Doneraile" fell into Canon Sheehan's hands. This furnished him with the plot for Glenanaar. During the interval the author gathered into a uniform whole some hitherto neglected notes on a variety of sub- jects that had come under his observation. These ap- peared as Under the Cedars and the Stars, in the Dolphin. The serial ran for a year, the whole being grouped under four sections corresponding to the seasons of the year. There is in these detached musings a good deal of local sketching, although their main object is to reveal the vary- ing moods of his soul life, called forth by touches of nature and of thought. Those who have visited Canon Sheehan while he lived at the Doneraile parsonage will recognize at the very beginning the description of the little enclosed garden, with its somber trees and rose bushes, of which he was so fond; and where he did most of his writing, during the spring and summer, and far into the autumn days. He speaks necessarily of himself, though with a modestly deprecating air, just as he would reveal himself to the casual visitor who knew of his work and might want to see the artist of dear old "Daddy Dan." "This," he writes, in reference to his garden, "is its great and only merit. It is a hortus conclusus et disseptus. Three high walls bound it, north, south and west; and on the east are lofty stables, effectually shutting out all possibility of being seen by too curious eyes. It is a secluded spot and in one particular angle, at the western end, is walled in by high trees and shrubs, and you see only leafage and grasses, and the eye of God looking through the interminable azure. The monks' gardens bound it Cthis is the i8o CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II Community close of the Christian Brothers who teach the boys' schools of the district]] on the northern side; and here in the long summer evenings I hear the Brothers chanting in alternate strophes the Rosary of Mary. The sounds come over and through my garden wall, and they are muffled into a sweet, dreamy mono- tone of musical prayer. But the monks never look over my garden wall, because they are incurious and because there is not much to be seen. For I cannot employ a professional gardener, and it is my own very limited knowledge, but great love for flowers — 'the sweetest things God has made, and forgot to put a soul in' — and the obedient handiwork of an humble laborer, that keeps my garden always clean and bright, and some are kind enough to say, beautiful. And we have sycamores, and pines, and firs; and laburnum, and laurel and lime and lilac; and my garden is buried, deep as a well beneath dusky walls of forest trees, beeches and elms and oaks, that rival in sublimity and altitude their classic brethren of Lebanon, leaving but the tiniest margin of blue mountain, stretching, sierra like, between them and the stars. " But my garden is something more to me. It is my Stoa — my porch, where some unseen teacher ever speaks, as if with voice authoritative. It is to me the grove of Academe. Here under the laburnum, or the solitary lime or sycamore, I walk with spirits quite as wise as those who trod the ancient groves with Plato, and questioned him sharply, and drew out his wonderful dialectical powers. But my spirits question not. They are not sophists weaving subtleties out of the web and woof of dainty words; nor do they ask 'Why' and 'Wherefore.' They only speak by their silence and answer my interrogations. For I am an inquisitive being and the mystery of the world weighs heavily upon me . . . Miracles are all round me. I have a child's wonder and a child's love." All through these sketches are to be found personal allu- sions and reflections of the solitary whose habits made him unusually introspective. But they are also rich in observations on men and things, and they touch every department of human knowledge or divine philosophy. They are the meditations of a well-stored mind, the con- templations of a mystic, who looks out upon the world from his chamber above, with the light of heaven upon the things below. Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 181 Despite his preoccupations he did not forget his old clerical audience. "I shall feel quite lonely," he wrote, "when I see any numbers of the American Eccl. Review without my handiwork, but I am afraid your readers would now like to see new effort and a new name." The June issue, 1902, of the Review contained an article — "Father Mack on Retreat" — as a timely commentary on the annual spiritual exercises of the clergy. It purported to be an incident of the retreat in which two priests are described as discussing with some animation the relative merits of present-day pastoral methods. The Bishop happens to come on the scene and shows his displeasure at their violating the silence of the retreat. But "Father Willie," who "was a young 'old' priest, fairly on in years, though always with the heart and spirits, and even the face of a boy," apologizes for the two, and captures His Lord- ship's good will by unconsciously revealing a singular spirit of filial chivalry toward the older man, his former pastor. Father Sheehan had wished the story to be printed anonymously. The following letter, marked "private and confidential," shows a still lurking dread of criticism. Referring to "Father Mack on Retreat," he writes from the Bridge House, June 13, 1912: I expect there will be diversity of opinion about it as about my other work; but in view of the hostility that has been raised against me in clerical circles on this side, on account of Luke Delmege, I would urge upon you the advisability of keeping the authorship of it a secret. Attempts may be made to discover the writer; but I am aware that many would be glad to quote it as another example of my desire to lampoon and discredit the Irish priesthood. Although the verdict of the world is the other way, we must yield a little to insane prejudices; and I had de- termined not to touch on this delicate clerical question any more, nay even to rest altogether from literary work, and devote all my time to my parish and people. But you will see the neces- sity of maintaining the anonymity of the article intact. About this time a proposal was made to Canon Sheehan to visit the United States for the purpose of collecting 1 82 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II funds to lift the debt on the beautiful cathedral building at Queenstown. His friends in America strongly urged him to avoid if possible such a mission, lest it should create a false impression of the purpose of his literary work. The following letters bear on this subject: Bridge House, Doneraile, Co. Cork. Sept. 14, '01. Dear Father Heuser, I have been absent from home on a brief holiday; and found your letter before me ... I should like to see my work occasion- ally in the Review, which has been an excellent patron to me. And particularly I should wish to send you from time to time short little sketches, which would not involve the wear and tear of ex- amining Cyclopedias, but where I could call on my own material. Any suggestions of this kind I shall gladly accept from you. I have given Luke Delmege to the firm of Longmans, Green and Co., of London and New York, to be brought out simultaneously . . . Many thanks for the typed chapters which came safely to hand. Messrs. Longmans will apply to you direct, or through me for copyright. I have definitely declined (indeed never seriously entertained) the mission of collecting money in the States. It was morally repugnant to my feelings; and physically impossible to a wretched constitution, though I should have much wished to oblige our Bishop who is naturally impatient under a load of debt. I am rushing through a mountain of correspondence. Some- times I wish you had never drawn me out of my beloved obscurity. I am paying the penalty dearly. Ever sincerely, my dear Fr. Heuser, P. A. Sheehan. The question of dramatizing "Daddy Dan" had now been raised in several quarters. Mindful of the dangers that beset a presentation on our modern stage of not only the priestly character but also the "Irish" peasant, the idea had been strenuously opposed, unless the play were done under absolutely safe auspices, which meant that the author himself should censor the play, determine the staging, the costumes, and the accessories in detail. Under the Cedars and the Stars, which went forth with Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 183 the author's name attached, was favorably received, and apparently dispelled Father Sheehan's last misgiving about the advisability of his contributions appearing regularly, over his own name. The following shows his mind on the subject: DONERAILE, Co. CORK. Sept. 6, 1902. My dear Fr. Heuser, Your letter and the Dolphin have come together. I see that in this as indeed in other matters your judgment is always right. It was not dread of criticism (I am pretty hardened now) but an idea that there was so much of my own personality in these pages that made me sensitive about appearing above my name. I had an idea that the papers would read better from an unknown and obscure writer — I mean unknown by reason of his anonymity. However, all's right now: and you have given me a grand "send off." I only hope that the papers will realize all your expectations. If the Dolphin once gets hold, it must prove a valuable organ of instruction to the laity. I always think that our people are starved for want of wholesome intellectual food. We must try and push it here. Fr. Russell is doing his best in the Irish Monthly. I have received a copy of Dr. Henry's fine book. Please thank him for me. I should like to know what Leo himself thinks of it. He must be gratified exceedingly. Always sincerely, my dear Fr. Heuser, P. A. Sheehan. A few months later, when the papers had been widely commented upon, he writes: DONERAILE, Co. CORK. March y, 1903. Very many thanks for letter and cheque just received. From some communications I have received, I fancy these papers in the Dolphin are finding their way into unusual, unexpected places, and,' I think, are likely to effect some good — at least, perhaps they may liberate us Catholics from the ordinary charge of ob- scurantism. I should prefer the remark about Paragraph LXI to pass un- noticed. These criticisms are generally suggested by vanity, and it is merely to flatter such vanity to notice them. The expression, of course, "exiled from the blisses of heaven" is not theologically 1 84 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II exact; but my meaning was quite apparent. Perhaps I should have said "exiled, according to our selfish conceits, from the blisses of heaven though enjoying the beatific Vision," etc. What a wonderful literature we should have, if even one tenth of our critics would write something themselves. Ever sincerely, P. A. Sheehan. P.S. — A few days with you here will be a rare break in the monotony of my life. But let me know the "when" of your coming. When Under the Cedars and the Stars had run to its con- clusion, the Dolphin manager made an agreement with Father Sheehan for a number of copies to be reprinted from the plates of the serial as it appeared in the maga- zine. These copies were not to be sold, but to be sent as a gift to the original subscribers. Later on these plates were presented to Father Sheehan for the American edi- tion of the volume, which was issued by Benziger Brothers, of New York. DONERAILE, Co. CORK. 12- XI- '03. I received in good condition and time your edition of "Under the Cedars and the Stars." The type and all were so familiar and beautiful, I had the impertinence to write to the office for a few more. And they sent me six, which, considering the limited nature of the edition, was very generous. I suppose by this time the Irish edition has come into your hands. I have improved it by marginal notes and a table of contents which seem attractive. I am now kept very busy in lecturing, mostly in Dublin. It is a form of literature I don't like. I prefer my desk, and pen and lamp, and I find the physical effort of talking for over an hour very distressing, as lungs and heart are both weak. I am plough- ing through a paper for the Maynooth students to be read on December 1st. The late president, Dr. Gargan, wrote so urgently I could not refuse him; and the present President urged the matter again. So there was no getting out of it. Besides, of all audi- ences, I like students best. I hope your Homiletic Review will do well. The New York man, Wagner, has two bound volumes, MSS., of my sermons which he is doling out. I understood Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 185 that this was a priestly undertaking, under the exclusive manage- ment of priests. Otherwise I would not have sent them. Need I say how glad I shall be to see you here? Thanks for the President's letter. I had a few interviews here in the autumn with Chief Justice Holmes, son of the author of "The Autocrat." He was a most interesting man; and when we got on philosophical topics he talked well ... I know I am exacting: but could you send him a copy of the "Cedars and Stars"? He lives in Boston. Always sincerely, my dear Fr. Heuser, P. A. Sheehan. Mr. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, mentioned in the above letter, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1902, had, on the occasion of a visit to England, been induced to spend a brief holiday with his friends, Lord and Lady Castletown of Upper Ossory, at "Doneraile Court" in Ireland. It was Lord Castletown's habit to introduce visitors of distinction in the literary or educational world at the Catholic Rectory; for he held the Canon in high esteem, not only for his mental attainments but for his practical efforts in pro- moting the moral and economic interests of the district. It will be seen how much the mutual understanding and good feeling between the pastor of Doneraile and the gentry of the neighborhood contributed to the improve- ment of local conditions. Although the Canon rarely, if ever, visited in deference to purely social conventions, he was invariably invited by the local authorities to assemblies and the more important functions. He frequently pre- sided on these occasions as chairman, or w T as chosen as one of the speakers by reason of his recognized gift of public address and his ability for organizing. On the other hand he was often sought by the local land owners for consulta- tion, who brought their friends with them, and the Canon's courteous and hospitable manners were sure to put his visitors at their ease. In this way Justice Holmes met the author of My New Curate. The philosophical habit of mind and literary 1 86 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II tastes of the two men appear to have at once drawn them toward each other, and there sprang up between them an intimacy fruitful of rare intellectual intercourse, as is manifest from their correspondence, covering nearly ten years, to the very eve of the priest's death. "I sincerely hope," writes the Canon after the departure of his American friend, "you will find time during the long vacations to run over again. For your little morning visits to me were gleams of sunshine across a grey and monoto- nous life." The attraction for Canon Sheehan was but natural. Though wholly contented in the life of pastoral and literary occupation which he had chosen, he at times felt the comparative isolation which separated him from intercourse with men of congenial temperament and edu- cation. The clergy whom he met were apt to discuss pa- rochial matters or "talk shop," as men say. On the rare occasions when he went abroad he met men of science or letters mostly on a professional footing. In correspondence with his more intimate friends alone did he find that incen- tive to intellectual activity which he so highly valued and which he sought to cultivate among those for whom he labored. "I feel my greatest want to be some intercourse with minds whose ideas would act as a stimulant to thought by casting new light on old subjects." He found the com- pany of the American jurist pleasant because it brought him, as he said, face to face with original thinking on sub- jects that were of the deepest interest to him. Accord- ingly we find these two men discussing, across the sea, problems of philosophy and literary art, as well as the incidents of daily life which touch their special professions. CRITICISMS Meanwhile favorable criticisms were pouring in upon the author from all sides about Luke Delmege and Under the Cedars and the Stars. Father Russell kept his friend informed about them. I suppose sooner or later you see nearly all the criticisms of your book. I tear out the enclosed from the last American Catholic Chap. VII] "LUKE DELMEGE" 187 Quarterly. The advertisement in Westminster Gazette of Monday gives a good phrase from the Spectator and another from Punch. Of course you have seen the Tablet of Saturday. In another letter he says: In Dublin I saw Stephen Gwynn's new book To-day and To- morrow in Ireland. Two of the essays are reviews of Luke Delmege and My New Curate, one of them reprinted from the Edinburgh Review where I saw it at Lord Gormanston's . . . Luke Delmege is getting the better of its enemies. The "enemies" here referred to were a few educational theorists who saw in the volume a direct attack upon Maynooth College and its educational methods. They singled out trivial exaggerations in the volume and by them judged alike the motive and manner of the author. No doubt he did intend to criticize. No doubt, too, he over- drew his figures. But in doing so he only followed the principle: "To get a hearing one must perforce exaggerate." Most readers of Luke Delmege fully understood this. More discriminating naturally were the criticisms of Under the Cedars and the Stars. Maurice Francis Egan, a man of letters and, since 1907, U. S. Minister to Denmark, suggested a possible change in the manner of presentation. The editor of the Month printed a critique in which he read the author a severe lecture not only for abandoning the de- lectable art of writing stories and indulging in literary and philosophical reflections, but for misrepresenting "black- birds and throstles" and for comparing the song of the "missel-thrush to Crashaw's 'Music Duel.'" The com- mentators even went so far as to seriously regret that the American system of spelling should have been retained in the English edition of the book. Father Russell in a letter to Canon Sheehan writes of one of these critics that, though he was terribly observant about the habits and colors, etc., of birds, he knew him to be at heart a great admirer of the Irish author. "Write," he adds, "whatever you feel in- clined to, and don't mind anybody." A little while before he had told him: 1 88 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II I am sure you are too broadminded to be impressed by these notions. You are yourself the best judge of what is at any given time the best vent for your heart and mind. Nevertheless, you must not be surprised if those reveries and discussions which delight a great many already and will in other forms delight many generations of readers after your death, should not "enthuse," as they would say themselves, your American readers . . . Sartor Resartus did not increase the circulation of Frasers Magazine. You will remember the Cork priest who was its only Irish admirer — was it Father A. B. O'Shea? Follow your own inspirations bravely to the end, and make this perhaps the most beautiful of all your books. Critics will constantly refer to the standard of My New Curate — "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." For the rest, there were not wanting competent judges who placed Under the Cedars and the Stars among Canon Sheehan's best work. His friend Justice Holmes writes: This moment I have finished the book. It is the only book, except a few short light things that I don't count, that I have read since I received it. . . . And now I must tell you once more of the love and exaltation which your words have the skill to com- mand, as few words that I have read anywhere can. It is true that I don't believe your philosophy, or shall I say the religion which you so beautifully exalt. . . . When I begin to write to you I am tempted to say many things, but I refrain. I do not want to burden you either with my reflections or with the feeling that you must answer. I simply want to tell you more emphati- cally than before, now that I have finished your book, that I owe you my admiration and thanks. (Febr. 1904.) Similar opinions were expressed by men of such different type in literary attainments as the Dublin Judge D. H. Madden and the American humorist Joel Chandler Harris. The author of Uncle Remus chose for constant companions during his retirement "The Bible and Thomas a Kempis, then Shakespeare, Newman, Sheehan." At this time he had not yet become a Catholic. Chap. VII] SOCIALISM 189 SOCIALISM AS A LITERARY THEME It was important that Father Sheehan should keep up his connection with the Ecclesiastical Review, in which he had begun his sketches of clerical life. He himself was anxious to do so, as appears from his letters, and his strength lay undoubtedly in the portrayal of pastoral or clerical characters and doings. But to find a new form into which to cast the theme was not easy. He was not suffi- ciently informed about conditions in America, and its clerical types, to write a novel with a New World back- ground. It would have been futile to ask him to attempt a work on these lines. Among the subjects he had not touched upon was Social- ism. Socialism was spreading its tenets in English-speaking countries generally. Communism and equal rights, the dignity of labor and the abuses of wealth, were being every- where discussed; and Catholics, especially the proletariat, were being indoctrinated with dangerous principles leading to protracted strikes and serious differences between work- ing men and employers. A good story dealing with the indus- trial problems of the day would appeal to clergy and laity alike. It could point out the fallacies of certain popular and plausible arguments of the demagogues and agitators on the one hand, and the responsibilities of wealth on the other. Thus the principles of Christian ethics would supply the argument, whilst the scenes of the story could be set in Ireland or England. It was clear that such a serial would serve both a pastoral and an apologetic purpose. 1 Father Sheehan accepted the suggestion; but from the outset he experienced difficulty in dealing with the subject, chiefly because the social question and the labor problem as they existed in Ireland were of a different nature from what they are in the United States, Canada, or Australia. The setting of the proposed novel was to have been a mon- astery in the east of Ireland where the Friars from various 1 The work was subsequently done, not by Father Sheehan, but by Richard Aumerle Maher in a serial written for the Review under the title The Heart of a Man. i 9 o CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II missions of the home and foreign field should meet in brotherly converse to exchange views regarding the great moral questions agitating the masses to whom they were constantly preaching. As men of zeal and intelligence, who came in contact with the people in the large industrial centers at home and abroad, they could speak with knowl- edge and authority. It had been suggested to him also that his short story, The Monks of Trabolgan, might be elaborated into the pro- posed novel. Referring to the subject in a letter at this time, he says: "When I wrote The Monks of Trabolgan, some years ago, I had in view a large work on the monastic life such as you have suggested. But I found I was antici- pated by Huysmans; so I left it a mere sketch. I am now laboring at the Labour and Capital novel, but am making no headway. The agony of the thing does not strike us; and all my sympathies are with the laboring classes." On June 13th (1904) he writes: I have been thinking much about your socialist novel; but it is a good deal outside my sphere of thought. What should be the underlying principle? Do atheism and socialism go together? How are we to keep the golden mean between labour and capital? What of Christian Socialism? These are a few of the questions that keep cropping up, when I allow myself to think of the matter. And are not the conditions of labour in America (for I should place the scene there) very deplorable? I never think without a shudder of your mills and tenement houses, and the environ- ments of the poor. Books are no guide. One or two facts about Socialists would guide me better. . . . I am ever so sorry you didn't take up Luke Delmege and this book (Under the Cedars). It would have been a great grati- fication to me to know that my books were helping on the great cause of Catholic literature, for which you are doing so much. I hope you will keep the plates of the last work safe. They may be useful. Always most sincerely, My dear Fr. Heuser, P. A. Sheehan. Chap. VII] "GLENANAAR" 191 About this time the Ecclesiastical Review secured the manuscript of Glenanaar. It was not a clerical novel, though several churchmen figured in it. The Messrs. Longmans of London were to publish the story after it had been printed as a serial in the Dolphin, in which magazine it ran from November, 1904, to August the following year. Glenanaar, like The Graves at Kilmorna, is more than a novel. It is actual history, based upon authentic records. While going over some old files of the Southern Reporter and the Commercial Courier at the house of his friend Philip Harold Barry, J. P., who has his residence in the parish of Doneraile, the Canon had come upon the report of the State trials of the so-called "Doneraile Conspiracy'' in the autumn of 1829. The men of the district who had been accused of fomenting a secret rebellion against the local government were tried at the Cork Assizes by a special Commission sent out from Dublin Castle, and their descend- ants were still living in the neighborhood. Our author realized at once that here was material for an important story, which his familiarity with the local con- ditions and scenes allowed him to paint in vivid colors, and at the same time it afforded him the opportunity of pointing a moral which was calculated to enliven the patri- otic faith of his people. Incidentally the facts of the case were also a vindication of the fair name of some local families whose members had been implicated in the accusations. In order to give the proper historical background to his story, Canon Sheehan went to Cork and obtained permis- sion to examine the old court records of the famous trial. These he carefully copied, and, so far as was practicable, incorporated in the novel, which he completed in MS. within little more than six weeks. The central figure of the story is an Irish American — Terrence Casey. He is the grandson of an "informer," Patrick (known as "Cloumper") Daly. Daly's child, the mother of Casey, had been abandoned by its parents. 192 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II The little foundling is taken in by a kindly disposed farmer, Edmond Connors, who is one of a number of men falsely accused by Daly as implicated in a conspiracy against the Government. When the "informer" learns that Connors has sheltered his child, he retracts and makes affidavit of the farmer's innocence; then, pocketing the "reward" of his testimony, escapes with his wife to America. The adopted waif grows to womanhood and is married to an honest blacksmith. Their son, come to manhood, acci- dentally learns that his mother is the daughter of the "in- former"; and, unable to reconcile the shame of that thought with his patriotism, abandoning his home, he too goes to America. He works in the Nevada gold mines. Having acquired a fortune he is moved to return to his native land by the memory of a young girl to whom he had been ardently attached. After an absence of more than twenty years he finds his early love a widow prematurely aged through sorrow. She has a daughter, the image of her mother as he had known her. He reveals his purpose of claiming his old bride, and in the end marries the daughter, whom he takes with him to live in the New World. The persistent feature of the story is the recurrence of the stigma of the informer's guilt which clings, in the mind of the people, to Casey's family, according to the saying: "what goes into the blood is bred in the bone." The romance is very realistic, and there are parts that are dra- matically pathetic — such as the rescue of the child Nodlac from the snow; the death of old Edmond Connors; the desperate night ride of William Burke, brother of one of the men on trial; the sudden appearance in the court- house of Daniel O'Connell, the hero of the Repeal agitation. Finally, there is the graphic description of the desolate scenes of the great Famine in the autumn of 1847, one of the most touching passages in the book. The novel was well received in Ireland, and the critics of the author's former volumes seemed appeased by the evident patriotism that pervaded the story. Father Russell sent the author the first appreciation: — Chap. VII] "GLENANAAR" 193 St. Stanislaus' College, Tullamore. April 14, 1905. My dear Canon Sheehan, You have given me a great pleasure and privilege in seeing "Glenanaar" to the end before the rest of the world. I wonder what rank it will take in the hierarchy of your books. There are certainly very noble things in it, and it is completely different from all your other books. When it comes out in book form, I will read it through as eagerly as if I had never seen it before. I will probably see the symmetry of your plan better than I do now. The construction is certainly complicated, reminiscence alter- nating with contemporary history. You speak of '47 and '48 as the famine years. I suppose you are right, for O'Connell died in '47 (didn't he?) and certainly the famine cloud hung dark over Ireland then; but was not dis- tress felt keenly in 1846? Is Goula the Irish for scorpion? I have heard of Sullivan Goula and Scorpion Stanley. Longmans will bring out two books this season in which I am deeply interested — "Glenanaar" and "The Life of Sir John Gilbert." Lady Gilbert is over there now. I saw a specimen page. I thought that his name was to appear on the title page of Fr. Henry Browne's new book, "Handbook of Homeric Studies"; but "Browne and Nolan" are the only names seen. Happy Easter to you. Ever yours sincerely, M. Russell, S.J. Later, when the novel appeared in book form, the same good friend watches the progress of its reception by the critics: St. Stanislaus' College, Tullamore. April 28, 1905. Dear Canon Sheehan, Have you a Press Cutting Agency to send the reviews of Glen- anaar? The only ones I have noticed are The Times and The Messenger (New York). The Times (weekly edition Literary Supplement July 7) calls it "a vigorous and skilful piece of work" — that you have hit on "a fine subject for romance," and that you "know well the humour, the faults and the pathos" of certain phases of nationalism. The Messenger is a magazine of only two or three years' standing; i 9 4 CANON SHEEHAN OF DONERAILE [Part II and though it is in the same hands as the devotional Messenger of the Sacred Heart, it is in reality quite distinct and in another sphere altogether. I have heard clever men say it is the best thing of the sort that we have. Its review is of course very favorable (small thanks to it). It has misgivings about the judiciousness of your arrangement of the parts of your story — going back so minutely into the past after you had begun by presenting your hero in the present. Probably the story could not have been told otherwise. If you don't see The Messenger, I can send it to you. The girls of a Convent school in Chicago call you "the Poet Priest of Ireland" without naming you at all. But I find it is some masculine periodical that quotes "Under the Cedars and the Stars" in that way. Ever yours affectionately, Matthew Russell, S.J. DOflERAILiE, CO. CORK- ^ '*£_<-*< U-c-ist*. gjzJZisi i^nffi- Pn - Jh.fl^Ar'C? I A>k? J^ia^osC \ji-^^<^A~t—^L /-rut* ' asyi—* Ur~ *<-£JL nj^c^t /£***£-***<*» . life tzs JLt+- , fry J >*^w^ c^cM Mm. Uy ZiU, fcr-Tt ^<7mi^ Oa^u^ui y t**2 J—7/UjtZ? >w* */*', #^~ /: **J% rfO^-^—e^ >-*-. — — ** t