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DIVISION OF THE WORK.

My course of lectures of 1844 will shortly appear, entitled "Rome and France."

The subject of the present volume, mentioned in two or three of these lectures, could not be treated of in them, as the nature of the subject is too private.

It presented a serious difficulty, that of speaking with propriety of a matter in which our adversaries have given proof of an incredible liberty. " Omnia munda mundis," I know very well. However, I often preferred letting them escape, when I had them in my power, to following them in the mire.

First part: on Direction in the Seventeenth Century. -I have taken my historical proofs from among the purest and best of my adversaries, not among those who are the most open to reproach. The seventeenth century could furnish.me with written testimony: it is the only period that has not feared to expose in broad daylight the theory of direction. I could have multiplied my quotations ad infinitum. Those who have read the History of Louis XI.

know how

much I value truth in the most minute details. I

have quoted but little, and have accurately and care

b

fully verified it. The falsifiers whom, at every step in our historical studies, we catch in the fact, are marvellously bold, to speak of correctness. They may say at their ease, "They shall never make us bring forward, in opposition to theirs, names noted for their loyalty."

Second part: Direction in general, and especially in the Nineteenth Century.— A serious inquiry into contemporary facts has given me the second part for a result. I have seen, listened, and questioned; I have weighed testimonies, and compared them side by side with a great number of analogous facts, known to me for a long time past; and I have controlled, before that inward jury, my conscience, the whole of those more ancient facts, and this new inquiry.

Third part: on Families. I was far from pretending to treat this vast subject. I wanted only to point out what marriage and family are in truth, and by what means the family-hearth, disturbed by a foreign influence, may become strong again.

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I shall conclude with a single word to my opponents. I have written without hatred. I will add willingly (just the contrary of the pagan's language): "O my enemies, there are no enemies." If this book, severe towards the priests, should have any influence on the future, they are the persons, who will most profit by it. Many among them have already pronounced this opinion, and are willing to reply to my

questions. Yes, may this book, unequal as it may be to the end it aims at, help to hasten on the time when the priest, restored to his manhood, and freed from a system as absurd and impossible as it is artificial, shall obey the voice of nature, and resume his place amongst his fellow-men,

PRIESTS, WOMEN, AND

FAMILIES.

PART I.

ON DIRECTION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

RELIGIOUS REACTION IN 1600. INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS OVER WOMEN AND CHILDREN. SAVOY; THE VAUDOIS; VIOLENCE AND MILDNESS. ST. FRANCIS DE

SALES.

EVERYBODY has seen in the Louvre Guido's graceful picture representing the Annunciation. The drawing is incorrect, the colouring false, and yet the effect is seducing. Do not expect to find in it the conscientiousness and austerity of the old schools *; you would look also in vain for the vigorous and bold touch of the masters of the Renaissance.

*

The

Compare with the Museum of the Louvre the Annunciations of Giusto di Alamagna, Lucas de Leyde, and Vasari.

B