From Good Words.

THE PRAYER OF PRUDENTIUS.

AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS, the writer who is here introduced to the readers of GOOD WORDS, was born about the year A. D. 348. Little is known of his life beyond the facts that his father filled the office of Consul, and that the boy must therefore have received the education of the upper classes of the empire; that his early years were spent in reckless license; that he twice filled the office of Prefect in a Spanish province under Theodosius; and that his maturer age was devoted to the attempt to create a Christian literature which should take the place of Virgil, and Horace, and Lucretius, for the generation then rising into manhood. For the most part, however, his poems do not rise above the level of neatly versified rhetoric. But the passage which is here translated has the merit of being something more, the utterance of a deep feeling. The man himself is speaking out of the depths of his heart. At the close of a poem, on the Origin of Evil, his mind turns in upon itself, and the thought comes home to him, that there is an evil within which he has not yet conquered, and from which he is craving for deliver ance. Wherever this feeling exists it claims our sympathy and respect. Without it there can be no true prayer. And it is because it is expressed by Prudentius with a truth and humility that carry their own witness with them, that I have thought it right, in spite of one serious drawback, to give it a wider circulation among English readers than it has had hitherto. The nature of that drawback is sufficiently obvious. The prayer implies, in its concluding words, the germ of the dogma which, in its developed form, as "the Romish doctrine of purgatory," English churchmen and other Protestants have learnt to distrust and to reject. I need hardly say that I have no wish to revive what the experience of so many centuries has shown to be the fruitful parent of "many su perstitions." But it is one thing, in the light of that experience, to condemn the dogma, and quite another to refuse to acknowledge that when it first came there was much in it which might attract and fascinate minds of the highest order. As we find it in Prudentius, it is no instrument of priestly tyranny, no narcotic to dull the conscience, no substitution of the mere endurance of pain for a progressive sanctification. What we hear in him is the utterance of a spirit and temper upon which Christ himself has set the seal of His approval. In the " many man. sions" of the Father's house, the writer of this prayer is content to "take the lowest room." In the consciousness that he is no more worthy to be called the son of that Father, he will simply ask that he may be as "one of His hired servants." He "stands afar off," like the Publican, and will not "so much as lift up his eyes unto Heaven." We may not doubt that, with such a soul, mists and shadows would pass away, that he would be bidden to "go up high

er," that he would be welcomed as a son, that he too would enter into that great house "justified rather than the others" who were more confident and exulting.]

FATHER in heaven adored,
Of all creation Lord,·
Christ, Co-eternal Son,
And Spirit, Three in One,
Thy wisdom guides my soul,
I bow to Thy control,
Before Thy judgment throne
I all my vileness own.
Before that judgment-seat
I live in hope to meet
Thy mercy and Thy grace,
Thy smiling, pitying face,
Though what I do or say
Be stained with sin alway.

Before Thee I confess,
Help Thou my wretchedness;
Spare him who owns his sin,
The deep-dyed guilt within.
All woe and pain, of right,
On this vile soul might light;
But Thou, O Judge, be kind,
Cast all my sins behind.
Hear, Lord, the prayer of woe,
And better things bestow.

Grant this poor soul of mine,
When it shall leave its shrine
Of flesh and blood and bone,
The house it calls its own,
To which it fondly clings,
In love of earthly things;
When death's sad hour shall close
These eyes in dark repose,
And all in earth shall lie
This frail mortality:

When, cleansed and clear, the sight
Shall see the heavenly light:
Oh hide Thou then from view
The fierce wild robber crew,
That fright the startled ear
With voice of threat and fear,
Who fain would drag me down
With dark, relentless frown,
To caverns drear and deep,
And there a prisoner keep
Till all I owe be paid -
Guilt's utmost farthing weighed.

Within Thy Father's home
In different order come,
O Christ, the mansions meet,
Each soul's assigned retreat :
I ask not with the blest
To gain eternal rest;

There let the saints abide
Who conquered lust and pride,
And, seeking riches true,
From earth's vain shews withdrew.
There, in perpetual youth
Let white-soul'd, maiden Truth,
Forever dwell on high,

In stainless chastity, For me enough, the deep Of Hades dark and steep, If only Thou wilt bind The foes of human kind, If only Thou restrain Gehenna's fire and pain, Nor leave my soul to flit All hopeless to the pit. Enough, if fleshly stain Require the cleansing pain, That in the lake of fire I purge each foul desire: Enough, if breezes sweet Temper the slackening heat, And scorching flames abate The fierceness of their hate. The boundless realm of light, The crown of glory bright, This meed let others gain; Enough, if I attain, Beneath Thy pitying eye, A lighter penalty.

E. H. PLUMPTRE.

From the Examiner. SERVANTS, FOREIGN AND ENGLISH. ENGLAND ought to be a cheap country. Why is it not? Arthur Young observed nearly a century ago that it is not that the living abroad is cheaper than in England, but that the mode of living is cheaper. The prices of necessaries are higher now in France than in England, but nevertheless people live for less in France than in England, we mean of the same class and corresponding means. In England we are eaten up by servants, and the evil will increase with the advance of the price of labour. As the Pall Mall Gazette observes:

Servants are much better abroad. They do incomparably more and cost incomparably less. We need two here where we need one there, and we pay each of those two twice as much directly, and three times as much circuitously and unconsciously. A family consisting of father, mother, and four children, in the upper-middle or upper ranks of life in England cannot possibly get on with less than four servants. On the Continent two would be found sufficient. An English footman or butler wants his five meals a day, eats meat at three of them, grumbles over them all, and of course grows fat, insolent, and lazy. All he can be persuaded to do is to wait at table, usher in visitors, brush or fold his master's clothes, and go out for an airing with his mistress's carriage.

It is true that two servants will suffice for a family on the Continent which will require four here, but we have the structure

of our houses to blame for the greater requirements. On the Continent an apartment of eight or ten chambers is on a floor, and the work of the servants is all on the level, no running up and down stairs to answer bells or to attend to the door. As for the last office, if the servants happen to be out, or specially engaged, the members of the family think it no more derogatory to open an outer door than to open an inner door, though here the master or mistress who should by any chance find themselves discovered attending to their street door would hardly recover their self-respect in a twelvemonth. But, as the Pall Mall Gazette says:

The truth is that foreigners do more for themselves than we do, and want less from their servants. They do not ring the parlour bell incessantly; but we are sure that they are far better so served, more cheerfully served, more honestly served; in a word, are made incomparably more comfortable with incomparably less fuss and ostentation, and at one-fourth the outlay. The servants, too, are far cleverer (we may except those in the best-mounted noble houses in England, who are often admirable) heart is more in their work; they give much than ours are; they can do more things; their more, and exact much less. We are for ever complaining of our servants here- "our household plagues; " but we scarcely ever realize to ourselves how wonderfully we should gain in comfort, and how enormously we should save in money, if we had only half our usual number of servants, and those of a different temper and a higher and better trained-order than ours usually that is a more sensible, conscientious,

are.

-

But, again, we say look to your houses, for the main cause of the evil is structural. of servants if their movements were horiWe could do better with half the number zontal instead of perpendicular. But half the number would not take the up and down work at double the wages. French and German servants have tried it, and given it up, saying it broke their hearts. And the climbing is not all. We have to consider the underground life of town servants, and what can be more gloomy, more cheerless, more unwholesome, or more repugnant? The lower offices of most London houses are dismal dungeons never penetrated by a ray of sunshine, and extremely ill ventilated. And it is the same in all the provincial towns. On the Continent there is nothing but cellarage below the level of the street, and the kitchens and offices of every apartment are on the same floor. Often, it is true, in Paris and great towns

GENERAL SHERMAN'S REPLY.

Sherman received this letter near Memphis on the 10th of March, and immediately replied:

"Dear General: I have your more than kind and characteristic letter of the 4th instant. I will send a copy to General McPherson at once.

You do yourself injustice and us too much honor in assigning to us too large a share of the merits which have led to your high advancement. I know you approve the friendship I have ever professed to you, and will permit me to continue, as heretofore, to manifest it on all proper occasions.

You are now Washington's legitimate successor, and occupy a position of almost dangerous elevation; but if you can continue, as heretofore, to be yourself, simple, honest, and unpretending, you will enjoy through life the respect and love of friends and the homage of millions of human beings, that will award you a large share in securing to them and their descendants a government of law and stability.

I repeat, you do General McPherson and myself too much honor. At Belmont you manifested your traits- neither of us being near. At Donelson, also, you illustrated your whole character. I was not near, and General McPherson in too subordinate a capacity to influence you.

Until you had won Donelson, I confess I was almost cowed by the terrible array of anarchical elements that presented themselves at every point; but that admitted a ray of light I have followed since.

I believe you are as brave, patriotic and just as the great prototype, Washingtonas unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest as a man should be - but the chief characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always manifested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith a Christian has in the Sa

viour.

This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Also, when you have completed your preparations, you go into battle without hesitation, as at Chattanooga -no doubts no reserves; and I tell you, it was this that made us act with confidence. I knew, wherever I was, that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would help me out, if alive.

My only point of doubt was, in your knowledge of grand strategy, and of books of science and history; but, I confess, your common sense seems to have supplied all these.

Now as to the future: don't stay in Wash ington. Come West. Take to yourself the whole Mississippi Valley. Let us make it dead sure-and I tell you the Atlantic slopes and the Pacific shores will follow its destiny, as sure as the limbs of a tree live or die with the main trunk. We have done much, but still much remains. Time and time's influences are with us. We could almost afford to sit still and let these influences work.

Here lies the seat of the coming empire; and from the West, when our task is done, we will make short work of Charleston and Richmond, and the impoverished coast of the Atlantic. Your sincere friend."

From the Spectator.

SHERMAN'S GREAT MARCHES. AN excellent little volume, useful not merely, nor chiefly, to the military student, but useful to the general realer. It is a valuable contribution to history, having the merit of entertaining as well as enlightening a contemporary reading public. No one need turn from it fearing to stumble in its pages over military technology, and to yawn over that kind of writing which is often called military because it is "caviare to the general." There is no necessity why the story of a campaign should be made unintelligible to all persons not educated at the Staff College. Of all pedantry perhaps military pedantry is the most insufferable. There is nothing of the military pedant about Major Nichols. He writes with apparent ease in a language understood by everybody, and while he does not neglect the broad strategical features of Sherman's campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas, he seasons his daily narrative by jotting down an abundance of incidents, social, political, and picturesque. We have glimpses of the ways and means, sketches of character, and notes of adventure on the road. He shows how the great columns of the army, stretched out over a vast front, or folded up into a small space, were moved as easily by the General as a fan in the hands of a Spanish belle. Not that the book is a set and formal history. It is simply a

The Story of the Great March. From the Diary of a Staff Officer. By Brevet Major G. W. Nichols, Aide-de-Camp to General Sherman. With a map and Illustrations. London: Sampson Low and Co.