Editors' Table. THE DIES IRE.-The return of the second of November reminds the Catholic of the solemn and sacred duty he owes to the souls of the faithful departed. On this day he hears repeated the words of the inspired pensman, that "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." And in this who can sufficiently admire the charity which the Catholic Church entertains for her children? In infancy, she receives them; during life, she watches over them; in death, she hovers round them; and when the earth closes upon them, she follows them to the throne of her heavenly spouse, and interposes her supplications in their behalf. How hard, how inconsolable is death to those who believe that the ties of parental love and filial affection are buried in the grave of a father, or chilled in the tomb of a mother! who are forbidden to kneel at the parental grave, and with uplifted eyes whisper a prayer of requiem for those whom they so fondly cherished on earth. To these, death is truly death! But not so with the Catholic. For him death is divested of half its terrors. The tomb is but a veil which separates him from the parents he loved and the friends whom he cherished on earth. With the eyes of faith he beholds them. The venerated form of a father or mother rises before him. He sees beneath the shades of the tomb the brother of his heart, the sister of his fondness, or perhaps the child of his affection. From the shores of eternity he holds sweet communion with those who were most dear to him in this vale of affliction; and when human nature would sink in sorrow and in sadness, he seeks relief for his tears in offering to heaven a prayer for the repose of their souls. He knows that if God be a God of goodness, he is also a God of justice; he knows that nothing defiled can enter heaven, and fearful lest some stain or blemish may still detain them from that happy abode, he feels a consolation that none but a Catholic can feel, in being able to aid them with his prayers, and in saying in all the fervor of his heart: O God, be merciful to their souls! Sublime and heavenly teaching! If it were not of divine precept, how can man reject a doctrine which touches the finest cords of the human heart!-a doctrine so consonant with the first dictates of human nature! But we are wandering from the subject on which we intended to pen a few words. It is not our intention to treat of the doctrine of purgatory, or even to exhort our readers to the duty they owe, especially on the second of November, to the souls of the faithful departed, but simply to dwell for a few moments on the historical associations connected with that beautiful Catholic hymn, the Dies Ira, which forms a part of the solemn service for the dead. No composition of the same length has been so long and so universally admired as the Dies Ira. The solemn grandeur of the measure, and the dread solemnity of the theme, render it a poem that cannot be read without producing in the mind mingled feelings of melancholy and awe. The hardest heart will yield to softness under its influence. Even Dr. Johnson, stern and rugged as was his nature, could not, it is said, repeat without shedding tears the following verse: "Quærens me sedisti lassus, The admiration of Sir Walter Scott for this hymn is well known. In a letter to the poet Crabbe he says: "To my Gothic ear the Stabat Mater, the Dies Iræ, and some other hymns in the Catholic Church, are more solemn and affecting than the fine classical poetry of Buchanan: the one has the gloomy dignity of a Gothic church, and reminds us constantly of the worship to which it is dedicated; the other is more like a pagan temple, recalling to our memory the classical and fabulous deities," In his last days of life and reason he was often heard repeating verses from this hymn with quotations from the sacred writings. "Very often," says his biographer, "we heard dis tinctly the cadence of the Dies Iræ." Its lines, in like manner, haunted the dying hours of an earlier poet, the Earl of Roscomon. He was the author of an English version of this hymn, and as we learn from Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, uttered the moment when he expired, with great energy and fervor, two lines of his own translation of the Dies Ira: "My God, my father and my friend, Do not forsake me in my end!" Upon the Dies Ira Mozart founded his celebrated "Requiem," the last and one of the greatest of his works. The excitement of his feelings whilst engaged in this celebrated composition, is supposed to have hastened his death, which occurred before he had fully completed his task. Ancina, at the time a professor of medicine in the University of Turin, was on a certain occasion assisting at Mass when the Dies Ira was chanted, and was so deeply affected by it that he determined to abandon the world. He did so, and afterwards become Bishop of Saluzzo. Knapp, distinguished among the sacred poets of Germany, though a Protestant, is unbounded in his admiration of the Dies Ira. He compares the original to a blast from the trumpet of the resurrection, and while he himself attempts a version of it, pronounces the original inimitable in any translation. The effect produced on the mind by hearing it performed is often overwhelming. "It was impossible," says a writer describing it as performed in one of the great churches in Germany," to refrain from tears, when, at the seventh stanza, all the trumpets ceased, and the choir, accompanied by a softened tone of the organ, sang those touching lines: "Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? It would be an interesting task to trace the Dies Irae through the various translations into which it has been rendered. They are perhaps hundreds. Lisco, in an appendix to the Stabat Mater, of which he gives fifty-three versions, mostly German, subjoins seventeen versions of the Dies Iræ. Leche, a German poet, is said to have rendered twelve several versions of this hymn. The English translations are also numerous. One of the earliest and most admired is that by Crashaw, a poet of great merit. Crashaw was a clergyman of the English Church during the reign of Charles I, and became a convert to the Catholic faith. His translation of the Dies Iræ, in the judgment of Pope, was the best of his compositions. In later days we have many translations. The version inserted in several of the larger Catholic prayer books, commencing: "That day of wrath, that direful day, is far superior to most of the translations we have met with. The Rev. Isaac Williams' translation possesses much merit, especially of certain stanzas. There is something remarkably striking in his rendition of the third and fourth stanzas: "When the trumpet's thrilling tone, Death and Time shall stand aghast! And Creation, at the blast, Shall rise to answer for the past." The following translation of the same stanzas, which we take from St. Joseph's Manual, does not possess the same power and effect: "His trumpet sounds a dreadful tone; The noise through all the grave is blown, And calls the dead before his throne. Nature and death shall stand and gaze, There are other very excellent translations of this poem; that by the Rev. Richard C. Trench, beginning: "O! that day, that day of ire Told of prophet, when in fire is possessed of merit; but his language generally is too tame, lacking that energy which the subject requires. It is a little curious that the authorship of this beautiful hymn is still involved in doubt and uncertainty. It is usually ascribed to one of the Franciscan order, and supposed to have been written towards the close of the thirteenth century. By some it is ascribed to Cardinal Ursini or to Cardinal Frangipani, who died in the year 1294; by others to Humber, fifth general of the order of St. Dominic. The order of St. Francis, in its early history, seems to have cultivated sacred poetry. St. Francis, its illustrious founder, is said to have written several poetical compositions; and to Jacopone, one of its earliest members, is ascribed the authorship of the Stabat Mater. "There's the "Our stock of poetry, gentlemen, has dwindled away to a mere nothing; and unless it be shortly replenished our readers -." Here O'Moore broke off the sentence, at the same time heaving the contents of the green bag upon the table. whole of it: not a line of it worthy of the name of poetry. My head has been almost turned in scanning over it, to see if I could find a single piece in the whole collection wherewith I could fill up a corner of our Table for the present month." "Here is a piece," continued O'Moore," from some poor exile from the land of his birth, the first stanza of which is worthy of the pen of Gerald Griffin:" Dear Erin, thou wronged one, how deeply I love thee, Thy daisy-clad hills and the sky that's above thee, Are bright even now as they have been of old; But where are the hearts that were wont to stand round thee, As they who of yore upon Clontarf unbound thee? And hush thee to silence as still as the grave! "But in the remaining stanzas our poet takes such extravagant flights that I could not follow him. Here is another little scrap all the way from the far west. It was suggested on hearing that a young lady had entered a convent. It is applicable to all who have the happiness to be called to the religious state:" "The lady of the bleeding heart."-SCOTT. She might have been a husband's pride; Domestic ties!-too light their span Love is her altar-love her shrine,- How she has offered love divine I will not breathe her sainted name, Must find the best 'midst all the blest "In the dearth of originals, permit me, Mr. O'Moore," said Father Carroll, "to offer a selection from no unworthy source. On its merits I will not venture to pass judg ment; it will be sufficient for our readers to know that it is from the pen of Dr. Brownson." "What?-poetry from the pen of Dr. Brownson? Has the great reviewer found time amidst the weighty subjects that usually engage his pen, to hearken to the inspiration of the muse of song?" "I will not vouch for his being the author, but at all events the poem in question has met his approbation and passed the keen eye of his criticism." "Our readers require no more; the Doctor's opinion on subjects is law infallible. Let it be read." Here Father Carroll, taking up the last number of the Quarterly, read the following extract from a poem of much merit, full of spirit and martial fire, entitled THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. "Heard ye not the tramp behind us! We may make one charge to venge us, As the tiger from the jungle, On the bounding column comes; Its sunlight from their eyes. Round their bright array dividing, We gave them passage large, For we knew no line then living Could withstand that fiery charge. One breathing space they halted- Then the pas de charge thrills heavenward, Right for the heart of Russia The panthers of the Alma, They shrink-they sway-they falter On, on!-no quarter then Nor human hand, nor heaven's command, Could stay our maddened men. A flood of sudden radiance Bathes earth and sea and sky, Above us bursts exulting The sun of victory. Holy moment of grim rapture, The work of death is done, The Muscovite is flying, Lost Inkerman is won!" Record of Events. From September 20, to October 20, 1856. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. ROME. The festival of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was celebrated as usual at the Church of Our Lady of the People. His Holiness went to the church in state, and and in coming down from the Quirinal Palace passed through the whole length of that fine street, the Corse, the houses of which were hung with tapestry, &c. Crowds of people were present for the purpose of receiving His Holiness's benediction. In His Holiness's carriage were the Cardinals Barnabo and de Medici. After the Mass, the Holy Father returned to the Quirinal by the same way, amidst crowds of the faithful. The Romans, to show their devotion towards the mother of our Lord, illuminated their houses on the vigil, and also on the evening of the festival. It is said that a Consistory was to be held on Thursday, the 18th of September. This will be a Public Consistory, for the purpose of investing His Eminence Cardinal Viale Prela with the Hat, and it will be followed by a Secret Consistory, in which several bishops will be proclaimed. The Pontifical Army.—According to a statement published in some of the papers, the Pontifical army, appears, consists of 14,000 men. The Risorgimento of Turin, considers that number to be greatly exaggerated, and after making numerous reductions and suppressing altogether the companies of invalids and veterans, it shows that the Pope's army only consists of 8,000 men, namely-native infantry, 3,000 men; foreign infantry, 3,500; one battalion of Chasseurs, 700; two batteries of artillery, 200; a regiment of dragoons, 600-that is, 7,400 infantry, 600 cavalry, and 12 pieces of artillery. The Holy Father lately received several handsome and valuable presents from the Emperor of the Burmans. They were brought to Rome by a missionary priest. They consist of a solid golden chalice, a cross, enriched with precious stones, and valuable rings, accompanied by a letter in which the Catholics of the Burman Empire convey to the chief of the Church the expression of their affectionate attachment. Religious affairs in the East have lately been under the consideration of the cardinals and prelates belonging to the congregation of Extraordinary Catholic Affairs. It appears that the Sultan through the medium of Monsignor Hassoun, Latin Archbishop of Constantinople, has made propositions to the Holy See in respect to the establishment of diplomatic relations with Rome, and which are likely to be advantageous to the Catholics of the Ottoman Empire. Conversions.-A distinguished member of the Greek schism has lately been reconciled to the Catholic Church in Rome. On Sunday, the 31st of August, at the Church of St. Athanasius, His Eminence Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda, received the abjuration of the Rector Theagene Palatides, of Constantinople. Cardinal Barnabo pronounced a discourse of great learning on the occasion. Within a few months there have been a great number of conversions from among the Foreign Legion at Rome. When this legion was formed some newspapers expressed surprise that the Pope would admit Protestants to a corps particularly designed for the protection of the Holy See. The result has answered them as to the wisdom as well as goodness of His Holiness. Fidelity to their flag and to their military duties was all that could be asked of these soldiers, and these are compatible with their not being Catholics. But the influence of Rome has wrought its effect. The spiritual care of this legion was confided particularly to the Redemptorist Fathers, and they have had the happiness of receiving |