In the western suburbs of the city, upon an eminence, stand the buildings of the St. Louis University, handsome structures of brick.[121] The institution is conducted by Jesuits, and most of the higher branches of learning are taught. The present site has been offered for sale, and the seminary is to be removed some miles into the interior. Connected {142} with the college is a medical school of recent date. The chapel of the institution is a large, airy room, hung with antique and valuable paintings. Two of these, suspended on each side of the altar, said to be by Rubens, are master-pieces of the art. One of them represents Ignatius Loyola, founder of the order of Jesuits; the other is the full-length picture of the celebrated Francis Xavier, apostle to the Indies, who died at Goa while engaged in his benevolent labours. In an oratory above hangs a large painting by the same master; a powerful, though unfinished production. All the galleries of the buildings are decorated with paintings, some of which have but little to commend them to notice but their antiquity. The library embraces about twelve hundred volumes, mostly in the French language. The _Universal Geography_ of Braviara, a valuable work of eleven folios, brilliantly illuminated, and the _Actæ Sanctorum_, an enormous work of _forty-two_ folio volumes, chiefly attract the visiter's attention.[122] The philosophical apparatus attached to the institution is very insufficient. Most of the pupils of the institution are French, and they are gathered from all quarters of the South and West; a great number of them are from Louisiana, sons of the planters. _St. Louis._ XIII "Away! away! and on we dash! Torrents less rapid and less rash." _Mazeppa._ "Mark yon old mansion frowning through the trees, Whose hollow turret woos the whistling breeze." ROGERS.