"It is not many days ago," I replied, "since I heard you lament the awful and culpable defects in our popular Catholic literature. Hadn't you to fall back upon that barbarous book to enlighten Ormsby on the existence of his immortal soul?" "Barbarous? I wish to heaven that I could write anything half as good. But, as you see, there are whole fields of literature yet untrodden by us, but where heretics and others are reaping rich harvests. Yet, who would dare make the attempt? Don't you know that the ablest professors in your own time in Maynooth never ventured into print? They dreaded the chance shots from behind the hedge from the barrels of those masked banditti, called 'critics.'" "Dear me, how you do run on! One would think you had the MS. cut and dry in your pocket, you talk so glibly about publishers and critics. Can't you write the book first and then take circumstances as they occur?" "Well, go on, suggest a subject, sir." "Now, this is rather sudden, young man. Give me one day, and I'll give you a list of subjects that would bewilder you! Only promise me you'll take one up." "All right!" said he; "I promise. Hallo! where are you taking those papers?" "I'm taking them home for the present. They are confiscated to the Crown." He looked at them wistfully, as if they were going to the holocaust, as we might imagine the great mother of the Maccabees watched half with pain, half with pride, wholly with resignation, her sons mount the funeral pyre. [Illustration: "It broke in my fingers and revealed the little dreams and ambitions of nearly forty years ago."] "Never fear," I replied, "they won't go up the chimney. At least, I'll answer for the prose. I'm not so sure about the poetry. Now, good day! I'll keep you to your promise." And I did, but with what cost to myself. I had to search in the cemeteries of the past for the skeletons of designs, once gladly adopted, then as gladly laid to rest. At last, I found, hidden away amongst episcopal documents, dispensations, etc., a yellow, frayed paper, tied up in string that once was red, but now was white and fragile. It broke in my fingers and revealed the little dreams and ambitions of nearly forty years ago. Need I say they never ripened, or came within even measurable distance of perfection. They were three large quarto sheets, and they were darkened thus:-- A. M. D. G. _Subjects for Articles and Papers to be written, wholly or partially, during the Coming Years_. I. MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. I. The Influence of Plato on the Early Christian Church. II. The Influence of Aristotle on the Mediæval Church. III. The Neo-Platonists. IV. The Argument in St. Augustine on the Immortality of the Soul. (Is it Tenable?) V. The Atomic Theory of Democritus, and the Modern Discoveries in Astronomy. VI. The Influence of the Inductive Philosophy on Modern Disbelief. VII. Was Spinoza an Atheist? VIII. Is Descartes the Father of Modern Rationalism? IX. St. Anselm's Proof of the Existence of God.