Here we must close. We have not replied to all the misstatements, misrepresentations, perversions, and insinuations of the article in _Harper's Magazine_. We could not do it in a brief article like the present. It would require volumes to do it. We have touched only on a few salient points that struck us in glancing over it; but we have said enough to show its _animus_ and to expose its untrustworthiness. Refuted it we have not, for there really is nothing in it to refute, It lays down no principles, states no premises, draws no conclusions. It leaves all that to be supplied by the ignorance and prejudices of its readers. It is a mere series of statements that require no answer but a flat denial. It is not strange that the magazine should calumniate the popes, and seek to pervert their history. Our Lord built his church on Peter, being himself the chief cornerstone; and nothing is more natural than that they who hate the church should strike their heads against the papacy. The popes have always been the chief object of attack, and have had to bear the brunt of the battle. Yet they have labored, suffered, been persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, and martyred for the salvation of mankind. What depth of meaning in the dying words of the exiled Gregory VII., "I have loved justice, and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." Alas! the world knows not its benefactors, and crucifies its redeemers! ---------- {97} March Omens. [Footnote 44] [Footnote 44: From _Irish Odes and other Poems_, by Aubrey De Vere, just Issued by the Catholic Publication Society.] ON ivied stems and leafless sprays The sunshine lies in dream: Scarcely yon mirrored willow sways Within the watery gleam. In woods far off the dove is heard, And streams that feed the lake: All else is hushed save one small bird, That twitters in the brake. Yet something works through earth and air, A sound less heard than felt, Whispering of Nature's procreant care, While the last snow-flakes melt. The year anon her rose will don; But to-day this trance is best-- This weaving of fibre and knitting of bone In Earth's maternal breast. ---------- {98} Translated From The German By Richard Storrs Willis. Emily Linder. A Life-portrait.