detected and betrayed by the third. Now these companions be it remembered, are not self-chosen, they are not drawn together by any sympathy or affinity of heart, but every appointment is made by the General; so that if any young man of a tender conscience and hopeful spirit should venture to begin to inquire respecting the great principles of the faith, there is nothing easier than to place with him some artful and well-skilled servant of the Company, who shall gain his confidence by apparent sympathy, and then betray every disclosure. {40b} If, moreover, he ever receives or sends a letter without express permission, his doing so is regarded as a mortal sin; nor can the guilt be absolved by the usual confessor, but the offence must be transmitted as a reserved case to the Superior. {41} Imagine what it would be to work your way out of such a thraldom, when every word you uttered, every book you read, every friend you spoke to, was observed and reported to those who had absolute dominion over your movements. But more than this. There are secrets in the deep recesses of the soul which even the practised spy cannot penetrate, and there are searchings of heart, which, unless willingly discovered, are known only to the individual and to God. But the poor Jesuit is not to have even a thought which he may call his own. It is the privilege of other Roman Catholics to choose their own confessor, and they may go to the priest in whom they place the greatest confidence; but it is not so with the Jesuit. Like everything else, his confessor is appointed for him, and, of course, just such an one as is best calculated to lay open the secrets of his heart. But even this is not enough. When the novice is admitted, he is led to believe that his confessions are sacred, and not liable to be reported, a point on which the Roman Catholic mind is naturally particularly sensitive. But besides the confession, the Jesuit is required periodically to go through a process termed the manifestation of his conscience, in which every wish, thought, fear, habit, pleasure, object of interest, is to be laid open to his Superior. The object of this manifestation is stated in the Examen to be, that the Superior may be acquainted with the internal as well as the external character, that he may at all times select the most suitable agents for his missions or other services, and that so he may best provide for the good of the whole body of the Society. {42a} It is perfectly clear, therefore, that the results of these manifestations, although they are said to be _sub sigillo_, are all transmitted to the General, and obtained for that very purpose. Now transfer your thoughts to that confessional, and suppose there a conscientious, an inquiring Jesuit. It is the creed of his Church, which he believes infallible, that, if anything is kept back in confession, the absolution is null and void, and that, without the absolution, he remains under the wrath of God.