The Life and Letters of Frederick William Faber. By Rev. William Scribner [pp. 515-532]

_The life and Letters of
plain that life can't be lived at this rate. But my mind is now
like a locomotive that has been started with neither driver nor
stoker." In another letter: "The last six months have been onil
the whole very hard to me, from paiil and from serious matters
of government and responsibility. I was unhappy about the
statistics furnished about us, as I have always felt that number ing penitents and converts was in St. Phlilip's eyes like David
numnbering his people. It is a most un-Oratorian spirit. So I
pray God we may forget both the facts and figures we sent. I
have forgotten them already.... There is hardly a day your
trouble does not weigh upon me and stir my sympathies. I
am weighed down with sorrows and cares of my own, but they
seem only to make me feel the sorrows of others more keenly
and more affectionately."
In the fall of 1851 it was judged advisable that Father Faber
should give up all work for a few months, and try the effect of
a total change of scene. He started on a journey to the Holy
Land, but fell very sick by the way, and went no farther than
Italy. He wrote front Rome the following letter in relation to
the shrine of St. Philip Neri and the relics of that Saint. When
it is considered that Faber, when he wrote it, was an intelligent,
grown-up man, his credulity almost surpasses belief: Yet no
one who reads his letters can doubt his sincerity. In some respects he was all his life a little child. With the exception of
a few such men as Faber, it is not to be believed for a moment
that the educated prelates and priesthood of the Iltomish Church
have themselves a particle of faith in what they teach the people concerning their Popish legends. We do not know what
to think of the man who does not feel intense indignation at the
bare thought of Pope, Cardinals, and Priests all encouraging
the people to reverence the disgusting pretended relics with
which their churches are filled. Let it be remembered that the
highlest Romish authorities in all countries continue to this day
to give their sanction to what they know to be imposition on the
credulity of the people; and can it be doubted that even the
most bigoted person, if hle knew the real facts, would question
the truth of a system which rests so extensively on known and
deliberate deception? But here is a part of the letter. "The
Superior of the Chiesa Nuova, Padre Colloredo, was quite lov
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