hers, and loved them for their gentleness.

And this gentleness was not want of courage; for never in the history of
the world has truer valor been exhibited than that shown by the early
missionary and his compeers, the first military adventurers! Read
Joutel's account of the melancholy life and death of La Salle; read the
simple, unpretending "Journal" of Marquette;[57] and compare their
constancy and heroism with that displayed at any time in any cause! But
the _voyageur_ possessed higher qualities than courage, also; and here
again we recur to his perfect abnegation of himself; his renunciation of
all personal considerations.

Courage takes note of danger, but defies it: the _voyageur_ was careless
of danger, because he counted it as nothing; he gave it no thought,
because it only affected _himself_; and he valued not his own safety and
comfort, so long as he could serve the cause by forgetting them. Mere
courage is combative, even pugnacious; but the _voyageur_ fought only
"the good fight;" he had no pride of conquest, save in the victories of
Faith, and rather would suffer, himself, than inflict suffering upon
others. Mere courage is restless, impatient, purposeless: but the
_voyageur_ was content to remain wherever he could do good, tentative
only in the cause of Christ, and distracted by no objects from his
mission. His religion was his inspiration; his conscience his reward.
His system may have been perverted, his zeal mistaken, his church a
sham; we are not arguing that question. But the purity of his
intentions, the sincerity of his heart, can not be doubted; and the most
intolerant protestant against "the corruptions of Rome" will, at least,
admit that even catholicism was better than the paganism of the savage.

"There is not," says Macaulay,[58] "and there never was on this earth, a
work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman
Catholic Church." And certainly all other systems combined have never
produced one tithe of the astounding results brought about by this
alone. Whether she has taught truth or falsehood; whether, on the whole,
it had been better or worse for the cause of Christianity, had no such
organization ever existed; whether her claims be groundless or
well-founded, are questions foreign to our purpose. But that her polity
is the most powerful--the best adapted to the ends she has in view--of
all that man has hitherto invented, there can be no doubt. Her
missionaries have