e
book and picture, placed themselves on each side of him. All this was so
gracefully performed, and with so much honour to the Father, that the
lords who were present much admired the manner of it: and they were heard
to say amongst themselves, that Xavier had been falsely represented to
them by the Bonzas; that questionless he was a man descended from above,
to confound their envy, and abate their pride.

After they had gone through a long gallery, they entered into a large
hall full of people; who, by their habit, which was of damask, heightened
with gold, and diversified with fair figures, seemed to be persons of the
highest quality. There a little child, whom a reverend old man held by
the hand, coming up to the Father, saluted him with these words: "May
your arrival in the palace of my lord the king, be as welcome to him, as
the rain of heaven to the labourers, in a long and parching drought:
Enter without fear," continued he, "for I assure you of the love of all
good men, though the wicked cannot behold you without melancholy in their
faces, which will make them appear like a black and stormy night." Xavier
returned an answer suitable to his age who had made the compliment; but
the child replied in a manner which was far above his age. "Certainly,"
said he, "you must be endued with an extraordinary courage, to come from
the end of all the world into a strange country, liable to contempt, in
regard of your poverty; and the goodness of your God must needs be
infinite, to be pleased with that poverty against the general opinion of
mankind. The Bonzas are far from doing any thing of this nature; they who
publicly affirm, and swear, that the poor are no more in a possibility of
salvation than the women." "May it please the divine goodness of our
Lord," replied Xavier, "to enlighten those dark and wretched souls with
the beams of his celestial truth, to the end they may confess their
error, both as to that particular, and to the rest of their belief."

The child discoursed on other subjects, and spoke with so much reason,
and with that sublimity of thought, that the Father doubted not but he
was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who, when he pleases, can replenish the
souls of infants with wisdom, and give eloquence to their tongues, before
nature has ripened in them the use of reason.

In these entertainments, which were surprising to all the assistants,
they passed into another hall, where there were many gentlemen richl