th rudeness, still less indelicacy.
Kind and patient with all who come to him, he is especially considerate
with his clergy. To them he is just in his decisions, wise in his
counsels and exhortations, ever anxious to aid them in their
difficulties. Tender and lenient as a mother to those who wish to do
right, and to correct evil, he is inflexible when a principle is at
stake, and can be stern when the offender is obdurate. Notoriety and
display are supremely distasteful to him. He would have his work done,
and thoroughly done, and his own name or his part in it never mentioned.
He studiously avoids coming before the public, save in his
ecclesiastical functions, or where a sense of duty drives him to it. He
prefers to work quietly and industriously in the sphere of his duties.
Here, he is unflagging, so ordering matters that work never accumulates
on his hands through his own neglect."

The Pope and the Mikado.

The following is the text of the letter addressed by His Holiness to the
Mikado of Japan:--

_To the Illustrious and Most Mighty Emperor of All Japan, LEO PP. XIII.,
greeting._

August Emperor:

Though separated from each other by a vast intervening expanse of space,
we are none the less fully aware here of your pre-eminent, anxious care
in promoting all that is for the good of Japan. In truth, the measures
Your Imperial Majesty has taken for the increase of civilization, and
especially for the moral culture of your people, call for the praise and
approval of all who desire the welfare of nations and that interchange
of benefits which are the natural fruit of a more refined culture,--the
more so that, with greater moral polish, the minds of men are more
fitted to imbibe wisdom and to embrace the light of truth. For these
reasons we beg of you that you will graciously be pleased to accept this
visible expression of our good-will with the same sincerity with which
it is tendered.

The very reason, indeed, which has moved us to despatch this letter to
Your Majesty, has been our wish of publicly expressing the pleasure of
our heart. For the favors which have been vouchsafed to every missionary
and Christian, we are truly beholden to you. By their own testimony we
have been made acquainted with your grace and goodness to both priests
and laymen. Nothing truly, in your power, could be more praiseworthy as
a matter of justice or more beneficent to the common weal, inasmuch as
you will find the Catholic r