igence enjoyed by the members of that order were
extraordinary. We doubt whether any paper, even in our days, has so many
intelligent correspondents in every part of the world. If any astronomical
observation was to be made in China or America, a Jesuit missionary was
generally on the spot to make it. If geographical information was wanted,
eye-witnesses could write from India or Africa to state what was the exact
height of mountains or the real direction of rivers. The architectural
monuments of the great nations of antiquity could easily be explored and
described, and the literary treasures of India or China or Persia could be
ransacked by men ready for any work that required devotion and
perseverance, and that promised to throw additional splendor on the order
of Loyola. No missionary society has ever understood how to utilize its
resources in the interest of science like the Jesuits; and if our own
missionaries may on many points take warning from the history of the
Jesuits, on that one point at least they might do well to imitate their
example.

Scientific interests, however, were by no means the chief motive of the
Jesuits in founding their journal, and the controversial character began
soon to preponderate in their articles. Protestant writers received but
little mercy in the pages of the "Journal de Trevoux," and the battle was
soon raging in every country of Europe between the flying batteries of the
Jesuits and the strongholds of Jansenism, of Protestantism, or of liberal
thought in general. Le Clerc was attacked for his "Harmonia Evangelica;"
Boileau even was censured for his "Epitre sur l'Amour de Dieu." But the
old lion was too much for his reverend satirists. The following is a
specimen of his reply:--

"Mes Reverends Peres en Dieu,
Et mes confreres en Satire.
Dans vos Escrits dans plus d'un lieu
Je voy qu'a mes depens vous affectes de rire;
Mais ne craignes-vous point, que pour rire de Vous,
Relisant Juvenal, refeuilletant Horace,
Je ne ranime encor ma satirique audace?
Grands Aristarques de Trevoux,
N'alles point de nouveau faire courir aux armes,
Un athlete tout prest a prendre son conge,
Qui par vos traits malins au combat rengage
Peut encore aux Rieurs faire verser des larmes.
Apprenes un mot de Regnier,
Notre celebre Devancier,
_Corsaires attaquant Corsaires_
_No font pas_, dit-il, _leurs affaires_."

Even stronger language than this became soon the fashion in journalistic
warfare. In reply