ory sort; on the contrary, it is energetically
precise, and helps rather than mars the sound casting of each idea. The
formality of strong people belongs to them naturally, and is the
expression of a certain unchanging persistence; that of the weak is
mostly assumed for the sake of magnifying the little strength they have.

The Pope's voice is as distinctly individual as his manner of speaking.
It is not deep nor very full, but, considering his great age, it is
wonderfully clear and ringing, and it has a certain incisiveness of
sound which gives it great carrying power. Pius the Ninth had as
beautiful a voice, both in compass and richness of quality, as any
baritone singer in the Sixtine choir. No one who ever heard him intone
the 'Te Deum' in Saint Peter's, in the old days, can forget the grand
tones. He was gifted in many ways--with great physical beauty, with a
rare charm of manner, and with a most witty humour; and in character he
was one of the most gentle and kind-hearted men of his day, as he was
also one of the least initiative, so to say, while endowed with the high
moral courage of boundless patience and political humility. Leo the
Thirteenth need speak but half a dozen words, with one glance of his
flashing eyes and one gesture of his noticeably long arm and
transparently thin hand, and the moral distance between his predecessor
and himself is at once apparent. There is strength still in every
movement, there is deliberate decision in every tone, there is lofty
independence in every look. Behind these there may be kindliness,
charity, and all the milder gifts of virtue; but what is apparent is a
sort of energetic, manly trenchancy which forces admiration rather than
awakens sympathy.

[Illustration: LIBRARY OF THE VATICAN]

When speaking at length on any occasion he is eloquent, but with the
eloquence of the dictator, and sometimes of the logician, rather than
that of the persuader. His enunciation is exceedingly distinct in Latin
and Italian, and also in French, a language in which he expresses
himself with ease and clearness. In Latin and Italian he chooses his
words with great care and skill, and makes use of fine distinctions, in
the Ciceronian manner, and he certainly commands a larger vocabulary
than most men.

His bearing is erect at all times, and on days when he is well his step
is quick as he moves about his private apartments. 'Il Papa corre
sempre,'--'the Pope always runs'--is often said by th