But, returning to our former point of view, and looking upon these centuries of terrible blood-shedding as the fierce, furious war which the Roman Empire waged against God and his religion, we naturally ask ourselves a question, Where is the great God of the Christians whilst his children are being immolated to pagan savagery throughout the whole earth? Does he from his high heaven take note of what is done? Oh! he who sees the sparrow fall does not lose sight of his children, nor does his eye fail to see the sufferings which they endure for him. The voice of his martyrs rose heavenwards with a mighty cry during those three hundred years. It rose from the saturated floor of the Roman amphitheatre; it spoke with pleading eloquence from the depths of the mines of Numidia; it echoed incessantly in the ear of God from amid the solitudes of Pannonia. God was not at any time deaf to that cry. He was slow in his anger, but, then, on that account he was the more terrible. Whilst Nero was shedding the first Christian blood at Rome, God was silently gathering together his avenging armies in the forests of the north. It took him more than three hundred years to marshal his overwhelming warrior-hosts; but, O heavens! what a direful shaking of the universe when they did come!
[33] Carlyle’s _Miscellanies_, vol. ii., “On History,” p. 151.
[37] Allies, _Formation of Christendom_, vol. i. p. 42.
[39] See _Formation of Christendom_, by Mr. Allies.
[40] Dr. Newman, _Office and Work of Universities_, pp. 161, 162.
[41] _Œuvres_ du R. P. Lacordaire, tome vi. p. 172.
[42] See Père Lacordaire’s _Lettre sur le Saint-Liège_.
[43] Tosti, _Al Clero Italiano; Prolegom.-alla Storia Universale_, vol. i.
[45] See Ozanam, _La Civilisation chrét. chez les Francs_, p. 4.
[46] Origen, _Exhortatio ad Mart., passim_, quoted by Leroy.
[47] St. Greg. of Nyssa, _Vita Thaumat._, p. 578.
[48] See the sixth book of Eusebius’ _Hist. of the Church_.
[49] See Darras’ _History of the Church_, Amer-edit., p. 262.
[50] See Eusebius’ _History_, book viii. ch. 12, and following.
[51] _Les Pères Apostoliques_, 20me leçon, p. 433.
Every effort to elucidate what is obscure, or to provide a remedy for acknowledged evils, is a just title to that friendly acknowledgment which the writer of this little book bespeaks. It is a step in the direction of progress. But it is of the highest importance in the attempt to impart clear ideas upon any subject, that they should be so distinctly expressed as to leave no doubt concerning the identity of their subject. Thus, in treating of _sound_, it seems to us that the question first presented is this: _What is sound?_ Our author says that it “_receives_ its vitality or its life through the air, and without air sound loses it and becomes extinct.”