in the days in which the doctrine was unfashionable, decried mere faith,
and took their stand on works -- who in this land of preconceived opinion
can spare it a good word? But, notwithstanding, even a Jansenist, if such
be left, must yet admit the claim of Francis Xavier as a true, humble saint,
and if the sour-faced sectary of Port Royale should refuse, all men of letters
must perforce revere the writer of the hymn.

--
* The doctrine of the `Ciencia Media' occurs in the celebrated
`Concordia gratiae et liberi arbitrii', by Luis de Molina (1588).
The concilium de Auxiliis was held to determine whether or not
`concordia' was possible between freewill and grace. As the Jesuits
stuck by Molina and his doctrines in despite of councils and of popes,
the common saying arose in Spain: `Pasteles en la pasteleria
y ciencia media en la Compan~ia.'
--

But into the whole question of the Jesuits I cannot enter,
as it entails command of far more foot and half-foot words
than I can muster up. Still, in America, and most of all in Paraguay,
I hope to show the Order did much good, and worked amongst the Indians
like apostles, receiving an apostle's true reward of calumny,
of stripes, of blows, and journeying hungry, athirst, on foot,
in perils oft, from the great cataract of the Parana
to the recesses of the Tarumensian woods. Little enough I personally care
for the political aspect of their commonwealth, or how it acted
on the Spanish settlements; of whether or not it turned out profitable
to the Court of Spain, or if the crimes and charges of ambition
laid to the Jesuits' account were false or true. My only interest
in the matter is how the Jesuits' rule acted upon the Indians themselves,