siren melted into air. He saw the vision of a vast and gorgeous palace;
and a miraculous voice assured him that such was to be the reward of
those who dwelt in savage hovels for the cause of God. Angels appeared
to him; and, more than once, St. Joseph and the Virgin were visibly
present before his sight. Once, when he was among the Neutral Nation,
in the winter of 1640, he beheld the ominous apparition of a great cross
slowly approaching from the quarter where lay the country of the
Iroquois. He told the vision to his comrades. "What was it like?
How large was it?" they eagerly demanded. "Large enough," replied the
priest, "to crucify us all." [ 1 ] To explain such phenomena is the
province of psychology, and not of history. Their occurrence is no
matter of surprise, and it would be superfluous to doubt that they were
recounted in good faith, and with a full belief in their reality.

[ 1 Quelques Remarques sur la Vie du Pere Jean de Brebeuf, MS. On the
margin of this paper, opposite several of the statements repeated above,
are the words, signed by Ragueneau, "Ex ipsius autographo," indicating
that the statements were made in writing by Brebeuf himself.

Still other visions are recorded by Chaumonot as occurring to Brebeuf,
when they were together in the Neutral country. See also the long notice
of Brebeuf, written by his colleague, Ragueneau, in the Relation of 1649;
and Tanner, Societas Jesu Militans, 533. ]

In these enthusiasts we shall find striking examples of one of the morbid
forces of human nature; yet in candor let us do honor to what was genuine
in them,--that principle of self-abnegation which is the life of true
religion, and which is vital no less to the highest forms of heroism.