charity, so every act may have its augmentation. If the pastoral office is to be loved everywhere, it is to be loved especially in England. We are pastors of the poor, and poor ourselves, separate from courts and honours, slighted and set aside in apostolic liberty, in faith and work independent of all human authority, closely and vitally united with the See of Peter and with the Church throughout the world: heirs of the Martyrs, Saints, Confessors of every age, from S. Augustine to this day. Their names and their memories are upon the cities and fields of England. As in the early times, when the Church at its first uprising began in the houses of the faithful, till it came forth from penal laws and hiding-places into the light of day, so has it been with us. All this binds together the pastors and people in England by a mutual dependence and with a primitive charity, on which as yet the world has not breathed its withering taint. Happy the priest who loves his pastor's lot and lives wholly in it, fulfilling day by day the slight and despised acts of charity to all who need his care, and laying up in heaven unconsciously the gold dust of a humble life, looking only for his eternal reward.
