richly endowed by nature with what he calls " that most precious of social virtues, common sense." Although throughout his life he was thrown in contact with the world above the lot of the average priest, and in places where indiscretion would have cost him dear, he always bore himself in a Way that won the respect and confidence of those who met him. He held rigidly aloof from politics even when his soul was aroused by the persecutions carried on against his religion. Referring, late in life, to his past career, he once wrote: " In my long missionary career of over thirty years I have made it a rule not to lend myself or interfere in any difference that may occur between parties. I try my best to attend solely to my spiritual ministry for the welfare of my white brethren and that of the well-disposed Indians."
A feature of Father De Smet's career which has strongly appealed to the author since he first became acquainted with the life-work of the great missionary is the absence of that longing for martyrdom which was so characteristic of the old Canadian missionaries. Apart from one's admiration of the wonderful fortitude that enabled Brebeuf and others to endure calmly the tortures of the savages, we cannot but feel that it was lost upon the barbarous nature of the savage and did not promote the cause of religion in any adequate degree. There is an involuntary feeling that these men would have better served their Master if they had made themselves soldiers of the cross, literally, and had met their savage assailants with sword and fire instead of meekly resigning themselves to a terrible and ineffectual fate. This, we are aware, is not the view of the Church, and it may be that, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, sacrifices like these bring about results which we are unable to trace.
Father De Smet was a different kind of man. He did not lack courage - he faced death too many times for that; but he believed that the life given him was given for a purpose, and that it should not be lightly thrown away. He always took the most careful precautions against disas-