The fame of Machar's holiness spread abroad, and people came from other countries to gain his blessing. Among these are specially mentioned two young men from Ireland, who, after long search, discovered Machar's abode, and being, as Barbour says, "Sume dele lettryt," anxiously desired his assistance in the study and understanding of Holy Scripture. The Saint received them with much kindness, and instructed them in Christian knowledge, and in all that concerned their soul's health; but his words fell on barren soil, and these young men took their departure, reviling the learning and admonitions of the Saint, and calling him a hypocrite. But their irreverence did not pass unpunished; sudden death overtook them, and their bodies falling into a morass, were never recovered.

Meanwhile Machar's fellow-workman in the Lord's vineyard, St. Dewynik, was approaching the term of his labours in Caithness. On his deathbed Dewynik desired his disciples, as soon as he should be dead, to bear his body to one of Machar's churches, and remind his friend of his promise on the occasion of their sorrowful parting. When all was over, therefore, the disciples hastened to fulfil their master's bidding, and bore the sorrowful news to St. Machar. The latter was deeply grieved at the tidings, but strove to resign himself to God's holy will, and spent the night in prayer. During this vigil he was consoled by a vision of angels watching over St. Dewynik's body. Rejoicing at this testimony to his friend's beatitude, Machar, when day came, summoned his disciples to accompany him, saying they must hasten to perform the rites of burial, and sing the Office appointed for those who die in the Lord. Machar buried his saintly friend at Banchory, and the place in Barbour's own day was still known as Banchory-Dewynik. It would be pleasant to linger over this period of our Saint's life: but for a fuller account of the miracles, and for a pretty story of the visit of St. Ternan, a neighbouring Bishop, to Machar, we must refer our readers to Barbour's graphic description, and follow the Saint's life in its concluding years.

A few years before his death Machar was consoled by a visit from his beloved master, St. Columba, and so rejoiced were the Saints to meet that they shed tears of joy. Then, as on a former occasion, St. Columba had confided to Machar his intention of leaving his native country to evangelize Scotland, he now told him that he was again bent upon a long journey, and that he purposed to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Machar implored that he might be allowed to accompany him, to which St. Columba consented, and the two Saints set forth on their way to those foreign lands from whence Machar was not destined to return.

Their journey was long and toilsome, but God watched over them singularly, and many wonders were wrought on their behalf, and so at last they came to the Eternal City, and hastened first to the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, as is the pious practice of all pilgrims on first reaching Rome. The Pope (St. Gregory the Great), hearing of the arrival of the two venerable pilgrims, sent for them to his presence, and received them with great kindness and reverence, inquiring the object of their journey, and asking many questions about the distant land from which they came. They, in a few words, making known the cause of their journey, thus replied:

The cause of this trawall

That we haf tane one hand but fale

Is for-to wyne lestened renude,

Till our sawlis eftire our dede.
Ane uthir cause als haf we eke
Petire and Paule here for-to seke,
And mony uthir in this stede
For Godis sake that tholit dede,
& for till haf zoure benysone
& zoure gud informacione.

The Pope then calling Machar to him, told him that he should create him Bishop of the Picts, and bade him change his name. Thus he who had been called in his own country Mocumma, and in the land of his apostleship Machor, was hereafter, by the bidding of the Holy Father, to be called Morise. On a day fixed the Pope consecrated Morise, after instructing him in all the duties of the episcopal state, and then addressed him in this strain :

Lo, bruther & in Criste sone dere
Thru wefcheyng of our handis here
The haly gast als callit the
Of bischape to the dignite
That is schofine & to the hicht,
Trawale that for all thi mycht
In Goddis wyne-zarde forto vyne
Fule folk that bundine ar with syne
The wark of wangeliste tha do,
& the office, that is the to
Committit, fulfill ilke day
& unreprofit kepe the ay.
& gaynand & unchangeabili,
As thu se nid is, thu chastly
In pacience argw, and pray

& in doctrine be besy ay.

After this ceremony the new Bishop and St. Columba received again the Pope's blessing, and then set forth on their VOL. XVII.—NO. II. [Third Series.]

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return journey. According to Barbour's narrative, the two Saints had no settled plan of visiting Tours on their way home, but Providence would seem to have led them to that town, dear to them as containing the shrine of St. Martin. While they were approaching Tours, the Bishop of that town-to whom God made known the holiness of His servants-came forth to meet them, accompanied by his clergy, and made them welcome, entertaining them most hospitably. Not content with thus honouring the pilgrims, the Bishop urged them to remain and dwell at Tours, but St. Columba, whom nothing could tempt to abandon Scotland, could not be persuaded to comply with this request. Then the clergy implored him that he would at least leave them, in his place, one of his disciples to preach God's word to them.

Columba was disturbed at this request, and he and his companions remained silent till St. Morise spoke, and addressing St. Columba as his "fadire dere," said whatever the Saint thought needful to command he would undertake as being God's will, however hard or painful it might be. Columba blessing his resolve, declared he should remain at Tours to work in God's cause, and comfort Holy Church for three years, and that when this was accomplished he should receive the heavenly reward, and be with himself and St. Martin fellow-saints in God's kingdom. The tender friendship which united the two Saints, made the parting a hard one, and Morise affectionately reproached his master for leaving him thus alone amongst strangers; and to console him Columba promised always to be near him in spirit. Then they repaired together to the Bishop to ask his blessing before Columba should set out on his journey. After this leaving-taking was accomplished, Columba spent the night in prayer in the church of St. Martin, where it is said the great Bishop appeared to him and gave him the book of the Gospels, which had been buried with him. This book, preserved as a great treasure by Columba, was left by him at his death to his church. When the night was passed, Columba left Tours, accompanied by Morise and many of the clergy and laity, who, after escorting him for some distance, took leave of him with much sorrow, or as Barbour has it,

With oft blissing and regrat bath,

For it is a full noyus thing

Of dere friendis the departying.

*It will be observed that Barbour's version of this occurrence differs from the account given by O'Donnell, who says that the people of Tours having lost the remembrance of the place of St. Martin's sepulture, begged Columba to discover it for them, which he consented to do on condition that he should be allowed to take whatever was in the hallowed tomb, except the bones of the Saint, and became in this way the possessor of the precious book.

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The night after St. Columba's departure, the Bishop of Tours had a vision regarding the new teacher who had been given to his flock. St. Martin appeared to him, and bade him praise God for the grace done to Tours in possessing so great a servant of God as its apostle and intercessor; one whose heavenly reward would be equal to that of the patriarchs and prophets, whose example he had followed on earth, by leaving his mighty kinddred and all this world's goods to undertake for God's sake this long pilgrimage. The Bishop lost no time in consulting his clergy upon this vision, and so impressed were they all with its heavenly character, that the Bishop, with the unanimous consent of his flock, gave St. Morise full jurisdiction over himself and his diocese.

The Saint's work at Tours was greatly blessed; he himself was the most beautiful example of the virtues he preached, and the clergy and people rejoiced at possessing such a pastor. Temporal blessings were likewise granted to Morise's prayers, so that during the time of his episcopacy no pestilence troubled man or beast, and the seasons were fair and fruitful. When three and a half years had passed, the time of his exile, as foretold by St. Columba, was accomplished, and his reward was at hand. Falling into a "lytill fewire," the Saint was soon in danger, and after six days, so rapid was the disease, death was at hand. He caused his grave to be made, and had himself carried to his oratory, and then desiring his disciples to come to him, he bade them a loving farewell, exhorting them to continue in the practice of all virtues and of brotherly charity; and as they weeping implored him not to leave them desolate, he assured them that he would always be near them, making intercession for their needs before the throne of God. As God had blessed his life with many supernatural blessings, so in his death these graces continued. The Bishop and religious who surrounded Morise's deathbed saw Our Lord and the twelve Apostles standing by him, and St. Martin and St. Columba also present to receive the soul of their brother in Christ. Our Lord, addressing Morise, welcomed him in loving words to heaven. At these gracious words Morise rose, and throwing himself on his knees, said in a strong voice, "In manus tuas Domine, my saule I gyf," and so saying he yielded up his soul to his Maker.

The legend goes on to tell us that the people of Tours, in token of their reverence for St. Morise, laid his body by the side of St. Martin, and erected a costly shrine over the tomb; and from the date of the Saint's death till Barbour's own day the miracles wrought by his intercession continued to show forth his glory.

M. M. MAXWELL SCOTT.

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ART. III-WAR AND BALLOONING.

HE object which stimulated the practical invention of the balloon was its use in war. In theory, the balloon was invented before the experiments of the brothers Montgolfier. Theory is ever the soil of practice-a soil that is compounded from the thoughts of many. The idea of the balloon has its startingpoint in the principle elucidated by Archimedes of Syracuse, two hundred years before the Christian era-viz., that a body must remain suspended in a fluid denser than itself. Even before the exact period of the Renaissance of science, we read of many suggestions for accomplishing the suspension of a globe in the air. These suggestions were, in common with many others of that period, a mixture of truth and error. Albert of Saxony, a monk who lived in the fourteenth century, states that fire enclosed in a hollow globe would raise it to a certain height. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century we discover alchemical tenets in the ideas concerning aërial ascents. It was conceived that the dew which fell during the night was of celestial origin shed by the stars: this was drawn up again to heaven by the sun's rays in the morning; which belief led to the suggestion that an egg-shell filled with morning dew would rise in the air. That these early dreams of the philosophers of this age attracted attention is evident from the satire produced on them by the witty French writer, Cyrano de Bergerac, which was entitled "The Comical History of the States and Kingdoms in the Sun and Moon." In this romance, a French traveller, in order to reach the moon, fastens round his body some flasks filled with the morning dew. The flasks, however, are broken and the traveller precipitated to the ground. When cured of his wounds, he makes another attempt by means of a machine acting on a train of wheels. Failing again, he applies rockets to the machine and at last reaches the moon.

A notable project of this period was that of the Jesuit Lana, in 1670. He proposed to make a balloon of thin copper and to exhaust it of air. This would have been a vain attempt, as the weight of the external air would have crushed the copper globe thus exhausted.

In 1766, Cavendish ascertained the true nature of hydrogen gas, which is the lightest substance known, being about fourteen times as light as air. This discovery led Joseph Black, the Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, to suggest in one of his lectures that a weight might be lifted from the ground by attaching to it a sphere filled with hydrogen gas. A

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