Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/309

 against the adherents or the rites of that "gorgeous superstition, however much some of its tenets may repel my understanding. In certain moods, indeed, its splendid ritual exercises on my mind no slight attraction. But I Imust acknowledge feeling extremely angry on hearing of this substitution. Reading, and no doubt sympathizing with, my feelings of indignation, Hulmar went on quietly to say,—

"Time, however, has reversed their decree. Few, except antiquaries like myself, have so much as heard of that dogma. But what happened on that hillside is fresh in the memory of every school-child on this continent."

He next pointed out to me a broad plaza, surrounded by an apparently well-preserved colonnade. In the midst a fountain of magnificent proportions tossed on high its waters, sparkling in the rays of the summer sun. All this had formed an appurtenance to the papal palace, now entirely vanished, except a small portion converted into a museum and library. Now restored to good-humor by these signal examples of "Time's revenges," I turned to where, embosomed amid secular groves that permitted but glimpses of the stately structure, stood the buildings of the University. This, however, was not the immediate successor, though it was the worthy representative, of the "Fair Harvard" of the nineteenth century. There had been an interregnum of many centuries. During the reign of the church, Harvard had been converted into a Jesuit college, the centre of the order, the chief trainingschool of its members. Owing to the appropriation of the education fund to other, especially building, purposes, by the church during this period, secular education fell