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156
Recollections of
[Ch. XIV.

could doubt the existence of a God." My mother asked him if he was a predestinarian, as reported. He admitted the truth of the accusation, saying, "I believe that whatever a man's destiny calls upon him to do, that he must fulfil."

Dr. O'Meara often amused us by recounting conversations he had with the emperor respecting priestcraft: one anecdote is impressed on my recollection from the amusement it afforded. A poor erring monk having paid the debt of nature, a funeral oration was delivered by a brother priest, to a large assembled congregation. The holy father proceeded to inform the multitude that the soul of the departed had had to appear before the judgment-seat, there to render an account of all its past actions; that being done, the evil and the good were then separated and thrown into opposite scales, in order to see which preponderated. The good deeds were so few, that the scale flew up, and the poor soul was condemned to the regions below.

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