Storia do Mogor 359.3.6

359.3.6

and the Reverend Father Tachard wrote to Monsieur Guety, not, it is true, quite so coarsely, but in other phrases which, in spite of their being a little more polite, are none the less pungent. Here they are ; listen to them, I pray of you. ' The Reverend Father Esprit has started from Pondicherry, and is transferring himself to San Thome. It does not suit me to have to impart to you this sad news. All I will say is, that it would be very appropriate to apply to this friar the medical axiom : " Magna mala extremis carent remediis." ' That is as much as to say that for great ills you want great remedies. Admire, gentlemen, the prudence of the reverend fathers, and reflect on the height to which passion can rise when the persons [242] concerned once lose their heads. If the Reverend Father Tachard and the Reverend Father Dolu itched so much to see us defamed, neglected, deprived of reputation, as much at Madras as at Pondicherry, could they not have found some other course for doing it without writing the good news to persons in holy orders, without writing in terms so insulting, without causing so grave a scandal in a town where for one Christian there are a thousand heathen ? The reverend Jesuit fathers state in letters to Europe that they never convert idolaters in less than thousands. Judge what fruits they can gather in countries where they employ such fine methods of bringing men to our holy faith.