He passes through the courts of law, or the administration, or the domestic service of the Vatican, as the case may be.

All these paths lead in the right direction, provided the traveller pursuing them has zeal, and professes a pious scorn for liberal ideas.

The ecclesiastical calling is by no means indispensable, but nothing can be achieved without a good stock of retrograde ideas.

The prelate who should take the Emperor's letter to M.Edgar Ney seriously, would be, in vulgar parlance, done for; the only course open to him would be--to marry.

At Paris, a man disappointed in ambition takes prussic acid; at Rome, he takes a wife.
Sometimes the prelate is a cadet of a noble house, one in which the right to a red hat is traditional.