cient in sympathy with mediævalism; indeed, some of them are too much attached to it, and far more than old Catholics hold that what is medieval is Catholic, and what is not mediæval is not Catholic. Still, the principle that underlies the convert's thought is sound. It is the principle on which the Church herself always acts in dealing with the world. Herself unalterable and immovable, she takes the world as she finds it, and deals with it as it is. She found the world in the beginning Imperial; she accepted Imperialism, and labored to Christianize it. At a later epoch she found the world Barbarian; and she took the Barbarians as they were and Christianized and civilized them. At a still later period she found it feudal. She never introduced or approved Feudalism itself, yet she conformed her secular relations to it, and addressed feudal society in language it could understand and profit by. In the same way she deals with our proud, self-reliant, republican Anglo-Saxon world. She concedes it frankly in the outset whatever it is or has that is not repugnant to the essential nature and prerogatives of our religion, and labors to aid its progress. She leaves it its own habits, manners, customs, institutions, laws, associations, in so far as they do not repugn eternal truth and justice, speaks to it in its own tongue, to its own understanding, in such forms of speech and such modes of address as are best fitted to convince its reason and win its love, and that too without casting a single longing, lingering look to the past she leaves behind.

But all Catholics are not up to the level of the Church, and not a few of them never study her history, investigate the principles on which she acts, or catch even a glimpse of her sublime wisdom or her celestial prudence. Many of them are merely men of routine, creatures of the traditions and associations inherited from their ancestors, and which they seldom even dream of distinguishing from their religion itself. These cannot sympathize with the convert who comes among them, bringing with him the active and fearless, not to say reckless, spirit of the nineteenth century. He is a phenomenon they do not fully understand, and they find him both strange and offensive. He breaks their rest, rouses them from their sleep, disturbs their fondly-cherished prejudices, even forces them to think, to reason, to seek to know something of the world passing

around them, to take broader and more comprehensive views of men and things; in a word, to come out from the cloister and be active, living, energetic men in their own day and generation; and they not unreasonably look upon him as a rash innovator, a restless spirit, a disturber of the peace and repose of the Church, because the things he wars against are regarded, by those who cherish them, not as hindrances, but as helps to religion. Indeed, they are at a loss to conceive what it is he wants or is driving at, and they suspect that he is really seeking to Protestantize, secularize, or, at least, modernize the Church, and they conclude that they may justly resist him, and inculcate doubts as to the reality of his conversion, or, at least, as to his perseverance in the faith. This is natural, and is to be expected by every one, convert or no convert, who attempts to effect a reform in any department of human activity.

The convert again, on his side, convinced of the soundness of the principle on which he proceeds, and the justice and purity of his aims, and not in all cases meeting that clear understanding among Catholics of principle or that firm and uniform adhesion to it he had expected, feels, at first, a sad disappointment, and though he abates nothing in his faith or his devotion to the Church, is tempted to form too low an estimate of the spirit, understanding, and energy of the mass of his new brethren, and to take what is really true of a small number only, as characteristic of the whole body. He thus not unfrequently does great injustice to men who, in those very qualities he most admires, are far his superiors. He forgets, too, for the moment, though he is freer than old Catholics from one order of old habits and associations, that he is less free from another, that as pure and as complete as he may regard his Catholic faith, it is nevertheless possible that he retains some of the old Protestant leaven, and unconsciously cherishes a spirit and tendency that the delicate Catholic instinct repels. It is possible that we who are converts have in us a slight touch of Puritanism, and forget that not all who are in the Church are of the Church; that we make too much depend on human wisdom, virtue, and sagacity. God's ways are not our ways, and it is very possible that brought up as we have been in Protestantism, and accustomed to rely almost solely on human agencies,

and to feel that it is we who sustain the Church, not the Church that sustains us, we may be urging in our zeal and enthusiasm, or in our impatience, methods of proceeding which God cannot bless, because they would rob him of his glory and transfer it to man. In dealing with principles no compromise is admissible, but in their practical application compromises are allowable, are almost always necessary, and we often endanger success as much by going too far ahead of those with whom we must act, as by lagging too far behind them; we must deal with men as we find them, not only with men outside of the Church, but also with men inside of the Church. What we want may be just and desirable, and yet it may be our duty not to urge it, or not to insist on it, because, in the actual state of things, the Catholic body is not prepared to receive it, or to co-operate with us in obtaining it. There is never wisdom in urging what is impracticable. Never are we able to do all the good we would; we must content ourselves with doing all that we can, and preparing the way for our successors to do more. Catholics must work with the Catholic body, and none of us must suppose that we are the only ones in that body who have right views, true zeal, and effective courage. To some extent the writer in The Dublin Review may have only administered us a wellmerited rebuke, for it may well be that we have not rightly judged this old Catholic body into which we have been incorporated, and that we have formed too low an estimate of the active virtues of its members.

Nevertheless, we agree this far with The Rambler, with many of our fellow-converts, and a much larger number not converts, but Catholics from infancy, that the English speaking Catholic world, to say nothing of Catholics who speak other tongues, are too timid and servile in their spirit, too narrow and hidebound in their views, too tame and feeble in asserting the truth, beauty, and majesty of their Church; that a freer, more manly, and energetic spirit is demanded by the temper and wants of our times; and that to act favorably on the modern world we should take more pains to place ourselves in closer relation with its intellect, and accept with more frankness and cordiality its historical, scientifical, and philosophical labors in so far as they have obtained solid and durable results. In matters

of religion we are and must be exclusive, for truth cannot tolerate so much as the semblance of error; but dogma saved, we must not manifest intolerance towards either Catholics or non-Catholics, or feel that we have nothing to do or say in the great intellectual movements going on around us. It will not do for us to stand aloof from these movements, or to deny that any thing true has been discovered, or any thing valuable has been obtained by men out of our communion. Out of the Church as well as in the Church men have nature and natural reason, and in what pertains to the natural order may make valuable discoveries and important acquisitions. We can, in the times in which we live, be neither just to them nor to our Church herself, if we remain ignorant of their labors, or refuse to acknowledge what of real merit they have. The whole non-Catholic world is not anti-Catholic. The Church found much in Græco-Roman civilization to retain, and the influence of the Roman jurists may be detected even in our works of casuistry. The modern non-Catholic world is not further removed from Catholicity than was the ancient Gentile world. The civilization which obtains now in non-Catholic civilized nations is less repugnant in principle and in spirit to our holy religion than was the old Græco-Roman civilization. As compared with that it is Christian. There is more in the labors of modern non-Catholic scholars, physicists, historians, poets, philosophers, that we can advantageously appropriate, than the Fathers found in the labors of the great men of classic antiquity; for in the order of civilization the Church has never ceased to exert an influence on men even outside of her communion. Undoubtedly, we can save our own souls without any knowledge of the learning and science cultivated by non-Catholics; undoubtedly the intrinsic value of their learning and science is far less than they imagine; but we have in our age to seek the salvation of our neighbor as well as of ourselves, and to cultivate not merely our own personal piety, but those active and disinterested virtues which render us instrumental in saving others; and to do this we must know thoroughly this non-Catholic world, master it on its own ground, and prove ourselves its superior in every department of thought and life.

We are not disposed to deny or to disguise our defects.

We frankly concede them; but they are easily explained and excused by the circumstances in which we have hitherto been placed. It is true, we do to some extent lack spirit, independence, energy, and courage; we do not assert and maintain our rightful position; we do not lead, as we should, the intellect of the age; and not a few of the finest minds, the ripest scholars, and most brilliant geniuses of the modern world are not in our communion, are indifferent or hostile to the Church. But how long have we had our freedom? For three hundred years English speaking Catholics have been an oppressed, down-trodden, and persecuted class. England boasts of her free constitution, and we admit that the English have always been the freest people in Europe. But till quite recently, Catholic Englishmen, with one or two brief intervals, have, since the Reformation, had no share in English freedom. They have been regarded as outside of the constitution, deprived of the native-born rights of Englishmen. Protestant England despoiled our Catholic ancestors of their rights, confiscated their goods, robbed them of their churches, schools, colleges, and universities, and did all that power aided by Satanic malice could do to force them into apostasy, or, failing in that, to reduce them to the most abject poverty and ignorance, and to crush out their manhood. They were able to hold fast their faith only at the sacrifice of all else, only in bonds, confiscations, fines, imprisonments, exile, and death. All England and all Ireland have been drenched with the blood of Catholic martyrs, and made hallowed ground. The Catholic religion was proscribed by law, and the most terrible penalties annexed to its practice, and no Catholic could, for ages, in free England, practise it save by stealth. The clergy were proscribed and forbidden to enter the kingdom, and if they did enter it, and were convicted of performing any sacerdotal function, they were hung, drawn, and quartered as traitors; they were obliged to resort to all manner of disguises, to live in secret, to conceal their character, and take all possible precautions against capture, as criminals hiding from the officers of justice, in order to minister for a short time to the spiritual wants of the faithful. With all their precautions they were caught and executed by hundreds. The history of Catholics in England during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor,