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good, but because it contributes to it; and it can contribute to it only on condition of its being good in itself, that is to say, itself the absolute good! Now, what authority has any man for saying that this satisfaction is absolutely good in itself?

But it is vain to tell us to follow nature. Nature herself recoils from her own teachings, and universally shrieks out, "Save me from myself." They who follow her as ultimate never find good. She herself sees that she is not sufficient for herself, that there must be something above her, of which we must participate, or there is no good for us. But at the same time she sees and feels that she is impotent to discover what that something is, or to elevate us to its participation. This is demonstrated by the fact, that natural reason itself rejects all the great ethical systems founded on natural reason alone, and is daily seeking and concocting new systems, to yield in turn to others still newer, and thus on for ever. Nature never satisfies nature. Nature never finds her good in herself. We may gain all the natural objects craved by our natural tendencies or passions, and still ask, from the depths of our souls, "Who will show us any good?" Our tendencies grow, and demand more, the more we obtain; they become morbidly active, crying out, like the daughters of the horseleech, "Give, give!" or they become satiated, surcharged, wearied, and, all things palling on our hearts and senses, we cry out with the Preacher, "Vanitas vanitatum, vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas."

We take the wrong road. It is not in following nature alone that we find the country we seek. Not in that direction lies our veritable good. The sad experience of all ages and climes proclaims it in a voice too loud not to be heard, too distinct not to be understood. True wisdom requires us to return from our weary wanderings to the fountain of living waters. If nature could have sufficed, no other teacher would have been vouchsafed us; no supernatural revelation, as we have said, would have been needed, none would have been made. But a supernatural revelation has been made, and because we needed it for our guide in the conduct of life. In the light of this revelation all becomes plain and easy. The problem of our destiny ceases to be a problem. Man was made, not for a natural, but a supernatural destiny; not for pleasure, not for happiness, but for beatitude, which consists in our being elevated by the light of glory to know and love God as he is in himself, with a knowledge and love, though different in degree, yet the same in kind as the knowledge and love with which God knows and loves himself. Here is our sublime

destiny. We have but to remember that God is infinite truth, wisdom, beauty, goodness, and to consider what is the joy the soul finds in knowing and loving truth, wisdom, beauty, goodness, to be assured that eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what is reserved for us in the heaven to which we are destined. God made us that we might become partakers of his own infinite blessedness, because he is good and delights to communicate his goodness.

To this blessedness we are not naturally equal, we do not attain to it by natural development, the famous "self-culture," of which in these days we hear so much; because it is not the fulfilment of our nature, the realization of its most perfect type, but something far transcending nature, graciously bestowed by our Heavenly Father. A Goethe, with his long life of study, with his "many-sided" culture, bringing his whole nature to the highest possible state of perfection, is farther from it than the little child over whom the priest has just pronounced the baptismal formula. It is hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes, that no flesh may glory in the presence of God. Here learn the vanity of all your earth-born greatness and wisdom, of all that the wisdom of this world applauds. Not by the wisdom to which we attain by natural culture and development, not by a vain philosophy which sees neither behind. nor before, not even by natural elevation, nobility, kindness, and love, do we attain to the end to which our God in his ineffable goodness has appointed us. The great man of the earth must become as the little child, the rich man poor as the poorest beggar, and the wise man as the fool. All pride must humble itself, all towering thoughts be brought down, all self-importance, all self-confidence, be laid aside; meek and lowly in heart, we must bow down at the foot of the altar, and receive it as a free bounty, which we have done nothing to merit, and I could do nothing to merit. Behold us, O Lord! We are nothing, yea, less than nothing; do unto us according to thy will, not according to ours.

Human pride revolts at this. We shrink from this profound humility. We would have the reward, we would possess the infinite beatitude; but we would earn it by our own labor, win it by our own stout hearts and strong arms; we would receive it not as a largess, but as a due, and claim it as our right. Hence it is that we seek in human nature, by means which nature alone has placed in our hands, to wring out the secrets we must know, and to gain the end without which there is no

true life for us. Hence your Jouffroys, Fouriers, and others, construct systems of morals resting on nature alone, and seek from the simple study of man to ascertain his destiny and determine the rules after which he should govern his conduct. But let them pass. Heed them not. They can only divert you from the truth, alienate you from your God, and debar you from heaven. Return to your God; take his revelation for your guide, let him be your ethical teacher; and from him who is your beginning and your end, in whom you live, move, and have your being, learn your destiny, and obtain the means of fulfilling it.

ART. IV.-Catholicism compatible with Republican Government, and in full Accordance with Popular Institutions. By FENELON. New York: Edward Dunnigan. 1844. 8vo. pp. 48.

WE have read this pamphlet with pleasure and instruction. It is written in good temper, a mild and forbearing tone, and with a good share of ability. It triumphantly refutes the oft repeated slander, that the Roman Catholic Church is incompatible with republican institutions and popular freedom; and, though it contains a few expressions, and concessions even, which we do not quite approve or believe warranted, we commend it to the members of the American Protestant Society, and especially to those of the so-called Native American party. They can hardly fail to profit by its careful and diligent perusal.

We have, however, introduced this pamphlet not for the purpose of reviewing it, but simply as the text of some few remarks which we are desirous of offering on the subject of NATIVE AMERICANISM. We are ourselves native-born Americans, and have never, saving on one occasion, and then only for a few hours, been out of the territory of the United States. We hope we are not deficient in- what in our view is a high virtue the true love of country. Though not blind to the faults of our countrymen, and endeavouring on all occasions to place the love of God before the love of country, we have believed ourselves to possess some share of genuine patriotic feeling. We know we have loved American institutions; and we are ready to vindicate them, with what little ability we may have,

on any occasion, and against any and every sort of enemies. But we confess that we have no sympathy, we have had from the first no sympathy, with what is called Native Americanism. We have seen no necessity for a movement against foreigners who choose to make this the land of their adoption; and we have felt that such a movement could lead to no good, but might lead to results truly deplorable.

We have been accustomed to trace the hand of a merciful Providence in reserving this New World to so late a day for Christian civilization; we have been in the habit of believing that it was not without a providential design, that here was reserved an open field in which that civilization, disengaging itself from the vices and corruptions mingled with it in the Old World, might display itself in all its purity, strength, and glory, and work out for man here on earth a social order, which should give him a foretaste of that blessed social order to which the good hope to attain hereafter. We have regarded it as a chosen land, not for one race, or one people, but for the wronged and downtrodden of all nations, tongues, and kindreds, where they might come as to a holy asylum of peace and charity. It has been a cause of gratulation, of ardent thankfulness to Almighty God, that here was founded, as it were, a city of refuge, to which men might flee from oppression, be free from the trammels of tyranny, regain their rights as human beings, and dwell in security. Here all partition walls which make enemies of different races and nations were to be broken down; all senseless and mischievous distinctions of rank and caste were to be discarded; and every man, no matter where born, in what language trained, or faith baptized, was to be regarded as man,as nothing more, as nothing less. Here we were to found, not a republic of Englishmen, of Frenchmen, of Dutchmen, of Irishmen, but of men; and to make the word American mean, not a man born on this soil or on that, but a free and accepted member of the grand republic of men. Such is what we have regarded as the principle and the destiny of this New World; and with this, we need not say, Native Americanism is directly at war.

Native Americanism is a retrograde step. It is going back to the barbarous ages, when the human race was divided into septs and clans, and the same word designated both a foreigner and an enemy. It is at war with all the popular tendencies of modern ages, at war with the whole spirit of modern civilization, which is to break down the barriers of caste and nation, and melt all into one great, united, and loving family, — and

above all, with the spirit and the law of our holy religion, which teaches us to embrace a brother wherever we find a human being;- for all have one Father; one God hath made us all, one Lord Jesus Christ hath redeemed, one Holy Ghost stands ready to quicken and sanctify us; and we are all bound in one faith, one hope, and should be in one charity, which is greater than all, and which levels all distinctions, proclaims and maintains a divine equality among all men. Love of country, love of man, love of God, love of our holy religion, respect for the growing intelligence of modern times, and attachment to modern civilization with its equalizing and elevating tendencies, all compel us to set our faces against the retrograde movement that would induce us to estimate a man according to his nation, and determine his rights by the simple accident of his birth.

The great principle of true Americanism, if we may use the word, is, that merit makes the man. It discards all distinctions which are purely accidental, and recognizes only such as are personal. It places every man on his own two feet, and says to him, Be a man, and you shall be esteemed according to your worth as a man; you shall be commended only for your personal merits; you shall be made to suffer only for your personal demerits. To each one according to his capacity, to each capacity according to its works. This is Americanism. It is this which has been our boast, which has constituted our country's true glory. It is this which we have inherited from our fathers; it is this which we hold as a sacred trust, and must preserve in all its purity, strength, and activity, if we would not prove "degenerate sons of noble sires "; and it is this, which Native Americanism, so called, opposes, and because it opposes this, no true American can support it.

There is, when we look at the condition of the mass of the people in those countries in the Old World from which emigration takes place, something grateful to all our better feelings in the thought, that here is a home to which the oppressed can come, and find the rights, the respect, and the well-being denied them in the land of their birth. The emigrant's condition is not a little improved by touching upon our shores; and the condition of his brother-laborers, whom he leaves behind, is also not a little ameliorated, and the general sum of well-being is greatly augmented. On the simple score of philanthropy, then, who would not struggle to keep our country open to the emigrant, and be prepared to welcome him as a brother, and to rejoice that another is added to the family of freemen?

But even as a question of our own interest as a people, we

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