retically considered, all I had hoped from a new Church, and have, therefore, no longer any occasion to call for one; which, were it necessary, as it is not, might, with merely human means, be somewhat difficult, not to say impossible, to obtain. But my readers must not misinterpret me. There is no truth in the report, that I have joined, or am intending to join, the Roman Catholic Church. I am free to confess, that I accept the general theory of that Church, as the true theory of the Church of Christ; but that theory itself prevents me, in the present state of the religious world, from seeking to unite myself to the Roman Catholic communion. In consequence of the error I have pointed out, and which the Roman Church has not as yet wholly corrected, she has but an imperfect claim, practically considered, to what, if I may so speak, is after all her own theory. She suffers her rights to lie in abeyance, is too Protestant, and not sufficiently Catholic, to be held exclusively as the Church. She does not fulfil the conditions of her own theory. Nor is this all. She can no longer claim to be the exclusive depositary of the Divine Life, which redeems and sanctifies. Even she herself would shrink from saying, that no one, out of her bosom, can possibly be saved. The great doctrine of Progress, owing to her neglect, has, in some measure, been wrested from her, and is now sustained by individuals not within her pale; she has no longer an exclusive right to the theory of the Church which I have set forth; and, therefore, notwithstanding her unquestionable apostolic descent, externally considered, her high antiquity, and general soundness in the faith, she must take her stand, very nearly, on the same level with other communions. In consequence of her failure to maintain her absolute independence, and to fulfil her office in the free development of the principles of the Gospel, and their application to practical life, the whole Christian world, regarded as a polity, has been thrown into a state of disorganization, and needs now to be reorganized. In the labor of reorganization, which is, at the present moment, the great desideratum, all, who have seized the elements of Christian truth, whether in one communion or in another, or, technically speaking, in none, must be permitted to take part. If the Roman communion does what she may, and what she should, that is, assert the two-fold independence, of which I speak, she will become the nucleus of reorganization, and ultimately absorb all other communions into herself; but, they, who most distinctly assert, and most strenuously insist on, the true theory of the Church, will be this nucleus, and assimilate to themselves all existing churches; because the vital principle, the organic force, of the Church, is the indwelling Life, or Spirit, of Christ, not the mere fact that she is the depositary of past revelations and inspi rations. Now, I look forward to this reorganization of the Christian world, to a time, not far distant, when the Church will reassert, and effectually, her independence; become really one and Catholic; her spirit one; faith one; discipline one; and for this, without conferring with flesh and blood, I pray and labor, from the very position where God in his Providence has placed me. Let all others do the same, and gradually, but effectually, will spring up a unity of spirit, which will induce unity of faith, which, in turn, will induce unity of organization and discipline. This reorganization will, in some sort, no doubt, be a new organization, and will differ, in many important respects, as to forms, from the old; yet, strictly speaking, it will not be new, but the old transformed. Here, in brief, is my Catholicism, on which I shall have, in the progress of this work, much to say. To speak technically, I am neither Protestant nor Romanist. I belong neither to the Protestant world, nor to the Roman world. I look upon Protestantism as a blunder, and as having proved a decided failure; on the other hand, I look upon Roman Catholicism as substantially true, under the relation of theory, but upon the Roman Catholic Church, under the relation of practice, as having but imperfectly fulfilled her mission. Theoretically considered, she forms the basis of reunion; practically considered, she is herself more or less Protestant, and schismatic. In laboring for the rehabilitation of the Church, and for the union of all men under one and the same religious organization, with one and the same religious faith and discipline, we must accept and obey the LAW OF CONTINUITY. The Present and the Future must be always regarded as intimately linked with, and evolved from, the Past. I, therefore, make it my law, to accept, always and everywhere, the Traditions of the race; but, nevertheless, with a reserve in favor of progress. I accept them as a patrimony inherited, rich and precious indeed, but incomplete, and, therefore, to be corrected and enlarged, or, as we Americans say, improved, by the labor of each succeeding generation. The hostility many feel to tradition comes from the mistake of regarding it as already complete, and, therefore, as a law that must bind us, and as an inheritance which must supersede all necessity of any acquisitions of our own. While we accept tradition with all sincerity and reverence, we should carefully avoid this fatal mistake, which would be a bar to all farther progress. In accepting tradition, we must regard it as our duty to carry it on, by supplying its deficiencies, and enriching it by new discoveries. We must guard against the error of believing, that the canon of authentic tradition is closed, and that the human race must henceforth feed solely on its past inspirations. If the theory of the Church, I have set forth, be true, God has provided for a continuous inspiration; not, indeed, an inspiration overriding the past inspirations, or superseding their necessity, as innovators rashly and falsely pretend, but an inspiration continuing the past, in one unbroken current, with an ever enlarging volume. Here is the ground of my dissent from the general principle of Protestantism, which condemns us to feed only on inspirations made in the past, and of which the canon is closed; and here, also, is one reason why I cannot 3 VOL. I. NO. I. unite myself to the Roman communion, which seems only half conscious, that, as the Church of Christ, she must be the medium of a continuous inspiration, not merely the keeper of these past inspirations. "He goes farther than we do," said a learned Catholic Doctor of one of my essays in the Christian World, "and claims Divine Inspiration for the Church, which we have not done." The Catholic Doctor was right; and, in reply, I must tell him, till his church can with truth claim to be the medium of a continuous inspiration, it cannot be said to fulfil the conditions of the Church of God. This doctrine concerning Tradition and the Law of Continuity, while it associates me with all, who, at home or abroad, are enlisted in the great army of progress, separates me, of course, from the several classes of ULTRAISTS, with which our age and country abound. These Ultraists have, no doubt, kindly sentiments, and their ends and aims, regarded in themselves, may be good and commendable; but, by cutting themselves. loose from the past of humanity, decrying all its past labors, and refusing to accept what is, as their point of departure for what should be, they are struck with impotence, and doomed to perpetual barrenness. They deprive themselves of ancestors, and must remain without posterity. Humanity disowns them, for they disown all that she has hitherto accomplished. They are foolishly attempting to build without materials, and their fabrics can be only castles in the air. Whatever respect the wise man may have for them as individuals, he can have no part or lot in their labors. For myself, I have learned to reverence the past; and I see nothing for me, nor for any one, to do, but to labor to carry onward the work humanity has commenced, and, thus far, not unsuccessfully prosecuted. Man was not a blunder, and his creation has not proved a failure. No radicalism in church, state, philosophy, or morals, but should be formally and solemnly eschewed. No efforts to create an entirely new order, instead of carrying - forward, to its perfection, the old, can be wisely, or safely, countenanced. Humanity is a mighty river, to repeat a figure I have just used, flowing on ever with a constantly increasing volume, in the same direction, from out of the infinite abyss, to its unknown ocean; and whatever would interrupt its on-flowing, or divert its course, is evil, and only evil. This principle compels me to take the Conservative side in politics, the side which I have always taken, since the commencement of the Boston Quarterly Review, the thousand voices of the country, vociferating to the contrary, notwithstanding. I have never, at least, since my early youth, taken the Radical side, and placed myself in the attitude of a destructionist, and a revolutionist. I hold, and I believe I have always held, though I care little what I may have held, that here, in this country, at least, the existing order is to be preserved; and that no alteration is to be attempted. No amelioration even, not authorized by it, and capable of being evolved from it. Our fundamental institutions are to the statesman, what the Gospel is to the churchman, the law which he is to develope and apply, but in no case to change, or to set aside. We We may seek progress, but only progress under and through existing institutions. This is the law I prescribe to myself, and what I mean by CONSER VATISM. I not only take the Conservative side, but I contend, that our institutions come under the denomination of a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, and not under that of a DEMOCRACY. The established political order in this country is not the democratic, and every attempt to apply the democratic theory, as the principle of its interpretation, is an attempt at revolution, and to be resisted. By a Democracy, I understand a political order, if that may be called order, which is none, in which the people, primarily, and without reference to any authority constituting them a body politic, are held to be the source of all the legitimate power in the |