old beaten track, or hinder those who engage in it from criticizing many things, with a freedom not tolerated in past times, nor pleasing to those who are wedded to them, or who have never for a moment doubted their wisdom or propriety. Truth is always the same, unchanged, and unchangeable; but it may from time to time require further expositions and new applications to meet the ever-shifting forms of error. The Church is from God, always the same in spirit, in principle, in doctrine, in sacraments, and in universal discipline; but as Catholics pertain to both the Church and natural society, they partake more or less of the character of each, of the truth and permanence of the one, and the defects and mutability of the other. In what pertains strictly to the spiritual order, they are di vinely instructed and guided, and are right in their principles, their doctrine and their practices, if obedient to the light they have; but in secular matters they follow the age, and share its spirit, its prejudices, its opinions, and its tendencies. Some of them, like non-Catholics, may be above, some may be below, their age, advancing or retarding secular progress, proving themselves its friends and advocates, or its enemies and opponents. When, as at present, controversy between Catholics and non-Catholics turns chiefly on the relations of the Church with natural society, or of natural society with the Church, the mutual relations of the natural and the supernatural,-we must allow a large margin to the freedom of discussion, and place a generous confidence in every Catholic publicist of adequate learning and ability, so long as he shows honesty of purpose, keeps within the limits of orthodoxy, and proves himself willing to hear reason when offered, and to submit to authority when it speaks. We must judge him by the infallible standard of the Church, not by that vague and uncertain thing called public opinion, whether the public opinion of Catholics or of non-Catholics. The traditionary opinions of Catholics in the spiritual order, if not always infallible, are always respectable, and never to be departed from on the authority of mere private judgment; but the

public opinion of Catholics, in relation to secular matters, stands on the same footing with that of non-Catholics, and may be precisely the thing at fault and in need of correction. To impose this public opinion upon any Catholic, as authority to which he must meekly bow, and against which he must never dare speak, on pain of being denounced as false to his religious duty, is to subject him to a mere human authority as if it were divine, and to deprive him of that freedom which God gives and the Church leaves him. It is, indeed, to endow the secular order with all the attributes of the spiritual, natural society, with all the prerogatives of the supernatural. In relation to the secular order, we must leave the Catholic publicist to follow his own rational convictions, so long as he does not oppose himself to the demands of the spiritual, without any Catholic having the right to call him to an account. If he errs in his judg ment, we must still respect his rights, his personal character and dignity, and labor to correct his errors, not by peevish paragraphs in newspapers, or by denunciation and abuse, but by fair reason and solid arguments.

In doctrine and discipline, in all that proceeds from the Church, every Catholic publicist must defend what has been believed and done by the great body of Catholics in all nations and ages; but this obligation does not extend to all they have done or believed in the secular order, and we must not imagine that, in matters lying below the spiritual order, Catholics in all ages and nations have always been irreproachable, or that the controversialist can to-day conduct freely and successfully the arguments for the Church, if forbidden to express his dissent from many of their views, and his disapprobation of much they have done. We cannot defend Catholicity against objections drawn from the modern theory of races, without reasserting the doctrine of the unity of the race; and we cannot do that effectually without offending some Catholics of one nationality or another; for, unhappily, the theory has its advocates even among Catholics, and affects the judgment and practice of more of the faithful than is commonly imagined.

Must the Catholic publicist forbear to bring forward the truth, to assert the Catholic doctrine that God has made of one blood all the nations of men, to prove that Catholicity is Catholic, adapted alike to the human nature of all men, because some of his Catholic brethren, against the letter and spirit of their religion, entertain Gentilistic theories, prejudices, and susceptibilities, and he may chance to offend them?

We cannot meet the objections drawn from the social and political order, and disprove the assertion that Catholicity opposes liberty and generates and sustains despotism, unless permitted to draw sharply the line of distinction between the natural and the supernatural; to defend the Church simply as the representative of the supernatural order, and to make natural society itself alone responsible for the vices and defects of modern civilization; and we cannot do this without running athwart the prejudices, the habits, and the practices of many of our brethren, or opposing, sometimes strenuously, the policy and conduct in the secular order of Catholic princes, prelates, and popula tions. Nothing is more unwise, or untrue, than to call the civilization of Catholic nations Catholic civilization, as if it had an infused habit of grace, to represent it as the work of the Church, and on that ground to vindicate her titles, to be regarded as the Church of God, and the benefactress of nations. To place her defence on that ground, as do some of her friends, a ground insidiously conceded by her more adroit enemies, is to declare our defeat in advance. Civilization lies in the natural order, whether we speak of Catholic or non-Catholic nations, and is the work of natural society, which alone is responsible for it. The Church indirectly aids it, assuredly, but by cultivating in individuals the virtues necessary to secure the rewards of heaven. This aid is certainly great, and not easily overrated; but her proper mission is not civilization, but the glory of God in the salvation of souls. Civilization depends. on the natural virtues,-virtues which men may practise by their natural light and strength, and which are often prac

tised in an eminent degree by non-Catholics. Churchmen, save by their superior secular knowledge and virtue, are no more able to advance civilization than seculars. Men may be saints, and yet not great statesmen. The saints. excel the mass of their contemporaries in sanctity, but in secular matters they may not rise above the common intelligence of their age. We have not to prove that the Church advances civilization; it suffices to show that she is not hostile to the secular order; that she does not favor despotism, but enjoins upon all her children the practice of justice, and does respect liberty, whether of individuals or of nations. But we cannot do even this much without recognizing the fact that Catholics have supported despotism, and that the clergy even now, to a great extent, place themselves on its side, through fear of socialism, which they regard as a greater evil, and perhaps justly so, though we dread socialism less than despotism.

The very necessities of modern controversy compel us in many cases to combat the views, the principles, and the conduct of Catholics, not as Catholics, indeed, but as members of natural society; and it will not do to take alarm or to be scandalized at our doing so. Because the Church is infallible in the spiritual order, it does not follow that Catholics are both infallible and impeccable in the natural order. We could not hang a heavier millstone about the neck of the Church than that of holding her responsible for all that has ever been said, done, or attempted by her children in the secular order. The past and present views and policy of Catholics in relation to secular matters, partake of the imperfections and errors incident to humanity, and must be open to the judgment of the publicist, and allowed to be freely canvassed. The hush-up policy avails nothing, and, besides, is impracticable in our age and country. We cannot shut men's eyes, stop their ears, or take away their judgments if we would. True, our enemies say this is what our Church demands and seeks to do. But we Catholics know it is false, and why, then, shall we seek to confirm it? Facts will out, whether we tell them

or seek to suppress them, and it is far better for us to tell them, and place them in their true light, than it is to leave them to be told by our enemies, who are sure, by perverting them, to make them the basis of serious objections to our religion. We, and we only, can state historical facts truly, for we, and we only, have the key to all history, ancient and modern. The Church is infallible and holy, but not all who are included among her children are either holy or infallible, and why shall we seek to maintain for ourselves a worth we do not possess?

We know every Catholic knows--that the Church does not sanction, or in any way approve despotism, and even her own prelates she calls pastors, and commands them to govern as fathers, not as lords. Why, then, when we find Catholic princes, Catholic publicists, or Catholic populations condemning liberty, sneering at all political guaranties, and proposing and defending Cæsarism as the only régime compatible with the interests of society both natural and supernatural, shall we, who live in a free country, where our religion is opposed almost exclusively on the alleged ground that it is hostile to free institutions, and favorable to despotism, not attempt to prove these European princes, publicists, and populations speak without the authority or sanction of the Church? Or, when we find them really supporting Cæsarism, why shall we turn round and abuse American non-Catholics for the charges they bring against us? It is easy to declaim against American KnowNothings, perhaps easy in most places to vote them down; but were it not better to kill the Know-Nothing spirit by showing that they misjudge the Church, and that the facts which mislead them may be explained, and ought to be explained, so as not to authorize, in any degree whatever, their conclusions? Why shall we not frankly own the fact for fact it is that Catholics, not the Church, in Europe, and to some extent in this country, have done and are doing many things which, to an outsider, implies that we cannot at once be good Catholics and loyal Americans, or sincere and hearty supporters of American republican