the world." Never will it enter into the heads of these philosophers to combat separated religions that have sprung from revolt. "No infidel," says the Count de Maistre, "has ever thought of giving battle to the Oriental Church, and this has never done any thing to defend its own doctrines. But Protestantism, Socinianism, Rationalism, and Illuminism attack, all together, the central faith. The Catholic is the only religion which alarms other religions, and which is never perfectly tolerated. There are," he adds, "in this capital of St. Petersburg Armenian, Anglican, Lutheran, and Calvinistic preachers far more opposed than we are to the faith of the country, which never cares what they say. It is very different in regard to Catholics. They cannot utter a word, or take a step, which does not become the subject of examination, criticism, or precaution for all false wisdom feels that it has no real enemy but truth." When it was a question of emancipating the Catholics, in England, the most renowned of the French sophists, who denies the existence of God, while explaining the mechanism of His works, said to an English Protestant Professor, who visited him in Paris, "You have them down at present: keep them down." Catholicity, they conclude, is fit only for the multitude; and so they invite all the initiated to enjoy their dear wit and gay rhetoric, "That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence." Catholicity, they say, has nothing to offer that can suit them; and, unfortunately, they may be believed; for, as St. Augustine says, "Cui amaro nil dulcescit, cui turbato nil quiescit, et cui vago nil consistit ;" and yet these men will still pass with many for the true representatives of wisdom, the real and secure guides to which public opinion should submit itself. It is a melancholy thing to consider how many admirable arts are made use of to propagate wisdom of this sinister kind, scattering prejudice and ignorance, and with it jealousy and hatred. In this region of the forest there are seen "tenebrificous and dark stars," by whose influence night is brought on, and which do ray out darkness and obscurity upon the earth as the sun does light. It would be difficult to magnify the danger of proceeding under the influence of several authors who are, it may be said, tenebrificous stars of the first magnitude. Thus, then, the road of wisdom, since some will force themselves into company which they have no right to join, has dangers and difficulties like every other track through the forest of life; and those who desire to lose themselves may pass along, following their favourite philosopher, without heeding the signals and avenues which direct and lead to truth. "As the love of God," says St. Anthony of Padua, "is never without the light of knowledge-for it is a fire inflaming and illuminating so the love of the world, which readily enters the sophist's school, is never without blindness; for it is a fire conformable to the infernal fire which burns without light in darkness; and, therefore, they who do not adhere to divine love cannot discern judgment, but judge only according to the face of sin which they assume, as is said in the Psalm, Facies peccatorum sumitis *." Wise men of the world, while insensible to the radical defect which pervades their own intelligence, may evince penetration in exposing the faults of others that are free from it, and may, with admirable clearness, develope many half, while combating whole truths. Cornelius Agrippa, himself among the vain, writes De vanitate, and discloses well the vanities of science. "Vani autem sunt omnes homines," concludes Molanus, "et vanè de vanitate scribunt in quibus non subest scientia Dei †." "other light, Though it be quick and sharp enough to blight Dark as the parentage of chaos." To those without it should be addressed the words, "Desinite indoctum vanâ dulcedine vulgus "The gift of understanding," says St. Thomas of Villanova, "makes the intelligence quick and penetrative. The gift of wisdom illuminates man as to spiritual and eternal things, as does the gift of science to visible things of nature, and the gift of counsel as to action and practice. But of what use is it to have a clear intelligence if you have a corrupt will? How many do we see who are ingenious and malicious, skilled and cunning and vicious, and whose genius only serves to iniquity?" He concludes, therefore, that "faith is more useful to the world than knowledge ||. How many simple and illiterate seculars do we see," he asks, "practised only in breaking of bread, that is, in hospitality, who are fervent, devout, and enlightened; and how many learned theologians, on the contrary, worldly, tepid, frigid, and dark ¶!" The very Pagans recognized the difference, speaking of the man, "unschooled but wise, abnormis sapiens ;" and remarking, that even young *Serm. Fer. iii. Hebd. iv. in Quad. Ov. Met. v. In Octav. Pasch. Serm. Lib. iv. 21. § Dom. iv. post Pasch. ¶ Fest. Res. Fer. ii. men become worse, and contract folly by resorting to places reputed as the schools of wisdom, saying, "adolescentes in scholis stultissimos fieri." That Catholicity should be foreign to men whose wisdom becomes foolishness even in the eyes of the world, which is its centre; that it should have no attractions for them, if by circumstances connected with it; and that it should be rejected by them with disdain, if they should only pass near it, coming from a distance, is a result for which every one who has any knowledge of the oracles of truth must be prepared. "There are two kinds of men," says the Père de Ligny, "with whom we find that our Saviour was never once agreed-those who criticize, and those who refuse with harshness; for nothing accords less with His benignity than the malignity of the former, and the hardness of the latter." But it is from the first epistle to the Corinthians that men can learn how to estimate the antagonism between the false wisdom, which has so many followers, and the philosophy of the Catholic Church. There they observe the Apostle of the nations declaring, that he preached not in "wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made void" there they are told, that the prophecies must be fulfilled which say, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; and the prudence of the prudent I will reject :" there they are referred to the historical fact, that "the world by wisdom knew not God:" there they are told to observe how, while "the Greeks seek after wisdom," the Apostle preaches the foolishness of the cross, which is "the wisdom of God, who is wiser than men :" there they are told to observe the facts around them, to observe in the primitive Church, "that not many wise according to the flesh are called:" that "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise :" that unto Christians Christ Jesus "is made wisdom :" that the preachers of this religion came to the world, not in loftiness of wisdom, nor in the persuasive words of human wisdom: that their faith was not to "stand on the wisdom of men :" that they are to speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom: that, although they speak wisdom among the perfect, it is not "the wisdom of this world, neither of the princes of this world," that they speak; "but the wisdom of God in a mystery," a wisdom which is hidden, “which God ordained before the world :" there, in fine, they are taught that "if any one seem to be wise in this world, he should become a fool that he may be wise; for, that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, who will catch the wise in their own craftiness, and that God knows the thoughts of the wise to be but vain." Thus it appears that the book of Revelation agrees with the natural sentiment of every generous heart, which feels that there is a wisdom to be fled from, as from a thing as contrary as villainy itself to goodness and to truth; and accordingly, in point of fact, it is soon discovered that the odious wisdom which is alluded to in all these passages, that which, in woman's presence, as the poet says, shows like folly, and from which every noble mind turns instinctively with disgust, possesses a centrifugal force to keep men ever at a distance wandering through the regions where faith hath never shone. No man, by the guidance of this wisdom, has ever been conducted to the centre, as perhaps no man was ever reasoned out of his opposition to the Catholic Church, to which conversion is effected by every thing that is most opposed to such wisdom, frequently it being the result of a sudden illumination, as Bossuet observes. We have a crowd of examples of this kind, even as the Count de Maistre says, "from superior men, the most capable of reasoning. The last," he adds, "is that of Werner, who found himself seized with a stroke of Catholicism on seeing the blessed sacrament carried out of the Church of St. Stephen. Whether," he adds, "the happy change be effected thus suddenly, or by a gradual operation, it always commences by the heart, where syllogisms have nothing to do. Never a man was reasoned out of his opposition; and, until pride be completely dethroned, nothing is done *." Following deceitful views of wisdom, we find the present road thronged with a multitude of grave and formal men, for whom there may be neither legible signals nor issues passable to the Catholic Church; but for men, in another sense wise, neither of these are wanting in abundance; and therefore the Apostle, as if recognizing the twofold multitude that pursues this road, expressly appeals to the Corinthians in the same epistle, in their capacity of philosophers, and uses these emphatic words, "I speak as to wise men; judge ye yourselves what I say." As we proceed, the contrast between the true and the false wisdom will be observed clearly enough; but, as this is not the place for pointing out the distinctive features of each, let us advance, remarking the first issue to the centre from this road which may be traced to a recognition that it is the society formed by the Catholic religion above all others in the world, which justly appreciates, deeply esteems, and generously rewards, wisdom. It is needless to review the history of the Church for proof of the constant transmission of the love of wisdom, which reigned within it through every age, from the beginning to the present day. The martyrs and confessors, the early fathers, the scholastics of the middle ages, the Catholic doctors who succeeded to them, and their innumerable disciples, who are still *Lettres, i. 80. 66 found in every class of society, can be confidently appealed to on this point, wherever there is an unprejudiced and attentive observation of facts. It will not be now upon this road, as in ancient times when men met only a few isolated individuals, Persian Magi (amongst whom, Cicero tells us, were always the kings of that nation*), Chaldæan sages, Egyptian priests, Gallic or British Druids, Indian gymnosophists, Latin moralists, Greek philosophers; and many of these, perhaps, complaining that they were generally misunderstood, neglected, and despised by their contemporaries, as when Socrates used to say, alluding to Eschinus, that the son of a pork-butcher was the only person who had any opinion of him;" we shall meet upon it a promiscuous multitude, composed of persons of all classes, of all ages and orders, who love and esteem, above all things, that true wisdom of which only a few imperfect broken rays were gathered from tradition, and transmitted by a small number of remarkable men of the ancient world; the philosophers being generally, perhaps, less acquainted with it than the very people whom they most despised. It is not lonely wanderers whom we shall overtake seeking Egypt, like Pythagoras, to examine the commentaries of the priests, and to learn the observations of innumerable ages; then travelling to Persia to be a disciple of the Magi; thence proceeding to Crete and Lacedæmon to study laws and manners. It will not be an isolated example like that of Democritus that will astonish us, showing one man unlike all others, for the reason that, when he might have been rich, his father being able to give a feast to the army of Xerxes, yet he renounced his patrimony to study wisdom with more facility; or like that of Carneades laboriosus et diuturnus sapientiæ miles, remarkable for ceasing to philosophize only with his life, of whom Valerius says, "Ergo animo tantummodo vita fruebatur, corpore vero quasi alieno et supervacuo circumdatus erat t." We shall find the whole way thronged by men who hold, and that too practically, with Plato, that truth is the chief of all good for men ‡, and who at the same time enjoy the supreme wisdom without having to search for it, who love and possess it for others as well as for themselves, and who are ready to make any sacrifice for the sake of living and dying in conformity with its lessons. Cæsar speaks of the barbarians taking refuge in the forests of Gaul and Germany, and says, “Sese in solitudinem ac silvas abdiderant." During the middle ages, when Catholicism had influence, it was wise and learned men that, in prodigious numbers, the forests received, as yielding an asylum from the violence of the few under the standard of the Prince of the world. Even * De Divinat. i. 41. + Lib. viii. De Legibus, lib. v. |