dissipated and vain-glorious; as when, in the thirteenth century, persons intending to confess were told to say, if conscious of such guilt, "Je me suis eslevé et ay eu orgueil du grans despens que j'ay ancun fois fais et des grans oultraiges et superfluités, comme de viandes grandes et oultrageuses, comme à donner grans mengiers et belles chambres, assembler grans compaignies, &c.*" "Christ has two schools," says St. Anthony of Padua, "for his disciples in this life-in the first the study is charity: in the second is taught humility and meekness; and they who do not study in these schools can never be disciples of Christ +." In the capitular instructions at Mont Cassino, in 1273, among the sins which God is said to detest, are reckoned two of the essential fruits of naturalism in the higher classes, namely, "ambitio dignitatumverecundia de pauperibus amicis." Naturalism in the low finds its representative in that famous squire, "who knows not who he is one of, but who knows very well that he will never get such elegant scum from Basilius's flesh-pots as he has done from Camacho's." Among the rich it falls in admirably with the habits of Sir Andrew and his boon companions, however well they may perceive that such a life does harm to the wit. With glass in hand it is best prepared for eloquence, and worthy of hearing such eulogiums as the old compliment-" How bold is this Bacchanal" ὡς θρασὺς ὁ Βάκχος κοὐκ ἀγύμναστος λόγων (! Plutarch, apparently without intending to blame him, says, "that the mind of Lamprias, his grandfather, was never more fruitful or inventive than when he had well drank. Certes, tickling philosophy all this! But, with such habits, naturalism can as little be expected to form a just appreciation of the morality opposed to it, as it can long obscure the avenue to truth. With the pagans it gave out that the apostles were drunk; and with the moderns, judging of the representations of ecstasy and ascetic rapture by Catholic painters, it has no higher capabilities than those of the popular English author, who says to the public, delighted with his pictures of Italy, “Neither am I partial to angels who play on musical instruments for the edification of sprawling monks, apparently in liquor;" to which kind of criticism St. Augustin seems to allude when saying, “ Who, in fact, more drunken than the martyrs?" The poet, regarding the pleasures that naturalism promises, recognizes other fatal results, and says "I wave the quantum o' the sin, The hazard of concealing; * Ménagier de Paris, D. i. a. 2. Hist. Cassinensis, viii. 467. Fev. iv. Hebd. ii. in Quad. § Bacc. 491. 66 But, oh! it hardens a' within, "Crux Christi," says St. Bernard, speaking of such systematic perversion, voluptati adversatur, et voluptas cruci. Et quomodo possunt excusari voluptatum amatores, ut non sint Christi persecutores? Rei enim fiunt mortis Christi, etsi non ut persecutores, tamen ut tantæ rei contemptores." The conscious and formal opposition to the supernatural morality of Catholicism, gradually conducts men, after dwelling a long time in the suburbs of conscience, which are ever dangerous, to that condition when their testimony cannot be received in evidence on any point concerned with virtue. In the old moral play they seem to be described, when, in reply to the question "What company was in your shyppe that came over?" Hycke-Scorner answers— "Syr, I wyll sayd you to understande, There were good felowes above fyve thousande, There was falshode, favell, and jolyte Ye, theves and helpers, with good company, There was false lawe with oryble vengeaunce, Frowarde obstynacyon with myschevous governaunce, And haterede, that is so myghty and strange." The Lord shows," says Salvian, "how unwilling He is to punish even the worst sinners, saying 'Quod clamor Sodomorum ad se ascenderit;' that is to say, 'My mercy persuades me to spare, but such a cry of sinners compels me to punish*."" What sig nifies the blame of such a multitude? Of what weight is their opinion?-their sentence? Will you commit Catholicism to the censure and pleasure of men who say to each other, with Simonides, in Massinger's old law,— "Whatso'er we do, speaking by fits, or sleeping by turns, Sleeping or waking, we are resolved on that, Before we sit upon it !" “Naturalism is found, by experience, to combine perfectly with brutal violence, and the approval of those fearful outcries from the press, and from the political banquet halls, which would lead Salivan, de Gubernatione Dei, lib. i. 19. back Europe to the jurisprudence of the Huns and Heruli,” as the Count de Maistre says *. It revives in our age the scenes described by Tacitus, when, “Exacto per scelera die, novissimum malorum fuit lætitia†.” It creates a generation of conspirators against the order of things established by supernaturalism, and forms men whose criterion of excellence is the degree of sorrow which a measure causes among the just.—“ Sibi quisque dux et instigator: et præcipuum pessimorum incitamentum quod boni mærebant." A man need not be a profound philosopher to conclude that these consequences constitute another reason why the claims of naturalism must be rejected. The mind, Catholically and supernaturally moved, asks life. The mind, given up to sensuality, death. Antonio de Escobar cites instances in proof. "Pete à me quod vis et dabo tibi-licet dimidium regni mei,” said Herod to his daughter; and the same promise was given by Assuerus to Esther, "Quæ est petitio tua, Esther, ut detur tibi? Etiam si dimidiam partem regni mei petieris, impetrabis." The ascetic, represented by the queen, asked that the lives of the Israelites might be spared. Naturalism, by the mouth of the dancer, at her mother's suggestion, asked that the Baptist might be put to death §. Naturalism, it is true, in these later ages, assumes a mild aspect, and loudly professes toleration. It practises it towards all but the Catholic religion; but towards that it is generally ill-disposed, and sometimes even inflamed with hatred, which it hardly can disguise. Still, however, it wishes, like a certain parliament in 1851, to pass for tolerant; only, as in Russia, in 1815, it will consider it a capital offence to make conversions, and to have said publicly, "that there can be only one religion true and safe for the soul." For having said so, the General Wiasmitinoff, governor of St. Petersburg, in virtue of an imperial ukase, arrives, on the 16th of December, with guards, at the house of the Jesuits, and announces that they are condemned to banishment; and naturalism has but one voice to approve of the decree. In many official pieces, on that occasion, relative to the expulsion of the Jesuits from St. Petersburg, it was said, that "Russia has been always distinguished for its spirit of toleration." The same is pronounced elsewhere, in every speech before parliament; but the fact is, that a religion is not tolerated when it is not allowed to follow its doctrines and its maxims; and when the principles of another religion are transported into it. Therefore, where the free intercourse with the pope, the hierarchy, or any other essential adjunct of Catholicism is assailed, where the church is subjected to a personage who knows nothing about her;-as *Lettres du Ct. de M. i. 5. Hist. i. 46. § In Evang. Comment. vi. 84. when a Lutheran minister of state prohibited the canonization of a Catholic saint, under a sovereign who was neither Catholic nor Lutheran, but who guaranteed the free exercise of their religion to his numerous Catholic subjects, the Catholic Church is by the fact, so far as law can reach its victim, suppressed; and the tolerance of such governments amounts to a virtual persecution," than which no kind can be more envenomed, more skilful, or, perhaps, even in the end," as he adds, more efficacious." In regard to private life, naturalism, it must be confessed, is ready to play an odious part. What will not ambition and revenge descend to? Naturalism decides that spite with spite is best repaid. You will have no supernatural moralists near you; but then be not surprised if you should see verified, at your door, the words of Rutebeuf "Mal voisin done mal matin." 66 There is a voice that will reach you of a different kind from the chant of holy choirs, and a form unlike that of the hooded head 66 "Vox fera, trux vultus, verissima Martis imago, It is remarkable," says brother Gualter, "that one of the chief men implicated in the cruel murder of Count Charles the Good, and who died for the crime on the gibbet, when in prosperity, hearing his domestics speaking often amongst themselves of the passion of our Lord, and of His patience, used to say, 'I wonder why he should wish to submit to such insults.' Certainly, ‘Si mihi hujusmodi garciones taliter insultarent,' I would soon avenge myself on them, and turn their scorn on their own heads t." Naturalism agrees, with the arch-fiend, that In politics, therefore, it lays down for maxim, that the sovereignty ought to be esteemed, not by its essential character, but by its physical power, so that, instead of the ancient Catholic maxim, which required each prince to be asked, Who are you? it has for sole question, What can you? Provided force be on its side, it cares little for the form, and therefore, an infidel author lately, under the influence of the common error, which identifies Bonaparte with the revolution, who, on the contrary, as the Count de Maistre observes, "compressed * iv. 7. Vita S. Caroli Mart. c. xxxviii. De Maistre, Lettres, i. 66. the revolution, while making use of it," says that "the instinct of active, brave, able men throughout the middle class every where, has pointed out Napoleon as the incarnate democrat." He is their type, because they think that he represents force and violence unrestrained by any principle except that of selfinterest, understood as they understand it. He is their brother, because, to use the words of Tacitus, "quæ alii scelera, hic remedia vocat *." Those who treat on woods say, that " persons who possess land near a forest of pine, must take heed to their boundaries; for that these and all other resinous trees, extending their number by seed, gradually advance, so that the borderers may lose some of their land without perceiving itt." The same caution should be recommended to those who consort with men under the influence of naturalism. Phyleus dared not ask Hercules the strange guest whence he had the lion's skin, χαλεπὸν δ ̓ ἕτερον νόον ἴδμεναι ἀνδρός †. Naturalism is not troubled with scruples respecting acquisitions of any kind. "We respected the rights of former injustice," says Chateaubriand, speaking of a generation that had generally adopted it, "whatever comes from violence is sacred." Naturalism provides a state of things so distracted with constant occupation and excitement, that men have not time to be virtuous. "Your nation," said the Count de Maistre, "is too busy to be just §." For a contrary state of things to arise, the world must witness what St. Jerome saw, describing it in these words, "The Huns learn the Psalter,-Hunni Psalterium discunt," that is, they have become supernaturalists. These are the considerations that serve to explain the words used by the Church in ordaining clerks, "ut dum ignominiam sæcularis habitus deponunt ||.” It is not the soiled brown of the rustic or mechanic youth that the Church deems shameful. It is the purple of the rich oppressor; and well may that be stigmatized! for what more ignominious than the injustice allied to naturalism, which that habit so frequently involves, when you shall see in the man who follows it, as Dante says, |