has its philosophy; but the philosophy of science is only the co-ordination and interdependence of the most abstract propositions of all the sciences. The philosophy of the catholic schools is only logic, an exercitation in the mental connection of propositions, into the grounds of which it is not free to inquire. Hence the stunted and hide-bound character which is found to be the result of such an education, so that an Italian university has become a by-word.

Will it be said that this is very unpractical, that I have been drawing a picture of imaginary evils, that the advancing wave of ultramontanism is still at a safe distance from British shores, and that positivism is insignificant? It may be so; the mind, when it tries to look at phases of opinion in the light of the principles on which they depend, is apt to forget the interval between the opinions and the principles on which those opinions rest. But if the positive philosophy be the possession of few, the spirit of positivism is everywhere. Wherever there are strong physical natures with a strong

grasp of life and a keen sense of its enjoyments; wherever there is concentrated energy and worldly success following it; where wealth, the getting or the spending it, becomes a paramount notion; wherever rank and fortune and social position are eagerly competed for; wherever dress and frivolous amusements fill the day,there, in both sexes, and through all grades, there is practical positivism.

Again, if ultramontanism is at a safe distance, the spirit of catholicism is among us. Christianity entered the Roman world in the second century as a moral reform of a corrupt and enervated society. Catholicism makes its insidious approach through an offer to deny the conscience; not as a reform, but as a compromise with the terrors of the world to come. The principles of positivism and the doctrines of catholicism are in terms opposed; in practical life there is a fatal tendency to unite the two. Crushing the intellect with its doctrine of obedience, sapping the character by the luxury of spiritual direction more fatal to manly independence than that Sybarite luxury to which

the republics of old succumbed, neo-catholicism achieved in less than two centuries the degradation of Italy. Leaving the Italians their

vices, their positive enjoyments, their frivolous pastimes, their music, mathematics, and physical science,-it interdicted intellect. When the moment of awakening comes, whatever of virtue, of intelligence, of public spirit, remains among the Italian people is found unhappily arrayed against the Church, and the dreadful alternative is forced upon the country of infidelity or spiritual authority. Both parties have issued upon a false and impracticable position; the Church has repudiated the intelligence, the reason, the equity, the equality, the spirit of self-improvement by efforts which are now actively working to mould and refine modern society,-the conduct and control of all this spiritual movement the Church has lost, has herself renounced.

nay,

In her recent manifesto the Church of the West has abdicated, in form, her right to teach and guide society. She has renounced the education of the world. She takes her stand

henceforward

upon its ignorance. She has proclaimed that knowledge is against her, and that she is against knowledge. She is to occupy herself no longer with the interests of mankind, but enters upon a sordid struggle for her own existence; and she has announced what we feared was true, but were unwilling to believe, that she stakes that existence upon a principle which is incompatible with the moral well-being of society. Education has passed into other hands than those of the Church.

Happily for us, this is not yet the position of the Church in our own country. The Church of England still possesses the schools and universities; may she never forfeit them! May she never take the fatal step of standing upon authority instead of upon reason, upon intellect, upon education, upon the spiritual and moral cultivation of the soul!

VI.

[February 24, 1867.]

βλέπετε τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν, ἀδελφοὶ, ὅτι οὐ πολλοὶ σοφοὶ κατὰ ἀλλὰ τὰ μωρὰ τοῦ κόσμου ἐξελέξατο ὁ Θεὸς,

σάρκα

ἵνα τοὺς σοφοὺς καταισχύνῃ.

"Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

"For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."-I CORINTHIANS i. 26, 27, 21.

THIS passage-nor this passage alone, but other declarations to be found in the New Testament to a similar purport-has been often employed to depreciate learning. learning. On a still wider scale than its use as a weapon of controversy, has been its general influence on the Christian consciousness. The various sects, whose opinions are professedly enthusiastic or obscurantist, have fortified themselves by these