The Imitation, as Michelet remarks, was nothing but an abridgment of the ascetic writers of the middle age; there is nothing in it which cannot be found in former writings; it is only a judicious selection from them. Besides observing the natural consequences of the combination of intelligence, which could be discerned by the ancient poet, who said, "Nemo solus satis sapit," men were impressed with a conviction, in ages of faith, that an influence to kindle and illumine, far above any natural cause, prevailed within the pale of this unity. The Væ soli of the Scripture, are words to them full of mystic and divine wisdom, which would have been quite sufficient to show the fatal consequences of isolation, and the folly of those who would read “ Happy those who stand alone." "You are deceived, holy Thomas, you are deceived,” says St. Bernard, "if you hope to see the Lord separated from the College of the Apostles. Truth does not love corners; bye paths do not please it. It stands in the midst; that is, it delights in common discipline, common life, common studies. How long then will you seek private consolations with such labour of self-will, and beg for them with such blushing?" "Let them gnaw as much as they like," says Louis of Blois, "in their holes and corners, the dry bark of their errors: never will they be nourished with the grace of God unless they be within the splendid house of God, that is, in the Catholic church t." Again, a great and most remarkable privilege, attached to the Catholic view, was the power which it imparted of detecting in an instant the true relation of things, and their ultimate consequences. The philosophy at present opposed to it, which offers nothing universal but the variations and anarchy of religious opinions, leaves its disciples without the means of finding their true position, or of being able to orient themselves, according to the expression of many languages. The Catholic religion, in an eminent degree, instructs its children in what Novalis terms "Socracy," which is the art of finding the point of truth out of any given place, and of determining the relation of that given place to truth ‡. The gift of wisdom to the clean of heart, as Goerres S. Bern. in Ascensione Dom. Serm. vi. Epist. ad Florentium. remarks, is also the gift of all higher ideas, as far as relates to the use of knowledge, to the quickness with which the true nature of these ideas is discerned, to the power of seizing the whole depth of their contents, of understanding their mutual relation, of making clear their beginning and end, of holding them fast in their reciprocal positions, and of managing them in their movements *. Nor is this advantage confined to the sphere of intellectual exercise, for he who is taught by God and not by man, that is, he who hears the church and bows to her authority, sees and estimates all things of life and manners as they are, and not as they are called or estimated. Therefore, from the first instant, he knows the real worth of all that he comes in contact with:-genius, learning, rank, dignity, are all valued by him exactly according to their real worth, and not the least higher than God intended them to be. Hence the self-possession, the noble air of freedom and conscious equality, joined with the strictest respect to degree of every kind which characterises the Catholic. The reason of this was evident to the schoolmen; for as Duns Scotus says, "nothing is perfectly known, unless God be perfectly known; therefore nothing is simply known, unless He be simply known. As the first heat is the cause of heat in all other things, so is God the cause of knowing all other things, and therefore is He the first object of the intelligence t." St. Clement of Alexandria says, that it is the property of this high wisdom to be able to distinguish the sophist from the philosopher, the rhetorician from the dialectician ; and that truth, shining out as the sun, enables us to discern what is really true in the Greek philosophy, and to detect and convict all sophistical confidence of speech §. "Non literatus sed spiritualis omnia dijudicat," says Hugo of St. Victor . The Catholic, if faithful, is in fact this spiritual man who judges all things, and is himself judged of no one: a few moments' conversation between him and other men, however his superiors in all other respects, will place this beyond doubt: and, in fact, how could it be otherwise? * Die Christliche Mystic, ii. 195. Stromat. 1. 9. Erud. Didasc. lib. vi. 4. + Duns Scot. in lib. i. Sent. dist. iii. 9. 2, 3. § Id. vi. 2. 66 'True notions, not alone of history," as Wagner says, "but of all things ordained for social life around us, are only possible from the Christian, that is Catholic point of view, in which we recognize the personal and holy God, as also the personal and free action of man *." If we know not the object of Almighty God in creation, nor his will in the progress of the Church-history and the whole order of human life will be a sealed book. The extraordinary predominance of vanity and worldly emulation in London, arises from there being no divine type kept ever present, by a daily office, in the minds of men, by which they could judge of their own motives and actions. The fancy of each man is his rule. Euripides represents Æthra, the mother of Theseus, speaking of being in error as to the Gods dishonouring them, but thinking justly on all other subjects t. The boast is absurd, as even some heathen philosophers themselves would allow. "He who knows God," says Staudenmaier, "knows in him all other things in their true condition: in this manner thought has become, by means of Christianity, much deeper, more true and intimate in relation to the heart. Its ideas are universal, as its consciousness is divine ." From how many errors and absurdities would men have been delivered in their capacity of historians, metaphysicians, moralists, legislators, œconomists, and rulers, if they had been content to adhere to the great rule, never to condemn what the church has expressly sanctioned and approved, and never to approve of what she has condemned. Do you ask for a demonstration? Experience is the proof, and it is conclusive; for it is here that we see verified the remark of Lacordaire, that "God provides ingenious insults for the pride of man." Hence it is that a conversation between a Catholic and a disciple of any other philosophy, is sure to terminate like one of Plato's dialogues, when a Sophist has opposed Socratesfor the lame in the right course outstrips the swift, who has left the way. The issue might remind a looker on of what Socrates says, "that the meanest Lacedæmonian, though at first he would appear awkward in his language, would in course of conversation throw in, like a dexterous * System der Ideal Philosophie, 97. † Suppl. 303. John Scotus Erig. und die Wissenschaft seiner zeit. 1. 31. lancer, some short and nervous remark, so as to make the other look no wiser than a child *." There could not be a happier image to describe the contest between a modern philosopher and a humble disciple of the Catholic church: for what was it which enabled the latter, starting up even in perversest times, to bind the scorpion falsehood with a wreath of ever-living flame, until the monster stung itself to death? It was the truth of pure lips contained in a few short plain words. The objections of men, who, if they had the power, would confound all unity on earth, can copiously and diffusely with choice words and grave sentences, be amplified and adorned; but they can never stand before the short logical and acute answers of the Catholic, who has learned well his catechism. He who hears the Church will not care for ten thousand words of men. The objectors are soon made to appear confused at their own objection, and to wear the countenance of Protagoras, when Socrates drew him to reply that he would call some things good, even though they were not useful to mankind. These professors of reformed notions too, can all make long speeches; but none of them are as clever or as bold as Protagoras, who pretended to be able in reply, to make short also to specific questions. He, indeed, would have shrunk from making proof of his ability, in that respect had not Socrates risen to depart, and all the hearers interposed to make him fulfil what he had engaged to do, when he declined absolutely relinquishing the mode of a lengthened harangue +. To combat each of the objections separately, would indeed be a long and wearisome task; but it was in the comprehensive glance at the grand whole, that lay the secret of the Catholic's power, as in those Grecian games which Pindar sung, where he who won the prize of the Pentathlon, which included the five games, might also boast of having carried off that of the Stadium ‡, because in the former the length and difficulties of each were considerably less than where each taken separately was made the trial; so in this contest, where the conviction of an adversary was the prize, one and the same conqueror might win the merit of having proved one point, though his demonstration of the whole system had previously rendered that one and every other certain. St. Francis *Plato, Protag. Plato, Protag. Olymp. xiii. Xavier was said by the Bonzes of Japan, to have had the power of removing by one word several different and even converse objections addressed to him at the same moment from all sides. Something of the same power may be said to belong to every one who defends the same cause; the cross is a universal answer, and the vast structure of Catholic wisdom is like that pyramid of the Egyptians, which was counted among the seven wonders of the earth, because receiving light on all sides, it did not obstruct it to any spot whatever, as it cast no shadow*. But we should never finish were we to dwell upon all the advantages which resulted to the intellect from the Catholic faith. It made each person like many persons, a genius. "Every person," says Novalis, "is the germ of an infinite genius." Catholicism could develope it, and bring out from each many persons in harmony. The Catholic philosopher necessarily lived as it were in many places, and in many men. Vox sermonum ejus ut vox multitudinis †. To him there was nothing peculiarly his own, and nothing foreign; all was at the same time his own and foreign : he knew how to appropriate to himself what was foreign, and to make foreign what was his own. "Let no one blame me," says Picus of Mirandula, " that I have been a guest in all schools, as if to whatever the tempest bore me; for I have always been accustomed to examine every kind of writing, esteeming it the sign of a narrow mind to confine one's self to any one porch or academy. In every family there is something remarkable, which is not common to it with others. There is in John Scot something vigorous, and full of force to overthrow-in Thomas, the solid and equable-in Ægidius, the terse and exact— in Francis, the strenuous and acute-in Albert, the ancient, ample, and magnificent-in Henry, as it seems to me always something sublime and worthy of veneration + Thus, in a strict and philosophic sense, was continually fulfilled the prayer of the Church, "ut quod singuli obtulerunt ad majestatis tuæ honorem cunctis, proficiat ad salutem §." دو Joan. Pic. Mirand. de Hominum Dignitate. § VII. Sund. after Pent. |