of unpractical speculation. It was denied as heresy
by orthodox Catholics, including _fourteen Popes_, for a thousand years,
and is contrary to the well-nigh "unanimous consent of the fathers." _See
Dr. Pusey, Letter 1, to Newman, pp. 72-286._ To use such an engine but
once in all the centuries, and then to accomplish so little, aside from
furnishing infidels with something to say, is much like constructing a
vessel of twenty thousand tons capacity to carry one man across the
Atlantic. There is such a thing as Parthenogenesis known in nature. The
Vatican decrees declare that the Christian religion came perfect from
God's hands; that it is not like a human science, such as medicine or
mechanics, which can be improved or altered by the skill of man. In view
of this conceded fact we have no kind of use for the decree of Pius the
Ninth upon the "miraculous conception"--"Pope Pius decreed it." Well, well,
if Christianity really stood in need of such a decree it would not have
been left off until December 8, 1854. It has been a bone for infidels to
contend over from that time to the present. The New Testament is not
responsible for it.

Men of sense, who are not already traditionized nor Christianized, find
facts enough in the line of papal bulls and decrees to disgust them so
thoroughly as to drive them at once to reject religion entirely. Sixtus
the V., in 1590, declared, by a perpetual decree, an edition of the
Vulgate, just then out, the sole authentic and standard text, to be
received as such under pain of excommunication. He also decreed that
future editions not conformed to it should have no credit nor authority.
But its errors were so numerous that it was immediately called in, and a
new Vulgate was published by Clement VIII., in 1592, differing, in several
thousand places, from the one of 1590. This last publication was also
issued under penalty of excommunication for any departure from it. So
Roman Catholic faith rests very largely upon the assumed authority of the
Pope, and this authority has often been exercised in the wrong, they
themselves being witnesses. This authority, opposed to human progress, has
been and is one of the greatest feeders to Atheism and infidelity. Mr.
Draper, in his work entitled "Conflict between Religion and Science,"
wishes his readers to understand that he uses the term Christianity in the
sense of Roman Catholicism. The entire work is one grand scientific effort
against popecraft and pri