debating societies where not alone the practical art
of speaking is developed, but the social amenities of good
society are practised, that the young priest can be equipped to
efficiently discharge the high office awaiting him, and so
reflect a lasting credit on the Church of God at home and abroad.

CHAPTER SEVENTH

THE DANGER OF THE HOUR. HOW TO MEET IT

[Side note: Statement of the case]

The printing press is one of the greatest forces of the modern
world. The multitude of publications sent forth on its wings each
morning are messengers of light or darkness. Their influence for
good or evil is more powerful than that of armies or parliaments:
that influence we can no more escape than we can escape the
sunlight or the air that surrounds us. It penetrates our homes;
it colours our thoughts; it furnishes motives for our actions.
The Press is indeed the lever that moves the world of our day,
and we are but the puppets of its will.

Such being the case, is it not a question of first importance for
the priest to examine its bearing on his own life, and on the
lives of those committed to his care?

[Side note: A general principle]

That we may do so in a scientific manner, let us take a simple
general principle. Reading is the food of the mind. Now, the body
is marvellously influenced by the food it assimilates; give a man
wholesome nutriment and mark the bounding vigour of his blood,
the activity and healthy development of every organ; feed him on
innutritious food and the most robust must fade; on poisonous
food and the strongest languishes unto death.

The substance of the body is so influenced by what it assimilates
that scientists assure us, young animals fed on madder will
reproduce the purple dye of the plant in the very texture of the
bone.

[Side note: The principle illustrated]

With far greater thoroughness and completeness does thought act
upon the mind: thought blends with thought with a force and
subtleness unknown in matter. Watch the principle in action. Let
any man habitually read good books--and by good books I mean the
production of any person whose mind is illumined by faith and
whose heart is fed by the sacraments--it matters little in what
shape such books reach us, let it be a novel or a book of poems
or essays. No man can invariably read such works without growing
imperceptibly better. His Catholic principles grow more robust;
he becomes more fearless in expressing them; each vol