age, into the meaning of the words _temporal pain_. If they be
intended to signify the natural evil consequences of sin in this world,
it is clear that no penance of human institution can avert them; since
the very efficacy of this penance would prove these consequences not to
be natural but arbitrary. A man who has defrauded his neighbor cannot
preserve or recover his character for honesty, or secure the confidence
of those around him 'by prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, or other works of
piety.' The means are not adapted to the end. The method he must pursue,
and the only one which can be used with effect, is to restore that which
he had unjustly obtained, and to persevere in a course of integrity till
the rectitude of his motives becomes unquestionable. If in the meanwhile
he employs prayer, fasting, and alms-deeds as means of rousing his
highest affections and confirming his virtuous resolutions, he may find
them so far efficacious; but the removal of the _temporal pain_, the
stain upon his reputation, is not ascribable to them, but is the
consequence of his well attested repentance.

But it appears doubtful whether we have rightly interpreted the words
_temporal pain_; since the being obnoxious to this pain is one of the
qualifications for the discipline of purgatory. We wish that an exact
account could be obtained of its real nature: though, be it what it may,
it is clear to us that no natural penalty can be averted by so arbitrary
an institution as that of penance. The clause on indulgences is as
follows. We quote the doctrinal part of it, that we may avoid the
danger, of which it warns us, of charging on the Church such abuses or
mistakes as have been sometimes committed in point of granting and
gaining indulgences, through the remissness or ignorance of individuals.

'The guilt of sin, or pain eternal due to it, is never remitted by what
Catholics call indulgences; but only such temporal punishments as remain
due after the guilt is remitted: these indulgences being nothing else
than a mitigation or relaxation, upon just causes, of canonical
penances, enjoined by the pastors of the Church on penitent sinners,
according to their several degrees of demerit.'

Our conviction of the absolute inefficacy of canonical penances to
obtain the end for which they are practised having been stated, we
proceed to consider the legitimacy of the power by which such acts are
imposed, and a remission from them granted. We shall grou