be done. This means a tremendous
amount of work, and a tremendous expense. It means a competition on
educational grounds with the greatest, richest and most powerful nation
in the world. The game must be worth the candle; there must be some
proportion between the end and the means.

The Catholic Church has the wisdom of ages to learn from; and when she
embarks on an enterprise of this kind, even her bitterest enemies can
afford to take it for granted that there is something behind it. And
there is. There is her very life, which depends on the fidelity of her
children. And her children are lost to her and to God unless she
fosters religion in her young. Let parents share this solicitude of the
Church for the little ones, and beware of the dangers of the godless
school.

CHAPTER LXIV.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS.

THE Catholic school system all over this land has been erected and
stands dedicated to the principle that no child can be properly,
thoroughly and profitably--for itself--educated, whose soul is not fed
with religion and morality while its intelligence is being stocked with
learning and knowledge. It is intended, and made, to avoid the two
defects under which our public school system labors--the one
accidental, the other fundamental--namely, extravagance and
godlessness. The child is taught the things that are necessary for it
to know; catechism and religion take the place of fads and costly
frills.

The Catholic school does not lay claim to superiority over another on
purely secular lines, although in many cases its superiority is a very
patent fact; it repudiates and denies charges to the effect that it is
inferior, although this may be found in some cases to be true. It
contends that it is equal to, as good as, any other; and there is no
evidence why this should not be so. But it does pretend to give a more
thorough education in the true sense of the word, if education really
means a bringing out of that which is best in our nature.

Neither do we hold that such a training as our schools provide will
assure the faith and salvation of the children confided to our care.
Neither church, nor religion, nor prayer, nor grace, nor God Himself
will do this alone. The child's fidelity to God and its ultimate reward
depends on that child's efforts and will, which nothing can supply. But
what we do guarantee is that the child will be furnished with what is
necessary to keep the faith and save its soul, that there will