re behind, and wait,
without wavering, until the crisis calls them forward.

And already it seems to have arrived. All that is being done for
ecclesiastical learning by the priesthood of the Continent bears
testimony to the truths which are now called in question; and every work
of real science written by a Catholic adds to their force. The example
of great writers aids their cause more powerfully than many theoretical
discussions. Indeed, when the principles of the antagonism which
divides Catholics have been brought clearly out, the part of theory is
accomplished, and most of the work of a _Review_ is done. It remains
that the principles which have been made intelligible should be
translated into practice, and should pass from the arena of discussion
into the ethical code of literature. In that shape their efficacy will
be acknowledged, and they will cease to be the object of alarm. Those
who have been indignant at hearing that their methods are obsolete and
their labours vain, will be taught by experience to recognise in the
works of another school services to religion more momentous than those
which they themselves have aspired to perform; practice will compel the
assent which is denied to theory; and men will learn to value in the
fruit what the germ did not reveal to them. Therefore it is to the
prospect of that development of Catholic learning which is too powerful
to be arrested or repressed that I would direct the thoughts of those
who are tempted to yield either to a malignant joy or an unjust
despondency at the language of the Holy See. If the spirit of the _Home
and Foreign Review_ really animates those whose sympathy it enjoyed,
neither their principles, nor their confidence, nor their hopes will be
shaken by its extinction. It was but a partial and temporary embodiment
of an imperishable idea--the faint reflection of a light which still
lives and burns in the hearts of the silent thinkers of the Church.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 340: _Home and Foreign Review_, April 1864.]

[Footnote 341: Lamennais, _Correspondence_, Nouvelle edition (Paris:
Didier).]

[Footnote 342: April 12 and June 25, 1830.]

[Footnote 343: Feb. 27, 1831.]

[Footnote 344: March 30, 1831.]

[Footnote 345: May 8 and June 15, 1829.]

[Footnote 346: Feb. 8, 1830.]

[Footnote 347: Aug. 15, 1831.]

[Footnote 348: Feb. 10, 1833.]

[Footnote 349: July 6, 1829.]

[Footnote 350: Sept. 15, 1832.]

[Footnote 351: Oct. 9, 1832.]