ancing of cause and effect. It could be the
prognostication only of a wise, judicious, and observant mind. But we
are now looking, not forwards, but backwards, and in looking backwards
the case is reduced to the greatest simplicity, so that even a child
can understand; and "he that runs may read".

The simplest intelligence, if only it will set aside prejudice and
pride, and just attend and watch, will be led, without difficulty, to
the following conclusions: firstly, without an altogether special
divine support, no authority can claim and exercise _infallibility_ in
its teaching; and secondly, without such infallibility in its teaching
no continuous unity can be maintained among vast multitudes of people,
least of all concerning dogmas most abstruse, mysteries most sublime
and incomprehensible, and laws and regulations both galling and
humiliating to human arrogance and pride.

It is precisely because the Catholic Church alone possesses such a
supreme and infallible authority that she alone is able to present to
the world that which follows directly from it, namely a complete
unity and cohesion within her own borders.

Yes! Strange to say: the Catholic Church to-day stands alone! There is
no rival to dispute with her, her unique and peerless position. Of all
the so-called Christian Churches, throughout the world, so various and
so numerous, and, in many cases, so modern and so fantastic, there is
not a single one that can approach her, even distantly, whether it be
in (_a_) the breadth of her influence, or in (_b_) the diversity and
dissimilarity of her adherents, or in (_c_) the number of her
children, or in (_d_) the extent of her conquests, or (_e_) in the
absolute unity of her composition.

Even were it possible to unite into one single body the great
multitude of warring sects, of which Protestantism is made up, such a
body would fall far short of the stature of her who has received the
gentiles for her inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
her possession (Ps. ii. 8), and who has the Holy Ghost abiding with
her, century after century, in order that she may be "a witness unto
Christ, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the
uttermost parts of the world" (Acts i. 8). But we cannot, even in
thought, unite such contradictories, such discordant elements; any
more than we can reduce the strident sounds of a multitude of
cacophonous instruments to one harmonious and beautiful melod