abit of self-abuse, and many other foul, unnatural
crimes, that are bringing so many thousands to an early grave? Ask those
unhappy victims, ask our physicians throughout the country, and they
will tell you that, in almost every instance, it was from the evil
companions with whom they associated in the common schools. Ah! you will
see, only on the Day of Judgment, how many unnatural crimes have been
taught and propagated, from generation to generation, in these very
hot-beds of iniquity.

"But, Father," some one will say, "what harm can there be in sending
children to Public Schools? for many of the teachers are professing
Christians, and exert a continual Christian influence."

But many more are non-professors, and exert an anti-Christian influence.
Go and visit those schools, and you will soon be able to tell the
religious _status_ of the teachers in charge, by the general tone of the
exercises. One presided over by a zealous Methodist resembles a
Methodist Sunday-school, or conference meeting. Another, under the care
of a "smart young man," delighting in love songs, boating songs, etc.,
has the general tone of a young folks' glee-club. In another, in which
one of the professors is an atheist, it is a matter of common remark
among the boys that Prof. ---- said there was no God. In another, one of
the teachers is overheard sneering at a child because she believes in
our Lord Jesus Christ, and has a reverence for religious things.

What I have just said is true. I have it from good authority. It is
therefore no recommendation at all for the Public School system to say
that many of the teachers are professing Christians. Even the very fact
that many of the teachers in the Public Schools are good Catholics, is
no recommendation whatever for these schools, for it matters nothing,
absolutely nothing, whether the teacher be Catholic or not; according to
_law_, no teacher is allowed to explain a single dogma of Catholic
faith. Now the dogmas of our holy faith have been _revealed_, and, in
order to be known, _they must be taught_. Ordinarily speaking, education
is necessary to learn and preserve the faith. The Catholics of Ireland,
indeed, by the special assistance of God, preserved their holy faith,
though they were not permitted, by a bigoted government, to receive the
education they needed and desired. But in this country, where there is
no such prohibition, where parents are free to send their children to
Catholic school