lations more favorable to worldly science than to the spirit of
piety and religion, attaching, as he did, more importance to the
education of the mind than to that of the heart. St. Francis of Assisium
upbraided him for it, but in vain. So the great servant of God cursed
the Provincial, and deposed him at the ensuing chapter. The saint was
entreated, by some of his brethren in religion, to withdraw this curse
from the Provincial, a learned noble man, and to give him his blessing.
But neither the learning nor the noble extraction of the Provincial
could prevail upon St. Francis to comply with their request. "I cannot,"
said he, "bless him whom the Lord has cursed"--a dreadful reply, which
soon after was verified. This unfortunate man died exclaiming: "I am
damned and cursed for all eternity!" Some frightful circumstances which
followed after his death, confirmed his awful prediction. (Life of St.
Francis of Assisium.) Such a malediction should strike terror into the
hearts of all those who attach more importance to the cultivation of the
mind than to that of the heart, and on that account prefer godless
Public Schools to Catholic schools.

Again, one may object: "The religious development does not necessarily
suppose a literary development too. A person may be illiterate, and yet
learned in the science of the saints, and a man may be learned in
science, and ignorant of his duty towards God and his fellow-creatures.
There were, are, and will be members of the Catholic Church, who,
ignorant of science, of book-learning, did not become infidels, but
exhibited a practical faith throughout life, and died in the odor of
sanctity. Divine faith does not require as a companion, in the
individual Catholic, a knowledge of profane literature, but humility,
compunction, self-denial, and a contempt of the world. Schools are
therefore not absolutely necessary for our children."

As far as the little profit is concerned that mere book-learning does
towards enabling the masses of mankind to accomplish the great end of
their being--the salvation of their souls--I am disposed to go all
lengths with him in this. But he and I must both acknowledge that the
whole current of Catholic influence and practice has set in favor of
book-learning and of schools. The Popes have been constant in this line,
and Catholic Bishops have acted in the same direction.

But grant that _school learning_ is of little account. Something even
harder is said of _r