ears, are trained to a life of piety, prayer, and
mortification. The spiritual education of their own souls, by
meditation and examination of conscience, fits them to know the
workings of the souls of others. Before undertaking the study of
painfully distressing treatises on certain parts of the moral law, the
Levite strengthens his soul by prayer, enters thereon simply for the
glory of God and the good of souls, and is aided by experienced
discreet professors.

Medical men and lawyers are not trained and selected for their
profession as are priests, nor are they aided in their duties by
special divine protection. Yet, relying on them as gentlemen and on
their professional honor, clients, without fear or suspicion, entrust
to these, themselves and their affairs.

Why then not concede to priests at least this same measure of
honorability? They, like doctors and lawyers, must for their work be
theoretically cognizant of the crimes, iniquities, and weaknesses of
mankind. But they, no more than doctors or lawyers, speak of these
things, unless the penitent has been guilty of and confesses some such
offence. On the contrary, those who enter the Ministry are taught to
be most prudent and discreet in putting questions; never to ask more
than what may be necessary. The rule is to err on the side of too
little. Nay, rather than suggest or make known that which a penitent
may be ignorant of, the minister must consult more what is for the
good of the soul than for the integrity of the Confession.

2. Again, let it be remembered that it is not as in a court of
justice, where the plea of "not guilty" is set up, and all has then to
be wormed out by examination in the most detailed manner. For the
penitent enters the confessional as self-accuser, states the offence,
together with the number of times it has happened, and any
circumstances which may alter or aggravate the deed. There are,
therefore, in Confession, none of the nauseous details and
descriptions of crime which may be heard in our courts and read in our
newspapers.

The remarkable testimony of a Protestant gentleman--Doctor Forbes--may
here be of much value. In his memorandums, made in Ireland in the
autumn of 1852, he says: "At any rate, the result of my inquiries is
that--whether right or wrong in a theological or rational point of
view--this instrument of Confession is, among the Irish of the humbler
classes, a direct preservative against certain forms of immorality