ted on each side, and if
they be deeply imbued with the knowledge that there is a God, with the
consciousness thence following of their fallen nature, and with an
ardent hope to re-unite themselves to God, they will admit, perhaps, the
truth of the dogma, viewed in the abstract. But they will say, how will
it work in practical affairs? Judging by their former experience, they
will picture the Pope as a thousand Protestant preachers rolled into
one, and invested with an authority undreamed of before, and using that
authority to tyrannize over the least thoughts of men. What room, they
will exclaim, will men have to advance in the arts and science, not to
speak of development of doctrine, if this incubus is to rest upon them,
and weigh them down, and terrify them into silence and inaction?

The best answer to this is doubtless an enlarged view of Catholic
Christendom, from the earliest times down, for in that period the Pope
did possess the prerogative of infallibility, though it has only
recently been defined as a dogma. Here it must be recollected that I am
not arguing; it would be mere presumption in me to attempt a scientific
exposition altogether out of my power. Suffice it to say, that
theologians have exhausted the inward reasonings upon it, and though I
am not able to set them forth, I am at least convinced by them. Still
the concrete world remains, and things are to be seen in them from
historical and exterior aspects. It is this last which strikes the
imagination most, and to all men a ready test. Minds have various ways
of approaching the truth; and right reason has a way of arguing and
apprehending simply impossible to men in bulk and to myself. For which I
have thought it not unuseful to draw out my way of viewing the
historical aspects of the Church in relation to the progress and freedom
of man; and perhaps many will look at the subject from a similar
standpoint.

Why I believe in God I cannot express in words. Only I know there is an
inward monitor constantly reminding me of that fact, vividly impressing
it on my imagination, and punishing me with the lash of remorse when I
do wrong. I have never doubted when the matter was brought home to my
mind. Still, there are periods when this intense conviction has been
clean wiped out of me; else, how could I have sinned, as I know I have
done, and feel this keen remorse? I do not see how men can sin with the
full consciousness that a God of truth, purity, and jus