ther her scoffing and relentless foe.

Discourse IX.

Duties Of The Church Towards Knowledge.

1.

I have to congratulate myself, Gentlemen, that at length I have
accomplished, with whatever success, the difficult and anxious undertaking
to which I have been immediately addressing myself. Difficult and anxious
it has been in truth, though the main subject of University Teaching has
been so often and so ably discussed already; for I have attempted to
follow out a line of thought more familiar to Protestants just now than to
Catholics, upon Catholic grounds. I declared my intention, when I opened
the subject, of treating it as a philosophical and practical, rather than
as a theological question, with an appeal to common sense, not to
ecclesiastical rules; and for this very reason, while my argument has been
less ambitious, it has been deprived of the lights and supports which
another mode of handling it would have secured.

No anxiety, no effort of mind is more severe than his, who in a difficult
matter has it seriously at heart to investigate without error and to
instruct without obscurity; as to myself, if the past discussion has at
any time tried the patience of the kind persons who have given it their
attention, I can assure them that on no one can it have inflicted so great
labour and fatigue as on myself. Happy they who are engaged in provinces
of thought, so familiarly traversed and so thoroughly explored, that they
see every where the footprints, the paths, the landmarks, and the remains
of former travellers, and can never step wrong; but for myself, Gentlemen,
I have felt like a navigator on a strange sea, who is out of sight of
land, is surprised by night, and has to trust mainly to the rules and
instruments of his science for reaching the port. The everlasting
mountains, the high majestic cliffs, of the opposite coast, radiant in the
sunlight, which are our ordinary guides, fail us in an excursion such as
this; the lessons of antiquity, the determinations of authority, are here
rather the needle, chart, and plummet, than great objects, with distinct
and continuous outlines and completed details, which stand up and confront
and occupy our gaze, and relieve us from the tension and suspense of our
personal observation. And thus, in spite of the pains we may take to
consult others and avoid mistakes, it is not till the morning comes and
the shore greets us, and we see