s recognized by the other. At
length the Temple of Jerusalem is rooted up by the armies of Titus, and
the effete schools of Athens are stifled by the edict of Justinian. So
pass away the ancient Voices of religion and learning; but they are
silenced only to revive more gloriously and perfectly elsewhere. Hitherto
they came from separate sources, and performed separate works. Each leaves
an heir and successor in the West, and that heir and successor is one and
the same. The grace stored in Jerusalem, and the gifts which radiate from
Athens, are made over and concentrated in Rome. This is true as a matter
of history. Rome has inherited both sacred and profane learning; she has
perpetuated and dispensed the traditions of Moses and David in the
supernatural order, and of Homer and Aristotle in the natural. To separate
those distinct teachings, human and divine, which meet in Rome, is to
retrograde; it is to rebuild the Jewish Temple and to plant anew the
groves of Academus.

6.

On this large subject, however, on which I might say much, time does not
allow me to enter. To show how sacred learning and profane are dependent
on each other, correlative and mutually complementary, how faith operates
by means of reason, and reason is directed and corrected by faith, is
really the subject of a distinct lecture. I would conclude, then, with
merely congratulating you, Gentlemen, on the great undertaking which we
have so auspiciously commenced. Whatever be its fortunes, whatever its
difficulties, whatever its delays, I cannot doubt at all that the
encouragement which it has already received, and the measure of success
which it has been allotted, are but a presage and an anticipation of a
gradual advance towards its completion, in such times and such manner as
Providence shall appoint. For myself, I have never had any misgiving about
it, because I had never known anything of it before the time when the Holy
See had definitely decided upon its prosecution. It is my happiness to
have no cognizance of the anxieties and perplexities of venerable and holy
prelates, or the discussions of experienced and prudent men, which
preceded its definitive recognition on the part of the highest
ecclesiastical authority. It is my happiness to have no experience of the
time when good Catholics despaired of its success, distrusted its
expediency, or even felt an obligation to oppose it. It has been my
happiness that I have never been in controvers