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ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
charm of the. combative prelate. To an exacting and reflective scholar, to whom even the large volume of heavy erudition in which Rosmini defended the Cinque Piaglle seemed superficial, there \vas incongruity in the attention paid to one of \vhom he heard that he promoted the council, that he took St. Boniface for... St. \Vilfrid, and that he gave the memorable advice: Surtout 11zéfiez-volts des sources. After a visit from the Bishop of Orleans he sat down in dismay to compose the most elementary of his books. Seeing the inferiority of Falloux as a historian, he never appreciated the strong will and cool brain of the statesman who overa\ved Tocqueville. Eckstein, the obscure but thoughtful originator of much liberal feeling among his o\vn set, encouraged him in the habit of depreciating the attainments of the French clergy, \vhich was confirmed by the writings of the most eminent among them, Darboy, and lasted until the appearance of Duchesne. The politics of Montalembert were so heavily charged \vith . conservatism, that in defiance of such advisers as Lacordaire, Ravignan, and Dupanloup, he pronounced in favour of the author of the COltp d'état, saying: U] e suis pour l'autorité contre la révolte"; and boasted that, in entering the Academy he had attacked the Revolution, not of '93 but '89, and that Guizot, who received him, had nothing to say in reply. There were many things, human and divine, on which they could not feel alike; but as the most urgent, eloquent, and persevering of his Catholic friends, gifted \vith knowledge and experience of affairs, and dwelling in the focus, it may be that on one critical occasion, when religion and politics intermingled, he influenced the \vorking of Döllinger's mind. But the plausible reading of his life \vhich explains it by his connection with such public men as Montalembert, De Decker, and Mr. Gladstone is profoundly untrue; and those who deem him a liberal in any scientific use of the term, miss the keynote of his work. The political party question has to be considered here, because, in fact, it is decisive. A liberal who thinks his thought out to the end without flinching is forced to
