anonymous writing in Protestant papers and reviews. All this would expire like smoke when the hearth is cold, if there were an authoritative declaration of the truth. Till then, they who, in the face of every kind of malevolent imputation and impertinent criticism, defend that which the Theological Schools of the whole Church, under the direct sanction of the Holy See, have both taught and teach in every Catholic country, must patiently bear the petulant and pretentious criticism of anti-Catholic minds, aided, unhappily, by some who bear at least the Catholic name. They will not, indeed, be unwilling to bear it for the truth's sake, nor do they care for any contempt for their own; but they have a continual sorrow for the scandal of the weak, the hindrance of truth, the perversion of minds, the alienation of hearts, the party spirit, the mistrust among brethren, and, worst of all, the mistrust of flocks in their pastors, which are caused by these animosities and infidelities.
9. Of these scandals, a direct effect is that the action of truth, both within and without the Church, at least in this country, is enfeebled. All who have experience in the state of minds out of the Church, and in their painful approaches towards it, and all whose duty it has been to hear and to read the objections of those who enter not in themselves and hinder those who are entering, will know that the alleged doubts about infallibility and the supposed extravagances of Ultramontanes return in every case with the constancy and monotony of the tide. The effect of this is to confuse, perplex, and indispose the will. A
