salem, and Rome. He studies history — the history of the first centuries of our era, disregarding the influence on that age of Christ and Christianity; the history of the Middle Ages, with never a mention of those saviours of civilization, Saints Dominic and Francis of Assisi. Who can read the history of the sixteenth century and ignore St. Francis Xavier; of the seventeenth and leave out St. Vincent de Paul? In such a materialistic spirit are the arts and sciences cultivated nowadays, that from the exception it has become almost the rule for pupils in our higher universities to begin to doubt of the soul's immortality and the very existence of God. When such a mind turns to the study of Holy Scripture, what is the result? A blasphemous monster like Renan, who reviled Our Lord as an undutiful son for having never gone to school, for having run away from His parents, and rebelliously snubbed them for seeking to bring Him under control. A scholar without a conscience is a menace to society. Learning makes the criminal all the more insidious and dangerous. And even if he have no marked criminal tendencies, still, see how, in the hands of even the best of them, literature and art minister to sensuality, and philosophy is made to war against truth. The spoils of office become the chief motive for enlisting in the public service, and even so-called ministers of the Gospel degrade their sacred calling by pandering to the debased prejudices of their audiences, for filthy lucre. So true is it that, though a sound mind in a sound body be an inestimable blessing, still the soundness of neither one nor
