descent. Catholicity is itself superior to all nationalities and all distinctions of race, but it respects every nationality in its appropriate sphere, and enlightens and protects and fosters a pure and ardent patriotism. We may see this in the concluding chapter of our author, with which we must close our extracts. race. "Am I not brave and strong? Am I not here To fight and conquer? Have I not around - "Man has a destiny, his end is God, his life is divine. Jesus Christ is the complement of man, the restorer of the The Catholic Church is the manifestation of Jesus Christ, the organ by which Jesus Christ perpetuates his life upon earth, and the organ of man's restoration, and nature's restoration through man. "The Catholic Church affords to man the opportunity of becoming Christian without violating the laws of his reason, without stifling the dictates of his conscience. She alone is able to guide man to his destiny, - she is adequate to all the wants of the human heart, and in her religious orders she opens a pathway to those nobler souls who seek a perfect life. "This Church is here in the midst of us, but, strange as it may seem, it is concealed from the minds of the American people, by ignorance, misrepresentation, and calumny, as effectually as if it were once more buried in the Catacombs. But will the Bride of Christ always remain thus hidden? We think not. There are already some who have caught glimpses of her true character; and we may hope that the day is not far distant when sons and daughters of our own people will vie with the early Christians in devotion, self-sacrifice, and saintly lives, and, if need be, in the testimony of their blood for the truth. "Indeed, it is an anomaly well worthy the attention of a reflecting mind, how a people, constituted as we are, a practical and independent people, can still retain a purely speculative religion, like Protestantism; a religion without faith, without an altar, without a sacrifice, without a priesthood, without a sacrament, without authority, without any bond of union, a religion utterly unpractical, and destitute even of material grandeur! "America presents to the mind, at the present epoch, one of the most interesting questions, and one too of the greatest moment for the future destiny of man; the question, Whether the Catholic Church will succeed in Christianizing the American people, as she has Christianized all European nations, so that the Cross of Christ will accompany the stars and stripes in our future? THIRD SERIES. VOL. III. NO. II. 29 "We say that this question is fraught with great interest for the future of humanity. Our people are young, fresh, and filled with the idea of great enterprises; the people who, of all others, if once Catholic, can give a new, noble, and glorious realization to Christianity; a development which will go even beyond the past in achievements of zeal, in the abundance of saints, as well as in art, science, and material greatness. The Catholic Church alone is able to give unity to a people composed of such conflicting ele. ments as ours, and to form them into a great nation. "The Church is the ever youthful bride of Christ. She is as pure, as bright, as fresh, as on the day of her birth. She can never fail. In her bosom are the inexhaustible sources of inspiration, strength, courage, holiness. 'Majesty, Power, Glory, Strength, and In this eternal ark of worship undefiled.'* "Youth of America! Here is opened to you a new, a noble, a divine career. Here is a godlike enterprise. An enterprise worthy of your energies, and glorious for your country. Tyre of the West! Whose eagle wings thine own green world o'erspread, Touching two oceans; O while thou yet hast room, fair, fruitful land, Ere war and want have stained thy virgin sod, Mark thee a place on high, a glorious stand, Whence Truth her sign may make o'er forest, lake, and strand.'"† pp. 290–294. Neither our extracts nor our brief and imperfect analysis can give our readers anything like an adequate idea, hardly any idea at all, of the interest and value of this book. They must read it for themselves. It is written. with great simplicity and eloquence. It is a genuine utterance, a faithful expression, as far as it goes, of the author's own heart. He has thought, felt, suffered, enjoyed, lived, all he here says; for, after all, the book is but a chapter from his own deep and varied spiritual experience. He himself is one who has sought and found peace in the very way he points out. What we admire in this book, even more than its sound theology, its rare philosophy, and its deep thought, is its genial spirit, its youthfulness and freshness, its enthusiasm, its hopefulness, and its charity. It is refreshing in these days to meet such a book. It is free, † Lyra Apos. * Byron. bold, independent, manly, but it is kind and gentle, tender and loving. We have not found a bitter expression or a sarcasm in it, from beginning to end. It is a model in its way, and shows how a Catholic can say all that it is needful to say without giving offence to any one. Even they who may not accept the author's conclusions will have no unpleasant associations connected with them, will be disarmed of many prejudices, and be drawn towards him with love and respect. We need not say that we have endeavored to profit by its perusal, and we hope that it will be studied by all our lay writers who wish to present Catholicity to the American mind and heart. Especially do we recommend this book to the youth of our country. Our hope for our country is in the youth, in the young men now growing up and forming their characters, who have not yet lost by contact with the world the down from their hearts. Young America, we know, is not just now in very good repute, but we know that there are thousands of warm and generous hearts among our educated young men, crying out for the great and kindling truths of this book, and demanding some object worthy of their lofty ambition. To them more especially is this book addressed, and we trust not in vain. They have each a mission. Our glorious republic too has a mission, a great work in Divine Providence, the sublime work of realizing the idea of Christian society, and of setting the example of a truly great, noble, Catholic people. In this work, young men, you are called to take your share, -a share in the work and in its glory. ART. IV. De la Valeur de la Raison Humaine, ou ce que peut la Raison par elle seule. Par LE P. CHASTEL, S. J. Paris: Leroux et Jouby. 1854. 8vo. pp. 530. We feel ourselves much indebted to Father Chastel for his learned, conscientious, and elaborate work on The Value of Human Reason, a copy of which he has been so obliging as to send us. We have occasionally seen things from the author which seemed to us to savor of exaggerated rationalism; but we have never arranged ourselves on the side of the exaggerated supernaturalists, against him; and we assure him, that we find very little in this new volume, that, with some distinctions and qualifications to which we think he would not seriously object, we cannot and do not in fact most cordially accept. It is due to ourselves to say, that we have never attempted to set forth a philosophical theory of our own, and in discussing, in hastily prepared essays, various philosophical questions, for a special purpose and under a special aspect, which is all we have done, it is very likely, even when our own general views were just, we have used expressions which are too exclusive, and which need more or less qualification. We came to Catholicity from a school of exaggerated rationalism, and though it has never been in our thought or intention to underrate natural reason, our main purpose has been to show the necessity of supernatural revelation, not only in regard to truths of the supernatural order, but even to a full and systematic view of the higher truths of philosophy. Bred amongst those who gave all to human reason and human nature, we have wished to bring out and establish the opposing truth, and it is not unlikely that we have, on many occasions, apparently expressed an undue sympathy with the views of the Traditionalists, as we should not have done had our special purpose been to vindicate the value of human reason; yet we think our pages afford ample evidence that we have never denied or underrated that value. Our natural tendency, no doubt, has been to sympathize with the Traditionalists, and we have believed that less danger was to be apprehended in our times and our country from an exaggerated supernaturalism than from an exaggerated rationalism. But we confess that some attention to the study of Jansenism has latterly led us to suspect a more practical danger from Traditionalism than we had at first apprehended. Traditionalism, as Father Chastel understands it, is, after all, only a form of Jansenism, and the controversy which he is now waging with the Traditionalists is at bottom only the old controversy waged by the Fathers of his Order with the Jansenists, a hundred and fifty years ago; and very likely the charge of rationalism is as undeserved by him as that of Semi-Pelagianism was by them. The essence of Jansenism, as we have said in a foregoing article, is the destruction of nature to make way for grace; and if our author rightly represents it, the essence of Traditionalism is the denial of reason to make way for the assertion of revelation, an error precisely analogous, indeed precisely the same. We are by no means prepared to admit that the Traditionalists intend to go thus far, or that they will accept this statement in its full extent; but the principle of their error, which with many of them is certainly only a tendency, if logically developed and reduced to its last expression, is nothing else. Man is essentially a rational animal, and to deny his reason, or to suppose it acquired or adventitious, is to deny his nature, is to deny man himself; and the error of the Traditionalists, if carried out, would resolve itself into pantheism, and in an opposite direction into that very rationalism and humanitarianism against which it seems to be a protest. Looking at the question from this point of view, the danger from exaggerated supernaturalism, if less immediate, is perhaps not less serious, than the danger from exaggerated rationalism. It is worthy also of note, that exaggerated rationalism has not originated exclusively in excessive confidence in human reason. It has to a great extent originated in the reaction of the mind against the Calvinistic and Jansenistic exaggerations of the supernatural. The immediate origin of French infidelity was in French Jansenism, and some persons have believed that the leading Jansenists intended to drive men into infidelity by making religion a burden too heavy to be borne. Certain it is, that Calvinists and Jansenists do place religion and nature in opposition, so that we must reject the one in order to follow the other. It is the feeling that to accept grace we must annihilate nature, or to accept revelation we must forego reason, rather than any overweening confidence in reason itself, that drives not a few into rationalism and naturalism. It is not that they do not feel the insufficiency of reason and of nature for themselves, but that they are repelled by a religion which seems to them to place itself in opposition to their natural reason, and to demand its destruction. As between Calvinism or Jansenism, and rationalism and naturalism, they are right. A religion which requires us to divest ourselves of the nature God gave us, and to forego the exercise of that reason with which he endowed |