“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often”
It necessarily rises out of an existing state of
things, and for a time savours of the soil. Its vital element needs
disengaging from what is foreign and temporary, and is employed in
efforts after freedom which become more vigorous and hopeful as its
years increase. Its beginnings are no measure of its capabilities, nor
of its scope. At first no one knows what it is, or what it is worth. It
remains perhaps for a time quiescent; it tries, as it were, its limbs,
and proves the ground under it, and feels its way. From time to time it
makes essays which fail, and are in consequence abandoned. It seems in
suspense which way to go; it wavers, and at length strikes out in one
definite direction. In time it enters upon strange territory; points of
controversy alter their bearing; parties rise and fall around it;
dangers and hopes appear in new relations; and old principles reappear
under new forms. It changes with them in order to remain the same. In a
higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and
to be perfect is to have changed often.
SECTION II.
ON THE KINDS OF DEVELOPMENT IN IDEAS.
To attempt an accurate analysis or complete enumeration of the processes
of thought, whether speculative or practical, which come under the
notion of development, exceeds the pretensions of an Essay like the
present; but, without some general view of the various mental exercises
which go by the name we shall have no security against confusion in our
reasoning and necessary exposure to criticism.
1. First, then, it must be borne in mind that the word is commonly used,
and is used here, in three senses indiscriminately, from defect of our
language; on the one hand for the process of development, on the other
for the result; and again either generally for a development, true or
not true, (that is, faithful or unfaithful to the idea from which it
started,) or exclusively for a development deserving the name. A false
or unfaithful development is more properly to be called a corruption.
2. Next, it is plain that _mathematical_ developments, that is, the
system of truths drawn out from mathematical definitions or equations,
do not fall under our present subject, though altogether analogous to
it.
“Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.”
It teaches
of a Being infinite, yet personal; all-blessed, yet ever operative;
absolutely separate from the creature, yet in every part of the creation
at every moment; above all things, yet under every thing. It teaches of a
Being who, though the highest, yet in the work of creation, conservation,
government, retribution, makes Himself, as it were, the minister and
servant of all; who, though inhabiting eternity, allows Himself to take an
interest, and to have a sympathy, in the matters of space and time. His
are all beings, visible and invisible, the noblest and the vilest of them.
His are the substance, and the operation, and the results of that system
of physical nature into which we are born. His too are the powers and
achievements of the intellectual essences, on which He has bestowed an
independent action and the gift of origination. The laws of the universe,
the principles of truth, the relation of one thing to another, their
qualities and virtues, the order and harmony of the whole, all that
exists, is from Him; and, if evil is not from Him, as assuredly it is not,
this is because evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect,
excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance. All we see,
hear, and touch, the remote sidereal firmament, as well as our own sea and
land, and the elements which compose them, and the ordinances they obey,
are His. The primary atoms of matter, their properties, their mutual
action, their disposition and collocation, electricity, magnetism,
gravitation, light, and whatever other subtle principles or operations the
wit of man is detecting or shall detect, are the work of His hands. From
Him has been every movement which has convulsed and re-fashioned the
surface of the earth. The most insignificant or unsightly insect is from
Him, and good in its kind; the ever-teeming, inexhaustible swarms of
animalculæ, the myriads of living motes invisible to the naked eye, the
restless ever-spreading vegetation which creeps like a garment over the
whole earth, the lofty cedar, the umbrageous banana, are His. His are the
tribes and families of birds and beasts, their graceful forms, their wild
gestures, and their passionate cries.
And so in the intellectual, moral, social, and political world.
“Calculation never made a hero.”
Whoever goes beyond this measure of assent, it is plain, receives not
truth in the love of it; loves not truth for truth's sake, but for some
other by-end."
3.
It does not seem to have struck him that our "by-end" may be the desire
to please our Maker, and that the defect of scientific proof may be made
up to our reason by our love of Him. It does not seem to have struck him
that such a philosophy as his cut off from the possibility and the
privilege of faith all but the educated few, all but the learned, the
clear-headed, the men of practised intellects and balanced minds, men
who had leisure, who had opportunities of consulting others, and kind
and wise friends to whom they deferred. How could a religion ever be
Catholic, if it was to be called credulity or enthusiasm in the
multitude to use those ready instruments of belief, which alone
Providence had put into their power? On such philosophy as this, were it
generally received, no great work ever would have been done for God's
glory and the welfare of man. The "enthusiasm" against which Locke
writes may do much harm, and act at times absurdly; but calculation
never made a hero. However, it is not to our present purpose to examine
this theory, and I have done so elsewhere.[328:1] Here I have but to
show the unanimity of Catholics, ancient as well as modern, in their
absolute rejection of it.
4.
For instance, it is the very objection urged by Celsus, that Christians
were but parallel to the credulous victims of jugglers or of devotees,
who itinerated through the pagan population. He says "that some do not
even wish to give or to receive a reason for their faith, but say, 'Do
not inquire but believe,' and 'Thy faith will save thee;' and 'A bad
thing is the world's wisdom, and foolishness is a good.'" How does
Origen answer the charge? by denying the fact, and speaking of the
reason of each individual as demonstrating the divinity of the
Scriptures, and Faith as coming after that argumentative process, as it
is now popular to maintain? Far from it; he grants the fact alleged
against the Church and defends it. He observes that, considering the
engagements and the necessary ignorance of the multitude of men, it is a
very happy circumstance that a substitute is provided for those
philosophical exercises, which Christianity allows and encourages, but
does not impose on the individual.
“It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain”
It detests gross
adulation; not that it tends at all to the eradication of the appetite to
which the flatterer ministers, but it sees the absurdity of indulging it,
it understands the annoyance thereby given to others, and if a tribute
must be paid to the wealthy or the powerful, it demands greater subtlety
and art in the preparation. Thus vanity is changed into a more dangerous
self-conceit, as being checked in its natural eruption. It teaches men to
suppress their feelings, and to control their tempers, and to mitigate
both the severity and the tone of their judgments. As Lord Shaftesbury
would desire, it prefers playful wit and satire in putting down what is
objectionable, as a more refined and good-natured, as well as a more
effectual method, than the expedient which is natural to uneducated minds.
It is from this impatience of the tragic and the bombastic that it is now
quietly but energetically opposing itself to the unchristian practice of
duelling, which it brands as simply out of taste, and as the remnant of a
barbarous age; and certainly it seems likely to effect what Religion has
aimed at abolishing in vain.
10.
Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one
who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as
it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles
which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he
concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself. His
benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or
conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy chair or a
good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though
nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them. The true
gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a
jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast;--all clashing of opinion,
or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or
resentment; his great concern being to make every one at their ease and at
home. He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the
bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he
can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable
allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in
conversation, and never wearisome.
“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”
“Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.”
“When men understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless”
“A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.”
“A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.”
I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: Go down again - I dwell among the people.
Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.
I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.
If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society... It is the education which gives a man a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought to detect what is sophistical and to discard what is irrelevant.
A university training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society…It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them and a force in urging them.
A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
Slang surely, as it is called, comes of, and breathes of the personal
And this is the sense of the word grammar which our inaccurate student detests, and this is the sense of the word which every sensible tutor will maintain. His maxim is a little, but well; that is, really know what you say you know: know what you know and what you do not know; get one thing well before you go on to a second; try to ascertain what your words mean; when you read a sentence, picture it before your mind as a whole, take in the truth or information contained in it, express it in your own words, and, if it be important, commit it to the faithful memory. Again, compare one idea with another; adjust truths and facts; form them into one whole, or notice the obstacles which occur in doing so. This is the way to make progress; this is the way to arrive at results; not to swallow knowledge, but (according to the figure sometimes used) to masticate and digest it.
God has created all things for good; all things for their greatest good; everything for its own good. What is the good of one is not the good of another; what makes one man happy would make another unhappy. God has determined, unless I interfere with His plan, that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness. He looks on me individually, He calls me by my name, He knows what I can do, what I can best be, what is my greatest happiness, and He means to give it me.
