dversaries an effect we had not
anticipated. It has made them lose every sense of propriety and
self-respect:--nay, more, even that respect for the sanctuary which it
was their duty to teach us. From the pulpits of their crowded churches
they preach against a living man, calling him by his name, and invoking
upon the author and his book the hatred of those who know not how to
read, and who will never read this work. The heads of the clergy must,
indeed, have felt themselves touched to the quick, to let loose these
furious preachers upon us.

We have hit the mark too fairly, it should seem. Woman!--this was the
point on which they were sensitive. Direction, the spiritual guidance
of women, is the vital part of ecclesiastical authority; and they will
fight for it to the death. Strike, if you will, elsewhere, but not
here. Attack the dogma--all well and good; they may, perhaps, make a
show of violence, or perpetrate some empty declamation; but if you
should happen to meddle with this particular point, the thing becomes
serious, and they no longer contain themselves. It is a sad sight to
see pontiffs, elders of the people, gesticulating, stamping, foaming at
the mouth, and gnashing their teeth.[1] Young men, do not look;
epileptic convulsions have occasionally a contagious effect upon the
spectators. Let us leave them and depart; we must resume our studies
without loss of time: "Art is long, life is short."

I remember having read in the correspondence of Saint Charles Borromeo,
that one of his friends, a person of authority and importance, having
censured some Jesuit or other who was too fond of confessing nuns, the
latter came in a fury to insult him. The Jesuit knew his strength:
being a preacher then in vogue, well off at court, and still better at
the court of Rome, he thought he need not stand upon ceremony. He went
to the greatest extremes, was violent, insolent, as much as he pleased:
his grave censor remained cool. The Jesuit could no longer keep within
the bounds of decency, and made use of the vilest expressions. The
other, calm and firm, answered nothing; he let him continue his
declamation, threats, and violent gestures; he only looked at his feet.
"Why were you always looking at his feet?" inquired an eye-witness, as
soon as the Jesuit, was gone. "Because," replied the noble man calmly,
"I fancied I saw the cloven hoof peeping out every now and then; and
this man, who seemed possessed with a dev