st to commit the signal folly of attempting to ingraft an
imported accent on his own native one. No! He should speak as an
Irishman, but as an educated Irishman.

[Side note: By foreign Canons you will be judged]

The fatal mistake on the part of a young priest would be to take
Irish opinion as the standard by which he will be judged outside
Ireland. In Ireland we call these things trifles, because the
people whose eyes are filled with the rich light of warm faith
see the _priest_ alone, and are blind, or at least generously
indulgent, to the defects of the _man_.

Reverse this, and you have the accurate measure by which you will
be judged abroad. The _man_ and his defects alone are seen; the
_priest_ and the sublimity of his state are entirely lost sight
of. The world judges what it can understand--the _man_ alone.
Hence the student preparing for the foreign mission may take this
as an axiom:--_If people cannot respect you as a gentleman, on
the non-Catholic world your influence is nil; and even on your
own Catholic people it will sit very lightly_. But he replies--
"This is not logical, for a man may be an excellent priest, a
good scholar, without social accomplishments." All that I admit,
but age and experience will teach him that logic does not rule
the world; some of its greatest actions could not bear the
pressure of a syllogism. We must meet the world as it is, not as
we would make it. Is it not you who show logical weakness in
preparing for this ideal world that has no existence outside your
own dreams and ignoring the world of hard facts you will have to
face?

[Side note: No argument to be drawn from the Apostles]

You then appeal to facts and say, Look at the apostles. Let me
answer--first, you do not attempt to imply that crudity was a
help to them. If so, how? Now, the most you can say is that in
spite of it they succeeded. But you forget that they had the gift
of miracles, and a sanctity so evident that their passport was
secure despite their defects.

Unless you can produce the same sanctity and miracles your
argument falls to the ground. But to the statement itself--Were
not the apostles men of manners? Some, it is true, before their
call had little connection with schools, but we may rest assured
that three years under such a teacher as they had did wonders.
They must be dull indeed not to read the living lesson their
Master's character daily taught. His tenderness, His courteous
dignity, and