the Roman Church as anything else, on account of what was
called their "Mariolatry;" but there was nothing of the kind in this
book. I wrote to ask Dr. Russell whether anything had been left out
in the translation; he answered that there certainly was an omission
of one passage about the Blessed Virgin. This omission, in the case
of a book intended for Catholics, at least showed that such passages
as are found in the works of Italian authors were not acceptable to
every part of the Catholic world. Such devotional manifestations in
honour of our Lady had been my great _crux_ as regards Catholicism; I
say frankly, I do not fully enter into them now; I trust I do not
love her the less, because I cannot enter into them. They may be
fully explained and defended; but sentiment and taste do not run with
logic: they are suitable for Italy, but they are not suitable for
England. But, over and above England, my own case was special; from a
boy I had been led to consider that my Maker and I, His creature,
were the two beings, certainly such, _in rerum natura_. I will not
here speculate, however, about my own feelings. Only this I know full
well now, and did not know then, that the Catholic Church allows no
image of any sort, material or immaterial, no dogmatic symbol, no
rite, no sacrament, no Saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself, to
come between the soul and its Creator. It is face to face, "solus cum
solo," in all matters between man and his God. He alone creates; He
alone has redeemed; before His awful eyes we go in death; in the
vision of Him is our eternal beatitude. "Solus cum solo:"--I
recollect but indistinctly the effect produced upon me by this
volume, but it must have been considerable. At all events I had got a
key to a difficulty; in these sermons (or rather heads of sermons, as
they seem to be, taken down by a hearer) there is much of what would
be called legendary illustration; but the substance of them is plain,
practical, awful preaching upon the great truths of salvation. What I
can speak of with greater confidence is the effect upon me a little
later of the Exercises of St. Ignatius. Here again, in a pure matter
of the most direct religion, in the intercourse between God and the
soul, during a season of recollection, of repentance, of good
resolution, of inquiry into vocation, the soul was "sola cum solo;"
there was no cloud interposed between the creature and the Object of
his faith and love. The command p