on; as soon, however, as he had finished, he rose, and said
with cutting coolness, 'Sir, the case is not exactly what you suppose
it to be; if you will review the process, and examine this paper
attentively, you will find there precisely the contrary of all you
have advanced.' 'Willingly,' replied Alfonso, without hesitating;
'the decision depends on this question--whether the fief were granted
under the law of Lombardy, or under the French Law.' The paper being
examined, it was found that the Grand Duke's advocate was in the
right. 'Yes,' said Alfonso, holding the paper in his hand, 'I am
wrong, I have been mistaken.' A discovery so unexpected, and the fear
of being accused of unfair dealing, filled him with consternation,
and covered him with confusion, so much so, that every one saw his
emotion. It was in vain that the President Caravita, who loved him,
and knew his integrity, tried to console him, by telling him that
such mistakes were not uncommon, even among the first men at the bar.
Alfonso would listen to nothing, but, overwhelmed with confusion, his
head sunk on his breast, he said to himself, 'World, I know you now;
courts of law, never shall you see me again!' And turning his back on
the assembly, he withdrew to his own house, incessantly repeating to
himself, 'World, I know you now.' What annoyed him most was, that
having studied and re-studied the process during a whole month,
without having discovered this important flaw, he could not
understand how it had escaped his observation."

And this is the man who is so flippantly pronounced to be a patron of
lying.

But, in truth, a Catholic theologian has objects in view which men in
general little compass; he is not thinking of himself, but of a
multitude of souls, sick souls, sinful souls, carried away by sin,
full of evil, and he is trying with all his might to rescue them from
their miserable state; and, in order to save them from more heinous
sins, he tries, to the full extent that his conscience will allow
him to go, to shut his eyes to such sins, as are, though sins, yet
lighter in character or degree. He knows perfectly well that, if he
is as strict as he would wish to be, he shall be able to do nothing
at all with the run of men; so he is as indulgent with them as ever
he can be. Let it not be for an instant supposed, that I allow of the
maxim of doing evil that good may come; but, keeping clear of this,
there is a way of winning men from greater sins