perplexing
cases, that it is not wonderful, should these or other Fathers have
failed at times, and said more or less than was proper," _ibid_.

The principle of the economy is familiarly acted on among us every
day. When we would persuade others, we do not begin by treading on
their toes. Men would be thought rude who introduced their own
religious notions into mixed society, and were devotional in a
drawing-room. Have we never thought lawyers tiresome who came down
for the assizes and talked law all through dinner? Does the same
argument tell in the House of Commons, on the hustings, and at Exeter
Hall? Is an educated gentleman never worsted at an election by the
tone and arguments of some clever fellow, who, whatever his
shortcomings in other respects, understands the common people?

As to the Catholic religion in England at the present day, this only
will I observe--that the truest expedience is to answer right out,
when you are asked; that the wisest economy is to have no management;
that the best prudence is not to be a coward; that the most damaging
folly is to be found out shuffling; and that the first of virtues is
to "tell truth, and shame the devil."

8. Lying and Equivocation

This writer says, "Though [a lie] be a sin, the fact of its being a
venial one seems to have gained for it as yet a very slight
penance."--p. 46. Yet he says also that Dr. Newman takes "a perverse
pleasure in eccentricities," because I say that "it is better for sun
and moon to drop from heaven than that one soul should tell one
wilful untruth."--p. 30. That is, he first accuses us without
foundation of making light of a lie; and, when he finds that we
don't, then he calls us inconsistent. I have noticed these words of
mine, and two passages besides, which he quotes, above at pp.
222-224. Here I will but observe on the subject of venial sin
generally, that he altogether forgets our doctrine of purgatory. This
punishment may last till the day of judgment; so much for duration;
then as to intensity, let the image of fire, by which we denote it,
show what we think of it. Here is the expiation of venial sins. Yet
Protestants, after the manner of this writer, are too apt to play
fast and loose; to blame us because we hold that sin may be venial,
and to blame us again when we tell them what we think will be its
punishment. Blot _thirty-seven_.

At the end of his pamphlet he makes a distinction between the
Catholic clergy and gentr