sufficient to indicate the character of our union. In consideration of
the ills afflicting the Church--which in substance are the result of
discord between her mutable human element and her immutable element of
Divine Truth--we wish, in our desire that He may remove these discords,
to become one in the God of Truth; and we wish to feel ourselves united.
Such a union has no need of community of opinion on certain subjects,
although many of us hold many opinions in common. We do not propose
to create a collective movement, either public or private, in order to
bring about this or that reform. I am old enough to remember the time of
the Austrian domination. If the Lombard and Venetian patriots called us
together in those days to talk of politics, it was by no means always in
order to conspire, nor to determine revolutionary acts; it was to enable
us to communicate news, to become acquainted, to keep the flame of the
idea alive. This is what we wish to do in the religious field. The Abbe
Marinier may rest assured that that negative accord of which he spoke
will amply suffice. We must strive to widen it, that it may embrace
the majority of the intelligent faithful; that it may even reach
the Hierarchy. He will see that positive accord will ripen in it,
mysteriously, as the seed of life ripens in the decaying body of the
fruit. Yes, yes, the negative accord is sufficient. The feeling that the
Church of Christ is suffering is sufficient to unite us in the love of
our Mother, and to move us at least to pray for her, we and our brothers
who, like us, feel her sufferings! What is your answer, Abbe?"

The Abbe murmured with a faint smile:

"_C'est beau, mais ce n'est pas la logique_."

Don Paolo started up:

"Logic has nothing to do with it." "Ah!" Marinier replied, assuming a
contrite expression, "if you intend to forego logic----!"

Don Paolo, all on fire, wished to protest, but Professor Dane signed to
him to be calm.

"We do not intend to forego logic," said he, "but it is not as easy to
measure the logical value of a conclusion in questions of sentiment, of
love of faith, as it is to measure the logical value of a conclusion
in geometrical problems. In the questions which interest us the logical
process is hidden. Surely my dear friend Marinier, one of the most
acute-minded men I know, when he answered my dear friend Selva, did
not intend to imply that when a person very dear to us falls ill, it
is necessary for us to