ctual point of view, is this liberal existence to the narrower
one of a French _cure de campagne_! I certainly think that if a good
_cure_ has an exceptional genius for sanctity, his chances of becoming a
perfect saint are better than those of a comfortable English incumbent,
who is at the same time a gentleman and man of the world, but he is not
nearly so well situated for leading the intellectual life. Our own
clergy have a sort of middle position between the _cure_ and the layman,
which without at all interfering with their spiritual vocation, makes
them better judges of the character of laymen and more completely in
sympathy with it.

And yet, although the life of a clergyman is favorable to culture in
many ways, it is not wholly favorable to it. There exists, in clerical
thinking generally, just one restriction or impediment, which is the
overwhelming importance of the professional point of view. Of all the
professions the ecclesiastical one is that which most decidedly and most
constantly affects the judgment of persons and opinions. It is
peculiarly difficult for a clergyman to attain disinterestedness in his
thinking, to accept truth just as it may happen to present itself,
without passionately desiring that one doctrine may turn out to be
strong in evidence and another unsupported. And so we find the clergy,
as a class, anxious rather to discover aids to faith, than the simple
scientific truth; and the more the special priestly character develops
itself, the more we find them disposed to use their intellects for the
triumph of principles that are decided upon beforehand. Sometimes this
disposition leads them to see the acts of laymen in a colored light and
to speak of them without strict accuracy. Here is an example of what I
mean. A Jesuit priest preached a sermon in London very recently, in
which he said that "in Germany, France, Italy, and England, gigantic
efforts were being made to rob Christian children of the blessing of a
Christian education." "Herod, though dead," the preacher continued, "has
left his mantle behind him; and I wish that the soldiers of Herod in
those countries would plunge their swords into the breasts of little
children while they were innocent, rather than have their souls
destroyed by means of an unchristian and uncatholic education." No doubt
this is very earnest and sincere, but it is not accurate and just
thinking. The laity in the countries the preacher mentioned have
certainly a