ies with him into his every day life. A sense
of superiority is its natural result. It gives him that
self-confidence in religious matters which our separated brethren are
so prone to call "Roman Pride."

There exists in the Catholic soul that feeling we might name "The
timidity of faith." This sensitiveness is but the instinct of
preservation. We have been impressed from our youth that faith is the
greatest heirloom of our Christian heritage. To protect it against any
influence that would endanger it, is always considered a sacred duty.
This is particularly remarked among the masses, whose chances of
education finished with the grammar schools, and in countries or
localities where Catholics are the minority.

The natural result of this attitude and feeling is an estrangement from
those of another faith, a bashful reluctance to meet them and to
co-operate with them in social or civic matters, an unconscious
tendency to see motives that do not exist and, at times, to refrain
from the most elementary acts of charity and courtesy. "It often
happens that we manifest towards the heretic the feeling which should
be exclusively reserved for heresy." (Lord Morley.) That this is
precisely the frame of mind of the ordinary non-Catholic in his
dealings with us, is by no way an excuse for our own unkindness.
Retaliation is not Christ-like. Does not our aloofness confirm our
separated brethren in their false ideas, wrong impressions and bitter
prejudices. We must not forget that centuries of strife and untold
antagonism of misunderstandings and ignorance, stand as a granite wall
between their souls and ours. The teachings and influence of their
home, of their school, and of their church lie in their minds, strata
upon strata, as the silent and lasting mementoes of the great religious
upheaval of the Reformation. Only the influence of a genuine, frank,
Catholic life, seen and felt in daily intercourse will gradually wear
the barrier away. It is a long and slow process, we know, but one
worth trying. Like the ever returning tide it eats its way into the
most solid rock of prejudice and bigotry.

That this aloofness carries with it for the unguarded soul and
untrained mind a great protection, is made evident by the too many
examples of lukewarm Catholics, who by their continued association with
those outside of the Fold have lost the right appreciation of their
faith and are open to compromise. Principles in their live