careless in statement, rhetorical and
illogical in argument, too positive to be critical, and too confident to
be precise. In this school the present generation of Catholics was
educated; to it they owe the ardour of their zeal, the steadfastness of
their faith, and their Catholic views of history, politics, and
literature. The services of these writers have been very great. They
restored the balance, which was leaning terribly against religion, both
in politics and letters. They created a Catholic opinion and a great
Catholic literature, and they conquered for the Church a very powerful
influence in European thought. The word "ultramontane" was revived to
designate this school, and that restricted term was made to embrace men
as different as De Maistre and Bonald, Lamennais and Montalembert,
Balmez and Donoso Cortes, Stolberg and Schlegel, Phillips and
Tapparelli.

There are two peculiarities by which we may test this whole group of
eminent writers: their identification of Catholicism with some secular
cause, such as the interests of a particular political or philosophical
system, and the use they make of Protestant authorities. The views which
they endeavoured to identify with the cause of the Church, however
various, agreed in giving them the air of partisans. Like advocates,
they were wont to defend their cause with the ingenuity of those who
know that all points are not equally strong, and that nothing can be
conceded except what they can defend. They did much for the cause of
learning, though they took little interest in what did not immediately
serve their turn. In their use of Protestant writers they displayed the
same partiality. They estimated a religious adversary, not by his
knowledge, but by his concessions; and they took advantage of the
progress of historical criticism, not to revise their opinions, but to
obtain testimony to their truth. It was characteristic of the school to
be eager in citing the favourable passages from Protestant authors, and
to be careless of those which were less serviceable for discussion. In
the principal writers this tendency was counteracted by character and
learning; but in the hands of men less competent or less suspicious of
themselves, sore pressed by the necessities of controversy, and too
obscure to challenge critical correction, the method became a snare for
both the writer and his readers. Thus the very qualities which we
condemn in our opponents, as the natural defence