pprobation
and assent would be so much lost to the authority and dignity of the
Holy See. It could only hope to succeed by trading on the scandal it
caused.

But in reality its success could no longer advance the cause of truth.
For what is the Holy See in its relation to the masses of Catholics, and
where does its strength lie? It is the organ, the mouth, the head of the
Church. Its strength consists in its agreement with the general
conviction of the faithful. When it expresses the common knowledge and
sense of the age, or of a large majority of Catholics, its position is
impregnable. The force it derives from this general support makes direct
opposition hopeless, and therefore disedifying, tending only to division
and promoting reaction rather than reform. The influence by which it is
to be moved must be directed first on that which gives its strength, and
must pervade the members in order that it may reach the head. While the
general sentiment of Catholics is unaltered, the course of the Holy See
remains unaltered too. As soon as that sentiment is modified, Rome
sympathises with the change. The ecclesiastical government, based upon
the public opinion of the Church, and acting through it, cannot separate
itself from the mass of the faithful, and keep pace with the progress of
the instructed minority. It follows slowly and warily, and sometimes
begins by resisting and denouncing what in the end it thoroughly adopts.
Hence a direct controversy with Rome holds out the prospect of great
evils, and at best a barren and unprofitable victory. The victory that
is fruitful springs from that gradual change in the knowledge, the
ideas, and the convictions of the Catholic body, which, in due time,
overcomes the natural reluctance to forsake a beaten path, and by
insensible degrees constrains the mouthpiece of tradition to conform
itself to the new atmosphere with which it is surrounded. The slow,
silent, indirect action of public opinion bears the Holy See along,
without any demoralising conflict or dishonourable capitulation. This
action belongs essentially to the graver scientific literature to
direct: and the inquiry what form that literature should assume at any
given moment involves no question which affects its substance, though it
may often involve questions of moral fitness sufficiently decisive for a
particular occasion.

It was never pretended that the _Home and Foreign Review_ represented
the opinions of the majorit