salvation. Let us not be cowards,--let us show as much determination and
courage, let us sacrifice as much for the propagation of truth as its
enemies do for the dissemination of error; bearing, however, always in
mind that the manner in which we must combat error ought to be
charitable; for otherwise it is not calculated to command respect, and
make a salutary impression. It is thus that our fellow-citizens of other
denominations will come to understand that we appreciate our liberty,
and know how to use it for the benefit of the public.

But all rights and liberties avail nothing, in the end, if Catholic
education itself is not what it ought to be. And the great battle that
is waging, that education may not be deprived of its Christian
character, can be won by us only on condition that teachers, and
educators themselves, as well as parents and the clergy, understand
precisely the full bearing of the question.

To-day, more than ever, we need a thorough Catholic education. The
enemies of our religion are now making war upon its dogmas more
generally and craftily than at any former period. Their attacks, for
being wily and concealed, are all the more pernicious. The impious rage
of a Voltaire, or the "solemn sneer" of a Gibbon, would be less
dangerous than this insidious warfare. They disguise their designs under
the appearance of devotion to progressive ideas, and hatred of
superstition and intolerance, all the better to instil the slow but
deadly poison. By honeyed words, a studied candor, a dazzle of
erudition, they have spread their "gossamer nets of seduction" over the
world. The press teems with books and journals in which doctrines
subversive of religion and morality are so elegantly set forth, that the
unguarded reader is very apt to be deceived by the fascination of false
charms, and to mistake a most hideous and dangerous object for the very
type of beauty. The serpent stealthily glides under the silken verdure
of a polished style. Nothing is omitted. The passions are fed, and the
morbid sensibilities pandered to; firmness in the cause of truth or
virtue is called obstinacy; and strength of soul, a refractory
blindness. The bases of morality are sapped in the name of liberty; the
discipline of the Church, when not branded as sheer "mummery," is held
up as hostile to personal freedom; and her dogmas, with one or two
exceptions, are treated as opinions which may be received or rejected
with like indifference.