s on which I would conduct the inquiry
are attainable, as I have already implied, by the mere experience of life.
They do not come simply of theology; they imply no supernatural
discernment; they have no special connexion with Revelation; they almost
arise out of the nature of the case; they are dictated even by human
prudence and wisdom, though a divine illumination be absent, and they are
recognized by common sense, even where self-interest is not present to
quicken it; and, therefore, though true, and just, and good in themselves,
they imply nothing whatever as to the religious profession of those who
maintain them. They may be held by Protestants as well as by Catholics;
nay, there is reason to anticipate that in certain times and places they
will be more thoroughly investigated, and better understood, and held more
firmly by Protestants than by ourselves.

It is natural to expect this from the very circumstance that the
philosophy of Education is founded on truths in the natural order. Where
the sun shines bright, in the warm climate of the south, the natives of
the place know little of safeguards against cold and wet. They have,
indeed, bleak and piercing blasts; they have chill and pouring rain, but
only now and then, for a day or a week; they bear the inconvenience as
they best may, but they have not made it an art to repel it; it is not
worth their while; the science of calefaction and ventilation is reserved
for the north. It is in this way that Catholics stand relatively to
Protestants in the science of Education; Protestants depending on human
means mainly, are led to make the most of them: their sole resource is to
use what they have; "Knowledge is" their "power" and nothing else; they
are the anxious cultivators of a rugged soil. It is otherwise with us;
"_funes ceciderunt mihi in proeclaris_." We have a goodly inheritance. This
is apt to cause us (I do not mean to rely too much on prayer, and the
Divine Blessing, for that is impossible; but) we sometimes forget that we
shall please Him best, and get most from Him, when, according to the
Fable, we "put our shoulder to the wheel," when we use what we have by
nature to the utmost, at the same time that we look out for what is beyond
nature in the confidence of faith and hope. However, we are sometimes
tempted to let things take their course, as if they would in one way or
another turn up right at last for certain; and so we go on, living from
hand to mouth, g