ion,
which is so natural to the Catholic, to them it is impossible; unless
indeed, in cases where they have been guilty, an apology is due to their
own character, is expected of them, and will be satisfactory to look back
upon. They are victims of an intense self-contemplation.

There are, however, far more pleasing and interesting forms of this moral
malady than that which I have been depicting: I have spoken of the effect
of intellectual culture on proud natures; but it will show to greater
advantage, yet with as little approximation to religious faith, in amiable
and unaffected minds. Observe, Gentlemen, the heresy, as it may be called,
of which I speak, is the substitution of a moral sense or taste for
conscience in the true meaning of the word; now this error may be the
foundation of a character of far more elasticity and grace than ever
adorned the persons whom I have been describing. It is especially
congenial to men of an imaginative and poetical cast of mind, who will
readily accept the notion that virtue is nothing more than the graceful in
conduct. Such persons, far from tolerating fear, as a principle, in their
apprehension of religious and moral truth, will not be slow to call it
simply gloom and superstition. Rather a philosopher's, a gentleman's
religion, is of a liberal and generous character; it is based upon honour;
vice is evil, because it is unworthy, despicable, and odious. This was the
quarrel of the ancient heathen with Christianity, that, instead of simply
fixing the mind on the fair and the pleasant, it intermingled other ideas
with them of a sad and painful nature; that it spoke of tears before joy,
a cross before a crown; that it laid the foundation of heroism in penance;
that it made the soul tremble with the news of Purgatory and Hell; that it
insisted on views and a worship of the Deity, which to their minds was
nothing else than mean, servile, and cowardly. The notion of an
All-perfect, Ever-present God, in whose sight we are less than atoms, and
who, while He deigns to visit us, can punish as well as bless, was
abhorrent to them; they made their own minds their sanctuary, their own
ideas their oracle, and conscience in morals was but parallel to genius in
art, and wisdom in philosophy.

6.

Had I room for all that might be said upon the subject, I might illustrate
this intellectual religion from the history of the Emperor Julian, the
apostate from Christian Truth, the foe of Chris