etting into difficulties and getting out of them,
succeeding certainly on the whole, but with failure in detail which might
be avoided, and with much of imperfection or inferiority in our
appointments and plans, and much disappointment, discouragement, and
collision of opinion in consequence. If this be in any measure the state
of the case, there is certainly so far a reason for availing ourselves of
the investigations and experience of those who are not Catholics, when we
have to address ourselves to the subject of Liberal Education.

Nor is there surely any thing derogatory to the position of a Catholic in
such a proceeding. The Church has ever appealed and deferred to witnesses
and authorities external to herself, in those matters in which she thought
they had means of forming a judgment: and that on the principle, _Cuique
in arte sua credendum_. She has even used unbelievers and pagans in
evidence of her truth, as far as their testimony went. She avails herself
of scholars, critics, and antiquarians, who are not of her communion. She
has worded her theological teaching in the phraseology of Aristotle;
Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Origen, Eusebius, and Apollinaris, all more
or less heterodox, have supplied materials for primitive exegetics. St.
Cyprian called Tertullian his master; St. Augustin refers to Ticonius;
Bossuet, in modern times, complimented the labours of the Anglican Bull;
the Benedictine editors of the Fathers are familiar with the labours of
Fell, Ussher, Pearson, and Beveridge. Pope Benedict XIV. cites according
to the occasion the works of Protestants without reserve, and the late
French collection of Christian Apologists contains the writings of Locke,
Burnet, Tillotson, and Paley. If, then, I come forward in any degree as
borrowing the views of certain Protestant schools on the point which is to
be discussed, I do so, Gentlemen, as believing, first, that the Catholic
Church has ever, in the plenitude of her divine illumination, made use of
whatever truth or wisdom she has found in their teaching or their
measures; and next, that in particular places or times her children are
likely to profit from external suggestions or lessons, which have not been
provided for them by herself.

3.

And here I may mention a third reason for appealing at the outset to the
proceedings of Protestant bodies in regard to Liberal Education. It will
serve to intimate the mode in which I propose to handle my subje