lic, etc., are well enough as mere nomenclature; and
the world falls for the most part, into any names which parties choose to
give themselves. Silly people found inferences on this concession; and, as
usually happens, they can cite some of their betters. St. Augustine,[47] a
freakish arguer, or, to put it in the way of an old writer, _lectorem ne
multiloquii taedio fastidiat, Punicis quibusdam argutiis recreare
solet_,[48] asks, with triumph, to what chapel a stranger would be
directed, if he inquired the way to the _Catholic assembly_. But the best
exhibition of this kind in our own century is that made by the excellent
Dr. John Milner,[49] in a work (first published in 1801 or 1802) which I
suppose still circulates, "The End of Religious Controversy": a startling
title which, so far as its truth is concerned, might as well have been "The
floor of the bottomless pit." This writer, whom every one of his readers
will swear to have been a worthy soul, though many, even of his own sect,
will not admire some of his logic, speaks as follows:

"Letter xxv. _On the true Church being Catholic._ In treating of this third
mark of the true Church, as expressed in our common creed, I feel my
spirits sink within me, and I am almost tempted to throw away my pen in
despair. For what chance is there of opening the eyes of candid Protestants
to the other marks of the Church, if they are capable of keeping them shut
to this? Every time they address the {24} God of Truth, either in solemn
worship or in private devotion [stretch of rhetoric], they are forced, each
of them, to repeat: _I believe in_ THE CATHOLIC _Church_, and yet if I ask
any of them the question: _Are you a_ CATHOLIC? he is sure to answer me,
_No, I am a_ PROTESTANT! Was there ever a more glaring instance of
inconsistency and self-condemnation among rational beings!"

"John Milner, honest and true,
Did what honest people still may do,
If they write for the many and not for the few,
But what by and bye they must eschew."

He _shortened his clause_; and for a reason. If he had used the whole
epithet which he knew so well, any one might have given his argument a
half-turn. Had he written, as he ought, "the _Holy_ Catholic Church" and
then argued as above, some sly Protestant would have parodied him with "and
yet if I ask any of them the question: _Are you_ HOLY? he is sure to answer
me _No, I am a_ SINNER." To take the adjective from the Church, and apply
it to the