New Electric Machines.—At the conversazione given by the president of the Royal Society at Burlington House, London, the display of newly constructed astronomical, optical, and other philosophical instruments afforded a gratifying proof of improvements in the mode of construction, and of increased skill on the part of the constructors. The large spectroscope, which is to be used in combination with Lord Rosse's monster telescope, was a triumph of workmanship and of philosophical adaptation of means to ends; and we may expect ere long to hear of important discoveries in spectroscopic phenomena. Mr. C. W. Siemens and Professor Wheatstone exhibited each one a remarkable electric machine of his own invention, which demonstrated in a surprising way the convertibility of mechanical force into electricity. In these machines, a bar of soft iron, wrapped lengthwise in copper wire, is made to rotate between two other bars of soft iron, which are fixed. The rotating bar is inoculated, so to speak, with a small touch of magnetism, and then being set spinning very rapidly, the small touch is generated into a stream of electricity, which passes off with a crackling noise, increasing or diminishing in proportion to the rotation.In a laboratory, such a machine would be highly serviceable, as it could be used to generate large quantities of electricity very cheaply, and there is no doubt but that many other ways of turning it to account will be discovered. Mr. Siemens has already discovered one most important way, namely, the lighting-up of buoys and beacons at a distance from the shore, by sending a current of electricity to them through a submarine cable. That is the way in which he purposes to employ the electricity generated by his machine: his method has been approved by the Commissioners of Northern Light-houses, who intend to apply it to light the buoys and beacons that mark the most dangerous spots round the coast of Scotland. But of all wonderful electric machines, the one invented by Mr. H. Wilde of Manchester is the most wonderful. A machine which weighs about four and a half tons, including one ton of copper wire, and which requires an eight-horse steam-engine to keep its armature in rotation, must necessarily produce tremendous effects. It gives off electric fire in torrents: the light produced is intense, and is quite as useful to photographers as sunlight, with the advantage over the sun, that it can be used on dark days and at night. This light, as we hear, is already employed in manufacturing establishments, and is to be introduced into light-houses. A French company, who have purchased the right to use it in France, will try it first in the light-house on Cape Grisnez, whence, as is said, the light will radiate not only all across the Channel, but some distance into the southern counties of England. Besides the production of light, the new machine is applicable to important manufacturing purposes; the size of the machine being altered to suit special circumstances. A well-known firm at Birmingham are about to use it, instead of a galvanic battery, for the deposition of copper on articles required to be coated with that metal. In this case, the electricity of the machine is substituted for the acid and zinc of the battery, and will cost less. In another instance, the machine is to be used for the production of ozone in large quantities for employment in bleaching operations. Professor Tyndall exhibited the sensitive flame, on which he had given a lecture at the Royal Institution: or, to be more explicit, he made experiments to show the action of sound on flame. The results are remarkable. A tall flame, looking like an ordinary gas-flame, issuing from a circular orifice in an iron nipple, behaves in an extraordinary way when, by increased pressure, it is raised to fourteen or sixteen inches in length. If a shrill whistle be blown in any part of the room, it suddenly drops down to about half the length, and rises again immediately on cessation of the sound. A blow of a hammer on a board produces a similar effect; and still more so when the blow is on an anvil: the flame then jumps with surprising briskness, the reason being that the ring of the anvil combines those higher tones to which the flame is most sensitive. So tuning-forks, at the ordinary pitch, produce no effect; but if made to vibrate one thousand six hundred, or two thousand, or more times in a second, the flame responds energetically. In another experiment, a fiddle is played in presence of a flame twenty inches in length—the low notes produce no effect; but when the highest string is sounded, "the jet," to quote Professor Tyndall's own words, "instantly squats down to a tumultuous bushy flame, eight inches long." And the same effect is produced by strokes on a bell at twenty yards' distance: at every stroke the flame drops instantaneously. This last experiment is a good illustration of the rapidity with which sound is propagated through air, for there is no sensible interval between the bell-stroke and the shortening of the flame. Another flame, nearly twenty inches long, is yet more sensitive, for the rustle of a silk dress, a step on the floor, creaking of boots, dropping of a small coin, all make it drop down suddenly to eight inches, or become violently agitated. At twenty yards' distance, the rattle of a bunch of keys in the hand shortens the flame, and it is affected even by the fall of a piece of paper, or the plashing of a raindrop. To the vowel U, it makes no response; to O, it shakes; E makes it flutter strongly; and S breaks it up into a tumultuous mass. Many more instances might be given, but these will suffice to show that surprising effects are produced by sound. To the scientific inquirer they will be serviceable as fresh illustrations in the science of acoustics.Chambers's Journal.
American Boys And Girls.Two Essays from the recently published volume, "American Leaves." By Samuel Osgood, Minister of the Church of the Messiah, New-York. Harpers. 1867.
These essays were reprinted, the author tells us, at the request of a lady, for general circulation, with the hope of doing some good to the rising generation, and those who have the charge of bringing them up. We hope they may do good, and they certainly will if they exercise any practical influence at all upon either parents or young people. Their literary merit is undeniable. The topics they touch upon are, however, so painfully momentous that it is impossible to dwell with mere critical enjoyment upon their readable qualities as essays to be amused with during a leisure hour. Their charm of style is only to be appreciated as a means of alluring attention to the very grave and alarming truths which they contain. The author touches with a light and delicate hand upon a very sore and diseased spot in our social system, and hints, in a manner which is intelligible to the instructed without being dangerous to the innocent, at evils which may well awaken the alarm of every one who is solicitous for the well-being of the family, the community, and the race. We are especially pleased with his very sound remarks upon the luxury, extravagance, and effeminacy which are exercising such a corrupting influence upon American society. We think, however, the doctor is more successful in pointing out the evils which exist than in proposing a remedy for them. The sacramental doctrine of matrimony, the Catholic law maintaining its absolute indissolubility, the sacrament of penance, and the authority of a church which is a supreme judge and lawgiver, executed by a priesthood who are independent of the opinions, caprices, and trammels of worldly society, are alone sufficient to reform the vitiated, or preserve the integrity of youth. It were as easy to catch the devil in a mouse-trap as to renovate society by any means which Unitarian Christianity has at its disposal.
The author's very irrelevant digression upon the Catholic doctrine of celibacy adds one more to the numberless instances in which respectable writers criticise rashly without understanding their subject. He says, (p. 109,) "We know very well that theorists of extreme classes, who have noted the decrease in the number of marriages in high life, are inclined to rejoice at it, and for opposite reasons: the one class because they think celibacy to be the higher condition." After several more passages, in which the language is very ambiguous, and may easily be understood as veiling a covert insinuation against the Catholic clergy and religious communities, the author concludes his remarks thus: "We believe that a true Christian wife has a purity that angels may not scorn and many a nun might covet, and that the man who keeps his marriage vows need not ask of any ghostly monk for lessons in manly virtue. The longer we live the more we reverence God's obvious law, and the less we admire the devices of men who forbid marriage, and so undertake to be wiser than God."
It is quite the reverse of truth that a Catholic moralist, whether "ghostly" or otherwise, approves of or recommends or rejoices in a general practice of celibacy among either the wealthy or the poorer classes. The Catholic clergy recommend and favor marriage for the generality of persons as by far the best and happiest state for them. The Catholic doctrine does not disparage the purity of Christian wives, or the virtue of married men who are faithful to their matrimonial obligations. The spectral gentleman, whose lessons the doctor politely declines in advance, would probably, if he had the chance to give one, pass over the evangelical counsels, and enlarge on the moral duty of representing things as they are. The Catholic Church does not "forbid marriage." She teaches that it is a sacrament. The Greek Church has corrupted it by permitting divorce; every Protestant Church has done the same; the civil law has laid its barbarous hand upon it to drag it from the protecting power of the church. The Roman Church alone has first raised it to its proper elevation and indissolubility, and afterward defended it by her uncompromising law from desecration.We advise the doctor to turn his attention more undividedly to the work of rehabilitating marriage in the rights of which corrupt morals and legislation have deprived it, and not to distress himself with the fear lest the sacrament should be despised or neglected by Catholics.
Sermon On The Dignity And Value Of Labor.By the Rev. Joseph Fransioli, Pastor of St. Peter's Church, Brooklyn, L.I.
This is a first-class popular sermon; plain, practical, and encouraging. That Christianity has redeemed the masses in elevating and dignifying manual labor is plain enough to the student of history. That which was a curse in Adam is turned into a blessing in Christ. It is equally true that when men forget the Christian aim of life and suffer themselves to be guided, as too large a class of our modern society does, by heathen principles, labor becomes contemptible, poverty becomes a misfortune, and the wearing of patches and rags a crime. The preacher thus fitly characterizes labor: "Work is of divine origin. It is not a human invention, or a system adopted by civil society for its wants in the different classes; it is a divine institution, an obligation imposed by God's eternal wisdom upon all men without distinction whatsoever. It is a divine institution distributing labor in its various branches among all men, not creating, properly speaking, different classes. Work is leading men towards God, the centre of perfection. Work, then, ennobles man, and the true dignity and worthiness of a man is to be measured by the proportion of his work."
Again, he is justly severe upon the modern distinction of "low" and "respectable" classes in this false sense. "The father who carries the shovel on his shoulders to dig the foundation of your buildings; the son who, early in the morning, is seen walking, tools in hand; the washerwoman and the servant girl who clean your clothes and honestly and faithfully do the work of your houses, are not low. They discharge a noble task which their families appreciate and which God will reward. Do you know who belong to the very lowest classes of men and Christians? Those that speculate on the lives of the poor laborers by building monstrous tenement houses, where bad ventilation, poor light, scarcity of water, and dilapidated rooms lead the over-crowded and over-taxed inmates to misery and a premature death. Those that sue for divorces in the courts, ride in carriages, and display themselves in public with more than one wife, more than one family, more than one God; trampling on human and divine law. Those that spend their nights in gambling, their days in hypocritical schemes, who never balance their expenses with their revenues, and consume double the amount of their salaries, and leave their bills unpaid or shamefully defraud their employers. These and many others of the same stamp, whose number is countless; these swell the figures of the low classes." This is preaching which reasons "of judgment and justice," and tells the truth without fear or favor. It is a refreshing sermon, and lacks in nothing but in having been too hastily printed, being full of typographical errors.
Frithiof's Saga.From the Swedish of Esaias Tegnér, Bishop of Wexiö. By the Rev. William Lewery Blackley, M.A. First American edition, edited by Bayard Taylor: pp. 201, 12mo. New-York, Leypoldt & Holt. 1867.
Several translations of this beautiful poem have been made in English, each of which had its own peculiar merit. An accurately literal translation of a foreign book possesses the value of presenting to us just what the author says; but the manner of his speech, the true spirit which gives life and character to his work, must necessarily be wanting. Such was the translation of Tegnér's poem, by Prof. George Stephens, published at London in 1839. Prof. Longfellow was more successful in the poetic versions he gave in an article on the poet contributed by him to the North American Review of July, 1837. That of Mr. Blackley before us is not only a faithful translation, but is also English poetry, preserving in its style enough of the wild Scandinavian spirit to mark its origin. As a specimen we subjoin the following extract from "Frithiof at Sea." The hero is compelled to make a dangerous voyage by two kings, Helge and Halfdan, whose sister Ingeborg he is wooing contrary to their consent:
"Now, King Helge stoodIn fury on the strand,And in embittered moodAdjured the storm-fiend's hand."Gloomy is the heaven growing,Through desert skies the thunders roar,In the deep the billows brewingCream with foam the surface o'er.Lightnings cleave the storm-cloud, seemingBlood-red gashes in its side;And all the sea-birds, wildly screaming,Fly the terrors of the tide."Storm is coming, comrades;Its angry wings I hearFlapping in the distance,But fearless we may be.Sit tranquil in the grove,And fondly think on me,Lovely in thy sorrow,Beauteous Ingeborg."Now two storm-fiends cameAgainst Ellida's side;One was wind-cold Ham,One was snowy Heyd."Loose set they the tempest's pinions,Down diving in ocean deep;Billows, from unseen dominions,To the god's abode they sweep.All the powers of frightful death,Astride upon the rapid wave,Rise from the foaming depths beneath,The bottomless, unfathomed grave."Fairer was our journeyBeneath the shining moon,Over the mirrory ocean,To Balder's sacred grove.Warmer far than hereWas Ingeborg's loving heart;Whiter than the sea-foamHeaved her gentle breast......."Now ocean fierce battles:The wave-troughs deeper grow,The whistling cordage rattles,The planks creak loud below."But though higher waves appearingSeem like mountains to engage,Brave Ellida, never fearing,Mocks the angry ocean's rage.Like a meteor, flashing brightness,Darts she forth with dauntless breast,Bounding with a roebuck's lightnessOver trough and over crest."Sweeter were the kissesOf Ingeborg in the grove,Than here to taste in tempestHigh-sprinkled, briny foam.Better the royal daughterOf Bele to embrace,Than here in anxious laborThe tiller fast to hold."Whirling cold and fast,Snow-wreaths fill the sail;Over deck and mastPatters heavy hail."The very stern they see no more,So thick is darkness spread,As gloom and horror hovers o'erThe chamber of the dead.Still, to sink the sailor, dashesImplacable each angry wave;Gray, as if bestrewn with ashes,Yawns the endless, awful grave."
The Swedish language is full of melody and of imitative harmony; as the author himself calls it:
"Language of honor and conquest,how manly thy accents, and noble!Ring'st like the smitten steel,and mov'st like the march of the planets."
It is, therefore, difficult of translation, and one who would attempt it must not only be well versed in that language, but must also possess a more than ordinary knowledge of English. Mr. Blackley has, we think, accomplished his task with no small degree of success.
Moore's Irish Melodies.With a Memoir of the poet. Illustrated by D. Maclise, R.A., and William Riches. Columbus, Ohio: Riches & Moore, Engravers, Printers, and Publishers.
The enterprising publishers of this work have certainly spared no pains in its profuse illustration, the engravings being of such a character as to occupy at least two thirds of the space in each page. The many admirers of the melodious verses of the great Irish poet will welcome this new and elegant edition of them.
A copy of the designs, if furnished by the pencil of Maclise, should alone be worth the price of the book. It is sold only by subscription.
Eug. Cummiskey, Philadelphia, announces for immediate publication the first series of his Juvenile Library, in twelve vols. The following are the titles of the volumes of the first series:The Great Tenabraka;Miss Touch-All;The Young Raiders;The Old Beggar;George, the Little Chimney-Sweep;The Lost Child;The Desert Island;Bethlehem;Pat, the Little Emigrant;Idleness;Negligence;The Little Gardeners.These tales will form a collection of stories for children. The price of the set is to be $5.40. He has also in press Barbarossa; an Historical Tale of the Twelfth Century, and The Vengeance of a Jew.
We do not hesitate to say that but few Catholics in this country are aware of one of the most important events in the modern history of the church in Europe, the meeting of the Catholic congresses.
Inaugurated by a council of twenty-six bishops at Würzburg, and a general convention of the clergy and laity at Mayence in 1848, the Catholic congresses became an accomplished fact, and since that time each succeeding year has recorded the meeting of one or more of these assemblies held in different cities of Belgium and Germany.
The renewal of Catholic life, the strengthening of Catholic principles, and the steady and sure return of the people of those countries to the faith, is, in a great measure, due to the influence which these reunions have exerted on the public mind. In the beginning they appear to have received their impetus chiefly from a desire to place the church, so long enslaved in Germany beneath the tyranny of Protestantism, trammelled by state interference, and so desperately attacked by the wide-spread infidelity of the day, upon a free and independent footing.
Feeling themselves strong enough to speak, they spoke and demanded the freedom of the church. An universal response was thus elicited, not only from the clergy, who are the ordinary mouth-pieces in matters of the welfare of the church, but there started up at once zealous and devoted laymen, who were competent to take part in the discussion of questions of interest to Catholic society. Expression stimulated thought, and the influence of these conventions soon permeated every class of society, awakening in all minds a desire to contribute something to the general stock of information and experience which these assemblies began to gather in, like so much latent force, wherewith to repel the attack of adversaries, and to advance the cause of truth and pure morality.
It was truly a Catholic project, and which none but Catholics could attempt without weakening the cause they would undertake by a certain manifestation of discordant and irreconcilable principles and the consequent loss of power. But Catholics may unite for mutual edification and enlightenment, joined as they are as brethren in a common faith, whose principles and aims are alike in every country and with all people, and be sure of reaping thereby solid fruits, and of adding new triumphs for religion.
These general conventions in Germany culminated finally in the great Catholic congresses of Malines and Würzburg, the first of which opened at the former city in 1863. "This congress," says a writer, "exerted a magic influence; the drowsy were aroused from their lethargy, and the faint-hearted were inspired with confidence: they saw their strength and felt it. In that congress we see the beginning of a new epoch in the religious history of Belgium."
The great benefits arising from this movement were recognized and encouraged from the start by the Holy Father, in honor of whose approval the different associations took the name of "Piusvereine," a name still retained by those held in Switzerland. The first great congress of Malines was opened under the auspices of his eminence, Cardinal Sterckz, archbishop of that city, to which the Pope also sent an autograph letter containing his august sanction and words of benediction.
Everywhere and by all classes the most lively interest was shown in the work, and men of merit flocked to take part in the deliberations, members of the clergy, secular and regular, the nobility, statesmen, philosophers, editors, professors in every department of science, painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, builders, heads of pious and charitable societies; each and all vying with one another in bringing in the fruits of their learning and experience, that their brethren in the faith might be benefited by them, and the Catholic cause be strengthened and advanced by the results of their united efforts. The sentiments with which they were inspired may be gathered from the following extract of the reply sent by the congress of Malines to the Holy Father:
"It is true the trials of our times are great and grievous, and if they be, they at least should make us Catholics understand the necessity of organizing with more union and with greater energy than ever, to assure the liberty of the church and of all the works which she inspires. If associations are formed from one end of the world to the other for all the interests of life, and too often for the propagation of evil, we Catholics have the right, and are in duty bound, to associate ourselves together for the interests of the good and the true. This sacred right we intend to exercise with that perseverance and self denial which become the disciples of Christ.
"On every hand the enemies of our faith league together to shake the foundations of the church of God. We, devoted children of that church, will put together all our forces to defend it. We wish to strengthen the bonds of charity between us, fortify ourselves against the seductions of the age, enlighten and encourage one another—to seek, in fine, the means of comforting and consoling the little ones and the poor, whom our Lord Jesus Christ loved with such a tender love."
The report of the assembly records that the reading of this was received with unanimous and prolonged acclamations.
That the members of these congresses meant work in coming together is evident from the report of their proceedings. We have before us two large octavo volumes of 400 pages each, closely printed, which contain the accounts of only the congress of Malines, held in 1863. It gives the speeches, discussions, reports of committees, etc., at length, and is a record of immense and patient labor, of deep scientific research, and of earnest and devoted effort. Another volume of equal size is the published report of the department of religious music alone. In this as well as in other branches of art and science prizes have been offered of a notable value for original productions. We observe in a late report of the congress of Malines of 1866, that the prize offered for a mass, composed according to the rules adopted by a former congress, brought in seventy-six original compositions, of which the musical critics (of whose severity there can be little doubt) reported twenty-one as of first class, and twenty-six of medium merit.The programme of the next congress in the same city, to be opened next September, offers among others a prize of 1000 francs for the design of a church. We hope that, among the many of our bishops and distinguished laymen who will visit Europe this summer, some will be able to find the time to be present at this great Catholic assembly, and examine its projects and working.
The clergy have from the start seconded these congresses with all their influence, and a very large number of them are regular and active members. Discourses were pronounced before them by several distinguished prelates, among whom we remark the names of Cardinal Wiseman and Bishop Dupanloup. Yet all the members meet upon a perfect equality. The title to membership is that of merit alone, and the guarantee that one has something positive to offer for the furtherance of the objects for which the congress is convened. No one appears as a general delegate of veto, or as a committee of one on objections; but each one comes well posted up in the department in which he is interested, well prepared with his documents, notes of experience, authorities, etc., and hence their deliberations are based upon solid matter and not upon visionary ideas or imaginary schemes. It is easy to see how these congresses have produced such practical results as the advanced state of Catholicity has shown in the last few years throughout Germany and Belgium. Art in its relations to religion and the church has been so well encouraged that the congress of 1864 saw over one hundred artists and archaeologists assembled in council. All that contributes to the propriety and majesty of the divine service in church decoration and furniture received special attention, and numerous works have been published in consequence.
Catholic journalism received such an impetus that Belgium, small as it is, now boasts of fifty Catholic periodicals. In Europe they understand the importance of fostering and purifying this department of public instruction. A late German writer says: "Journalism is an important profession, whose members should be conscientious and honorable men. The journalist addresses his language to an audience far more numerous than the professors, and at present his influence is, so to say, unlimited; he reaches every part of educated society, and sways public opinion. He is called to be the standard-bearer of liberty and truth. He must, therefore, implant sound principles in the popular mind, and, standing above the reach of paltry prejudice, unite in himself a high degree of intelligence and true devotion to the eternal laws of the church. Without independence, dignity, and moral freedom he cannot do justice to the task imposed on him by God.'Impavidum ferient ruinae.'In England, America, and Belgium, the press wields a powerful influence; it has become sovereign, and is necessary to the nation's life. Science feels that, unless it is diffused, it is powerless, and that the school-room is too narrow a field." The foundation of a great Catholic university for Germany is now under consideration, and a large sum is already subscribed toward it. In this respect Belgium is far in advance of its more populous and powerful neighbor. By persistent and united effort the university of Louvain was established, and it now numbers 800 more students than those of the three state universities put together. We cannot refrain from transcribing the following earnest words of the writer already quoted. Speaking of Germany, he says:
"We must found a new university, a purely Catholic and free institution, untrammelled by state dictation, and entirely under the direction of the church. To do this, the bishops, the nobles, and the clergy must use their best endeavors; but the professors, too, must do their share, and not look on with cool indifference, as is the case with most of them. ... There is neither truce nor rest for us until we arenot only equal, but superiorto our opponents in every branch of science."
The congress of Würzburg founded a "Society for the Publication of Catholic Pamphlets," and it was so well received that in two years' time the number of its subscribers amounted to 25,000. Few of its many projects proposed and discussed appear to have met with such an enthusiastic reception and inspired such lively interest as this. In passing, let us be permitted to hope that a similar society lately founded in the United States may meet with a like encouragement, and that our people will appreciate the necessity of supporting with all their energies this truly apostolic work.
It is not surprising that the attention of these congresses was turned in an especial manner to the subject of charity, both corporal and spiritual. It is the spirit of Catholic charity that prompted these reunions and gave to them both their life and fruit. Says the writer above quoted, on this subject:
"Charity is the culminating point of all activity, for what is religion but practical love of God and of our neighbor? Truth must not only be proved, but felt; science and art are the necessary fruits of true religion; science is not the light, but is to give testimony of the light. The object of art is the beautiful; of science, the true; and of charity, the good; but the beautiful, the true, and the good are the three highest categories—the indispensable conditions of intellectual activity—the connecting links between the intellect and God, who is the fountain head and prototype of all being, as well as the last end of human investigations and aspirations."
The deliberations of these congresses, therefore, embraced every form of charity, while they confined themselves to such branches of art and science as have more or less direct relation to religion. The report of the congress of Malines before us refers to discussions, resolutions, etc., upon a vast number of charitable projects, the titles of some of which we are tempted to lay before our readers, that they have some adequate idea of the herculean labors of these zealous assemblies.
Catholic Society for the Burial of the Poor;Society for the Propagation of the Faith;Establishment at London of a Seminary for Missions among the Heathen;Missions of Herzégovines in Turkey;Erection of a Catholic Church and Schools in St. Petersburg;Foundation of a Belgian Mission in China;Pilgrimages to Rome;Means of consolidating and developing Catholic Charitable Institutions;Extension of the Society of St. Vincent of Paul;Societies of St. Francis Xavier and St. John the Baptist for workmen;OEuvre of the Ladies of Mercy;OEuvre of Mothers of Families;Means of extending and propagating Instruction in Free Schools;Diffusion of Good Books;Foundation of Public Libraries;Schools for Deaf-Mutes;Foundation of a Chair, in the University of Louvain, of Industry and Mining;The Subject of the Marriage of Soldiers;Protectorates of Children;Protectorates of Students;do. of Apprentices;do. of Young Journeymen;Young Men's Societies in Ireland and elsewhere;Orphanages;Hospitals, etc., etc.
If so much in the matter of charity alone forms the subject of consideration at one of these congresses, our readers will naturally be led to suppose that a large number of persons must be brought together on these occasions. In this they are not mistaken, for at the congress at Würzburg, in 1864 the number of delegates amounted 7000. What a truly magnificent and inspiring spectacle must have been presented at the opening of this assembly, when thoseseven thousandCatholic men, one in faith, and united in charity, full of zeal and whole souled devotion to the holy church, assisted in a body at the grand solemn mass of the Holy Ghost, and implored on bended knees the benediction of God upon their future labors!
With this scene before our eyes, are not we Catholics of America tempted to envy them with a holy envy the glorious work in which they are engaged, and to wish that it was in our own land and for the good of our own people that all this was done? Is there one who glances at the titles we have given above of some of their labors, who does not see that we too need, even more than our brethren in Europe, to have all these subjects relating to the advancement of religion, the instruction of the people, and the comfort of the poor brought under consideration, the best means of their accomplishment discussed, the knowledge and experience of our best Catholic men, both clergy and laity, brought under contribution, unity and organization furthered, and, by combining our forces, strike a good blow for the glory of God and the good of our fellow-men? The laity think of nothing but of contributing their money when called upon to aid some good work, and our over-tasked clergy are left to devise, plan, superintend, and carry out every religious project under heaven.
Now, it cannot be denied that there are thousands of our laymen fully competent to co-operate with the clergy in every branch of religious science, art, and charity. If they would add their minds to their money, and put their own individual energies to the wheel, a power would at once be created in the church of the United States irresistible to its enemies, and a certain guarantee of the glory and triumph of our holy faith.
The want of such a congress has already been the subject of much serious reflection with many persons, whose position and duties oblige them to recognize the necessity of union and cooperation in carrying out the various good works in which they are engaged. If we are truly imbued with the spirit of our holy religion, we should not only be far from grudging the communication of our knowledge and experience to our brethren, but should rather burn to impart it, to make it profitable to the church at large; and we are convinced that in no other way could this be so effectually done as in a congress modelled upon those of Belgium and Germany.
The form of their congress is precisely that to which we are well accustomed here in organized assemblies. All projects are first referred to particular committees and put in proper shape to be presented before the whole congress, where they are quickly disposed of according to their merits. The statutes or rules under which they meet are of such a character as to produce perfect harmony in their discussions, and the subjects which are admitted as proper for deliberation and deserving of encouragement are just such as the good of religion demands attention to and united action upon at our hands.
Not a few of the first scientific men in the United States are Catholics. True science must necessarily be in harmony with the true religion. It has been the fashion of late to consider that they are in no way related to or dependent one upon the other.
The doctrine of Luther, that reason must be left out of account in religion, and that its judgments are not to be sought for nor relied upon in matters of faith, has resulted in turning scientific men out of the church.
Men will reason, will claim and use their reason as they should, by divine right; and if you divorce reason from religion, what wonder that they will accept the decision and look upon science as a department of human knowledge and belief over which religion has no control? The Catholic Church has never professed this degrading doctrine; on the contrary, she has stoutly condemned all propositions implying it in any sense; but still, Catholic men of science must associate with scientific infidels as scientific men; they must correspond, deliberate, examine, and discuss questions of vital importance with them, who make no hesitation in assuming premises and forming theories the conclusions of which are contradictory to faith. We are not here accusing our brethren, or casting suspicion upon their orthodoxy.What we intend to imply is simply this, that for want of fraternal co-operation and mutual recognition and encouragement the false principle we have alluded to above is gradually gaining ascendency in the popular as well as in the scientific mind. Had we a "Catholic Academy" composed of the men who stand high in intellectual culture and scientific research, such an "academy" as the European congresses are now striving to found, we should be able to present a bold front in the arena of science, and compel attention to its true principles and to the fact of their consonance with the teachings of faith. Thus a right arm of power would be given to the church from a source which now practically ignores it. It has been our pleasure to meet in different cities of the Union with many men, devout Catholics, whose names would grace an academic roll of first class merit. Indeed, and we say it knowingly, in every profession—in philosophy, medicine, law, geology, as well as in the army and navy, Catholics rank with the foremost. What they need, and what the church needs on their account, we say again, is union, opportunity, and mutual acquaintance and support. It is impossible to estimate what influence a body of such men would exert, or with what respect for our holy religion they would inspire the American public.
Neither must it be forgotten that the church alone possesses an universal and complete system of Christian philosophy. For the want of this, Protestantism has in the main abandoned all attempts to reconcile the deductions of reason with the dogmas of revelation. Hence, its systems of dogmatic theology are extremely jejune and discordant. Let us bring this fact before the minds of the intellectual men of our age and country, and at once Protestantism as a reasonable system of religion must fall below their contempt.
But the institution of a Catholic academy must be consequent upon the foundation of a Catholic university. We have some good schools, where a more scholarly knowledge of the classics can be acquired than in professedly Protestant colleges, but they surpass us in all other branches of science and intellectual culture. And the reason is plain. Their professorial chairs are filled by men of superior attainments, whose services are secured by good salaries.
Their standard for graduation is, however, extremely low compared to that required by the European colleges and universities. Indeed, most of our Protestant and Catholic colleges, too, accord the diploma to all their students, irrespective of their merits. We ourselves have been called upon, by a graduate of one of the oldest and most respectable Protestant colleges in the country, to translate his diploma into English, that the old folks at home might know what it meant. We need to raise our own colleges to a higher standard than they now possess, and to offer to our men of talent the means of completing the imperfect education of an ordinary college course. To do this we must have an university whose requirements for matriculation shall demand a rigid examination, in which the candidate must come off thoroughly successful; whose chairs shall be filled with first-class professors, and which shall possess an ample endowment for its purposes.
This great work, which is the hope of all the scholars in the country, can only be carried out by united effort on the part of the episcopate and the wealthy laity, and a congress would be a most fitting opportunity for bringing the matter to a definitive and practical conclusion. Great men in council will do great things, and generous souls will be stimulated to emulate examples of heroic sacrifice. It is a word to the wise.
Of all the departments of public instruction, the press needs amongst us the improvement, encouragement, and sanction which a congress is calculated to give.Think of Belgium, with only 5,000,000 inhabitants, supporting overfiftyCatholic periodicals, and possessing numerous societies for the publication of cheap religious books and pamphlets! Our Catholic population of the United States is at least equal in number to that of the whole of Belgium. Yet with all our numbers and means we have not one daily paper under Catholic supervision, a most important work, to the establishment of which one of the first efforts of a Catholic congress with us should be directed. Those who complain of our Catholic press, and make invidious comparisons between the literary merit of our periodicals and our neighbors', should remember that editors are professional men, and not to be obtained for the wages of a day laborer; and that a first-class periodical must have a first-class circulation. A congress of editors would tend to elevate the tone of the Catholic press, and its voice would stimulate all classes to greater effort in promoting a more generous diffusion of this kind of literature. An increased circulation would enable the conductors of our journals to pay for original contributions, and engage the services of first-class writers; an outlay which very few of them have now the means of making.
That the Catholic Publication Society, now successfully founded, needs the influence of a congress to extend its operations to the different cities and towns of the Union, is plain to be seen. There are hundreds of zealous persons of every condition of life who are waiting to be told what to do to advance its interests, who want to see some system of local organization proposed and sanctioned by some proper authority. Its friends wish to meet together, to know each other, and after due deliberation to frame fitting resolutions for action, which upon their return to their respective homes they may carry into effect.
This important project cannot be fully realized, and be fruitful, under God, in instructing and edifying thousands of souls unto salvation, unless a public and general interest be excited in its success, and with the active co-operation of the great charitable associations and pious confraternities now established amongst us.
There is also a pressing necessity for us to obtain fuller information, and come to a decision about the subject of church architecture, and all that relates to the exterior of divine worship. We are building cathedrals and churches in every style, and on principles which are as various as there are fancies and theories in the brains of architects. Immense sums of money are needed and collected for this purpose, and it is of the greatest moment that they be wisely expended.
The time has come when every church we erect should be an honor to us for its architectural beauty, its substantial character, and adaptability to our needs, and when the generous alms of the faithful should no longer be thrown away upon unsightly, badly planned, and worse built edifices, of which so many exist in our country, to the great discomfort of both priest and people, and monuments (happily not lasting ones) of the want of knowledge and experience of those who constructed them.
It becomes us, therefore, to encourage our Catholic architects who understand the meaning and use of a church. We cannot look for Protestants to care much for the requirements of the ritual in their designs, or to appreciate the necessity of insisting upon what the church insists. Their chief aim is to please their patrons, and carry out whatever is proposed to them. Few of our Protestant architects know any more about the proper interior disposition of a Catholic church than they do of a Moslem mosque.
See, again, how much we suffer from the wretched altar furniture and sacerdotal vestments imported for our use, and which our clergy are obliged to take and make a display in their sanctuaries of things belonging in style to every age of the church.How often have we not seen a priest clothed in Roman vestments celebrating mass at a Gothic altar furnished with Byzantine crucifix and candlesticks, and a miscellaneous job lot of tawdry French artificial flowers, while the sacred precinct of the sanctuary would be furnished with carpet and chairs that smack of the drawing-room or the kitchen?
These evils existed and do exist in other countries besides our own, and we see that the congresses of Belgium have done a great deal to correct them by calling Catholic architects together in council, and offering prizes for designs of perfect churches built and furnished according to the Ritual, the Ceremoniale Episcoporum, the Missal, and the decrees of the Congregation of Rites.
The music of our churches, what shall we say of it? Are our city churches to be turned into fashionable concert-rooms where hired Protestant, Jewish, and infidel artists are to sing theirmorceaux de l'operafor our edification? Are our country churches never to witness a high mass celebrated in them, and the people in those localities never to be convened for the Vesper service or comforted with the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament because there is no one to teach the children at least to sing a Tantum Ergo? Are our organists always to be irresponsible musicians, guided by no rubrics, ignorant of fast days and festivals, outraging every sense of propriety, and banishing all sentiment of piety and devotion by their ad libitum roulades and fantasias of the most degraded taste? If we must pay others to sing the praises of God for us, why not also engage others to do our praying likewise? Cannot we have, as other countries have, voluntary choirs? Why cannot all the people sing at proper times and seasons, and join in that part of worship which from its very nature is the best calculated to awaken the deepest emotions of the soul!
The question of the feasibility of voluntary choirs or of congregational singing is no longer wholly a doubtful one. We know of several churches in the country that have always had voluntary choirs, and we were present during the past Lent at the services of one of our city churches where the whole congregation joined with full voices in a popular Lenten service, and in the solemn recitation of the Way of the Cross, for which they were prepared at a single public rehearsal in the church.
The subject of church music, as we have already said, was one to which the Belgium congresses paid a great deal of attention. The March number of the Revue Generale of Brussels gives a most interesting report, by Canon Devroye, of the proceedings of the jury to whom were referred the adjudication of the prizes offered for an original popular mass, composed, as says the worthy canon, "according to the rules laid down by the church, and enforced by our general assembly;" and he observes in another place that they must "redouble their efforts to procure universal observation of the rules adopted by the congress, and which are also the rules of the church and of common sense." Let us hasten to imitate this example of zeal for the glory of God's house and for the decency and dignity of divine worship. If we have not many original composers, we have, at any rate, several good judges among our organists and directors of choirs. Their united opinion would have a powerful influence in bringing about, what we do not fear to say is greatly needed, a thorough reformation in our church music.
In works of charity we have done a great deal already—enough, it may be, to hide a multitude of sins; but charity is never content with what it has done, nor will the objects of its care ever be wanting. "The poor ye have always with you," said our Lord. They take his place in our midst, and by their helplessness and suffering soften our selfish hearts, and win from us those things in the inordinate love of which we are too apt to forget our true destiny.Men may give themselves up with too great ardor to the pursuit of science and devotion to art, but charity has no dangerous limits which we may not overpass. What we do for the poor we do for God, and no one can do too much for him. Yet charity needs wisdom, demands thought, and profits by good counsel. So that we see men instinctively band themselves together in associations, that the ignorant, the suffering, the tempted, and the sinful may be more wisely aided, and more speedily comforted. The religious orders of charity have their own special rules and organization, and know how to do their work well. But there are many forms of suffering and of corporal and spiritual destitution which they cannot reach, or which their rule of life prevents them from attending to. Enterprises that can embrace these needy cases for charity in their scope must, therefore, be conducted more or less entirely by the laity. To be truly effective, these enterprises need rules and organization, as much as an order of Sisters of Charity or of Mercy; and organization demands cooperation, deliberation, and union. The glorious society of St. Vincent de Paul is one of these, and its works are manifest. Millions of God's beloved poor will rise up at the last day to praise these devoted children of the church and call them blessed. But they cannot do all that is to be done. There is great need, especially in our larger cities and towns, of patronages, protectorates, associations of young apprentices and workmen, and what are called in Europe "Catholic Circles," and with us "Young Men's Institutes," which enable our Catholic youth particularly to enjoy honest recreation and amusement in honest society, and at the same time improve their minds and refine their manners. Such institutes have been already founded among us by several zealous pastors with the most signal success. Our Sunday-schools also have been of late much improved by the establishment of Sunday-School Unions, which might be extended to every diocese in the country. To give a proper impetus to all these works of charity, to make their character and working known, and encourage their establishment throughout the country, would be one of the principal subjects to come up for consideration before a congress.
We have shown enough reasons, we think, why such an assembly should be convened. Many persons have the matter at heart; and we have perused with great pleasure some communications on the subject which show a thoughtful appreciation of its great importance. We trust that what we have written may help to encourage them and others to give expression to their sentiments, and thus prepare the public mind, so that the whole body of our clergy and intelligent laity may be ready to take an active part in it as soon as the proper authorities shall summon them to meet. A good proposal has been made, which merits consideration: that the meeting of a congress be made coincident with the assembling of the General Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which now does so much of the work of a congress in the matter of charity, and which brings together so many men of the right stamp from all portions of our vast country. This would enable the congress to profit by the fruits of their experience and influence in a department where none are more competent than they to give advice and aid.
Our holy religion is making such rapid advances that there is an urgent call upon every Catholic to bestir himself, and do all that lies in his power to aid and support the clergy in their herculean efforts to feed and comfort the flock of Christ. Converts are pouring in from all quarters, out of all classes of society. Many of them have been earnest laborers in their way in the cause of religion and of charity. Let them not find us idle, neither must we allow them to be idle. Their influence with their Protestant brethren is great, and we should give them the means of using it and bringing it to good account.