"SPIRITUAL PIRATES:' 599 



"SPIRITUAL PIRATES." 



By S. H. HAYWOOD. 



PIO NONO has recently given to the world Lis infallible opinion 

 concerning Tyndall and other modern scientists. To his appre- 

 hension they are " spiritual pirates, seeking to destroy the souls of 

 men," and he undoubtedly has great faith in that high legal authority 

 which says, "Pirates all nations are to prosecute." 



From the Catholic stand-point the figure has a special significance. 

 These fearless scholars have embarked upon the high-seas of scientific 

 thought and research. Truth is the prize for which they seek. For 

 its sake they are willing to float a flag which is always regaided as 

 hostile by those who choose to remain forever anchored in the harbors 

 of tradition and superstition. Along their track many a bright beacon 

 has already been set, which marks the spot where some precious frag- 

 ment has been redeemed and where some error has found its grave. 

 But never has a ray of their light reached us without a struggle with 

 the powers of darkness. Over all these highways of national aud in- 

 ternational thought the pope would gladly hold supreme jurisdiction. 

 Free thought and free inquiry in almost any direction are fatal to some 

 vital principle of Roman Catholicism. To match metaphors with his 

 Holiness, they are spiritual sappers and miners, whose strokes tell 

 fearfully among the foundation-stones of the Vatican. 



We must concede consistency, at least, to this position of the 

 Catholic Church. The genius of its religion is authority, and are not 

 its subjects likely to lie stiller in the dark than when it is light about 

 them ? It is interesting and significant to notice how little its atti- 

 tude toward theological or scientific inquiry has changed within the 

 last three hundred years. Spencer in his philosophy of evolution, 

 Darwin in his theory of natural selection, Tyndall in recasting the 

 definitions of matter, are denounced in the spirit, and almost in the 

 diction, of the sixteenth century. And how did it fare with Louis 

 Agassiz, teacher, when he first ventured to assert the diverse origin 

 of the human race ? Some of us can remember. The overt acts of 

 persecution which followed and tortured Galileo, Vesalius, and Gior- 

 dano Bruno, are at present prudentially suppressed ; but the spirit of 

 the inquisitor still pursues the scientist into his laboratory or observa- 

 tory, and insists that he bring thence nothing that does not har- 

 monize with the creeds of to-day. 



If the 'pope, Cardinal Cullen, the Dean of Manchester, and others 

 under Catholic or High-Church influence and control, had gathered 

 unto themselves all existing misapprehension, misrepresentation, and 

 invective, in this direction, it were scarcely worth while to comment 

 on a position so natural and a course so consistent with long-estab- 



