THE CONFESSIONAL. 229 



vanity witli the notion that everybody who differs from him 

 is going to hell, while he is going to heaven whatever his 

 morals may be." 



If a Eoman Catholic priest should say all this, he 

 would at least have a right, I believe, to a respectful 

 hearinfT. 



jN'ay, more. If he were to say, "You are afraid of our 

 havini? too much to do with the education of the 'Ne^vo, 

 because we use the Confessional as an instrument of educa- 

 tion. Xow how far the Confessional is needful, or useful, or 

 prudent, in a highly civilized and generally virtuous com- 

 munity, may be an open matter. But in spite of all your 

 English dislike of it, hear our side of the question, as far as 

 Xegros and races in a similar condition are concerned. Do 

 you know wdiy and how the Confessional arose ? Have you 

 looked, for instance, into the old middle-age Penitentials ? 

 If so, vou must be aware that it arose in an ai^e of coarseness, 

 vvdiich seems now inconceivable ; in those barbarous times 

 when the lower classes of Europe, slaves or serfs, especially 

 in remote country districts, lived lives little better than those 

 of the monkeys in the forest, and committed habitually the 

 most fearful crimes, without any clear notion that they were 

 doing wrong : while the upper classes, to judge from the 

 literature which they have left, were so coarse, and often so 

 profligate, in spite of nobler instincts and a higher sense of 



