230- EDtJCATIOlSr. 



duty, that tlie purest and ju&test spirits among them had' 

 again and again to flee from their own class into the cloister 

 or the hermit's cell. 



" In tliose days, it was found necessary to ask Christian 

 people perpetually Have you been doing this, or that ? 

 For if you have, you are not only unfit to be called a Chris- 

 tian ; you are unfit to be called a decent human being. And 

 this, because there was every reason to suppose that they had 

 been doing it ; and that they would not tell of themselves, if 

 they could possibly avoid it. So the Confessional arose, as 

 a necessary element for educating savages into common 

 morality and decency. And for the same reasons we employ 

 it among the Negros of Trinidad. Have no fears lest we 

 should corrupt the minds of the young. They see and hear 

 more harm daily than we could ever teach them, were we so 

 devilishly minded. There is vice now, rampant and noto- 

 rious, in Port of Spain, which eludes even our ConfessionaL 

 Let us alone to do our best. God knows we are trying to do 

 it, according to our light." 



If any Eoman Catholic clergyman in Port of Spain^ 

 spoke thus to me and I have been spoken to in words- 

 not unlike these I could only answer, " God's blessing on 

 you, and all your efforts, whether I agree with you in detail 

 or not." 



The Eoman Catholic inhabitants of the island are to the 



