iv.] SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 53 



agreed with me. A hard-headed friend of mine, who was present, 

 put the not unnatural question, &quot; Then why don t you say so in 

 your pulpits ? &quot; to which inquiry I heard no reply. 



In fact the clergy are at present divisible into three sections : 

 an immense body who are ignorant and speak out ; a small pro 

 portion who know and are silent ; and a minute minority who 

 know and speak according to their knowledge. By the clergy, I 

 mean especially the Protestant clergy. Our great antagonist I 

 speak as a man of science the Roman Catholic Church, the one 

 great spiritual organization which is able to resist, and must, as 

 a matter of life and death, resist, the progress of science and 

 modern civilization, manages her affairs much better. 



It was my fortune some time ago to pay a visit to one of the 

 most important of the institutions in which the clergy of the 

 Roman Catholic Church in these islands are trained ; and it 

 seemed to me that the difference between these men and the 

 comfortable champions of Anglicanism and of Dissent, was 

 comparable to the difference between our gallant Volunteers and 

 the trained veterans of Napoleon s Old Guard. 



The Catholic priest is trained to know his business, and do it 

 effectually. The professors of the college in question, learned, 

 zealous, and determined men, permitted me to speak frankly with 

 them. We talked like outposts of opposed armies during a 

 truce as friendly enemies ; and when I ventured to point out 

 the difficulties their students would have to encounter from 

 scientific thought, they replied : &quot; Our Church has lasted many 

 ages, and has passed safely through many storms. The present 

 is but a new gust of the old tempest, and we do not turn out 

 our young men less fitted to weather it, than they have been, in 

 former times, to cope with the difficulties of those times. The 

 heresies of the day are explained to them by their professors of 

 philosophy and science, and they are taught how those heresies 

 are to be met.&quot; 



I heartily respect an organization which faces its enemies in 

 this way ; and I wish that all ecclesiastical organizations were in 

 .as effective a condition. I think it would be better, not only for 



