226 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



so, if scientific training be unattainable at our University, 

 they will seek it at Trinity or at the Queen's Colleges, in 

 not one of which is there a Catholic Professor of Science." 



Those who imagined the Catholic University at Ken- 

 sington to be due to the spontaneous recognition, on the 

 part of the Eoman hierarchy, of the intellectual needs of 

 the age, will derive enlightenment from this, and still 

 more from what follows: for the most formidable threat 

 remains. To the picture of Catholic students seceding to 

 Trinity and the Queen's Colleges, the memorialists add 

 this darkest stroke of all: "They will, in the solitude of 

 their own homes, unaided by any guiding advice, devour 

 the works of Haeckel, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, and 

 Lyell; works innocuous if studied under a professor who 

 would point out the difference between established facts 

 and erroneous inferences, but which are calculated to sap 

 the faith of a solitary student, deprived of a discriminat- 

 ing judgment to which he could refer for a solution of his 

 difficulties." 



In the light of the knowledge given by this courageous 

 memorial, and of similar knowledge otherwise derived, 

 the recent Catholic manifesto did not at all strike me as 

 a chuckle over the mistake of a maladroit adversary, but 

 rather as an evidence of profound uneasiness on the part 

 of the Cardinal, the Archbishops, and the Bishops who 

 signed it. They acted toward the Students' Memorial, 

 however, with their accustomed practical wisdom. As 

 one concession to the spirit which it embodied, the Cath- 

 olic University at Kensington was brought forth, appar- 

 ently as the effect of spontaneous inward force, and not 

 of outward pressure becoming too formidable to be suc- 

 cessfully opposed. 



