CXXX. PROLEGOMENA. 



that these natural sources of destruction will be 

 (liminishei), and that population will find some 

 check more cong-eniiil to the advanced state of 

 society ? May not, then, the increased fervour 

 of devotion Avhich shall accompany multiplied 

 ])roofs of Christianity induce a yet larg-er number 

 of individuals to assume professions of celibacy, 

 so as to arrest an undue increase of mankind ? 

 For such a state of things would, in fact, be 

 substituting- a holy and contemplative life of 

 voluntary moral restraint and sacrifice, as a check 

 to population, for those disgusting moral and 

 physical calamities which are now so frequent, 

 even in Christendom, as to make many well 

 meaning persons hastily call in question the 

 authenticity of religion itself, from a contemplation 

 of its apparent incapability to subdue the irregular 

 animal propensities of human nature. 



Of the Temporal Blessings bestowed by the 

 Catholic Religion on Catholic Countries, 

 and on the Curses entailed on Nations bi/ 

 Heresy. 



Without giving an abstract of Catholic 

 Faith, or entering here into the question of its 

 most important eternal rewards, I shall say a few 

 words on the blessings which our religion has 

 alwa}s conferred on countries in which it has 

 prevailed, and on the miseries which the exercise 



