216 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



boldly that ' God does not rule by universal law . . . 

 that when God orders a given planet to stand still He 

 does not detract from any law passed by Himself, but 

 orders that planet to move round the sun for such and 

 such a time, then to stand still, and then again to move, 

 as His pleasure may be.' Jesuitism proscribed Froh- 

 schammer for questioning its favourite dogma, that 

 every human soul was created by a direct supernatural 

 act of God, and for asserting that man, body and soul, 

 came from his parents. This is the system that now 

 strives for universal power ; it is from it, as Monsignor 

 Capel graciously informs us, that we are to learn what 

 is allowable in science, and what is not I 



In the face of such facts, which might be multiplied 

 at will, it requires extraordinary bravery of mind, or a 

 reliance upon public ignorance almost as extraordinary, 

 to make the claims made by Monsignor Capel for his 

 Church. 



Before me is a very remarkable letter addressed in 

 1 875 by the Bishop of Montpellier to the Deans and Pro- 

 fessors of Faculties of Montpellier, in which the writer 

 very clearly lays down the claims of his Church. He had 

 been startled by an incident occurring in a course of 

 lectures on Physiology given by a professor, of whose 

 scientific capacity there was no doubt, but who, it was 

 alleged, rightly or wrongly, had made his course the 

 vehicle of materialism. ' Je ne me suis point donne,' says 

 the Bishop, ' la mission que je remplis au milieu de vous. 

 " Personne, au temoignage de saint Paul, ne s'attribue 

 a soi-me'me un pareil honneur ; il y faut etre appele de 

 Dieu, comme Aaron." Et pourquoi en est-il ainsi? 

 C'est parce que, selon le meme Apotre, nous devons 

 etre les ambassadeurs de Dieu; et il n'est pas dans 

 les usages, pas plus qu'il n'est dans la raison et le droit, 

 qu'un envoye s'accredite lui-meme. Mais, sij'ai recu 



