94 SCIENCE IN BONDAGE " 



to protect them from wild beasts who may try 

 to do harm from without, but quite as much from 

 the wild rams of the flock who are capable of 

 doing a great deal of injury from within. In 

 one of his letters, from which quotation has 

 already been made, the late Monsignor Benson 

 sums up, in homely, but vivid language, the point 

 with which we have just been dealing. " Here 

 are the lambs of Christ's flock," he writes : " Is 

 a stout old ram to upset and confuse them when 

 he needn't . . . even though he is right ? The 

 flock must be led gently and turned in a great 

 curve. We can't all whip round in an instant. 

 We are tired and discouraged and some of us are 

 exceedingly stupid and obstinate. Very well ; 

 then the rams can't be allowed to make brilliant 

 excursions in all directions and upset us all. We 

 shall get there some day, if we are treated patiently. 

 We are Christ's lambs after all." 



The protection of the weak : surely, if it be 

 deemed both just and wise on the part of the 

 civil government to protect its subjects by legisla- 

 tion in regard to adulterated goods, contagious 

 diseases, unhealthy workshops and dangerous 

 machinery, why may not the Church safeguard 

 her children, especially her weaker children, the 

 special object of her care and solicitude, from 

 noxious intellectual foods ? 



It is just here that the question of the Index 

 arises. Put briefly, this is a list of books which 

 are not to be read by Catholics unless they have 

 permission to read them a permission which, 

 as we have just seen, is never refused when any 



