116 INDOOR STUDIES 



Protestantism has taken to the open boats, while 

 some of the sects have hardly a plank beneath them. 

 Yes, if you are no swimmer, and must needs make 

 the voyage with the least possible trouble and ex- 

 posure, embark in the great mother church. You 

 have little more to do than a passenger on board of 

 one of the Altantic steamers. Herein we strike the 

 secret of the power of the Catholic Church, and the 

 secret of its hopes for the future. After one has 

 passed through a certain course of experience and 

 development, it is easy to see how men tire of the 

 open boat or single plank mode of navigation, and 

 desire the repose and security of a vessel that has 

 withstood the elements so long. Then people left to 

 themselves do make such wretched work with the 

 Bible, do belittle and vulgarize it so ! They take a 

 text here and a text there, and brood over them, 

 and make a great noise over a nest full of addled 

 eggs ; for a text, wrenched from its context and read 

 in any spirit but that in which it was written be- 

 comes as an addled egg. Mormonism is one of the 

 legitimate fruits of Protestantism. The Catholic 

 Church puts an end to all this; there are no more 

 noisy sects and isms; the Bible is authoritatively 

 interpreted. This alone commends her to men of 

 taste. 



Arnold's Hellenism is the source of both his 

 weakness and his strength; his strength, because it 

 gives him a principle that cannot be impeached. In 

 all matters of taste and culture the Greek standards 



