The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1868-05-10
1o1Nua gfA1 AID oA1EoIIc NHnnNaK1
NEW ORLEANS SUNDAY, NAY 10. lsss
1A1K AID NArEaIAIIsN.

The latest instance we find thus stated In
the New York SSs.: -----'--7--' =
Recent French newspapers contain aH iE-
<eFesting correspondence between the
6Ashop Of Orleans and young student of
HNedtclne named Grenier, who has just gra-
>dhated at q medical school in Paris. In the
tAesis which Grenier read cefore the medi-
cal faculty on his anal examination, he
~vowed himself = InAtsrialist, and argued
against the existence Of the human soul dis
of this, wrote to the Minister of Public In
stIuction to complain of the unchristian
principles implanted in the minds of the
students at the medical school and the
minister, thinking to please him, directed
chat Mr.: Grenier should not receive his di-
plosaa. Hereupon the young man addressed
= letter to the Bishop, again declaring his
HAeth in materia1ism, but stating that he had
'scqnired it, not from the teachings Of the
aAedica1 school, but by Inheritance from his
Isoher, also physician, who had been
Hts letter is. written in an excellent spirit,
4dM of sincerity and enthusiasm, and the
Bishop replies with a sweetness of temper
and force of argument which do him in
dnite credit. He disclaims all participation
forth the self-contradiction of the material
1stac theory. He says, very justly, that if
materialism be true, there can be no free.
thinking, since, if the soul is but the result
of material forces, it must he their slave.
Besides, the materialist voluntarily closes
lies above and beyond matter, and, there
fore, his thinking is really less free than
that of those who believe in spiritual
existence He then goes on to vindicate the
mission of his Church, and closes with this
long experience, will not continue @ to a' call i
reaction the belief in truths which are of
@etery age; for the truth is always young;
and-one day, dying, long after shall be no
more, YOU will not, face to face with eternity,
-.easse the hand which extend you at this
TO give you henedicti0n whiIR
you conld not receive from yonr fathaf. and
which you will not refuse from aprtifd man,
though not from q bishop. 1 do, ,ai6t say from
~ friend, for. you would .Q16t believe me;
saevertheless, that ALSO. -i6 the fact"
Bush letters haxs excited great attention
I'm France, and the most varied comments.
\ -Ihe~f6llowing is the letter of the young
physician, and the opening portion of the
Asishop's reply:
You. Monseigneur, are very great, and I
~sAm very little. Your words will have great
weight with the minister, and his excellency
may very possibly sacrifice me to please
you. ! shall astonish you greatly, in all
rialist and revolutionary, just as you are
Christian and reactionary, that is to say,
with the like certainty, the like faith, and
Safght almost say the like nairete. My
father, IL free thinker and materialist, was
- for forty five years medical practitioner
in small village of Perigord. He did rot
escape persecution and calumny, and he
added not a sou to his paternnl fortune.
inalerit his opinions. My father died sud
deniy, aged seventy one, by the beds of
q poorPatient whom he visited gratuitously.
This history furnishes an answer to the
question in your pamphlet-"Who will re-
Ssign himself to live for quarter of a CEN
Sury in village, poor, solitary, and
"calumnated, passing his whole time amongst
the dead and therdyingf" i reply boldly
tthat physicians will and do. aspire to do
ias my father did before me.
The Bishops reply was as follows:
You tell me that your father was u mate
scialist and free-thinker, and that you agree
an bis opinions. By what inadvertence is
at that you do not perceive the cOntradic-
'fion in terms of your theory? For if thought
is but Il produce of matter, how can it be-
freef \ materialist cannot possibly he u
free thinker; and add that he cannot be a
great thinker, for his horizon must necessa-
":ily be limited. Your father, you say, was
"a materialist; but your fathers were not.
4 would not desire to detract from the just
respect which you owe to the immediate
sauthor of your being, but would ask you,
whether all your other ancestors for many
centuries Were fools and idiots, deserving
of no respect because they believed in their
Immortal soul, and had not yet made the
splendid discovery that we are nothing but
atoms, moved about by blind fatality You
speak of belief in the soul as an antiquated
.and decaying doctrine. The "past," of
which you SO contemptuously speak, has
been an illustrious one. 1t comprises all
ages, all genius, and every phase of human
civilization. No! If belief i'll the soul is the
past, it is also the present, and, pace the
faculty of medicine of Paris, it will be the
future.
LOOK Ur AS WELL AS DowN.-s'O father !!
o mother! the moon is drowned; she is
indeed; we have seen her living trembling