The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-12

their derision Of the Christian education by
pointiue to the falling away which too often
| follows it, when young persons come Witnln
other influences than those under which
their early years have been spent. 1t 1s
rarely that the lesson has been taught
wholly in vain. Trained as q piOus Roman
Catholic, and then lapsing into lnhdehty,
Lacordaire could say in the midst OF his
unbelief: ~ love the Gospel, for its NOR
atty is Incompatible respect its minis
tiers because they exercise a saiutary lnhu-
ence on society" even though ne had to
add, but have not received as my snare
the gift of faith"
In that state Of transition through Which
his mind passed before it rested on the
Rock of Ages, he seems never to have lost
faith in the social Importance OF the Gospel,
though he had no belief in its supernatural
DEVELOPMENT. Indeed, his scepticism must
he distinguished from that of the vulgar
herd of doUbters. 1t was the result neither
of vicious inclination, nor of intellectual
vanity, nor of mere superficial intellectual
cleverness, which, coupled with an affected
cynicism ana want of sincerity, 10 the
cause of so much fatulent infdellty. 1t
was rather due to his mind entering upon a
new and goddess discipline before it had at
famed maturity, and in those years, be-
tween twelve and seventeen, which do so
much to strengthen, OF to phil to pieces, the
foundation which has been laid by home
education. He says in his memoirs:
ST left college Mt the age of seventeen
with my faith destroyed and my morals in
J,red, but upright, open, impetuous, sensi
BILE to honor, and taste for letters and for
the beautiful having before my eyes. as
the guiding star of my life, the human ideal
of glory This result is easily explained.
Nothing had supported our faith in q system
of education in which the word of God held
but secondary place, and was enforced
neither argument nor -efoquence,
whilst Mt the same time, we are daily en-
gagged in studying masterpieces and heroic
examples of antiquity. The old pagan
world presented to us i'll these sublime
aspects, kindled within us love OF it's viz
tues, whilst the modern world, created by
the Gospel, remained entirely unknown to
lis. Its great men, its saints, its civiliza-
ton, it's moral and civil superiority, the
progress made by humanity under the in
fluence of the Gross, totally escaped our
notice. Even the history of our own coun-
try, scantily studied, left us wholly un-
moved: and we were Frenchmen by birth
without being SO at heart. l am far, how
ever, from joining in the condemnation
which some in our own time have passed on
the study of the classics. We owed to them
the sense of the beautiful, many precious
national virtues, great examples, and an
able times but we had not climbed high
enough to reach the summit of the editice,
which is Jesus Christ the friezes of the
Parthenon concealed from us the dome of
St. Peters,"
Coming to Paris after he had completed
his law studies, with the view of entering
the bar, he seemed at once to become still
further removed from religious faith by a
complete acceptance Of the spirit which he
| found in the capital Scarcely" he says,
% had caught the echoes Of public affairs,
than belonged to the age by my love of
liberty, as entirely as had already been
| identified with it by my ignorance of God
and the Gospel" In Paris he lived, as he
says, poor and solitary, laboring in secret
at twenty years of age, without exterio,
enioyments or agreeable ties in society
without attraction for the world or enthusi
assn for the theatre; in fact, without any
passion of which was conscious, unless il
were a vague, tormenting desire of renown
Some slight success IL. the court OF asslz'
moved me Il little, but without taking an.
great hold of me-" For two years, from
1922 to 1924, he lived in. this state in a littl
attic chamber in the Rue Mont Thabor
working diligently at his law studies, bu
beginning to feel that it was not for sucl
exercises that he had been sent into til
world.
, At this time he writes I" This fire of en-
j thusiasm and imagination which consume
T. me was certainly never given me that
! might be quenched under the ice of the law
. | OF Stlneu III pOSlClVe kkuU siluuouS lhcuita
n tions but 1 am detained in my preser
y position by that force Of reason which cor
. vinces me that to try everything, and to
u always changing ones place, is not the wa
u to change ones nature" His first efforts
8 the bar were so successful that M. Berrys
u q assured him he might rise to the first ran
N if he would avoid the snare of his too read
eloquence. But the First President sa
e more clearly into the character of elt
b quence. "Gentlemen," said he, after one
> Lacordaire's pleadings, " this is not Patrr
q, it is Bossuet." He had been little MOI
n l, than u year in Paris when he wrote to OF
~ of his friends, /" Would you believe it, 1 q
20 every day growing more and more Chri
ie tiane 1t is strange-ths progressive chang
o. in my opinions 1 am beginning to believ
ai and yet was never more philesophe
y, A little philosophy draws us from reGgio
I'll lint 4. unnd deal of IL hrinps<Ils hack apaip