The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1875-01-03
, ARCHBIsHoP BAYLEY.
HIS LECTURE ON THE STUDY OF BOOKS
baltimore Mirror. I

baltimore MirrorI
The Most Rev. Archbishop Bayley delivered
splendid lecture at Lincoln Hall, Washing
ton, on Thursday evening, December 10th, for
the benefit of the Young Catholics Friend
Society. The audience was large one.
It is not my intention, the Archbishop said
to deliver before you what may be called for
NAL lecture on literature An English autho,
has written q delightful book on fish and fish.
ing, which he entitled "Fish Tattle," and il
seems to me that proper name for my dis.
course this evening would be
BOOK TATTLE.
My intention is to hold with you q converse
tion about books, where the talking will be all
ON one side-not an uncommon thing, by the
wsy-for my idea of q lecture of this sort is,
that it should be in some measure a recreation
to those who listen to it, as at the best it is a
very superficial and imperfect way of commu-
nieating knowledge.
If you really wish to become acquainted with
any subject so az to know something about it,
you must get the best works treating upon it
and then sit down to the quiet and careful
study of them. But very few, comparatively,
have leisure for this in these busy days, and
what littlo most people know or think they
know is, as ii were, caught flying and taken at
second hand, and often in very damaged con-
ditiop, from reviews, and lectures, and news
papers.
There never was time, perhaps, when the
poets apothegm, which contains, however, a
deep philosophical truth. that "a little learn
ing is a dangerous thing" was more applicable
than to our days. Everybody reads but very
few study, and consequently very few get any
real advantage from their reading.
THE SOLID MEAT OF REAL KNOWLEDGE,
if I may use such figure, is made into very
thin soup. and although everybody may be said
to get plate of it, there is very little nourish-
ment in it. Now, I do not intend to deny the
advantages of an ably-conducted review or
well-edited newspaper. Their usefulness in
&1a % 4l, H1l-
evident. 6, when they are we'll and con-
scientifically edited, which, 1 am sorry to say,
is becoming every day more rare, especially in
the case of newspapers. But do mean to
assert that too much time is given up to them
in osr days, or rather too many even of those
who wish to become instructed Ct will not say
learned), satisfy themselves with such know
ledge as may be obtained from them. We are
not, with all our sharpness and boasted means
of education, a well-instructed people.
The remark is often made that our age is an
age of mediOCTirN N-that We no longer produce
any really great men, and it is asserted as q
proof of this that If You were to sift the whole
mass of the American people, numbering now
some forty millions, you could not get together
a body of men who, for intellect, thorough
training, and broad, statesmaulike views,
would compare with those who composed the
Continental Congress of 1775, or the Conven-
tion which made the Constitution of 1884
SOME OF THE CAUSES
of this condition of things lie upon the sur
face, others are not recognized, and if we had
Burke or De Maistre, or even De Tocque-
vile, to point out clearly and philosophically
the sources of the evil and the proper remedies,
something might yet be done to arrest our
downward progress. The chief causes of our
decadence in these matters are moral ones no
doubt. But will not speak of these. One
great cause is that the leading men of the
country, those who create and influence and
direct public opinion, as general thing are
not educated themselves. They have not mas
tered, nor attempted to master, the knowledge
and experience of the past. They have never
studied the science of government as such, and
are disposed to ignore that there Is any such
science.
They regard man who devotes himself to
profound, liberal studies a bookworm, a
mere theorist. They undervalue the cultivated
intellect as distinguished from mere natural
quickness and sagacity, and are induced to
give the preference to the latter as being more
practical, as they call it. OF all folly this is
the most unreasonable.
THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT.
is one of the most difficult of all sciences. 1t
requires knowledge of the past, experience,
strict adhesion to the principles upon which
the government was founded, great vigilence,
steadiness in guarding against and resisting
the encroachment of any one department of
the government upon another. Hence it is
that real craftsmanship has always been re-
garded as requiring combination of the rarest
and most distinguished qualities, cultivated
and matured by diligent study and experience.
The wise man in the Book of Ecclesiasticus
tells ne that they whose days are given to their
oaaAy Toll and mechanlcal arts, no are not able
to acquire that solid wisdom which "cometh
OF opportunity of LEISURE" shall not sit on
the judges seat" "nor be sought for in the
public council" But we have got beyond all
that, and have found out that the art of gov
erning States is the easiest thing IN rhe world.
If We applied the principle to other things we
would find out our mistake.
No one of us would think of attempting to
cross the ocean in q vessel the captain and |
crew'of which had never been to sea before, |
and which had no compass or chTDnometer or |
sextant on board, but directed its course by |
the way the wind blew the currents ran /; |
and yet this is very much the manner in which |
the ship of state, with some rare exceptions, is
managed in our day. Whenever look over |
2 speech of one of the radical orators of our /