, 1890-12-11
An Earnest Tribute From a
Catholic Layman.
HIS TEMPORAL POWER RISING
Leo XIII. Declared to Be the Con-
ter of the intellectual Move
ment of the Time.
Written for the sunday REVIEW

and although he has not crossed the
threshold of tile Vatican and sits a
captive upon his throne, he Is never
theless the foremost potentate of the
world. The governments of Europe
solicit his friendship and regard.
His proudest foe, he whom his
friends were wont to call the man of
blood and iron, relaxed the vigor of
fifteen years warfare and sued his
ALLAN ce before he retired from pub.
lie life. On the occasion of his
jubilee the world We'd with itself to
do him honor and tribute. And
what brought about this wondrous
change? Not his virtue, nor his
piety, nor his craftsmanship alone
could have accomplished such re-
suits II his achievements are all the
effect of aught else than the prayers
of the Catholic world which he has
so often and so strongly invoked,
they are to he attributed to his hav-
ing turned upon mankind his
inspired power to teach, that might
lest weapon in the celestial armory
which Christ has placed at the dis
posal of his vicar upon earth. He
has triumphed because he has adj
dressed himself to the minds of men.
When Bismarck felt the forces of
socialism he recognized that his war
against the Church of Rome was
suicidal. To combat the pernicious
system of false philosophy with
which Germany was being indoc-
trinated and its false government
undermined, he sought the return
of true philosophy. What then for
him, but recourse to the high priest
of truth, the fountain.h head of phi
losophy?
BY those absorbed in practical
pursuits, the Importance of philos-
ophies to peoples is overlooked or
deprecated. And yet philosophy is
the guide of thought, the progenitor
of action, and action constitutes mo-
rality. Philosophy does more to
build up and perpetuate the
triumphs of people than mere
material strength. The italian
character has become distorted by
the cunning duplicity of Machia-
velli, and italian politics read like
u chapter from his masterpiece, "The
Prince" The France of the last
century Is such ms Voltaire, Diderot
and Rousseau have made 1t. She
has been stepped In intidel philos-
ophy, and therefore she imprisons
religion and declares war on faith.
Germany has been the plaything
OF perverse philosophy for more
than century. Their ialsities have
lmpregnated her people. They have
been the sport of the realists and of
the idealists. The springs whence
men get the Inspirations, impulses
and motives of industry have been
polluted. Blood poisoning has set
In, and the taint has even crossed
the ocean and our own country has
not escaped the 'contagion of social
ism.
To this false philosophy and its
attendant, irreligion, may be traced
the influences which most imperil
the social body. The toiler feels his
labor ill-requited when he deems
this earth his sole arena. He who
has but little enjoyment In the pres.
ent and no supernatural hope in the
future, chafies against the existing
orders as the cause OF his distress.
The effort OF man to break from
matriniony as from bondage, Is the
prompting of mind lost to reli-
gion. So is the disregard of au-
thority.
On all these evils Leo has spoken
with the force of Catholic truth. In
series of encyclical letters, which
| for beauty and wisdom have not
been surpassed by those of any of
his predecessors, he has pointed out
the very root of the dangers that
threaten society. In his first he
calls back the world drifting from
its moorings; he commands the re-
turn OF all schools to the teachings
of st. Thomas. With st. Thomas
as the guide of Catholic teachers,
with his principles the basis of more
elaborate discourses, the tendency to
wander from the way of truth IL re-
duced to the minimum. Learning
could never progress on surer lines,
nor build on more secure founda-
tions than when 1t received its inn
petus from this profound source.
This move of Leo was moreover
intended to supply what Catholic
thinkers most want, unity in truth.
Not unity only, nor diverse trials
after truth, but clear hold of one
true system. In order to confront
the fallacles of the day, the pope
has deemed IL necessary that Cath
olic thinkers should think in har-
mony.
In his first encyclical he teaches
the teachers; In his second he pro-
tects the sacred institution of mar
riage, the family, the home, where
the human mind receives its first
impressions. OF all his encyclicals
II is this which most nearly affects
his American children, and which
bears the closest relation to the
stability Of our cherished American
institutions. A representative form
of government, such as Is ours, can
not be IA permanent success unless
II rest upon the broad foundation o (
wise, patriotic and good people.
For II 1t 1be truly representative,
goodness exist In themselves and
the people at large. The only
method of effecting permanent
change for the good in the moral
condition Of people Is TO instill into
the popular mind, while yet i'm.
pressionable, correct principles Of
thought and action. 1t Is in the
school room that the character of
the man Is formed. The irreligious
school room develops the irrel.gious
man. Nothing, therefore, can be
more pe-nicious to the morals of