Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-07-25

|, ever IN c011 17FleS WneIE DlSNOi1S s2IS
| more numerous than they are here IL
the west. At one time Monday foIl
bishops occupied box at the opea->ss
house
Mondays Lectures.
A Jessilit priest is regarded as among
the best educated in the priesthood
Membegs of this order receive special
training from the time they are about
ii years old until 81 when they are or
dsined. Rev. Eugene AIagevRey, who
gave a series of lectures last week.
Rev. j. j. Conway who is this week
leeturing on the fundamental :princi-
pies of ethics, and Rev P. Charles
De Smedt, whose first paper on the
qualities Of a critic was read yesterday
afternoon, are representative of this
order.
DIR. Conway spoke on the Subject
Matter of Ethics. The lecturer said
reetitude gathered from natural ret
son. Tt is a science because it Is
knowledge by first principles and thus
distinguished frosn moral theology on
the one hand ants ON the other from
moral empjricism, moral purisan. pes
Simisa, aestlheticlsm and pantheism
III as much as these theories of moral
ity are based upon the principles of re
vealed religion OF THE vagaries and ex-
aggerated forms of modern rational
ism and idealisan and not upon NATURAL
reasons. Ethics, thus defined, is divid-
en-, into general and special ethics.
Special ethics deals with the moral
principles underlying the manifold re-
lotions in which man stands to God,
to himself and ito society in it's diverse
forms of domestic, civil, ecclesiastic
and International. In this sense it is
often termed the science of natural
law Or the doctrine OF mans natural
rights and duties. It's field is broad
and interesting, covering all the pos
sible questions of a moral or juridico-
moral character affecting man in his
individual, religious domestic, civil,
ecclesiastical and International atti-
tude.
DR.. Maurice Francis Egan, of the
university of Notre Dame, opened the
course in literature with a lecture on
the influence of religion ON letters.
His audience was the largest yet as
sembled. He made sweeping claims
for the Catholic church. and said that
every poet at his best was religious.
He was listened to with the deepest
attention, but some of his utte1anceS
excited discussion. 1t was novelty
to hear the assertion that Voltaire's
tragedies We're religious and his
praise of the lyrics of Heine was I'M
expected. He distinguished, however,
between the hooking spirit of Heine's
prose and the tenderness of his verse
The Jesuits, he said, were the first to
make use of the new learning of the
renaissance; and, if we had the poems
of Homer and Horace, it was because
the Catholic church loved bea uty; il
Illuminated and cherished all true
beauty. Chaucer had no Puritanism
in him, nor had Shakespeare; he was
broad and Catholic. Milton, when in
lightful and beautiful, but, when he
became a Puritan, Lucifer, the rebel
was made more interesting than God
the being. Prof. Egan solemnly de-
clared that, if he was choosing re-
ligion, he would choose that which
most greatly honored the div me in
woman And no great poet had de-
graded the ideal Goethe, in
Faust was obliged to accept the Cath
Ollie ideal of the Virgin.
When DR.. J. A Zahm was In Europe
last fall he arranged for several
papers from some of the most dis
tinguished scholars Of the old world.
The first paper by a European author
| of Christianity and Buddhism. The
second was read Monday afternoon
F.! by Rev. 2. J. Danehy. Its title was
| the Qualities of a Critic. It's author,
Rev. P Charles De Smedt, is a native
| of Brussels and has never seen Ameri-
can shores. He is chief of the -Bollan-
| diSts, a society Of eight or ten priests
| formed over 200 years ago to write
in Latin the biographies of the saints
| The society has finished and published
many volumes and it is estimated that
it will take 100 years more to complete
the work. The paper was written il
| French and translated at Notre Dame
After an introduction of some lenTtf
Father De Smedt says: