The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1956-04-06
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment Considered or ineonsidersis

In his admirable, and admiring essay on DR..
Johnson's, RassetaS, Haire Belloc makes this quo
tation: All that virtue afford is quetness Of
conscience, steady prospect of happier state:
this may enable us to endure calamity with pa.
tience: but remember that patience must suppose
pain"
Belloc says, Il would argue with the Doctor Gf
he we're alive, and before me now, and promised
not to roar too loud upon the matter of quiet
conscience. do not believe that good men have
quiet consciences | hold that an uneasy con-
scienee-at any rate nowadays-is the first requ-
site for Heaven ! have met many men with
quiet consciences. not all of them wholly unn-
telligent, but nearly all of them scoundrels.
AS in every disagreement or argument the
present Johnson-Belloc question needs the prelim
mary of we'll defined terms. Perhaps Dr. johnson,
using the term quiet conscience means peaceful
conscience. And Belloc appears TO use the term
for easy and untroubled conscience, which is
quite different thing For conscience may be
easy because it is iazy; it may be untroubled
because it will not take the trouble TO assess
itself.
As Christians, we must know that peace is
completely consonant with sorrow, and even with
deep distress of mind or heart. Under the Gross,
the Blessed Mother is Our Lady of Sorrows but
at that same instant she is still Our Lady of Peace.
The Queen of Martyrs and the Queen of Peace are
two names of one person,-names applicable TO
that person at one and the same time And Our
Suffering Savior, throughout the inexpressible
agonies of His Passion, is unnterruptedly the
Prince of Peace
II is disastrous mistake to make synonyms
of peace and smugneSS. St Paul says that he is
not conscious of any sin on his conscience he says
hn hoIi bat ho has he ornp anf( (snda ind
in him. Therefore, he is at peace. But he quickly
adds that he is not therefore justified. He is not
smugly content, satisfied to slacken effort or
lax vigilance, because in his own solid opinion
he Is ready right now for death and judgment He
realizes that he must be alert active eager in the
pursuit and preservation of virtue His own judg
ment upon himself is neither final nor effective:
He that judgeth me is the Lord.
st. Paul had quiet conscience in the meaning
of peaceful conscience II was not conscience
in turmoil with the worries that indicate lack
of confidence in God, with frets with scrupulosty
Yet IL was not SNUG conscience; it was not quiet
with duness, with inactivity, with selfsatsfac
ton. II was not a conscience ready, so to speak
to rest on the oars TO delight in laurels already
won, TO bask lazily in achievement II was the
conscience of a good soldier who rejoces in to-
days victory while fully aware that any remis.
sion of aertness and vigilance may mean to-
morroWs defeat
Now, to Hilaire Belloc the phrase Il quiet
conscience unquestionably means a SNUG and
selfsatisfed conscience conscience untroubled
by present or future; conscience wholly remote
from renewal OF good resolution; conscience
numb, unaffected by its owners purposes and
performances, be these good or evil And GER
tainly man with this type of quiet conscience
is, at least potentially, great scoundrel.
But il is pretty plain that Dr. Johnson's quiet
conscience does not mean the atrophed con-
science of seoundrel. For the Doctor speaks
OF virtue and of what virtue can do for man here
earth. "a quiet conscience and the steady pros.
pect of happier state" The scoundrel'S quiet
conscience entertans no prospect of any state
beyond the present existence. state dependent
upon the manner in which this present existence
is employed The scoundrels quiet conscience is
untroubed by any thought Of death and indg.
ment, and the changelesS outcome of judgment
The scoundrel does not say to himself, HE that
judgeth me is the Lord" The scoundrel ignores
the Lord and works some such ugly principle
as Business is business LET us live while we
are alive or Look out for Number One" or
"All's fair if you can get away with it,"
Hilaire Beoc, coming upon that saying of
Johnson with which he takes issue was not
thinking his thoughts on quiet conscience for
the first time. He had written on the subject a
little quatrian of terrifying pognancy. 1t is here
quoted from memory
The deVil,-when a man has served him well,
And scarce a thought doth trouble or rebel
Lifteth his hands to bless and on that soul
Softly there falls the perfect peace of hell.
N@$
Scarce thought doth trouble or rebel "
There you have the quiet conscience of the
Scoundrel the conscience that is quiet because
il is atrophied II is conscience waiting numby,
and unaware for death in the state Of final
impenitence, II is a conscience impotent to give
the spark that can make man alert TO danger
and enable him to grasp the grace of God and
escape eternal ruin.
To be sure, the word peace in the final line
of that terrible quarain means no true peace
but dullness, numbneSs, atrophy, death OF all
the frightening words in that bit of frightening
verse, the most direfu and devastating is the
phrase, "the perfect peace of hell And of these
words, the most terrible is the word perfect
II is fairly certain that If Beloc and Johnson
could have non.roaring discussion of the mat
Ter they would quickly come TO agreement Then
liz rIt.In he all