the first principle of every human school. That must be the major in every syllogism framed to form a conclusion pointing to the training of mankind. It is so old, it sounds so commonplace, this tremendous axiom of life, but it is nevertheless the very foundation stone of existence, like air and water, the very commonest of the elements, which at the same time remain forever the most absolutely essential. The Church knows this truth and its value, and on that firm and solid basis solves every difficulty of human life. Therefore, she says whatever unfits a man for eternity unfits him for life. Therefore also whatever engenders in man any power which, in the smallest degree, imperils eternity must be eliminated from life.

She knows by that divine knowledge which human wisdom often despises at its peril, that every man born into this world has a very distinct place in it assigned to him by a Divine Providence which fits perfectly and in the minutest detail his means to accomplish the end. Therefore she has ever held and ever taught that every man is happiest in this life, and better fitted for eternity, in that distinct and very particular station which by God's Providence he is destined to occupy. This being her creed and philosophy she is not allured or deceived by false views of the demagogues who would foolishly persuade men that every position in life is equally attainable by all, and that the duty of the lowliest is to achieve the highest place. This may be flattering to a vain and material view of human life; but the Church sees clear and knows better than the fanciful dreamer and flattering deceiver of the people. She says to each, be what you can be best, not what your foolish vanity and false ambition would allure to; and in doing best

what is at your hand you best fit yourself for whatever may come next in the order of God's plans for you. The desire, foolish and simple, of subverting this principle, is the cause of untold woe in the world. An inordinate desire of all to be first, produces disorder, for order means a well established progression of first to last. Anarchy, which is only the Greek for disorder, has its chief root in the desire of the subject to be king, with the conclusion so dreadfully manifest that when each one would be king a king must die; and this conclusion, though it has its most manifest evidence in the occasional outrage which throws the world into horror and grief is, though in a smaller degree, wherever it is prevalent, always the bitter cause of disorder, discontent and unhappiness.

Again we repeat, there is only one true school of life, the Church, whose teachings have ever proclaimed this simple but sublime principle, "Each one in his place and all under God." In this sublime economy there must naturally be diverse places according to the necessities and adornments of life in its full sense. There must be the brain to think and the hand to do and the feet to carry. Life means all three; society needs all three. A man paralyzed from the head down can never act, however much he may think or will, and the man who acts without thought or will is a machine and not a man. Human society is like a human being, it must have its brain to think and its hands to do. The Church is the very heart of society, which pumps the vivifying red blood of God's grace into brain and hand, and unites both brain and hand in the act which both together must perform. She would not change each into the other, but recognizing in each a distinct and necessary organ she combines the life of both into perfect harmony. From this true

philosophy of hers she applies her principles to the varied phases of life. She knows that of the great mass of humanity, labor is a duty; for others, thought. She sees that whereas there is only one brain, there are two hands and ten divisions of those hands; the multitude work, the very few think, and knowing that this is no mere misfortune of humanity, but a divinely organized plan, she guides the thinker and blesses the worker. Labor, she teaches her children, is no curse, but one of the greatest blessings that God has vouchsafed to humanity.

She trains the children of the people not to despise but to love it; to be content and do it well, for such was Christ's own attitude towards labor and the laborer. In the face of accusations that she is not progressive, that she holds the people back in discouraging knowledge, she pitifully smiles at her accusers and bids them in justice examine the results of her system, the outcome of wide experience, of centuries of trial, and bids them compare it with their theories built upon a false scheme of life, fostered at an enormous expense and found wanting in the bitter end. For it relieves none of the evils for which it was devised, and produces very often more unhappiness and failure than its promoters care to admit, though nowadays, even without their admission, the results are well known.

The Church has ever loved the people with a truly noble maternal affection, but she has never stooped to deceive them with adulation, or to lead them astray with flattery. She pictures no millennium which can never exist and she gives them no fancy, but reality, as the basis of their lives. She knows that in the eternal plans which God's love has made for them, temporally and eternally, labor, holy devoted labor, is a happy necessity for the

vast majority; and not the labor of the brain, but manual labor. In the face of this knowledge of the urgent needs of life, she has not beguiled her children into foolish dreams of an existence to them impossible, but has girded them with courage and strength and virtue for real life, in which they must be ready to serve as well as to be served, according to the station of life which is theirs, not by misfortune or ill luck, or even by what the world calls chance, but by the designs of God for their best eternal welfare. Where her voice has been heeded and obeyed, the laborer has never been ashamed of his labor, nor the artisan of his trade. He values the dignity of his life, humble though it be, beyond fine garments, and his apron, according to this noble ideal, is no stigma, but the badge of his honorable order the order of holy, honest labor, the order of those who are especially invited to the table of Christ's banquet: "Come all ye who labor, and I will refresh you."

Examine what the Church has done; note also what fine theorizers have failed to accomplish, and then you will understand the difference of effect as well as of method. I do not care to pronounce judgment now upon the Old World custom where every father claims his son as apprentice to his own trade, and where the occupation of sire descends to his children from generation to generation; though no one who has seen such conditions as they exist at their best can deny that these men are as happy, at least, as those who live where other ideals prevail. But I do hold that an immeasurable harm is done by the system that teaches the youth to despise his father's hands hardened by honest toil; and where a false and foolish pride forces many a youth, who, as an intelligent artisan, would be a happy and useful member of

society, into a sphere or profession for which he has no natural aptitude or ability. The result too often is a false life of empty hope in a field already crowded, where the vain folly of a life of artificiality, straining to be what he is not, is repaid by daily discontent and unhappiness. As between the old system, conservative, and unflattering, but sound and real, and those airy flights of the modern educator, who makes the substance of life dependent upon an academic degree, and would educate every cook to be a chemist, and every woodcarver a botanist, I think no one can hesitate who understands human life.

Every specialist is naturally one-sided, and every mere educator is a specialist in his cause. For many years modern civilization has abandoned itself to the mercy of the educator. Life has been forgotten in mere learning, and now at last sensible men are awakening to the fact that if all the world is to be a college, there would be no one left to till the ground, to build the railroads, to minister to humanity those various needs which even the most educated community cannot eliminate and which can only be provided by work and workers. After pursuing fanciful theories which are being proved false by their results, they are now at last beginning to realize their deception, and slowly to return to the position which we have always maintained. They have found at last that in the history of nations, our own included, not the bookworm with his theories, but the man of sufficient knowledge of his place, is the man who has achieved real success in his life, lofty or lowly; not the man enervated by overstudy, and with brain befogged by theorizing, but the man with knowledge enough to help him, and with industry, labor, and that practical good sense