government what necessity for other laws? perhaps, in such a case, all human laws would be as useless, and superfluous, as they are certainly ineffectual wherever the Roman Catholic Religion is not their basis." Lord Fitz-William, resuming his observations, reduces them to two social aphorisms which cannot be too profoundly meditated.

Virtue, justice, and morality, should constitute the basis of all governments.

It is impossible to establish virtue, justice, and morality, on any solid foundation, without the tribunal of penance, because that tribunal, the most formidable of all, takes cognizance of the conscience of man, and directs it in a manner more efficacious than any other; now that tribunal belongs exclusively to the Catholic Church.

It is impossible to establish the tribunal of penance without a belief in the real presence, that principal basis of catholic faith, because without that belief the sacrament of communion loses its dignity and value. Protestants approach the Holy Table without fear, for they receive only a sign commemorative of the body of Jesus Christ.

On the other hand Catholics approach it with dread, because they receive the very body of their Redeemer. Thus wherever this belief was destroyed the tribunal of penance ceased with it; confession became useless, as wherever this belief exists confession is essential. And this tribunal, which is necessarily established with it, renders imperative the exercise of virtue, justice, and morality. Therefore as I have already said it is impossible to frame any permanent or advantageous system of government, which is not founded on the Roman Catholic Religion.

Here then we have the solution of the most important of all questions, (next to that of the immortality of the soul,) that can be presented to the consideration of man, namely-Which is the best government? The more we study this question, the more we shall perceive that the doctrine of the real presence applys not only to governments, but to all human affairs, that like the diapason in music, it forms the concord of the entire, and becomes to the moral what the sun is to the physical world. Illumians omnes homines- -St. John.

CHAPTER VII.

Catholic Charity.

If we contrast the nations who lived under the primitive religion with those who have received christianity fully developed, we shall immediately perceive that the sentiment of love has attained among the latter a superior degree, corresponding to a more perfect knowledge of the divine love. Eden revealed the goodness, but Calvary, the charity of God. From that hour man learned to love more perfectly.

Creation-by which God, without imparting himself to man, gave something from himself, was a magnificent boon of the infinite Being. Such was the type of ancient beneficence. Man learned to

share with his fellow man his superfluous goods, after the example of him who communicated to man, made to his likeness, a portion, and as it were, the superabundance of the inexhaustible riches of his own being. Hence the precept of charity ever remained associated in the tradition of all nations not excepting those in a state of barbarism, with the recollection of the supreme benefactor, the Father of the human family. "We all belong to the same family, said the chief of an American tribe, we are all the children of the great Spirit. When the white man put their foot for the first time on our lands, they were oppressed with hunger; they had no place where to prepare their beds, or light their fires; they were exausted; they could do nothing for themselves. Our Fathers had pity on their distress, and willingly shared with them all that the great spirit had given his red children."*

For the same reason, the beneficence prescribed by the primitive religion did not attain a degree, superior to the practice of alms, and other works of

* Memoirs of a Captive among the Indians of North America. London.

*

a similar nature. Where, in effect, could man have discovered the idea of a more perfect beneficence than that of which God had given him the example. But when the heavens opened, and this great mystery of piety shone forth in all its splendour, the horizon of charity expanded. In not limiting his bounty to partial benefits, as he had already done by creation, but becoming himself the gift he bestowed on man, God revealed an order of beneficence until then unknown. The mysterious veil, which shrouded from human intelligence the sight of the Holy of holies, or love in its absolute perfection, was rent asunder, and the world contemplated face to face, on the mountain of sacrifice, the living archtype of an infinite devotedness. Enlightened and animated by this revelation of love, human nature felt within itself the developement of a new sentiment. The intelligence of the heart, to use scriptural language, soared above its ancient limits, and man learned to love and serve his fellow

* Manifeste magnum est pietatis sacramentum, quod manifestatum est in carne. Epist, pr. ad Timoth. cap. iii. v. 16.