as not to know all they tell us, that we need to be taught what lies on the mere surface of things? Ah! if they could but for one moment conceive how ridiculous they appear in their pretensions, to men who have been taught by a MASTER, they would not know where to hide themselves.

ART. IV. Influence of Catholic Prayer on Civilization. A Dissertation delivered before the Academy DI RELIGIONE CATTOLICA at Rome, by FATHER LOUIS TAPARELLI D'AZEGLIO, of the Society of Jesus, Professor of Philosophy in the Royal College of Palermo. Translated from the original Italian expressly for this Review, from the Roman Journal Annali delle Scienze Religiose, edited by Professor Arrighi.

[We have been so well pleased with the following Dissertation on the Influence of Catholic Prayer on Civilization, by the well-known Father Taparelli, that we translate and present it entire to our readers, sure that they will prize it far above any thing which we can offer them of our own. It is an essay which, if studied, will be found to be especially adapted to our times and country, to teach the truths which we need now more than ever, and to correct the folly and madness of those who are seeking to advance civilization and to elevate the laboring classes by methods which leave out religion, and place reliance on humanity alone. The author is justly distinguished for eminent abilities, solid learning, and genuine philosophical attainments. He is evidently a man of keen insight, and of deep and earnest thought, who has studied in the best human schools, and, what is far better, at the foot of the crucifix, and practised the prayer of which he treats. He is a philosopher and a sincere and devoted Catholic, - knows his age and loves his religion. His Dissertation is one of the ablest that we have ever read; and it is refreshing, in these days of sciolists and shallow pretenders, when so many write and so few think, so many read and so few meditate, to meet with a production which bears at once the marks of mature intellect, of genuine science, and unaffected piety. In a few words, and apparently without intending it, it refutes and utterly explodes all the systems of the Economists, Communists, and Associationists, the gods of this godless age; and renders ridiculous the loud shout of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, in a merely humanitarian sense, which just now comes upon our ears with deafening force, from almost every land. We beg our Catholic friends to read it, and cling still firmer to their religion; we beg our Protestant friends to read and understand it, and learn, before it is too late, to regret that Church which their fathers in their pride and madness rejected. It opens rich veins of thought, suggests trains of reflection, presents striking and original views, valuable at all times, but especially so now, when men

are so generally disposed to reverse the admonition of our Saviour, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you," and to lay down the rule, "Seek first all these things, and the kingdom of God and his justice shall be added unto you," — or if not, it is just as well.]

I.

WHEN, in a divine institution even apparently remote from human affairs, we find certain bearings and proportions to human objects in what they have naturally worthy of praise, so that God appears to coöperate in a measure with man, it is right that such connection be made manifest; not, indeed, as some, perhaps, think, for the sake of begging the applause of those who are called philanthropists, but rather for the sake of adducing new instances to illustrate the infinite wisdom of the Divine Institutor. For his wisdom excites our admiration more strikingly when we behold the vivifying rays which diverge from it as a centre, conveying sudden light and warmth into far distant regions, where their influence was not even suspected. Now, though I am not bold enough to assert that the influence of Catholic prayer on civilization has not been remarked by minds accustomed to reflection, I can safely say that many blind unbelievers and many well-inclined Catholics fail to understand the immense control exerted over the universal wellbeing of society by the institution I have proposed to examine. The Catholic, full of faith and desirous of insuring a blissful immortality, will aim all but exclusively at this in prayer, scarcely deeming worthy of notice any of its temporal advantages, in comparison with its spiritual efficacy. Infidels, on the other hand, whether they look upon prayer as a superstitious weakness of good souls who have more piety than wit, or, out of condescension, as an affair of the heart between man and God, will surely be far from believing that the exercise of Catholic prayer has any thing to do with the great object they declaim of so frequently, the general happiness of nations. If, therefore, I can prove that there is so close a relationship between social amelioration and prayer, as used by Catholics, as to show prayer in the light of one of the most efficient means instituted for that end by the Creator, besides having the satisfaction of breathing a new hymn to the wisdom of the Founder of Christianity, I may hope to do some good to virtuous Catholics by pointing out new reasons why they should pray, drawn from the present state of society; and to unbelievers by reconciling them intellectually, at least, to what they call idle mysti

cism. Accordingly, I assert the following proposition : Catholic prayer, apparently only designed to obtain graces from heaven, is one of the most active causes of civilization and social welfare.

It is easy to perceive what grateful admiration a convincing proof of such an assertion is calculated to excite of the Divine Wisdom which established and governs the Church. For is it not a wonderful thing, that a man apparently plain and simple, gathering around him in a remote part of Palestine twelve unlettered fishermen, prompting them with a prayer to God as our Father, and teaching them to commemorate his death by breaking a mystical bread, should have cast the germ, which, by its miraculous fecundity, has been a powerful, though not the only, cause of the great change effected in the pagan world by Christian civilization? Who could refrain from an expression of thankfulness and admiration at such a sight; — admiration of Him, who, discerning in an instrumentality, which the world would deem utterly unequal to the task, a hidden force, great in its power, though slow in its action, applied it to produce in remote centuries effects far more imposing than its apparent efficacy, thankfulness to Him, who, directing us to seek first of all things the kingdom of God, prepared for us at the same time, as an addition, the greatest of temporal goods, civil perfection?

"The study of the history of the Catholic Church in her relations to civilization," says Balmes, "leaves much to be desired, as it has not yet been made the object of those wonderful compilations which have thrown so much light upon it in a dogmatical and critical point of view."* Now, in order to supply such an omission, it is necessary to consider attentively every part of this wonderful institution of the Almighty, and to investigate, one by one, the evidences of its force, and its results. Studied with such minute inspection, the anatomy of the human body has become, as it has been beautifully expressed, a hymn to the Creator; but that hymn would rise far more sublime and harmonious from the anatomical analysis of the social system of the most noble and perfect of societies, society divinely organized.

Let us, then, endeavour to establish the proposition by proof. Could I hope to be equal to the grandeur of my subject, I might consider myself as making an ample return for the condescension to which I am indebted for the honor of being en

• El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo. Barcelona. 1842. Tom. I. p. 203.

rolled as a member of your illustrious Academy. But as every divine institution, by participating of infinitude, goes far beyond the limited capacity of man, and much more the humble abilities of him who addresses you, I may hope at least, by my goodwill and sincere effort, to show you my gratitude for an honor unmerited on my part, although I do possess its most essential requisite, that of being a devoted CATHOLIC.

The starting-point from which we can fairly move will be the consideration of a well-known truth, that lends my proposition a first and wide demonstration. "Ancient civilization, in most instances, was called to life on the threshold of the temple, by the voice of the priest, under the inspiration of sacred hymns." This truth, as Cantù justly observes, is clearly indicated even by the names of cities of the remotest antiquity. Heliopolis, Diospolis, Hermopolis, Apollonopolis, and other names of the kind, recall to our minds a sanctuary around which was built a large city. And this argument, taken from the ancients, is strengthened by modern usage. For do we not frequently hear among ourselves the name of a saint applied to a borough or a town built around his church? In the New World, where the true religion, almost of herself, first really fulfilled what had been fabulously attributed to Orpheus, every reduction arose with a sacred name, to the sound of canticles, breathed by him whom the Indian addressed (opportunely for our argument) as the Father of the prayer, who in reality inaugurates association at its commencement by bringing all together for morning and evening prayer.*

I am well aware that an argument of this kind will seem weak in my favor, precisely on account of its generality. For if all religions produced these effects, what force can a similar fact have in support of Catholic prayer, of which alone it was intended to discourse? But if we pause for a moment to reflect that every negation (short of nothing) necessarily involves a positive element, and consequently every false religion involves some element of truth, it will be understood that if Pagan civilization was occasioned by some remnant of the ancient patriarchal maxims, or even only by those natural ideas of God which Tertullian calls the testimony of the soul naturally Christian, these facts also may be adduced as proof of our assertion, provided we can show that the civilizing power of the ancient hierophants was derived, not from falsehoods superadded, but from inherited truths. This, as you perceive, might be easily proved;

* See the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith.

but it is scarcely worth while to undertake it, as the abundance of the proofs obliges me rather to condense than to enlarge them.

Let us, then, exclude every common attribute, defining clearly what we mean when we speak of Catholic prayer. Considered in its general import, it embraces every elevation of the mind to God, excited by faith, animated by charity, aided by the Sacrifice and the Sacraments, guided by the authority of the Church, and directed chiefly to the end of supernatural eternal happiness, by means of good works. This is, in a few words, the notion of Catholic prayer. When it forms a habit in the heart of the faithful, this habit may be called the spirit of prayer. The infidel does not pray; the unbeliever prays, but to obtain those goods towards which nature attracts him, and he prays for them in favor of himself and his friend with energy proportionate to his individual conviction of the existence of a God who governs the world, and of the benevolence of that God towards those who address him. The heretic also prays through his Catholic remembrances; but if his heterodoxy be called to mind, he rejects the Catholic prayer, and is rejected by it, on account of his protesting against the ancient faith. His prayer, therefore, inasmuch as it is heterodox, rises from the division of intellects, as schismatical prayer from the division of affections. And as these, by departing from Catholic unity, necessarily lose both the firmness of belief and the bond of charity, their prayer, if they should pray, will be weak and unsettled in the mind, will be narrow and irritable in the affections. There is a vast difference, therefore, between the Catholic prayer, and every other suggested by unfaithfulness or by error. Truth, certainty, love, are principles of activity; external rites and presiding authority are principles of unity; eternal life, to which Catholic prayer chiefly aspires, is a principle of generosity, and of entire sacrifice of paltry worldly interest. As every other religious association is either altogether or in a great measure deprived of these elements, it is evident that they must be deprived also of all the happy effects that accrue to society from the spirit of prayer, exclusively proper to the Catholic Church.

To have a just notion, however, of this influence, it must be borne in mind that two conditions are thereto required, — conditions indispensable in every social organization, where it is not sufficient that the means of attaining a given object be excellent in themselves, but, moreover, must be such as the will of people consents to make use of. What good can come from a physi