Russian press seized upon these facts and made the most of them, claiming that they were a proof of the insincerity of Rome, that the Popes, after having promised to maintain the Oriental liturgies, had forgotten their promise as soon as they had secured their object. And to strengthen their assertion they recall the cruel persecutions that the Ruthenian uniats had to sustain on the part of the Poles and of the Latin clergy; nor do they forget to mention the annihilation of the Greek Church in Italy. For the Slavic peoples and for Oriental Christians generally the liturgical language is an essential factor of national life; so essential that the Slavs of Dalmatia and Croatia would be disposed rather to become schismatics than to give it up. Unfortunately, the Russians have become convinced that with respect to questions of liturgy Rome has never given sufficient guarantees, and they claim that if to-day there may be a Pope who loves and admires the Orient, there may be another to-morrow who, through ignorance or despotism, will trample upon the rights of the Eastern churches, and thus Rome continues to be looked upon as the eternal enemy of the Russian nation..

As regards the dogmatic difficulties, theoretically speaking, an entente would be possible. but grave obstacles stand in the way of its actual realization. The Oriental branches of Christendom will never accept as dogmatic truths those points which have been defined by the Latin Church against schismatics; they might perhaps accept them as theological opinions, never as dogmas of faith, since for the legitimate definition of these, according to Orthodox theology, the convocation of an ecumenical council is necessary. The dogma of papal infallibility is erroneously understood by Greeks and Russians as involving impeccability, and the Orthodox Church will have great difficulty in accepting it. An infallible Pope, according to the Greek idea, does away with the conciliary principle which was the cornerstone of the primitive church—with an infallible Pope the ecumenical council becomes a superfluous institution.

Another grave obstacle would come from the Russian government which has long since become accustomed to look upon the church as a part of the political and civil organization, and to make use of it for its own ends and interests. Union with Rome would mean the submission of the Russian Church to a foreign power, which, considering the aggressiveness of Catholicism, would soon be interfering with the internal administration of the Empire.

As regards the people, the cultured classes have already practically severed their connection with the Church and unfortunately, hardly

less so with the Christian faith; the lower classes in their ignorance and simpl city seek Jesus, and they are little preoccupied as to whether they should obey the bishop of Moscow or the bishop of Rome. To use the words of Rozanov:

There is no hope of union in the sense of fusion or absorption; there is, however, as regards the elimination of that antagonism between the two churches which has prevailed for so many centuries. Russia sincerely dislikes hostility, but the Pope is seeking not so much a pacification of the strife as domination, and Russia will never submit to this foreign control.45 The reunion of the churches is not possible in the midst of so much bitter controversy, and involving as it does the transfer of allegiance to a foreign power and the change of ritual. A thousand years of separation forms an abyss which is not easily bridged over." If the Catholic Church. expects to gain over the Russians in order that they may subserve her own ends. She is greatly deceived. The Russian people will never approach Rome with a view to submission and obedience, but rather to create. The union of the churches is not necessary in the sense that one must be subject to the other. They should all be content to retain their traditional form, and remain faithful to their constitution and their ritual. This diversity does not hinder the members of the various communions from participating in the same mysteries and in the common prayer. We Russians will pray in ours. We will continue to honor the Catholic clergymen as true priests, and the Catholics will look upon our priests as upon their own. When these conditions are realized, the old division will appear simply as a foolish superstition.

We have thus quoted at length the words of this illustrious writer because they seem to us to set forth clearly the Russian position. The union that the Orthodox church would desire with Rome is not unlike the one advocated by Harnack between Catholics and Protestants. The asperities and bitterness of strife should give place to a period of calm so that those who for centuries have been enemies may meet and exchange salutations and know each other better, butlet them continue to dwell in their own respective camps. The return of the dispersed members of the family to the one fraternal hearth would be a miracle that the power of God alone could accomplish. Awaiting the occurrence of this miracle, those who sincerely desirethe triumph of Christian ideals, will labor to bring about friendly relations between peoples which, as Pobiedonostzev expresses it, are divided in religion, or rather are separated by an ensemble of differences-ethnological, national, dogmatic, moral and historical. These differences which have been so conspicuous a factor in the historical development of Russia, render impossible, it seems to us, the con

450p. cit. pp. 410-411.

40 Ibid. p. 413.

version of that country to Catholicism. Another factor in the difficulty is the attitude of the Polish clergy so imbued with anti-Russian fanaticism inspired by religious and patriotic motives, and also that of the Catholic slanderers of Russia who think that the adoption of Catholicism is the only means of checking the internal dissolution of the great Empire.

The present writer is firmly convinced that the Catholic Church. is destined to make important conquests in the Russian Empire, especially if the apostolate to that country be not an enterprise in the hands of apostolic diplomats or politicians. But these conquests will always be isolated individual cases, and the best policy for the Church would be to instil into the sacred sciences of Russia something of her own vivifying spirit; to gain Russian sympathy by a more equitable and more Christian appreciation of the Orthodox churches, and to establish between herself and them more friendly and more fraternal relations. People are not converted by strokes of the knout (the Russians know it by experience), nor by avalanches of vituperation, but rather by the exercise of a broad spirit of toleration, and of charity, which is quick to pardon; of generosity and affability; of humility and self-abnegation-in a word, of that spirit which has in the past won so many glorious victories for the apostolate of the Catholic Church."

AURELIO PALMIERI, O. S. A.

"We may mention as animated with this spirit the excellent periodical, entitled Slavorum Litteræ Theologicae, published in Prague, by the Rev. P. Spaldak, S. J. This review by the earnestness and moderation of its tone and style has gained for itself the sympathy of even the most fanatical clerical papers in Russia, and has thus rendered an immense service to the Catholic cause.

"FECIT UTRAQUE UNUM”

A. B. Sharpe

"How strange a thing is what men call Pleasure! How wonderful is its relation to pain, which seems to be the opposite of it. They will not come to a man together; but if he posseses the one and gains it, he is almost forced to take the other also, as if they were two distinct things united at one end. And I think that if Æsop had noticed them he would have composed a fable about them, to the effect that God had wished to reconcile them when they were quarrelling, and that, when He could not do that, He joined their ends together."-Plato. Phædo, 60.

The terms Optimism and Pessimism properly denote two antagonistic systems of philosophy; in the popular sense in which they are most commonly used, they indicate two opposite mental tendencies. In this sense, the Optimist is one who habitually sees things at their best; the Pessimist one who sees them at their worst; one, that is to say, is chiefly impressed by the pleasures of life, the other by its pains; and each is implicitly contrasted with the normal person (whether he actually exists, or is merely an ideal) who in the midst. of the mingled pains and pleasures of life gives to both alike their due consideration and no more.

Considered as philosophical principles, Optimism and Pessimism are concerned not with the individual point of view, but with the fundamental quality of life which is deduced, in either case, from the single principle to which the existence of the universe is attributed. Thus Optimism regards the world and human life as, on the whole, good and desirable; and whatever in the present order of things is not absolutely good is held to be either an inseparable condition of the existence of good, or else a necessary means for bringing into future existence something still better than what is known as good in the present. In the view of philosophical Pessimism, on the other hand, the world and all that it contains, so far at least as it is reflected in the self-conscious life of rational beings, is essentially bad. The hopefulness of mankind, which is based on a delusive appearance of goodness in some of his experiences, is altogether misleading; it is the result of a kind of trick which nature has played on man in order to tempt him to continue his own existence and the existence of his race. The desire of life is the grand fundamental error, and peace is only to be found by its renunciation.

It has been pointed out by Mr. Sully,' in his very complete review of the history and character of Pessimism, that the philosophy is, generally speaking, the result of the mental tendency. A pessimistic philosopher can indeed hardly fail to be one who is personally disposed to take a sombre view of things in general; and no doubt the physiological conditions indicated by Mr. Sully have much to do with the production of such a disposition.

Mr. Caro, again, has characterized Pessimism as the offspring of a period of transition, philosophical and political, in which new needs in the body politic call for new modes of activity from a society wearied with its past efforts, and therefore unable, for the moment, to respond to the call; in consequence, the thought of such a period is "suspendu au dessus du vide infini entre les anciens croyances, et le positivisme qui se resigne à la vie et au monde tels qu'ils sont." But this account of the matter can scarcely be applied to the philosophical system, which however extravagant it may appear, is far from being deficient either in intellectual vigor or in boldness of speculation, and which, in the case of Hartmann at any rate, has much in common with the latest phases of physical science. On the other hand, it is quite certain that the pessimistic temper is confined to no particular period or periods of history, but has at no time failed to be in evidence, more or less conspicuously, among mankind.

It is to be noted, moreover, that however completely the optimistic temperament may be incapacitated for sincere adherence to any form of pessimistic philosophy, it is by no means certain that everyone who is deeply impressed by the evil of life is thereby necessarily predisposed to accept his own personal experience as the true measure of the quality of the universe. Indeed, the opposite is frequently the case. Those whom health, circumstances or temperament has made peculiarly sensitive to the pains of life, while denying them to all appearance a fair share of its pleasures, are often the most speculatively optimistic, even when most hopeless of improvement either for themselves or for mankind in general Personal suffering and incapacity have more often than not the effect of intensifying the sufferer's wistful appreciation of the pleasures enjoyed by others but denied to himself.

Thus it appears evident that there is more in each of these principles than can be accounted for by temperament or circumstances

'Pessimism, by James Sully. 2nd Edition. 1901.

Le Pessimisme au XIXe Siècle. E. M. Caro. 1878.