Every gift of God brings with it responsibility on our part in the use that we make of it. The supreme gift of intelligence and free-will are powers to enable us to love and serve God, but we are able to use them to dishonour and outrage Him. So with all the other faculties that flow from these two great gifts. Beading and books have brought many souls nearer to their Creator. Many souls, on the other hand, have been ruined eternally by the books which they have read. It is dearly, therefore, of importance to us to know how to use wisely these gifts that we possess.
The Holy Catholic Church, the Guardian of God's Truth, and the unflinching upholder of the moral law, has been always alive to her duty in this matter, and from the earliest times has claimed and exercised the right of pointing out to her children books that are dangerous to faith or virtue. This is one of the duties of bishops, and, in a most special manner, of the Sacred Congregation of the Index. And, though at the present day, owing to the decay of religious belief, this authority cannot be exercised in the same way as of old, it is on that very account all the more necessary for us to bear well in mind, and to carry out fully in practice, the great unchanging principles on which the legislation of the Church in this matter has been ever based.
You are bound, dear children in Jesus Christ, to guard yourselves against all those things which may be a source of danger to your faith or purity of heart. You have no right to tamper with the one or the other. Therefore, in the first place, it is the duty of Catholics to abstain from reading all such books as are written directly with the object of attacking the Christian Faith, or undermining the foundations of morality. If men of learning and position are called upon to read such works in order to refute them, they must do so with the fear of God before their eyes. They must fortify themselves by prayer and spiritual reading, even as men protect themselves from contagion, where they have to enter a poisonous atmosphere. Mere curiosity, still less the desire to pass as well informed in every newest theory, will not suffice to justify us in exposing ourselves to so grave a risk.
Again, there are many books, especially works of fiction, in which false principles are often indirectly conveyed, and by which the imagination may be dangerously excited. With regard to such reading, it is very hard to give one definite rule, for its effect on different characters varies so much. A book most dangerous to one may be almost without harm to another, on account of the latter's want of vivid imagination. Again, a book full of danger to the youth or girl may be absolutely without effect on one of maturer years. The one and only rule is to be absolutely loyal and true to our conscience, and if the voice of conscience is not sufficiently distinct, to seek guidance and advice from those upon whom we can rely, and above all, from the director of our souls. If we take up a book, and we find that, without foolish scruple, it is raising doubts in our mind or exciting our imagination in perilous directions, then we must be brave enough to close it, and not open it again. If our weakness is such that we cannot resist temptation, which unforeseen may come upon us, then it is our duty not to read any book the character of which is quite unknown to us. If any such book is a source of temptation to us, we must shun it, if we wish to do our duty to God. If our reading makes us discontented with the lot in life which Divine Providence has assigned to us, if it leads us to neglect or do ill the duties of our position, if we find that our trust in God is lessening and our love of this world growing, in all these cases we must examine ourselves with the greatest care, and banish from ourselves any book which is having these evil effects upon us.
Lastly there is an immense amount of literature, mostly of an ephemeral character, which almost of necessity enters very largely into our lives at the present day. We cannot characterize it as wholly bad, though its influence is not entirely good, but it is hopeless to attempt to counteract what is harmful in it by any direct means. The newspapers and magazines of the hour are often without apparent harm, and yet very often their arguments are based on principles which are unsound, and their spirit is frankly worldly, and entirely opposed to the teaching of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel. Still more when the Catholic Church and the Holy See are in question, we know full well, and the most recent experience has proved it, that they are often consciously or unconsciously untruthful. Even when their misrepresentations have been exposed, in spite of the boasted fairness of our country, we know that we must not always expect a withdrawal of false news, still less adequate apology. Constant reading of this character cannot but weaken the Catholic sense and instinct, and engender in their place a worldly and critical spirit most harmful in every way, unless we take means to counteract it. What are these means? A place must be found in your lives, dear children in Jesus Christ, for reading of a distinctly Catholic character. You must endeavour to know the actual life and doings of the Catholic Church at home and abroad by the reading of Catholic periodical literature. You must have at hand books of instruction in the Catholic Faith, for at least occasional reading, so as to keep alive in your minds the full teaching of the Church. You must give due place to strictly spiritual reading, such as the "Holy Gospels," "The Following of Christ," "The Introduction to a Devout Life" by St. Francis of Sales, and the lives of the Saints, which are now published in every form and at every price. It is not your duty to abstain from reading all the current literature of the day, but it is your duty to nourish your Catholic mental life by purely Catholic literature. The more you read of secular works, the more urgent is your duty to give a sufficient place to those also, which will directly serve you in doing your duty to God and in saving your soul. Assuredly one of the most pressing duties at the present day is to recognize fully our personal and individual responsibility in this matter of reading, and to examine our conscience closely to see how we are acquitting ourselves of it.
Before we leave this subject, we wish to ask all those among you dear children in Jesus Christ, who, whether as fathers and mothers, or as members of religious institutes, or masters and mistresses in schools, are charged with the education of the young, to do all in your power to train those committed to you to a wise and full understanding of this matter of reading, and to a realization of its enormous power for good and harm, and, therefore, to a sense of the extreme responsibility attaching to it. Make them understand that, while all are able to read, all things are not to be read by all; that this power, like every power, may be abused, and that we have to learn how to use it with due restraint. While they are with you and gladly subject to your influence, train their judgment and their taste in reading, so that they may know what is good and true, and know how to turn from what is evil and false. Such a trained and cultivated judgment is the best protection that you can bestow upon them. Some dangers must be overcome by flight, but there are far more, especially at the present day, which must be faced, and then overcome. It is part of your great vocation to prepare and equip these children to be brave and to conquer in this fight. Gradually, therefore, accustom them to the dangers they may meet in reading. Train their judgment, strengthen their wills, make them loyal to conscience, and then, trusting in God's grace, give them to their work in life.
INDEX.
Abbesses, the great, 224.
Accent and pronunciation, 154.
Adolescence, impressionability of children in, 173.
Aesthetics, 68; principles of, 71-2; teaching of, 187.
Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, 222.
Aids to study, 103-4.
A Kempls on self-seeking, 197.
America: educational experiments in, 84; text-books in, 180.
American view on character, 22.
—expressive phrases, 128,155.
Ampere, Catholic scientist, 115.
Amusements and lessons, 100.
Animals, care of, in education of children, 125.
Answers, irrelevancy in girls', 74.
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 72.
Architecture, Gothic, inferences from, 189.
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 48.
Art, character and, 186-7; Christian, 188, 189, 197; for children,
191-2; contrasts in works of, 189-90; in education of girls, 72, 187;
French art, 187; history of, 188-9; study of, 190-1; aims of study in
early education, 185, 196.
Assenting mind, the, 25.
Assentors, great, 26.
Athletic craze, the, 111.
—girl, the, 219.
Atmosphere in education, 321-2.
Audience, English and German, contrasted, 193.
"Aurora Leigh," 216.
Average person, the, 64-6.
"Babylonian Captivity," the. 165.
Bacon, "Of Goodnesse," 45.
Balder, the story of, 170.
Barbarism, selfishness and, 199.
Basilicas, the Christian, 19-20.
Basket-ball for girls, 110.
Bassi, Laura, 222.
Beale, Dorothea, cited, 94.
Bedford College, 218.
Benedictine monks, cited, 92-8.
Boarding schools, 76; young children in, 78.
Boniface VIII, 177.
Books, attitude of child towards, 36; wealth of children's literature in
England, 144-5
—reaction against mere lessons from, 80, 119-20.
—Sacred, jewels of prayer and devotion in, IS.
—to avoid, 148.
Botany, 122-3.
British oulturs, characteristics of, 139.
Browning, E. B., cited, 216.
—R., quoted, 76; "An incident of the French camp," cited, 136.
Calvinism, 4, 26.
Candour, charm of, in children, 130.
Carlyle, cited, 153.
Catch-words, abuse of, 133.
Catherine, St., of Siena, 223.
Catholic—
Art, 189, 197.
Atmosphere, effect on manners, 201.
Body, at play, 111; and religious education, 1.
Characteristics: belong to graver side of human race, 112,
Child, the, characteristics of, 29, 30; source of courage in, 9-10;
in Protestant surroundings, 24; prerogative of, 9, 30.
Children, and relationship with Jeaus and His Mother, 8; and religion,
16-18; under influence of Sacraments, 29.
Church, ideals for man and woman in, 118, 225.
Citizenship, 39.
Disabilities, Newman quoted, 112-3.
Education, 220, 225, 230; and character, 39; and history, 116.
Faith, gives particular orientation of mind, 232.
Family life, 89, 93.
Girls, and work for the Church, 89; and Church music, 193.
Historical hold on the past, 152.
Literature, 240.
Men of science, 116.
Mental life, 242.
Mind: training of the, 197; and history, 165.
Patriotism, 39.
Peasantry, 211.
Philosophy, 60-76; value of, in education, 61.
Schools: manners in, 201; sodalities in, 78.
Secrets of strength, 99.
Teachers, 100; and truth in history, 178.
Text-books, need of, 180.
Women, duty and privilege of, 112.
Catholics and—
Equality of education, 118; higher education, 220; duty In ing, 240;
historical teaching, 176; Latin, 163; taste in art, 194
—disabilities of, Newman quoted, 112-8.
Celts of N. Europe, types of character among, 97.
Certificates as aids to study, 1084.
Character, 21-3; essentials of, 40-1; evolution of, 60,179-3; study of,
22, 29, 34-9; training of, 22, 29-34, 38-42, 46, 49-51, 58, 148, 210,
221, 225-6, 230; means of training 42-4; types of, 26-9, 37.
—influence of art on, 186.
—in the teacher, 38, 46-59.
—manners and, 209.
—religion and, 6-7, 29.
—the strength of great women, 228.
—value of, appreciated by children, 56-8, 171.
Characters, modern, 26, 83; cardinal points in study of children's,
34-7.
Characteristic cadence in speaking, 54. Characteristics, of the age, 39;
of British culture, 130; of English style, 129-30; of girls' work,
218.
Charges against the Church, 179.
Chaucer, 127.
Cheltenham College, 94, 218.
Child, attitude of, towards books, 36.
—martyrs, 10.
—study, 35, 57.
—vocabulary of an "only," 132.
—Wordsworth's "model child," 32-3.
See also Catholic Child.
Childhood, friendships formed in, 11.
—impressionability of, 173.
Childishness in piety, 10.
Childlike spirit of Catholic child, 29.
Children, 30.
—books for, 144-6; attitude to books, 36.
—characteristics of, 36, 66, 56, 82-3, 109-10, 123; candour, 180;
habits of mind, 126; sensitive to influences, 46; as critics, 136;
like real people, 56-6; dislike compromise, 175.
—delicate, 9, 50, 84, 86.
—development of, 82; mental development, 140-1, 169-73.
—eccentric ways in, 84.
—groups observable among, 23, 26-8, 87, 62,125.
—and lessons; a simple life essential, 100; do not know how to learn,
101; answers, 102.
—letters of, 188-9.
—and love of nature, 124,126.
—no orphans within the Church, 80.
—and playtime solitude, 108-9. souls of, 200.
—training of, 32-3.
Chivalry: age of, 202; religious spirit of, 165.
Choleric temperament, the, 26.
Church, the—
Abuses in, exaggerated, 179.
Ceremonial of, 205-6.
Characterised as the Great Master who educates us all, 434; as the
Guardian of Truth, 239; the Teacher of all nations, 58-9, 99.
Example of, as teacher, 43; influence on Catholic taachers, 99-100.
in France, 165.
and history, 165.
Ideals for man and woman in, 118, 225.
Music of, 193-4.
Needlework for, 89.
the pioneers of, 92.
as a teacher of manners, 200-3, 205.
testimony to, from Non-Catholic sources, 59, 178.
Classes, advantages of large, 97.
Classical studies, 151-2
Classics, English, for the young, 145.
"Clever" children, the so-called, 125.
Colonial life, 92.
Common sense, 65.
Communion, First, 29.
Composition, oral, 138; written, 137, 139-42.
Concentric method in teaching, 167.
Confirmation, 29.
Contentment, 90.
Contrasts, method of, in teaching of art, 189.
Control and "handling" in training children, 200.
Controversies. See Educational Controversies.
Conventionality, 198-9.
Conventions, code of, 199.
Conversation, 132-7; of girls, 182-4; principles in, 137.
Cooking, 90, 121. Correction, value of, 42. Cosmology, 68.
Countrymen and nature, 124-5.
Crimean War and women's work, 219.
Criticism and correction, 42-3; administered by the Church, 44.
—evils of merely destructive, 183; reading lesson as an exercise in,
136; of essays, 142.
Critics, gravity of children as, 136.
Cross-roads in a girl's life, 140.
Cruelty, 199.
Crusades, ideals of the, 165.
Curiosity concerning evil, 14; evil of curiosity in reading, 149.