"O'er the bare hill tops moan the gusty breezes,
From the dark branches sweeping the sere leaves,
South comes the polar duck; and the gliding grey gull
Shrieks to her shelter."
M. W.
Welwood (Vol. iv., p. 1.).
—The imprint of the first edition of his Memoirs is "London, for Tim. Goodwin, 1700." The Museum copy which bears the press-mark 808. f. is a distinct impression.
BOLTON CORNEY.
Bellarmin's Monstrous Paradox (Vol. iii., p. 497.).
—In your paper of June 21st, there is a question inserted as to the precise text in which Cardinal Bellarmin is said to maintain that "should the Pope command the commission of vice, and forbid the practice of virtue, it would become the duty of Catholics to perform the one and to avoid the other." To that question you have replied by quoting a passage from the fourth book of the cardinal's great work. It is quite true that the words quoted by you occur at that place; it is quite as untrue that the "monstrous paradox" is there attempted to be maintained. A reference to the book will show at once that this paradox is simply used as an argument to enable the cardinal to prove his point by the common method of a reductio ad absurdum. If what I maintain, says the cardinal, is false, then it follows that "should the Pope," &c. Of course, the rest of the argument fully stated would be: But this consequence is not true, therefore neither is the antecedent true; that is to say, "what I maintain" is true. So that instead of maintaining in this passage the monstrous paradox alleged, the cardinal, in reality, is only quoting it as a monstrous absurdity, which he himself condemns, and which would result from the contradiction of his proposition. In justice to the memory of a great man, who has been much and most unjustly slandered upon this very point, may I ask for the insertion of this letter.