states the nature of religious proofs with exquisite point, clearness and depth. He says that God "voulant paraître a decouvert à ceux qui le chercheut de tout leur cœur et caché à ceux qui le fuient de tout leur cœur ; il tempère sa connaissance en sorte qu'il a donne des marques de soi visibles à ceux qui le cherchent, et obscures à ceux qui ne le cherchent pas." He adds in the next pensée :"Il y a assez de lumière pour ceux qui ne desirent que de voir, et assez d'obscurité pour ceux qui ont une disposition contraire. Il y a assez de clarté pour eclairer les élus, et assez d'obscurité pour les humilier. Il y a assez d'obscurité pour aveugler les réprouvés et assez de clarté pour les condamner et les rendre inexcusables."

Cardinal Newman is a master of style and one of the master minds of the age. He by no means aims at being perpetually terse and epigrammatic. That would not be perfect style, however much it might delight some of us. But he frequently sums up the lesson to be learnt from the wisdom contained in erudite and eloquent passages in a few words, as for example in his great work "Development of Christian Doctrine," where several pregnant sayings of his will for ever afford delight and discussion. Such are:-" to be just able to doubt is no warrant for disbelieving;" "To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant ; "In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often." Again, speaking of the Canon of Scripture, its inspiration and relation to tradition, how much he helps us to understand something of God's ways, when he says:--" Nor were these difficulties settled by authority, as far as we know at the commencement of the religion; yet surely it is quite conceivable that an apostle might have dissipated them all in a few words, had Divine Wisdom thought fit. But in matter of fact the decision has been left to time, to the slow process of thought, to the influence of mind upon mind, the issues of controversy, and the growth of opinion.' (p. 60.) Another example of his power of putting much wisdom of experience in a few words is :-" Always to be safe is always to be feeble." It would be no small comfort to many of us, if the converse of this proposition were true, "always to be feeble is always to be safe;" but alas! experience is against it.

However much one may delight in such fruits of thinking, knowledge and experience, they are most appreciated and do most good when mixed up with more diffuse and natural, or ordinary,

style. Hence books of pensées soon tire, if read like ordinary books, or as rapidly. Not every kind of pithily expressed thought interests every kind of thoughtful reader. Men of signal ability have found Pascal's Pensées for the most part commonplace. Perhaps one reason is that those who found it so take up the book, having heard so much of it, and think it can be read, as reviewers often read what they write brilliant reviews of. But a book of pensées is not to be read running. There is much in the saying of another distinguished penseur, Joubert :-" Fully to understand a grand and beautiful thought requires perhaps as much time as to conceive it." He it is who says of himself:"If ever a man was tormented by the accursed ambition of putting a whole book into a page, a whole page into a phrase, and that phrase into a word, I am that man." This exactly, expresses what much thinking inclines one to; but books, that would be read like other books, are not to be much written that way. Thoughts have to be pondered, that is the way to enjoy their peculiar flavour, a little or few at the time. Read, stop, think, supply the implied qualifications, examine your own experience. If the thought is really the fruit of experience and reflection, it will provoke you to think, whether you agree with it. or not; and this is a sure test of genuine thinking. Another of Pascal's pensées may "give us pause" with regard to our not seeing much in what the best judges every where and always pronounce worthy of much admiration:-"a mesure qu' on a plus d' esprit on trouve qu'il y a plus d' hommes originaux. Les gens du commun ne trouvent pas de differences entre les hommes."

One of the most valuable fruits of thinking is, that we learn more or less clearly, what we really know and don't know, what we really think, what our mental powers and tastes are, and how limited they are. We seldom enough express what we really think and know. Either we cannot, or it wouldn't do. Not that we are untruthful morally. But the conditions of social intercourse necessitate our speaking or being silent often, when downright reality would require a different course. If every one were to say what he thought, what he knew, what he felt about every subject worth discussing, or what he believed he felt or knew, it would often paralyse conversation. There is no want of moral truthfulness in not being "brutally frank." Another reason why we act well in keeping our opinions to ourselves, is, that not VOL. XXV. No. 294.

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seldom it happens, that what we think we feel, or know, about something, is not really our opinion or conviction; we are deceived for the time by forgetfulness or emotion. Besides it is the recognized thing to agree with certain judgments of the world generally about literature, art, science, &c., and so no one is expected to question them. We may not agree from our own knowledge or experience, as so many of us do not about so many world-wide ways of judging of such things. Many men have a good deal of knowledge and cultivated thought about some things and are very ignorant and stupid about other things common enough to be well known and duly appreciated. One of the best fruits, I repeat, of being able to think justly and reflect for oneself is that we may learn what the things are we know nothing about, or are incapable of appreciating. About these things the best course to adopt is generally to hold our tongues and let others speak, and agree or differ as quietly and harmoniously as circumstances permit. Most men are pleased to be listened to and questioned on what they know no more about than their listeners. If we listened more and strove to take more interest in what others say, and if we talked less ourselves, and thought less of what we were about to say instead of hearing what was said, we should oftener enjoy and profit by the conversation of our betters in whatever line.

Cardinal Newman used to say of himself, that he could think best with a pen in his hand. But if he had not thought much without it, his writings, whatever knowledge and literary worth they might display, would surely lack that exquisite flavour of deep, wide, suggestive meditativeness, which pervades them and constitutes their special charm. Thackeray says, that no one knows the thoughts that are at the end of his pen, until he begins to ply it; then they will come rolling off to his own and others' wonder. But again if the thoughts are worth much, they are the fruit of long preparation, of much reading, observation and reflection, combined with the special mental gifts of each writer. It was in the last decade or so of his too short life, that the last named writer produced his great works. "He waited and came to forty," before he gave to the world the first of these, which at once gave him a place among the great creators of what is called fiction.

Sydney Smith in his lecture on "The Conduct of the

Understanding" enlarges on the difficulties and unsatisfactoriness, of what is called concentrated thought. He speaks there, as if there were very little of the kind going. He insists on the wayward, zig-zag, jumping-over-the-traces, shying and bolting style of getting over its ground the understanding pursues. If all he says is always true, then such phrases and cases as "lost in thought," "passionate longing to lead a life of thought," the long spells of speculation eastern and other sages are credited with, are to some extent, it would seem, exaggerated. Probaby a great deal is to be said on both sides. It is with thought and thinking as with action and conduct generally. Things are done, great and small, and mostly far from perfectly. Then, when people speak of them, they mostly idealize, and so we have to qualify largely what is said about almost everything.

Reality is very different from what is said and written about it. It is also very different very often from what we really think about it. But persistent thinking, insisting on trying to see things as they really are, boldly and honestly facing all kinds of facts and truths that impress themselves on our consciousness and consciences, is the way to get at the truth which makes men free. If we depend too much on ourselves, we shall go fearfully and fatally astray.

"Thus God has willed
That man, when fully skilled,
Still gropes in twilight dim;
Encompassed all his hours

By fearfullest powers
Inflexible to him.

That so he may discern

His feebleness.

And e'en for earth's success

To Him in wisdom turn,

Who holds for us the keys of either home,

Earth and the world to come."

WILLIAM A. SUTTON, S.J.

* Newman's Verses on Various Occasions, p. 184.