in a period of agriculture and provincial barter is not broad enough. Progress is more vital and justice more essential and humanity more sacramental than even constitutional literalism or casuistry. Yet this reconciliation of the political principles of the eighteenth century cannot be accomplished by heated prejudice and passionate appeal. That of this we have to-day a surfeit none may dispute. Selfishness always engenders selfishness. Selfishness wears to-day too often the cloak of conservatism; it cannot be indignantly surprised that as frequently its own motives assumes as readily the livery of radicalism. The duty to mediate devolves clearly upon the trained minds and men who have learned to pierce beyond the selfish outer crust of interest to the inner kernel of principles.

The social question is to-day the perplexity of every land. It is the penalty which a man now pays for his Promethean presumption to yoke the lightning to his plow. I have faith that its solution will be peaceably attained on the continent over which floats the starry banner of liberty wedded to law. I question not the sufficiency of our political principles to meet the issue. Yet, I cannot hold with what would pass and pose for American conservatism, that the foreigner is the sole disturber of Israel. Were Ahab not sceptered and crowned among us, neither a native nor an alien Elijah could arise to prophesy the judgment. Microbes of plagues will work their deadly havoc only where the conditions favor their culture. We have become urban when one hundred years ago we were rural. Concentration of population in industrial centers is not an unmixed good. Whether the problem be indigenous or imported, matters not; it is among us. Who is commissioned to speak the message of peace? None other but the university! From its halls shall go forth the law, and from it as the Zion of the age the redeeming words.

As an American university ours was conceived; as an American university open to the light from arc or lamp, no matter where shining, but conscious of its own opportunities and obligations it is developing. May it live, grow and flourish -into ever greater usefulness as the months roll on and the years lengthen!

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE CATHOLIC

UNIVERSITY.

BY JOHN F. MULLANEY.

[John Francis Mullaney, pastor of St. John the Baptist (R. C.) church, Syracuse, N. Y., born July 19, 1853, at Utica, N. Y.; was graduated from Manhattan college and was educated in philosophy and theology at Troy seminary, receiving his ordination to the priesthood in 1880; he has been prominent in the establishment at Cliff Haven of winter and summer schools and is the author of The Pioneer Church, Old and New Spain, Literature and the Church, Catholic Education and American Institutions, Our Lady of Victory, Culture of Spiritual Sense, Mirror of True Manhood, Dante and His Times, Dante and the Divina Commedia, Bible Studies, Old World Seen Through American Eyes and translations from the French and Italian. He is a frequent contributor to the American Catholic Quarterly, in which the following appeared.] Copyright 1905 by American Catholic Quarterly

The question of making the Catholic university the center of the church's entire school system will be discussed in this essay. The experiment would awaken more than ordinary interest. There is nothing novel in the idea; it is simply the application of the principle of unification to our Catholic school system. If successful, new life would be infused into our educational institutions, and the success of the university would be assured. The medieval universities tested the idea and found it helpful. It is in successful operation now in the Catholic universities of Louvain, Frieburg and Lille and Lavalle where Catholic schools and colleges are affiliated. The idea prevails also among nonCatholic universities. London university is a good example; she is the mother of university extension in its various forms, which reverses the idea of university life. The University of France illustrates the possibility of having one central institution to dominate and stimulate our entire Catholic school system. Nearer home, we have a better illustration of what I mean: viz., the university of the state of New York. It has been in operation more than one hundred years, and though in the beginning a rude machine, it has been brought to a wonderful degree of perfection. All its activities are for intellectual life. Its duties are chiefly of a supervisory nature. It is composed of five hundred incorporated in

stitutions scattered throughout the state. It is directed by a body of men chosen from among the foremost citizens of the community. Each college or academy has its own charter and it has no interference whatever, except in stimulating, harmonizing and encouraging pupils and teachers to secure the very best results possible. Now this is just what we need for our Catholic school system. Why cannot our Catholic university do this work? Let us examine a few of the advantages of a Catholic university.

In the first place we might ask the question, why the Holy See, through its late illustrious head, Pope Leo XIII., recommended to the American hierarchy the establishment of a Catholic university at Washington. Was it for the sake of the advancement of the sciences, or for the benefit of the Catholic youth of these United States? The answer is clear. The Catholic university was recommended solely for the sake of our Catholic youth. The church encourages and patronizes the arts and sciences for the sake of religion. She rejoices in the widest and most perfect system of education from an intimate conviction that truth is her ally as it is her profession, and that knowledge and reason are the handmaids of religion.

From this it is evident that the chief object of the Holy See in establishing our Catholic university at Washington was the moral and intellectual development of our Catholic youth, with a view to their spiritual welfare and their religious influence, so that they might fill their respective places in life better by making them more intelligent members of society. It was not therefore simply to develop professional skill in science and literature, that the university was founded, but to benefit the Catholic youth of these United States. Consequently, it is not an institution merely to stimulate philosophical inquiry or to extend the boundaries of knowledge. All this is excellent, but there are numerous other institutions adapted for that purpose. It is a singular fact that very few of the great discoveries were made in universities. Of course there are noteworthy exceptions. The object, then, of a Catholic university at Washington is not simply to protect the interests of science and literature, but to

make its students cultured Catholics and intelligent citizens of the United States. It does not seem rash to say that we Catholics are as anxious as our non-Catholic neighbors to have the advantages of a university education. We would consider it prejudicial to the interests of religion that our children should be less cultured and educated than others. At a great sacrifice we build and support our own schools and we are willing to apply the same principle as regards higher education. We all realize that without this latter we are handicapped. The Protestant youths of the country who have the means and inclination continue their studies till the age of twenty two or twenty three, and thus they employ, in serious studies, the time of life most important and most favorable to mental culture. Most of our Catholic youths end their education at sixteen or seventeen, and consequently, in the great struggle for place and advancement, they cannot be considered a match for youths who end their studies three or four years later in life. This explains why so few of our Catholic laity are holding the highest places in the various walks of life. They are handicapped for the want of a university education. The consequences are that Catholics who aspired to be on a level with Protestants in discipline and refinement of intellect in the past, were obliged to have recourse to Protestant universities to obtain what they could not find at home. This is one of the many reasons why we should glory in the blessings of a Catholic university, for it will afford the advantages of higher education in the best Catholic form.

We might ask, what are these advantages? They may be summed up in one sentence-the culture of the intellect. The most of the Catholics of these United States came here penniless, oppressed, and robbed of educational advantages. For centuries they had been deprived of any education necessary for the man of the world, the statesman, the professional man, or the cultured gentleman. Thank God, this moral disability is being removed. In founding a university, our desire is, not polished manners and elegant habits only; these can be acquired in various other ways, such as by frequenting good society, by travel, by cultivating a taste for home study

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and refinement, and by the grace and dignity of a well regulated Catholic mind. But the force, the steadiness, the comprehensiveness and the versatility of intellect, the command over our own powers, the just estimate of things as they pass before us, requires, as a rule, much effort and the exercise of years.

This is real culture. It manifests itself in a polish of manners and speech which is beautiful in itself and pleasing to others. But it does more. It trains the mind and brings it into form, for the mind is like the body. Young people outgrow their form; their limbs have to be knit together and their system needs building up. They often mistake their youthful spirits and overtax their strength. This is a good picture of the condition of the mind. They have no principles laid down within them as a foundation for the intellect to build upon; they have no discriminating convictions, no grasp of consequences. And therefore they talk at random if they attempt any lengthy discourse. They fail to perceive things as they are.

What is more common than the sight of grown up men talking on all kinds of subjects in that flippant manner that evidences that they do not know what they are talking about. Such persons have no difficulty in contradicting themselves in successive sentences without being conscious of it. Others can never see the point, and find no difficulties in the most difficult subjects. Others are hopelessly obstinate and prejudiced and after having been driven from their opinions, return to them the next moment without even knowing why. Others are so intemperate that there is no greater calamity for a good cause than that they should take hold of it. This delineation of intellectual shortcomings is common to the world at large. It is an evil which is to be met with everywhere, and to which Catholics are not less exposed than the rest of mankind.

When the intellect has once been properly trained and formed so as to have a connected view of things, it will display its powers with more or less effect, according to the mental capacity of the individual. With most men it makes itself felt in the good sense, sobriety of thought, honesty, self