登陆注册
5166700000062

第62章

"We ought ever," says St.Augustine, "to preserve charity in the heart, even while we are obliged to pursue a line of external conduct which to man has the appearance of harshness; we ought to smite them with a sharpness, severe but kindly, remembering that their advantage is more to be studied than their gratification." I am sure, fathers, that there is nothing in my letters from which it can be inferred that I have not cherished such a desire towards you; and as you can find nothing to the contrary in them, charity obliges you to believe that I have been really actuated by it.

It appears, then, that you cannot prove that I have offended against this rule, or against any of the other rules which charity inculcates; and you have no right to say, therefore, that I have violated it.But, fathers, if you should now like to have the pleasure of seeing, within a short compass, a course of conduct directly at variance with each of these rules, and bearing the genuine stamp of the spirit of buffoonery, envy, and hatred, I shall give you a few examples of it; and, that they may be of the sort best known and most familiar to you, I shall extract them from your own writings.To begin, then, with the unworthy manner in which your authors speak of holy things, whether in their sportive and gallant effusions, or in their more serious pieces, do you think that the parcel of ridiculous stories, which your father Binet has introduced into his Consolation to the Sick, are exactly suitable to his professed object, which is that of imparting Christian consolation to those whom God has chastened with affliction?

Will you pretend to say that the profane, foppish style in which your Father Le Moine has talked of piety in his Devotion made Easy is more fitted to inspire respect than contempt for the picture that he draws of Christian virtues? What else does his whole book of Moral Pictures breathe, both in its prose and poetry, but a spirit full of vanity, and the follies of this world? Take, for example, that ode in his seventh book, entitled, "Eulogy on Bashfulness, showing that all beautiful things are red, or inclined to redden." Call you that a production worthy of a priest? The ode is intended to comfort a lady, called Delphina, who was sadly addicted to blushing.

Each stanza is devoted to show that certain red things are the best of things, such as roses, pomegranates, the mouth, the tongue; and it is in the midst of this badinage, so disgraceful in a clergyman, that he has the effrontery to introduce those blessed spirits that minister before God, and of whom no Christian should speak without reverence: "The cherubim-those glorious choirs- Composed of head and plumes, Whom God with His own Spirit inspires, And with His eyes illumes.These splendid faces, as they fly, Are ever red and burning high, With fire angelic or divine; And while their mutual flames combine, The waving of their wings supplies A fan to cool their ecstasies! But redness shines with better grace, Delphina, on thy beauteous face, Where modesty sits revelling- Arrayed in purple, like a king," &c.What think you of this, fathers? Does this preference of the blushes of Delphina to the ardour of those spirits, which is neither more nor less than the ardour of divine love, and this simile of the fan applied to their mysterious wings, strike you as being very Christian-like in the lips which consecrate the adorable body of Jesus Christ? I am quite aware that he speaks only in the character of a gallant and to raise a smile; but this is precisely what is called laughing at things holy.And is it not certain, that, were he to get full justice, he could not save himself from incurring a censure? although, to shield himself from this, he pleads an excuse which is hardly less censurable than the offence, "that the Sorbonne has no jurisdiction over Parnassus, and that the errors of that land are subject neither to censure nor the Inquisition"; as if one could act the blasphemer and profane fellow only in prose! There is another passage, however, in the preface, where even this excuse fails him, when he says, "that the water of the river, on whose banks he composes his verses, is so apt to make poets, that, though it were converted into holy water, it would not chase away the demon of poesy." To match this, I may add the following flight of your Father Garasse, in his Summary of the Capital Truths in Religion, where, speaking of the sacred mystery of the incarnation, he mixes up blasphemy and heresy in this fashion: "The human personality was grafted, as it were, or set on horseback, upon the personality of the Word!" And omitting many others, I might mention another passage from the same author, who, speaking on the subject of the name of Jesus, ordinarily written thus, + I.H.S.observes that "some have taken away the cross from the top of it, leaving the characters barely thus, I.H.S.- which," says he, "is a stripped Jesus!" Such is the indecency with which you treat the truths of religion, in the face of the inviolable law which binds us always to speak of them with reverence.But you have sinned no less flagrantly against the rule which obliges us to speak of them with truth and discretion.

同类推荐
  • 大乘法界无差别论疏并序

    大乘法界无差别论疏并序

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 析津志辑佚

    析津志辑佚

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 神僧传

    神僧传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说护净经

    佛说护净经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 洞真上清龙飞九道尺素隐诀

    洞真上清龙飞九道尺素隐诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 我有个极品女友

    我有个极品女友

    那天,家里突然出现了个冷艳的女人,她不经意间闯入我的生活,在我黑白的人生中拿着颜料盘画来画去,听得懂我的胡言乱语,看得懂我没有微笑的表情,纵使我将她写进爱情的扉页里.....
  • 斩赤红之瞳之绝命之刃

    斩赤红之瞳之绝命之刃

    十年前,莱克斯作为实验品被他们带离了这里;十年后,他又以身为援助军回到了帝都。但,他到这里真正的目的只是为了寻找一个人,谁知,不仅被卷入了一连串的事件中,还和夜袭有了极其复杂的关系,在命令和自主面前,他又会作出何种选择
  • 徐志摩文集2

    徐志摩文集2

    《徐志摩文集:扫荡着无际的青空》收录了徐志摩经典力作,分为散文、书信和诗歌三部分。
  • 咏史诗·鸿沟

    咏史诗·鸿沟

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 华严原人论合解

    华严原人论合解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生之嫡女弃后

    重生之嫡女弃后

    前世心狠手辣,最终惨死冷宫的周木槿无论如何也想象不到自己会有重活一次的机会。前世真毒辣,现世假莲花。 这一世,她贤淑大度,宽待宫人,还将他前世的宠妃亲手送到他的面前,只求安稳度日。他却借着酒劲愤怒地掐住她的脖颈质问:周木槿,你的心里到底还有没有朕? 眼见着前世对自己恨之入骨的男人开始步步紧逼,她却并不慌张,别的事她没有十足把握,可让他讨厌自己的方法还不信手捏来?她盯着面前的男人,平静地道:我嫁到祁国三年无所出,只凭这一点,陛下便可废后。
  • 中药储存与养护

    中药储存与养护

    本书是高等职业教育中药制药技术、中药专业的一门专业必修课程。以中药储存与养护为工作过程,主要内容包括中药药品储存与养护的基本知识、药品验收、日常养护及出库,常见中药保管养护技术及质量检验等。本书的任务是使学生具备从事药品保管等工作所必需的药品养护基本知识和基本技能,通过讲授和实践,使学生掌握药品储存与养护的基础知识,学会药品验收、养护及出库的基本技能,为学生今后学习相关专业知识和职业技能、增强继续学习和适应职业变化的能力奠定坚实基础。本书可作为高职高专中药制药、中药专业教材,也适用于中职中药、中药制药专业学习用书,还可作为相关人员学习中药储存与养护相关知识和技能的参考用书。
  • 亮剑精神:企业员工战斗力训练读本

    亮剑精神:企业员工战斗力训练读本

    打造英雄团队,打造现代企业中的“独立团”,打造“职场英雄”的精神法则。亮剑精神——最卓越团队与人才的成功法则。面对强大的对手,明知不敌,也要毅然亮剑,狭路相逢勇者胜。即使倒下,也要成为一座山,一道岭。用亮剑精神激励员工——竞争中谋求生存,困难中寻找机会,绝望中创造希望。
  • 在你心上狙一枪

    在你心上狙一枪

    文案一:纵横吃鸡届无敌的陆成蹊遇到一个变态,“男人”闷骚低音炮,扛着98k,炸一次来一次炸一次。直到某天校级辩论赛上,江璟言站在对方二辩席,皱着女生特有的好看的眉怼他。针锋相对,乐此不疲折腾彼此到你死我活。陆成蹊却突然喊停。你我都是毒瘤,要不要试着在一起为民除害?江瑾言怂了。 文案二:江瑾言在机场被晾一天也没等来公司口里反复强调十二分重要的高级顾问陆先生。直到两人在例行晨会撞见。 陆成蹊皱眉站在走廊里斜睨她,眼里满是不快,“季腾什么时候这么没品味了?”她微笑。 后来。他把人堵家门口说:“我这人就是没品位,也想一直没品位下去。” 爱情最好的状态从来是两军对垒,势均力敌。
  • 未选择的路

    未选择的路

    全书共分七辑:城与年、西藏日记、未选择的路、旅痕、我写故我在、阅读、词语。作家从描写北京胡同里的少年成长开始,一路记载了在高原西藏的生活经历,在美国、荷兰、埃及的访问讲学,字里行间充满对社会、人生、文学的执着思考与独特认识……生命的成长、体验与感悟尽在其中。