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idolaters. — We can also observe that men may very readily deceive themselves as to the intention of others, whose consciousness and motives they are incompetent to determine. Every nation of the smallest enlightenment has scorned the title of "idolater" as the vilest reproach. No nation, nor book in any nation, did ever inculcate idolatry essentially ; but many peoples have been thus reproached. Among these class all Catholics. With what justice the reproach is cast we need but ask Catholics them- selves—for it is the intention, and not the figure of the worship, which must determine its quality.

It is pleasing to us to look back over the records of the earlier men of time, and to find that the wise of all ages have been truly brothers in this doctrine of the unity of God; and the more so because it is a doctrine which is attended with difficulties, when applied entirely to the destiny of man, which no record has come to us wholly explaining. We mean, chiefly, the difficulty of the origin of evil. Yet mark with what calm solemnity the first chapter of one of the oldest of books unfolds the doctrine of one God, in spite of evil:—"God is one; he has created all: it is a perfect sphere, without beginning or end. . . Thou shalt not seek to discover the nature and essence of the Eternal, nor by what laws he governs. Such an attempt would be vain, and criminal. . .It is enough for thee to contemplate day and night his power, his wisdom, and his goodness, through his works."— This from the Shastah. Again:—"The sea enters the vessel that floats upon it; but time breaks the vessel, and the sea receives its own. And

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