streets were profoundly quiet, and the silver moon looked down in untroubled lustre on the city of the Czars. Now, my Brothers of the Oratory, I protest to you my full conviction that I have not caricatured this parallel at all. Were I, indeed, skilled in legal matters, I could have made it far more natural, plausible, and complete ; but, as for its extravagance, I say deliberately, and have means of knowing what I say, having once been a Protestant, and being now a Catholic,-knowing what is said and thought of Catholics, on the one hand, and, on the other, knowing what they really are,-I deliberately assert that no absurdities contained in the above sketch can equal, nay, that no conceivable absurdities can surpass, the absurdities which are firmly believed of Catholics by sensible, kind-hearted, well-intentioned Protestants. Such is the consequence of having looked at things all on one side, and shutting the eyes to the other. ON THE PRESENT POSITION OF CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND: ADDRESSED TO THE BROTHERS OF THE ORATORY. BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D. PRIEST OF THE CONGREGATION OF ST. PHILIP NERI. 17, PORTMAN STREET, AND 63, PATERNOSTER ROW. LECTURE II. TRADITION THE SUSTAINING POWER OF THE PROTESTANT VIEW. CONSIDERING, what is as undeniable a fact as that there is a country called France, or an ocean called the Atlantic, the actual extent, the renown, and the manifold influence of the Catholic religion, considering that it surpasses in territory and in population any other Christian communion, nay surpasses them all put together, considering that it is the religion of two hundred millions of souls, that it is found in every quarter of the globe, that it penetrates into all classes of the social body, that it is received by entire nations, that it is so multiform in its institutions, and so exuberant in its developments, and so fresh in its resources, as any tolerable knowledge of it will be sure to bring home to our minds;—that it has been the creed of men the most profound and the most refined, and the source of works the most beneficial, the most arduous, and the most beautiful ;--and, moreover, considering that, thus ubiquitous, thus commanding, thus intellectual, thus ener E |