Page:An Index of Prohibited Books (1840).djvu/213

 altogether omitted it. "Justly is Paolo Sarpi's memory held in reverence in all Catholic states. He was the able and victorious champion of those principles determining the bounds of ecclesiastical authority, which are their guides and safeguards to this day," ii. 369. Here was no very violent temptation; and the falling by it, united with my own experience of Papal dishonesty as far as the Dublin Review is concerned, painfully impresses the iron necessity, under which every committed son of the Italian Church finds himself bound to violate truth and sincerity, when and wherever the felt interests of his Church require the sacrifice. To the very ambiguous censure of my Memoirs by the Prussian Professor, I have only to reply, that it would have been simply the employment of longer labour to have increased the matter considerably, and perhaps profitably. Whether systematic and theoretic views of the facts, just or unjust, but by courtesy of the age esteemed philosophic, would have materially edified, or even gratified, the reader, may be classed with doubtful matters. Perhaps many, and not the worst qualified, readers, may be as well pleased to have inferences and conclusions left to themselves. These may be sentimental, visionary, acute, or profound, as best suits their humour. My object was, to select, from materials not open to all, fundamental and apparently most important points, and