Page:History of Freedom.djvu/497

 CARDINAL WISEl\1AN

453

his science were forced into artificial union. Again, as science widens and deepens, it escapes from the grasp of dilettantism. Such knowledge as existed formerly could be borro\ved, or superficially acquired, by men whose lives were not devoted to its pursuit, and subjects as far apart as the controversies of Scripture, history, and physical science might be respectably discussed by a single writer. No sùch shallow versatility is possible no\v. The new accuracy and certainty of criticism have made science unattainable except by those who devote themselves systematically to its study. The training of a skilled labourer has become indispensable for the scholar, and science yields its results to none but those who have mastered its methods. Herein consists the distinction between the apologists \ve have described and that school of writers and thinkers which is now growing up in foreign countries, and on the triumph of which the position of the Church in modern society depends. While she was surrounded with men \\'hose learning was sold to the service of untruth, her defenders naturally adopted the artifices of the ad vocate, and wrote as if they were pleading for a human cause. I t was their concern only to promote those precise kinds and portions of knowledge which would confound an adversary, or support a claim, But learning ceased to be hostile to Christianity when it ceased to be pursued merely as an instrument of controversy-\vhen facts came to be acknowledged, no longer because they \vere useful, but simply because they were true. Religion had no occasion to rectify the results of learning when irreligion had ceased to pervert them, and the old \veapons of controversy became repulsive as soon as they had ceased to be useful. By this means the authority of political right and of scientific truth has been re-established, and they have become, not tools to be used by religion for her own interests, but conditions which she must observe in her actions and arguments. Within their respective spheres, politics can determine \vhat rights are just, science what truths are certain. There are few political or scientific