Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/643

Rh they cease to be mere opinions and become overt acts, and are, as such, subject to the scrutiny and control of the public authorities. It is not only the right but also the duty of the supreme power to prevent the promulgation and to punish the diffusion and propagation of false and pernicious opinions, which imperil the existing religious, political, and social institutions. "God did not endow men with speech in order that they might utter absurdities and blasphemies, nor favor the invention of printing in order that it might serve to excite scandals, spread abroad impiety, and stir up the people against the powers that be, which are ordained of him." What kind of opinions are dangerous and injurious, it is, of course, for sovereigns, aided and advised by sacerdotal counselors to decide, and from their decision there is no appeal.

The most perfect form of civilization, according to Monsignore Apuzzo, is the mean between extreme ignorance and excessive knowledge. "Of course it is not meant to inculcate absolute ignorance, and to imply that men of the lower classes should live like beasts and blocks of stone, but that each person should be taught what is suitable to his class, and avoid that superfluity which can only prove harmful and troublesome to him. The Holy Spirit says through the mouth of Saint Paul that one should not know more than is convenient, and should be content to know with moderation, non plus sapere quam oportet sapere seel sapare ad sobrietatem; and these words of the apostle are addressed not only to the learned, but to men of all classes. For laborers and peasants, moderation consists in knowing the catechism and the vocal prayers, and nothing more. For mechanics and shopkeepers, moderation consists in knowing how to read, write, and cipher a little, and nothing more. For the professional classes, moderation consists in studying merely what pertains to their professions; and for the higher classes, moderation consists in learning what they can, provided they do not abuse the teachings of man by setting them in opposition to the teachings of God. This is what is called knowing soberly, and these are the limits within which the spread of learning, culture, and enlightenment must be kept."

These are the views of a man who was the highest ecclesiastical dignitary and the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies under Ferdinand II; and this is the sort of sophistical stuff with which the crown prince, who afterward ascended the throne as Francis II, was systematically crammed. His education was entirely in the hands of Jesuits, and it was in this wise that they carried it on. No wonder that, as king, he was a gloomy and narrow-minded bigot, the helpless puppet of priests, utterly alien to the prevailing spirit of the age and the noblest aspirations of his time, and that Garibaldi's mere