Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/83

 devotion, is  denied  or  assailed. Sometimes it is  attacked  by  open  hostility,  but  more  often by a  chilling  indifference,  or  by  a  bitter  ridicule of  all  the  claims  of  religion.

"Now if  this  be  the  actual  state  of  things, let  me  ask:  Are  we  Catholics  fully  alive  to the  very  grave  dangers  that  beset  us  from  the literature  of  all  kinds  that  is  being  daily  and hourly  issued  in  such  enormous  quantities  by the  publishing  houses  of  America?

"Too many  of  us  seem  to  have  a  positive distaste  for  the  best  —  what  has  been  written by  Catholics.  In  fact,  many  of  us  are  utter strangers  to  our  own  authors,  outside  of  a few  great  names.  We  know  little  or  nothing of  our  greatest  writers.  Their  writings  are  a sealed  book  to  many.  The  very  name  of  a Catholic  publishing  house  on  the  title-page of  a  book  seems  to  repel  rather  than  attract the  purchaser.  That  is  the  present  situation; it  is  one  to  be  deplored  and  must  be entirely  changed  before  we  Catholics  come into  the  full  possession  of  the  literary  treasures that  are  our  rightful  inheritance."

Bishop Hedley  in  his  pastoral  letter,  "On Reading,"  says:

"There ought  undoubtedly  to  be  a  great advance  on  the  part  of  Catholics  in  the  knowledge of  religion  by  means  of  print.  And, happily,  it  cannot  be  pretended  that  there  is nothing  to  read.  If  we  consider,  for  example, the  list  of  the  publications  of  the  Catholic Truth  Society,  we  find  anong  them  instruc-