Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/221

Rh courageous. Now theologians tell us that it is the loss of these gifts that makes men foolish. When both the reason and the will are imperfectly unfolded, the whole character shows it. Some etymologists derive stultitia from stupor, and they tell us that stultitia is luxuriæ filia, the offspring of a soft and indulgent life. We see even in good priests, whose life is untaxed by effort, leisurely, easy, regular, and blameless, a tendency to inertness and tardiness of mind.

So also in men of the world. The intellectual conceit, indocility, and independence in matters practical and speculative come from the neglect of the gifts of intellect and of counsel. Men of science are especially liable to this dwarfed and distorted intellectual habit. But we have nothing to do with them now; we are speaking of priests—that is, of ourselves. The reason why sometimes priests are pretentious, vain, scornful, critical, and their preaching unconvincing and unpersuasive, may be found in the same cause. As the loss of the seven gifts produces stupor of mind at least in spiritual things, so the obstructing them in their development and neglecting them in their exercise produces insensibility and inaccuracy. Holy fear is the beginning of wisdom. It is a great gift, and keeps