Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/298

292 and they do not all use the same weapons nor make their onset in the same way. Wherefore it is needful that the man who has to contend against all should be acquainted with the engines and the arts of all — that he should be at once archer and slinger, commandant and officer, general and private soldier, foot-soldier and horseman, skilled in sea-fight and in siege; for unless he knows every trick and turn of war, the devil is well able, if only a single door be left open, to get in his fierce bands and carry off the sheep." The sophisms of the enemy and his manifold arts of attack we have already touched upon. Let us now say a word of advice on the means of defence. The first means is the study of the Oriental languages and of the art of criticism. These two acquirements are in these days held in high estimation, and, therefore, the clergy, by making themselves fully acquainted with them as time and place may demand, will the better Be able to discharge their office with be- coming credit; for they must make themselves all to all, always ready to satisfy every one that asketh them a reason for the hope that is in them. Hence it is most proper that professors of the sacred Scripture and theologians should master those tongues in which the sacred books were onginally written; and it would be well that Church stu- ents also should cultivate them, more especially those who aspire to academic degrees. And endeavors should made to establish in all academic institutions — as has already been laudably done in many — chairs of the other ancient languages, especially the Semitic, and of subjects connected therewith, for the benefit, principally, of those who are intended to profess sacred literature. These latter, with a similar object in view, should make them- selves well and thoroughly acquainted with the art of true criticism. There has arisen, to the great detriment of religion, an inept method, dignified by the name of the "higher criticism," which pretends to judge the origin,