Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/61

 a yoke which affords support to a reason ever wavering and restless when left to itself. What would become of the world and of its inhabitants if Religion, with its sweet consolations, its excellent promises, the inestimable compensations it offers to the wretched, did not soothe the inevitable woes which oppress each individual and especially the wealthy! It is in the inequality of States, the uncertain portioning of honour and reward, that Religion reveals the charm of its empire and the wisdom of its laws, that temper and compensate as much as possible for human sorrows. Religion alone can transform suffering; it alone can make us feel that wretchedness is a lesser evil than to taste of the sweetness of life to the detriment of our conscience and our duty. It alone can raise man out of himself and, so to speak, enable him to abstract himself from ill-treatment, persecution, iniquity, and take shelter under its auspices in a centre of happiness and peace, beyond the touch of all misfortune."

Is it now true that Religion shackles the human mind, the power of thinking? Such an accusation is a very serious one, and in order to weigh it let us search also into History. Descartes was the deepest thinker of modern times, and the liberator of human thought. He laid down the principle of "doubting," not in order to arrive at unbelief (for unbelief is the shoal that wrecks human reason), but in order to attain "certainty"; and in his great work the "," he loosened the bonds which had oppressed the human intellect; and yet it is indisputable that he remained a sincere and fervent Catholic. Did Catholicism hinder Bossuet, the Eagle of Meaux and the Dauphin's tutor, from being one of the greatest thinkers, or Pascal one of the most intrepid and daring? Were not Newton and Kepler earnest Christians? Religion only withholds those from thinking who are not capable of thinking. Let it not then be asserted that Religion enthrals men's minds. The Right Hon. the good Earl of Shaftesbury, lately addressing the British Conference of the Young Men's Christian Association, said he wants an Empire the government of which should be founded upon Religion, the only law of truth, liberty, and justice,—which, knowing its own right, would respect the rights of others, and would continue to the end of time to be a model to the nations, an example of moral govern-