2nd Argument.—Meaning of Civilisation.

My next argument shall be drawn from the meaning—the Christian, the true meaning, of this word.

We have already traced its signification up to a certain point. We have examined the most and the best that Secularists could say for their boasted civilisation, and we have found that, like many other things, when stripped of its fine words, is shrivelled up to something so selfish and contemptible, that they themselves would probably be page 8 but too glad to disown it. On their own showing, it meant wealth, and the temporal advantages wealth brings. In its very highest flights, it soared at nothing higher than intellectual enjoyments. It did not include virtue. The man who had climbed to the very highest pinnacle of secular civilisation might be the very soul of vice and meanness. Even the rude virtues of the manly pagans of Sparta and early Rome were nearer than this to true civilisation, for they inculcated self-denial and love of country.

By analysing still further our ideas of civilisation, we shall form an exact notion of it, and we shall find that while it embraces all that is most brilliant from a worldly point of view, it adds a nobility which lies far beyond the reach of worldly ambition.

Listen, then, the to magnificent argument with which Catholic theology supplies me.

Civilisation, as understood by all men, Secularists and others, implies culture—that is, the individuals composing the civilised nation are cultured or cultivated.

In the next place, the greater the number of individuals so cultivated, and the higher their point of culture, the more civilised the nation is.

So far I have every Secularist with me. According to the English journalist I have cited, "life should be made liberal for as many as possible by knowledge and beauty." But here we part company. When I ask the Secularist, "What does he mean by 'culture'?" he replies readily: Every accomplishment, from reading, writing and arithmetic, up to music, painting, poetry, &c., and the knowledge of nature and man for its own sake" Merely the usual dressing up of folly and impiety under fine words! To some distinguished Secularists, who consider themselves the pioneers of secular civilization, the knowledge of nature means the knowledge that there is no God, and the knowledge of man means the knowledge that man is an ape! The poor Secularist has a chain round his neck which bows him to the ground, and prevents him from raising his eyes to heaven.

Pushing our analysis still further, we find that civilization implies co-operation. We do not call the individual, however highly cultivated, civilised; but we call civilised the society of cultured individuals who mutually exert a sdlutary influence on each other. Man is powerfully influenced by the society in which he lives. If a good man is surrounded by bad companions he is likely to suffer from their bad example; if a rude man is introduced into refined society, he will grow polished.

Therefore the two fundamental ideas of civilisation are:—1st., the perfection of the individuals who compose society; 2nd., the salutary influence they exercise on each other. It is a sort of common fund, to which each contributes his share, and from which he draws his profit. Thus we gradually work our way to the conclusion that civilisation means Good Citisenship ^{* †} Observe. I do not say that this is the first idea which presents itself. On the contrary, it was by examining ideas which lay nearer the surface that we finally arrived at this. But this is the fundamental notion, and having cleared away the ruins of the secular system, and laid well this solid foundation, we shall now proceed to erect upon it the splendid edifice of Christian Civilisation.

As the beauty of a material edifice depends on the care with which the stones have been hewn, so does the beauty of this depend on the care with which each individual has been prepared;—or to employ another metaphor, the fruitfulness of the orchard will depend on the solicitude with which every tree is cultivated. Culture implies in man a process analogous to that which land undergoes in cultivation. What is noxious must be weeded out, what is good must be planted, and the natural fertility of the soil must be quickened. By taking man to pieces and examining his compound parts, we shall see how his nature is to be cultivated; what is to be extirpated, what is to be sown, and how his various faculties may be most opportunely developed.

Let us take the defination laid down in our catechism;-Man is one of God's creatures, composed of a body and soul;" and if it should seem strange to any one that we should speak of the body in connection with civilisation, let us remember that it is not the soul alone, but the entire man, that is the citizens, we must consider the entire man, body and soul, in connection with civilisation. However true that the nobler part of man has the foremost part in civilisation, still, good citizenship requires us to assist our neighbor in his corporal as well as in his spiritual necessities;† besides, as it is by the body we are chained to this earth, and as it is from the body that springs those degrading tendencies which it is the duty of civilisation to root out or to subdue, we must take it into consideration, if we would know how to grant it what it reasonable requires, and how to deny it what it unreasonably demands.

What are the faculties of the soul? The Intellect, the Will, and the Memory, (which last is closely allied with the Imagination.') The soul, as we learn in our Catechism, is made unto God's likeness. It is a most beautiful, although, of course, is most imperfect picture of the most Holy Trinity. The memory is not the will, or a the will the intellect. They are all three perfectly distinct, and yet they are but one and the same soul!

Let us see how each of these noble faculties may be cultivated.