CARDINAL MORAN ON HISTORY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 12, 18 July 1890, Page 23

CARDINAL MORAN ON HISTORY.

The following address, as reported by the Freeman's Journal, was delivered by the Cardinal at St. John's College on Commemoration Day, Friday, June 20 : —

His Eminence, whose rising was the signal for hearty cheering, and wbo was repeatedly applauded during his admirable and deeplyinteresting address, said — I cannot bat regard the very flattering report which we have just heard as a matter of sincerest congratulation for the many friends who have at heart the interests of St. John's College. The increased number of students, tbeir success in various branches of stndy, and the excellent spirit which animates them afford a pledge and a guarantee that this collegiate institution will retain the confidence and approval of the public, and that a brilliant future is in store for it. Addressing you, my young friends, you will permit me to exhort you to pursue with ardour and earnestness every branch of the higher studies that may come within your reach. It is not for me to sit in judgment on the claims of the rival branches of study, or to decide on tha relative merits, so often contested, of scholarship and practical science. I would rather wish to reconcile these claims by commending to the students of St John's College the many merits of both, and the honeyed stores which they alike present. First of all you will not fail, I trust, to cultivate your own language, which is bo necessary, that you may yourselves attain to clear and distinct ideaß of things, and that you may be able, with precision, if not with elegance, to convey your ideas to others. It cannot but be interesting and instructive to become acquainted with the classic works of our literature, the development of the language, the characteristic merits of its writers, and the other varied incidents which this literary field presents. The classic languages of Greece and Rome should not be neglected. Their uunvalled intrinsic merit, no less than their influence on modern, as well as ancient, thought, would suffice to make them attractive for every cultured intellect, to say nothing of the training and discipline of the mind acquired by studying them. Modern languages, mathematics, and the various branches of physical science will, 1 have no doubt, always receive due attention within these collegiate walls. But I would wish in a special manner to command to you the accurate study of history, which, now-a-daya, I regret to say, does not appear always to receive the attention which it deserves. History may be styled the picture of the human race travelling along the course of ages, and whatever is fairest and best and brightest in the past, and whatever deserves the attention of man, is embraced in its domain. Never, perhaps, have the facts of ancient and modern times been gathered more eagerly than in our day Ia the interests of science, or dommioo, or commerce, the ends of the earth have been brought to meet ; archives are explored ; the monuments of every land, civilised or barbarian, are interrogated ; the mines of the past are worked with untiring zeal, and yield their richest treasures. Thus it is comparatively easy to become acquainted with past events, and the pictures of the past which are tnus presented become lessonß for the present. The recital of great deeds possesses a charm for the human mind. We contemplate with pleasure the heroism displayed in the fields of valour, self- sacrifice, or virtue ; we rejoice to be familiar with the portraits of illustrious men who have won for themselves and their country an immortal fame ; with the incidents of war, the intrigues of diplomacy, the struggles of political life, the vicissitudes of art and civilisation ; the growth, development, and decay of dynasties and nations. In all the3e varied fields the historian will not be content with the bare facts which he meets, but he will inquire into their causes, and as far as possible will trace them to the source whence proceeded their success or their dements. The pictures of the past have been justly called the seedplots of thought. Tbey enrich the memory, they mark the dangers to be shunned, the paths of progress to be pursued that we may attain the prizes of enlightenment, contentment, and virtue. Thus it was that at the civic banquets the Romaa youths were reminded i " How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave da\s of old." how Scipio achieved his triumphs, how Brutus avenged his country's wrongs. Thus, too, in Greece, the name of Thermopylae was engraven on the hearts of every citizen ; and Sparta, Athene and Corinth vied

with each other to emblazon on their public monuments the heroism of their sons. The first histories were handed down in the language of poetry ; yet history of its lit is quite distinct from poetry. The historian will present to us the reality of things, whilst too often the poet will set before us only the lights and shadows of his own poetic visions. The historian deals with the past ; but the poet, not content with the past or present, will look forward to the future, and to hia genius, as one of our laureates has sung— " In visions clear The aspiriog heads of future things appear Like mountain-tops whose mista have rolled away,

Assoiled from all encumbrance of our time." History is also distinct from oratory, though it cannot fail to impart genuins eloquence and to strengthen, enrich and refiae the intellect. The most eloquent of' Grecian orators — DemosGhenes — relates that it was on the pages of Thucydides that he built up the struc*ure of his unrivalled oratory. The master-minda who in modern times have applied themseves to the very interesting study which is called the philosophy pf history, teach the student* to look to three great forces or ageucies which control human events. First, there is the free will of man by which he is the CDnscious master of his individual acts and which may justly be regarded as the impregnable citadel of his moral being. Second, there is in our nature a tendency to evil, the heritage of our fallen state. If man's free will had continued in perfect conformity to God's law, history would have been an uninterrupted manifestation of the happiest results proceeding from such a harmony. Man's nature, like a stately tree, would have developed in fairest proportion, yielding richest fruit in due season, and lifting its head erect towards heaven. In our present fallen state, however, it is far otherwise, and of himself man is prone to false pleasure and unreal good The third law is that of Providence, which shapes to its own ends the whole oourse of human events, rough-hew them as we may. It controls the aims and ambitions of peoples and nations no less than of individuals. To forget such a providence in the study of history would be to rub out the sun from the firmament ; but, contemplating the course of events in its sacred light, we cannot fail to recognise a marvellous order and harmony and beauty amid the vicissitudes and shifting scenes which the world presents. There is one branch of historical study which has been particularly developed in our day, and which cannot fail to be of special interest to us. This has been called the philosophy of religion, but it may more justly be styled the history of the preChristian religious systems, based as it is on a comparative study of the ancient forms of religion, many of which still retain their hold on the affections or the superstitions of the Asiatic races. It has happened in this, as in most other branches of knowledge, that men of shallow intellect have endeavoured to wrest from it a weapon against religion, as if Christianity were nothing more than the outcome of the development of human reason, or the impact, as they are pleased to call it, of Judaism and Oriental heathenism ; but the profound study of those ancient systems is found, like the Star of Bethlehem, to lead the thoughtful inquirer to the feet of the Redeemer, and cannot fail to furnish the Christian apologist with a new armoury for the defence of divine truth. One family of the Semitic race was chosen, in the ways of Providence, to keep alive the lamp of the knowledge of God and to be the custodian of the religious traditions of the human race. Disciplined in the Arabian desert no less than in the Egyptian bondage, the Israelites took possession of the promised lan J. As ages rolled on, Moab and Ohaldea, Syria and Phoenicia, and other adjoining nations, embraced the most degrading forms of superstition and idolatry ; yet Judea, despite such influences, jealously guarded the worship of the Most High and His divine law. The Jewish religion, of its very essence, was a preparation for the Redeemer, and in Him its types and shadows, its patriarchal blessings, and its prophecies were all fulfilled. As the dawn of morning reflects the rays of the rising Bun, so did the glory of the Temple of Jerusalem foreshadow God's abiding presence ia the Christian Church, and there is not one ray of light, or promise, or blessing which adorned the old dispensation but has been fulfilled, perpetuated, and perfected by the Christian teaching. But though the Jewish race was specially cherished by Heaven, the other lesa privileged families of nations were not left wholly to themselves. The refreshing dews fell upon the desert as well as upon the more favoured soil. The light that shone on Israel was reflected to the other nations far beyond its borders, and among them, too, the patriarchal traditions were handed down in a more or less imperfect form. But, besides all this, history is witness that in every one of the great families of nations men gifted with ealightened genius were raised up by Providence, whose mission it was, as far as man by the light ot reason could effect, to stem the torrent of corruption and to instruct their fellow-mea in the maxims of truth. The light of reason was never quenched, despite the depths of degradation to which man had come, and, as St. Justin, the great apologist and martyr, expressed it, there is " a seed of the Divine Word," in the soul that is destined to produce the fruit of virtue and truth. — The ornament of Christian philosophy in the third century, Clement of Alexandria, has beautifully written that "as the flower turns to the sun's rays, so does the soul tend to the light of the truth " ; and ThfoJoret, another writer of the early ages of the Faith, has not hesitated to write in the same sense that " God has graven Himself in ineffaceable characters on the inmost nature of man." When the mind is thus enlightened by reason, the yearning of the heart turns to heaven, and conscience, lifting her voice, recalls those unwritten laws in which lives a God wbo ages not. Not one of ttnse lessons of human reason is shut out from Christian truth. Every gem of beauty or light that man's genius may have found, and every ray that shone amid the darkness of those pagan times, will be treasured up in all its brightness and perfection in the teachings of the law of love. More than a thousand years before our era Hermes, re-echoing the ancient traditions of Egypt, proclaimed the unity of God and eternal perfection of His being. The writings of this Egyptian philosopher are lost ; but they were known to the early Fathers of the Church who pronounced on them the highest eulogies. Everything materia^

appears to be unchanged and unchangeable in that mysterious land, with its changeless, unclouded sky. But the law is reversed in its moral corruption and in the decay of truth. Prom the highest level of ancient civilisation Egypt gradually fell to the lowest depths of ignorance, degradation, and wretchedness. The oldest temple tells of the worship of the Supreme Oreiture alone ; the later temples are filled with crocodiles and froga and every vilest creeping thing, all of which were adored and served, But there is one distinguishing feature of Egyptian tradition which you will permit me to recall. — At Heliopolis, near Cairo, may be Been the schools of its early wisdom. Thither the Jewish legislator beat his step? to become instructed in all the learnings of the Egyptians. There, too, the infant Saviour came to dwell in His flight from the persecution of Herod. Thus were linked together the most enlightened reasoning of the human soul and the Law of Sinai, whilst on both the Redeemer's presence has set the seal of Christian truth. In Persia, in the seventh century, 8.C., we meet with the great ornament of the Aryan race, Zaratbustra (that is " the golden star "), better known to us by his Grecian name of Zoroaster. In his teaching there is one Supreme Being, the beginning of all wisdom. This self -subsisting truth, clothed with infinite magnificence and eternal light, keeps the sun in its course, and fixes the earth without support, and wears the heavens as a gar* ment of His glory. But Zoroaster's sublime philosophy struggled in vain to stem the torrent of error and vice. The conflicting deities of good and evil became a distinctive feature of the national religion, and fire, which was at first the mere symbol of all that is pnra and divine, became the supreme object of their worship. Amid all their vicissitudes, however, his disciples looked forward to a divine hero who would come to inaugurate an era of endless and unalloyed bliss. In one of their traditional poems the whole Aryan race puts forth the cry, " When will the great deliverance come in brightness and glory, and bring the fulfilment for which all souls are waiting?" The Indian races on the banks of the Ganges, nursed in the lap of luxuriant nature, led for centuries an enchanted life. They adored one infinite omniscient Deity, and Brahma was the hidden principle whence flowed the stream of universal life. This ancient form of Bmhmimsm gradually lapsed into a universal pantheism. Their firmament, indeed, was peopled by inaumberable gods, but all these, and all the varied elements of nature, were mere manifestations of the one Deity that absorbs all things. But their sacred books look forward to a deliverer who will free the oporesaed heart from its bewilderment. They describe the true worshipper as weary and thirsting, though he stood in the midst of the waters, and he cries out " Which of all the gods will hear our cry and be favourable unto us ? Who will come down to deliver us 1 " Buddha who in the authentic Cingalese traditions is said to have flourished •boat 400 years before our era, was of royal race, and skilled in the arts and sciences no leBS than in war. He won hiß special fame by his efforts to bring hack the Brahminical teaching to its first principles. As a result of his philosophy, confusion only became the more confused. He taught that God is all happiness, and that our misery consists in being separated from God ; our unchanging bliss will be attained when we are absorbed in God. Buddha, after his death, was himself worshipped as a deity, and countless other Buddhas were supposed to be imitating him to share his privileges and to be arrayed in the same glory. Like him they passed through the various transformations which alone can lead to happiness — from this mortal life to the infinity of space, and thence into the infinity of intelligence, and from that into tne infinity of nothingness, the necessary prelude to perfect repose. Amid all theße vagaries, the Vedas, or sacred writings, look to a future Buddha, whom the Tibetans call Byamspa, that is, " the loving one," and to him they pray " Bhow to all men the path of peace ; have pity, O guide 1 on this erring world ; arise, O conqueror I shine forth like the full moon after an eclipse." The Turanian race in China had also its great philosopher, Quoag-fou-tchin (Confucius), who flourished about 500 years before Crist, and wno strove with all his might, but in vain, to stem the torrent of error and to spread tbe light of truth. The colossal empire which this branch of the human family represents — rich in its population, skilled in the arts, manufactures, and agriculture — has been working out its hidd.en destiny, separated from the rest of the world, for 2000 years. Confucius instructed them that he had searched their ancient books and hdd learned that there is one supreme monarch, the King of Heaven, and that in the ancient days man adored this God alone, and walked in rectitude till, turning away from his own conscience, he became plunged in iniquity. But the Holy One would come in the West, and would restore the light of justice and truth. Despite his teaching, the flood of error continued to spread its waters, he was himself classed among the deities, and the follies of Buddhism came to intensify the ignorance and depravity that prevailed. If we turn to the Aryan races of the West, history tells the sa me tale. The Celts handed down the tradition of a Supreme Being, but his worship was forgotten, whilst the material elements were adored and the ethereal firmament was peopled with countless gods. Tbe Greeks were the most enlightened of the Western nations. Socrates, the grandest moralist of heathenism that is known to us, enters the lists as a reformer of the moralß of his time ; and yet how transient was his influence on the civilisation of ancient Greece He it was who wrote: "The ancients, who were more enlightened than we, and nearer to the gods, have banded down the tradition of exalted knowledge received from heaven ; we should accept their teacoing when tbey declare that the world is governed by a supreme intelligence. Of Plato, who perfected the Grecian philosophy, it is related that when a child, whilst he slept on Mount Hymetus, a swarm of bees hovering over his cradle, dropped honey on his lips, an augury that his writings would be unrivalled for their eloquence and honeyed sweetness. These great, great philosophers lead ns back 400 years before Christ. Their maxims and their teachings are at times so perftct that they may justly be styled a " Piaepaiatio Evangelica," but neither their efforts, nor the eloquence and philosophy and poetry which tbey inspired, could avail to check the downward course of morality and the degrading worship cf the dei'ies of Olympu3. Plato himself declared that to preceive truth in its purity we must wait till God shall come to unfold it to us. Alexander in his

marvellous career of conquest founded the city of Alexandria as a centre in which all the nations of bis vast dominions would com-, mingle together. It only served, however, to become a receptacle and point of junction of the luxury and passions and corruption of them all. Borne embraced Greece and Egypt and almost all known nations in its world-wide dominion. It claimed to be the most religious of cities, because it gave a place in its Pantheon to all tbe deities of the cod quered race, whilst it took to its bosom all their irreligion and vices. What then, is the picture of the papau world which history presents at the coming of our Baviour 1 Human wisdom and the teaching of the philosophers had failed to enl'ghten the scattered races of mankind ; all were sunk in the deepest ignorance of religious duties and religious truth, and were overwhelmed in an abyss of corruption and moral misery. Seneca compares the world in his day to the Homeric hero " who now stood, now sat, with the restleaness of disease. It was shaken with the agitation of a soul no longer master of itself "; and elsewhere he writes : " All things are full of wickedness : so public has iniquity become, so mightily does it flame up in all hearts, that innocence is no longer rare, it has ceased to exist." The brilliancy of the Augustan age was combined with an ever-increasing scepticism ; in outward form there was the majestic peacs of Borne, but the inner life had degenerated into a gilded slavery, an ever-deepening political, moral, socia 1 , and family corruption. In the circus and amphitheatre men were butchered by thousands for the amusement of Roman citizens, and not a voice was raised against such crnelty. C»sar writes that " the people are almost on a level with the slave : of themselves they venture nothing ; their voice is of no avail ; they are so oppressed by the powerful and given over to the servitude of those who exercise over them the same rights as over slaves." Pliny and Galen picture their generation as physically and intellectually degenerate, " not worthy of the name of men." Lucretius says, '' Every man is groping after the way of life." Even Gibbon attests that incredulity pervaded all classes: "It was communicated from the philosopher to the man of pleasure or business from the noble to the plebeian, and from the master to the menial slave." Amid all this misery, as Tacitus relates, men looked to Judea in the hope and desire of a Saviour ; and Virgil penned the classic lines — " Jam redit et virgo, redeuntJSaturnia regna Jam nova progenies cselo demittitur alto." So beautiful are the poet's sentiments heralding the coming of a golden era of peace, happiness, and virtue, that in the middle ages he was regarded as preparing the way for the Christian faith, and Dante compares him to a man who goes forth into the night bearing behind him a torch, of which he makes no use, but which illumines the path of those who follow him. Thus, then, whilst the history of the Jewish race leads the pilgrim to the Redeemer, in whom all its prophecies are fulfilled and its hopes are realised, the history of the pagan nation presents to us the long wandering of the human soul in search of the " unknown God " till, weary of the fruitless toil, all mankind yearned for the day of peace, and from the depths of its miseries put up to God the prayer that he would bend down the heavens to earth and send the promised one. This inquiry into theancientreligionsof the pagan world unfolds to us many lessons of deepest wisdom. It teaches us one lesson common to all the scattered branches of the human family, that the farther back we push our study in their history the brighter is the light of truth and the more perfect the religious traditions which they present. All those scattere i nations re ained a faint echo of the promise of a Bedeemer made in the Garden of Eden, and that pr»mise solaced them ia the depth of their miseries. Whilst the efforts of philos >phy and human wisdom failed to separate truth from error, they enable us to realise in some way the terrible depths of degradation into which man had fallen. What has been said of Grecian art will hold good of tbe philosophy of the ancient world— it was striving to forget the sad reality of things and the coldness of death around it, to grasp ideal beauty. The Christian religion came to satiate the yearnings of man's heart and to enncti his soul with the perfection of truth and virtue, It was the triumph of the God of love and mercy over all the hostile powers that were working out the degradation and ruin of the human race. Gentlemen, I have dwelt on ttis theme as an instance of how historical research in its simplest form may illustrate the teachings of youth and become the handmaid of religion. It is not history alone, however, but every branch of science that shall reckon its clients in your ranks. You may re9t assured that every development in science, every progress in knowledge, shall be an advance towards truth. The students of St. John's will, I trust, be found among the foremost whenever there is question of enlightenment and social progress. You will hold your own in the public prizes accorded by tbe State to its well-deserving citizens. But more than this, you will look to the higher und nobler reward, which is the consciousness of having faithfully discharged your duty in the race of life. " What men most covet — wealth, distinction, power — Are baubles nothing worth, that only serve To rouse us up, as children in the Bchools Are roused up to exertion. The reward Is in the race we run, not in the prize." (Loud and prolonged applause.)