Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 11, 25 March 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

The Church and Science The story of the development of scientific research makes it so clear that Catholic scholars have done more than their share of the pioneer work that one wonders how people can still manage to rant about the Church's hostility to true progress. Educated readers of all creeds are being made aware of-the truth as time goes on, and as the light spreads the business of the bigot becomes more precarious. A fact not generally known, even to Catholics, is that the steam engine was the invention of an earnest member of our faith. -The Catholic. Times tells us that in all our histories of invention the Marquis of Worcester (Edward Somerset, 1601-1667) is named as the inventor of tho steam engine, and the author of a remarkable book, the Century of Inventions, that went through edition' after edition in his lifetime. But few who have heard his name know that he was not only a Catholic, but an earnest, devout Catholic, in times when the profession of the old faith of England meant danger and loss from the worldly point of view. He fought for King Charles T i n the Civil War. was for a while an exile in France, and returned with Charles IT to England. He was twice married, his first wife being Elizabeth Dormer, and his second an Irish lady. Margaret O'Brien. Amongst those his friendlv influence won back to the Church was the controversialist, Thomas Bailey, Dean of Wells and sen of the Protestant Bishop of Bangor. Mechanics and inventions were the recreation of Worcester's life, and his steamdriven pump was not a mere design, but was actually constructed and used for many years at Vauxkall. It prepared the way for the subsequent development of steam power, which was long applied only to water pumping. In fact the earlier applications of the new power to the driving of other machinery was effected by using the steam engine to raise water in order to turn with it the big wheel of a water-mill. A Jesuit Scientist No less interesting is the tracing of the evolution of the motor car to a famous Jesuit. This is done by a French engineer, M. Charles Nordman, in an able article in' the Revue des Bevx Monties. He names as one of the pioneers in this field of invention the famous Jesuit missionary of the seventeenth century, Father Ferdinand Verbiest He was born in Belgium 'in 1623, and died at Pekin in 1688, after having spent some thirty years in China. Verbiest was not only one of the ablest mathematicians of his day ami an expert astronomical observer, but he had also a practical command of mechanical and optical science. At the request of the Emperor Kang-hi, he organised the observatory of Pekin, designed and constructed its famous astronomical instruments, prepared a series of astronomical tables, and wrote text books of mathematics and astronomy for Chinese students. Amongst his other undertakings were the construction of an aqueduct for the imperial city, and the erection

and equipment of a cannon foundry for the Chinese army. In a rare scientific work of Father Verbiest printed in 1687 —the year before his deathM. Nordmah tells us that there is a detailed design for a motor car, and, what is more, for a rudimentary form of the turbine engine. It was never constructed, probably because its inventor did not live to pursue his studies in "automobilism." The car was to be propelled by steam, the boiler being heated by a coal fire. There was a. device for regulating the emission of jets of high pressure steam from nozzles which would bring the jets to bear on vanes attached to the circumference of a wheel, from which the power would be conveyed by gearing to one of the axles of the car. Broadcasting the Bible Itinerant tub-thumpers descend upon us occasionally to gather funds from the innocent in return for the glad tidings that the Bible societies are putting the Catholic Church out of business in countries away at the oilier end of the, world. They seem to think that they, can count their converts by the number of Bibles they distribute; and that the Church is wanting in respect for Holy Writ because she does not follow their example and scatter Bibles broadcast throughout the land. As a matter of fact the Church has too much respect for the Bible ever to expose it to the indignity and ill-usage to which it is constantly exposed bv the Bible societies. They hand over the Divine Book to those who are utterly uninstructed and wholly incapable of reading it to advantage. By allowing everyone, no matter what his state or condition, to interpret it for himself,' they have so confused the sense of the simple words that no man when left to himself amid such a Babel of tongues can feel any security or certainty as to the message the Book really contains. Further, they have not only translated it into barbarous and unfamiliar languages, but this has been so atrociously done as to shock and horrify those whom they expect to convert. M. Dubois, writing of the Canara version, used in the neighborhood of Goa, says "there is hardly a single verse which is correctly rendered; and no Indian possessing the slightest instruction can preserve a serious countenance in reading such a composition." That the Hindustani version is. in places, almost as bad r may bo inferred from a single example: Thus the sentence, "Judge not that ye be not judged" is rendered, "Do no justice, that justice may not be done to you." Dr. Carey's Kutikun translation was described by a native pundit as "bad letter, and no language at all." . "On account of their monstrous errors and their barbarous style," say the missionaries, "our sacred writings ' are thought to be the work of " a madman:" Sir E: • Tennent tells us that the version of the Scriptures .translated by the Church of England missionaries of Cotta is described even ,by their nominal converts as "blasphemous.",;;,, ■■.<! j-.h . \S ~Y >•„,,;.,'

How the Bible is Used A ' The ambition of the "Bible societies is to \ scatter tons of Bibles among people who arc ! jf as yet : totally unacquainted ; with Chrisiiark-r ' ity, and: who can feel no V reverence : f ( .'d scarcely any interest in the writings of prophet or evangelist. Thus, Mr. Tomlin, an Anglican clergyman, writes to his employers: "We are taking to am twenty-two goodsized chests,;; well filled with the bread of life." "Unfortunately," remarks a critic, "it is bread so. badly kneaded and baked that scarcely anyone in Siam is to be found who can digest it." The. Rev. Howard Mal- • colm, who was deputed to ; investigate and '' "' report on the fate of the seven versions of the Malay Scriptures, was candid enough to say: '''Many thousands have been distnb lted, but, so far as I can learn, with scarcely any perceptible benefit. I did not hear of . a single Malay convert on the whole Pen:.isula." Protestant sectaries often represent the poor heathen as being extremely desirous of obtaining copies of the Holy Book, and no one denies this. Only it must be remembered' that the cause of this eagerness, as Archdeacon Grant says, "cannot be traced to a thirst for the Word of Life, but to the secular purposes and to the unhallowed uses to which it has been turned, and which are absolutely shocking to any Christian feeling " These Protestant "Bibles have been seen " says Dr. Wells Williams, a Protestant agent "on the counters of shops in Macao cut in two for wrapping up medicines and also fruit a purpose for which the shopman would not use the worst of his own books " Sometimes these Protestant Bibles were turned to more profitable, though equally j< profane, purposes. They were not infrequently nnsewn and the pages used as wall Paper. "At Singapore," writes Bishop Courvezy, "I saw the walls of two houses entirely covered with the leaves of the Bible this profanation, however, is not greater nan when they are employed to roll round bacon and tobacco." Eye-witnesses say that of tZ f t°T ° f China whole <^es o S for which simple people have disbursed their precious gold, were constantly sold by auction, and purchased at the price of old paper especially by shoemakers, wooers, and druggists. MarcWni . speaking from actual observation, reports that the Bibles are sold by weight to. shoemakers who convert them into charming Chinese dippers; In Africa the same story s told.' M. Bessieux, writing from Gaboon, says that be m company with other European resi- '. dents, had witnessed "a grand distribution of portions of the Old Testament among the negroes," and that "scarcely had the children got possession of the sacred volume when he saw the leaves of the Bible converted into pretty kites." Mr. M. Parkyns speaking of Abyssinia in his time,, says-' •Among the many persons I have met with who received Bibles, one man in particular bad two- copies given him, which, as might) have been expected, he sold the same eveningV for a jar of beer, and then got drunk on the * ■strength of it." It has been well said that 1 the English Bible .societies are simply "a vast and successful organisation for supplying the heathen world gratuitously with waste piper." • • .' v;;; '

Humility and Some Scientists The Catholic Herald of India is of opinion limit though scientists as a 'class are endowed wwfigiotable. qualities, humility, is not one of them. It goes on to say on that account all the more remarkable was Dr. 0. Forster's presidential. address at the Twelfth Indian Science Congress recently held in Benares. As one of the themes of his allocution, the President chose Benjamin Franklin's words: "In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride . . . for, _ even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." Dr. Forster has very nearly reason to be proud of his. "All that we ask," he said, "and we ask it for the benefit of our fellows and our successors more than for our own advantage, is that a balanced view may be taken of knowledge in its various branches." The President unconsciously defined humility in all scientific knowledge; it is a balanced view; the expert's consciousness that he is expert in only one branch of knowledge. And he gave a practical test that his conviction was as good as his words by saying: . "True religion has a really splendid ally in modern science: if required to define the minimum religious equipment for a boy or girl I should suggest, in all reverence, the Ten Commandments . and a microscope." "Presidents in the past have not always been so Wimble," the Herald continues, "'but it lias happened that they were much more cocky on the presidential platform than in their own laboratory. We remember a good Indian scientist, who was President of the Scientific Congress and had uttered - most abominable materialistic stuff on taboo, magic, and the origin of religion. Meeting him shortly after, the present writer told him: 'My dear Mr. So-and-So, what rubbish you have been talking at that scientific conclave. Surely, you don't believe a word of what you said.' His reply was quite candid: ( Of course you know I don't, but that's the sort. of stuff they want; it's the fashion.'"

Trouble in Colorado j The Denver Catholic Register tells of an attempt on the part of the Ku Klux Klan Governor of Colorado to suppress the Mass By forcing the discontinuance of the use of sacramental wine. Let the Register tell the story in its own words: 'Governor Charles Morley of Colorado, who was elected by the aid of the Ku Klux Klan, paid part of his debt to that organisation in his inaugural address by attacking the use of altar wine. He suggested that the State eliminate from the Prohibition Law the right to obtaiu, possess, or dispense intoxicating liquor for sacramental purposes. e Experience shows that this exception is too often flagrantly abused.' f "There.has never been abuse of this portion of the Prohibition Law from Catholic There have been one or two Jewish erases, but they have been properly handled. ( "Governor Morley or anybody else who thinks he is going to abolish the Catholic Mass has another guess coming. This has I been tried time after time. In Great Britain there have been times when to celebrate Mass was a felony punishable by. death. The

same has been true in other lands. In Ireland, under British rule, the people ,were forced at times to steal off into the wilds to surround a priest who said Mass while he lay on his back with the chalice on, his breast. Every place where fanaticism has held sway the Mass has been under fire. But it is celebrated, and it will be celebrated until Judgment Day. Furthermore, it' is going to be celebrated right here in Colorado, without intermission. The Catholic religion is not going to be banished, and the Mass is the centre of our worship. If every priest and Catholic layman in the State has to go to gaol we will celebrate the Mass. It is altogether outside the jurisdiction of ' the State of Colorado or any civil government to dictate to us on such a spiritual matter as the Mass. This is our stand, and let our enemies make the most of it. When they step inside the sanctuary itself they will find every one of us ready, to go to death rather than submit. "We are going to use fermented wine for the Mass because Christ used it. It does: not matter how many laws they pass forbidding it, we will get it and use it. We pride ourselves on our loyalty to the nation, commonwealth, and community, but when they enact laws contrary to the law of God, we say with Peter and the Apostles: ' We ought to obey God rather than man!' "So lay off, Governor Morley. You are dealing here with somthing that will bring the curse of Almighty God on you if you dare push forward your fanaticism."

Secret Diplomacy Somebody said that the lessons of experience were vastly over-rated since so very few learned anything from them. When the Great War was drawing to a close, the men who knew the means by which the catastrophe had been brought about began to make disclosures which caused the world to sit up and take notice —at least for a while. Little by little the sordid story of intrigue which had been hidden in a mist of falsehood was pieced together until it became a complete figure called Secret Diplomacy. "Week after week, for the health of- its soul," wrote the New York Nation, "the world is forced to hold its nose and inspect at close range the foetid and septic processes of diplomacy." But" the world learned little from it all. When the politicians were brought face to face with their perfidy they acted in that brazen manner which they have made their own, denying in one breath what they admitted in the next. One moment they denied the intrigues indignantly, and in the next they produced the secret treaties as reasons why they could not adhere to President Wilson's Fourteen Points, to which they had previously agreed. Then, when the war ended they set to work conspiring again, with the result that they nearly brought about another War with Turkey. When Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister of Britain the atmosphere in diplomatic circles was rendered decidedly fresher than it had ever been within living memory. But now, according to an English exchange, the old methods are being employed once more and no one seems to trouble. Secret diplomacy must lead straight

to war. As long as it obtains no nation canfeel safe because no nation can say precisely what plots are being hatched against it. Whilst Ministerial communications are couched in the friendliest of terms, it knows that underneath all there is the plot and counter-plot, the army of spies and diplomatists burrowing through its very foundations. If a traveller were passing through a country inhabited 4 by cannibals he would not run any risk of being taken off his guard: he would shoot at sight. In like manner, feeling that they cannot trust one another, nations often are driven into war by sheer panic. "Mr. Baldwin," says our contemporary, "is merely a figurehead on the Tory barque; his face points in any direction willed by the Talleyrands and Metternichs in duodecimo whose hands move the Tory wheel." What a tragedy it is

The Craze for Laws It is a bad sign when a. government starts out on a campaign of indiscriminate lawmaking. The State is the guardian of rights, not the giver of them and when it oversteps its functions in this respect, and begins to load its Statute Books with all kinds of unnecessary regulations at the behest of cranks, who are listened to only because they have votes to bestow, it becomes what Artemus "Ward' would term "an emfatik noosance." All the English-speaking countries suffer more or less from this form of intemperance, which springs from the erroneous idea that Parliamentarians are the blind servants of the people rather than properly constituted rulers chosen by the people in order that they might use their judgment in the direction of affairs in accordance with the dictates of their conscience. Senator Beveridge, speaking of America, said: "The Nation and every State are well nigh smothered with laws." He said that thirty State legislatures and Congress were in session, and all the mills were grinding furiously. At the end of the session they would have thousands of new laws, of which only a few were really necessary-. "No human being knows," he said, "what these innumerable laws mean. No human being knows even how many statutes are hidden within the forbidding covers of the thousands of volumes that contain Acts of Congress and of Legislatures. No human being knows the sum of rules and regulations that unceasingly pour from our countless bureaus, boards, commissions, and departments of Government, every one of which bureaucratic edicts has the force and effect of enactments by legislative bodies. How can any one obey every law, when nobody knows or can know, how many laws there are or what they command or forbid." America snys that one result of this debauch of excessive law-mak-ing is that one in every eleven American citizens is an official charged to make, interpret, or enforce the law. Or to put the case in other words, every ten American citizens must reach down into their pockets to pay the salary of the eleventh. If this goes on, America will soon be in the position of 'those amiable old ladies who snnoorted their respective families by taking ever one another's laundry and housework. i-