CHAPTER XXX.

ON THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICITY ON THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE.

Catholicity considered as a creed--As an institution--Ideas, in order to be efficacious, must be realized in an institution--What Protestantism has done to destroy Christian morality--What it has done to preserve it--What is the real power of preaching among Protestants--Of the sacrament of penance with relation to the public conscience--Of the degree to which the Catholic religion raises morality--Of unity in the soul--Unity simplifies--Of the great number of moralists within the bosom of the Catholic Church--Of the peculiar force of ideas--Distinction between ideas with respect to their peculiar force--Whether the human race is a faithful depositary of the truth--How the truth has been preserved among the Jews--The native power of Schools--Institutions are required, not only to teach, but also to apply doctrines--Of the press with relation to the preservation of ideas--Of intuition--Of discourses, 165