as revealed to her, she can of necessity say nothing distinct about them.  It is admitted by the world at large, that of her supposed bigotry she has no bitterer or more extreme exponents than the Jesuits; and this is what a Jesuit theologian says upon this matter:  ’A heretic, so long as he believes his sect to be more or equally deserving of belief, has no obligation to believe the Church ... [and] when men who have been brought up in heresy, are persuaded from boyhood that we impugn and attack the word of God, that we are idolaters, pestilent deceivers, and are therefore to be shunned as pestilence, they cannot, while this persuasion lasts, with a safe conscience hear us.’[42] Thus for those without her the Church has one condemnation only.  Her anathemas are on none but those who reject her with their eyes open, by tampering with a conviction that she really is the truth.  These are condemned, not for not seeing that the teacher is true, but because having really seen this, they continue to close their eyes to it.  They will not obey when they know they ought to obey.  And thus the moral offence of a Catholic in denying some recondite doctrine, does not lie merely, and need not lie at all, in the immediate bad effects that such a denial would necessitate; but in the disobedience, the self-will, and the rebellion that must in such a case be both a cause and a result of it.

In the light of these considerations, though the old perplexity of evil will still confront us, it will be seen that the claims of Catholic orthodoxy do nothing at all to add to it.  If orthodoxy, however, admit so much good without itself, we may perhaps be inclined to ask what special good it claims within itself, and what possible motives can exist for either understanding or teaching it.  But we might ask with exactly equal force, what is the good of true physical science, and why should we try to impress on the world its teachings?  Such a question, we can at once see, is absurd.  Because a large number of men know nothing of physical science, and are apparently not the worse for their ignorance, we do not for that reason think physical science worthless.  We believe, on the whole, that a knowledge of the laws of matter, including those of our organisms and their environments, will steadily tend to better our lives, in so far as they are material.  It will tend, for instance, to a better preservation of our health.  But we do not for this reason deny that many individuals may preserve their health who are but very partially acquainted with the laws of it.  Nor do we deny the value of a thorough study of astronomy and meteorology because a certain practical knowledge of the weather and of navigation may be attained without it.  On the contrary, we hold that the fullest knowledge we can acquire on such matters it is our duty to acquire, and not acquire only, but as far as possible promulgate.  It is true that the mass of men may never master such knowledge thoroughly; but what they do master of it