“As there is an appetite in the human heart which not all the treasures, honors, joys of nature can satisfy, so there is a void in the mind which all the truth within reach of the unaided natural faculties leaves unfilled.  When a man without guile is brought face to face with truth he spontaneously desires union with it.  Appetite proves the existence of food, and the food affirms itself by satisfying the appetite.

“Where there is question of a principle there is a class of minds which must study the part a principle has played in history, and is mainly influenced for or against it from its effect on former generations of men.  This class follows the historical road.  Another class is so profoundly moved by the truths of revelation as soon as known, assimilates them so readily and perfectly, becomes so absorbed and lost in them, that the history of revelation is not of primary importance; it is only necessary in order to establish necessary facts, such as the divine institution of an external society, and of other external aids.  But with this philosophical class of minds the truth stands sponsor for itself and is its own best witness.  The impression produced by revelation here and now upon the soul without guile is one of the best probable proofs to that soul of the historical claims of the society to which God entrusted it.  ’The Church Accredits Itself’ was the title of one of the most powerful articles Dr. Brownson ever wrote for this magazine.

“Both the historical and the philosophical processes are necessary, but each is more so to one class of minds than to another.  To the philosophical mind, once scepticism is gone and life is real, the supreme fact of life is the need of more truth than unaided reason can know.  The more this need is felt, and the more clearly the deficiencies of natural reason are known, the better capable one is to appreciate the truths of revelation which can alone supply these deficiencies.  In such a state of mind you are in a condition to establish revealed truth in a certain sense a priori, and the method a posteriori is then outranked.  The philosopher outranks the historian.  In minds of a speculative turn the historian is never considered of primary importance.  The principles which its facts illustrate are furnished him by human reason in philosophy, and by the divine reason in revelation.  The historical mind has never been considered in the world of thought as sovereign.  The philosopher is broad enough to study all ways leading to the full truth and joy of life, whether logical or traditional; but he knows that the study of principles is higher than that of facts. . . .  No man can intelligently become a Catholic without examining and deciding the historical question.  But back of this is the consideration that the truths the Church teaches are necessarily in harmony with my reason—­nay, that they alone solve the problems of reason satisfactorily and answer fully