Moreover, disregard for this general law on the part of parents involves contempt of authority, which contempt, by reason of its being public, cannot escape the malice of scandal.  Even when the early religious education of the child is safeguarded by excellent home training and example and no evil effects of purely secular education are to be feared, the fact of open resistance to the direction of Church authority is an evil in itself; and may be the cause of leading others in the same path of revolt—­others who have not like circumstances in their favor.

About the only person I know who might be justified in not sending his children to Catholic schools is the “crank,” that creature of mulish propensities, who balks and kicks and will not be persuaded to move by any method of reasoning so far discovered.  He usually knows all that is to be learned on the school question—­which is a lie; and having compared the parochial and the public school systems in an intelligent and disinterested manner—­which is another—­he finds that the Catholic school is not the place for his children.  If his children are like himself, his conclusion is wisely formed, albeit drawn from false premises.  In him, three things are on a par; his conceit, his ignorance and his determination.  From these three ingredients results a high quality of asininity which in moral theology is called invincible ignorance and is said to render one immune in matters of sin.  May his tribe decrease!

CHAPTER LXV.  SOME WEAK POINTS IN THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

Some parents claim that their children do not learn anything in the Catholic school.  It is good policy always to accept this statement as true in all its parts; it may be true, and it is never good to deny the truth.  All are not equally endowed with brains in this world.  If a child has it dinned into his ears that the school he attends is inferior, he will come to be convinced of the fact; and being convinced, he will set to work verifying it, in his case, at least.  Heredity may have something to do with it; children are sometimes “chips of the old block,”—­a great misfortune in many cases, handicapping them in the race of life.  It is well, therefore, not to claim too much for our schools.  We concede the point.

Another parent thinks that because he went through the public schools and kept the faith in his day, his children may be trusted to do the same.  This objection has a serious front to it.  It does seem strange that children should not walk in the footsteps of their worthy parents; but the fact is, and facts are stubborn things, the fact is that they do not always act thus.  And they might tell you, to justify their unseemly conduct, that the conditions that obtained in life in olden days are not the same as at present; that there were no parochial schools then to offer a choice in matters of education and that kind Providence