Inconsistency .

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 16, 18 April 1907, Page 9

Inconsistency .

s There are perhaps few men wholly consistent, Few, for instance, reason out their own - systems or " theories and. carry them to their logical conclusion. They con>monly'shy to. right' ox left from some point of practice that is too good or too wicked for them to. adopt. Even Bill Sikes had sufficient good in him' to feel the tortures of re-morse. Charles Peace was in his better "'moment® a collector of rare moths.; Zola— the philosopher of the sty— in a moment of grace cautioned an" inquiring maiden not to read his books. • Garducci (to whom) "we made editorial reference last week) penned, as an insult to the Vatican Council, the lurid blasphemy of " the^ 1 Irino a Satana ' (' Hymn to" Satan 'J, and popularised devil-wcirship among- the atheistic ana"chistr-socialist and Freemason factions m -Italy.- Tet he had his daughters piously brought up in a convent, and in' his later days wrote two sweet little poems (recently reproduced in- a Roman secular newspaper)— the one a reverent address' to the crucifix, the other to "'" ' our tainted "nature's solitary boast ',• the ever-blessed Virgin Mary. Few, it seems, are as good, or as wicked, as the principles they profess. On the other side of the picture we have 'a clergyman in Melbourne who. falls below his ■ principles, and whose professions and practice are as ""antagonistic to each other "as the famous Kilkenny cats. .His reverence, has temporarily abandoned Pope-baiting' for - the occupation of anti 7 gambling detective, which offers a much' bigger percentage of red meat to the risks of" the game. ._ The intolerable '"tote' and Tattersall scandals in Melbourne affiorded, in good sooth, sufficient-material' for the moral reformer. The- methods of reformation selected " by our No-Popery f-iend across the water were, however, hardly in keeping with the -principles of one in whose eyes every form of wager is a grave moral deordination. His reverence (says- the 'Sydney Morning Herald *) 'got men into .the club and " tote " to make bets, so as to procure evidence to support that' given by the police \ -There are. evidently some pious well-meaning people wb«o-"hald to the principle formulated by Dr.. Martin Luther (and falsely attributed to the Jesuits) that a good end 1 or object justifies the use of what they consider sinful means. - " "'