Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 4 January 1912, Page 31

Notes

Newman and Ingersoll ; - A very thoughtful review of a recent biography* 1 of Ingersoll appears in a recent issue of the Nation. The writer asks how it is that the Apologia of Newman still lives, while the writings of Ingersoll are "already dead. And he answers; by alleging that Ingersoll lacked the saving surplus qualities.' He wanted balance, ' effective, tolerance' and complete civilisation.' Raw young men of the early 'Bo's thought Ingersoll a demigod, ' an immortal.'- They have lived to see him forgotten and to forget their own callow admiration. A Doctor's Testimony A American physician, Dr. S. A. Dandelin, who has been spending several years in Europe, was asked recently whether his stay in the Old World had lessened or increased his faith. We quote his weighty answer, as it is given in the Ave Maria. 'I return,' he replied, ' with greater faith than ever. I was always a real Catholic in former years," but occasionally events would jar me. Now I am content to believe all. I have seen the whirlwind of unbelief, in France, turning about in the great hollow, unable to ease itself on any point. Then I have seen the people of the German Rhineland, happy, energetic, industrious, and contented in their boundless faith. I have met great men of my profession, and great scientists, in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Fribourg,—men who have struggled with Rationalism only to discover at last that it was a circular route that had no beginning and no end, and was unsatisfying to the soul. The happiest people are those who have the faith. Others, so far as my experience went, do not seem to be happy. I know that the Church is right in her teaching. I know that she can not deceive us, and so accept all her teachings, even to the most unimportant detail, without a doubt, without a whimper.'