The good seed is obedience and reverence to the Pope
our father and the Church our mother. Woe to the tares of the new creed!
Woe to the proud and impious men, who under the cloak of piety raise
their hands and tongues against their father and mother! The crows and
birds of prey shall feed upon their tongues, and the wrath of God shall
wither up their hands."
The demolition of D, the devout, only whets X's appetite; and heedless of
his coming doom, M, the moderate, enters the lists. As a specimen of
Papal mild facetiousness, I quote the commencement of the second
dialogue.
M. "Great news! a great book!"
X. "Where from?"
M. "From Paris."
X. "A dapper-dandy then, I suppose?"
M. "No, a political pamphlet."
X. "Well, that is the same as a political dandy."
M. "A pamphlet explaining the policy of the Moderates."
X. "You mean, of the Moderate intellects?"
M. "No, I mean the policy of the Moderates, a policy of compromise,
between the Holy Father and, and--"
X. "Say what you really mean,--between the Holy Father and the Holy
Revolution."
After this test of M's intellectual calibre, I am not surprised to learn
that he is treated throughout with the most contemptuous playfulness. He
is horror-struck at learning that, in fact, he is nothing better "than a
mediator between Christ and Beelzebub.
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