[TO TEM EDITOR Or TRH "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—In answer to "A.
D. B.'s " inquiry in last week's Spectator, I venture to submit the following interpretation of the passage quoted by him from the Pope's speech. The Church can claim no credit for Caponsacebi's merits. For his faults, on the other hand, she is probably responsible (" ours the fault who still misteach "). The self-sacrifice is Caponsacchrs own, though the Church appropriates its glory to herself, as formerly she appropriated to the glory of the Madonna the purblind love which had been given to Venus. This love the Church found, but did not create. Nerd, for instance, is a natural wealth of the earth which we did not create; it is flung to us in abundance. We (the Church) appropriate it and name it incense, and use it—that is, the self-sacrifice the nard symbolises (?)—as a food to nourish saints. But no real credit is due to the Church ; for our true function is not to give merely what we find ready to our hand, but to offer to God a perfume that has really cost us much.'
—I am, Sir, &c., F. EALAND. Crouch End, N.
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