Meditations on the Actual State of Christianity, and on the
Attacks which Are now being Made upon It. By M. Guizot. (Murray.)—M. Guizot dis- likes the positive philosophy so much that he has made these medita- tions chiefly negative. There is not much in them that is tangible and to the point. We hear a great deal about Christianity, but wo are never told exactly what M. Guizot understands by it. If we have not mis- taken him, he seems to look with great admiration on the con- duct of the Bishop of Orleans at the time of the Encyclical as eminently Christian. In one page we are told that Monseigneur Dupanloup proclaimed his frank acceptance of all kinds of free-
dom. "Free institutions, freedom of conscience, political liberty, civil liberty, individual liberty, liberty of families, of education, and of opinions, these are points on which wo make no difficulty, we accept
them frankly." Yet when the Encyclical aimed at substituting the exact opposite for all these liberties, the Bishop of Orleans thought it his duty to defend the Papacy at all hazards. "After having played the part of a sagacious counsellor, he played that of a faithful champion, and he inflicted upon her adversaries blows so sturdy, that the latter were in their turn obliged to put themselves upon their defence, even in the midst of the success that the Encyclical had insured them.°
Now, does M. Guizot mean that this is Christianity, or one of the attacks now being made upon it? If there is any connection between
Christianity and truth, we should rank it with the latter. But if Christianity means not truth, but tradition, the Bishop may have been right, after all.
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