This twofold aspect of his bearing towards Protestants certainly proceeded alike from charity and zeal. It was a common remark with him, that we ought not to suppose people bad and evil-disposed unless we are certain of it, neither should we hurt their feelings by opprobrious epithets. And if we intend to do them any good we should be the more cautious still as to our thoughts and words. He used to sigh when he had done speaking of the state of religion in England, but he would immediately start up as if from a reverie and say, "Shall we not do something to save our poor countrymen?" So far was he from sympathizing with the mildest form of error, that even in scholastic questions he would always take the safer side. In his love for the heretic, therefore, no one could ever find the least sympathy with the heresy; or if he called the error a polite name, it was only to gain admission to the heart it was corroding, in order to be allowed to pluck it out. If we take into account his great love for souls, it will seem wonderful that he did not burst out at times into indignation against what destroyed so many; but we must remember that such a thing as fierce outbursts of any kind were most unsuitable to his spirit. His love would make him try to eliminate from those who had died external to the Church, all the formal heresy he possibly could; and he felt special delight in the fact that the Catholic Church forbids us to judge the {389} damnation of any particular individual as certain. But then let us think for a moment of what he did to uproot heresy. He spoke, he wrote, he preached, he toiled for thirty years incessantly almost for this single object. Any one that weighs this well will be far from judging that he had the least sympathy with error. His kindliness, therefore, for Protestants, and his belief that the vast majority of them were in good faith, so far from making him sit down at ease and enjoy his own faith, and not bestir himself unless Protestants thrust themselves upon him to claim admission into the fold, produced directly the opposite effect. Their not being so bad as was generally imagined, buoyed his hope in their speedy recovery; their being so near the truth, as he charitably supposed, made him strain every nerve to compel them to come across the barrier that separated them from him.