_Bellarmin's Monstrous Paradox_ (Vol. iii., p. 497.).--In your paper of June 21st, there is a question inserted as to the precise text in which Cardinal Bellarmin is said to maintain that "should the Pope command the commission of vice, and forbid the practice of virtue, it would become the duty of Catholics to perform the one and to avoid the other." To that question you have replied by quoting a passage from the fourth book of the cardinal's great work. It is quite true that the words quoted by you occur at that place; it is quite as untrue that the "monstrous paradox" is there attempted to be maintained. A reference to the book will show at once that this paradox is simply used as an argument to enable the cardinal to prove his point by the common method of a _reductio ad absurdum_. If what I maintain, says the cardinal, is false, then it follows that "should the Pope," &c. Of course, the rest of the argument fully stated would be: But this consequence is not true, therefore neither is the antecedent true; that is to say, "what I maintain" is true. So that instead of maintaining in this passage the monstrous paradox alleged, the cardinal, in reality, is only quoting it as a monstrous absurdity, which he himself _condemns_, and which would result from the contradiction of his proposition. In justice to the memory of a great man, who has been much and most unjustly slandered upon this very point, may I ask for the insertion of this letter. J. W. CT. _Jonah and the Whale_ (Vol. iii., p. 517.).--E. J. K. probably founds his unqualified rejection of the word "whale" on the English version, as a presumed more correct interpretation of the corresponding term in the original Hebrew. But it should not be forgotten, that the equal, or perhaps superior authority of the Seventy translators, to that of our best modern interpreters, is becoming daily more apparent. At all events, without a reference to such collateral aid, it is scarcely safe to pronounce on the meaning of any word or passage in the Old Testament. On this subject, among many other works, may be consulted the valuable Lexicon of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, Canon of Winchester; and the learned _Apology for the Septuagint_, by the Rev. E. W. Grinfield. In the present case, it is certainly of little consequence, whether the Greek word κῆτος, and the Latin _cetus_, be translated "whale," or "great fish," both of which may be comprehended under them. Though the former is the usual interpretation, and though the English translators employ the term "great fish" in the passages "Καὶ προσέταξε Κύριος κήτει μεγάλῳ," and "ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους," the commonly accepted word seems more in accordance with an authority of unquestionable importance. C. H. P. Brighton, June 28. 1851.