A certain friend of mine--a man of great learning and experience--wrote to me one day, that "he himself had been, in his youth, subjected to college training; that, be it by nature or by grace, or both combined, he resisted and escaped. But," he adds, "from my observation and experience, I would say it did require a miracle for Catholic youth to escape the damnable effects of a non-Catholic school education." I have had opportunities, in this line, that many a priest has never had. I assert that a Catholic boy of tender years, and perhaps careless training, can be preserved from moral contamination, in public and mixed schools, by nothing less than a miracle. I will not chop logic with any one about it. It is a matter of fact. I therefore assert it as of ascertained result, that in _most_ cases--_especially_ in those cases where there are enough of Catholics together to have a school of their own--their frequenting a school without religion will land _most_ of them in utter carelessness of their religion. Grace does not destroy _nature_. And it is _nature_ that-- "... as the twig is bent, the tree inclines." But let me ask you, How can you think that you are as good a Catholic as others; you who object to the teaching of the Church, to the persuasion of all sensible men? Indeed, your language betrays you. Your very language convinces me still more of the necessity of having Catholic schools where our children learn the language and imbibe the spirit of their spiritual mother--the Catholic Church. The Public Schools are none the better for your having frequented them. Let us suppose a father wishes to send his children across the ocean. Now he knows for certain that the vessel which is about to leave for the old country will be wrecked; he also knows that a few of the passengers will be saved, as it were, by a miracle, but he knows not who they are. Will he send his children by that vessel? Now the Public Schools are like a large vessel. The greater part of those who have embarked in it have suffered shipwreck in their faith and good morals. What father, then, will be mad enough to send his children by this vessel, across the ocean of time, to their heavenly fatherland? There are others, again, who assert "that we must not attempt to have Catholic schools until we can afford to conduct them so as to compete with the Public Schools."