_Because_ I believe the ethical doctrine which justifies equivocation, when properly taught, to be true and not false, _and because_ I furthermore believe that, in the interests of my Country and of Humanity at large, it is of practical consequence, as well as mentally salutary, that a knowledge of equivocation, its foundation principles, extents, and limitations, should be “understanded” by all those that have the guardianship of the People, whether in the senate, in the field, or at sea, _therefore_, I have requested one, who has a competent mastery of the subject, to explain the matter to my readers. This has been kindly done in a letter, which will be found in Supplementum VI. For “_Melius petere fontes_,” the jurist as well as the poet has it. “_Better is it to have recourse to the fountain-head._” The philosophical explanation of the fact that, under the pressure of necessity, certain combatants can and do exhibit in action at the theatre of war the highest strategetical skill, in spite of their knowing nothing of the scientific doctrine of equivocation, springs from the law of reason that, as a rule, _doing_ is the condition precedent _to knowing_; experience to cognition. See Ferrier’s “_Institutes of Metaphysic_” (Blackwood), p.15.] This was an obligation, that flowed from the truth expressed by the luminous maxim, “_Qui prior est tempore potior est jure_.” “He who is first in time is the stronger in point of right.” The Jesuit could never that trust, that confidence betray. If needs be, he must be “true till death.” For it was not necessary that he should live. But it was necessary that he should live undishonoured. CHAPTER LXIX. Again; to all those that are “knowing” enough, the facts of this woeful tragedy “observingly” to “distil out,” the form and substance of this document of the 12th March, 1605-6, under the hand of Edward Oldcorne, alike afford evidence——conclusive evidence——that Father Oldcorne regarded the Gunpowder conspirators as repentant conspirators, through the virtual _representative_ repentance of one of their own number. And though it is true that, by the inexorable decree of the Universe, “The Guilty suffer,” each man for himself and not another, temporal punishment, searching, terrible, and keen, yet this is not the whole of the truth governing the perfected ethics of the matter. For “Man learns by suffering.” And guilt is pardoned on repentance, that is, on the observance and on the performance of certain equally decreed conditions. These conditions are (1) confession, (2) contrition, which implies sorrow and regret, and (3) satisfaction or “damages,” which involves amendment, withdrawal, or reversal. And when all three conditions have been observed and performed, then “Whoso with repentance is not satisfied, Neither to earth nor heaven is allied.”