Excerpt from The Founding of a Northern University We may be permitted to View the ancient Church as an artist with a task proposed to examine the materials in her power, and the skill with which she used them. We shall then find much to admire, something, perhaps, to imitate. We are astonished at her adaptation of herself to all circum stances and patient bending of all things to her purpose. However politicians dispute, we cannot regard without sympathy her care of the poor, and the ceaseless charity which she inculcated for the benefit of the giver as well as of the receiver. Not less worthy of our attention is her avowed and consistent principle of inspiring piety by an appeal to the imagination and the heart. Subservient to that end was the munificence directed - ad ampliandum cultum divinum, ad decorem domus Dei - to make more glorious the service and the fabric of the Church, not as a mere place of popular instruo tion, or a convenient meeting-house for devotion, but regarded by the old Catholic, as by the Jews of old, as the temple and very shrine of a present Deity, where innumerable altars were offering up the ever-renewed sacrifice of propitiation. The effect of such means for the object proposed - to produce strong faith and unhesitating obedience; the success of the great plan of the ancient Church, and its whole influence on society - are subjects of reflection not to be slighted by the most philosophical, nor rejected by those most opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrines, with the same ends in view.' Sketches of Early Scotch History, cosmo innes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.