Woodward: Cardinal Newman

Word came yesterday that John Henry Cardinal Newman -- the celebrated Catholic preacher, historian, theologian, essayist, poet, and convert -- will soon be beatified. That's great news for the Church, and particularly good news for those of us who admire Cardinal Newman and whose lives as Catholics have been inspired and strengthened by his example.

Here's a well-known passage, part of his famous definition of a gentleman found in The Idea of a University:

If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better, perhaps, but less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they find it. He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive.

American politics in a nutshell, huh?