level you are disdainfully thrust aside.

Catholics, while they esteem a mere fop at his just value, expect
their priest to rise above the sneers of the most censorious and,
if possible, to challenge the respect of all. They are proud of
their priest; and surely it is not too much to expect on his part
that he will do his best not to make them ashamed of him.

Their Protestant neighbours know of this pride; and if they can
but lay a finger on his evident defects they will glut their
inborn hatred of the Church by hitting the Catholics on the
sensitive nerve, by galling them by caricature and derision of
the _gauche_ manners of the priest.

Protestant young men, too, will appeal to the pride of their
Catholic companions; and an appeal to pride is generally a trump
card. They will ask--"Is it possible that gentlemen could submit
themselves to the guidance of a clergyman whose manners are
unformed and whose English is marred by provincialisms and
defective accent?"

In speaking of accents, let me say here I do not ask the young
priest to commit the signal folly of attempting to ingraft an
imported accent on his own native one. No! He should speak as an
Irishman, but as an educated Irishman.

[Side note: By foreign Canons you will be judged]

The fatal mistake on the part of a young priest would be to take
Irish opinion as the standard by which he will be judged outside