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Cornell Catholic
Union Library.
Date Due
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_jjtii>T
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Cornell University Library
BX1753 .D68 1879 Essays on Catholicism, liberalism and so
3 1924 029 402 439 oiin
The tine
original of
tliis
book
is in
Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright
restrictions in
the United States on the use of the
text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029402439
:
Cornell Catholic
O
JiL
vJ jTi
Y
v^
Union Library,
CATHOLICISM, AND
LIBERALISM, ^vm^txia
iv.
tjiett
By JOHN
SOCIALISM.
iFunKammtal ^rinttplea.
DONOSO CORTES,
MARQUIS OF VALDEGAMAS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH
REV. WILLIAM M'DONALD,
A.B., S.TH.L.
KECTOR OF THE IRISH COLLEGE, SALAMANCA.
DUBLIN M. H.
GILL &
SO]Sr,
50
UPPER SACKVILLE
1879. ft
ST.
;?S'sr/f
C
5"
J\, l'2-z.^^2>
PEIHTED BY
M. H.
GILL AWT) SON,
pjb
50, irpPT:H, EACKVIT.T.K-ST., DTTBl^IH.
;
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
WHEN
I
found Donoso Cortes' Essays on
first
and Socialism
Catholicism, Liberalism,
hands, and opening
enchanted with
it
pages, began to read, I
its
—so
amazed
the views expressed in the ideas
it
contained
it,
—that
at the profoundness of
I
determined,
if
time and its
tran-
This occurred several years ago
slation into English.
my
my
and the angelic sublimity of
occupations should ever permit, to undertake
but
in
was so
circumstances were such that the fulfilment of
the intention then formed was delayed
till
the present
time.
And now
that
venture to give
it
my
about the success of find
many
task
at last accomplished, I
is
to the press, not without misgivings
defects
my efforts. However, if the reader and shortcomings in this English
version of a great work, he will be kind enough to re-
member
that the difficulties I
not insignificant or few. diversity of form in
frequently
is,
had
Any
to contend with were
one acquainted with the
which the same idea
may
be,
and
expressed in two modern languages, knows
well that the translator's task
able anxiety and pain.
But
is
often one of consider-
in the present case there
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
iv
new and special difficulty, which was, to cull and employ language which might bear some proportion existed a
to
the majestic grandeur of the ideas to be expressed.
know
I
I fall far
short of
what
I
aimed
at
—
I feel it is
beyoild
my
skill to
content
if I
have got to within a respectable distance of
the mark. trait of
shoot so high, and
I shall
have drawn an approximately true por-
If I
the inimitable original, I will regard
well done
;
be quite
and
my
readers, I
the perusal of these pages
am
filled
my work
certain, will rise
as
from
with wonder at the
depth and breadth and sublimity of the author's conceptions.
With regard asked well
my
to the plan
and analysis of the work,
I
Canon Torre Velez, so acumen and profound philo-
distinguished friend
known
for his critical
sophical acquirements, to deal with that matter in a concise Introduction
a style becoming a
has done
it
;
which he has very kindly done,
man
willingly,
of his brilliant parts.
on unreasonably short
And
in
he
notice, as
became a warm and generous friend. His words are few, but pregnant and what he says may be taken as ;
the just appreciation of one gifted mind,
endowed with
all
by another
the qualifications requisite to form a
correct judgment.
THE TRANSLATOR. Salamanca,
October 12, 1874.
CONTENTS.
Introduction,
...... BOOK
PAGE i
I.
ON CATHOLICISM. CHAPTER
How
great political question,
I.
......
a Great Question of Theology
is
CHAPTER
always involved in every
II.
Of
Society under the empire of Catholic Theology,
.
.
Of
Society under the empire of the Catholic Church,
.
CHAPTER
Catholicity
is
love,
CHAPTER Our Lord
.24
HI. .
...... .....
CHAPTER
g
34
IV.
53
V.
Jesus Christ has not triumphed over the World by the His doctrine, nor by prophecies and miracles, but in
sanctity of
spite of all these things,
58
CONTENTS.
viii
CHAPTER
VI.
......
PAGB
Our Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed over the World by exclusively supernatural means,
64
CHAPTER VH. The
Catholic Church has triumphed over Society in spite of the
same
........
obstacles,
vifhich
Christ,
and through the same supernatural means,
gave the victory over the World to our Lord Jesus
BOOK
79
II.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO ORDER IN GENERAL.
...... CHAPTER L
On
the free will of man,
CHAPTER Answers
to
some questions
relative to this
CHAPTER Manicheeism of Proudhon,
.
,
CHAPTER How
IL dogma,
.
•
.
.
.
.
.113
IV.
...... CHAPTER
123
V.
....
Secret analogies between the Moral and Physical perturbations,
derived from the liberty of man,
100
III.
dogmas of Providence and Liberty are saved by Catholicity, without falling into the theory of rivalry between God and Man, the
93
all
134
CONTENTS. CHAPTER
mity of
VI.
....... ........ Human
The Angelic and the
prevarications
sin,
CHAPTER
How God
— Greatness and enor-
CHAPTER
Human
prevari-
CHAPTER .
.
.
167
•
.
.179
X.
—Conclusion of
BOOK
.
IX.
.
CHAPTER Gontinuation of the same subject
156
VIII.
Solutions of the Liberal School relative to these Problems,
Socialistic Solutions,
144
VII.
draws good from the Angelic and the
cation,
PAGE
this
Book,
.
195
III.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO ORDER IN HUMANITY.
CHAPTER Transmission of Sin,
dogma
CHAPTER How God
.
.
.
.217
II.
.....
draws good from Sin and Penalty, and from the purifying
action of pain, freely accepted,
CHAPTER Dogma
I.
of Imputation,
of Solidarity
228
III.
—Contradictions of the Liberal School,
.
240
—
CONTENTS.
X
CHAPTER Continuation of the same subject
—
IV.
CHAPTER Continuation of the same subject,
2S7
.
V. .
.
CHAPTER Dogmas
PAGE
Socialistic Contradictions,
.
.279
.
VI.
— Bloody
........
Correlative of
that of
Solidarity
Sacrifices
Theories of the Rationalistic Schools about Capital Punish-
ment,
CHAPTER Recapitulation sity of
—Inefficacy
of
all
The
VII.
....
the proposed
a more profound Solution,
CHAPTER Incarnation of the
Human
Race,
Solutions —Neces-
.
CHAPTER Continuation of the same subject
305
VIII.
Son of God, and the Redemption .
290
.
.
of the
S'S
.
IX.
— Conclusion of
this
Book,
.
325
—
INTRODUCTION.
DONOSO Cortes
is
one of the most profound thinkers
of the nineteenth century.
If the
many and
varied pro-
ductions which have flowed from his learned pen had not raised
him
work now
offered to English readers, translated
to the rank of eminent publicists, the
from
the rich and harmonious tongue of Cervantes and Fray
Louis de Granada, would be sufiScient to immortalise him.
It
bears the modest
insignificant title gives
title
sumptuousness of the splendid under that name. itself
of Essays
but this
True merit
edifice
he has
built
up
characteristically presents
on the scene of the world without pretensions, and
real virtue is
known
to every one but
itself.
to refute the calu;nnies of the pagans, evils
;
no index to the richness and
which
befell the
Roman Empire
he creates
who
laid all the
at the door of the
God; " and after attaining he does what perhaps he had not intended a science unknown to the pagans, which was
Christians, writes the "City of his object,
St Augustine,
INTRODUCTION.
2
the science of the intervention of Providence in history,
St
Thomas aims
at writing a systematic text-book for
students of theology in the thirteenth century, and his
"Sum "
raised theology to the category of a science,
and
became a book of consultation for the learned of all ages. Dante intends to write a poem after the manner of Virgil, and the " Divine Comedy " becomes the reflex of a civilisation, or rather
is
Christian civilisation sung
numbers by a bard. Cervantes aims at suppressing the books of knight-errantry by ridiculing their extravain
gances, and he becomes famous with posterity, not for
but for the deep and witty pic-
his transitory victory,
and the profound knowledge
ture he gives of humanity,
of the
human
heart he displays.
not venture to
call his history
Finally, Bossuet does
anything but a Discourse,
and yet posterity has acknowledged Bossuet to be the father of
what
is
known
as the Philosophy of History.
Well, what those giants of Christian thought were
ages and in their own spheres, the work the Marquis of Valdegamas, under the present of modest title of "Essays," is at the present day. He proposes to compare Catholicism with Liberalism and Socialism and his work is not, as might appear at first
in their respective
;
sight, a simple
errors
more,
of the
—
it is
,
comparison of the truth with the great present time
It is history, like the "
the "
Sum
"
civilisation,
;
it
more
is
—
it
is
much
incomparably more, than what he proposes. of St
City of
Thomas
like the
"
;
God
it is
Divine
;
"
it is
theology, like
the portrait of Catholic
Comedy
;
"
it
is
a pro-
found knowledge of the miseries of the heart, of the
;
INTRODUCTION.
3
and of the defects of human instituwork of Cervantes Saavedra and it is a philosophy of history much more profound than that errors of the intellect, tions, like the
;
of Bossuet and
other historians
all
philosophy of these Essays, history
Spain
possible to decipher.
may
for
;
is
without the
an enigma im-
well be proud of pro-
ducing the illustrious author of these " Essays," a work which, without a controversial character,
and
glorious
sublime apology of
the most
and
the
of Liberalism, Rationalism, and
refutation
victorious
is
religion,
Socialism.
And
let
not be imagined that the varied and
it
encyclopedic character of the work throws the matters of which
it
treats into confusion, or clogs the develop-
ment of the author's plan in its majestic march. No the author knows well what he has to do, and scans all with the eye of genius, which walks not on beaten paths, but opens fresh ones for itself
who
creative artist,
discovers
new
method of
he
it is
as a
rises superior to all calculation,
and
If
aspects of truth and
Our author
his own.
paints,
beauty by some
like the eagle,
is
who
discovers from the firmament he brushes with his wings
immense horizons unseen by other
birds.
He
is
like
the daguerreotype, which condenses into small space,
without
The
confusion,
a
merit of the work
nor in the facts
it
group of innumerable is
states,
not in the matters
it
objects.
treats of,
nor in the problems
it
deals
with, nor in the employment of this or that argument,
nor in the amount of erudition clear
method
it
it
displays, nor in the
follows, nor in the critical skill
it
mani-
INTRODUCTION.
4 fests
for,
;
everything in the "Essays " has been treated of
and discussed a thousand times Cortes, as far as the "
Donoso
great, consists
in
The
before.
Essays
"
merit of
which no other book carries
it
in extracting, like the
;
human
bee, from the flowers spread over the field of intelligence the
the " Essays
"
and
are original
raising the question to a height to
wax and honey with which stored and in the new
is
the hive of aspect with
;
which every question
is
invested from the
first
to the
last page.
But there
I
is
should scarcely have used the word question, for
no such thing here, as
From
troversy.
does not argue nor hold
which he denies
shows error
all
discussions
with
Donoso only
rights.
Donoso
error,
teaches,
its
deformity to the world
;
and
and
in teach-
one and the other with the authority of
whose eloquent organ he
is,
he needs not
contest with error in order to conquer
apologists go
to
profound ignorance and contradictions,
its
or points out
ing
not a work of con-
is
it
the point of view he occupies,
down
into the arena,
it.
to,
truth,
enter on a
Whilst other
and contend with
dubious victory, Donoso Cortes, like a giant, demolishes error
by one
stroke of his
arm
Proudhon and Guizot, whose
:
witness his victory over
fairy edifices
crumble tq
earth under his analytical touch.
In the contest with
others, the monster, Proteus-like,
assumes a thousand
when pressed on one side escapes on the Donoso strips it of its false appearances, and
forms, and other, but
presents
it
to the eyes of thinking
nakedness, and holds
it
up tq the
men
in all its foul
cprite5npt qf the woyld
INTRODUCTION.
—enough assuredly to hide
its
The
5
with confusion, and
fill it
make
it
dishonoured head.
may now see how
reader
this
book, without boast
of erudition, without scientific pretensions, or ostentation of great acquirements, possesses an encyclopedic
There
character. in the
no dogma of
is
faith,
nor hierarchy
Church, nor institution in society, nor important
question in philosophy, nor epoch in history, nor
human
aberration in the speculative sphere of the schools, or in
the practical
life
of nations
;
which does not occupy
proper place in the vast plan of this work. said,
Donoso Cortes
is
politician, apologist
limits himself to
life.
scientific
one sole branch, but
takes in at one glance
of
The mystery
its
have
theologian, philosopher, historian,
but not as a
;
As we
all
like
man who who
a genius,
the orders of science and
of faith, defended
by dogmatic
theologians in the limited circle of the schools, Donoso,
without profaning
and makes
it
by
and
the Church society.
He
demonstrate prophecies.
life,
In the Theological Places, the organisa-
Church
scripture
presents on the scene of real
the touchstone of science, and the founda-
tion of society. tion of the
it,
is
is
dealt with from the data supplied
tradition.
According to Donoso Cortes
the mistress, the foundress, the
life
of
does not require, like the apologists, to the existence of the miracles and
the
In his historical studies Donoso has discov-
ered a sublime miracle in the Christianising of pagan society,
and
in the indefectibility of the
Church, a pro-
found prophecy in process of fulfilment for nineteen The autonomy of reason cannot be admitted centuries.
introduction:
5
by him who reveres the infallibility of the teaching of the Church nor the noisiness of parliaments admired by him who stands astonished before the majesty of the Councils nor the regulations of the police lauded by him who bends in reverence before the grand law of charity. Without the dogma of the fall, and the dogma ;
;
of the
rehabilitation,
" Essays," history is
they are explained in the
as
eyes of men.
God had no
The
without explanation.
of the Christianising of society
lies
miracle
patent before the
Or, to use our a:uthor's
own words
—As
witnesses in the grand act of the creation
and the
of the heavens
earth,
He
desires
should witness a more sublime creation
man
that
—the creation of
Christian civilisation.
The foregoing
We have
offered to the English-speaking public.
no extracts from
it,
now made
a slight sketch of the work
is
we would be
for
afraid to profane
them by placing them in juxtaposition with our meagre observations. The work of Donoso Cortes forms a perfect whole. One must read it through and
and
injure
;
on concluding, every " I never before
man
of bona fides must exclaim,
had noticed the sublime harmonies of
Catholicism, and the foul repugnance of error.
cism
is
the law of
life,
solution of all problems.
Catholicism
everything that departs from ception,
and
Catholi-
the hfe of the intelligence, the
it
one
is
the truth, and
iota, is disorder,
de-
error."
Alejandro de la Torre Velez, Canon and Dignitary of
the Cathedral
D.D.,
of Salamanca, and
Professor of Sacred Scripture,
^c,
Sfc,
BOOK
I.
ON CATHOLICISM.
NOTE. This work was examined in
most famous theologians of
of the Benedictines of Solesmes, all his
observations.
its
dogmatic aspect by one of the
Paris, belonging to the glorious school
and the author has
finally
adopted
ON CATHOLICISM. CHAPTER
I.
How a great question
of theology is always involved in every great political question.
In
his " Confessions of a Revolutionist,"
has written these remarkable words
how we
There
is
the science of God,
and embraces
all sciences,
contains and embraces
They were
all
is
He
our political
is
as
the ocean which contains
God
is
the ocean which
all things.
before,
nothing,
wonderful
Theology, inasmuch
and they are
creation, in the divine understanding
them from
all
is
nothing here to cause surprise,
but the surprise of M. Proudhon. it is
M. Proudhon
" It
ever stumble on theology in
questions."
as
—
;
all
for if
after, their
God made
adjusted them to a mould which
Him. They are all there in that sublime which effects are in their causes, consequences,
eternally in
manner in
in their principles, reflections, in light, forms, in their
eternal exemplars.
In
Him
are the expanse of the sea,
£SSAVS ON CATHOLICISM,
lo
harmony of
the beauty of the plains, the
pomp
globes, the
of worlds, the splendour of the stars, the magni-
There, are the measure, the
ficence of the heavens.
weight, and the
number of
and
all things,
all
the inviolable and subhrne laws of is
under the empire of
finds there the laws of life
the laws of vegetation of motion sensations
;
;
;
all
There, are
beings,
and each
Everything, that lives
everything that vegetates,
everything that moves, the laws
;
everything that has feeling, the laws of everything that has intelligence, the laws of
understandings
;
everything that has liberty, the laws of
In this way,
wills.
own.
its
came
things
thence with number, weight, and measure.
Pantheism, that
it
all
might be
said,
withoutfalling into
and God
things are in God,
is
in
all thing^s.
This explains why, in proportion to the diminution of faith, truths diminish in the world society which turns
horizons
For and
in
all
in the loth
(on
by
"
all
men,
Omnis humanae
funda-
societatis
qui religionem convellit," says Plato
"The most
According to Zenophon pious
cities
have ever been the wisest and most says (against Colotes), in
all its
darkness.
has been considered by
Book of his Laws.
Socrates),
terrifying
as the indestructible foundation of
times,
human society. mentum convellit
and why the
back on God, beholds
its
suddenly obscured
this reason, religion
;
"
That
it is
and nations
lasting."
Plutarch
easier to build a city
the air than to constitute a society without belief in
the gods."
ehap.
8,
Rousseau, in his " Social Contract,"
observes, "
That there never was a
state
lib. 4,
formed
— LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
ii
without religion serving as the foundation."
Voltaire says in the " Treatise on Intolerance," chap. 20, " That
wherever there
is
a
society,
more necessary
is
Rome
Numa,
that
City.
The Roman, among
might be
Polybius declares that this in free states
eternal,
Caesar one
than
made her
in others.
the
Holy
the peoples of antiquity, was
the greatest, precisely because
When
absolutely
is
All the legislations of ancient peoples rest
necessary."
on the fear of the gods. holy fear
religion
was the most
it
day uttered
in
full
religious.
senate certain
expressions against the existence of the gods, Cato and
Cicero at once rose to their feet to accuse the irreverent
youth of pronouncing words dangerous to the is
told of Fabricius, a
Roman
It
state.
captain, that
when he
heard the philosopher Cineas mock the Divinity
in pre-
sence of Pyrrus, he uttered these memorable words "
Would to the gods our enemies may follow this docwhen at war with the Republic " The diminutio n of faith, which produces the diminu-
trine
!
tion_^f__truth,
does not necessa rily ca rr y with
it
th e
diminution, but rather, the extravaganc,e,_S.fthg„illlJnan intellect.
At once
Go d
merciful a nd just,
denies^the
tr uth
to culpable intel ligences, ^_tjIe_does_jiot_^d eny
them
life;
He_condemns them
to error, but_ not
death;^_jience_we_ha^^all_s£^
to
ourey^es
thos e ages of prodigjous incredulity and Jiigh^ culture, which have left_a__track__Jbehind,_^ss_hjmin^
'^.^^^ISiiE-i^
P''°l95S§i^°'^ ^^ time,
with phosphoric light in_history.
them, however
and have shone
Fix your eyes on
—look at them again and
again,
and you
2
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
1
shall see that their splendours are conflagrations,
and
they illumine, only because they are lightning.
One
would say
their illumination proceeds
from the sudden
explosion of materials in themselves obscure but in-
flammable, rather than from the pure regions where is
engendered that gentle
by the
arches of heaven,
light softly diffused over the
inimitable pencil of the Sove-
reign Painter.
And what we
have here said of ages, can be said of
Denying or granting them the faith, God denies or grants them the truth. He does not grant nor deny them intelligence. The infideFs may be sublime, the laeliever's moderate. But the former is only great like men.
an abyss, whilst the the
first
dwells error
with error,
For
is
death
;
latter is ;
no hope whatever
is life.
for those
which abandon the austere worship of truth
for the idolatry of genius.
come
In the abyss,
in the tabernacle, with truth,
this reason there is
societies
holy like a tabernaclg,: in
in the second, truth.
revolutions
;
On
the heels of sophisms
on the heels of the
sophists, execu-
tioners.
He who knows
the laws to which governments are
subject, possesses political truth
laws to which social truth
;
human
;
he who knows the
societies are subject,
possesses
he who knows God, knows these laws
;
he
knows God who hears what He affirms of Himself, and believes what he hears. Theology is the science which has these affirmations for
its
object.
Whence
it
follows,
that every affirmation relative to society or to govern-
ment, supposes an affirmation relative to
God
;
or,
what
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
amounts to the same, that every
political
13
and
social, is
necessarily converted into a theological, truth. If all is
God and by God, and theology God, in whom, and by whom, all is
explained in
is
the science of
explained, theology is
is
the science of
all.
If
it
be, there
nothing beyond that science, which has no plural,
because
and
all,
which
social science
is
do not
God
there
is
jimte^,__injG;od_^in the
is
way he
In this
affirmations from social whilst in
except as arbitrary
exist,
weakness distinguishes what u nity.
Political
h.uman understancjjng^, „ManjnJiis
classifications of the
s implest
has none.
its subject,
distinguishes political
and from rehgious affirmations
but one indivisible and sovereign
He who, when he speaks explicitly of anyknows not he speaks implicitly of God, or when he speaks explicitly of any science, is unaware he affirmation.
thing,
speaks implicitly of theology, received from
God only
necessary to constitute considered in
its
petual subject of subject of
all
may
the
all
human
Divinity, even that
He
intelligence
him a man.
he has
absolutely
Theologj^jthen,
most generalacce£tatioji,Js^the_ persciences^as^
God
speculations.
comes from the mouth of man,
Him.
rest assured
is
is
the perjgetual
Every word which an affirmation of the
by which he blasphemes
or denies
who, turning against God, frantically ex-
claims, " I abhor Thee down a complete system
Thou
;
dost
not exist," lays
of theology, as well as he
who
Him, and says, " Lord, The first hurli strike Thy servant who adores Thee " blasphemy in His face the second lays a prayer at 2, raises
his
contrite
heart
to
!
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
14
His
feet
but both affirm Him, each
:
own way,
in his
for
both pronounce His incommunicable name. In the manner of pronouncing that name, Hes the solution of fearful enigmas
—the vocation
of races, the
providential mission of peoples, the great vicissitudes of
and
history, the rise
and wars, the
fall
different
of famous empires, conquests,
temperaments of
nations, their
physiognomy, and even their various fortunes.
Away
abandoned to senses,
God
there where
substance, man,
infinite
is
silent contemplation, inflicts
and passes through
The
sweet-scented and enervating breezes.
substance
the infinite
:
the desert will be for
him something more sublime than the more silent, more solitary and grand it
braces
The
all,
sun,
worship,
only for
is
stars, all
it is
will
its
night,
if it
his lord if
had no rumours.
of a powerful
vegetation, fall
his
it
had
His god
obscurity, im-
There, shall suddenly
barbarous empires, which shall noise, crushed
em-
it
resplendent disc
—immensity,
secret virtue
infinite.
would be worthy of
all,
these things together
mobility, silence.
not
his only divinity, because
The heavens would be
and the
is
wild turbulence and strange noise.
only he could not take in
with his eye.
no
its
which illumines
if
because
and yet he
city, ;
as his god, because the desert
The ocean would be
adorer of
condemned to a perpetual
is
slavery and an infinite indolence
not adore
death on his
a dream, fanned by
life like
rise,
by
colossal
the
and
one day, with rude
by the immense weight
of others
more
gigantic and colossal, without leaving a trace in the
memory
of
men
either of their
fall
or of their foundation.
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
The armies
there
individuals,
without intelligence.
principally
be without
shall
and above
than to discover which empire Victory
populous.
itself shall
macy, inasmuch as because
it
it
be
is
be
less
is
be only a
the most
the most
title
of legiti-
the symbol of the Divinity,
is
the proof of strength.
is
will
It shall
the object of war to determine which nation heroic,
as the
discipline,
The army
a multitude.
all,
ij
Indian theology and history are one
So we see that and the same
thing.
Turning our eyes to the West, we portals, a region
and theological,
political,
divinity
is
see, stretched at its
which begins a new world orders.
The immense
here analysed, and stripped of
—here
formidable character
it is
in the moral,
multitude.
Oriental
austere and
its
The
divinity
was there stationary here the multitude seethes without All was there silence here it is murmurs, cadence, rest. and harmonies. The Oriental divinity extended through all time and over all space. The grand divine family ;
;
has here
its
genealogical tree, and finds
small space of a mountain top;
There
is
room on the the repose of
god of the East here, in the divine dwelling, all is war, confusion, and tumult. The political, suffers the same vicissitudes as the religious, unity here, eternal peace in the
;
:
every city
is
an empire, whilst
formed one empire.
To
a god corresponds a king
a republic of gods, one of cities
Men
and of gods will
have
in
there, all the multitudes
all will
cities.
;
to
In this multitude of
be disorder and confusion.
them something
heroic and divine,
the gods, something terrestrial and human.
and
The gods
6
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
1
men
will give to
the comprehension and instinct of the
great and the beautiful, and
men
will give to the
gods
and their vices. There will be men of lofty fame and virtue, and incestuous and adulterous gods. Impressionable and nervous in temperament, that people will be great in its poets and famous in its artists, their discords
and
will
make
the wonder of the world.
itself
not be beautiful in
splendour and the reflections of glory fearful,
only because
marrow of
sual to the
but pleasure in it
life
among
occurs
ship with
it
cious, loquacious,
the divinity,
and consistency in its
firmness,
as a world peopled
it
by
regarding the other's
premature,
its
;
and
if
relation-
in respect for
full
The
Oriental
of shadows, or
The East
so ephemeral,
in its turn,
death so
its
glory so short-lived, will call
it
a nation
movement.
is
in
In this
theology, Grecian history, and the Grecian
This phenomenon
Roman
origin, as far as
they were
resolutions.
statues.
character are one and the
Etrurian,
Wanting
in those of the other, in
way Grecian
of the
happy
in gravity in its designs,
as a region
life
nothing
In the eyes of the one, greatness
of children. duration
familiarity
be wanting
world will appear to
Sen-
oblivion.
will look for
that people vain, capri-
and petulant.
will
it
will
nor will death be
will consider 'death
The make
flowers.
it
;
by
followed
bones,
its
and
;
gods
its
is
Life will
surrounded by the
eyes, unless
its
same
is visible
people.
thing.
above
all in
they were gods, were Grecian
Oriental.
many
;
the history
Its principal gods, of Etrurian ;
as far as
Inasmuch as they were Grecian inasmuch as they were Oriental,
;
LIBERALISM, austere and sombre. is
AND
SOCIALISM.
It is a city like_that
of Theseus, and an empire like that of Cyrus.
Janus
like
faces .
on
:
its
head there are two
two countenances
the one
;
faces,
Ronae and on
is
its
symbolic of OxLental
is
duration, and the other of Grecian inovement^ is
Rome
In politics as in religion,
East and the West.
at once the
17
So great
her capacity of movement, that she reaches the conworld
fines of the
and so gigantic her duration, that
;
the world calls her eternal.
God
way
to prepare the
was to
providential mission
and to domineer over ous
heads to the earth.
assimilate
to come, her
all
theologies,
nations. Obeying a mysterimount the Roman Capitol, and
seized with a
the nations,
Created in the designs of
Him who was
all
the gods
all
call,
for
All
sudden
terror,
one
cities,
themselves deserted by their gods
bow
their
after another, see
the gods, one after
:
another, see themselves despoiled of their temples and
of their arly
its
Her
cities.
gigantic empire regards as peculi-
own, the legitimacy of the East, the multitude,
power, and legitimacy of the West, intelligence and
Hence
discipline.
stands
it;
it
grinds
tiieologyhas at
something
i
it
n
subjugates
all,
and no one complains. As her something different from,_and
all,
on«^e
common
with, all theologies,
something peculiar and something the cities conquered
From Sparta
by her arms
she has severity
;
pomp
In a word, the
the
West
its
antithesis,
common
has
with
all
from Athens, culture
and
;
in
Rome
or eclipsed by her glory.
from Memphis, Nineveh.
and nothing with-
and grandeur from Babylon
Rome
East the
is
the
synthesis
thesis, ;
and
8
.
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
1
the
Roman
empire
signifies
nothing
else
but
the
Oriental thesis and the Grecian antithesis, which have
become lost and confounded in the Roman synthesis. Analyse now the constitutive elements of that powerful synthesis, and you shall find that it is synthesis in the political and social orders, only because it is so in the In the Oriental peoples as in the
order.
religious
Grecian republics, and in the
Roman
empire as
in the
Grecian republics and in the Oriental peoples, the theological, serve to is
explain the
political,
systems. Theology
the light of history.
The Roman Capitol except it
in ascending.
greatness could not descend from the
by
the
No
same means which had served
one could put his foot
Rome
in
without the permission of her gods ; no one could scale the" Capitol without first hurling
Maximus.
The
down
who had
ancients,
Jupiter Optimus
a confused notion of
the vital force which exists in every religious system, believed that no city could be conquered unless
abandoned by the national gods. all
wars of city with
Hence we
first
find in
of people with people, and
city,
race with race, a spiritual and religious contest, which
followed the fortunes of the material and political.
The
besieged, whilst they resisted with the sword, turned their eyes to their
them
gods that they might not abandon
in their misery.
The
besiegers, in their turn, con-
jured them with mysterious imprecations to abandon the
city.
terrible
Woe
to the city in
voice which said,
gods are abandoning thee
1
" "
which was heard that
Thy gods are The people of
going
;
thv
Israel could
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
19
not be overcome whilst Moses kept his hands raised to
and could not conquer when
Lord;
the
Moses
is
ages, in
all
human
the figure of the
the dependence of
of religion and the yirtue_pf prayer.
Rome succumbed
fell.
formulas and ways, the_omni-
different
God and
£otence of
they
race, proclaiming in
man^hejjower
.
because her gods succumbed
;
her
empire came to an end because her theology ended.
way
In this
which
ciple
does history place in is
relief,
the grand prin-
hidden in the depths of the human con-
science.
Rome had
given to the world her Caesars and her
Jupiter and Caesar Augustus had divided between
gods.
them the grand empire of things human and divine. sun, which had seen gigantic empires rise and fall, had never, since the day of its creation, beheld one of such august majesty and such extraordinary grandeur. All nations had received its yoke even the rudest and
The
;
wildest had bent their necks
arms
the earth hushed
;
At
that time there
humble digies.
down
its
breath.
was born,
in
an humble
stable, of
parents, a Child, prodigious in the land of proIt
was
appearance that
its
the world laid
:
said of
that at the time of His
among men a new
He was
scarcely born
shepherds and kings;
through the
Him
air
that
and spoken
star
shone out
in
heaven
;
when He was adored by angelic spirits had swept to
men
;
that His incom-
municable and mysterious name had been pronounced in the
beginning of the world
watched
for
His coming
;
;
that the patriarchs
that the prophets
had
had an-
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
20
and that even the sibyls had "^ung His victories. These strange rumours had reached /he ears of the servants of Csesar, and awakened a nounced His kingdom
;
vague terror and dread
That dread soon passed away, when they in their breasts.
and that vague terror saw the days and nights prosecute as
before, their per-
petual rotation, and the sun continue rising on the
Roman
And
horizon.
the imperial governors said to
themselves, " Cffisar is immortal,
and the rumours we
heard were the rumours of nervous and idle people."
And and
is
an
efficacious
—contempt
remedy
oblivion.
But idle
Against the prejudices of
so passed 'thirty years.
the vulgar there
at the
end of thirty years the discontented and
begin to
find,
new and more extraordinary The Child had
in
rumours, new food for their idle talk.
become man, according
to people's' report.
on His head the waters of the Jordan, a dove had descended on
Him
;
On
receiving
a
spirit like
the heavens had opened,
and a voice was heard- on high saying, "This
is
my
Son." In the meantime, he who baptized Him, an austere and sombre man, a dweller in the desert and an abhorrer of the human race, cried out without ceasing to the people, "Do penance;" and
beloved
pointing to the Child
Him, "This
is
the
made man, gave this testimony of of God, who taketh away
Lamb
That all this was a miserable by wretched clowns, was a thing beyond
the sins of the world." farce enacted all
manner of doubt
of that age.
in the eyes of the " strong
minds
The Jewish people was always given
"
to
LIBERALISM, and
\vitchcraft
turned
SOCIALISM.
temple and
it
temple and
it
abandoned
ruined country, in the Babylonic slavery,
its
announced by
conqueror,
redeemed
21
In past times, when
superstition.
eyes, obscured with weeping, to its
its
a great
AND
country.
its
but quite natural, that
It
it
had
prophets,
its
from slavery, and restored
at
it
once to
its
was no way wonderful, then,
should await a new redemption
and a new redeemer, who should
Rome. had been no more than
from
strike
neck
its
the heavy chain of If there
and
enlightened people of that age
the unprejudiced
this,
would probably have
allowed these rumours to pass, as they had the others, till
human
time, the great minister of
them
sipated
otherwise
;
;
for
but some it
name
of the Person of
commenced
extraordinary things.
proud those
whom
to teach a
reason,
dis-
was the those great wonders were Jesus, (this
new
doctrine,
and work
His audacity, or His madness,
and the proud,
far as to call the hypocrites
and
had
arranged things
spirit
happened that
told),
went so
evil
and whitewashed
hypocrites,
who were whitewashed
of His heart was so great, that
He
sepulchres
The hardness
sepulchres.
advised the poor to
be patient, and then mocking them, proclaimed their happiness.
To be
despised Him,
condemned
He
revenged on the said to them,
fornication
who always
rich,
"Be
merciful."
He
and adultery, and
He
ate the
—so —the doctors and the sages, and con—with the gross and versed — so low were His bread of fornicators and adulterers.
He
despised
great was His envy
instincts
rude.
He was
so
filled
with pride, that
He
called
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
22
Himself lord of the
He was
and Jle
washed the
spite of
love;
earth, the sea,
and the heavens
such an adept in the arts of hypocrisy, that feet of
In
a few miserable fishermen.
His studied austerity,
He
said His doctrine
was
He condemned labour in Martha, and sanctified Mary; He had a secret compact with the
idleness in
infernal spirits, for
His
soul.
and received the gift' of miracles in price Crowds followed Him, and the multitude
adored Him. It is evident, in spite of their
good
intentions, the
guardians of the holy things and of the imperial prerogatives, responsible offices, for the
as they were, in virtue of their
majesty of religion and the peace of the
What
empire, could no longer remain impassible. cipally urged
them
to take active measures
prin-
was the
report they had on one hand that a great multitude had been on the point of proclaiming Him King of the Jews, and on the other, that He had called himself Son of God, and had tried to prevent people from paying tribute.
He who the people.
had said and done such things must die for It only remained to prove the charges and
clearly establish the fact.
As
to the tribute,
when He
was once questioned on the point, He gave that celebrated answer, which disconcerted the curious "Give to God what belongs to God, and to Caasar what
—
belongs to Csesar
you your
Caesar,
;
"
and
which was the same as I
rob you of your Jupiter."
questioned by Pilate and
what
He had
said,
—"
by the high
priest,
and proclaimed that
He
He
I
leave
When ratified
was the Son
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
23
God but that His kingdom was not of this world. Then Caiphas said, " This man is guilty, and should of
;
Him
die;" and Pilate, on the contrary, "Set
He
is
free, for
innocent."
Caiphas, the high priest, regarded the question in the religious point of view.
Pilate,
the political point of view.
what the
had
state
to
a layman, regarded
Pilate could not
do with
religion,
it
in
comprehend Caesar with
Caiphas, on the contrary,
Jupiter, politics with theology.
thought that every new religion must disturb the
state,
every new god dethrone Csesar, and that the political was involved in the theological question. tively thought with Caiphas,
called Pilate the
enemy
and
The mob instinchoarse murmurs
in its
of Tiberius.
In this state the
question remained for the moment. Pilate,
immortal type of corrupt judges,
Just One. to
sacrificed the
and delivered up J^sus to the popular fury, and tried to purify his conscience by washing his hands. The Son of God mounted the cross amid mockery and insults; there were raised against Him the hands and tongues of the rich and the poor, the hypocrites and the proud, the priests and the sages, of
women
of bad
adulterers cross,
His
fear,
and
life
praying for
spirit to
and of men of
evil conscience, of
the
The Son expired on the His executioners, and commending
fornicators.
His Father.
Everything was at rest for a
moment
;
but then were
seen things never before seen by the eyes of men.
The
abomination of desolation in the temple; the matrons pf Sion cursing their fecundity
;
the sepulchres yawning
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
24
open
Jerusalem without inhabitants
;
her walls levelled
;
with the ground; her people dispersed through the
The
world, and the world in arms.
were heard screaming wildly. Caesars
and without gods
the deserts peopled
who
did not
;
eagles of
Rome was
Rome
seen without
the cities depopulated and
as the governors of nations,
;
know how
to read,
and were clad
men
in skins
;
who said at other who said,
the multitudes obeying the voice of him the Jordan, " "
He who
Do
penance," and of the
wishes to be perfect,
take up his cross, and follow
let
me
;
him leave all thingSj " and kings adoring
the Cross, and the Cross raised on high in
What
is
formations
the cause of these great changes and trans-
What
?
is
the cause of this great desolation
and universal cataclysm thing
;
?
What
CHAPTER Of society
That new in
"i
No-
II.
under the empire of Catholic
theology
a complete its
has occurred
new theologians are going about world announcing a new theology.
only some
through the
is
all places.
is
s ystem
immerisity
it
called Catholicity.
theology.
Catholicity
of civilisation, so complete, that
embraces eve rything—the science
of God, the science of .the angel, the science of the
universCj^and the sc ience of
m an.
The
infidel falls
into ecstasy at sight of its inconceivable extravagance.
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
25
and the believer at sight of its wonderful grandeur. If there be any one who, on beholding it, passes by with
a
amount
smile,
people,
stupid
of
more astounded
grandeur and that
at
such an
than at that colossal
indifference
extravagance, raise
inconceivable "
voice, and say, Let the fool pass." All humanity has studied for the space of eighteen centuries in the school of its theologians and its doctors
their
;
and at the end of so much application, and the end of so
much
study,
up
to to-day the abyss of
has not been sounded. all
There,
it
things and times are to end,
they had their beginning
:
its
science
how and when and when and how
learns
there, are discovered secrets
which were ever hidden from the speculations of the philosophers of the Gentiles, and the understanding of their sages
:
there, are revealed the final causes of all
things, the concerted
movement of everything human,
the nature of bodies and
the essence of
ways by which men walk, the term
spirits,
the
to which they go,
the point from which they come, the mystery of their peregrination and the line of their journey, the enigma
of their tears, and the secret of
dren suckled at
its
life
prolific breasts,
and death.
Chil-
know to-day more
than Aristotle and Plato, the luminaries of Athens.
And
yet the doctors
who
teach these things, and rise
to such sublimity, are humble.
It
was given
to the
Catholic world alone to present a spectacle on earth reserved formerly to the angels in heaven tacle
of
throne.
science bent in humility
—the
spec-
before the divine
;
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
26
This theology versal
;
and
called Catholic, because
is
because
embraces
it
nature
is
because that
all
all
it
destined to extend through
in its
in India,
is
in the
He
universal
supreme
space and
multitude, like the
is
cause,
container, not the
and author of
who all
Roman
one in
It
He
is
it
gods
is
He
motion;
all
He
sovereign will;
contained.
thing from nothing, and in its being,
is
and impalpable sub-
infinite
intelligence,
human, and
God
living
;
multitude of spirits (gods) which
stance, eternal repose, is
;
god multiple in person, like the Greek gods, He is various in His
like
Him.
serve
He
;
;
It is universal in its
The
Rome.
Greece, multitude in
and
all
truths
because
dualism in Persia, variety in
substance, like the Indian
attributes,
all
dogmas.
God was unity
the Persian
embraces
truths contain
to be prolonged through all time.
God, and
uni-
it is
so in every sense, and under every
is
It is universal
aspect.
its
it
He
the
is
drew every-
maintains everything
regulates all things angelic, all things
things infernal.
He
is
merciful, just,
loving, brave, powerful, simple, secret, beautiful, wise.
The
east
knows His
voice, the
west obeys
Him;
the
south reverences Him, the north hangs on His nod.
His word swells creation; the seraphim
reflect
heavens serve is
His
Him
poised in His hand.
Catholic
on
their inflamed
could not be
wings
;
;
the the
a throne, and the earth's globe
When
the time
God showed His countenance
to cast to the earth it
light for
stars veil their face
all idols
otherwise
;
came, the
this sufficed
by men. And when we remember that fabricated
LIBERALISM,
human
the
the
of
Geritiles
God
were
if
more than mutilated
theology
Catholic
that the
._a,n.d
;
morethan
nortiing
some one of the
deification of
the true
SOCIALISM.
theologies were nothing
fragments of
^ods
AND
the
essential properties of
the biblical God.
man
Catholicity seized on
in his body, in his senses,
Dogmatic theologians taught him in his soul. what to believe moral theologians, what he should do; and the mystics, rising above all, taught him to ascend on high on the wings of prayer, that ladder of Jacob composed of brilliant stones, by which God descends to earth and man rises to heaven, till earth and heaven, God and man, burning together in the and
;
flame of an
blended in one.
infinite love, are
Through Catholicity order entered through
man
into
human
The moral world
societies.
found on the day of redemption the laws
on the day of prevarication and
dogma was
^\ man, and
into
sin.
it
The
had
lost
Catholic
the criterion of sciences. Catholic morality
the criterion of actions, and charity the criterion of
The human
affections.
hampered
state,
saw
conscience, escaped
through
the
as through the exterior darkness,
interior
and at the
from as
its
well
light of
those three divine criterions, recognised the happiness
of the peace
it
had
lost.
Order passed from the religious to the moral world,
and
from the
Catholic
moral
God, creator
to
the
and
political
world.
sustainer of
all
The things,
subjected them to the government of His Providencej and governed them by His vicars. St Paul says in
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
28
Romans, chap. a Deo " and Solomon the
Epistle to
his
potestas nisi
chap.
viii.
ver. 15
—
xiii.
;
me
Per
"
— " Non
est
in the Proverbs,
reges regnant et conditores
legum justa decernunt." The authority of His vicars was holy precisely inasmuch as^ jt was foreign, that is,
divine.
The
The
ide a of authority
is
of Catholic origm.
ancient governors of the Gentiles built ffielFsove-
huma n foundations they g overned /or Catholic themselves^ and they g overned by force. governors, considering themselves as nothing, were reignty _on_
;
no more than the ministers of God, and the servants of the people.
When man became
the child of God,
he immediately ceased to be the slave of man.
There
nothing at once more respectable, more august, and more solemn, than the words pronounced by the Church is
in
the ears of Christian princes at the time of their
consecration
— " Take
this
wand
your sacred power, that you
may
an emblem of
as
be able to support
the weak, sustain the vacillating, correct the vicious,
and lead the good along the path of this
sceptre
directs the
good and
this to love justice
were
emblem
as the
in perfect
salvation.
of divine
chastises the wicked
and abhor
iniquity."
Take
equity, which :
learn from
These words
consonance with the idea of legitimate
by our Lord Jesus know that they who seem to rule over the Gentiles, lord it over them and their princes have power over them. But it is not so among you but authority, revealed
—"You Christ
to
the world
;
;
whosoever
will
be greater, shall be your minister, and
whosoever shall be
first
among
you, shall be the ser-
;
LIBERALISM, vant of
AND
SOCIALISM.
For the Son of man
all.
is
not
29
come
to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His
a redemption for
many" (Mark
x. 42-45).
All gained in this fortunate revolution their governors
;
the
latter,
life
—peoples
and
because having domineered
formerly over people's bodies by the right of force,
now they governed
bodies and
the force of right
the former, because they passed
;
minds,
sustained
by
from the obedience of man to the obedience of God,
and because they passed voluntary obedience. gain equally in
the
;
to
constitute
forced
all
if
for princes, in the
name of God,
humanity
from
Yet,
obedience to
gained,
all
did not
mere act of governing
represented the impotence of
a
own name
itself,
and
in its
mere
fact
of only obeying
legitimate ;
authority
by
whilst peoples, from the
God
in the prince,
were
the representatives of the highest and most glorious of
human
prerogatives,
which
consists
in
freedom
any yoke but that of divine authority. This explains, on the one hand, the singular modesty with which the fortunate princes whom men call great, and the Church, saints, shine history; and on the other, the singular noin from
subjection
to
and distinction which are marked on the brow of all Catholic peoples. A voice of peace, of consolation, and of mercy, was raised in the world, and had sounded deeply in the human conscience bihty
and that voice
had
taught
nations
that the
weak
and the poor are born to be served, because they are poor and weak, and that the great and the rich
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
30
they are rich and great.
are born to serve, because
sanctified obediby and by sanctifying the one and deifying the condemned pride in all its most tremendous
ence
;
other,
authority,
deifying
Catholicity,
manifestations, in the spirit of domination,
.There
of rebellion.
spirit
two
are
and
things
in the
totally
—despotism
and Rousseau, who had sometimes sudden
impossible in a truly Catholic society^ revolutions.
and grand illuminations, has written these remarkable words " Modern governments are undoubtedly in-
—
debted to Christianity, on one
side,
for
the firmness
of their authority, and on the other, for the lengthened
Nor has her
between revolutions.
intervals
extended to
alone
this
acting
for,
;
influence
on themselves,
made them more humane. To become convinced of this, we have only to compare them with she has
governments" (Emile
ancient
has said
among
—
"
There
is
1.
4).
And
Montesquieu
no doubt Christianity has created
us the political right
we
recognise in peace, and
we respect in war, for the benefits human race shall never be sufficiently
the right of nations of which the
grateful " (Esprit de Lois,
God tical, is
himself,
who
is
1.
xxix., chap.
3).
the author and governor of poli-
the author and governor of domestic, society.
In the most hidden, in the highest, in the most serene
and luminous
point, of the heavens, there exists a taber-
nacle, inaccessible
even to the choirs of the angels
in that inaccessible tabernacle
is
perpetually verified
the prodigy of prodigies, the mystery of mysteries.
There
is
the Catholic God, one and triple
;
one
in
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
The Father
essence, triple in persons.
31
eternally begets
the Son, and from the Father and the Son eternally
And
proceeds the Holy Ghost.
God, the Son
is
God and
the
the Father
has no plural, because there
is
Holy Ghost
is
God
is
and God
;
but one God,
triple in
The Holy Ghost is God like the Father, but is not the Father is God like the Son, but is not the Son. The Son is God like the Holy Ghost, but is not the Holy Ghost —-is God like the Father, but is not the Father. The Father is God like the Son, but is not the Son is God like the Holy Ghost, but is not the Holy Ghost. The Father is omnipotence, the Son, wisdom, the Holy Ghost, love and the Father and the Son and the Holy and
persons
one
essence.
in
—
—
;
Ghost are
infinite love,
There, unity,
variety, condensing,
God
thesis,
is
supreme power, perfect wisdom.
dilating, is
eternally begets variety eternally resolved
and synthesis;
antithesis,
;
and
into unity.
and He'
is
sovereign thesis, perfect antithesis, infinite synthesis.
Because
He
family..
In His essence are found, in an unutterable and
He is God because He is God', He is perfect; because He is perfect. He is prolific; because He is prolific. He is variety because He is variety, He is is
one.
;
;
incomprehensible manner, the laws of creation and the
exemplars of
All has been
all things.
image, and hence creation
word
universe, signifies unity
Man was made by God
is
made
and variety
to the
is
one
in essence,
and
The
in one.
image of God and not and hence
only to His image, but also to His likeness
man
to His
one and various.
;
:
triple in persons.
Eve
pro-
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
32
Adam Abel is begotten by Adam and Eve and Abel and Eve and Adam are one and the same thing they are man, they are human nature. ceeds from
;
;
—
Adam man
Eve
Adam
is
Eve,
;
man
like
man
like
Abel, but
Eve, but
Eve, but
is
;
is
she
;
man the mother Abel, man like Adam, but is not the
the father
the son.
father
like
man
is
is
;
not the son.
is
not the son
is
Abel
not the mother.
not the mother
is
but
Abel,
like
;
man
is
Adam, but
is
and like
not
the father.
All these names are divine, as are divine the functions sanctified
The
by them.
idea of paternity, foundation
of the family, could not have been conceived by the
human is
mind.
Between the father and the
none of those fundamental
base sufficiently broad on which to build a is
a
fact,
more
and nothing more
;
force
but priority and force
;
is
a
son, there
which afford a
differences,
right.
fact,
Priority
and nothing
cannot constitute, of
themselves, the right of paternity, although they can originate another fact, the fact of slavery.
name name
of the father, supposing this fact, of the son
teaches us,
is
is
slave.
And
is lord,
this truth,
confirmed by history.
The proper and the
which reason
In the peoples
forgetful of the great biblical traditions, paternity
never else but the proper If there
name
had existed a people
for
was
domestic tyranny.
forgetful,
on the one hand,
of those great traditions, and not given, on the other, to the worship of ihaterial force, in that people father
and son would have
and would really P aternity comes from God, and
called themselves,
have been, brothers.
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
33
come from God alo ne, in its name, and in_ its If God had permitted the complete oblivion the traditions of Paradise, the human race, with the
can^
essence.
of
would have forgotten
institution,
The
its
very name.
family, divine in its institution
and
in its essence,
has everywhere followed the vicissitudes of Catholic civilisation
:
and
this is so certain, that the purity^ or the
corruption of the former
is^
ever- an
infalliblejymptom
of th e_purity_ or^ corruption of the latter, as the. history of the various^ vicissitudes jind
second,
orm ations
t ransf
of the
the history oL.the_Jxaxisformations_aiiii.lhe
js^
vicissitudes_throug-h- which the
fi rst
has p assed.
In Catholic ages, the tendency of the family perfection
the hearth
:
it
from natural
it
becomes
spiritual,
is
to
and from
passes to the cloister. Whilst the children at
the hearth prostrate themselves reverently at the feet of
and the mother, the inhabitants of the cloister, more humble a.nd reverent, bathe with tears the feet of another father more exalted, and the sacred mantle of another mother more tender. When Catholic civilisation is conquered, and enters on its period of the father
children
decadence, the family immediately decays, tion
is
vitiated, its
its
constitu-
elements are decomposed, and
all its
and mother, between whom God placed no other intercourse but love, create between themselves the intercourse of severe ceremony; whilst bonds relaxed.
The
father
a sacrilegious familiarity suppresses the distance
placed between children and parents, intercourse of reverence.
profaned,
is
The
God
destroying the
family, then, debased
and
dispersed and lost in the clubs and casinos.
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
34
The
history of the family
fect of
the
family,
eternal in all
is
its
all,
lasts as
exists in its
most
long as
life,
The human
anti-Gatholic family lasts be-
some months.
children,
The
;
between father
artificial
family of the
clubs lasts a day, and of the casino, an instant. tionjs here, as^ in
many
Between the
and the hum,an family of same ,p.rapQriiQ.n as betw een
divine,
is
time and eternity
betweenjthe
:
Dura-
other things, the measure of per-
the cloister, there
cloister,
;
and mother, and between father and children,
natural family, between father
years.
fection.
per-
individuals as long as time lasts
tween father and mother some years
and
The
individuals.
spiritual family, after the divine the
human
many
model of the
divine family, exemplar and
The
lines.
human human
can be given in a few
the
spiritual, family of the
the most perfect, and the se nsual of the club the ,
most imperfect, of
all
human
familie s^there isthe
proportion as between the brevity^ of a
same
mo ment andjhe
immensity of time.
CHAPTER Of
society
III.
under the empire of the Catholic Church.
Constituted,- on one
side,
the criterion of sciences,
the criterion of affections, and the criterion of actions constituted,
on the
other, in society, political authority.
AND
LIBERALISM, in
SOCIALISM.
the family, domestic authority,
it
was necessary to
human
constitute another authority above all infallible
organ of
all
35
ones, the
dogmas, the august depositary of
that should be at once holy and sancti-
all criterions,
fying, that should
be the v/ord of God incarnate
world, the light of
God dancing on
divine charity inflaming all souls
earth, the infinite
heaven
which should treasure
waters for those those
life for
treasures
of the graces of
which should be the refreshment of fatigued
;
men, the refuge of
for
;
in the
the horizons, the
a sublime and hidden tabernacle, to shower them
up on the in
all
who
men, the fountain of living
sinful
who
are thirsty, the bread of eternal
wisdom for the ignorant, way; which should be full of
are hungry,
the wanderers a
warnings and lessons for the powerful, and for the poor full
of love and
that
it
mercy
could speak to
firm, that
it
;
an authority placed so high
all
with power, and on a rock so
could not be shaken by the waves of this
restless sea of the
world
;
an authority founded directly
by God, and which should not be subject tions of
human
and ever
old,
to the fluctua-
things; that should be at once ever
duration and progress, and which
new God
should bless with His special assistance.
That sublime, infallible authority, founded and in which God feels eternally delighted, Catholic, Apostolic,
Roman
for eternity, is
the
Holy
Church, the mystic body
happy spouse of the Word, who teaches the world what she learns from the mouth of the Holy of the Lord, the
Ghost
;
which, placed as
it
were
in
mid-region between
earth and heaven, exchanges prayers for
gifts,
and per-
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
36
petually offers the Father, for the sins of the world, the
precious blood of the Son in perpetual sacrifice, and in
As God makes all things perfect would not become His infinite wisdom to give the truth to the world, and then, entering into His perfect repose, leave it exposed to the injuries of perfect holocaust.
and
finished,
it
time, the vain subject of the disputes of men.
reason
He
which shone on the world beautiful
this
and
sublime perfection and
perfect, with that
Since then she
plenitude of time,
in the
sovereign beauty she ever had standing.
For
eternally conceived the idea of His Church,
in
for us
is
the divine under-
who
navigate in this
sea of the world, boiling in tempests, as a luminous
She knows what saves and our last end in what consists the salvation and in what the damnation of men, and she alone knows it she rules souls, and she alone rules them she straightens the will, and she alone straightens it she purifies and inflames the affections, and she alone inflames and purifies them she moves hearts, and she alone moves them with the grace of the Holy Ghost. In her finds ho place, nor sin, nor error, nor weakness her tunic is without stain tribubeacon placed on a high rock.
and what ruins us
our
;
first
origin
;
;
;
;
;
;
lations are for her
;
triumphs
;
the hurricanes and the
gentle breezes carry her to port.
Everything miraculous
:
it
in is
her
is
spiritual,
spiritual,
supernatural,
and
because her government
is
of intelligences, and because the arms with which she
defends herself and slays, are spiritual .
;
it
is
super-
natural, because she ordains everything to a supernatural
LIBERALISM, end,
men
and because her duty supernaturally
;
it
AND
SOCIALISM.
37
to be holy and to sanctify
is
miraculous, because
is
all
the
great mysteries are directed to her miraculous institution,
and because her
existence; her duration, her con-
quests, are a perpetual miracle.
The Father
Son to earth, the Son sends the apostles and the Holy Ghost to the apostles in ;
sends the
to the world, this
way,
in
the plenitude as well as in the beginning of time, in the institution of the
Church as
the Father and the
Twelve
sinners
in the universal creation,
Son and the Holy Ghost
pronounce
the
mysteriously in their ears, and the earth disturbed
world
;
librium,
:
an unusual
fire
interfere.
words which sound is
immediately
burns in the veins of the
a whirlwind knocks nations out of their equi-
away peoples, disturbs empires, conThe human race sweats blood under the
hurries
founds races.
divine pressure,
and from
all
that blood, and from
all
that confusion of nations, and races, and peoples, and
from those impetuous whirlwinds, and from that
which circulates through
all
fire
the veins of the earth, the
world comes out radiant and renovated, lying at the
Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. That mystic city of God has gates looking
feet of the
directions,
to
signify the
universal
omnium Rempiiblicam agnoscimus Tertulhan.
calling.
in
all
Unam
mundum," says
For her there are neither Jews nor
barbarians nor Greeks.
"
Gentiles,
In her find place the Scythian
and the Roman, the Persian and the Macedonian, those who come from the east and from the west, from the northern zone and from the regions of the south.
Hers
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
38 is
the holy ministry of instruction and of doctrine, hers,
the universal empire and the universal priesthood citizens are kings
and the
saints.
;
her
and emperors, her heroes the martyrs Her invincible militia is composedl>f
who conquered in themselves all its mad concupiscences.
those brave warriors
the appetites of the flesh and
God Himself invisibly
presides in her austere senate and
in her holy councils.
When
world, their infallible
word has been already recorded
her pontiffs speak to the
God himself. That Church placed in the world without human foundation, after drawing it from in
heaven by
an abyss of corruption, withdrew of barbarism.
it
from the night
She has always fought
the Lord, and though hard pressed in
from
all victorious.
the battles of
she triumphs over heretics
;
all
human
passions rebel
against her authority, and she triumphs over passions.
Paganism
came out
all,
Heretics deny her doctrine, and
all
human
and Emperors and kings
fights its last battle with her,
she brings paganism to her
feet.
persecute her, and the ferocity of their executioners
conquered by the constancy of her martyrs. fights
for
is
She only
her holy liberty, and the world gives her
empire.
Under her p rolific empire, the
sciences have flourished,
morals jiaye been purified, laws perfected^ ^"^d jJl j[reat institutions, domestic, political,
and
social,
with rich and spontaneous vegetati on.
have
flou rishe d She has_bad
anathemas onl y for impiou s men, for rebellious peo ples and tyrannous kings. She has defended liberty agginst those
who
aspired to convert authority into
t yrann y,
LIBERALISM, .
God and There
is
the
SOCIALISM.
who
peoples
^^nd .authority against absolute emancipation
AND
;.
and against
inviolability
in
and
persecuted folds
Liberty, in truth, has
In her eyes, error
of
is
born and
lives
for that reason she has sought it,
the
illegitimacy, it
an
commandments.
her eyes holy, and in error, as error
abominable. rights,
to
the rights of
no truth the Church has not proclaimed, nor
error she has not anathematised.
been
aspired all,
His
of
39
and extirpated
human
it
itself,
without
and
out,
it
from the most hidden
And
intellect.
that perpetual
and that perpetual nakedness of
has been a religious dogma, so also has
error, as
it
been a
dogma, proclaimed in all time by all the All have placed beyond discussion the principle on which they rest; all have called the principle which served as its contrast, error, and have despoiled it of all legitimacy and of all rights. political
powers of the world.
All have declared themselves infallible in that supreme qualification;
and
if
political errors, it is
human
they have not
condemned
not because the conscience of the
race recognises the legitimacy of
because
it
all
any
human
has never recognised in
error,
but
authorities
the privilege of infallibility in the qualification of errors.
^Fromjhat
human
ra dical impotence of
authorities to
designate errors, has sprung the principle of liberty^ of discussi on, foundation of
modern
constitutions.
principle does not suppose in society, as sight appear,
first
an incomprehensible and culpable impar-
between truth and
founded on two
error:
it
is
other suppositions, one of which
is
true,
tiality
That
might at
and the other
;
£SSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
40 false;
founded, on one hand, on the fact that
is
it
governments are not
infallible,
which
evident;
is
it
is
founded, on the other, on the infallibility of discussion,
which
we view
false in every light
is
^^Infallibility
it-
cannot result from discussion unless it^bejreyjpusly in those
who
unless
it
discuss
t
ime
former and in the latter
in those
human
an attribute of
Tnfaiilbility is
who discuss who gov ern. If
cannot Jbe in those
it
;
be at the same
nature,
:
it is
in the
are fallible or
either all
all
s
The human
are infallible.
question, then, consists in ascertain-
ing whether
nature
man
nature of
In the
is
sound, or
From
attributes.
quences flow because if it
all
is
fallen
first case, infallibility,
sound understanding,
if
or infallible, which
is fallible
necessarily resolved into this other,
is
it is
:
—
^If
is
the
and greatest of the
it
man
cannot err because it
is
all its
following conse-
the understanding of
sound,
?
essential attribute of the
first
this principle
cannot err because
whether the
viz.,
and infirm
infallible,
is infallible
it is
infalHble
;
truth exists in
men, whether considered in general or individually
the truth
is
affirmations identical
in all
and
if all their
;
men, isolated or
all their
affirmations
are identical, discussion
In the second case, intellect, is
the
first
is
and
fallibility,
infirmity of the infirm
—
understanding of
fallible
it ;
their negations
and greatest of human
this principle the following
infirm,
all
inconceivable and absurd.
and from If the
in general, all their
negations must necessarily be
man
afflictions
consequences flow: because
it is
cannot be certain of the truth, because
it is
if
it
is
fallible
cannot be certain of the truth because
— :
LIBERALISM, it
that uncertainty
is fallible,
whether considered uncertainty
is
in
and
SOCIALISM.
41
essentially in all men,
is
common
essentially in all
affirmations
all their
AND
or individually
men
all their
;
if
that
isolated or united,
negations are
a-
con-
must necessarily be uncertain if all their affirmations and negations are uncertain, discussion is absurd and inconceivable. tradiction in terms, because they ;
Catholicity alone has given a satisfactory and legiti-
mate
solution, like all its solutions, to this fearful pro-
Catholicity teaches the following
blem.
from God, pain and
from
from
death,
sin,
fallibility
fallibihty absurdity in discussion.
Man was by the
redeemed, which,
act of redemption,
if it
—Man
comes
error,
like
from ignorance,
But
it
adds
:
does not signify that
and without any
he escaped from the slavery of
part,
:
from man, ignorance and
sin
effort
on
his
sin, it signifies, at
by redemption he acquired the power of breaking those chains, and of converting ignorance, error, pain, and death into means of his sanctification by the good use of his liberty, ennobled and restored. least,
that
end God instituted His immortal, impeccable,
For
this
and
infallible
nature without
God, hence
and not subject to death. God on earth, that man, aided by grace, which
is infallible,
has placed is
sin,
of original justice and of sanctifying grace
full it
The Church represents human such as it came from the hands of
Church.
it
may become worthy of having him the blood shed for him on Calvary, by submitting to her divine inspirations. With
denied to no one,
applied to voluntarily his faith
he
will
conquer ignorance, with
his patience.
"
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
42
pain,
and with
his resignation, death
:
death, pain, and
ignorance only exist to be conquered by tion,
faith, resigna-
and patience.
It follows
from
this that the
Church alone has the
right to affirm and deny, and that there
side her to affirm
what she
The day when
affirms.
decisions, has
denies, or to
no right out-
deny what she
society, forgetting her doctrinal
asked the press and the tribune, news-
and assemblies, what
writers
is
is
truth and what
is
on that day error and truth are confounded intellects, society enters
error,
in
all
on the regions of shadows, and
under the empire of
Feeling in
itself,
on
one hand, the imperious necessity of submitting
to
falls
fictions.
and withdrawing from
truth
error,
and finding
what
impossible, on the other, to ascertain
error
is
it
and
what truth is, it has formed a catalogue of conventional Iruths, and another of imaginary errors, and has said, " I will adore the former and condemn the latter ignorant so great is its blindness that by adoring the one and condemning the other, it condemns or adores nothing or if it condemns or adores anything, it adores and condemns itself. ;
—
—
;
The
doctrinal intolerance of the
Her
the world from chaos.
Church has saved
doctrinal intolerance has
placed beyond question political, domestic, social, and religious, truths
—primitive
and holy
truths,
which are
not subject to discussion, because they are the foundation of
all
discussions
into doubt for a
that
moment
;
truths which cannot
moment without
oscillating, lost
be
called
the understanding on
between truth and
error.
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
43
and the clear mirror of human reason becoming soiled This serves to explain
and obscured.
why
the Church,
and the Church alone, has had the holy privilege of fruitful and prolific discussions, whilst society, emancipated from her, has done nothing but lose time in ephemeral and barren disputes, which, having their
start-
ing-point in an absolute, could result in nothing but a
The
complete, scepticism. to
Cartesian theory, according
which truth comes from doubt,
the head of Jupiter,
is
like
Minerva from
contrary to that divine law which
presides at the generation of bodies as well as ideas,
and
in virtue of
which contraries perpetually exclude
and like ever begets like. In virtue of this law doubt perpetually comes from doubt, and scepticism from scepticism, as truth from faith, and science from truth. To the profound comprehension of this law of the intellectual generation of ideas, are due the marvels of their contraries,
Catholic civilisation. is
due
that wonderful civilisation
we admire and
that
all
To
theologians, even considered
all
we
that
see.
Its
humanly, put to the blush
modern and ancient philosophers her doctors excite wonder by the immensity of their science its historians ;
;
by
their
those of
generalising and
comprehensive views, cast
antiquity into the shade.
" City of
God
"
is,
St Augustine's
even to-day, the most profound
book of history which genius, illuminated by the rays of Cathohcity, has presented to the astonished eyes of
men.
The
acts of her Councils, leaving aside the divine
inspiration, are the
most
finished
monuments
of
human
ESSA VS- ON CA THOLICISM,
44
The
prudence.
and the science,
Canonical, excel in
feudal,
is
wisdom the Roman,
Thomas
before St
in
St Augustine in genius, Bossuet in majesty,
St Paul in power
Who
Dante } Calderon tion
Who
laws.
.?
is
Who
.?
is
greater as a poet than
equal to Shakspeare
Who,
.'
Who
into the canvas
}
surpasses
and
like Raffaelle, infused life
inspira-
Place people in sight of the will tell you, "
Here has passed a grand and barbarous civilisation." Place them HI sight of the Grecian statues and temples, and they will tell you, " Here has passed a graceful, ephemeral, and brilliant civilisation." Place them in sight of a Roman monument, and they will tell you, " Here has passed a great people." Place them in sight of a cathedral, and on beholding such majesty united to
pyramids of Egypt, and they
such beauty, such grandeur to such
taste,
such grace
to such delicacy, such severe unity to such rich variety,
such measure to such boldness, such heaviness in the stones, with such suavity in
their outlines,
wonderful harmony between silence and
and such
light,
shade
colour, they will tell you, "
Here has passed the greatest people of history, and the most astounding of human civilisations that people must have taken and
:
grandeur from the Egyptian, brilliancy from the Greek, strength from the
Roman,
and,
beyond the
strength, the
and grandeur, something more valuable than grandeur, strength, and brilliancy, immortality and brilliancy,
—
perfection." If
we
pass from sciences, letters, and arts, to the study
of the institutions the Church has vivified with her breath.
LIBERALISM, with her
nourished
SOCIALISM, maintained
substance,
and sustained with her
spirit,
science, this
new
45
with her spectacle
present no less astounding marvels and wonders.
will
which ordains and
Catholicity,
and ordaining
referring
refers all to
infinite variety into constitutive
by
unity,
is,
tions,
united
supreme
element of
infinite
nature, the religion of vigorous associa-
its
by sympathetic
together
Catholicity
man
to solitary
and sombre
is
of egotism
tion
God, and by
to God, converts
all
a constitutive element of supreme order,
liberty into
and
AND
never alone
:
to find a
isolation
and pride
affinities.
man
—supreme
—we
In
relegated
personifica-
must leave Catholic
In the immense circle described by those
boundaries.
immense boundaries, men
live
grouped together, and
obey the impulse of their most noble sentiments of fraternity.
The groups
enter one into the other, and
one more universal and comprehensive, in which move with freedom, and obey the law of sovereign harmony. The child is born, and lives in the domestic all
into
they
association, that divine foundation of
Families
tions.
origin,
groups
classes;
the different classes dedicate
of peace, others the arts of
others administer justice, trial
pursuits.
—
some cultivate the war some seek glory,
themselves to different functions arts
associa-
and thus grouped, form higher
laws of their called
human
group together conformably to the
;
and others prosecute indus-
Within these natural groups, others are
spontaneously formed, composed
of
those
who
seek
by the same path, of those who dedicate them.^elves to the same industrial pursuits, of those who glory
;
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
46
follow the
same business
tributed in their
classes,
—wide
and all these groups, disand all these classes, hier-
among
archically distributed
State
;
themselves, constitute the
move
association in which all others
with
freedom.
In the
This in the social point of view.
families are associated in different groups
of families constitutes a municipium is
form
it
of the
administering their
own
symbol of
its
and a
territory,
unity
and a cemetery, symbol of
All
;
these different
unities
its
their
God,
of
of giving food to the
affairs,
Hence each muni-
and sepulture to the dead. cipium has a temple, symbol of its living
a municipal house, symbol of
who
the families
of worshipping
right
each group
:
each municipium
;
common by
the participation in
political,
religious unity
;
and
administrative unity
jurisdictional its
and
civil
right of sepulture.
constitute the
municipal
unity, which has also its symbol, in the right of using its
coat of arms and unfurling
variety of the municipia
which, in sonified
its
in
associations
is
its
turn, is
symbolised
a king.
Above
is
that of
all
From
banner.
in
all
a throne, and perthese
magnificent
Catholic nations, with their
bosom
of
This perfect and supreme association
is
Christian princes, fraternally grouped in the
the Church.
unity in
its
the
formed the national unity,
head, and variety in
its
members:
it
is
variety in the faithful, scattered over the world, and
unity in the holy Chair, which shines in
Rome, surThat eminent Chair is the centre of humanity, represented, inasmuch as it is rounded by rays of divine
light.
: ;
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
47
by the General Councils, and inasmuch as it is by him who is on earth the common father of the faithful and vicar of Jesus Christ. That is supreme variety, sublimest unity, and most
various, one,
All the elements which exist in dis-
perfect society.
human
order in
The
pontiff
the divine the
human
is
is
is
harmoniously.
human
right
apparent principally in the designa-
And
the person desig'nated pon tiif
pon tiff by God
instituted
human and
the
in this
right shines principally in the institution
right
tion of the person.
by men,
move
societies
king both by divine and
and as he unit es un ite
:
divine sanction, so also does he
and hereditary monarch ies. From the on e he has popularity, from the other^ i nviolability and prestige like th e former, the pontifi cal the advantages of elective
:
mona rchy limitations its
limited on all sides
is
come^ from within, not from without,
own, not from another's
limitations
is
and
humility, this, in
like the latf-pr
;
in
its
will.
The
all
discord to destroy
it
.'
its
its
wonderful
is
is
venerated, and
domestic war and
What monarchy
which the king elects the electors, king, all
om
have the capacity of becoming kings,
exists eternally, despite the efforts of civil
fr
What monarchy
prudence.
which the king, though elected,
which, though
the
foundation of
ardent charity, in
its infinite
,
being elected and electors
?
who
is
this
then elect
Who
i
n
t he
does not see
and hidden mystery—-unity perpetually begetting variety, and variety perpetu ally constitu ting here a deep
its
unity
.',_
Who
does not see here represented the
universal confluence of all things
."
And who
does not
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
48
remark that
Him
of
this strange
monarchy
God
who, being true
the representation
is
and true man,
divinity
is
and humanity, unity and variety, united in one ? The occult law which presides at the generation of unity and variety must be the highest, most universal, most excellent and mysterious of all
things,
human and
uncreated,
visible
and
to
it
essence,
it
God
as
all,
has subjected
Being one in
infinite in its manifestations
is
it
each one of the things that exist, manifests
way.
It is
made man, another
one way
in
God, another
and
;
a
it
in
in
God
His Church, another in the
in
family, another in the universe
each and every part.
its
everything
:
that exists appears to exist only to manifest
different
and
created
divine,
invisible.
Here
it is
;
but
and
in all,
it is
in
an invisible and incom-
prehensible mystery, and there, without ceasing to be a
mystery,
By
a visible phenomenon and a palpable
it is
the side of the king,
whose duty
it is
fact.
to reign with
independent sovereignty, and to govern with absolute power, there
who have
is
a perpetual senate, composed of princes
princedom from God
their
petual and divine senate a governing one,
impedes,
nor
is
is
;
and
a governing one,
and though
so in such a way, that
diminishes, nor
power of the monarch.
eclipses,
The Church
is
this per-
the
it
neither
supreme
the only mon-
archy whj ch ha s preserved intact the plenitude of right, ful
though perpetually
oligarchy,
and
is
in contact
its
with a most powe r-
the only oligarchy which, placed in
contact with an absolute monarch, h as n ot broken ou t into
rebellions
and
seditions.
As
the princes
come
D
^
LIBERALISM, the
after
king,
SOCIALISM.
head, of the social hierarchy
by the
are tempted
spirit
is
priests,
In this wonderful
holy ministry.
society, everything is the reverse of
human associations. In these, those who are at the foot, and
49
come the
the princes
after
charged with the
AND
what occurs
in all
the distance between those
who
are at the
so great, that the former
of rebellion, and the latter
fall
into the temptation of tyranny.
In the Church things are regulated so, that neither
tyranny nor rebellion the subject
what he has
is
Here, the dignity of
possible.
so great, that the prelate's
is
in
common
is
with the subject, rather than
The
from what he has special and peculiar. dignity of the bishops
is
being,
their
like
greatest
not in their being princes, nor
of the pontiff in his being king
bishops
derived from
;
but in pontiffs and
subjects,
Their
priests.
and highest prerogative is not in governing; lit is in the power of making the Son of God the slave of their voicej in offering the Son to the Father in unbloody sacrifice for the sins of the world, in being the channels through which grace is communiincommunicable
cated,
and
supreme and incommunicable power
in the
of remitting and retaining in
what
all
sin.
The
highest dignity
is
the dignitaries are, rather than in what only
some of them
are.
It is not in the apostolate, nor in
the pontificate, but in the priesthood. If
we
C hurch her
consider the pontifical dignity
appears an absolute monarchy.
apos tolic
—"~-™ we—
oligarchy.
If
she
constitution,
isol atedly,
If
appears
the
we
consid er
a
powerful
consider, on the one hand, the dignity '
'
—
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
50
common
to prela tes
deep abyss there people,
it
is
and ^riestej_aiid>.on_J:he jDther, the between the_ priesthood and the
When we
appears an ininiense aristoctacy.
our eyes on the immense multitude of the faithful
fix
hood, and
employed this
world, and
over the
scattered
the
and
apostolate,
the
is
ordained
are in
wonderful society for the advantage of those who
of souls;
human
who obey
;
when
dogma
of the essential equa-
when we remember
that the Saviour of the
consider the consoling
lity
priest-
pontificate
nothing
in their service, that
govern, but for the salvation of those
we
that the
find
race suffered the affronts of the cross for each
men when we find the principle proclaimed that the Good Shepherd should lay down His life for His flock when we reflect that the term of individual and for all
;
;
the different ministries J^s
the action of
all
gregation of
the
faithful,— the
immense democracy,
Church
i
n the con-
a p pears
-
an
in the glorio us a cceptation of this
term, or at least, a society instituted for an end ess entially
of
all
And
popular and democ ratic. that the Church
is,
is
all
the most
she ap pears.
si ngular
In other
those various forms of government are incom-
societies,
patible with one another, or,
they lose
many
if
they ever are united,
of their essential properties.
Monarchy
cannot be united to oligarchy and aristocracy, without the
first
losing
its
naturally absolute character, and the
second, their preponderance.
Monarchy, oligarchy, and
aristocracy cannot live with democracy,
without the
latter losing its
absorbent and exclusive character, as
aristocracy, its
influence,
oligarchy,
its
tendency to
LIBERALISM, and monarchy,
invasion,
AND
SOCIALISM.
absolute character
its
mutual union becomes
that their
their
Tnjjie Chnrrh alnne, which
hilation.
societv^therg_ij ro om for
51
is
a.
so
;
mutual annisupernatur al
these governments, ha r-
all
monically combined, without losing anything of their purity,
original pacific
^r
their
primi tive
combination of powers
in
This
grandeur.
themselves opposed,
and of governments, whose only law, humanly speaking, is
war,
the most beautiful spectacle in the annals of
is
the world.
If the
government of the Church
fin nlH
hp
an immense aristocracy,
might be by an oligarchical power placed in the hands of an absolute king, whose d uty it is to perpetually xiff"er himself in holocaust for the salvation of the peop le. This definition would be the prodigy of definitions, as defined,
called
it
"HTrected
the thing defined
is
the greatest prodigy of history.
Summing up in a few words all we have said, we may assert without fear of being belied by facts, that Catholicity has things
human.
established order and concert
That order and that
*in
all
concert, relatively
man, signify that, through Catholicity, the body became subject to the will, the will to the understandto
ing,
the understanding to reason, reason to faith, and
all to
into
charity,
which has the virtue of transforming
God, purified with an
infinite love.
man
Relatively to
the family, they signify that, through Catholicity, have
been definitely constituted the three domestic persons, united in one with loving bond.
Relatively to govern-
ments, they signify that, through Catholicity, authority
and obedience have been
sanctified,
and tyranny and
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
52
revolution for ever
condemned.
they signify
through Catholicity, war of castes
that,
Relatively to society,
an end, and the concerted harmony of
came
to
social
groups began
;
and
tions took the place of the spirit of egotism tion,
and
science,- letters,
through^ Catholicity,
man
arts,
that with
Rela-
they signify
that,
entered into the possession of
the true and the beautiful, of the true divine splendours.
the
isola-
and the empire of love of the rule of pride.
tively to
said,
all
that the spirit of fruitful associa-
Finally,
results
it
God and of His from all we have
Catholicity appeared
society, supernatural, excellent,
and
in the
perfect,
world a
founded by
God, preserved by Him, and directed by Him, which perpetually holds in deposit His eternal Word, which supplies the world with the bread of
life,
which can
neither deceive nor be deceived, which teaches
the lessons
it
learns from
divine Master,
its
and
men
is
the
perfect transcript of the divine perfections, the sublime
exemplar and finished model of human In the following chapters
we
societies.
demonstrate that neither Christianity nor the Catholic Church, which is its
shall
absolute expression, has been able to produce
great
works,
its
sublime
prodigies,
and
its
marvellous
changes, without a supernatural and constant action
on the part of God,
who
with His providence, and
supernaturally governs society
man
with His grace.
LIBERALISM,
AND
CHAPTER Catholicity
Between
53
IV.
is love.
the Catholic Church and the other societies
scattered over the world, there
between
SOCIALISM.
the
human and
natural
the same distance as
is
and the supernatural; between
divine conceptions.
In the pagan world, society and the city were one and the same thing
;
the Athenian,
Athens.
was
there
in the
nothing
nations, rude
revealed to
Roman, society was Rome in Beyond Athens and Rome ;
but barbarous
and uncultivated
and unsociable by nature.
man human
society,
and, as
Christianity if
this
were
not enough, revealed to him another society, grander
and more
excellent, to the
immensity of which
neither limits nor bounds.
who triumph
Its citizens are
in heaven, the just
who
it
put
the saints
suffer in
purga-
and the Christians who combat on earth. Read attentively, one by one, the pages of history, and after tory,
reading and meditating on them, you shall see with
astonishment that that gigantic conception tional,
that
it
comes as a supernatural
cated to
man
supernaturally.
unexpectedly, and did not see it,
it
was already come.
It
it
saw
nation and one simple glance. love,
is
excep-
and comes without warning, without antecedents
;
communi-
The world received it come for when it saw ;
it
with one sole illumi-
Who
but God,
who combat communion with those who suffer
could have taught those
they are in
revelation,
who
is
here that in
purga-
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
54 tory,
and with those who triumph
God
but
heaven
in
living, the just,
the saint, and the sinner
Who but God
?
?
The
excellence,
which
could throw a bridge over those immense oceans
law of unity and variety, that law par is
Who
?
could unite with loving link the dead and the
at once
human and
which nothing
divine, without
can be explained, and with which everything becomes
one of
plain, is here displayed in
manifestations.
There
its
most astounding
variety in heaven,
is
because
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three persons
and that variety becomes mingled, but not
;
confused, in unity, because the Father is
God, and the Holy Ghost
There
is
is
is
God, the Son
God, and God
variety in Paradise, because
Adam
are two different persons, and that variety
but not confused, in unity, because are
human
is in
and human nature
nature,
our Lord Jesus Christ, because in
is
one.
and Eve
is
mingled,
Adam
and Eve
one.
Variety
is
Him
concur, on
the one hand, the divine nature, and on the other, corporeal and spiritual, or human, nature corporeal
and
and the divine
spiritual
;
and the
natures are
mingled without confusion in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is one only person. Finally, there is variety in the Church, which combats on earth, suffers in purgatory,
and triumphs
in
heaven
;
and that variety
is
mingled,
but not confounded, in our Lord Jesus Christ, only
Head
of the universal Church, who, considered as the
only Son of the Father,
is,
like the Father, the
symbol
of the variety of persons in the unity of essence in the
quality of
God-man,
He
is
;
as
the symbol of the
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
variety of essences in the unity of person
considered at once
all
and when
;
God-man and
as the
God, the perfect symbol of
55
the Son of
possible varieties
and of
infinite unity.
And
as supreme
which,
in
harmony
always found identical in this it
comes that the
various
of
Trinity
manifestations, from
which
is
ever the same.
is
one by love
composed of the
variety,
all its
and
resolved, being
is
law, in virtue of
rendered one,
is
the divine
consists in unity, from,
springs and
variety
all
:
all
that
is
The
variety
the
human and the
father, the mother,
made one by love. The variety of the human and divine natures is made one in our Lord Jesus child, is
Christ
by the incarnation of the Word
the Virgin in
—mystery of
combat,
The variety
love.,
in suffering,
and
in the
in
triumph,
is
womb
of the
of
Church
made one
in
our Lord Jesus Christ by the prayers of the Christians
who
triumph, which
converted into beneficent dew,
fall,
on the Christians who combat, and by the prayers of the Christians who combat, which fall in prolific showers on the Christians who suff"er is
the ecstasy of love.
charity
is in
charity
is
if
he who
such a
to
God
and
God
God, and charity,
all this
being ever
;
he
who
If
God
is
infinite
God
is
is in
charity,
unity
him,
God
and man can
rise
in
without confusion, in
neither God made man loses His divine man made God, his human nature; man man, although God and God ever God
way that
nature, nor
and perfect prayer
charity
is
because
man by ;
;
in him."
in charity is in
can come down to
by charity
God
God, and God
infinite unity, is
"
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
S6
man
though that
is,
The
;
and
by
all this
exclusively supernatural,
exclusively divine, means.
by
Gentiles had
notio n of this supreme d ogma,
some
as they had, more^ or less perfectly, of^alL the Catholic
human in
all times,_ and .a
In every zone, in
dogmas.
races, the re
mong
the
has b een preserved an undying b elief
a future, transformation, so radical and sov ereign,
that
it
should join in one for ever, the Creator a nd the
human and
creature, the in the
the divine natur es.
age of Paradise, the enemy of the
spoke to our
first
Long human
parents of becoming /gods.
prevarication and the
fall,
men
man
The
logies.
it
race
carried this wonderful
how
of research who, no matter
into them, does not find
ago,
After the
There
tradition to the ultimate ends of the world.
no
all
at the
little
bottom of
is
he dives all
theo-
between the pure dogma pre-
difference
dogma vitiated mode of attaining and sovereign end. The
served in the Catholic theology, and the
by human
traditions, consists in the
that supreme transformation
angel of darkness did not deceive our
he told them that they should be love,
obedience. sist in
like
parents
unto gods
when
and pointing out the natural road of
The
error of
the
;
them the supernatural
deceit consisted in hiding from
path of
first
dis-
pagan theologies does not con-
affirming that the divinity
and humanity
shall
be
united in one, but in the fact that the pagans regarded
the divine and
human
natures as thoroughly identified,
whilst Catholicity, considering tinct,
reaches the union
of man.
That pagan
them
as essentially dis-
by the supernatural superstition
is
deification
manifest in the
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
57
divine honours rendered the earth, in quality of im-
mortal and prolific mother of the gods, and to various
whom
creatures
they confounded with the gods them-
Finally, the diQJeifince.betweeji-JPrfinLth.fi.'aguand
selves.
Catholicity
is
notin the one's
and the
affirmin^^
3enying the deification of man, but holding that licity
man
by
is
^graca^..It
is
in
God, whilst Catho-
his nature
become so
says tha t he can
is
God,
is
completely absorbed by
the aggregate of which he forms part
whilst Catholicity
;
teaches that man, even after deification, that
being penetrated by the divine substance, the inviolable individuality of his
God
has for
human
own
and inviolable
He
the empire of
associations,
all
The
substance.
is
what
the
is
what constitutes
individuality,
ing to the Catholic dogma, that
after
is,
preserves-
still
individuality, or,
same, for the liberty of man, which his absolute
by
su.Ei£mat-ii rally
Pantheism's teaching that man, part of
the aggregate which
respect
ot her's
P anthe ism's
in
is
such, accord-
has divided with
it
which are governed at
one and the same time, by the liberty of man and the counsel of the divinity.
Love all
is
in itself prolific
;
because
it is prolific,
things various, without destro ying
and because
it
''""^"""'^'"HFf
^^P"^i
variety
infinite
law, the
end.
love,
is
and
it
mingles in
its
things varioyj^. infinite
unity.
i t^
own
beg et s unity
unity, withny};^
Love, then, It
is
the
is
sole
supreme precept, the only road, the ultimate
Catholicity
Only he
''I'
it s
who
is
loves
Catholic learns to
love, is
love,
a for
because
God
Catholic,
and
it
is
is
only
love.
the
only the Catholic
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
58
who
receives
knowledge from supernatural and
his
divine sources.
CHAPTER
V.
Christ has not triumphed overHhe world
Our Lord Jesus
by the sanctity of
His
miracles, but in spite
doctrine,
of all
nor by prophecies and
these things.
The
Father is love, and sent the Son through love the Son is love, and sent the Holy Ghost through love the Holy Ghost is love, and perpetually infuses His love into the Church. The Church is love, and will burn the world in love. Those who are ignorant of this, or have ;
;
forgotten
it,
will
be perpetually ignorant of the super-
natural and secret cause of visible
mena, of the invisible cause of
bond
all
and natural phenothings visible, of the
that subjects the temporal to the eternal, of the
secret spring of the
Holy Ghost works
movements of the
in
man, providence,
soul, of
how
in society,
the
God,
in history.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ did not conquer the world
with His marvellous doctrine.
but a
man
admired
He had
been nothing
of marvellous doctrine, the world would have
Him
for
gotten both the all as
If
was His
a moment, and would then have
man and doctrine,
of the lower orders,
fell
his doctrine.
for-
Marvellous and
was only followed by a few under the contempt of the most it
LIBERALISM, select of the
AND
SOCIALISM,
Jewish people, and during the
Master was unknown to the
Our Lord Jesus
human
59
life
of the
race.
Christ did not conquer the world
who saw Him
with His miracles.
Of
an act of His
the nature of things, walk on the
will,
those
waters, quiet the waves,
and death, some called
change, by
calm the winds, command
Him
God, others a
life
devil, others
a wizard.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not conquer the world because the ancient prophecies had been
Him.
The synagogue, which was
fulfilled
in
the depositary of
them, was not converted, nor were the doctors who
knew
them by heart converted, nor were the multitudes who had learned them from the doctors, converted. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not conquer the world
The
was New Testament, as it was ever one, eternal, unvarying. That truth, which was eternally in the bosom of God, was revealed to man, infused into his soul, and deposited in history, from the moment the first divine word resounded in the world. And yet the Old Testament, as well in its eternal and essential, as in its accessory, local, and contingent character, in its dogmas as in its rites, never passed the boundaries of the predestined people. That very people with the truth. in
essential truth of Christianity
the Old as well as in the
'
often
broke out into great rebellions, persecuted
prophets, outraged
the
manner of the
with the infernal
its
doctors,
Gentiles, spirits,
its
committed idolatry after nefarious compacts
made
gave
itself
up
in
body and
£SSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
6o
soul to bloody
and horrible superstitions
on which the Truth took
and
crucified
was hidden
it
flesh, it
on Calvary
;
in the ancient
;
and the day
blasphemed, denied,
and whilst the Truth which symbols, represented in the
testified
announced by the ancient prophets, to by fearful prodigies and by stupendous
miracles,
was placed on a
ancient
figures,
accord to explain by
cross,
when
came
it
of
its
own
presence, the cause of those
its
and those fearful prodigies, to verify all the prophetic words, and to teach the nations what was represented in the ancient symbols, and what was hidden in the ancient figures, error had extended stupendous
miracles
freely
through the world, wide as
all its
horizons with misty shadows
it
and had covered and all this with
is,
;
a prodigious rapidity, and without the aid of prophets, or symbols, or figures,
memorable
record
1
Terrible lesson
or miracles.
for
those
who
believe
hidden and expansive force of truth, and
impotence of error to open a way world
in
!
the
in the radical in
the
Lord Jesus Christ conquered the world,
He
for
itself
!
If our
conqpered
it
in spite of
the announced in the
being the truth,
in spite of
being
by the ancient prophets, the represented
ancient symbols, the contained
in the
ancient
figures.
He. conquered
in spite of
His prodigies. His
miracles,
and His marvellous doctrine.
No other doctrine
it
but the evangelical could have triumphed with that
immense apparatus of proofs,
clearest testimonies, irresistible
and invincible arguments.
If
Mohammedanism
spread like a deluge over the African continent, through
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
6i
Asia, and through Europe, this consisted in the fact that it
travelled quickly,
all its
and
Prevaricating, truth,
man.
and carried on the point of and
miracles, all its arguments, fallen
all its
sword
its
testimonies.
man„Kas_npt made
for the
nor was truth inade for prevarica ting' and fallen
^etween jyi^truth and 1^^
prevarication_af man,
God
the
establi shed
a lastin g repugTruth has in itself
nance and an invincible repuls ion. the titles of
imp ose
sovereig nty, and does not ask leave to
its
yoke
its
whilst man, since he rebelled aga inst
;
God, does not to lerate any sove r eignty but his unl ess
it
ow n,
Hence, when
ask his leave and assent.
first
comes within sight, he immediately begins to deny it, and to deny it is to affirm himself in quality If he cannot deny it, he of independent sovereign. enters into combat with it, and by combating it, he the truth
combats
for his
crucifies
it
thinks he believes
On
if
;
ilies
he
own
he
is
If he conquers, he
sovereignty.
conquered, he
flies
:
by
flying,
from slavery, and by crucifying
it,
he he
crucifies his tyrant.
the contrary, between
human
reason and the
and a close relationghip. Sin has united them with_ the bond of_iadiaSQluble matrimony. The ab su rd_ t ri u m phs over njan.^ precisely absurd there
becaus e to
it is
human
is
a secret
de void of
reason.
affinity
all
Man
rights anterior and_su£erior
accepts
becau s e, being devoid of
comes naked
;
pretensions.
His
will accepts it
spring of his understanding, delight in
it,
precisely because
it
because
it
is
and its
rights,
because
it
it
it
has no
.is_the_pff"-'
his understandi ngitakes
own
offspring, its
own
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
62
verbum, because
is
it
In the act o f
power.
a living testimon y of its
creation
and calls^lumself_God,_,^Arid God,
man's estimation,
in
matters
it
of the absurd
like
Gnd, bp
his
own
ing
it,
At
.''
i
all else is
God
least^
he
he
will
.lil^__^iito
Wh^t
if
he
the
is
be independent
hf sovereign like God b y adorin g he will adore himself by mg.gnify-
will
;
productiorij
You who
G od,
unto
nothing.
of truth,
will
creative
its
s like
he be God,
if
that the other be the
God
man
;
be the magnifier of himsel f.
aspire to
subjugate peoples, to domineer
human
over nations, and exercise authority over
reason,
do not declare yourselves the depositaries of clear and and above all, do not produce your evident truths proofs, if you have any, for the world will never recognise you as ijiaster, but will rebel against the brutal yoke of Announce, on the contrary, that you your evidence. have an argument which upsets a mathematical truth that you are going to prove that two and two do not ;
make four, but five; that God does not exist, or that man is God that the world up to this has been a slave to shameful superstitions that the wisdom of ;
;
ages
is
nothing but pure ignorance
an imposture
that
;
obedience slavery ugly, beautiful
the devil this
is
;
is is
;
that revelation
is
that the beautiful
that good
world there
;
government
evil,
is
God, and God
world we inhabit dise
;
all
is
and
tyranny, and is
ugly, and the
evil
good
hell,
;
the
that
that the
and a future para-
that liberty, equality, and fraternity are
incompatible with
;
the devil; that beyond
neither hell nor paradise
a present
is
all
Christian
superstition
dogmas ;
that
— LIBERALISM, robbery is
is
robbery
AND
an imprescriptible ;
that there
is
right,
;
—and be
all this,
63
and that property
no order except
nor anarchy except in order bare announcement of
SOCIALISM.
in anarchy,
sure that, on the
the world, astonished at
your wisdom, and fascinated by your science,
will
an attentive and reverend ear to your words.
If to the
good sense of which you have given such ample
by announcing the demonstration of
lend
proofs,
these things,
all
you afterwards add the good sense of not demonstrating
them
at all
;
or
if,
as the only demonstration of your
blasphemies and your affirmations, you give your blas-
phemies and your affirmations themselves, then the
human
race will extol you to the stars particularly you take exquisite care to call the attention of people to your good faith, carried to the extreme of presenting yourselves, naked as you are, without appealing ;
if
to the
deceptive tricks of
stupid reasoning,
foolish
and vain miracles, thus giving a public testimony of your faith in the triumph of truth, without extraneous aid and if, finally, looking round in historic antecedents,
;
all directions,
you
ask,
where now are your enemies
?
then the world, excited and astonished, will proclaim with one voice, your magnanimity, your greatness, and
your victory, and
will call
you
pious, holy,
and trium-
phant. I
vile
know not
if there be anything under the sun mor e and despicable than the h uman rac e outside the
Catholic lines.
And
and vileness, the and oppressed by
in the scale ,of its degradation
multitudes
deceived by sophists
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
64
and most degraded the sophists and the tyrants, who hold the bloody lash over the one and the other, are, if we examine it well, the least vile, the least degraded, and the least despicable. The first scarcely come from the hand of God, tyrants, are the vilest
come next
when they
;
;
fall
of the Babylonic tyrants.
into those
Ancient paganism
rolls
from abyss
to
abyss, from
sophist to sophist, and from tyrant to tyrant,
till it falls
into the
hands of Caligula, that horrid and shameless
monster
in
human
in
form, with insensate passions and
The modern
beastly appetites.
a prostitute, to
fall
begins
of
Robespierre, supreme
human vanity, with instincts. The last of all
incarnation of
an abyss more deep and obscure there
is
wallowing
man who
his inexorable is
;
about
and
falling into
perhaps even now
in the filth of the social sinks, the
has to adjust to
and ferocious
itself
at the feet of the cynical and
bloody tyrant Marat, and ferocious
by adoring
its
neck the yoke of
his wild
instincts.
CHAPTER Our Lord Jesus
VI.
Christ has triumphed over the world
by exclusively supernatural means.
When shall
I shall
draw
all
be placed on high, that things to
me
:
that
is,
is,
on the
cross, I
I shall assure
dominion and victory over the world.
my
In these words
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
65
solemnly prophetic, the Lord showed His disciples at
how Jittle
once, of
avail for the conversion of the world
were the prophecies which announced His coming, the miracles which proclaimed His omnipotence, the sanctity of
glory,
His doctrine, which was the testimony of His
and how powerful
production of this
for the
was to be His immense love, revealed to the earth in His crucifixion and His death. "I am come in the name of my Father, and you
prodigy,
receive
him
me
will
not
:
if
another shall come in his
receive " (John v. 43).
you
own name,
In these words
is
announced the natural triumph of error over truth, of evil
In them
over good.
forgetfulness in
which
astonishing propagation of
is
found the secret of the
nations held God,
all
pagan
of the
errors, of the palpable
darkness shadowing the world, as also the announce-
ment of the future extension of human future diminution of truth tions of the
Church, the persecutions of the
victories of the sophists,
phemers. its
In those words history
In them
we
are told
and with
the
Catholic
and
;
why
human
to
all its
revolu-
condemns Jesus
the world, placed between
Socialistic
Socialistic in preference
blas-
the Jewish people,
placed between Barrabas and Jesus,
and selects Barrabas
just, the
contained, with all
is
why
the
tribula-
and of the popularity of
scandals, with all its heresies,
tions.
errors, of
amongst men, the
theologies,
the Catholic
selects ;
the
and why
discussions tend to the negation of the evident
and the proclamation of the absurd.
In those word-s,
truly marvellous, is the secret of all our forefathers saw,
E
;
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
66
that our children shall see, and
all
No no
behold.
;
truth, unless the Father calls him
radical, invincible
But the Father
Son
we
ourselves
—
is,
to the
profound words, which
once to the omnipotence of God, and the
testify at
the
that
all
one can come to the Son, that
shall
impotence of the will call,
and
be placed on the
things to Himself: this
is
all
human
race.
nations will respond
cross,
and
shall
draw
all
the saving promise of the
supernatural triumph of truth over error, good over evil;
a promise which shall be completely
the end
fulfilled at
of time.
"My
Father worketh unto now; and
the Father, so the
(John
V.
but
if
17-21).
go
for if I
in
be
"It
is
life
to
I will
of
come
the pens of
to you
all
all sages,
that
is
7).
would
contained
In them are declared the sovereign
and the supernatural,
permanent action of the Holy Ghost. Catholic supernaturalism, with its
will"
send him to you" (John xvi.
capable of explaining
virtue of grace,
As
work.
expedient to you that I go:
all doctors,
those words.
I
whom He
not, the Paraclete will not
I go,
The tongues not
Son giveth
unutterable marvels; there
the triumph of the cross, which
its infinite is is
and
invisible,
Here
the
is
fecundity and
explained, above
all,
the greatest and most
inconceivable of all wonders.
In
humanly speaking, must nec esm ust succumb, first, b ecause it was
fact. Christianity,
sarily succu
Jthe truth;
mb
:
it Jiad
in its su pport
m ar-
doquent testimonies, and^ ir refragab le The human race had always risen and pro-
vellous miracles, proofs.^
it
secondly, because
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
tested against these things separately
probable, nor credible,
would not
rise
and de facto
it
nor
to
;
and
67 it
was not
be imagined, that
it
up and protest against them united broke into blasphemies, protests, and
rebellion.
But the Just One mounted the cross through love, and shed His blood through love, and gave His life through love and that infinite love and that precious ;
blood merited for the world the coming of the Holy
Then everything was changed, for reason was faith, and nature by grace. How admirable is God in His works, how marvellous Man and in His designs, and how sublime in His ideas Ghost.
•
conquered by
!
truth were at
war
the indomitable pride of the former
;
did not square well with the insolent and brutal evidence
God tempered
of the latter.
by placing
it
the evidence of the latter
in transparent clouds,
former, and in sending
compact with him I will tell thee
:
—"
it
to
I will
divide
what thou hast to
strength to believe
it
;
but
and sent
faith to the
him made the following
I
my empire with thee.
believe, will
and give thee
not oppress thy
sovereign will with the yoke of evidence.
stretch
I
my hand to save thee, but I leave thee the power of damning thee. I will not take from thee what I gave thee and on the day I drew thee from nothingness, I out
;
gave thee
freewill."
And
this
compact, through the
grace of God, was freely accepted by man.
way
In this
the dogmatic obscurity of Catholicity saved from
certain
shipwreck
historical
evidence.
Faith,
more
adapted than evidence to the understanding of man,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
68
saved from shipwreck
proposed by
faith if
human it
Truth should be
reason.
were to be accepted by man,
naturally rebellious against the tyranny of evidence.
And
we have
the same spirit that proposes what
believe,
and gives us strength to believe
we should
do,
it,
us what
tells
and gives us the desire of doing
co-operates with us in accomplishing
to
and
it,
So. great
it.
is
the misery of man, so absolute his ignorance, and so
he cannot of himself form
radical his impotence, that
a good resolution, nor conceive a great design, nor a desire of doing anything agreeable to
tageous to the salvation of his soul hand, so elevated
;
God
or advan-
and, on the other
his dignity, so noble his nature, so
is
sublime his origin, and so glorious his end, that
Himself thinks with walks with his
He who
feet,
his thoughts, sees
and operates with
supports him that he
may
holds him that he
may
who commands His
angels to bear
God
with his eyes,
his hands.
walk,
it is
not stumble, and
It is
He who
He
is
it
him in their hands that he may not fall and if he happen to fall. He raises him Himself; and once raised, makes him desire to persevere, and helps him to do so. Hence St Augustine says, "No one comes to salvation unless ;
God
calls
him, and no one, after being called, does acts
calculated to promote this salvation unless
He
assists
Hence God Himself. says in the Gospel of St John (xv. 4, 5), "Abide in me, and I in you. As the
him."
branch cannot bear vine, so neither
the vine
;
fruit
of itself unless
it
abide in the
can you unless you abide in me.
you the branches
:
he that abideth
in
I
am
me, and
LIBERALISM, I in
AND much
him, the same beareth
you
And
do nothing."
can,
Epistle to the Corinthians
we
that
for without
;
me
4,
"And
says,
5),
Christ towards
God
such ;
not
are sufficient to think anything of ourselves,
as of ourselves radical
fruit
69
the apostle in his second
(iii.
we have through
confidence
SOCIALISM.
;
but our sufficiency
impotence of
man
from God."
is
This
in the affair of salvation
was
by Job when he said (chap, xiv.), " Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed, but Thee, O Lord?" Moses says (Exod. xxxiv.), "No confessed
man
of himself
is
innocent before Thee'.'
in that inimitable work,
"
The
St Augustine,
Confessions," turning to
me grace to do what Thou commandest, and command what Thou pleasest." So that as God tells me what I should believe, and gives me strength to believe it, in the same way He commands what I should do, and gives me grace to do what He
God
says, " Lord, give
commands.
What can
understanding can comprehend, what tongue
tell,
what pen
He
describe,
the
manner
in
which
these sovereign prodigies in man, and
God works
carries him along the
hand
at once merciful
Who
will
and
way just,
gentle and powerful.'
mark out the boundaries
empire between the divine will
how
of salvation with a
and the
of that spiritual free will of
man
>.
Who will say how they concur without becoming I only know one thing, O confounded or injured ? as I am, and great and humble and Lord, that, poor powerful as
Thou
Thou
lovest
art.
Thou
respectest
me, and lovest
me
as
me
as
much
much as Thou
as
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
^o
respectest me.
I
know
that
Thou
to myself, because of myself,
abandon
wilt not
me
can do nothing but
I
Thee and be lost; and I know that, when tendering me the hand which is to save me, Thou wilt tender it so softly, so lovingly, and so sweetly, that I shall not feel its touch. Thou art like the delicate forget
breath of the ?ephyr in suavity, like the whirlwind
am borne by Thee as by the whirlwind, Thee freely, as if wafted by the breath of Thou earnest me as if Thou didst force me,
in strength.
and
move
I
I
to
the zephyr.
Thou
but
dost not force but solicit me.
and yet Thou movest and at
callest softly
my
;
door and
in
and
me.
Thou comest
again.
could not
and when in
my
answer Thee answer,
I
mine the answer.
;
but that
I
to
my
door
lost
:
is
in
my
I
;
answer what
know
it
know that I but I know that Thou didst not call;
mouth. Thine being the
Thee, and that merit
I
if
know
I
power not to answer Thee, and be can answer Thee, and be saved I
who move,
do not answer. Thou waitest
if I
callest
It is I
call,
thou
puttest
and Thine and
that I canijot act without
I
act through Thpe,
I
only merit, because
and when I act I Thop assistest me me to act. I know
Thou didst assist when Thou rewardest me because I merit, and when I nierit because I act. Thou givest me three to
merit, as
that
graces—the grace of the preniium with which Thou me; the grace of meriting which Thou
rewardest
gayest me, and. which led
Thou gavest me of know that Thou art like
to
my
reward; and thp
Thy
grace
acting with
I
the mother, and
assistance. I
like the
LIBERALISM, little child,
whom
into
AND
SOCTALISM.
71
the mother infuses the desire of
him her hand that he maywalk, and afterwards kisses him because he desired to walk, and did walk, with the aid of her hand. I know walking, and then gives
that I write only because
and that
of writing,
desire
teachest
me
Thou
or permittest
with the
only what Thou
I write
me
me
inflamest
to write.
I
believe that
he who thinks he moves a finger without Thee, neither
knows Thee nor I
ask
my
is
a Christian.
reader's
pardon
for entering,
though a lay-
man, on the mysterious and thorny paths of grace.
All
however, acknowledge, on a little reflection, that it was an imperious necessity when treating of the serious
will,
subject dealt with in the last chapters, to advance at least
some length on
that slippery path.
We
were
trying to discover the legitimate explanation of that
prodigy, ever
ancient,
new,
ever
viz.,
action Christianity has exercised, and
is
the
powerful
exercising,
on
the world, and of that mystery, no less stupendous and prodigious,
the virtue of transformation she dis-
viz.,
played when brought into relation and contact with human societies. The prodigy of her propagation and of her triumph
is
in her prophetic
her
doctrine
—
not in her historical testimonies, nor
announcements, nor
in the sanctity of
circumstances which, in the state to
which man was reduced after his prevarication and his sin, have been more adapted to keep people from her, than to carry her triumphantly to the uttermost endi> of the earth. Nor were miracles capable of working this
prodigy, for though
it
is
true that, considered in
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
72
themselves,
they
are
supernatural,
considered as an
exterior proof, they are a natural one, subject to the
same conditions
as
human
The propagation
testimony.
and triumph of Christianity
is
a supernatural
fact, as it
has been propagated and has triumphed in spite of
being possessed of what should impede
and
its
victory.
This supernatural fact could not be
legitimately explained except
which, supernatural
by
naturally.
natural in
on the
its action, is
cross,
on them.
its
to a cause
nature, that
This cause, supernatural in grace.
by our Lord when He Author of
by ascending
nature, should operate exteriorly
a manner conformable with
in
propagation
its
itself,
is,
super-
and super-
Grace was merited
for us
suffered an ignominious death
and the apostles received
it
when the
and of all grace descended The Holy Ghost infused into the apostles
all sanctification
the grace, the death of the Son, through the mercy of the Father, merited for us
Holy Trinity redemption, as
interferes it
in
;
so that in this
way
the
the ineffable work of our
did in the creation of the universe.
This serves to explain two things, which without this explanation would be totally inexplicable,
viz.,
how
it
was that the apostles wrought greater miracles than their divine Master, and their miracles were more fruitful
than His, as the Lord had foretold them on several This consisted in the fact that the universal
occasions.
ransom of the human
race, in the
of ages from the time of
whole prolongation
Adam
to the last day, was to be the reward of the bloody tragedy of the cross and in the fact that, till this tragedy was consummated, the ;
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
73
divine mansions were to be closed against the children
of
Adam When
with gates of adamant.
of
Then
fire.
Holy Ghost descended
the time came, the
upon the apostles it
like
an impetuous wind
happened that
at once, without transition,
and divine
The
action.
They
by
all
in
tongues
things were changed
virtue of a supernatural
change was wrought
first
in
now they had light they did not understand, and now they had understanding they were ignorant, and now they became sages they talked of vulgar things, and now they spoke of marvellous things. The malediction of Babel came to an end since that time every people had spoken its own tongue, and now the apostles spoke them all without confusion. They were pusillanimous, and now they became daring they were cowards, and now they became brave they were lazy, and now they the apostles.
did not see, and
;
;
;
;
;
;
became diligent they had abandoned their Lord for the flesh and the world, and now they abandoned the world and the flesh for their Lord they had rejected the ;
;
cross for
they
life,
and now they gave
members
died in their
become transformed live
an angelic
And
as the
life
into
their life for the cross ;
to
men
;
to
God they
cease to be
they abandon the human.
Holy Ghost had transformed the
the apostles transformed the world
;
had seen God, and had not recognised in
it
did not see,
it
knew Him.
His word, and now that
He had
apostles>
not they indeed,
but the invincible Spirit that was in them.
that
;
to live in their spirit
The world
Him and now ;
It had not beheved
ceased to speak,
it
;
£SSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
74
believed in His word.
He who
and now that Father, Jesus,
it
believed in
and now
had seen His miracles in vain, wrought them had gone to His It had crucified His miracles. It
adored
it
Him whom
it
had
crucified
had worshipped idols, and now it burned its idols. it had regarded as vain arguments, it now looked on as victorious and inconceivable proofs it changed it
What
:
its
profound hatred into
immense
love.
As he whojias no jdea of grace has none of Christianity, so he who hasjiojiqtion_^fJhe_grovidence^of_God is in
the most complete ignorance of
dence, taken in
its
the Creator has of
all
Provi-
all things.
most general acceptation, things created,.
is
the care
Things existed
^God created them; but they only subsist because God watches over them with_a c ontinual care,
Jpecat^e
which
is
an incessant creation.
Things which, before
they were, had not in themselves the reason of their being, have not in themselves the reason of their sub-
God
sistence after they
came
the reason of
being and the reason of being, sub-
sistence
nothing
life,
to being.
and the reason of subsistence. lives,
nothing
subsists,
by
alone
is life
Nothing its
own
and
exists,
virtue.
Beyond God those supreme attributes do not exist in any place or thing. God is not like a painter, who, when he finishes a picture, abandons and forgets it nor do the things God created subsist, like the painting, of ;
God made
more sovereign a more substantial and excellent manner. Things of the natural and supernatural order, and those which, escaping beyond themselves.
things in a
way, and things depend on
God
in
;
AND
LIBERALISM, the
common
SOCIALISM.
75
natural or supernatural order, are called
miraculous, without ceasing to be different from one another, as they are governed and directed laws,
have
because
;
because
nor of the it
is
dependence, on the
say of the fountains that they flow
their nature to flow,
should of them fruitful,
in their absolute
When we
it is
different
something, and even a great deal, in com-
all
mon, which consists divine will.
by
trees,
we do not say all we when we say they are
their nature to bear fruit.
Their
nature does not give to things a virtue independent of the will of their
Creator, but a certain determined
manner of beipg dependent, in all and every moment of their existence, on the will of the sovereign Maker and divine Architect. The fountains flow because God commands them to flow with an actual commandment and He commands them to flow because to-day, as in the day of their creation. He sees it is good they should flow.
The
trees fructify because
to fructify with
them
this
commandment because
He
of their creation,
should bear are those
sees
all.
God
the preserver of that ticus
He
and
gives
to-day, as in the
good that the
how much
see
all exist in
dependence on God, or
exist at
is
;
day trees
in error
seek the explanation of events either in
secondary causes, which diate
it
Hpnce we
fruit.
who
God commands them
an actual commandment
alone
all
is
general and
imme-
which does not
in chance,
the Creator of
all
that exists,
that subsists, and the author of
all
happens, according to the words of Ecclesias(xi.
14),
"Good
things and
poverty and riches, are from God."
evil,
life
and death,
Hence St
Basil says
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
76
that in attributing
to
all
God
lies
the
sum
of
all
Christian
philosophy, according to the words of our Lord in St "
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of them shall fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head Matthew
are
all
(x. 29, 30),
numbered."
When we
view things from this height,
it is
clear that
the natural, the supernatural, and the miraculous, equally
The
depend on God.
miraculous, the supernatural, and
the natural
are substantially identical
their origin,
which
being
actual
in
is
all,
the will of is
in
God
phenomena
—a
God
eternal.
all
in
will which,
willed
and actually the resurrection of Lazarus, as He wills eternally and actually that the trees should bear fruit and the trees have no reason more eternally
;
independent of the divine
for bearing fruit
than Lazarus for coming forth from the sepulchre after he was buried. The difference between these phenomena is will
not in their essence, since one and the other depend on the divine will, but in the mode because in both cases ;
the divine will
ways, and
by
these ways
is
called,
and
natural,
is,
is
executed and
virtue called,
fulfilled in
of two different
and
miraculous.
is,
natural,
We
call
two
laws.
different
One
and the other
of is
the daily prodigies
and the intermittent, miraculous.
Whence we see how great is the madness of those who deny the power of working the intermittent to Him who works the daily. What else is this but deny the power of doing the less to Him who does the more or, what is the same, to deny that that can
to
">.
LIBERALISM, be done once which
is
AND
done daily
resurrection of Lazarus because
me,
tell
Why
why do you
SOCIALISM.
77
You who deny
?
the
a miraculous act,
it is
not deny other greater prodigies
do you not deny that sun, which
and those heavens, so beautiful and
?
rises in the east,
and their do you not deny those beautiful, murmuring, or restless seas, and that light, soft sand kissed by their waves, and their concerted harmony or their magnificent turbulence ? Why do you not deny those plains, so full of freshness, and eternal
luminaries
those woods, so
?
full:
and those immense
brilliant,
Why
of silence, majesty, and obscurity,
cataracts, with their glorious rush of
and even those clear and crystalline waters themselves ? And if you do not deny these things, how are you so mad, and so palpably inconsistent, as to waters,
man is impossible, or may say, that I only deny
think that the resurrection of a
even
For myself,
difficult ?
I
him who, having opened his exterior eyes to what surrounds him, or his interior to see what
credit to
see
passes within himself, finds anything either within or
without that It
is
not a miracle.
follows hence, that
the distinction, on the one
hand, between natural and supernatural things, and, on the other, between ordinary phenomena, as well of the natural as the supernatural order, and the miraculous, involves no rivalry or occult antagonism between exists
as
if
by God were
the will of
not the author, and preserver, and
sovereign governor of .
what
God, and what exists by nature;
all
that exists.
All those distinctions, carried
beyond
their
dogmatic
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
78 limits,
end, as
we
see, in the deification of matter,
and
the absolute and radical negation of providence and of grace.
In^ conclusion, taking up the thread of this discourse
by
will_saj^_that provide nce is a general grace,
which God maintains in
being,
its^
,
I
virtue of
and governs by His
counsel, all tha±_e3dstSj_as_^grace js_a special providence
by"which God takes care of man.
dogma
dence and the
The dogma
of provi-
of grace reveal to us the existence
of a supernatural world, in which the reason aiid the causes of
that
all
we
the light which comes thence,
darkness
all is
the explanation that comes thence,
all is
phenomenal, ephemeral, and contingent is
without
us,
and within
The knowledge political
man
of
things are
The supernatural is above The supernatural sur-
us.
rounds the natural, and penetrates through foundation
light, all is
all
dissipated, fleeting phantasms, unreal
shadows, and passing dreams. us,
;
without
;
inexplicable
without that explanation, and without that
smoke which
Without
see substantially reside.
of
the
sciences,
all
and moral.
supernatural,
and
all its pores.
then,
particularly
is
the
of the
In vain shall you try to explain
without grace, and society without providence.
Without providence, and without grace, society and
man
are a perpetual secret to the
importance
of
this
demonstration
human and
race. its
The
sublime
transcendence will be seen hereafter, when, 'on sketching the sad and lamentable picture of our wanderings and
our errors, they shall be the
negation
of
Catholic
all
found to spring
supernaturalism,
as
from their
LIBERALISM, proper source.
AND
SOCIALISM.
In the meantime,
it
to say here, that the supernatural society
and on man,
on which in
built
is
my
purpose
action of
God on
suits
the broad and firm foundation
is
the
of
edifice
such a manner that,
tion, the
79
if
Catholic
doctrine,
you take away that founda-
whole magnificent structure on which human
generations
move with
ease,
comes toppling
to the
ground.
CHAPTER The Cathelic Church has spite
of the same
VII.
triumphed over
obstacles,
and through
society
the
in
same
supernatural means, which gave the victory over the
world to our Lord Jesus
Christ.
The
Catholic Church, considered as a religious institu-
tion,
has exercised the same influence on society, that
a doctrine,__has on the Lord Jesus ^.Christ. has exercised on man. This consists in the fact that our Lord "Jesus XErist, His doctrine, and His Church, are but three different manifestations of one and the same Catholicity,
world
considered
—the saine
thing, that
is,
as
that our
of the divine action operating superna-
and substantially on man and all his powers, on society and all its institutions. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Catholicity, and the Catholic Church, are one and the turally
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
8o
same word
—the word of God, perpetually resounding on
high.
That word has had to surmount the same obstacles, and has triumphed by the same means, in its different incarnations. The prophets of Israel had announced the coming of the Lord His
life,
in the plenitude of time,
had written
lamented with tremendous lamentations His
tremendous woes, foretold His sorrows, described His labours, counted
one by one the drops that composed
the sea of His tears, had seen His torture and His insults,
and had written the history of His passion and death. In spite of
all this,
when He came, and
the people of Israel fulfilled all
knew Him not
the prophecies without
thinking of the prophets and what they foretold. of the Lord was holy
The
;
His mouth was the only
human one which had dared
to pronounce in the pre-
life
sence of men, these words, either madly blasphemous or ineffably divine
— "Who
spite of those words,
before,
will accuse
which no
me
of sin.'"
And
in
man had pronounced
and which no man will pronounce again, the world know Him, and loaded Him with ignominies.
did not
His doctrine was marvellous and true
;
so
much
so,
perfumed everything with its extreme sweetness, and bathed everything with its softened rays. Every word that, sweetly fell from His sacred lips was a marthat
it
vellous revelation, every revelation a sublime truth, every
truth a
hope or a consolation.
people of Israel turned its
its
And in spite of all this, the
eyes from the
light,
and closed
heart against those marvellous consolations, and those
sublime hopes.
He
wrought miracles never seen
xyy
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
men, nor heard of by the Gentiles
men
turn from
Him
with leprosy, or as diction
;
and
with horror, as
He
if
whom He
in spite of 'all this,
He
were infected
bore on His forehead a male-
stamped by divine wrath.
disciples
if
8i
Even one of His
was deaf to the decoying and fell from the eminence of
loved,
allurements of His love,
the apostolate into the abyss of treason.
The Church
of Jesus Christ was announced
by great
prophets, and represented in symbols and figures from
Her divine Founder, on opening
the beginning of time.
her immortal foundations, and on modelling in marvellous
mould her
divine hierarchy,
placed her future
history before the eyes of the apostles.
He
there an-
nounced her great tribulations and unexampled persecutions
;
He saw
her confessors and her martyrs pass
before Him, one by one, in bloody procession.
He
told
them how the powers of the world and of hell would make nefarious compacts, and establish sacrilegious against her
alliances
;
and how she would triumph,
through His grace, over the powers of the world and of hell.
He
cast His sovereign eye over the prolongation
and foretold the end of all immortality of His Church, transformed Jerusalem, clothed with light and with of time,
full
things,
and the
into the celestial brilliant stones,
of glory, and bathed in perfumes of sweetest
grance.
In spite of
all this,
fra-
the world, which ever saw
her persecuted and ever triumphant, which might have
counted her victories by her tribulations, perpetually
new
gives her
new
fulfilling
the great prophecy at the very time
victories in
tribulations, thus blindly it
turns
JSSSA YS
82
ON CA THOLICISM, The
back on the prophet and what he prophesied.
its
Church perfect
is
perfect
and holy.
and holy, as her divine Founder was She also, .and she alone, pronounces iii
presence of the world that word never before heard, "
Who
sin
?
will accuse
And
"
me
of error
in spite of this
Who
?
will accuse
me
of
extraordinary word, which
she alone pronounces, the world neither believes her,
nor follows her, except with is
marvellous and true, because
by of
the great Master of all
wonders
doctrine
the doctrine taught
it is
all truth,
and the great Worker
and yet the world studies
;
Her
its insults.
in the halls of
and lends an attentive ear to the vain eloquence and obscure clowns. She received from her divine Founder the power of working miracles, and she works them, she herself being z, perpetual miracle and yet the world calls her a vain and shameful superstition, and she is made a spectacle
error,
of miserable sophists
;
to
men and
such
nations.
Her own
children, beloved with
love, raise their sacrilegious
hands against
their
tender mother, and abandon the holy hearth which pro-
new family and at new hearth gross delights and impure loves. And in this way does she pursue the path of her dolorous passion, unknown by the world and ignored by heresi-
tected their infancy, and seek in a
a
archs.
And. what
is
singular and marvellous in this
imitating perfectly our
Lord Jesus
suffer tribulations in spite of the prodigies
the
life
she
lives,
is,
that,
Christ, she does not
she works, of
of the truth she teaches, and of the in-
vincible testimonies she produces of the divinity of her
AND SOCIALISM.
LIBERALISM, office
;
but,
on the contrary, she
83
suffers those tribulations
on account of those invincible testimonies, of those truths she teaches, of that holy miracles she works.
nation that
life,
and you
shall
her tribulations,
all
lives,
and of those
moment
in imagi-
those truths, those prodigies, and in-
vincible testimonies,
suppressed
she
life
Suppress for a
all
have
at
one stroke
her tears,
her
all
misfortunes, and all her woes.
In the truths she proclaims tribulation lies
;
lies
the rhystery of her
in the supernatural strength she possesses
the mystery of her victory
;
and those two things
together explain at once her victories and her tribulations.
The
supernatural power of grace
is
perpetually com-
by the ministry of the priests and through the channel of the sacraments and that supernatural power, thus communicated to the faithful, members at once of civil society and of the Church, is municated to the
faithful
;
what
has opened the profound
between ancient and Catholic in the political all
and
social point of view.
well considered, there
results
abyss which
societies,
is
exists
even considered
Between them,
no difference but that which
from the one being composed of Catholics and
the other of pagans
men moved by men who, more more or
less
;
from the one being composed of
and the other of or less completely dead to nature, obey perfectly the supernatural and divine their natural instincts,
impulse of grace.
This explains the distance there
is
political and social institutions of ancient, and those which have spontaneously sprung up in
between the
£SSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
84
modern, societies sion of ideas in
;
as institutions are the social expres-
common
;
intellectual
common
ideas in
lective result of individual ideas
the col-
individual ideas the
;
form of the manner of being and feeling of
man cease to be and same manner, the one being the representative of prevaricating and disinherited humanity, and the other the representative of humanity redeemed. Ancie nt and modern institutions are only the expresman and ;
the pagan and Catholic
to feel in the
sion^of two different societies, because they expression of two different humanitiej. Catholic societies prevaricate and diately invades them,
and the If
societies
you abstract
and
fall,
.are
the
Hence, when
paganism imme-
ideas, cus_tgms,_institutions,
themsel ves, beco rne^pagan. for a
moment from
that invisible and
supernatural power, with which Catholicity has gone
on gently and and
silently transforming everything visible
by means of a mysterious and secret everything becomes obscured, and the
natural,
operation,
natural
and
supernatural,
converted into darkness.
come
false hypotheses,
visible
and
invisible,
are
All your explanations be-
which explain nothing, and are
besides inexplicable.
There
no spectacle more sad than that presented by a man of great talents', when he enters on the impossible and absurd enterprise of explaining visible things
by the as
all
is
and natural things by the natural which, things visible and natural, inasmuch as they are visible,
natural and visible, are one and the
;
same thing, is quite by itself. Into
as absurd as to explain a fact or a thing
;
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
man
grave error has fallen an eminent
this gifts,
whose
writings
it
85
of great
impossible to read without
is
profound respect, whose discourses cannot be heard without admiration, and whose personal qualities are superior even to his writings, his discourses, and his
M. Guizot surpasses
talents. in
contemporary writers
His view, generally speaking,
questions.
In expression he
and well founded. his eloquence
pure, in style
is
is
subject to his reason
his
;
eloquence
No
of a high order, but his reason of a higher.
how
matter
elevated a question
Guizot enters on
it,
may
when M.
be,
he always looks from the mountain
to the valley, never
When
from the valley to the mountain.
he describes the phenomena he
sees,
appear to describe, but to create, them.
on
impartial
is
adornments of language, severely modest
sober, in the
is
all
the art of taking a serene view of most intricate
party questions, he
displays
with
he does not If
he enters
refined
com-
placency the erroneous and the true part which corresponds to each one it
because
;
and he does not appear
corresponds to him, but
it
respond because he gives
to him.
it
he discusses, he discusses as
he teaches as
if
If
religion,
his
language
austere.
If
were possible
is
he happen to speak of
for him,
ceremonious, and it is
reverence.
easily seen
he
The
he
part
work of social regeneration becomes the person who assigns, and the
assigns the Church in the great, as
In general, when
he were teaching, and
solemn,
would go to the limits of
is
to give
appears to cor-
he were naturally invested with an
eminent right to teach.
it
if
it
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
86
institution to
which he assigns
it.
No
one can say
whether he considers her the queen and mistress of other institutions.
What
can be said
is,
that in
any case
she appears in his eyes like an amnestied queen, who,
even
in the
day of her
glory, preserves the signs of her
past servitude.
M. Guizot's special talent lies in seeing well all that sees, and in seeing everything visible, and in seeing everything in itself and abstractedly. The weak point of his intellect lies in not seeing how those visijale and separate things form an hierarchical and harmonious Both this whole, animated by an invisible power. great defect and that special talent, are nowhere so evident as in the book he wrote to fully describe European civilisation. M. Guizot has seen all there is all, except in that civilisation, as complex as prolific the civilisation itself He who seeks the many and various elements which compose it will find them in his book, for they are there he who seeks the powerful unity which constitutes it, the principle of life which circulates freely through the healthy members of that sound and robust social body, let him seek all these he
—
;
things elsewhere, for they are not found in his book.
M. Guizot has that civilisation,
clearly seen all the visible elements of
and
all
that
is
visible in
those which contain nothing that does not
them; and fall
under
the jurisdiction of the senses, have been thoroughly
examined by him. But there was one at once That element was the Church. and invisible. Church acted on society
in a
manner analogous
visible
The to that
t
LIBERLISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
87
of the other political and social elements, and, besides,
manner
in a
institution
was
influence
Considered as an
peculiarly her own.
born
time and localised in space, her
in
visible
and
limited, like that
of other
and offsprings of time. Considered as a divine institution, she had in her an
institutions localised in space
immense supernatural power, which, uninfluenced by the laws of time and space, acted on directions at once, quietly, secretly,
So
true
is this,
all
and
in all
and supernaturally.
that, in the critical confusion of all social
elements, the Church gave something exclusively her
own
to
the others, whilst she herself, alone impe-
all
netrable to confusion, preserved her absolute identity
Roman
intact.
it
on coming into contact with
society,
became, without ceasing to be Roman, something
her,
had not been before
German
—
it
became
Catholic.
—they
became became
institutions^
without
peoples, without ceasing to be German,
something they had not been before Catholic.
and
Political
social
The
losing their pro per nature, took on e whichjwas-ioreign
to
them
— he
Catholic natu re.
not a vain form, for institution
and
:
it
essential,
it
and hence gave them Catholicity
and changed the essences
it
intact all the forms
preserved
society
lism
all its
Catholicity
was
was, on the contrary, something intimate
found and intimate.
it left
And
gave no form whatever to any
its
own ;
something pro-
the forms intact
and at the same time that
and changed
all
the essences,
essence intact, and received from
The Church was
forms.
was Catholic
;
all
left
feudal, as feuda-
but the Church did not receive
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
88
an equivalent for what she gave, as she received something that was purely external and accidental, whilst
she gave something internal and intimate, which was to
endure as an essence.
from
results
It
European
and more than other at
other civilisations,
civilisations, is
unity and variety
one and the same time,
made
what
i^
most
Europea n
gave
essential
civilisation
the Church
one, gave
an institution
in
it
it
that from which
it
was not
or absolutCj or feudal;
other elements combined
various, whilst
by making
—
essential character^
all
it
one, and,
it
of
all
which, like
and united constituted alone
common mass
in the
this that,
civilisation,
—
is
its
it
its
taken
name.
German, _or^oman,
called
was and
is
called Catholic
civilisation.
Catholicity
not, then, solely, as
is
M. Guizot^upposes,
one of the various elements which entered into the composition of that admirable civilisation that,
muchjnore than
itself.
pies a
Strange
moment
!
that
;
is
it
:
it is
more than
tha t very civ ilisation
M. Guizot sees everything that occu-
in time, or
a circumscribed spot in space,
and does not see that which extends beyond
and time
;
he sees what
is
and he does not see that which
is
in all parts.
organised and hving body, he sees the
compose it, but not the members. Abstract for a
life
as a
human
moment from
institution,
space off,
In an
members which
which courses through those the divine virtue and the
supernatural power which are in the Church it
all
here, or there, or farther
;
consider
which spreads and extends by
a
AND
LIBERALISM, purely right.
But the
it
with his sovereign reason.
difficulty still exists,
fact that
us
89
human and natural means, and M. Guizot is The influence of her doctrine cannot pass the
natural limits he assigns
tells
SOCIALISM.
it
it
because
contradiction which
is
an evident
Between history which
has passed them.
has passed, and reason which
not pass, them, there
is
it
tells
us
it
could
an evident contradiction
—
must be reconciled by a superior
formula and a supreme conciliation, which will har'
monise
facts
with principles and reason with history.
must be sought outside history and and visible and is found in the invisible, the supernatural, and the divine of the holy Catholic Church. That something supernatural, divine, and impalpable, is what has subjugated the world to her, surmounted the most invincible obstacles
That formula
reason, outside the natural
for her,
;
brought into subjection to
and proud
hearts, elevated
her, rebel intellects
her above
human
vicissi-
tudes and secured her empire over tribes and nations.
No
one who does not keep
diving virtue will ever victories, or
will
view her sovereign and
comprehend her
influence, her
as no one
who does not
her tribulations
comprehend them
in
;
ever comprehend what
mate, essential, and profound in European
is inti-
civilisation.
BOOK
II.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO ORDER IN GENERAL.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO ORDER IN GENERAL.
CHAPTER
I.
On the free will of man.
Beyond the action of God there man beyond divine providence ;
human
liberty.
is
only the action of
there
The cqmHnatior^f
that providence, constitutes the rich
is
nothing but
thisliberty with
and varied course
of history.
The
free will of
man
is
and the most wonderful, wonders.
the masterpiece of creation,
if I
may
say
so,
of the divine
All things are invariably directed to
it,
in
way that creation would be inexplicable without man, and man inexplicable if he were not free. His liberty is at once his own explanation, and the explanaBut who will explain that sublime, tion of all things. such a
and so inhim cannot deprive
inviolable, holy liberty, so holy, so sublime, violable, that
him of
it,
He who gave
it
and with which he can
to
resist
and conquer
Him
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
94
who gave
it
an invincible resistance and Who will e'xplain how, in that
to him, with
a tremendous victory
?
God becomes the conqueror, and man the conquered, though the victory of man
man
victory of
i
is
over God,
God a
a true victory; and the defeat of
What
victory
is
that which
the death of the victor
?
true defeat
?
necessarily followed by
is
And what
defeat
is
ends in the glorification of the conquered
that which
How
?
is
paradise the reward of defeat, and hell the penalty of victory
If
?
my
reward be
in
my
defeat,
why do
me ? And if my why do I naturally
naturally reject what will save
demnation be
what
will
in
my
damn me
victory,
I
con-
seek
?
These are questions which occupied
all intellects in
the ages of the great doctors, and are regarded to-day
with contempt by petulant sophists, of
lifting
who
are incapable
from the ground the formidable arms those
To-day
holy doctors easily and humbly wielded.
it
appears inexcusable madness to touch with humility,
and aided by grace, on the deep designs of God profound mysteries
;
as
without understanding
if
man
God appear to-day
All the great questions
and superfluous
sterile
if it
were possible to treat of God, who
and
truth,
Coming
His
in
know anything
something of those profound
mysteries and deep designs.
about
could
is
;
as
intelligence
without gaining in truth and intelligence. to
the tremendous question which
subject of this chapter, and which
I will
is
the
endeavour to
confine within the narrowest limits possible,
the notion generally entertained of freewill
I
hold that is
entirely
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM,
Freewill d oe s not consist, as
false.
,
lieved, in the faculty of choosing, solicit
generally be-
is
good or
with two contrary solicitations.
it
95
evil,
,which
If freewill
consisted in that faculty, the following consequences,
one
relative to
absurd,
man
man, the other to God, and both evidently
must necessarily
fdlTow.
consists in the fact that he
more
The one would be
relative to less free
the
perfect he became, as he cannot increase in per-
becoming subject to the sway of that him to good, nor become subject to the
fection without
which
solicits
sway of good without proportionately escaping from the sway of evil, which, by more or less altering, according to the degree of his perfection, the equilibrium
between
those two contrary solicitations, must diminish his liberty, that
is,
his faculty of choosing, in the
which the equilibrium
is
altered.
same degree
As thehighest
in
per-
fection consists in the annihilation of one of those t;yo
contrary solicitations, and as perfect liberty
is
to be the faculty of choosing between them,
supposed it is
clear,
tEatTetween the perfection and the liberty of man there IS an evident contradiction and an absolute incompati^lity.
The
absurdity of this consequence consists in
the fact that man, being perfection,
free,
he cannot preserve
and bound to aspire to his liberty without re-
nouncing his perfection, nor become perfect without forfeiting his liberty.
The consequence tha t, as
He
would be
is
relative to
God
consists in the fact
subject to rio~con?fary solicitations,
totally devoid of liberty, if
lacultyof choosing between contrary
it
He
consisted in the
solicitations.
For
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
96
He should be capable good and evil, sanctity and sin. Between the nature of God and liberty, thus defined, there is, then, a radical contradiction and an absolute incompatibility. And as it is absurd to suppose, on the God
to
be
free, it
were necessary
of choosing between
one hand, that God cannot "be
be God and remain
free
and remain God, nor
man
and, on the other, that
free,
cannot
attain
liberty,
nor be free without renouncing his perfection,
perfection
his
without
forfeiting
his
follows that the notion of liberty generally enter-
it
tained
The liberty
is
and absurd.
totally false, contradictory,
error
am
I^
supposing that
refuting, consists in
the faculty of choosing^
is
when
it
is
only the
faculty of willing, which supposes the faculty of under-
Every being gifted with jinderstanding and free, and its libert^_i?-. "ot something distinct
standing. will is
from__itsj¥ilL5,nd
its
understanding, but
understanding taken together.
has understanding and
being that
it
that
free,
it
is
When we
we say
the
expres sed in two different
will,
its
w
ill
and
say of one
and of an other
same thing of both but ,
w avs.
If liberty consist in the faculty of understanding
and
wiUing, perfect liberty will consist in understanding and willing perfectly wills
with
all
sequence, that
and as God alone understands and
;
perfection,
God
alone
If liberty consist in is free,
because he
but he
is
an
is
follows
by necessary con-
perfectly free.
understanding and willing,
gifted with will
not perfectly
infinite
it
is
free,
man
and understanding
because he
is
and perfect understanding and
;
not gifted with will.
;
LIBERALISM,
The
AND
SOCIALISM.
97
imperfection of his understanding consists, on
the one hand, in
its
not understanding
understood, and, on the other, in error.
The
one hand,
its
that
all
is
to
be
being subject to
imperfection of his will consists, on the
in
not willing
it's
and, on the other, in
conquered by
evil.
its
that should be willed,
all
being liable to be solicited and
Whence
it
follows that the
imp er-
fection of his liberty consists i n the faculty he posses ses
of pursuing evil and embracing error "ihat the imperfection of
~
Th that
;
which means,
hurnanjiberty consists prec isely
faculty of choosing, which, according
general opinion, constitutes
its
to the
absolute perfection.
When man~came
from the hands of God, he underand because he understood, he willed, and because he willed, he executed, it and by it executing the good his will desired and his intellect That this is the Christian understood, he was free. signification of liberty is clear from the following words
stood the good
;
;
;
of the Gospel
:
—
"
You
shall
shall make you free" (John
know
viii.
the truth,
32).
and the
Between
truth
his liberty
and that of God there was, then, no difference but that which there is between one thing which can be diminished and lost, and another which can suffer neither loss nor diminution is
naturally limited,
—between
one thing that
and another that
is
by nature
infinite.
When to
the
woman
lent
an attentive and curious ear
the voice of the fallen angel, her understanding
became immediately obscured, and her will weakened separated from God, who was her support, she fell into
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
93
On
a moral swoon.
not distinct from her will impaired.
When
templation
to
she passed from the culpable conculpable
the
suffered a great obscurity
ness
;
the
liberty
woman dragged
the
the
her
act,
—her
became miserably
Confounding
was and understanding, became
that instant her liberty, which
will,
man
understanding
a profound weak-
human
with her, and
enfeebled.
notion
of
with that
liberty
of
sovereign independence, some ask why it is said that man was a slave when he fell under the jurisdiction of the devil, whilst at the same time it is held that he was To free when placed absolutely in the hands of God } which we answer, that it cannot be said of man that he is
in
a slave solely because he does not belong to himself,
which case he would never cease to be a
slave,
because he never belongs to himself in an independent >
H e is
and sovereign manner.
into the hands^of a usurper,
and
There
his leyrtimate master.
subjection to a tyrant, no exercises
a sla ve only free is
when he
falls
only_whenJie obeys
no other slavery but
other tyrant but
him who
usurped power, nor other liberty but that
which consists authority.
in
voluntary obedience to legitimate
Others do not comprehend
by which we were placed
in liberty,
how
the grace
and redeemed,
is
reconciled with that liberty and redemption, thinking that, in that
mysterious operation,
and man passive
;
in
God
alone
is
active
which they are totally in
error,
because in this great mystery
God and man
the former acting and the latter co-operating. this
very reason
God
is
accustomed to
concur,
And
for
give, generally
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
speaking, only the grace sufficient to gentleness.
Fearing to oppress,
with calling
it
his part,
Him
to
He
move
99
the will with
contents Himself
with alluring accents.
when he obeys
Man, on
the gentle call of grace, obeys
with incomparable suavity and complacency
;
and when
the gentle will of man, which delights in the joined with the gentle will of God,
it,
call,
is
takes delight
him because He takes delight then that grace which was only sufficient, becomes
in calling in
who
him, and
efficacious,
calls
through the concourse of these two gentle
wills.
As_to_those wha_£Qll£eiye liberty only in the absence of
all soli citation
which can move the
only say that they inadvertently,
two great absurdities rational being can
—
into that,
fall
will of
into
man,
I will
one of these
which supposes that a
be moved without some species of
motive, or into that, which consists in supposing that a
being which
is
not rational, can be
free.
If what_we have said be true, the fa culty of choo sing
given to man, farjro
m
being the necessary condition
is
,
the danger o f liberty, sin ce the possibilit}^ of wandering
from the good an d
falling into error lies in_ it,^as_also
of renouncing the obedience due to God, and of falling
hands of a tyra nt.
into the
All the efforts of
man
should be directed, with the aid of grace, to rendering that faculty inoperative, if
that be impossible,
Only he who loses the good
;
it
is
entirely destroyed, or,
it falls
into perpetual disuse.
till it
till
understands,
and only he who does
and only he who
is
free
is
wills,
and executes,
this is perfectly free
perfect
;
and only he who
;
is
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
loo
perfect
Hence none
blessed.
is
of the blessed have
it,
nor God, nor His saints, nor the choirs of His angels.
CHAPTER Answers
V
to
some questions
II.
dogma.
relative to this
If the faculty of choosing does not constitute the perfection,
but rather the danger, of the free
lies in
man
and
the secret of
sin,
damnation,
gift,
so pregnant
it,
goodness of an
if
how can infinite
the hand that gives
anger life }
?
it
that fearful
took their
to
me
it
it
be merciful,
why
such a heavy burden
}
strong, hand.'
is just,
coming
And
If
it
into being to
if it
annihilate
—a
Shall
hand of mercy or of
I
why
If I sinned
it
give
it
accompany
call it
a
what had
become the
be only strong,
me ?
did
infi-
How shall I designate
God?
be a hand of anger, why did
If
If
if
fall,
with misfortunes and catastrophes, square with the nite
;
origin of his
rise in that faculty,
and death,
will of
and the
his prevarication
just,
I
life
me
with
or only a
done before
object of such rigour?
does
it
not crush and
through use of the
gift I
who is the author of my sin ? If in. the end I be damned through sin, to which I am inclined through the inclination that was given me, who is the author of received,
my
damnation and
dous Being,
whom
my I
hell
?
Mysterious and tremen-
know not whether
curse, shall I fall prostrate at
Thy
to bless or to
feet, like
Thy servant
LIBERALISM, Job,
AND
my
and address to Thee
intensified
by
my
sobs,
till I
SOCIALISM.
loi
burning supplications
move Thee
;
or shall I pile
mountain on mountain, Pelion on Ossa, and renew against Thee the war of the Titans ? Mysterious Sphinx !
I
know
Thee
;
not whether to appease Thee or tiy to conquer I
know
not whether to rush into the
enemies, or to follow the footsteps of
do not even know Thy name. omniscient,
Thy name
tell is
me at
least in
written, that I
Thee for Thy names Those who are saved ;
damned, a
camp
of
Thy
servants.
I
Thou
art
as they say,
Thy sealed books may know how to address which of
are as contradictory as Thyself. call
Thee God, those who
are
tyrant.
Thus speaks the genius its
If,
Thy
of pride and blasphemy, with
flaming eyes turned on God.
Through an incon-
madness or an inexplicable aberration, man, work of the Creator, cites to his tribunal the very God who gave him the tribunal in which he sits, the reason with which he judges, and the very voice with And blasphemies call to other which he cites Him. the blasphemy which blasphemies, as abyss to abyss cites ends in the blasphemy which condemns, or the blasphemy which absolves, Him. Whether he absolve, or condemn Him, the man who, instead of adoring, judges Him, is a blasphemer. Woe to the proud who Blessed are the humble who adore Him, for cite Him He shall come to the one and the other. To the one He shall come as cited on the day of the summons to the other as adored on the day of adoration. He never the one, however, forgets to answer him who calls Him ceivable
the
;
!
;
;
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
I02
He
will
answer with His wrath, the other with His
mercy.
And
let it
absurdity, as
not be said that this doctrine leads to if it
led to the negation of all
competency
on the part of human reason to take cognisance of the things of God, and hence to the implicit condemnation
of theologians and the holy doctors, and even of the
who
them at large in past ages. What this doctrine condemns is the competency of human reason, unillumined by faith, to deal with things Church
herself,
treated of
which are matter of revelation and natural.
When
faith,
because super-
reason interferes in those things with-
out the aid indicated, quality of judge,
it
treats of,
and with, God, in its of postponement
who does not admit
nor appeal against his decisive judgments.
In
this
condemns or aband it is so, not so much on solves, is a blasphemy account of what it affirms or denies of God, as what supposition,
its
whether
decision,
it
;
human
reason implicitly affirms of
itself in
the condemnation and in the absolution,
the same thing of sovereignty.
When
itself
—
its
it
it,
as both in
ever affirms
own independence and
the holy Church affirms or denies
anything of God, she does nothing but affirm or deny of
Him what
she has heard from
God
Himself.
When
eminent theologians and the holy doctors penetrate with their reason into the obscure abyss of the divine excellences,
the
they ever enter
it
with a secret terror, and with
lamp of faith illumining
pect to surprise in faith,
but add to
God
secrets
its light
They do not exand marvels unknown to
their way.
the rays of the lamp of reason,
LIBERALISM, to
examine a
secrets
;
AND
different side
SOCIALISM.
of the
103
same marvels and
they do not expect to see new things in God,
Him
same things in two different ways and these two different ways of knowing, are two different ways of adoring, Him. For it should be known, that there is no mys tery amongst those whic h fai th teaches and the Church p robut only to see in
the
;
poses to us, which does not unite in
itself,
by an
admir-
able disposition of God, two_ qualities which ordinarily
—obscuritj^jind__evidence.__ Catholic
exclude each other
mysteries are like bodies at oncejunijnous and opaque,
way that their shadows can
in such a
by
never be brightened
their light, nor their light obsciLred
by
their
shad ows,
remaining perpetually ob scure and perpetually lum inous^
At
the very time they shed their light over crea-
they keep their shadows for themselves
tion,
everything clear, and can themselves be
They
nothing.
and
more absurd
them, there
is
they
made
make
clear
by
penetrate everything, and are them-
selves impenetrable. it is
;
It
to
appears absurd to admit them,
To him who admits their own to him who
deny them.
no obscurity but
;
denies them, day becomes night, and his eyes, deprived
of light, find nothing but obscurity in
And
yet
men
all
in their great blindness prefer
directions.
denying, to
them light appears to them intolerable if it happen to come from a sombre region and their gigantic pride condemns their eyes to eternal obscurity, admitting,
;
;
regarding the shades found in one sole mystery as
a greater difficulty than those that extend in tions.
all direc-
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
104
Without leaving the deep mysteries which form the subject of this chapter,
it
be easy to demonstrate
will
all
Are you ignorant of the reason why that tremendous gift of choosing between good and evil, sanctity and sin, life and death, was given to man ? Well, deny it for a moment, and on that moment you
we have
said.
human
render totally impossible the angelic and
of liberty, only perfect
r
emove that facu lty, and
and perfect
;
:
in this
way you
is
in
God.
Imperfection
i
If
rush into Pantheism or Atheism,
which are the same thing expressed ways.
is
ntellect. That you suppose it God and the creature are one and the
simultaneous perfectio n in the creature,
the^ libgrty
liberty is the result of the simul-
taneous perfection of the will and the
same
crea-
If in that faculty of choosi ng lies the imperfection
tions.
in
two
different
and you cannot deny one or the
so natural to the creature,
is
perfection to God, that
other without an implication in terms, a substantial con-
and an evident absurdity.
tradiction
that
He
imperfect,
is
is
to say of the creature that
creature does not exist
:
mystery
is
by abandoning the one
;
superior, its negation
As
all
is
false,
To
it
is
He
is
say the
contrary, to
for the other,
human
you have
for the impossible.
contradictory,
the Catholic affirmation.
that
God
results, that if the
and absurd
rationalistic negation, all is simple, natural,
in
say of
does not exist
perfect, is to
it is
whence
reason
abandoned the obscure
He
to say
and
in
the
logical
Catholicity says of
God
absolutely perfect; and of created beings
that they are perfect with a relative perfection, and
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
and
perfect
an
with
imperfect
SOCIALISM.
absolute
imperfect
imperfection
their absolute imperfec tion,
;
and
excellent a way,
so
in
105
w hich
by
are
that
the^arejnfinitely"
separated from God, constitutes their relative perfec-
with which they perfectly
tion,
and form
missions,
The
of^the^universe.
their respective
fulfil
together the perfect
all
harmony
absolute perfection of God, in
our point of view, consists in His being sovereignly that
free,
desiring
understanding the good and
in perfectly
is,
with a perfect
it
will.
fection of all other intelligent in
not understanding and
in
such
the
way
and
same absolute
absolute imper-
free beings, consists
not desiring the good
in
that they cannot
Their relative
evil.
The
understand or desire
perfection
imperfection, to which
consists it
that
in
due, on the
is
one hand, that they are different from God by nature, and, on the other, that they can be united to God, is
their end,
As
by an
and
intelligent
hierarchies,
effort of the will aided
free
by
this,
that they are
all
they are unlike in their being imperfect degrees, differs
not in a different manner.
from
common as
if
grace.
beings are distributed
man
to both
became the
in is
the fact
greater in
different
imperfect in
different
'angel only
the imperfection
that
man
The
in
They
they are hierarchically imperfect.
are like each other in
who
than in the angel,
places they occupied in the
iminense scale of beings.
One and
the
other
came
from the hands of God with the faculty of understanding and desiring evil, and of executing the evil they understood
:
in
this
lies
their
similarity.
But
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
io6 in
the
angelic
nature,
this
a moment, whilst in man,
imperfection lasted but for ever
lasts
in
:
For the angel there was a
lies their difference.
fully
it
solemn moment, in which
choose between good and
it
this
fear-
was given him to In that tremendous
evil.
some instant the angelic phalanxes were divided bowed before the divine throne, others rose in tumult and became rebels. This supreme and instantaneous resolution was followed by an instantaneous and ;
supreme judgment
the rebel angels were hurled into
:
damnation, and the loyal, confirmed in grace.
Man, weaker in intellect and will than the angel, because he was not, like him, a pure spirit, received a weaker and more imperfect liberty, and his imperfection was to last as long as his life. It is here the unutterable beauty of the designs of
with infinite splendour.
how
God saw from
and convenient were
beautiful
He
established hierarchies
He saw
beings.
how
from
all
among
;
it
shines forth
the beginning
hierarchies,
and
and
free
intelligent
eternity,
convenient and beautiful
sort of equality
tures
God
on the other hand,
was to have a certain all His crea-
between the Creator and
and such was
His sovereign
skill,
that
He
united in one the beauty of equality and the beauty
To
of hierarchy. gifts
unequal
observed,
He
;
establish hierarchy
He made
their
and that the law of equality might be demanded more from him to whom He
gave more, and
less
from him to
whom He
gave
less;
so that the most favoured in gifts would be the most
pressed in accounts, and the least pressed in accounts,
;
AND
LIBERALISM, the least favoured in lence of the angel
hope or remedy,
his
condemnation
his
nounced on him
Because the native excel-
inferior,
he only
to be lifted,
fell
The judgment
not be without
shall
condemnation
without
remedy,
So man cannot say
make me
did you angel,
angelic
the
nor that
in
and
divine
one becoming by repetition what the other
magnitude.
in
is
pro-
appeal,
except
moment known to God alone, when the human prevarications weigh equally in scales, the
was without
chastisement instantaneous, and
he only sinned to be redeemed. his
107
Because the native excel-
superior, his fall
eternal.
man was
lence of
gifts.
was
SOCIALISM.
Why
make me
did you not
a
man
Why
to God,
a man, and not an angel
.?
nor the
}
Thy justice ? What grandeur can be compared to that of Thy mercy ? What scales so faithfully balanced as those Thou What measure so precise boldest in Thy hand What matheas that with which Thou measurest who
Lord,
is
not affrighted at sight of
.?
.
matician
is
acquainted with numbers and their mys-
like Thee ) How well wrought are Thou hast worked How well established the things Thou didst establish, and how harmonically beautiful when established Open, O Lord,
terious all
harmony,
the prodigies
!
!
my
intellect, that I
purposes in
Thy
may
understand something of
Thy
designs, something of
what
eternal
Thou
eternally conceivest and eternally executest what does he know who knows not Thee.' and what is he ignorant of who knows Thee for
.'
It
man
cannot say to God,
Why
did you not
make
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
lo8
me an
why did you not make me perfect
can he had not been born ? Why didst Thou make me what I am ? If Thou hadst consulted me, I had not received life with the faculty of losing it hell scares me more than angel
?
not at least say, Lord, were
not better
it
?
I
:
nonentity.
Of himself man knows only how
to
he asks a question, he blasphemes,
if
gives the answer,
mouth
when God Himself, who blaspheme
:
does not put the question in his
when he begs anything, he blasphemes, if who has to attend to his petition, does not tell him what he has to ask, and how he has to ask it. Man did not know what to ask nor how to ask it, till God Himself, coming to the world and becoming man, taught him the " Our Father" that he might learn it by heart like a child. What does man mean when he says. Were it not
God
;
Himself,
had not been born Did he exist before And what meaning is there in his question, if before existing he did not exist.? Man can form some idea of what exceeds his reason hence he can form some idea of mysteries it is only of what does not exist he can form no idea whatever better
I
.'
he existed
.''
;
:
and hence he can form none of nonentity. does not desire to cease to exist suffer,
by changing
his
;
The
suicide
he desires to cease to
manner of being. Man, then, when he says, Why do
expresses no idea whatever I
He
exist.'
Why
do
into this
I
can only express an idea by asking,
exist as I
am
?
This question
Why
do
I
exist with the faculty
other.
is
resolved
of
AND
LIBERALISM, ruining myself? which
view
In
it.
creature,
fact,
109
how we
absurd, no matter
is
every creature, because
if
and
imperfect,
is
SOCIALISM.
if
it
a
is
the faculty of ruining
themselves constitutes the special imperfection of men,
he
who
or,
what
is
the same,
why man
tor;
why man is a creature, why the creature is not the Creathe God who created man ? Quod
asks that question asks
not
is
absurdum.
And
this is not
if
Why
only means,
my
of is
faculty to be
because, what
;
damned?
meant,
man
If
is
whom
person to
the
if
is
world
this
Why
?
become perpetuated conceive salvation
it
nature If
is
man
necessary
life
given
does
final
paradise
Reason
?
once necessary and
at
contingency,
by
its
all cir-
object of
life
commence and
not
it
never
is
and what
cannot future,
by
its
very nature present.
should pass without transition from nonentity
to eternity,
the
is
is
should be saved in
in
as
supposes
futurity
as
the question
the meaning of that
cumstances, what would be the in
if
Thou not save me in spite being damned ? the absurdity
of
capability clearer
still
what
dost
and
live
of glory,
from the
first
moment
—time, space, and the
of existence
entire creation
made for man, its lord, must be suppressed. If his kingdom were not to be of this world, what would be the object of the world
be temporal
And
?
?
or of time,
or of space,
if
if
he were not to
he were not to be
local
?
without time and space, what would be the object
of things created in space
and time
?
that, in this supposition, the absurdity
Whence we
see
which consists in
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
no
the contradiction there
is
between
the
being saved and the faculty of being
necessity of
ends
lost,
in the
absurdity which consists in suppressing at one stroke
time and space, which entails another, that consists in the logical suppression of
account
Man
man.
of,
all
things created
cannot substitute a
divine idea without, on the
and on
for,
human
for a
moment, the entire edifice and burying him in its
of creation falling to the ground
immense
ruins.
When we
view this side of the question,
we may say
that man, in asking for the absolute right of being saved whilst retaining the faculty of being lost, asks, sible, for
God lost
a greater absurdity than when he
to his tribunal for giving ;
him the
if
pos-
summoned
faculty of being
because in the latter he struggled to become God,
whilst in the former he wants to have the privileges of
the divinity, though remaining man. Finally,
we
if
we
consider this serious matter attentively,
shall see that
was not compatible with the divine
it
excellences to save the angel, nor man, without anterior merit.
All
is
rational in
God
— His justice as well as His
goodness, His goodness as well as His mercy
He
is
infinitely just,
infinitely rational.
and good, and merciful,
and
;
He
is
if
also
Whence it follows that it is imposGod without blasphemy either a
sible to attribute to
goodness, or a mercy, or a justice which
is
not built on
sovereign reason, which alone renders goodness true
goodness, mercy true mercy, and justice true justice.
The goodness which
is
not rational
is
weakness, the
mercy, debility, the justice, vengeance; and
God
is
good.
!
AND
LIBERALISM, and
merciful,
what
this,
His
is
infinite
Who
in
just, not weak or vindictive. Supposing meant when He is asked, in the name ot'
goodness, for salvation anterior to
He
does not see here that what
unreasonable, because
He
all
merit?
asked for
is
is
asked for an action without corresponding motive, an effect without its cause ?
its
Singular contradiction
His
infinite
man in
SOCIALISM.
in
!
is
man
name
He
condemns
daily
of in
and he calls that act which on earth he
of his limited reason
heaven a merciful and just
daily
name
condemns
asks from God, in
goodness, that which
!
as the caprice of nervous
women
or the
extravagance of tyrants
As
regards hell,
its
existence
absolutely necessary
is
to render possible that perfect equilibrium in
all
things,
because
it
exists
God
placed
substantially in His
Hell, considered as a penalty,
divine perfections.
is
in
perfect equilibrium with heaven, considered as a reward.
The
faculty of being lost could alone establish in
equilibrium with the faculty of being saved the justice and mercy of it
was necessary that
God might be
hell
;
man an
and that
equally
infinite,
should exist, as the term of
the former, simultaneously with heaven, as the term of the latter.
Heaven
so supposes hell, that without
cannot be explained nor conceived.
it, it
These two things
suppose each other, as a consequence supposes
its
prin-
and a principle its consequence and as he who affirms the consequence which is in its principle, and ciple,
;
the principle which contains
m
reality affirm
same, so he
two
who
its
consequence, does not
different things, but
affirms helL
which
is
one and the supposed
in
2
;
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
1 1
heaven, and heaven, which
two
in reality affirm
same.
It
we What
of
first
all
negation.
supposed in
does not
hell,
but one and the
then, logically necessary to admit those
is,
affirmations, or to
but
is
different things,
two
deny them with an absolute negation; what is denied by their
shall try to see
denied in
is
man
are the faculty of
being saved and that of being lost; in God, His infinite justice
To
and mercy.
called personal,
negation of virtue and
punishment of
all
and as
;
may be
these negations, which
added another, which
is
good and
sin,
is
real
—the
reward and
evil,
in these negations is involved that
the laws of the moral world, the negation of hell
logically involves that of the moral world
And
laws.
me
don't tell
that
man
and
all its
could be saved
without going to heaven, or lost without going to hell
exemption from going to heaven or to
for the
hell is
neither penalty nor reward, damnation nor salvation.
The
justice
are infinite
hand, in in vain,
were
and mercy of God either do not
;
if infinite,
exist, or
they must terminate, on the one
and, on the other, in heaven, or they exist
hell,
which
is
only another manner of being as
if
they
not.
Well, now,
if
this laborious
demonstratioa proves, on
one hand, that the faculty of being saved necessarily supposes that of being
lost,
necessarily supposes hell,
and, on the other, that heaven it
will follow that
He made hell, He made heaven, and
phemes against God because against
Him
because
asks to be exempt from the faculty of being to
he who blasblasphemes that he
lost,
be exempt from the faculty of being saved.
who
asks also
LIBERALISM,
AND
CHAPTER
SOCIALISM.
113
III.
Manicheeism of Proudhon.
Be
the explanation given to the free will of
may, there greatest it
is
no doubt that
it
will
man what
it
always be one of our
and most tremendous mysteries.
In any case,-
must be admitted that the faculty possessed by man
of drawing evil from good, disorder from order, and of disturbing, even
if
only accidentally, the wonderful har-
monies established by God
in all things created, is
tremendous one, and, considered to
what
limits or restrains
The
ceivable.
.free
it,
in itself,
to a certain degree incon-
will given to
'sublime and transcendental, that
abdication on the part of
a
without relation
God
it
man
a
is
gift
so
appears rather an
than a grace.
See
its
effects if not.
Cast your eye over the whole course of time, and you shall see
how muddy and
filthy flow the
rebellious
Adam
comes Cain, the
is
God
people without
at the
fratricide,
waters of that
Away
on which humanity navigates.
river
there, the
head of a mutiny, and then
and
after
him multitudes of
or law, blasphemers, fornicators,
incestuous and adulterous; the few magnifiers of anci
His glory
cence,
down and
and the
all
in
God
the end forget His glory and magnifi-
tumultuously
muddy
sail
in
a capacious ship
stream of the great
fearful clamour, like a
know not whither they
river,
mutinous crew.
go, nor
with
mad
And
they
whence they came, nor
H
ES&A YS ON CA THOLICISM,
1 1 :^
name
the
of the ship which bears, nor the wind which
impels, them. voice
If
the ship
!
now and
and
raised,
is
again a mournfully prophetic
Woe
cries,
to the sailors
woe
!
to
the ship and sailors pay no attention, and
the hurricanes increase, and the ship begins to creak,
and the obscene dances and the splendid feasts, the frantic laugh and the mad clamour, are kept up, till in a solemn moment
all
at once cease
—the
splendid feast,
mad
the frantic laugh, the obscene dance, the
clamour,
the creaking of theship, and the howling of the hurricanes; the waters are over
all,
and
undo the
new
divine work.
A
who
puts his father to the blush
son,
and
him
in
his
th.e
diluvian
history begins
\%
their
battles
;
and
is
shall
the
:
children
be
of
God
men; here
and opposite, the
city of the
is
worshipped, in the other,
liberty and. Providence,
God and man,
begin again that gigantic combat, whose thrilling
The
tudes are the subject of history.
are everywhere defeated
God
Noah
born to
the father curses the
After the Deluge the ante-
again
In one, liberty
Providence
liberty begins to
with the children of
built the divine city,
world.
son ;
silent waters.
whole generation, which
end of time.
cursed to
renew
on the waters,
silence sits
and the anger of God broods over the God renews His work, and human
;
vicissi-
partisans of
God
even the incommunicable and
holy
name
men,
in the frenzy of their victory, conspire to build
of
sinks into profound oblivion, and
The
a tower that might reach the heavens.
heaven
falls
on the
lofty tower,
and God,
confounds the tongues of tribes
;
in
fire
of
His anger,
the tribes are dis-
LIBERALISM, persed through
AND
SOCIALISM.
the quarters of the world, and in-
all
crease and multiply, and people
Here
zones and regions.
all
great and populous
are raised
115
there
cities,
are
pomp
established gigantic empires, full of pride and
;
and ferocious hordes wander in idleness through immense woods or boundless deserts. And the world
brutal
burns
cities,
and
discords,
in
deafened with the
is
Empires
clamours of war.
fall
the earth
till
is
on
one universal misfortune and
The abomination And where is the God
conflagration.
world.
doing, that
liberty,
He
loud
cities
nations on nations, races on races, and peoples on
peoples,
He
on empires,
He
of desolation of might.-'
thus abandons the
that
What is human
field to
queen and mistress of the earth
tolerate
in the
is
Why
.'
does
and tumult, and
universal rebellion
those idols which are raised up, and that great carnage,
and those accumulated ruins One day He called a just man, .and .'
make
will
said to him, " I
thee the father of a posterity as numerous as
the sands of the sea and the stars of the heavens
;
from
thy chosen race shall one day be born the Saviour of nations. I will
may
not
were
my
fall.
witness to acts
myself will govern
I
send
it
angels to bear I shall
be to
it
with it
my providence, and
in their
all
hands, that
my omnipotence before the world in
and
prodigies, " :
When
keeping with His words.
it
it
will
—and His
His people
was enslaved, He sent it liberators when it had no country or home. He miraculously drew it out of Egypt, ;
and gave
and
it
a
home and
He gave it plenty;
it
a country.
It suffered hunger,
suffered thirst,
and
in
obedience
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
ii6
His voice water gushed from the
to
rocks;
great
multitudes of enemies opposed its passage, and the anger of God dissipated those great muhitudes Hke
a cloud.
It
hung
He
Babylon, and
and
tivity,
it
its
wailing harps on the willows of
ransomed
from
it
its
miserable cap-
again saw with gladdened eye, Jerusalem
He
the holy, the predestined, the beautiful. incorruptible justice
judges,
who governed
it
gave
it
peace and
in
god-fearing kings, renowned as prudent, glorious
;
and wise
He
;
discover to like the
it
sent
His ambassadors, prophets, to
as
And
present.
people buried His
that carnal
and hard-hearted His
miracles in oblivion, rejected
abandoned His temple, broke into blasinto idolatry, outraged His incommuni-
warnings,
phemies,
it,
His lofty designs, and make future things
fell
cable name, beheaded His holy prophets,
and
in discords
and seethed
rebellions.
In the meantime the prophetic weeks of Daniel were
completed, and
He who was
to
come, sent by the
Father for the redemption of the world and the consolation of the nations, appeared
ing
Him
on the
earth,
and
see-
meek and humble, it despised outraged His poverty, mocked His meek-
so poor, so
His humility,
Him, clothed
Him
ness,
became scandalised
fool's
garment, and, secretly agitated by the infernal
furies,
made Him
a
after
having drained the chalice
in Pilate's hall.
by the Jews, He came but after,
Crucified
Gentiles
in
drain to the dregs the chalice of
ignominy on the Cross, of infamy
in
;
called the Gentiles,
and the
as before, they carne, the
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
117
world pursued the path of perdition, and sat
in
the
His holy Church inherited from her divine Founder and Master the privilege of persecution
shadows of death.
and outrage, and was outraged and peoples, kings,
From
and emperors.
persecuted
her
by-
own bosom
sprang those great heresies which surrounded her cradle, monsters ready to devour her.
like
prostrate
at
the
feet
of the
In vain they
fell
Hercules
the
divine
:
tremendous battle between the divine and the human
God and man, begins are the issues. The field
Hercules, between
the fury, various
extensive that on land,
on
sea,
land,
of battle
stretches from sea to sea,
and
in
is
so
and
the world, from pole to
The conquering hosts of Europe are vanquished who succumb in Africa, triumph
pole.
Asia, and those
in in
from land to
it
Equal
anew.
America.
not,
who
is
who does
There
is
no man,
let
him be aware of it or no one
not a combatant in this hot contest
;
not take an active part in the responsibility of
The
the defeat or victory.
prisoner in his chains and
the king on his throne, the poor and the
rich,
the
healthy and the infirm, the wise and the ignorant, the captive and the
free,
the old
man and
the child,
the civilised and the savage, share equally in the com-
Every word that
bat.
by God
or
by the
is
pronounced,
world,
is
either inspired
and necessarily proclaims,
implicitly or explicitly, but always clearly, the glory of
the one or the triumph of the other.
warfare
we
all
fight
In this singular
through forced enlistment
;
here
the system of substitutes or volunteers finds no place.
In
it
is
unknown exception
of sex or age
;
here no
;
1
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
18
attention
paid to him
is
who
am
says, I
the son of a
poor widow nor to the mother of the paralytic, nor to the wife of the cripple. In this warfare all men born of ;
woman are soldiers. And don't tell me you don't wish to fight; for the moment you tell me that, you are already fighting nor :
you don't know which
that
side to join
;
for while you are
saying that, you have already joined a side
nor that
:
you are thinking nor that you want to be to be so, you are so no longer indifferent; for I will laugh at you, because on pronouncing that word you have chosen your party. you wish
to remain neutral
;
for while :
Don't
tire
yourself in seeking a place of security against
the chances of the war, for you tire yourself in vain that war
through
is
extended as
time.
all
can you find
just,
combat
far as space,
and prolonged
In eternity alone, the country of the
because there alone there
rest,
is
no
but do not imagine, however, that the gates
:
of eternity shall be opened
show the wounds you bear for those
who
;
you
for you, unless
first
those gates are only opened
gloriously fought here the battles of the
Lord, and were, like the Lord, crucified.
On
turning his eyes to the spectacle presented
history, a
man
sarily falls into
ancient,
principles
there
is
one of these two Manicheeisms
which consists
principle of
in
into the
:
a"ffirmm"g~t:Tiat~ there
good and another of
are
by
unillumined by_the light ofjf3.ith_neces-
evil; that^ thQS£__two
incarnate in two gods, between
perpetual war
:
is"lHie
whom
or into that of Proudhon, which
consists in affirming that
God
is
the evil and
man
the
LIBERALISM, AND SOCIALISM. good,
t hat
h uman, and the
the
119
two_ri^
are
divine,
powers, and that the only, duty of man.Js-to-£Qiiqueir ,
God, the enemy of man.
Ffom
the spectacle of perpetual warfare to which
come those two Manichean
the world was condemned,
systems, one of which
is
in
more conformity with ancient modern
systems, and the other has a closer relation with
and we are forced to
when we consider the notorious fact of that gigantic combat in itself, and abstracting from the wonderful harmony formed by human and divine, visible and invisible, created and uncreated, things, considered in the aggregate, that fact is sufficiently explained by either of doctrines
;
tonfess, that
those two systems.
There dered in
is
no
itself.
difficulty in explaining
There
is
no
any
fact, consi-
fact which, considered thus,
cannot be sufficiently explained by a hundred different hypotheses.
metaphysical
The
difficulty
consists
in
the
fulfilling
every explanation, which
condition of
requires for the true elucidation of every notorious fact,
that other notorious and evident facts be not plicable nof unexplained in
left
inex-
it.
Any Manichean
system explains whatevef by its and a battle supposes it but leaves without explanation what is by nature one and nature supposes a dualism
;
;
;
reason, even unilluminated strating, either that
He
is
one.
God
by
faith, is
does not
capable of demon-
exist, or if
He
exists.
In any Manichean system the battle
explained, but in none the definitive victory definitive victory of evil over good, or of
;
is
as the
good over
evil,
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
I20
supposes the definitive suppression of the one or the other,
and what
we
supposition is
necessary-
In
be definitely suppressed.
cannot
existence,
and
exists with a substantial
find,
this
by way of consequence, that there
something inexplicable in the very battle we thought
sufficiently explained, as every battle is inexplicable in
which If
all definitive
from what
victory
we pass
explanation,
is
impossible.
generally absurd in every Manichean
is
to
what
specially absurd in the
is
explanation of Proudhon,
we
the general absurdity of
Manicheeism are here added
and possible
particular
all
things are
all
met with
good
absurdity
and
evil,
—the
absurdities,
In
evil
and that even
explanation unworthy the
in that
majesty of the absurd. calls
shall clearly see, that to
fact,
when
citizen
Proudhon
good, he does not utter an
absurd requires higher genius
—he
is
The absurd is not in uttering without object. The moment it is
only guilty of buffoonery. it,
but
in uttering it
said that
and
good and
evil coexist in
substantially, the
vestigating in which the evil exists, is
a foolish one.
himself the good, and
and man the and
in
no
discovering
good
evil.
place.
who
and
in
will call
will call
which the good
God
the evil and
Himself the good
Evil and good will be in
The only will
locally
question,
gain the victory.
all
places
then, lies If evil
in
and
things indifferent, there
is
for falling into the ridiculous puerility of
contradicting the
The
Man God
are, in that supposition,
no necessity
man and God,
question which consists in in-
common
sense of the
pecuha'r absurdity of citizen
human
Proudhon
race.
consists in
AND
LIBERALISM, the fact that his dualism
one.
is
God
man
essentially instinctive,
By the
first
;
whence we see that
his
a mathematical, rather than a religious,
is evil,
good
is
But in man, who
dualism.
121
a dualism of three members,
is
constituting an absolute unity
absurdity
SOCIALISM.
he
is
is
—
Manichean
this is the
the good, there
is
one power
and another essentially
God, by the second he
is
logical.
man whence ;
two unities are resolved into three, without ceasing to be two for beyond man and God there is no substantial good or evil, no combatants, no follows that the
it
;
Let us see now how the two
anything.
unities,
which
are three, are converted into one, without ceasing to be
two and three unities. Unity is in God for, besides being God, by the instinctive power which is in man. He Unity is in man for, though he is man by his is man. whence it logical, he is God by his instinctive, power follows that man is man and God at the same time. ;
;
:
It results
be
from
so, is trinity
dualism
all this, ;
that dualism, without ceasing to
that trinity,
without ceasing to be
so, is
that dualism, and trinity, without ceasing to be
;
what they
are, are
unity
;
and that unity which
is
unity,
without ceasing to be trinity, and dualism, without ceasing to be trinity,
is
in all places.
Proudhon had said of himself what he does viz., that he is sent, and then demonstrated,
If citizen
not say,
what he could not demonstrate, divine
;
the theory
rejected as absurd
I
am
viz.,
that his mission
after explaining should
and impossible.
The
still
personal union
of evil and good, considered as existing substantially,
impossible and absurd, because
it
is
be
is
involves an evident
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
122
In the personal variety and substantial
contradiction.
unity which constitute the Christian's one and triple
God, as in the personal unity and substantial variety
which constitute the Son made man, according to the
dogma, there
Catholic there
is
no
no contradiction
is
there
;
but
because there
be much obscurity,
If there
in terms.
however, no
is,
a profound obscurity
is
logical impossibility, however,
essential contradiction in the eyes
of reason, in saying of three persons that they have the
same fundamental substance, tion,
though great obscurity,
standing, in saying
sustained
two
that
by the same
palpable contradiction,
is
no contradic-
eyes of our under-
different substances are
In what there
person.
impossibility, because there
substantial
as there
in the
is
is
radical
an evident absurdity, a
in saying, after asserting the
is
existence of good and
evil,
that evil and
good, substantially existing, are sustained by the same person.
Wonderful
obscurity, without
more
!
man
cannot
contradicts, •
from the Catholic to grope in one
dense, nor escape from that which paralyses his
reason, without falling into that it
fly
condemning himself
And
which denies, because
it.
don't imagine the world follows the footsteps
of rationalism,
in
spite
and dense obscurity
;
it
of
its
follows
absurd contradictions
them on account
that dense obscurity and those absurd
of
contradictions.
Reason follows error wherever it goes, as a tender mother would follow, wherever it went, even if it were to the profound abyss, the beloved fruit of her love, and offspring of her womb. Error will kill it; but what
LIBERALISM, matter
if it
offspring
AND
SOCIALISM.
a mother, and dies at the hands of
is
its
?
CHAPTER How
123
IV.
dogmas of providence and
the
without falling
Catholicity,
rivalry between
saved by
liberty are
into
the
theory
of
God and man.
In nothing does the incomparable beauty of Catholic shine with more splendour than in their universality, that incommunicable attribute of divine solutions
No
solutions.
than
all
sooner
is
a Catholic solution received,
the objects hitherto obscure and cloudy have
thrown on them; night becomes day, and order springs from chaos. There is none of them which does light
not possess that attribute and that secret virtue, whence comes the grand marvel of universal light. In those seas of light there lies
is
only one dark point, that in which
the solution which penetrates the universe with
light.
This consists in the
fact,
that
man
its
not being
God, cannot be in possession of that divine attribute by
which the Lord sees with ineffable created.
Man
is
condemned
of the light from the darkness,
the light.
proceeds
To him from
an
there
is
light, all that
and of the darkness from
nothing evident but what
impenetrable
mystery.
Between
mysterious and evident things, however, there notable difference, that
but cannot
make
man
He
to receive the explanation
is
this
can obscure the evident,
the mysterious clear.
When he rejects,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
124
for the purpose of entering into the possession of that
which
ineffable light
is
God and
in
the intricate and
solutions.
Then what we
divine solutions as obscure, he
gloomy labyrinth of human have demonstrated occurs particular, incomplete
not in himself, the
falls into
his solution is particular
:
—and
sight he appears to solve something
first
consideration
have solved
we
find
At
on farther
;
he solves nothing he appeared to
and reason, which
;
—as
as incomplete, false.
solution as plausible, ends
contradictory,
and absurd.
are discussing
is
by
at first accepted his
rejecting
As
it
as insufficient,
far as the question
concerned, this was completely
we
demon-
After demonstrating the
strated in the last chapter.
evident insufficiency of the human,
only remains to
it
demonstrate the supreme efficacy and sublime convenience of the Catholic, solution.
'i^ God, who cator of
all
is
the absolute good,
good, and
equally impossible for
He had
thing
all
God
He
good
not, as to give
evil
He
good.
is
him
viz.,
to conceive that
He had. Two He could give to
does not possess, or the absolute it is
impossible
any one can give what he has
not, or
that the Creator could be absorbed in the creature
He
is
ness,
was
all
that
both impossibilities are evident, as
:
It
to give to the creature any-
things are totally impossible,
anything the
the supreme fabri-
is
does
unable to communicate His
own
;
and
absolute good-
which would be to communicate Himself,
ftor evil,
which would be to communicate what He has not. He communicates relative good, and thereby all He can communicate,
viz.,
something of that which
is
in
Him, and
is
;
AND
LIBERALISM, not
He
SOCIALISM.
125
between Himself and the
himself, establishing
creature that likeness which testifies to
its origin,
and
that difference which proves the distance between them.
In this way every creature proclaims by its presence who its Creator is, and that itself is only His creature. God being the Creator of all things created, all things created are good, with a
good inasmuch as he
Even the
the tree as tree.
relative
Man
goodness.
is
man, the angel as angel, and
is
who
prince
flashes like light-
ning in the abyss, and the abyss in which he flashes, are
good and excellent
good
in himself,
things.
God
not to be an angel, and nature, which
abyss
is
good
is
The
prince of the abyss
because in being what he
is,
the Creator of angelic
is
superior to all things created.
because
in itse lf,
is
he ceases
it is
Jiie—
ordained to aa^end
sovereignly good.
And
notwithstanding that
all
created essences
are
good and excellent, Catholicity says that evil is in the The quesworld, and its ravages are great and awful. tion
what and
then consists in investigating, on the one hand, evil
is
;
finally,
and on the
how
it
other, in
what
contributes with
it
its
has
its
origin
dissonance to
the universal harmony. Evil has
tion of
the use
its ori gin in
of choosing,
w hich,
human
as
we
liberty.
m an made of_thg..faculty
said, constitutes the imperfec-
,
The
nature of things.
was by the very
faculty of choosing
coiifihed within certain limits, established
All being good, that faculty could
not consist in choosing between the good things which necessarily existed,
and the
evil,
which did not exist at
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
125 all.
separating from the evil
denying
by
it
;
in affirming it
by
its
union, or
The understanding
separation.
its
g'ood, or in
adhering to the
It consisted solely in
of
man
withdrew from the divine understanding, which was equivalent to separating from truth; separated from the truth, it
ceased to understand
it.
The human will withdrewfrom
the divine, which was equal to separating from the good
separated from the good,
ceased to
man
ceased to will
ceased to execute,
will, it
other hand,
it
it
;
and
;
Having
it.
as,
on the
could not cease to exercise his intimate
and permanent faculties, which consisted in understanding, willing, and acting, he continued to understand, will, and act, although what he understood, separated from God, was not the truth, which is in God alone, nor what he willed, the good,
which
is
in
God
alone, nor could
what
he did be the good, which he neither understood, nor willed,
and which, not being understood by
nor accepted by his
will,
Error, which
actions.
is
the negation of truth, was, then,
the term of his understanding tion of the good, of his will
was
sin,
which
is
;
;
view.
same
As
intellect, is
denies
which
the good
;
is
which
the negahis actions
all
that
different manifestations
two
different points of
God
affirms
the truth, and with His
and there being
in
God no
mations but that of the good, which
and that of the
is
the simultaneous negation of truth
thing, considered in sin
evil,
and the term of
and goodness, which are only of the
his intellect,
could not be the term of his
truth,
which
is
in
is
with His
will,
which
other
affir
in
His
will,
His understanding;
and God being only those two affirmations considered
LIBERALISM, substantially
God
—
it
AND
follows that
affirms, virtually denies
SOCIALISM. which denies
sin,
God
127
in all
that
all
His affirmations;
and by denying Him, and doing nothing but deny Him, is
the universal and absolute negation
par excellence. That negation did
or
not,
could
—the
not,
negation
the
affect
essence of things, which exist independently of the
human
will,
and which were
perfect
and
excellent.
of their excellence,
harmony which and
is
it
in
themselves, but even
Still, if sin
did not deprive
them
deprived them of that sovereign
their divine
that delicate
after, as well as before, the
good
prevarication, not only
Maker
established in them,
bond and that
perfect order with
which they were united one with another, and
with
all
Him, when He drew them from chaos, after having drawn them from nothingness, by an effect of His Through that perfect order and infinite goodness. that admirable bond, all things moved directly towards God with an irresistible and regulated motion. The angel, a pure spirit inflamed with love, gravitated to-
wards God, the centre of
all spirits,
vehement
Man,
gravitation.
with
an,
less perfect,
amorous and but not
less
amorous, fallowed with his gravitation the movement of the angelic gravitation, to the angel in the
bosom
and hunaan gravitations. secret
movement of
become confounded with
of God, the centre of angelic
Matter
things to
agitated
by a
ascension, followed the gravitation
of spirits towards that supreme
Him
itself,
without
effort.
Maker who drew
And
all
as all these things,
considered in themselves, are the exterior manifesta-
;
£SSAVS ON CATHOLtCISM,
X28
tions of the essential
good which
is
in
God,
manner
this
of being is the exterior manifestation of His manner of being, perfect and excellent as His essence itself. Things were made in such a way, that they had one perfection mutable and another necessary
and inamiswas
Their inamissible and necessary perfection
sible.
that essential good which
God
placed in every creature
;
mutable perfection was that manner of being that God willed they should have, when He drew them from
their
God
nothingness.
they are
;
be
sarily
He
for a time,
all jurisdiction
duced by the
it
withdrew the
own
;
He
placed,
they exist under the
beings which
Whence
free.
He
but His
the order in which
jurisdiction of those
gent and
they should ever be what
same manner.
the
in
essences from
willed
did not, however, will they should neces-
He
formed
intelli-
follows that the evil pro-
the free human,
free angelic, or
will,
could be, and was, nothing but the negation of the order which
which
signifies
that
God
negation
is
;
in
is
that negation
is
things which
as
God
;
that
is
Dis-
to say, of the
manner of being of
all
order consists in the union of the
God
willed should be
separation of those which rated
called disorder.
the negation of order, that
And
word
the very thing
affirmed
divine affirmation, relative to the things.
things created
all
involved in the very
which
with
denied
is
order
it,
established
is
He
united,
and the
willed should be sepa-
so disorder consists in uniting the things which
willed should be separated, and separating those
which God willed should be united.
LIBERALISM,
The
disorder caused
from
its
SOCIALISM.
by the angelic
129
rebellion, con-
estrangement on the part of the rebel angel
in
sisted
AND
God, who was
its
centre,
by means of a change
manner of being, which consisted in the conits movement of gravitation towards its God, into a movement of rotation around itself. The disorder caused by the prevarication of man, was similar to that caused by the rebellion of the angel, as it is impossible to be a rebel and prevaricator in two ways Man, having ceased to gravitate essentially different.
in
its
version of
towards his
God with
his understanding, his willj
and
works, constituted himself his centre, and was the
mate end of
his actions, of his will,
and of
his
ulti-
his under-
standing.
disturbance caused by this prevarication was and profound. When man had separated from his deep God, all his powers separated at once, one from the
The
themselves
constituting
other,
centres.
His understanding
will, his will lost its
many
it
owed the
which had been subject to God, in
tradictions,
spirit,
fell
and the
into slavery
All had been previously concord
and was afterwards war, tumult, conand discord. His nature was converted from
to the flesh.
harmony
divergent
authority over his actions, the flesh
escaped from the obedience spirit,
so
lost its authority over his
man
;
all
sovereignly harmonious, into profoundly antithetical.
This disorder caused in him
by
himself,
was
trans-
mitted by him to the universe, and to the manner of
being of
all
things; all were subject to him, and
rebelled against him.
When
all
he ceased to be the slav^
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
130
of God, he ceased to be the prince of the earth will
not cause us wonder,
of his terrestrial
The
slavery.
we
if
which
;
consider that the
monarchy were founded
titles
in his divine
animals, to which he, in token of his
dominion, had given their names, ceased to hear his voice,
and to understand
his word,
and to obey
his
com-
mand. The earth was filled became leaden, the very flowers armed themselves with
with weeds, the heavens
Entire nature was, as
thorns.
a
mad
fury against
him
:
by
were, possessed
it
the seas, on beholding him
approach, tossed their waves wildly, and their abysses
resounded with awful clamour
;
the mountains raised
their tops to the
heavens to stop his path
rushed over his
fields,
swept the hurricanes
;
and over
;
the torrents
his fragile dwellings
venom
at
at every step
he
the reptiles spat their
him, the herbs distilled poisons for him
;
dreaded an ambuscade, and in every ambuscade, death.
The
Catholic explanation
all that which without
inexplicable,
it
of
evil
naturally explained.
is
once
accepted,
appeared, and was in If the evil
fact,
do not
exist in a substantial manner, but rather negatively,
cannot serve as matter for a creation, and so the
it
diffi-
culty which arose from the co-existence of two different
and
simultaneous creations,
difficulty
by
was
increasing, the
naturally ceases. That more advance was made
rough road, as the dualism of the creation necessarily supposed another dualism, more repugnant that
—the
still ,to
human
divinity,
which must be conceived as a simple essence.
reason
Or cannot be conceived at
all.
essential dualism
With that
in
the
divine dualism
AND
LIBERALISM, comes
to the
who
131
ground the idea of a
rivalry at once im-
—necessary,
because two gods
and necessary
possible
SOCIALISM.
contradict each other, and two essences which are
repugnant, are condemned, by the very nature of things, to a perpetual quarrel
victory
is
—impossible, because a
definitive
the final object of every contest (and here the
definitive victory consists in the suppression of the evil
by the good,
by the
or of the good
and neither
evil),
one nor the other can be suppressed, because what exists an essential manner, necessarily exists.
in
From
the im-
possibility of the suppression follows the impossibility
of the victory, and from the impossibility of the victory, final object
the contest
of the contest, the radical impossibility of
With the
itself.
divine,
in
which every
Manichean system ends, disappears the human, contradiction, to which the substantial co-existence of good and evil in man must lead. That contradiction is
To
absurd, and because absurd, inconceivable.
of
man
that he
good and
is
these two things
contrary
system
is
at one
and the same time
essentially bad, :
is
essentially
the same as to affirm one of
man
either that
essences,
is
composed of two
thus uniting what the Manichean
obliged to separate in the Divinity
man
affirm
;
or that
and being one, is good and which is to affirm all that is the same time, at bad denied, and to deny all that is affirmed, of one and the the essence of
same
is
one,
thing.
In the Catholic system the
not exist essentially.
The
synonymous with disorder
;
evil
evil
for
it is
exists,
but
it
does
considered thus,
nothing
is
else, if well
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
132
examined, but the disordered manner in which the things are, that have not ceased to be essentially good,
and which, through some secret and mysterious cause, have ceased to be well ordered. The CathoHc system points out that secret and mysterious cause,
assigning of
it,
if
much
there be
nothing which contradicts or
is
and
in the
that exceeds, there
repugnant
to,
is
reason, as,
for the explanation of the perturbation of the
manner
of things, which even after being disturbed, preserve their essences entire
and pure, there
no necessity to
is
have recourse to a divine intervention, with which there would be no proportion between the effect and the cause
is
it
;
enough, to explain the fact
have recourse to the
and
intelligent
which
free beings,
sufficiently, to
intervention
anarchical if
of the
they could not
alter,
in some way, the marvellous order of creation and
its
concerted harmonies, could not be considered either
Of
as free or as intelligent.
accidental and
asserted without contradiction
— of
first,
that as far as
God
;
the
it
things can be
and without repugnance
it is evil, it
second, that as far as
accidental,
considered as
evil,
ephemeral, these two
could not be the work it
is
ephemeral and
could be the work of man.
the affirmations of reason
In this
way
become confounded with the
Catholic affirmations.
The
Catholic system once supposed,
disappear,
and
all
this system the creation
The
one and God
is
which the war of the gods dualism.
all
absurdities
contradictions are suppressed.
evil exists,
is
is
In
one, with
suppressed with the divine
because
if it
did not exist,
;
LIBERALISM,
human
AND
SOCIALISM.
liberty could not be conceived
exists as
;
an accident, not as an essence,
an essence and not an accident,
God, the Creator of tradiction,
all
things,
it
133
but the for
if it
evil
were
would be the work of
which involves a con-
repugnant both to the divine and human
comes from man and is in man, and and being in him, far from there being by coming from any contradiction, there is a great convenience. The reason.
The
convenience
evil
is in this,
that as the evil could not be the
work of God, man could not choose it, if he did not create it, and he would not be free if he could not choose it. There is no contradiction whatever in it for when Catholicism affirms of man that he is good in his essence and bad by accident, she does not affirm of him the same thing she denies of him. To affirm of man that he is bad by accident and good by essence, is not to say contradictory things of him, but things in
which there can be no contradiction, because they are totally different.
In
fine,
the Catholic system being once accepted, the
blasphemous and impious system, which consists
in
supposing a perpetual rivalry between
God and man,
between the Creator and the creature,
falls levelled to
the ground. transitory of
God, of
an
Man, author of the itself,
is
creator, supporter,
all things.
evil,
accidental and
not on the same standing with
and governor of all
essences,
and
Between those two beings, separated by
infinite distance, there is
possible contest.
no imaginable
rivalry or
In the Manichean and Proudhonian
systems, the battle between the Creator of the essential
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
134
good and the creator of the
was inconwas impossible. In the Catholic system there can be no supposition of a contest between two parties, one of which must necessarily be victorious, and the other necessarily essential evil,
ceivable and absurd, because the victory
Two
vanquished.
ence of a contest that
that the victory be possible,
be uncertain.
it
victory it
conditions are necessary for the exist:
is
certain, or
Every
when
it
battle is
is
and
absurd when the
impossible
;
from which
no matter how they are considered, those
follows, that
great battles are absurd, which are entered on for universal domination or for
supreme power, whether the
sovereign be one, or the rulers two
because he .second, will
who
is
one
will
in the first
:
be perfectly alone
;
case,
in the
because the two will never become one, and
be two perpetually.
Those gigantic combats are
of such a nature, that either they are decided before
commenced, or they are not decided
after
they are
entered on.
CHAPTER Secret analogies
v.
between the moral
and
physical per-
turbations, all derived from the liberty of
How
far the
man.
ravages of sin have gone, and to what
extent the whole face of creation has been changed by so lamentable a misfortune, investigations
;
but what
is
is
a matter
above
all
beyond human
doubt
is,
that in
AND
LIBERALISM,
Adam
his spirit
the former
The
by
and
and the
135
were conjointly degraded,
his flesh
pride,
SOCIALISM.
latter
by concupiscence.
cause of the physical and the moral degradation
being the same, they present wonderful analogies
in their
various manifestations.
We
have said that
gradation,
the primitive cause of
sin,
was nothing but a disorder
;
all
de-
and as order con-
sisted in the perfect equilibrium of all things created,
and
that equilibrium in the hierarchical subordination they
observed one with another, and in the absolute subordination they
all
maintained with their Creator,
that sin or disorder, which
is
it
follows
the same thing, consisted in
nothing but the relaxation of that hierarchical subordination which things had
among
themselves, and of the
absolute subordination in which they were with respect to
the
Supreme Being,
or
what
is
the same, in the destruc-
tion of that perfect equilibrium,
union in which
and of that wonderful
are always analogous to their causes, sin
And
things were placed.
all
all
as effects
the effects of
became, to a certain extent, what their causes were, a
disorder, a disunion, a disequilibrium.
Sin was the disunion of
man and God.
Sin produced a moral and a physical disorder.
The moral
disorder consisted in the ignorance of the
understanding, and in the weakness of the
The its
disunion
from
weakness of the
supreme
The
will.
ignorance of the understanding was nothing but the
will
divine
was
in
understanding. its
disunion
The
from the
will.
physical disorder produced
by
sin,
consisted in
—— ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
136
and
sickness
death
in
well now, sickness
;
is
nothing
but the disorder, the disunion, the disequilibrium of the constituent parts of our body.
Death
same
but that same disunion, that same disequilibrium carried to the
nothing
is
disorder, that
extreme. Therefore the physical and moral disorder, ignorance and the weakness of the will on one part, and sickness and death on the other, are one and the same .
thing.
This
be seen more clearly by merely considering
will
that all these disorders, as well physical as moral, take
the
same denomination
at the point
where they end, and
the point where they begin.
The concupiscence of the flesh, and the are called by the same name sin ;
pride of the
the definite
spirit,
disunion of the soul and God, and that of the the soul, are called
From
this
we
by the same name
body and
death.
see the connection between the physical
and the moral world
so close, that
is
is
it
only in the
middle their difference can be observed, as they are
one and the same thing in their end and in their beginning.
And how
could
it
be otherwise
if
the physical,
comes from God, and ends before sin, and after death
as well as the moral world, in
God; For
if
God
the
is
rest,
.'
that
close
connection
between the
moral and the physical world might be unknown to the earth, which
is
which are pure
spirits
purely corporeal, and to the angels, j
but
how
could that mystery
be hidden from man, composed of an immortal
soul.
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
who
a corporeal matter, and
iiud of
two worlds
in the confluence of
Nor did
end here, as not only
placed by
is
God
?
by
perturbation produced
great
that
137
Adam became
sin
subject to sick-
and to death, but the earth was cursed on his account, and in his name. With regard to that tremendous and, to a certain ness
degree, incomprehensible curse, without appearing to
presume to penetrate mysteries so obscure, and acknowledging, as we do, that the judgments of God are as secret as
His works are marvellous,
nevertheless, that
if
it
appears to
the mysterious relation which
us,
God
has placed between the moral and the physical world,
be once confessed, and
manner
is
practically,
though
in a certain
inexplicably, visible in man, to a certain degree,
everything else
mystery;
is
for the
of
little
consequence in this profound
mystery
is
the law of relation,
in
rather than in the applications which can be it
made
of
by way of consequence. It is well to
remark here,
and to make
proof of what
in
we have
more clear, considered as endowed that physical things cannot be
said,
this
subject
difficult
—as
existing in them-
with an independent existence selves,
by themselves, and
for themselves, but rather
as manifestations of spiritual things, which alone have in
themselves the reason of their existence.
it is
God
and the beginning and end of all clear that all things, in- their beginning and
a pure
spirit,
end, are spiritual. either vain
This being
so,
being
things, in their
physical things are
phenomena, and do not
ex'st,
or
if
they
Cornell Catholic
Union Library.
;
SSSAVS ON CATHOLICISM,
138
by God and
exist
exist,
they exist by the
we
spirit
for
and
God
infer, that whenever there
what
it
may,
which means that
;
for the spirit is
in the spiritual, there
from which
;
a disturbance, be
it
must necessarily be
another analogous in the corporeal, regions
as
;
it
is
impossible to conceive that things themselves could
be at
rest,
when
there
beginning and end of
The
is
a perturbation in what
all things.
perturbation, then, produced
by
should be general, was and should be
all
to the
all spirits,
The countenance
bodies.
viously placid and serene,
was and
sin
common
high and to the low regions, to those of to those of
the
is
and
of God, pre-
was disturbed with anger
His seraphim changed colour, the earth bristled with thorns and weeds, and trees withered,
ceased to ,
poisons,
and
it
plants were parched,
herbs dried up, and
sweet liquor, and
distil
and
its
its
covered
itself
it
its
was
and
its
fountains
fruitful
in
with obscure, impene-
and it crowned itself with wild mountains, and there was one zone torrid, and another deadly cold, and it was consumed by heat and nipped with frost, and impetuous whirlwinds sprang up on all its horizons, and its four corners were deafened trable,
dreadful forests,
with the noise of these hurricanes.
Man
being placed
the centre of this universal
in
work and his chastisement, he himself being disordered more deeply and radically than the rest of creation, he was exposed, without disorder, at once
other help
than
his
that
impetuous current of
of the all
divine
the physical
mercy, to the ills,
and of
all
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
139
His life was all temptation and wisdom ignorance, his will all weakness, all corruption. Every one of his actions was
the moral tortures. battle,
his
his flesh
accompanied with a regret
had
bitter dregs, or
by
were counted
desires,
his
hopes, and his disenchantments
by
griefs
his
every one of his pleasures
;
was followed by acute pain his
His memory served as a torment
torture, his
by
illusions
his
illusions.
prevision as
a
throw fringes
his imagination only served to
;
his
;
of purple and gold over his nakedness and misery.
Enamoured of the good sued the path of
evil
to which he
was born, he pur-
on which he had entered fell
Condemned
superstitions.
to suffer
be capable of counting his misfortunes
will
feeling
into the unfathomable
the necessity of a God, he
abysses of
all
;
—who
}
Con-
—
who knows the number Condemned to perpetual sweat on his who will mark the number of drops of sweat that
demned
to labour with fatigue
of his toils
.•
—
brow have
from his brow
fallen
Place
man
nowhere
will
came
'i
as high as possible, or as low as
you
wish,
he be exempt from that penalty which
calumny does not reach him who 'is high, envy reaches him if envy does not reach him who is low, calumny does. Where is the to us from our
first
sin.
If
;
flesh that
has not endured pain, or the
not suffered grief not to
fall
Who was
.'
Who
}
spirit that
ever so high that he feared
ever believed so firmly in the con-
stancy of fortune, that he did not fear
We
men,
alike,
in
our birth, in our
because
we
has
life,
and
in
its
reverses
our death, are
are all culpable, and are
all
?
al]
punished.
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
140 If birth, if is it
life,
we
that
thing else
is
and
if
we
and die as everydo we die full and dies ? Why born, lives^ Why do we live full of grief? And why do
of terrors
?
we come
to the world,
live
when we are
born, with our
crossed on our breast, in a penitent posture
on opening our eyes to the weep, and our
first
salute
is
Historical facts confirm
expounded, and
The
how
death, be not a penalty,
are born, that
all
light,
a sob the
,
arms
And why,
do we open them to
?
dogmas we have
mysterious
their
?
just
consequences.
Saviour of the world, to the edification and the
profound dread of the few just
men who
followed Him,
by by blotting out sins now suppressing the cause by means of the suppression of the effects, and now the effects by means of the suppression of the cause. When a paralytic was placed in His presence, on an occasion when He was surrounded by a multitude of doctors and Pharisees, He raised His voice and said to him, " Have confidence, my son, I remit your sins." Those that were present were scanand
to the scandal of the doctors, blotted out sins
curing diseases, and cured diseases
;
dalised in their heart, thinking, on one side, that the
claim to the power of absolving was pride and madness in
the Nazarene
;
and on the
other, that
it
was extrava-
gant to attempt to cure diseases by absolving from
And
as the
the
minds of those people.
"And
Lord saw these culpable thoughts
that they
power on earth
may know
He
sin.
rising in
immediately added,
that the. Son of
man
hath
to forgive sins, I say to thee. Arise, take
up thy bed, and go unto thy house
;
"
and
it
happened
LIBERALISM,
He
AND
SOCIALISM.
J41
by which He demonstrated that the power and that of absolving, are one and the same power, and that sin and sickness are one and the same as
said
;
of curing,
thing.
Before going farther, in confirmation of
remembering;
it
may be
what we have
first,
well to remark here,
two things worth
said,
that the Lord, before placing the
heavy weight of the crimes of the world on His shoulders,
was exempt from
bodily infirmity, or even indisposi-
He was exempt
because
tion,
all
when He placed the
from
sin;
second, that
He He had accepted the He accepted the princi-
sins of all nations
on His head,
voluntarily accepted the effects as
and the consequences as
causes,
He
ples.
accepted pain, regarding
companion of
He
and
He
sin,
and
He
it
as the inseparable
sweated blood
the Garden,
in
pain from the blow in the Pretorium, and
felt
fainted with the weight of the cross, and
He
suffered
on Calvary, and a tremendous agony on the shameful wood, and He saw death coming with terror, thirst
and
He
His
spirit to
As
groaned deep and mournfully on commending
His blessed Father.
regards the wonderful consonance of which
we
spoke, between the disorders of the moral and those of the physical world, the
human
race proclaims
one voice, without comprehending
and
invincible
great mystery
power obliged :
the voice of
it
it,
as
if
with
to bear testimony to the
all traditions,
the sentiments
of all peoples, the vague rumours scattered
winds, the echoes of the whole world, riously of a great physical
it,
a supernatural
all tell
by the
us myste-
and moral disorder which
— ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
143
happened
in times anterior to the
consequence of a primitive
fault,
Aurora of history, in whose enormity was
cannot be comprehended by the intellect, nor expressed in words. Even yet, if by chance the such that
it
elements become
phenomena
and there are strange spheres, and great chastise-
disordered,
in the celestial
ments of discord, of pestilence, of famine if
visitations,^
the seasons change the placid course of their har-
monious
rotation,
one another,
—
quakes, and
if
if
and are confounded, and battle with the earth
is
convulsed with earth-
the winds, freed from the reins that
curbed their impetuosity, become hurricanes, then
immediately from the
womb
rises
of peoples, guardians of
the tremendous tradition, a persistent and tremulous
which seeks the cause of the unusual disturbance
voice,
in a crinle sufficient to
enrage the Divinity, and bring
on the earth the maledictions of Heaven.
That these vague rumours are sometimes unfounded, and generally the offspring of the ignorance of the laws which preside over the cause of natural phenomena, is very evident but it is no less evident in our eyes that ;
the error in the
is
in
the application and not in the idea,
consequence and not
in
the principle, in the
practice and not in the theory. The tradition exists, and bears perpetual testimony to the truth in spite of all
The multitudes may err, and do when they affirm that such a sin is the
its false applications.
err frequently,
cause of such a disorder err, sin.
when they
And
;
but they neither err nor can
assert that disorder is the offspring of
exactly because the tradition, considered in
AND
LIBERALISM, its
generality,
is
SOCIALISM.
the manifestation and the visible form
of an absolute truth, for that very reason
and almost impossible, to
rid
tion has of truth gives consistence to
and the concrete
is difficult,
What
what
the tradi-
is false
error lives
under the protection of the absolute
Nor is history wanting come in support of this
it
people of the concrete
errors they fall into in its applications.
application,
143
in the
and grows
truth.
remarkable examples, which
in
universal tradition, transmitted
from father to son, from family to family, from race to from people to people, and from region to region,
race,
human
through the whole of the earth level,
and
for
;
has
catastrophes
race,
even to the extremities
whenever crime has filled
have
a certain
tremendous and rude shocks
measure, then
its
nations,
visited
First of
disturbed the world.
risen to
all,
there occurred that
perversion of which the Holy Scriptures when all men, joined in the same apostacy, the same forgetfulness of God, lived without other
universal tell
us,
and
in
good, and without other law, than their criminal desires
and
frantic
their
passions;
of divine wrath was
full,
and then, when the cup
that great conflict and that
portentous inundation of waters swept over the earth,
and
burying
everything in universal destruction
common
ruin,
and
valleys.
When
the ages afterwards reached the middle
of their course,
it
levelling the
happened,
in
mountains with the
in fulfilment of the ancient
prophecies and of the ancient promises, that the Desired of nations
came
to the world.
was remarkable above
all for
The time
of His
coming
the perversity and
mahce
ESSA rS ON CA THOLICISI.^,
144
of men, and for the universal corruption of morals.
was added, that one day, of sad and
this
tearful memory, had passed since a people, blind and maddened, as if it were
the most tearful and sad of
the creation,
drunk with wine, raised
its
made Him
the object of
sorts of affronts' all
God
in its hands,
and
mockery, accumulated
on Him, and loaded His meek
kinds of ignominies, raised
and murdered
thieves.
its its
Him on on the cross between two Then again the cup of divine wrath flowed
shoulders with high,
that
all
countenance, disturbed with
the frenzy of passion, took
all
To
Him
the sun withdrew his rays, the veil of the temple
over
:
was
rent in two, the rocks
were
split,
and the whole
earth suffered shocks and earthquakes.
Many other examples might be adduced in confirmation of the mysterious harmony which is observed between the moral and physical disturbances, and in support of the universal tradition which in
and proclaims
to
parts testifies
all
but on account of the grandeur of those we have mentioned, we may regard the subject it
;
as terminated.
CHAPTER The. angelic
and
the
VI.
— Greatness
human prevarications
and enormity of sin.
UF
to this I have given the Catholic theory about evil,
the offspring of
sin,
and about
sin,
which comes to us
LIBERALISM^ from human
liberty,
AND
SOCIALISM.
which moves
a wide
in
145 field in its
limited sphere, under the eye and with the consent of
that
Lord, who, making
sovereign
everything with
weight, number, and measure, settled matters so well, that neither His providence
may
oppress the free will
of man, nor the ravages of the latter, great and awful as they are, prejudice His glory. further,
however,
strikes
it
me
Before proceeding
as in keeping with the
majesty of the subject, to give a connected account of that awful tragedy which
commenced
ended
in
tions
which were disposed of
Eden, leaving aside the
in
heaven and
and objec-
reflections
another place, and
in
would only serve to obscure the beauty, at once simple and imposing, of this lamentable history. We have already seen
how the
by the profound
we
shall
see
how
are superior to
and dramatic
Catholic theory
is
above
all others,
adaptibility of all its solutions
all
the facts
on which
it
is
;
now
founded
primitive stories, in their grandeur
effect.
Up
to this
we
discovered their
beauty by comparisons and deductions admire their beauty
;
now we
shall
in themselves, without permitting
our eyes to wander to other objects. Before the creation of man, and in times removed be-
yond human investigations, God had created the angels, happy and perfect creatures, whom He permitted to gaze attentively on the brightest splendours of His
bathed
in
absorbed pure
face,
a sea of unutterable delights, and perpetually in
spirits,
contemplation of Him.
The angels were
and the excellence of
their nature
was
greater than that of the nature of man, composed of an
K
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
146
immortal' soul and of the slime of the earth.
By
its
simple nature the angel was connected with God, whilst
by
wisdom, as
by
intelligence,
its
liberty,
its
had been fornied
it
man by
to
his spiritual portion
and by
its
limited
be connected with man had intercourse with the
and by his corporeal matter with the physical world, which was at the service of his will, and under the angel,
And
obedience of his word.
all
creatures
came
into
being with the inclination and the capacity of being transformed, and of ascending which, beginning
sublime Being
by the immense
in the lowliest beings,
who
above
is
all
beings,
ended
and
ladder, in that
whom
the
men and angels, know by a name names. The physical world panted
heavens and the earth,
which
above all and become spiritualised, in a certain way, like man and man, to become more spiritualised like the angel and the angel, to assimilate itself more to that is
to rise ;
;
perfect Being, the source of all creatures,
whose height no
life,
rising,
all
and whose
come from who was their beand as all had come from Him,
immensity no bounds can contain. God, and,
the Creator of
rule can measure,
All had
should return to God,
ginning and their origin
;
and should return to Him, there was nothing which did not contain a spark, more or less resplendent, of His beauty.
In this to that in
way
the infinite variety was reduced of itself
ample unity which created
them a
striking
separating those
all things,
and placed
concert and a wonderful
that were confused,
those that were scattered.
bond,
and collecting
From which we
see that the
LIBERALISM, AND SOCIALISM. of creation was
act
different
complex, and composed of two
God gave
namely, of that by which
acts,
147
existence to what previously had none
;
and of that
other, by means of which He regulated all that He had given existence to. By the first of these acts He revealed His power of creating all substances which
sustain all forms
creating
And
as there
of
all
that
For
substances
beauties.
order there
no
;
and
order,
placed in things,
which is
the
is
He
what
which
this reason, the universe,
everything created by God,
God
substances.
there any beauty beyond
is
placed in things. signifies
all
of
no substance beyond those created by
is
God, neither
He had
with the second, the power
;
the forms which embellish
all
the aggregate
signifies the
form
aggregate of
all
Beyond God there is no creator, beyond is no beauty, beyond the universe there is
creature.
If all
beauty consists
in the beginning,
and
if
in the order established
by God
beauty, justice, and goodness are
the same thing regarded in different lights,
it
follows
beyond the order established by God, there is no and as these three things constitute the Supreme Good, the established order which contains them all is the Supreme Good. that
goodness, nor beauty, nor justice
There being no order, there is
not an
sist in
is
sort of
;
good beyond the established
nothing beyond the established order that
evil,
nor
is
there
any
evil that
does not con-
escaping beyond the established order.
reason, as the established order
disorder
is
the
evil
par
is
excellence ;
For
this
the supreme good,
beyond disorder
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
148
there is
is
no
evil,
beyond the established order there
as
no good.
We infer from
what we have said, that order, or, what good, consists in all things presupreme the same, the serving that bond which God placed in them when He is
drew them from nothingness which
is
the same, the evil
breaking
that
;
and that
par
admirable bond,
disorder,
excellence, consists
or,
in
and disturbing that
sublime concert.
As
bond could not be broken, nor this concert by one who had a will and power, to a certain degree, and in the manner that this is possible, independent of the will of God, no creature was capable of so much but the angels and men, the only ones, amongst all, made to the image and likeness of their this
disturbed, except
Maker
—that
is,
intelligent
that only the angels and
what
is
The
men
free.
Hence
it
follows
could cause disorder,
or,
the same, the evil par excellence.
angels and
men
the universe, except
from which it is
and
it
by
could not disturb the order of rebelling against their
follows that, to explain evil
and
Maker;
disorder,
necessary to suppose the existence of rebel angels
and men. All disobedience and
what
is
and
called sin,
disobedience,
it
follows
all
rebellion against
all sin
God being
being a rebellion and a
that disorder cannot be con-
ceived in creation, nor evil in the world, without suppos-
ing the existence of If sin is
sin.
nothing but disobedience and rebellion, nor
disobedience nor rebellion anything, nor disorder any-
AND
LIBERALISM, thing, but evil,
follows that
it
and
disobedience,
sin,
are
evil,
;
in
which
When
all
sin the
evWpar
in
Whence we
similarity.
conclude that submission to the divine
supreme good, and
reason
as the good, the esta-
and obedience, are things
order, submission,
which reason discovers a perfect
may
149
disorder, rebellion,
things
discovers an absolute identity
bHshed
SOCIALISM.
will is the
excellence.
the angehc creatures were obedient to the
voice of their Maker, gazing on His countenance, bathing
His splendours, and moving without a stumble, and
in
with concerted harmony, at the direction of His word,
happened that the most from his God to
his eyes
it
beautiful of the angels lifted fix
them on
himself, burying
himself in his self-adoration, and ravished in presence of his beauty.
own
Considering himself self-subsistent, and his
ultimate end, he broke that universal and inviolable
law by which what
is divine, has its end and beginning what is one, which, comprehending all, and being comprehended by nothing, is the universal container of all things, and also the powerful Creator of all
in
creatures.
That first
the
rebellion of the angel
evil,
evils,
creation,
and the and of
first sin,
all
was the
first
disorder, the
the root of all the
sins,
of
all
the disorders which were to befall
and particularly the human
race, in
succeeding
times.
For,
without
when the light,
sparkHng and
fallen angel,
now without beauty and
saw the man and the woman
in paradise,
beautiful with the splendours of grace,
feeling in himself
deep sadness at another's good, he
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
ISO
now
demnation,
them
design of dragging
formed the
that
it
into
his
con-
was not in his power to become
and taking the form of a serpent, which in future should be the symbol of craft and deceit, the horror of human nature, and the object equal with them in their glory
;
of the divine wrath, he entered
by the gates of the
restrial
paradise,
and stealing through the
fragrant herbs, surrounded the
woman
snares into which her innocence
fell
fresh
ter-
and
with those crafty
with the loss of her
happiness.
Nothing
can surpass the sublime
which the Mosaic history of
simplicity with
sublime tragedy
this
is
whose theatre was the terrestrial paradise, whose witness was God, whose actors were, on the one part, the king and lord of the abysses, on the other, the rulers given,
—
and lords of the earth whose victim was to be the human race, and whose sad and lamentable catastrophe was to be bewailed with perpetual lamentations by the earth in its
movements, the heavens
their, thrones,
in their courses, the angels on and the unfortunate descendants of those
unfortunate parents, in these valleys of ours without light.
Why did God
prohibit
the trees of paradise
menced felt
his
?
you from eating the
— In
discourse,
serpent com-
and the woman
immediately
that vain curiosity, the
awaken
in
her heart.
standing and her
will,
fruit of all
way the
this
first
From
this
overcome by
cause of her crime,
moment, her underknow not what soft
I
weakness, began to separate from the will of God, and
from the divine understanding.
The day you
eat of that fruit your eyes will be opened,
— LIBERALISM, and you
be
shall
like gods,
Under the mischievous
woman
AND
151
knowing good and
evil.
of these words, the
influence
her heart the
felt in
SOCIALISM.
giddiness of pride.
first
Fixing her eyes on herself with complacence, the face of
God was
veiled from her on that
Proud and
moment.
vain, she turned her eyes to the tree of
and of divine threats, and she found it sight, and judged it would be sweet and felt her senses' burn with the hitherto of corrosive delights and the curiosity of
infernal illusions
was beautiful to the to the palate,
unknown
fire
;
the eyes, and the delight of the flesh, and the pride of the spirit, first
joined together, destroyed the innocence of the
woman, and soon the innocence of
and the hopes treasured smoke before the wind.
And
the
first
for their offspring vanished like
immediately the whole universe, great as
was disturbed
;
man,
and the
disorder,
commenced
it
is,
in the
highest link of the chain of created beings, was com-
municated from one to the other, until nothing was in the place in
which
it
That tendency inherent
was put by in
all
its
left
divine Maker.
creatures to rise and
ascend to the throne of God, was changed to a tendency
know
to sink to I
not what nameless abyss
remove the eyes from God, adieu to
No
is
to seek death
;
for to
and bid
life.
matter
man may dig in the unfathomwisdom, no matter how high he may rise
how deep
able abyss of
in the investigation
will never
rise
a
of the most hidden mysteries, he
high enough, he will never dig deep
enough, to be able to comprehend the great ravages of
;
1
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
52
that
crime, in which all subsequent ones are con-
first
tained as in a fruitful seed.
No man
cannot, the sinner cannot, even conceive the
;
greatness and the foulness of great
it is,
and how
terrible
sin.
To
understand
and pregnant with
how
disasters,
were necessary to cease contemplating it from the human, and to consider it from the divine, point of view it
;
the Divinity being the good, and sin the evil
for,
par
the Divinity being order, and sin disorder
excellence ;
the Divinity being complete affirmation, and sin absolute
negation
and
sin
;
the Divinity being' the plenitude of existence,
its.
absolute destruction, between the Divinity
and negation, between order and disorder, between good and evil, and between being and nonentity, there is an immeasurable distance, and
a,n
sin,
as between affirmation
invincible contradiction,
No. catastrophe
is
an
infinite
repugnance.
capable of creating disturbance in
the Divinity, and altering the ineff'able rest of God's
countenance. The universal deluge swept over nations, and God beheld the tren^endous inundation, considered in itself, and separated from its cause, with serene eye, it was His angels who, in obedience to His command, had opened the cataracts of heaven, and because it was His voice that commanded the waters to cover
because
the mountains and surround the globe.
The storms
gather fpom every point of the horizon, and congregate like a sable
promontory, and the countenance of God it is His will that makes the storms,
tranquil, because is
His voice that
mands them
calls
is it
them, and they come, that com-
to congregate,
and they do congregate.
It
'
AND
LIBERALISM, is
He who
sinful city,
SOCIALISM.
153
sends the winds to carry them over some
and
it is
He
who,
if it
so suit His designs,
and binds up the waters, and detains the
light-
ning in the clouds, and with His delicate breath
dissi-
Gollects
pates these clouds through the universe.
His eyes have seen the
rise
and
fall
of
all
empires
His
;
ears have heard the supplications of nations, devastated
by the sword of conquest, by the scourge of pestilence, by slavery, and by famine, and His countenance has remained serene and impassible, because
makes and unmakes, the world
;
it
is
it
like vain play-toys, the
He who
He who
is
empires of
places the sword in the right
hand of the conqueror, and it is He who oppresses the nations, decimated by famine and pestilence, when it so pleases His sovereign justice. There is a fearful place, the object of all horror and of all dread, where there is insatiable thirst without
without
alleviation,
perpetual hunger
where the eyes never
satisfaction,
never hear any soothing sound, where
see,
all is
the ears
agitation
without repose, weeping without intermission, grief without consolation.
There
is
no door of escape there
On
are doors of entrance.
memory becomes immortal. God alone knows the
place is
;
its
;
all
threshold hope dies, and
The boundaries
of that
duration of those torments
of an hour which never ends.
Well, now, that cursed
place, with its nameless torments, altered not the coun-
tenance of God, for is
it
was
He
himself placed
it
where
it
God made hell for the earth for men and heaven for
with His omnipotent hand.
reprobate, as
He made
the angels and saints.
the
Hell proclaims His justice, as the
;
1
ESSA yS ON CA THOLICISM,
54
undations, plagues, conquests, famines, hell
good, as
all
Wars,
and heaven His mercy.
earth His goodness
itself,
in-
are a
these things are suitably arranged with rela-
tion to the ultimate
end of
creation,
and
all
serve as
principal instruments of the divine justice.
And
because
all
are good,
been made by the Author of
all
and because they have good, none of them can,
or does, alter the ineffable quiet and the unutterable
repose of the
Maker
horror but what all
He
of
Him
Nothing causes
all things.
has not
made
;
and as
He
has
made
Him horror but the negaHe has made. Hence disorder, which is the the order He placed in things, causes Him
that exists, nothing causes
what
tion of
negation of horror
;
and disobedience, which
is
the negation of the
obedience due to Him.
That disobedience and that
disorder are the supreme
evil,
as they are the negation
of the supreme good, in which consists the supreme
evil.
But disobedience and disorder are nothing but
sin
follows that sin, the absolute negation on the
whence
it
part of
man
God,
the evil/«r excellence, and the only thing that can
is
of the absolute affirmation on the part of
cause horror to
God and His
angels.
Sin covered heaven with mourning, hell with flames,
and the earth with weeds. It was it brought sickness and pestilence, famine and death on the world. It was it dug the grave of the most famous and populous cities. It
was
it
presided at the destruction of Babylon of the
magnificent gardens, of Nineveh the exalted, of Persopolis,
daughter of the Sun, of Memphis of the deep mysteries, of
Sodom
the impure, of Athens the
cor-iic,
of Jerusalem
LIBERALISM, the ungrateful, of willed
all
AND
SOCIALISM.
155
Rome the great; because though God He willed them only as a chas-
these things,
tisement and reparation of
sin.
Sin squeezes out
all
come from human breasts, and all the drop by drop, from all the eyes of men
the groans that tears that
and what
fall, is
;
even more, and what no understanding can
sacred eyes of the
express, it drew tears from the Son of God, the meek Lamb who
mounted the
charged with the sins of the world.
conceive nor words
cross,
Neither the heavens nor the earth, nor men, saw
Him weep
fixed on sin.
and
in the
He wept He wept at
and
;
because
He
the sepulchre of Lazarus,
He
only bewailed the
He
felt
sadness and was
soul.
disturbed on entering the Garden, and
Him
of sin that infused into
and that web of sadness.
was
He was
flow from His brow.
was
sin nailed
and
it
sin
Him
;
it
it
was the horror
that unusual disturbance,
His brow sweated blood, and
the spectre of sin that
was
had His eyes
death of His friend
death of the sinful
it
Him
the heavens saw
laugh, and men, and the earth and
was
made
that strange sweat
nailed to the cross,
sin
caused His death.
drove
Him
and
it
into agony,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
IS6
CHAPTER How God draws good from
VII.
and the human
the angelic
prevarication.
Of
all
the mysteries, the most terrible
man
which constitutes associates
As
all
Divinity, in the ruling
in
supreme faculty of selecting between obedience
and rebellion towards to confer
his
God, to give him
this liberty
on him the right of staining the iriimaculate
beauty of the creations of God the
and
things human.
the imperfect liberty given to the creature, consists
in the
is
that of liberty,
the master of himself, as well as
him with the
the government of
is
harmony
and as the order and
of the universe consist in that immaculate
beauty, to give
on him the
;
him the
right
faculty of staining
it,
is
to confer
of substituting disorder for order,
perturbation for harmony, evil for good.
This
right,
even confined within the limits which we
inentioned,
is
awful, that
God
had not been for the
so
extraordinary,
and
this
faculty so
himself could not have given
certain of converting
it
into
it,
if
He
an instrument
accomplishment of His ends, and of curtailing
its
ravages, with His infinite power.
The supreme
reason of existence of the faculty, con-
ceded to the creature, of converting order into disorder,
harmony
into perturbation, good into evil, is in the power which God has of converting disorder into order, perturbation into harmony, and evil into good. Sup-
LIBERALISM, press this
supreme power
AND in
SOCIALISM.
God, and
it
will
157
be logically
necessary either to suppress that faculty in the creature,
deny
or to
at
once the divine intelligence and the divine
omnipotence.
God
If
par
permits
sin,
which
is
excellence, this consists in
the evil and the disorder
the fact that
impeding His mercy and His occasion for
His mercy.
new
sin, far
serves
justice,
from an
as
manifestations of His justice and of
Suppress the rebellious sinner, and you
not thereby suppress the divine mercy, and the
will
sovereign justice
;
one of their special manifestations,
however, would be suppressed, the one in virtue of which
they are applied to rebellious sinners.
As
the supreme good of intelligent and free beings
consists in their union with
God, God,
in
His
infinite
goodness, determined to so unite them, not only with the bonds of nature, but also with supernatural bonds
and
as,
on one
part, that will
might be
:
by and
left unfulfilled
the voluntary disunion of intelligent and free beings,
on the other, the liberty of the creature could not be conceived without the faculty of that voluntary disunion, the great problem consisted in reconciling these two, in a certain measure, opposite extremes, in such a way, that neither the liberty of the creature should cease to exist,
nor the
will
of
God be
unfulfilled.
As
possibility of disunion, as a testimony of the angelic
human
liberty,
the
and
and union, as a testimony of the divine
will,
were necessary, the question consists
how
the will of
God and
in discovering
the liberty of the creature, the
union which the former desires, and the disunion which
ESSA rS ON CA THOLICISM,
1s8
the latter selects, can be reconciled, that the creature
may
not cease to be
For
this, it
God
cease to be Sovereign.
was required that the disunion should be
one point of view, and apparent
real in is,
nor
free,
in
another
that
;
that the creature could separate from God, but in
such a way, that in separating from Him,
Him
united to
in another manner.
beings came into existence united
By
His grace.
sin
to.
it
should be
Intelligent
and
God by an
effect of
free
they were really disunited from God,
because they broke the bond of grace, really and truly,
by which they bore testimony
to themselves, in quality
of intelligent and free creatures. nothing,
if
well examined, but a
Yet that disunion was
new manner
of union,
Him, by the voluntary renunciation approached Him, by falling into the grace, they of His handsof His justice, or becoming the object of His mercy. In this way the union and disunion, which, at first as on separating from
sight,
appear incompatible, are in reality perfectly recon-
cilable
;
and
in
such a way, that the disunion becomes
a special manner of union, and
manner of
The
much
He
because
it
is
creature which is
separated from ;
and
He is mercy, only Him inasmuch as He
it is
a special to
also separated
is
from
fall
Him
into
hands
inas-
them except
inasmuch as
He
is
God inasmuch was separated, from
the object of
because
as
into His
falls
does not
justice,
grace and mercy
was
is
was not united
as
separated from justice.
union
all
creature
He is grace, but because it was Him inasmuch as He is mercy and
God inasmuch
as
The
disunion.
it
grace, in such a way, that
Him
inasmuch as
He
is
it
justice.
AND
LIBERALISM, The
SOCIALISM.
159
liberty of the creature, then, consists in the faculty
of designating the sort of union which
disunion which
God
it
chooses
it
prefers,
by
the
just as the sovereignty of
;
making the disunion selected by the creature, no matter what it may be, conclude- in union. Creation is Hke a circle. God is, in one point of view, consists in
another,
centre
its
circumference,
He
attracts creation, as circumference,
There
is
in
its
The
thing obeys that irresistible attraction.
centre
;
and
free beings lies in flying
which
is
however,
is
placed in things from
which God traced with His
all
eternity
God
.'
What
is
all
collection
the
things infinitely
that circular circumference,
but those things infinitely dilated in is
Divine Intellect
What means
.'
centre of that inexorable circle, but
dilation
angel so
creature will dare to upset those' mathe-
matically inflexible laws, which the
collected in
one,
so presumptuous, as to endeavour
to break that great circle
What
No
What
'
.'
the
beyond the circumference,
nor to penetrate beyond the centre.
man
is
God, to
is
the circumference.
able to escape
powerful, what
liberty of
from the circum-
and in flying from the centre, whicR is
it.
every-
:
God, to meet with God, who
meet with God, who
finger
contains
nothing beyond that universal container
intelligent
ference,
as centre.
;
He
God
And what What
?
there greater than infinite dilation
greater than infinite
collection
?
.''
For
this
reason St Augustin, the most beautiful of geniuses and the greatest of doctors, the the Church love,
became
man
in
whom
the spirit of
incarnate, the saint ravished with
and inundated with the sublime aids of grace,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
i6o
astonished and almost beside himself on beholding things in
God and God
all
and man desiring
in all things,
and not knowing whither, now from the centre which attracts him, now from the circumference which involves him, wrung this expression, like a sublime sob, to
fly,
from
his hsax^-^-Poor mortal,
God?
do you wish
from
Never did human
Cast yourself into His arms.
so sublimely tender.
term of
things
all
God, then, who marks the
It is
potently Sovereign
;
as
all
by
paths end,
And
intelligently free.
which consists
paths, which
end
God
selecting the path
he has to go to the term marked liberty
By
the creature selects the path.
;
marking the term where
we
fly
pronounce an expression so amorously sublime, and
lips
is
to
let it
in selecting
for
is
omni-
by which
him, the creature
not be said, that the
one of the thousand
in the necessary term, is small, unless
consider that
liberty
which consists
in
selecting
between salvation and damnation as insignificant
for
;
those thousand paths which end in God, the necessary
term of
all
things, are all reduced to
two
— hell
the faculty which has been given him, of going to
by the
by
the one or
his
hunger to be
Beyond ciliation
free
other,
what
it
.-1
this explanation there is
no possible recon-
between things which cannot be even imagined,
we
;
whilst
discover the secret causes of the most pro-
found mysteries, and of the
we
God
liberty could satisfy
except as reconciled in an absolute manner with
and
If the creature has not sufficient liberty, with
heaven.
reach the cause of
l/^e
loftiest designs.
human and
With
it
of the angelic
AND
LIBERALISM, varication of the angel, occult
way
it
SOCIALISM.
i6i
was because God knew the
of reconciling the angelic disorder with the
knew how to draw the The angel con-
divine order, just as the angel
angelic disorder from the divine order.
verted order into disorder,
God drew
disunion.
by transforming union
momentary disunion
ing the
The angel
grace,
He
and
terrible
into
Him
to
union.
indissoluble
did not choose to be united to
and he found himself united ishment.
into
order from disorder, by transform-
God by reward,
eternally
by pun-
closed his ears to the soft call of God's
his closed ears heard, in spite of them, the
thunder of His
Wishing to
justice.
fly abso-
lutely from God, the angel only succeeded in separating
Him
from
He
one way, to be united to
in
God
separated from
with
God
the just.
and he was united
Him
in another.
the clement, and he was united
He separated from Him in heaven, to Him in hell. The order placed in God
things does not consist in their being united to
a given way, but in their being united
to
God;
disorder does not consist in separating from side to be united to
Him
from God absolutely.
on the
Whence
in
as true
God on one
other, but in separating
it
follows that true order
never ceases to exist, and that true disorder exists not at
all.
Sin
is
a negation, so radical, so absolute, that
not only denies order, but disorder; after denying affirnlations, itself.
Sin
it
is
denies
own
negations,
all
and even denies
negation of negation, shade of shade,
phantom of phaijtom. tion of
its
it
God permitted the prevaricawe said, was less radical and
If
man, which, as
culpable than the angelic prevarication, this was because
L
— ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
i63
God knew from all eternity the profound manner of reconciling the human disorder with the divine order. Man converted order into disorder by separating what God joined with a loving link. God drew order from by rejoining what man separated, with a softer and more loving link. Man did not wish to be united to God with the bond of original justice and of sanctifydisorder
ing grace, and he found himself united to
bond
mercy.
of infinite
tion, this
who was
that supreme evil
God permitted
He had
was because
the world,
If
to
come
Him
with the
his prevarica-
in reserve the Saviour of
in the plenitude of time
was necessary
for the
;
supreme good,
was necessary that great Man sinned, because God had determined catastrophe. to become man; and when He became man without ceasing to be God, He had enough blood in His veins, and
for this great
and more than out
him
he
him
;
sufficient virtue in
His blood, to wash
God had strength to God had strength to raise because He who had power to dry the
vacillated,
he
he wept,
;
fell,
because
because
when soaked with the waters
earth also
Man
sin.
sustain
blessing,
of the Deluge,
had
enough to dry the valley watered with our tears pains in his members, because God could remove
;
felt
his pains
;
he suffered great misfortunes, because God
had greater rewards reserved for him. He strayed from Eden, he became subject to death, and he was laid in the grave, because God had strength to conquer death, to remove him from the grave, and to raise him to heaven.
As
the angelic and the
human
prevarications enter as
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
163
elements into the universal order, by an effect of a wonderful divine operation, so also the liberty of the angel and the liberty of man, in which these two prevarications have their origin, enter as necessary elements
of that supreme universal law, to which creations, the moral, the material,
are subject.
all things, all
and the divine world,
According to that law, the absolute unity,
in its infinite fecundity, perpetually
produces from
its
womb diversity, which perpetually returns to the prolific womb from which it came — the bosom of God, who is
the absolute unity.
God, considered as the Father, eternally produced the
Son by way of generation, the Holy Ghost by way of procession, and in this way they eternally constitute the Divinity. The Son and the Holy Ghost are eternally identified with the Father,
Him
and eternally constitute with
the indestructible unity.
Considered as the Creator, nothingness by an act of His physical diversity to certain eternal
and so
diversity
;
He
He drew
will,
all things from and so constituted the
immediately subjected
laws, itself
all
things
and to an immutable order was nothing in the physical
world but the exterior manifestation of His absolute unity.
Considered as Lord and as Legislator, angel and to
man
He
gave to the
a liberty distinct from His own, and
so constituted diversity in the moral world
;
He
im-
mediately imposed on that liberty certain inviolable laws and a necessary term, and the necessity of that term,
and the
inviolability of those
laws,
made the
—
— i64
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
human and
the angehc
;
liberty enter into the
broad
unity of His marvellous designs.
The
divine
which
will,
precept given to
Adam
is
the absolute unity,
is
in the
when God said to the human liberty, with the
in paradise
him, Thou shalt not eat ;
annexed imperfection of the faculty of choosing, which is
the diversity,
is
in the condition
and
if thou eatest
the diversity returns to the unity from which first,
by the
subject to death ;
the
woman
it
proceeds,
when God said to man thou wilt be and again, by the promise when He told there would be born from her One who
threat
that
should crush the head of the serpent, with which threat, and with which promise, God announced the two ways by which the diversity which comes from unity, returns to the unity from which
the
way
it
comes
;
the
way
of justice
and
of mercy.
If the precept
were suppressed, the exterior manifesta-
tion of the absolute unity If the condition consists in
human
would be suppressed.
were suppressed, the diversity which liberty,
would be suppressed
in its
exterior manifestation.
other,
on one side, and the promise on the were suppressed, the ways by which the diversity,
if it is
not to be subversive, has to return to the unity
If the threat
from which
As
it
comes, would beeflfaced.
no unity between the physical creation and the Creator, except because the former is eternally there
is
subject to fixed and immutable laws, perpetual manir
same way, there no unity between God and man, except because man,
festations of the Sovereign Will is
;
in the
AND
LIBERALISM, separated from justice
if
165
his crime, returns to the
impenitent, or as purified to the
after
If,
God by
SOCIALISM.
God
God
of
of mercy.
having considered the angelic and the
human
prevarications separately, and found that each, though a
perturbation fix
time, is
by
accident,
a harmony by essence,
is
we
our attention on both prevarications at the same
we
will
how their wonderful harmony, by the
be astonished to see
converted into
dissonance irresistible
virtue of the divine Wonder-worker.
On
arriving here,
and before proceeding
farther,
it is
well to observe that every beauty of creation consists in the fact, that everything
of
some of the
is
in itself a reflex, as
divine perfections, so that
all
it
were,
together are
a faithful translation of God's sovereign beauty.
For
own way, from
the
brilliant
globe which illumines space to the humble
lily
which
forgotten in the valley, and from far below the
this reason all creatures, each in its
is
valleys crowned with
lilies,
to as far above the firma-
ment where the orbs of heaven shine, bear witness, each in its own way, to His ineffable perfections, and sing with The an endless song His excellence and His glory. heavens sing of His omnipotence, the seas of His greatness, the earth of
His fecundity, the clouds, with their
lofty promontories, represent the footstool
foot rests. voice.
He
The is
sublime wrath
His
will,
in the abysses with
His
lightning
in the
arches.
And
He gave the
on which His
the thunder His silence,
with His
loud hurricanes, and in the tem-
pestuous whirlwinds. of the plains.
is
He
painted
us,
say the flowers
me, say the heavens,
stars,
We
my
splendid
are the sparks that drop
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
i66
from
his resplendent robe.
On passing
before us,
His
And
the angel
beautiful,
and man
and glorious, and per-
was stamped on us. In this way some things represented His grandeur, others His majesty, others His omnipotence; and the angel, and man especially, the treasures of His goodness, the marvels of His grace, and the splendour of His God, however, is not only marvellous and perbeauty. fect by His beauty, and by His grace, and by His goodness, and by His omnipotence; He is, besides these things and above all these things, if there were measure in His perfections, infinitely just and infinitely merciful. It follows from this that the supreme act of the creation could not be considered consummate and perfect, except after His infinite justice and His infinite mercy were
fect figure
realised in all their manifestations.
special justice nor the special
And
as neither the
mercy of God which are
applied to sinners, could be exercised without the prevarication of the intelligent
and
conclude that the prevarication
free beings, itself
was the occasion
of the greatest and the most beautiful of
When
all
God shone
we may
all
harmonies.
the intelligent and free beings prevaricated, forth in the midst of creation with
renewed and increased splendour. The universe in general was the perfect reflex of His omnipotence the terrestrial ;
paradise was specially the reflex of His grace
was
specially the reflex of
His mercy,
;
heaven
hell the reflex
of His justice only, and the earth, placed between these
two poles of justice
creation,
was
and of His mercy.
at once the reflex of
When
His
with the angelic and
AND
LIBERALISM,
human that
prevarication there
was not manifested
that which
was afterwards
167
was no perfection
exteriorly,
in
by something
God
besides
to be manifested on Calvary,
The deeper one
things were in order.
all
SOCIALISM.
dives into
more the sovereign convenience, perfect connection, and the and the marvellous concert of the Christian mysteries become apparent. The these awful dogmas, the
science of the mysteries, else
but the science of
if
well considered,
is
nothing
all solutions.
CHAPTER
VIII.
Solutions of the Liberal school relative to these problems.
Before
bringing this book to a conclusion,
I
think
it
right to ask the Liberal, as well as the Socialistic school,
what they think about
God
—
on rendering
sarily stumbles,
religious, political,
As
evil
and
and good, about man and
on which human reason neces-
fearful questions,
itself
social problems.*
regards the Liberal school,
that in
its
profound ignorance
not because
though
it
it is
is, it
account of the great
it
I will
not theological in
does not
know
merely say of
despises theology,
it.
its
it,
and
way, but because,
This school has not
yet comprehended, and probably will never comprehend, the close link that unites divine and great relationship which religious, questions,
The author refers to
political,
human
have with
things, the social
and the dependence which
all
Continental Liberalism, which, in politics, logically
leads to Socialism, as Protestantism in religion does to Infidelity. last four
and proThe
of the condemned propositions of the Syllabus belong to the doc-
trines of this school.
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
1 68
blems relative to government, have on those others
which
refer to
God, the Supreme Legislator of
all
human
associations.
The
Liberal school
theologian
among
is
the only one which has no
doctors and masters; the Abso-
its
them to the dignity and the peoples increased during their government in importance and power. France will never forget the government of Cardinal Richelieu, famous and glorious among the most glorious and famous of the French monarchy. The lustre of the great lutist
school had them, often raised
of governors of peoples,
cardinal
is
so unstained, that
to the blush
;
and
not suffer eclipse glorious
it
puts that of
many
his splendour so sovereign, that
by
kings it
did
the advent to the throne of that
and powerful king,
whom
France
in
her enthu-
and Europe in her astonishment, called the Great Ximinez de Cisneros and Alberoni, the two greatest
siasm,
ministers of the Spanish monarchy, were cardinals
and and perpetually associated with that of the most renowned queen and illustrious woman of Spain, famous among nations for its illustrious women and its renowned queens. The latter is great in Europe by the grandeur of his designs, and by the acuteness and sagacity of his protheologians.
The name
digious intellect.
The
of the former
is
gloriously
former, appearing in those
days when the great acts of
this nation raised her
happy above
the dignity of history, elevating her to epic altitude and
grandeur, governed the great ship of state with a firm
hand, and silencing the turbulent crew which went in her, carried her
through rough seas to others more quiet
;
LIBERALISM, and
SOCIALISM.
where the ship and the
tranquil,
The
and calm.
AND
other,
when the majesty
coming
pilot
169
found peace
in those miserable times
monarchy was
of the Spanish
dis-
appearing, was on the point of restoring her ancient
grandeurs and power, by making her weigh heavily in the political balance of European peoples.
The
science
of
God
him who possesses it, same
gives
sagacity and force, because
sharpens, and at the
it
time expands, the
intellect.
wonderful in the
lives of
What
me most
the saints, and particularly
of the fathers of the desert,
a circumstance which has
is
not been yet duly appreciated.
tomed
appears to
to converse with God,
know no man
I
accus-
and to exercise himself
divine speculations, who, in equality of circumstances,
not superior to
all others, either
in is
by the enlightenment and
vigour of his reason, or by the soundness of his judg-
ment, or by the penetration and acuteness of his intellect
and above
all, I
know none who,
has not the advantage of
prudent
common
condemned
sense.
all
in
equal circumstances,
others in practical and
If the
human
to see things reversely,
it
race were not
would
select for
amongst the generality of men, and the mystics among theologians, and amongst its
counsellors theologians
the mystics, those
who have lived a life most apart from Amongst the persons whom I
business and the world.
know, and
I
know many,
recognised an unshaken sagacity,
the only ones in
common
sense,
whom
and an amazing aptitude to give a
and prudent solution to the most to discover a
means of escape
difficult
in the
I
have
and a prodigious practical
problems, and
most trying circum-
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM.
170
stances, are those retired life
who
lived a contemplative
and
and, on the contrary, I have not yet dis-
;
covered, and
those
who have
I
do not expect ever
men
are called
one of
to discover,
of business, despisers of all
who would be capable of understanding any business. To this numerous class belong those who look on it as their office to deceive others, and who only deceive themselves. It is here that man is astonished at the sublime judgments of God for if God had not condemned those who despise or ignore Him, deceivers by profession, to be spiritual,
and, above
all,
divine speculations,
;
perpetually stupid
of those
who
—or
if
He had
not limited the power
are prodigiously sagacious,
human
societies
could not have resisted either the sagacity of the one
The power
or the malice of the other.
of contemplative
men, and the stupidity of worldlings, are the only things which maintain the world equilibrium.
There
is
in its
being and
only one being in creation which
possesses all the sagacity of spiritual
people, and all the malice of those
God, together with being
is
the devil.
perfect
its
all
spiritual
The
and contemplative
who
ignore or despise
That
speculations.
devil has the sagacity of the
and the malice of the
one, without their virtue,
others,
without their stupidity, and precisely from this comes his destructive force,
and
all his
immense power.
regards the Liberal school, considered in general, theological,
except
necessarily are. its
faith,
in the
nor declaring
about good and
degree in which
Never giving an evil,
all
it is
all
As not
schools
explicit exposition of
its opinion about God and man, and about the order or disorder
LIBERALISM, which are found
trifles, it
SOCIALISM.
in all things created
on the contrary, that tions as
AND
it
may
;
171
and proclaiming,
regards these profound specula-
be said of
it,
that
it
believes in
an
by the philosophers the government of human things, and by certain laws
abstract and absolute god, served in
which he universal
instituted in the
of this school rant,
his
beginning of time
government of the world. is
king of creation, he
in the
Although the god is
perpetually igno-
with an august ignorance, of the manner in which
kingdoms are governed and
the ministers
When he deputed
ruled.
who should govern in
his
name, he deposited
them the plenitude of his sovereignty, and declared them perpetual and inviolable. From that time to this people owe him worship, but not obedience. With regard to evil, the Liberal school denies it in physical, and admits it in human, things. With this school all the questions relative to good or evil are resolved into a question of government, and every in
question of government that sible
is
when the government ;
a question of legitimacy is
legitimate, evil
is
;
and on the contrary, when the government
illegitimate, eyil is
inevitable.
The
so
imposis
question of good
and evil, then, is reduced to investigating on one side which are the legitimate governments, and which the usurpers.
The Liberal school calls the governments established by God legitimate, and illegitimate, those which have not their origin in the divine delegation. God wished that material things should be subject to certain physical laws,
which
He
instituted in the beginning, once for
£SSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
172
and that
ever,
and
in a special
direct
it
;
be governed by reason,
societies should
way
entrusted in a general
way
whence
it
to the well-to-do classes,
to the philosophers
follows
government of human reason, incarnate
way
in the
middle
philosophers
;
classes,
teach and
governments
are but two legitimate
that there
who
by necessary consequence,
and
way
in a special
—the
a general
in
in
the
and the government of divine reason, per-
petually incarnate in certain laws, to which material things are subject from the beginning.
This derivation of the Liberal legitimacy of divine
my readers, and above all, and yet nothing appears more
right will appear strange to
to
my
Liberal readers
evident to me. its
The
;
Liberal school
is
not atheistical in
dogmas, although, not being Catholic,
out knowing and without desiring
it,
leads, with-
it
from consequence
to consequence, to the confines of Atheism.
ing the existence of a God, the Creator of
cannot deny
in
the
God whom
the original plenitude of sovereignty, which
the school.
is
it
recognises and affirms,
all rights,
He who
deist
God
recognises in is
;
Him
he who denies
Him, because he denies His
the constituent
he who
a Catholic;
denies the actual, and recognises in
in
or the constituent
the same thing in the language of
and the actual sovereignty, sovereignty, a
Recognis-
all creatures, it
the constituent, all
existence,
sovereignty is
an
atheist.
This being the case, the liberal school, inasmuch as it is deistical, cannot proclaim the actual sovereignty of reason, without proclaiming at the stituted sovereignty of
same time the con-
God, in which the former, which
LIBERALISM, is
always delegated, has
AND
SOCIALISM.
beginning and
its
173
origin.
The
theory of the constituent sovereignty of the people
does not exist in the Liberal school, except as Atheism
Deism,
exists in
quality of remote but inevitable
in
Hence proceed
consequence.
the two great divisions of
the Liberal school, the democratic and the liberal, properly so called
;
the latter more timid, the former more
The democratic
consistent.
ble logic, has been
party, carried
;
inflexi-
lost in these latter times, as rivers are
lost in the sea, in the schools socialistic
by an
at once atheistical
and
the liberal party struggles to be at rest on
the high promontory
it
has raised for
itself,
situate be-
whose waves are ascending, and will Socialistic and the Catholic. Of this here, and say that, not shall speak we only we party
tween two cover
its
seas,
top
—the
being able to recognise the constituent sovereignty of the people without being democratic, atheistical,
socialistic,
being monarchical and Catholic,
it
and
God
without
recognises,
on one
nor the actual sovereignty of
hand, the original and constituent sovereignty of God,
and on the reason.
other,
And
so
the actual sovereignty of
we were
school does not proclaim
human
in saying the Liberal
right
human, but as
originally
derived from divine, right.
In the eyes of this school there
is
no other
evil
but that
which proceeds from the government's not being where
God
placed
it
in the
beginning
;
and as material things
are perpetually subject to the physical laws which were
contemporaneous with creation, the Liberal school denies evil in
the universality of things
;
and on the contrary,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
174
as
happens that the government of society
it
settled
and
not
is
fixed in the philosophic dynasties, in which
the exclusive right of governing
human
things resides
divine delegation, the Liberal school admits social
by
whenever the government slips from the hands of the philosophers and middle classes, to fall into the evil
hands of kings, or to pass to the popular masses. Of all the schools this is the most sterile, because the least learned
seen,
it
and the most
As we have
egotistical.
knows nothing of the nature of good or evil
;
it
has no notion of
has scarcely any notion of God, and
it
man
because devoid of
Impotent
whatever.
for good,
dogmatic affirmation, and for evil, because all intrepid and absolute negation horrifies it, it is condemned, without
all
knowing it
it,
to
embark
in the ship
whose fortune
to the Catholic port, or to the Socialistic reefs.
school only becomes dominant where society
wane and to
;
the period of
fugitive time
its
domination
is
is
carries
This
on the
that transitory
when the world does not know whether
go with Barrabas or with
Jesus,
and
is
in
a state of
suspense between a dogmatic affirmation and a supreme negation.
Society then willingly allows
itself
to be
governed by a school which never says, T affirm, or, / deny, and which ever says, T distinguish. The
supreme
interest of that school is
.in
preventing the
day of radical negations or of sovereign affirmations; and that it may not arrive, it confounds by means of discussion all notions, and propagates scepticism, knowing as it does, that a people which arrival of the
perpetually hears in the
mouth of
its
sophists the pro
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
175
and the contra of everything, ends by not knowing which side to take, and by asking itself whether truth and error, injustice and justice, stupidity and honesty, are things opposed
among
themselves, or are only the
same things regarded from
different points of view.
This trying period, no matter
always short
;
man was
cussion, being as
human
nature.
it
is,
the
The peoples when they
it
may
last, is
and perpetual
act,
enemy
a day comes
stincts,
how long
born to
dis-
of action, contradicts
pressed by
all
their
in-
flow through the squares
and the streets resolutely calling for Barrabas or Jesus, and levelling with the dust the chairs of the sophists.
The
Socialistic schools, prescinding
from the barbarous
multitudes which follow them, and considered in their doctors and masters, are far superior to the Liberal school,
go straight to all the great problems and questions, and because they always propose a peremptory and decisive solution. Socialism is strong, only
just because they
because
it
because
it is
is
a theology; and
a satanic theology.
it
inasmuch as they are theological, Liberal school, inasmuch as sceptical
;
it
destructive, only
is
The is
Socialistic schools,
will prevail over the
anti-theological
and inasmuch as they are
and
satanic, they will
succumb before the Catholic school, which is at once Their instincts must be in theological and divine. accord with our assertions,
if
we
consider that they
up their hatred for Catholicism, while they have only contempt for Liberalism. Democratic Socialism is right when it says to Liberalism, What God is that you offer to my adoration, and treasure
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
iy6
who must be ing, I
inferior to you, for
He
has no
will,
nor even
deny the Catholic God but while denyWhat I cannot conceive is a god conceive Him.
personality
I
?
;
Everything inclines
without the divine attributes.
me
you have only given Him existence that He may give you the legitimacy which you want your legitimacy and His existence are a fiction which rests oh to believe that
:
a shadow.
I
have come to the world to dissipate
shadows, and to put an end to
The
all fictions.
all
distinc-
tion
between the actual and the constituent sovereignty
has
all
the appearance of an invention of people, who,
not daring to embrace both, desire to retain one at
The
sovereign
exist.
is
like
Sovereignty
is
God
—he
is
least.
one, or he does not
like the Divinity
—
it
either does
and incommunicable. Legitimacy of reason are two words, the latter of which designates the subject, and the former the attribute. I deny not exist, or
it is
indivisible
What is legitimacy, and what is reason } And in case they be something, how do you know that something is in Liberalism and not in Socialism, in you and not in me, in the middle classes and not in the people I deny your legitimacy, and you deny mine you deny my reason, and I deny yours. When you provoke me to discussion, I pardon you, because you know not what you do. Dissolvent, universal discussion, whose secret virtue you know not, the attribute and the subject.
.'
;
destroyed your adversaries already, and to destroy yourself;
as far as I
firmly resolved to carry
ing
it
that
it
may
it
am
is
now going
concerned,
I
am
with a high hand, by murder-
not murder me.
Discussion
is
the
— LIBERALISM, sword the
spiritual
against is
the
it
AND
spirit wields
neither caution nor
title
SOCIALISM.
17;
with eyes blindfold
armour
;
Discussion
avails.
under which Death travels when he seeks to
avoid recognition and goes incognito. dent, recognised him, in spite of his
Rome, the prumask, when he
entered her gates dressed as a sophist; wherefore she
Man, according
wisely objected to his passport.
Was
Catholic,
with the devil.
when
only
lost
to the
he entered into discussion
same demon
Later, they tell us, this
appeared to Jesus in the desert, provoking him to a combat,
spiritual
But
would
it
or,
who
call
a discussion.
it,
then somebody very
he had
appear
different to treat with,
we may
as
said to
him
Begone, Satan,
with which he put an end at once to discussion and diabolical tricks.
must be confessed the Catholics have
It
the special gift of presenting great truths with a bold
and investing them with ingenious trappings.
front,
Antiquity would have unanimously condemned whoever were
human
mad enough
things,
to call into discussion divine
religious
and
magistrates and the gods.
would have joined
totle
social
institutions,
Socrates, Plato,
in deciding against
and the
and Aris-
him
;
in the
great duel he would have the Cynics and the Sophists
on
his side.
As
regards the
does not
exist.
evil, it is
The forms
thing to engender constituted,
it
government
;
it is
will
and
it.
either in the universe or
If society
be able to if it
is
healthy- and well-
forms of
resist all possible
does not
badly constituted and
it
of governments are a small
resist
sickly.
them,
it is
because
Evil cannot be con-
M
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
178
ceived except as an organic vice of society, or as a constitutional vice of
remedy
human
nature
;
and
in this case
the
not in a change of government, but in chang-
is
ing the social organisation or the constitution of man.
The fundamental
error of Liberalism consists in giving
importance to nothing but questions of government, which, compared with social and religious order, have
Liberalism Socialists
is
totally eclipsed
from the moment that
and Catholics propose to the world, their
mendous problems and
When
why
This serves to explain
no importance whatever.
their
tre-
contradictory solutions.
Catholicism asserts that the evil comes from
that sin corrupted
human
nature in the
that nevertheless the good prevails over the
over disorder, because the one divine, there satisfies
is
is
no doubt, even before
sin,
man, and
first
order
evil,
human, the other it it is examined ;
by proportioning
reason in a certain manner,
the grandeur of the causes to the greatness of the effects,
and by equalling the greatness explain,
by the
Socialism says the nature of
unhealthy the
latter,
;
all
men
tutions,
when
it
is in
the other
to rise
—there
is
man
is
up
;
when
it
there
is
to
When
sound and society
is
in
it,
war with
through the
convokes and
calls
in rebellion against all social insti-
no doubt that
in this
way
and solving the question, though there false,
tries
it
places the former at open
to extirpate the evil which
good which on
of what
greatness of the explanations.
is
of proposing
much
that
is
something gigantic and grand, worthy of
the terrible majesty of the subject
;
but when Liberalism
explains the evil and the good, order and disorder,
by
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
the various forms of government, transitory
all
ephemeral and
when, prescinding, on one
;
on the
social, and,
brings into
other,
discussion
by
only ones worthy the statesman,
capable of
—
there
from
their
the
from
all
problems,
problems as of
elevation
no words
are
describing
side,
all religious,
political
its
179
occupying
any language
in
profound
it
the
incapacity and
radical impotence of this school, not only to solve, but
even to enunciate, these awful questions.
enemy
The
Liberal
and of the light, has selected I know not what twilight between the luminous and dark regions, between the eternal shades school,
at once of the darkness
and the divine aurora. it
Placed in this nameless region,
has aimed at governing without a people and without
a God.
Extravagant and impossible enterprise
days are numbered
;
for
be able to say where
of battle,
when the
.
Its
on one side of the horizon
appears God, and on the other, the people. will
!
it
is
No
one
on the tremendous day
plain shall be covered with the
Catholic and Socialistic phalanxes.
CHAPTER
IX.
Socialistic solutions.
The
Socialistic schools are superior to the Liberal school,
as well on account of the nature of the problems which
they aim at solving, as in the manner of proposing and
ASSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
l8o
solving them.
Their masters appear familiarised to a
certain degree, with
those daring speculations which
have God and His nature, society
and
its institutions,
for their object.
From
man and
his constitution,
the universe and
its
laws,
this inclination to generalise, to
consider things in the aggregate, to observe the general discrepancies and harmonies, comes the great aptitude
they have to enter, and to find an exit from, without losing themselves, the intricate labyrinth of rationalistic logic. If in the great contest which, as in suspense, there
it
were, keeps the world
were no other combatants but Socialists
and Liberals, neither would the battle be long, nor the victory doubtful.
All the Socialistic schools are, in the philosophic point of view, rationalistic
;
in the religious, atheistical. alistic,
in the political, republican
As
far as
;
they are ration-
they resemble the Liberal school, and they are
distinguished from republican.
The
it
inasmuch as they are atheistical and
question
lies in
investigating whether
rationalism logically leads to the point where the Liberal
school stops, or to the term in which the Socialistic schools settle down.
Reserving for a future occasion
the examination of this question in the political, shall here principally
occupy ourselves with the
we
religious,
point of view.
Considering the question under this aspect,
it is
clear
that the system, in virtue of which a total sufficiency of
solving
by
itself,
and without the aid of God,
all
ques-
tions relative to the political, the religious, the social,
the human, orders,
is
conceded to reason, supposes
and
in
it
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
i8i
a complete sovereignty and an absolute independence.
This system carries with tions
—the negation of
it
three simultaneous nega-
revelation, the negation of grace,
and the negation of providence. tion,
human
of
The negation
reason
contradicts
its
the negation of grace, because grace
;
absolute independence
providence, because providence its if
But these three negations,
independent sovereignty.
between God and
God by
revelation,
by
God
all.
not united to
at
the negation of
;
the contradiction of
is
well examined, are resolved into one
all link
to
of revela-
because revelation contradicts the total sufficiency
man
;
for if
—the negation of
man
providence, and
is
by
not united
grace, he
is
having
God and to deny Him, are To affirm Him dogmatically, dogmatically despoiled Him of all His
attributes, is
a contradiction reserved for the Liberal
Well, now, to affirm this of
one and the same thing. after
school, the schools.
most contradictory among the
Besides, this
accidental,
it,
contradictions.
is
does also in the
it
is
destroys
it
proclaims.
God
does with
political,
The
it
in the religious,
order with the king and
office of the
proclaim the existences existences
being
no matter
an exotic compound of obvious
What
with the people.
which
from
far
essential in this school, which,
is
how you view it
contradiction,
rationalistic
annuls,
There
is
Liberal school
is
to
and to annul the
none of
its
principles
not accompanied by a counter principle which it.
Thus, for example,
and immediately
it
proclaims monarchy,
ministerial responsibility,
and conse-
quently the omnipotence of the responsible ministry,
1
£SSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
82
which
is
contradictory of monarchy.
proclaims minis-
It
and immediately the sovereign
terial responsibility,
in-
tervention in matters of government, of the deliberative assemblies, which
of the ministers.
is
contradictory of the omnipotence
proclaims the sovereign interven-
It
tion in the affairs of state, of the political assemblies,
and immediately, the
right of the electoral districts to
decide on the last appeal, which
contradictory of the
is
sovereign intervention of the assemblies.
It
proclaims
the right of supreme arbitration, which resides in the
and
electors,
immediately
supreme
explicitly, the
more or
accepts,
it
less
which
right of insurrection,
is
contradictory of that pacific and supreme arbitration. It
proclaims the right of insurrection of the multitude,
which
proclaim
to
is
immediately,
which
bility,
And
with
all
it
is
because
an it
to ostracise the
—to
which
never
it
There
is
—the
god of the time,
its
in
all
and the
corresponding equi-
and as a god, places.
Corruption at one
is
it
In such
Liberal school combined things, that all
discovers,
only one power for which the
power of corruption.
school,
a
way
when
it
is
no
man who cannot be
for Cassar, or proclaim
Cassar, all
the
is
and the has the prevails,
have necessarily to be corrupters or corrupted
where there
it
and
artifice
contradicts the nature of society
Liberal school has not sought
same
sovereign multitude.
discover, through
equilibrium
nature of man.
librium
omnipotence, and
sovereign
these principles and counter principles
aims at one thing industry,
its
establishes the laws of electoral eligi-
;
for
Caesar, or vote
must be Caesars or
AND
LIBERALISM, For
prsetorians.
death
—
The
by promising them
ministers,
school
this
gangrened.
die
all
183
this reason all the societies
domination of
under the
SOCIALISM.
kings
eternity
;
which
fall
same
the
die
corrupt
the
the ministers
the kings, by promising them an expansion of their
The
prerogative.
ministers corrupt the representatives
of the people, by placing
the dignities of the state at
all
The
their feet; the assemblies corrupt the ministers.
members
traffic
with their power, the electors with their
influence; all corrupt the masses with their promises,
and the masses corrupt
all
with their clamour and
threats.
Returning to the thread of
when the
deny the existence of God, they are more logical
Socialistic schools
which the Liberal school
asserts,
and consistent than
it
from being as
and consistent
logical
Catholic school in
with
all
His
though they end
Him
and, nevertheless, they are far
The
in the
Socialistic schools,
in
denying
God
a dogmatic and sovereign
Him
on the contrary,
definitely,
same way, nor deny
deny Him resolutely. that the most daring man is
reasons, nor fact
in their line, as the
Catholic school affirms
attributes, with
The
affirmation.
deny
its.
;
say that
this discourse, I
Him
do not
This consists filled
all
same
for the
in the
with dread in
is no God. One would say that, arriving here, man fears he cannot pass for-
affirming in an absolute way, that there
ward, and that the heavens are falling on the blasphemer
and
his
blasphemy.
that exists
by
is
Some deny Him by
God, and God
affirming that
is
all
saying
that exists
humanity and God are
;
:
All
others,
identical;
1
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
84
between these there are others who assure us that in humanity there is a dualism of powers and energies, and that man is the representative of that dualism. Those
who
man
are of this opinion distinguish in
powers and the spontaneous energies
and true divinity
In the former,
ing to this system,
—
humanity
God
is
God
is
cessive
is
God ;
is
man, or part of
and they
;
that wherever there
influence or a grand domination, there
incline to
God
is is
a great
incarnate.
incarnate in Cyrus, and in Alexander, and
in Caesar,
became
Others are of
a being subject to different and suc-
incarnations
God was
is
Accord-
neither all that exists, nor
man, humanity, or the universe
He
humanity
true
:
in the latter.
the half of man.
another opinion, and deny that
believe that
the reflective
and
in
Charlemagne, and
successively
in
Napoleon.
incarnate in the great
He
Asiatic
empires, and then in the Macedonian, and afterwards in the
Roman.
In the beginning,
He was
The world changes
afterwards the West.
the East, and its
appearance
and moves a step Each time it puts on a new
in each of these divine incarnations,
the path of progress.
in
appearance
in
consequence of a new incarnation.
All these contradictory and absurd systems have
become incarnate
in
one man, come to the world
fatter times to be the personification of
Contradictions.
This
man
is
have already mentioned, and for the
As
all rationalistic
M. Proudhon,
whom we
often in the course of this work.
in these
whom we
mention M. Proudhon passes shall
most learned and consistent of modern
far as his doctrine is concerned, there is
Socialists.
no doubt
it
"
LIBERALISM, is
AND
SOCIALISM.
185
superior to that of contemporaneous rationalists
may
regards his consistency, our readers notion
by the specimens we here give
problems which are the subject of
;
as
form a proper
relative to the
this book.
In the " Confessions of a Revolutionist," M. Proudhon
God
defines
in the
universal power,
produces by the itself,
manner
following
penetrated infinite
with
—
:
"
God
is
which
intelligence,
consciousness which
the
has of
it
the beings of every kingdom, from the ineffable
man, and which only
fluid to
tion of
and says
itself,
:
man
in
attains to a recogni-
—Our Lord God,
the subject of our investigations,
workers dared to convert
Him
absolute king betimes, like the
far
how have
from being the wonder-
into a personal being,
God
of the Jews and of
the Christians, and constitutional betimes, like the
God
and whose incomprehensible providence of the appears perpetually and solely occupied in confusing deists,
our reason
?
—
Here there are three things ist, The affirmation of a universal, intelligent, and divine power, which is pan2d, More excellent incarnation of God in theism humanity, which is humanism 3d, Negation of a per;
;
sonal
God and
of His providence, which
In the work which he
called the "
mical Contradictions," chap,
viii.,
is
deism.
System of Econo-
he says
:
—
" I will pre-
scind from the pantheistical hypothesis, which has ever
me
appeared to sonal or
denied
He
hypocrisy or cowardice.
does not exist."
in the
text asserts.
Here
is
former text, and denied
God
asserted all
all
is
per-
that
is
that the former
There a pantheistical and impersonal
J
ESSA VS
86
God was affirmed
;
OAT
CA THOLICISM,
here are denied, as two things equally
absurd, the impersonality of
God and
pantheism.
Further on in the same chapter he adds
:
—" I
think
remedy against fanaticism is not in identifying humanity with the divinity, which is nothing else but to assert commission in political economy, and in philosophy, mysticism, and the statu quo. The true remedy is in demonstrating to humanity that God, if He exists, After having upset his pantheism and is its enemy." his impersonal God, he here destroys humanism, which the true
is
On
contained in the definition of the text.
hand, the theory of the rivalry between
we have already spoken commences to invest
of which
this book,
the other
God and man,
another chapter of
in
with a concrete
itself
form.
The condemnation rivalry,
appear more
same work, where we
—and
-
I
am
of humanism,
clearly in the ninth chapter of the find the following
sorry to have to confess
that this
declaration will separate
intelligent
among
the Socialists
the more impossible this deification of is
and the theory of
it
:
it,
me
—
for
me
For
my part' am
from the most
—the more
becomes
"
certain as I
I
think on
it,
to subscribe to
our species, which, on consideration,
nothing else in the atheists of our days but the last
echo of religious terror
;
and which, by rehabilitating
and consecrating mysticism under the name of humanism, again places the sciences under the rule of preoccupations, morality under the rule of habit, social
economy under the
rule
of
communism, or, which is and finally, logic itself
the same, of debility and misejy
;
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
187
under the rule of the absurd and the absolute. precisely because
.... ceded
find myself obliged
I
this religion, in it,
is
why
I
am
union with
to
And
repudiate
those which pre-
all
obliged to admit as plausible
still
the hypothesis of an infinite being,
,
.
,
.
against which
should struggle even to death, like Israel against
I
Jehovah, for that
is
my
destiny."
Nothing remains of the
definition of
God, but the
negation of providence, and even that negation dis-
appears with this contradictory affirmation:
how we journey by
behold
chance, conducted
vidence, which never warns us but where ("
it
— "And
by prowounds"
Syst^me des Contradictions," chap, iii.) From the above we see that M. Proudhon, embracing
all
the rationalistic contradictions,
again humanist, then manichean
;
is
now
pantheist,
that he believes in
an impersonal god, and again declares as absurd and monstrous the idea of a god, person
;
and
dence at the same time.
if
that
god be not a
he affirms and denies provi-
finally, that
In one of our former chapters,
we saw how, in the manichean theory of rivalry between God and man, the Proudhonian god was representative of evil now we shall see, according to Proudhon himself, how all this system comes to the ground. ;
In the second chapter of the work already quoted, he explains himself in this
way
:
—
"
Nature, or the Divinity,
has distrusted our hearts, and has not created in them love of sciences
man
for his kind.
All the discoveries of the
about the designs of
social evolutions, to the
Providence regarding
shame of the human conscience
1
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
88
be
it
said,
and
be
to our happiness
it
known, bear
testi-
mony to a profound misanthropy on the part of God. God gives us aid, not through goodness, but because
He procures the good He judges it worthy of
order constitutes His essence. of the world,
it
If
not because
is
good, but because
He
is
by the tender name
obhged to
And
His supreme wisdom.
it
by the
religion of
Him
whilst the vulgar call
of Father, neither the historian nor
the philosophical economist find motives for believing in the possibility of
His esteeming us or loving
comes
despised slave of
he
Man
to the ground.
God
;
he
is
is
not the
us."
manicheism
With these words the Proudhonian
rival,
but the
not the good nor the
evil,
a creature possessed of the gross and servile
is
instincts
God
which slavery engenders.
what union of
severe, inflexible,
is
I
know
and mathematical
not
laws.
He does good without being good and His misanthropy He would be wicked if, He could. The Proud;
proves
honian god here displays an evident relationship with the
Fatum
more
Fatalism
of the ancients.
clearly in
these words
:
—
is
discovered
still
Being come to the
"
second station of our Calvary, in place of resigning ourselves to sterile contemplations, is
what we should
do,
to lend an increasingly attentive ear to the teaching
The
of destiny.
surety of our liberty
is
precisely, in the
progress of our punishment. " is
On
God
What
the heels of the fatalist comes the atheist .''
multiplied
power go ?
Where }
is
He
"i
Into
What is His What promises
will
how many gods "i
does
How far He make
is
He
does His us
}
And
LIBERALISM,
AND
when we take the lamp of discover
all
189
hand
analysis in our
moment
these things, on the
of heaven, of earth, and of
SOCIALISM.
hell,
all
to
the divinities
are converted into a
something incorporeal, impassible, immoveable, incomprehensible, indefinable, and, to say
a negation of let
man
all
put a
object, or let
it
once for
the attributes of existence.
into
In
fact,
a special genius behind every
spirit or
him conceive the universe
one only power,
all,
by
as governed
in either of these suppositions
he does
nothing more than affirm the hypothesis of an unconditional, that
is,
an impossible,
draw from
entity, to
it
an
explanation tolerably satisfactory, of the phenomena
Deep and
which he cannot conceive otherwise. found mystery
To make
!
more and more
pro-
the object of his idolatry
rational, the believer strips
sively of all that could constitute its reality
prodigious efforts of logic and genius, fact that the attributes of the being
;
it
we come
par
succes-
and
after
to the
excellence are
confounded and identified with those of nothingness. This evolution the bottom of
is
all
fatal
and
theodicy
"
inevitable. ("
Atheism
is
at
Syst^me des Contradic-
tions," Prologue).
Once
supreme conclusion, and at would appear the Furies enter
arrived at this
cloudy abyss,
it
possession of the atheist.
this
into
Blasphemies swell his heart,
squeeze his throat, burn his
lips,
vours to raise them into a pyramid
and when he endeato, the
throne of God,
placing one on top of another, he sees with astonieh-
ment
that,
borne down by their specific gravity, instead
of rising with light wing, they
fall
heavy and dead
into
— ^.S-^^
igo
the abyss which
YS
is
ON CA THOLICISM, His tongue can
their centre.
find
sarcastic or contemptuous, nor
no words that are not
appellations that are not stupid or the offspring of anger,
nor
which are not
fits
His style
frantic.
at once
is
impetuous and muddy, eloquent without ornament, and
—
Here he exclaims " What is the use of adoring that phantom of Divinity And what does He want of us by means of that gang of inspired people who persecute us everywhere with their sermons?" (" Syst^me des Contradictions, chap, iii.") And further on he allows tliese cynical expressions to drop from him " With regard to God, I know Him not. God is nothing but pure mysticism. If you desire me to listen to you, begin by suppressing that word in your discourses for, cynically gross.
:
.'
:
;
from the experience of three thousand years,
become convinced that every one that God, wishes to rob
How much
me
of
my
talks to
liberty or
my
have
I
me
of
purse.
How much do I owe and my God" (chap, vi.) Having come to the paroxysm of rage, he breaks out in Chapter VHI. in the following words: "This I say, the first duty of an intelligent and free man is to tear immediately the idea of God from his mind and conyou.'
do you owe me.'
my
Behold
religion
—
science
;
for
God,
our nature, and
With what
am
holy.'
imbecile
not,
He
exists, is essentially hostile to
we depend on Him for nothing. God yet say to me. Be holy
right could
Deceptive
God
I
spirit!
I
your kingdom
is
for other victims
am
if
among
and cannot ever
holy
.
.
I
would answer Him, now at an end seek :
the brute creation. be,
.
as
;
and as
for
know I you, how
I
AND
LIBERALISM, can you be
so, if
you and
SOCIALISM.
resemble each other
I
called, learn
me
from
now we know
that
will be, perpetually
the tyrant of Prometheus " (chap, in the
same
?
Eter-
you may desire to be
nal Father, Jupiter., or Jehovah, as
you were, and you
191
the
rival of
And
viii.)
You are, Adam,
you.
further on
chapter, apostrophising the Divinity which
he denies, he says
:
—
"
You
triumph, and no one dared
to contradict you, when, after tormenting Job, the just figure of our humanity, in his candid piety
ance.
your
We
were
and all
body and
his discreet
as
it
invisible majesty, to
soul,
you insulted
and respectful ignor-
were nothing
in presence of
which we gave the heavens as
Times are now changed Your name, in other times the compendium and sum of all wisdom, the only sanction of the judge, the only power of the prince, the hope of the poor, the refuge of the repentant sinner that incommunicable name, handed over to execration and contempt, will be henceforth despised by the nations. God is nothing else but stupidity and fear, hypocrisy and deceit, tyranny and misery. God is the evil. As long as humanity bends before an altar, the slave of kings and of priests, it will be reprobated a seat, and the earth as a footstool. :
b'ehold you are beaten and dethroned.
;
;
as long as one single
man receives in
God's name, an oath
•from another man, society will be founded on perjury,
and peace and love Jehovah
;
will
be exiled from the earth.
for henceforth, cured of the fear of
having attained true wisdom,
my
hand
I
am
Retire,
God, and
ready to swear with
raised towards heaven, that
you are only the
murderer of my reason and the spectre of my conscience."
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
192
himself has said
It is
No
conscience.
—God
is
it
the spectre of his
one can deny God without condemning
himself; no one can fly from
God
without flying from
That wretch, without leaving earth,
himself.
Those muscular,
in hell.
violent,
already
and impotent contrac-
mad
phrenzy, that
tions, this cynical
is
rage, that violent
and tempestuous wrath, are already the contractions, the phrenzy, the rage, and the wrath of the reprobate. Without charity and without
man
blessing of
—hope
faith,
And
!
speaking of Catholicism, he
he has
lost
the last
yet, occasionally,
feels,
without knowing
when it,
its
martyrdom ceases, as it were by enchantment a gentle and refreshing breeze from heaven reaches his brow, dries up the
Then
serene and sanctifying influence.
his
;
sweat and suspends the
fit
of epileptic convulsions.
—
Then he softly lets fall these words "Ah how much more prudent has Catholicism proved itself, and how :
superior
is
it
to
!
sansimonians, republicans, univer-
all,
the knowledge of society and of knows that our life is only a pere-
sitarians, economists, in
man
The
!
grination,
priest
and that
all
complete perfection
is
denied us
and because he knows this, he is content with commencing on earth an education, which can only in this
world
;
be completed in heaven.
under the auspices of doing, and obtaining, life,
he would
sooner
religion
By what
it
religion, satisfied
what
is sufficient
with knowing,
for the
temporal
never be an obstacle to the powers of earth
will
does
The man who has grown up
1
prefer
martyrdom.
inconceivable
Oh, beloved
error
of
reason
happen that those who have most, need of
"
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
who know you
you, are precisely the very persons least I
193
?
spoke before en passant of M.
acter for consistency
;
now
I
necessary, to say something
much more sight. With notorious,
Proudhon's char-
think
and even
right,
it
more on a subject which
than would appear at
transfcendent
regard to the character,
and consequently evident,
it
fact,
we
is
first
a public,
is
and yet that
that M. Proudhon has adopted, one after another, all the systems relative to the Divinity, and that there is no one fact
among
inexplicable
totally
is
the Sociahsts so
if
consider
of contradictions
full
results, that his character for
consistency
tradictory of the fact which occasions
terranean paths,
by what
it.
is
whence
:
By what
illation of subtle
it
a fact consub-
and knotty
deductions, starting from the notorious fact of ProuS-
honian contradictions,
has
the
world come
to
call
by the name which conby the name of consistency ?
those contradictions precisely tradicts them,
that
is,
There are here a great problem to be solved, and a great mystery to be cleared up.
The
solution of that problem,
and the clearing up of
that mystery, are in the fact, that in the theories of
M.
Proudhon there are at the same time contradiction and consistency
—the
latter real,
If all the fragments I
one by one, and
if
and the former apparent
have just transcribed, be examined they be considered in themselves,
without looking further, each of them
is
the contradiction
of the one that precedes and the one that follows
they are
all
contradictory
among themselves
;
it,
but
N
and
if
we
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
194 fix
our eyes on the rationalistic theory, in which
have their origin, all sins
it
all
others
will be seen that rationalism, amongst
the most like original
sin,
is,
like
it,
an actual
and consequently, that with comprehends and embraces all errors, to whose union with it, it is no obstacle,' they being contraerror, its
and
all
errors in posse;
wide unity
it
dictory amongst themselves, for even contradictions are susceptible of a certain kind of peace and a certain kind
of union, where there involves
them
is
a supreme contradiction which
In the present case, rationalism
all.
that contradiction which resolves tions in
its
supreme
In
unity.
other contradic-
all
fact,
rationalism
once deism, pantheism, humanism, manicheism, ism, scepticism, atheism
most consistent
is
;
and amongst
he who
is
is
is
at
fatal-
rationalists the
at once deist, pantheist,
and atheist. These considerations, which serve to explain the two facts, apparently contradictory, mentioned above, also
humanist, manichean,
satisfactorily explain
fatalist, sceptic,
why, instead of giving one by one
the various systems of the Socialistic doctors about the
we have
preferred considering them all in the M. Proudhon, where they can be seen in their variety and in the aggregate. Having seen what the Socialists think of the Divinity, Divinity,
writings of
it
remains to be seen what they think of man, and
they solve the awful problems of good and sidered in general, which
is
evil,
how con-
the subject of this book.
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER
igj
X.
— Conclusion of
Continuation of the same subject
There
has never been a
the good and the
and
evil,
man
so
as to dare
mode
they
all,
or form in which
however, decidedly
admit their existence and co-existence as a point
they
;
settled
likewise agree, that in the contest which
all
evil,
the former must
latter.
Leaving these
between the good and the
exists
deny
their co-existence in history.
Philosophers dispute about the
they exist and co-exist;
mad
this book.
obtain a definite victory over the
points as undoubted and settled, in
all
else there are
diversity of opinions, contradiction of systems,
and end-
less contests.
The is
Liberal school regards
no other evil but what
is
it
as certain, that there
in the political institutions
which we have inherited from time to time, and that the
supreme good the dust.
consists in levelling those institutions in
The
greater part of Socialists look
settled, that there is
no other
and that the grand remedy tion of social institutions. to us from times past
;
is
evil
but what
in the
upon
is in
it
as
society,
complete destruc-
comes that the good
All agree that the
the Liberals affirm
evil
can be realised at the present time, and the Socialists that the golden age cannot
The
commence
till
the future.
supreme good consisting, according to one and
the other, in a supreme disarrangement, which, according to the Liberal school, must be realised in the political,
and according to the
Socialists,
in
the social,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
196
regions, the
and
one and the other agree in the substantial
intrinsic
goodness of man,
who
is
be the
to
intel-
This free agent of both disarrangements. Socialthe enunciated by explicitly been has conclusion istic schools, and is implicitly involved in the theory
and
ligent
which the Liberal schools hold. That conclusion follows from their theory, in such a way, that if the conclusion be denied, the theory itself comes to the ground. In fact,
the theory, according to which the evil
and proceeds from man,
is
man
in
is
contradictory of the other,
according to which, the evil
is
in the social or political
and proceeds from the political and social Supposing the former, what logically institutions. follows is, to extirpate the evil in man, with which its institutions,
extirpation in society and in government must necessarily
Supposing the
be secured.
follows
is,
latter,
what
logically
to extirpate the evil directly in society or in
government,
in
which are
its
and
centre
its origin.
which we see that the Catholic, and the
From
rationalistic,
theories are not only incompatible, but even contradic-
By the
tory.
whether
Catholic, disturbance,
political or
condemned as mad and useless. The rationalistic theories condemn all moral reform of man as useAnd the one and the other are consisless and mad. social, is
tent in their condemnations
government or or
government
in society, ?
And
;
why
for
if
will
the evil be not in
you disturb
on the contrary,
if
society
the evil
not in individuals, nor proceeds from individuals, will
you attempt an
The
interior
reform of
Socialistic schools feel
man
is
why
?
no inconvenience
in ac-
LIBERALISM, the
cepting
AND
SOCIALISM.
presented in
question,
this
Liberal school, on the contrary, sees in
its
197
and not without reason, serious inconvenience. ing the question as
it
presents itself of
the Liberal school finds
Accept-
own
its
The
way.
acceptation,
accord,
the dire necessity of
itself in
denying with a radical negation, the Catholic theory considered in is
itself
and
and
in all its consequences,
this
exactly what the Liberal school resolutely refuses to
The
do.
principles,
it
is
perpetually occupied in reconciling
contradictory theories and
Moral reforms do not appear disarrangements appear
all ill
human
contradictions.
in its eyes,
excellent,
that these things are incompatible; interiorly,
their counter-
does not wish to be separated from the one
nor the other, and all
and of
friend of all principles,
but political
without adverting for
man, purified
cannot be the agent of disturbance
agents of disturbance, by the very fact of being that they are not interiorly purified.
On
and the
;
so,
declare
this occasion,
as on all others, the balance between Catholicism
Socialism things
—
is
either
absolutely impossible;
man
is
,
If unpurified
himself the duty of disturber,
the
ofifice
social,
—one
of
two
not to be purified, or disturbances
are not to be realised.
preclude of
for
and
disturbances
political, ;
and
of political disturber, to
if
man
takes on
are
only the
man
relinquishes
become the reformer
of himself, neither social nor political disturbances are possible.
So
in the
one as
in the other case, the Liberal
school has necessarily to abdicate in favour of the Socialistic, or in favour of the Catholic, schools. It follows that
reason on their
the Socialistic schools have logic and side,
when they maintain
against the
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
198
Liberal school, that
if
the evil
or in government, there
is
is
essentially in society
nothing to be done but to
disturb government or society, without
its
being either
necessary or convenient, but on the contrary, pernicious and absurd, to attempt the reform of man.
Suppose the innate and absolute goodness of man, is at once the universal reformer and irreformable
man
himself,
which
is
his essence ceases to is
God— become divine. He
equal to transforming
be
human
to
man
into
absolutely good in himself, and produces the absolute
good outside himself by his disturbances. Supreme good, and the cause of all good, he is most excellent, most wise, and most potent. Adoration is a necessity so imperious, that the Socialists, being atheists, and not adoring God, make gods of men, that they may adore something, in some way. These being the ruling ideas of the about man,
it
is
clear
Socialistic schools
the Socialist denies his anti-
thetical nature as a pure invention of the Catholic school.
Hence Sansimonianism, and Fourrierism do not admit that
man
is
so constituted that his understanding leads
him one way, and his will another, nor do they grant there is any sort of contradiction between the spirit and the flesh. The supreme end of Sansimonianism is to demonstrate practically the conciliation and the unity of those two powerful energies
this supreme conciliawas symbolised in the Sansimonian priest, whose office was to satisfy the spirit by means of the flesh, and the flesh by means of the spirit. The principle ;
tion
common
to all Socialists,
which consists
in giving
ill-
constituted society a construction analogous to that of
;
AND
LIBERALISM, man, who
is
199
constructed in an excellent manner, led the
Sansimonians to deny
and
SOCIALISM.
all
species of political, scientific,
social dualism, the negation of
which was necessary,
supposing the negation of the antithetical nature of
The
man. flesh
pacification
once proclaimed,
universal pacification
it
between the
was
and the
spirit
logical to proclaim the
and reconciliation of
all
things
and as things are not pacified or reconciled except by unity, universal unity was a logical consequence of human unity and hence the religious, political, and social pantheism, which constitutes the ideal despotism ;
to which all the Socialistic schools aspire with an im-
mense
aspiration.
The common
father of the school,
Saint Simon, and the patriarch of the school, Fourrier, are
its
august and glorious personifications.
Returning to the nature of man, which
on the
other,
man
proclaim
but also in tute
it;
all
its
absolute goodness,
it
our special
is
object at present, supposing, on one side,
its
was
unity,
and
logical to
holy and divine, not only in his unity,
and
in
each of the elements which consti-
and hence the proclamation of the sanctity For this reason all the
a:nd divinity of the passions. Socialistic
schools,
some
implicitly,
others expHcitly,
proclaim the passions divine and holy. sanctity and the divinity of the passions,
Supposing the it
was
logical
condemn all repressive and penal systems, all, above to condemn virtue, whose office it is to and impede their march, prevent their explosion, and repress to explicitly
their impetuosity.
And
in fact, all these things,
which
are at once the consequence of anterior principles,
and
200
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
principles of
more remote consequences, are taught and
proclaimed with more or
less
cynicism in
all
the Social-
Sansimonian
amongst which the
schools,
istic
and
Fourrierian schools shine forth, like two suns in a star-
spangled firmament.
That
flesh.
is
That
is
what
woman and
of
rehabilitation
what
about attractions.
is
signified
Fourrier says
is
signified
by the
the pacification of the
by Fourrier's theory " Duty proceeds from
—
:
man (understand society), and attraction from God." Madame de Coeslin, quoted by M. Louis de Rayband, in his " Studies
on Contemporaneous Reformists," has
expressed this same thought with greater exactness by saying
:
—
virtues of
The passions are of divine institution, the human institution " which means, supposing
"
;
the principles of the school, that the virtues are perni-
and the passions salutary. For this reason the supreme end of Socialism is to create a new social atmosphere, in which the passions may move freely, cious,
commencing by destroying the announced by the poets will
political,
religious,
and
The golden age and expected by the nations,
which oppress them.
social institutions
begin in the world when that great event occurs,
and that magnificent aurora appears on the horizon. The earth will then be a paradise, and that paradise with gates to the four winds, will not be, like the Catholic
by an angel' The evil will have disappeared from the world, which heretofore has been, but shall no longer be, condemned to be a valley of tears. paradise, guarded
This
is
what Socialism thinks of good and of
God and man.
My
evil,
of
readers will not certainly require
AND
LIBERALISM,
me
SOCIALISM. by
to follow the Socialistic schools step
201
on the
step,
Much
broken path of their mischievous extravagances. they require
less will
me
to do so,
that they were virtually refuted
when they consider, from the moment I
placed before their eyes, the majesty of the Catholic doctrine relative to these great questions, in
simple
its
and august magnificence. Nevertheless, I consider it an iraprescindible and holy duty to level with the ground that edifice of error ; and for this, I have but to employ one sole argument and one single word, enough, and
more than enough,
my
to effect
purpose.
Society can be considered in two different points of view, the Catholic in
the
and the
Catholic point of view,
reunion of a multitude of men, rule
it
it is
Considered
in the
is
who
and protection of the same
institutions.
view,
Considered
pantheistical.
laws,
nothing but the live
all
under the
and of the same
pantheistical point of
an organism which exists with an
individual,
concrete,
and necessary
tion, it is
clear that, as society does not exist indepen-
existence.
dently of the individuals
who
nothing in the society which individuals; whence
quence, that the to is
it
from man.
evil
it
In the
constitute
it,
essentially.
which, society
is
there can be
not previously
follows,
by necessary
and the good which are
in
in
the
conse-
it,
come
Considered from this point of view,
it
exists
touching the individuals in In
supposi-
is
absurd to endeavour to extirpate the
society in which
first
by incidence whom it was
the second
evil
it
from the
only,
without
originally
and
supposition, according to
a being which exists of
itself
with a
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
202
concrete, individual,
admit
and necessary existence, those who
are obliged to solve in a satisfactory way, the
it
very questions which, with respect to man, the rationpropose to Catholics,
alists
Whether
viz.,
essentially or accidentally evil
?
—
if
society
is
what
the former,
way, in what circumstances, and on what occasion, has the social
harmony been disturbed with
incidence
?
We have seen
how
that mischievous
Catholics untie
these
all
what way they solve all these difficulties, and what manner they answer all these questions relative
knots, in in
to the existence of evil, considered as a
consequence of
human prevarication. What we have not yet seen, and what we shall never see, is the manner and the force the
same
of the Socialistic solutions of those lative to the existence of evil,
difficulties re-
considered as existing
solely in social institutions.
This sole consideration would authorise that the Socialistic theory
and that Socialism
company I
will
this
is
it
a theory of mountebanks,
To be as sober as I purposed, argumentation by placing Socialism in The evil which is in society is an
of buffiaons.
end
this
dilemma is
in saying
nothing but the social reason of a
:
—
essence or an accident. it,
is
me
If
it
be an essence, to extirpate
not enough to upset social institutions
necessary besides to destroy society essence that sustains
all
forms.
itself,
which
If the evil
it
;
is
is
the
be acci-
you are obliged to do what you have not what you cannot do you are obHged to explain to me at what time, by what cause, in what way, and in what form, that accident has dental, then
done, what you do not do,
:
— LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
203
supervened, and then, by what series of deductions you come to constitute man the redeemer of society, giving him power to cleanse its stains and to wash away its sins. It will be useful to warn the incautious here, that rationalism, which furiously attacks all the Catholic mysteries, afterwards proclaims, in another way, and for
another purpose, those very mysteries. affirms
two
rationalistic its
faith,
—the
Catholicism
and the redemption Socialism comprehends in the symbol of things
same
the
and Catholics there
evil
;
affirmations.
Between
no more than
is
Socialists
this difference
the latter affirm the evil of man, and the redemption on
the part of
God
;
the former affirm the evil of society,
and the redemption on the part of man. The Catholic, with his two affirmations, does nothing but affirm two simple and natural things that man is man, and exe-
—
cutes
human
works, that
things divine.
God
Socialism, with
is
its
nothing more than affirm, that
God, and executes
two
man
affirmations, does
undertakes and
accomplishes the enterprises of a God, and that society
What
executes the works belonging to man.
human
reason
gain
Socialism, except to
mysterious, for what
Our
does
by abandoning Catholicism for leave what is at once evident and is
at once mysterious
and absurd
refutation of the Socialistic theories
.''
would not
be complete, if we had not recourse to the arsenal of M. Proudhon, now full of reason, and now full of elo-
quence and sarcasm, when he combats and pulverises his
companions
in arms.
See here what M. Proudhon thinks of the harmonical
— ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
204
nature of man, proclaimed by St Simon and
by
Fourrier,
and of the future transformation of the earth into a garden of delights, announced by all the Socialists " But man, considered in the aggregate of his manifesta:
tions,
and when
presents one
on
all
antinomies appear exhausted,
his
which, referring to nothing that exists
still,
earth, remains here below, without solution of
any
how
per-
This serves to explain why, no matter
sort.
fect order
may
be
in society,
Felicity in this world
and weariness.
exile bitterness
never so perfect as to
is
it
an ideal we are condemned to be ever aiming at, and which the invincible antagonism of nature and the spirit is
perpetually places beyond our reach" ("Systeme des
Pay
Contradictions," chap, x.)
attention
now
to the fol-
man
lowing sarcasm against the native goodness of "
The
greatest obstacle equality has to surmount,
in the aristocratic pride of the rich,
is
:
not
but in the indis-
pensable egotism of the poor ; and do you dare, in spite of that, to count on his innate goodness to reform at
the spontaneity and the
once,
malice
.''
"
("
Systfeme
The sarcasm becomes
des
premeditation of his
Contradictions," chap,
viii.)
intensified in the following words,
taken from the same work and from the same chapter:
—
"
The
logic of Socialism
good, they
him
tell
us,
but
in the evil, that
he
good, they repeat, but the good, that he
may
it
may
it is
;
and
if
he
is
man
:
is
necessary to disinterest
is
abstain from
it
man
:
is
necessary to interest him in
reduce
interest of his passions carry evil
truly marvellous
is
it
to practice
him
to evil,
he
disinterested in the good,
;
for if the will
he
do the
will
not
!
AND
LIBERALISM, execute
it.
SOCIALISM.
205
In this case, society will have no right to
upbraid him for attending to his passions, for
it was its him by means of his passions. What an excellent nature was that of Nero, and how
obligation to conduct
gifts What an artistic was that of Heliogabalus, who organised prostitution And as regards Tiberius, what a powerful and grand character his was And, on the contrary, where shall we find words sufficient to blame the society which
marvellously enriched with
!
soul
1
!
produced those divine
souls, and, nevertheless,
being to Tacitus and Marcus Aurelius
what we
Socialists call innate
sanctity of his passions
and abandoned by her
yoke of matrimony herself to It
;
Hymen.
!
A
lovers,
And
.
gave this is
goodness of man, and
Sappho,
full
of wrinkles
submits her neck to the
disinterested in love, she resigns
And
they
woman
call that
holy
a pity this word has not in French the double
is
meaning it has in the Hebrew tongue The whole world would then agree about the sanctity of Sappho." !
The sarcasm
is
invested with that form, eloquently
which might be called the Proudhonian form,
brutal,
in
same work, where M. Proudhon says " Let us pass rapidly by the side of those St Simonian and Fourrierian constitutions, and above all others of the same stamp, whose authors go about the streets and squares, promising to unite with happy link, free love with the purest modesty, delicacy, and spirituality; sad illusion of an abject Socialism, last dream the twelfth chapter of the :
—
of delirious debauch.
Give wings to passion through
inconstancy, and immediately the flesh will tyrannise
— ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
2o6
over the the vile
spirit
;
lovers will be nothing to each 'other but
instruments of pleasure; the longing of the .... to
senses will succeed the fusion of hearts, and
form a judgment of such things it is not necessary to have passed, like St Simon, through the custom-house of the popular Venus."
After having given, and refuted in general, the Socialistic
theories relative to the problems
subject of this book, refute
it
which are the
only remains to explain and relative to the
M. Proudhon's theory
same pro-
blems, to bring this long and complicated debate to a conclusion.
M. Proudhon
factorily lays
down
work we have
"The
compendiously but
his doctrine in
Chapter
viii.
just quoted, in the following
education
of
liberty,
the
satis-
of the
words
subjection
of
:
our
redemption of our soul, this what the Christian mystery, properly interpreted,
interests, the rescue or the is
signifies, as
Lessing has demonstrated.
This education
and that of the human race. Moses, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Zoroaster, were all apostles of expiation, and living symbols of penance. Man is by nature a sinner, which does not mean precisely that he His destiny is bad, but rather that he is badly made.
will last as
is
to
long as our
life,
be perpetually occupied
in
endeavouring to create
his proper ideal within himself."
In this profession of faith there
is
something of the
Catholic theory, something of the Socialistic theory, and
something which
is
neither the one nor the other,
thereby constitutes the honian theory.
individuality
of
the
and
Proud-
LIBERALISM,
What
there
AND
SOCIALISM.
207
here of the Catholic theory consists in
is
the acknowledgment of the existence of evil and of
the confession that sin
in
and that the
man
from
man and
sin,
not in society,
does not come from society but
evil
and
;
in
is
here belonging to the
finally, there is
acknowledgment of the
Catholic theory the explicit
necessity of redemption and penance.
What
there
of the Socialistic theory,
is
man
mation that
is
What
the redeemer.
is
in the affir-
constitutes the
individuality of the Proudhonian theory consists, on one side, in the following
theory,
istic
society,
viz.,
that
theory contradictory of the Social-
man
the redeemer does not redeem
but redeems himself; and in this other, contradic-
tory of the Catholic theory, that
man has not made himself
bad, but on the contrary, that he has been badly made.
Leaving aside what
in this
theory
is
in
conformity with
the Catholic on one hand, and with the Socialistic theory,
on the
other, I will confine myself to that solely
renders which,
different
it
from the others, and
which
in virtue of
neither Socialistic nor Catholic, but exclu-
it is
sively Proudhonian.
The
individuality of this theory consists in affirming
man
that
made.
is
a sinner only because he has been badly
Under
this supposition
M. Proudhon has given
a remarkable proof of sound reason and good logic, in
seeking the redeemer outside the Creator, as
we
could not be well redeemed by him
were badly made.
As God
it.
clear
by whom we
could not be the redeemer,
and a redeemer being necessary, should be
it is
either
man
or an angel
Being doubtful of the existence of the
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
2o8
and certain of the necessity of the redemption, it to, he gave it to man, at once a sinner and the redeemer of his sins.
angels,
having no one else to intrust
who
is
connected and knit
All these propositions are well
Where they
together.
serves
them
made
either well
theory
or badly made.
own redeemer,
is
tion
between
his
his nature
and
way
as to
in the fact
for
man
which
has been
first case,
the
the second, the
in
—
If
is
a manifest contradic-
man
is
his attribute
no matter how badly made he a
:
there
;
In the
and
;
following argumentation occurs
and
is
and basis
to the ground
falls
weak
are all
as foundation
may
be,
is
;
badly made,
man,
for if
made
in
such
be able to amend the work of his Maker,
even to the degree of redeeming himself, far from being a creature badly made, he for
is
a most perfect creature
what greater perfection can be imagined, than what
consists in the faculty of blotting out all his sins, of
amending
all his
imperfections, and, to say
of redeeming himself
.''
Well now,
if in
it
in a
word,
the fact of his
own redeemer, no matter what his imperfections may be besides, man is a most perfect being, to say of him at one and the same time, that he has been badly made, and that he is his own redeemer, is to
being his
affirm
what
because perfect,
is
denied, and to deny
what
is
affirmed,
he has been made most and that he has been badly made. And let it it
is
to affirm that
not be said his imperfections
come
to
him from God,
and the great perfection of redemption from himself;
we will answer, that man could never become own redeemer, if he had not been made with the
for to this
his
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
209
faculty of reaching to such a great height, or, at least,
with the faculty of acquiring that faculty in the course It is necessary to grant
of time.
and to grant anything he was made he was
here,
his
is
some of these
to grant all
redeemer
;
things,
for if
in posse, before
when being
so actually, that posse, in spite of all his imperfections,
constituted
theory
The is
is
him most
perfect.
Hence the Proudhonian
nothing less than a contradiction in terms.
conclusion of
all
that has been said
is,
that there
no school which does not recognise the simultaneous
existence of good and
evil,
and the Catholic alone
satisfactorily explains the nature
and the
origin of the
one and the other, and their various and complicated
no good whatever,
It teaches us that there is
effects.
come from God, and that all that proceeds from God is good it tells us how the evil commenced with the first error of the angelic and the
that does not
;
human
which from being obedient and subbecame rebellious and prevaricating, and how, what degree, those two great prevarications
liberty,
missive,
and to change
all
things with their influence and ravages.
tells us, in fine, is
good
is
de se eternal, because
de se essential, and that the evil
because is
that the
it
is
an accident
not subject to
falls
:
is
whence
it
it
a transitory thing follows the
good
or changes, and the evil can be
removed and the sinner redeemed. future
It
Reserving for a
occasion the explanation of those great and
sovereign mysteries, thfough whose prodigious virtue the evil was extirpated in
its origin,
we have
limited
ourselves to place in relief the sovereign industry and
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
2IO
converts the
God
the wonderful artifice with which
effects of the primitive fall, into constituent
elements of
a superior good and of a more excellent order
we explained the
evil,
by the
;
hence
what manner the good springs from
in
virtue of God, after having explained in
what way the evil springs from the good, by the fault of man, without the human action or the divine reaction implying rivalry of any sort, between beings which are separated
As
by an
infinite distance.
regards the Rationalistic schools, the examination
of their vario.us systems serves to
profound ignorance of
As
questions. is
antitheological,
them
it is
which
civilization,
proper
learned
;
office
is
ignorance
its
in quality of laical
essentially antitheological
it is
demonstrate their
that relates to these deep
regards the Liberal school,
among the
proverbial
school,
all
and
;
in quality of
impotent to give a great impulse to
is
ever the reflex of a theology.
to falsify all principles,
Its
by combining
and absurdly, with those that conmeans it expects to arrive at an by equilibrium, and it only arrives at confusion it thinks it is advancing to truth, and it is only going to war. But as it is impossible to withdraw one's self entirely from capriciously
tradict
them
this
:
;
the authority of theological science, the Liberal school less laical
than
would appear evil,
believes,
at first sight.
is
is
and more theological than The question of good and
the most essentially theological of
imagined, is
it
proposed and solved by
its
all
that can be
doctors,
though
it
seen immediately they are not acquainted with the art
of proposing, and the
manner of
solving,
it.
In the
first
LIBERALISM, place, they prescind in itself, to the evil
AND
SOCIALISM.
from the question relative to
far
excellence, to
solely with a certain sort of evil, as for
one who
is
ignorant of what
particular evils are
in
;
it
evil
occupy themselves if it
evil
is,
were possible to
know what
the second place, particularising
the remedy, as they particularised the
cover
211
they
evil,
dis-
solely in certain political forms, forgetting that
those forms are perfectly indifferent, as reason
tells
us,
and history demonstrates. Pointing out the evil where it does not exist, and the remedy where it is not to be the Liberal school has placed the question outside
fourirf;
its
proper point of view, by which
confusion and disorder into the Its
it
has introduced
intellectual
regions.
ephemeral domination has proved mischievous to
human
societies,
and
diiring its transitory reign the dis-
solvent principle of discussion has impaired the com-
mon
sense of nations.
In this state of society there
no disturbance which may not be trophe which
may
tions,
we
school,
nor catas-
not happen, nor revolution which
may not be inevitable. As regards the Socialistic sidering the
feared,
is
manner
in
schools,
by merely con-
which they propose the ques-
discover their superiority over the Liberal
which
is
not in a position to oppose any kind
of resistance to them. theological, they
Being, as they are, essentially
measure the abysses
in all their pro-
and are not wanting in a certain grandeur in manner of proposing the problems and solving them. Considered, however, more attentively, and on entering
fundity,
the
into the intricate labyrinth of their contradictory solu-
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
212 tions,
their
appearance,
is
hidden under a grand
weakness,
radical
immediately discovered.
The
Socialistic
pagan philosophers, whose theoloand cosmogonical systems formed a monstrous
sectaries are like the
gical
union, on one side, of disfigured and incomplete biblical traditions,
and on the
hypotheses.
and
other, of unsustainable
false
Their grandeur comes to them from the
atmosphere which surrounds them,
all
impregnated with
Catholic emanations, and their contradictions and their
weakness, from their ignorance of dogma, from their neglect of tradition, and from their contempt for the
Church, the universal depositary of Catholic dogmas and of Christian traditions.
Like our dramatic writers of
another age, who, confounding everything grotesquely,
though ingeniously, used to put
in the
mouth
of Caesar
becoming the Cid, and expressions worthy of the knights of Christendom in the mouth of Moorish discourses
warriors, the Socialists of our
times are perpetually
occupied in giving a rationalistic sense to Catholic words, giving fewer proofs of ingenuity than of candour, and
proving
themselves
occasionally less malicious than
innocent.
There
is
nothing
less Catholic,
nor more rationalistic,
than to enter forcibly the rationalistic citadel and the Catholic citadel, taking from the former the ideas, with all their contradictions,
with will
all
and from the
their magnificence.
latter the
garments,
Catholicism, for
its
part,
not consent to those scandalous intrigues, nor to
that shameful
Catholicism
is
confusion, nor to those stupid in
a position
to
show, that
it
spoils.
along
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
possesses the regular index of
problems
social
solutions
to take
;
that
SOCIALISM.
213
all political, religious,
that it will not do to admit it by halves, nor words to cover with them the nakedness of
;
its
other doctrines
;
that there
is
good but the good and the
no other
evil
which
evil
God man
that the
God
;
that the
man
;
that humanity
;
whom it proclaims, is the whom it defines, is the
what
is
brothers, equal
how they
its
measure of
words; that
liberty, equality,
those things and
it
all
men
and nothing
that they are
manner they ;
that its
its ideas,
and
fraternity, or to
those
names
;
and
are so,
words have been
its
ideas to sustain
Catholic
deny at once
that the
the redemption exclusively belongs to tells
is,
necessary to proclaim
is
and
to
it
true
true
has said at the same time
are so, -in what
to the
says
it
said it
to what degree they are so
made
explains
it
alone
when it has and free,
that
else;
alone
nor other
points out
it
that things cannot be explained except as
them
and
alone has the secret of great
it
it
;
dogma
that
all
of
alone
it
us the cause, and the object, of the redemption, and
how the Redeemer and the redeemed are called that to accept its dogma to disfigure it, is the part of a mountebank, and a malicious buffoonery that he who is not with it is against it that it is the affirmation par excellence, and that against it there can be nothing given ;
;
;
but an absolute negation. In this
way does
and
Catholics.
alists
the question stand between Ration-
Man is sovereignly free
;
and being
he can accept the purely Catholic, or the purely he can affirm all or deny all he rationalistic, solutions free,
;
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
214
can be saved or
What man
lost.
^c.
cannot do,
with his will the nature of things, which
What man
cannot do,
is
affirmations
it
is
all,
humanly
Catholicism,
great, only because
and rest in the and Liberals to have the right
Socialists
Liberal or Socialistic eclecticism.
is
to change
immutable.
to find repose
are under the obligation of denying
of denying anything.
is
is
the union of
considered,
all
possible
Liberalism and Socialism are weak, only
;
because they unite in one various Catholic affirmations
and various
rationalistic negations,
and because, instead
of being schools contradictory of Catholicism, they are
The
only two different schools.
Socialists
do not
appear daring in their negations, except when compared with the Liberals,
and a danger
who
see a rock in every affirmation,
in every negation.
ever, strikes the
Catholic school
;
Their timidity, how-
view when they are compared with the it is
only then we discover the boldness
and the timidity with which they you call yourselves apostles of a new gospel, and you tell us of evil and sin, of redemption and grace, things of which the old gospel is full You with which deny.
affirms,
it
How
!
!
call
and
yourselves the depositaries of a religious science,
equality,
and
and you talk
fraternity,
new
political, social;
to us about liberty,
things as old as Catholicism,
He who
He would word in you He condemns you to be only stupid commentators of His immortal Gospel, by the very fact of your aspiring with wanton and mad ambition, to promulgate a new law from a new Sinai, if not from a New Calvary. which
is
as old as the world
!
said
exalt humility and lower pride, fulfils His
BOOK
III.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO ORDER IN HUMANITY.
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO
ORDER
IN
HUMANITY.
CHAPTER
I.
Transmission of sin, dogma of imputation.
With
the sin of our
first
parents are sufficiently ex-
plained that great disorder and that formidable confusion which things suffered soon after their creation,
which confusion and disorder were converted, as we saw, without ceasing to be what they were, into elements of
a more excellent order and a greater harmony, by that secret
and incommunicable virtue which
is
in
God, of
drawing order from disorder, from confusion concert,
and good from reign
will.
explain, tive
is
evil,
What
by a most simple act of His soveby itself alone does not
that sin
the perpetuity and constancy of that primi-
confusion, which subsists yet in
To
all
things,
and
particularly in
man.
subsistence,
necessary to suppose the subsistence of
it is
explain satisfactorily this
the cause, and to explain the subsistence of the cause,
8
2
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
1
we
are obliged to suppose the perpetual transmission of
sin.
The dogma consequences,
of the transrhission of
one of the most
is
prehensible and obscure, of
all
sin,
fearful,
with
all its
most incom-
the mysteries that have
been taught us by divine revelation.
That sentence of
condemnation uttered on the head of
Adam
against
all
generations of men, as well those that have been, and
those that are at present, as those that will be in future to the
consummation of time, does not at
square well in the
first
sight
human intellect with the justice of God, One would
and much less with His inexhaustible mercy. say, it
is
on considering a
it
lightly
dogma taken from
religions of the East,
and
for the first time, that
those inexorable and sombre
whose
idols
have ears to hear only
laments, eyes to see only blood, and a voice to utter
only anathemas and to
The
demand vengeance.
living
God, in the act of revealing that tremendous dogma, appears, rather than the mild and clement Ciifistians,
God
of the'
the Moloch of the idolaters, increased
greatness and barbarity, who, not content
in
now with
tender flesh to appease his devouring hunger, buries
human his
generations one after another in the caverns of
Why
belly.
turning to God,
if
are we punished, all we were not culpable 1
nations
say,
Entering fully and directly into the body of the iquestion,
it
will
not be a
difficult
task to demonstrate
the deep convenience of this profound mystery. all,
we should observe
that the very persons
Before
who deny
the transmission of sin as a revealed dogma, are obliged
LIBERALISM,
AND faith,
matter,
we
ways.
Let us grant that
ever
come
219
making complete abstraction
to acknowledge, that even
from what we hold as
SOCIALISM.
to the
when considering this same term by different and punishment, being
sin
personal of themselves, are of themselves intransmissible
and
;
after
making
this concession,
evidently demonstrate that with or without
dogma In
fact,
it,
is still
will yet
what the
it,
untouched.
no matter how we consider
always
shall
mits
teaches
we
find, that sin
we who com-
this subject,
can produce in him
such destructions, and changes so great, as to be
capable of altering, physically and morally, his primitive constitution
:
when
man, who transmits
this occurs,
all
that he constitutionally possesses, transmits to his children
by generation
his constitutional
•great explosion of
When
conditions.
anger produces an infirmity
enraged, and this infirmity which
becomes constitutional and
organic,
it
a
in the
produces in him
it is
very simple and
natural that he should transmit to his children,
by way
of generation, the constitutional and organic evil which
he
suiTers.
sidered in
That its
constitutional
physical aspect,
infirmity, and, considered in its
and organic is
evil,
con-
reduced to a real
moral aspect, to a pre-
disposition of the flesh to subjugate the spirit, with that
same passion which produced, when it was actual, those terrible ravages. It is beyond all doubt that the prevarication of sible
Adam, being
prevarications,
and physical constitution being
so, it is clear
the greatest of
all
pos-
should and did alter his moral in
a radical manner
he should transmit to
;
us,
and
this
with his
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
22a
blood, the ravages of his sin,
commit It
those
it
and the predisposition to
actually.
follows from
who deny
what we have
the
dogma
said, that in reality
of the transmission of sin
they do not at the same time deny
effect nothing, if
what cannot be denied without evident foolishness and madness ^viz., that a fault, when it is great, leaves behind it a trail in the constitution and in the organism of man,
—
and that organic and constitutional trail is transmitted from one generation to another, corrupting them all in their constitutional and organic essence.
Nor
there
is
more progress made by those who, denysin, deny the dogma of impu-
ing the transmissibility of
tation or the transmission of the penalty
;
for the very
thing which they remove from themselves in quality of penalty,
comes down on them with another name
name which we
the
—with
Let us grant the misfortunes are not a penalty which carries with it
of misfortune. suffer,
the idea of a voluntary determination on the part of him
who
inflicts
It will still
it.
always
result, that in
every
supposition our great misfortunes are equally inevitable and certain
:
those
who do
not admit them as a
legitimate consequence of sin, are obliged to admit
them
as a natural consequence of the necessary relations which exist
between causes and their
effects.
According to
this system, the radical corruption of their nature
was a
penalty on our
Their
first
parents, voluntary sinners.
voluntary disobedience deserved the penalty of the corruption which was imposed on them
Judge.
That same corruption
is in
by an
incorruptible
us a misfortune, as
AND
LIBERALISM, it is
SOCIALISM.
221
not imposed on us as a penalty, but comes to us in our
quality of heirs of a nature radically corrupted.
that misfortune
is
lamentable,
so
that
God
And
himself
could not decree our exemption, without altering the
law of causality which
is in things, by means of a porThat miracle was wrought in the plenitude of time in a manner so convenient and so elevated, by ways so secret, by means so supernatural,
tentous miracle.
and by counsel so sublime, that the unutterable work of God should be scandal for some and madness for others.
The itself
The
transmission of the consequences of
sin,
explains
without any kind of contradiction or violence.
first
man came on
able privileges
:
the world adorned with inestim-
his flesh
was subject
to his will, his
which received
will to his understanding,
the Divine Understanding.
If
our
first
its
light
from
parents had pro-
created before they sinned, their children would have participated,
nature.
To
by way
of generation, of their uncorrupt
prevent things happening thus, a miracle
would have been necessary on the part of God, as that transmission could not be impeded, except
by changing
the law, in virtue of which everything transmits what
it
has to another, in virtue of which a being could only transmit what precisely
it
miserable rebellion, our
has not.
first
Having
fallen into
parents were justly de-
spoiled of all their privileges, and their spiritual union with
God, with
whom
they were united.
converted into ignorance,
As
all their
Their wisdom was
power
into weakness.
regards the original justice and grace in which they
were created, they were completely removed from them,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
222
their flesh rebelled against their will, their will against
their understanding, their understanding against their will,
their will against the flesh,
will,
and
and
their flesh, their
their understanding against that magnificent
God, who had placed them this state
is
it
in
such magnificence.
In
clear the father could only transmit
by
generation what he possessed, and that the son should
be born ignorant from ignorant, weak from weak, cor-
God from
rupted from corrupted, separated from
sepa-
rated from God, infirm from infirm, mortal from mortal,
To have him
rebel from rebel. rant, strong
born wise from igno-
from weak, united to God from separated immortal from mortal
from God, healthy from
infirm,
submissive from rebel,
were necessary to change the
law
which
in virtue of
in virtue of
it
like
engenders
like, into
another
which contraries should engender contraries.
It is easily seen,
from what we have
said, that natural
reason reaches the same term as the dogma, though
by a
There are speculative differences
different route.
between them, there are no practical differences ,
measure the immense distance there
is
it
sterility of
the
we
absolutely necessary to extend
is
the view beyond that
to
between the
natural and supernatural explanation of the fact are considering,
:
fact.
human
It is
then
we
discover the
explanation, and the extraordi-
nary fecundity of the divine explanation.
This fecun-
dity will be seen farther on with the glare of evidence at present
the
dogma
my
duty
is
to
;
expound and demonstrate
of transmission, which, without invalidating
whatever truth there
is
in the natural
explanation of
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
the fact of transmission, rectifies whatever
incomplete in
Natural reason
what
calls
The dogma
penalty,
and misfortune
inevitable
it is
;
tary on the part of is
is
and
false
it.
fortune.
it is
233
by
calls it it is
:
transmitted to us mis-
is
three
names
a penalty, inasmuch as
God
;
is
it
being a true misfortune, in
a
inasmuch as
fault,
The marvel such a way that it
;
in its
fault,
volun-
it is
voluntary on the part of men.
verted into a blessing
—
a misfortune, inasmuch as
it
in its
is
con-
is
being truly a penalty, in
such a
way
that
a true
fault,
in
fault.
In this great design of God, more than in His
other designs,
also a remedy,
is
it
such a
if
way
that
it
and
in its being
also a blessed
is
possible, shines forth that
sovereign
by which He reconciles what appears irreconcilable, and by means of which He resolves into a
virtue
magnificent synthesis
all
antinomies,
and
all
contra-
dictions.
As
far as regards the fault, the
sists in
when
To
I
this difficult
do not
solve
sin
it is
it,
— How can
can
I sin
I
be a
when an
sinner,
infant?
right to observe, that our first father
was, at one and the species, variety
problem
How
}
whole question con-
same
time, an individual
and unity joined
in
one
;
and as
and a it is
a
fundamental and primitive law that the variety which is
in the unity, should leave the unity in
to
be separately constituted, with the
returning in
which
it
its
in
it
is,
necessity of
ultimate evolution to the unity in
originally resided, hence
which was
which
Adam,
left
it
was that the species
Adam by
generation
to
£SSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
224
become separately constituted. But as Adam was. an individual at the same time that he was a species, it necessarily resulted that Adam was in the species in
way he was
the same
individual.
in the
When
the
individual and the species were one and the same thing, Adam was that very thing; when the individual and the species were separated to constitute unity and
Adam
was those two things separated, in the same way as he had been those two things joined in one. There was then an Adam individual and an
variety,
Adam
species
and as the
;
Adam
separation,
and as
individual
nature and
resulted that one
now,
if
sin
took place before the
sinned conjointly with his
with his collective nature,
and the other were
the individual
Adam
Well
sinners.
died, the collective
Adam
has not died, and not having died, he preserves his
As the
the collective
same
because
thing,
it is
Adam human
nature
is
perpetually culpable,
sinful.
Applying these principles to the case
human
Adam, who
that
is
tually in every man,
in question,
we
nature, being in every individual,
same human nature, lives perpelives in him with what constilife sin. Now we can more easily
and
—
Adam's lasting comprehend how sin can
tutes
When child,
sin.
and human nature are one and
perpetually
see clearly that
it
I
am
because
exist in the child just born.
am a am Adam
born, I I
;
sinner, in spite of I
am
being a
a sinner, not because
I sinned actually, when I was Adam, and was an adult before I was a child, and had the name I have. When Adam came from
I
sin
called
now, but because
LIBERALISM,
I
God
SOCIALISM.
I
was
in him,
come from
the
womb
the hands of
when
AND
and he of
me
in
is
my
225
being able to separate myself from his person, separate myself from his sin
such a
in
way
There
something
is
him, something by which
in
I
am
I
me
in
am
Adam in
which
an is
distinguished
my
from him, something which constitutes
not
cannot
him
as to be confounded with
absolute manner.
not
and yet
;
I
now,
Not
mother.
individual
me from what I am most which constitutes me individual variety, and that like relatively to the common unity, is what I have received and which distinguishes
unity, ;
and have from the father who engendered me, and from the mother who had me in her womb. They have not given me the human nature, which comes to me from God, through Adam, but they have put the family seal and stamped their figure on it they have not given me ;
my
being, but the
less to
manner
the greater, that
is,
in which I am, adding the what distinguishes me from
others, to that
which assimilates
particular to the
common, the
me
others
to
individual to the
—the
human
;
and as that which is human and which assimilates me to others is what is essential in him, and what is individual and distinctive is no more than an accident, it
Adam, what
follows that having from God, through
constitutes his father,
and from
essence,
what constitutes
his form, there
considered on the whole,
own With
his
itself
God, through his
is
is
no man who,
not more like
Adam
than
father.
regard to the penalty, the question
from the moment
it
is
is
solved of
ascertained that the fault
P
SSSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
226
is
transmitted to me, as the one cannot be conceived It is just that I
without the other. if it
am
certain that I
is
matters what
is
just
misfortune which
and as
culpable;
necessary,
is
should be punished,
Penalty and mis-
necessarily a penalty.
is
fortune,
which are different things
in the
human, are
Man
identical in the divine point of view.
gives the
of misfortune to the evil produced in quality of
and penalty
inevitable effect of a secondary cause,
the
these
without ceasing to be a mis-
I suffer,
fortune,
name
in
follows that the
it
which a
evil
being voluntarily imposes on
free
another in punishment of a voluntary fault
and as
;
by the
everything that happens necessarily happens will of
to
God, at the same time that everything happening
by His will happens necessarily, it follows that God is the Supreme equation between the necessary and the voluntary, which, though distinct for man, are in
one and the same.
You
view every misfortune
how
see
is
Him
in the divine point of
always a penalty, and every
penalty a misfortune.
From what we have
already said,
we
see
how
great
is
the error of those who, without marvelling at the mysterious analogies
and the secret
established between fathers at those
same
analogies,
Adam
and
affinities
established
which God has
their- children,
wonder
and those selfsame mysterious
by God between
his miserable
can understand, nor
affinities
and
descendants.
reason
reach,
nor
the
No
rebel
intellect
imagination
dream
of,
of the
bond placed by that same God between
the strength of the
link
and the lightness all
LIBERALISM,
men and and
who
in us all
awful sphinx,
;
who
culty from every point of view.
fathom with with his
22j
who
dies
figure
and
species,
and symbolical,
real
is
body and shadow, who had us
essence, is
and
plural, individual
survives,
who
SOCIALISM.
that one man, at once unity and collection,
and
singular
AND
in him, and
all
presents a
And
as
new
man
diffi-
cannot
his reason, nor with his imagination, nor
intellect,
what there
singularly
is
complex and
mysteriously obscure in that nature, neither can he measure, though he bring play, the sins
immense distance that
and the
man
sin of that
found malice and in
Adam
its
him
like
between our its
His
sin,
pro-
After
Adam, and no one
end of time.
to the
exists
unique, like him, in
incomparable greatness.
no one has sinned
sin like
the powers of his soul into
all
will
participating
of the nature of the sinner, was at once one and various,
because posse
;
it
was a
with
stain again,
cence. sins
We
it
Adam
left
who
sin
and
all
a stain on what no
on the pure whiteness of
on top of
Adam
single sin in reality,
sins in
man
can
his purest inno-
now, do nothing more by heaping than place stains on top of stains
sins,
;
snowy plain. Our evil, and our sins a great being a nature damaged greater evil, that compound is not wanting in a certain alone could obscure
beauty of
mony
relation,
which there
the
which springs from that secret haris
between the peculiar foulness of
and the peculiar foulness of the nature of man. Foul things can be harmonised among themselves as and when this happens, there well as beautiful things sin,
,
is
no doubt but
that'
what
is
essentially foul in things,
is
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
228
tempered
in
some measure by what This
concerted in them. reason
why
harmonious and
physical ugliness always appears to diminish
Old age
with years.
is
not a thing that
ugliness, as ugliness loses
what
behold,
to
is
sits
repugnant
in
badly on it,
when
Nothing, on the contrary,
harmonised with wrinkles.
more sad
is
undoubtedly must be the
and nothing more horrible
is
to
imagine, than old age painted on the face of an angel,
wedded to the spring-time of life. who were handsome, and who when grown old or ugliness
Women preserve
a relic of what they were, have always appeared to horrible
Who
ing, first
No for
;
;
beauty
and
is
something
in
God made to be separated made beauty for old age, nor old age
time the things which
God
me
me which keeps screamwas the wretch that dared to unite for the
there
has not ;
Lucifer
is
Adam among
decrepid and
foul,
.''
the only one amongst the angels,
men,
with
all
who that
all that was was resplendent and
united
beautiful.
CHAPTER
II.
How God draws good from sin and penalty, and from
the
purifying action of pciin, freely accepted.
Reason, which
rebels against the penalty
and the
sin
transmitted to us, accepts, though not without repugnance, all that was transmitted, if it drops its own proper name, and takes that of inevitable misfortune. And yet
— LIBERALISM, it
were not
difficult to
AND
SOCIALISM.
229
demonstrate to evidence, that
this
misfortune could not become converted into a blessing
except on condition of
we have
being a penalty
its
the necessary consequence, that in
;
and hence definitive
its
result the rationalistic is less acceptable than the dog-
matic solution. Considering our present corruption as merely the physical and necessary effect of primitive corruption,
and that the that is
if
effect lasts as
there be no
long as the cause,
means of removing the
there of removing the
fact,
our present corruption
stitutes us in
is
is
clear
Primitive corruption
effect.
cause of our present corruption
it
cause, neither
—being an accomplished
a definitive fact that con-
a perpetual misfortune.
Considering, on the otherhand, that there can be no
union between the corrupt and incorruptible, that in the rationalistic explanation,
man and God, time,
is
If
ruptible,
between the
if
perpetual corruption of man, there
man And do
then,
is
an invincible
is
re-
In this system,
absolute contradiction.
perpetually shut out from God.
not answer that
man
could be redeemed, for
the logical consequence of this system impossibility of
demption
future
all
human corruption is God is eternally incorincorruptibility of God and the
totally impossible.
and perpetual, and
—an
follows
it
union between
not only in the present, but in
indelible
pugnance
all
for
human
misfortune,
regarded as the penalty of
except sin.
is
precisely the
There
redemption.
is
inasmuch as
Suppress the
the suppression of the penalty follows
no
;
sin,
re-
it
is
and
and with the sup-
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
230
pression of the sin and the penalty, there
is
no remedy
for the misfortune.
The
In
from God,
and
if
of
free will
system.
fact, if
if
he
man is totally inexplicable in this man is born in necessary separation
lives in
earth
man
is
;
"i
sin
and penalty, the will, and
of the redemption, that of man's free
with them for if
man
be no transmission of
If there
from God, what
in necessary separation
he dies
signifies the free will of
dogma
necessary separation from God,
if
all others, fall is
not
free,
to the ground immediately;
he has not the dominion of the
he has not the dominion of the
not united to God through
united to
any way.
God through man,
Man
separate from
another
;
himself,
God
in
if
man
;
earth, the earth
and
absolutely.
in
does not
liberty,
one way, to return to
Him
Him
not united to
it is
he have not
he separates from
be not
if it
Him
God
in
does
not reach him with His goodness, nor with His justice, nor
AH
with His mercy. all its
things in chaos. to
the harmonies of creation vanish,
bonds are broken
So
be the Catholic
chaos
God
in all things,
is
is
concerned.
—the living God
creatures are here below, self
;
far as
and
He
all
ceases
God is up on high, and neither God troubles Him;
about creatures, nor creatures about God.
The
divine consonance of the Catholic
dogmas
shines
more
resplendehtly, than in the admir-
able union they have
among themselves^a union so human reason cannot
forth in nothing
marvellous and so intimate, that
conceive a greater, and finds itself placed in the tremen-
dous alternative of accepting or of denying them
all.
AND
LIBERALISM,
And
SOCIALISM.
i^^i
each of them does not
this consists in the fact that
contain a different truth, but one and the same, the
number of
of
dogmas corresponding exactly to the number
aspects.
its
Nor have we yet exhausted
the consequences that
all
necessarily follow from considering the lamentable mis-
human
fortune of the
the penalty.
penalty
race, abstracting absolutely
If its misfortune
also,
if
little
Adam
that
which we preserve, from the primitive without explanation whatever,
it
preserved, state,
which
being worthy of re-
not justice, but on the contrary mercy,
gleams
followed immediately on
from intervening
in the
His condemnation
Him,
He had
quil repose
—
;
if,
sin.
first it
is,
condemnation which
that solemn
in
and
remains
mark, in contradiction of what would appear at sight, that
from
not at the same time a
only an inevitable effect of a
is
it
necessary cause, the
is
If
God had
abstained
tremendous catastrophe with
when He saw man separated from
turned His back, and entered into His tranin
a word,
He had delivered him
if,
instead of
condemning him.
over to the inevitable consequences
of his voluntary disunion and of his voluntary separation, his fall
would have been irremediable and his perdition That his fall might have a remedy, it was
infallible.
necessary that
God
Himself to him
in
should approach man, by uniting
some way, with
merciful bond.
Penalty was the new bond of union between the Creator
and His
creature,
ously united in
because
it is
it
and mercy and justice were mysterimercy because it is a bond, justice
—
a penalty.
— ESSA yS ON CA THOLICISM,
233
sufferings and pains the idea of you not only destroy the bond between the Creator and the creature, but you also destroy the purifying and expiatory influence their action has on man. If pain is not a penalty, it is an evil without admixture of good whatever if it is a penalty, though it be an
you remove from
If
penalty,
;
evil
from
by the
which
its origin,
is sin,
yet
it
The
purification of sinners.
is
a great good,
universality of sin
necessitates the universality of purification,
which
turn requires pain to be universal, that the whole
in its
human
may be purified in its mysterious waters. This explains why all men born suffer from their birth to their
race
Pain
death. this
the inseparable companion of
is
obscure valley,
filled
Every
our lamentations, and moistened with our tears.
man
is
a suffering being, and everything not painful
strange to him. grieves to see
it
If
;
if
because the future little
he fixes his eyes on the
vanished
the past as bitter
How
in
life
with our sighs, deafened with
;
if
on the is
full
is
is
he
on the present, he bewails
future,
he
feels perturbation,
of shadows
and mysteries.
soever he considers, he discovers that the
past and present and future are
the past
past,
gone, the present
future has not come.
all,
is
The poor
and
all is
nothing
rapidly going, and the
are loaded with fatigue,
the rich with indigestion, the powerful with pride, the
lazy with weariness, the lowly with envy, and the mighty
with disdain.
The conquerors who drive the nations, by furies, and only stumble on
are themselves driven
others because they are flying from themselves.
consumes the flesh of the youth with
its
Lust
impure flames
;
;;
AND
LIBERALISM, ambition takes the youth, lust,
and burns him
made man, from
;
avarice seizes
and ambition abandons him
artificial life called sleepless
cause they do not sleep
absence of
—
233
the hands of
and drives him
in other flames,
other conflagrations jects
SOCIALISM.
;
him when
into
lust re-
she gives him an
old misers only live be-
;
their life is nothing but the
sleep.
Travel the length and breadth of the land, cast your eyes behind and before you, devour space and time,
and you
what
shall find nothing in the
stated here
is
—a pain which And
increasing lamentation.
cepted,
the measure of
is
no greatness without
all
heroes, are they who,
never abates, and an
this pain, voluntarily ac-
greatness, because there
and sacrifice is merely Those whom the world calls
when
transfixed with a sword of
voluntarily accepted the pain with
pain,
Those
whom
accepted
The
of the flesh.
sword.
its
the Church calls saints, are they
all pains,
is
sacrifice,
pain voluntarily accepted.
by
dominion of men, but
those of the
spirit
saints are those
who
as well as those
who, when beseiged
avarice, laid aside all the treasures of the world
who, when
solicited
when burned by were chaste assailed
by
;
by
gluttony, remained sober
lust, holily
who,
accepted the combat, and
who, when entering on the
filthy thoughts,
;
battle,
and remained pure
;
were
who
rose so high by humility that they conquered pride
who, when saddened by another's prosperity, made such
an
effort,
who
as to convert their base sadness into holy joy
flung to earth the ambition which raised
the stars
;
who changed
them
to
their idleness into diligence
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
234
who, when weighed down by sadness, gave a divorce to their sadness,
bill
and rose by a generous
of
effort
who, when enamoured of themselves, renounced their self-love for love of others, and with
to spiritual joy
;
heroic abnegation offered their hfe for
them
in perfect
holocaust.
The human
race has been unanijnous in acknowledg-
ing the sanctifying virtue of pain.
man
Hence we and among
in all times, in all countries,
find that
all nations,
has always paid worship and homage to great misfor-
CEdipus
tunes.
than
is
grander in the day of his misfortune
in the period of his
name
forgotten his
him from
if
glory
;
the world would have
the divine wrath had not hurled
The melancholy beauty
his throne.
in the
countenance of Germanicus comes from the misfortune
which overtook him
in the spring-time of
life,
and from
that beautiful death. he died, far from his beloved country
and the atmosphere of Rome. than a cruel
when he
man when
Marius,
elevated
by
no more
mud
appears grander than
Mithridates
Pompey, and Hannibal than Scipio. knowing why, always inclines to the
Man, without side of the con-
—misfortune appears to him more beautiful than
victory.
Socrates
is
not from having died heroically
hemlock.
Rome
;
owes
life
he lived
immortality comes to him,
known how
—he
The human if
grand by the
less
than by the death he died
with
is
from his lofty eminence into the
falls
of the marshes.
quered
who
victory, is sublime
to
less to
live,
but from having
philosophy than to his
race would have been indignant
she had permitted Cassar to die like other
LIBERALISM,
men
AND
SOCIALISM.
235
—
his glory was so great that he deserved to be crowned by some great misfortune. To die tranquilly in one's bed, invested with sovereign power,
scarcely allowed to a Cromwell.
some other way
died in
Waterloo
:
—he
proscribed
l)een placed in a
tomb
the beginning of
all
him from in
the world
a thing
is
Napoleon should have
should have died conquered
by Europe, he should have him by God from
fabricated for
time
;
a wide trench should separate
—wide enough
for the
ocean to flow
it.
Pain establishes a certain equality between
who
suffer,
which
is
to establish
it
between
all
all
those
men,
for
by pleasure we are separated, by pain united in fraternal bonds. Pain removes the superfluous, and gives us what we want, and establishes a most perfect all suffer
:
equilibrium in
man
:
man
the proud
does not suffer
without losing some of his pride, nor the ambitious
man some
of his ambition, nor the passionate
of his anger, nor the impure
Pain sions.
is
man some
sovereign in extinguishing the
At
the same time that
us, it gives us
it
what ennobles us
man some
of his impurity. fires
of the pas-
removes what injures
—the hard-hearted do
not suffer without feeling themselves more inclined to
compassion, nor the disdainful without feeling more
humble, nor the voluptuous without feeling more chaste. violent become tamed, the weak fortified. No one comes out of that furnace of pain worse than he entered the greater number come out with sublime virtues they knew not of. One goes in impious, and comes out religious another avaricious, and comes out an alms-
The
:
;
!
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
236
and comes out with the gift of tears another heart-hardened, and In pain there is a something comes out merciful. fortifying, manly, and profound, which is the origin of no one has felt its all heroism and of all greatness giver; another without ever having wept, ;
;
mysterious contact without improving
:
the child ac-
quires by pain the vitality of youth, youth the maturity and gravity of men, men the bravery of heroes, heroes
the sanctity of saints.
On
the contrary, whoever abandons pain for delights,
at once
commences
nuous progress.
to descend with a rapid and conti-
From
the eminence of sanctity he
sinks into the abyss of sin, from glory to infamy.
heroism
is
converted into
weakness
he even forgets
yielding,
all
His
— from the habit
about
effort
of
from the
;
habit of falling, he loses even the faculty of rising.
In
delights he loses his vitality, all the powers of the soul their energy,
and
all
In delight there
strength.
is
enervating, which brings with
Woe
to
body
the muscles of the
him who does not
it
silent
and hidden death.
him who does not retreat and fly, when it with its fragrance and flowers, before he to
come, into that trance, akin to death, which scent of
When
its
through
it
aroma of its
!
Woe
invites
it
falls,
him
over-
communi-
flowers and the
fragrance
this
comes out
though
resist its perfidious
sweet voice, like unto that of the ancient syrens
cates to the senses with the
their
something corrupting and
happens, he either miserably succumbs, or
totally transformed
:
the child that passes
never becomes a youth, on the youth grow
AND
LIBERALISM, grey
and the old man
hairs,
perishes.
as spoils the strength of his
and
lect,
and extravagantly
grade, he will if
;
fall
in
into
opium
sins,
Rome
title
will
be shocked
and
When God wishes to chastise a He enchains them at the feet of
All those
of Emperor, were voluptuous and
—prostitution
in her
temples and on
death in her squares and on her scaffolds. then,
is,
pleasure, as there
Let
pain.
nameless
if
but the smell of blood.
and death
altars,
There
:
France at the same time worshipped pro-
effeminate.
her
feels
the pretorian guard saluted in imperial
with the
stitution
he
and nothing can rouse them from
of delights,
whom
Cynically
things.
Their senses are besotted with the
rulers.
their stupid state
monsters
cruel,
rein to his voracious appetites
his ferocious instincts.
people for their
leaves there
the virility of his intel-
an eminent position, you
him give loose
voluptuous
Man
237
you place him in a humble the hands of justice and the exe-
passions boil in his blood
to see
will,
loses his instinct for great
egotistical
cutioner
SOCIALISM.
it
something hurtful and corrosive is
in
something purifying and divine
in
not be believed, however, that these two
things,
which are opposed to each other, are not
certain
way
united
;
for as
it
in
a
happens that he who freely
accepts pain feels in himself a certain spiritual delight,
which
fortifies
and elevates him, so
also
he who resigns
himself to delights experiences a pain which, instead of fortifying, enervates
and depresses him.
universal penalty to which
Whithersoever like
a mute
man and
we
are
all
turns his eyes, he
melancholy
statue,
Pain
subject
is
by
that sin.
discovers pain
which he has
;
£SSA ys ON CA THOLICISM,
238
approach
whether we
it,
to the circumference
The God
to the
God
difference
is
from or gravitate to
whom we
to
pain which
gravitate in all our gravita-
this,
that
some pains lead us
of goodness and clemency, others to the
is
By
the children of
is
Adam, who, unable
from that which
How
See, then, the
medicine.
is
medicine, to
is
God
sacrifice
to escape from pain, into that
fall
which
in all
His designs, and
I
discordance of
from
sin,
all
kinds of
From human
sorts of discordance
is
sin
and
the
how evil,
harmony from liberty
all
comes the
degradation of the
from the degradation of the species pain, and at the same time a misfortune in the corrupt and
a penalty in the sinful species. tune,
is
!
marvellous
order from disorder, and
pain
the
madness of
admirable in that divine art of drawing good from
species,
God
we approach
pleasure
and by resignation and
penalty,
the pain which
penalty
it,
rush at
of justice and anger, and others again to the
of pardon and mercy.
fly
to rush
whom we
every step, arid to tions.
and
;
We
circle.
gravitate to the centre or rush
and gravitate to God,
to rush
is
common
Pain has something in
always before him.
with the Divinity, which surrounds us like a
it is
inevitable
as grace
is
;
As
far as
as far as a penalty,
in the
way
it is
it is
redemption, grace
a misfor-
redeemable
is
also in the
the most tremendous act of the
penalty.
In this
justice of
God, becomes the greatest act of His mercy.
Through
it
to himself, tion,
man can, when aided by God, rise superior by accepting pain with a voluntary accepta-
and that sublime acceptation instantly turns the
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
239
penalty into a medicine of incomparable virtue.
Every
negation of this doctrine establishes the disorder intro-
duced into humanity by sin, as leads to the negation of
it
necessarily,
some of the
of God, and to the radical negation of If
and
at once,
essential attributes
human
liberty.
the question, considered in this point of view,
concerns the universal order of creation, in the same
same reasons, as the question relative to the human and angelic prevarication considered in a more restricted point of view it concerns, directly and fundamentally, the special order established by God in the various elements of which human nature is com-
way, and
for the
;
The
posed.
voluntary acceptation of pain produces
those great prodigies of which
we
speak, only because
it
has the power of radically changing the whole economy
By
of our being. flesh,
it
is
subdued the rebeUion of the
which again subjects
will is
intellect;
pressed,
by the
by
and
the will
itself to
;
by
it
the
the yoke of the
the rebellion of the intellect
it
it
is
sup-
subjects itself to the dominion of duty
fulfilment of duty
man
and worship of God, from sin.
itself to
overcome, and subjects
;
returns to the obedience
whom
he was separated by
All these prodigies are accomplished by him who,
with generous impulse,, heroically turns against himself,
and does violence to the and to the will to subject intellect to
to
Him by This
is
make
it
flesh to subject it to the will, it
to the intellect,
operate in
God and
for
and to the God, united
the bond of duty.
not the occasion to mention the conditions
and assistance with which the human
will
can
rise to
ESSA YS ON CATHOLICISM,
240
an
effort
so
concerns us
What
supernatural and sublime. is
here
to establish the fact, that without this
elevation on the part of the will, manifested in the
voluntary acceptance of pain, that sovereign
harmony
and that wonderful concert, that God established and in all his powers, could not be restored.
CHAPTER Dogma
of solidarity
in
man,
III.
— Contradictions
of
the Liberal
school.
Every one in
of the Catholic
marvels.
The human
dogmas
is
a marvel, prolific
from one to
intellect passes
another as from one to another evident proposition, as
from a principle to
its
legitimate consequence, united
by a bond of most rigorous deduction. And every new dogma discovers to us a new world, and in each new world the eye rests on new and extensive horizons and at sight of those most extensive horizons, the mind is astounded at the extent of the magnificence together
;
it
discovers.
The
Catholic
universal
facts,
dogmas explain by and these very
explain the Catholic dogmas.
explained by what
various
is
what
various, the contained
is
container
by
the contained.
is
their universality all
facts,
In this one,
in
their
turn,
way what
and what
is
is
one by
by the container, and the The dogma of the wisdom
and providence of God explains the order and marvel-
,
LIBERALISM, lous concert of
all
AND
SOCIALISM.
241
things created, and this order and
concert give the explanation of the Catholic dogma.
The dogma
human
of
by
attested
all
dogma
and
same
this
traditions, serves as a
The
the dogma.
to explain the
liberty serves
primitive prevarication,
Adam — a
prevarication of
as well as a traditional fact
prevarication,
demonstration of
—
harmony
great disorders which disturb the beauty and
of things
and those very
;
divine
fully explains the
disorders, in their evident
manifestations, are a perpetual demonstration of the
prevarication of is
The dogma
Adam.
us there
is
no
evil
which does not resolve
negation of a divine affirmation. that evil
is
tells
itself into
The dogma
a
proclaims
accidental and good substantial, and facts
demonstrate that there in
teaches that evil
a negation and good an affirmation, and reason
is
no
evil
which does not consist
a certain vicious and disordered manner of being, and
no substance which
dogma
is
not
relatively perfect.
God draws
The
good from and perfect order from absolute disorder, and we have seen how all things tend to God, though in different ways, and by their union with God constitute the universal and supreme order. affirms
universal
that
universal
evil,
Passing from the universal to the
human
order, the
connection and harmony, on the one side, of the dogmas
among
dogmas
themsefves, and on the other, of the
with the
facts,
are no less evident.
The dogma which
teaches the simultaneous corruption in individual
and of the
Adam
of the
species, explains to us the trans-
mission by generation of the sin and
its effects
;
and the
Q
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
242
antithetical, contradictory,
we
all
first
and disordered nature which
see in man, leads us from induction to induction,
to the
human
dogma
of a general corruption of the whole
species, then to the
mitted by blood, and
dogma
of a corruption trans-
the
lastly, to
dogma
of primitive
prevarication, which, connecting itself with the
human
liberty given to
dogma
of
man, and that of the Providence
which gave him that junction of the
and concert
liberty, becomes the point of condogmas which serve to explain the order
in
which human things were established,
with those other more universal and sublime ones which
number and measure with which made by the Creator. up the dogmas relative to human order, we
explain the weight and all
creatures were
If we follow
shall see those general laws of humanity,
us
by
their
wisdom and astound us by
which astonish their grandeur,
spring from them, as from a most prolific source.
From
dogma of the concentration of human Adam, united to the dogma of the transmission of that human nature to all men, springs the dogma of the substantial unity of the human race, as a consequence from its principle the human race being the
nature in
;
one, should be also various, according to that law, the
most universal of all laws, by virtue of which everything that is one is resolved into what is various, and everything various into what is one. The human race is one by the substance which constitutes it, and various by the persons who compose it whence it follows that it is one and various at the same time. In the same way, each one of the individuals who compose humanity, :
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
243
being separated from the rest by what constitutes individual,
and united to them by what constitutes
individual
of
the species
—that
substantially
is,
human race, one and The dogma of actual sin
comes, like the
same
time.
dogma
the
and
an
it
an
—be-
various at the correlative of
is
of variety in the species, that of original sin
dogma which proclaims the human race and as a conseother, comes the dogma which
imputation of the
its
substantial unity of the
quence of one and the teaches that
man
is
;
subject to a responsibility peculiarly
and another which he shares
his own, all
it
common
in
with
men.
That
responsibility in
darity, is
common, which
is
called soli-
one of the most beautiful and august revela-
tions of Catholic
By
dogma.
man, elevated
solidarity,
to a superior dignity and a more sublime sphere, living
before and surviving himself, time,
and extended
is
prolonged as long as It consolidates,
as far as space.
to a certain degree creates, humanity,
was void of meaning fies
relationship all
We which
men have
see at once that
dogma
—a word which
in ancient societies,
the substantial unity of
human
and
but
nature,
now
signi-
and the close
with each other.
what human nature gains
in this
same does man gain in nobility, of what happens in the communist
in grandeur, the
is
the reverse
theory of solidarity, of which
we
shall
According to that theory, humanity
speak hereafter.
is
not solidarious
in the vast aggregate of all
men who
but in the sense that
it is
an organic and living unity
men, who
serve, instead of constituting.
which absorbs
all
are
by nature
one,
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
244
The dignity to which the species is raised by the Catholicity does CathoHc dogma reaches individuals. not elevate its lofty level on one side to lower it on the it.
other, nor has
it
discovered humanity's
titles
of nobility
humble man, but one and the other are conjointly elevated to the divine grandeur and its sublime heights. When I fix my eyes on what I am, and regard myself as in communication with the first and with the last of men, and when I view my work, and see my action survive me, and in its perpetual prolongation become the cause of other and other actions, which in their turn survive and are multiplied to the end of time when I to
;
think that in
my
all
those joint actions, which have their origin
action, take
body and a
voice which they take to
what
I did,
and
voice,
acclaim
me, not only for
but for what others did through me, as either
worthy of reward or deserving of death sider all these things, I
myself in
spirit at
hend or measure
Who
but
the level of thing,
God all
all
must say
;
when
myself that
for
I I
con-
throw
the feet of God, unable to comprethe immensity of
my grandeur.
could raise so harmoniously and evenly
things
?
When man
wishes to raise any-
he can never do so without depressing what he
does not
raise.
raise himself
In the sphere of religion he cannot
without depressing God, nor
depressing himself; in politics he
homage social
raise that
to liberty, without denying
spheres he
God
without
unable to render
is it
to authority
knows nothing beyond
;
in
sacrificing
society to the individual, or individuals to society, as
we have
seen, perpetually fluctuating
between com-
— AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
245
munist despotism and the anarchy of Proudhon. has ever attempted to maintain
by
all in their
amount of peace and
establishing a certain
between them, the balance
in
If
proper
he
level,
justice
which he weighed them
has immediately fallen in fragments to the earth, as
if
there were an irremediable want of proportion between
the weight in the scales and the weakness of man.
It
would appear as if God, when constituting him lord of the sciences, withdrew one alone from his jurisdiction the science of equilibrium.
This might serve to explain the absolute impotence to which
parties appear to be condemned and why the grand problem of the harmo-
all equilibrist
in history,
nising of the rights of the State with those of individuals,
and of order with
when
liberty, is still
associations were
first
was cannot keep
a problem, as
formed.
Man
it
things in equilibrium without preserving their being,
nor preserve their being without abstaining from putting his
hand
to them.
Placed and firmly fixed by
their proper positions, every
being, placed and fixed,
is
change
God
in
manner of
necessarily a disequilibrium.
The only peoples who have been free,
in their
at once respectful
and
the only governments that have been at once
moderate and strong, are those in which the hand of man is not seen, and whose institutions were formed with that slow and progressive vegetation, with which everything stable in the dominions of time and history progresses.
That grand power which has been exceptionally God in a special and primitive
denied to man, resides in
£SSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
2+6
Hence everything that comes from His hand comes from it in perfect equilibrium, and everything that is where God placed it, is maintained perfectly Without recourse to examples foreign to the poised. question, the very subject we are treating and enmanner.
deavouring to solve
beyond
truth
The law
of solidarity
human
is
so universal, that
it
mani-
is
and to such a degree that as often as man associates, he falls under
fested in all too,
place this
quite sufficient to
is
doubt.
all
associations
;
Through
his
solidarious union with times past,
and
the jurisdiction of that inexorable law. ancestors he
by the
is in
succession of his
descendants, he enters
times
;
own into
actions,
and through
communion with
his
future
as an individual of a domestic society, he falls
under the law of the solidarity of the family priest or magistrate
he
is in
communion of
;
as a
rights
and
duties, of merits
and demerits with the magistracy or with
the priesthood
as
he
falls
member
of the political association,
under the law of national solidarity
in quality of
And
;
man he
is
reached by
;
and
human
finally,
solidarity.
nevertheless, though responsible under so
many
heads, he preserves whole and intact his personal responsibility, restricts,
which none other diminishes, none other
none other absorbs.
though an individual of a
He may
be a saint
sinful family, incorrupt
and
member of a corrupt society, prevaricator though member of a pure magistracy, and a reprobate though member of a most holy priesthood. incorruptible though
And
on the contrary, that supreme power conferred on
LIBERALISM,
AND
him of withdrawing from his sovereign will, in
a general
rule,
no way
all
of
effort
alters the principle, that as
and leaving
his liberty intact, a is
born,
man
which, even after they
all nations,
lost the track of the divine traditions, retained
knowledge of
law of
this
knew
grandeur, they instinctively
where
totally ignorant of
As
broad foundations.
had
it
the
all
deep roots and
its
;
if
to the people of God, the
they were unable to
human
of this law to the
its
of the unity of the
others could have no idea of humanity, one and darious however,
its
law, but were
this
dogma
known only
race was
a
Although they did
solidarity.
not raise their mind to the contemplation of
human
is
and the society
the prolongation of historic time this has been
the universal belief of
had
247
by an
solidarity
what the family is in which he in which he lives and breathes. In
SOCIALISM.
soli-
make application
race with which they were
unacquainted, they acknowledged and even exaggerated it
in all their political
The
and domestic
associations.
by
blood,
but even of those
other
idea of the mysterious transmission
not only of the
physical,
qualities which exist exclusively in the soul, sufificient to
explain
all
the institutions of the ancients,
as well domestic as political and social.
very
idea of solidarity,
mitted to those to
that they
same
many
whom
in
it is
are in
is in itself
inasmuch as
common,
all
This that
is
is
the
trans-
constitutes the unity of
transmitted
;
and
communion among
as to say they are solidarious.
to say of
themselves,
When
many is
the
the idea of
the transmission of physical and moral qualities prevails
— ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
248
among a
people,
aristocratic.
institutions
their
Hence
necessarily
are
whom
ancient peoples in
all
the
when by its general, and we might character, when applied to all men, were constituted. The more glorious races applied to certain social
exclusiveness of the idea,
groups, was not tempered
say democratic, aristocratically
conquered and reduced to slavery the inferior races
among
;
and
the families which composed the constitutive
groups of a
race,
power was seized on by the one which
boasted the most
glorious
The
ancestors.
heroes,
before entering on the fight, raised to the skies the glory of their illustrious lineage.
Cities
domination in their genealogical all
antiquity, believed
sion.
Aristotle, with
tree.
some men were born
and with the necessary
and these
founded their right to
qualities,
qualities conjointly
Correlative with this
command,
to
and received that right
by hereditary
common
belief
transmis-
was another
that there were races cursed and disinherited, incapable
by generation any and consequently condemned to of transmitting
quality or legitimate
any right, and per-
The democracy of Athens was no more than an insolent and tumultuous aristocracy, served by enslaved multitudes. The Iliad of Homer encyclopaedic monument of pagan wisdom is the history of the genealogies of the gods and heroes considered petual slavery.
—
:
thus,
it is
nothing but the most splendid of
all
peerage
lists.
This idea of solidarity only disastrous inasmuch as various social, political,
among it
the
ancients
was incomplete.
and domestic
solidarities,
was
The not
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
being hierarchically subordinated to the darity, all,
which regulates and
limits,
249
human
because
soli-
embraces,
it
could produce nothing but wars, perturbations, con-
flagrations,
and
Under the
disasters.
pagan
rule of
soli-
human race was constituted in a state of and permanent war and hence antiquity pre-
darity, the
universal
;
sents no other spectacle to our view but the destruction
of nations by nations, kingdoms by kingdoms, races by races, families
by
families,
and
men
gods combat with gods,
by
cities
The
cities.
with men, and often one
and the other sound the note of war, and men and the immortal gods come to blows. Within the walls of the
same
city there
no solidarious association which does
is
not aspire to exercise a domineering and absorbing action,
over
first
own
its
personality of the child father, is
individuals,
In the domestic
other associations.
is
and then over association
and that of the wife by the husband
converted into a thing
;
into tyranny.
and of the
Above
the child
:
the wife, subject to perpetual
tutelage, sinks into perpetual
master of the child
the
absorbed by that of the
and the
father,
wife, converts his
power
infamy
;
the tyranny of the father
tyranny of the State, which embraces
in
is
the
common
a
absorption the wife, the child, and the father, de facto annihilating the
domestic society.
among
the ancients
of war
made on
is
Even
patriotism
nothing more than a declaration
the whole
human
race
by a
caste con-
stituted into a nation.
Coming now from see,
on one
past ages to the present,
side, the perpetuity of
we
shall
the idea contained in
^^^^KS-
2SO
ON
CATHOLICISM,
the dogma, and on the other, the perpetuity of
ravages whenever
it
wanders
its
entirely, or in part from,
the Catholic dogma.
The
same time denies and admits absurd whether it
denies
orders
—
human
it.
In the
ever
place,
political
by denying the hereditary and the
sin,
dogma and maxims which
exclusive foundation of this
by proclaiming
is
first
and
solidarity in the religious
in the religious order,
;
which
is
the
in the political
contradict the
of peoples; amongst others especially the
solidarity
maxim
and
solidarity,
admits or denies
it
transmission of the penalty
order,
and the
Liberal and Rationalist school at one
non-intervention and
of
its
that
correlative,
every one should take care of himself, and have no solicitude
for
the affairs
of
his
These
neighbour.
maxims, which are one and the same, are nothing but pagan egotism, without the
virility
of
people indoctrinated with the enervating
its
hatred.
maxims
school, will call others strangers, because they
A
of this
have not
the courage to call them enemies.
The
Liberal and
solidarity,
Rationalist school
inasmuch as
the legal aptitude of
and
all
all
denies family
proclaims the principle of
it
men
to attain all public offices
the dignities of the State, which
is
a denial of
the action of ancestors on descendants, and the com-
munication of the qualities of the former to the
by
hereditary transmission.
denies that different
transmission,
ways
—
first,
identity of nations
;
But
latter,
at the very time
acknowledges
it
it in two by proclaiming the perpetual and second, by proclaiming the it
;
!
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
The
hereditary principle in monarchy.
251
principle of
national identity either signifies nothing, or
there
and
disasters, of talents
means
and aptitude between past gene-
and the present, the present and the future
rations
and
it
a community of merits and demerits, of glories
is
this
community
is
totally inexplicable, unless con-
On
sidered as the result of hereditary transmission.
the other hand, hereditary monarchy, considered as the
fundamental institution of the State,
and absurd
institution
virtue of transmission
a contradictory
is
whenever the principle of the
by blood, which
principle of all historical aristocracies,
is
is
the constitutive
denied.
the Liberal and Rationalist school, in
its
Finally,
repugnant
materialism, gives to riches communicated the virtue
denies to the transmission
it
the millionaires appears to
it
by blood The rule of more legitimate than the !
rule of the nobles
At
the heels of this ephemeral and contradictory
school all
its
come
the Socialist schools, which, while granting
principles,
Socialists take
deny
all
its
The
consequences.
from the Liberal and Rationalist schools
the negation of religious orders.
human
solidarity in the political
Denying
it
in the religious order,
and they
deny the transmission of the sin and the penalty, and, moreover, the sin and the penalty themselves denying it in the political order, they take from the Socialist and ;
Liberal school the principle of the equal aptitude of
men
for the offices and dignities of the State
advancing
further,
all
but,
;
they demonstrate to the Liberal
school that this principle logically carries with
it
the
a
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
252
suppression of hereditary monarchy, and this entails the
suppression of useless
without
all
monarchy, which,
and embarrassing
much
effort,
not hereditary,
if
a
is
Then they show,
institution.
that supposing the natural equality
of man, that equality carries with all aristocratic distinctions,
the suppression of
it
and consequently the supin which they do not
pression of the electoral vote,
acknowledge the mysterious virtue of conferring sove-
The
reign attributes denied to blood. to the Socialists,
the Pharaohs to
people, according
have not come out from the slavery of fall
and
into that of the Assyrians
and
Babylonians, nor are they so devoid of rights
power, as to drop into the hands of the rapacious rich
family,
Nor does
from the insolent nobles.
after escaping
appear to them
less
it
absurd to deny the solidarity of the
and establish the
Ac-
solidarity of a nation.
cepting the former of these principles, they absolutely
deny the
latter,
as contradictory of
claim the perfect equality of
all
proclaim the perfect equality of
The
;
and as they pro-
all
peoples.
following consequences flow from
being perfectly equal divide
it
men, so do they also
them
into
among
groups,
themselves, as
this.
it is
Men
absurd to
such partition has
no
other foundation but the solidarity of the groups solidarity denied
by the Liberal school
perpetual inequahty logically follows
dissolution theories, in
is
follows
among men.
as the origin of
If this
be
so,
the dissolution of the family.
from the
Liberal
such a way, that without
it,
—
principles
what This
and
those principles
cannot be realised in political associations.
In vain will
AND
LIBERALISM,
you proclaim the idea of equality
body tree,
SOCIALISM. ;
this idea
The
as long as the family remains.
253
cannot take family
is
a
which with prodigious fecundity perpetually pro-
duces the idea of nobility.
But the suppression
of the family carries with
the
it
suppression of property as a necessary consequence.
Man, considered
cannot be the proprietor
in himself,
of the earth, for a very simple reason
proprietorship of
:
a thing cannot be conceived without a certain of proportion possessed,
and between the earth and man there
To
proportion whatever. it
will
be
manner
between the proprietor and the thing
sufficient to
demonstrate
observe that
is
no
this thoroughly,
man
is
a transitory
being, and the earth a thing which never dies or passes
away.
This being
earth should
fall
so, it is
contrary to reason that the
under the proprietorship of men, con-
sidered individually.
The institution of property is absurd
without the institution of the family existence
is
in
it
religious orders.
the reason of
:
its
or in something similar, such as the
The
earth,
which never
dies,
can
fall
only under the proprietorship of a religious or family association,
which never passes away
;
therefore,
on the
implicit suppression of the domestic association,
the explicit of the religious, association,
by the Liberal
or,
and
at least, of the monastic
school, the suppression of the
proprietorship of the earth follows like a logical sequence
from
its
principles.
That suppression
is
so identified
with the principles of the Liberal school, that the latter
has ever inaugurated the period of
its
seizing on the property of the Church,
domination by by the suppres-
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
254
and of entail, without adverting that by seizing on the one and suppressing the others, it did little as far as its principles were consion of the religious orders,
cerned
as to
;
its interests,
The
too much.
in quality of proprietor,
Liberal school,
which
comprehended that as
learned, has never
it
did
anything but
is
it is
necessary
become susceptible of approprithe hands of some one that could per-
for the earth, in order to ation, to fall into
petually preserve
its
proprietorship, the suppression of
entail,
and the
that
can never again acquire property,
it
spoliation of the Church, with the clause is
equivalent to
condemning property with an irrevocable condemnation.
That school has never comprehended that the
earth,
speaking logically, can be the object, not of individual,
but of social appropriation and can only be so under the ;
monastic or the family form of
entail,
perpetuity, are identical, as both one
perpetually.
The
ecclesiastical
and
property, tumultuously proclaimed
with
some time more
in
it,
which, as regards
and the other subsist civil
abolishment of
by Liberalism,
carries
or less proximate, but not
very distant, considering the pace of modern events, universal
now
spoliation.
ignorant of
:
Then
it
will
know what
it
is
that property has no reason of exist-
ence except in the hands of the dead, as the earth, of itself perpetual,
living,
who
When explicit
cannot be matter of appropriation by the
pass away, but
by
the dead,
who
ever
live.
the Socialists, after denying the family as an
consequence of the Liberal school, and the
faculty of acquiring property in the Church, a principle
equally recognised
by the Liberals
as well as
by the
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
25s
deny property as an ultimate consequence of
Socialists, all
AND
these principles, they do nothing more than crown the
work ingeniously commenced by the doctors of Liberalism. Finally, when after suppressing individual property,
communism proclaims
and absolute proprietor of
that the State
all land,
dently absurd in other conceptions,
To be
actual point of view.
it
is
convinced of
universal
is
although
it
is evi-
not so in our this,
we have
only to consider that the dissolution of the family in the
name
of the principles of the Liberal school once
consummated, the question of property lay between
Well now, when the beyond all doubt that the titles
individuals and the State alone.
matter
is
put thus,
it is
of the State are superior to those of individuals, as the
former
is
by nature
perpetual,
and the
latter
cannot be
perpetuated except in the family.
From
the perfect equality of
all
peoples, logically
deduced from the principles of the Liberal Socialists, or rather
consequences families
draws
:
I,
—As from the
perfect equality of all the
which compose the State the Liberal school
in necessary consequence, the non-existence
of
same way and
for
solidarity in domestic society, in the
the same reason, from the perfect equality of in the
school, the
name, draw the following
in their
bosom of humanity
tical solidarity.
necessarily
deny
peoples
results the negation of poli-
If the nation it all
all
is
not solidarious,
that which
family, in the supposition that
is
it is
we must
naturally denied the
not solidarious.
In
the non-solidarious family was denied,
first,
and mysterious bond which unites
the present time
it iii
that secret
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
256
with the past and the future
;
and as a consequence of
this negation, are denied, secondly, its imprescriptable
right of participating in the glories of its ancestors,
communicating to
virtue of
its
its
and
descendants some
same way, it is necessary to deny of a non-solidarious nation what is denied of a non-solidarious family; whence it follows, that
own
reflex of its
with regard to
it
Arguing
glory.
we must
in the
deny, on the one hand, that
it
has any relation with past or future time, and on the other, that
has any right to claim a part of past or
it
What
future glory.
is
denied of the family, logically,
results in the destruction in
man
of that attachment to
the hearth which constitutes the happiness of domestic society
;
by
identity of reason,
what
denied of the
is
nation necessarily results in the radical destruction of that love of country, which, raising
man above
himself,
impels him to daringly undertake the most heroic enterprises.
Whence we for
see that from these negations are drawn,
domestic and for political society, the following con-
sequences
:
—The
solution of continuity in
glory, the suppression of love of family
ism,
which
is
and of
the love of country, and finally,
solution of domestic exist nor
time and
and
political society,
patriot-
the dis-
which cannot
be conceived without that continuity of time
and communion of
glory,
and without being founded on
those great loves.
The
Socialistic schools, which,
than the Liberal, are not quite as first sight,
though more logical
much
so as appears at
do not advance from consequence to conse-
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
quence to our ultimate conclusion, which supposing their premises, not only
The proof of
necessary.
by
pressed
world,
and
however,
what they do not wish
In practice they are yet Frenchmen,
Germans
frontiers.
is,
but absolutely-
in the fact that Socialists,
logic, are in practice
to be in theory. Italians,
it is
logical,
257
theory they are citizens of the
in
;
the world, their country
like
Madmen
they
!
are no frontiers there
is
know
is
without
not that where there
no country, and where there
no country there are no men, although perhaps there be
is
may
Socialists.
Of
the parties contending for domination, the right
of victory belongs to the most logical
;
this is at
once a
and constant fact. Humanly speaking, Catholicity owes her triumphs to
true principle
her
logic.
and an
Even
if
God
universal
did not lead her
by the hand,
her logic would triumphantly carry her to the ultimate
ends of the earth, as
will
appear more clearly in the
following chapter.
CHAPTER
IV.
Continuation of the same subject
— Socialistic
contradictions.
If there be any truth demonstrated it
in
our last chapter,
consists in the affirmation that the Liberal school has
done
nothing but
Socialistic
establish
consequences,
premises which
and the
Socialistic
end
in
schools,
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
258
nothing but draw the consequences contained in the
Those two schools
Liberal premises.
differ
not in ideas,
when the question thus stands between them, it is clear the victory belongs by right to the more daring, and the more daring without any doubt but. in daring
is
:
midway, accepts
that which, without stopping
consequences with the principles.
If this
be
so,
their
there
demonstrated in our
last
chapter, that Socialism has the best of the battle,
and
is
no doubt, as was
that hers
From
is
sufficiently
the palm of victory.
the force of logic paraded
by
it
in its contests
with the Liberal, the Socialistic school has acquired a certain character of being logical
though, to a certain degree, justified
in
;
is
and
not,
consistent, which,
however, sufficiently
being more logical than the most illogical
and contradictory of all the schools, the Socialistic does not effect very much, or rather nothing at all and to :
deserve
its
one hand,
character it
is
it
is
obliged to do more
obliged to demonstrate that
only logical and consistent in a
sistent absolutely in the truth error, its logic
and consistency
:
is
it
is
is
not
but also in an
relative,
absolute manner, and then, that
on the
:
it
and con-
logical
for if it
be only so
in
only a special manner
of being illogical and inconsistent.
There
is
no true
consistency nor logic except in absolute truth.
Well, now. Socialism ditions it
is
:
not one, as
is
is
it
is
in these
its
two con-
contradictory, because
proved by the variety of
symbol of the variety of it
wanting
is
on the one hand,
doctrines
:
its
schools,
on the
other,
not consistent, because, like the Liberal school,
it
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
refuses to accept, although not to the
the consequences of
and
principles are false,
That
own
own
its
its
we saw
its
we
its
being
political society
negation of
was content with accepting the
all solidarity, it
dissolution of domestic
There are those who believe that Socialism
society. will
be ruined because
but
I
am
it
asks and demands too
of opinion that the contrary
destruction will arise from
ing too
In
little.
change
their
name
name should be
whole course of
—not
;
the case, and
asking and demandlogical in the
by asking that people should In
can well conceive that the
I
one, as the nation
one, in the
is
That France should be by Louis Philippe and Clovis,
history.
the nation governed
much
every succeeding generation.
the system of solidarity, national
its
is
what would be
fact,
present case was to begin
ceivable
all
finally, its
the consequences of
remarked that the dissolution of
its
degree,
and
:
former chapter, when
all
in the
a logical consequence of
same
principles
consequences absurd.
does not accept
it
principles,
259
only conceivable, but natural
called is
con-
—and
not
only natural, but necessary, supposing the system which
upholds French
and
solidarity,
and
glories of past
generations.
But
it is
and communion of
present, of present
disasters
and future
inconceivable and contrary to the
nature of things, in the system which cuts the thread of glory and time at every generation.
there are as
many
families
In this system
and peoples as there are
generations, and logic requires in this case, that as the
representative
names
follow the vicissitudes of the things
represented, with every change of generation there should
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
26o
be a corresponding change
names of peoples and
in the
That the absurd competes here with the grodeny but that the grotesque and
families.
tesque, no one can
;
the absurd are rigorously logical, no one can question,
and these are precisely the two things which should Socialism must freely ac-
be invincibly demonstrated. cept the death logical
it
has to
choosing between the
die,
il-
and absurd.
The
Socialistic,
demonstrated without
much
effort
against the Liberal, school, that the family, political, and religious solidarity
once denied, national or monarchi-
be admitted and on the conwas absolutely necessary to suppress in the national public code the institution of monarchy, and
cal solidarity could not trary, that
;
it
in the public international
code the constitutive
But those same
ences of peoples.
differ-
Socialistic schools,
with a contradiction of which there
is no example in and absurd as it is, immediately recognise the highest, the most universal, humanly speaking, the most inconceivable, of all soli-
the Liberal school, contradictory
darities, viz., the
equality,
and
men, either darious.
human solidarity. The banner of liberty,
fraternity, as the
common patrimony of all men are soli-
signifies nothing, or that all
The
recognition of that solidarity, separated
from the others and from the religious teaches and explains
it
to us,
is
an act of
dogma which faith so super-
natural and heroic, that I myself cannot conceive
accustomed as
I
am
to believe
what
I
it,
do not compre-
hend, as a Catholic.
To
believe in the equality pf
all
men, when we see
— AND
LIBERALISM, unequal
theiri all
that there
is
when a
common mass of
men
glories
and misfortunes;
when
born,
humanity, when
I
;
to believe that all
history tells all are enemies
for all
believe that
parts
all
myself the centre of
all
am
I
referred to
referred to
is
when
centre,
and
;
men
to believe
misfortunes and of glories
believe
to.
my
is
;
see
see nothing but individual
I
know humanity
humanity
261
when we
to believe in liberty,
;
slavery established in are brothers,
SOCIALISM.
I
me
;
to
constituted
finally, to believe that I
should believe these things, when they are proposed to
me by
those
my own
who
me
tell
that
should believe only
I
reason, which contradicts all those things they
propose to me,
is
an absurdity so stupendous, an abbera-
tion so inconceivable, that
I
stand mute and astounded
in its presence.
My astonishment
increases
when
observe that those
I
who affirm human solidarity, deny that of the family, which is
to affirm that enemies are brothers,
should not be brothers
political,
with those
my
which
is
affirm
who
little
affirm
all in
human
common
solidarity
human
before denied the
to affirm I have nothing in
own, and
who
that those
;
same who a
solidarity are the
and that brothers
common
with strangers
deny
religion,
all this I
deduce
Socialistic schools illogical,
in legitimate
that
though
the former cannot be explained without the latter
from
;
;
and
consequence that the
are at once illogical and absurd
because after demonstrating against the Liberal
school that some solidarities cannot be accepted while others are rejected, they
ing one amongst
all,
fall
into the
same
error, accept-
—absurd.
and rejecting the remainder
£SSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
263
because precisely the one they proposed to
a point of reason but of
comes to
me
faith,
from those
who deny
the imprescriptable
is
not
and proclaim empire and
faith
right of reason
me
this proposal
and because to
sovereignty.
The
Socialistic schools
would be astounded,
if,
on
call-
ing their dogmas into question, the idea occurred to us
categorical question
sion that
And
men
categorical answer to this
them a
of demanding from :
— Whence do you draw the conclu-
are solidarious, brothers, equal and free
yet this question, which
licity,
obliged as
asked
it,
alistic
of
is
all
more
it
valid
answer everything that
still
certainly to
is
against the most ration-
drawn from
history.
that which
and
lends
If history
some support to any philosophical system, liberty, the equality
?
valid against Catho-
Those abstract forms have not
schools.
certainly been
to
is
is
is
it
not
proclaims the solidarity, the fraternity of the
human
race,
but rather to that one nervously articulated by Hobbes,
according to which universal, incessant, and simultaneous
war
is
Man
the natural state of man. is
scarcely born
when he appears
to the world through the mysterious
to have
come
power of a malicious
and charged with the load of an inexorable condemnation. All things raise their hands against him and he raises his angry hand against all things. The conjuror,
first
breath of air that blows on him, or the
light that strikes him,
external things.
is
the
first
first
declaration of
ray of
war by
All his vital powers rebel against the
pressure of pain, and his whole existence
is
concentrated
LIBERALISM,
AND
in a sob.
The
this point
and moment death
who
greater
SOCIALISM.
263
number do not exceed this, for at seizes them the minority ;
sucessfully resist, begin to tread the
way
of their
dolorous passion, and after continual war and various issues,
stumble into the ultimate catastrophe, faint from
and broken down by their sorrows. The them avaricious and cruel it demands from
their efforts
earth
is
them
that sweat which
the
to
life it
;
is
their
takes, scarcely distils a
and
exchange
for
drop of water from
its
life,
in
fountains to assuage their thirst, and a mouthful of food
from
its
their
life,
stores to appease their hunger.
not that they
live,
It
life
is
prolongs
but that they
Tyrants prolong the
continue their sweats. slaves only because
may
life
may
of their
necessary to prolong their
Wherever men gather together, the weak
services.
fall
under the tyranny of the strong.
A woman, remarkable for her talents, desiring to give proof of her ingenuity, began to think one day what
would be the greatest of strange paradoxes, and she found none greater than that which affirms with calmness that slavery is a thing of modern, and liberty of ancient date.
through force
Whether she came to believe it herself of repetition, I know not there is no :
manner of doubt, however, that the world believed it from her, and what was more, was very worthy of believing
it.
although
it is
alistic
cal
As
regards
possible
—^whether
philosopher
and philosophical
human
—what
equality, is
we know
not,
not possible to a ration-
this idea derives its histori-
affiliation
from the division of the
race into castes, of which
some
there be whose
£SSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
264
command, and
office it is to
others to obey, and
The
to
all
idea of frater-
break out into wars and rebellion. nity comes undoubtedly from those long periods of peace and calm which form the golden link of history. And as regards the idea of solidarity, who does not see
whence
comes
it
Romans,
whom
in
foreigners
Who
>.
all
is
ignorant of the fact that the
antiquity
is
condensed, called
and enemies by the same name, which,
suppose, was symbolical of
human
solidarity
I
.'
come to us from history, which condemns and belies them in all its pages, filled with sighs and written in blood, they must come to us either If those ideas cannot
from
events which happened
which precedes reason.
As
all historic
in
regards this latter source, I will merely say,
without fear of contradiction, that pure reason exercised on things of pure reason
;
and
we
fact,
us, requires to
clearness.
cedes
it,
which, existing obscure with respect to
be more closely observed and have
that
As
its
obscurity
may be
light
converted into
regards that primitive age which pre-
all historic
time,
be not revealed to
it is
clear
we cannot know
Supposing
us.
this,
authorised to ask the following question
not what you affirm, from reason, which nor from history, which you
from an age anterior to
known
human
are not dealing with a matter of pure reason,
but with a
thrown on
only
is
that, treating
here of investigating the constituent elements of nature,
age
primitive
that
time, or directly from pure
to you, because
know
:
I
feel
it if it
myselt
— If you is
have
ignorant
contradicts
it,
of,
nor
all historic time, which is unyou go on the supposition that
— liberalism; it
and
socialism.
has not been revealed, whence have you
you have
it
from no one,
why do you
I
add, which
on him who
death on him
inflict
;
.
.
.
And
it ?
afifirm it
speare has told us what your theories are words, words, and nothing but words
265
.
if
Shake-
?
they are
:
but words,
who pronounces and
them.
listens to
This powerful virtue they have from the fact that they are not rationalistic words, which in themselves have
no virtue whatever, but Catholic words, which have the privilege of giving
and taking
life
it
away, of slaying
Those words are
the living and resuscitating the dead.
never pronounced in vain, and ever infuse
terror,
because
no one knows whether they are going to give death,
inflict
omnipotence.
were
falling
although
One
day,
life
or
know how great is their when the shades of evening
all
on the serene and peaceful waters, the Lord
entered into a fragile bark, followed by His disciples,
and when the Lord closed His an impetuous tempest disciples
eyes,
excited
overcome by
sleep,
the waves, and
the
began to pray, thinking they were about to eyes, and pronounced a
The Lord opened His
perish.
few words, which the sea and winds heard with reverence
:
blow.
the sea became calm, and the wind ceased to
And
then turning to His disciples.
He
uttered
other words in their ears, and His disciples were
with great fear
:
Et
tempest was to them Saviour. devils
Lord
timuerunt timore magna.
less terrific
filled
The
than the word of the
Another day, when two men tormented by
came
to the
Lord and implored His
said to the devils.
Go
;
and the
grace, the
devils,
obeying
;
ESSA ri ON CA THOLICISM,
266
men free, and sought an asylum in unclean animals, who cast themselves into the sea, and were buried in its waters. Those who cared the herd, His
voice, left the
full
of dread, through virtue of the divine word, sought
and communicating their terror to the people of that region, they all went to the Lord and safety in flight,
Him
besought
to leave their territory:
—"And
they
them fled, and coming into the city, told everything, and concerning them that had been possessed by the devils. And behold the whole city went
that kept
out to meet Jesus
Him
besought
coasts" (Matt.
and when they saw Him, they He would depart from their The omnipotence of the 33, 34).
;
that viii.
divine word was
more
terrible to the
malevolence of the infernal
When nounced,
spirits.
hear a divine, that
I I
people than the
is
a Catholic, word pro-
immediately look round to see what has
happened, for
I
am
certain that something
must happen,
and that what must happen must necessarily be a miracle of divine justice, or a prodigy of mercy.
be the Church that pronounces if some one else pronounces it, the world
why
it is filled
it,
I
I
If
it
look for salvation
Ask why the
look for death.
with terror and dread,
why
all societies
are disturbed, and hang in suspense like one
who dreams
air is full of
he
To
is
sad and sinister rumours,
about to lose his foothold
ask the world, this
is
and
fall
into
an abyss.
why one madman enter
the same as to ask
trembles when he sees a malefactor or a
a store of powder with a lighted candle, the one ignorant
of,
the other
knowing too
well, the virtue of the
AND
LIBERALISM, candle.
What
SOCIALISM.
has saved the world up to
267
this is that
the Church was in past times sufficiently powerful to extirpate heresies, which, consisting principally in teach-
ing a doctrine different from that of the Church in the words the Church employs, would have long since hurried the world to
its
ultimate catastrophe,
if
they
had not been extirpated. The real danger to human societies commenced on the day the great heresy of the sixteenth century acquired the right of citizenship in
Europe.
Since that, there
is
no revolution which does
not involve for society a danger of death. sists
in
the
fact,
that as they are
Protestant heresy, they are See,
if not,
how they
all
selves with words and
The its
founded on the
all
fundamentally heretical.
establish
and
legitimise
maxims taken from
Sanculotism of the
historic
all
first
antecedents and
This con-
them-
the gospel.
French revolution sought titles
of nobility in the
humble nakedness of the meek Lamb
;
nor were there
wanting those who recognised the Messias called Robespierre his apostle.
From
and
in Marat,
the revolution
of 1830 sprang the Sansimonian doctrine, whose mystic
extravagances formed,
emended and improved.
I
know not what new gospel From the revolution of 1848
sprang impetuously and copiously
all
the Socialistic
doctrines expressed in evangelical words.
Men had
seen nothing of this before the sixteenth century.
do
I
not -wish to say by this that the Catholic world had not suffered great agonies, nor that ancient societies
had not
passed through great changes and transformations
;
I
merely wish to say that those changes were not capable
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
268
of bringing society to the ground, nor those agonies
To-day everything happens the a battle lost by society in the streets of Paris to bring European society to the ground, as if
of depriving reverse suffices
it
of
life.
;
suddenly struck by a thunderbolt morto
i cadde come corpo
;
cade.
Who
does not see in modern revolutions compared
with ancient an invincible power of destruction, which
not being divine, must necessarily be Satanic leaving this subject, I think
important observation here, which reflection of
my
We
readers.
made
that he
Lord
to
in the desert.
God, disfigured to
Eve
faithful report of
in paradise, the
In the suit his
first
;
the
first
second to our
he used the words of
purpose
quoted Scripture, interpreted
Before
will leave to the
I
have a
two of the speeches of the angel of darkness is
?
opportune to make an
it
in his
;
in the
second he
own way.
Would
be rash to believe, that as the word of God, taken in
it
true sense,
its
life, is
power of death explained
God
of
is
the only one which has the power of
also the only one,
is
t
If this
why modern more or
when
were
disfigured, that has the
so, it
would be
revolutions, in
sufficiently
which the word
less disfigured, possess that destruc-
tive virtue.
Returning now to the Socialistic contradictions,
say that
it
is
I will
not sufficient to have denied one after
another religious, domestic, and political solidarity, as I have proved,
and with all
it
human
solidarity
liberty, equality,
which can only find
in
it
and
is
if,
not also denied,
fraternity, principles
at once their reason
and
AND
LIBERALISM, their origin
of
tent^
it
doctrines brings the whole edifice to
follows that Socialism cannot be consis-
beginning with the negation of Catholicism,
if,
does not end in the negation of
when
269
and as the negation of these foundations
;
all Socialistic
the ground,
SOCIALISM.
Sociahsts profess the
dogma
know
I
itself.
human
of
sohdarity,
they do not thereby profess the Catholic doctrine.
know there
is
dogma and
between the one
that
it
that
I
the other
an essential difference, scarcely veiled by the
Humanity, which
identity of name.
in the
eyes of the
Catholic only exists in the individuals which constitute it,
exists in the eyes of the Socialist individually
concretely Catholics
whence
:
it
results, that
say that humanity
is
when
Notwithstanding
contradiction
evident,
is
this,
and
they say
in reality
.
and
although
solidarious,
they appear to say the same thing, different things.
Socialists
the Socialistic
and placed beyoijd
doubt.
all
Although humanity be the universal intelligence served by special groups which bear the name of peoples and families, logic requires that
and through
it
the
be
solidarious
if it
of denying
human
same
obey
all
Hence the
solidarity, or of affirming
and
in
it
and that the groups be
law,
solidarious.
in individuals, in families, if
they should
in the State.
there be one thing evident,
it
is
necessity it
at once
Well, now,
that Socialism
is
incompatible with that radical negation and this absolute affirmation. itself,
is
to
and to
deny
To deny human
solidarity
is
to
affirm the solidarity of the social
itself in
another way.
deny
group
The world cannot
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
270
become subject to the sway of reason. all,
apostlate
law without renouncing
how far its most famous doctors, and he who amongst those who compose its
Hence we above
Socialistic
see
enjoys the greatest renown and fame,
are
M.
from deserving the character of being consistent.
Proudhon, in his contests with those partisans of the
new
gospel
who
and
the
rights,
domestic,
desire the extinction of all individual
concentration political,
civil,
did not require to
make
State
the
in
social,
and
of
all
religious, rights,
great efforts to demonstrate
communism, that is, governmentalism elevated to the extreme, was extravagant and absurd in the prinIn fact, comciples common to the new sectaries. munism, conceiving the State as an absolute unity which concentrates in itself all rights and absorbs all individuals, conceives it as highly and powerfully solidarious, as unity and solidarity are one and the same thing considered in two different points of view. Cathothat
licity,
depositary of the
from unity, which
dogma
makes
it
of solidarity, derives possible
Well, now, as the fundamental point of Socialism precisely the negation of that
communism
contradicts itself when
and recognises ciples
dogma,
it
in practice,
and affirms
it
when
it
it
is
denies
denies
in its applications.
of the family solidarity carries with itself,
it
it
all
government.
is
clear that it
in
theory
it in its
prin-
If the negatior
that of the family
the negation of political solidarity carries with
that of
it
and necessary.
it
That negation proceeds equally
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
i-j\
from the notions Socialists form of the equality and the liberty common to all men, as that equality and liberty cannot be conceived as limited by a government, but simply and naturally by the free action and reaction of
M. Proudhon
individuals on each other. sistent tionist
when he says " :
—
" All
then, as well
by
is
then con-
in his " Confessions of a
men
Revolu-
and free. Society is by the functions of its which means ungovernable. The are equal
nature as
its
destiny, antinomical,
sphere of activity of each citizen being the
result,
on
the one hand, of the natural division of labour, and on the other, of the election he makes of a profession, and the social functions being constituted in such a manner as to produce an harmonic effect, order becomes the result of the free action of all
his
and
hand on me I
to govern
proclaim him
my
me
is
whence
;
absolute negation of government
:
I
every one
draw the
who
puts
a tyrant and a usurper,
enemy."
M. Proudhon is consistent in denying government, he is only so by halves when he indicates this But
if
negation as the last of those which are involved in these Socialistic doctrines.
With the family is denied domestic
solidarity, with government political solidarity
;
but in
the very place he denies those two solidarities, he afSrms, the
with inconceivable contradiction, serves
them
for foundation.
We
that to affirm equality and liberty affirm
human
stop here
;
solidarity.
for at the
Nor does
same time
human,
which
already demonstrated is
the same as to
the contradiction
that he affirms equality
and liberty in his " Confessions of a Revolutionist," he
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
272
denies fraternity in Chap.
me
speak to you insist on
me
mother, respect
me
giving to I
my
We
shall be brothers if be the eldest brother, and you come on this condition :— that society, our common
of fraternity
?
provided that
after
I
my
my
primogeniture and
double portion
;
you
tell
necessities proportionately to
me you
my
by
services
will attend
resources,
and
on the contrary require you to attend to them pro-
portionately to
Whence we
my
labour
solidarity
there
is
otherwise
is
I
cease to labour."
is
double, for
if,
human
contradiction in affirming
when the domestic and
still
when the
;
see the contradiction
on one hand, there
is
book of " Economical
words :—" Do you
Contradictions," in these
it,
of his
vi.
political are denied,
greater contradiction in denying fraternity
principle of liberty
Equality,
proclaimed.
and equality among men
liberty,
and
fraternity
principles which mutually suppose each other,
are
and are
human, the political, are dogmas which are re-
resolved one in the other, as the
and the domestic
solidarities
solved in and mutually suppose each other.
To
accept
some and reject others is to accept what is rejected and reject what is accepted; is at one and the same time to deny what is affirmed and affirm what is denied.
As
regards the question relative to government, the
negation of is
all
government on the part of M. Proudhon
only an apparent contradiction.
ment there
is
If the idea of govern-
not in contradiction with the Socialistic idea,
is
no necessity to deny
between these two ideas, proclaim
in
it is
it
;
if
there
is
contradiction
a notorious inconsistency to
another form the government he denies.
M.
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
273
Proudhon, who denies government, symbol of unity and it in another manner and form, when he recognises and proclaims social unity and solidarity in the following words " Only society,
of political solidarity, recognises
:
that
is,
—
the collective being, can follow
inclination
its
and abandon itself to its free will without fear of absolute and immediate error. This superior reason which is in
it,
and which slowly escapes from
it
through the
manifestations of the multitude and the reflections of individuals,
always puts
The
right in the end.
it
philo-
incapable of discovering the truth by intuition
sopher
is
and
he attempt to direct society, he runs a great
if
own
of establishing his
ideas, inefficient
and
;
risk
insufficient
ever, in place of the eternal
laws of order, and thus
hurrying society to the abyss.
The philosopher requires
something to direct him.
What
be but the law of progress,
and that
humanity as
in its centre
}
"
("
else
can that something
which resides
logic
in
Confessions of a Revo-
lutionist")
Here three things are supposed
—
unity,
solidarity,
and, in a word, social infallibility, precisely the selfsame things which
communism
supposes in the
affirms or
and these others are denied, the capacity and com-
State ; petence of individuals to govern nations, the very thing
Whence
denied in them by communism.
it
follows that
the followers of Proudhon and the communists reach
the same term
by
different roads
and with
human
Government
societies.
infallible
—that
is
it
:
the one and the other
the unity and solidarity of
affirm government,
is
for
one and the other
to say, omnipotent
;
and being S
so,
;
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
274
excludes
all
when
idea of liberty in individuals, who,
placed under the jurisdiction of an omnipotent and in-
Let
government, can be nothing but slaves.
fallible
government reside in the State, symbol of political unity, or in society, considered as a solidarious being,
ever result that government
is
social rights, as well in the first as in the
suppositions.
Whence
it
will
the condensation of
all
second of these
follows, for the individual consi-
dered isolatedly, the most complete slavery.
M. Proudhon, and
is
then, does the contrary of
he, denies solidarity,
and yet supposes
an anarchist, and has a hunger and
He
ment.
is
timid,
it
and appears daring sceptical
is
;
is
he
he
calls
;
is
him-
govern-
the daring
He
is
appears
sceptical in sub-
He solemnly announces
stance and dogmatical in form.
that he
;
;
thirst for
in his phrases, the timidity in his ideas.
dogmatical, and he
says,
he pro-
constitutes tyranny
claims liberty and equality, and
self
what he
altogether contrary to what he appears
going to proclaim new and strange truths,
and he does nothing but makes himself the echo of ancient and discredited errors. That apothegm of his, that property is robbery, has captivated the French It
will
be well
apothegm
From
is
for
by
its
originality
our neighbours to
and ingenuity.
know
that this
of ancient date this side of the Pyrenees.
Viriatus to our
own
days, every robber that takes
to the road, on presenting his
gun at the breast of the traveller, calls him a robber, and takes from him all that he has because he is a robber. M. Proudhon has done nothing but steal his apothegm from the Spanish
;
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
275
As he
robbers, as they rob the traveller of his purse.
presents himself in spectacle to the nations as original,
when he
only a
is
plagiarist, so
when only
apostle of
the past, he calls himself the prophet of the future. principal
artifice
affirms in
consists
words which contradict
Every one
it.
despotism despotism, but M. Proudhon
calls
His
idea he
expressing the
in
it
calls
anarchy
and when he has given its contradictory name to the thing affirmed, he makes war on his friends with the name, and on his enemies with the thing. With the communistic dictatorship which is at the bottom of his system, he scares capital, and with the word anarchy he alarms and drives away his friends the communists; and when he turns his eyes in all directions, and sees the one without power to artifices
consists
though not sustain
who
fly,
and the other already
he bursts into a loud laugh.
ful flight,
it,
is
taking from each
system what,
confound him with those who
quite enough to excite the anger of those
contradict
subscribed
in
sufficient to
in shameAnother of his
by
it
all
;
he has whole pages which might be partisans of order
directed to the turbulent
;
—these
pages are
and others which might be
subscribed by the most fanatical democrats
—these
are
In some he makes a show of the most filthy atheism, and when writing them he intends them for Catholics and others, in fine, might be accepted by the most fervent Catholic, and these he The destines for the ears of materialists and atheists. hand against his to raise pleasure is man's greatest every one, and oblige every one to raise his hand against directed to the friends of order.
;
£SSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
276
When he says that he regards as an enemy whoever wishes to govern him, he reveals only the half him.
of his secret
every one
the other half consists in affirming that
;
who
follows
the world once
and obeys him
his
is
became Proudhonian,
enemy.
If
he, in opposition
to the world, would cease to be Proudhonian
and
;
if
the world followed his example in that, he would hang
himself from the
not
which
first
he met on the road.
tree
after the misfortune of not
if
is
I
the satanic misfortune par excellence, there be
a greater than not desiring to be loved, which
And
Proudhonian misfortune.
mendous in the
know
being able to love,
away
object of divine wrath, preserves
most hidden recess of
being, something of light
distinguishes
him from the
the
is
yet that man, the tre-
his obscure
and
love,
there,
and darkened
something which
infernal spirits
;
although he
is
involved in shadows which are rapidly condensing, he
is
not
all
Declared enemy of
hatred and darkness.
literary as well, as
without knowing
all
moral beauty, he
and morally,
literarily
it,
is
in
all
beautiful
the few
pages he consecrates to the bashful suavity of modesty, to pure
and chaste
and
to Catholic
His style then
magnificence.
majesty and
love,
pomp
rises to
of his subject, or assumes the soft
and pleasing form of freshest
idyls.
Considered isolatedly, M. Proudhon
M. Proudhon
inconceivable.
he appears so
:
he
is
he
is
is
inexplicable and
not a person, although
Though
a personification.
tradictory and illogical as he consistent, because
harmony and
the level of the
is
is,
con-
the world calls him
a consistency
;
he
is
the con-
LIBERALISM, sistency of
dictory
all
exotic
the
principles,
AND
and
modern Rationalism has
SOCIALISM. of
ideas,
of
all
all
277
the contra-
the absurd
premises,
established for the last three
hundred years; and as the consequence contains premises,
and the premises
its
consequence, those
their
M. Proudhon, as M. Proudhon necessarily involves them. For this reason, the examination of the one and of the other gives the same result. All the Proudhonian contradictions are in three centuries necessarily contain
the last three hundred years, and in M. Proudhon are the contradictions of the last three centuries, and both contradictions are concentrated in that, in a certain way,
most notable work of the present age, the " System of Economical Contradictions." Between this work and
and those
author,
its
absolute identity
:
rationalistic centuries, there
the only difference
and forms; the thing represented the
name
on that of time.
This explains
to never be,
He
is
condemned
why M. Proudhon
He
is
be,
to never be original, be-
what
is
there less original
condemned to always because what can appear more original thar
than the consequence so,
names
takes here
and to always appear to
cause, supposing the premises,
appear
in the
an
of book, there the form of man, and farther
condemned original.
is
common
in
is
.''
is
the concentration, in one sole person, of tions of three contradictory centuries
all
the contradic-
.'
This does not mean that M. Proudhon does not seek after true originality.
original all
when he
M. Proudhon wishes to be truly
aspires to formulate the synthesis of
antinomies, and to discover the supreme equation of
;
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
278
contradictions
all
but
;
is
it
precisely here,
where
the manifestation of his individual personality, that
His equation
lies
we
only the begin-
discover his impotence. ning of a new series of contradictions, and his synthesis of a
new series
of antinomies.
the thesis, and
is
Placed between property,
communism, which
which
is
thesis,
he seeks the synthesis
is
the anti-
in non-hereditary property,
without remarking that non-hereditary property property, and consequently his synthesis
because
it
is
is
not
no synthesis,
does not suppress the contradiction, but only
a new manner of denying the conquered thesis, affirming the victorious antithesis.
—which
When,
and
to formulate
comprehend on one hand authority, which is the thesis, and liberty, which is the antithesis he denies government and proclaims anarchy if by this he wishes to say that there is to be no governthe synthesis
to
is
—
ment, his synthesis thesis,
which
antithesis, if
is
which
nothing but the negation of the
is
and the affirmation of the
authority, is
human
liberty
;
and on the contrary,
he means that dictatorial and' absolute government
is
not to reside in the State, but in society, in that case he does nothing, but deny the antithesis and affirm the thesis,
deny
liberty
and
In either case, where
affirm
is
communistic omnipotence.
the reconciliation
M. Proudhon
i"
—where
the
when he is content with being the personification of modern Rationalism, by nature absurd and contradictory and he is weak only when he manifests his individual personality, when synthesis
.'
is
strong only
;
he
is
converted from a personification into a person.
If after
examining him
in his various aspects, I
were
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
279
asked what is the dominant trait of his spiritual physiognomy, I would answer that it is the contempt of God and men. Never did man sin so grievously against
humanity and the Holy Ghost. his heart
struck,
is
sonorous echo.
another
who
it
not he
It is
is in
him,
When
that chord of
ever sounds with eloquent and
who
who speaks then
;
no,
holds him in his bonds,
it
is
who
has possession of him, and throws him into epileptic conit is another who is greater than he, and keeps up a perpetual dialogue with him. What he says sometimes is so strange, and he says it in such a strange way, that the mind hangs in suspense, and knows not if it be
vulsions
a
man
;
who
or a devil
ously or in
As
jest.
speaks, or whether he speaks seri-
regards himself,
if
he could arrange
things according to his caprice, he would prefer to be
taken for a devil rather than for a man.
whichever he be,
it is
Man
or devil,
certain that three centuries of
dam-
nation press on his shoulders with crushing weight.
CHAPTER
V.
Continuation of the same subject.
The
most consistent of modern
of view from which
appears to
me
we have been
to be Robert
open and cynical taries of religious
Socialists, in the point
treating the question,
Owen, when, breaking
into
rebellion against all religion, deposi-
and moral dogmas, he denied duty
at
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
28o
one stroke, by denying not only collective responsibility, which constitutes the dogma of solidarity, but also in-
which
dividual responsibility,
denies
on the dogma of will, Robert
Having denied free
the free will of man.
Owen
rests
and the transmission of
sin,
So
sin.
far,
no one can doubt that there is logic and consistency in but where the contradiction and all these deductions ;
extravagances commence, sin
and
and
free will, afifirms
evil,
when Owen, having denied and distinguishes moral good is
and when affirming and distinguishing
he denies the penalty which
is
these,
their necessary conse-
quence.
Man, according
to
Robert Owen, acts
of invincible convictions.
him, on one side, from his
in
consequence
These convictions come to special organisation, and on
the other, from the circumstances which surround
and as he
is
him
;
not the author, either of that organisation,
or of those circumstances,
it
him
well as the latter, act in
follows that the former, as fatally
and necessarily.
and consistent, but it is all illogical and contradictory and absurd to affirm good and evil All this
is
when human
logical
liberty is denied.
The absurd reaches when our author
inconceivable and the monstrous,
the at-
tempts to found a society and a government in juxtaposition with irresponsible beings.
The
idea of govern-
ment and that of
society are correlative of the idea of
human
Deny
liberty.
affirm
same
all,
one,
and the negation of the
and when you either deny or you do no more than affirm and deny the
others logically follows
thing,
;
and at one and the same time.
I
know
LIBERALISM, not
if
there be in
human
AND
SOCIALISM.
281
annals a more striking proof
of blindness, of inconsistency, and of madness, than that
which
Owen
gives,
when, not
with the extrava-
satisfied
gance of affirming society and government,
after
denied individual responsibility and
he yet goes
liberty,
having
and falls into the inconceivable extravagance of recommending benevolence, justice, and charity to further,
those who, not being responsible or
free,
cannot love,
nor be just, nor be benevolent. The limits which I imposed on myself on commencing this work, prevent
me
from advancing as
wide
far as
might be desirable
Those that we and more than sufficient, to doubt the incontrovertible fact
field of Socialistic contradictions.
have given are
sufficient,
beyond
establish
all
that Socialism, from whatever point of view
consider
it,
contradiction
we may
a stupid contradiction, and nothing but
is
chaos can come from is
for us to place all
in the
its
so palpable, that
it
in relief,
Their
contradictory schools. it
be
will not
difficult
even in these points on which
those sectaries appear to be united and agreed.
there be any negation which
is
common
to them,
If it
is
certainly the negation of the solidarity of the family,
and of
nobility.
tionary and
Once
arrived
here,
all
the revolu-
Socialistic doctors raised their voices
to
deny that community of glories and of misfortunes, of merit and of demerit, which the human race has ever recognised as a fact, between ancestors and descendants in all ages.
Very
well, those
same
revolutionists
and
Socialists
affirm of themselves in practice the very thing
they
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
282
have been denying of others
in
When
theory.
the
French Revolution, bloody and destructive, trampled on all the national glories when, intoxicated with its ;
triumphs,
it
believed itself sure of final victory,
not what aristocratic pride of race seized in direct opposition
that the
with
commenced letters
to
Then
dogmas.
men,
it
was
them-
like ancient feudal barons,
be very scrupulous and careful
of naturalisation
know
I
which was
revolutionists, presenting
most famous
selves to the view of
all its
it,
in their
in giving
My
noble family.
remember that famous question put by the doctors of the new law, to those who presented themWhat selves to them in the white robes of candidature Unfortunate the man who crime have you committed had committed no crime, for he would never see the readers will
—
.'
gates of the capital open for him, in which the revolutionary demigod flashed in awful majesty
!
The human
race had instituted the nobility of virtue, the revolution instituted that of crime.
we have
February,
When
after the revolution of
seen the Socialists and Republicans
divide themselves into categories separated one from
the
other
with the
by formidable
title
tempt and
abysses
of republicans of the
;
when one party
showered conon the other who had only been day following ; when, more fortunate, eve,
ridicule
republicans of the
and consequently more arrogant than proudly said, is is
The
natural in us, and this
coast
all
is
comes
but proclaiming in
others,
to us with the blood full
the prejudices of solidarity?
some
ours, for republicanism
—what
tide republicanism
Examine one by one
all all
LIBERALISM, its
and
schools, each
selves a family,
all
AND
SOCIALISM.
283
struggle to constitute them-
and to lay claim
to the
most noble
In this family group the ancestor
descent.
Simon the noble
Saint
is
in that, Fourrier the illustrious
;
the atheist group, Babeuf the patriot.
common chief, a common a common mission and ;
In
there
all
common
patriotism, a
the groups and
all
in
;
is
a
glory, all
the
by a close solidarity, seek in past ages some personality so noble, so lofty, so exalted, that it may serve all as a bond of union and centre. Some fix families, united
on Plato, the glorious personification of ancient
their eyes
wisdom
;
others, carrying their
mad
ambition to the high-
them on the Redeemer of the human race. Perhaps they might despise Him, being humble but in their insolent pride they do not forget that, humble and poor and wretched as He was. He was a king, and felt the noble blood of kings flowing in His veins. As regards M. Proudhon, the perfect type of est pitch of
blasphemy,
fix
;
Socialistic,
which
is,
in its turn, the perfect
type of
—
human, pride going back on the wings of his arrogance to ages more remote, he seeks his ancestors in those times that bordered on the creation, when the Mosaic On a more institution flourished amongst the Hebrews. opportune occasion
I will satisfactorily
regards M. Proudhon, his nobility
is
demonstrate, as
so ancient, and his
descent so illustrious, that to discover necessary to go
yond the wide tion
still farther,
circle of history,
present,
it
origin
and to beings
and dignity incomparably superior is sufficient for
its
it
is
even to times removed be-
my
to
in perfec-
man.
At
purpose to say that the
'
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
284.
schools
Socialistic
manner
are
condemned
that every one
;
dictory of the one that precedes follows
it
tion of
all
that their conduct
;
their theories,
an irrevocable
in
of their principles
and
is
contra-
is
and of the one that
it,
the complete condemna-
their theories the radical
condemnation of their conduct. It
only remains for us to form a proximate idea of
what the
Socialistic
edifice
would be without those
defects of proportion, which deform
coming under any
what present Socialism
seen
dogmas,
it
may
and prevent
it
is
in
its
from
Having
regular style of architecture.
contradictory
be useful that we briefly examine what
must be when age has stripped it of its contradictions and its inconsistency. Here the method is to take as starting-point, any of the propositions future Socialism
affirmed in
from
common by
all
the schools, arid to deduce
one by one, the consequences which
it,
The fundamental negation of Socialism of
sin,
that grand affirmation which
centre of the carries with tions,
some
it,
Catholic
by way
the negation it
were, the
That negation
of consequence, a series of nega-
social, being.
To go
human,
over that whole
would be a thing impossible, and foreign to our what we have to do is, simply to point out the
purpose
:
more fundamental
The of
affirmations.
is
as
contains.
relative to the divine, others to the
and others to the series
is,
it
sin.
of these negations.
Socialists not only
The
fact,
and the
denied, the negation of
deny
sin,
but the possibility
possibility of the fact, being
human
cannot be conceived without
liberty follows,
sin, or, at least,
which
without the
LIBERALISM, power
human
in
AND
SOCIALISM.
nature of converting
its
285
innocence into
sin.
Liberty being denied, the responsibility of
The negation
be denied. it
the negation of penalty
man must
of responsibility carries with this
;
once denied, the negation
of divine government follows on the one hand, and the
negation of
human government on
the other.
There-
with regard to the question of government, the
fore,
negation of sin ends in nihilism. Individual responsibility being denied, responsibility in
common must be
What
denied.
denied of the indi-
is
vidual cannot be affirmed of the species, which signifies that
human
affirm of
responsibility does not exist.
some what, on one hand, we deny
individually, and,
follows
on the
that once
individual,
other, of all
is
no
of each
collectively,
it
denying the responsibility of the
and that of the
we must deny
species,
This
responsibility of all associations.
there
As we cannot
social, political, or
signifies
the that
domestic responsibility.
Therefore, with regard to the question of responsibility,
the negation of sin ends in nihilism. Individual, domestic, political,
and human responsi-
bility being denied, the negation of solidarity in the
individual, in the family, in the State, follows, as solidarity signifies nothing sibility in
common.
and in the species more than respon-
Therefore, as regards solidarity,
the negation of sin ends in nihilism. Solidarity in
man,
in the family, in the State,
and
iia
the species being denied, we must deny unity in the species, in the State, in the family,
and
in
man, as the
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
286
identity between solidarity
what
is
and unity
is
so complete, that
one cannot be conceived, unless as being
darious, nor
Therefore,
what
is
tegards the question
as
soli-
solidarious unless as being one.
of
unity,
the
negation of sin ends in nihilism.
Unity being absolutely denied, the following negations follow
—that
society,
of humanity, that of the family, that of
The
and that of man.
fact
nothing exists
is,
but under the condition of being one, and therefore
it
cannot be affirmed that the family, society, and humanity exist,
but on condition of affirming domestic,
and human unity
;
negation of these three things must follow. these existences and deny their unity,
not one, they do not exist it is
is
To
affirm
to be guilty
Each of these things must
of a contradiction in terms.
be one, or cannot be at
for
political,
these three unities being denied, the
all; ;
therefore
their very
if
name
they are is
absurd,
a name which does not represent nor designate
anything.
With regard
to the
man,
individual
The
his
negation
man is the only one can exist to a certain degree, without being one and solidarious what is denied by denying his unity follows in a different way.
individual
;
and solidarity, is that in different moments of his life he is one and the same person. If there be no bond of union between the past and the present, and between the present and the future, what follows is that man only exists in the present moment. tion
it
than
real.
is
clear that his existence If I
do not
live in
But is
in this supposi-
more phenomenal
the past, because
it is
past,
AND
LIBERALISM, and because there the past
if
;
is
live in the future,
future does not exist, and because v/ill
not be future
present does not exist, because
afErm
exists
it
existence if
is
united,
and
What
when
more theoretical than
I
it
cannot conceive
it
about to is
that
exist at
in its three
when
I
is
my
for in reality,
;
do not
the past, but something that
is
will exist
am
I
practical
at all times, I
do not conceive time except
I
because the
it
has already past, the result
do not exist
I
time.
is
it
when
only live in the present, and the
if I
;
287
no unity between the present and
do not
I
SOCIALISM.
any
forms
separate them.
not
now ? What
the future, but something that does not yet exist
And who affirm it is
it,
can detain the present a
after
it
has escaped from the future, and before
converted into the past
Therefore to affirm the
.'
existence of man, denying the unity of time, else
?
time to
sufficient
is
nothing
than to give him the speculative existence of a ma-
thematical point.
Therefore the negation of sin ends
in
nihilism, as well in regard to the existence of humanity,
of society, and of the family, as in regard to the exist-
ence of man.
Therefore
with more exactness,
all
necessarily end in nihilism
natural and
those
who
there
is
more
the Socialistic, or to speak
the Rationalistic doctrines
all ;
and there
logical, if we
separate from
God
examine
is it
nothing more well,
than that
should end in nothing, as
nothing beyond God.
Supposing
this, I
am
authorised in accusing present
Sociahsm of being timid and contradictory to deny the Christian God to affirm another god to deny humanity ;
;
under one aspect, to affirm
it
in a
different point of
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
288
view
to
;
certain forms, to
deny society with
subsequently affirm
with different forms
it
family on one hand, and to affirm
;
to
come to deny the
on the other
it
to
;
a certain way, to afterwards affirm him in a different or contrary way all this 'is to enter on the
deny man
in
:
path of timid, contradictory, and cowardly transactions.
and nothing it would not the most in me to demonstrate that
Present Socialism
more.
be
is
a semi-Catholicism,
work permitted,
If the limits of this
for
difficult
advanced of
its
doctors, there
is
a greater
number
of
Catholic affirmations than Socialistic negations, which
produces an absurd Catholicism and a contradictory Socialism.
hands of the
we come
we God
affirm a god,
If
of Catholics
to the humanity,
;
we must fall into the if we affirm humanity,
one and solidarious, of the
dogma; if we affirm society, we must sooner or later come to the Catholic affirmation about social institutions if we affirm the family, we must afterwards Christian
;
one way or another,
affirm,
and
all
of man, no matter into the
if
how of
affirmation
Catholicism
which
all
that Socialism denies
is
it
is
;
that Catholicism affirms, in fine,
made,
Adam
the
every affirmation
is
finally resolved
man
of
like those formidable cylinders
a part pass, the whole must go.
Genesis.
through
Through
that
formidable cylinder shall pass, without leaving a track behind, unless its pontiffs,
it
change
and with
its
course, Socialism with all
all its doctors.
M. Proudhon, who
is
not usually ridiculous,
is
so,
however, when, establishing as a formula the negation of
government as the
last of all negations,
he goes about
LIBERALISM,
AND
in the sublimity of his audacity, ture,
SOCIALISM.
with almost august ges-
demanding of the people the in
place amongst
first
Socialists in presence of Catholics, are like
Socialists.
Greeks
289
presence of the priests of the East
who appear men. from being the
The negation
of
all
government, far
of possible negations,
last
—children
is
nothing but
a preliminary negation, which future Nihilists will set
down
in the last of their axioms.
that,
M. Proudhon
will
through the Catholic cyhnder ness passes through
it.
Not going beyond
have to pass, ;
He must
his
all his affirmations,
the
rest,
then affirm nothings,
or pass through that cylinder with
with
like
everything but nothing-
his negations,
all
with his whole soul, and with
whole body. Whilst M. Proudhon does not valiantly
choose his party, he authorises
me
him before
to accuse
future Rationalists, as suspected of latent Catholicism.
Catholicism
is
not a thesis, and not being
combated by an braces
all,
antithesis
;
which contains
which cannot
be,
I
will
it is
all,
so,
cannot be
a synthesis which em-
and which explains
all,
not say conquered, but even
combated, except by a synthesis of the same species, which, like
it,
should embrace, contain, and explain
In the Catholic synthesis
things.
all
human
theses
all
and
antitheses have convenient room. It attracts
and condenses
cible force of
all in itself,
an incommunicable
with the invin-
virtue.
think they are outside Catholicism, are in is,
as
it
were,
Those who it,
because
the atmosphere of intelligences
;
it
the
Socialists, like the rest, after gigantic efforts to separate
themselves from Catholics.
it,
have done no more than become bad
T
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
290
CHAPTER Dogmas
As
— Theories
Socialism
—Bloody
sacrir-
the Rationalistic Schools
about
of that of solidarity
correlative
of Capital Punishment.
jices
VI.
an incoherent compound of thesis and
is
antithesis, which contradict and destroy each other, the grand Catholic synthesis resolves all these things into unity, by infusing into them all its sovereign harmony. It
may be said
of
its
dogmas, that without ceasing to be
various, they are one only.
In such a
way do
those which
precede merge into those which follow, and those which follow into
those which precede, that
determined which divine
circle.
is
That
the
first
cannot be
it
or which the last in that
virtue possessed
by
all,
of penetrat-
ing one another in their most intimate essence, prevents
any of them from being affirmed or denied by itself, and renders it necessary for all to be affirmed or denied together; and as in its dogmatic affirmations all possible affirmations are exhausted, it follows that against
Catholicism there can be no affirmation of any
no particular negation against
its
sort,
and
prodigious synthesis
there can be nothing but an absolute negation.
:
Well,
now, God, who' is so manifest in the Catholic expression, has disposed things in such a
way
that that supreme
negation, logically necessary to form a contrast to the divine
expression,
is
must, in order to deny
totally impossible, as all,
a person
commence by denying him-
LIBERALISM, and
self,
AND
SOCIALISM.
291
he deny himself, he can deny nothing
if
Hence
afterwards.
else
follows that the Catholic expres-
it
being invincible,
is eternal from the first day of comes expanding in space and resounding in time, with an immense force of expansion, and with an infinite power of resonance. The sovereign virtue has
sion,
creation
;
it
not yet diminished
and space
and when the hours cease to
;
roll,
annihilated, that expression will be eternally
is
resounding in the highest heavens.
world below
is
passing
— men with
Everything
in this
their sciences,
which
are nothing but ignorance, empires with their glories,
which are nothing but smoke; that resounding expression is
alone at rest and in
its
proper being, affirming
one sole affirmation which
The dogma
all
ever consistent with
with
itself.
of solidarity, confounding itself with that of
unity, constitutes with itself, it is
is
one sole dogma; considered
it
in
resolved into two, which, like that of solidarity
and that of unity, are one and the same in essence, and two in their manifestations. The solidarity, and the unity, of all men amongst themselves, carry with them the idea of a responsibility in
common, and
this responsibility
supposes in
its
turn,
that the deserts of the one can injure or be of advantage to the other.
dogma
When
it is
the evil that
is
communicated,
name of solidarity, and it changes it for reversibility, when it is the advantage that is communicated. Thus we say that we all sinned in Adam, because we have all solidarity in him and we were all saved by Jesus Christ, because His merits were the
preserves
its
generic
;
reversible to us.
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
292
And we
see the difference
and does not
happens with the dogmas tion
—they
considered
dogma
is
here only in the names,
at all alter the thing signified.
in
By
their application.
we
all
The
of one dogma.
which we have been saved
in
virtue
of
the
Adam's penalty, the Lord suffered for
suffer
and by the dogma of substitution us all. But as we here see, there tion but
same dogmas
are both nothing but those
of imputation
The same
of imputation and of substitu-
is
substantially ques-
principle in virtue
the Lord,
is
of
identical with
by which we were all culpable, and punished in Adam. That principle of solidarity, by which are that
explained the two great mysteries of our redemption
and of the transmission of
sin, is in its
turn explained
same transmission, and by the human redemption. Without solidarity you cannot even conceive and on the a prevaricating and redeemed humanity other hand, it is evident that if humanity has not been redeemed by Jesus Christ, nor has fallen in Adam, it
by
that
;
cannot be conceived as being one and solidarious.
of
As by this dogma, Adam, is revealed
has not
joined to that of the prevarication to us the true nature of
permitted that
amongst the
nations.
it
should
fall
man, God
into
This serves to explain
oblivion
why
the peoples of the world bear clearest testimonies to
all it,
and why those testimonies are recorded, eloquently in history. There is no people so civilised nor tribe so uncultivated, that has not believed these two things, that the sins of some can bring down the anger of God on the heads of
all,
and that
all
can be saved from the
— LIBERALISM, and from
penalty,
AND
by the
sin transmitted,
a victim in perfect holocaust.
God condemned
SOCIALISM.
human
the
For the
race,
the merits of His beloved Son.
293 offering of
Adam
sin of
and saved
it
through
Noah, inspired by God,
condemns in Canaan his whole race God blesses in Abraham, and afterwards in Isaac, and then in Jacob, the whole Hebrew race. Sometimes He saves culpable ;
children through the merits of their ancestors
times
He
even
chastises,
of culpable ancestors
;
;
at other
in their last generation, the sins
and none of these
which
things,
reason regards as incredible, has caused astonishment or repugnance in the
human
them with a
lasting faith.
firm
and
race,
which has believed
CEdipus
sins,
and
the gods pour out the cup of their displeasure on
Thebes.
CEdipus
is
the object of the Divine wrath, and
the merits of his expiation
On
are- reversible
to Thebes.
when proclaim by His
the greatest and most solemn day of creation,
God
himself
Made Man was about
death the truth of they should be deicide people
all
first
itself,
to
these dogmas.
He
desired that
proclaimed and confessed by the
who, vociferating with supernatural
and sinister clamour, let these words fall from its " His blood be upon us and upon our children would- appear
dogmas
that
God
lips !
permitted both times
to be here condensed.
On
the
"
It
and
same day, the
by putting Him to death, imputes to One, and chastises in Him, the sins of all; and demands the application of the same dogma to itself, by declaring its On that same day on children participators in its sin. whole people, God proclaimed by a which this was sanie people,
^-^^^KS-
294
ON CATHOLICISM, dogma by making Himand the dogma of reversi-
himself proclaims the same self solidarious
bility
with
man
;
by asking the Father,
reward of His suffering
in
for the pardon of His enemies; and the
dogma
of satis-
and that of redemption, the faction by dying for them consequence of all the others, by which the sinner was ;
redeemed tue of the
who
for the substitute,
;
dogma
of solidarity,
suffered death in vir-
was accepted
in virtue of
that of reversibility.
All these dogmas, proclaimed on the same day people, and
by a God, and
fulfilled, after
by a
being pro-
claimed, in the person of a God, and in the generations
of a people, were being proclaimed and
fulfilled,
imperfectly, from the beginning of the world,
symbolised a person.
in
an institution before they were
The
institution in
though
and were fulfilled in
which they were symbol-
was that of bloody sacrifices. That mysterious and, humanly speaking, inconceivable institution, is a fact so universal and constant, that it exists in all peoples and in all regions. So that amongst social institutions, the most universal is precisely the most inconceivable, and ised,
appears the most absurd, that universality tion in
son in
is
it
being here worthy of note,
an attribute
common
to the institu-
which those dogmas are symbolised, to the Perwhom they were fulfilled, and to the dogmas
themselves which were symbolised in that institution,
and
fulfilled in
conceive universal.
that person.
other dogmas,
Imagination
Person,
or
Those dogmas contain
which human things are governed
;
itself
cannot
institution all
the
more by
laws
that Person contains
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
the divinity and humanity joined in one
295
and that commemorative of what those dogmas contain of universal, on the other, symbolical of that one Person in whom universality par excellence institution
is,
on one
exists, whilst
on another
reaches to the
;
side,
side,
considered in
beyond the limits of history. Abel is the first man that offered
itself,
it
and extends
confines of the world,
God a bloody sacri-
to
the great tragedy of paradise
and that sacriwas bloody, was acceptable in the eyes of God, who rejected that of Cain, which consisted fice after
fice,
inasmuch as
;
it
of the fruits of the earth.
And what
and mysterious
who had shed blood
is,
that he
is
here singular
ex-
in
piatory sacrifice, conceives a hatred of blood, and dies
sooner than shed that of his enemy refuses to shed
whilst he
;
How does
brutal as to shed the blood of his brother. it
in it
happen that when shed
in
another impresses, stains in a different
manner
one way
?
it
removes, and
it
that all shed
it ceased
not to run, and
How
is
.'
From that first effusion of blood it
who
as the sign of expiation, becomes so
it
never ran without condemning some and purifying
others, ever preserving intact its
purifying virtue. just,
All the
and Cain, the
men
fratricide
condemnatory and
its
come after Abel the resembled more or less one
of those two types of those two
that
cities
which are governed
by contrary laws and different governors, and are called the city of God aad the city of the world which are ;
not opposed because the one sheds blood and the other
does not, but because in the one
it is
shed by love, and
296
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
in the other
by vengeance
man, and
in the other to
one
in the
;
God,
offered to
it is
expiatory sacrifice and
in
acceptable holocaust.
The human
race, in
which the breath of the
was never
traditions
totally
biblical
has ever
extinguished,
believed with an invincible faith these three things
:
and
in
and when another maddens.
Of these truths clear testimony
is
given by history,
that
it
shed
in
full
necessary blood should be shed
is
one way
it
purifies,
;
of the accounts of cruel episodes, bloody conquests,
the subversion and destruction of famous cious deaths, pure victims placed on
brothers
cities,
smoking
of
against the
rising against brothers, the rich
poor, parents against their
atro-
altars,
children, the entire earth
being like a lake which neither the winds cool nor the
sun warms with his powerful rays. clearly witnessed to
God on
all
legislation
who
takes
by
They
are no lesp
the bloody sacrifices offered to
the altars of the world, and finally,
of life,
all
peoples, which
by the
excommunicates him
and deprives him of
his
own.
In the tragedy of " Orestes," Euripides puts in the
mouth
of Apollo these words
of the war of
Troy
;
:
—
"
Helen
is
not culpable
her beauty was only the instrument
of which the gods availed themselves to enkindle war between two peoples, and cause to flow the blood which was to purify the earth stained with a multitude
Whence we see that the poet, echo at once human and the popular traditions, attributes to
of crimes." of the
blood a secret virtue of purification which riously hidden in
it.
is
myste-
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
297
As sacrifice depends on the existence of that cause and that virtue,
it is
clear that blood
must have acquired
this
virtue under the empire of that cause, in an epoch anterior to bloody sacrifices
;
and as these
instituted since the time of Abel,
saicrifices
it is
we speak
that the cause and virtue
have been
beyond
all
doubt
of are anterior to
Abel, and contemporaneous with the great event of paradise in which that virtue and sarily
have
varication of Adam.
and
its cause must necesThat great event is the pre-
their beginning.
in the flesh of
As the flesh
of
Adam that of the
Adam was culpable, whole
species,
it
was
necessary, that the penalty might bear proportion with
the crime,
it
should
fall
on
all flesh, like
the crime
itself.
Hence the necessity of the perpetual effusion of human The crime of Adam had been followed, however, blood. by a promise of a Redeemer and that promise, substituting the Redeemer for the culprit, was capable of suspending the sentence of condemnation till He who was This explains why Abel, depoto come should appear. ;
sitary for
and of
Adam at once of the sentence of condemnation, suspension
its
till
the Substitute
who was
to
suffer the penalty for the culprit should come, instituted
the only sacrifice which could be acceptable in the eyes
of
—
God the commemorative and symbolic sacrifice. The sacrifice of Abel was so perfect that it contained
in itself, in a
wonderful manner,
all
the Catholic
dogmas
:
was an act of devotion and adoration towards the omnipotent and sovereign God as far as it was a bloody sacrifice, it was as far as
it
was a
sacrifice in general,
it
;
the proclamation of the
dogmas of
the prevarication of
298
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
Adam, and
of
who
the liberty of the prevaricator,
would not have been culpable without free will and of the transmission of the sin and the penalty, without which Adam alone should be offered in sacrifice and ;
;
of solidarity, without inherited sin. to God, an
He
care
At
would
which Abel
the same time,
has of
all
human
was, with respect
it
acknowledgment of His
justice,
and of the
Considering
things.
reference to the victims offered to the Lord,
reversibility,
of
Adam
by virtue of which those punished
with
was
at
gave of
and of the for the sin
were to be saved by the merits of Another, and
of the substitution,
come should be
by
virtue of
which One who was to
offered in sacrifice for the
Finally, as the victims
race.
culprit,
it
it
He
once a commemoration of the promise
removing the penalty from the true
have
not
were
whole human
born lambs with-
first
out spot, the sacrifice of Abel was symbolical of the true sacrifice, in which the
meek and
spotless
Lamb,
only Son of the Father, was to be offered in holiest sacrifice for the sins of the world. city,
which explains and contains
of condensation, in
the
What
first
virtue
is
bloody is
this
things
way Catholiby a miracle
completely contained and explained
God by man. by the Catholic religion, and become condensed with
sacrifice
offered
to
that possessed
which allows her to dilate
an
la all
infinite dilation
and condensation
.'
What wonders
are those which with their
a symbol
?
immense variety find room in And what symbol is that so comprehensive
and perfect as to contain so many things of such a nature.' Such sublime consonance and harmony, perfections so
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
299
sovereign and beautiful, hang over man, that they sur-
pass not only our understanding, but
all
we
could desire
or fancy.
Passing from Father to Son, the tradition began to
be slowly but surely obscured and blotted out from the
memory and
intellect of
God
men.
in
wisdom did not allow the grand echoes of
His
infinite
the biblical
traditions to be totally effaced from the earth, but in
the midst of the tumults of peoples, precipitated one on the other, and
debased by idolatry, those echoes
all
were so changed and weakened, that they
lost their
magnificent richness of sound, and became vague, inter-
Then
and confused.
mittent,
it
was that men drew from
the vague idea of a primitive fault infecting the blood, the consequence, that
it
was necessary
in sacrifice the blood of
man
to
himself.
ceased to be symbolical when
it
became
to
ofifer
The real
God
sacrifice ;
and as
was part of the divine intention to bestow efficacy and virtue on the sacrifice of the Redeemer alone, human sacrifices were wanting in virtue and efficacy. But even as it was, those imperfect and inefficacious sacrifices virtually contained in themselves, on one side, it
the
dogmas
darity;
of original
and on the
stitution,
sin,
of
transmission and of
its
other, of reversibility
soli-
and of sub-
although unable to symboHse either the true
substitution or substitute.
When from
all
the ancients sought an innocent victim free spot,
and conducted
with flowers, that
it
it
might by
to the altar its
crowned
death appease the
divine wrath and satisfy for the debt of the people, they
— ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
30O
were
a great measure right, and wrong only in
in
They were
things.
justice should
some
right in affirming that the divine
be appeased
that
;
could not be
it
so,
except by the shedding of blood that one could satisfy for the debt of all, and that the redeeming victim should ;
be innocent. because
all
They were
right
in
these things,
all
these things were only the explicit affirma-
tion of great Catholic in believing that a
They
dogmas.
man
erred exclusively
could be so innocent and
just,
as to be efficaciously offered in sacrifice for the sins of
the people, in quality of redeeming victim. error, this sole forgetfulness of
This one
one Catholic dogma, con-
verted the world into a sea of blood.
If there were would of itself have been sufficient to impede the coming of all true civilisation. Barbarism ferocious and sanguinary barbarism is the legitimate
no
others,
it
—
and necessary consequence of forgetting any Christian dogma.
The
error I
am
pointing out, was an error only in one
conception and in one point of view
cannot be expiatory of original the species, the be,
and
is,
human
sin
par
sin,
:
man
the blood of
which
excellence ;
expiatory of certain individual
is
the sin of
but
sins.
it
can
Whence
not only the legitimacy, but also the necessity
follow,
and convenience, of the penalty of death. The universality
of
its
of the
shed it is
is
in
institution proves the universality of the belief
human
race in the purifying efficacy of blood,
a certain way, and in
shed in that way.
no remission (Heb.
its
expiatory virtue
when
Without shedding of blood there ix.
22).
Without the blood shed
;
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
301
by the Redeemer, the common debt the human race in Adam contracted with God would never have been extinguished. Wherever the penalty of death has been abolished, society has distilled blood from
On
its
suppression in
and bloody
battle of
the trance of death, so that
it
was obliged to appeal to
The very
foreign intervention.
all its pores.
Saxony followed that terrible May, which drove the State into principle of
its
suppres-
country, threw the affairs of
name of the common Germany into greater dis-
order than ever
its
sion,
proclaimed in Frankfort in
before
by the
in
troubled history.
On
Government of the French Republic, followed those tremendous days of suppression
its
Provisional
June, which shall eternally
memory
the
by
of men.
others in fearful
live,
with
all their horror, in
These would have been followed and rapid succession, if a holy and
acceptable victim had not intervened between the anger of
God and
the crimes of that culpable government and
of that sinful
city.
No one
can know nor
tell
how far
the
virtue of that august and innocent blood might extend but,
humanly speaking, we may say, without fear of being by the facts, that blood will run again in abun-
belied
dant streams, at least
until
France enters again under
the jurisdiction of that providential law, which no people ever transgressed with impunity. I will
not end this chapter without making a
tion which appears to
me
reflec-
of the utmost importance
:
if
such effects have been produced by the suppression of the penalty of death in political crimes, its
ravages reach
if
how
far
would
the suppression were extended to
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
302
common crimes ? to me,
it is,
Well, now,
suppression of the other at
and
distant,
there be one thing evident
if
that the suppression of the one involves the
I
also think
it
some time more or less beyond all doubt, that the
suppression of the penalty of death, in both conceptions,
human
leads to the suppression of all
penalties.
To
suppress the highest penalty in the crimes which attack the security of the State, and with it of the members who
compose
and retain
it,
those perpetrated only
in
it
me
against individuals, appears to
which cannot long
sistency,
of
human
events.
On
a monstrous incon-
the logical evolution
resist
the other hand, to suppress as
excessive the penalty of death in the one and the other, is
the same as to suppress
crimes
;
for
kind of penalty for inferior
all
when a penalty
than that of death
less
may be
applied to the former, any that
is
applied to the
must be wanting to the laws of just proportion, and will be resisted as oppressive and unjust. latter
If the suppression of the penalty of
crimes
is
founded on the negation of political crime, and
this negation
matters,
it is
the ground
;
on the
fallibility
clear that every
moral things, and
in the other carries
of the State to qualify
Well, now, as this in this
of the State in these
system of penalty
for fallibility in political things
fallibility in all
and
death in political
with
it
fallibility in
falls to
supposes the one
the radical incompetence
any human action as a crime.
fallibility is
matter of penalty
a
fact, it follows
that
governments are incom-
all
petent, because all are fallible.
One can only be accused
of crime
by him who can
— LIBERALISM, accuse him of
the one,
AND
SOCIALISM.
303
and he only can impose penalties for who can impose them for the other. Governsin,
ments are not competent to impose a penalty on man, except in quality of delegates of God and human law has power only when it is the commentary of the divine ;
law.
The negation
of governments,
To deny
of
God and
of His law on the part
equal to the negation of themselves.
is
the divine and affirm the
human
law, to affirm
deny God and affirm any government whatever, is to affirm what is denied and to deny what is affirmed is to fall into a palpable and evident crime and deny
sin,
to
;
contradiction.
Then
the blast of revolutions begins to
blow, which will soon restore the empire of logic which presides at the evolution of events, suppressing
human
contradictions with an absolute and inexorable affirmation, or
with an absolute and peremptory negation.
The Atheism the end
is
of the law and of the State
—or what
in
the same, but expressed in a different manner,
the complete secularisation of the State and of the law is
a theory which does not square well with that of
penalty, the one coming from ration from God,
man
in his state of sepa-
and the other from God
in his state of
union with man. It
would appear that governments know, by means of
infallible instinct, that
only in the
name
of
God can they
be just and strong. And so it happens that when they begin to be secularised, or to separate from God, they immediately relax right diminished.
in their penalties, as if
The
they
felt their
lax theories of modern criminal
jurists are contemporaneous with religious decadence,
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
304
and
their rule in
modern codes with the complete
secu-
Since then the criminal
larisation of political powers.
has been so transformed in our eyes, that the children regard as an object of pity what was a subject of horror to
He who
their parents. is
yesterday was called a criminal,
to-day called eccentric or mad.
call
crime misfortune.
government
will pass into the
and then there
The
The day
theories
will
Modern Rationalists come when the
shall
hands of the unfortunate,
be no other crime but innocence.
on penalty held
in absolute
monarchies
days of decay, were followed by those of the
in their
who brought them to the present pass. come the Socialistic schools, with their theory of holy insurrections and heroic crimes. Nor shall these be last for away there on the far-off horizon new and more bloody auroras begin to dawn. The new Liberal schools,
After the Liberal
;
gospel of the world
is
perhaps being written in a prison
the world will only get what
it
deserves,
when
it is
evan-
by the new apostles. Those who made people believe that the earth can be a paradise, have made them more easily believe it can
gelised
be a paradise without blood. illusion
;
it
is
and hour the
The
evil is
in the fact that, precisely illusion
not in the
on the moment
would be believed by
all,
blood
would flow even from the hard rocks, and earth would be transformed into hell. In this obscure and lowly valley
man
cannot aspire to an impossible happiness, without
incurring the misfortune of losing the
little
he has.
AND
LIBERALISM,
CHAPTER Recapitulation
—
Inefficacy
SOCIALISM.
305
VII.
—
of all the proposed solutions
Necessity of a more profound solution.
Up
we have
to this
man and
seen in what manner the liberty of
that of the angel, with the faculty of choosing
which constitutes
their imperfection
was a thing not only
justified,
and
their danger,
but also convenient.
We
have also seen how, from the exercise of that constituted
came with sin, which profoundly disturbed by God in all things, and the very manner of being of all creatures. Farther having marked the disorders of creation, we
liberty, evil
the order established suitable
on, after
proposed to ourselves
to
we
demonstrate, and
did
demonstrate perfectly, we think, that as to the angel
and to man, gifted with the tremendous power of drawing evil from good, and of corrupting
all things,
the one
with his rebellion, the other with his disobedience, and
both with
sin,
God, to establish a contrast to that
destructive liberty, reserved to himself the power of
drawing good from
evil,
and order from
disorder,
making
and convenient use of it, so as to place things in a more regulated manner of being, than they would have attained without rebellious angels and sinful men. As large
was impossible to avoid evil without suppressing the and the human liberty, which were a great good, God, in His infinite wisdom, succeeded in transit
angelical
forming
evil
without suppressing
it,
so as to
make
U
it
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
3o6
serve
His omnipotent hand as the instrument of
in
greater convenience, and of
To
more sublime
that the general end of things its
perfections.
demonstrate what suited our purpose, we observed
own way,
was
to manifest, each in
the sublime perfections of God, and to be
like sparks of
His beauty and reflexes of His magni-
ficent glory.
Constituted in the point of view of this
universal end,
we had no difficulty in demonstrating human disobedience and the angelical
that from the
rebelHon incomparable good flowed, and that the one as
make
well as the other served to
viously reflected only the divine
magnificence, also reflect
and
all
From things,
the sublimity of His mercy
Order was not
and absolute, except when creatures had
universal
them
all
the grandeur of His justice.
all
which pre-
creatures,
goodness and the divine
in
these splendid reflexes. the problems relative to the universal order of
we passed
order of
human
to those which refer to the general
things
:
wandering through
we saw we saw how humanity was evil
field,
this
propagate in humanity with sin
species in the individual.
in
As
Adam, and sin,
;
wide there
the sinful
considered in
itself,
was powerful enough to disturb the order of the universe, it was also powerful enough, and with more reason, to infuse disorder into all
derstand what again,
end of
it
is
all
we
human
said before,
things.
In order to un-
and what we
shall repeat
well to remark here, that as the universal
things
is
to manifest the divine perfections,
the particular end of
man
is
to preserve his union with
God, the seat of his joy and of his
rest.
Sin disordered
'
AND
LIBERALISM, things,
SOCIALISM.
307
by separating man from
stitutes
his special
end
;
that union which conand from that moment the
problem, as far as regards humanity, consists in deter-
mining how its
cause
evil
— in
can be conquered in
its effects,
that
is
its effects
of the individual and of the species, in
quences
;
and
in
to say, in the corruption all
its
conse-
in its cause, that is to say, in sin.
God who in its effects,
most simple in His works because He is His essence, conquers evil in its cause and by one sole transformation but this trans-
formation
so radical and extraordinary, that through
is
most perfect
is
in
;
that was evil is transformed into good, and all that was imperfection into sovereign perfection. Up to this we have been explaining the manner and the form in which God transforms into instruments of good the very effects of evil and sin. Proceeding all from a primitive it all
corruption of the individual and of the species, they are nothing else in
the species or in the individual,
considered in themselves, but a lamentable misfortune.
Misfortune means necejsary effect
from which the
effect flows is
constantly, misfortune then
By imposing
is
;
and
the cause
one of those which act
by
its
nature invincible.
the misfortune as a penalty,
transformation possible, by means of ceptation on the part of man.
if
its
When
God made
its
voluntary ac-
man, aided by
God, heroically accepted his misfortune as a penalty, his misfortune did not itself,
a
change
its
nature, considered in
which would be totally impossible
new and
purification.
;
but
it
acquired
strange virtue, the virtue of expiation and
Ever preserving
its
invincible identity,
it
;
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
3o8
produces effects which naturally are not in it, whenever voluntary acit combines in a supernatural way with
This consoling and sublime doctrine comes to us, at one and the same time, from God, from reason, and from history, constituting a rational, historical, and ceptation.
dogmatic
truth.
The dogma
and of penalty,
of the transmission of sin
and that of the purifying action of the latter when freely accepted, led us, as it were by the hand, to the examination of the organic laws of humanity, by which all its historic evolutions
explained.
human
and
all its
The aggregate
order,
movements
and constitutes
it
are sufficiently
laws constitutes
of those
such a
in
way
that
it
cannot be even imagined otherwise. After having given the Catholic solutions about these
deep and dreadful problems, of which some relate to the universal order, and others to the
human
order,
we
proposed the solutions invented by the Liberal school and
by modern
Socialists,
and we demonstrated, on one
side,
the sublime harmony, and consonance of the Catholic
dogmas, and on the other the extravagant contradiction of the Rationalistic schools.
The
radical impotence of
reason to discover a suitable solution for these funda-
mental problems, serves to explain the incoherence and the contradiction which are observed in
human
and those incoherent contradictions serve to demonstrate
to himself, to
how
impossible
mount on
his
it is
for
solutions
in their turn
man, abandoned
own wings
to those lofty
and serene heights where God has placed the secret laws of
all things.
From
this
examination, to a certain ex-
AND
LIBERALISM, tent prolix, it is
if
we consider
SOCIALISM.
309
the narrow limits of this work,
evidently demonstrated
—
that all negation of
first,
dogma carries with it the negation of all the other dogmas, and on the contrary, that the affirmation of one dogma carries with it the affirmation of all the a Catholic
Catholic dogmas, which that Catholicism
is
is
an invincible demonstration
an immense synthesis, placed beyond
the laws of space and of time istic
school denies
which
it
all
;
second, that no Rational-
the Catholic
follows that they are
and to the absurd
sistency,
;
all
dogmas at once, from condemned to incon-
and
third, that
it
is
not
possible to escape from the absurd, and from inconsistency, without accepting all Catholic affirmations with
an absolute acceptation, or denying them tion so radical that
In
fine,
which order,
it
with nega-
examining one by one those dogmas
after
refer to the universal order
we
all
borders on Nihilism.
and to the human
considered their harmonious and magnificent
aggregate in the institution of bloody
sacrifices,
which
origin from that primitive age which
immedi-
ately followed the great catastrophe of Eden.
There
takes
its
we saw
that that mysterious institution
is,
on one hand,
the commemoration of that great tragedy, and of the
promise of a Redeemer made by God to our parents
first
on the other, the incarnation of the dogmas
;
of solidarity, of reversibility, of imputation, and of sub-
and
stitution
;
sacrifice,
such as
tude of time. oblivion
finally,
the perfect symbol of the future
we were
When
amongst the
to see
it
realised in the pleni-
the biblical traditions nations,
the world
fell
forgot
into
the
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
310
proper signification of that religious institution which was being corrupted in all parts by its corruption is ;
explained the universal institution of
human
sacrifices,
of the tradition,
which bear testimony to the although they depart from it on these points in which truth
it
had
With
fallen into oblivion with the nations.
this
motive we pointed out the great error and the great teaching which are found in that institution, which at first
sight appears inexplicable,
man
inasmuch as
it
pro-
is
Its great error is in attributing to
foundly mysterious.
the expiatory virtue of
Him who was
to be his
substitute, when the proper time should come, according
and of the ancient
to the voice of the ancient prophecies traditions
;
its
great teaching
is
in attributing to
virtue of appeasing in a certain way, gree, the divine wrath.
blood the
and to a certain de-
By the concatination and
tion of these deductions,
we came
connec-
to the examination of
punishment by death, universally instituted throughout the world as a profession of faith in the virtue which blood, this
made at
all
times by the whole
human
is in
With
race.
motive we interrogated the Rationalistic schools on
this difficult subject
their answers
and
tory and absurd. contradiction,
;
and on
this point, as
their solutions
on
all others,
appeared to us contradic-
Following them from contradiction to
we gave them
the alternative of selecting
between the acceptation of punishment by death political as well as for
common
crimes, or the radical
for
and
absolute negation of the crime and of the punishment.
Having come remains for
to this point of the discussion,
us, in
order to finish
it,
it
only
to approach with
AND SOCIALISM.
LIBERALISM,
311
holy
terror, and mute and extatic reverence, the mystery of mysteries, the sacrifice of sacrifices, the
dogma
of dogmas. Up to this we have seen, on one hand, the marvels of the divine order, on the other,
the harmony of universal order, and
found convenience of the human order rise to
a higher point
still,
finally, ;
the pro-
now we have
to
which overlooks and com-
mands
all the Catholic heights. There is seated in all His majesty, merciful and tremendous, meek and terrible, He who was to come, and did come, and, coming, drew
all
things and united
them
to Himself, with strong
loving bond.
He
subject of
all
prophecies, the prefigured in
the end of
all
dogmas, the confluence of the
universal,
is
the solution of
and the human orders
the light of
;
all
and
problems, the
the key to
all
figures,
divine, the all secrets,
enigmas, the promised of God, the desired
all
of the patriarchs, the expected of the nations, the father
of the afflicted, the reverenced of the choirs of angels,
the Alpha and
Omega
of
all
things.
Universal order consists in
all
being harmoniously
ordained to that supreme end which the universality of things.
God imposed on
The supreme end
of things
consists in the exterior manifestations of the divine perfections.
ficence
All creatures sing the goodness and magni-
and omnipotence of God.
The
just proclaim
His mercy, the reprobate His justice. Every single creature of creation celebrates His love in some special manner, as the reprobate His justice and the just His mercy.
And
if this
be
so, is it
not clearly of the highest
convenience that there should be raised in the universe
ESSA yS ON CA THOLICISM,
312
formed to manifest His divine perfections, a universal voice, to proclaim the divine love, that finishing touch of the divine perfections
?
The human order consists God that union cannot be :
in
the union of
man
with
realised in our actual con-
dition of separation, without a gigantic effort to raise us
to
But who asks a great
Him.
from the weak
effort
and who commands him who has
?
fallen in the valley,
on his shoulders the weight of his sin, to I rise and ascend the highest peak of a mountain ? know that the heroic and voluntary acceptance of my
and
carries
pain and
how am
my I
cross
abhor, and abhor to love
would
raise
me above
myself.
voluntarily to love that which
God, and
what
I
I feel
naturally love
.''
But
naturally
I
They
tell
me
the corrosive love of the flesh
my veins. They tell me to walk, and With my sin on my head I cannot I am a prisoner. merit, and I cannot escape from my sin which clutches me, if they do not remove it from me. No one can
careering through
remove
it
from me,
if
he do not entertain
nite love anterior to all merit,
that infinite love.
I
am
the toy of the universe
;
for
me an infime with
and no one loves
the laughing-stock of God, and in vain shall I travel
round the
my misfortune goeth with me and in vain shall I raise my eyes to that metallic heaven which never yet illumined my brow with a ray of world, for whithersoever
I
go
;
hope. If all this
be
so,
it is
clear the Catholic edifice
we have
been laboriously building up comes to the ground, for
want of that splendid cupola which should serve as a
AND
LIBERALISM,
New
secure finish.
tower of Babel as
by pride and
fabricated
quicksands,
built
on
it
must
be,
and moving
faithless
The human
the laughing-stock of the winds.
divine order, are nothing but airy words fearful
313
be the play-toy of the tempest and
will
it
SOCIALISM.
order, the
and
;
all
those
problems which make humanity pensive and
continue to exist involved
sad,
in invincible obscurity, in spite
Though
of the vain apparatus of Catholic solutions.
better linked together than the solutions of the Ration-
connection, however,
alist schools, their
that
can
it
not so perfect
human
the impulse of
resist
is
Catholicity says, or teaches, or contains no said, contained, is
and taught
reason.
If
more than
is
in those solutions. Catholicity
no more than a philosophical system, more perfect
than past, but
than future systems.
in all probability less
Even to-day she may be accused
of notorious impotence
to solve the great problems which refer to God, the universe,
and to man. God is not perfect, if He do not manner order does not exist in the
love in an infinite universe,
if
there
;
nothing
is
in
it
to manifest that love
;
and as regards man, the disorder in which he is placed is so invincible, that he cannot be saved unless infinitely loved.
And
don't
tell
finitely merciful,
were hidden, is
of
rules
itself
and
in
me
that
God
is infinitely
and that love
His
infinite
is
good and
supposed, and as
goodness and mercy
a thing so important, that when lords
it
over
all.
Love
is
it
;
init
for love
exists,
it
not the contained,
but the container; it does not hide, but manifest itself; it is of such a nature that it cannot exist in any part
4
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
31
without appearing to be alone, and to rule
any end, but ordains
naturally ordained to
He who
itself.
mad
and
;
be
things to
all
he love properly, must appear
loves, if
love, to
not
It is
all.
must appear an
infinite,
infinite
madness.
There
a voice in
is
my
me and
and
heart,
my very
it is
my heart
itself,
and which says God, look for true the want know If you to to me, Him who loves you to madness, and helps you to love Him to madness, and that is the true God for in God is blessedness, and blessedness is nothing else but to love and to suffer swoons of love, and to swoon thus perwhich
within
is
is
self,
;
petually.
me,
Let no one
call
answer
for I will not
hear
is
the voice of love,
and
I
will
He
whither
follow
my
goes, nor to
me
to
him who does not But
his call.
Here
I
am,
the voice I
I shall
say at once,
He
is
taking
He I
and I
I
and our love must be there
are heaven.
I
;
me;
for
He goeth,
whithersoever Hetaketh me, and whithersoever
and
Him
beloved, without asking
what part
love
if
and our
love,
would wish to love thus, and
I
He,
know
cannot thus love, .and have no one to love in this
manner, and on pose.
which
Who I
am
this
will
account torment myself to no pur-
withdraw
suffocated,
to ascend to higher
me
from
and give
this
me
narrow
circle in
wings of the dove
and more sublime regions
?
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER
VIII.
The Incarnation of the Son of God, and the
We
said
315
human
the redemption
of
race.
these were two problems which should
be
solved before order, either universal or human, could be
properly constituted. tive
God drew good from
prevarication, which served
as
the primi-
occasion for the
manifestation of two of His greatest perfections justice
infinite
enough
:
it
was
and mercy.
human things,
order and concert which witness the presence of
of that
God
His works, that the sin of the prevarication
should be blotted out
drew from
it,
lence existed,
not
requisite besides, for the existence in the
things of creation, and particularly
all
— His
however, was
This,
;
as long as
and
itself
no matter what good God
as, it
in
subsisted, the evil
defied, as
it
par
excel-
were, the divine power.
Besides, nothing so becomes the infinite mercy of God, as to assist with strong but clement
hand the
weakness of man, that he might
above
rise
invincible
his miserable
condition, so that the consequences of his sin might be
converted into an instrument of his salvation.
out
sin,
might
and
fortify the sinner, so that
rise freely
and meritoriously
—
when
To
blot
fallen
he
this is the great
problem which must be solved, even when all others are disposed of, if Catholicity is to be anything more than one of the laboriously imperfect systems which testify to the profound and radical impotence of human reason.
6
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
31
Catholicity solves these two great problems
most
highest,
glorious of all her mysteries
united
in that great
:
God
the divine perfections.
all
by the and
incomprehensible
most
ineffable,
is
mystery are
in
with His
it
astounding omnipotence, His perfect wisdom, His mar-
His
goodness,
vellous
mercy, and above
crowns
His
justice.
sublime
His other perfections, which authoritatively
alL
commands His mercy just,
terrible
with that ineffable love which
all,
be merciful, His justice to be
to
His goodness good, His wisdom
omnipotence omnipotent
;
for
God
is
and His
wise,
not omnipotence,
nor wisdom, nor goodness, nor justice, nor mercy is
love,
and nothing but love
;
but that love
is
:
God
of itself
omnipotent, wise, good, just, and merciful.
was love commanded His mercy to give hope to prevaricating and fallen man, with that divine promise It
of a future Redeemer,
who should come
take on Himself and conquer in paradise, love
which came mortal flesh
life,
and
It
sin.
which sent
Him
to the world to
was love promised
to earth,
and love
it was love took human flesh and lived a and died on the cross, and rose again in the ;
in glory.
It
was by love we sinners were
saved.
The
glorious mystery of the incarnation of the
of God, possesses.
is
the only
title
of nobility the
human
Son race
Far from wondering at the contempt modern
Rationalists display for man,
cannot explain nor conceive,
if
there be anything I
it is the guarded prudence and the timid conduct they manifest in this matter. Taking man fallen from that primitive state of original
— LIBERALISM, justice
AND
and sanctifying grace
examining
imperfect
his
organic constitution, and
SOCIALISM,
which God placed him,
in
and
contradictory interior
considering the bhndness of
weakness of
his understanding, the
317
his will, the gross
inclinations of his flesh, the
ardour of his concupis-
and the perversity of
his inclinations, I cannot
cence,
conceive nor explain that parsimony of epithets and that measured contempt.
If
nature, and, taking, raised
it
has not impressed on
must confess that cannot be found
God
has not taken
to Himself,
and
human
raising
a ray of His divine nobility,
it
to express
in the
human
tongues of
all
it,
we
words
vileness nations.
can
I
my God
had not taken flesh in died on the cross for the the womb of a woman, nor whole human race, the reptile I tread on would be less Even as it is, the despicable in my eyes than man. heaviest on my reason is faith which weighs point of say for myself, that
if
that of the nobility and dignity of the
human
species, a
dignity -and nobility I wish to understand, and cannot I
desire to fathom,
eyes,
filled
them
In vain do
regions.
their
me
whom men names
I
my
turn
;
for
to higher spheres I
and more serene
bring to mind the lofty virtues of
call heroes,
and who
my conscience
fill
history with
raises its voice,
and
tells
those heroic virtues are resolved into heroic vices,
which
mad
in their turn are resolved into blind pride or
ambition.
The" human race appears to
immense crowd are
In vain do
with sickening horror, from the annals of
crime, to raise
those
and cannot
its
idols
;
lying under the feet of
and the heroes,
like
its
idols,
me
like
heroes,
who
an
who
adore
8
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
31
To
themselves. crowds,'
No
it
believe in the nobility of those stupid
was necessary
God
for
one can deny that revelation,
How
nobihty.
not told him
and confounds me thinks
know he
does he
—
is
to me.
own God has
if
is
requires less faith to believe in the incompre-
it
human dignity, than in God-Made Man, by virtue
hensible mystery of
mystery of a Ghost, in the
always
noble,
it
in his
one thing exceeds my reason, that there should be any one who
There
.'
to reveal
and believe
lives
abandons
womb
subject to faith
own
of the
Holy
This proves that
of a virgin.
faith for his
the adorable
man
and when he
thinks he
reason, he only
abandons
;
faith in the divinely mysterious, for faith in the
myste-
riously absurd.
The
incarnation of the
Son of God was most conve-
nient, not only in quality of sovereign manifestation of
His
infinite love, in which, if
we may say
the
so, lies
perfection of the divine perfections, but also in virtue
of
other profound
and sublime consequences.
The
supreme order of things cannot be conceived, if all things Well, now, without
are not resolved in absolute unity. that prodigious mystery creation
was double, and the
universe a dualism, symbol of perpetual antagonism,
contradictory of order. thesis; thesis.
On one
and on the other
side
creatures,
Supreme order required a
and broad, that
was God, universal His universal
anti-
synthesis so powerful
it would be capable of reconciling, by means of union, the thesis and antithesis of the Creator That this is one of the fundamental and creatures. laws of universal order, is seen clearly when we consider
LIBERALISM,
AND
that this very mystery which
evident
in
man
Man, considered
SOCIALISM.
319
we wonder
at in God, is any astonishment.
without causing
in this point of view, is
nothing but a
composed of an incorporeal essence, which is the thesis, and of a corporeal substance, which is the
synthesis
The very being, which, considered as a compound of spirit and matter, is a synthesis, is no more than an antithesis, which it is necessary to reduce to unity by means of a superior synthesis, together with the thesis which contradicts it, when considered in quality of creature. The law of the reduction of variety
antithesis.
to unity, or
what
antitheses, to a
the same, of
supreme
The
mutable law.
is
all
theses with their
is
a visible and im-
synthesis,
only difficulty here
is
in finding that
God being on one side, and all supreme synthesis. things created on the other, it is evident the reconciling synthesis cannot be sought outside these terms, beyond which there
is
and
universal
found either
nothing imaginable, being; as they are,
absolute.
The
in creatures or in
synthesis, then,
God,
must be
in the antithesis or
the thesis, or rather in one and the other simultaneously or successively. If man had quietly persevered in that excellent state and noble condition in which he was placed by God, variety would have been lost in unity, and the created antithesis would have been united to the creative thesis in supreme synthesis, by the deification of man.
He was
disposed by
God
for this deification,
when He
adorned him with original justice and sanctifying grace. Man, in use of his sovereign liberty, was despoiled of
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
320
that grace, and renounced that justice, and, deprived of both, raised an tarily
to the divine will
impediment
by volun-
But human
renouncing his deification.
liberty,
though capable of impeding the fulfilment of the will of God relatively, cannot impede its realisation absoreduction of variety to unity was what was
The
lutely.
absolute in the divine will
through the deification
and contingent
reduction exclusively
its
;
of man, was what was
relative
which means that God willed the end
;
with an absolute, and the means of attaining that end with a relative, will
wisdom of God In
fact,
and
;
relative,
to
.shines
it,
human
liberty
will,
would not have been
contingent and necessary, in His
be
God and
;
will,
the
man could and God decreed what
the liberty of
In quality of sovereign
did exist.
be,
forth with ineffable splendour.
on the contrary, through what was absolute
sovereignty of
was
the
in this, as in all things,
not have been sovereign, and without what
relative in
possible
and
without what was absolute in His divine
God would was
;
His freedom, that what was to
in virtue of
should be in a certain way.
Then it happened that the universal order desired by God with an absolute will should be realised by the immediate humanisation of God, since realised
by the immediate
totally
impossible,
account of his
will,
with
it
deification of
a
relative
could not be
man, which was
impossibility
on
and afterwards with an absolute
impossibility on account of his sin.
On
another occasion
I
demonstrated the great reach
and universality of the divine solutions, which, contrary
LIBERALISM, to what
we observe
in
AND
human
SOCIALISM.
ones,
321
do not suppress one
obstacle to create a greater, nor solve one difficulty to fall
problem
into another, nor a
make
it
more obscure than
contrary,
surmount
difficulties
ever in another
which belongs to
;
but on the
and solve
obstacles at once,
all
and problems at one simple
this peculiarity
more
one point of view, to
in
all
And
stroke.
divine solutions,
all
is
particularly observed in this adorable mystery of
Son of God for it was at once means of reducing all to unity, divine
the incarnation of the the sovereign
;
condition of order in the universe, and the marvellous
one of restoring order impossibility of
friendship
man
humanity.
of returning
and grace of God
by those who deny
by
The
radical
the
himself, to
after sin, is confessed
the greater part of the
even
dogmas of
M. Proudhon, the most learned of the
Catholicity. Socialists,
in fallen
does not hesitate to say, that supposing
sin,
the redemption of man, by the labours and merits of
God, was
absolutely necessary, because
We
could not be otherwise redeemed.
go so
far
:
we only say
that this
sinful
man
Catholics do not
manner
of redemption,
without being either absolutely necessary, nor the only
one possible, is- nevertheless adorable and convenient. We see from all this that God laboured to surmount, by one sole act of His industry, the obstacle opposed to the '
and that which impeded
realisation of universal order,
human God,
order.
He
By becoming man
synthetically united
without ceasing to be
God and man; and
as
spiritual essence and corporeal substance were already
synthetically united in man,
it
results that
God Made
£SSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
322
Man
united in Himself, through sublinne process, on one
side corporeal substances
the other the Creator of the same time,
man.
He
by
and all
spiritual essences,
with
His creatures.
all
voluntarily suffering
took on Himself, removing
it
No
At
and dying for from man, that
primitive sin, through which his whole race in into corruption,
and on
Adam
fell
and was condemned to death.
matter in what point of view this grand mystery
may be
viewed,
observer the
presents to the eye of the attentive
it
same marvellous conveniences.
whole human race suffered condemnation
in
If the
Adam,
it
was reasonable and just it should be saved in another more perfect Adam. As we had been condemned by the law of solidarity, which was the law of justice, it was
right
and proper we should be saved by the law of
reversibility,
which
is
a law of mercy.
sins of a representative nient, if
we had
To
suffer for the
would not be just and conve-
not been allowed to merit through the
merits of a substitute.
Nothing was more conformable
to reason than that, as the sins of the former
were im-
putable, the merits of the latter should be
reversible
to us.
And
we can answer those who, full of blame God for the condemnation of all
this
arrogant pride,
in the person of
our
first
parent
;
for
even supposing
we had not been all sinners in our first parents, with what right can we complain of being condemned in a representative, who were saved in a substitute.' To rise against God on account of the law of the imputation of sin, without pletes
and explains
remembering that other which comit, through which another's merits
— LIBERALISM, are reversible to us,
is
AND
great
323
for it is bad any case unqualified
timerity,
and
faith or gross ignorance,
SOCIALISM.
in
madness.
Order being established of
all
impeded by lish
in
the universe by the union
things in God, and in humanity as far as
the
sin, it
latter,
it
was
only remains to completely re-estab-
on one hand, to place man
in the capacity
of rising above himself to the degree of accepting tribulations with a voluntary acceptance,
and on the
to give to that acceptance a meritorious virtue.
God attended
things
mystery,
in this divine
consequences and admirable in
The
itself.
other,
To both fruitful in
precious
blood shed on Calvary not only blotted out our sin
and
satisfied the penalty,
but through
value placed us in the capacity, meriting crowns
;
in it
when
inestimable
its
applied to us, of
were given us two joint graces
that which consists in accepting tribulation, and that in virtue of which this acceptance, gladly effected in the
Lord and through Him, acquires meritorious
sum
this lies the
of the Catholic religion
with firm faith that
can do
all in
we can
Him and
—
virtue.
In
in believing
naturally do nothing, but
Him who
through
strengthens us.
dogmas without this are pure abstractions, denuded of all virtue and efficacy. The Catholic God is All other
not an abstract nor dead sonal God,
out us
;
who
God
;
He
is
a living and per^
perpetually operates within and with-
who, while contained within
us,
surrounds and
The mystery which merited grace for contains us. without which we walked in error and darkness, is mystery /«r
us,
the
excellence ; all others are adorable, elevated,
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
324
one alone the sublime, because more sublimity the elevated, no beyond it because beyond it there are no more heights and the adorable, because beyond it there is nothing worthy of
and sublime;
this
there
is
;
;
adoration.
The day, eternally joyous and sad, the Son of God Made Man was placed on a cross, all things at once were restored to order, and in that divine order the cross
Some
raised above all things created.
was
of these mani-
some His mercy, others His justice. The cross alone was the symbol of His love and the pledge of His grace. Through it the confessors fested the goodness of God,
and the
confessed,
virgins
were chaste, and the fathers
of the desert led angelic lives,
who
witnesses
down
laid
unshaken constancy.
and the martyrs were firm
their lives with
From
manly and
the sacrifice of the cross
proceeded that marvellous energy with which the weak
astounded the
strong,
and disarmed
the proscribed
ascended the Capitol, and some poor fishermen conquered the world. gain victory it,
mercy
sad, joy
;
;
;
all
Through the
who combat,
the unprotected, protection
and consolation,
was raised
all
in the air there is
who conquer who seek those who are
cross all
strength ;
;
all
who weep. Since the cross no man who cannot live in
heaven before his mortal remains are consigned to the for if he live here in tribulation, he lives there '-v^arth ;
in hope.
;
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER
325
IX.
— Conclusion of
Contiimation of the same subject
This
is
which
all
this book.
that singular sacrifice of inestimable value, to
others mentioned
history
in
and fable are
This was the sacrifice the Jewish people and
referred.
the Gentiles desired to signify in their bloody holocausts,
and Abel represented in a perfect and acceptable form, when he offered to God the first-born and purest of
The
his lambs.
true altar
was
to
be a
cross,
true victim a God, and the true priest that
and the
same God,
God and man, august pontiff, everlasting priest, perpetual and holy, who came to fulfil in the plenitude of time the promise made to Adam in paradise, the faithat once
ful
of His promise, and keeper of His word
fulfiller
for as
He
does not threaten in vain, neither does
He
promise vainly.
and
He
did disinherit free and culpable
promised him a redeemer, and
redeem him. With His presence
dogmas
explained, and
of solidarity might be all
human
pains
to
;
He
threatened to disinherit free man,
all
man
;
himself
He
then
came
mysteries are cleared,
laws
all
He
fulfilled.
all
That the law takes on Himself
fulfilled.
He
the law of reversibility.
fulfil
to
He
showers on the world copious floods of the divine graces
won by His
man
passion and death.
in so perfect
anger of God
fell
In
a manner, that
on
Him God becomes all
the impetuous
Him and man becomes
so perfect and divine, that
;
all
in
Him
the divine mercies, like a
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
326 soft
and gentle shower,
by
fall
That pain might pain and
on him.
He
become
holy,
that
acceptance might be meritorious,
it
its
suffering
sanctified
Who
with a voluntary acceptance.
offer to
;
He
accepted
would dare to
God his will in holocaust, if He had not first laid own to perform that of his heavenly Father ?
aside his
Who
could have mounted to the summit of humility,
humble Lamb had not first trod the And who with secret paths of that thorny summit more daring flight could have ascended rugged mounif
the patient and
.'
tains
on rugged mountains,
of divine love,
if
He had
not
till
he reached the pinnacle
first
ascended them one by
one, reddening their sides with His purple blood,
and
lacerating on their thorns His pure flesh, whiter than
the snow
.''
Who
but
Him
could have told
men
that
on
the other side of those abrupt and giant mountains lay bright and cheerful meadows, where the air
is
benign,
the heavens serene, the waters pure and limpid, the
harmony
and the freshness perpetual where true which never ends, and pleasure true pleasure, which never ceases, and love true love, which where there is perpetual rest is never extinguished life
is
ineffable,
;
life,
;
without idleness, everlasting
repose without
fatigue,
and where are sublimely confounded the sweetness of possession and the beauty of hope .'
The Son of God, Made Man, and placed on the cross by man, is at once the realisation of all things perfect, represented in
all
symbols, and typified in
all figures,
and the universal figure and symbol of all perfections. The Son of God, Made Man, as He is at once God and man,
is
ideality
and
reality united.
Natural reason
AND
LIBERALISM, tells us,
attain in
SOCIALISM.
327
and daily experience proves, that man cannot any act, or in anything whatever, that relative
perfection
possible for
is
it
him
to reach,
not before his eyes a finished model of
higher
For the people of Athens to acquire that
perfection.
admirable
he have
if
still
instinct,
what was beautiful or what was heroic
of discovering with a single glance in literature, or artistically sublime,
in the actions of
lutely necessary they should
men,
have before
it
was abso-
their eyes the
statues of their wonderful artists, the verses of their sub-
lime poets, and the heroic actions of their great captains.
The people its artists,
of Athens, as
we
find
it,
necessarily supposes
and captains, as we
poets,
them
find
;
and
these in their turn did not reach such daring heights
without fixing their eyes on something
still
higher.
All
the Greek captains attained their great eminence because
they fixed their eyes on Achilles, who reached the highest pinnacle of glory.
poets became their eyes
types of
All those great
great and
on the artistic
" Iliad "
and
artists
and eminent
eminent because they fixed
and the
" Odyssey,''
literary beauty.
immortal
The one and
the
other would never have existed if they had not fixed their gaze on Homer, magnificent personification of artistic, literary,
and heroic
grace.
This law, by virtue of which
all
that
tude is in a more perfect manner in an in an incomparably higher and more still
in
one person,
is
is
in the multi-
aristocracy,
perfect
so universal, that
reasonably considered the law of history.
it
and
manner
might be
This law
is
in its turn subject to certain conditions as necessary as
ESSAYS ON CATHOLICISM,
32 8
Thus, for example,
itself.
all
a necessary condition of
it is
those heroic personifications, that they belong at the
same time
to the special association they personify,
more general and superior
to another
Virgil, and Dante, are
two
different
same time
the
all at
one of which
cities,
live
:
;
in the superior
are citizens, in the inferior emperors. in
called
which
all
inferior, in
condensed
in
That superior
which they
called here Paris, there Athens, elsewhere
Well now, as
like peoples,
one person,
stand out in
in
Rome.
so
it
their perfections
was
human above
superior to
The
race.
city,
be
fulfilled
which bears the name
excellences of this city, ex-
had the advantage of a personification others, as it was superior to all other
all,
all
and should consequently be subhme and Nor was this enough for, that the law might be
perfect.
cities,
;
in every iota,
it
was
natures in his personal unity
God, by the other man,
And
don't
tell
me
fulfilled
that the person in
right
humanity were condensed, should unite two
man.
and
that the
right
universal law of typical personification should
cellent
is
rule, is
those inferior cities are
whom
relief,
with respect to the superior of the
they
have equal rights of citizenship,
humanity; and the
virtues
the other
in the superior
together with a certain equality, in the inferior
each one rules with absolute sway
city,
citizens of
local,
is
general, one inferior, the other superior
they
Homer,
Achilles, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon,
them.
and
personified in
—by the
for
God
whom
different
one he should be
alone
is
superior to
that for the fulfilment of this
law the incarnation of an angel were
sufficient
;
as man,
AND
LIBERALISM,
SOCIALISM.
329
compound of a spiritual soul and a corporeal body, participated at once in the physical and considered as a
angelic natures, and was, as
were, the confluence of
it
whence it follows, that being, inasmuch as he was man, all creation, he must be God to be at the same time something beyond the created. all
things created
;
we
Finally, that the law in all,
it
are explaining might be fulfilled
was necessary
person
for the
who
ruled with
authority in the inferior city to be a citizen, and nothing
more
in the superior
the empire of inhabited
;
hence God,
Made Man,
is
single in
things created, whilst in the tabernacle
all
by the
divine essence
in all things equal to the
is
the person of the Son,
Father and the Holy Ghost.
Great would be the error of those
who
should believe
that I look on this line of argument as invincible, and
To
these analogies as perfect.
suppose that
;
No
arrogance and madness. illumining what
God
tabernacle defended
here
is
can see
and the mere endeavour to remove which cover them appears to me foolish
gated blindness the divine veils
man
would be unmiti-
clearly through these deep mysteries
ray of light
has hidden
by
in
is
capable of
the impenetrable
My only design
divine obscurity.
to demonstrate, with a vigorous demonstration,
that far from
what God commands us
incredible,
is
it
not only credible but reasonable.
believe the demonstration
of evidence, as long as
it
may is
—that he who
following truth
the absurd, and the divine darkness.
to beheve being
There
is
I
be carried to the limits
confined to proving the
abandons
is less
faith falls into
obscure than
human
no Catholic dogma nor mystery
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
330
which
not comply with these two conditions,
does
rendering a belief reasonable
necessary for
when
explain everything satisfactorily
mitted
it
is
—
first,
to
once ad-
second, to be itself capable to a certain degree
;
There
and comprehension.
cbf explanation
is
no man of
sound sense and straightforward mind, who does not on the one hand, of
feel satisfied,
to
his radical incapacity
discover revealed truths, and on the other, of his
marvellous aptitude to explain them
all satisfactorily in
This would show that reason was given
a relative way.
to man, not to discover the truth, but to see and .explain it
when placed
lamentable
is
before him.
So great
and so up to the thing he should
his misery,
his intellectual indigence, that
present day he
not certain of the
is
have investigated,
if
it
first
had entered into the divine
plan to allow him to investigate anything.
Tell me,
if
man who has discovered with certainty what his reason is, why he received it, for what it serves, and how far it reaches. And when I see, on one not,
if
there be
hand, that this
is
lisped,
nounced,
I
and. feel
was not made nounce
the
A
of this alphabet, and on the
thousand years has passed since
other, that six first
one
it
has
not yet
authorised to say that this
for
man
it
was
been properly pro-
to pronounce, nor
alphabet
man, to pro-
it.
Taking up the thread of this discourse, I will say it was an excellent and convenient thing, for humanity to have before it a universal model of universal and infinite
perfection, as
the various political associations
have ever had one, from which they drew, as from their
LIBERALISM,
AND
proper source, these special
which they surpassed
in
SOCIALISM.
gifts
and excellences this
would be
sufBcient of itself to explain the great mystery treating,
as
God
alone
in
the glorious periods of their
In the absence of other reasons,
history.
331
could
serve
we
are
the finished
as
exemplar and perfect model for all tribes and nations. His presence among men, His marvellous doctrine. His life
of holiness. His tribulations without number, His
passion, full of opprobrium
and ignominy, and His
death, which perfects and crowns
all,
cruel
are the only things
can explain the prodigious height and sublime level reached by
human
virtues.
In the societies lying on the
other side of the cross, there were heroes, in the great Catholic society, saints ; and the pagan heroes are to the saints of Catholicity, of course in the proper proportion,
and with the necessary
reservations,
what the various
personifications of nations are to the absolute personifi-
cation of humanity, in the person of a God,
Between those various
through love of men. cations and
absolute one there
this
Made Man,
is
personifi-
an immense,
between the heroes and the saints an immeasurable, distance nothing more natural than when the first was ;
infinite,
The
the second should be immeasurable.
heroes were
passion excited to
The
saints are
men who, its
through the aid of a carnal
utmost, did extraordinary things.
men who, subduing
all
carnal passions,
courageously stem, unaided by any carnal asssistance, the
tide
of
sorrows.
all
The
heroes,
exciting
to
own powers, attacked all who The saints always began by distrusting
feverish ebullition their
opposed them. their
own powers,
and, unaided by, and deprived
of,
all
ESSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
332
help from them, entered on the contest at once with themselves, and
all
the powers of earth and
The
hell.
heroes proposed to attain high glory and great renown
among human
The
nations.
saints regarded the vain talk of
generations as nothing, cared not for renown and
and leaving aside their own will, as something vile, placed themselves and their all in the hands of God, regarding it as excellent and glorious to put on the
glory,
This
livery of His servants. saints
were
:
and
one
the
is
opposite of what they intended
thought to
have
what the heroes and attained
the
for the heroes,
who
other
the ;
the earth with the glory of their name,
fill
fallen into
whilst the saints,
profound oblivion
who only
among
pontiffs,
works, and it
is
He
how
and kings.
is
knowing how, he thinks he
is
below by peoples,
How great
marvellous in His designs
himself goes, and
thinks he
it
peoples,
fixed their eyes on heaven,
are honoured and reverenced here
emperors,
all
is
only
God
is
God
in
His
Man thinks
1
that bears him.
descending into a valley, and without finds himself on a mountain.
gaining glory, and he
one seeks refuge and
falls into
rest in oblivion,
This one
oblivion
and he
is
;
that
suddenly
deafened by the clamour of nations proclaiming his glory.
The one is
sacrificed everything to their
called after
them
:
their
Their names were the the altar of their
from
their
first
sacrifice,
own memory.
name, and no one
name ended with
themselves.
thing the others offered on so far even as to blot
them
Well, those names they forgot
and despised, are handed down from father to son, from generation to generation, as a glorious relic and a rich inheritance
:
there
is
no Catholic who
is
not called
LIBERALISM, Thus
after a saint.
is
AND
SOCIALISM.
333
daily fulfilled that divine expres-
sion which announced the humiliation of the proud and
the exaltation of the humble.
As between God, Made Man, and the rulers of human intelligence there is an infinite, and between
the the
heroes and saints an immeasurable, distance, so between the Catholic and Gentile multitudes, and those who lead and guide them, there is an immense distance, as all copies are moulded on their originals. The Divinity, by His presence, produces sanctity the sanctity of the ;
most exalted,
in its turn, is the cause,
the virtue of the sense of the there
less,
and on the
on one hand, of
other, the
Hence we observe
least exalted.
no people which has not common
is
what
Catholic, nor. Gentile people which has
common
sense,
and
consists in that
will
cause him no surprise
that
sense, if is
called
sound reason which
with a simple glance sees everything in
This
common
its
who
own
place.
considers that
Catholicity being the absolute order, the infinite truth
and the finished it
perfection,
things are seen
in
their
it
is
only in
it
and through
intimate essence, in their
proper place, in the importance they have, and in the marvellous order in which they are placed. Catholicity there
is
no
common
Without
sense in the least
exalted, nor virtue in the less, nor sanctity in the
exalted
;
for
most
common sense, virtue, and sanctity on Made Man, occupied in teaching
earth suppose a God,
sanctity to heroic souls, virtue to the firm,
and
in direcf:-
ing the reason of the wandering multitudes involved in the darkness and shadows of death.
ON CATHOLICISM,
^•^^^KS-
334
That Divine Master
is
the universal ordainerwho acts
for this reason, no matter you view Him, nor in what aspect you conConsider Him, you always find Him in the centre. sidered as God and man at the same time, He is that centre-point in which are united the creative essence
as the centre of all things
what
;
side
and the created substances.
God
the Son of
is
the second person, that
of the three divine Persons.
He
Considered solely as
human
He
Redeemer, all
tion
is
is
nature
is
con-
Considered as
densed with mysterious condensation. once
the centre
Considered solely as man,
that centre-point in which
is
is,
God
that central person on
the divine graces and rigours.
whom
fall
at
The redemp-
the grand synthesis in which are united and
and mercy. Considered at once as the Lord of heaven and earth, and as born in a stable, and living a hidden life, and suffering death on a cross, He is that centre-point in which all theses and reconciled the divine justice
antitheses, with their perpetual contradiction
and reconciled
variety, are united thesis.
He
of the rich lord
He
He
;
is
a superior syn-
the poorest of the poor, and the richest
naked, and clothed with resplendent robes
obeys man, and commands the heavens ;
wherewith to
and
infinite
the slave and the king, the servant and the
;
is
in
and
satisfy
He
His hunger nor assuage His
He commands
the rocks to
distil
;
has not thirst,
water and the
loaves to multiply, that the people might live and the
crowds have plenty. adore
Him
;
at the
vested with power,
Men insult and the seraphim same moment obedient and in-
He
dies because ordered to die,
and
;
LIBERALISM,
He commands
AND
SOCIALISM.
the veil of the temple to be rent, the
sepulchres to open, the dead to
Him,
follow
all
hide his rays.
335
rise,
the good thief to
nature to be disturbed, and the sun to
He comes in the middle of time, He disciples, He is born in the centre-point seas and three immense continents. He
walks amid His of two great is
which observes the just medium
citizen of a nation
between
those which
thoroughly enslaved every
way
middle
;
a centre
is
are
He
;
life,
which
between the past and the future
amid applause and
insult,
and
independent
Himself the Way, and
the Truth, and truth
;
and
the Life,
entirely
calls
;
He
and
is
He
is
in the
the present,
spends His
dies between
is
life
two
thieves.
And
hence
He
was
at
once a scandal to the Jews and
a madness to the Gentiles.
The one and
the other had
naturally an idea of the divine thesis and the antithesis;
they imagined, however, and
in this,
human
humanly
speaking, they were not far astray, that this thesis and antithesis
human
were totally irreconcilable and contradictory
intelligence could not rise to their reconciliation
by means of a supreme synthesis. The world had ever seen rich and poor but it could not conceive the union in one person of the greatest indigence and opulence. But this very thing, which appears absurd to reason, is ;
when the person in whom these things are united, is divine, who either had not to be or to come,, or had to be or to come in that manner. His coming was the not so
sign for the universal for universal
reconciliation of all things,
peace among men
;
the poor and the
and rich,
;
ON CA THOLICISM,
336
£:SSA YS
the
humble and the
—
happy and the
the
powerful,
Him, and in Him alone and indigent, powerThis is that ful and humble, happy and afflicted. pacific fraternity He taught all those who opened afflicted
their
This
were one
all
He was
for only
and
understandings is
in
at once opulent
ears
petual and unwearied preaching
one
His
to
divine word.
that evangelical fraternity preached with per-
Deny
after another.
by
Catholic doctors,
all
our Lord Jesus Christ, and
immediately partisanship and
partialities,
tumults and proud
and
mad
discords
rebellions,
and great
sinister
cries
and
and implacable rancours, and endless
The poor
wars and bloody battles, begin. standard against the
rich,
fortunate, aristocracies
raise their
the unfortunate against the
against kings, the
multitudes
against the aristocracy, and one against the other, the
immense
disturbed and barbarous multitudes, like two
oceans which meet at the mouth of the abyss.
True humanity God, and
it
is
is
there
in is
no
man
:
it
was
contradictory nature, for on one side excellent,
baseness. it
one side
His own by uniting
that
it
it
and on the other the sum of
On
it
Son of
in the
revealed to us the secret of
it is
is
all
indignity and
so excellent, that
with the
Word
;
its
sublime and
God made
and so sublime,
was from the beginning, and before
He
came,
promised by God, silently adored by the patriarchs,
announced from time to time by the prophets, revealed to the world even by false oracles, and represented in all the sacrifices and figures. An angel announced it to a virgin, and the Holy Ghost formed
it
by His
virtue in
:
LIBERALISM, her virginal womb, and to Himself for ever
AND
SOCIALISM.
337
God entered into, and united it and thus perpetually united to
;
God, that sacred humanity was celebrated
in its birth
by the voice of angels, proclaimed by the stars, visited by shepherds, and adored by kings and when God, ;
united to this humanity, desired to be baptized, the
heavens
opened, and the Holy Ghost was
Him
descend on
in figure of
heard on high, which said
whom
am
I
well pleased."
He
menced
to preach,
the
consoling the
sick,
:
seen to
a dove, and a voice was
— This And
is
my
beloved Son in
then when
He com-
wrought such wonders, curing
afflicted, raising
the dead to
life,
commanding the winds and the waves, revealing hidden and announcing future things, that He caused wonder and astonishment to heaven and earth, angels and men. Nor did the prodigies cease here, for that humanity was to-day seen dead by all, and in three days resuscitated and glorious, victor over time and death and silently ;
cleaving the
air,
was seen
to ascend on high like a divine
aurora.
And
this
was on the
same humanity, on one
other,
by God, without
exemplar of
itself
side so glorious,
baseness, predestined
all
being culpable, to suffer as a sub-
stitute the penalty of sin.
Hence He, on whose
divine
countenance the angels loved to look, went through the world so lowly; hence
is
so sad and sorrowful
He
in
whose eyes the heavens find their delight hence is naked in this valley He who on the hills of heaven is hence walks like a clothed with a garment of stars ;
;
sinner,
among
sinners,
He who
is
the saint of saints
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
338
He
here
converses with a blasphemer, there talks with
an adulteress, or discourses with a miser.
To Judas
He
offers
gives a kiss of peace,
paradise
;
man
He He
He
and when
speaks with such
,
and to a robber
converses with sinners.
love, that tears
their eyes.'
fill
thus melts for the
when when
Under the sun
there
and with
afflicted.
He This
suffering,
should be profoundly acquainted with sorrow, thus pities the miserable,
His
was man so unblessed with orphanage and want
.never
An entire
of protection.
disciples betrays, another denies,
nor has
He
Him
people curse
and
all
;
one of His
abandon Him;
a drop of water to moisten His
lips,
nor a
mouthful of bread to satisfy His hunger, nor a pillow on
which to
He
what
rest
His head.
No agony was when
suffered in the Garden,
sweated blood
;
ever equal to all
His pores
then His face was stricken with blows,
His body covered with a purple garment
in mockery, and His brow crowned with thorns; He bore the weight of His cross, and fell to the ground many times, and
ascended the side of Golgotha, followed by maddened
who filled the air with their sinister vociferawhen He was raised on high, His abandonment
crowds, '
tions
;
so increased that His very Father turned His eyes from
Him, and the angels who obeyed Him, shaded
their
alarmed faces with their wings, that they might not behold Him even the superior part of His soul aban;
doned His humanity
in that terrible
remaining serene and indifferent to
shook their heads, and said
God, come down from that
:
If
cross.
moment
all.
And
Thou be
of death,
the crowds the Son of
AND
LIBERALISM,
How God,
SOCIALISM.
339
could they believe, without a special grace of
in the
cross in that state
Him who
of
divinity
How
?
scandal and madness
nailed
to
the
not look on His words as a
And
?
is
yet that man, suffering
mortal agony without alleviation, subjected the world to His law, carrying
some poor
it
as
it
were by storm, through the
Him, abandoned by and miserable strangers in the land. Through Him men changed their course of life, for Him they abandoned efforts of
fishermen, like
all,
His love they took up their cross, and and peopled the deserts, and rejected sensual pleasures, and believed in the sanctifying virtue of suffering, and led a pure, spiritual life, and chastised and their flesh without mercy, subjecting it for ever their property, for left
the
city,
;
besides
all this,
believed soon
after
His death stupendous
and incredible things for they believed that He who had been crucified was the only Son of God, and God Himself that He had been conceived in the womb of a that He virgin by the operation of the Holy Ghost ;
;
;
who had been born
in a stable
and wrapjjed
in
swad-
dling clothes, was the Lord of heaven and earth that when He died, He descended to hell, and released the ;
pure and upright souls of the ancient patriarchs that He afterwards resumed His body, and raised it glorious ;
from the grave, and bore
it
through the
air,
transfigured
and resplendent that the woman, who had borne Him in her womb, was at once loving mother and immaculate virgin that she was carried by angels to heaven, and there proclaimed by the angelic choirs and a sovereign ;
;
edict,
queen of
creation,
mother of the
afflicted, inter-
;
£SSA VS ON CA THOLICISM,
340
mother of the Son
cesser of the just, refuge of sinners,
and spouse of the Holy Ghost
;
are of less value than the secret
that
and
things visible
all
and only
invisible,
worthy to be despised when compared with them that there is no other good but that which consists in under;
going labour, accepting sorrow, tolerating living in perpetual tribulation
;
afflictions,
nor other
evil
and
but sin
and pleasure; that the waters of baptism purify, confession cleanses from sin, bread and wine are converted into
God, and God
tions
that
;
He
head, and none falls
without
man
thinks,
that
if
is
within and without us in
has counted
all
grows without His
His permission or it
the
He
is
his will incline,
all direc-
hairs
of our
ordination nor
command
;
that
puts the thoughts before it
is
He moves
it
;
that
if
him
it is
;
He
him when he is strong, and that he stumbles and falls if His aid is removed from him that the dead shall rise and come to judgment; that there are a
who
fortifies
;
heaven and a
eternal
hell,
punishment and everlasting
was to be believed by the world powers of the world, and this marvellous doctrine was to invincibly open a way for
glory
;
that
all this
in opposition to all the
itself
kings and emperors trious confessors,
virgins
power of princes, that innumerable crowds of illus-
and
against the will ;
in spite of the
eminent doctors, delicate and bashful
and glorious martyrs were to give
their lives for
it
and that the madness of Calvary was to be so contagious, as to turn the heads of people as far as the sun's rays
reach and the earth extends. All thgse incredible things were believed
by men,
LIBERALISM,
AND
SOCIALISM.
341
when that grand tragedy of the three hours represented on Calvary to the dread of the sun and the shaking of the earth in fulfilled
all
her members, came to an end.
the word pronounced
draw them with (chap,
mercy
;
Man
but he
very marrow of his bones, voice of
Him who
His love
for him.
that fearful
and
softened and
is
if
justice
filled
—
and
and
resists
with love to the afflicted
in dying, proves
me
persecutest thou
This
."
is
but loving voice, which continually sounds
in the ears of sinners
of gentle complaint
and that loving and soft accent what goes straight to the soul,
;
is
and transforms and changes and converts and obliges
:
bands of love
he hear the sad and
dies for him,
Why
the
Thus was / will
of such condition, that he
is
omnipotence
against
Osee
in
of Adam, with
the cords
ver. 4).
xi.,
rebels
by God
it
to seek
Him
in the city
it all
and the
to God, desert, in
the rugged mountain and in the plains, by the high
roads and by-paths.
It is that voice
which inflames
the soul with the chaste love of the Spouse, and carries it,
almost beside
itself,
in pursuit of
His intoxicating per-
fumes, as thirst brings the stag to the beautiful springs of living waters.
God came
to the world to cast fire on
the earth, and immediately the earth began to smoke
and burn
in all its four quarters,
and the powerful flames
of those divine conflagrations are daily extended through all regions.
believes
Love explains the
inexplicable,
through love what appears
and man
incredible,
and
does what appears impossible to do, for love smoothes
and makes everything
When
possible.
those apostles
who saw
the Lord, before His
I;:
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
342
and clothed
passion, transfigured
white garments,
in
more shining than the sun, and purer than the snow, said in ecstasy, Let us remain here, they had not yet any idea of divine love, nor its ineffable delights hence ;
the great apostle, master of the art of love, afterwards said
:
— One
Christ,
want
thing alone I desire to understand, Jesus
Him
and
know
to
Jesus Christ things
all
;
crucified
all,
;
which was the same as
and to know
Him
for in
all, I
:
—
And Him
he did not say, transfigured nor glorious
know Him
to
little
—
want only to know
and
are united all knowledge
and then he added
;
:
crucified
for
;
it
His omnipotence, assisting
in
:
avails in
thought at the marvellous work of universal creation, nor does
it
suffice to
countenance
know Him
glitters
with
powers of heaven are absorbed divine throne
;
nor
is
it
in
His glory when His
uncreated in
enough
and the
light,
admiration before the
to see
Him
pronounce
the unappealable decrees of His justice, surrounded
Nor
angels and seraphim.
when
fied
it
thirst, unsatisfied
and asks he
for is,
as
for
.
The
an
apostle with
more, and mounts higher
in
He
known
prefers to be
manner
in
which
;
Him
in the act of
That
is
reason can ;
know
for
to signify,
Jesus Christ, and
only did those privileged
and most
conceive,
His incomprehensible and
what the apostle wishes
only want to
Him
daring thought
in the highest
imagination imagine, or the will desire
I
unassuagable
hunger, and invincible desire, longs
only content with knowing Christ crucified, that
is
excellent
—
by
the soul completely satis-
witnesses the profound wonders of His
mercy.
infinite
is
it is
to
or
know
infinite love.
when he says
Him
men want
crucified.
to know.
— LIBERALISM,
who
SOCIALISM.
343
took up their cross, and marched on, carefully lay-
down
ing
AND
their foot
whenever they saw the bloody and
glorious track of His footsteps,
who converted dise,
Him
only those fathers
the desert wastes into gardens of para-
wanted to know.
Him
only did those chaste
vir-
want to know, who laying all concupiscence at His feet, took Him for spouse, and consecrated their pure and virginal thoughts to Him, Him alone all those want to know who, turning their eyes into fountains, have received tribulations with heart-felt joy, and have firmly ascended the rugged gins, miracles of fortitude,
mount
of penance.
Among
the wonders of creation, a soul in charity
the most marvellously wonderful, not only because state
is
is
its
the highest and most excellent that can be
imagined on
this earth below, but
because
it
proclaims
with loud voice, the prodigies wrought by divine love,
which was capable not only of blotting out our thereby disorder and the cause of
all
sin,
and
disorder, but also
of inchning us to voluntarily desire the deification
we
formerly rejected, and rendering us capable of attaining
what we
by accepting the assistance of the grace the Lord and through the Lord, when He
desired,
we merited
in
shed His blood on Calvary to merit
we might
merit
it
for us,
and that
All these things are signified by
it.
those memorable words pronounced by Jesus Christ,
when about expiring equal to saying, not with
my
I
my justice,
omnipotence
;
:
It is
consummated
effected with
nor
my
my
love
mercy, nor
for I blotted out sin
the divine majesty and
human
:
which was
what
my
I
could
wisdom, nor
which obscured
beauty, freed humanity
:
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
344
its shameful captivity, and restored to man the power of being saved, which he had lost through sin. Now my spirit can descend to fortify, embellish, and
from
deify man, for
I
have drawn him and united him to
me
with a powerful and loving bond.
When
by
those memorable words were pronounced
the Son of
God on
expiring on the cross,
things
all
became marvellously ordained and perfect in order. Every one of the dogmas contained as well in this in the
former book,
one of those laws all
is
a law of the moral world
of itself permanent
is
;
as
every
and perpetual
together compose the code of laws which constitute
moral order in humanity and the universe to the physical, to
;
which the material are
and united
subject,
form
the supreme law of order, which directs and governs
all
things created.
To
such a degree
perfect order, that
necessary that
is it
disorder, cannot conceive disorder; tion,
when
as absurd
all
things be in
man, though turning everything into hence every revolu-
destroying ancient institutions, rejects them
and
injurious
;
and when substituting others
of individual invention, says they constitute excellent order.
This
crated
among
is
the signification of the phrase conse-
revolutionists of all times,
the perturbation they sanctify, a
new
Even M. Proudhon, the most daring of
when they
call
order of things. all,
only defends
his anarchy in quality of the rational expression of perfect,
that
From
is,
absolute order.
the perpetual necessity of order, flows the per-
petual necessity of the physical and moral laws which
;
AND
LIBERALISM, constitute
it
;
God
When He drew man from
they were
for this reason
proclaimed by
SOCIALISM.
345
created and
all
alone from the beginning of time.
the world from nothingness, formed
the slime of the earth,
made
the
woman from
and constituted the first family, God established once for ever the physical and moral laws which consti-tute order in humanity and the universe, withdrawing them from the jurisdiction of man, and placing them beyond the reach of his mad speculations and vain his rib,
Even the dogmas of the incarnation of the Son of God, and of the redemption of the human race, were revealed by God in paradise, when He made that caprices.
merciful promise to our
parents, with which
first
tempered the rigour of His
He
justice.
In vain has the world denied those laws:
aspiring
yoke by denying them, has done nothing but increase its burden by mean;
to emancipate itself from their it
of catastrophes this
ever
proportioned to the
negations,
law of proportion being one of the constitutives of
order.
God
left
a free and wide
broad were the dominions free will of
man, to
whom
to
field
He
left to
human
was given authority over sea
and land, the right of rebelling against making war on heaven, entering into alliances with the infernal
his
Creator,
treaties
and
deafening the world
spirits,
with the noise of battle, burning tions
opinions
the empire of the
cities
with conflagra-
and discords, astounding them with the tremendous
shocks of revolutions, closing his understanding to the truth,
and
his
eyes to the
light,
and opening them
ESSA YS ON CA THOLICISM,
346
to error
and darkness with delight
raising empires, estabHshing
and of
tiring of republics,
rejecting
what he before
of founding and
;
and destroying
republics,
empires and monarchies
desired, returning to
of
;
what he
abandoned, of affirming everything, even the absurd of denying everything, even evidence
no God, and of
all
light,
I am God;
;
of saying there
:
is
of proclaiming his independence
powers, and of adoring the sun which gives him the tyrant
who
oppresses him, the reptile that
creeps on the ground, the hurricane which roars,
the
lightning which flashes, the rumbling thunder, and the
passing cloud.
All this and
much more was
given to
notwithstanding his possession of
all
man; but the stars
this,
perpetually pursue their course, in regulated rotation,
and the seasons succeed each other
in
harmonious
circle,
without ever overtaking or becoming confounded one with the other, and the earth
is clothed with grass and and bending harvests, as it ever was from the day received from on high the virtue of fructifying and
trees it
;
things physical
all
and
fulfil
to-day as they did yesterday
shall to-morrow, the divine
commands, moving
in
perpetual peace and harmony, without infringing in the slightest the laws of their powerful
sovereign hand,
Maker, who with
regulates their steps,
them loose rein. and much more was given
restrains
their
impetuosity, or gives
All that
to
man
;
but not-
withstanding he could not prevent punishment following
on the heels of on
his sin, chastisement
his first transgression,
on
his crime, death
damnation on
his obstinacy.
LIBERALISM, justice
tion
on
on
by
SOCIALISM.
347
mercy on his repentance, separaand catastrophes on his rebellions.
his liberty,
his scandals,
To man
AND
has been given to bring society lacerated
it
discords to his feet, to level the strongest walls, sack
opulent
bury
cities,
destroy extensive and renowned empires,
in fearful ruin the highest civilizations, enveloping
their splendours in the dense cloud of barbarism
has not been given him
is,
to suspend
for
what
;
one day,
for a
single hour, for one sole instant, the infallible fulfilment
of the fundamental laws of the physical and moral world,
humanity and the universe what the world has never and shall never see is, that the man who flies from order by the door of sin, returns not by constitutives of order in
:
the door of penalty, that herald of
messages to
God who
bears His
all.
THE END.
Cornell Catholic
Union Library.
Printed by
M. H.
Gill
* Son, 30, Upper
SacXviUe-st. Dublin,
ff
-;^\^)i\^\\\^\\^^*^^'*!,\\^^^^^
