refuse us the proofs of our own existence, cannot give us proofs of the existence of God. How can it be expected that man should prove a God tọ exist by reasonings which cannot even prove to him the substance of his body. In Homer and in Virgil we see the shades of the dead : in metaphysical discussions we see nothing: it is a complete void, there is no substance; the logician does not even leave us a phantom, not even the dust which returns to dust, according to the energetic expression of the Scriptures. Shall we, then, seek for truth in nothingness? A man who was at the same time the greatest of moralists and the most powerful of logicians, Kant, wished to come to a conclusion respecting this incapable and threatening science—the greater it seemed to be, the more he desired to comprehend the whole, and to define its limits; his eagle eye penetrated into it as into an abyss: the question was to examine human intellect, to ask an account of what it can, and what it will effect; to study it at the same time in its relationship to God and nature, to time and eternity. From this examination, the most conscientious, the most profound, which ever emanated from a philosophical brain, an immense fact results; viz. that the instrument of thought (the cognisant organ) can do nothing beyond the domain of the sensible perceptions, and that logic is powerless regarding all the questions which carry us beyond the sphere of time and space. And this result, so positive, is not the product of reasoning, it is the consequence of a fact. Kant places on two parallel lines the metaphysical arguments for and against the existence of God: weighs them in the same balance, and demonstrates their equality. The argumentation having decided nothing, doubt supervenes, and the truth remains unknown. As many times as he repeats the experiment, he arrives at the same conclusion. The liberty of man, the eternity of the world, the immortality of the soul, are insoluble problems to the perceptions of the senses. Reasoning is restricted to the earth. How should the finite comprehend the infinite? Thus, one of the loftiest intellects has employed all the powers of abstraction to establish that abstraction is powerless in the research of principles, and that instead of complaining of this weakness, we ought to thank nature for it. What would have become of truth-the truth which ought to be universal-if nature had made its demonstration dependent upon reasonings which are unintelligible to seveneighths of the human race? CHAPTER IV. OF THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH ON THE AUTHORITY "Le plus grand mal sur la terre, c'est l'ignorance de la vérité." PLATON. MAN has opened out to himself two roads towards truth reason and faith. From reasoning we have seen philosophical systems arise; from faith we shall see religious systems originate. To the former belongs the authority of genius; to the latter, the authority of scripture: the one makes philosophers, the other theologians. The former gives life to nations, the latter imparts to them. thought and movement. All scripture, even Holy Scripture, has passed through the hands of men. They have copied, falsified, interpreted! everywhere leaving the impress of their passions, and of their miserable sophistry; substituting error for truth; theology for religion; and man for God. Let the Bible, the book of charity and love, fall into the hands of the doctors, they will find the executioner in it. It is by punishments that they unite this life to the other, and the flames of the inquisition correspond to the flames of hell. There is in the Bible a line, the authority of which has been cited from age to age up to our own times, in order to justify the greatest of all crimes, slavery: "Cursed be Canaan! a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.' ""* "Shall we allow a single man to infect a town with his impiety, when we see that God has punished whole cities?" exclaims Calvin, in his refutation of Michael Servet; and this argument suffices to cause to be burnt alive the antagonist whom he could not overcome. On the authority of the Bible the reformer made himself an executioner. Certainly, one must either give up the search after truth by means of theological authorities, or consent to find it in all the crimes which have shocked the world. The history of the interpretation of holy books would be the history of human insanity. This vast picture, drawn by a skilful hand, would disgust us both with the gloss and with the commentary. But what mortal eyes could ever decipher all its bloody pages? To take a single example. Carry yourself back to the days of the League: the war is over; a solemn abjuration has just restored Henri IV. to France. Already order is * Genesis ix. 25. becoming re-established, and prosperity is about to revive. But if the king were not truly converted; but if the Huguenots were not sufficiently persecuted; the king must be deposed, the Huguenots must be annihilated. These fatal ideas still disturb some minds. A preacher undertakes to express them; he is not a sanguinary man, and yet he asks for blood; he is not an enemy to his country, and yet he labours to overthrow it. He is a man of faith, a man of conviction, a man misled, unquestionably, but yet consequent in his doctrines, and whose doctrines are logical and canonical. Let him alone; he will say nothing without the support of the text and of the law; he will be positive, unexceptionable: if you adopt his authorities, you will be obliged to adopt his opinions. You would expel the king, you would burn the heretics, you would sanctify the crime of Jacques Clement. He now asks for his share in the riches of the Huguenots, and do not think that he would exercise a scandalous spoliation, no, it is a right which he claims. He can quote the authority of Moses, of Joshua, of the Book of Wisdom, in which it is said, " The just shall spoil the unjust." To blame the church for plundering the Huguenots is, therefore, to deny the authority of the Holy Scriptures; it is still more, it is to blame God for having stripped Saul, Roboam, Achab, by the hands of the priests, for the notorious crimes of these princes.* Under similar circumstances one does not take the goods of others; but one justly strips the unjust possessors of goods of which they are not worthy; and this is truth and justice; for in the assembly of prelates at the Council of Latran, all the kings and emperors of the christian world being present, it was decreed that the said sovereigns should, within a year, drive from out of their territories all heretics, and if they * Porthaise, 4th Sermon. did not obey, they were to be excommunicated and their treasures distributed among the Catholics. Thus speaks father Porthaise. A line of the Scriptures is sufficient for him to decide upon the interests of multitudes, and he pronounces this line with a firm voice, without fear or remorse, whatever may be the meaning which it contains. Of what consequence are the afflictions of men to him who believes that he is accomplishing the word of God? If he would give to the priesthood the right of over. throwing nations; if he would also give to nations the right of upsetting thrones, he opens Saint Bernard and Saint Augustin, who lay down the rule, from a passage of the Scriptures, that the church possesses two swords, the spiritual and the temporal; that she makes use of the former in excommunicating heretical princes, and that she may give canonically to the people the right of employing against the prince who is rebellious to the church the temporal sword upon his goods, his lands, and his life. If he would prove that the sovereign pontiff has the right of dethroning kings, he does not trouble himself to seek for the principles of political right, he at once comes to the point, and says, "It is allowable for the pope to depose kings, since Samuel deposed Saul; Joad, Athaliah; Azarias, king Osias ;" and he corroborates these authorities by the authority of the Council of Latran, which has admitted this right. When the authority is not sufficiently clear, he comments upon it and interprets it. It is thus that he finds the stake and fagot in the Scriptures: "God says, Every tree which bears not fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire;" and thus, adds Porthaise, the punishment of fire is destined to heretics. * Sermons of Porthaise. |