Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/130

the order in which they are, under the jurisdiction of those beings whom he formed intelligent and free; from which it follows that the evil, produced either by angelical or human free will, could not be, and was not, anything else than the negation of the order in which God has placed all things created. This negation is expressed by the word even which declares it, since it is called disorder. Disorder is the negation of order, that is to say, of the divine affirmation with regard to the manner of being of all things. And thus, as order consists in the union of things that God wished to be united, and in the separation of those which he wished to be separated, so disorder consists in uniting those things which God wished to be separated, and in separating those which God wished to be united.

The disorder produced by the angelical rebellion consisted In a partial separation of the rebel angel from God, who was his center, by a change in his manner of being, which converted his movement of gravitation toward God into a movement of rotation upon himself.

The disorder caused by man's prevarication resembled that produced by the rebellion of the angels. As there cannot be two different ways of being a prevaricator and a rebel, after man ceased to gravitate toward God by his understanding, his will, and his actions, he constituted himself the center of his own movements, and made himself the ultimate end of his works, his will, and his understanding.

The confusion produced by this prevarication was deep and profound. When man separated himself from God, all his faculties became immediately disconnected one from the other, constituting themselves into so many divergent centers. His understanding lost its authority