Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/19

thusiasm, for the activity of his exterior life did not indicate how great was his love of meditation. About this time he wrote from Dombenito: "I have never accomplished anything, I accomplish nothing, nor shall I ever, in all my life. I am a perfect example of those men who do nothing; I am always reading, I propose to act, and then I never commence. Sometimes I imagine myself standing before God, and God demanding of me, What hast thou done? and I tremble with excessive fear. I then think that perhaps I was destined for a contemplative life; but these are dangerous illusions presented to my mind. The truth is, that I am a man who has done nothing." The simplicity of his faith equaled that of the most humble countryman. Having learned that a relic of our Lord was preserved in the Church of Argenteuil, he wished to make a pilgrimage thither, in order to obtain of divine mercy the cure of one of his brothers, who was sick. There is such a fullness of affection in those souls who are inspired by divine love, that they desire every act and thought should correspond to this love, and they make of life a continual sacrifice; and yet the world considers them as objects of insult, and takes pleasure in calling them guelfi da campanile; so that, in consequence of a contempt for their example, truth is lost and the practice of virtue discontinued.

I will only say a few words respecting the political opinions of Donoso. "The Christian monarchy, which existed before the absolute monarchy caused the suppression of deliberative assemblies, placed a real and not a revolutionary limit to the royal will;" and then the government was the only social form that was deemed necessary, the only expression of that authority which proceeded from God. In this appeal to the middle ages, to this high Catholic arbitrament, to the feudal and aristocratic power, all the illustrious men of the theological school concur with Cortès, from De Maistre to Balmes, from Bonald to Canuta. It is a general complaint, the want of an age in which faith existed and was