Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/191

we have noticed in this chapter, and which are apparently incongruous. They likewise satisfactorily explain. why, in place of investigating, one by one, the various systems of the socialist doctors respecting the Divinity, we have preferred to consider them all as set forth in the writings of Mr. Proudhon, where we find them both in their diversity and in their connection.

We have seen what the socialists think of God; we shall now examine what they think of man, and in what manner they interpret the fearful problem of good and evil, considered in general, which forms the subject of this book.

No man has been so stupid as to dare deny the existence of good and evil, and their coexistence in history. Philosophers may dispute as to the mode and form under which good and evil exist, but all unanimously affirm their existence and their coexistence in history as an established fact. All equally agree that, in the contest which is waged between good and evil, the former must ultimately gain the victory over the latter. Apart from these well established and admitted points, everything else is a subject of diverse opinions, contradictory systems, and interminable disputes.

The liberal school holds it as certain, that there is no evil except that which results from the political institu-