Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/192

tions which we have inherited from past ages, and that the supreme good consists in the overthrow of these institutions. The greater number of socialists consider it as established, that there is no other evil than that which exists in society, and that the great remedy is to be found in the complete subversion of social institutions. All agree that evil is transmitted to us from past ages. The liberals affirm that good may be realized even in the present day; and the socialists assert that this golden era cannot commence except in times yet to come.

Thus, both the one and the other, placing the realization of the supreme good in the entire destruction of the present order—the political order, according to the liberal school, and the social order, according to the socialist schools—they agree with regard to the real and intrinsic goodness of man, who, they contend, must necessarily be the intelligent and free agent in effecting this subversion. This conclusion has been explicitly announced by the socialist schools, and it is implicitly contained in the theory maintained by the liberals. The conclusion is so far maintained in this theory that, if you deny the conclusion, the theory itself must fall to the ground. In fact, the theory, according to which evil exists in man, and proceeds from man, contradicts that other theory, which supposes evil to exist in political and social institutions, and to proceed from them. If we adopt the first hypothesis, there would exist a logical necessity to commence by eradicating evil from the heart of man, in order to extirpate it from society and the state. If we adopt the second supposition, the logical consequence would be the necessity of commencing by eradicating evil directly from society or the state,