Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/207

principle of discussion has been ruinous to the good sense of the people. In this condition of society there is no convulsion that is not to be feared, no catastrophe that may not take place, no revolutions that are not inevitable.

As regards the socialist schools they show, in the manner of presenting questions, their superiority over the liberal school, which has not the slightest ability to resist them. Essentially theological, they are enabled to measure the utmost depths of the abysses; nor are they wanting in a certain grandeur in their mode of presenting problems and proposing their solution. But when we consider them more carefully, and enter into the intricate labyrinth of their contradictory solutions, we discover their radical weakness, however well disguised it may be by imposing appearances. The socialist sectaries resemble the pagan philosophers, whose systems of theology and cosmogony are a monstrous combination of disfigured and mutilated biblical traditions and untenable hypotheses. This apparent grandeur arises from the atmosphere which surrounds them, and which is impregnated with Catholic influences; while their contradictions and weakness proceed from their ignorance of dogmas, their forgetfulness of traditions, and their contempt of the Church, which is the universal depository of Catholic dogmas and Christian traditions. Like our dramatists of a former age, who, confounding everything, grotesquely but ingeniously placed in the mouth of Cesar discourses worthy of the Cid, and caused their Moorish chiefs to utter sentiments worthy of Christian knights, so the socialists of the present day are perpetually occupied in giving a rationalist meaning to Catholic formulas; thus exhibiting less genius than sim-