Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/233

Each one of the Catholic dogmas 1s a marvel prolific of marvels. Human intelligence passes from the contemplation of one to that of an another, as from one evident proposition to another evident proposition; as from a principle to its legitimate consequence, when they are united by the close tie of a rigorous deduction. And each new dogma discovers a new world to us, and in each world the view extends over a new and wider horizon, and the soul remains absorbed in the splendor of so much magnificence.

The Catholic dogmas explain by their universality all universal facts; and these facts, in their turn, explain the Catholic dogmas. In the same way what is multiple and diverse is explained by what is one, and what is one by what is multiple and diverse; the containing by the contained, and the contained by the containing. The dogma of the wisdom and the providence of God explains the wonderful harmony of created things; and this order and agreement explains this Catholic dogma. The dogma of human liberty explains the primitive prevarication, and this same prevarication, which all traditions attest, demonstrates this dogma. The Adamic prevarication is at the same time a divine dogma and a traditional fact, and fully explains the great disorders which disfigure the beauty and the har-