Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/242

that of nations destroyed by nations, kingdoms by kingdoms, races by races, families by families, and cities by cities. The gods combated with the gods, men with men, and not unfrequently the immortals, attracted by the disorder, descended from Olympus to take part in the quarrels of men. Among the diverse associations in the same city there is not one which does not attempt to exercise, first over its own members, and then over other associations, a domineering and absorbing action. In the domestic association the personality of the child is absorbed by the personality of the father, and that of the woman by that of the man; the child becomes a mere nonentity, the woman is reduced to an unending state of tutelage, and is condemned to a perpetual disgrace; while the father, who is master of the child and of the woman, converts his power into tyranny. Overruling the tyranny of the father is that of the state, which alike absorbs the woman, the child, and the father, and annihilates in effect the domestic association. Among the nations of antiquity, patriotism itself is merely a declaration of war made by a certain race, who have constituted themselves a nation, against the rest of mankind.

If we pass from the ages of antiquity to the present times, we shall see on the one hand the perpetuity of the idea contained in this dogma; and on the other, the continuance of the disorders we have depicted, which must inevitably occur in proportion to any departure from the Catholic dogma.

The rationalistic school both denies and concedes this dogma, and it is alike absurd, whether it denies or receives it. In the first place, it denies human solidarity, both in the religious and in the political order—in the