Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/249

suing this argument, we must deny to the nation deprived of solidarity, what we deny to the family deprived of solidarity; that is, we must despoil it of all connecting links of the present with past and future ages, so that nothing remains of its past glories, nor can it have any claims to fame in the future. A consequence of denying the solidarity of the family, is the destruction in man of that love of home which constitutes the happiness of domestic society; and this must logically be attended with a similar result for the nation, namely, the radical destruction of that love of country which elevates the citizen above himself, and impels him to undertake the most heroic actions.

Thus, the negation of the dogma of solidarity involves the following results, both in the domestic and the political association: The suppression of all love of family and of patriotism, which is love of country; the destruction of all continuity in time and of all continuity of glory; and lastly, the entire dissolution of domestic and of political society, which can neither exist nor be conceived without a connecting link between different eras, without a common inheritance of glory, and without a communion of these two great affections which control mankind.

The socialist schools are more logical than the liberal school, but they are not so much so as they would seem to be at first sight, and they do not pursue their principles, from consequence to consequence, up to an ultimate conclusion. This conclusion, however, if we admit their premises, not only proceeds from these premises, but is a logical necessity arising from their adoption. The proof of this is found in the universally received fact, that the socialists are in practice what they refuse