Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/27

mony. The god of the East extended through all time and filled all space; here the family of divinities has its genealogical tree, and is confined to the summit of mountain. The deity of the East dwells in an eternal peace; while here, in the seat of the gods, all is war, tumult, and confusion.

The political unity of these nations undergoes the same vicissitudes as the religious unity: here each city forms an empire; while there all the communities combined to form one. Among the Orientals we find one God and one King; while in the West we find a republic of Deities and a republic of Cities. In this multitude of divinities and cities all is disorder and confusion. To men is imputed something of the heroic and heavenly, and to the gods something of the human and terrestrial. The gods accord to men the intelligence of great things, and the perception of the beautiful, and receive in turn from them their discords and their vices. They have illustrious and virtuous men, and incestuous and adulterous gods. This people, impressionable and ardent, is distinguished for its poets and artists, and is an object of wonder to the world. Life has no charms for it, except as it reflects the light of glory; nor is death terrible, except in the oblivion that follows it. Utterly sensual, it values in life only its pleasures; and it considers death as happy, when it comes crowned with flowers. Familiarity and affinity with its gods, make it vain, capricious, and petulant. Without a due respect for the gods, it lacks dignity in its designs, fixedness of purpose, and stability of resolve. It regards the Oriental World as a region overspread with darkness, and peopled with statues; while the Orientals, contemplating the ephemeral life, premature death, and