Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/36

the nature of bodies and that of spirits, by what ways men proceed, the limit of their progression, from whence they came, the mystery of their peregrination, the course of their journey, the enigma of their sorrows, the secret of life, and the arcana of death. Children who are nourished at this fruitful source know more to-day than did Aristotle and Plato, the two luminaries of Athens. And yet the doctors who teach such wonderful things, and who attain heights so great, have received humility as an inheritance. It has been alone permitted to Catholicism to offer to the world the spectacle, before then reserved for the angels, of science deposed by humility in the presence of God.

This theology is called Catholic because it is universal; and it is so in every sense, under every aspect, and in all respects. It is universal, because it includes the substance of all truth. It is so because in its very nature it is destined to extend everywhere, and to last through all time. It is universal in its God and in its dogmas.

God was unity in India, dualism in Persia, diversity in Greece, multitude at Rome. The living God is one in substance as the Indian; multiple in person as the Persian; diverse in his attributes as the Grecian; and through the great number of spirits (gods) that serve him, he is multitudinous as were the Roman deities. He is the universal cause, the infinite and impalpable essence, the eternal repose and yet the author of all movements, the supreme intelligence, the sovereign will. He contains all things, and nothing contains him. It is he who formed all things out of nothing, who maintains each thing in its entity, and who governs things angelical, human, and infernal. He is most merciful, most