Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/53

their point of departure. The Church, and the Church alone, has the sacred privilege of profitable and fruitful discussions. The Cartesian theory, according to which truth proceeds from doubt, as Minerva from the head of Jupiter, is at variance with that divine law, which regulates the generation of ideas as well as that of bodies, and in virtue of which contraries perpetually exclude their contraries, and like always begets like. As a consequence of this law, doubt always produces doubt, and skepticism begets skepticism, just as truth is derived from faith and science from truth.

To the profound comprehension of this law of the intellectual generation of ideas we are indebted for the wonders of Catholic civilization. We owe to this marvelous civilization all that we contemplate that is worthy of admiration. Its theologians, even humanly considered, surpass all the modern and ancient philosophers; its doctors astonish by the immensity of their learning; and its historians eclipse those of antiquity, by the comprehensiveness and generalization of their views. The City of God, by St. Augustin, is even now the most profound history that human genius, illumined by the light of Catholicism, has ever presented to the admiration of mankind. The decrees of its councils, aside from divine inspiration, are the most perfect monument of human prudence. The canon law is superior in wisdom to the Roman and feudal laws. Who surpasses St. Thomas in science, St. Augustin in genius, Bossuet in majesty, St. Paul in power? Who is a better poet than Dante? Who equals Shakspeare? Who excels Calderon? Who, like Raphael, has ever clothed canvas with inspiration and life?

The Egyptian pyramids prove to the world the former