The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-05-29

~~----e--~~S>e
! enough to magnify even greater inaignif
} canoe than, has fallen 10 their lot, ID, Z
, the Ineligible, tho term Of our under
, standing, - the desirable, the term Of on
affections, and as the imperative, the tern
of our will. We were created in the imag
and likeness of God and his transcenden
unity must, in spite of all our forwardness
be the only .tocMs towards which our eye
can ultimately turn, the only centre to
wards which reason, will and affection
the likeness of the Blessed Trinity in oul
soul-must necessarily converge.
The object of thought is the Idea, sucf
as we have in these columns already defined
it. 1t is the idea we conceive of God in
the intuition we have of him while he il
creating us. This Idea affirming itself az
| creative, furnishes us with the distinction
between the Absolute and the relative, the
necessary and the contingent, and at the
same time reveals to us the Ink of Creation
by which both are connected; in which the
absolute dependence of one upon the other
is evident, and on which every judgment,
in the logical acceptation of the word, de-
ponds for its conclusiveness. On the other
hand the Idea cannot affirm itself or it's
works to US, save in as much as both are
Ineligible; the one in its own light, the
others in the light which they reflect. God
in creating us sheds his own light upon us,
and in its radiation shows US the other con-
tingent existence he creates to partake the
same destiny with us. This light is nothing
more nor less than the archetype, immu-
table and eternal, residing in the Idea of
every contingent existence, by creative
power, individualized in time. The human
mind apprehends this type, or archetype.
because 1t contemplates it in the Idea; it ap-
prehends its actualization, because it could
not without dying, shut it's eyes to the crea-
tive act, which incarnates in mortal and
form, ideas immortal and eternal.
Created things we can know and see only
in the light of the uncreated ideas, of which
they are simply the copy. AS regards the
creative act, and since the first decree of
the Council of the Vatican has been de
Deo Creatore, we must be excused for
to it, the human mind apprehends
It as cause; the cause not only of reality
but of possibility: the only cause, the re-,
'ognftion of which can explain or account
or the phenomena of our life. That the
IDEAS, or types, of things, present to our
mind, are not only specifically, but even
numerically, the ideal types contained in
he divine essence, with this difference,
however, that in the divine mind they are
IDENTICAL with its absolute unity, is evident
rom the fact, undisputed by any one pre-
ending to scientific knowledge, that every
dea is, per Sc, objective, universal, neces-
airy and absolute; independent. of the
uctuations OF time; eternal, and flashing
nth impartial brilliancy on all intelli-
ences. Our rationalists, since ever his
Dry began, would confront rs with two
bsolutes, but there is no such thing: two
osoiutes are such colossal absurdity that I
ne human mind could not lodge them to-
ether. Every conception of ours is divine
Its objectivity, therefore it ia radiation {
the light OF God Himself; nay it is God
himself, whereas in Him Projections and
tributes are indistinguishable from Es- 3
,nce.
Inc objective term, or limit, of cognition {
really distinct from the subjective act, i
which 1t is apprehended the subjective I
It is human, contingent, finite, imperfect. S
ID as multifarious as are the minds which y
INK and as the vicissitudes of thought; n
lille the objective reality is necessary and b
ernal, therefore perfect. Some, nay many, n
our modern philosophers confound object Il
tn subject, the thing thought of with the n
ing thinking but while between them 81
tn there is real substantial distinction, u
llch implies correlation, there is, how q
er, no intermediate process to be under. m
ne to bring them into juxtaposition the fe
absolute Idea confronts the human d d
nd Immediately, by virtue of the creative m
), winch needs no medium between it W
Its effects. The human mind takes y
ID OF the Idea Immediately, contemplates p
n itself, and in the order of intuition.
uires no intervening form or image, in he
len the Idea must be viewed, as through ~
arkened glass. 1t may be objected to he
that we are here losing sight of dog til
TIC and soaring into the regions of mys- Se
theology, where contemplations dwells In
ne with the substantive reality, which IL an
sps; but the objection is futile: we de
70 the Idea in itself, but, both from the
te condition of our being, on account of BE,
NfrpTE r<,-r