The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-07-10


two great countries, ana must excpse q,
for not ailuding to either England or Anne
rics, since tho former never did produce 1
philosopher worth the name, and the latte
is simply lite servile imitator. In speaking
Iof America, however, we must except one
to the manner born" o. A. Brownsou, ,
genuine philosopher, but 1T the same time
We must say, by his leave, that his emf.
hence AZ philosopher is due to his being
Catholic. Moot Of our modern philosopher
and learned men are in the habit, not o.
tracing back to primitive traditions, but o.
seeking in what they choose to call the
spontaneous development Of the human
mind the civil, social and intellectual patri.
moDy Of nations. This is the false prin-
ciple, which vitiates the whole of dis
course we read this mornings discourse
In all other respects teeming with incon-
gruities, delivered by Mi. C. F. Buck, a
few days ago, at the State Military AGA
denny at Baton Rouge. Now, to justify our
difference in opinion, with all the abettora
of this development, we beg leave to assert,
since the word has the sanction of general
abuse, that development necessarily pre-
supposes antecedent germs, which can be
developed only by the aid of reelection and
language. Civil developments may be the
work of man, but not go the principles Of
which they are evolutions. These emanate
from two distinct sources, one Of which il
native and the other adventitious the one
internal and the other external the one
the acquisition of reason, the other the
patrimony of tradition while both to-
gether correspond to the nature and actual
condition of man in the twofold substance
Of soul and body Of which he Is composed.
Now the external, traditional, and, in most
cases, foreign element, whereby civilization
is actualized and advanced. is language,
taking this term, not in it's restricted sense
as particular form Of articulate speech,
but IN its broadcast acceptation, as the in
carnate, visible, tangible expression of all
outward signs. In this sense language in
cludes not only words, but also acts it is
tradition embodied, and in it we must look
for all the oral and monumental as we'll az
the written records of our race.
The traditional forms of emanatiouism.
as they cloak over instead Of
the intrinsic viciousness of the
doctrines which are it's inevitable result,
can only furnish a code of morality, rough
~ sketched, one-sided, unjust, riddled all
over with deficiencies, and liable to the
most monstrous neutrality-suspicious.. For
this reason emanationism begets a variety
of theological systems, each one of which
is true in that it represents the cosmic order
under certain aspect, and false, inasmuch
as, taking that aspect as the only one under
which the cosmic order can be considered.
and assigning to it universally which
does not belong to it, it ultimately denies
end rejects, or at least tends to weaken
and mar that order itself. Among these
FORMS. two in particular claim our consid-
Grafton, as being distinctly prominent, one
Of which belongs, in an especial manner,
to intuition and the other to rejection
that is to say, to the two sources from
which human knowledge is derived. In
the progress of this essay it will be demon
strated that these are the two poles Of all
OF anti-christian civilization.
and that real civilization consists in their
reciprocal checks upon each other under
the harmonizing influences of the Christian
religion. Intuition, as we have proved, is
fatal, and springs up neces-
sarily ont Of the substantial activity of the
mind, which for this is so absorbed in it's
object that, without the interposition of
another principle, it cannot turn back upon
itself. This other principle is reflection,
which, unlike intuition, is free, presupposes
intuition, and presnRposing it and working
It out, gives the mind at once the cognition
'f itself and Of the object of intuition,
whence in it knowledge in It's fuIness re-
tides, and TO it must be traced che name
moral personality in the free exercise of
ais powers. Accordingly it is the medium
by thoasht in It's passage TO act,
'ince the radical activity of the soul mani
ests itself as will, and therefore deliber
ties and acts, inasmuch a., with the aid of
guided itself by the landmarks
# thought which language has set down,
selects, now here now there, on the vast |
'nd shadowy canvas of intuition, a deter
ninste point on which its activity impinges. |
Viii always implies particularized activi-
y, and stands In the same relation ito the |
adical activity of the mind that reflection
lands in to intuition itself From this it
} evident that reflection leads to action,