The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-06-26

cne Iuiulment OF tne m0rm law but b0fOreI
reaching this conclusion it was, It seems to|
|us, established, that the only obstacle lyinR|
ins the way of this ful6lment, was the abun|
the created will has the dread faculty oil
making of its freedom. But for this free
dom to abuse, without which, however, !
man would be mutilated in his essence by|
being robbed of his privilege Of RESPONSE
|bihty, in the exercise of which he concurs|
with his Creator, the whole enginery Of theI
moral, would act as uniformly as that of
the material, world. If, therefore, the
Idivine law Of ethics is not, through mans
|perversity, fully actualized in the spherej
10 which created and responsible activity!
Is confined, it is none the less demonstra-
table for that, that it casts it's light univer-
sally on all men, and is found to be the
active vitality of the ideas and institutions
pr all nations To prove this, history, a
aors seaRhing inquiry into whose records
Is rsssrved for subsequent articles, must
asssds - consulted, and the moral law traced
thr0ngA all its external manifestations
The Law uaanffssts itself externally in two
ms'saes OF sAapA apprehensible to our
sss1ss,ss ece mode is complexive, which
rom being eomplexive, or general, par
taSes of the abstract, and consists in Lam
guase; the other mode is individual, in
fhas it Is limited to the individuals by
whom language is used. Language or, to
employ the more generic term, speech, ie|
swofold; it is profane or civil, and religi-
ous OF sacerdotal; and under either aspect
embraces multitude of outward signs,
such as derivative tongues, legislative en-
actments, popular and national customs
and institutions, and the vast scope of oral
and written historic monuments. There
are three things, nevertheless, by which
ARE especially expressed the moral ideas of
h people, and which constitute, if the ex- !
preston be permitted, the Geological phi ]
1lology of nations, and they are that people,
5or nations literature, their civil laws and
their religion. Literature, where it does
exist, and that most assuredly it does
not amongst us at present, would. be al
Faithful mirror of national culture, if the
element dDmmon to the entire people
among whom it hourishes was not modified
by the imagination and peculiar temper of
the national writer or poet, OF, in plainerI
Language, if the artist did not throw more
Of himself than of external nature into hia|
works. The business of this observation
whose has studied literature will admit.
The justest idea we can obtain of PEG
ple's system of ethics can be found en-
bodied in their codes of law. The wordy
braggart Gorgias shares with Plato the
heritage of immortality; and while Homer
is read and appreciated, Thersites cannot
be forgotten. A literary man ifnmortalizea
50bgy himself, and be his hero Achilles or the
pump-maker, "Mr. Marne of London theI
hero 10 but simple accessory to theswriter's
fame. In law the case is different; there
lyon have generally, 1--WE have to be precise
now-a-days,) the exact idea of a peoples
cthOlogy, formulated, also generally, by the
most competent and the wisest exponentsI
Of the peoples will. For fear we should
be suspected of wishing to make the slight
+ est allusion to the most modern laws nowl
affecting us, we shall invite our learned
READERS to the consideration of ancient!
instances. In the D'Harmasastra, for in
stance, in the Thalmud, in the TWELVE
Tables, in the admirable Pandects, in the
3Capitularies of Charlemagne and the Code
Napoleon, you will find, what you shall
seek in vain in any contemporary literary
production, the explicit ethical idea in
forming the various peoples living UNDER
and governed by those respective systems
Human laws, however, cannot embrace AM
idea 80 vast as the one we are viewing,
and far from exhausting, could not even
shadow it to our minds in the narrowest of
Tits relations: to view it to any philoso-
phical purpose, we must have recourse to
"a broader and more encyclopedia range of
sight, namely the religious philosophy of
zpeoples, since in depth, and extension, and
3efiicacy, religion has ever been the most
3permanent of human Institutions, because
: it is ever the strongest, since the most ma
tural, and, therefore, the inextinguishable
passion of our nature. Man must have q
religion, must have some form of worship
and where he worships not God, he wor-
ships himself, or the father he has adopted
the devil. Surely in the Indian Vedas, in
i the Zend-Avesta, the Chinese Kings, the
Alcoran, the Scandinavian Eddas, tbs
Gaelic and Cymric relics of Irish and
: Welsh traditions, in the sacro-profane
E poetry of Hesiod, Homer and Virgil, of the
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