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

nnence on created minds science demandsl
of ussto consider in the conformity or nom
ccnfosmity with it Of created minds in tLe|
exercise Of the secondary, but flee activity
with which they are endowed. Time and
again In these columns it has been demon
strated that ideas, to be caught hold of byI
IMAM In his actual condition, must be EN-.
bodied in language. Abstract ideas are|
but of secondary formation, and to beI
formed at all require primary concrete j
just as the possible can be conceived only
lin the intuition Of ths-real. Now, what is!
trd6 of the individual must also be true of
the race, which without the individual
could not exist; and as the conformity til
or the rejection of the Divine idea by the
individual can be ascertained solely FROM
his conduct, his consxetudo, the ethics of
the race has to be studied solely in the
historical records in which it has at once
is, after all, the most Important of studies 4
it embraces and includes all other studios,
and our chief objection (the writer would
wish here to be understood as speaking forI
himself alone) to our common school sys-|
tenn lies in the counterfeit of history it'll
compels our Catholic children to accept forI
the genuine, in which fancy usurps the
place of fact, and Sacts, even without being
actually misstated, represent the truth in al
distorted shape. Imagination is admirable, !
nay, divine, in the poet; in the historian it'll
lie simply diabolical.
In the annals of peoples and nations, theI
moral law is as yet bat imperfectly actual
lied firstly, because from the sparse null
titudes into which the primitive unity of
mankind has been broken up, the actions
and fortunes of peoples cannot be summed
up in my generic synthesis, and must bel
classified only by the aid of analysis or in
duction, which never has established any-l
thing scientific; and secondly, because,
while each people possesses it's own pecu-I
liar genius and it's national personality, to|
Hay hold on these characteristics, and to|
concrete or incarnate them in form suited
to scientific purposes, is an extremely diff
which is the great solvent of all varieties, ]
an impossible undertaking. On the other
hand, in individuals gifted with genius,
and originators Of the great movements of
thought and action, which mark the epochsI
of history, the Idea manifests itself, whether
lin it's own or refracted light, more con-
2spicuously than in the masses, aud flashes
on our vision in bold and at the same
time, individual relief; whence, in this
view of our subject, history itself, is of in
ferior value to biography. Biography is of
two sorts, which from the element pre-
dominating in them, may be respectively
termed historical or fabulous. Fabulous
I or NEUROLOGICAL personages precede hiss
tory, and are q mere compound of truth
and falsehood; but the falsehood mixed up|
with truth in them, has . s{dent5tac valne, |
fnasmuch as it is the creation Of the ma |
'tional Imagination OF fancy, and gives us
perhaps a truer representation of the ma
ftional genius and character, and the pre- +
historic times which it illustrates, than canI
he obtained from the most severe and
critical examination of authentic historical
records. 1t strikes us, and it will also
strike every scholar, whose attention is onceI
directed to these matters, that a more legi-
innate idea of the heroic genius of the Hell
than can be formed after readingand study
ling the lives of Aristomenes and Alexan.
der, and the lives of Numa Pompilius and
lPithagoras, albeit overcast with mystery
and exaggerated by fable, more faithfully
portray the Pelasgic origin, and that rare
mixture of activity and contemplation, i
which was the distinctive characteristic of,
the ancient Itali, than all the remnants wei
inherit of the writings of Italy's subsequent
philosophers and legislators. In this re-
spect, therefore, the philosopher, and for
tori the moralist, should not overlook or|
slight even the Theophanies of the Gentiles;
the Avatars, the demi-gods, the heroes, the|
Heliades and the Selenides (the children of
the Sun and Moon), and in short all the
my thic cycles in which the heterodox origin
of nations is involved.
The historical biography, which is of the
greatest moment in the study of ethics, is
that of distinguished philosophers, states
men, legislators and founders of scots OF
schools; for they generally sum up in
Themselves and incatnate in the individual,
the characteristic virtues or vices developing
themselves in entire peoples for centuries.
Of minor Importance are the schemes and
enterprises of conquerors; these are simply
Ii scourpe to nations. and their appearance