The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-06-12

dORNING STAR AND CATHOLl
and imminent ideas Of which they happe
to be the concretion. Created things nj
but the copy or image Of uncreated idea
as time itsolf 10 but the shadow Of the out
lying eternity in which We are wrapped
Time belongs not to the divine exemplal
1t merely represents the things exemplared
and this, too, only inasmuch a. they exis
contingently, and by no means as partakin,
OF the ideal reality hence our very idea .
time could not be acquired in time, or from
time: we simply have il in our intuition o
eternity. And since ideas are contemplated
by our intuition in their objective sim
pl:city, the intuitive knowledge 1--WE might
without violating the prophecies of philo
sophical language, write consciousness,) we
have of the Moral Law, scars far above
the range OF all temporal vicissitude, or
TO speak as would a professional philoso-
pher, succession, has naught to do with in
tuition, which is direct and instantaneous,
and can only take place in the process OF
refiexion, whereby our discursive know
ledge 10 acquired which process requires
replication of the mind upon itself, and
therefore, while it takes in the eternal
ideas which intuition furnishes it with, it
retains also its own finite copies of them,
which often vitiate it, from being detached
from their original eternal type, and sub
jected to the laws and conditions of time.
In itself, the moral law is endued with con-
tinuous duration; it cannot be repealed or
even modified; it excludes the idea of any
chronological sequence in its relations with
Us, and if we view it at all in the light of
development, since the development can
occur only in those subject to its authority,
our view must range simply in the limits of
the logical order.
The law is universal, and it's universally
must be considered under several aspects.
1t is universal as regards minds, because in
the wide world there is not single mind
exempt from obedience to it. It flashes in
on all the minds at once, without
itself, just as the sun shines on
all eyes, without losing any of its heat OF
brightness. In the natural order, which is |
the order we are now dealing with, we can,
every mothers son of us, make this law
our law, by Incorporating it's maxims with
our habits of thought and will, by reflect
ing on it and working it out in our own
minds, with the many aids which language
and its offspring, reasoning, place at our
disposal. 1t is universal as regards actions,
because no action, however trif1ng and
seemingly Indifferent, can he utterly aim
ess, and all aims must tend to the moral
aw rs their ultimate object. 1t is univer-
al as regards the enactments of human
legislators, because no enactment, be it
'rivate or public, domestic or cixil, profane
r religious, drawn up in writing or sane
toned by custom be it peculiar to one
'ation, extending over many nations, or
ommon to all our race, ever had any valid
ty underived from that sovereign law, in
a virtue of which kings rule and lawgivers
ecree just things. Why, human laws
'ould be unjust and tyrannical if they
ere opposed to the divine law; they
ould be destitute of all authority, save
,e authority which brute force can always
ield, if they we're not a legitimate corol-
Try, or the simple local application of it:
lille the immutable and universal prece- .
emit which this law sets, and the divine
motion with which it invests all subordi-
ate legislation, justify the assumptions of q
'e ruler, be he king or magistrate, but at
le same time ennobles the obedience of p
10 subject. Hence it is that, mediately at II
asst, every just law is divine; all power is
vine, all authority is divine: the hierar- III
tic scale of human society is divine in its p
and divineiy will it be read It
sted, but not according to the canons of "
Their human politics or human prejudices, ~
the final universally of heaven.
The law is abstract and concrete at one n
I'd the same time. 1t is abstract in regard p
us, who subject it to the reflective pro-
ss, which works on distractions and re- w
ices to it's abstract elements every con- ~
etc idea of which it can take hold. 1t is ru
stract even in itself, because being intel 'n
ible, and consequently an object of w
ought, it must itself think, and as created tn
ought cannot think in itself without 70
me- object of thought outside of it, the w
". it follows, must, of necessity, think, ~
elf and nothing else, for thought as 'n
ought-mere created thought-thought gu
itself can have but distractions for it's BIZ
ID. For this reason, ideas, as far as we as
nk them ovar IN nureolvaa o,.o oo.ksz Tn