The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-06-30
THE SOCIALIST IDEA.
THE GREAT QUESTION OF THE DAY TREATED
By THE CELEBRATED PERE FELIX.


FrS% tie French Of Ps1s Ts1 puS:h,ssS as
d.
reproduction OF ono lecture out Of series on th
Grapds Augustins, Paris.l
It is necessary to grasp the nature OF th'
parent idea which nursed Socialism In 1T
bosom, and has brought it forth as 1t ap
pears to day. Such movement 10 th'
world of reality would be inexplicabls
without q corresponding, anterior move
ment in the world of thought. Ideas, il
the social system, are as germs in the ami
NAL and vegetable systems, and germs in
seed of things that come to light later on,
and grow according to the kind of soil
and the degree of heat with which they
come in contact. Socialism, as q whole,
though Ineligible as the result of causes
not belonging to the world of ideas, is,
however, the product of an idea which
hae grown and thriven long before it came
60 the surface. do not mean by this the
body of ideas which has helped to create
it, but its own parent idea, that which, IL
may say 80, constitutes the Socialist credo
I6 is true that, il we consider Socialism in
what appears it's only living and real
aspect, We are brought face to face with
What we see is not unlike a lion or q
tiger obeying it's instincts and roaring in
the desert for it's prey.
WE HAVE NO LONGER TO FACE DocrRINAL
SOCIALISM
with pretensioDa to plausible theory, but
brutal socialism claiming no right save
that of might; not dreamy socialism
such as forty years ego still carried away
generous enthusiastic, bat an aggressive
socialism hurryiDg by force to the fulfill
ment of its programme; not a contempla-
tive socialism parading through the world
of ideas q Platonic love for humankind,
but destructive socialism eager to carry
through the ruins of the world of realities
the bloody banner of it's brotherhood.
What we see before US might be more ftly
called the socialism of torch and dag
ger than the socialism of ideac and doc
trines.
Still it cannot be denied that Socialism
heralded itself above all as an idea which
was to make the mightiest revolution in
ever seen. What was this idea, and what,
in this era of social revolution, were its
starting point, its path and its goalf /
have long attentively followed the course
of this new planet, and marked in the
changing sky of our social world its chief
appearances. I saw 1t rise as in the dawn
OF bright morning, then grow amid the
clouds of o thousand systems more or less
important or obscure, then at last reach
its senith, and throw over our modern |
society the baneful light 10 which we see |
1t srrayed at present.
At frat the socialist idea gave itself out |
rs the idea of social reform later on in |
its progressive movement it became the |
idea of social transformation and now
that IL has fully developed itself, 1t stands |
forth as the idea of social destruction. If |
We follow up the stream of theories which |
distinguished the beginning of this century |
and the end of the last, we shall find that |
the nQraDt idaQ nf aOciaI liam RrSt NH cd
the longing for social reform, and tended
to restore universal harmony to the new
world. To listen to our pretended pro-
phets and Meeeiahs, one would be led TO
believe that the
GREAT LAW OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY
in the social world had been lost amid
conflicting human interests, and needed to
be restored or re enacted; while the sys
TENS of PHILOSOPHY of that period insisted
that within tue near future a regeneration
Of human nature aud social reform
would take place such as the world had
never seen or history chronicled-a greater
reform, inde ed, than that accomplished by
tne Divine Reformer In behalf of poor
humanity. These philosophical systems,
MI OF . dreamy poetry, were nothing but
humanitarian idyls, delightful pastorals,
,ointing in the future, through tinted
nedium, to a rose -colored humanity smil-
ng under blue skies and en- nnclouced
nn-a humanity free from all the contra :
Lotions and antagonisms of the past, and,
ike the planets, or better even than they,
evolving round it's centre in the undis-
urbed and beatifc equilib brum of universal q
Grnlony. Harmony was every where in
hese fair dreams and easy utopias; there {
yas the harmony of all minds in truth, the {
Iarmony of all hearts in love, the harmony G
i will in liberty, the harmony of passens c
p pleasure, the harmony of interests in I
the harmony of labor in or :
the harmony of men in brother
lood, the harmony of families in the state,
md, finally, the harmony of all peoples
nd nations in the unity of a government t
bat should rule all alike. {
THE oNNIARCH OR UNIvEReAL MONARCH.
& this universal society appeared in the
tstance, in the centre of the human world,
3 the moderator and ruler of this gigantic =,
armony of brotberly nations. In word, =
here was nothing but harmony, every {
here and in all thingp, harmony easy and
aOntaDeous, sprineing mp from, and flour