The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-07-05
CONVERSATION III.
(Continuedl

''Descartes regarded it as his mis-
sion to reform philosophy, to take away
all uncertainty in regard to philoSophi-
cal questions, and to put an end for
ever to all the scandalouS wranglings
of philosophers. A great and noble
mission, perhaps; but he began, or laid
it down, that we ought to begin by
doubling all things-all our previous
scientific notions, all our religious be-
liefs, the universe, and even God him
self-and to admit nothing save as we
demonstrate its truth. Consequently,
he compelled himsef to begin in moth
ing, and from nothing to reconstruct
God and the universe, religion and
science, man and society. The poor
man carried his doubt as far as he
could, but his egotism was too great for
him to doubt himself. and so he eX-
claims: "Eureka Cogito, ergo sum
think, therefor / exist Having thus
by miserable sophism proved his own
existence, he proceeds from the con-
ception of his own ego to demonstrate,
after the manner of geometricians, God,
man and the universe, which, Of course,
could, on his hypothesis, be only modes
or affections of himself. You adopt his
method. You begin by doubling or de-
nying whatever exists, by sweeping
away the existing world and starting
with your new world from. nothing, or
what is the same thing, your sublime
self. But as man has no proper crea-
tive power, you can obtain by your
labors only nothing, or, at best, only
self. He who begins in philosophizing
by denial or doubt, can never arrive at
an affirmation, and that the Cartesian
philosophy, product of the seven
teenth century, had much to do with
the doubt and incredulity of the eigh-
tenth, can hardly be questioned. 1t
reduced to almost the sphere of revela-
ton, enlarged beyond all bounds that
of natural reason, and at the same time
threw doubt on reason itself. How it
could ever have obtained the vogue it
has among men who have no skepti-
cal tendencies, is to me a mystery.
find its method defended in the most
popular textbooks of philosophy used
in the schools of France and this coun-
try, even at the present moment, and
I have been much pelased to find the
Civilta Cattolica, at Rome, during the
last year, opening its batteries against
it. He who would philosophize must
begin, not by denying, but by affirm
ing, in truth, not in falsehood, If he
means to arrive at truth for result.
80 that he who would reform What
| ira ton of government must begin with
truth, something positive, and pro-
| coed to maintain it, not for organic
changes, but for the simple correction
of abuses; that is, to bring men to the
right uses of the institutions God in
his providence has founded for them.
In beginning by destroying, you deprive
yourself of the spot on which to rest
the fulcrum of your lever; you have
nothing to work with, and, therefore,
can substitute nothing in the place of
what you destroy Luther imagined
buses in the church. and he sought to
remedy them, not by laboring to re-
move the obstacles which the church
everywhere encountered to her free and
salutary action, not by exerting his
gifts to induce men, cleric and laic, to
conform to her discipline, but by at
lacking the church herself, casting off
her authority and founding a new one
in its place. These were followed by
others who treated their work as they
had treated Luther's, and thus on down
to our time, till your more advanced
Professionals have found yourselves
without any church, and, giving up
church-making in despair boldly main
tain that no church is necessary, and,
indeed, that the grand mistake COM
lnlIt6Q Dy all 1IOleSIdHIS SillCe UISdh-
ing away from the old church has been
in supposing a church of some sort is
needed Luther's work, which started
with destruction, has resulted only in
destruction. Neither he nor his follow
ers have been able to construct any
thing The case is the same with re-
gard to dogmas of faith. Luther
thought that he must reform the creed
OF Christendom. He began by denying
few articles, though retaining the
larger number. His followers thought
he retained too many, and they denied
few more; their followers thought
the denial ought to be carried a little
further, and each generation has car
ried it still further till now the great
body of living Protestants have denied
the whole creed, from the credo in pat
rem omnipotentem down to the vitam
aeternan. You reject all dogmatic the
ology, resolve Christianity into a SEN
timent of the heart which many of you
are beginning to resolve into mere lust.
Beginning by destroying, you can end
only in destruction; beginning by strip
ping off one garment after another,
you needs must find yourselves at last
reduced to simple nakedness. In So
ciety you arrive at the same results.
You begin by attacking the govern
ment and its institutions, denying all
vested rights, and you find yourselves
thrown out of civil society, out of well
ordered state, back into a state of pure
nature, below that of our American
savages. All this is inevitable if you
start as destructives, and the more
logical and daring you are, and the
fewer old fogies you have among you,
the sooner you will find yourselves at
this sad termination of all your labors.
Count, my dear Dick, the history of
the past as worth something. You know
that l have been stating to you only
simple historical facts. You have the
history of the reformation before you.
In religion Luther engineered Voltaire,
| in philosophy Descartes, in politics
Jean jacques Rousseau, in morals Hell
vetius. In religion you have ended in
the rejection of the supernatural, in
philosophy in doubt and nihilism, in
politics in anarchy, in morals In the
sinctification of lust Here is the fact
which you cannot deny, which stares
you in the face. and with which all
Professionalism groaus. This fact ought
to have followed, it is logical conse-
quence of your premises, and you need
not ina CINE that you can. by going
through your process again, arrive al
any other result"
You may be shocked, my dear uncle,
but L do not wish to arrive at any re-
suit. I read history as well as you do.
and 1 acknowledge that the movement
of the reforma ton has been precisely
as you describe it. accept the result
obtained by the more advanced Pro-
testant party. That result is what was
implied in Luther's movement, only he
knew it not, and it brings us back to
pure and primitive Christianity. to
Christianity as it lay in the mind of it's
author though his ignorant and SUPER
stitious disciples with their minds OBJ
scured by their Jewish prejudices never
understood it. The church has never