The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-27
CONVERSATION VII.

But, after all, uncle, you really deny
all progress, and contend that the
moderns have only retrograded.
My dear Dick, always mind the
categories, and get clear, distinct, and
precise ideas. Progress, in the sense
You asserted it in our last conversation,
l, of course, deny, because in that sense
it is impossible. 1 deny also the whole
philosophical system which you pre-
sent to me as its basis, because that
system is composed of distractions and
hard words, and it is as baseless as
the fabric of a vision. In the sense
of a progress of being, growth, en-
largement of the quantity of being of
any particular individual or species, l
deny progress; but a progress in at
tanning to the end for which we were
made, l do not deny. l admit, and in
my feeble way labor to make progress,
where progress is conceivable, and by
such means as are adapted to effect it.
Ii, instead of studying to be profound,
you would study to be simple, and
would labor to clear up and simplify
your own conceptions, there would be
less difference between us than you
suppose. You have never clearly and
distinctly apprehended, and you do not
J
progress. Sometimes it is a progress in
knowledge, sometimes in physical sci
| ences,- sometimes in ideas, theories Sys-
TENS, sometimes in virtues, sometimes
, in the quantity of nature, or the spe-
cies, and sometimes simply in the mon
uments of the race. Now it is simply
progress in achievin~ our destiny, in
attaining to the end for which we have
| been created, and now it is growth
and enlargement of our substantive be-
| ing itself. All these meanings are
| thrown together in a glorious confu-
| sion, and lie fermenting in your morbid
| intellect, and produce very disagree
! able mental fiatulency. Take dose OF
! ipecac and jalup, clear out your stom-
| ach and bowels, and be careful of your
diet henceforth, put yourself upon regi-
men, and take plenty of exercise in
the open air, and you may hope to re-
cover and maintain your health. But
| so near no quack, take no patent nos
! trum, and hold in horror all the boasted
| panaceas trumpeted forth in flaming
| advertisements.
| Let us understand ourselves. There
| in the universe, in the cosmos, to speak
! in the manner of the ancients, two
cycles, that of the procession of exist
| ences by way of creation from God as
| their first cause, and their return with
| out absorption, to him as their last
end or final cause. In the procession
| from God the creature is not active
| performs no part, and there is no ac-
! tivity but that of God, who, by free
! act of his ominpotent will, operating
according to the ideas of his own inf
mite and eternal reason, produces the
| creature from nom existence and causes
| it to exist All creatures in this pro-
cession from God, in the very fact OF
| their creation, receive a specific and de-
| terminate nature, which is fixed and
unalterable, as long as they exist at ALL
A progress in their nature would be a
progress in creation; and a progress
here by the creatures own activity
would imply that he has a self-creative
power and has lot and part in creating
himself, which is impossible and abb
surd, for what is not cannot act. In
the first cycle, then, there is and can
be no progress as effected by the crea-
ture
Progress, then, must be restricted to
the second cosmic cycle, the return of
existence or crea lures to God, without
being absorbed in him, as Oriental pan
| theism teaches, or in gaining or at
tanning to their ultimate end, or reali-
zation of their supreme good. Here,
| and here only, is the sphere of human
| progress, and here progress is not in
! the growth or enlargement of the hui
man being, but in fulfilling the end,
or gaining the end for which the human
being exists. Progress is physically
motion forwards, and morally it is go
ing towards our end, or approaching it,
more or less nearly"
But" interrupted Dick though
that is all very clear and pre-