The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-27
uneIe Jack and
BIS nepbew. By ye Srsssss H.

else, it does not satisfy me; for
the very end for which we exist is
progress. Hence it is that the way is
more than the end, and the acquiring
more than the possessing. The gain
ing of an end never satisfies, and there
are few things that we can gain that
are not spurned as soon as gained
Il understand that" replied Uncle
Jack. 1T is so because the ends
you refer to are not the last
end, and the things gained are not the
souls supreme good, and no more sa-
tisfy the soul in its craving for beati-
tude than a secondary cause satisfies
the intellect in seeking to get at the
origin of things. But progress cannot
itself be the end, the supreme good, be-
cause progress consists precisely in
approaching it. Hence st. Thomas re-
flutes the notion of illimitable or end
less progress by saying, If there is no
end, progress is inconceivable; If there
is an end progress cannot be illimita-
BILE, for it must cease when the end is
reached To say there is an end, and
yet that it is not attainable, is simply
a contradiction in terms. So all your
fines rhetoric about the way being
more than the end, the acquisition
more than the possession you may
abandon to the use of those unenviable
spirits who are always learning and
never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth always seeking rest, and
never finding it.
Now, to be able to judge whether
/ this or that is progress, you must first
! settle the question what is the end to
! be gained. See how philosophic is that
child's catechism, into which l pre-
| sumo you have never looked:
20. Who made you?
GA God.
%. Why did he make you?
"A. That / might know him, love
him, and serve him in this life, and be
! happy with him forever in the next"
/ Here in the outset you find an
swered those great questions which
| torment the whole non-Catholic world
whence came we? Why are we here
Whittier do we GOETHE origin, purpose
and the end of our existence. The first
and final cause of our existence is de-
termined in the beginning, and then
/ comes the purpose of our existence,
and after that the way or means by
which that purpose is to be accom-
! plished Nothing can be more scien-
tific. Having settled the sphere of
progress, having settled the end to-
ward which we are to make progress,
| we can understand what is or what is
not effected"
Il assent to this view, and say that
! progress is towards an end, and the
end for which man exists, whatever
that may be-, said Dick
THAT end you must, then, concede to
be attainable, for if the distance be-
tween your starting point and the goal
can be shortened, and you advance
nearer to it, it can be ultimatly
! reached, if the progress continues; but
| if the distance cannot be shortened,
there is and can be no progress, for
where there is no nearing the goal,
there is no progress towards it. Him
liable or everlasting progress is, then,
an absurd conception, and all progress
contemplates an end in which there is
rest, perfect repose, or the quiet and
undiSturbed possession of beatitude.
! They who deny such beatitude deny
progress, and they who know not
where it is to be found, and are ig-
norant of the means by which it is to
be reached, cannot know what is
! progress, or whether they are going
backwards or forwards, nearing the
| goal or receding from it,"
Il will not at this moment object to
what you say, but suspect you intend
to draw from it some conclusion that
| / am unwilling to accept" said Dick.
81 have no wish to entrap you into
concessions against your will, even if
1 were able. I leave the point, then,
! for your meditation. You have
/ charged me with denying all progress.
have shown you that 1 do not; that
admit it where only it is possible, in
I the discharge of our duty, and fulfill
ing the purpose of our existence
CTo be continued.)