The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-09-12

| In chapter XII OF Conversations the
members of Our Club take up another
subject. Education and the best ways
of imparting it, discussed pro and con
in their applications to Catholic needs
at its finish naturally gravitates into
discussion of theocracy, which com
prehends the government of "a state by
the immediate direction of God, such
as the Israelites furnished :.or the state
! thus governed. Another definition
would be an intimate union of the soul
with God in contemplation.
Diefenbach stated the proposition
! thus: There are not, and cannot be.
two original and eternal principles of
things. one good and one evil. There
/ is. and can be. no positive principle OF
evil. Every principle must be real; if
real, being: if being, good, and good
cannot be the principle of evil. If the
principle be not being, it is merely an
abstraction, and distractions are null
tiles. God being supreme and perfect
being, being in it's plentitude. is neces-
sarily the supreme and perfect good,
the good itself, and in itself Only
| being can create, for what is not can
not act
CONVERSATION XI. (Continued)
''The Observation-Disclosures. even the He
gelians. who assert the identity of be
ing and not-being-das Sein and das
| Nichtsein-will hardly concede that "
interrupted O'Connor, for they tell
| us that beng is in doing, and that by
doing we may enlarge and fill up our
! being. On this assumption is found
ed the modern doctrine Of progress,
which teaches that man may attain to
In inf, 70 INT i
ties. and make himself Cod"
"Speculations of that sort" said
Winslow. were not uncommon a few
years since in France, Germany and
the United States. the three leading
speculative nations of the modern
world, but they are out of fashion now.
and seldom gain admittanCe into good
society. What is not, cannot act, and
nothing cannot make itself something.
We act. because through the creative
act of God, we partake of being, and
the limit of our participation in be-
ing is the limit of our activity. Only
infinite being can have infinite activity,
or create from nothing. The Creator.
then, is and cannot but be good"
IF being and good are Identical. and
there is no original principle of evil"
asked De Bonneville. "how can we as
sert that the distinction between good
and evil, right and wrong, justice and
injustice, virtue and vice, is eternal,
and founded in the very nature of
things?"
Evil. wrong, injustice. vice" an
swered Winslow, care not things. They
have no physical existence, and there
fore require no original or eternal
principle. They are practicable only of
creatures, and the distinction between
them and good is not a distinction be-
tween two principles. but a distinction
between being and no-being, between
principle and its denial, between the
presence of principle and its absence
1t is called eternal because the being
or principle they deny, or of which
they are the absence or privation, is
eternal"
There is and can be-" added Die
fenbach. mo positive evil. Evil has
and, can have no physical existence. If
we suppose it to exist physically, we
must suppose that it exists either as
created existence or as uncreated being
We can suppose neither. IF uncreated
being it is real. necessary. self-eXisting
being, therefore not evil but good. If
created then being must have created
it; but all being is good, and good can
not create evil. The only possible evil
is moral evil, and that is not a posi-
tive existence, but simply misuse or
abuse of his faculties by created
moral agent"
I'VE are led into difficulties on this
subject" said Father John. "by our
want of philosophy that accords with
our theology or the truth of things. The
popular philosophy is miserable SEN
sism, which either denies the intelli-
yih 2 VII fbo n
and Identifies good with sensible pleas
ure and evil with sensible pain.
Whether the pleasure be or be not the
effect of good. whether the pain be or
be not the effect of evfl, it is certain,
the pleasure is not the good and the
pain is not the evil itself. The only
possible evil is sin, and sin is not a
creature, but simply a deliberate trans
gression Of the law of God, or deviation
from the line of rectitude by free
moral agent"
"To ask if God be. good said Die
fenback, ''after having conceded that |
he exists, is absurd, not only because
no distinction between good and being |
is possible, but also because we have |
no criterion. standard, or measure of |
good except God himself. To ask if |
God be good is simply to ask if God |
be God, or if he is what he is. When |
we say of any particular thing, it is !
good, we pronounce a judgment, and |
every judgment is by virtue of some
rule or standard of judgment"
THAT rule or standard" replied De |
sis our intelligence, or our
reason
Yet reason rejoined Diefenbach. |
must have some principle or moral /
judgment, or no moral judgment is pos
sible'.
..That principle" interposed o'Con
nor. "is. the idea of good, of the good |
itself, a constituent element of reason, |
and one of our absolute and necessary |
ideas. What conforms to that idea we |
Judge to be good, and what repugns it, |
we judge to be evil, bad, OF not good" |
But that idea of good, or of the good |
Itself, what is that?' said Diefepbach. !
THE questions seems to me quite I'M !
answered De Bonneville. |
I'VE cannot go back of our ideas, and /
all we can do is to show that they are |
in reason as its constituent |
elements. We all know that we have /
the idea Of good, and what conforms |
TO it we judge to be good and what
conforms not to it we judge to be evil.
Nevertheless, insisted WinSloW. |
the validity of the Judgment depends |
on the validity of the idea If the
dea be invalid the judgment is worth
less. We must. then, determine the
validity Of the idea, the soundness Of
the principle of our moral judgments,
Dr we have no. scientific basis either
for our morals or our politics, We |
must understand by idea Of good the
good itself, an objective representative
IF good to the mind. distinguishable
rom good as the representative from
he represented: or, in fine, the simple
mental perception or subjective judg-