Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/121

principle of evil, that in man is the principle of good, and that the human and divine powers are two potent rivals, the only duty of man being to conquer God, who is his enemy.

These two systems of manicheism are naturally derived from the consideration of the perpetual warfare to which the world is condemned. The first is in greater conformity with ancient traditions, and the second bears a closer resemblance to the doctrines of modern times. However, it must be confessed that if we only regard the notorious fact of this gigantic contest, apart from the glimpses we have of the existence of a marvelous harmony between things human and divine, between the visible and invisible, and the created and uncreated, this fact may be amply explained by either of these two systems.

The difficulty does not consist in explaining any fact, whatever it may be, considered in itself. There is no isolated fact which may not be viewed in this way, and sufficiently explained by a hundred different hypotheses. But the real difficulty is to satisfy the metaphysical conditions upon which every explanation must rest, and according to which it is necessary, that the explanation of any evident fact, in order to be admissible, should not render other manifest and evident facts inexplicable, or leave them unexplained. Now, either of the manichean systems explains that which by its nature implies a dualism, and a war supposes it; yet neither of them can explain that which by its nature is one: and reason even unenlightened by faith can fully prove, either that there is no God, or, if he exist, that he is one. Either of the manichean systems explains the warfare that is waged, but neither of them can give an ex-