Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/142

As to the admirable correspondence of which we have spoken, between the disorders of the moral and those of the physical world, mankind unanimously proclaims it without understanding it, as if compelled by an invincible and supernatural power to give testimony to this great mystery. The united voice of tradition, the popular belief, all the vague rumors circulated by the winds, and all the echoes of the world, mysteriously tell us of a great physical and moral disturbance, which took place at a period, anterior to the dawn of history, and even to that of fable, and as a consequence of a primitive fault, which was so great that it could neither be comprehended by the understanding nor expressed in words. And even now, if an elemental disturbance arises, or strange phenomena occur in the celestial spheres; if great chastisements fall upon nations by wars, pestilence, or famine; if the seasons alter the accustomed course of their harmonious revolutions, and seem to battle against each other; if the earth trembles and shakes; if the winds, freed from the limits which restrain their impetuosity, rush onward with the devastating force of the hurricane, then the people, who have preserved in their inmost hearts this tremendous tradition, seek with fear and trembling for the cause of such unwonted disturbance, and attribute it to some great sin, which has drawn upon them the divine wrath, and upon the earth the malediction of heaven.

It is evident that these vague apprehensions are not only unfounded, but proceed from ignorance of the laws that govern natural phenomena; but it appears to us no less certain that the error is solely in the application and not in the idea; in the result deduced, and not in the principle; in practice and not in theory. Tradition