Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/186

182 ESSAY ON CATHOLICISM.

sible, immovable, incomprehensible, indefinable; in a word, to a negation of all the attributes of existence. In fact, whether man invests every object with a special mind or spirit, or conceives the universe as governed by one only power, he simply asserts by either of these propositions an unconditional-that is to say, an impossible entity, in order to give an explanation more or less satisfactory of phenomena which he deems to be otherwise, incomprehensible. What a high and profound mystery! The believer, in order to make the object of his idolatry more rational, successively deprives it of every attribute which could constitute its reality; and then, after prodigious efforts of logic and talent, finally discovers that the attributes of the Supreme Being are identified with those of nothing. This result is inevitable: atheism is at the foundation of all theodicy."^[1]

The atheist, having once arrived at this extreme conclusion, and plunged into this dark abyss, seems as if possessed by furies. His heart is filled with blasphemies which oppress his utterance and burn upon his lips; and when he would impiously pile up these blasphemies like a pyramid, raising them one upon the other, even to the throne of God, he sees with terror that, overcome by their own specific weight, instead of soaring to heavenly heights, they fall flatly and heavily into the abyss which is their center. Every word and expression then become replete with sarcasm and contempt, with vulgarity and frenzied wrath. His style is at once forcible and heavy, eloquent, although cynically coarse. He exclaims: "Why adore this phantom of a Deity? And what does he require of us by that band of enthusiasts