Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/277

series, besides being beyond the scope of our argument. It will answer the end we have in view to notice the most important of these negations.

The socialists deny both the existence and the possibility of sin. This double negation involves the negation of free will, which we cannot conceive of, unless human nature possesses the power of choosing between good and evil, of falling from a state of innocence into that of sin.

If we deny the power of free will, we must also deny the responsibility of man. From the negation of responsibility must proceed the negation of all penalty, and this denied, we reject both the divine government over man and the right of human government. Therefore, as regards the question of the right of government, the negation of sin leads to its destruction.

If we deny an individual responsibility, we must also deny a responsibility in common; for what is denied of the individual cannot be affirmed of the species, and thus human responsibility is destroyed. What is denied of each one in particular, and of all in general, cannot be affirmed of any; from which it follows, that if we once deny the responsibility of the individual and that of the species, we must also deny the responsibility of all associations. In other words, there no longer exists either a social, political, or a domestic responsibility. Therefore, as regards the question of responsibility, the negation of sin leads to its destruction.

From the denial of an individual, domestic, political, and human responsibility, proceeds the negation of solidarity in the individual, the family, the state, and the species, since solidarity means a responsibility in com-