Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/298

are a great good. Therefore God, in his infinite wisdom, so ordered things that, without suppressing the cause which might lead to the existence of evil, he made this very evil the means of producing a still greater harmony and higher perfection.

The course of this argument has enabled me to prove that the ultimate end of things is to manifest, each in its own manner, the sublime perfections of God, so as to become as it were the effulgent rays of his beauty, and the magnificent reflection of his glory. Under this point of view, and as regards this universal finality, it has been easy to demonstrate that the disobedience of man and the angelical rebellion have produced the most excellent results. As a consequence of this double revolt, those creatures who had before only served as manifestations of the divine goodness and magnificence, from that time also reflected all the sublimity of his mercy and all the grandeur of his justice. Order only became universal and absolute when creation reflected all the divine splendors.

We have passed from the discussion of the problems respecting universal order, to the contemplation of those which relate to the general order of human events. In taking this extended view, we have beheld the spread of evil in humanity to be commensurate with that of sin; we have seen in what manner humanity existed in Adam, and how the species sinned in him, the individual. Thus, as sin had of itself the power to disturb the order of the universe, so it likewise possessed that power, and with greater reason, as regards man. In order that what we have already said, and what we have still to say on this subject may be entirely comprehended, it is best here to remark, that if the universal end of things is to mani-