Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/322

factory. This is a proof that reason has not been given to man to enable him to discover the truth, but only that he might comprehend it when it is explained and perceive it when it is pointed out to him. The misery of man is so great, and his intellectual indigence so lamentable, that he could not understand the first thing with certainty which he ought to comprehend, if the divine plan permitted that he should discover anything by himself. I would ask, if there exist any man who can exactly define what reason is; or who can tell why he is endowed with it; or in what way it is useful to him, and what are its limits. Nevertheless, this is but the letter A of this alphabet, and six thousand years have already elapsed since we have commenced to lisp it, and we cannot yet pronounce it. I think I am then right in affirming that this alphabet was not made for man’s utterance, nor was man made to spell this alphabet.

To return to our subject, it was very useful and desirable for humanity to have a universal standard of universal and infinite perfection, even as the diverse political associations have always had a model from which they have received, as from their source, those special. qualities and virtues by which, during the glorious epochs of their history, they have elevated themselves above others. If other reasons were wanting, this of itself would suffice to justify the great mystery of which we treat, since God alone could serve as a perfect exemplar and finished model to every race and nation. His presence among men, his marvelous doctrine, his holy life, his innumerable tribulations, his passion so full of humiliation and opprobrium, and his most cruel death, which was the crowning and final act of all, —these can alone explain the eminent height to which the standard of human vir-