Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/91

institutions, and the entire society relapsing into paganism.

If we abstract for a moment from the supernatual and invisible force of Catholicism, whose action has slowly and silently transformed the visible and natural by means of its mysterious and secret operation, all becomes confused. The visible and the invisible, the natural and the supernatural are alike involved in obscurity; and all our explanations become false hypotheses which explain nothing, and are themselves inexplicable.

There is no spectacle more melancholy than that of a man of enlightened mind, who makes the impossible and absurd attempt to explain things visible by things visible, and the natural by the natural; for as all things visible and natural are in their quality of being such identical, it would be as absurd as to explain the existence of any fact by the fact itself, or to explain anything by the thing itself. Into this very grave error a man of eminent and great acquirements has fallen, whose writings it is impossible to read without a sentiment of profound respect, whose discourses inspire high admiration, and whose personal character places him still higher than even his writings, his discourses, or his talents. Mr. Guizot surpasses all contemporary writers in the calm view that he takes of the most intricate questions. His judgment, generally speaking, is true and impartial. He possesses a clear diction, a temperate style, which, in the embellishments of language, is severely modest. Even his great eloquence is inferior to, and controlled by, his reason. However elevated a question may be, whenever Mr. Guizot handles it he always proves himself superior to the question. When he describes the