Essay on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism/Book 2/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
Manicheism—Manicheism of Proudhon.
Whatever explanation may be given of free will in man, it will undoubtedly always remain one of our greatest and most fearful mysteries; and we must confess that the faculty granted to man to draw evil out of good, disorder out of order, and to disturb, even though it be accidentally, the perfect adjustment with which God has arranged all things, is a tremendous faculty. If we consider this power in itself, and not relatively to that which limits and controls it, it is almost inconceivable. The free will given to man is a power so high and transcendent, that it would rather seem to be an abdication on the part of God than a grace conferred. Behold the evil it causes in the world.
If we watch the flow, through the prolongation of ages, of the turbid and impure waters of that ocean which bears humanity onward, we shall behold among the leaders of iniquity Adam the rebel, and then Cain the fratricide; and, succeeding them, the multitude of people who reject God and his law; such as the impious, the impure, the incestuous, and adulterers. There are indeed a few worshipers of God and his glory; but they soon forget his greatness and splendor, and they altogether tumultuously embark in that large vessel which has no pilot. The turbulent currents of that vast ocean whirl this excited crowd onward, while they know not whither they go, nor from whence they come, nor what is the name of the vessel that bears them, nor what wind impels them forward. If from time to time a sad, prophetic voice is heard, crying woe to the navigators! woe to the vessel! the ship neither arrests her course, nor do the crew listen, while the wind increases, and the boat commences to burst asunder. Then this frantic crew indulge in frightful orgies, up to that last dread moment when all suddenly ceases; the splendid banquets, frenzied laughter, lewd dances, insensate clamor, the splitting of the vessel, and the roar of the hurricane cease; the ocean overwhelms all, silence reigns over the waters, and the wrath of God over the silent waters.
God again constructs, and the new divine work is again destroyed by human liberty. A son is born to Noah, who puts his father to shame; he curses his son, and with him all his race, which will continue to bear this curse even to the fullness of time. After the deluge recommences the antediluvian disorder; and the sons of God again contend with the sons of men. Here, the divine city is built, and there, the city of the world. The one worships Providence, and the other liberty; and liberty and Providence, God and man, renew the gigantic contest, whose great vicissitudes form the perpetual subject of history. The people of God are everywhere conquered, until even his incommunicable and holy name falls into profound oblivion; and men, in the frenzy of their victory, unite to erect a tower which shall touch the clouds. Fire from heaven descends upon this tower erected by pride, and God in his wrath confounds the languages of the nations, who disperse throughout the circumference of the earth, increase and multiply, and fill with inhabitants every zone and country. Then arise great and populous cities, gigantic empires full of pride and pomp, and brutal and ferocious hordes wander in insolent idleness through immense forests and incommensurable deserts. The world is consumed by discord and stupefied with the frightful din of war. Empires fall upon empires, cities upon cities, nations upon nations, races upon races, until the earth becomes one scene of universal calamity and conflagration. The abomination of desolation is spread over the world. Where then is God? Why does he thus abandon the world, and permit human liberty everywhere to triumph? Why does he allow such universal rebellion and tumult, the erection of idols, and this great ravage and accumulated ruin?
One day God called unto him a just man, and said to him, I will make thy posterity as numerous as the sand on the sea-shore and as the stars of heaven; and out of this favored race shall be born the Saviour of mankind. I myself will conduct this people by my providence; and that they may not fall, I will give them in charge to my angels. I will perform many miracles for them, which shall testify my omnipotence before the nations. And the works of God were in conformity with his words. His people were enslaved, and he raised them up deliverers; they were strangers in a strange land, when he brought them forth from Egypt and gave them a home and country. They suffered hunger, and he gave them great plenty; they were thirsty, and the waters gushed forth from the rocks, obedient to his voice. Multitudes of enemies assailed them, and the wrath of God dissipated their numbers like a cloud. Weeping, they hung their melodious harps on the wil lows of Babylon; and he redeemed them from this sad captivity, and they again beheld Jerusalem the holy, predestined and beautiful. He gave them incorruptible judges, who ruled them with peace and justice, and kings who feared God, and were reputed prudent, good, and wise. He sent them prophets, who unveiled his high designs, and showed them things present and future. Yet this carnal and cruel people forgot his miracles, rejected his counsels, abandoned his temple, broke forth into blasphemies, fell into idolatry, outraged his incommunicable name, beheaded his holy prophets, and excited tumults and revolts.
In the mean time the seventy prophetical weeks of Daniel were accomplished; and he who was to come came; sent by the Father for the redemption of the world and the consolation of nations. This people, seeing him so poor, meek, and humble, despised his humility, outraged his poverty, scorned his gentleness, and were scandalized. They clothed him with garments of derision, and, secretly impelled by the demons of hell, they made him drain even to the last dregs of ignominy, on the cross, after having loaded him with insult in the hall of judgment.
Being crucified by the Jews, the Son of God called the gentiles unto him, and they came. Yet after his coming, as before he came, the world followed the path of perdition, and remained seated in the shades of death. His most holy Church inherited from him the privilege of suffering persecution and outrage, and was insulted and persecuted by nations, kings, and emperors. Out of her own bosom came forth those great heresies which encircled her cradle, like monsters seeking to devour her. It is in vain that they are crushed by the divine Hercules. The tremendous battle between the divine and human Hercules, between God and man, is renewed. The rage of the servants of evil equals the ardor of the people of God, and success alternates. The battle-field is so vast that on the continents it stretches from sea to sea, and on the sea extends from continent to continent, until it covers the world from pole to pole. The conquering hosts of Europe are conquered in Asia, and the vanquished in Africa triumph in America. There is no man whatever, whether he knows it or not, who is not enlisted in this furious combat; no one who has not an active share in the responsibility of defeat or victory. All are alike engaged in this struggle; the galley slave in his chains, and the king upon his throne, the poor and the rich, the healthy and the sick, the wise and the foolish, the captive and the free, the old and the young, the civilized and the savage. Every word that is uttered is inspired either by the world or by God, and forcibly proclaims, either implicitly or explicitly, but always distinctly, either the glory of the one or the triumph of the other. All are constrained to enlist in this strange army, in which no substitutes nor voluntary enlistments are allowed, nor any exception made for old age. None among this soldiery may say, I am the son of a poor widow, or the mother of a paralytic, or the wife of a cripple. All mankind alike belong to this army.
Nor is any one permitted to say that he is not disposed to combat; for, in the act of saying so, he already combats; and it is easy to perceive to which side he inclines; because by this very declaration he plainly betrays his inclinations. Nor can any one declare that he is neutral, because, if he wishes to be so, he is already enlisted; nor can he reiterate that he will continue indifferent, for by these very words he clearly indicates which side he embraces. Let no one seek to avoid the perils of this war, for he will do so in vain. This war extends throughout space and will last to the end of time. Only in eternity, the home of the just, can rest be found; because then alone the combat ceases. Nor will the gates of heaven open to receive any who cannot show that they have suffered in this conflict. These portals are closed against all who do not here below bravely fight the battles of the Lord, and like him bear the cross.
The contemplation of the spectacle which history presents to us, must inevitably lead the man who is not enlightened by faith to adopt one of the two systems of manicheism: either the ancient system, according to which there is a principle of good and also a principle of evil, and each of these principles is embodied in a god, and between these gods the only law is war; or the system of Proudhon, who affirms that in God is the principle of evil, that in man is the principle of good, and that the human and divine powers are two potent rivals, the only duty of man being to conquer God, who is his enemy.
These two systems of manicheism are naturally derived from the consideration of the perpetual warfare to which the world is condemned. The first is in greater conformity with ancient traditions, and the second bears a closer resemblance to the doctrines of modern times. However, it must be confessed that if we only regard the notorious fact of this gigantic contest, apart from the glimpses we have of the existence of a marvelous harmony between things human and divine, between the visible and invisible, and the created and uncreated, this fact may be amply explained by either of these two systems.
The difficulty does not consist in explaining any fact, whatever it may be, considered in itself. There is no isolated fact which may not be viewed in this way, and sufficiently explained by a hundred different hypotheses. But the real difficulty is to satisfy the metaphysical conditions upon which every explanation must rest, and according to which it is necessary, that the explanation of any evident fact, in order to be admissible, should not render other manifest and evident facts inexplicable, or leave them unexplained. Now, either of the manichean systems explains that which by its nature implies a dualism, and a war supposes it; yet neither of them can explain that which by its nature is one: and reason even unenlightened by faith can fully prove, either that there is no God, or, if he exist, that he is one. Either of the manichean systems explains the warfare that is waged, but neither of them can give an explication of the final victory; because a definitive victory of evil over good, or of good over evil, implies the entire suppression of the one or of the other, while that which has a real and necessary existence cannot be definitively suppressed. According to the principles of manicheism, therefore, the combat which seemed to be sufficiently explained remains inexplicable; because a combat is unintelligible where victory is forever impossible.
If we pass from the investigation of the general absurdity of every manichean explanation to the especial inconsistency of the explanation of Proudhon, we shall clearly see that it implies every possible absurdity, and that there are even things in this explication unworthy of the majesty of the absurd. In effect, when Mr. Proudhon calls evil good, and good evil, he is not guilty of an absurdity; for the absurd supposes greater genius; but this is mere buffoonery. The peculiar absurdity is not simply in making this assertion, but in having no object whatever in doing so. From the moment that it is affirmed that good and evil coexist in man and in God, locally and substantially, the question which consisted in establishing from whence proceeds evil, and from whence good, becomes useless. Man will attribute evil to God and good to himself, and God will assert that in him is all good, and in man evil. Therefore, evil and good will exist everywhere and nowhere. The question will then reduce itself to this: which side will be victorious? As this hypothesis makes no distinction between good and evil, it falls into the ridiculous puerility of contradicting the common sentiment of mankind. The absurdity which is peculiar to Mr. Proudhon is, that his dualism is a dualism of three parts, constituting an absolute unity; by which we see that it is rather a mathematical than a religious absurdity. The manichean dualism asserts that in God is the principle of evil, and in man that of good; but in man, wherein exists the principle of good, there are two powers: a faculty essentially instinctive, and another faculty essentially logical; by the first he is God, by the second he is man; from which it follows that the two unities are divided into three, and this without their ceasing to be two; because, outside of man and of God, there exists neither substantial evil nor substantial good, no antagonism-there is nothing. We will now see how the two unities, which are three unities, are converted into one without ceasing to be two unities and three unities. Unity is in God; for besides that he is God, through the instinctive faculty, which is also in man, he is man. Unity is also in man, because he is man by his logical faculty, and he is God by his instinctive faculty; and consequently, man is both man and God. It results from all this, that dualism, without ceasing to be dualism, is threefold; that trinity, without ceasing to be threefold, is dualism; and that dualism and trinity, without ceasing to be what they are respectively, are unity; and that unity, which is unity without ceasing to be dualism and trinity, is in two parts.
If the citizen Proudhon were to proclaim that he has a mission, which he does not; and if he were able to prove that his mission is divine, which he cannot; yet his theory, which we have just exposed, ought to be rejected as absurd and impossible. The personal union of evil and good, considered as substantially existing, is impossible and absurd, because it involves an evident contradiction. In the diversity of persons and unity of essence, which constitute the triune and one God of the Christians, as in the distinction of two natures in the person of the Son made man, there is doubtless a profound obscurity, yet not a logical impossibility, as there is no contradiction in the terms. If it involves much that is obscure to the eye of reason, yet there is nothing essentially contradictory in affirming of three persons that they are one in substance; or in the assertion that three substances exist in one person. That which is radically impossible, because it is an evident absurdity and a palpable contradiction, is, after having asserted the substantial existence of good and evil, to assert that they substantially exist sustained by one and the same person. How admirable! Man cannot fly from the obscurity of Catholicism without being enveloped in still greater darkness; nor can he fly from that which baffles his reason without meeting that which is contradictory to it, and therefore a denial of reason.
Let it not be supposed that the world adopts the views of rationalism in spite of its absurd contradictions and its profound obscurity; it adopts them on that very account. Reason adopts error wherever it can be found, like a doting mother, who follows the child of her love, the fruit of her womb, wherever this child may go, even though it be into the deepest abyss. Error will cause her death; but what matters it to the mother to die if she receive her death at the hands of her child?