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ESSAYS O
LIBERTY
though there, as elsewhere, freedom degenerates unless it has to struggle in its own defence. Nothing can better illustrate this truth than the actual course of, events in the cases of Lamennais and Frohschammer. They are two of the most conspicuo s instances in point; and they exemplify the opposite mis- takes through which a haze of obscurity has gathered over the true notions of authority and freedom in the Church. The correspondence of Lamennais and the latcr writings of Frohschammer furnish a revelation \vhich ought to warn all those who, through ignorance, or timidity, or weakness of faith, are tempted to despair or the reconciliation bet\veen science and religion, and to acquiesce either in the subordination of one to the other, or in their cOlnplete sep ation and estrangement. Of these alternatives Lamennais chose the first, Frohschammer the second; and the exaggeration of the claims of authority by the one and the extreme assertion of independence by the other have led them, by contrary paths, to nearly the same end. When Lamennais surveyed the fluctuations of science, the multitude of opinions, the confusion and conflict of theories, he \vas led to doubt the efficacy of all human tests of truth. Science seemed to him essentially tainted \vith hopeless uncertainty. In his ignorance of its methods he fancied them incapable of attaining to any- thing more than a greater or less degree of probability, and powerless to afford a strict demonstration, or to distinguish the deposit of real kno\vledge amidst the turbid current of opinion. He refused to admit that there is a sphere within which metaphysical philosophy speaks with absolute certainty, or that the landmarks set up by history and natural science may be such as neither authority nor prescription, neither the doctrine of the schools nor the interest of the Church, has the po\ver to disturb or the right to evade. These sciences presented to his eyes a chaos incapable of falling into order and harmony by any internal self-development, and requiring the action of an external director to clear up its darkness
