BHH ESS HSH IH HH BH H HH HBBW ^M ^U| ran m I HH SUSS HH BHB B ■HHH BBflnnfl HHBHhBB ■BHB1 HH ■ H ■ IH BH HRE BH *££■•. — M WKXBB3B1 hh nmn I Hi HI HI H H H ■■■H HsH HI Bfl ^ HH Hfl Hi H BB HH hHhvhvbhhH in HHH^^HHB ■BBS B wS™ bun H B HH HI HH HHH H HHH HH H H HHBHH THE Cmttjfstoite A € jmraxter: TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE / / ABBE FREDERICK EDWARD CHASSAY, Professor of Philosophy in the Seminary of Bayeux, Member of the Academy of the Catholic Religion at Rome, &c. &c. /^YOFCoivg^ NEW YOIjt M . T . CO Z^^F^M8Hm& 1 ^ 556 Broadway. irDccotm, a Entered according to Act of Congress, intlie year 1853, by M. T. COZANS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGK Approbation, V Note by the American Editor, 9 Authors Preface, 13 Introduction, 17 Chapter I. — The Heart and Virtue, 31 II— Melancholy, 62 '* III. — Anarchy of the Heart, 93 " IV. — Sensuality at the Tribunal of the Pass- ion?, 122 " V. — Servitude and Liberty, 141 " VI. — Sensuality in the family, 161 VIL— The Family Eegenerated, 185 VIII.— The Rationalistic Marriage, 201 " IX. — Marriage and Liberty, 220 " X. — Marriage and Love , 239 APPROBATION I have read, with the greatest interest, this'V yk of the Abbe Chassay. This book, written with the perspicuity, elegance and energy which characterize the style of its learned author, appears to me, by irrefragable proofs, to de- monstrate, that true happiness can only be found in pure hearts, formed according to the precepts, and upon the laws of Christianity. May it be diffused among all classes of society, and pro- duce the happy effects intended by its pious author. f L. F., Bishop of Bayeux. ■ NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. The author of this elegant volume first became known to the American Editor by some of his brilliant essays in the Paris Annates de Philosophic Chretienne, and by his profound refutation of German and French Rationalism in a work entitled Christ et VEvangile. That so profound and gifted a writer should take in hand a series of volumes with the title of a Library of a Christian Woman, at first excited surprise. What attraction could the metaphysician, who had wrestled successfully with Strauss and his followers, find, for the style of writing, that usage has consecrated to the address of woman ? As soon as we open any of these volumes we ascertain the secret. M. Chassay is not a drea- my metaphysician, nor a man of merely theoretic study. He understands, he feels the wounds of modern society ; and the value of his philosophy is, that it appreciates at once the malady and the method of euro. How well he under- X. NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. stands the results of that sensual literature of George Sands and Eugene Sue, which has deluged France these years past! How accurately he tells what the results must be ! It is not a little remarkable that the first edition of this pre- sent volume was published in Paris on the morning of Feb- ruary 22nd, 1848, the very day of the revolution that drove Louis Philippe from the throne, and witnessed the downfall of the regime that sought to sustain good order in society without the aid of religion. The charm of M. Chassav's books is, that while they breathe throughout the severe and never changing principles of the doctrines of the Gospel, they are yet eminently books of our day. They discuss the principles of authors and of romances that are met with in every neighbourhood, and which, alas! find persons of unimpeached reputations to make their apologies, if not to advocate their perusal. This work of the Abbe Chassay's, as some one has said, is at once a triumphant vindication of christian morals against the literature of sensualism, and a volume of pious and ex- cellent meditations, not perhaps for girls, but for women of the world, and of society; and an instructive volume for men of study, for priests, for the learned, and also for young men who have been read in the literature of which it is so admirable a condemnation. " When I took up this book," wrote the illustrious Bishop Parisis, " 1 expected to find in it matter of pious edification, but I did not anticipate, at NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. XI. the same time, such a volume of high philosophy, and of learned controversy, So charmed was I with it, that I read it almost through without laying it aside for a moment, and I wish it may be read by all thinking people, so great is the light it sheds on the most important and most attacked moral questions." The translation of this volume has been the work of a gifted lady, who will not permit her name to be mentioned in connection with it. The abridging and omitting some of the notes, and the incorporation of others of them into the body of the work, has been the ungrateful task of the edi- tor. But it was judged necessary to do so, in order not, too much, to break up the volume by the profusion of references. If this volume meets the acceptance with the public which it deserves, it will be followed up by translations of the succeeding works of the series : such as the Manual of a Christian Woman; Christian woman in her relations with the world ; Prejudices and distractions of the world ; Duties of "Women in Married Life ; Duties of Mothers from the Catholic point of view ; Martha and Mary, or the Education of Girls, tfec, &c. ' J. A. McM. Few York, Jan. 16, 1853 THE ABBE CHASSAY'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. No one appreciates more fully than we do, the books of devotion composed by the theologians of the last two cen- turies. Many of these works exhibit a solid science, an enlightened piety, and an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls. But it is equally incontestable that these books, (we speak of the greater number) written in a severe and exclu- sively theological style, are no longer in harmony with the intellectual requirements and literary habits of those who live in the midst of the world. Long since we formed the project of a library, which might present, clothed in the language of our own age, a collection of those truths which should conduct souls progressively, even to the sublime heights of evangelical perfection, — a perfection intended as the Saviour teaches for all christians, and for all conditions in life. XIV. PREFACE. The success of this work, of which the first edition ap- peared amid the convulsions of 1848, as well as the favor with which the Manual of a Christian Woman has since been received, proves that the religious public has appreci- ated the utility of the plan, the realization of which we have purposed, in accordance with the measures of our feeble powers. If we are able to execute our idea in its whole extent, we will, perhaps, publish, at some future period, books of devo- tion for the use of men of the world ; but as works of this kind, when addressed to all, do not necessarily suit any indi- vidual, on account of the generality of the counsels which they contain ; we design these first publications for christian women, who desire to preserve, notwithstanding the agi- tations of the age, the inestimable treasure of the virtues inculcated by the Gospel. Before tracing, in our Manual of a Christian Woman, a sketch of these virtues, we must first seek to dissipate the prejudices which now serve to alienate many minds from the doctrine of evangelical purity. We must discover whether woman can listen to those new apostles, who would teach her the worship of pleasure in place of the religion of devotion. As these ideas have already seduced many under- standings, thanks to romances, essays, and above all, to periodical literature. We have not thought it advisable to approach the study of the Gospel before having shown our PREFACE. XV. sisters that the teachings of the sacred book can alone pre- serve their moral dignity, and their true influence in the world ; that Christianity is not for them a law of slavery, but the true cause of their holiest virtues, and that they are indebted to it for the large share they have taken in the development of modern society. We must, in order to make them more freely understand the duties imposed upon them by the Gospel, attempt to dissipate the prejudices they may have acquired during their frequent relations with a world which has long ceased to recognize the word of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as the rule of its judgments. We have desired to show, to all sincere souls, the danger of those opinions which were formerly received with uni- versal indulgence — an indulgence which contained, in our opinion, the germ of frightful calamity. Our anticipations have been but too fully realized by events ; and this book, of which the basis was already written in 1844, and which was printed before the breaking out of the last revolution, has seemed prophetic, because of the menaces addressed by it to a society grown drowsy in the lap of ease and luxury. Now that the doctrine of pleasure attacks the family, relig- ion, property, in a word, all the basis of society, no longer in the secret of the clubs, but in the full blaze of day, illu- sons are henceforth impossible. Facts have proved the in- fallibility of that christian doctrine, which the sons of Vol- taire so often treated as folly, during the latter years of the XVI. PREFACE. reign of Louis Philippe. We shall no longer be accused of exaggeration, in having shown to those infatuated souls who were sleeping upon the brink of the abyss, the swords ready drawn, and the poignards glittering amid the gloom. We have suppressed none of these warnings, for, can we believe that society is sincerely converted, and that the harsh lessons of the two past years have been profitable to all the disciples of the religion of pleasure? But, as now, the wound is open, and bleeds visibly to all eyes. We have thought it advisable to suppress some of the proofs (1) and citations which paint, in too vivid a manner, perhaps, for some imaginations, the disorders we would condemn. We have, however, only made such retrenchments as were compatible with the nature and object of this work. Sommervieu, France, Nov. 19, 1849, Festival of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. INTRODUCTION. YE INCREDULOUS, THE MOST CREDULOUS. — (Pascal.) No one, in my opinion, should be astonished if our adversaries and ourselves arrive at cor elusions entirely contradictory, when the question concerns the conduct of life. We have, in fact, starting points so opposite that it is not surprising our re- sults should be completely different whenever we treat of morals or of social order. What is, in fact, the logical chain of ideas of those who contradict with the greatest apparent ingenuity the fundamen- tal doctrines of the Gospel ? The school of Voltaire, by ridiculing cleverly both, mind and heart, and understanding and love, had for ever driven far from it all sensitive and ge- nerous souls. (1) Rousseau, who understood so well the moral grandeur of Christianity, (2) was never willing to accept a derisory and mocking scep- ticism, which destroyed at once reason and sensi- bility. He did not, however, wish to receive that 2 XV111. INTRODUCTION. severe Christian morality which restrains so firmly all the impulses of the heart, and which aims at governing humanity through order and law. To break entirely with the doctrines of the Grospel, he was obliged to choose a totally different starting point. In studying even superficially the inclina- tions of man, Rousseau could not deny many disor- derly instincts; (3) but, by an illusion, which van- ishes in the presence of facts, he attributed all weaknesses and all frailties to the habits of a cor- rupting civilisation ; (4) nay, he even went so far as to say that human nature, freed from social preju- dices, was the universal rule of the beautiful, the true, and the good. (5) Thus, purify your soul from the evil influences that the world has planted therein ; seek no longer in the books of men a fluc- tuating and uncertain science ; look not towards the Heavens for the star which is to guide you in the path of life. Heaven is silent, and the Grod who, spurning the world with His foot, launched it into space, will never descend to speak with you. (6) However, do not permit yourself to despair, nor to be seduced by the vain sophisms of a discouraging philosophy ! Has not God given you an interior light, which may shine upon all the actions of life ? Have you not a heart, sensitive and strong ? Ah ! leave far behind the vain ideas of men, their narrow INTRODUCTION. XIX. prejudices, and their criminal compromises ! Re- turn to the feelings of human nature, so upright, so pure, and so fertile ! You will find in yourselves an inexhaustible source of greatness and love, which will fill your existence with energy and light. Man, such as society has made him, is only an incomplete and suffering being, who has been wrapped from his cradle in bands which stifle and depress him. The effort has been to suppress in him all the natural im- pulses capable of rendering him great and strong. He has been imprisoned in those bands of iron, called the position, compromises, and laws of so- ciety. Rapidly has he been transformed into a mean and miserable being, incapable of great sacrifices or of noble self-devotion. But man, such as he came from the hand of God, was never made for this base slavery. He has no cause to blush for his nature. He feels within himself an urgent necessity for lov- ing ; this necessity forms his happiness, and makes his life. He will love the soft azure of the skies, he will love the modest flowers of the field, he will love all nature, ere a stronger and more elevated love blooms within his heart. Let him grow up in this love and sympathy which are to fill his exist- ence ; here he will find patience, activity, compas- sion, perfect virtue. A heart which has not been stifled bears within it all the germs of the beautiful, XX. INTRODUCTION. all the seeds of the good. God, who made man for his own happiness, takes pleasure in seeing him de- velope himself, unfettered by human tyranny, full of love for nature and for humanity. Every law which would reduce him to a different mode of life is bad, because it is impossible. The law cannot accuse man of frailty and corruption, but it must reproach itself with having mistaken the requirements of hu- manity. (7) If in the theory of the Genevan philosopher there is something seducing for young minds, which are still governed by the senses and the imagination, it will never bear the reflection of a riper age, and it will always be shattered by a more serious exami- nation of human nature, considered in its profound misery, in its sad reality. To me it is very evident that the specious utopia which has been opposed to our Christian ideas is an entirely ideal system, com- pletely denuded of all historical or psychological basis, a veritable romance of the heart, as much as the Nouvelle Heloise or Clarissa Harlowe. The basis upon which it rests is in contradiction with the clearest and most positive facts of human nature. Human nature is certainly a great mystery ; how- ever, it is impossible to establish any point in morals "before having solved the formidable problem of the origin and destiny of man. The system of our ad- INTRODUCTION. 1XX. versaries rests upon an hypothesis so evidently de- bateable that it seems to us necessary before going further, to examine rapidly the fundamental axiom of their whole theory. The rationalists, disdaining facts and history, build their fantastic palaces in the air, vain dreams of an excitable imagination. But the City of God, which preserves eternally light and life, has laid its foundations upon the rock and upon the everlasting mountains. Catholic dogmas are connected with the universal convictions and with the most ancient and venerable traditions of the hu- man race. To break with Catholicity is to break with the most authentic history or the past. It is this which attaches to Catholic ideas all those minds that prefer good sense to systems, and positive facts to the vain speculations of a chimerical rationalism. The doctrine of the Church is an admirable tradi- tion, which commences with time and ends with eternity. These principles once well understood, no oae should be surprised that we make an immediate ap- peal to history, convinced, as we are, that the pre- tensions of our adversaries can never be sustained upon the fair field of facts. If then we invoke sci- ence in the question which is now before us, we shall find at the beginning of the religious traditions of all the most ancient nations, this opinion, namely, *2 XXII. INTRODUCTION. that human nature, primitively pure and holy, by a fatal revolt against the Author of life, fell from its first greatness, and received a deep wound. (8) Voltaire himself, so seldom in harmony with our opinions, could not avoid saying that " Original sin is the foundation of the theology of all nations. "(9) Kant makes the same avowal: "Men," says he, " have asserted with a common consent that the world commenced with good, but that the fall into evil soon became manifest." (10^ The limits of this introduction will not permit me to cite universal traditions in proof of the primeval fall. I have accomplished that work elsewhere in its whole extent. I will here confine myself simply to a few fundamental reflections, in order to render clear the rigorous logic of Christian ideas in their relations to the subject which now occupies us. If man be essentially pure and good, as some have dreamed, whence comes it that the human race, es- pecially considered in its early history, sees only in him a criminal stricken by Divine justice ? Is not humanity for the whole world that mysterious Pro- metheus, chained to the rock by justice and power for having attempted to steal fire from Heaven? Does not all mankind unite in believing that human nature, to use Cicero's admirable expression, is but a soul in ruins ? INTRODUCTION. XX111. The most ancient histories represent, under grace- ful and poetical emblems, a certain period truly happy, when the heart of man had not yet felt the influence of evil, when his spirit retained without difficulty celestial truths. But, say the primitive historians, on one eventful day the golden chain that bound earth to Heaven was fatally broken, and hu- man nature fell into all its depths of misery. One must be singularly inattentive not to perceive the persevering care with which humanity has preserved this tradition, so expressive of the first degradation. Whence are these strange rites, destined to purify the marriage union, which should seem rather to suggest ideas less dark and severe ? Why is the birth of the child accompanied by ceremonies, which so well express the energetic desire of expiation, which tormented all the ancient people ? In Rome, in Mexico, in Egypt, in Thibet, in Persia, in India, in Greece, in the Canaries, have we not seen the new-born purified by a mysterious water, and even sometimes by fire, to efface the stain of his birth? I am no longer surprised that Yirgil places at the entrance to the kingdoms of sorrow, children har- vested at the breast, before they have tasted of life. Another practice not less universal, perhaps not less strange, again expresses the conviction held by the human race of its fall, and of its profound XXIV. INTRODUCTION. misery. Turn your eyes in every direction, and you will find the thought of appeasing a Heaven believed to be angry, and the practice of sacrifice as widely spread as the belief in a God. Who then are you, ye men of these latter ages, who tell us of those in- nate virtues which the sons of Adam never recog- nised as privileges granted to them ? Five or six centuries before all philosophy, David exclaimed : " For behold I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me." Several centu- ries before David, Job said, when addressing him- self to God: "Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed r" It is easy to perceive how strong is the chain which binds together all the dogmatic and historical ideas presented by the human race. Man believes him- self stricken by the hand of Heaven ; he inscribes this doo-ma at the head of all theologies ; he recalls C O 7 it in a thousand solemn circumstances, at the birth of- children, at the marriage of the betrothed, and when offering sacrifice to his divinities ; but what completes on this point the proof of the absolute identity of universal tradition with our Christian convictions, is that all these regrets, all these expia- tions tend to some vast hope, which increases day by day. According to the Pythagorean Philolaus, all the ancient theologians and poets stated that the INTRODUCTION. XXV. soul was buried in the body as in a tomb, for the punishment for some sin. (11) He might have added that, from the depths of this tomb men raised their hands to Heaven, and sighed after the Desired of the Nations ; after Him, who alone could kindle in them the true light and stainless purity. (12) I ask you, can any serious reason be found for re- jecting the ancient belief of the human race with regard to our origin and our nature ? I cannot find that truly scientific labors furnish the least objection against the doctrine of which we now speak, which can long detain us. On the contrary, it appears to me that the more recent inquiries into the religions and worship of the East, have placed the universality of the convictions of the nations in a still stronger light. If, on the other hand, we consider the ques- tion from the point of view of experimental philo- sophy, psychological labors will singularly support the opinions which tradition imposes upon us. Let us hear upon this subject the most profound think- ers : — " Who does not know, says St. Augustin, in what ignorance of the truth, as is plainly shown in chil- dren, and with how many bad passions, which make their appearance even in infancy, as from a germ which all the sons of Adam bear within them from their birth, man comes into the world ; so that, were XXVI. INTRODUCTION. he permitted to live according to his own fancy, there is scarcely an excess of which he would not be guilty. Law and instruction keep watch against the dark- ness and inordinate desires in which we are born. But that cannot be effected without much pain and grief. Wherefore, I ask you, the threats made to children to keep them in the path of duty ? Where- fore the masters, the governors, the rods, the scourges which must so often be employed in the education of a beloved child, lest he should become incorrigible and ungovernable ? Wherefore all these sufferings, if not to conquer ignorance, and to repress lust, two evils which accompany us at our entrance into the world ? Whence comes the difficulty of remember- ing anything, and the ease with which it is again for- gotten? The labor requisite to acquire knowledge, and the facility of ignorance. Why is diligence so- painful, and si >th so easy ? Does not all this clearly show the real tendency of nature, and the assistance she requires to aid her in her weakness ?" (13) " Ye are deceived, ye sages of our age! exclaims Bossuet ; man is not the delight of nature, since she outrages him in so many ways ; neither can he be her outcast, since he has within him that which is of more value than nature herself. Whence comes then so strange a disproportion ? and why do we find the parts so disconnected ? Must it be told ? INTRODUCTION. XXV11. Do not these disjointed fragments, with their mag- nificent foundations, plainly speak of a creation in ruins ? Contemplate this edifice, you will behold the traces of a Divine hand ; but the inequality of the work will soon convince you of the share that sin has therein taken ? My Grod ! what is this med- ley ? I scarcely recognise myself. Is this the man made in the image of God, the miracle of His wis- dom, and the masterpiece of His workmanship ? It is he, doubt it not. Whence then this discordance ? It arises from the desire of man to build, according to his own ideas, upon the foundation of his Creator, and his having swerved from the original plan. Thus, contrary to the regularity of the first design, the immortal and the corruptible, the spiritual and the carnal, in a word, the angel and the animal, are found at once united. Behold the solution of the enigma, the explanation of the difficulty : Faith re- stores us to ourselves, and our shameful deficiencies can no longer hide from us our natural dignity. "(14) This great Bishop says elsewhere, with admirable energy, in speaking of human nature : — " It is like the remains of an edifice, once regular and harmo- nious, now overthrown and lying upon the ground, but which still retains some vestiges of its ancient grandeur and of the science of its Architect." (15) u In this abyss, says Pascal, does the Gordian xxvm. INTRODUCTION. knot of our condition find its twistings and turnings • eo that man is more incomprehensible without this mystery, than is this mystery incomprehensible to man." Now that we have surveyed our adversaries' start- ing point, it remains for us to judge of their theory in its application to the requirements of the Indi- vidual, of the Family, and of Society. NOTES AND PROOFS OF THE INTRODUCTION. 1 Romain Cornut, Essay on Voltaire. Andre, De- velopment of Voltarianism, in the Annales de Philoso- pliie Chretienne, 3d series, 17. 2 J. J. Rousseau, Oeuvres completes, Desoer's edi- tion, V., 494, X., 211, IX., 124 and 130, XVIII., 559, and above all IV., 83, IX., 115. 3 J. J. Rousseau, Oeuvres completes, VIII., 423, XVIIL, 45. 4 J. J. Rousseau, Essay on the Origin of Inequality. 5 " The books of men are false, says he ; but THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. 39 selves, by a just sentence, descended from Heaven, and made for Heaven, by rejecting the corporal af- fections which attach you to earth. ' Go out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing : and I will receive you.'" — (Bossuet, Sermon on Virginity — on the occasion of a profession.) In this mysterious anti- thesis of spirit and flesh, the practical morality of Christianity is admirably personified. It is impossible not to recognise, as soon as we reflect, the great superiority that such a system pos- sesses, in explaining the facts of man, and the facts of history, the world of the soul, and the world of humanity. It is only necessary to study our own nature, with attention, to perceive within, these two laws, always struggling, always contending : the law of the flesh and the law of the spirit. Turn your eyes towards a certain side of human nature, behold what narrow egotism, what foolish pride, what co- vetousness! See what abject affections, what anti- pathy to order and virtue, what horror of law. You are not man, if you do not hear the tempest of pas- sion howling in the depths of your heart, and feel every instant, unquiet thoughts, agitating desires, and stormy rebellion, like venomous plants, spring- ing into being. Listen to the eloquent lamentations of the Apostle writing to the Romans : " For that THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. 40 which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will ; but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will, is pre- sent with me ; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I will, I do not ; but the evil which I will not, that I do. Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of Glod, ac- cording to the inward man : But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall de- liver me from the body of this death ? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind, serve the law of Grod ; but with the flesh, the law of sin." — St. Paul, Romans, vii, 15-25. Bourdaloue again comments admirably on the doctrine of St. Paul : " Since we were conceived in sin, we truly know ourselves subject to the disor- ders produced by it, and which are its sad effects ; THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. 41 that is to say, we know that this first sin has drawn upon us a deluge of evils, and that, through the two mortal wounds made by it, ignorance and concupis- cence, it has infused the venom of its malignity into all the powers of our souls ; thence is there nothing sound within us ; thence are our minds capable of the grossest errors ; our wills are delivered to the most shameful passions ; our imagination is the seat and the source of illusion ; and our senses are the gates and the organs of incontinence ; thence are we born filled with frailties, subject to the incon- stancy and the vanity of our thoughts, slaves to our temperaments and caprices, and governed by our own desires. We are not ignorant that from this cause arises the difficulty of doing good, the tendency and inclination to evil, the repugnance to our duties, the disposition to throw off the yoke of our most legitimate obligations, the hatred of all truth which might correct and reform us, the love of flattery which deceives and corrupts, the aversion to virtue, and the poisoned charm of vice ; thence is this in- ternal war, of which we are conscious, this secret rebellion of our very reason against Grod, this strange obstinacy in desiring always what the law forbids, because the law forbids it ; in not desiring what it commands, because the law commands it ; in loving, through self-will, what is frequently in itself unlova- 3 42 THE TOI/CHSTONE OF CHARACTER*. blc, and in rejecting obstinately, that which we are commanded to love, and which merits our affec- tions." — (Bourdaloue, The Mysteries, Sermon on the Conception of the Virgin.) There is man as he is, but you see not there the whole of man. There he is in his degra- dation, in all his misery : but this miserable being that one is tempted to trample under foot, is not without greatness and nobility. " Is man," says Bossuet, " man, whom God has made in His own image, only a shadow? That which Jesus Christ came from Heaven to seek on earth, that which He has thought it possible, without self- debasement, to redeem, at the price of His own blood, can it be a mere nothing ? Let us confess our error. Entire self- contempt must not be per- mitted to man, lest, believing with the impious that his life is but a game wherein chance rules, he should be tempted to live according to the will of his blind desires, without law and without guidance." — (Bossuet, Funeral Oration on Henrietta of Eng- land.) True, man is this creeping earth-worm ; yet is he capable of comprehending virtue, of che- rishing order, of seeking self-sacrifice, of raising himself above the skies. Is it not a gigantic ruin^ which retains in the midst of its crumbling walls some isolated tower ? Is it not the Palm, springing THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. 43 from the bosom of the arid desert ? Is it not the butterfly, starting from the dust, to sport in the sun- light its sparkling and radiant wings ? Behold the mystery of the heart, which philosophy either can- not, or will not comprehend ; the prodigy of the duality of human nature, without which, both hu- manity and history must remain unintelligible. Do you not see the same tendency continually reprodu- ced in the exterior life of nations ? Do you not see everywhere, some men governed by the law of the spirit, and others, intoxicated by the heart, and mis led by the senses ? Man is constantly solicited by these two rival powers, which speak from the depths of his being : the spirit and the flesh. In all ages, generous and magnanimous souls have listened with avidity to the y Jaw of duty, and, with noble ardor, have tri- umphed over the petty weaknesses of the heart. Those souls, great in the eyes of the age in which they lived, are yet more honored in the memory of posterity. The sacrifice, made by them, of the fleeting pleasures of life, renders their remembrance precious to all good men. Their names are to us as the names of our friends ; their glory is as dear to us as our own ; their memory encourages and still sustains us. Ah ! no, it was not by obeying the un- regulated impulses of the heart, that they found the 44 THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHAKA TER. true path to the respect and love of all ! Contem- plate, on the other hand, in the arena called history, the debased slaves of flesh and blood. We are dis- mayed by the profound degradation into which so many superior minds have fallen, who sought plea- sure, rather than duty : the recollection of their disorders still terrifies the imagination. We may see, even among the noblest minds of antiquity, to what excesses the consecration of the natural in- stincts led. We can say but little here. As this book is addressed to several classes of readers, we are obliged to restrain ourselves within narrow limits. We confine ourselves then, to the repetition of what we have already said in the first part of Christ et PEvamgih : "If the sage of the stoics, when the question is of the spiritual direction of his life, must constantly raise himself above the prejudices which govern the vulgar, what rule should he adopt, who is not incommoded by doubtful convictions ?" It is well known that the eloquent author of Emile, in order to brand the corrupt society of the eighteenth century, all the passions of which were however shared by him, deemed it necessary to vaunt to his contemporaries the pure and gentle life led in the depths of the forests, far from the tumults and in- trigues of turbulent cities. This is only the idea of Antisthenes, renewed by the school of the Por- THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. 45 tico, and disguised under rhetorical forms- To re- duce man to the instincts of a nature imagined always essentially upright, and inclined to good, was the leading idea of the successors of Zeno. The sage, in his haughty and savage independence, be- lieved himself obliged by duty, by conscience, and by the obedience due to the imperious voice which spoke within his soul, to approach as nearly as pos- sible to the animal instincts. Let no. one think this expression in the least degree exaggerated. Should any one doubt it, let him, instead of listening to us, hearken to the historians of philosophy : "After the example of Aristotle, says Bitter, they consider all virtue as founded on instinct. The instinct of man differs from that of animals, in that it ought to de- velop itself in conformity with reason. It is in order to accomplish the precept of living in confor- mity with nature, that they recommend the cynical mode of life, and present the animal as a model to man." — (Ritter, History of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. III.*) * "This morality, says M. J. Simon, even were it sanctioned and legitimated, and its principles intelligi- ble, is impossible in practice, and false in its require- ments." — (J. Simon, " Manuel de Philosophic ") See also the article " Epictetus," in the " Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques." — "Live in conformity with nature ! Universal nature, was intended by Clea'nthes ; 3* 46 THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. St. Paul, in his eloquent Epistle to the Romans, has traced so living a picture of pagan licentious- ness, that we may see he had still under his eyes the afflicting spectacle of the greatest heart-misery which, perhaps, the world has ever known. Speak- ing of the philosophers, he describes their morals as follows : " Wherefore G-od gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves Who changed the truth of G-od into a lie ; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is human nature, abstracted from universal nature, by Chrysippus The principle remains the same, bat the sense is more precise, and the interpretation less dangerous. However it was in the interpretation of this very precept, that this vigorous mind was self- deceived, and was led into an extravagant cynicism. In Chrysippus, may be found a justification of incest, an exhortation to teed on- human bodies, an apology for prostitution, &c Consider the animals, said the bold logician, and you will find by their example, that none of these things are immoral, or contrary to nature." — (Hem-ne, article " Chrysipptis." in the '• Dictionnaire dps Sciences Philosophiqu.es ") lt Stoicism, says again Bitter, permits almost everything to the wise man, pro- vided neither pleasure nor interest be the incitements to action. Not to mention their defi-nee of interested lyino 1 , of suicide, of prostitution,- their contempt for hu- rial, and many other similar things, tiiey permit, to the sa^e, actions which revolt nature and which, it is scarcely allowable to name : they do not think the use THE TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER. 47 blessed forever. — Amen. For this cause G-od de- livered them up to shameful affections." — St. Paul, Rom. i, 24, 25, 26. I have designedly abridged the quotation, in order to spare the youth of some of my readers the inflexible severity of the Apos- tle's words. Perhaps it will be said that St. Paul has calum- niated the pagan philosophers. Alas ! all the monu- ments of antiquity attest the profound degradation of the most eminent men of the Greco-Roman society. According to the infidel Gribbon, the least immoral of the first fifteen Roman emperors was of human flesh, as food, against nature, and unions such as that of CEdipus and Jocasta are in their eyes entirely indifferent. 1 ' I have abridged Ritter, notwith- standing his already prudent reserve. Curious details may be found on the taste of the stoics for drunkenness, in Diogenes Lsertius, " De vitis Philosophorum," lib. VII,