ART. III-Le Progrès par le Christianisme. Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris, 1856-1860. Par LE REVEREND PERE FÉLIX, de la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris, Le Clere & Cie.; 1858-1860. 5 Tomes 8vo.

THE first two volumes of the profound and brilliant Conférences of Father Felix were some time since briefly noticed in our pages. Since then, we have received two additional volumes, which, with the fifth, for 1860, not yet received, complete the series. We must reserve a full analysis and appreciation of the whole series till the last volume reaches us. In the meantime we call attention especially to the fourth volume, which treats of "The Progress of Society by Christianity," for we wish to offer some few remarks, which we trust will prove neither inopportune nor unimportant, on a topic it suggests to our mind, and in which we ourselves just now take no slight interest. We beg our readers to understand, however, that it is the topic suggested rather than the Conférences themselves, on which we propose to make our comments.

Father Felix, unless Father Lacordaire, the eminent Dominican, be an exception, is unquestionably the first preacher in France, and is not an unworthy successor of the lainented Père de Ravignan. His Conférences strike us as models of pulpit eloquence, and in brilliancy of style, simplicity and dignity of expression, depth of thought, earnestness of tone, and richness of illustration, they are unsurpassed by any modern series of sermons we have read or heard. The preacher is a man who thinks, and has thoroughly studied his subject, and if there are here and there views to which we cannot assent, they are the views of a mind of no ordinary capacity, and such as a man may entertain without discredit to his understanding or his general attainments. We esteem him the more, the more thoroughly we penetrate his spirit and master his doctrine; yet, as we said on the former occasion, his Conférences do not quite satisfy us, chiefly, however, because they are not what their title led us to expect. From the title, by our own fault it is very possible, we were led to expect a discussion of progress in the sense the word is usually taken, and to be shown that progress requires and receives the aid of Christianity. But we find that the progress he treats is the progVOL. II.-No. I.

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ress by grace in the interior life of individuals, and in society, only in so far as the exterior is the exponent of the interior. He discusses, we grant, a progress infinitely superior to that which we expected him to discuss, but, nevertheless, not it, and not in all respects easily attainable without it.

The reverend father will permit us to say, and we do so with all deference and respect, that we think (regard had to the state of things in Europe) these Conférences were not well timed, and that they would have been more opportune and more really useful, if they had been preached from 1846 to 1850, ten years earlier, when the immediate danger to European society was from socialism, communism, and red republicanism. It is always necessary, we grant, that people of all ranks and conditions should understand, that without religion and stable government, society cannot subsist and perform its appropriate functions; but even this great truth may be presented at such a time, or under such circumstances, as to have the effect of error, and to operate unfavorably both to moral and social progress. Brought out and insisted on with peculiar emphasis when the danger is from the efforts of power to extinguish freedom and suppress all voices and all institutions favorable to liberty, it can only tend to alienate minds opposed to despotism from both religion and authority. At the time these Conférences were preached there was a manifest increase of infidelity in France, provoked by the alliance of the clergy with the new-fangled Cæsarism of the day, and the savage bitterness with which their most influential organs treated the noble and disinterested men who, having for twenty years fought the battles of liberty and religion with success, regretted in the Imperial Constitution the absence of all adequate guaranties of political freedom, discussion, and publicity. Was this the time to insist specially on authority?

In 1848 society itself was threatened in its very foundation by the mad theories and mad deeds of revolutionists and anarchists; and the friends of order and religion, who had so bravely struggled during so many years for political and religious liberty, without in the least changing or abandoning any principle they had ever possessed, rallied to the standard of authority, and labored with what power and influence they had to restrain the revolution, to roll back the tide of anarchy, to re-establish order, and to save society. They did not labor to restore the old régime, or to re-estab

lish the old governments against which they had warred, and which the revolution had prostrated; they accepted the republic the revolution proclaimed in France, and simply sought to make it an orderly republic, compatible alike with religion and social well-being; they denounced not the concessions made to popular demands in Prussia, Austria, and the smaller German states, nor did they demand their revocation when the danger to power was over; they only labored to restrain the revolution, and to prevent it from prostrating European society, and establishing the reign of anarchy on its ruins. But they were not strong enough to do this without accepting the aid of the partisans of the old régime everywhere overthrown or menaced. The conflagration was raging, and they must accept help to check and extinguish it, let it come whence it might. There was in consequence danger that after the revolution had been mastered, the sovereigns, or their ministers, taking a wrong lesson from their recent fright, would seek, and that the ple, under the influence of the panic themselves had created, would encourage them to seek, to crush out liberty as well as the revolution, and to re-establish the very system with more stringency than before, which had provoked, and, in many minds sincerely attached to order and religion, had justified the revolutionary movement. They saw this danger, and we, acting with them, warned our readers to be on their guard against it so early as October, 1848; but the more pressing danger was from the excesses of liberty, and effectual precautions against the excesses of power could not well be taken.

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But long before these Conférences were preached to the men of France, the counter-revolution had triumphed, and all danger from the socialists, communists, and red republicans, save as a reaction against despotic power, had passed away. The danger was then from the other side. Yet the reverend father seems totally unaware of this fact, and proceeds as if things remained as they were in 1848: yet in that very year 1848, the revolution had been defeated, crushed, in France, and order re-established under a republican form of government; and before the close of the following year the German princes had recovered their authority, Charles Albert had been repulsed from Lombardy, the Mazzinian republic had been put down at Rome, the Hungarian rebellion suppressed, and Venice reduced. Power, after 1850, was everywhere triumphant, and order was nowhere seri

ously threatened. The movements of the revolutionists were only the spasmodic motions of the serpent's tail after its head has been severed from the body. Even then it was manifest to every man of some little foresight, that the danger was not from the revolution, but from the reaction of authority against it. What was foreseen in 1850 was an actual fact in 1856. The old system had been revived in most European countries, and the French empire, based on a new-fangled Cæsarism, itself reposing on ex post facto suffrage, had been restored, and the most stringent measures of repression were everywhere adopted against every species of liberty, except the liberty of praising Cæsar and insulting religion. At this moment these Conférences were commenced, with the apparent design of bringing the sacred lessons of religion to sustain authority, which, in the public mind, could only mean despotism.

There are certain lessons which ministers of religion, as well as ministers of state, would, do well to learn and profit by, that, in this age of the world, after the preaching of the Gospel for eighteen hundred years, no religious teaching, no religious discipline, no possible education or governmental repression will suffice to put an end to revolutions, and keep the people quiet and contented under despotism, or what they regard as despotism. The Church has too well educated the people, too thoroughly imbued them with the conviction that power without right or justice is without authority, and may be resisted without disobedience to God, for that any longer to be possible. All efforts to reconcile them to Cæsarism, or to any government that adopts the maxim, "All for the people, nothing by the people;" which allows them no free thought, no free speech, no initiatory movement, and no effective voice in the management of public affairs, will, however supported, prove abortive. Whether you hail this as the harbinger of a glorious future, or deprecate it as the forerunner of antiChrist, it is a fact, and as a fact must be met and dealt with. All attempts, whether by ministers of religion or by ministers of state, to re-establish social peace on the basis of political absolutism, can end only in grave injury both to religion and society. The passion for change has become too strong to be resisted. To war against it is as idle as to plant yourself on a railway, and command the locomotive, thundering on at the rate of sixty miles an hour, to stop and go no farther. You may be crushed, but its speed will not be check

ed. We speak of what is possible in the ordinary providence of God, not of what is possible to his miraculous power: we restrict not his power, nor attempt to interpret his secret purposes. In his ordinary providence, we are not afraid to assert that peace on the old system between the European populations and the governments is not possible. The war will continue, marked by alternate victories and defeats for each party. The excesses of power will give the victory to the mob the excesses of the mob, in turn, will give the victory to power; and each alternate victory or defeat will only loosen still more the bonds of society, and render the war more desperate and vindictive.

We agree, assuredly, with Father Felix, that religion is necessary to render people truly loyal to anthority, and that authority is necessary to liberty and social progress,-the two great truths he develops with equal force of thought and brilliancy of language. Here, certainly, we have no quarrel with him, for his thesis was ours from 1844 till 1850, and his Conférences were preached in substance in our pages Some years before he preached them in the Church of NotreDame of Paris. Yet it is always necessary in our assertion of authority to be on our guard against giving it an origin or a character incompatible with national and individual freedom. The reverend father's theory of authority, if he intend on the one hand it shall be power, and on the other a support to freedom, requires, in our judgment, some important qualifications.

This reason of authority is

"Authority, considered in its origin," he says, "comes from creation. He who is creator is author, and he who is author is anthorit in relation to what he creates. radical; it is in the root of things, and is written in the root of word Strictly speaking, God is the only authority, for he is the only reator. He is master of all, for he is the beginning of all. But men, associated to his creative power, are associated also to his anthority, in so far as their acts are creative. Where in imitation of authorities in science, art, and literature. He who creates order in ideas, and makes them resplendent in speech, is an authority, and not meaningless is the expression, Royalty of speech, which we find in all languages. Wherever men genius creative power in its works, they say, Behold an authority. In vain do we protest against this domination; it asserts itself. Before their like men rise to the honor of authority just in proportion as they manifest creative power.