Hence the praemotio physica of the Thomists, and the praevenient and adjuvant grace of the theologians, without which no one can begin the Christian life, and which must needs be supernatural when the end is supernatural.The principle of life in all orders is the same, and human activity no more suffices for itself in one order than in another.
Here is the reason why the savage tribe never rises to a civilized state without communion in some form with a people already civilized, and why there is no moral or intellectual development and progress without education and instruction, consequently without instructors and educators.Hence the value of tradition; and hence, as the first man could not instruct himself, Christian theologians, with a deeper philosophy than is dreamed of by the sciolists of the age, maintain that God himself was man's first teacher, or that he created Adam a full-grown man, with all his faculties developed, complete, and in full activity.Hence, too, the heathen mythologies, which always contain some elements of truth, however they may distort, mutilate, or travesty them, make the gods the first teachers of the human race, and ascribe to their instruction even the most simple and ordinary arts of every-day life.
The gods teach men to plough, to plant, to reap, to work in iron, to erect a shelter from the storm, and to build a fire to warm them and to cook their food.The common sense, as well as the common traditions of mankind, refuses to accept the doctrine that men are developed without foreign aid, or progressive without divine assistance.
Nature of herself can no more develop government than it can language.There can be no language without society, and no society without language.There can be no government without society, and no society without government of some sort.
But even if nature could spontaneously develop herself, she could never develop an institution that has the right to govern, for she has not herself that right.Nature is not God, has not created us, therefore has not the right of property in us.She is not and cannot be our sovereign.We belong not to her, nor does she belong to herself, for she is herself creature, and belongs to her Creator.Not being in herself sovereign, she cannot develop the right to govern, nor can she develop government as a fact, to say nothing of its right, for government, whether we speak of it as fact or as authority, is distinct from that which is governed; but natural developments are nature, and indistinguishable from her.The governor and the governed, the restrainer and the restrained, can never as such be identical.Self-government, taken strictly, is a contradiction in terms.When an individual is said to govern himself, he is never understood to govern himself in the sense in which be is governed.He by his reason and will governs or restrains his appetites and passions.It is man as spirit governing man as flesh, the spiritual mind governing the carnal mind.
Natural developments cannot in all cases be even allowed to take their own course without injury to nature herself."Follow nature" is an unsafe maxim, if it means, leave nature to develop herself as she will, and follow thy natural inclinations.Nature is good, but inclinations are frequently bad.All our appetites and passions are given us for good, for a purpose useful and necessary to individual and social life, but they become morbid and injurious if indulged without restraint.Each has its special object, and naturally seeks it exclusively, and thus generates discord and war in the individual, which immediately find expression in society, and also in the state, if the state be a simple natural development.The Christian maxim, Deny thyself, is far better than the Epicurean maxim, Enjoy thyself, for there is no real enjoyment without self-denial.There is deep philosophy in Christian asceticism, as the Positivists themselves are aware, and even insist.But Christian asceticism aims not to destroy nature, as voluptuaries pretend, but to regulate, direct, and restrain its abnormal developments for its own good.It forces nature in her developments to submit to a law which is not in her, but above her.The Positivists pretend that this asceticism is itself a natural development, but that cannot be a natural development which directs, controls, and restrains natural development.
The Positivists confound nature at one time with the law of nature, and at another the law of nature with nature herself, and take what is called the natural law to be a natural development.
Here is their mistake, as it is the mistake of all who accept naturalistic theories.Society, no doubt, is authorized by the law of nature to institute and maintain government.But the law of nature is not a natural development, nor is it in nature, or any part of nature.It is not a natural force which operates in nature, and which is the developing principle of nature.Do they say reason is natural, and the law of nature is only reason?
This is not precisely the fact.The natural law is law proper, and is reason only in the sense that reason includes both intellect and will, and nobody can pretend that nature in her spontaneous developments acts from intelligence and volition.
Reason, as the faculty of knowing, is subjective and natural; but in the sense in which it is coincident with the natural law, it is neither subjective nor natural, but objective and divine, and is God affirming himself and promulgating his law to his creature, man.It is, at least, an immediate participation of the divine by which He reveals himself and His will to the human understanding, and is not natural, but supernatural, in the sense that God himself is supernatural.This is wherefore reason is law, and every man is bound to submit or conform to reason.
