Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 408

384 child

§ 71.

I

IS

THE NATURAL PKINCIPIUM ABLE

have found

is

yoxxv child.

frankly granted that something

is

Even though

[Div. Ill

it

were

lacking in our reason,

— yes,

that our reason by itself

is

for a

conclusion can never be logically

complement, — the

drawn from

insufficient,

that

this that the Sacra Scrip tura, or, better

it

calls

still,

the

back of this, either is or offers this Even though you compel the opponent to complement. recognize, that your special principium fits into the imperfection of your natural principium as a piece of china into a broken dish, this would not prove the reality of this natural For it could still be answered, that the defect principium. would surely be supplemented, if indeed a revelation, such but that this is the as you pretend, were at our disposal are mistaken which you that your special in very thing fruit in the supposed Sacra Scriptura, principium, with its is nothing but the shadow cast upon the wall by the existing the minus is the product of your own imagination defect balance of your account changed into plus. In a word, there would always be defence ready against the proof that this special principium is real, and this proof is not possible of any principium. Could this be furnished, it would eo ipso special principium lying

;

;

;

;

cease to be a principium.

But this will not be reached. For though you succeed in showing that your reason founders upon antinomies, that it finds itself shut up within limits which cannot be made to agree with the impulse after knowledge that works in it, and that it leaves the higher aspirations of our nature unsatisfied, this has no compelling force with him who has an interest in not accepting your special principium. For he can make good his escape by the way of agnosticism, which accepts the incomplete character of our knowledge as an iron necessity

;

or

make

the side-leap to the

pantheistic

which calculates that from the incomplete the comMoreover, though plete of itself will gradually come forth. he evade you in this manner, you ma}- not question the From your own point of view honesty of your opponent. stands outside of spiritual that he who you acknowledge and cannot perceive, the real illumination does not perceive, process,

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