Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 175

Chap. Ill]

§ 48.

TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE

151

In every domain of the expression of human life the subjective powers are unequal not only in that of science, but also in those of art, religion, the development of social life, and business. In the spiritual domain, i.e. as soon as the ;

powers of the consciousness and of the will turn the scale, Here endless variety is the rule. equalit}^ is no longer found. But in this multiformity there operates a law, which makes a rule, and involuntarily causes the radically stronger and purer expressions to dominate the weaker. That which place

takes

song,

in

takes place in the

entire

spiritual

domain: the stronger and purer voice strikes the keynote, and ends by getting the others in tune with it. In the domain of the sciences, also, experience shows that, after much resistance and trial, the man of stronger and purer thought prevails at length over the men of weaker and less pure thought, convinces them, and compels them to think as he thinks, or at least to yield to the result of his thinking.

now

convictions are

human

common

the

Many

property of the universal

consciousness, which once were only entertained by

And when we come

individual thinkers.

into touch with

the thinking consciousness of Buddhists, of the followers

Confusius, or of

of

Mohammedans, we

are in

deeply conscious of our superiority, that

it

general so

never occurs

to us to ingratiate ourselves into their favor, but of itself

and involuntarily, by our very contact with them, we make our conviction dominate them. When this does not succeed at once, this is exclusively because of their lesser suscepti-

and backwardness as soon, however, as they begin develop and to approach maturity, they readily conform

bility

us.

;

According

la verite,''^ i.e.

to the

"truth

these provisional

rule

is

to to

"(Zm choc des opinio7is jaillit

formed from clashing opinions,"

and necessary divergencies might be

toler-

ated with equanimity, in the firm conviction that from this multiplicity unity will spring, were only the character of these

divergencies

among men

exclusively relative

and

matters of degree.

But

away when you encounter a and when you come to deal with

this naturally all falls

difference of princijyle,

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