8

State of nature. — Character of progress. — Degenerate peoples. — Civilization. — Races rebellious to progress. (Questions 391 to 402 b)

Does man find within himself the strength to progress, or is progress merely the fruit of teaching? [Question 779.]

“Man develops by himself, naturally; but not all progress at the same time and in the same way. It is then that the more advanced aid the progress of the others.”

Man's intelligence develops spontaneously through exercise and observation. Such development, favored and increased by means of social contact, constitutes progress, which is thus a condition inherent to the human spirit and a law of Nature.

Does moral progress always accompany intellectual progress? [Question 780.]

“It derives from the latter, but does not always follow it immediately.”

a. How can intellectual progress lead to moral progress? [Question 780 a.]

“By making good and evil understood; man can then choose.”

It is thus that the development of free will accompanies that of intelligence and increases the responsibility for one's acts.

Would not the state of nature be that of the most perfect happiness for man, since, having fewer needs, he does not suffer all the tribulations he creates for himself in a more advanced state? [Question 777.] “Yes, if he had to live like the animals. Children too are happier than adults.”

Can man go back to the state of nature? [Question 778.]

“No; man must progress incessantly.”

The state of nature is the infancy of Humanity, and man was not destined to live perpetually in infancy. If he progresses, it is because God wills it so; to wish to make him go back to his primitive condition would be to deny the law of progress.

Is man permitted to halt the march of progress? [Question 781.]

“No, but he can hinder it at times.”

a. What is to be thought of the men who try to halt the march of progress and make Humanity go back? [Question 781 a.]

“Poor beings, whom God will punish. They will be swept away by the torrent they seek to stop.”

Since progress is a condition of human nature, no one has the power to oppose it. It is a living force that bad laws may delay, but cannot annul. When those laws become incompatible with progress, they are annihilated together with those who strive to maintain them. And so it will be, until man has brought his laws into conformity with divine justice, which wills the good of all and not the imposition of laws made by the strong to the detriment of the weak.

Are there not men of good faith who impede progress, believing they favor it, because, from the point of view in which they place themselves, they often see it where it does not exist? [Question 782.] “They resemble small stones which, placed beneath the wheel of a great vehicle, do not prevent it from advancing.”

Does the perfecting of Humanity always follow a progressive and slow march? [Question 783.]

“There is regular and slow progress that results from the force of things. When, however, a people does not progress as quickly as it should, God subjects it, from time to time, to a physical or moral shock that transforms it.”

History shows us that many peoples, after upheavals that caused them strong commotions, fell back into barbarism. In this case, where is the progress? [Question 786.] “When your house threatens to collapse, you have it demolished and build another more solid and more comfortable. But, until it is rebuilt, there is disturbance and confusion in your dwelling. “Understand this also: you were poor and lived in a hovel; you become rich and leave it to dwell in a palace. Later, a poor wretch, such as you were before, comes to take your place in the hovel and is quite content, for before he had no shelter. Well then! Learn that the Spirits incarnated in that degenerate people are not those who constituted it in the time of its splendor. Those of that time, having advanced, moved into more perfect dwellings and progressed, while the others, less advanced, took their place; which they too will one day leave, when their turn comes.” In these commotions, man often perceives only momentary disorder and confusion that wound him in his material interests. He who raises his thought above his own personality admires the designs of Providence, which brings forth good out of evil. It is the storm and the hurricane that purify the atmosphere, after having stirred it with violence.

Why does civilization not immediately realize all the good it could produce? [Question 792.]

“Because men are not yet ready nor disposed to attain that good.”

a. Is it not also because, by creating new needs, civilization awakens new passions? [Question 792 a.]

“Yes, and also because not all the faculties of the Spirit progress simultaneously. There must be time for everything.”

Is civilization a progress, or, according to some philosophers, a decadence of Humanity? [Question 790.]

“Incomplete progress. Man does not pass suddenly from infancy to maturity.”

a. Would it be rational to condemn civilization? [Question 790 a.]

“Condemn rather those who abuse it, and not the work of God.”

b. Will civilization one day be purified, so as to make the evils it may have produced disappear? [Question 791.]

“Yes, when the moral is as developed as the intelligence. The fruit cannot appear before the flower.”

Like all things, civilization presents diverse gradations. An incomplete civilization is a transitory state that generates special evils, unknown to man in the primitive state; but it does not for that reason cease to constitute a natural and necessary progress, which carries within itself the remedy for the evil it causes. As civilization perfects itself, it causes some of the evils it generated to cease, and those evils will disappear with moral progress.

Besides social progress, does civilization also constitute a moral progress?

“Yes; this is the preferable progress. We have already said: understanding better, civilized man will be more blameworthy if he practices evil.”

Are there not races which, by their very nature, are rebellious to progress? 123 [Question 787.]

“Yes, but they are annihilating themselves corporeally, every day.”

a. What will be the future lot of the souls that animate those races? [Question 787 a.]

“They will reach perfection, like all the others, passing through various existences. God disinherits no one.”

b. Thus, the most civilized men may have been savages and cannibals? 124 [Question 787 b.]

“You yourself were so more than once, before being what you are.”

[123], [124] E. N.: See “Explanatory note,”

p. 551.