Scattered thoughts

O men! how superbly proud you are! Your pretension is truly comical. You wish to know everything, and your essence is opposed to this faculty of universal comprehension. You will not come to know this marvelous Nature except through persevering labor; you will not have the joy of deepening these treasures and of glimpsing the infinite of God, except when you improve yourselves through charity, doing all things from the point of view of good for all, and referring this faculty of good to God, who, in his incomparable generosity, will reward you beyond all expectation. Massillon. n As is often said, man is the plaything of events. Of which events does one wish to speak? What would be their cause, their object? Never has one seen in this the finger of God. This vague and materialist thought, mother of fatality, has lost more than one great Spirit, more than one profound intelligence. Do you know what Balzac said: “There are no principles; there are only events.” That is, according to him, man no longer has free will; fatality takes hold of him in the cradle and leads him to the tomb. A monstrous invention of the human Spirit, this thought strikes down liberty, that is, progress, the ascension of the human soul, an evident demonstration of the existence of God. The man who let himself be thus led would be the slave of everything: of men and of himself! O man! examine yourself. Were you born for servitude? No; you were born for liberty. Lamennais. n [1]

[v. Massillon.]

[2] [v.

Lamennais.]