OF SOCIETY. 



465 



The social philosophy of the Reactionaries has some 

 traits in common with that of their opponents, whom 

 we may term the Socialists. The latter declared for an 



34. 



The Social- 



been too little recognised in this 

 country till Lord Morley drew 

 attention to it in one of the most 

 interesting and luminous of that 

 series of Essays in which he, with 

 unrivalled mastery, expounded to 

 English readers the principal doc- 

 trines of French political philosophy 

 from the middle of the eighteenth 

 century down to Auguste Comte. 

 His Essay on "Joseph de Maistre" 

 (' Critical Miscellanies,' vol. ii., 

 1886, pp. 257-338) is a master- 

 piece of exposition by one who 

 belongs to the very opposite school 

 of thought, and it amply suffices 

 to impress upon the reader the 

 strong points of de Maistre's posi- 

 tion as well as the political and 

 social surroundings among which 

 his philosophy sprang up. This is 

 shown to be an emphatic appeal to 

 the restoration of Order in a state 

 of social and political anarchy, 

 maintaining that there must exist 

 a supreme tribunal of appeal, which 

 is to solve not only, and not in the 

 first instance, questions of truth, 

 but questions of law and order. 

 The regulation of society under a 

 Supreme Power which is recognised 

 to be infallible is more important 

 than the discussion of the proofs 

 of such infallibility. The burning 

 problem of the time was a practical 

 not a theoretical one. The only 

 power which after the great Re- 

 volution still existed, and which 

 would be able to restore Order was, 

 according to de Maistre, the organ- 

 isation of the Roman Catholic 

 Church with the Pope at its head ; 

 so he devoted his literary ability 

 to preach the restoration of the 

 Roman Catholic power in the most 

 celebrated of his works (' Du Pape,' 

 1817), the enormous influence of 

 which he did not live to witness 



VOL. IV. 



himself. In this work he proved 

 his thesis through an historical 

 exposition of the work of the 

 Church and a series of practical 

 reflections tending to show that it 

 was the only remaining power which 

 could regenerate and trauquillise 

 society. In discountenancing the 

 modern scientific spirit proclaimed 

 by the new school of thought as 

 the salvation of humanity, de 

 Maistre "had no selfish or official 

 interest in taking away the keys of 

 knowledge, entering not in himself, 

 and them that would enter in 

 hindering. The true reasons for 

 his detestation of the eighteenth 

 century philosophers, science and 

 literature, are simple enough. 

 Like every wise man, he felt that 

 the end of all philosophy and 

 science is emphatically social, the 

 construction and maintenance and 

 improvement of a fabric under 

 which the communities of men 

 may find shelter, and may secure 

 all the conditions for living their 

 lives with dignity and service. 

 Then he held that no truth can 

 be harmful to society. If he found 

 any system of opinions, any given 

 attitude -of the mind, injurious to 

 tranquillity and the public order, 

 he hastily concluded that, however 

 plausible they might seem when 

 tested by logic and demonstration, 

 they were fundamentally untrue 

 and deceptive. What is logic com- 

 pared with eternal salvation in the 

 next world, and the practice of 

 virtue in this ? The recommenda- 

 tion of such a mind as de Maistre's 

 is the intensity of its appreciation 

 of order and social happiness. The 

 obvious weakness of such a mind, 

 and the curse inherent in its influ- 

 ence, is that it overlooks the prime 

 condition of all ; that social order 



2 G 



