CIVIL SOCIETY AND CHRISTIANITY. 23 



necessities of llic laiuily. As he Ii;is already observed, lie means 

 here by Stute not merely the sovereign power of civil society, but 

 the whole nation in so lar as it constitutes such society. In ojjim)- 

 silion to the error of the " social compact" which represents civil 

 society as an arbitrar}' work of man, there comes up the error of 

 certain philosophers and thooh>i2,ians who rei^ard it as being 

 directly and exceptionally a divine creation. This error origi- 

 nates in confounding the su per natural organization of the polity 

 of the Hebrews, and the natnral organization of the polity of 

 other nations. It is an error which predisposes the State to put 

 itself in the place which belongs of right to the family, and to 

 extend the exercise of its supremacy to private life.] 



I acknowledge, Gentlemen, tliiit many of our philoso- 

 phers and theologians have not kept quite clear of this 

 doctrine. Must it be confessed ? — Bossuet is one of them. 

 I oAvn no connection with that line of vulgar detractors 

 who think to magnify themselves by attacking Bossuet. 

 Bossuet, the last link in the august tradition of the 

 Fathers of the Church I Bossuet, the glory, not of France, 

 but of all Catholicism ! But the loftiest genius is affected 

 in some degree by the delusive spirit of its age. Bossuet 

 came after the ruin of those Middle Ages, which, mis- 

 understand them as Ave ma}^ were in so many respects 

 an era of liberty. He lived in the splendor of those 

 absolute monarchies which have risen upon the modern 

 world, and which seem to have concentred the whole 

 social system in themselves. Under the dominion of the 

 prejudices of his time, it Avas possible for tliis great man 

 to teach that the right of property was derived from the 

 Government, and that "in general every right must 

 needs be derived from the public authority."* But 

 pushed to its last results, and aimed, in turn, by the 

 al)Solutism of demagogues against the absolutism of 



* Politique tirée des propres paroles do i'Ecriture Saiutc, livre 1er, Art. iii., 

 propos, iv. 



