Q6 DISCOURSES or father hyacinthe. 



liaYC proved the fact. The ftict is conclusiye of itself, 

 as soon as it is established. But I wish to penetrate 

 with you to the roots of this fact. I wish to define the 

 principal functions of religion in the domain of public 

 life. These functions are chiefly to maintain social 

 justice and create patriotic faith. 



I. Social Justice. We have seen, Gentlemen, that in 

 the political system two great forces come together — 

 Power and the People. These are two great forces, and 

 at the same time, two great rights. . We have refuted 

 the narrow conception of certain publicists who recog- 

 nize in the right of power, a right exceptionally divine. 

 The right of power is ^'of God," but just as all other 

 rights are from him. There are, then, rights divine, 

 and consequently sacred and inviolable, in that multi- 

 tude of individuals that make up a people — in that 

 group of families and homes which we call a nation. 

 There are rights in the individuals, in the families, in 

 the nation itself; and besides these, there are rights in 

 the power. And because all these rights are vested in 

 human hands — blind, passionate — they arc liable to be 

 brought together in terrible collisions. 



Ah, how needful, in the midst of society, that there 

 should be some moral power to rise up and prevent or 

 appease these collisions! Political society needs it even 

 more than domestic society. Ilarmony exists by natu- 

 ral law in the family; antagonism exists by natural law 

 in the State. Harmony exists by natural law between 

 husband and wife, between father and child. Order in 

 the family springs from the loins of fatherhood ; it ger- 

 minates with love in the bosom of mother and child ; 

 it grows out of the coalition of all the interests and 

 affections of human nature. But in the State, this is 

 no longer true. On tlie one side are the temptations of 



