Catholic And Protestant Nations Compared In Their Threefold Relations To Wealth Knowledge And Morality By Rev Napoleon Roussell With An In

By Rev. Napoleon Roussell (!) ...with an introd. by the Hon. and Rev. Baptiste Noel...

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Excerpt from Catholic Nations and Protestant Nations: Compared in Their Threefold Relations to Wealth, Knowledge, and Morality If this be so, then, wherever wealth, knowledge, and morality shall be found, it maybe said, here the truth exists; and where misery, ignorance, and vice shall be found, there error reigns. Without doubt, if all the good should be found in one hemisphere, and all the evil in the other, the demonstration would amount to proof. But if, without arriving at this complete separation of good and evil, we should yet find, dispersed over all the quarters of the globe, nations moral, enlightened, and prosperous to a certain degree, may Ave not still say, here truth reigns? If at the same time, in close contact with these nations, we should meet with others comparatively miserable, ignorant, and immoral, shall we not have a right to add, there error reigns? Lastly, if this twofold experience should recur in several parts of the world, will not these simple probabilities become certainties? Such at least is our opinion, and it is in reliance on this principle that we proceed to handle our subject. During the three last centuries a great question has been agitated in Christendom. Catholicism and Reform, opposed in their principles, say, each with equal confidence, "I am the truth." Certain it is that one of the two is mistaken; but which? It is for the consequences of these two doctrines to furnish the answer. Where morality, knowledge, and wealth exist, there truth will be found. Where misery, ignorance, and vice exist, there error will be found. Let us then study successively the protestant nations, placing by the side of each her catholic neighbour; and the result of the comparison will be, to make us know where error is, and where the truth. Here an objection may present itself. We may be told that neither all the good, nor all the evil, is the product of any particular religious faith; that climate, race, and a thousand other accidental causes, may contribute to develope or to destroy the wealth, the intellect, and the morals of a nation. This is true, but their influence is less than it is generally supposed to be. In the first place, most of the accidental causes of the civilisation of a people, such as legislation, are themselves the products of a religious principle; in the second place, climate and races lose their importance as soon as we compare men placed in the same latitude, and sprung from the same stock. Further, after allowing their due weight to all these accessory circumstances, there will always remain to be taken into account the most important circumstance of all, the religious conviction; that conviction, even though it be completely erroneous. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.