The Summary Cause for the
Stability or Downfall of Human Societies
CHAPTER 17
Conclusion
144. It is now time to conclude our little treatise. Let me repeat: the government of divine Providence itself follows the norm we have considered as the supreme principle of human government, that is, substance is to be firmly maintained whatever happens to accidents.
In order to grasp this, we have to search deep within the divine economy relative to the human race; we have to study the history of the kingdom of God on earth, and of the continuous, ferocious battles that kingdom has to sustain.
145. If we do this, we shall uncover the foundation of the two great classes into which holy Scripture divides mankind, the children of light and the children of darkness. The former cling to the truth, that is, to the light; the latter adhere to falsity, that is, to darkness. God takes his place at the head of the children of light, reserving for himself and those who belong to him the knowledge of beings per se, and dominion over them. He leaves to his opponents, who want to set up their own power against his might, knowledge of beings per accidens and, to a certain extent, power to dominate them. He holds firmly to substance, and abandons accidents to his enemies; he enfolds knowledge, and leaves sophistry to others; he holds the final outcome in his hands while his opponents preen themselves on their incomplete success; to him the effect, to his adversaries, only the hope of the effect.
146. These are the two great teachings, the two great loves, the two powers, the two glories. One is founded on what is necessary and indestructible; the other on what is accidental and changeable, the source of perpetual illusion, unending deceit, continual uncertainty, interminable destruction. These are the two hinges of the whole of God’s system, upon which revolves the real, intellectual and moral universe. In the whole universe there are only two entities: one ministering supreme mercy; the other, supreme justice. This divine intention in creating, pre-serving and governing things is visible everywhere; it demonstrates and teaches the nature of the first principle of every government.
147. This is a cosmic law, a law of both the moral and physical world. It is the law that renders indestructible the element of matter, despite all the changes of form that matter undergoes from mechanical and chemical means; it is the law ensuring that one thing is born immediately from the corruption of another while the base never perishes; it is the law that tempers the boldness of mankind, that puts a fixed term to the tempestuous ocean of humanity; it is the law that preserves everything which shares in the universal order, while all attempts at disturbing the order fail; it is the law that confirms the saying of a sublime thinker: `The principles of Christianity are simply the divinised laws of the world.’(47)
Notes
(47) De Maistre, Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, IX Entretien.