cience, perverted the
thought of Aristotle. Aristotle, if he had been present in the debates
of the schools, would have repudiated this narrow doctrine; he would
have been of the party of progressive science against the routine
which shielded itself under his authority; he would have applauded his
opponents. In the same way, if Jesus were to return among us, he would
recognize as disciples, not those who pretend to enclose him entirely
in a few catechismal phrases, but those who labor to carry on his
work. The eternal glory, in all great things, is to have laid the
first stone. It may be that in the "Physics," and in the "Meteorology"
of modern times, we may not discover a word of the treatises of
Aristotle which bear these titles; but Aristotle remains no less the
founder of natural science. Whatever may be the transformations of
dogma, Jesus will ever be the creator of the pure spirit of religion;
the Sermon on the Mount will never be surpassed. Whatever revolution
takes place will not prevent us attaching ourselves in religion to
the grand intellectual and moral line at the head of which shines the
name of Jesus. In this sense we are Christians, even when we separate
ourselves on almost all points from the Christian tradition which has
preceded us.

And this great foundation was indeed the personal work of Jesus. In
order to make himself adored to this degree, he must have been
adorable. Love is not enkindled except by an object worthy of it, and
we should know nothing of Jesus, if it were not for the passion he
inspired in those about him, which compels us still to affirm that he
was great and pure. The faith, the enthusiasm, the constancy of the
first Christian generation is not explicable, except by supposing at
the origin of the whole movement, a man of surpassing greatness. At
the sight of the marvellous creations of the ages of faith, two
impressions equally fatal to good historical criticism arise in the
mind. On the one hand we are led to think these creations too
impersonal; we attribute to a collective action, that which has often
been the work of one powerful will, and of one superior mind. On the
other hand, we refuse to see men like ourselves in the authors of
those extraordinary movements which have decided the fate of humanity.
Let us have a larger idea of the powers which Nature conceals in her
bosom. Our civilizations, governed by minute restrictions, cannot give
us any idea of the power of man at p