ts in recognizing the importance of social
institutions, in cherishing ideas of progress and hopes of reform, I
trust that we are all socialists. Do we desire progress by the ever
wider diffusion of justice and love? From the moment that, across the
conscience whereon divine rays are falling, we have descried the eternal
centre of light, we understand that God is the most implacable enemy of
abuses. How is it then that atheism sometimes manifests itself in
attempts at social reform? We may explain it, without so much as
pointing out the influence, but too real, of the faults committed by the
representatives of religion. Faith is a principle of action; it is, as
history testifies, the grand source of the progress of human society;
but faith is also a principle of patience. The brow of every believer is
more or less illumined by the rays of His peace who is patient because
He is eternal. Eager to effect good to the utmost extent of his ability,
he accomplishes his work with that calm activity to which are reserved
durable victories. In the impossible (for if the word impossible is not
French, it is human) the believer recognizes one of the manifestations
of the supreme Will, and immortal hope enables him to support the evils
which he does not succeed in destroying. But this is not enough for
impatient reformers. Ignorant of the profound sources of evil, they
think that institutions can do everything, and that a change of laws
would suffice to reform men's hearts; they believe that the organization
of society alone hinders the realization of good and of happiness. The
resignation of believers appears to them a stupid lethargy, and in their
patient expectation of a judgment to come they see only an obstacle to
the immediate triumph of justice on the earth. What if the nations were
persuaded that there is nothing to be looked for beyond the present
life, so that all that is to be done is to make to ourselves a paradise
as soon as may be here below! If they were persuaded that all appeal to
the Judge in heaven is a chimerical hope, with what ardor would they
throw themselves into schemes of revolution! Thus it is that certain
political innovators are led to seek in the negation of God one of their
means of action.

Two views, therefore, essentially diverse, govern the labors of the
renovators of society. The one class desire to realize, in an ever
larger measure, justice and love; religious convictions are the
strongest suppo