de sa raison
personelle, avant de faire un pas au-dela."[246]

We think it unnecessary to enter into a detailed discussion of this
strange and startling theory, especially as the altered position of the
writer in his relation to the Church before his death may be held to
indicate that to a large extent it had been abandoned by himself. Nor
should we have thought it worthy even of this transient notice, had we
not discerned symptoms of an incipient tendency in a similar direction
among some writers in the Protestant ranks. It should be remembered by
divines of every communion that the rational faculties of man and their
general trustworthiness are necessarily presupposed in any Revelation
which may be addressed to them; and that in Scripture itself frequent
appeals are made to the works of Creation and Providence, as affording
at once a body of natural evidence, and a signal manifestation of His
adorable perfections. It were a vain thing to hope that _faith in God_
may be strengthened by a spirit of _Skepticism_ in regard to Reason,
which constitutes part of His own image on the soul of man.

It is but common justice to add that the speculations of Lamennais, so
far from being sanctioned, were openly censured, by some of the most
distinguished of his fellow-ecclesiastics. Such writers as Valroger,
Gioberti, and the late Archbishop of Paris, gave forth their public
protest against them, and have thereby done much to vindicate their
Church from the imputation of conniving at the progress of Skepticism.

Valroger's testimony is strong and decided: "M. de Lamennais pretendait
que la raison individuelle est incapable de nous donner la Certitude.
Cette pretention est, suivant, nous absurde et funeste. N'est ce pas par
notre raison individuelle que la verite-arrive a nous et devient notre
bien? Quel moyen plus immediat pourrons-nous avoir de saisir la verite?
Quel principe de connaisance ou de Certitude pourrait-on placer entre
nous et notre raison? Et comment pourrions-nous l'employer, si ce ne'est
avec notre raison? N'est ce pas une contradiction flagrante de vouloir
persuader quelque chose a des hommes que l'on a declares incapables de
connaitre certainement quoi que ce soit? A quoi bon une methode, une
autorite infaillible, un enseignement Divin, si nous n'avons que des
facultes trompeuses pour user de ces secours? Nous croyons, nous, que la
raison individuelle peut connaitre avec certitude toutes les verites
necessaires