tire life of M. Lamennais is conclusive proof of
his anti-philosophical genius. Devout even to mysticism, an ardent
ultramontane, an intolerant theocrat, he at first feels the double
influence of the religious reaction and the literary theories which
marked the beginning of this century, and falls back to the middle ages
and Gregory VII.; then, suddenly becoming a progressive Christian and a
democrat, he gradually leans towards rationalism, and finally falls into
deism. At present, everybody waits at the trap-door. As for me, though I
would not swear to it, I am inclined to think that M. Lamennais, already
taken with scepticism, will die in a state of indifference. He owes
to individual reason and methodical doubt this expiation of his early
essays.

It has been pretended that M. Lamennais, preaching now a theocracy, now
universal democracy, has been always consistent; that, under different
names, he has sought invariably one and the same thing,--unity. Pitiful
excuse for an author surprised in the very act of contradiction! What
would be thought of a man who, by turns a servant of despotism under
Louis XVI, a demagogue with Robespierre, a courtier of the Emperor,
a bigot during fifteen years of the Restoration, a conservative
since 1830, should dare to say that he ever had wished for but one
thing,--public order? Would he be regarded as any the less a renegade
from all parties? Public order, unity, the world's welfare, social
harmony, the union of the nations,--concerning each of these things
there is no possible difference of opinion. Everybody wishes them;
the character of the publicist depends only upon the means by which
he proposes to arrive at them. But why look to M. Lamennais for a
steadfastness of opinion, which he himself repudiates? Has he not said,
"The mind has no law; that which I believe to-day, I did not believe
yesterday; I do not know that I shall believe it to-morrow"?

No; there is no real superiority among men, since all talents and
capacities are combined never in one individual. This man has the power
of thought, that one imagination and style, still another industrial and
commercial capacity. By our very nature and education, we possess only
special aptitudes which are limited and confined, and which become
consequently more necessary as they gain in depth and strength.
Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare
to classify them in ranks? The finest genius is, by the