cles of
faith; but we deplore the grievous error into which he has been seduced
by his zeal for the authority of the Church, when he attempts to
undermine the foundations of all belief in the trustworthiness of the
human faculties. In opposition to the claims of private judgment, he
contends for the necessity of a Reason more elevated and more general as
the only ground of Certitude, the supreme rule and standard of belief.
This normal Reason he finds in the doctrine and decrees of an Infallible
Church, wherever the Church is known; but where the Church is yet
unknown, or while it was yet non-existent in its present organized form,
he seeks this more general Reason in the common sense or unanimous
consent of the race at large, and affirms that this is the sole ground
of Certitude, and the ultimate standard of appeal in every question
respecting the truth or falsity of our individual opinions.[243] He
holds that the authority both of the Church and of the Race is
_infallible_; and that its infallibility neither requires nor admits of
proof.[244] With the view of establishing this one and exclusive
criterion of Certitude, he assails the evidence of sense, the evidence
of consciousness, the evidence of memory, the evidence even of axiomatic
truths and first principles, and involves everything except
ecclesiastical authority or general reason in the same abyss of
Skepticism.[245] He ventures even to affirm that "Geometry itself, the
most exact of all the Sciences, rests, like every other, on common
consent!" No wonder, then, that he should also found exclusively on
_authority_ our belief in the existence and government of God.

An intelligent member of his own communion propounds a very different,
and much more reasonable, opinion: "Il n'y a pas d'autorite morale qui
n'ait besoin de se prouver ellememe, d'une maniere quelconque, et
d'etablir sa legitimite. En definitive, c'est a l'individu qu'elle
s'addresse, car on ne croit pas par masse, on croit chacun pour soi.
L'individu reste donc toujours juge, et juge inevitable de l'autorite
intellectuelle qu'il accepte, ou de celle qui s'offre a lui. Nous
n'avons pas a examiner si cette disposition constitutive de l'esprit
humain est bonne ou mauvaise; la seule question que l'on en fait est
vaine et sterile. Nous sommes necessairement amenes par l'observation
physchologique a constater qu'il faut que l'homme croie a la fidelite du
temoignage de ses sens individuels, et a la valeur