Why? Because man will never be persuaded to content himself with the
earth, and with what the earth can give him: his nature absolutely
forbids it. When we compare the reality with the desires of our souls,
we can all say with the aged patriarch Jacob: "Few and evil have been
the days of my pilgrimage;"[93] we can all say with Lamartine:


Though all the good desired of man
In one sole heart should overflow,
Death, bounding still his mortal span,
Would turn the cup of joy to woe.[94]


And it is not the heart only which is concerned here; without God man
remains inexplicable to his own reason. The spiritual creature of the
Almighty, free by the act of creation, and capable of falling into
slavery by rebellion,--he understands his nature and his destiny; but it
is in vain that the apostles of matter and the worshippers of humanity
harangue him in turn to explain to him his own existence. Man is too
great to be the child of the dust; man is too miserable to be the divine
summit of the universe. "If he exalts himself, I abase him; if he abases
himself, I exalt him; and I contradict him continually, until he
understands at last that he is an incomprehensible monster."[95]

"The proper study of mankind is man;" and man remains an enigma for man,
if he do not rise to God. So it is that our very nature is a living
protest against atheism, and never allows its triumphs to be either
general, or of long duration. A solid limit is thus set to our
wanderings; and, to the errors of the understanding, as to the tides of
the ocean, the Master of things has said, "Ye shall go no further."