denying the reality of evil; if God is the sovereign good, and if there
is no other principle of things than He; evil cannot be accounted for
otherwise than by the rebellion of the creature. But now, Rousseau's
answer, excellent in itself and in the abstract, becomes profoundly
inadequate, as the citizen of Geneva goes on to develop his theory. Evil
comes from the creature; but each individual is not the exclusive source
of the evils which he does and suffers. To attribute to each individual,
not only the responsibility of his acts, but the origin of the evil
germs which exist in his soul, is the untenable proposition of a
desperate individualism. There is evidently among men a common property
in evil; Rousseau sees it clearly enough, but he makes vain efforts to
find in the organization of society and in the condition of civilization
the causes of pain and of sin. When one has come to see clearly that the
source of evil is in the creature, the close mutual connection of
created wills and their relations with nature present a field for long
and difficult study; and Rousseau has no sooner discerned the road to
truth than he wanders away into byroads in which the solution of the
problem escapes him. This problem, Gentlemen, I have the intention and
desire of studying some day, if God permit, with those of you who may be
willing to undertake it with me. We shall then have to deal with an
objection, or rather with a difficulty. But this difficulty, which we
cannot now dispose of, must not hinder us from stating our thesis. In
every well-conducted study, the propositions to be maintained must be
laid down and supported before dealing with objections. If it were
maintained that evil is the principle of things, it would be necessary
first of all to endeavor to establish the thesis, in which the existence
of good would be brought forward, and would constitute the objection.
The objection would have to be answered--Why has good appeared in the
world? And I would just say in passing, that our libraries are full of
treatises upon the origin of evil, and I have never met with one upon