Review of Dr. StÖckl's Philosophy [pp. 329-341]

Review of Dr. Stockls Philosophy.
the impress of an image of his intelligence upon our souls; and that we
are enlightened by "that light which
enlighteneth every man coming into
this world" by receiving the power
to know God as manifested in his
works. We are certainly a " little
lower than the angels," who have no
natural vision of God in his essence,
and how are we essentially inferior to
them, except in the necessity of beginning the process of intellectual
cognition from the apprehension of
sensible objects? It still remains
true that God is both the author and
the object of knowledge even in the
natural order, and that we naturally
tend to the contemplation of his being and perfections. But this process carried on for eternity could
never bring us to a point where we
could obtain the faintest glimpse of
an intuitive vision of the divine essence. The capacity to attain to
this vision is wholly gratuitous and
supernatural, a gift of grace, an elevation of our nature above itself, and
above the angelic nature to a similitude with the divine nature. The
actual vision is reserved for the state
of glory in which the blessed see
God in himself and all things in God.
The scholastic philosophy is therefore in conformity with Catholic
theology, and a proper preparation
for studying and understanding this
sublime science. Every other system is either in discord with it, or
deficient in the perfect logical concord which ought to make the inferior harmonize completely with the
superior science.
The revival of scholastic philosopliy, and the general consent with
which, in all parts of the world,
those who lead in the great work of
Catholic education and instruction are
uniting together in promoting its study and exposition, are a most hopeful sign for the coming age. It is
especially encouraging to witness this
revival in Germany; and to see the
powerful and heavily panoplied
champions of orthodox theology and
sound philosophy coming forth from
the German schools, to meet and
overthrow the boastful giants of that
land of colossal intelligence and
learning; who defy the armies of the
living God and aim at an imperial
domination over the world of science,
as its statesmen and warriors do
over the political world. They are
but giants of condensed cloud, like
the genii of Arabian fable who escaped from the bottles of King Solomon. The wisdom of Solomon subdued these genii, and it is the true wisdom, sapientia, which must subdue the
cloudy giants of critical, historical,
and philosophical sophistry; the Bruno Bauers, Strausses, D611llingers,
Kants, Hegels, and Bfichners, who
make war on the old Bible, the old
church, the old religion, the old
philosophy, the old God of Germany and Christendom. A nephew of
Hegel and pupil of Feuerbach asked
the latter what was fo be done next,
since the Kantian philosophy had
ended in the complete dissolution of
all science. The reply was, that we
must return to common sense. The
pupil followed the advice by returning to the old God and the old religion. To bring back the next generation to this old religion, and to
educate in it the youth who have received it by their baptism in the
church, is the great task of Catholic
teachers. This can be done only by
the aid of the old philosophy. The
attempts made everywhere, but especially in Germany, to do this by a
new philosophy and a new theology
are all failures, and end only in betraying the whole cause of the church
to the enemy. Those Catholic scholars of Germany who are sound and
strong alike in their faith and in their
340