Whatever its
present envelope may be, the old Gospel still serves as the best
auxiliary of the social instinct.
Among its three contemporary forms, that which groups together the
most men, about 180 millions of believers, is Catholicism, in other
words, Roman Christianity, which two words, comprising a definition,
contain a history. At the origin, on the birth of the Christian
principle, it expressed itself at first in Hebrew, the language of
prophets and of seers; afterwards, and very soon, in Greek, the
language of the dialecticians and philosophers; at last, and very
late, in Latin, the language of the jurisconsults and statesmen; then
come the successive stages of dogma. All the evangelical and
apostolic texts, written in Greek, all the metaphysical
speculations,23 also in Greek, which served as commentary on these,
reached the western Latins only through translations. Now, in
metaphysics, Latin poorly translates the Greek[24]; it lacks both the
terms and the ideas; what the Orient says, the Occident only half
comprehends; it accepts this without dispute and confidently holds it
as truth.
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