PREFACE
We do not customarily refer to current events in our works, for what we have constantly in view are principles that, because they stand outside of time, can be said to possess as it were a permanent actuality. Even if we leave the domain of pure metaphysics to consider certain applications, we always do so in such a manner that these applications retain an altogether general scope. We shall proceed here in the same manner, though it must be admitted that the considerations to be developed in this study have an added interest at the present time due to recent discussions about the relationship between religion and politics - a question that is only one particular form, under certain determinate conditions, of the relationship between the spiritual and the temporal. But it would be a mistake to believe that these considerations have been inspired by the incidents we have alluded to, or that we intend to deal with them directly, for this would amount to according an exaggerated importance to purely episodic matters that could never influence conceptions that are in reality of a completely different order in their nature and origin.
Since we always try our best to anticipate all foreseeable misunderstandings, we are intent on dispelling as clearly and explicitly as possible the false interpretations that some might attach to our thought through political or religious passion, preconceived ideas, or even simple incomprehension of our point of view. Whether or not the present events calling attention to this question of the spiritual and the temporal had taken place, we would still have said all that we are going to say here, and exactly in the same way, for the present circumstances have merely shown more clearly than ever that it is necessary and timely to say it. This occasion might be said to have led us to expound certain truths here rather than many others we mean to explain, time permitting, but which do not seem to be so immediately pressing. As far as we are concerned, this is the entire role of these events.
In current discussions, the most striking thing is that nobody, on either side, seems concerned to place these questions on their true ground or to distinguish in a precise way between the essential and the accidental, between necessary principles and contingent circumstances. To tell the truth, this is no surprise to us, for we see in it only a fresh example, among many others, of the confusion reigning today in all domains, and that we consider to be eminently characteristic of the modern world for reasons already explained in our previous works.[1] We cannot however refrain from deploring the fact that even the representatives of an authentic spiritual authority are affected by this confusion. They seem to lose sight of their real strength: the transcendence of that doctrine in the name of which they are qualified to speak. In the first place it is necessary to distinguish between the question of principle and the question of opportuneness: with respect to the first there is nothing to discuss, since these matters belong to a domain that cannot be subject to essentially 'profane' discussion; as for the second question, which is moreover only of a political and so to speak diplomatic order, it is quite subordinate and should not strictly speaking even weigh against the question of principle. It would have been better not even to offer the adversary the possibility of raising it, since it concerns mere appearances. For our part, we shall add that this second question has no interest for us.
We intend to remain exclusively in the domain of principles, which allows us to remain aloof from all those discussions, polemics, and quarrels of school or party in which we have no wish to be involved, directly or indirectly, in any way or to any degree. Being absolutely independent of anything that is not pure and impartial truth, and intent on remaining so, we propose simply to state things as they are, without the least concern of pleasing or displeasing anybody. We expect nothing of anyone, not even that those who might profit from the ideas we express will be grateful to us in any waysomething that is in any case of very little concern to us. And we give notice again that we are not disposed to let ourselves be confined to any of the usual frameworks, and that it would be perfectly vain to try to label us in any way, for among all the labels current in
the Western world there is none that really fits. Quite recently certain insinuations (coming moreover simultaneously from quite different sides) have shown us once again how important it is to restate our position so that sincere people might know what to believe and not be induced to attribute to us intentions incompatible with our true attitude and our purely doctrinal point of view.
It is owing to the nature of this point of view, which is free from all contingencies, that we can consider current events in a totally impartial manner, as though these events belonged to a distant past, such as those to which we shall be referring when quoting historical examples to throw light on our exposition. As we have said from the start, it should be clearly understood that we assign to this study a quite general scope that goes beyond all particular forms assumed by temporal power - and even by spiritual authority - according to time and place; in particular, we must make the point without further delay that for us spiritual authority does not necessarily have a religious form, contrary to what is commonly imagined in the West. We leave everyone free to draw from these considerations whatever application may be deemed suitable for particular cases, which we purposely refrain from directly taking into consideration. To be legitimate and valid it is enough that this application be made in a spirit conforming to the principles on which everything depends, a spirit that we call traditional in the true sense of this word, and of which, unfortunately, all specifically modern tendencies are the antithesis or negation.
It is precisely with one of the aspects of the modern deviation that we shall be dealing here, and in this respect the present study will complete what we have already explained in the works just alluded to. Moreover, in connection with this question of the relationship between the spiritual and the temporal, it will be seen that the errors which have developed over the last centuries are far from being new. But at least their previous manifestations had only rather limited effects, whereas today these same mistakes have become as it were inherent to the common mentality, forming part of a state of mind that is becoming more and more widespread. This is what is especially serious and disquieting, and unless a rectification is brought about very soon, it is foreseeable that the modern world will be driven to some catastrophe, toward which it seems to be
moving with ever-increasing speed. Having elsewhere given the justifications for this assertion, [2] we will not dwell any longer on it, only adding that if in the present circumstances there is still any hope of salvation for the Western world it seems that such hope must rely at least partly on the maintenance of the sole traditional authority that still remains. But then this authority must become fully conscious of itself in order to be able to furnish an effective basis for efforts that otherwise run the risk of remaining scattered and uncoordinated. This at least is one of the most immediate means to be considered for a restoration of the traditional spirit, though there doubtless are other means should this one fail. But since this restoration, the sole remedy for the present disorder, is the essential goal that we have unceasingly in view (as soon as we leave the field of pure metaphysics in order to consider contingencies), it is easy to understand why we do not neglect any of the possibilities that may arise for attaining this goal, even if these possibilities seem to have little chance of realization at the moment. This, and this alone, is our true intention; any others that might be attributed to us are wholly non-existent. If some wish to contend that the following reflections have been inspired by external influences of whatever kind, we respond in advance and deny it categorically.
It is our experience that the precautions set forth above are not unnecessary, but, having stated them clearly, we think we can dispense with any direct reference to current events in what follows in order to render the strictly doctrinal character-which we wish to preserve in all our works-even more evident and incontestable. Political and religious passions will doubtless find no profit here, but this will only please us, for we have no desire to furnish new fuel for vain and petty discussions. On the contrary, our aim is to recall the principles of which the oversight is, after all, the sole cause of all these discussions. We repeat that our very independence allows us to make this explanation impartially and without concessions or compromises of any kind. At the same time, any other role is forbidden us, for we preserve this independence only on condition that we always remain in the purely intellectual domain, which is that of
immutable and essential principles from which everything else more or less directly derives, and with which the rectification mentioned above must inevitably begin. In the absence of a link to the principles one can only obtain results that are wholly external, unstable, and illusory. In truth, this is but one form of the affirmation of the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal that precisely constitutes the subject of this study.