Note 119 — Chapter II · THE WITNESS OF MAGIC TO CHRISTIANITY

In his Fundamental Philosophy, James Balmes seeks to shew that the Eucharistic Mystery, understood in the literal sense of transubstantiation, is not absurd in itself, that is to say, is not intrinsically contradictory. To establish that it is, one must demonstrate: (a) that to abstract passive sensibility from matter is to destroy the principle of contradiction; (b) that the correspondences between our sense organs and objects are intrinsically immutable; (c) that it is absolutely necessary for impressions to be transmitted to the sensitive faculties of the soul by those organs and that they can never be transmitted otherwise. See Book III, Extension and Space, c. 33, Triumph of Religion. I make this citation because it seems to me that Éliphas Lévi acted incautiously in debating the observation of Rousseau.