ranked amongst them, whether practised without or within the Catholic communion; and the deep, thoughtful observation which they indicate, points to the truth of that religion which employs them for the guidance of men. But we must take leave of those whose pretensions are proposed as an objection to the conclusions which have been hitherto drawn from the facts presented on this road. These counterfeit ascetics may hear, for parting salutation, such words as Cadmus addresses to Agar, wishing her the good so difficult for her to obtain, of faring well, χαῖρ ̓, ὦ μελέα θύγατερ, χαλεπῶς δ ̓ εἰς τόδ' ἂν ἥκοις. -Farewell; though it is difficult for you to fare well *. Not always, but often, the homelier and severer lines might be substituted "Trudge, Hipocrisie, trudge; To serve the devill: If thou shouldest lye and lurke, CHAPTER VI. THE ROAD OF NATURAL VIRTUE. HERE cannot virtue dwell? How many still shades hath she found out to live securely in? The objection started on the last road having been removed, let us proceed to observe as another avenue that the Catholic virtues, while thus supernatural in their origin, motives, and effects, are, to the view of us ordinary men, at the same time essentially human, that is to say, suitable to man, appropriate to his condition, subservient to the use which he was evidently intended to make of all his passions and faculties, and that, in fine, they recommend themselves to his natural understanding, to his imagination, and to his heart, as well as to his supernatural judgment, enlightened and directed by Divine faith. Man is naturally Christian," said one of the early fathers. That * Bacch. 1380. VOL. VI. T he is naturally Catholic, is an identical proposition. If you will distinguish, and insist that some parts of this supernatural character result from conscience, and some from external sacred teaching, you will not be able to deny the harmony which exists between them. "The constant loadstone and the steel are found Of earth had nourish'd both. The gentle myrtle Is not engraft upon an olive's stock; Yet nature hath between them lock'd a secret Of sympathy, that, being planted near, They will, both in their branches and their roots, Thus can these slight creatures fortify the reasons that we frame for that agreement which is to be considered here. Shallow persons talk of being content with natural religion, and of rejecting revealed religion; but for uttering such sentences they are simply absurd and ridiculous. "This language," says a great author, "supposes that the religion which they call 'natural,' has not been revealed, and that the religion divinely revealed is not natural, whereas this is wholly false, and the exact contrary is the truth. The former is only what has been originally revealed, and then transmitted; the latter is in man's nature, conformable to his nature, among the exigencies of his nature, though wanting to his nature." The supernatural virtues of Catholicity are presented as forming not an universal opposition, but a supplement to nature; and, in point of fact, it is found that they only develop and perfect nature. We might say that the shade which they cast resembles that underneath the Lombardy and white poplars, which, unlike that of many other trees, is extremely beneficial to vegetation. Natural virtues are most abundant when in greatest proximity to faith, as it is close to lofty stems that the sweet wild flowers grow in the woods. Catholicism recognizes human virtues, and in no way counteracts them. Under the influence of human philosophy, they often fade and wither. As drops from beauteous heaven in the morning It is common, indeed, with some persons, through a certain kind of zeal, to represent all things that are not formally mentioned and approved by revelation as interdicted; but not to observe the impossibility of such utter contradiction as this would imply, we may, on many grounds, conclude that it is otherwise. The mere loves and joys of poor humanity may produce more than our searching witnesseth. "Who of men," asks a poet, 66 can tell that the course of nature would proceed in order if all those dreams and wishes were to cease with the slight actions that they prompt and perpetuate, blessing the world, perhaps, with benefits unknown? Truly," he continues, "I would rather be struck dumb than speak against these common virtues, nourished amidst entanglements with which our souls knit so wingedly, that men, flying from the haunts and customs of ambition, have been content to let occasion die, and cultivate them, adhering humbly to all sweet influences that maintain, by a mysterious power, the order and the happiness of life." Man is neither to be excluded from his supernatural end, nor debarred from attaining to his natural perfection; for the 'rational creature is made to have his natural perfected by supernatural virtue." This is what St. Bonaventura says*. 66 66 In human nature, the variety of characters is such, that it might be compared to the diversity which exists in the vegetable productions of the forest, where there are no two individual things indiscernible. "One of my friends," says Leibnitz, speaking on this subject with me once in presence of the electress in the garden of Herrenhausen, thought that he would find at least two leaves exactly similar. The electress defied him to do so. He searched for a long time, but it was in vain." Now, the supernatural element leaves this diversity still existing. It only sheds a beautiful, harmonious, and transparent colour over it, producing thereby a variety in unity. St. John Climachus speaks of the conformity between nature and grace. "Certes, there are in us," saith he, "many natural virtues. For the Gentiles gave alms, and even dumb animals evince love when deprived of each other. Similarly, we all have faith and hope, as when we navigate and sow the earth; so that, since even charity is in us as a natural virtue, virtues cannot be far from nature. Therefore, let those blush who pretend weakness and inability. Let, then," he continues, querulous person object impossibility with respect to the evangelic precepts, for there are souls which do more than fulfil the precepts; for some love their neighbour more than themselves, which they are not commanded to do, and in proof expose their lives for him +.” no It is as delightful as it will appear strange to many, now to observe thus a father of the desert pointing out common, everyday incidents as examples of heroic charity, while he perambuScal. Par. xxvi. * De Sept. Itin. Æter. lates, as it were, the streets and high-ways, mixing with the plebeian youth that throng them, in order to observe those who are ever ready to risk their lives to save another from mischance. Ægidius Gabrielus treats expressly on the concord between the natural and supernatural morality * ; of which many instances can be produced from the ancient poets, as when we read in the Eumenides, "let each one honour his parents, and respect the right of the guest who asks an asylum at his hearth, καὶ ξενοτίμους For, as we have observed on a former road, even this latter sentiment falls in with the views of men Catholically and ascetically inspired. All that Catholicism purposes in this respect, we are assured, is to supply the needful complement to human virtue; and in requiring the supernatural addition, we find that it prescribes nothing that is not, however elevated and perfected, in agreement, both with the human conscience, and with what the ancient philosophers expressly taught; for Plato says, that "we must associate with each natural virtue an acquired virtue in order to have true virtue;" as if he held that naturally we had only half virtues. "It is a celebrated sentence of philosophy," as St. Thomas of Villanova says, "that species of things are like numbers, since by adding a unit to any number there arises a new species." It is thus with human virtues when the supernatural influence descends through the medium of the Catholic religion,— "Quamvis ad tantas operas, tantumque laborem Supplebit tamen ipsa manus divina, quod infra As Dionysius says, "natural are perfected by supernatural virtues ||." All motions of the mind," says St. Bonaventura, "are created for good, and for our eternal end; but they cannot realize their fruit unless they be supernaturally perfected by supernatural virtues. Thus the flame of natural love must be transferred to better things, that is, to supernatural perfec * Specimen Mor. Christianæ, lxxi. § Alani Mag. Encyclopædia, lib. ii. c. 2. Eumen. 545. || De Ang. Hier. i. tions*." Savonarola, accordingly, addressing God, says, "By Thee my soul was created right; for by nature it loves Thee above itself; and on account of Thee it desires all things. For natural love is right, because it is from Thee, and only depraved by its bad will, which contaminates natural love. Renew, therefore, this spirit and this love by Thy grace, that it may resume its nature +." Conformable, therefore, to Catholicism, is the poet, singing thus beautifully,— "I saw thy pulse's maddening play Wild send thee pleasure's devious way By passion driven; But yet the light that led astray Theologians go so far as to esteem Divine certain graces which are commonly classed only with human virtues. Thus a Franciscan author says, "there is some touch of Divinity in mild and gentle tempers; and God has always been pleased that those who nearest approach to Him should be the most humane. The Holy Ghost has never been seen in the form of an eagle or of a hawk, but of a dove, to stamp in our manners the impressions of his sweetness ." 66 66 66 Rupertus, with all the schoolmen, remarks, that "in the rational creature there is a certain reflection of the Trinity; for in man, as in the angels, we find three things answering to the three Divine Persons, namely,-life, intelligence, and love §." The remains of the Divine image," says Leibnitz, "are the innate light of the understanding, and the freedom inseparable from will,”-two things, we may remark by the way, which Protestantism denies. The innate light," continues Leibnitz, who admits, however, the necessity of revelation from the first, can be proved against certain modern writers, both by the Scripture, which says that the law of God is written in our hearts, and also by reason on this foundation, that necessary truths can be demonstrated by principles innate in the mind, and not by the induction of the senses." Then, in another place, speaking of the principles of nature and grace, he says, we might discover the beauty of the universe in each soul, if one could unfold all its pleats, which are only developed sensibly with time; but as each distinct perception of the soul comprehends an infinity of confused perceptions which envelope all the universe, the soul itself only knows the things of which it has a perception, as far as it has De Sept. Itin. Æter. 66 + Med. in Ps. Mis. |