Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/109

There was granted to the angel a brief and solemn moment, in which he might choose between good and evil; and it was then that the angelical hosts divided. A portion of them inclined before the divine will, while the others tumultuously declared themselves rebels. This sudden and supreme resolution was followed by as great and sudden a fall. The rebellious angels were condemned, while the faithful were confirmed in grace.

Man, not being a pure spirit like the angel, was weaker in understanding and will, and consequently received a more feeble and imperfect liberty; and this imperfection was to last during life. Herein we see the unspeakable excellence of the divine designs. God saw, before the beginning of things, the beauty and fitness of hierarchies, and therefore established them between free and intelligent existences. On the other hand he saw, from eternity, the beauty and fitness of a certain manner of equality among all his creatures, and therefore the sovereign artificer so adjusted all things as to unite this beauty of equality to the beauty of the hierarchy. In order to form this hierarchy, God made the existences he had created unequal in their faculties; and, in order to fulfill the law of equality, he required more of those to whom he gave more, and less of those to whom he gave less: and in such a manner, that those who had received the most were more strictly called to an account, and those who had received the fewest gifts were held the least accountable. Because the natural excellence of the angel was so great, his fall was without hope or remedy, his punishment instantaneous, and his condemnation eternal. Because the natural goodness of man was less, when he fell he was raised again, and his prevarication was not without a remedy; therefore the