Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/228

plained had Rome permitted Cesar to die like other men. His glory was so great that he merited the crown of a great misfortune. Scarcely is it permitted to Cromwell to expire tranquilly on his bed, invested with the sovereign power. Napoleon was to have a different death; he was to die after being vanquished at Waterloo. Proscribed by Europe, he was to fill a grave destined by God, from the beginning of time, to receive him. A wide chasm must separate him from the rest of the world; one so vast and profound that in it the ocean falls.

Suffering establishes a kind of equality among those who suffer, which makes all men in a manner equal, since all are called upon to suffer. Prosperity separates us; misfortune unites us in a fraternal bond. Suffering rids us of that which we have to excess, and gives us that which we needed, so that it places man in a perfect equilibrium. The haughty do not suffer without a diminution of their pride; nor the ambitious without moderating their ambition; nor the choleric without becoming less inclined to anger; nor the luxurious without being less given to the gratification of their appetites. Pain as a sovereign power to appease the violence of the passions, and, while it takes from us what is debasing, at the same time it imparts to us what is ennobling. The cruel never suffer without being more inclined to compassion; nor the haughty without becoming more humble; nor the voluptuous without growing more chaste. The violent are subdued, the weak are strengthened. It is not in vain that we pass through this great furnace of pain. The greater number come out of this sharp ordeal with exalted virtues, which they never before possessed. The impious are converted to religion,