Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/323

tues has been raised. Those nations who do not confess the Saviour crucified have had their heroes, but the great Catholic society has its saints; and with all due regard as to the proportional difference between them, and all exceptions granted as to the propriety of such a comparison, we consider that the heroes of paganism are to the saints of Catholicism, what the various personifications of the people are to the absolute personification of humanity in the person of God made man for the love of men. Between these various personifications and this absolute personification there is an infinite distance, while between heroes and saints there is an incommensurable distance. It is natural that the first being infinite, the second should be incommensurable.

The heroes of paganism were men who, stimulated by a worldly passion carried to its utmost limit, performed extraordinary works. The saints of Catholicism are men who, having renounced all carnal passions, bear up with unshaken courage, without any mortal aid, against the impetuous torrent of human afflictions. The heroes, concentrating all their strength up to a feverish excitement, overcame all those who opposed them. The saints always commenced by an abnegation of their own strength, and thus unarmed and denuded they conquered themselves and all the powers of earth and hell. The heroes, desired to acquire glory and renown among men; the saints considered the vain applause of mankind as of no value, and, regardless of their name and glory, and despising the exercise of their own will, they forsook all things and placed themselves in the hands of God, convinced that the greatest honor to which man can aspire, is to be counted among the serv-