Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/325

the copies must bear the same relation to each other as their models do. The presence of the Divinity produces sanctity, and the sanctity of the most eminent incites the less advanced to a virtuous life, and to others still lower in the scale, it is at least productive of good sense. Such is the cause that explains this phenomenon, proved by experience, that all truly Catholic nations possess what infidel nations have never had, good sense; that is to say, that sound judgment which sees each thing at a single glance as it is in itself, and in the order which is suitable to it. This ought not to cause surprise if we consider that Catholicism is the order absolute, the infinite truth and perfection. So in it and through it alone are things beheld in their inmost essences, in the rank which they occupy, and with the degree of importance which belongs to them in the wonderful order according to which they are disposed.

Without Catholicism there can be neither good sense among the lower ranks, nor virtue among the middle classes, nor sanctity among the eminent; because the existence on earth of good sense, virtue, and sanctity, all suppose the existence of a God made man whose mission was to teach holiness to heroic souls, virtue to the courageous, and to rectify the judgment of the erring multitudes who wander in darkness and in the shadow of death. This divine master is the universal regulator, the center of all things; and this is why, wherever we look, or under whatever aspect we regard things, we always behold him as the center. Considered as both God and man, he is that central point in which are joined in one the creating essence and created substances. Considered simply as God, the Son of God, he is the