Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Praise of Wisdom from the Parallels of Natural and Divine Ethics
That supreme Maker of all things, from the very cradle of the macrocosm, immediately associated with each created nature its own rule, norm, and law, by which each thing, enclosed within its own boundaries, would most constantly contain itself, would be driven by its own proper motions in a perpetual series, and would discharge the other duties proper to it in a fixed and enduring manner; namely, so that this whole archetype, from wherever it was expressed by its Author, though only by a faint imitation and a slight trace, might nonetheless reflect it, and this beautiful cosmos might be a mirror for us in which we may to some extent behold the beauty of that eternal and uncreated world, or at least estimate it by the skillful investigation of the mind through conjecture. For just as from the very beginnings of this world, and from the effort made out of nothing, we measure the omnipotent power and energy of that Being; from the manifold, indeed discordant and variegated concord of created things, His beneficent abyss; from that ample embrace of all other things, both spirits and bodies, His eternity and immensity, and in a certain way perceive them through a shadow: so from the weight, number, and measure of those same things, we may marvel at and look up to the most wise providence of that great Architect, and the numerous and wonderfully harmonious arrangement of every single thing within it, which from the very beginning bound each part of this universe in utterly steadfast ways both to itself and most amicably to every other corresponding part, and which preserves and guards this friendly bond by the continual influence of its flow: whence it comes about that either the first or the chief ornament of the universe, and the glory of the cosmos, the very law and norm of wisdom rightly claims, defines, and circumscribes for itself. That same Maker, the origin of a better world, implanted in the microcosm — I mean man, who is indeed inferior to the universe in bulk, but far superior in nature and reason — from his very infancy a similar law by fitting accommodation, that noble, divine law expressed from those eternal and living ideas in God Himself; which therefore excels all others as much as this rational animal, to which it properly belongs, surpasses and excels all other corporeal beings: whence it comes about that among all the treasures of nature, this necklace of wise order and law is to man the greatest ornament and likewise the greatest advantage. For to man, who is a rational animal, nothing is so worthy as to follow right reason everywhere as a torch given him by God, a guide of his way and life, to form his morals by its law, to cultivate honorable actions, to harm no one, to render to God the worship He is owed; in short, to live well and happily.
"The light of Your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord," sings the Psalmist in Psalm IV. Moreover, since these are the teachings of Ethics, anyone who had sound judgment from a sound nature would very easily deem Ethics to be coeval with human nature, its moderator and nurturer, and to be chosen as chief among the sciences.
But because, through the working of him who cast the first man down from the first summit of integrity, life, and wisdom — that is, the Satanic spirit — mortals, following the seeds of a vitiated nature, more and more of their own accord decline from the right path of living, and wound themselves more grievously day by day; since the nature wounded by the sin of our First Parent they themselves, by adding new wounds daily, utterly blunt, wound further, and overwhelm (so dearly is forbidden desire punished): it has come about that this knowledge of wisdom lies darkened, dimmed by the mists of error, dormant in many respects, and is more constricted day by day, since the appetite of desire ever stretches a greater and greater veil before reason, and it is the just vengeance of the offended Deity that penal blindnesses are scattered over illicit desires; whence it comes about that the knowledge of wisdom and of its law and dictates is now more necessary than before; and yet to us, like owls blinking at the broad light of the sun, it appears less.
Wherefore God, the best and greatest, taking pity on the falls and errors of mankind, sent wisdom from on high — Ethics, I say, both natural and sacred and divine — and its teachers and masters, who would show men the true path of His law and virtue, and by that straight path lead them as if by the hand to happiness and a blessed life in heaven. Therefore the dignity of this wisdom is divine, and its usefulness is equal to its necessity. To demonstrate this more fully and clearly, I shall add a sixfold praise of wisdom, drawn from a sevenfold parallel of profane and sacred wisdom, or Ethics. For if the profane Ethics of the philosophers was of such splendor and advantage to the world, how much greater will be the sacred and divine Ethics of the sacred writers Solomon and Sirach, who surpassed all philosophers by as great an interval as Angels surpass men, men surpass boys, faith surpasses reason, grace surpasses nature, heaven surpasses earth, heavenly virtue surpasses earthly, and divine things surpass and transcend human things!
First Praise: From the Origin of Wisdom
The first praise of wisdom, or Ethics, therefore, is from its origin. The origin of natural Ethics is nature, namely God, inasmuch as He Himself, as the saying goes, is as fortune making fortune, so also nature making nature, that is, the author and founder of nature. Plato in the Protagoras teaches that those arts which serve human uses, so that we may protect this life in health and safety, were discovered by the shrewd industry of men; but those which lead mortals as if by the hand to living well and happily have a higher origin than human, and were born from the gods rather than from men. Following this opinion, Cicero in his book On the Orator, defining philosophy as the parent of all good things, and the medicine and cultivation of the soul, calls it the mother of arts and the invention of the gods: because indeed it is the best teacher of both public and private life, without which no one understands right reason and no one attains happiness; and therefore God wisely provided for man with this admirable gift of wisdom. Therefore everyone ought, as far as business permits, to philosophize in cultivating this gift, and to consider this the chief function of life. Thus Plato on wisdom and natural Ethics.
But the origin of supernatural and divine wisdom, or Ethics, is God, inasmuch as He Himself is the author of grace, virtue, glory, and all other supernatural and divine goods. At the very beginning of his work our Sirach openly proclaims this: "All wisdom," he says, "is from the Lord God, and has been with Him always, and exists before all ages." The same is proclaimed by the first teacher and writer of sacred Ethics, St. Job XXVIII, 12: "Wisdom," he says, "where is it found? And what is the place of understanding? Man does not know its price, nor is it found in the land of those who live in pleasure. The abyss says: It is not in me; and the sea says: It is not with me. Gold shall not be compared to it, nor the topaz, etc. God understands its way, and He Himself knows its place. And He said to man: Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." And Baruch elegantly and movingly in chapter III, 14: "Learn," he says, "where prudence is, where virtue is, where understanding is, so that you may know at the same time where length of life and sustenance are, where the light of the eyes is, and peace. Who has found its place? And who has entered into its treasures? Where are the princes of the nations, and those who rule over the beasts? Who play among the birds of heaven, who treasure up silver and gold, and there is no end to their acquiring? They have been destroyed and have gone down to the underworld, and others have risen in their place. But they did not know the way of discipline. It was not heard in the land of Canaan, nor was it seen in Teman, etc. Who has ascended into heaven and taken it, and brought it down from the clouds? Who has crossed the sea and found it? There is no one who can know its ways; but He who knows all things knows it, and has discovered it by His prudence; He who prepared the earth for all time: who sends forth the light, and it goes; and He called it, and it obeyed Him with trembling. And the stars gave their light in their watches and rejoiced; they were called, and they said: We are here, and they shone for Him with gladness, He who made them. This is our God, and no other shall be esteemed beside Him. He found out every way of discipline, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. After this He was seen on earth and conversed with men;" when, that is, God made man assumed a human mouth, so that He might teach men this wisdom brought from heaven and utter forth things hidden from the foundation of the world. Wherefore Wisdom, as the first and chief daughter of God, thus praises herself in Sirach XXIV: "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, firstborn before every creature. I caused an unfailing light to rise in the heavens, and like a mist I covered all the earth. I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud." And Proverbs VIII, 22: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. From eternity I was ordained, and from of old, before the earth was made," etc.
Second Praise: From the Use and Fruit of Wisdom
The second praise of wisdom, or Ethics, is derived from its use, advantages, and fruit: for natural ethics forms, composes, rules, and directs all natural actions, both the private actions of each individual through personal Ethics, and common actions, whether of the household and family through economics, or of the entire kingdom or republic for its proper governance through politics. Well-known is that saying of Neoptolemus in Ennius: "Philosophers ought to be rulers" — perceiving this early on, the Emperor Marcus Antoninus so loved it that, having learned political science, the most worthy part of Ethics, from his teacher Lucius Volusianus, and still devoting himself carefully to it as Emperor, he gloried in the title of Philosopher. Not long after Antoninus, the world-monarch Severus followed, who received the same philosophy from Serbidius Scaevola. After him, Alexander learned it thoroughly, since his tutor and teacher was Ulpian, most learned in Ethics and law. Finally, the great Trajan, than whom no Augustus is celebrated as better, most learned in divine and human law beyond the Emperors of his age, both a founder of new law and a guardian of the old, says Victor, chose as his successor Neratius the Jurisconsult, most skilled in the whole of moral discipline. Indeed, the Emperor in the Code, where he confirms the oracles of the laws, designates himself a Philosopher.
Moreover, we know that the name of Philosopher has by common usage been given to many disciplines; but formerly it was proper to the moral philosopher alone: for the rest were called not Philosophers, but Sophists; Aristotle used this expression from time to time: "In Philosophy," he says, "we have said this," meaning Ethics. But who would think that Plato, whom Cicero follows in the Tusculan Questions, encompassed something other than this in his description by which he establishes and defines Philosophy as the meditation of death, the knowledge of divine and human things, and the likeness of God; or Seneca, when he says that Philosophy shapes life, governs actions, and instructs morals? That the kings of Persia cultivated this is proved by the fact that no one among them was chosen as king who had not first carefully mastered the precepts and discipline of the Magi — whence it came about that the kings themselves were and were called Magi, and had Magi at their side at home and abroad as counselors and brought them everywhere. Moreover, the Magi are the same as those whom we call Wise Men or Philosophers, having received their name from the Hebrew word haga, and being celebrated in Isaiah in the Hebrew text: for haga in Hebrew signifies to meditate, to investigate, to contemplate, and is especially attributed to moral matters. Hence it is repeatedly found in Scripture: "The mouth of the just man shall meditate wisdom; on His law he shall meditate day and night," etc.
Wherefore, in Xenophon, Socrates asserts that the spirit is generous and heroic which holds dear the disciplines of Ethics and politics, to which Cyrus also subscribes: indeed he judges that rule befits no one who is not better than those he rules; and who will be better, if he has not learned from Ethics what is better and more honorable? Imbued with this at last among the Greeks, the chief lawgivers and legislators — Draco, Lycurgus, Solon — established, preserved, and propagated their commonwealths. To this toiled among the Romans Numa Pompilius, the Cassii, the Scaevolae, the Scipios, the Catos, and indeed the Pontiffs, Flamens, Censors, Dictators, Generals, and every magistrate, when they both earned that splendor of empire and those eagles ruling far and wide from east to west by moral discipline, as St. Augustine attests, and indeed propagated it everywhere by this very discipline rather than by arms. What, I ask, extended Roman laws more than the frugality, justice, temperance, and fidelity in words and deeds of those ancients? What indeed won them greater veneration, majesty, and authority among all? What greater glory for an empire than for its fasces, feared by the world, to shine with equity, chastity, piety toward fatherland, citizens, and friends? Whoever thinks otherwise, and that glory was won more by war than by virtue, let him hear the father of Roman history, Titus Livy, investigating the causes of the empire's rise and decline at the very threshold of his work: "Let each one," he says, "keenly direct his attention to these things: what the life and morals were, through what men and by what arts at home and in war the empire was both won and increased; then as discipline gradually slipped, let him follow in his mind the decline of morals as if falling; then how they slipped more and more, and then began to plunge headlong." Come now, measure by the same compass the dignity of moral discipline and the limits of the Roman empire; and consider how great that discipline must be, by whose cultivation empires shine with such splendor; by whose neglect, as if deprived of vital sap, they wither and perish. If therefore this science makes its student illustrious both privately and publicly, if it truly binds man to God by the closest communion, then it must assuredly be both philosophy and wisdom, and indeed be numbered among its chief branches.
From this fruit and excellence of natural Ethics, having taken a step forward, consider how great the majesty is, and likewise the usefulness: for divine Ethics arranges all actions through the virtues not merely as natural Ethics does, but also makes them sacred and divine; likewise it makes the governance of the commonwealth sacred and divine, so as to transfer and enroll its subjects from the small kingdom of earth to the most ample kingdom of heaven. Wherefore Ethics, like virtue, needs no ornaments, demands no miracles; it is its own ornament, its own miracle. The wisest of all mortals saw this, by the judgment and oracle of God — Solomon, who accordingly, when God gave him the choice to ask what he wished, asked for nothing else than wisdom: he asked for and obtained not only wisdom, but with it riches, delights, honors, and glory, by which he far surpassed all kings of all ages: "Because you have asked," God said, "for wisdom to discern judgment, behold I have done for you according to your words, and have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that none like you has been before you, nor shall arise after you. And even these things which you did not ask for, I have given you: namely riches and glory, so that no one among kings has been like you in all days past," III Kings III, 12. He assigns the cause from the first origin and lineage of wisdom, Wisdom VII, 25: "She is," he says, "a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty God; and therefore nothing defiled enters into her; she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of His goodness. And being one, she can do all things: and remaining in herself, she renews all things, and through nations transfers herself into holy souls, and constitutes the friends of God and prophets: for God loves no one except him who dwells with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and compared to the arrangement of the stars she is found to be prior to the light; for night succeeds it, but malice does not overcome wisdom." Then, in chapter VIII, describing more fully the strength, amplitude, governance, and dominion of wisdom: "She reaches," he says, "from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly. Her I loved and sought out from my youth, and I sought to take her as my bride, and I became a lover of her beauty. She glorifies her nobility, having fellowship with God; indeed the Lord of all things loved her, for she is the teacher of the discipline of God and the chooser of His works. And if riches are desired in life, what is richer than wisdom, which works all things? And if the mind works, who among all things that exist is a greater artisan than she? And if anyone loves justice, her labors have great virtues, for she teaches sobriety and prudence, and justice, and virtue, than which nothing is more useful to men in life. And if anyone desires a multitude of knowledge, she knows things past and judges of things to come: she knows the subtleties of speeches and the solutions of arguments: she knows signs and wonders before they happen, and the events of times and ages. I resolved therefore to take her to live with me."
The fruits which he hopes to obtain from wisdom he adds: "Because of her I shall have," he says, "renown among the multitudes, and honor in the presence of elders, though I am young; and I shall be found keen in judgment, and shall be admired in the sight of the powerful, and the faces of princes shall wonder at me: when I am silent they will wait for me, and when I speak they will look to me, and when I speak at greater length, they will put their hands upon their mouths. Moreover, through her I shall have immortality, and shall leave an eternal memory to those who come after me. I shall govern peoples, and nations shall be subject to me. Fearsome kings shall fear me when they hear of me: among the multitude I shall appear good, and brave in war. Entering my house, I shall find rest with her: for her company has no bitterness, nor her fellowship any tedium, but gladness and joy."
Considering these things, he ardently invokes and beseeches God for wisdom, to be either first implanted or increased from heaven, saying: "Thinking on these things, that immortality is in the kinship of wisdom, I went to the Lord, and I besought Him, and I said from my whole heart: God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who made all things by Your word, and by Your wisdom established man, that he might have dominion over the creature that was made by You; that he might govern the world in equity and justice, and execute judgment with an upright heart: give me the wisdom that sits beside Your throne, and do not reject me from among Your servants, for I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid, a weak man and of short life, and too little for the understanding of judgment and laws. For even if one should be perfect among the sons of men, if Your wisdom is absent from him, he shall be counted as nothing. You have chosen me king of Your people, and judge of Your sons and daughters; and You said that I should build a temple on Your holy mountain, and an altar in the city of Your dwelling, a likeness of Your holy tabernacle, which You prepared from the beginning: and with You is Your wisdom, which knows Your works, which was present when You made the world, and knew what was pleasing in Your eyes and what was right in Your commandments. Send her from Your holy heavens and from the throne of Your majesty, that she may be with me and labor with me, that I may know what is acceptable before You: for she knows all things and understands, and will guide me soberly in my works, and will guard me by her power. And my works shall be acceptable, and I shall govern Your people justly, and shall be worthy of the throne of my father." This golden prayer of Solomon was dictated by the Holy Spirit, and by His command was recorded for us in this writing to this end: that we may continually pronounce it, and with like affection and spirit implore wisdom from God.
Third Praise: From the Authority of Wisdom
The third praise of wisdom comes from its authority, that is, from its teachers and disciples. Regarding natural ethics, the matter is clear: the ancient philosophers so gave the palm to Ethics among the sciences, so applied their mind and spirit to it, that they seemed to think little of or neglect everything else. Xenophon is our authority that Socrates bestowed the name of Philosophy on moral science alone — and Timon the Pyrrhonist likewise judged that Ethics alone deserved the name. And from among our own, Lactantius Firmianus, Book III, ch. VII: "Let us pass on," he says, "to Moral philosophy, in which the whole plan of Philosophy is contained; where, if any error is made, all of life is overturned." The same, in the same place, ch. XV: "Seneca says: Philosophy is nothing other than the right way of living, or the science of living honorably, or the art of conducting life rightly. We shall not err if we say that Philosophy is the law of living well and honorably. And he who called it the rule of life gave it its proper name." Moreover, Ariston of Chios so embraced moral philosophy alone that he tore up and condemned the other parts of philosophy as harmful. Cicero indeed in the Tusculan Disputations, says Lactantius, Book III, ch. XIII, exclaims about it: "O Philosophy, guide of life, o seeker of virtue and expeller of vices! What could not only we, but human life at all have been without you? You were the inventor of laws, you the teacher of morals and discipline."
And to unfold these things from their first origin, and to observe that the philosophical age which ran its course in the time of Anaxagoras, Plato, and Aristotle diligently cultivated this whole practical Philosophy: those first Wise Men (whom the world venerated as divine) handed down Ethics not so fully explained and arranged in its proper parts in orderly fashion as we do, but compressed into certain brief and pointed maxims, which they called gnōmai, undoubtedly imitating our sacred Sage, who teaches Ethics through proverbs; and they inscribed these, as if they were oracles, even on the temples of the gods (such as that famous "Know thyself" at Delphi). Such were those seven Wise Men of Greece, whom countless others followed, especially the Poets, called Gnomologists, a good part of whose works is handled to this day: in this genre Epictetus of Pontus, Heraclides the student of Speusippus and Aristotle, Zeno the prince of the Stoics (especially on the passions), and very many others wrote things few in number but divine.
In this Gnomology the Spartans acquired such authority that Socrates in Plato did not hesitate to assert that Sparta was the home of recondite learning. Thales of Miletus, therefore, the most ancient of the Wise Men of Greece, distinguished for both physical and ethical wisdom, the father of the Gnomologists, gave the beginning to the Ionian school: to whom Anaximander succeeded, whose student was Anaximenes, whom Anaxagoras followed, who is said to have been the first to teach the Greeks that the first principle of the blessed life, namely God, whom he called mind or intellect, is the maker of the world and of all things; he yielded his chair to Archelaus, the teacher of Socrates. Socrates succeeded Archelaus, who, bidding farewell to natural philosophy as more curious than necessary or useful, directed all the powers of his intellect to forming private and civil life, and to knowing and attaining blessedness: from his school came forth that flower of the Wise Men, Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaic school; Antisthenes of the Cynic school, from which arose Diogenes, the marvel of the life and men of his age; Xenophon, the prince of political science; Plato, the father of the Academy, whose Dialogues are almost all moral; whom Speusippus his sister's son followed, then Xenocrates, Polemon, Crantor, and that Crates who, deeming gold an obstacle to wisdom, threw it away. Zeno of Citium heard Crates, the head of the Stoic school, which in many things, as St. Jerome says, is most similar to Christian morals. And indeed this can be seen in their writings and maxims, such as those of Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Posidonius, Epictetus, Cato, and Seneca, whose stern discipline regarding vices his pupil Nero could not endure, and so became the executioner of his own teacher.
Epicurus, equal in age to Zeno but opposed in opinion, devoted himself entirely to investigating the happy and blessed life. And he indeed erred in defining pleasure as man's end, yet not that pleasure which people commonly suppose, which is bodily and drawn from the senses in the manner of beasts, but he understood it as being of the mind and joined with virtue. Contemporary with Thales of Miletus was Pherecydes of Syros, who was the first to establish and defend the immortality of our souls — a great spur to virtue; whose disciple Pythagoras of Samos, during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, came to Italy, the founder of Italian philosophy, whose forked letter Y was a symbol of virtue and pleasure. Finally, Aristotle, the standard-bearer of the Peripatetics, so polished moral discipline that what he had received scattered from the ancients, especially Socrates, he reduced to a methodical science, refining, pruning, and connecting much. He was therefore chosen as the tutor of Alexander, surnamed the Great, his father Philip congratulating himself and giving thanks to the gods that Alexander had been born at the very time when Aristotle could be given to him as teacher for the formation of his morals. Moreover, Aristotle surpassed nearly all other philosophers in Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics, but in Ethics he surpassed himself; and, to define everything in a single summary: Aristotle in Physics is a man; but in his Ethics he appears to his followers to be a God. So much for profane wisdom.
As for sacred wisdom, no one doubts that it handed down precepts received from God for the right ordering of life, many centuries before profane wisdom: for at the time when philosophy and wisdom were almost in their infancy among the Greeks, among the Hebrews they were nearly decrepit. Now the first teacher of Ethics who transmitted it in writing to posterity was St. Job, as is evident from his sacred book: for he preceded Moses and lived in the last times of the patriarch Jacob. Moses followed him and handed down to Israel the Decalogue and the other precepts of right living, received from the mouth of God on Sinai. After some centuries David succeeded Moses, the royal Psalmist, who composes Ethics in elegant verse. His son Solomon emulated his father David, the oracle of wisdom, who left to posterity no written doctrines (that survive) except those of Ethics, and this in four volumes: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and Wisdom. And all of these preceded all the wise men and philosophers of the Gentiles by many centuries. Our Sirach was a follower of Solomon, as were the Prophets, and after Christ the Lord, the four Evangelists, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James, St. Jude, who wrote down the wisdom and Christian Ethics of Christ. Following these from among the Greeks were St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom, St. Athanasius, St. Ephrem; from among the Latins, St. Gregory, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Bernard, and the other Fathers, who devoted themselves with their whole soul, both by teaching and by writing, to forming the morals of Christians toward every virtue.
Fourth Praise: From the Subject Matter of Wisdom
The fourth, and truly distinguished, praise of ethical wisdom, and one proper to it, is from its subject matter, content, and functions. For these are the parts and functions of natural ethics: that it rouses the dormant seeds of right and equity, nurtures them, and directs them; that it teaches us to flee sensible pleasure as we would Circe and the rocks of the Sirens; that it bears a torch before all human life; that it measures everything by the rule and plumb-line of right reason; that it plants the flourishing ranks of the virtues in our minds. Indeed, who does not see how much practice excels theory, action excels speculation, virtue excels learning, an honorable life excels a learned and famous one? Who would not prefer a life devoted to virtue rather than a dry and barren investigation of the loftiest matters? Who would not prefer unlearned simplicity to learned malice? If this is so, what do you place before or set above moral discipline? Aristotle says admirably: He who follows the judgment of the mind and has a cultivated mind, most excellently constituted, is most dear to God. For if God takes any care of human affairs (and He does, according to the opinion of us all), He delights in that which is best and partakes of divinity, namely the mind; and He adorns with benefits those who love and adorn the mind, esteeming as great a thing pleasing to God and decorating it with honorable work: and therefore the wise man cannot but be most dear to God, and by that title most blessed. You will not achieve this, however, if you philosophize only about the course of the stars, the mixture of the elements, and the compass of the universe: nor even if you hear someone discoursing elegantly about virtue itself, while you neglect its duties; just as most people foolishly think they become good in this way — not unlike the sick who studiously receive the doctor's prescriptions but put none of them into practice; for just as their bodies do not at all recover, so neither are the minds of such people corrected by idle Philosophy.
But what the moral philosopher teaches — that one must put one's hand to the work, that the practice of virtues must be acquired, that we must struggle against vices — this must actually be done, this must be exercised with all zeal. To carry this out vigorously, the very face of dishonor and turpitude alone excites us, if, stripping away the enticing mask of pleasure, you gaze upon it more closely in its nakedness in the field of Ethics: for this alone deters from vice, if on the other hand you contemplate up close the beauty of honor and virtue, and the comeliness of its face: for this by its very nature attracts to itself and excites wondrous loves of wisdom. Just as those who walk in the sun for a long time acquire a color from it, so it cannot happen that one who enters this moral arena not casually but with careful attention does not act more moderately in this civil and common life, and does not apply greater zeal in every kind of duty. So powerful was the impression made upon the young St. Louis, the glory of the kings of France, by his mother Blanche's words — nay, her law — about the foulness of sin, that throughout his whole life he was free from mortal crime, and never stained the royal diadem with any graver offense amid so many enticements. Will the doctrines of all the Philosophers, the law of wisdom, that certain and eternal science, not be able to do as much? Who would not embrace that definition of friendship among the moralists: "A friend is another self"? Who, if drunkenness is shown by the moralist to be a voluntary madness, would not recoil from it? Who would not restrain the unbridled motions of the soul, if he truly heard that it is great to master the spirit? As the poet says:
"You would rule more widely by mastering your greedy spirit, than if you joined Libya to distant Gades, and both Carthaginians served you alone."
"Let these things be said to our shame, if faith does not accomplish what infidelity has shown," says St. Jerome in the Epitaph of Nepotian. For if natural Ethics teaches, persuades, and convinces of so much, what will supernatural and divine Ethics not persuade, which applies all the greater spurs and torches to man toward every good, the higher its object, the loftier its end, and the higher the duties it teaches? Faith, hope, and charity have God for their object. What will not be overcome, what will not be dared, what will not be undertaken by the supreme knowledge of God through faith, the exalted confidence in God through hope, the heavenly and seraphic love and ardor of God through charity? The saints, says St. Paul in Hebrews ch. XI, verse 33, through faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, recovered from infirmity, became valiant in battle, put to flight the armies of foreigners: women received their dead raised to life again. And others were racked, not accepting deliverance, that they might find a better resurrection; and others had trial of mockeries and stripes, moreover also of bonds and prisons; they were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, distressed, afflicted — of whom the world was not worthy — wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth.
Contemplate the contests of the holy Virgins, the struggles of the Martyrs, the sufferings of the Apostles, the labors of the ascetics, the vigils of the holy Bishops, the austerity of the anchorites, and you will see what and how much the faith, hope, and love of God can do. As great as is the praise of patience, beneficence, fortitude, hope, charity, and every virtue, so great is the praise of Ethics: for its subject, its study, its proper arena is virtue itself.
But you ask, what and how great is virtue? Hear the Philosophers defining it; hear also the Theologians. The latter say: "Virtue is a disposition of the soul, consonant with nature, measure, and reason." "Virtue," says Cicero in Tusculan Disputations II, "was named from vir [man]: and the virtue most proper to man is fortitude, whose two greatest offices are the contempt of death and of pain." Lactantius, in his book On the Workmanship of God: "He is called vir because there is greater vis [force] in him than in a woman; and hence virtus received its name." For virtue is the brave and unconquered patience of enduring evils. Antisthenes used to say that "virtue was sufficient for happiness and needed nothing else except Socratic strength; for virtue is an armor that cannot be stripped away." Isocrates says to Demonicus that "there is no possession either more honorable or more durable than virtue." Epictetus in Stobaeus: "A soul devoted to virtue is like a perennial spring, whose water is pure, undisturbed, sweet, pleasant, abundant, and free from all harm and destruction." Seneca: "Virtue is the one thing that can bestow immortality upon us and make us equal to the gods." Valerius Maximus: "There is nothing except virtue that can be sought with mortal hand and immortal soul." Sophocles: "The possession of virtue alone is constant and perpetual." Aristotle: "The reward and end of virtue is something supremely good, divine, and blessed." And: "Virtue, and the good man, is the measure of all things." Seneca, in his Epistles: "All good deeds wish to be placed in the light; but no theater for virtue is greater than a good conscience. Just as the brightness of the sun obscures small lights, so virtue by its greatness crushes and overwhelms pains, sorrows, and injuries; nor do they have any greater share of malice, where virtue has wholly taken possession, than the stars have when the sun has poured forth its rays."
Fifth Praise: From the Contrary — Vice
The fifth praise of Ethics comes from the contrary, namely from the vice which it chastises, and whose erroneous judgment concerning what is to be done it corrects and amends. For just as this moral discipline spurs the sluggish power of the soul toward everything honorable and right, so too it directs and illuminates the cognitive power of the soul, so that it may know and understand what is true and to be done in matters of conduct. Therefore Horace rightly says in Book I of the Epistles: "Virtue is to flee from vice; and the first wisdom is to have been free from folly." And in Book III of the Odes: "Virtue, knowing not sordid repulse, shines with unstained honors."
Here therefore chastity will condemn Lucretia, because she set aside her conjugal fidelity on account of the infamy which the adulterer Sextus Tarquinius threatened; conscience too will condemn her, because, impatient of the injury already suffered, she laid violent hands upon herself. But it will exalt Susanna with praises, because she preferred to risk her life and reputation rather than her purity. Here Socrates will teach an unbroken spirit, if death must be met for the sake of truth. Indeed, this wisdom, this Ethics will bring it about that a man, no longer given over to the senses and pleasure, a slave of himself and of other things, serves as a bondsman to his desires or to vice; but rather that, as master of himself and of all things, he tramples all things subject to himself, and raises his undaunted head above all things, so that even if the drawn-out world should collapse, the ruins would strike him undismayed.
Nothing therefore is nobler than virtue, nothing more useful, nothing more powerful. It is the indomitable diamond which tames all things; it is the palm tree which struggles upward against all weights and lifts its crown:
"Virtue is its own citadel, it overthrows citadels; it tames beasts and man — unarmed it does not shrink from going through hostile ranks and enemy camps. Behold Zeno laughing at the commands of the Sicilian tyrant, and citizens turned against the wounds of the king. Regulus sails again through the straits to the Libyan citadels, and carries back his fearless head to terrible torments. I pass over the witnesses of Christ who suffered terrible deaths, and the fires of Lawrence, and the chains of Paul."
For this reason, the Philosophers bestowed these illustrious eulogies of titles upon Ethics. Cicero designated it "the expeller of vices"; others: "the philosophy of morals"; others, "the nurturer of virtues"; Quintilian: "the teacher of actions"; Varro: "the ornament of nature"; others: "the mistress of the affections"; others: "the foundation of grace"; others: "the form of the republic, the soul of the soul, the hand of Theology, the fount of Jurisprudence"; Arnobius finally: "the flower of Divinity." For Ethics, just as it flows forth from God, so it returns to God and leads back its followers. Hear Epictetus addressing Arrian: "It is necessary that all principles, as if by a revolution of the world, return to one principle, all beautiful things to one beauty, all true things to one truth, all good things to one good, all divine things to one God, all unities to one thrice-one. For unity, principle, good, truth, God — these are the same, they are one." Oh what astonishment! These words sound like the Gospel, not moral Philosophy.
Far more truly and sincerely, sacred and Christian Ethics chastises not only any and all vices, however hidden, however small; but also the very Ethics and virtue of the Philosophers. For it condemns this of vanity and vainglory, which was for them the sole stimulus of virtue, the sole end and reward of their labors; and on the contrary it teaches that virtue in itself looks to nothing but the honest good, and outside itself looks to nothing but God, and the praise and glory of God. Thus St. Paul refutes Diogenes, as an animal of glory; thus Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, as slaves of popular favor, when he says: "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by any human court; but He who judges me is the Lord, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then each one will have praise from God" (1 Cor. 4:3). And: "Let him who glories, glory in the Lord; for not he who commends himself is approved, but he whom God commends" (2 Cor. 10:17).
Thus Christian Ethics chastises and amends Philosophical Ethics: because it was ignorant of the Theological virtues — faith, hope, and charity — as well as religion; because it did not know what humility is, what penance is, what poverty of spirit is, what true virginity is; because it held that virtue is not implanted in the mind by God, but acquired by the natural powers of nature alone; because it established no other reward for virtue than the temporary praise of men, when the merits of Ethics and virtue are far greater and more ample.
Aristotle, in Book VII of the Politics, chapter 16, holds that children who are maimed, blind, deaf, etc., should be exposed, and if anyone is burdened with offspring whom he cannot support, abortion should be procured. Seneca goes further, in Book I of On Anger, chapter 15: "We destroy monstrous offspring, and we also drown children if they are born weak and deformed — it is not anger but reason to separate the useless from the healthy." All these things — homicide and infanticide, indeed parricide — Tertullian condemns in the Apology, chapter 9: "It is a hastening of homicide to prevent being born; nor does it matter whether one snatches away a soul already born or destroys one being born — he is a man who is about to be one, and all the fruit is already in the seed." And St. Ambrose, Book V of the Hexaemeron, chapter 18: "The rich, lest their patrimony be divided among too many, kill their own offspring in the womb, and with parricidal potions in the very generative womb they extinguish the pledges of their own bodies; life is taken away before it is given."
St. Augustine calls that virtue "true" which leads to salvation and heavenly beatitude, such as is the Christian virtue of the faithful, which accordingly chastises, forms, and perfects the false virtue of the Gentiles.
Sixth Praise: From the Primacy over Other Sciences
The sixth praise of Ethics comes from its primacy over and governance of the other sciences. Sextus of Chaeronea, a philosopher of the Skeptic school, showed by various and elegant comparisons how much Ethics excels the other parts of Philosophy: "Philosophy," he says, "is like a threshing floor enclosed by a wall and abounding in every kind of fruit, in which the firmness of the walls represents Logic, the height of the trees Physics, and the sweetness of the fruits Ethics." Again: "If you compare Philosophy to an egg, the shell represents Logic, the white Physics, and the yolk Ethics." More beautifully still, Possidonius used to say that Philosophy closely resembles a living creature: for the blood and flesh correspond to Physics, the bones and sinews to Logic, and the soul to Ethics. By as much, therefore, as the soul excels the flesh and bones, by so much does Ethics excel Physics and Logic.
Again, Ethics, just as it directs all of a person's actions, so too it directs all of their pursuits and sciences toward their proper end. For this reason, Moral Theology is the very marrow of Theology, which is the chief and queen of all disciplines. And, to pass over the remaining arts and disciplines, Jurisprudence, which holds the helm in the republic and governs and regulates it, so relies upon Ethics and so incorporates it into itself, that whoever abolishes the latter eviscerates the former. By what reasoning will the Jurist adorn himself with the best morals, live honorably, and not harm another, if he is not skilled in this part of wisdom which shapes morals? For what else is Jurisprudence but the science of the just and unjust? Therefore Jurisprudence is so founded upon and connected with Ethics that, plainly subordinate to it, it draws its decrees and laws, like rivulets, from Ethics' principles as from fountains. The Ethicist prescribes that crime must be punished; the Jurist reduces this rule to a definite penalty. The Ethicist lays down the law that parents must care for their children; the Jurist fines the one who refuses. The Ethicist places commutative justice as the mean between profit and loss; the Jurist derives from this notional source just agreements, loans, deposits, pledges, sales, purchases, and leases, as so many rivulets. The Ethicist explains that the strictest law is the greatest injustice; the Jurist tempers the law accordingly. Ulpian finally establishes that Civil Law is nothing other than a certain moderation of Natural Law, that is, of moral Philosophy.
Seventh Praise: From the End and Goal — Beatitude
The seventh and greatest praise of Ethics comes from its end and goal, namely from beatitude, to which it leads and guides its followers along the straight path of the virtues. No one is so foolish as not to desire to be happy and blessed; no one is so barbarous whose spirit would not leap, if the thought and hope of happiness were to enter the mind, if the way and means of attaining it were shown. Ethics shows it.
They held that men devoted to Ethics and virtue ascend to heaven after death and are enrolled there in the number and fellowship of the gods. Thus Ovid: "Take heaven as your gift; in heaven you will be seen as a star." Seneca: "This is the highest virtue; by this way heaven is sought." And: "Never is illustrious virtue borne to the Stygian shades: live bravely! Glory opens the way to the heights above."
Far more truly, sublimely, and divinely do the Theologians, establishing God and the Divine with utmost certainty, assign that very reward to wisdom and virtue. Hear St. Augustine: "The reward of virtue is God." Hear the Royal Psalmist: "O Lord, with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light" (Psalm 35:10). "That God may be all in all," says St. Paul (1 Cor. 15:28). Hear St. John: "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). And in the Apocalypse, chapter 21: "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb."
What then will Ethics not persuade Christians of, when now fully refined and supported by the most certain principles of faith, it fears no error? When it teaches the path of virtue not as dim but as resplendent? When it demonstrates that the soul will never perish, but will endure for all eternity in either the most blessed or the most wretched lot — as clearly as this sun shines before us? When it shows with certainty and clarity that the true happiness of man consists not on earth but in heaven, not in any creature but in the Creator Himself, and in possessing Him through vision and love, so that we may enjoy and be blessed by God Himself and all His goods?
Therefore St. Augustine rightly exclaims in Sermon 1 on the Feast of All Saints: "O truly blessed mother Church, whom the honor of divine condescension so illuminates, whom the glorious blood of conquering martyrs adorns, whom the shining purity of inviolate confession clothes! Among her flowers neither roses nor lilies are lacking. Let each one now strive for both honors — to receive the most ample crowns of dignities, either white from virginity or purple from suffering. In the heavenly camps both peace and battle have their flowers, with which the soldiers of Christ are crowned." And further on: "Therefore come now, brothers, let us set out on the journey of life, let us return to the heavenly city in which we are enrolled and decreed as citizens. We are not strangers but citizens of the Saints and members of God's household — indeed His heirs, and co-heirs with Christ." And shortly after: "But above all these things it is to be associated with the assemblies of Angels and Archangels, to enjoy fellowship with Thrones and Dominations, Principalities and Powers, and all the heavenly and celestial virtues, and to behold the hosts of Saints shining more splendidly than the stars, the Patriarchs radiant with faith, the Prophets rejoicing in hope, the Apostles judging the world in the twelve tribes of Israel, the Martyrs gleaming with the purple crowns of victory, and also to see the choirs of Virgins bearing white garlands. But of the King who sits in their midst, no voice suffices to speak: for that beauty, that virtue, that glory, that magnificence, that majesty escapes all speech and exceeds every sense of the human mind; for beyond even the glory of all the Saints is it to behold His inestimable countenance and to be irradiated by the splendor of His majesty. For if every day we had to endure torments, if we had to bear even hell itself for a short time, in order to be worthy to see Christ coming in glory and to be joined to the number of His Saints, would it not be fitting to suffer everything grievous, so that we might be counted as sharers of so great a good and so great a glory?" Finally concluding: "For this palm of saving works, therefore, let us strive willingly and promptly; let us all run in the contest of justice with God and Christ watching. He who in persecution gave the purple crown for suffering, will Himself in peace give the white one to those who live for the merits of justice."
Concluding Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, Sun of eternal wisdom, Word of the Father, Splendor of glory and Figure of His substance, our Love, grant us this wisdom of Yours, this prudence of the just, this knowledge of the Saints. For You, by Your eternal generation, are uncreated Wisdom itself; by Your temporal generation You have become for us incarnate Wisdom itself. For to this end You descended from the bosom of the Father into the womb of the Virgin Mother, from the highest mountains of heaven into this lowest cavern and center of the earth, that You might teach us the same wisdom both by example and by word. You taught the same to the Prophets and all the Saints; You inspired the same in our Sirach. Grant therefore that we may understand his all-virtuous wisdom, and embrace all his virtue both with will and with mind, so that we may express it in deeds as well as in works and morals, that we may bid farewell to vanity, serve truth, and live for eternity. For You are the light of minds, the King of spirits, the Guide of hearts; You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life: the Way in example, the Truth in promise, the Life in reward. Let us therefore walk in You, through You, to You; so that, just as now through a shadow from afar, so after this life face to face and close at hand we may behold You, enjoy You, and be blessed in You for all eternity. Fill our souls with Your splendors; fill them also with the ardors of the Saints, that we may quickly attain to You and to Your glory, whom as the Guide of this journey, the Author of salvation, we have.
How wise is he who lives for wisdom, who savors the Prince of light, the Bestower of joy we possess! For You are our wisdom, wise Truth, true Charity, dear Felicity, happy Eternity. How blessed is he whom Felicity itself blesses for eternity!