Summum bonum

“ It is assumed by all the disputants in the “De Finibus” as the foundation of the inquiry into the summum bonum, that “sapiens semper beatus est.” Not simply that wisdom gives the best chance of happiness, or that wisdom consists in knowing what happiness is, and by what things it is promoted; these propositions would not have been enough for them; but that the sage always is, and must of necessity be, happy. ”

“ The justification for this centering of human interests and energies lay in the nature of the summum bonum for man. According to the principles of the City of God, eternal life is the supreme good and eternal death the supreme evil. ”

“ Draw my soul to thyself, O perfect beauty, and bind it fast to thee by the indissoluble chain and bond of eternal love! What shall I seek and desire beyond thee, who art the fulness of all good, the source, the end, the sweetness, the strength, and marrow of all good! Farewell, all other things, that I may ever love and think of thee, praise and bless thee, and serve thee only, with all the powers of my soul, and for the whole of my life. Let all transitory things be to me worthless or precious, only as far as they agree with thy goodness. ”

“ Is there, and can there be, a perpetuity in mortal charms without the recognition or the supposition of a moral beauty connected with them, which alone is pure and imperishable, and which alone creates the sacred ecstasy that revels in the enjoyment of what is divine, or what is supposed to be divine, not in man, but in the conceptions of man,—the ever-blazing glories of goodness or of truth which the excited soul doth see in the eyes and expression of the adored image? It is these archetypes of divinity, real or fancied, which give to love all that is enduring. ”

“ The problem is to combine the absolute value of that Goodness which, as we say, 'saves the soul' with the relative values of the various good things that soothe or beautify life. For, if there is any value at all—I will not say in health and happiness, but in art, poetry, knowledge, refinement, public esteem, or human affection, and if their claims do clash, as in common opinion they sometimes do, with the demands of absolute sanctity, how is the balance to be struck? ”

“ The way to conquer and regulate this first passion is, to consider the objects of its love and attachment, their qualities, and what end it has in view in this attachment and love. And, finding in it qualities of beauty and of goodness, and claims of delight and usefulness, you may say again and again to yourself: "Can anything exceed the Beauty and Goodness of God, Who is the Sole Source of all goodness and perfection?" ”

“ Thou art the very fulness and universality of good; to thee all created things, from the highest essence down to bare primary matter, owe all their good that they have received.
In thy own most pure essence, thou possessest all excellence, all perfection, all happiness, and all good. Nor have thy goodness and perfection any limit or end, because they are first and primary, and dependent upon nothing.
2. From thee all that is sweet draws its sweetness; all that is beautiful its beauty; all that is bright its splendour; all that lives its life: all that feels its feeling ”

“ On such occasions I say from my heart, I rejoice, and give thee joy for thy infinite perfections, — that thou art who art, a God supremely powerful, wise, good, merciful, just, &c., the supreme good of the rational creature; that thou needest nothing, for thou art happy enough in thyself, and sufficient for thyself, while all our sufficiency is from thee. ”

“ What if man had eyes to see the true beauty—the divine beauty, I mean, pure and clear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollution of mortality, and all the colors and vanities of human life—thither looking and holding converse with the true beauty divine and simple, and bringing into being and educating true creations of virtue, and not idols only? ”

“ He supposed that there was a love of the beautiful, the perfect, and the orderly, beyond all taste and sentiment, which may influence us when we lose the pleasurable {Pg 361} sense of the action of the grace of God, and which is a sufficing reason to move the will in all the pains and privations which abound on the holy paths of virtue. ”

“ This was some time before his sufferings in the garden. But while we admire his outward beauty as man, what vast beauty possessed his mind—wisdom, prudence, chastity, holiness, zeal, understanding, faith, hope, love, and joy; in the principle—mercy, commiseration, pity, affection, patience, gratitude, and fidelity. Look at his actions, and they all correspond with the holy principles of his mind, and this holy nature was the image of God, the exemplar pattern and likeness of the new man of grace in the souls of God’s children ”

“ Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.
All truth—material, philosophic, or spiritual—is both beautiful and good. All real beauty—material art or spiritual symmetry—is both true and good. All genuine goodness—whether personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry—is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. ”

“ On the other hand, one's aspirations may soar to heaven and inspire the earnest struggle of the saint, or seek in highest art the realisation of supremest beauty, or in social service the noblest perfection of human life. ”

“ We need not again reply—It is holiness. It is purity like the purity of God. It is perfection like his perfection. Sin at the first marred the moral beauty, and put all that is morally offensive in its stead. But a new creation takes place. The original loveliness begins to be restored. The beauties of holiness decorate the soul, and with the restoration of holiness the restoration of happiness begins. ”

“ It is the realised perfection of everything good and beautiful on earth; or, in other words, all such goodness and beauty is its partial manifestation. ‘All,’ I say: for the splendour of nature, the love of lovers, every affection and virtue, any good action or just law, the wisdom of philosophy, the creations of art, the truths deformed by superstitious religion,—all are equally operations or appearances of the hidden power. ”

“ Thou sweet One, even because Thou art the sweet God, Thou art also the sacred God; Thou art happiness itself, even because Thou art holiness itself; Thou art goodness itself, even because Thou art grace itself. ”

“ The man rightly practiced in all noble exercises of life—in moral fidelity, in reverence and sympathy, in observation and conformity to the actual conditions of the world about him—will find pouring in upon him a beauty, a love, a divinity, which fill the soul with a heavenly vision. ”

“ Confessing the attractions of scholarship, awed by the majesty of the law, fascinated by the beauty of Art, the soul bends with involuntary reverence before the angelic nature that seeks the good of his fellow-man. Through him God speaks. On him has descended in especial measure the Divine Spirit. God is Love; and man, when most active in good works, most nearly resembles Him. ”

“ He who would find Blessedness, let him find himself; let him abandon every discordant desire, every inharmonious thought, every unlovely habit and deed, and he will find that Grace and Beauty and Harmony which form the indestructible essence of his own being. ”

“ This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy, for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness, going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long suffering, the whole image of God, and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory. ”

“ The greatness of His power, His overflowing sweetness, infinite goodness, love, and compassion, innumerable benefits received at His hands, as well now when so near Him as before when far away. The eyes of the soul now merit to adore, and by adoring merit, for they are beautiful and pleasing to the Bridegroom. Before they were unworthy, not only to adore or behold Him, but even to look upon Him at all: great indeed is the stupidity and blindness of a soul without the grace of God. ”

“ Into his spiritual sight will come the Principles of the divine Life, and as he approaches them, their incomparable beauty and majestic symmetry will astonish his vision, and gladden his heart with a gladness hitherto unknown. ”

“ It is on account of the soul that is in you—the power of reason and will—the godlike nature with which you are endowed.
Yes, and your soul is the source of your beauty, too. In what consists the beauty of a man? Is it a mere regularity of form and feature? Do you judge of a man as you do of a horse or a dog? {412} No; the most exquisitely chiselled features do not interest you, until you see intelligence light up the eye, and charity irradiate the countenance—then you are captivated. ”

“ If the desire of earthly beauty, of body or soul, so imperfect, so unsatisfying, so short-lived, can thus engross the soul of man, why should not the desire of God's love, who is perfect beauty, perfect wisdom, perfect goodness, and our promised portion for ever and ever, be able to do far more? ”

“ First, then, in that I said, its virtue is Nothing, or that Nothing which is the beginning of All Things, thou must understand it thus; When thou art gone forth wholly from the Creature, and from that which is visible; and art become Nothing to all that is Nature and Creature, then thou art in that Eternal One, which is God himself; and then thou shalt perceive and feel within thee the highest virtue of Love. ”

“ Then when it is said, "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory," we cling to the sentiment in no merely metaphorical sense; we recognize the unseen Divinity as the fountain whence pour, as real things, the grace of love into the heart and the glory of spiritual wisdom into the understanding. ”

“ The love of God, and the desire for his glory then, are the only true foundation of human happiness. And hence it is, that the perfection of enjoyment, and the whole sum of duty, meet in this one point,—the love of god. ”

“ In this majestic life is the full embodiment of the beauty of holiness—whose words have gone forth and whose spirit is ceaselessly at work in the world, drawing men and women up to their divine ideal, and that will continue so to draw all in proportion as his words of truth and his life are lifted up throughout the world. ”

“ Nor is it necessary that perfection should be found. A person may have faults which alienate and disenchant, but with these there may be virtues so radiant that the worship, though imperfect, remains,— a respect, on the whole, so great that the soul is lifted to admiration. Who can love this perishable form, unless one sees in it some traits which belong to superior and immortal natures? And hence the sentiment, when pure, creates a sort of companionship of beings robed in celestial light and exorcises those degrading passions which belong to earth. ”

“ Now to call these the divine perfections, when they are only your own human virtues, bespeaks you, I say, fond, impious, and idolatrous, and shews you, in the midst of all your pretended design to glorify God, such an one who have set up your own goodness with him, yea and given it the title of his blessed grace and favour. ”

“ If God were to open our eyes to see the spiritual glory of our Lord in His poverty, in His entire renunciation of every thing of worldly comfort or self-pleasing; if we saw the Divine glory of which it is the expression; if we knew how infinitely beautiful it was to all the holy angels, how infinitely well-pleasing to the Father, we should then only in some little degree be able to say whether it was something we ought to desire and imitate. ”

“ Very beautiful, as well as sublime, is the thought of so large a contribution, to the heavenly world, of human beings in the dawn of their existence, enhancing, as we [Pg 10] may suppose, the happiness of heaven by such large admixture of exotic, youthful nature, and illustrating, by their redemption from a helpless state of sin and misery, the unsearchable riches of wisdom and grace. ”

“ But you should also know, that beauty is of two kinds, one of which is beauty of form, and the other beauty of moral character. And know, beloved, that the reason why man must love beauty of form in his own species, and has an inclination to admire external beauty, is that God created the spirits of men out of a drop of his own light, as he says. "when I have breathed my spirit into him." ”

“ The glory of the good is in their consciences, and not in the tongues of men. The gladness of the just is of God, and in God; and their joy is of the truth,
*He enjoyeth great peace of mind, that careth neither for the praise nor dispraise of men.
3. He will easily be content, whose conscience is pure.
Thou art not the more holy, though thou art praised; nor the less, though thou art dispraised.
*What thou art, thou art; neither canst thou be said to be greater than thou art in the sight of God.
If thou considerest what thou art within, thou wilt not care what men say of thee. ”

“ This is the saving grace—it takes great bulks of the commonplace and distils from the mass a few drops of precious essence; it finds in the unscholarly and the imperfect, rare traces of good; it sees in man, any man, the image of God, to be justified and made evident only in the sublimity of death, perhaps, but usually to be developed in life. ”

“ That is: "The powers of my soul, O my Bridegroom, the eyes by which I can see You, although once fallen and miserable in the vileness of their mean occupations, have merited to look upon You." To look upon God is to do good works in His grace. Thus the powers of the soul merit in adoring because they adore in the grace of God, in which every act is meritorious. ”

“ That which preserves undying beauty and sacred harmony and celestial glory is wholly based on the spiritual in man, on moral excellence, on the joys of an emancipated soul. It is not easy, in the giddy hours of temptation or folly, to keep this truth in mind, but it can be demonstrated by the experience of every struggling character. ”