Scriptural Questions, Part II [pp. 316-326]

3 t8 SCRIPTURAL QUESTrOArS [Dec.,
As an intelligent being whose soul is a spirit and immortal,
man is above all irrational nature, and each individual man is
better than the whole universe of bodies. This earth, at least,
is his kingdom, and everything in it is subordinate to him. The
sun and the other stars are in part, even though they be not
exclusively, for his benefit. Moreover, his own mind and the
earth as his local habitation is necessarily for him the centre of
his dwn observation of the universe. It is true that he is, by
his nature as a rational animal, in the lowest grade of intellectual
being, and that, in the present condition of mankind, a great
multitude of men are degraded far below the typical, ideal state
of pure human nature. Yet generically, in respect to his spiritual part, he is akin to the highest possible order of created intelligent beings. There can be nothing higher than intelligence;
and as the universe is necessarily subordinated to the intelligent
beings in it, man must have at least some minor share in the
high and royal prerogative of those intellectual kings of the
universe for whom it has been created and adorned.
By the light of reason alone we cann6t go beyond this point.
But revelation teaches us that man is the centre of creation.
The Eternal Word has chosen humanity as the nature which he
has assumed and thereby raised to a divine dignity. His elect
among men, especially the glorious and sublime Virgin Mary,
share with him in this dignity. And the earth itself, as the
cradle of the human race, receives a place of importance in the
universe corresponding to the grandeur of the events transacted
upon its surface.
Here we are met by another objection, that it is incredible
that God should choose such a small world and such an inferior
nature for such a sublime end. But this objection is irrational,
and even childish. It takes its measure of things from their corporeal magnitude. By such a rule we ought to estimate the
title of a kingdom or a city to our admiration by its mere extent,
the greatness of a man by size and weight, the value of a book
by its bulk, the importance of events by the length of ti~e they
have t~ken in their fulfilment. A great man ought to be born
in the largest building of the largest city in the largest empire
of the world, and he should be a giant in stature. We have
no certain knowledge of any inhabited world except our own, of
any other intelligent beings except men, by any natural means
of knowledge. By revelation we know that pure spirits exist
who are naturally superior to man; that there is a heaven, a hell,
and a purgatory. We have no objection against any one 5 in