Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/44

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ESSAY ON CATHOLICISM,

words. The divine family is the exemplar and model of the human family, and all its persons are eternal. The spiritual human family, which most closely approaches the divine in perfection, exists through all time. Between the father and mother in the natural human family the tie lasts during life; and between them and their children it is prolonged many years. But in the human anti-Catholic family the relation between the father and mother lasts only some years; between them and the children only some months; in the artificial family of clubs only a day; and in that of places of amusement but for a moment.

In this, as in many other things, duration is the measure of perfection. Between the divine family and the human family of the cloister, we find the same proportion as between time and eternity. When we compare the spiritual family of the cloister, which is the most perfect human type, and the sensual life of the clubs, which is the most imperfect, we again find the same proportion, as between the brevity of a moment and the immensity of all time.

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