The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-06-10

| tyrdom of saint or patriot. Not money,
! not strength of body, not learning have
our final allegiance, but virtue and
character. Who would deny that it is
better for one to be honorable and good
! and at the same time poor in d material
sense, than to be simply rich or clever?
The paramount need of higher quail
| ties Of soul is not less evident when we
turn from a consideration of individuals
| to a study of society. What confers a
4 real dignity on a state? What Justifies
! the hope that its institutions Will
weather the gales and escape the rocks
| that menace national existence? Not
! the wealth of its citizens; wealth is the
! companion and the cause of luxury and
! social unrest and these infallibly pre-
sage weakness and disintegration- Not
! their learning: culture of the highest
| degree. and eminent progress, even in
| those sciences which are most init
mately related to political well-being.
! the sciences of law and government.
| have not preserved nations from ruin
in the past. Not even the strong hand
of power acting through large and
Disciplined army. The wrecks that
mark the ways of history teach the sig
nificant lesson that a society may not
rely on wealth or intelligence or ma
terial power and hope to live; that
moral decay means physical death; ana
that hope of permanency must be JUS
titled by simplicity and honorableness
of life. by purity and integrity, by he
roic, unselfish devotion. The well being
of state. as we'll as that of the in
dividual, demands the pursuit and the
attainment of moral good.
Our wisdom will, therefore, be mani
tested in our quest of soul-riches. BY
striving for whatever can strengthen
and ennoble character, we shall De
!, fnh
prove our divinity; for divine in a
true sense we are. made in the image
and likeness of God, destined to be-
come partakers OF His divine nature.
To live as BELTS this lofty degree of
being means more than the satistac-
tion of cravings which we share with
the lower orders of creation, 1t implies
a higher and wider vision of life than
can be had in library or laboratory, 1t
means the cherishing of divine long
ings for divine ideals, the lifting up
of all other yearnings and pursuits
and objects to a loftier plane, until
all lifes hopes and purposes and acts
conspire in the production of true men
and true women, who know the full
est and most perfect joys of human
existence and are satisfied only with
the real prizes of life.
Evident as is the subjectfon Of all
individuals and societies to this great
universal, beneficent law, it must be
seen to urge in a special way any
institution that sets itself up as a
force in education. Our tendencies, |
our desires, our yearnings, are infiu- |
enced largely by our environment, and |
they feel especially those forces which |
act upon them during the plastic pc
riod of youth AS the twig has been /
inclined. so the tree grows. Aspira- |
tions can be developed and trained, |
as well as muscles and cells. We seek |
as our supreme good. that toward |
which we have been taught to direct |
our principal energies. Unspeakable, |
then, is the power but awful also the
responsibility of the individual who
to form the minds and
of the young. According
to the teaching given. the soul will
be noble or base: it will develop or
in proportion as the edu-
Gator deals with it wisely or unwisely.
Concluded Next Week)