n, adore, with the Roman people, that God whose goodness
takes precedence of His greatness.

The direct consequence of the principles which we have just laid down is
that happiness is the object of our existence. Created by goodness, we
can have no other end than blessedness.

But beware of supposing that we can take for our guide our desire of
happiness, and ourselves calculate its conditions. Happiness is our end;
it is the will of our Father; but we must let ourselves be conducted
into it. If, shutting our ears to the voice which lays upon us commands
and obligations, we would take our destinies into our own hands; if we
made the search after happiness our rule, understanding happiness in
our own way, we should be taking for light fantastic gleams which would
lead us into abysses of ruin. The unruly propensities of our heart would
lead us to make ourselves the centre of the world. To "live for self" is
the motto of selfishness, and the watchword of unhappiness. To live for
God is the way to happiness. To live to God, that is to say, over the
ruins of our shattered selfishness, to enter into order, to take our
place in the spiritual edifice of charity, and to share in the joy which
God allots to all His children--this is the end of our creation. Once
lifted to the height of this thought, we are able to understand the
great struggle which rent the conscience of the ancients, because in
their times the light of truth illumined only at intervals the clouds of
error which covered the world.

There are in man two voices; the one leading him to happiness, the other
calling him to holiness. The first impulse of his nature is to start in
eager pursuit of mere enjoyment; but ere long the second voice is heard,
the voice of conscience, striving to arrest him in his course. If man do
not obey her call, conscience becomes his chastiser. Hence arises a
painful struggle of conflicting feelings, and the human mind is the
subject of a strong temptation to pacify itself by silencing one of the
two voices. It is the history of antiquity. Socrates, the wise Socrates,
had indeed cried aloud: Woe! woe to the man who separates the just from
the useful; and had warned men that happiness may be found apart from
what is right and good. Cicero put into beautiful Latin the lessons of
the Grecian sage; but the torn heart of man was not long in tearing the
mantle of the philosopher. From the thought, full and complete as it is,
of Socrates issu