lves with the affairs of the
active life; this is the case, for instance, with those who are placed
in positions of authority. Whence it seems that the active life is of
more importance than the contemplative.

But though a man may happen to be called away from contemplation
to the works of the active life owing to the needs of the
present life, yet he is not thereby compelled completely to
relinquish his contemplation. Hence S. Augustine says:[455] "The
love of truth asks for a holy leisure; the demands of charity
undertake honest toil--that, namely, of the active life. And if
no one imposes this latter burden on us, then we must devote
ourselves to the study and contemplation of the truth; if,
however, such a burden is imposed upon us, then must we
undertake it because of the demands of charity. Yet not even
then are we altogether to resign the joys flowing from the
contemplation of truth, lest the sweetness of such contemplation
be withdrawn from us and the burden we have assumed crush us."

Whence it appears that when a man is called from the
contemplative to the active life it is not so much that
something is withdrawn from him, but that an additional burden
is imposed upon him.

"As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of
Hosts, in the city of our God: God hath founded it for ever. We
have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple. For
this is God, our God unto eternity, and for ever and ever: He
shall rule us for evermore."[456]

_Cajetan:_ Those whose duty it is to instruct others in spiritual
progress should note that they are bound to take great pains to exercise
them in the active life before they urge them to ascend the heights of
contemplation. For they must learn to subdue their passions by acquiring
habits of meekness, patience, generosity, humility, and tranquillity of
soul, before they ascend to the contemplative life. Through lack of
this, many, not so much walking in the way of God as leaping along it,
find themselves--after they have spent the greater portion of their life
in contemplation--devoid of virtue, impatient, irascible, and proud, if
one but so much as touch them on this point! Such people have neither
the active nor the contemplative life, nor even a mixture of the two;
they have built upon sand! And would that such cases were rare! (_on_ 2.
182. 1 2.).

*