.

3. Personal beauty is also a source of pleasure in this world. Every
one knows that perfect personal beauty sweetly but powerfully draws
men to itself, and that one endowed therewith gives far greater
pleasure than another who does not possess this attribute. It is in
heaven, and there only, that every one will possess the attribute of
beauty in its fullest perfection. For the soul is clothed with the
beauty of God himself, which He communicates to her in the Beatific
Vision; while the whole body is beautified and glorified after the
likeness of Christ's glorious body. Every saint is therefore clothed
with a loveliness far superior to anything we ever can see on earth.
If, then, it is so great a pleasure to associate with persons who
possess the natural and perishable beauty of this world, what shall
we say of the pleasures which must flow from our intercourse with
persons who are clothed with the beauty of God himself!

4. Refinement is another attribute which makes our social intercourse
with others pleasurable. A great personal beauty that might at first
attract others to itself, would soon repel and even disgust them,
should they perceive in its possessor unpolished manners, coarseness,
and stupidity. A cultivated intellect, refined feelings, and elegant
manners are necessary to adorn personal beauty, and make it a source
of pleasure to those who are attracted thereby. It is very certain
that in heaven, where our whole nature is to be elevated and
perfected, this refinement of mind and heart, as well as the elegance
of personal bearing which flows from both, will exist in its highest
perfection, and ever be the source Of exquisite pleasures in our
social intercourse with the blessed.

5. Another source of social joys is mutual love. The four personal
attributes we have been considering, make up an amiable character;
that is, one which we love spontaneously, and whose love we are
certain to have in return for ours. It is this love which crowns and
perfects a character of this kind, and produces a very large share of
the pure pleasures we enjoy in the society of such persons. But,
however pure human love may be, even when elevated by grace to the
virtue of charity, it never can produce unalloyed social pleasures;
because it never reaches its full perfection in this world.

It is in heaven only that charity is perfect. There we shall love
every one with a most tender charity, and see ourselves loved as
tenderly