Synopses & Reviews
FOUR - SQUARE THE CARDINAL VIRTUES ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN, BY JOSEPH RICKABY, S. J. That tower of strength That stood four-square to all the winds that blew. -TENNYSON. JOSEPH F. WAGNER NEW YORK lyos Bibit tat Cum trrnissu uperiorum REMIGIUS LAFORT, S. T. L. JOHN M. FARLEY, D. D. Censor Librorxwe Arcibfshu of rVew Y urk CopyrIeht, I by JOSEPH F. VAGNER, New York PREFACE These Addresses have appeared in the HOMILETIC MONTHLY. They are written rather with an eye to scientific accuracy than to unction, eloquence and rhetoric for surely conduct is a matter of science. VI. IX. xr. XI. CONTENTS VIRTUE 1N GENERAL . Trr CARDINAL VIRTUES . I.I PRUDENCE ., ., . TEMPERANCE HUMAN ACTS . .. OF FORTITUDE . . I a OF JUSTICE . . JUSTICE AND CHARITY . .I THE VIRTUE OF RELIGION . .- TBUTIIFULKESS, GRATITUDE, OBEDIENCE RAGNANIM ITY AND HUMILITY THE INFUSED VIRTUES . ., PAGE . I THE CARDINAL VIRTUES. A Course of Addresses to Young Men I. VIRTUE IN GENERAL There are ixfascd virtues and acqz4ired virtues. These addresses deal with the latter, with the acquired virtues. Of infsed virtues we shall have something to say at the end. A virtue is a habit of doing right a habit of doing wrong is called a mie. A habit is a made thing, made by thc free human acts of the individual. It results of acts whereof Ile is master, to do or not to do, and he chooscs to do them. WO one is born with habits. A young child consequently has neither vices nor virtues. But it has propensities both virtuous and vicious. These propensities are partly common to all men, partly peculiar to individuals, depending in the latter case on the bodily naturc inherited from parents and ancestors according to what is called the law of heredity.Habits and acts answer to one another but a person may do an act, good or evil, without having yet formed the corresponding habit, be it of virtue or vice. Clearly, a man may get drunk without being an habitual drunkard, or give an alms before he has mastered the virtue of liberality. Otherwise no virtue could ever be acquired for the act must preccde the habit, and the habit of virtue, or of vice, is thc gradual result of a scries of virtuous, or vicious, acts. But, done vitliout habit, m act is done fitfully, irregularly, with difficulty and uncertainty and much imperfection. 2 THE CARDINAL VIRTUES The best way to understand a habit, and thereby to understand what a virtue is, is to consider what we understand by skill. Skill is a habit of proficiency in some art. Ski11 comes by practice. We are not born skilful, we are born clumsy creatures but this native Iurnsiness adheres to some natures more than to others. We are born with predispositions which may be turned into skill by practice. Practice presupposes power you can not practise running unless nature has gifted you with the use of your legs. Skill, thcre- fore, and virtue, and every habit, presupposes power. Habit is the determinant of power, not the maker of it. The skill of a trained singer is a habit. The voice is there from the first the most ac- complished vocalist was once a squalling baby if the baby had had no lungs and vocaI chords to squall with, never could the singers voice have been trained to melody. Every habit is in some power, and perfects that power to act equally, surely, readily, to good effect. A strong man, seizing a billiard cue for the first time, may make a cannon and pocket the balls but he will not dothat again. Only a practised and skilful player ever makes a break at billiards. The unskilfrtI player, tilI his skill begins to come, makes only occasional flukes. Nor will a man who has not acquired the virtue of meek- ness succeed in keeping his temper, when provoked at all hours from Monday to Saturday. His is not the skill so to command himself. That skill is the virtue, which he has not yet got. The sum of a persons habits is caIIed his character...
Synopsis
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.