Lebt' nicht in uns der Gottheit eig'ne Kraft, Rosmini so thoroughly believed in the power of the object "Amore è un concetto di bellezza Immaginata, cui sta dentro al core, Cf. Dante's "Amor e cor genti sono una cosa (Vita 2II. Deonto We will not stop here to classify all the special Human deontological sciences, but will limit our discourse logy. to Human Deontology, i.e. the science of human perfection. 212. trine of Man is a being real, intellectual and moral, The docand, therefore, shares in the perfection proper to moral perthe three modes of being. Since, however, moral perfection completes the other two, and alone is personal perfection, for that reason the doctrine ception implicitly contains doctrine of human of moral perfection implicitly contains the whole perfection. doctrine of human perfection. Doctrine of human perfection embraces three parts -archetype, actions, means. (a) Teletics. (B) Ethics. (7) Ascetics. (8) Education. (e) Economy. (5) Politics. ($) Cosmopolitics. 213. The doctrine of human perfection presents to the mind those same three parts into which we have said that general deontology is divided: (1) the doctrine of the human archetype, to which every man must seek to approximate; (2) the doctrine of those actions whereby man approximates and conforms to that archetype; and (3) the doctrine of the means and aids by which man is stimulated and strengthened to these actions. The first of these doctrines may be called Teletics, the second Ethics, and the third, that is, the doctrine of means, is divided into several sciences. A man may acquire these means and apply them to himself: the science of this may be called Ascetics. Or he may apply them to his fellowmen, encouraging and aiding them to acquire human perfection: the science which teaches the manner of this application is called Education or Pædagogics. The science which teaches how to apply them to the family, so that it, being rendered good, may exert itself to render good the individuals that compose it, may be called Economy; that which teaches how to apply it to civil society, so that it, being rendered good, may improve its members, is termed Politics; and, finally, that which teaches how to apply them to the theocratic community of the human race may be called Cosmopolitics. 214. tics. The of man, natural natural orders, is Christ. The science which describes the perfect arche- (a) Teletypal man has not been written or even attempted, archetype and it cannot be worked out until all the sciences both in the relating to man are fully developed. And even and superthen the science would not be complete. The truth is, that man is at present fallen, and that he Jesus was never left in a state of mere nature. Nor was it fitting that he should be so left. Hence his nature has always been mixed up with the divine and supernatural, and what man may become in the double order of the natural and supernatural is a problem that surpasses and eludes human thought, and, therefore, can never be completely solved by human philosophy. But, instead of having this archetype described in words and consigned to the dead letter of a book, we have the living archetype presented to us by God Himself in Jesus Christ, the Head and Lord of the human race. 215. Man must be good and not evil. The good- (B) Ethics. ness of man consists in the goodness of his will, since it is clear that he who has a will perfectly good is a good man. Now, the goodness of man, and not the goodness of his belongings, is called moral goodness, and that quality of the human will whereby a man is good is called moral goodness or virtue. This good forms the subject of Ethics, which is therefore the science of virtue. This is exactly Aristotle's doctrine: "Пávraç πaivoõμev καὶ ψέγομεν εἰς τὴν προαίρεσιν βλέποντες μᾶλλον ἢ εἰς τὰ pya" (Eth. Eud., ii. 11; 1228 a, 12 sqq.). Ethics includes three parts corre sponding to its three offices. (a) General Ethics. (b) Special Ethics. (c) Eudæmonology. 216. The moral philosopher does three things: (1) he analyzes the concept of virtue, distinguishing its elements, and then gathers them all up into a scientific definition; (2) he tries to ascertain in what mode, that is, by what voluntary and free acts, and by what habits, a man may attain to virtue, and, on the contrary, in what mode and by what actions he loses it and becomes wicked; and (3) he endeavours to estimate the excellence and preciousness of virtue, without which all other goods are valueless to man. Hence Ethics has three parts: the first treats of the nature of virtue, and is denominated General Ethics, because it does not descend to any of those special habits or acts into which virtue enters, but deals with that condition which all habits and acts must possess in order to be virtuous; the second treats of the modes of virtue, and is called Special Ethics, because it considers the special habits and acts which contain virtue; the third treats of the excellence of virtue, and is called Ethical Eudamonology, because we discover the excellence of virtue only by seeing how it renders the intelligent and volitional nature perfect and happy. Rosmini has left three important works on Ethics: (1) A Treatise on the Moral Consciousness; (2) Principles of Moral Science; and (3) A Comparative and Critical History of the Systems which have been propounded with regard to the Principle of Morality. These are all very remarkable works, and the last is the most exhaustive treatise on the subject in existence. 217. ral Ethics the essence First ele moral The first part of Ethics, then, having to treat (a) Geneof virtue, investigates its elements, which are treats of three: (1) will and liberty; (2) law; (3) conformity of virtue. of liberty and will to law. In treating of will, ment of Ethics makes use of that part of Anthropology or good is the Psychology which considers the power of the will over the other faculties of man, the limits of this power and of the liberty which renders it the responsible cause of actions. will. element is law. Speaking of law (Nomology), it first defines Second it in the largest sense as the principle of obligation. of virtue It then inquires what is the first of all laws; that is, it seeks for the first principle of obligation, couched in a formula logically prior to all others, a formula expressing the essence of obligation itself in the first act in which it reveals itself to man, and not requiring any ulterior ground to account for it. And, inasmuch as the light of human reason and will is being, it is plain that the first self-evident formula of obligation is :-Follow the light of reason, or, Recognize being. To cognize is an act of the reason, and always belongs to the theoretic order; to recognize is often the corre |