Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/35

 THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL-REFORM MOVEMENT 21

other animals, however remarkable may be the feats of the memory and imagination and "cogitative faculty" which the schoolmen have never hesitated to concede to them, do not and cannot participate — plays an important part in all human affairs. Where it does not actually rule, this is only because it has voluntarily surrendered its scepter into the hands of the lower powers which were meant to be its subjects and instruments.

Society at large, like the individuals and groups of individuals of which it is composed, is bound to be governed by reason, under pain of failure to attain its proper ends, and of the misery inseparable from such failure. This does not mean the arbitrary conclusions which any particular man or set of men may allege to be reasonable, but the dictates of right reason, which are common to all mankind, so far as they consciously use their reasoning powers, with full knowledge of the facts pertinent to the particular case. Reason requires that society, like the individual, shall so act as to fulfill the object for which it exists. The last end of man, the primary object of his existence, is the most perfect possible participation in the power, knowledge, and beatitude of his Creator — which participation, when fully con- summated, is the state which Catholics signify by the word " heaven." All the specific ends for which human society and its component elements exist are subsidiary to that supreme end.

Now, both the order of society in this world and the eter- nal interests of the individuals which are the ultimate units of which it is composed, require that all human relations shall be governed by the laws of justice and of charity. Justice requires the rendering to every man his due. The rights of man are no mere generalities, but very definite and concrete realities. Every human personality, and every human society, has rights, duties, privileges, and responsibilities peculiar to itself. There is no power, or right, or privilege, which does not carry with it corresponding obligations.

Besides the obligations of justice, there are the equally bind- ing, though less definite, duties implied by the virtue of "friendship," which on the supernatural plane becomes char- ity. Because man is a gregarious animal, and the whole human