Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/187



CHIEF DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS AS CITIZENS. 181

to which solely the will may aspire and which it may attain, when virtue is its guide.

But what applies to individual men applies equally to society â€” domestic ahke and civil. Nature did not fashion society with intent that man should seek in it his last end, but that in it and through it he should find suit- able aids whereby to attain to his own perfection. If, then, a civil government strives after external advantages merely, and the attainment of such objects as adorn life; if in administering public affairs it is wont to put God aside, and show no solicitude for the upholding of moral law; it deflects wofully from its right course and from the in- junctions of nature : nor should such a gathering together and association of men be accounted as a commonwealth, but only as a deceitful imitation and make-believe of civil organization.

As to what We have termed the well-being of the soul, which consists chiefly in the practice of the true religion and unswerving observance of the Christian precepts, We perceive that it is daily losing esteem among men, either by reason of forgetfulness or disregard, in such wise that the greater the advance made in the well-being of the body, the greater is the falling away in that of the soul. A striking proof of the lessening and enfeebling of Christian faith is seen in the insults that are, alas! so frequently, in open day, and before Our very e3'es, offered to the Catholic Church â€” insults, indeed, to which an age cherishing religion would on no account have submitted. For these reasons how great a multitude of men is in- volved in danger as to their eternal salvation surpasses belief; but, more than this, nations and even vast empires themselves cannot long remain unharmed, since upon the lapsing of Christian institutions and morality, the main foundation of himian society must necessarily be uprooted. Force alone will remain to preserve public tranquillity and order; force, however, is very feeble when the bulwark of religion has been removed; and being