The Theory of Democracy—Part III—The End of the State: Happiness

THE THEORY OF DEMOCRACY PART III THE END OF THE STATE: HAPPINESS (continued) IN THE preceding sections of Part III, we established two propositions of crucial importance to the theory ?f Democracy -two principles which are indispensable to understanding the demonstrability of the truth that Democracy is, on moral grounds, the best form of government. The first of these propositions was that human life can be perfected in time by a purely natural happiness, which is truly a last end simpliciter because it is not ordained to any greater good as a means, even though it is subordinate to another last end which is a greater good, namely, the supernatural happiness of eternal beatitude. The second proposition consisted in the definition of natural happiness, what it is and what it is not. Let us repeat the definition which we proved to be true: happiness is activity in accordance with perfect virtue in a complete life attended by a sufficiency of the goods of fortune. This defi:nition conceives natural happiness as the strictly proportional analogue of supernatural beatitude: each is a whole of goods; each leaves nothing to be desired in its own order because it consists in the possession of all good things, the one successively in the process of a whole life, the other simultaneously in an eternal rest.201t •~• Vd. Part III, Section S, supra, in THE THOMIST, IV, I. There is no difficulty in understanding the distinction between natural happiness and supernatural beatitude , for they differ not only as ends to be attained by natural and supernatural means, but also by reason of the radical diremption between time and eternity. What does require care, however, is the distinction between two perfections which occur in time, i. e., between natural happiness and supernatural contemplation, which is an inchoate participation in, and a remote anticipation of, the beatific vision. When this distinction is understood, it will be seen that natural happiness does not consist in contemplation, for supernatural contemplation is obviously excluded, and purely natural contemplation (i. e., the activity of the speculative 286 THE THEORY OF DE~OCRACY 287 Natural happiness, thus defined, is the end of the state. As we have shown, the very naturalness of the state, its necessity as a means, depends upon the existence of this end.204 No virtues) is only a partial good, albeit the most worthy, and no partial good 'can be identical with happiness. Furthermore, the division into active and contemplative does not apply to the natural dimensions of human life, but only to the life of grace; human life naturally lived is (in a sense already explained) a life of work, not of rest, and intrinsically a social life. Hence we can also define natural happiness in the following terms: work in accordance with the social virtues, in a complete life, lived politically, enriched by the fruits of the common good, as well as supplied sufficiently with the goods of fortune. Vd. Section 3, supra, lac. cit., p. 178, and fn. 198 and 198a. On the point that natural happiness leaves nothing to be desired which is naturally attainable in this life, that it leaves no natural, as opposed to transcendental , desire unsatisfied, see fn. 148, l49a, and 161 supra. This truth must not be exaggerated, however, to the neglect of the equally important fact that natural happiness is essentially imperfect. Wherein lies this imperfection? The answer turns on a distinction between two aspects of the good as an object of desire: (l) we desire to obtain a good we do not now possess; (2) we desire to retain a good we now enjoy. The good is not only an object to be attained, but to be preserved from loss. We not only seek the good but work to persevere in it. (Vd. Part II, supra, in THE THOMIST, III, 4, pp. 595-97.) Now no temporal and natural good is immutable. With the attainment of such goods, the will cannot rest, for even if no more goods remained to be sought, the achieved goods would have to be preserved; as subject to loss unless we work to preserve them, they remain objects of desire. The essential imperfection...