Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Magnificence aspires to great things and does notshrink from paying for them. Yet it is not foolish, norover-lavish, nor wasteful; for it is a virtue, and therefore anordinate thing, a thing in good relation to reason. Opposed to thisvirtue of magnificence is the vice of littleness or meanness. Thisvice either (a) aspires to little things only, when greater shouldbe attempted; or (b) exercises a pinchpenny care which refuses tonoble enterprise its full greatness of execution.
2. Magnificence, to which littleness or meanness isopposed, is not the direct contrary of this vice. For magnificencestands between two opposed vices, namely, meanness on theone hand, and wastefulnessor prodigality on the other. A meanman spends less than his undertaking is worth; a wasteful manspends more than the work deserves.
"As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers"
St Augustine
* * *
"Whom do you seek, friend, if you seek not God? Seek him, find him, cleave to him; bind your will to his with bands of steel and you will live always at peace in this life and in the next."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
* * *
"Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
* * *