logy of the human body, not to use any of
its limbs in a manner contradictory to its organisation, to provide for
the restoration of equilibrium or health eventually lost, to avoid risks
of injuries or disorders, and to take advice of skilled men in cases of
disease. But food, drink, recreation, physical enjoyment, and every
other indulgence usually allowed to the advantage of the body, are
required by the law to be moderated by certain rules of a moral
standard, having in view more elevated ends than the mere gratification
of earthly wants; so that even the most vulgar acts may, from the
intentions which accompany them, acquire a certain religious importance.
In short, the government of the body must be such as to favour, and not
to hinder, the exercise of what concerns spiritual life.

XCI. Passing to other moral requirements which come within the sphere of
man's duties towards himself, it is unnecessary to demonstrate here how
it is incumbent upon every man to choose a state in society adapted to
his individual faculties and aptitude, to be industrious, sober and
decorous, to fix on a well-regulated distribution of his time and work,
to be economical without parsimony and liberal without prodigality, and
generally to follow such rules of wisdom as tend to render life
prosperous, and human conduct acceptable to society. All such rules are
self-evident, and grow necessarily out of the general principle which
demands of the functions of the body to subserve the attainment of
self-sanctification. But we must now speak precisely of this
sanctification, to point out briefly in what it consists. From the
Divine prescript, "Sanctify yourselves because I am holy," we clearly
conclude that the type of sanctification is to be sought, not in
ourselves, but in God; therefore, to sanctify ourselves is to shape our
own acts and will upon the known will of God; to be fully penetrated
with the idea of Him; to hold steadfastly to Him; to take Him for a
guide in the walks of life; to make Him the goal of our actions and the
centre of our hopes; to devote our solicitude to the accomplishment of
the high designs of His eternal wisdom; to perform whatever is agreeable
to Him; to imitate, as far as possible, His perfections; in short, so to
act, that what in Him is absolute may become in us subjective; and thus
the sanctity of God will produce man's own sanctification. Having
established this sovereign principle, revelation has accomplish