he highest, the most rational
and satisfying which man can enjoy; because they are produced by the
exercise of the intellect, which is the noblest faculty of the soul.

Men of highly cultivated minds, such as theologians, philosophers,
astronomers, mathematicians, and literary men, separate themselves
from the world and its pleasures; they spend the day, and a great
part of the night, in study, in the contemplation of the truth; they
even forget to eat and drink, and must be compelled by their friends
to attend to the necessities of nature. Many of them have completely
ruined their health by study; and some of them, as Democritus the
philosopher, are reported to have even plucked out their eyes, that
they might have less distraction, and thereby be enabled to meditate
more profoundly upon the truths of their respective sciences. Now, I
ask, is it in our nature to go through such terrible self-denials
without compensation? Surely it is not. Therefore, the natural
inference is that knowledge is a source of the most exquisite
pleasures.

If it is so, in this world, where the curse of sin has darkened the
mind, and where knowledge is so limited, and so mingled with error
and doubt, what shall we say of those pleasures in heaven? There the
intellect of man receives a supernatural light; it is elevated far
above itself by the light of glory; it is purified, strengthened,
enlarged, and enabled to see God as He is in His very essence. It is
enabled to contemplate, face to face, Him who is the first essential
Truth. It gazes undazzled upon the first infinite beauty, wisdom, and
goodness, from whom flow all limited wisdom, beauty, and goodness
found in creatures. Who can fathom the exquisite pleasures of the
human intellect when it thus sees all truth as it is in itself? This
is one of heaven's secrets which we shall never fully understand,
except when united to God in the Beatific Vision. Nevertheless, if
ever we have enjoyed the pleasures produced by the perusal of a
highly intellectual work, or felt the irresistible fascinations of
some favorite science, we can, it seems, form some distant conception
of intellectual pleasures in heaven.

4. The life of heaven is also one of love. As we have seen before,
man cannot rest satisfied with the mere contemplation of truth and
beauty, however pleasurable and satisfying such a contemplation may
be. His will immediately seizes upon the truth and beauty presented
by the intellect, an