of creatures depends upon the degree of development and perfection in
our receiving faculties. So it is in heaven, among the blessed. They
all see and possess God; they all love and enjoy Him; but it by no
means follows that they all enjoy the same amount of happiness from
that blessed vision. And why so? Because each one sees and enjoys
only in proportion to his individual development and elevation of
mind--which is given to him by the Light of glory. And, as that
blessed Light is given to each one according to his own personal
merits, it follows that each one sees and enjoys God in proportion to
the holiness of the life he lived while upon earth.

Hence, they who have practised virtue in a heroic degree--they who
have sacrificed the pleasures of this world, honors, wealth, and even
life itself, for God, possess the highest elevation of mind, and,
consequently, the highest degree of enjoyment. They possess the most
intense and perfect vision of the Divine Essence; they soar higher,
and penetrate more deeply into the unfathomable being of God. They
see more of the divine beauty, wisdom, goodness, and other
perfections of God, and partake more largely of the Divine Nature. In
a word, their higher elevation of mind, by a more intense Light of
glory, is to them the source of the highest and most perfect
enjoyment in the Beatific Vision; while persons of very inferior
virtue, though perfectly happy too, enjoy a vastly inferior degree of
blessedness.

But this is not all. We have seen, in a former chapter, that the
Beatific Vision does not consist in merely gazing upon the surpassing
beauty of God; and that the mere sight of Him, if it could be
separated from the possession of him, could not make any one happy.
Wherefore, the sight of God includes the possession of Him. It
includes, moreover, the intense love to which that vision gives
birth, as well as the consequent enjoyment of Him. Now, it is evident
that a more intense light of glory, or a greater elevation of the
mind, inflames the soul with a more intense love or God. For, it not
only reveals to her more of His surpassing beauty, but it also
reveals more of His unspeakable love for her; and her love for Him
becomes greater in proportion. And the greater the love between the
soul and God, the more perfect and complete also is the union
existing between them, and, consequently, the higher is the happiness
enjoyed by the soul.

Thus it is that all the blessed see,