of this world could never make
any man perfectly happy, so neither could the perfect knowledge of
every creature perfectly satisfy his cravings after knowledge. The
one is as finite as the other, and consequently neither could do that
for which the infinite alone is sufficient.

Yet this is not all. Not only is the full knowledge of the whole
natural order incapable of satisfying man's desire for knowledge; but
not even all the knowledge of God, and of the supernatural order, so
far as they can be known in this world by faith and theology, ever
did or ever could make a man say, It is enough; I ask for no more.
Indeed, the very reverse takes place. For if there be any knowledge
that intensifies thirst for more, it is precisely the imperfect
knowledge of God we have by faith and the contemplation of Him in his
creatures.

Theologians have studied and learned much; they have thrown much
light on the dark mysteries of revelation; yet what they know is only
as a drop in the boundless ocean of God's unfathomable being. With
all the vast knowledge of God which they have acquired, they are
still constrained to cry out with St. Paul: "Oh, the depth of the
riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible
are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!"* Do what we may,
read the Holy Scriptures, study, pray, meditate; we never can see and
know God as He is, so long as we remain pilgrims in this world. The
saying of St. Paul will ever remain true: "We now see thorough a
glass in a dark manner;"+ that is, imperfectly and unsatisfactorily.

* Rom. xi. 13. + 1 Cor. xiii. 12,

In the original Greek, St. Paul uses the word mirror, which is also
the word used in the Latin Vulgate, "per speculum;" that is, by means
of a mirror. The meaning, therefore, of St. Paul is not that we see
through a glass by transmitted light, as when we look through a
telescope, but as when we see an image reflected in a mirror. Let us
suppose a man so circumstanced in this world that he has never seen
the sun, nor his light, except as reflected in the moon. He has heard
of his immense size, and his bewildering distance from us; of his
dazzling splendor, and keen, life-imparting power, whereby he gives
life, growth, and beauty to every living thing. To this man, the moon
is a mirror wherein the sun is imperfectly reflected; and, through he
is unable to see the sun himself, he judges from the splendor and
beauty of the moon that he mu