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WE now come to a consideration of the four
cardinal virtues.
These are acquired moral virtues, and are found to adorn the lives of noble pagans.
They are also infused virtues, in so far as the actions, which they dictate, are done in conscious obedience to the will of
God and are designed for His honour and glory.
In the ordinary living of everyday life the three theological virtues find their expression in the practice of the four
cardinal virtues.
Because we believe in the righteousness of God, and hope for the coming of His Kingdom from which all wrongs and injustice are
banished and love the holy goodness of His will, we discipline our passions to His service by fortitude and temperance, we
eschew all injustice, as befits those who would be members of His Kingdom, and we regulate all our actions by that prudence which
teaches us how to obey His will.
Fortitude and temperance control the passions.
Justice regulates our dealings with our fellow men.
Prudence harmonises the virtues with each other and directs all our actions along the paths of righteousness, enabling us to
have a right judgment, and to know what things we ought to do.
We shall treat them in that order.
Fortitude is the virtue that, in the face
of the greatest evils, restrains the passions of fear and confidence within the bounds of right reason.
In one sense fortitude is an element in every virtue; for every virtue implies
that its possessor performs the work of that virtue firmly and consistently, undeterred by any fears. In this sense there is no
special virtue of fortitude, but it is a condition of them all. But in another and restricted sense fortitude means firmness in
meeting and enduring very severe dangers, particularly such dangers as are most potent to weaken a man's resolution and to
dissuade him from right action.
In this sense fortitude is a special virtue; it is the virtue of courage in adversity.
By means of this virtue a man is enabled to control fear.
In the face of pressing dangers the emotion of fear is strong to influence the will to cease from those actions that create the
dangers.
Fortitude restrains the fear within reasonable limits.
It is also the work of fortitude to restrain the impulse to attack.
Though dangers and difficulties in the path of virtue must be faced and removed, yet in this caution has a proper place and it is
necessary to avoid foolhardiness and recklessness.
Thus fortitude is the virtue of the brave man who exhibits his bravery in a good cause.
The brave man resolutely faces dangers and does not allow himself to be diverted from his purpose by fears. He not only faces the
danger, but goes bravely to meet it and overcome it, yet not unthinkingly, but coolly and purposefully, restraining his
impulsiveness so as to be best able to achieve his end.
There are two sides to fortitude - to endure
manfully and to attack bravely.
Yet fortitude is more concerned with the former than the latter, if only because the former is more difficult. To be brave in
attack is fairly easy, because one is borne on by a sense of power - morale is high - and the dangers that threaten are
comparatively remote. And, so far as the control of bravery is concerned, that one shall not be reckless, those very dangers
themselves, though remote, act as a natural check. But the manful endurance of dangers through the control of fear is more
difficult. For here the threats are immediate and already felt, one is conscious of a sense of weakness in that one is being
attacked and not attacking, and the dangers, so far from helping to restrain fear as they restrain recklessness, increase the
fear. Fortitude,- therefore, is chiefly shown in the endurance of danger and difficulty. And so we customarily say that it is a
greater test of an army and a greater achievement that it fights well and stubbornly in retreat than that it is dashing in attack.
Fortitude is bravery in a good cause, because it is the particular task of fortitude to
maintain a man in the path of virtue, to prevent him from being dissuaded from right action by fear or over-confidence.
Fortitude is therefore, by definition, being brave for the sake of good.
The criminal who is brave in carrying out his crimes or in enduring torture rather than reveal where he has hidden his plunder
does not exhibit the virtue of fortitude. The invalid who bravely endures pain without complaint, not because he will not allow
pain to lead him into the sins of selfishness and self-pity but out of a stoical fatalism or indifference, does not exhibit
fortitude.
The dangers with which fortitude is concerned are especially dangers of death.
For we are concerned with a virtue, a perfection.
We should not call a man perfectly brave who was brave in the face of some danger but not in the face of other greater ones.
And the greatest danger to which we are naturally exposed, the one that naturally excites the greatest fear, is the danger of
death.
The chief and particular object of fortitude, therefore, is the fear that arises from a mortal danger. It is the act of fortitude,
of a truly brave man, to control that fear in the interests of goodness, so that a man will face even death to attain some good
end. But not all mortal dangers arise because of our seeking some good end; many arise, as it were, accidentally, and the brave
facing of them is not fortitude, strictly speaking, though it may be relatively. For example, a man may be in mortal danger from
illness, or from a storm at sea, or from an attack of bandits. His resolute facing of these dangers is not necessarily an act of
fortitude, for he is not necessarily pursuing some good end in facing them, and persisting in the pursuit of that end in spite
of them. He may merely face them to save his life, because he cannot escape from them. Yet such dangers may be the object of
fortitude relatively, if they are deliberately incurred in the pursuit of some good end - for instance, if. a man undertakes a
dangerous journey bent on an errand of mercy. The dangers which then actually befall him and which he bravely meets are incurred
precisely because of his determination to perform this good work and his refusal to allow himself to be persuaded by fears of the
dangers of the journey.
This is fortitude.
But fortitude is chiefly and particularly shown in the endurance of mortal dangers arising inevitably and immediately from the resolution to perform some good action. Thus those who take part in a just war, and expose themselves to the mortal dangers of battle precisely because they will not shrink through fear from defending their country and preventing injustice, show fortitude. So also do they who as private individuals persist in some upright course although threatened with death. For example, a judge who refuses to give an unjust sentence in spite of the threatening letters he receives; a policeman who refuses to stop his enquiries although he knows he is on the track of an extremely dangerous criminal; a girl who refuses to allow a man to have sexual intercourse with her although he threatens otherwise to kill her.
The most conspicuous act of fortitude is martyrdom.
A martyr is one who submits to death rather than deny the faith or do what he knows to be wrong. He therefore exhibits fortitude
in its clearest and most perfect form. It is for this reason that no one can be a martyr, strictly speaking, unless he is actually
put to death. For a martyr is so called because he is a "witness" to the Christian faith, which he displays by showing
himself willing to give up and to despise all earthly visible things in order that he may attain to the eternal and heavenly
blessings. But as long as a man still lives, he has not yet shown that he prefers the things of Heaven to everything. It is not
uncommon for men to give up possessions, to betray their families, and to suffer extreme bodily pain, if thereby they may save
their lives. It is only when a man gives up life itself that he effectively shows that he despises all earthly things in
comparison with Heaven. Willingness to undergo martyrdom, however great honour it deserves, does not constitute martyrdom
itself.
Because martyrdom is an act of fortitude it requires for its existence certain other conditions. First, the death must be suffered in the cause of faith, either because the martyr will not explicitly and directly deny his faith or because he refuses to perform an action that is contrary to the implications of his faith. In the words of St. Thomas (II, 11, quaest. cxxiv, art. 5), "Martyrs are called witnesses, as it were, because by their bodily sufferings they bear witness to the truth unto death; not to any truth, but to the truth which is according to godliness, the truth which is revealed to us through Christ. And so the martyrs of Christ are called His witnesses. This is the truth of the faith. And therefore the cause of every martyrdom is the truth of the faith. But the truth of the faith involves not only the actual believing in the heart, but also an external confession. And confession is made not only with words, as when one says the Creed, but also with deeds by which a man shows that he has the faith. So, for example, in St. James ii, 18, 'I will show you my faith by my works'. ... And so all virtuous acts which are done for God's sake are a kind of profession of the faith which has revealed to us that God demands such acts from us and rewards us for them. In this way such acts can be the cause of martyrdom. Hence it is that St. John Baptist is counted a martyr by the Church although he suffered death not because he would not deny the faith, but because he would rebuke adultery." Thus a man may be a martyr who suffers death for any good action done for the love of God. St. Thomas a Becket is a martyr fears none and desires nothing that they can give him. On the contrary, by the wisdom of his counsel and the purity and nobility of his purpose he is able to be of great assistance to many, high and low, rich and poor, whilst he himself stands in need of little help from anyone.
It is clear that the magnanimous man, and he who sets out to acquire magnanimity, is exposed to many pitfalls. He may fall a victim to presumption, trying to do things that are beyond his power. As when a man presumes to accept high office in Church or State when he is totally unfitted for it. It is one thing to aspire to the best, it is another to neglect what is safe and certain in order to embrace what is more than one can compass. No doubt it is a great and honourable thing to be able to spend long periods in meditation and contemplative prayer. It is presumption to abandon the simpler and tried practices of prayer, and to try to imitate the mystic, without the mystic's special endowment and long period of training and discipline.
The magnanimous man aspires to the true honour that is accorded to virtue. It is fatally easy for him to come to covet the honour more than the virtue, to desire to stand well with men rather than with God. Thus he falls a victim to ambition, the vice whereby men seek honour from their fellows at all costs, and are pleased and contented when they are honoured above their deserts; from this they are led to vanity and boasting. Under the guise of magnanimity, of aspiring always for the best, they covet cheap honours and distinctions. They are always anxious to "shine", and prefer the society of less gifted persons so that they themselves may appear by comparison better than they are. In other words, they are eager for an admiration and praise which either they do not deserve or which is of little value, or which has no other motive but their own gratification.
Presumption, ambition and vainglory are all forms of pride. Pride is the especial danger of the magnanimous. Yet true magnanimity is akin to humility. For the magnanimous man strives to practise virtue in the highest possible degree in order to be honoured by God. In consequence he is ever judging himself as in the eyes of God, not in comparison with his fellow men. Having a true judgment of himself, he recognises that all his virtues are themselves the gift of God. This is the heart of humility. He does not exalt himself, neither does he despise his fellows. He honours God, and he honours his fellows as God's creatures. He honours every man truly in proportion as he finds him honourable in the sight of God. He rightly and properly honours and prefers good men above bad men. But he is not thereby proud, because he knows that both he and they owe what goodness they possess to God; the evil, which they share with evil men, is of themselves.
It is the virtue of magnanimity that it will not let a man rest content with the evil that is in him. It drives him to seek ever more and more goodness, to aspire towards the best, and in the power of that aspiration to face and overcome all difficulties and dangers. Such aspiration is closely akin to the theological virtue of hope. For this noble aspiration is justified and cleared of any taint of presumption by the magnanimous man's reliance on the power of God to aid him.
If resolute aspiration is an essential element in fortitude on its positive and aggressive side, brave patient endurance of difficulty and misfortune is equally essential on its passive side. In one sense, that of enduring the fear of death, patience is actually an integral part of fortitude. When a man is directly threatened with death unless he will deny the faith or desist from virtue, his will is assailed by a passionate longing for life and a deep powerful sadness at the thought of death. It is by patience that he controls and moderates this emotion and prevents it from turning him aside from his purpose. It is easier to die a martyr's death, if the death be sudden and quick. Time for reflection is time for weakness. Patience endures and overcomes the temptations arising from sadness. But there is a wider sense of patience in which it covers the endurance of every sort of evil and misfortune, and not only those that are immediately connected with dying. In this sense it is not a part of fortitude itself, but an ancillary virtue, which tends to build up and foster fortitude.
It is the quality of patience to endure afflictions without resentment or self-pity, and without uttering complaints. It so controls the emotions that arise from pain as to create a serenity of mind in the very midst of suffering. As it is sometimes displayed, for example, by the blind or by permanent invalids, it is a manifestly heroic virtue, from which none can withhold admiration.
The patient man so bears his afflictions as never to succumb to them. He will not on their account become fretful, nor despair of God's goodness, nor give up such positive acts of virtue as are possible to him. If he cannot work for others, he will pray for them. The root of his virtue is to be found in love for God. Most men will endure present bodily pain for the sake of future bodily comfort, as a man with the toothache will submit to the dentist's drill. And most men will endure unavoidable privation or suffering with resignation, because "it can't be helped" and "one must make the best of it". But patience is much more than this. It is not only endurance, but also acceptance. It endures suffering patiently for the sake of God, lest by impatience a man should fall into the sin of selfishness and weakness. It is not merely resigned to the inevitability of its suffering, it turns the suffering into occasions of good. It achieves a quality of active joy that is lacking in the merely resigned. And this quality is of God. Thus the patient man so triumphs over, so moderates his emotion of pain, that he is not absorbed in it, never complains of it to others and even rejoices that he is counted worthy to be thus tempted and to suffer. It is manifest that patience thus conceived is not acquired by human striving; it is the gift of God Who causes us to love Him. Yet it is freely given to all those who ask and seek. This we may do by reflecting constantly on the patience of God Who so endures the contradictions of sinners, and by often considering how necessary patience is to the Christian life. For impatience of the ordinary misfortunes of life, both great and small, is the root of many sins. It causes us to despair and to blaspheme; it makes us so easily give up the good we are trying to do; it nurtures in us a sense of injustice and self-pity which gradually blinds us to the needs and claims of others, by so constantly harping on our own misfortune. And so it leads to sins against charity. Patience, however, if God will give it to us, enables us to pursue a steady course, and to imitate that serenity and detachment of which Christ has given us the perfect example.
Moreover, the exercise of patience in adversity is a striking witness to the power of faith, second only to martyrdom. For patience is the younger sister of fortitude, facing the lesser ills of life with the same fearlessness and courage as fortitude faces death.