Publisher's Synopsis
" All I have written seems chaff to me." Thus six months before his death spoke the greatest mind of the Middle Ages. He had up to this time lived a life full of labour, lecturing, writing, dictating, and praying; and now after having received a revelation he laid aside his pen and would write no more. His favourite disciple, with a directness characteristic of him, asked him why he would not write when he was in the midst of a great work; to which he simply replied, "I cannot." Being pressed still further he again said, " I cannot, for all that I have written seems chaff to me." This incident, well attested as it is, is so clearly sincere that no interpretation of it can rob it of its grandeur and pathos. The words were spoken by a man still only in his prime, as far as years go, but one whom incessant labour and devotion to a high cause had brought, at the age of forty nine, into the valley of the shadow. His name is one that all men of education profess to know. His fame is noised abroad scarcely less by those who ignorantly contemn, than by those who injudiciously worship him. But his life, his real concrete life, is still in many ways a closed book. For while one class of men look on him as a great intellect, and another as a great holiness, the human lines of Aquinas have been singularly neglected. His holiness and his greatness in the eyes of a critical generation will depend, not on the mysteries of his extraordinary raptures, but on the way in which he a man bore himself in the jostle of life with men. If this has not been overlooked by his many biographers it has, for the most part, been undervalued, and it is fitting that in this age, which bears some resemblance to the Renaissance in the re-discovery of the enduring masterpieces of olden time either from neglect or undiscerning attention, some attempt should be made to show Aquinas to the world, not as a saint on a pedestal or a statue above the rostrum, but as one faring in the road of life and faring manfully. This work contains: OFFICE OF CORPUS CHRISTI THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER THE NATURE OF TRUTH DETERMISISM Os GRACE CHARITY ASD FRIESDSHIP RELIGIOS ASD HOLISESS THE SERVICE OF GOD PURITY THE SAISTS THE INCARNATIOS Os FAITH THE TEACHINGS OF PHILOSOPHY ASD FAITH. SUPERSTITION PAPAL POWER THE VIRGIN MARY THE RELATIONS OF MATTER ASD FORM PRIMARY MATTER FORM ASD NATURE OF UNITY OF FORM THE SOUL OF GOD CONTEMPLATION THOUGHT, MEDITATION, AND CONTEMPLATION THE MODE OF CREATION THE INTELLECT AND KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE AND THE SENSES SENSE AND UNDERSTANDING THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNANCE MORALITY OF BUYING ASD SELLING USURY NATIONALITY AND THE STATE THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY FAVOURITISM DUTY OF A CITIZEN IN REGARD TO KNOWN CRIME THE COMMON GOOD WAR THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR FRIENDSHIP HABITS THE SCOPE OF NATURAL SCIENCE SEMI!; AL CAUSES. THE ELEMENTS NATURAL SELECTION AND PURPOSE ACTION THROUGH A MEDIUM PLANTS AND SEX WEIGHT AND DENSITY ACCIDIA WOMAN BEAUTY PERFECTION AND MARRIAGE. LANGUAGE THE USE OF ANIMALS SIMONY SCANDAL WHETHER WE ALWAYS WISH FOR WHAT IS GOOD LETTER OF SAINT THOMAS NON-BAPTISED INFANTS AND THE VISION OF GOD APPENDIX
