thereby to the profit of all the rest, each by being what it should be, by doing what it should do — in a word, by its own perfection, perfects the whole. So, too, by being and acting otherwise than it should, it injures itself and it injures the whole. Where brain or eye is diseased it ceases to live for the whole body, to be serviceable and helpful; it lives for itself, nay rather, it lives at the expense of the rest, seeking its own. It begins to seek its own exclusively, it ceases to co-operate with the rest, to bear their burdens, to sympathize with their joys and sorrows — it becomes selfish.
"Here, then, is the true altruism, the Christian conception of charity — to seek ourselves, our own things, for the sake of others; to seek others by seeking ourselves after His pattern who said: Propter eos sanctifico meipsum — 'For their sakes I sanctify Myself.' If we ourselves are what we ought to be, we shall be to others what we ought to be. And as the higher and more complex structures of the body are more widely and eminently useful to the rest, so those; who are themselves nearer to the perfection of our blessed Lord, the Head and Saviour of the Body, are so far nearer to Him in the depth and extent of their utility toward others. He, as the Head and Soul of the Body, is most intimate in His relation to the very least of the subject members; and the measure of His love for them is the measure of His own perfection and dignity — the measure, moreover, of that most just love which He bears toward Himself. For,
