would have annihilated it
if it had rejected it and separated it from itself, as it kept itself apart
from the body! What prayers for its preservation in it! And with what
submission would it allow itself to be governed by the will which rules the
body, even to consenting, if necessary, to be cut off, or it would lose its
character as member! For every member must be quite willing to perish for
the body, for which alone the whole is.

477. It is false that we are worthy of the love of others; it is unfair that
we should desire it. If we were born reasonable and impartial, knowing
ourselves and others, we should not give this bias to our will. However, we
are born with it; therefore born unjust, for all tends to self. This is
contrary to all order. We must consider the general good; and the propensity
to self is the beginning of all disorder, in war, in politics, in economy,
and in the particular body of man. The will is therefore depraved.

If the members of natural and civil communities tend towards the weal of the
body, the communities themselves ought to look to another more general body
of which they are members. We ought, therefore, to look to the whole. We
are, therefore, born unjust and depraved.

478. When we want to think of God, is there nothing which turns us away, and
tempts us to think of something else? All this is bad, and is born in us.

479. If there is a God, we must love Him only and not the creatures of a
day. The reasoning of the ungodly in the Book of Wisdom is only based upon
the nonexistence of God. "On that supposition," say they, "let us take
delight in the creatures." That is the worst that can happen. But if there
were a God to love, they would not have come to this conclusion, but to
quite the contrary. And this is the conclusion of the wise: "There is a God;
let us therefore not take delight in the creatures."

Therefore all that incites us to attach ourselves to the creatures is bad;
since it p