"From the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness therein: wounds, and bruises, and swelling sores; they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil" (Isa. i. 6). Every faculty and sense and department of human life is affected by a propension to its misuse, arising from the disturbance of equilibrium by the Original Sin. There is now a double impulse in man drawing him different ways, upwards to the supernatural, and downwards to the merely natural level of life. The eyes, the tongue, the limbs, the nutritive, procreative, and nervous systems all tend towards excessive activity. The desires and fears, the impulses and acquisitions for self-preservation tend towards what is false and flattering and gratifying to sense, rather than to that which is noblest, purest, highest, and most beneficial to the larger number. How corrupt is human nature! How miserable is the state of man, so different from that of all other creatures, who maintain the due order of nature and accomplish their functions without failure! What a burden we carry about with us! Aspire to that time of purification, happiness and freedom, when you will be delivered from this servitude of corruption, when you will no longer be obliged to watch every movement for the symptoms of disease, when you will no more be in danger of offending God and losing your soul.
