Chapter 8
The Perfecting Of Person
And The Perfecting Of Nature
851. All the powers forming part of an individual constitute the individual's nature, but the individual's person is constituted by the most noble power and highest active principle, that is, the rational power.
852. Nature, therefore, can be said to increase in perfection every time the powers it contains are perfected. But we cannot say that person is perfected unless the highest and noblest of the active principles present in the individual where person resides is increased and perfected.
853. It is this difference between the perfecting of nature and the perfecting of person that makes many err in their judgments and speculation about movement towards human perfection. People sometimes show enthusiasm for things which perfect human nature but do not improve the human person. This is an illusion which draws human beings to boast about things which are not their own.
This discussion deserves further development because it offers a key to the explanation of a great many facts about humanity, and presents true criteria for appraising the different states of the human race and the different kinds and levels of civilization. Under its guidance we ultimately come to know how morality alone perfects human beings as persons. However, such a development would take me too far out of my way. It is sufficient to have indicated a principle whose consequences and applications I will show more appropriately elsewhere.