* Beatitudo accidentalis, proprie et generatim loquendo, est quaelibet beati perfectio supernaturalis quae versatur circa aliquid quod est extra objectum beatificum, prout beatificum est.... Quia nulla est essentia creata quae non egeat aliquo accidente ad consummationem suae perfectionis. Essentialis autem beatitudo est quid creatum; ergo ornatur accidentibus. Et sicut essentialis beatitudo consistit in operatione, ita et haec accidentalis. Jam vero, istius accidentalis beatitudinis causa, seu praemii accidentalis meritum provenit ex bonis operibus, quae dum merentur praemium seu beatitudinem essentialem, etiam simul merentur accidentalem tamquam proprietatem in essentiali radicaliter contentam.... Ita qui meretur beatitudinem essentialem, simul meretur accidentalem, et utramque per modem unius praemii.--Suarez. de Beat. disput. 11. Nevertheless, though this accidental glory comes to the blessed from creatures, it is radically contained in the essential, and is given with the essential as one reward, and not as two. For there are not two beatitudes in heaven. There is only one, which comprises both the essential and the accidental. It is true, we make a distinction between them, because the one comes immediately from God, while the other comes from creatures. But it does not, in the hast, follow that this last is of little use or to be despised. Considering the needs of our nature, which is not destroyed, but perfected in heaven, accidental glory is necessary to perfect and complete the blessedness of God's children, and to gratify every rational craving of human nature. Thus the crown of the virgins--who sing a canticle that no one else can sing, and who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth--is a mere accidental glory; and yet it is one so much prized that many have given life itself, amidst the most cruel torments, in order to enjoy it. Thus again, our social intercourse with the saints, and the pure joys resulting therefrom, the meeting of our kindred and friends in heaven, the ravishing music which resounds through the vaults of heaven, the pleasures of the glorified senses these and a thousand other joys are the accidental beatitude with which God perfects and completes the happiness of the whole man. The third error which we shall now examine flows naturally from the mistaken and exclusive views which some persons take of the Beatific Vision. They imagine that the vision of God will so completely absorb and monopolize every faculty of man, that, practically, he will become motionless and inactive as a statue. There can be no greater mistake. It is true that our union with God, in the Beatific Vision, is happiness and joy, greater than mortal man can conceive; but it by no means follows that it will hinder the free exercise of our mental faculties, or the activities of our glorified bodies. Indeed, the very reverse will take place; for glory does not destroy nature, but perfects it.