self-sacrifice: the fountain furnishes its own supplies. Thus are
harmonized the two contrary tendencies of the heart of man. "It is more
blessed to give than to receive;" words these, of Jesus Christ, which,
forgotten by the Evangelists, have been recorded by the Apostle St.
Paul. And since the thought is a beautiful one, it has adorned the
strains of the poets: says Lamartine--


Dost thou happiness resign
To another? It is thine--
Larger for the largess--still![178]


And Victor Hugo, personifying Charity, makes her speak as follows:


Dear to every man that lives,
Joy I bring to him who gives,
Joy I leave with him who takes.[179]


And because this thought is profound as well as beautiful, it has been
taken up by the philosophers. "To love," said Leibnitz, "is to place
one's happiness in the happiness of another." Here is the connecting
link between Platonic love and the love which is charity. Hear how a
Christian orator comments upon these words:--"This sublime definition
has no need of explanations: it is either understood at once, or it is
not understood. The man who has loved understands it; and he who has not
loved will never understand it. He who has loved knows that a shadow in
the heart of the beloved one would darken his own: he knows that he