Man is a finite real being endowed with the intuition of the essence of being, which has no bounds. By means of this intuition man is fitted to know every being, in such wise, however, that he has the power to will and love, or not to will and love, the beings which he knows. It is this faculty that enables him to act morally; for moral good consists "in willing and loving the essence of being, and therefore the whole of being without any exclusion whatever." Now, if the nature of moral good requires that the whole of being should be willed and loved, it manifestly requires also that each particular being should be loved in proportion to the degree in which it partakes of the essence of being.
This proportionate distribution of our appreciation and love constitutes the sum of our moral duties; and the more we maintain and love it, the more perfect we are.
Bl. Antonio Rosmini, Theodicy, volume 2, pp. 214-215.
