Similar to your final paragraph and the quote by Aquinas:
“There is a point at which the world of spirit comes into conscious contact with the world of matter. That point is man. It is surely rational to suppose that the world of thought and of spiritual values, on the threshold of which man has consciousness of standing, is a real world, an order no less great than the material order, and that it is in this alone that we shall find a solution to the otherwise hopeless conflict of man's spiritual aspirations and the limitations of his material existence."
"The apes which bear the greatest resemblance to man in bodily form are stupid and without intelligence, and seem to have been created in order that we may see what would have been if God had not breathed into him an immortal soul" (The CC Explained pg.109)
The longing of the immortal soul for eternal happiness: "Man has a longing after a perfect and lasting happiness. This longing is common to all men, and is implanted in them by their Creator. Such happiness can never be attained in this world-and therefore if man possessed the desire for it, without any hope of it's being satisfied, he would be more unfortunate than the brutes who have no such desire, and God, in implanting it in his breast would be, not good, but cruel" (The CC Explained pg.112)
Similar to your final paragraph and the quote by Aquinas:
“There is a point at which the world of spirit comes into conscious contact with the world of matter. That point is man. It is surely rational to suppose that the world of thought and of spiritual values, on the threshold of which man has consciousness of standing, is a real world, an order no less great than the material order, and that it is in this alone that we shall find a solution to the otherwise hopeless conflict of man's spiritual aspirations and the limitations of his material existence."
~Christopher H. Dawson
"The apes which bear the greatest resemblance to man in bodily form are stupid and without intelligence, and seem to have been created in order that we may see what would have been if God had not breathed into him an immortal soul" (The CC Explained pg.109)
The longing of the immortal soul for eternal happiness: "Man has a longing after a perfect and lasting happiness. This longing is common to all men, and is implanted in them by their Creator. Such happiness can never be attained in this world-and therefore if man possessed the desire for it, without any hope of it's being satisfied, he would be more unfortunate than the brutes who have no such desire, and God, in implanting it in his breast would be, not good, but cruel" (The CC Explained pg.112)