[
{"source_document": "", "creation_year": 1731, "culture": " English\n", "content": "Produced by Heiko Evermann, Les Galloway and the Online\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n               Absolute Surrender to Divine Providence.\n                       REVISED AND CORRECTED BY\n              _Translated from the Eighth French Edition_\n                 NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, AND ST. LOUIS:\n                 _Printers to the Holy Apostolic See_.\n _18 Paternoster Row, London_.       _50 Upper O\u2019Connell St., Dublin_.\n[Illustration: Coat of Arms of Archbishop of New York]\n  Imprimatur,\n               \u2629 MICHAEL AUGUSTINE,\n                Copyright, 1887, by BENZIGER BROTHERS.\n      _FOUNDATION AND TRUE NATURE OF THE VIRTUE OF ABANDONMENT_,\n                      FATHER CAUSSADE\u2019S DOCTRINE.\nThere is no truth however clear which does not become error the moment\nit is lessened or exaggerated; and there is no food however salutary\nfor the soul which may not, when ill-applied, become a fatal poison.\nThe virtue of abandonment does not escape this danger; the more holy\nand profitable it is in itself the more serious are the dangers we risk\nby misunderstanding its just limits.\nThese dangers, unfortunately, are not mere possibilities. The\nseventeenth century witnessed the birth of a heresy,--that of the\nQuietists,--which, while claiming to teach its followers perfect\nabandonment to God, led them into the most terrible disorders. For a\ntime this sect wrought its ravages in the very capital of Catholicism,\nand put forth such specious sophistries that the pious F\u00e9nelon himself,\nwhile abhorring the practical consequences drawn from this teaching,\nwas for a time misled by its false appearance of perfection.\nTo preserve Father Caussade\u2019s readers from these dangers, we think it\nwell to add to these writings a succinct exposition of the rules which\nshould guide us in a matter so delicate. By the light of the principles\njointly furnished us by reason and faith, we shall have no difficulty\nin determining the just limits which should mark our abandonment to\ndivine Providence; and it will be easy for us afterwards to elucidate\nthe points in our author\u2019s doctrine which might be wrongly interpreted.\nI.\nFather Caussade explains very clearly in his \u201cLetters\u201d the two\nprinciples which form the unalterable basis of the virtue of\nabandonment.\nFirst principle: Nothing is done, nothing happens, either in the\nmaterial or in the moral world, which God has not foreseen from all\neternity, and which He has not willed, or at least permitted.\nSecond principle: God can will nothing, He can permit nothing, but in\nview of the end He proposed to Himself in creating the world; _i.e._,\nin view of His glory and the glory of the Man-God, Jesus Christ, His\nonly Son.\nTo these two principles laid down by our author we shall add a third,\nwhich will complete the elucidation of this whole subject: As long as\nman lives upon earth, God desires to be glorified through the happiness\nof this privileged creature; and consequently in God\u2019s designs the\ninterest of man\u2019s sanctification and happiness is inseparable from the\ninterest of the divine glory.\nIf we do not lose sight of these principles, which no Christian can\nquestion, we shall understand that our confidence in the Providence of\nour Father in heaven cannot be too great, too absolute, too childlike.\nIf nothing but what He permits happens, and if He can permit nothing\nbut what is for our happiness, then we have nothing to fear, except\nnot being sufficiently submissive to God. As long as we keep ourselves\nunited with Him and we walk after His designs, were all creatures to\nturn against us they could not harm us. He who relies upon God becomes\nby this very reliance as powerful and as invincible as God, and created\npowers can no more prevail against him than against God Himself.\nThis confidence in the fatherly providence of God cannot, evidently,\ndispense us from doing all that is in our power to accomplish His\ndesigns; but after having done all that depends upon our efforts we\nwill abandon ourselves completely to God for the rest.\nThis abandonment should extend, in fact, to everything--to the past, to\nthe present, to the future; to the body and all its conditions; to the\nsoul and all its miseries, as well as all its qualities; to blessings;\nto afflictions; to the good will of men, and to their malice; to the\nvicissitudes of the material, and the revolutions of the moral, world;\nto life and to death; to time and to eternity.\nHowever, as these different orders of things do not enter in the\nsame manner in the designs of divine Providence, neither should our\nabandonment in regard to these be practised in the same manner; and\nthe rules which we should follow in the practice of this virtue should\nbe founded on the nature itself of the objects which call it forth. We\nshall indicate the principal ones.\nI. Among all the dispositions to which our abandonment can be applied,\nthere are first, those which depend solely upon God, where human\nliberty has no part either in producing or averting them. Such are, for\nexample, certain scourges, and vicissitudes of the atmosphere; certain\naccidents impossible to foresee, certain natural defects of body or\nsoul.\nIn regard to facts of this order, whether of the past, present, or\nfuture, it is evident that our abandonment cannot be too absolute.\nThere is nothing to do here but to passively and lovingly endure all\nthat God sends us; to blindly accept in advance all that it may please\nHim to send us in the future. Resistance would be useless, and only\nserve to make us unhappy; a loving and frequently renewed acceptance,\non the contrary, would make these inevitable sufferings very\nmeritorious. And oh, the marvels of God\u2019s goodness! Our abandonment\nwill not only sanctify and fructify real trials; it will enable us to\nderive great merit from trials to which we shall never be subjected.\nFor, if we lovingly accept these trials when they present themselves to\nour minds as probable, or simply possible, this willing acquiescence,\nthis _fiat_ uttered in the depths of the heart, cannot fail to please\nGod, and be very useful to our souls. Therefore, in regard to this\nfirst order of events, the practice of abandonment cannot but be very\nsanctifying, as it changes into means of sanctification not only real\nbut even purely imaginary trials.\nII. There are other sufferings which come to us through the malice of\ncreatures: persecutions, calumnies, ill-treatment, neglect, injustice,\nand offences of every kind. What are we to do when we find ourselves\nexposed to vexatious things of this sort?\n1st. We evidently cannot like the offence against God with which they\nare accompanied; we should, on the contrary, deplore and detest it, not\nbecause it wounds our self-love, but because it is an offence against\nthe divine rights, and compromises the salvation of the offending souls.\n2d. As for that which concerns us, on the contrary, we should regard\nas a blessing that which is in itself an evil; and to do this we need\nonly recall the principles previously laid down: not to look only at\nthe creature who is the immediate cause of our sufferings, but to raise\nour eyes higher and behold God, who has foreseen and permitted them\nfrom all eternity, and who in permitting them had only our happiness in\nview. This thought will be sufficient to dissipate the bitterness and\ntrouble which would take possession of our hearts were we to look only\nat the injustice of which we are the victims.\n3d. In regard to the effects of this injustice already consummated\nand irreparable, we have only to resign ourselves as lovingly as\npossible, and carefully gather their precious fruits. It is frequently\nnot difficult to divine the spiritual fruits God destined for us\nin exposing us to temporal evils: to detach us from creatures; to\ndeliver us from inordinate affections, from our pride, from our\ntepidity,--veritable maladies of the soul, frequently all the more\ndangerous that they are less perceptible, and of which the heavenly\nPhysician wishes to cure us, using the malice of our neighbor as a\nsharp instrument. We do not hesitate to endure much greater sufferings\nto be delivered from corporal infirmities; then let us gratefully\naccept the spiritual health, infinitely more precious, which God offers\nus, however disagreeable the instrument through which He gives it to us.\n4th. If it is in our power to avert the consequences of malice and\ninjustice, and if in our true interest, and in the interest of the\ndivine glory, we deem it necessary to take any measures to this end,\nlet us do so without departing from the practice of the holy virtue of\nabandonment. Let us commit the success of our efforts to God, and be\nready to accept failure if God judges it more suitable to His designs\nand more profitable to our souls. We are so blind that we always have\nreason to fear being deceived; but God cannot be deceived, and we may\nbe certain, in advance, that what He determines will be best. Therefore\nwe cannot do better than abandon with fullest confidence the result of\nour efforts to Him.\nIII. But should this abandonment extend equally to our acts of\nimprudence, to our faults, and all the annoyances of every kind in\nwhich they may result?\nIt is important to distinguish here two things which self-love tends to\nconfound. In the fault itself we must distinguish what is culpable and\nwhat is humiliating. Likewise in its consequences we must distinguish\nwhat is detrimental to the divine glory and the confusion inflicted on\nour self-love. Evidently we cannot hate too much the fault, properly so\ncalled, nor regret too keenly the injury done to the divine glory. But\nas for our humiliation, and the confusion inflicted on our self-love,\nwe should rejoice, and acquiesce in it with complete abandonment.\nThis kind of sacrifice is undoubtedly the best fitted to destroy in\nus the most secret fibres of self-love, and to cause us to make rapid\nprogress in virtue. To souls who have attained a certain degree of\nregularity and detachment, exterior humiliations are very little. When\nwe have learned the vanity of human glory, we easily endure the sting\nof contempt; but we may still unite with this exterior detachment great\nattachment to our own esteem and approbation, and a wholly egotistical\ndesire of perfection. In this case, self-love, by changing its object,\nwould only become more subtle and more dangerous. To destroy it, there\nis no remedy more efficacious than the humiliation resulting from our\nfaults; and we cannot, consequently, strive too earnestly to apply the\npractice of abandonment to this humiliation, endeavoring at the same\ntime to correct the faults themselves.\nAnd what we say of faults of the past applies equally to faults of the\nfuture. The practice of abandonment well understood should deliver us\nfrom that impatience which makes us wish to at once attain the summit\nof perfection, and which only serves to keep us from it by turning us\nfrom the only path which leads to perfection. This path is humility,\nand the impatience which we are censuring is only another form of\npride. Let us make every effort to correct our faults; but let us be\nresigned to not seeing them all disappear in a day. Let us earnestly,\nand with the most filial confidence, ask God to grant us that decisive\ngrace which will completely wrest us from ourselves, to make us\nlive only in Him; but let us leave to Him, with an equally filial\nabandonment, the care of determining the day and hour in which this\ngrace shall be given us.\nWith still greater reason should we abandon to God the determining\nof the degree of sanctity which we shall attain upon earth, the\nextraordinary graces which will accompany this sanctity here below,\nand the glory with which it will be crowned in heaven. In as far as\nit depends upon us, we should leave nothing undone to increase this\nsanctity and this glory, in order not to fall short of the degree\nGod has marked for us; but if we must earnestly devote ourselves to\nrealizing His designs, we must not desire to have them other than they\nare. If our love for God is what it should be, we will thank Him for\nhaving granted other souls favors that He has refused us, and we will\npraise Him no less for our poverty than for our riches.\nIV. Should our abandonment go still farther? Should we, in view of\nthe hypothesis--perfectly possible, alas!--of our damnation, resign\nourselves thereto, and thus make to God the complete and absolute\nsacrifice of all our own interests?\nTo this point would F\u00e9nelon have carried the purity of love and the\nperfection of abandonment; and he did not lack plausible motives with\nwhich to support this doctrine. He drew from the example and the\nwritings of the Saints arguments still more specious to prove that God\nfrequently requires this complete sacrifice of elect souls; and that to\nobtain it He impresses them with an irresistible conviction of their\neternal loss. According to this great prelate, divine love is only\nperfect in souls who have gone through this trial without faltering,\nand who by a sacrifice have renounced, at least hypothetically, all\ntheir own interest, even that of their eternal salvation.\nBut the Church has condemned this doctrine which, in proposing to man a\nperfection contrary to his nature, reverses the order of God\u2019s designs.\nHow, in fact, can perfection consist in destroying the most essential\nlaw of our moral nature, viz., that irresistible inclination which\nleads us to seek our happiness? How could love of God require that we\nrob God of one of His attributes--the one which makes Him the supreme\nobject of our beatitude? How could one of the theological virtues\nbe contrary to another, and charity exclude hope? What is eternal\nhappiness if not the eternal reign of pure love? and how could the\npure love of time consist in excluding, even hypothetically, from our\ndesires the pure love of eternity?\nThat which perfect abandonment asks is that we observe in our desires\nthe order of God\u2019s designs. God created all things for His glory\nfirst; and secondly, but inseparably, for our happiness. Let us do as\nHe does: let us never separate the interest of His glory from that of\nour happiness, but let us always make the second subordinate to the\nfirst. Let us love God as the object of our beatitude, but let us love\nHim above all for His infinite goodness. Let us desire and hope for our\neternal happiness; but since this happiness, when we shall enjoy it,\nmust result from the love of God for Himself, let us begin now to seek\nit as it must be when we realize it, and refer the desire of it, as we\nwill one day refer its enjoyment, to the glory of this great God who\ndesires to be all in all things.\nThus, at one and the same time, we can practise charity and hope,\nseek the glory of God and our own happiness, fill the designs of our\nCreator, and satisfy the deepest and most imperative needs of our\nnature.\nThe saints did not do otherwise; and Father Caussade, in one of his\nletters, proves very clearly that the formulas of apparent despair that\nthey have sometimes used in the transports of their cruel sufferings\ncontained in reality acts of the most meritorious confidence. Elsewhere\nhe also shows most perfectly how ill-founded is this even hypothetic\nseparation between God\u2019s interests and our true interests; and he\njustly concludes therefrom that perfection cannot consist in supposing\nthis separation and sacrificing the interest of our eternal happiness\nto that of the divine glory.\nII.\nWe have no reason, therefore, to fear that in reading Father Caussade\u2019s\ntreatise we are liable to confound, at least in this respect, the\nabandonment he recommends with the Quietism condemned in F\u00e9nelon.\nIs our author equally irreproachable in all the other points of his\ndoctrine? Might he not be accused of turning his readers from duties\nwhich require labor and effort to keep them in an indolent repose?\nThere would be ground for this reproach if Father Caussade promised\nto give his readers a complete treatise on Christian and religious\nperfection; but this he does not do. He addresses himself to souls\nalready advanced in virtue and accustomed not only to faithfully\nfulfil the essential precepts of Christianity, but also to observe\nthe prescriptions of religious discipline. Like the young man in\nthe Gospel who from his youth had kept the commandments, and who\nbegged our Saviour to show him a higher perfection, these souls ask\nFather Caussade what they must do to sanctify themselves after having\naccomplished all the duties imposed upon their free will. The man\nof God answers them like our Saviour: If you would be perfect, rid\nyourself of all that may still cling to you of attachment to your\nown interests, your own ideas, your own will, and abandon yourself\ncompletely to God. Practise the virtue of abandonment; practise it so\nhabitually that it will become the constant state of your soul: thus\nyou will cease to live to yourself, to live only in God.\nThis is a summary of the book we are re-editing to-day. To understand\nit we must bear in mind, as we read it, the situation of the author,\nand that of the souls to whom his counsels are addressed; viz., that\nit is not, as we have already said, a complete treatise of Christian\nperfection which he has claimed to write; his only object was to set\nforth the advantages of a special virtue and a particular state. It is\ntrue that this virtue is one of the most essential bases of sanctity,\nand that this state is sanctity itself as far as it is attainable on\nearth. But it is no less true that Father Caussade had no idea whatever\nof telling all Christians what they should do to save their souls.\nTherefore it would be a serious mistake to believe ourselves dispensed\nfrom all duties of which he makes no mention, in order to devote\nourselves only to this great duty of abandonment, the importance of\nwhich he so justly and eloquently portrays.\nTo avoid this dangerous error, and reap all the profit of this true\nand very consoling doctrine of Father Caussade, it will be sufficient\nto cast a general glance over the divine economy in the salvation of\nsouls, and to see what place abandonment to divine Providence occupies\nin this great work.\nWe all know that sanctification is a work both divine and human. It is\ndivine through its immediate principle, the Holy Spirit; through its\nmeritorious cause, the Incarnation and the death of the Son of God;\nthrough its end, the happiness of the Holy Trinity, in which holy souls\nare to participate for all eternity; finally, through its chief means,\nthe teachings and the graces of Jesus Christ transmitted to men through\nthe Church.\nBut this work is human also, since the graces of the Holy Spirit, the\nmerits of the Son of God, the designs of the Holy Trinity, and all\nthe efforts of Providence can bear fruit in a soul only as far as she\nfreely co-operates with them.\nThis co-operation in our sanctification which God requires of us is\ncomposed of three parts.\nIt consists first of all in the destruction of everything in our\ncorrupt nature which is an obstacle to the divine action: sins, vices,\nsensible inclinations, defects, imperfections. This first labor is\nwhat the masters of the spiritual life call the _purgative way_. It\nis accomplished by examinations of conscience, works of penance and\nmortification, and the various practices in use in the Church.\nThe second part of the labor which God imposes on the soul desirous\nto attain sanctity is less painful, and easier. It is what is called\nthe _illuminative way_. The soul that God introduces therein exercises\nherself in producing the interior acts of virtue with which grace\ninspires her, and in practicing the good works to which this same grace\nimpels her.\nFinally, when the obstacles are removed and the soul\u2019s preparation\nis completed, God unites Himself to her, fills her with His grace,\ninflames her with His love, and uses her as a docile instrument for the\naccomplishment of His designs: this is the _unitive way_.\nBut let us not misapprehend this condition. Even in this perfect state\nin which God is fully master of His reasonable creature, He does not\nact in her without her co-operation; He requires of her great fidelity\nin avoiding the smallest faults, great vigilance over her affections,\ngreat generosity in denying herself in all things, great fervor in\nprayer. So far from dispensing her from the works of the illuminative\nway by which she prepared herself for the divine union, He causes her\nto accomplish them with greater perfection and merit.\nAmong these works common to the two ways of which we have just spoken,\nthere are some which are strictly of obligation, either because they\nare prescribed to all Christians by the commandments of God and\nthe Church, or because they are imposed on each one by the special\ncircumstances of his state. There are others which are simply of\ncounsel, or even purely of supererogation, and which each one embraces\naccording to his more or less ardent desire of sanctification. In the\nsame way, among the works of penance which form the purgative way there\nare some from which no one can dispense himself; but there are others\nwhich, without being of absolute necessity, are more or less useful, or\neven relatively necessary to certain souls, because of their particular\nposition, and the violence of the inclinations which impel them to\nevil.\nSuch is man\u2019s threefold part in the beginning, progress, and\nconsummation of the eminently divine work of sanctification--a part\nessentially active, and so necessary that without it God\u2019s part would\nbe hopelessly sterile. Father Caussade, however, says very little of\nit in his book. Does he doubt its immense importance and absolute\nnecessity? Far from it. On the contrary, in many passages he is careful\nto warn us that the _passiveness_ which he recommends to the soul in\nno way dispenses her from the very active accomplishment of all that\nis _duty_, whether general or special. He adds that the souls who walk\nin the ordinary ways should not dispense themselves from the practices\nof supererogation in use in the Church among pious persons, and from\nfollowing the rules traced by the masters of the spiritual life.\nEven upon persons who have reached the passive state he imposes the\nobligation of actively following the inspirations of grace when they\nlead to action, and of doing all to which they are impelled by grace.\nWhy, then, after making these reservations in some parts of his\nwork does he seem to forget them, to solely extol the advantages of\nabandonment to the divine action? We have already said why: because the\nsouls to whom he addressed himself, long exercised in the practice of\nactive virtue, had special need to perfect themselves in this passive\nabandonment.\nHow many such souls there are in religious communities, or even in\nthe midst of the world, who have no need to be urged to activity in\nthe pursuit of sanctity, but who, on the contrary, need above all\nthings to learn to let God act in them! Father Caussade addresses\nhimself specially to these souls. Had his book no other result than\nto enlighten them upon God\u2019s real designs concerning them, to deliver\nthem from their disquieting agitation in order to introduce them into\na broad and peaceful path, and enable them to find powerful means of\nsalvation in unfortuitous events which they regard as obstacles, we\nshould still believe that in offering this work to them we are doing\nthem an eminent service.\nBut the salutary teaching of this book is not limited to a special\nclass of persons. Though written specially for souls who have already\nattained a high degree of perfection, the doctrine it develops is\nsuited to all Christians. It makes it clear to all that if God does\nnot dispense them from laboring actively for their salvation, He takes\nupon Himself the greatest part of this work; that He unceasingly labors\nthereon; that He employs all creatures and all events to further it;\nand that if they will only permit Him to do His will,--without doing\nany more than they are doing, without suffering any more than they are\nsuffering, but only by recognizing and loving God\u2019s action in things\nwhich He obliges them to do and suffer, they will amass infinite merits\nand attain great perfection.\nThus Father Caussade does not suppress our active co-operation in the\nwork of our sanctification, but he teaches us to profit much better\nthan we do of God\u2019s part therein, by abandoning ourselves more to\nHim. In events where too frequently we see only misfortunes, because\nwe regard them as more or less reprehensible effects of the malice\nor the imperfection of creatures, he teaches us to see the divine\nlove using these same creatures as instruments either to correct our\nvices or to cause us to practise virtue. Therefore he changes the\nprincipal obstacles to the success of this great work into means of\nsanctification, and teaches us the art of changing creatures the most\nindifferent or the most hostile into powerful auxiliaries. With good\nreason does he desire to be able to inculcate this doctrine in men of\nall conditions; for there is no doubt that, if they understood it well,\nsanctity would seem to them much more attainable; and that, seeing\nGod laboring unceasingly upon this work, they would fulfil with much\ngreater courage the duties imposed upon their free will.\n  H. RAMI\u00c8RE, S.J.\nCONTENTS.\n  PREFACE BY REV. H. RAMI\u00c8RE, S.J.                 3\n  BOOK FIRST.\n  _OF THE NATURE AND EXCELLENCE OF THE\n  VIRTUE OF HOLY ABANDONMENT._\n  CHAPTER\n  I. The sanctity of the righteous of the Old Law,\n  and of Joseph and of Mary herself, consisted\n  in fidelity to the order of God                 31\n  II. The duties of each moment are the shadows\n  which veil the divine action                    33\n  III. How much easier sanctity becomes when\n  studied from this point of view                 36\n  IV. Perfection does not consist in knowing the\n  order of God, but in submitting to it           42\n  V. Reading and other exercises only sanctify us\n  in so far as they are the channels of the\n  VI. The mind and other human means are useful\n  only in so far as they are the instruments of\n  VII. There is no enduring peace but in submission\n  VIII. The perfection of souls and the excellence of\n  different states are in proportion to their conformity\n  IX. All the riches of grace are the fruit of purity of\n  heart and perfect self-abandonment              62\n  BOOK SECOND.\n  _THE DIVINE ACTION AND THE MANNER IN\n  WHICH IT UNCEASINGLY WORKS THE\n  SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS._\n  I. The divine action is everywhere and always\n  present, though only visible to the eye of\n  II. The divine action is all the more visible to the\n  eye of Faith when hidden under appearances\n  most repugnant to the senses                    74\n  III. The divine action offers us at each moment\n  infinite blessings which we receive in proportion\n  IV. God reveals Himself to us as mysteriously, as\n  adorably, and with as much reality in the\n  most ordinary events as in the great events of\n  history and the Holy Scriptures                 82\n  V. The divine action continues in our hearts the\n  revelation begun in Holy Scripture; but the\n  characters in which it is written will be only\n  VI. Divine love is communicated to us through\n  the veil of creatures, as Jesus communicates\n  Himself to us through the veil of the Eucharistic\n  VII. The divine action, the will of God, is as unworthily\n  treated and disregarded, in its daily\n  manifestation, by many Christians, as was\n  Jesus in the flesh by the Jews                  94\n  VIII. The revelation of the present moment is the\n  more profitable that it is addressed directly\n  IX. The revelation of the present moment is an inexhaustible\n  X. The present moment is the manifestation of the\n  name of God and the coming of His kingdom      101\n  XI. The divine will imparts the highest sanctity\n  to souls; they have but to abandon themselves\n  XII. The divine action alone can sanctify us, for\n  it forms us after the divine Model of our\n  BOOK THIRD.\n  _THE PATERNAL CARE WITH WHICH GOD\n  SURROUNDS SOULS WHOLLY ABANDONED\n  TO HIM._\n  I. God Himself guides souls who wholly abandon\n  II. The more God seems to withdraw light from\n  the soul abandoned to His direction, the more\n  III. The afflictions with which God visits the soul\n  are but loving artifices at which she will one\n  IV. The more God seems to take from a soul wholly\n  abandoned to Him, the more generous He is\n  V. The less capable the faithful soul is of defending\n  herself, the more powerfully does God\n  VI. The soul abandoned to the will of God, so far\n  from resisting its enemies, finds in them useful\n  VII. The soul that abandons itself to God has no\n  need to justify herself by words or actions;\n  the divine action abundantly justifies her     142\n  VIII. God gives life to the soul abandoned to Him\n  by means which apparently lead only to\n  IX. Love holds the place of all things to souls who\n  walk in the way of abandonment                 149\n  X. The faithful soul finds in submission to the will\n  of God more force and strength than the\n  proudest of those who resist Him               154\n  XI. The soul abandoned to God learns to recognize\n  His will, even in the proud who resist Him.\n  All creatures, whether good or evil, reveal\n  XII. God assures to faithful souls a glorious victory\n  over the powers of earth and hell              160\n  APPENDIX.\n  I. A very easy means of acquiring peace of heart,\n  II. On perfect abandonment, by Bossuet         172\n  III. A short and easy method of making the prayer\n  of faith, and of the simple presence of God,\n  IV. Exercise of loving union of our will with that\n  of God, by St. Francis de Sales                185\nBook First.\nThe Nature and Excellence of the Virtue of Holy Abandonment.\n_CHAPTER I._\n The Sanctity of the Righteous of the Old Law, and of Joseph and of\n Mary herself, consisted in Fidelity to the Order of God.\nGod speaks to-day as He spoke to our fathers, when directors were\nnot so numerous, nor methods of direction so well defined. All their\nspirituality consisted in simple fidelity to the order of God; but\nit was not reduced to a science which explained it so sublimely or\nminutely, or contained so many precepts, so many maxims, so much\ninstruction. Our present wants, no doubt, require this explanation. It\nwas not so in the first ages of the Church, when men were more simple\nand upright. Each moment brought a duty to be faithfully fulfilled:\nthis was sufficient for interior souls of that day. Their whole\nattention was concentrated simply upon the duty of each successive\nmoment with the fidelity of the hour-hand of a clock which steadily\ntraverses stroke by stroke the circle in which it is appointed to move.\nThe mind, unceasingly moved by divine grace, turned insensibly to the\nnew duty which presented itself in the order of God every hour. Such\nwere the hidden springs of Mary\u2019s life, the most perfect example of\nsimple and absolute self-abandonment to the will of God. The simple\nwords, _Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum_, with which she was content to\nanswer the angel, expressed all the mystic theology of the ancients.\nThen, as now, it was all reduced to the simplest and most absolute\nabandonment of the soul to the will of God under whatever form it\nmanifested itself. This noble and exalted disposition, the basis of\nall Mary\u2019s spirituality, is brilliantly manifested in the words _Fiat\nmihi_. Observe how perfectly they accord with those which our Lord\nwould have ever on our lips and in our hearts: _Fiat voluntas tua_.\nTrue, the duty required of Mary at that supreme moment was a glorious\none for her. But all the splendor of that glory would have made no\nimpression upon her if the divine will, alone capable of influencing\nher, had not arrested her attention. It was this divine will which\nguided her in everything. Her occupations, whether ordinary or exalted,\nwere in her eyes but shadows more or less obscure in which she found\nequal means of glorifying God and recognizing the workings of the\nAlmighty. She joyfully accepted the duty or suffering of each moment\nas a gift from Him who fills with good things the hearts which are\nnourished by Him alone, and not by appearances or created things.\n_CHAPTER II._\n The Duties of each Moment are the Shadows which veil the Divine Action.\n\u201c_The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee_,\u201d said the angel to\nMary.\nThis shadow, behind which the power of God effects the entrance and\ngrowth of Jesus Christ in our souls, is the form assumed by the duties,\nattractions, and crosses of each moment.\nThey are in truth but shadows like those to which we give the name in\nthe order of nature, and which envelop sensible objects and hide them\nfrom our view. Thus in the moral and supernatural order the duties\nof each moment under their obscure appearances conceal the truth of\nthe divine will, which alone merits our attention. Thus Mary regarded\nthem. Therefore these shadows passing before her senses, so far from\ndeceiving her, filled her with faith in Him who is always the same.\nWithdraw, Archangel; thy moment passes; thou vanishest. Mary passes\nbeyond thee; she is ever in advance; but the Holy Ghost, with whom she\nhas been filled through the sensible appearances of thy mission, will\nnever abandon her.\nThere are few extraordinary events in the exterior life of Mary. At\nleast it is not to these that Holy Scripture calls our attention.\nHer exterior life is represented as very simple, very ordinary. She\ndid and suffered as did others of her condition. She goes to visit\nher cousin Elizabeth: the other relatives go also. She retires to a\nstable: it is a consequence of her poverty. She returns to Nazareth:\nthe persecution of Herod had driven her forth. Jesus and Joseph lived\nthere with her, by the labor of their hands. Behold the daily bread of\nthe holy family! But with what bread was the faith of Mary and Joseph\nnourished? What was the sacrament of all their sacred moments? What\ndid they discover under the ordinary appearance of the events which\nfilled their lives? Exteriorly, nothing more than was happening to the\nrest of mankind; interiorly, faith discovers and develops nothing less\nthan God working great things. O bread of angels! Heavenly manna! Pearl\nof the Gospel! Sacrament of the present moment! Thou givest God under\nappearances as poor and mean as the manger, the hay, and the straw!\nBut to whom dost thou give Him? _Esurientes reples bonis._ God reveals\nHimself to the humble in little things; and the proud, regarding only\nthe exterior, find Him not even in great things.\n_CHAPTER III._\n How much Easier Sanctity becomes when studied from this Point of View.\nIf the work of our salvation offers obstacles apparently so\ninsurmountable, it is because we have not a just idea of it. In truth,\nsanctity consists in but one thing--fidelity to the order of God; and\nthis fidelity is equally within the reach of all, whether in its active\nor in its passive part.\nThe active part of fidelity consists in fulfilling the duties imposed\nupon us either by the general commands of God and the Church, or by the\nparticular state we have embraced.\nIts passive part consists in lovingly accepting all that God sends us\neach moment.\nWhich of these two parts of sanctity is above our strength? Not the\nactive part, since the duties it enjoins cease to be duties for us the\nmoment our strength is really unequal to them. Will not the state of\nyour health permit you to hear Mass? You are no longer obliged to do\nso. And so it is with all positive obligations which prescribe duties\nto be fulfilled. Only those precepts which forbid things evil in\nthemselves admit of no exception, for it is never permitted to do evil.\nIs there anything easier or more reasonable? What excuse can be urged\nagainst it? Yet this is all the co-operation God requires of the soul\nin the work of its sanctification.\nHe requires it of great and small, of strong and weak; in a word, of\nall, at all times, in all places.\nTherefore He only requires of us what is easy, since to attain eminent\nsanctity requires but a simple good-will.\nIf over and above the commandments He shows us the counsels as the more\nperfect end of our efforts, He is ever careful to accommodate their\nobservance to our position and character. As the chief mark of our\nvocation for the counsels He sends us the attractions and graces which\nfacilitate the practice of them. He urges no one but in proportion to\nhis strength and according to his attainments. Again I ask, what could\nbe more just?\nO you who aspire to perfection and are tempted to discouragement by\nwhat you read in the lives of the saints and find prescribed in certain\npious books! O you who are overwhelmed by the terrible ideas that you\nform of perfection! It is for your consolation that God permits that I\nwrite this.\nLearn what you seem not to know.\nIn the order of nature, necessary things, as air, water, earth, the God\nof all goodness has made common and easy of attainment. Nothing is more\nnecessary than breath, sleep, food, and nothing is more common. Love\nand fidelity are no less necessary in the spiritual order; therefore\nthe difficulty of acquiring them cannot be as great as you represent it\nto yourselves.\nObserve your life; of what does it consist? Of a multitude of\nunimportant actions. Yet with these same unimportant actions God deigns\nto be content. This is the co-operation required of the soul in the\nwork of its perfection. God Himself expresses it too clearly to admit\nof doubt: \u201cFear God, and keep His commandments: for this is all man\u201d\n(Eccles. xii. 13). That is to say, this is all that is required on\nman\u2019s part; in this consists his active fidelity. Let him fulfil his\npart; God will do the rest. Grace, working by itself, effects marvels\nwhich surpass the intelligence of man. For ear has not heard, eye has\nnot seen, heart has not felt, what God conceives in His mind, resolves\nin His will, executes by His power in souls wholly abandoned to Him.\nThe passive part of sanctity is still easier, since it consists in\naccepting what very often we cannot avoid, and bearing with love, that\nis, with consolation and sweetness, what we too frequently endure\nwith weariness and irritation. Again let me repeat, herein lies all\nsanctity. It is the grain of mustard-seed the fruits of which we do not\ngather, because we fail to recognize it in its littleness. It is the\ndrachma of the Gospel, the treasure which we do not find, do not seek,\nbecause we imagine it too far beyond us.\nAsk me not the secret of finding this treasure, for secret there is\nnone. This treasure is everywhere; it is offered to all, at all times,\nin all places.\nThrough creatures, friends, and enemies it flows plentifully; it\nflows over the faculties of our bodies, of our souls, and into the\nvery centre of our hearts. Let us but open our mouths and they will\nbe filled. The divine action floods the universe; it penetrates all\ncreatures; it floats above them, about them; it is ever present with\nthem; it precedes them; it accompanies them; it follows them, and they\nhave but to allow themselves to be borne onward on its tide.\nWould to God kings and their ministers, princes of the Church and of\nthe world, priests, soldiers, peasants, laborers, in a word, all men,\nknew how easily they can attain eminent sanctity! They have but to\nfulfil the simple duties of religion and their state in life, and bear\nwith submission the crosses these duties bring, and accept with faith\nand love the work and suffering which unsought and unceasingly come to\nthem through the order of Providence. This is the spirituality which\nsanctified the patriarchs and prophets before there were so many\nmethods and so many masters in the spiritual life.[1]\n [1] It would be a gross misapprehension of the author\u2019s words to\n suppose that he wishes to urge souls to enter the paths of the\n spiritual life without a director. He himself expressly states\n elsewhere that to be able to do without a director, one must have been\n long and skilfully directed. Still less does he wish to discourage\n the practices adopted by the Church for the extirpation of vice and\n the acquisition of virtue. What he desires to say, and what we cannot\n impress too much upon Christians, is that the first of all directions\n is the guidance of Providence, and that the most necessary and the\n most perfect of all practices is the faithful accomplishment and\n loving acceptance of all that this fatherly Providence sends us to do\n and suffer.\nThis is the spirituality of all ages and of all states, which cannot be\nmore surely sanctified, or in a manner more noble, more extraordinary,\nmore easy, than by the simple use of that which God, the Sovereign\nDirector of souls, gives them each moment to do or suffer.\n_CHAPTER IV._\n Perfection does not consist in knowing the Order of God, but in\n submitting to it.\nThe order of God, the good pleasure of God, the will of God, the action\nof God, the grace of God, all these are one and the same thing in this\nlife. It is God laboring to render the soul like unto Him. Perfection\nis nothing but the soul\u2019s faithful co-operation in this labor of\nGod. This work is silently effected in our souls, where it thrives,\nincreases, and is consummated unconsciously to ourselves.\nTheology is full of conceptions and expressions which explain the\nwonders of this work effected in individual souls according to their\ncapacity.\nWe may know all the theory of this work, admirably write and speak\nthereon, and instruct and direct souls; but if our knowledge be only\ntheoretical, then I say that in comparison with souls which live and\nact by the order of God and are guided by His divine will, though\nignorant of the theory of its operations or its different effects,\nand unable to speak thereof, we are like a sick physician compared to\nordinary persons in perfect health.\nThe order of God, His divine will, received with simplicity by a\nfaithful soul, effects this divine work in her unconsciously to\nherself, just as a remedy submissively taken restores the health of a\nsick man, although he have not, and need not have, any knowledge of\nmedicine.\nIt is the fire which warms us, and not the philosophical knowledge of\nthe element and its effects; so it is the order of God, His divine\nwill, and not the curious speculation on its principles and its\nmethods, which produces the sanctification of our souls.\nIf we thirst, we must drink; theoretical explanations will not quench\nour thirst. Curiosity for knowledge only makes us thirst still more.\nTherefore, if we thirst for sanctification, curious speculations only\nkeep us farther from it. We must abandon all theories and drink in\nsimplicity of all that the will of God sends us of work and suffering.\nThat which comes to us each moment by the order of God is best and\nholiest and most divine for us.\n_CHAPTER V._\n Reading and other Exercises only sanctify us in so far as they are the\n Channels of the Divine Action.\nAll our science consists in recognizing God\u2019s will in regard to the\npresent moment. All reading pursued in any other spirit than that of\nsubmission to the order of God is injurious. The will of God, the order\nof God, is the grace which works in the depths of our hearts by means\nof our readings and by all our other works. Without it our readings\nare but shadows, vain appearances, which, coming to us devoid of the\nvivifying virtue of the order of God, serve only to empty the heart by\nthe very plenitude they cause in the mind.\nThe virtue of this divine will flowing into the soul of a simple,\nignorant girl by means of suffering or ordinary actions, effects in\nthe depths of her heart this mysterious work of the supernatural Being\nwithout filling her mind with any idea likely to awaken pride; while\nthe proud man who studies spiritual books only through curiosity, and\ndoes not unite his reading to the will of God, receives into his mind\nthe letter without the spirit, and becomes colder and more hardened\nthan ever.\nThe order of God, His divine will, is the life of the soul under\nwhatever appearances the soul receives it or applies it to herself.\nWhatever may be the relation of the divine will to the mind, it\nnourishes the soul, and unceasingly strengthens her growth by giving\nher each moment what is best for her. Nor is one thing more efficacious\nthan another in producing these happy effects; no, it is simply the\nduty of the present moment which comes to us by the order of God. That\nwhich was best for us in the past moment is no longer best for us, for\nit is stripped of the will of God, which has passed on to other things\nfrom which it creates for us the duty of the present moment; and it is\nthis duty, under whatever appearance it is manifested, which will now\nmost perfectly sanctify our souls.\nIf the divine will make reading the duty of the present moment, the\nreading will effect His mysterious work in the depths of the soul. If,\nin obedience to the divine will, we leave the reading for the duty\nof contemplation, this duty will create the new man in the depths of\nthe heart, and reading would then be injurious and useless. If the\ndivine will withdraw us from contemplation to hear confessions or to\nother duties, and that during a considerable time, these duties form\nJesus Christ in the depths of the heart, and all the sweetness of\ncontemplation would only serve to banish Him.\nThe order of God is the fulness of all our moments. It flows under a\nthousand different appearances which, successively becoming our present\nduty, form, increase, and complete the new man in us, in all the\nfulness which the divine wisdom has destined for us. This mysterious\ngrowth of Jesus Christ in us is the work produced by the order of God;\nit is the fruit of His grace and of His divine will.\nThis fruit, as we have said, is germinated, increased, and nourished by\nthe succession of our present duties filled with the virtue of this\nsame divine will.\nIn fulfilling these duties we are always sure of possessing the \u201cbetter\npart,\u201d for this holy will is itself the better part. We have but to\nyield to it, blindly abandon ourselves to it with perfect confidence.\nIt is infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, for souls\nwhich unreservedly hope in it, which love and seek but it alone, and\nwhich believe with unfaltering faith that what it assigns to each\nmoment is best without seeking elsewhere for more or less, and without\npausing to consider the relation of material things with the order of\nGod, which is the seeking of pure self-love.\nThe will of God is the essential, the reality and virtue, of all\nthings; it is that which adapts and renders them suitable to the soul.\nWithout it all is emptiness, nothingness, falsehood, the empty husk,\nthe letter without the spirit, vanity, death.\nThe will of God is the health, the life, the salvation of soul and\nbody, whatever its manifestation or ways of reaching us.\nTherefore we must not judge of the virtue of things by the relations\nthey bear to mind or body, for these relations are unimportant. It is\nthe will of God alone which gives to all things, whatever they may be,\nthe power to form Jesus Christ in the depth of our hearts. We must\nframe no laws for this will and place no limit to its action, for it is\nall-powerful.\nWhatever the ideas which fill the mind, whatever the feelings which the\nbody experiences, were it for the mind but distractions and trouble,\nfor the body but sickness and death, the divine will nevertheless is\never for the present moment the life of body and soul; for both one and\nthe other, whatever their condition, are sustained by it alone. Bread\nwithout it is poison; and through it poison becomes a salutary remedy.\nWithout it, books but confuse and trouble us; with it, darkness is\nturned into light. It is the wisdom, the truth, of all things. In all\nthings it gives us God: and God is the infinite Being who holds the\nplace of all things to the soul which possesses Him.\n_CHAPTER VI._\n The Mind and other Human Means are Useful only in as far as they are\n the Instruments of the Divine Action.\nThe mind with all its powers would hold the first place among the\ninstruments of the divine will; but it must, like a dangerous slave, be\nreduced to the last.\nThe simple of heart who know how to use it can derive great profit\ntherefrom; but it can also do much injury when not kept in subjection.\nWhen the soul sighs after created means, the divine action whispers to\nthe heart that it sufficeth; when she would injudiciously reject them,\nthe divine action whispers that they are instruments not to be taken or\nrejected at will, but to be simply received from Providence and adapted\nto the order of God--the soul thus using all things as though not using\nthem, being deprived of all things, yet wanting nothing.\nThe divine action, being limitless in its fulness, can take possession\nof a soul only in as far as the soul is void of all confidence in her\nown action; for this confidence and self-activity fill the heart to\nthe exclusion of the divine action. It is an obstacle which, existing\nin the soul herself, is more likely to arrest the divine action than\nexterior obstacles, which Providence can change at will into powerful\naids; for it can work with all things, even those which are in\nthemselves useless. With the divine will nothing is everything, and\nwithout it everything is nothing.\nWhatever the value in itself of meditation, contemplation, vocal\nprayer, interior silence, acts of the will whether sensible, distinct,\nor less perceptible, retreat, or active life,--better than all of them\nis what God wills for the soul at the present moment; and the soul\nshould regard everything else with perfect indifference, as being of no\nvalue whatever.\nThus seeing God alone in all things, she should take or leave them at\nHis pleasure in order to live in, hope in, and be nourished by Him, and\nnot by the things which have force and virtue only through Him. Under\nall circumstances the soul should constantly say with St. Paul, \u201cLord,\nwhat wouldst Thou have me do?\u201d Not this more than that, but simply Thy\nadorable will! The spirit loves one thing, the flesh another; but,\nLord, let Thy will be mine. Contemplation, action, prayer vocal or\nmental, affective or passive, light or darkness, special or general\ngraces,--all these are nothing, Lord, for in Thy will lies their sole\nvirtue. Thy will alone is the end of all my devotion, and not these\nthings, however elevated or sublime in themselves; for the end of\ndivine grace is the perfection of the heart, not of the mind.\nThe presence of God which sanctifies our souls is that indwelling of\nthe Trinity which penetrates to the depths of our hearts when they are\nsubmissive to the divine will; for the presence of God which we enjoy\nthrough the exercise of contemplation effects this intimate union in us\nonly as do all other things which come to us in the order of God. It\nholds, however, the first rank among them, for it is the most excellent\nmeans of uniting one\u2019s self with God when He wills that we should use\nit.\nWe may therefore justly esteem and love contemplation and other pious\nexercises, provided the foundation of this esteem and love be wholly\nGod, who mercifully deigns through them to communicate Himself to our\nsouls.\nWe receive the prince himself when we receive his suite. It would be\nshowing him little respect to neglect his officers under pretext of\npossessing him alone.\n_CHAPTER VII._\n There is no Enduring Peace but in Submission to the Divine Action.\nThe soul that is not united solely to the will of God will find neither\nrest nor sanctification in any self-chosen means--not even in the most\nexcellent exercises of piety. If that which God Himself chooses for you\ndoes not suffice, what other hand can minister to your desires? If you\nturn from the food the divine will itself has prepared for you, what\nviands will not prove insipid to a taste so depraved? A soul cannot be\ntruly nourished, strengthened, purified, enriched, sanctified, except\nby the fulness of the present moment. Then what more would you have?\nSince you here find all good, why seek it elsewhere? Are you wiser\nthan God? Since He ordains it should be thus, how could you desire it\nshould be otherwise? Can His wisdom and goodness err? Should you not\nfrom the moment He ordains an event be utterly convinced that it is the\nbest that could happen? Do you think you will find peace in struggling\nwith the Almighty? On the contrary, is it not this struggle too often\nrenewed, almost unconsciously, which is the cause of all our disquiet.\nIt is but just that the soul which is not satisfied with the divine\nfulness of the present moment should be punished by an inability to\nfind contentment in anything else.\nIf books, the example of the saints, spiritual discourses, destroy\nthe peace of the soul, if they fill without satisfying, it is a mark\nthat we have not received them in simple abandonment to the divine\naction, but have taken them ourselves in a spirit of proprietorship.\nTheir fulness, therefore, bars the entrance of God to the soul, and we\nmust rid ourselves of it as an obstacle to grace. But when the divine\naction ordains the use of these means, the soul receives them as it\ndoes everything else--that is, in the order of God. She accepts them as\nshe finds them, in her fidelity simply using them, never appropriating\nthem; and their moment passed she abandons them to find her contentment\nin what follows in the order of Providence. In truth there is nothing\nreally beneficial for me but that which comes to me in the order\nof God. Nowhere can I find any means, however good in itself, more\nefficacious for my sanctification and more capable of giving peace to\nmy soul.\n_CHAPTER VIII._\n The Perfection of Souls and the Excellence of Different States are in\n Proportion to their Conformity to the Order of God.\nThe order of God gives to all things which concern the faithful soul\na supernatural and divine value; all that it exacts, all that it\nembraces, and all the objects upon which it sheds its light become\nholiness and perfection, for its virtue is limitless: it makes all\nthat it touches divine. But in order to keep ourselves in the path of\nperfection, swerving neither to the right nor the left, the soul must\nfollow no inspiration which she assumes comes from God without first\nassuring herself that it does not interfere with the duties of her\nstate in life. These duties are the most certain indications of the\nwill of God, and nothing should be preferred to them; in fulfilling\nthem there is nothing to be feared, no exclusion or discrimination\nto be made; the moments devoted to them are the most precious and\nsalutary for the soul from the fact that she is sure of accomplishing\nthe good pleasure of God. All the perfection of the saints consists in\ntheir fidelity to the order of God; therefore we must refuse nothing,\nseek nothing, but accept all from His hand, and nothing without Him.\nBooks, wise counsels, vocal prayers, interior affections, if they\ncome to us in the order of God, instruct, guide, and unite the soul\nto Him. Quietism errs when it disclaims these means and all sensible\nappearances, for there are souls whom God wills shall be always led in\nthis way, and their state and their attractions clearly indicate it. In\nvain we picture to ourselves methods of abandonment whence all action\nis excluded. When the order of God causes us to act, our sanctification\nlies in action.\nBesides the duties of each one\u2019s state, God may further ask certain\nactions which are not included in these duties, though not contrary\nto them. Attraction and inspiration, then, indicate the divine order;\nand the most perfect for souls whom God leads in this way is to add to\nthings of precept, things inspired, but always with the precautions\nwhich inspiration requires to prevent its interfering with the duties\nof one\u2019s state and the ordinary events of Providence.\nGod makes saints as He chooses. They are formed by His divine action,\nto which they are ever submissive, and this submission is the truest\nabandonment and the most perfect.\nFidelity to the duties of one\u2019s state and submission to the\ndispositions of Providence are common to all the saints. They live\nhidden in obscurity, for the world is so fatal to holiness that they\nwould avoid its quicksands; but not in this does their sanctity\nconsist, but wholly in their entire submission to the order of God.\nThe more absolute their submission the greater their sanctity. We must\nnot imagine that those whose virtues God is pleased to brilliantly\nmanifest by singular and extraordinary works, by undoubted attractions\nand inspirations, are any less faithful in the path of abandonment.\nOnce the order of God makes these brilliant works a duty they fail\nin abandonment to Him and His will which ceases to rule their every\nmoment, and their every moment ceases to be the exponent of the will\nof God if they content themselves with the duties of their state and\nthe ordinary events of Providence. They must study and measure their\nefforts according to the standard of God\u2019s designs for them in that\npath which their attractions indicate to them. Fidelity to inspiration\nis for them a duty; and as there are souls whose whole duty is marked\nby an exterior law, and who must be guided by it because God confines\nthem to it, so also there are others who, besides their exterior\nduties, must be further faithful to that interior law which the Holy\nSpirit engraves upon their hearts.\nBut who are the most perfect? Vain and idle research! Each one\nmust follow the path which is traced for him. Perfection consists\nin absolute submission to the order of God and carefully availing\nourselves of all that is most perfect therein. It advances us little to\nweigh the advantages of the different states considered in themselves,\nsince it is neither in the quality nor quantity of things enjoined that\nsanctity is to be sought. If self-love be the principle of our actions,\nor if we do not correct it when we recognize its workings, we will be\nalways poor in the midst of an abundance not provided by the order\nof God. However, to decide in a measure the question, I think that\nsanctity corresponds to the love one has for God\u2019s good pleasure, and\nthe greater one\u2019s love for this holy will and this order, whatever the\ncharacter of their manifestations, the greater one\u2019s sanctity. This is\nmanifest in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, for in their private life there\nis more of love than of grandeur, and more of spirit than of matter;\nand it is not written that these sacred persons sought the holiest of\nthings, but holiness in all things.\nWe must therefore conclude that there is no special way which can\nbe called the most perfect, but that the most perfect in general is\nfidelity to the order of God, whether in the accomplishment of exterior\nduties or in the interior dispositions, each one according to his state\nand calling.\nI believe that if souls seriously aspiring to perfection understood\nthis, and knew how direct is their path, they would be spared much\ndifficulty. I say the same equally of souls living in the world and of\nsouls consecrated to God. If the first knew the means of merit afforded\nthem by their ever-recurring daily duties and the ordinary actions of\ntheir state in life; if the second could persuade themselves that the\nfoundation of sanctity lies in those very things which they consider\nunimportant and even foreign to them; if both could understand that the\ncrosses sent by Providence which they constantly find in their state\nin life lead them to the highest perfection by a surer and shorter\npath than do extraordinary states or extraordinary works; and that\nthe true philosopher\u2019s stone is submission to the order of God, which\nchanges into pure gold all their occupations, all their weariness,\nall their sufferings--how happy they would be! What consolation and\nwhat courage they would gather from this thought, that to acquire the\nfriendship of God and all the glory of heaven they have but to do\nwhat they are doing, suffer what they are suffering; and that what\nthey lose and count as naught would suffice to obtain them eminent\nsanctity. O my God, that I might be the missionary of Thy holy will,\nand teach the whole world that there is nothing so easy, so simple,\nso within the reach of all, as sanctity! Would that I could make them\nunderstand that just as the good and bad thief had the same to do and\nsuffer to obtain their salvation, so two souls, one worldly and the\nother wholly interior and spiritual, have nothing more to do, one than\nthe other; that she who sanctifies herself acquires eternal happiness\nby doing in submission to the will of God what she who is lost does\nthrough caprice; and that the latter is lost by suffering unwillingly\nand impatiently what she who is saved endures with resignation. The\ndifference, therefore, is only in the heart.\nO dear souls who read this, let me repeat to you: Sanctity will cost\nyou no more; do what you are doing; suffer what you are suffering: it\nis only your heart that need be changed. By the heart we mean the will.\nThis change, then, consists in willing what comes to us by the order of\nGod. Yes, holiness of heart is a simple _fiat_, a simple disposition of\nconformity to the will of God. And what is easier? For who could not\nlove so adorable and merciful a will? Let us love it, then, and through\nthis love alone all within us will become divine.\nCHAPTER IX.\n All the Riches of Grace are the Fruit of Purity of Heart and Perfect\n Self-abandonment.\nHe, therefore, who would abundantly enjoy all good has but to\npurify his heart, detach himself from creatures, and completely\nabandon himself to the will of God. In this purity of heart and\nself-abandonment he will find all things.\nLet others, Lord, ask Thee all gifts, let them multiply their\npetitions; I have but one gift to ask, but one prayer to make: Give\nme a pure heart. O blessed pure of heart! In thy lively faith thou\nbeholdest God within thee. Thou seest Him in all things, and thou seest\nHim at all times working within thee and about thee. Thou art in all\nthings His subject and His instrument. He guides thee in all things and\nleads thee to all things. Frequently thou art unmindful; but He thinks\nfor thee. He only asks that thou _desire_ all that comes to thee or may\ncome to thee by His divine order. He _understands the preparation of\nthy heart_. In thy salutary blindness thou seekest in vain to discover\nthis desire; but oh! it is clear to Him. How great is thy simplicity!\nKnowest thou not that a well-disposed heart is no other than a heart\nin which God dwells? Beholding His own desires in this heart He knows\nit will be ever submissive to His order. He knows at the same time\nthat thou art ignorant what is best for thee, therefore it is His care\nto provide for thee. He cares not that thy designs are thwarted. Thou\nwouldst go east: He leads thee west. Thou art just upon the rocks:\nHe turns the helm and brings thee safely into port. Though knowing\nneither chart, nor route, nor winds, nor tides, thy voyages are ever\nprosperous. If pirates cross thy way an unexpected breeze bears thee\nbeyond their reach.\nO good will! O purity of heart! Well did Jesus know your value when He\nplaced ye among the beatitudes. What greater happiness than to possess\nGod and be possessed by Him? O state most blessed and full of charm!\nIn it we sleep peacefully in the bosom of Providence, sporting like a\nchild with the divine wisdom, unheedful of our course, which is ever\nonward; in spite of shoals, and pirates, and continual storms, we are\nborne on to a prosperous end.\nO purity of heart! O good will! Ye are the sole foundation of\nall spiritual states. To you are given, and through you are made\nprofitable, the gifts of pure faith, pure hope, pure confidence, and\npure love. Upon your stem are grafted the desert flowers--I mean those\ngraces which we rarely find blooming but in utterly detached souls, of\nwhich God takes possession as of an uninhabited dwelling, and there\nabides to the exclusion of all other things. You are that bountiful\nsource whence flow all the streams which water the parterre of the\nbridegroom and the garden of the bride. Alas! how truly mayest thou\nsay to all souls: Consider me well; I am the mother of fair love--that\nlove which develops all that is best and takes it to itself. It is I\nwho give birth to that sweet and salutary fear which inspires a horror\nof evil, and makes you peacefully avoid it; I who ripen the sublime\nknowledge of God\u2019s greatness and reveal the value of the virtues which\nhonor Him. It is I, finally, who inspire those ardent desires which,\nunceasingly sustained by holy confidence, stimulate you to practise\nvirtue in the expectation of that divine object, the enjoyment of which\nwill one day become, even as it is now (though then in a much more\nperfect degree), the happiness of faithful souls. Well mayest thou\ninvite them all to enrich themselves from thy inexhaustible treasures,\nfor thou art the source of all spiritual conditions and ways. From thee\ndo they draw all their beauty, attraction, and charm. Those marvellous\nfruits of grace and virtue which dazzle us on all sides, and with\nwhich our devotion is nourished, are thy harvests. Thine is the land\nof abundance and honey; thy breasts distil milk, thy bosom gives out\nthe sweet odor of myrrh; through thy fingers flow in all its purity\nthe divine wine which usually must be obtained by the labor of the\nwine-press.\nLet us fly then, dear souls, and plunge ourselves in that sea of love\nwhich invites us. What await we? Why do we tarry? Let us hasten to lose\nourselves in God, in His very heart, that we may inebriate ourselves\nwith the wine of His charity; in this heart we shall find the key to\nall heavenly treasures. Then let us proceed on our way to heaven, for\nthere is no secret of perfection which we may not penetrate: every\navenue is open to us, even to the garden, the cellar, the vineyard of\nthe Bridegroom. If we would breathe the air of the fields we have but\nto direct our steps thither; in a word, we may come and go at will\narmed with this key of David, this key of knowledge, this key of the\nabyss which contains the hidden treasures of the divine wisdom. With\nit we may also open the gates of the mystic death and descend into\nits sacred shades; we may go down into the depths of the sea and into\nthe den of the lion. It is this divine key which unlocks those dark\ndungeons into which it thrusts souls, to withdraw them purified and\nsanctified; it introduces us into those blissful abodes where light\nand knowledge dwell, where the Bridegroom takes His repose at midday,\nand where He reveals to His faithful souls the secrets of His love. O\ndivine secrets, which may not be revealed, and which no mortal tongue\ncan express! This key, dear souls, is love. All blessings wait only\nfor love to enrich us. It gives sanctity and all its accompaniments;\nits right hand and its left are filled with it that it may pour it in\nabundance from all sources into hearts open to divine grace. O divine\nseed of eternity! who can sufficiently praise thee? But why seek to\npraise thee? It is better to possess thee in silence than to praise\nthee by feeble words. What am I saying? We must praise thee, but only\nbecause thou possessest us. For once thou possessest the heart, whether\nwe read or write, or speak, or act, or are silent, it is all one and\nthe same. We assume nothing, we refuse nothing; we are hermits, we are\napostles; we are ill, we are well, we are simple, we are eloquent; in a\nword, we are what God wills we should be. The heart hears thy mandates,\nand, as thy faithful echo, repeats them to the other faculties. In\nthis material and spiritual combination which thou deignest to regard\nas thy kingdom the heart governs under thy guidance; as it contains\nno desires uninspired by thee, all objects please it under whatever\nform thou presentest them. Those which nature or the Evil One would\nsubstitute for thine only fill it with disgust and horror. If sometimes\nthou permittest the heart to be surprised, it is only that it may\nbecome wiser and more humble; but as soon as it recognizes its illusion\nit returns to thee with more love, and binds itself to Thee with\ngreater fidelity.\nBook Second.\n The Divine Action and the Manner in which it unceasingly works the\n Sanctification of Souls.\n_CHAPTER I._\n The Divine Action is everywhere and always Present, though only\n Visible to the Eye of Faith.\nAll creatures are living in the hand of God; the senses perceive\nonly the action of the creature, but faith sees the divine action\nin all things. Faith realizes that Jesus Christ lives in all things\nand works through all ages; that the least moment and the smallest\natom contain a portion of this hidden life, this mysterious action.\nThe instrumentality of creatures is a veil which covers the profound\nmysteries of the divine action. The apparition of Jesus to His Apostles\nafter His resurrection surprised them: He presented Himself to them\nunder forms which disguised Him, and as soon as He manifested Himself\nHe disappeared. This same Jesus, who is ever living and laboring for\nus, still surprises souls whose faith is not sufficiently lively to\ndiscern Him.\nThere is no moment when God is not present with us under the appearance\nof some obligation or some duty. All that is effected within us,\nabout us, and through us involves and hides His divine action: it is\nveritably present, though in an invisible manner; therefore we do not\ndiscern it, and only recognize its workings when it has ceased to\nact. Could we pierce the veil which obscures it, and were we vigilant\nand attentive, God would unceasingly reveal Himself to us, and we\nwould recognize His action in all that befell us. At every event we\nwould exclaim, _Dominus est!_--It is the Lord! and we should feel\neach circumstance of our life an especial gift from Him. We should\nregard creatures as feeble instruments in the hands of an all-powerful\nworkman; we should easily recognize that we lacked nothing, and that\nGod\u2019s watchful care supplied the needs of every moment. Had we faith,\nwe should be grateful to all creatures; we should cherish them, and\nin our hearts thank them that in the hand of God they have been so\nserviceable to us and so favorable to the work of our perfection.\nIf we lived an uninterrupted life of faith we should be in continual\ncommunion with God, we should speak with Him face to face. Just as the\nair transmits our words and thoughts, so would all that we are called\nto do and suffer transmit to us the words and thoughts of God; all\nthat came to us would be but the embodiment of His word; it would be\nexteriorly manifested in all things; we should find everything holy and\nprofitable. The glory of God makes this the state of the blessed in\nheaven, and faith would make it ours on earth; there would be only the\ndifference of means.\nFaith is God\u2019s interpreter; without its enlightenment we understand\nnothing of the language of created things. It is a writing in cipher,\nin which we see naught but confusion; it is a burning bush, from the\nmidst of which we little expect to hear God\u2019s voice. But faith reveals\nto us as to Moses the fire of divine charity burning in the midst of\nthe bush; it gives the key to the ciphers, and discovers to us in the\nmidst of the confusion the wonders of the divine wisdom. Faith gives\nto the whole earth a heavenly aspect; faith transports, enraptures the\nheart, and raises it above the things of this earth to converse with\nthe blessed.\nFaith is the light of time: it alone grasps the truth without seeing\nit; it touches what it does not feel; it sees this world as though it\nexisted not, beholding quite other things than those which are visible.\nIt is the key of the treasure-house, the key of the abyss, the key\nof the science of God. It is faith which shows the falseness of all\ncreatures: through it God reveals and manifests Himself in all things;\nby it all things are made divine; it lifts the veil from created things\nand reveals the eternal truth.\nAll that our eyes behold is vanity and falsehood; in God alone lies the\ntruth of all things. How far above our illusions are the designs of\nGod! How is it that though continually reminded that all that passes\nin the world is but a shadow, a figure, a mystery of faith, we are\nguided by human feelings, by the natural sense of things, which after\nall is but an enigma? We foolishly fall into snares instead of lifting\nour eyes and rising to the principle, the source, the origin of all;\nwhere all things bear other names and other qualities; where all is\nsupernatural, divine, sanctifying; where all is part of the fulness of\nJesus Christ; where everything forms a stone of the heavenly Jerusalem,\nwhere everything leads to this marvellous edifice and enters therein.\nWe live by the things of sight and hearing, neglecting that light of\nfaith which would safely guide us through the labyrinth of shadows and\nimages through which we foolishly wander. He, on the contrary, who\nwalks by faith seeks but God alone, and all things from God; he lives\nin God; unheeding and rising above the figures of sense.\n_CHAPTER II._\n The Divine Action is all the more Visible to the Eye of Faith when\n hidden under Appearances most Repugnant to the Senses.\nThe soul enlightened by faith is far from judging of created things,\nlike those who measure them by their senses, and ignore the inestimable\ntreasure they contain. He who recognizes the king in disguise treats\nhim very differently from him who, judging by appearances alone, fails\nto recognize his royalty. So the soul that sees the will of God in the\nsmallest things, and in the most desolating and fatal events, receives\nall with equal joy, exultation, and respect. That which others fear and\nfly from with horror she opens all her doors to receive with honor.\nThe retinue is poor, the senses despise it; but the heart, under these\nhumble appearances, discerns and does homage to the royal majesty; and\nthe more this majesty abases itself, coming secretly with modest suite,\nthe deeper is the love it inspires in the heart.\nI have no words with which to portray the feelings of the heart when\nit receives this divine will in the guise of humiliation, poverty,\nannihilation. Ah! how moved was the beautiful heart of Mary at sight of\nthat poverty of a God, that annihilation which brought Him to lodge in\na manger, to repose on a handful of straw a trembling, weeping infant!\nAsk the people of Bethlehem what they think of this child: were He in\na palace with royal surroundings they would do Him homage. But ask\nMary, Joseph, the Magi, the shepherds: they will tell you that in this\nextreme poverty they find that which manifests God to them more sublime\nand adorable. By just that which the senses lack is faith heightened,\nincreased, and nourished; the less there is to human eyes, the more\nthere is to the soul. The faith which adores Jesus on Thabor, which\nloves the will of God in extraordinary events, is not that lively\nfaith which loves the will of God in common events and adores Jesus on\nthe cross. For the perfection of faith is seen only when visible and\nmaterial things contradict it and seek to destroy it. Through this war\nof the senses faith comes out gloriously victorious.\nIt is not an ordinary but a grand and extraordinary faith which finds\nGod equally adorable in the simplest and commonest things as in the\ngreatest events of life.\nTo content ones\u2019 self with the present moment is to love and adore\nthe divine will in all that comes to us to do or suffer through the\nthings which successively form the duties of the present moment.\nSouls thus disposed adore God with redoubled ardor and respect in the\ngreatest humiliations; nothing hides Him from the piercing eye of their\nfaith. The more vehemently the senses exclaim, This is not from God!\nthe closer do they press this bundle of myrrh from the hand of the\nBridegroom; nothing disturbs them, nothing repels them.\nMary sees the Apostles fly, but she remains constant at the foot of\nthe cross; she recognizes her Son in that face spat upon and bruised.\nThese disfiguring wounds only render Him more adorable and worthy of\nlove in the eyes of this tender mother; and the blasphemies poured\nforth against Him only serve to increase her profound veneration. In\nlike manner, a life of faith is but a continual pursuit of God through\nall which disguises and disfigures Him; through all which, so to speak,\ndestroys and annihilates Him. It is truly a reproduction of the life\nof Mary, who from the manger to Calvary remained constant to a God\nwhom the world despised, persecuted, and abandoned. So faithful souls,\ndespite a continual succession of deaths, veils, shadows, semblances\nwhich disguise the will of God, perseveringly pursue it, and love it\nunto death on the cross. They know that, unheeding all disguises, they\nmust follow this holy will; for, beyond the heaviest shadows, beyond\nthe darkest clouds, the divine Sun is shining to enlighten, enflame,\nand vivify those constant hearts who bless, praise, and contemplate Him\nfrom all points of this mysterious horizon.\nHasten, then, happy, faithful, untiring souls; hasten to follow this\ndear Spouse who with giant strides traverses the heavens and from whom\nnothing can be hidden. He passes over the smallest blade of grass as\nabove the loftiest cedars. The grains of sand are under His feet no\nless than the mountains. Wherever your foot may rest He has passed, and\nyou have only to follow Him faithfully to find Him wherever you go.\nOh, the ineffable peace that is ours when faith has taught us thus\nto see God through all creatures as through a transparent veil! Then\ndarkness becomes light, and bitter turns to sweet. Faith, manifesting\nall things in their true light, changes their deformity into beauty,\nand their malice into virtue. Faith is the mother of meekness,\nconfidence, and joy; she can feel naught but tenderness and compassion\nfor her enemies who so abundantly enrich her at their own expense. The\nmore malignant the action of the creature, the more profitable does God\nrender it to the soul. While the human instrument seeks to injure us,\nthe divine Artisan in whose hand it lies makes use of its very malice\nto remove what is prejudicial to the soul.\nThe will of God has only consolations, graces, treasures, for\nsubmissive souls; our confidence in it cannot be too great, nor our\nabandonment thereto be too absolute. It always wills and effects that\nwhich contributes most to our sanctification, provided meanwhile we\nyield ourselves to its divine action. Faith never doubts it; the more\nunbelieving, rebellious, despondent, and wavering the senses, the\nlouder Faith cries, \u201cThis is God! All is well!\u201d\nThere is nothing Faith does not penetrate and overcome; it passes\nbeyond all shadows and through the darkest clouds to reach Truth;\nclasps it in a firm embrace, and is never parted from it.\n_CHAPTER III._\n The Divine Action offers us at each Moment Infinite Blessings, which\n we receive in proportion to our Faith and Love.\nIf we knew how to greet each moment as the manifestation of the divine\nwill, we would find in it all the heart could desire. For what indeed\nis more reasonable, more perfect, more divine than the will of God?\nCan its infinite value be increased by the paltry difference of time,\nplace, or circumstance? Were you given the secret of finding it at all\ntimes and in all places, you would possess a gift most precious, most\nworthy of your desires. What seek ye, holy souls? Give free scope to\nyour longings; place no limit to your aspirations; expand your heart to\nthe measure of the infinite. I have that wherewith to satisfy it: there\nis no moment in which I may not cause you to find all you can desire.\nThe present moment is always filled with infinite treasures: it\ncontains more than you are capable of receiving. Faith is the measure\nof these blessings: in proportion to your faith will you receive. By\nlove also are they measured: the more your heart loves the more it\ndesires, and the more it desires the more it receives. The will of\nGod is constantly before you as an unfathomable sea, which the heart\ncannot exhaust: only in proportion as the heart is expanded by faith,\nconfidence, and love can it receive of its fulness. All created things\ncould not fill your heart, for its capacity is greater than anything\nwhich is not God.\nThe mountains which affright the eye are but atoms to the heart. The\ndivine will is an abyss, of which the present moment is the entrance;\nplunge fearlessly therein and you will find it more boundless than your\ndesires. Offer no homage to creatures; adore not phantoms: they can\ngive you nothing, they can take nothing from you. The will of God alone\nshall be your fulness, and it shall leave no void in your soul. Adore\nit; go direct to it, penetrating all appearances, casting aside all\nimpediments. The spoliation, the destruction, the death of the senses\nis the reign of faith. The senses adore creatures; faith adores the\ndivine will. Wrest from the senses their idols, they will weep like\ndisconsolate children; but faith will triumph, for nothing can take\nfrom her the will of God. When all the senses are famished, affrighted,\ndespoiled, then does the will of God nourish, enrich, and fortify\nfaith, which smiles at these apparent losses, as the commander of an\nimpregnable fortress smiles at the futile attacks of an enemy.\nWhen the will of God reveals itself to a soul manifesting a desire\nto wholly possess her, if the soul freely give herself in return she\nexperiences most powerful assistance in all difficulties; she then\ntastes by experience the happiness of that coming of the Lord, and\nher enjoyment is in proportion to the degree in which she learned to\npractise that self abandonment which must bring her at all moments face\nto face with this ever adorable will.\n_CHAPTER IV._\n God reveals Himself to us as Mysteriously, as Adorably, and with as\n much Reality in the most Ordinary Events as in the great Events of\n History and the Holy Scriptures.\nThe written word of God is full of mystery; His word expressed in the\nevents of the world is no less so. These two books are truly sealed;\nthe letter of both killeth.\nGod is the centre of faith which is an abyss from whose depths\nshadows rise which encompass all that comes forth from it. God is\nincomprehensible; so also are His works, which require our faith.\nAll these words, all these works, are but obscure rays, so to speak,\nof a sun still more obscure. In vain do we strive to gaze upon this\nsun and its rays with the eyes of our body; the eyes of the soul\nitself, through which we behold God and His works, are no less closed.\nObscurity here takes the place of light; knowledge is ignorance, and\nwe see though not seeing. Holy Scripture is the mysterious language\nof a still more mysterious God. The events of the world are the\nmysterious utterances of this same hidden and inscrutable God. They\nare drops of the ocean, but an ocean of shadows. Every rivulet, every\ndrop of the stream, bears the impress of its origin. The fall of the\nangels, the fall of man, the wickedness and idolatry of men before and\nafter the deluge, in the time of the Patriarchs who knew the history\nof creation, with its recent preservation, and related it to their\nchildren,--these are the truly mysterious words of Holy Scripture. A\nhandful of men preserved from idolatry amid the general corruption of\nthe whole world until the coming of the Messias; evil always dominant,\nalways powerful; the little band of the defenders of the faith always\nill-treated, always persecuted; the persecution of Christ; the plagues\nof the Apocalypse--in these behold the words of God. It is what He has\nrevealed. It is what He has dictated. And the effects of these terrible\nmysteries, which endure till the end of time, are still the living\nwords of God by which we learn His wisdom, goodness, and power. All\nthe events in the history of the world show forth these attributes and\nglorify Him therein. We must believe it blindly, for, alas! we cannot\nsee.\nWhat does God teach us by Turks, heretics, and all the enemies of\nHis Church? They preach forcibly. They all show forth His infinite\nperfections. So do Pharao and all the impious hosts who followed him\nand will still follow him; though truly, to the evidence of our senses,\nthe end of all these is most contrary to the divine glory. We must\nclose our corporal eyes and cease to reason if we would read the divine\nmysteries in all this.\nThou speakest, Lord, to all mankind by general events. All revolutions\nare but the tides of Thy Providence, which excite storms and tempests\nin the minds of the curious. Thou speakest to each one in particular\nby the events of his every moment. But instead of respecting the\nmystery and obscurity of Thy words, and hearing Thy voice in all the\noccurrences of life, they only see therein chance, the acts, the\ncaprice of men; they find fault in everything; they would add to,\ndiminish, reform--in fact, they indulge in liberties with these living\nwords of God, while they would consider it a sacrilege to alter a\ncomma of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures they revere: they are the\nword of God, they tell you; they are true and holy. Though they may\ncomprehend them little, their veneration for them is no less great, and\nthey justly give honor and glory to God for the depth of His wisdom.\nBut, dear souls, have you no respect for the words God addresses you\neach moment,--words which are not conveyed to you by means of ink\nand paper, but by what you have to do and suffer from moment to\nmoment,--do these words merit nothing from you? Why do you not revere\nthe truth and will of God in all things? There is nothing which fully\nsatisfies you; you criticise and cavil at all that happens. Do you not\nsee that you try to measure by the senses and reason that which can be\nmeasured by faith alone? And that while reading the word of God in the\nHoly Scriptures with the eyes of faith, you gravely err when you read\nthis same word with other eyes in His works?\n_CHAPTER V._\n The Divine Action continues in our Hearts the Revelation begun in Holy\n Scripture; but the Characters in which it is written will be Visible\n only at the Last Day.\n\u201cJesus Christ,\u201d says the Apostle, \u201cis the same yesterday, to-day, and\nforever.\u201d From the beginning of the world He was, as God, the principle\nof the life of just souls. From the first moment of His incarnation His\nhumanity shared this prerogative of His divinity. Throughout our whole\nlives He is working within us. The time of this world is but a day,\nand this day is full of Him. Jesus Christ lived, and He still lives.\nHe began in Himself, and He continues in His saints, a life which will\nnever end. O life of Jesus, which embraces and exceeds all ages! Life\nwhich unceasingly worketh new wonders! If the world is incapable of\nembracing all that could have been written of the actual life of Jesus,\nof all that He said and did upon earth; if the Gospel gives us only a\nfew traits of it; if so little is known even of that first hidden yet\nfruitful hour of Bethlehem,--how many gospels must needs be written\nto relate all the moments of that mystic life of Jesus Christ which\nmultiplies wonders infinitely, multiplies them eternally!--for all\ntimes, properly speaking, are but the history of the divine action.\nThe Holy Spirit has marked in infallible and incontestable characters\ncertain moments of this vast duration, and gathered in the Scriptures\nsome drops of this boundless ocean. We see therein the secret and\nhidden ways by which He has manifested Jesus Christ to the world. We\ncan follow the channels and veins which, amid the confusion of the\nchildren of men, distinguish this Firstborn. The Old Testament is but\na small portion of the innumerable and inscrutable ways of this divine\nwork; it only contains what is necessary to reach Jesus Christ. The\nHoly Spirit held the rest hidden in the treasures of His wisdom. And\nfrom out this vast sea of the divine action but a thread of water\nappears which reaches Jesus, loses itself in the Apostles, and is\nswallowed up in the Apocalypse. So that by our faith alone can we learn\nthe history of this divine action which consists in the life which\nJesus Christ leads, and will lead in just souls until the end of time.\nTo the manifestation of God\u2019s truth by word succeeded the manifestation\nof His charity by action. The Holy Spirit continues the work of the\nSaviour. While He assists the Church in preaching the gospel of Christ,\nHe Himself at the same time writes His own gospel in our hearts. Each\nmoment, each act, of the Saints is the gospel of the Holy Spirit. Holy\nsouls are the paper; their sufferings, their actions, are the ink. The\nHoly Spirit by the pen of His action writes a living gospel; but we can\nonly read it on the last day, when it will be drawn from the press of\nthis life and published.\nOh, the glorious history, the beautiful book, which the Holy Spirit is\nnow writing! It is in press, holy souls; and not a day passes in which\ntype is not set, ink applied, and sheets of it printed. But we are in\nthe night of faith: the paper is blacker than the ink; the characters\nare confused; it is the language of another world; we understand it\nnot; we shall only read its gospel in heaven. Oh, if we could but\nsee this life of God in all creatures, in all things, and learn to\nregard them, not in themselves, but as the instruments of His will!\nIf we could see how the divine action impels them hither and thither,\nunites them, disperses them, opposes them, and leads them by contrary\nways to the same end, we should recognize that all things have their\npurpose, their reason, their proportion, their relations in this divine\nwork. But how shall we read this book with its hidden, innumerable,\ncontradictory, and obscure characters? If the combinations of\ntwenty-seven letters are incomprehensible to us and suffice to form an\nunlimited number of different volumes, each admirable of its kind, who\ncan express what God does in His universe? Who can read and comprehend\na book so vast, in which there is not a letter which has not its own\nsignificance and does not contain in its littleness profound mysteries?\nMysteries are neither seen nor felt; they are the subjects of faith.\nFaith judges their worth and truth only by their source, for they are\nso obscure in themselves that all their external appearances only serve\nto conceal them, and mislead those who judge by reason alone.\nTeach me, O divine Spirit, to read in this book of life! I would become\nThy disciple, and like a little child believe what I cannot see. It\nsufficeth that my Master speaks. He tells me this, He proclaims that;\nHis words are arranged in one form. He interprets them in another:\nthat sufficeth me; I receive all as He presents it; I see not the\nreason thereof, but I know He is the infallible Truth. His words, His\nactions, are truth. He wills that these letters should form a word;\nsuch a number, another. They are but three, but six; yet no more are\nrequired, and less would mar the sense. He alone who knows all thought\ncan combine the characters to express it. Everything is significant;\neverything has a perfect meaning. This line purposely ends here; there\nis not a comma lacking therein, nor one useless point. I believe it\nnow; but on that glorious day, when so many mysteries will be revealed\nme, I will see what I now only confusedly comprehend; and that which\nappears so obscure, so perplexing, so contradictory to reason, so\nvague, so visionary, will enrapture and delight me to all eternity with\nthe beauty, the order, the meaning, the wisdom, and the inconceivable\nmarvels I shall discover therein.\n_CHAPTER VI._\n Divine Love is communicated to us through the Veil of Creatures, as\n Jesus communicates Himself to us through the Veil of the Eucharistic\n Species.\nWhat sublime truths are hidden even from Christians who believe\nthemselves most enlightened! How many are there who realize that every\ncross, every action, every attraction in the order of God gives Him\nto us in a manner which cannot be better explained than by comparison\nwith the august mystery of the Eucharist! Yet what is more certain?\nDoes not reason, as well as faith, reveal to us the real presence of\ndivine love in all creatures, in all the events of life, as infallibly\nas the word of Christ and His Church reveal to us the presence of the\nsacred Body of the Saviour under the Eucharistic species? Do we not\nknow that the divine love seeks to communicate itself to us through all\ncreatures and through all events?--that it has effected, ordered, or\npermitted all our surroundings, all that befalls us, only in view of\nthis union which is the sole end of all God\u2019s designs?--that for this\nend He makes use of the worst as well as the best creatures, of the\nmost grievous as well as the most pleasing events?--and that our union\nwith Him is even the more meritorious that the means which serve to\nmake the union closer are of a nature repugnant to us? But if all this\nbe true, why should not each moment be a form of communion in which we\nreceive divine love; and why should not this communion of every moment\nbe as profitable to our souls as that in which we receive the Body and\nBlood of the Son of God? This latter, it is true, possesses sacramental\ngrace, which the other does not; but, on the other hand, how much\nmore frequently may not this first form of communion be repeated,\nand how greatly may its merit be increased, by the perfection of the\ndispositions with which it is accomplished! Therefore how true it is\nthat the holiest life is mysterious in its simplicity and apparent\nlowliness! O heavenly banquet! O never-ending feast! A God always\ngiven, and always received; not in sublime splendor or glorious light,\nbut in utter infirmity, weakness, and nothingness! That which the\nnatural man condemns, and human reason rejects, God chooses, and makes\nthereof mysteries, sacraments of love, giving Himself to souls through\nthat which would seem to injure them most, and in proportion to their\nfaith which finds Him in all things.\n_CHAPTER VII._\n The Divine Action, the Will of God, is as unworthily treated and\n disregarded in its Daily Manifestation by many Christians as was Jesus\n in the Flesh by the Jews.\nWhat infidelity we find in the world! How unworthily men think of God!\nThey criticise His divine action as they would not dare to criticise\nthe work of the humblest artisan. They would force Him to act within\nthe narrow limits of their weak reason and follow its rules. They\npretend to reform all things. They unceasingly complain and murmur.\nThey are shocked at the treatment Jesus received at the hands of\nthe Jews. Ah! Divine Love! Adorable Will! Infallible Action! How do\nthey look upon Thee? Can the divine will err? Can anything it sends\nbe amiss? But I have this to do; I need such a thing; I have been\ndeprived of the necessary means; that man thwarts me in such good\nworks; is not this most unreasonable?--this sickness overtakes me when\nI absolutely need my health. No, dear souls, the will of God is all\nthat is absolutely necessary to you, therefore you do not need what\nHe withholds from you--you lack nothing. If you could read aright\nthese things which you call accidents, disappointments, misfortunes,\ncontradictions, which you find unreasonable, untimely, you would blush\nwith confusion; you would regard your murmurs as blasphemies: but you\ndo not reflect that all these things are simply the will of God. This\nadorable will is blasphemed by His dear children who fail to recognize\nit.\nWhen Thou wert upon earth, O my Jesus! the Jews treated Thee as a\nsorcerer, called Thee a Samaritan; and now that Thou livest in all\nages, how do we regard Thy adorable will forever worthy of praise and\nblessing? Has there been a moment from the creation to this present\none in which we live, and will there be one to the last day, in which\nthe holy Name of God is not worthy of praise?--that Name which fills\nall time, and all the events of time; that Name which renders all\nthings salutary!\nWhat! Can that which is called the will of God work me harm? Shall I\nfear, shall I fly from the will of God? Ah! where shall I go to find\nsomething more profitable if I fear the divine action and resist the\neffect of the divine will?\nHow faithfully we should listen to the words which are each moment\nuttered in the depths of our hearts! If our senses, our reason, hear\nnot, penetrate not the truth and wisdom of these words, is it not\nbecause of their incapacity to divine eternal truths? Should I be\nsurprised that a mystery disconcerts reason? God speaks; it is a\nmystery; therefore it is death to the senses and reason, for it is\nthe nature of mysteries to immolate to themselves sense and reason.\nThrough faith mystery becomes the life of the heart, to all else it\nis contradiction. The divine action killeth while it quickeneth; the\nmore we feel death the firmer our faith that it will give life; the\nmore obscure the mystery, the more light it contains. Hence it is that\nthe simple soul finds nothing more divine than that which is least so\nexternally. The life of faith wholly consists in this constant struggle\nagainst the senses.\n_CHAPTER VIII._\n The Revelation of the Present Moment is the more Profitable that it is\n addressed Directly to us.\nWe are only truly instructed by the words which God pronounces\nexpressly for us. It is neither by books nor curious research that we\nbecome learned in the science of God: these means of themselves give us\nbut a vain knowledge, which only serves to confuse us and inflate us\nwith pride.\nThat which really instructs us is all that comes to us by the order of\nGod from one moment to another: this is the knowledge of experience,\nwhich Christ Himself was pleased to acquire before teaching. It was\nindeed the only knowledge in which, according to the words of the\nGospel, He could grow; for as God there was no degree of speculative\nknowledge which He did not possess. But if this knowledge was needful\nto the Incarnate Word Himself, it is absolutely necessary for us if we\nwould speak to the hearts of those whom God sends to us.\nWe only know perfectly that which we have learned by experience through\nsuffering and action. This is the school of the Holy Spirit, who utters\nthe words of life to the heart; and all that we say to others should\ncome from this source. Whatsoever we read, whatsoever we see, becomes\ndivine science only through the fecundity, the virtue, the light, which\nthe possession of this experience gives. Without this science all our\nlearning is like unleavened dough, lacking the salt and seasoning of\nexperience; the mind is filled with crude, unfledged ideas; and we are\nlike the dreamer who, knowing all the highways of the world, misses the\npath to his own home.\nTherefore we have only to listen to God\u2019s voice from moment to moment\nif we would learn the science of the saints, which is all practice and\nexperience.\nHeed not what is said to others; listen only to what is uttered for\nyou and to you: you will find therein sufficient to exercise your\nfaith, for this hidden language of God by its very obscurity exercises,\npurifies, and increases your faith.\n_CHAPTER IX._\n The Revelation of the Present Moment is an Inexhaustible Source of\n Sanctity.\nO all ye who thirst! know that you have not far to seek for the\nfountain of living waters; it springs close to you in the present\nmoment. Hasten then to approach it. Why with the source so near do you\nweary yourselves running after shallow streams, which only excite your\nthirst and give you to drink in small measure? The source alone can\nsatisfy you; it is inexhaustible. If you would think, write, and live\nlike the Prophets, Apostles, and Saints, abandon yourself, like them,\nto divine inspiration.\nO Love too little known! Men think Thy marvels are o\u2019er, and that we\nhave but to copy Thy ancient works and quote Thy former teachings! And\nthey see not that Thy inexhaustible action is an infinite source of new\nthoughts, new sufferings, new works, new Patriarchs, new Prophets, new\nApostles, new Saints, who have no need to copy the life or writings\none of the other, but only to live in perpetual self-abandonment to\nThy secret operations. We are wont to quote the \u201cfirst ages of the\nChurch!--the times of the saints!\u201d But is not all time the effects of\nthe divine action, the workings of the divine will, which absorbs all\nmoments, fills them, sanctifies them, supernaturalizes them? Has there\never been a method of self-abandonment to the divine will which is not\nnow practicable? From the earliest ages had the saints other secrets of\nholiness than that of becoming from moment to moment what the divine\naction would make them? And will not this action even to the end of\ntime continue to pour its grace upon those who abandon themselves to\nit without reserve?\nYes, adorable, eternal Love! Love eternally fruitful and always\nmarvellous! Will of my God, Thou art my book, my doctrine, my science;\nin Thee are my thoughts, my words, my deeds, my crosses. Not by\nconsulting Thy other works can I become what Thou wouldst make me, but\nonly by receiving Thee through all things in that one royal way of\nself-abandonment to Thy will--that ancient way, that way of my fathers.\nI will think, speak, and be enlightened like them; following in this\nway, I will imitate them, quote them, copy them, in all things.\n_CHAPTER X._\n The Present Moment is the Manifestation of the Name of God and the\n Coming of His Kingdom.\nThe present moment is like an ambassador which declares the will of\nGod. The heart must ever answer _fiat_, and the soul will go steadily\non by means of all things to her centre and her term--never pausing\nin her course, spreading her sails to all winds; all ways, all methods\nequally further her progress towards the great, the infinite. All\nthings afford her equal means of sanctification. The one only essential\nthe soul finds in the present moment. It is no longer either prayer or\nsilence, retirement or conversation, reading or writing, reflections or\ncessation of thought, avoidance or seeking of spiritualities, abundance\nor privation, illness or health, life or death, but simply what\ncomes to her each moment by the order of God. In this consists that\nprivation, abnegation, renouncement of created things, whether real or\nin will, in order that a soul may be nothing of herself or for herself,\nbut live wholly by the order of God, and at His good pleasure content\nherself with the duty of the present moment, as though it were the one\nthing in the world.\nIf whatsoever comes to a soul thus self-abandoned is her one essential,\nwe see clearly that she lacks nothing, and therefore should never\ncomplain; that if she murmur she lacks faith, and lives by reason and\nthe senses alone, which, failing to recognize this sufficiency of\ngrace, are ever discontented.\nTo bless the name of God according to the expression of the Scriptures\nis to love Him, adore Him, and recognize His holiness in all things.\nIn fact, all things like words proceed from the mouth of God. The\nevents of each moment are divine thoughts expressed by created objects;\nthus all things which intimate His will to us are so many names, so\nmany words, by which He manifests His desires. This will is one in\nitself; it bears but one incomprehensible, ineffable name; but it is\nmultiplied infinitely in its effects, and assumes their names. To\nsanctify the name of God is to study, adore, and love the ineffable\nBeing whom this name represents. It is also to study, adore, and love\nHis blessed will at all times, in all its effects; regarding all things\nas so many veils, shadows, names of this eternally holy will. It is\nholy in all its works, holy in all its words, holy in all its forms of\nmanifestation, holy in all the names it bears.\nIt was thus Job blessed the name of God. The holy man blessed his\nterrible desolation which expressed the will of God: he called it\nnot ruin, but a name of the Lord; and blessing it he declared that\nthis divine will expressed by the most terrible afflictions was ever\nholy, whatever form, whatever name it bore. David also blessed it\nat all times and in all places. Therefore it is by this continual\nmanifestation, this revelation of the will of God in all things that\nHis kingdom is within us that His will is done upon earth as it is in\nheaven, that He gives us our daily bread.\nAbandonment to the divine will contains the substance of that\nincomparable prayer which Christ Himself has taught us. We repeat it\nvocally many times a day according to the order of God and His holy\nChurch; but we utter it in the depth of our hearts each moment that we\nlovingly receive or suffer whatever is ordained by this adorable will.\nWhat the lips need words and time to express, the heart effectively\nutters with each pulsation, and thus simple souls unceasingly bless\nHim in the depth of their hearts. They sigh nevertheless over their\ninability to praise Him as they desire: so true it is that God gives\nHis graces and favors to such souls by the very means which seem to\ndeprive them of these blessings. This is the secret of the divine\nwisdom--to impoverish the senses while it enriches the heart, and to\nfill the heart in proportion to the aching void in the senses.\nLet us learn then to recognize in the event of each moment the imprint\nof the will of God, of His adorable name. This name is infinitely\nholy. It is but just therefore to bless it and receive it as a form\nof sacrament which by its own virtue sanctifies the souls in which it\nfinds no obstacle to its grace. Can we do other than infinitely esteem\nthat which bears this august name? It is a divine manna which falls\nfrom heaven to continually strengthen us in grace. It is a kingdom\nof holiness which is established in the soul. It is the bread of\nangels which is given upon earth as it is in heaven. No moment can be\nunimportant since they all contain treasures of grace, angelic food.\nYes, Lord, let Thy kingdom come to my heart to sanctify it, to nourish\nit, to purify it, to render it victorious over my enemies. Precious\nmoment! how insignificant thou art to the eyes of the world, but how\ngrand to the eyes enlightened by faith! And can I call that little\nwhich is great in the eyes of my Father who reigns in heaven? All that\ncomes thence is most excellent. All that descends therefrom bears the\nimpress of its origin.\n_CHAPTER XI._\n The Divine Will imparts the Highest Sanctity to Souls; they have but\n to abandon Themselves to its Divine Action.\nIt is only because they know not how to profit by the divine action\nthat so many Christians spend their lives anxiously seeking hither and\nthither a multitude of means of sanctification; these are profitable\nwhen the divine will ordains them, but become injurious the moment they\nprevent one from simply uniting himself with the will of God. These\nmultiplied means cannot give what we will find in the will of God--that\nprinciple of all life, which is ever present with us, and which\nimparts to its every instrument an original and incomparable action.\nJesus has sent us a master whom we do not heed. He speaks to all\nhearts, and to each one he utters the word of life, the incomparable\nword; but we hear it not. We would know what he says to others, and we\nhearken not to what is said to us. We do not sufficiently regard things\nin the supernatural light which the divine action gives them. We must\nalways receive and worthily meet the divine action with an open heart,\nfull confidence and generosity; for to those who thus receive it it\ncan work no ill. This illimitable action, which from the beginning to\nthe end of all ages is ever the same in itself, flows on through all\nmoments, and gives itself in its immensity and its virtue to the simple\nsoul which adores it, loves it, and solely rejoices in it. You would be\nenraptured, you say, to find an occasion of sacrificing your life for\nGod; such heroism enchants you. To lose all, to die forsaken and alone,\nto sacrifice one\u2019s self for others--such are the glorious deeds which\nenchant you.\nBut let me, O Lord, render glory, all glory, to Thy divine action! In\nit I find the happiness of the martyrs, austerities and sacrifice of\nself for others. This action, this will, sufficeth me. Whatever life\nor death it ordains for me I am content. It pleases me in itself far\nmore than all its instruments and its effects, since it permeates all\nthings, renders them divine, and transforms them into itself. It maketh\nheaven for me everywhere; all my moments are purely filled with the\ndivine action; and living or dying, it is my sole contentment.\nYes, my Beloved, I will cease to prescribe Thee hours or methods; Thou\nshalt be ever welcome. O divine action, Thou seemest to have revealed\nme Thy immensity. I will but walk henceforth in the bosom of Thy\ninfinity. The tide of Thy power flows to-day as it flowed yesterday.\nThy foundation is the bed of the torrent whence graces unceasingly\nflow; Thou holdest the waters thereof in Thy hand, and movest them at\nwill. No longer will I seek Thee within the narrow limits of a book,\nthe life of a saint, a sublime thought. No: these are but drops of that\ngreat ocean which embraces all creatures. The divine action inundates\nthem all. They are but atoms which sink into this abyss. No longer will\nI seek this action in spiritual intercourse. No more will I beg my\nbread from door to door. I will depend upon no creature.\nYes, Lord, I would live to Thy honor as the worthy child of a true\nFather, infinitely good, wise, and powerful. I would live as I believe,\nand since the divine action labors incessantly and by means of all\nthings for my sanctification, I would draw my life from this great and\nboundless reservoir, ever present, and ever practically available.\nIs there a creature whose action equals that of God? And since this\nuncreated hand directs all that comes to me, shall I go in search of\naid from creatures who are impotent, ignorant, and indifferent to me?\nI was dying of thirst; I ran from fountain to fountain, from stream\nto stream; and behold at hand was a source which caused a deluge;\nwater surrounded me on all sides! Yes, everything becomes bread to\nnourish me, water to cleanse me, fire to purify me, a chisel to give\nme celestial form. Everything is an instrument of grace for my\nnecessities; that which I sought in other things seeks me incessantly\nand gives itself to me by means of all creatures.\nO Love! will men never see that Thou meetest them at every step, while\nthey seek Thee hither and thither, where Thou art not? When in the open\ncountry, what folly not to breathe its pure air; to pause and study\nmy steps when the path is smooth before me; to thirst when the flood\nencompasses me; to hunger for God when I may find Him, relish Him, and\nreceive His will through all things!\nSeek you, dear souls, the secret of union with God? There is none other\nthan to avail yourselves of all that He sends you. All things may\nfurther this union; all things perfect it, save sin, and that which is\ncontrary to your duty. You have but to accept all that He sends and let\nit do its work in you.\nEverything is a banner to guide you, a stay to uphold you, an easy and\nsafe vehicle to bear you on.\nEverything is the hand of God. Everything is earth, air, and water to\nthe soul. God\u2019s action is more universally present than the elements.\nHis grace penetrates you through all your senses provided you but use\nthem according to His order; for you must guard and close them to all\nthat is not His will. There is not an atom which, entering your frame,\nmay not cause this divine action to penetrate to the very marrow of\nyour bones. It is the source and origin of all things. The vital fluid\nwhich flows in your veins moves only by order of the divine will;\nall the variations of your system, strength or weakness, languor or\nvigor, life or death, are but the instruments with which the divine\naction effects your sanctification. Under its influence all physical\nconditions become operations of grace. All your thoughts, all your\nemotions, whatever their apparent source, proceed from this invisible\nhand. No created mind or heart can teach you what this divine action\nwill do in you; you will learn it by successive experience. Your life\nunceasingly flows into this incomprehensible abyss, where we have but\nto love and accept as best that which the present moment brings, with\nperfect confidence in this divine action which of itself can only work\nyou good.\nYes, my Beloved, all souls might attain supernatural, admirable,\ninconceivably sublime states if they would but submit themselves to\nThy divine action! Yes, if they would but yield to this divine hand\nthey would attain eminent sanctity. All could reach it, since it is\noffered to all. You have but to open your heart and it will enter of\nitself: for there is no soul which does not possess in Thee, my God,\nits infinitely perfect model; no soul in which Thy divine action labors\nnot unceasingly to render it like unto Thy image. If they were faithful\nthey would all live, act, speak divinely; they need only copy one\nanother; the divine action would signalize each one of them through the\nmost ordinary things.\nHow, O my God! can I cause Thy creatures to relish what I advance? Must\nI, possessing a treasure capable of enriching all, see souls perish in\ntheir poverty? Must I see them die like desert plants when I point out\nto them the source of living waters? Come, simple souls, who have no\nfeeling of devotion whatever, no talent, not even the first elements\nof instruction,--you who understand nothing of spiritual terms, who\nare filled with admiration and astonishment by the eloquence of the\nlearned,--come and I will teach you the secret of excelling these\nbrilliant intellects; and I will make perfection so attainable that\nyou will find it within you, about you, around you, at every step. I\nwill unite you to God, and He will hold you by the hand from the moment\nyou begin to practise what I tell you. Come, not to learn the chart of\nthis spiritual country, but to possess it, and to walk at ease therein\nwithout fear of going astray. Come, not to study the theory of divine\ngrace, nor to learn what it has effected in all ages and is still\neffecting, but to be simply the subjects of its operations. You have\nno need to learn and ingenuously repeat the words addressed to others:\ndivine grace shall utter to you alone all that you require.\n_CHAPTER XII._\n The Divine Action alone can sanctify us, for it forms us after the\n Divine Model of our Perfection.\nThe divine action executes in time the designs of the eternal Wisdom in\nregard to all things. God alone can make known to each soul the design\nwhich it is destined to realize. Though you read the will of God in\nregard to others, this knowledge cannot direct you in anything. In the\nWord, in God Himself, is the design after which you should be formed,\nand after which you are modelled by the divine action. In the Word the\ndivine action finds that to which every soul may be conformed. Holy\nScripture contains a portion of this design, and the work of the Holy\nSpirit in souls completes it after the model which the Word presents.\nIs it not evident that the only secret for receiving the impress of\nthis eternal design is to be passively submissive in His hands, and\nthat no intellectual effort or speculation will help us to attain it?\nIs it not manifest that skill, intelligence, or subtlety of mind will\nnot effect this work, but passive self-abandonment to the divine will,\nyielding ourselves like metal to the mould, like canvas to the brush,\nor like stone to the sculptor? It is clear that a knowledge of the\ndivine mysteries which the will of God effects in all ages is not what\nrenders us conformable to the design which the Word has conceived for\nus. No: it is the impress of the divine Hand; and this imprint is not\ngraven in the mind through the medium of thought, but upon the will\nthrough its submission to the will of God.\nThe wisdom of the simple soul consists in contentment with what is\nsuitable to her, in confining herself to the sphere of her duties, and\nin never going beyond its boundary. She is not curious to know the\nsecrets of the divine economy: she is content with God\u2019s will in her\nregard, never striving to decipher its hidden meaning by conjecture\nor comparison, desiring to know no more than each moment reveals,\nlistening to the voice of the Word when it speaks in the depth of her\nheart, never asking what the Spouse of her soul utters to others,\ncontenting herself with what she receives in the depth of her soul;\nso that from moment to moment all things, however insignificant or\nwhatever their nature, sanctify her unconsciously to herself. Thus the\nBeloved speaks to His spouse by the palpable effects of His action,\nwhich the spouse does not curiously study, but accepts with loving\ngratitude. Therefore the spirituality of this soul is simple, most\nsolid, and interwoven with her whole being. Neither tumultuous thoughts\nnor words influence her conduct; for these, when not the instruments\nof divine grace, only inflate the mind. Many there are who assign an\nimportant part to intellect in piety, yet it is of little account\ntherein, and not unfrequently prejudicial. We must make use of that\nonly which God sends us to do and suffer. Yet many of us leave this\ndivine essential to occupy our minds with the historic wonders of the\ndivine work, instead of increasing these wonders by our fidelity.\nThe marvels of this work which gratify the curiosity of our readings\nserve only to disgust us with the apparently unimportant events\nthrough which, if we despise them not, the divine love effects great\nthings in us. Foolish creatures that we are! We admire, we bless, this\ndivine action in its written history; but when it would continue to\nwrite its gospel in our hearts, we hold the paper in continual unrest,\nand we impede its action by our curiosity to know what it effects in us\nand what it effects elsewhere.\nPardon, divine Love, for I am writing my own defects, and I have not\nyet learned what it is to abandon myself to Thy hand. I have not yet\nyielded myself to the mould. I have walked through Thy divine studios,\nI have admired all Thy works, but I have not yet learned the needful\nself-abandonment to receive the marks of Thy pencil. At last I have\nfound Thee, my dear Master, my Teacher, my Father, my dear Love! I will\nbe Thy disciple; I will learn in no other school but Thine. I return\nlike the prodigal hungering for Thy bread. I abandon the ideas which\nonly serve to gratify my curiosity. I will no longer seek after masters\nor books; no, I will use these means only as Thy divine will ordains\nthem, and then not for my gratification, but to obey Thee by accepting\nall that Thou sendest me. I would confine myself solely to the duty of\nthe present moment in order to prove my love, fulfil my obligations,\nand leave thee free to do with me what Thou wilt.\nBook Third.\n The Paternal Care with which God surrounds Souls wholly abandoned to\n Him.\n_CHAPTER I._\n God Himself guides Souls who wholly abandon themselves to Him.\n_Sacrificate sacrificium justiti\u00e6 et sperate in Domino: Sacrifice,\nsaith the prophet, a sacrifice of justice and hope in the Lord._ That\nis to say that the grand and solid foundation of the spiritual life is\nto give one\u2019s self to God to be the subject of His good pleasure in all\nthings, interiorly as well as exteriorly, and to so utterly forget self\nthat we regard it as a thing sold and delivered, to which we have no\nlonger any right; so that our joy consists wholly in the good pleasure\nof God, and His honor and glory are our sole contentment.\nThis foundation laid, the soul has but to pass her life rejoicing that\nGod is God, abandoning herself so completely to His good pleasure\nthat she is equally content to do one thing as another, according as\nthis good pleasure directs, never even pausing to reflect upon the\ndisposition which is made of her by the will of God.\nSelf-abandonment! this, then, is the grand duty which remains to\nbe fulfilled after one has faithfully acquitted himself of all the\nobligations of his state. The perfection with which this grand duty is\naccomplished is the measure of one\u2019s sanctity.\nA holy soul is a soul who, with the aid of grace, freely abandons\nherself to the divine will. All that follows this pure self-abandonment\nis the work of God and not of man. God asks nothing more of this soul\nthan to blindly receive all that He sends, in a spirit of submission\nand universal indifference to the instruments of His will; the rest\nHe determines and chooses according to His designs for the soul as an\narchitect arranges and selects his materials according to the edifice\nhe would construct.\nIn all things, therefore, we must love God and His order; we must love\nit as it is presented to us without desiring more. It is for God,\nnot for us, to determine the objects of our submission, and what He\nsends is best for the soul. What a grand epitome of spirituality is\nthis maxim of pure and absolute self-abandonment to the will of God!\nSelf-abandonment, that continual forgetfulness of self which leaves\nthe soul free to eternally love and obey God, untroubled by those\nfears, reflections, regrets, and anxieties which the care of one\u2019s own\nperfection and salvation gives! Since God offers to take upon Himself\nthe care of our affairs, let us once for all abandon them to His\ninfinite wisdom, that we may never more be occupied with aught but Him\nand His interests.\nArise, then, my soul; let us walk with uplifted head above all that is\npassing about us and within us, ever content with God--content with\nwhat He does with us, and with what He gives us to do. Let us beware of\nimprudently falling a prey to those numerous disquieting reflections\nwhich, like so many tangled labyrinths, entrap the mind into useless,\nendless wanderings. Let us avoid this snare of self-love by springing\nover it, and not by following its interminable windings.\nOnward, my soul, through weariness, sickness, dryness, infirmities\nof temper, weakness of mind, snares of the devil and of men, their\nsuspicions, jealousies, evil thoughts, and prejudices! Let us soar\nlike the eagle above all these clouds, our eyes fixed upon the Sun\nof Justice, and its rays which are our obligations. Doubtless we may\nfeel these trials; it does not depend upon us to be insensible to\nthem. But let us remember that our life is not a life of sentiment.\nLet us live in this superior part of the soul where God and His will\nwork out for us an ever uniform, equable, immutable eternity. In this\nwholly spiritual dwelling where the Uncreated, the Ineffable, the\nInfinite holds the soul immeasurably separated from all shadows and\ncreated atoms, reigns perpetual calm, even though the senses be the\nprey of tempests. We have learned to rise above the senses; their\nrestlessness, their disquiet, their comings and goings, and their\nhundred transformations disturb us no more than the clouds which\ndarken the sky for a moment and disappear. We know that in the region\nof the senses all things are like the wind, without sequence or order,\nin continual vicissitude. God\u2019s will forms the eternal charm of the\nheart in the state of faith, just as in the state of glory it shall\nconstitute its true happiness; and this glorious state of the heart\nwill influence the whole material being at present a prey to terrors\nand temptations. Under these appearances, however terrible they may\nbe, the action of God, giving to the material being a facility wholly\ndivine, will cause it to shine like the sun; for the faculties of the\nsensitive soul and those of the body are prepared here below like\ngold, iron, flax, and stone. And like these different substances they\nwill attain the purity and splendor of their form only after they\nhave passed through many processes and suffered loss and destruction.\nAll that we endure here below at the hand of God is intended as a\npreparation for our future state.\nThe faithful soul who knows the secret of God\u2019s ways dwells in perfect\npeace; and all that transpires within her, so far from alarming, only\nreassures her. Intimately convinced that it is God who guides her, she\naccepts everything as a grace, and lives wholly forgetful of self,\nthe object upon which God labors, that she may think only of the work\ncommitted to her care. Her love unceasingly animates the courage which\nenables her to faithfully and carefully fulfil her obligations.\nExcept the sins of a self-abandoned soul, which are light, and even\nconverted to her good by the divine will, there is nothing _distinctly\nmanifest_ in her but the action of grace. And this action is distinctly\nmanifest in all those painful or consoling impressions by means of\nwhich the divine will unceasingly works the soul\u2019s good. I use the term\n\u201cdistinctly manifest,\u201d for of all that transpires within the soul,\nthese impressions are what it best distinguishes. To find God under all\nthese appearances is the great art of faith; to make everything a means\nof uniting one\u2019s self with God is the exercise of faith.\n_CHAPTER II._\n The more God seems to withdraw Light from the Soul abandoned to His\n Direction, the more Safely He guides Her.\nIt is particularly in souls wholly abandoned to God that the words of\nSt. John are accomplished: _You have no need that any man teach you;\nbut as His unction teacheth you of all things_. To know what God asks\nof them, they have but to consult this unction, to sound the heart,\nto heed its voice; it interprets the will of God according to their\npresent needs. For the divine action disguised reveals its designs, not\nby thoughts, but by intuition. It manifests them to the soul either by\nnecessity, leaving it but the one present course to choose, or by a\nfirst impulse, a sort of supernatural transport which impels to action\nwithout reflection, or, finally, by a certain attraction or repulsion\nwhich, while leaving the soul perfect liberty, no less attracts it to\nor withdraws it from objects.\nWere we to judge by appearances, it would seem most unwise to thus\npursue a course so uncertain; a course of conduct in which, according\nto ordinary rules, we find nothing stable, uniform, or regular. It\nis nevertheless at bottom the highest state of virtue, and one which\nusually is only attained after long exercise therein. The virtue of\nthis state is virtue in all its purity; in fact, it is perfection. The\nsoul is like a musician who to long practice unites great knowledge\nof music; he is so full of his art that, without any effort, all that\nhe does therein is perfection; and if his compositions be examined,\nthey will be found in perfect conformity with prescribed rules. One\nis convinced that he will never succeed better than when he acts\nwithout restraint, untrammelled by rules which fetter genius when too\nscrupulously followed; and his impromptus, like so many masterpieces,\nare the admiration of connoisseurs.\nThus the soul, after long exercise in the science and practice of\nperfection under the empire of reason and the methods with which she\naids grace, insensibly forms a habit of acting in all things by divine\ninstinct. Such a soul seems to intuitively accept as best the first\nduty that presents itself, without resorting to the reasoning which she\nformerly found necessary.\nShe has only to act according to circumstances, unable to do anything\nbut abandon herself to that grace which can never mislead her. The work\nof a soul in this state of simplicity is nothing less than marvellous\nto eyes and minds divinely enlightened. Without rule, yet exactness\nitself; without measure, yet nothing better proportioned; without\nreflection, yet nothing more profound; without ingenuity, yet nothing\nbetter managed; without effort, yet nothing more efficacious; without\nforethought, yet nothing better fitted to unforeseen events.\nThe divine action frequently gives by means of spiritual reading\nknowledge which the authors never possessed. God makes use of the\nwords and actions of others to inspire hidden truths. If He wills to\nenlighten us by such means, it is the part of the self-abandoned soul\nto accept them; and all means which become the instrument of the divine\nwill possess an efficacy far surpassing their natural and apparent\nvirtue.\nA life of self-abandonment is characterized by mystery; it is a\nlife which receives from God extraordinary miraculous gifts through\ncommonplace, fortuitous events, chance encounters, where nothing is\nvisible to human eyes but the ordinary workings of men\u2019s minds and\nthe natural course of the elements. Thus the simplest sermons, the\nmost commonplace conversations, the least elevating books, become to\nthese souls by virtue of the will of God sources of intelligence and\nwisdom. Therefore they carefully gather the crumbs of wisdom which\nthe worldly-wise trample under foot. Everything is precious to them,\neverything enriches them; so that, while supremely indifferent to all\nthings, they neglect or despise nothing, drawing profit from all.\nWhen we behold God in all things, and use them by His order, it is not\nusing creatures, but enjoying the divine action which transmits its\ngifts through these different channels. They are not of themselves\nsanctifying, but only as instruments of the divine action which\ncan and frequently does communicate its graces to simple souls by\nmeans apparently contrary to the end proposed. Yes, divine grace\ncan enlighten with clay as with the most subtle material, and its\ninstrument is always efficacious. All things are alike to it. Faith\nnever feels any need; she complains not of the lack of means apparently\nnecessary to her advancement, for the divine Workman for whom she\nlabors supplies all deficiencies by His will. This holy will is the\nwhole virtue of all creatures.\n_CHAPTER III._\n The Afflictions with which God visits the Soul are but Loving\n Artifices at which she will One Day rejoice.\nSouls who walk in light sing canticles of joy; those who walk amid\nshadows sing anthems of woe. Let one and the other sing to the end the\nportion and anthem God assigns them. We must add nothing to what He has\ncompleted. There must flow every drop of this gall of divine bitterness\nwith which He wills to inebriate them. Behold Jeremias and Ezechiel:\ntheirs was the language of sighs and lamentations, and their only\nconsolation was in the continuation of their lament. He who would have\ndried their tears would have deprived us of the most beautiful portions\nof the Holy Scriptures. The spirit that afflicts is the only one which\ncan console. The streams of sorrow and consolation flow from the same\nsource.\nWhen God astonishes a soul she must needs tremble; when He menaces, she\ncannot but fear. We have but to leave the divine operation to its own\ndevelopment; it bears within itself the remedy as well as the trial.\nWeep, dear souls; tremble, suffer disquiet and anguish; make no effort\nto escape these divine terrors, these heavenly lamentations. Receive\ninto the depth of your being the waters of that sea of bitterness which\ninundated the soul of Christ. Continue to sow in tears at the will\nof divine grace, and insensibly by the same will their source shall\nbe dried. The clouds will dissolve, the sun will shed its light, the\nspringtime will strew your path with flowers, and your self-abandonment\nwill manifest to you the whole extent of the admirable variety of the\ndivine action.\nTruly, man disquiets himself in vain! All that passes within him\nis like a dream. One shadow follows and effaces another, just as\nthe fancies of sleep succeed one another, some troubling, others\ndelighting, the mind. Man is the sport of these imaginations which\nconsume one another, and the grand awakening will show the equal\nemptiness of them all. It will dissipate all illusions, and he will no\nlonger heed the perils or fortunes of this dream called life.\nLord, can it not be said that Thy children sleep in Thy bosom during\nall the night of faith, while at Thy pleasure Thou fillest their souls\nwith an infinite number and infinite variety of experiences which are\nin reality but holy and mysterious reveries? In this obscure night of\nthe soul they are filled with veritable and awful terrors, with anguish\nand weariness which on the glorious day Thou wilt change into true and\nsolid joys.\nAt their awakening, holy souls, restored to a clearer vision and\nfuller consciousness, will never weary admiring the skill, the art,\nthe invention, the loving artifices of the Bridegroom. They will\ncomprehend how impenetrable are His ways, how surpassing comprehension\nare His devices, how beyond discovery His disguises, how impossible\nconsolation when He willed that they should mourn. On the day of\nthis awakening the Jeremias and the Davids will see that that which\nwrought their bitterest pain was subject of rejoicing to God and the\nangels. Wake not the spouse, worldly-wise, industrious minds filled\nwith self-activity; leave her to sigh and tremblingly seek for the\nBridegroom. True, He eludes her, and disguises Himself; she sleeps, and\nher griefs are but as the phantoms which come with night and sleep.\nBut disturb her not; let the Bridegroom work upon this cherished soul\nand depict in her what He alone can paint or express. Leave Him to\ndevelop the result of this state. He will awake her when it is time.\nJoseph causes Benjamin to weep; servants of Joseph, reveal not his\nsecret to this cherished brother! The artifice of Joseph is beyond the\npenetration of Benjamin. He and his poor brothers are plunged in grief;\nthey see naught in the loving artifice of Joseph but irremediable\nsuffering. Enlighten them not: He will remedy all; He will reveal\nhimself to them, and they will admire the wisdom of Him who out of so\nmuch woe and desolation wrought the truest joy they have ever known.\n_CHAPTER IV._\n The more God seems to take from a Soul wholly abandoned to Him, the\n more Generous He is to her.\nBut let us go on in the study of the divine action and its loving\nartifices. What the divine action seems to take from a good will\nit gives in _disguise_, so to speak. It never leaves a good will\nin need. For example, if we relieved the necessities of a friend\nwith generous gifts, allowing him to know they came from us, but\nlater, in his interest making a feint of withholding our gifts while\ncontinuing to secretly assist him, the friend, not suspecting the ruse\nor comprehending the kindly artifice, is grieved and hurt. Bitter\nreflections and unkind thoughts of his benefactor torment him. But when\nthe loving ruse is revealed to him, imagine the joy, the confusion,\nthe love, the shame, the gratitude, which overwhelm him! And are not\nhis zeal and love for his benefactor greater henceforth? And has not\nthe trial only strengthened his love and made it proof against any\nsimilar misunderstandings in the future?\nThe application is simple. The more we seem to lose with God, the\nmore we really gain; the more He deprives us of natural aid, the more\nHe gives us of supernatural. We loved Him a little for His gifts,\nbut these being no longer visible we come to love Him for Himself.\nIt is by the apparent withdrawal of these sensible gifts and favors\nthat He prepares us for Himself, the greatest of all gifts. The souls\nonce wholly submissive to the divine action should always interpret\nall things favorably--yes, were it the loss of the most excellent of\ndirectors, were it the distrust which they feel in spite of themselves\nfor those who too readily offer to fill his place; for usually the\nguides who of themselves seek the direction of souls merit a little\ndistrust. Those who are truly animated by the Spirit of God are not\nordinarily so impetuous or self-confident: they are sought, they do not\noffer themselves, and never cease to distrust themselves.\nLet the soul that has wholly given herself to God walk fearlessly\nthrough all these trials, letting none of them deprive her of\nher liberty. Provided she be faithful to the divine action, this\nall-powerful action will work wonders in her despite all obstacles.\nGod and the soul are engaged in the same work, the success of which,\nthough depending entirely on the action of the divine Workman, may\nnevertheless be compromised by the infidelity of the soul.\nWhen it is well with the soul, all goes well; for that which is of\nGod--that is, His part and action--are, so to speak, the rebound of\nthe soul\u2019s fidelity. It is the right side of the work which, like\nthose famous tapestries, are done stitch by stitch on the wrong side.\nThe workman engaged thereon sees but his needle and the canvas, every\nlittle hole of which is successively filled, forming a beautiful design\nwhich is only visible however, when every detail is completed, and the\nright side is held up to view, but during the process of the work all\nits beauty and its marvels were unseen.\nAnd thus it is with the self-abandoned soul: it sees only God and its\nduty. The fulfilment of the duty of each moment is but the addition\nof an imperceptible point, and yet it is by means of these apparent\ntrifles that God effects His wonders. We are given a presentment of\nthese wonders at times here below, but we shall only understand them\nin the light of eternity. How full of wisdom and goodness are the ways\nof God! He has made all that is great, elevating and ennobling so\ncompletely the work of His grace and action, leaving to the soul what\nis easy and simple to be accomplished with the aid of grace, that there\nis no one who cannot attain eminent sanctity by the loving fulfilment\nof obscure and humble duties.\n_CHAPTER V._\n The less Capable the Faithful Soul is of defending Herself, the more\n Powerfully does God defend Her.\nThe supreme and infallible work of the divine action is always\nopportunely applied to the simple soul, and she in all things wisely\ncorresponds to its intimate direction. She accepts all that comes\nto her, all that transpires, all that she feels--all, all save sin;\nsometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, being impelled, not by\nany reason, but by an indistinct impulse, to speak, to act, or not to\nact.\nFrequently the occasion and the reason which determine her course are\nmerely of the natural order; the simple soul sees no mystery therein,\nbut pure chance, necessity, conventionality; it is nothing in her eyes\nor those of others: and yet the divine action, which is the wisdom, the\ncounsel, the knowledge of its friends, causes these simple things to\nwork their good. It appropriates them and turns them so energetically\nagainst the schemes of the faithful soul\u2019s enemies, that it is\nimpossible for them to injure her.\nThe divine action frees the soul from the petty anxious schemes so\nnecessary to human prudence. Such precautions are suitable for Herod\nand the Pharisees: but the Magi have but to follow their star in peace;\nthe Babe has but to rest in His Mother\u2019s arms; His enemies advance\nHis cause more than they injure it; the more they seek to thwart and\noverwhelm it, the more peacefully and freely He advances. He will not\ncourt or temporize with them to turn their attacks from Him; their\njealousies, their distrust, their persecutions, are necessary to Him.\nThus lived Jesus in Judea; and He still lives after this manner in\nsimple souls, where He is generous, gentle, free, peaceful; fearing\nand needing no creature, but beholding them all in the hands of His\nFather; eager to turn them to His service, some through their criminal\npassions, others through their good actions, others through their\nobedience and submission.\nThe divine action marvellously adjusts all these things: there is\nneither too little nor too much; no more good and evil than needful.\nThe order of God sends each moment the appropriate instrument for its\nwork; and the simple soul enlightened by faith finds all things good,\ndesiring neither more nor less than she possesses. At all times she\nblesses the divine Hand which so carefully supplies her needs and\nfrees her from obstacles; she receives friends and foes with equal\nsweetness, for it is the way of Jesus to treat the whole world as a\ndivine instrument. We want for none, and yet we have need of all; the\ndivine action renders all necessary, and we must receive all from\nit, accepting each thing according to its nature and quality, and\ncorresponding thereto with sweetness and humility, treating the simple\nwith simplicity, the ungentle with gentleness, after the teaching of\nSt. Paul and the more beautiful practice of the divine Master.\nDivine grace alone can imprint that supernatural character which adapts\nitself so marvellously to each individual nature. It is not learned\nfrom books; it is a true spirit of prophecy, and the effect of intimate\nrevelation; it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. To conceive it one\nmust have attained the highest degree of self-abandonment and the\nmost perfect detachment from all plans and interests, however holy\nthey may be. We must keep before our eyes the one important thing in\nthis world, viz., the passive abandonment to the divine action which\nis required of us in order to devote ourselves to the duties of our\nstate, leaving the Holy Spirit to operate interiorly, indifferent as\nto what He operates upon, even happy not to know it. Then, then we are\nsafe; for all the events of the world can only work the good of souls\nperfectly submissive to the divine will of God.\n_CHAPTER VI._\n The Soul abandoned to the Will of God, so far from resisting her\n Enemies, finds in them Useful Auxiliaries.\nI fear my own action and that of my friends more than I do my enemies.\nThere is no prudence equal to that of offering no resistance to one\u2019s\nenemies but that of simple abandonment to the will of God; nothing\nwhich so fully insures our peace; it is rowing with the tide, sailing\nwith a wind which swiftly brings us into port. There is nothing\nbetter than simplicity with which to meet the prudence of this world;\nit skilfully, though unconsciously, evades its snares without even\nthinking of them.\nDealing with a simple soul is, in a measure, dealing with God. Who\ncan cope with the Almighty, whose ways are inscrutable? God espouses\nthe cause of the simple soul; she has no need to study the intrigues\nof her enemies, to meet their activity with equal alertness, watching\nall their movements: her Spouse relieves her of all this; she confides\nall to Him, and then rests on His breast in peace and security. The\ndivine action inspires her with measures so just that they who sought\nto surprise her are themselves surprised. She benefits by all their\nefforts, and rises by the very means with which they sought to abase\nher. All contradictions turn to her good; and by leaving her enemies\nto work their will she draws so great and continual profit from them\nthat all she need fear is that she may interfere in a work in which\nGod wills to be the chief actor, using her enemies as His instruments,\nand in which the soul has no other part than to peacefully watch the\nworking of the divine will and follow its guidance with simplicity.\nThe supernatural prudence of the divine Spirit, the principle of these\nattractions, unerringly seizes the end and intimate relations of each\nevent, and, all unknown to the soul, so disposes them for her spiritual\nwelfare that all which opposes itself thereto must inevitably be\ndestroyed.\n_CHAPTER VII._\n The Soul who abandons Herself to God has no Need to justify Herself by\n Words or Actions: the Divine Action justifies Her.\nThe broad, solid, firm rock upon which the faithful soul stands\nsheltered from tides and storms is the order of the divine will, which\nis ever present with us, veiled under crosses or the most ordinary\nduties. Behind these shadows is hidden God\u2019s Hand, which sustains and\nupholds those who abandon themselves to Him.\nThe moment the soul is firmly established in this perfect\nself-abandonment she is henceforth safe from the contradiction of\ntongues, for she ceases to have anything to do or say in her own\ndefence. Since the work is God\u2019s, from no other source must its\njustification be sought. Its consequences and effects will sufficiently\njustify it. We have but to leave it to its own development. _Dies diei\neructat verbum._\nWhen we are no longer guided by our own ideas we need not defend\nourselves by words. Our words can only represent our ideas, and where\nan absence of ideas is admitted no words are needed. Of what avail are\nthey? To give a reason for what we do? But we know not this reason;\nit is hidden in the principle which animates our actions, and which\nimpresses us only in a most ineffable manner.\nWe must therefore leave to the results of our actions the task of\njustifying their principle. All is metely sustained in this divine\nprocession; everything therein has a firm and solid basis, and the\nreason for that which precedes is manifest in the result which follows.\nIt is no longer a life of thought, imagination, multiplied words:\nthese no longer occupy, nourish, or sustain the soul. She no longer\nknows where she walks, or where her path may lie in the future; she\nceases to incite herself with reflections to bear the toils and\nfatigues of the route; her strength lies in an intimate conviction of\nher own weakness. A way is opened to her feet; she enters and walks\nunhesitatingly therein with pure, straightforward, simple faith;\nshe follows the straight path of the commandments, leaning upon God\nHimself, whom she finds at every turn of the way; and this God, the\nsole object of her life, will take her justification upon Himself, and\nso manifest His presence that she will be avenged of her detractors.\n_CHAPTER VIII._\n God gives Life to the Soul abandoned to Him by Means which apparently\n lead only to Death.\nThere is a time when God wills to be the life of the soul and work\nout her perfection Himself in a hidden and secret manner: then all\nher own ideas, lights, efforts, researches, reasonings, become a\nsource of illusion. And when the soul, after many sad experiences, is\nfinally taught the uselessness of her self-activity, she finds that\nGod has hidden and obstructed all other channels of life that she may\nlive in Him alone. Then, convinced of her nothingness, and that her\nself-activity is prejudicial to her, she abandons herself completely\nto God and relies only upon Him. God then becomes a source of life to\nthe soul, not by means of thoughts, revelations, reflections (these are\nnow become a source of illusion), but effectively by the reality of\nHis grace hidden under the strangest appearances. The divine operation\nbeing invisible to the soul, she receives its virtue, its substance,\nunder circumstances which she feels will prove her ruin. There is no\nremedy for this obscurity; we must remain buried therein; for here,\nin this night of faith, God gives Himself to us, and with Himself all\nthings. Henceforth the soul is but a blind subject; or rather she may\nbe likened to a sick man who, ignorant of the virtue of his remedies,\nand feeling only their bitterness, frequently imagines they must lead\nto death; the exhaustion and crisis which follow them seem to justify\nhis fears: nevertheless, under this semblance of death he receives\nhealth, and he continues to accept the remedies at the word of the\nphysician.\nThus souls abandoned to God\u2019s will take no heed of their infirmities,\nexcept those of a nature sufficiently evident and grave to require care\nand treatment. The languor and impotence of faithful souls are but\nillusions and semblances which they must courageously face. God sends\nand permits them to exercise their faith and self-abandonment, and in\nthese virtues lies the soul\u2019s true remedy. She must go on generously,\nutterly ignoring her infirmities, accepting all that comes to her to do\nor suffer in the order of God, never hesitating to treat her body as\nwe do those beasts of burden only destined to spend their lives going\nhither and thither at our will. This treatment is more efficacious than\nall that delicate care which only weakens the vigor of the mind. This\nstrength of purpose has an indescribable virtue and power to sustain\na feeble body; and a year of this noble and generous life is worth a\ncentury of selfish fears and care.\nWe must endeavor to habitually maintain an air of childlike gentleness\nand good-will. Ah! what can we fear from this divine fortune? Guided,\nsustained, and protected by the Providence of God, the whole exterior\nconduct of His children should be nothing less than heroic. The\nalarming objects which oppose their progress are naught in themselves:\nthey are only sent to embellish their lives by still more glorious\nactions. They entangle them in embarrassments of every kind, whence\nhuman prudence can see no issue, and, feeling its weakness, stops\nshort, confounded. Then does the divine fortune gloriously manifest\nwhat it is for souls who wholly trust therein. It extricates them more\nmarvellously than the writers of fiction with unrestrained imagination\nin the leisure and privacy of their study unraveled the intrigues and\nperils of their imaginary heroes, bringing them invariably to a happy\nend. More admirably still does it guide them safely through the perils\nof death, the snares of demons, the terrors of temptation, the fears\nof hell. It elevates these souls to heaven, and they are all the real\nsubject of those mystic histories more beautiful and curious than any\never invented by the crude imagination of man.\nThen onward, my soul, through perils and fears, guided, directed, and\nsustained by the invisible, all-powerful, unerring Hand of divine\nProvidence. Let us go on fearlessly in joy and peace to the end,\nturning obstacles into victories, remembering that it was to struggle\nand conquer that we enrolled ourselves under His banner. _Exivit\nvincens ut vinceret_, and every step under His guidance is a victory.\nThe book of souls lies open before the Holy Spirit, and their history\nis still written, for holy souls will furnish material for its pages\nto the end of the world. This history is but the relation of God\u2019s\noperations and designs upon man, and it depends upon ourselves whether\nwe shall appear in its pages and continue its narration by uniting our\nsufferings and actions to His divine will.\nNo; let nothing we have to do or suffer alarm us: it can cause us no\nloss; it is only sent us that we may furnish material for that holy\nhistory, which is increasing day by day.\n_CHAPTER IX._\n Love holds the Place of All Things to Souls who walk in the Way of\n Abandonment.\nGod, while He despoils a soul who wholly abandons herself to Him,\ngives her something which takes the place of all things--of light, of\nstrength, of life, of wisdom. This gift is His love. Divine love is\nlike a supernatural instinct in these souls.\nEverything in nature has that which is suited to its kind; each flower\nhas its peculiar charm, each animal its instinct, and each creature its\nperfection. And so it is in the different states of grace; each has its\nspecial grace, and this is a recompense to every one whose good will\nbrings him in harmony with the state in which Providence has placed him.\nA soul becomes subject to the divine action the moment a good will is\nformed in her heart; and this action influences her according to the\ndegree of her self-abandonment. The art of self-abandonment is simply\nthe art of loving; divine love grants all things to the soul who\nrefuses Him nothing. And as God\u2019s love inspires the desires of a soul\nwho lives for him, He can never refuse them; therefore, cannot love\ndesire what it pleases?\nThe divine action only considers the good will of a soul; the capacity\nor incapacity of the other faculties neither attract nor repel it.\nIf it find a soul good, pure, upright, simple, submissive, it is\nall it requires; it takes possession of this soul and of all her\nfaculties, and so disposes all things for her good that she finds\nmeans of sanctification in everything. That which would give death to\nothers, should it enter this soul will be harmless, for the antidote\nof her good will will arrest the effect of the poison. If she stray\nto the brink of the abyss, the divine action will withhold her from\nits depths, or if she fall it will rescue her. And indeed the faults\nof these souls are but faults of frailty and little perceptible;\nGod\u2019s love knows how to turn them to her advantage, and by secret and\nineffable ways teaches her what she should say and do according to the\ncircumstances in which she is placed.\nSuch souls receive as it were rays of divine intelligence: _Intellectus\nbonus omnibus facientibus eum_. For this divine intelligence\naccompanies them in all their wanderings, and rescues them from the\nsnares into which their simplicity leads them. Have they committed\nthemselves by some mistaken measure? Providence disposes a happy\nevent which releases them. Vainly are intrigues multiplied against\nthem; Providence overcomes all the efforts of their enemies, and so\nconfounds and bewilders them that they fall into their own snares. Do\nthey seek to surprise the soul? Providence, by means of some apparently\nunimportant action which she unconsciously performs, rescues her from\nthe embarrassments into which she has been led by her own uprightness\nand the malice of her enemies.\nOh, the exquisite wisdom of this good will! What prudence in its\nsimplicity, what ingenuity in its innocence, what frankness in its\nmysteries, what mystery in its candor!\nBehold the young Tobias: he is a mere youth; but Raphael walks at his\nside, and with such a guide he walks in safety, he feels no want,\nnothing affrights him. Even the monsters he encounters furnish him food\nand healing; the very creature which springs to devour him becomes his\nnourishment. He is only occupied with nuptials and festivities, for\nsuch is his present duty in the order of Providence; not that he is\nwithout other cares, but they are abandoned to that divine intelligence\ncharged to assist him in all things; and the result of his affairs\nis better than he could have made it, for everything succeeds and is\ncrowned with prosperity. Yet the mother bitterly grieves, while the\nfather is full of faith; but the child so sorely lamented joyfully\nreturns to become the happiness of his family.\nThen for those souls who wholly abandon themselves to it, divine\nlove is the source of all good; and an earnest desire is all that is\nnecessary to obtain this inestimable blessing.\nYes, dear souls, God asks but your heart; if you seek you will find\nthis treasure, this kingdom where God alone reigns.\nIf your heart be wholly devoted to God, within it you will find the\ntreasure, the kingdom itself, which is the object of your desires. The\nmoment we desire God and His will, that moment we enjoy them, and our\nenjoyment corresponds to the ardor of our desires. The earnest desire\nto love God is loving Him. Because we love Him we desire to be the\ninstruments of His action, that His love may freely operate in us and\nthrough us.\nThe work of the divine action is not in proportion to the capacity\nof a simple holy soul, but to her purity of intention; nor does it\ncorrespond to the means she adopts, the projects she forms, the counsel\nshe follows. The soul may err in all these, and this not rarely\nhappens; but with a good will and pure intention she can never be\nmisled. When God sees this good disposition He overlooks all the rest,\nand accepts as done what the soul would assuredly do if circumstances\nseconded her good will.\nTherefore a good will has nothing to fear; if it falter, it can but\nfall under that all-powerful Hand which guides and sustains it in all\nits wanderings. It is this divine Hand which draws it towards the goal\nwhen it has wandered therefrom, which restores it to the path whence\nits feet have strayed; it is the soul\u2019s refuge in the difficulties into\nwhich the efforts of her blind faculties lead her; and the soul learns\nto despise these, efforts to wholly abandon herself to the infallible\nguidance of this divine Hand. Even the errors of these good souls\nlead them to self-abandonment; and never will a good will find itself\nunaided, for it is a dogma of faith that _all things work the good_ of\nsuch souls.\n_CHAPTER X._\n The Faithful Soul finds in Submission to the Will of God more Force\n and Strength than the Proudest of those who resist Him.\nWhat avail the most sublime intelligence and divine revelations if we\nlove not the will of God? It was through these that Lucifer perished.\nThe work of the divine action which God revealed to him in the mystery\nof the Incarnation excited only his envy. A simple soul, on the\ncontrary, enlightened by faith alone, never wearies admiring, praising,\nand loving the order of God, recognizing it not only in holy things,\nbut even amid the greatest confusion and disorder of events. A simple\nsoul is more enlightened with a ray of pure faith than was Lucifer by\nHis sublime revelations.\nThe science of a soul faithful to her obligations, peacefully\nsubmissive to the secret inspirations of grace, humble and gentle with\nall, is worth more than the profound wisdom which penetrates mysteries.\nIf we would learn to see but the will of God in the pride and cruelty\nof creatures, we would always meet them with gentleness and respect.\nWhatever the consequences of their disorders, they can never mar the\ndivine order. We must only see in creatures the will of God, whose\ninstruments they are, and whose grace they communicate to us when\nwe receive them with meekness and humility. We have not to concern\nourselves for their course, but keep steadily on in our own; and thus,\nwith gentle firmness, we will triumph over all obstacles, were they\nfirmly rooted as cedars and irresistible as rocks.\nWhat can resist the force of a meek, humble, faithful soul? If we\nwould vanquish all our adversaries, we have but to use the weapons God\nhas placed in our hands. He has given them for our defence, and there\nis nothing to be feared in using them. We must not be cowardly but\ngenerous, as becomes souls chosen to do God\u2019s work. God\u2019s workings are\nsublime and marvellous; and never can human action, warring upon God,\nresist one who is united to the divine will by the practice of meekness\nand humility.\nWhat was Lucifer? A beautiful spirit, more enlightened than all the\nothers; but a beautiful spirit rebellious against God and His will.\nThe mystery of evil is but the continuation of this rebellion in every\nvariety of form. Lucifer, as far as lies in his power, would subvert\nall that God has done and ordained. Wherever he penetrates, God\u2019s\nwork is marred. The greater one\u2019s learning, science, understanding,\nthe greater his danger if he possess not that foundation of piety\nwhich consists in submission to the will of God. It is a disciplined,\nsubmissive heart which unites us to the divine action; without it all\nour goodness is but natural virtue, and ordinarily in opposition to the\norder of God. This all-powerful Workman only recognizes the humble as\nHis instruments, and condemns the rebellious proud to serve in spite of\nthemselves as the slaves of divine justice.\nWhen I see a soul whose first object is God and submission to His will,\nhowever much she may be lacking in other things, I say, Here is a soul\nwith great talents for serving God. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph\nappear to have been after this model. Other gifts without this alarm\nme; I fear to see the action of Lucifer repeated. I am on my guard, and\nintrench myself in my simplicity to resist the dazzling splendor of\nthose gifts, of themselves so perishable and fragile.\n_CHAPTER XI._\n The Soul abandoned to God learns to recognize His Will even in the\n Proud who resist Him. All Creatures, whether Good or Evil, reveal Him\n to her.\nThe will of God is the whole life of the simple soul. She respects this\nwill even in the evil actions by which the proud seek to abase her. The\nproud despise a soul in whose eyes they are nothing; for she sees only\nGod in them and all their actions. Frequently they mistake her humble\ndemeanor for awe of themselves, when it is only a mark of her loving\nfear of God and His will which is present to her in the proud.\nNo, poor foolish creatures, the simple soul fears ye not. Rather, she\ncompassionates you. It is to God she speaks when she seems to address\nyou; it is with Him she treats; she regards you only as His slaves, or\nrather as shadows which veil Him. Therefore, the more overbearing you\nare, the more humble she becomes; and when you think to entrap her you\nfind yourselves the dupes. Your diplomacy, your violence, are to her,\nbut favors of Providence. Yes, the proud are still an enigma which the\nsimple soul enlightened by faith clearly reads.\nThis recognition of the divine will in all that transpires each moment\nwithin us and about us is the true science of the spiritual life;\nit is a continual revelation of truth; it is a communication with\nGod incessantly renewed; it is the enjoyment of the Bridegroom, not\ncovertly, secretly, in the \u201cclefts of the rock,\u201d in the \u201cvineyard,\u201d but\nopenly, publicly, without fear of creatures. It is a depth of peace,\njoy, love, and contentment with God, whom we see, or rather behold,\nthrough faith, living and working the perfection of each event. It is\nthe eternal paradise, now tasted, it is true, only in things incomplete\nand veiled in obscurity; but the Spirit of God disposes all the events\nof this life by the fruitful omnipresence of His action, and on the\nlast day He will say, _Let there be light_ (_Fiat lux_); and then shall\nbe revealed the treasures of that abyss of peace and contentment with\nGod which each action, each cross, conceals.\nWhen God thus gives Himself to a soul, all that is ordinary becomes\nextraordinary; therefore it is that nothing appears of the great work\nwhich is going on in the soul; the way itself is so marvellous that it\nneeds not the embellishment of marvels which belong not to it. It is\na miracle, a revelation, a continuous enjoyment of God, interrupted\nonly by little faults; but in itself it is characterized by the absence\nof anything sensible or marvellous, while it renders marvellous all\nordinary and sensible things.\n_CHAPTER XII._\n God assures to Faithful Souls a Glorious Victory over the Powers of\n Earth and Hell.\nIf the divine action is veiled here below by an exterior of weakness,\nit is that the merit of faithful souls may be increased; but its\ntriumph is no less sure. The history of the world is simply the history\nof the struggle maintained from the beginning by the powers of the\nworld and hell with souls humbly submissive to the divine action. In\nthe conflict all the advantage seems to be on the side of the proud;\nyet humility is always victorious.\nThis world is represented to us under the form of a statue of gold,\nbrass, iron, and clay. This mystery of iniquity which was shown in a\ndream to Nebuchadnezzar is but the confused assemblage of all the acts,\ninterior and exterior, of the children of darkness. These are again\nrepresented by the beast coming up out of the abyss from the beginning\nof all ages, to make war upon the interior and spiritual man; and\nthis war still continues. The monsters succeed one another; the abyss\nswallows them and vomits them forth again, while unceasingly emitting\nnew and strange vapors. The combat begun in heaven between Lucifer and\nSt. Michael still wages. The heart of that proud and envious spirit has\nbecome an inexhaustible abyss of every kind of evil; and his only aim\nsince the creation of the world has been to ever raise up among men new\nworkers of iniquity to replace those swallowed up in the abyss. Lucifer\nis the chieftain of those who refuse obedience to the Almighty; this\nmystery of iniquity is but the inversion of the order of God. It is the\norder, or rather the disorder, of Satan. This disorder is a mystery,\nfor beneath a fair exterior it hides irremediable infinite evils.\nAll the wicked who have declared war against God, from Cain to those\nwho now lay waste the earth, have been seemingly great and powerful\nprinces, famous in the world and worshipped of men. But their apparent\nsplendor is a portion of the mystery; they are but the beasts which,\none after another, rise from the abyss to subvert the order of God.\nBut this order, which is another mystery, resists them with men truly\npowerful and great, who give the death-blow to these monsters; and\neven as hell vomits forth new monsters, heaven raises up new heroes\nto battle with them. Ancient history, sacred and profane, is but the\nrecord of this war. The will of God always triumphs. His followers\nshare His victories and reap a happy eternity. But iniquity can never\nprotect its followers, and the deserters from God\u2019s cause reap death,\neternal death.\nThe wicked ever believe themselves invincible; but oh, my God, who\nshall resist Thee! Were the powers of earth and hell ranged against one\nsingle soul, she would have naught to fear in abandoning herself to the\nwill of God. That apparent might and irresistible power of iniquity,\nthat head of gold, that body of silver, brass, and iron, is but a\nphantom of glittering dust. A pebble overthrows it and makes it the\nsport of the winds.\nHow admirable is the work of the Holy Spirit throughout all ages! The\nrevolutions which irresistibly carry men along with them, the brilliant\nheroes heralded with so much pomp, who shine like stars above the\nrest of mankind, the marvels of the age, are all but as the dream of\nNebuchadnezzar, which at his awakening fled with all its terrors.\nAll these things are only sent to exercise the courage of the children\nof God; and when their virtue is proved and confirmed, He permits them\nto overcome these monsters, and continues to send new warriors into the\nfield. So that this life is a continual warfare which exercises the\ncourage of the saints on earth, and causes joy in heaven and confusion\nin hell.\nThus all opposition to the will, the order of God, serves but to render\nit more adorable. The servers of iniquity are the slaves of justice,\nand from the ruins of Babylon the divine action builds the heavenly\nJerusalem.\nAPPENDIX.\nOur readers will be grateful to us for adding to Father Caussade\u2019s\ntreatise a few methods which facilitate the practice of abandonment. To\nrecommend these methods it suffices to say that their authors are St.\nFrancis de Sales, Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Bossuet, and Father\nSurin.\nI.\nA very easy Means of acquiring Peace of Heart.\nBY FATHER SURIN, S. J.\nIt seems to me that the multiplicity of methods we employ to acquire\nand practise virtue is one of the obstacles to our being solidly\nestablished therein. Not that I counsel being so irrevocably bound\nto one method that we are not ready to change when God\u2019s attraction\nchanges. But, after all, this attraction at bottom never changes, and\nonly presents itself under a more spiritual form. They who will be\nfaithful to the following rules will have no difficulty in practising\nthe virtues appropriate to the circumstances, the time, and the place\nin which they find themselves, and in relishing in the exercise of\nthese virtues the peace and holy liberty of the children of God.\n1st. Let us be fully convinced that we have but one thing to do: to\npossess each moment the fulness of our mind, without permitting the\nreasonable will to uselessly recall the past or excite vain anxieties\nconcerning the future.\nTrue abandonment, which makes God look upon us with love, consists\nin leaving the past to His ever merciful justice, and in confiding\nthe future to His fatherly Providence. The remembrance of our past\ninfidelities should humble but not trouble us, though we were convinced\nthat they are much more serious than they appear.\nIn regard to the future, let us place no trust whatever in our strength\nand the sentiments of devotion we may experience; let us place all our\ntrust in Jesus alone, however contrary sensible impressions may be.\nRelying on this foundation, it is no presumption to feel ourselves\nstronger than earth and hell; and the greater this confidence, the more\nit honors Jesus Christ, and the more it disposes His goodness to succor\nus in all our needs.\n2d. We shall sanctify the present moment by renewing as frequently as\nwe shall feel it needful the act of recollection which we must have\nmade the first time with all the fervor of which we are capable; but\nthis recollection should be very peaceful and dwell in the depths of\nthe soul more than in the sensible part.\n3d. We can remain faithful to this recollection only on condition that\nwe frequently examine the interior and exterior condition of our soul.\nAs soon as we discover in her any irregularity, however small, or in\nany degree displeasing to God, we should proceed to restore order with\na heart as tranquil as if we had never failed, without disquieting\nourselves with reflections springing from self-love, vexation at the\nfault committed, or from a pretext of livelier contrition. These\nsentiments can only retard our progress in virtue; for, while the soul\namuses itself caressing its chagrin and probing its past faults,\nthis useless introspection paralyzes its action and disposes it to\nnew falls. A peaceful regret for time ill employed, united with an\nearnest endeavor to make better use of the present moment, is the true\ncharacter of love of God.\n4th. The quickest means of attaining peace of heart is love of our\nown abjection and miseries, voluntary offence against God, however,\nexcepted. This love of one\u2019s personal abjection derives profit from\neverything, even from falls, which should never discourage us.\nA soul that loves her own abjection laughs at discouragement and\ncombats it with all her strength. Content to be of herself but\nimpotence and misery, she rejoices that Jesus Christ possesses the\nfulness of all perfection, and that she cannot do without Him an\ninstant. She would not, were it in her power, will to have any strength\nof herself, for her radical impotence for all good and her unceasing\nneed of Jesus Christ set forth His divine attributes to greater\nadvantage. This is the sole contentment of a soul that seeks only the\nglory of God.\nIn this peaceful, humble way we advance in purity of divine love, and\nin the extermination of our bad habits more rapidly in a week than we\nwould in a year of unquiet vigilance. Very little experience of God\u2019s\nway will convince us of this. For self-love is the motive and end of\nthose who yield to disquiet, while those who proceed with the calmness\nof which we have spoken rely on Jesus Christ. Now, it is most evident\nthat seeking only God\u2019s interest always gives strength, and that\negotism, even spiritual egotism, being a disorder, is weakening.\n5th. The perfection of order is to be found in the complete fusion of\nour interests with those of God. Therefore he who remains faithful to\nthis sweet habit is not astonished to see himself assailed by every\nform of temptation; he bears the weary burden of them as the natural\nfruit of his misery, maintains in the depth of his heart a resigned\nacquiescence, and courageously drags this weary chain of his past\nwithout permitting himself to be troubled or cast down by the memory\nof his iniquities. When this thought assails him, he loses no time\nexamining whence it came, nor how long it has lasted, for such an\nexamination would be in itself a new distraction, more voluntary and\ninjurious than the first; he is satisfied with humbling himself at\nsight of this infidelity, which, wholly involuntary as it is, proves,\nnevertheless, that his heart is not wholly fixed upon God. Disquietude\nin this case being a mark of self-love, we must return to God and seek\npeace in love of our own abjection.\n6th. We must follow the same rule in our relations with our neighbor,\nand cause him to feel the truth of these words of our Saviour: \u201cMy yoke\nis sweet, and My burden light.\u201d No one who takes this yoke upon himself\ncan fail to realize these words, for they are the utterance of eternal\nTruth. The practice of which we have just spoken will inevitably cause\nus to taste its sweetness.\n7th. When this feeling of disquiet has passed, and peace of mind\nis restored, it is well then to recall our past faults in order to\nhumble and reprove ourselves. There is no one who should not feel the\nneed of doing this, so great is the depth of our pride and self-love\nwhich never die, and never cease alas! to produce new fruits. If we\nneglect this very important point, the foundation of our virtues will\ninevitably lose its solidity. When, on the contrary, we persevere in\nthis habit, we always conceive a greater esteem for our neighbor;\nunfavorable appearances no longer lead us to judge rashly, and we only\ncondemn ourselves, for, recognizing our nothingness and sinfulness, we\nplace ourselves under the feet of all.\n8th. In considering our past faults, we must first see how we could\nhave avoided falling; then with a tranquil heart lay before Jesus our\nmisery and the will to be faithful to Him which He gives us; finally,\nwe must not vainly amuse ourselves with estimating the difficulty\nor the facility we experience in doing good. We must not go to God\ncircuitously, but unceasingly rouse ourselves to that pure and generous\ndisinterestedness which will lead us directly to His most loving and\nadorable Majesty.\nII.\nOn Perfect Abandonment.\nBY BOSSUET.\nWhen we are truly abandoned to God\u2019s will, we are ready for all that\nmay come to us: we suppose the worst that can be supposed, and we cast\nourselves blindly on the bosom of God. We forget ourselves, we lose\nourselves: and this entire forgetfulness of self is the most perfect\npenance we can perform; for all conversion consists only in truly\nrenouncing and forgetting ourselves, to be occupied with God and filled\nwith Him. This forgetfulness of self is the martyrdom of self-love; it\nis its death, and an annihilation which leaves it without resources:\nthen the heart dilates and is enlarged. We are relieved by casting from\nus the dangerous weight of self which formerly overwhelmed us. We look\nupon God as a good Father who leads us, as it were, by the hand in the\npresent moment; and all our rest is in humble and firm confidence in\nHis fatherly goodness.\nIf anything is capable of making a heart free and unrestrained, it\nis perfect abandonment to God and His holy will: this abandonment\nfills the heart with a divine peace more abundant than the fullest\nand vastest floods. If anything can render a mind serene, dissipate\nthe keenest anxieties, soften the bitterest pains, it is assuredly\nthis perfect simplicity and liberty of a heart wholly abandoned to\nthe hands of God. The unction of abandonment gives a certain vigor to\nall the actions, and spreads the joy of the Holy Spirit even over the\ncountenance and words. I will place all my strength, therefore, in this\nperfect abandonment to God\u2019s hands, through Jesus Christ, and He will\nbe my conclusion in all things in virtue of the Holy Spirit. Amen.\nIII.\n A Short and Easy Method of making the Prayer of Faith, and of the\n Simple Presence of God.\nBY BOSSUET.\n1st. We must accustom ourselves to nourish our soul with a simple and\nloving thought of God, and of Jesus Christ, our Lord; and to this\nend we must gently separate her from all discourse, reasoning, and\na multitude of affections, to keep her in simplicity, respect, and\nattention, and thus bring her nearer and nearer to God, her sole and\nsovereign good, her first principle, and her last end.\n2d. The perfection of this life consists in union with our Sovereign\nGood; and the greater the simplicity, the more perfect the union. It\nis for this reason that those who would be perfect are interiorly\nsolicited by grace to become simple, that they may finally be capable\nof enjoying the _one thing_ necessary--that is, eternal unity. Then let\nus frequently say, in the depth of our hearts: _O unum necessarium,\nunum volo, unum qu\u00e6ro, unum mihi est necessarium, Deus meus et omnia._\n(Oh, one thing necessary! Thee alone do I wish, do I seek, do I desire!\nThou art all that I need, O my God and my all!)\n3d. Meditation is very good in its time, and very useful at the\nbeginning of the spiritual life; but we must not stop at it, as the\nsoul by her fidelity to mortification, and recollection, usually\nreceives a purer and more intimate form of prayer which may be called\nthe prayer of \u201csimplicity.\u201d It consists in a simple and loving\nattention, or contemplation of some divine object, either of God in\nHimself or some of His perfections, or of Jesus Christ or some of\nHis mysteries, or some other of the Christian truths. Then the soul,\nabandoning all reasoning, falls into a sweet contemplation which keeps\nher tranquil, attentive, and susceptible of the operations and the\ndivine impressions which the Holy Spirit communicates to her: she does\nlittle, and receives much; her labor is sweet, and yet most fruitful;\nand as she approaches nearer to the source of all light, all grace, all\nvirtue, she also receives more.\n4th. The practice of this prayer should begin at our awakening by an\nact of faith in the presence of God, who is everywhere, and in Jesus\nChrist, whose eyes never leave us though we were buried in the centre\nof the earth. This act is made sensibly, in the usual manner; for\nexample, by saying interiorly, \u201cI believe that my God is present;\u201d or\nby a simple thought of faith in God present with us, which is a purer\nand more spiritual act.\n5th. Then we must not endeavor to multiply, or produce several other\nacts or various dispositions, but remain simply attentive to this\npresence of God, exposed to this divine radiance, thus continuing this\ndevout attention or exposition as long as God gives us the grace of it,\nwithout being eager to make other acts than those with which we are\ninspired, since this prayer is a prayer with God alone, and a union\nwhich eminently contains all the other special dispositions; and which\ndisposes the soul to passiveness; that is to say, God becomes sole\nmaster of her interior, and there effects more special work. The less\nthe creature labors in this state, the more powerfully God acts in her;\nand since the operation of God is a repose, the soul, in this prayer,\nbecomes in a manner like Him, and receives, also, marvellous effects;\nand as the rays of the sun cause the plants to grow and blossom and\nbear fruit, so the attentive soul, exposed in tranquillity to the rays\nof the divine Sun of justice, more effectually imbibes the divine\ninfluences which enrich her with all virtues.\n6th. The continuation of this attention in faith will serve her\nas thanksgiving for all the graces received during the night, and\nthroughout her life, as an offering of herself and all her actions, as\na direction of her intention, etc.\n7th. The soul may fear to lose much by the omission of other acts,\nbut experience will teach her, on the contrary, that she gains a\ngreat deal; for the greater her knowledge of God, the greater also\nwill be the purity of her love, of her intentions, the greater will\nbe her detestation of sin, and the greater and more continual her\nrecollection, mortification, and humility.\n8th. This will not prevent her from making other interior or exterior\nacts of virtue when she feels herself impelled thereto by grace; but\nthe fundamental and usual state of her interior should be that union\nwith God which will keep her abandoned to His hands and delivered up to\nHis love, to quietly accomplish all His will.\n9th. The time of meditation being come, we must begin it with great\nrespect by a simple recollection of God, invoking His Spirit, and\nuniting ourselves intimately with Jesus Christ; then continue it in\nthis same way. It will be the same with vocal prayers, office, and\nthe Holy Sacrifice, whether we celebrate it or assist at it. Even the\nexamination of conscience should be made after no other method: this\nsame light which keeps our attention upon God will cause us to discover\nour slightest imperfections, and deeply deplore and regret them. We\nshould go to table with the same spirit of simplicity which will keep\nus more occupied with God than with the repast, and leave us free to\ngive better attention to what is being read. This practice binds us\nto nothing but to keep our soul detached from all imperfection, and\nattached only to God and intimately united with Him, in which consists\nall our welfare.\n10th. We should take our recreation in the same disposition, to\ngive the body and mind relaxation without permitting ourselves the\ndissipation of curious news, immoderate laughter, nor any indiscreet\nword, etc.; always keeping ourselves pure and free interiorly without\ndisturbing others, frequently uniting ourselves to God by a simple and\nloving thought of Him; remembering that we are in His presence, and\nthat He does not wish us to be separated at any moment from Him and\nHis holy will. The most ordinary rule of this state of simplicity and\nthe sovereign disposition of the soul is to do the will of God in all\nthings. Regarding all as coming from God and going from all to God, is\nwhat sustains and fortifies the soul in all its occupations and in all\nthat comes to it, and maintains us in the possession of simplicity.\nThen let us always follow the will of God, after the example of Jesus\nChrist, and united to Him as our Head. This is an excellent means of\nmaking progress in this manner of prayer, in order to attain through it\nto the most solid virtue and the most perfect sanctity.\n11th. We should console ourselves in the same manner, and preserve\nthis simple and intimate union with God in all our actions--in the\nparlor, in the cell, at table, at recreation. Let us add, that in all\nour intercourse we should endeavor to edify our neighbor, by taking\nadvantage of every occasion to lead one another to piety, the love of\nGod, the practice of good works, in order that we may diffuse the good\nodor of Jesus Christ. _If any man speak_, says St. Peter, _let him\nspeak as the words of God_, and as if God Himself spoke through him. To\ndo this, it suffices to follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: He\nwill inspire you as to that which is simply and unaffectedly suitable\nat all times.\nFinally, we will finish the day by animating with the sentiment of this\nholy presence our examen, evening prayer, and preparations for rest;\nand we will go to sleep with this loving attention, interspersing our\nrest, when we awake during the night, with a few fervent words, full of\nunction, like so many transports, or cries of the heart to God. As for\nexample: My God, be all things to me! I desire only Thee for time and\neternity; Lord, who is like unto Thee? My Lord and my God; my God, and\nnothing more!\n12th. It must be remarked that this true simplicity makes us live in a\nstate of continual death to self and of perfect detachment, by causing\nus to go with the utmost directness to God without stopping at any\ncreature. But this grace of simplicity is not obtained by speculation,\nbut by great purity of heart, and true mortification and contempt of\nself. He who avoids suffering, humiliations, and refuses to die to\nself, will never have any part in it. This is why there are so few\nwho advance herein; for few indeed are willing to leave themselves,\nand they endure in consequence immense losses, and deprive themselves\nof incomprehensible blessings. O happy souls who spare nothing to\nbelong wholly to God! Happy religious who faithfully follow all\nthe observances of their institute! Through this fidelity they die\ncontinually to self, to their own judgment, to their own will, to their\ninclinations and natural repugnances, and are thus admirably though\nunconsciously disposed for this excellent method of prayer. There is\nnothing more hidden than the life of a religious who follows in all\nthings the observances and ordinary exercises of his or her community,\ngiving no exterior manifestation of anything extraordinary: it is a\nlife which is a complete and continual death; through it the kingdom\nof God is established in us, and all other things are liberally given\nus.\n13th. We should not neglect the reading of spiritual books; but we\nshould read with simplicity, and in a spirit of prayer, and not\nthrough curious research. We read in a spirit of prayer when we\npermit the lights and sentiments revealed to us through the reading\nto be imprinted on our souls, and when this impression is made by the\npresence of God rather than by our industry.\n14th. We must be armed, moreover, with two or three maxims: first, that\na devout person without prayer is a body without a soul; second, that\nthere can be no true and solid prayer without mortification, without\nrecollection, without humility; third, that we need perseverance,\nnever to be disheartened by the difficulties to be encountered in this\nexercise.\n15th. It must be borne in mind that one of the greatest secrets of\nthe spiritual life is that the Holy Spirit guides us therein, not\nonly by lights, sweetness, consolations, and attractions, but also\nby obscurities, darkness, insensibility, contradictions, anguish,\nrevolts of the passions, and inclinations. I say, moreover, that this\ncrucified way is necessary; that it is good; that it is the surest,\nand that it leads us much more rapidly to perfection. An enlightened\nsoul dearly appreciates the guidance of God, which permits her to\nbe tried by creatures and overwhelmed with temptations and neglect;\nand she fully understands that these things are favors rather than\nmisfortunes, preferring to die on the cross on Calvary than live in\nsweetness on Thabor. Experience will teach her in time the truth of\nthese beautiful words: _Et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis; et mea\nnox obscurum non habet; sed omnia in luce clarescunt._[2] The soul,\nafter her purification in the Purgatory of suffering through which she\nmust necessarily pass, will enjoy light, rest, and joy through intimate\nunion with God, who will make this world, exile as it is, a paradise\nfor her. The best prayer is that in which we most freely abandon\nourselves to the sentiments and dispositions which God gives the soul,\nand in which we study with most simplicity, humility, and fidelity to\nconform ourselves to His will and to the example of Jesus Christ.\n [2] And night shall be my light in my pleasures, and my night knoweth\n no darkness, but all things shine in light.\nGreat God, who by a series of marvellous and special circumstances\ndidst provide from all eternity for the composition of this little\nwork, permit not that certain minds, some of which are to be found\namong scholars and others among spiritual persons, ever be accused\nbefore Thy dread tribunal of having contributed in any way to close\nThee the entrance to innumerable hearts, because Thou didst will to\nenter them in a manner the very simplicity of which shocked them,\nand by a way which, opened as it was by the saints since the first\nages of the Church, was not yet, perhaps, sufficiently known to them:\ngrant rather that all of us becoming as little children, as our Lord\ncommands, we may enter upon this way, in order to teach it more safely\nand efficaciously to others. Amen.\nIV.\nExercise of Loving Union of our Will with that of God.\nBY ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.\n1st Point. Kneeling in deepest humility before the ineffable majesty\nof God, adore His sovereign goodness which from all eternity called\nyou by your name, and resolved to save you, as He assures you in these\nwords of the Prophet: \u201cI have loved thee with an everlasting love;\ntherefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee;\u201d and destined for\nyou, among other means, this present day, which you can employ in works\nof salvation and life.\n2d Point. With this thought so full of truth, unite your will to that\nof your heavenly Father, so good and so merciful, in the following or\nsimilar words, from the depth of your heart: O sweet will of God, be\never accomplished! O eternal designs of the divine will, I adore Thee;\nI consecrate and dedicate my will to Thee; to ever will what Thou hast\nwilled from all eternity. May I accomplish to-day, and always, and in\nall things Thy divine will, O my loving Creator! Yes, heavenly Father,\naccording to Thy good pleasure from all eternity, and forever! Amen! O\ninfinite Goodness, may it be as Thou hast willed! O eternal Will, live\nand reign in my will, now and forever!\n3d Point. Invoke again the divine assistance thus: O God, come to\nmy aid; let Thy strengthening hand confirm my poor, weak courage!\nBehold, O my Saviour, this poor, miserable heart has conceived, through\nThy goodness, several holy affections; but alas! it is too weak and\nwretched to execute the good it desires. I beg the intercession of the\nBlessed Virgin, of my good angel, and of all the heavenly court. May\ntheir assistance be given me according to Thy good pleasure.\n4th Point. Make, then, in this way a strong and loving union of your\nwill with that of God; and in the midst of the temporal and spiritual\nactions of the day frequently renew this union which you have\nestablished in the morning, by simply casting an interior glance upon\nthe divine Goodness, saying by way of acquiescence: \u201cYes, Lord, I wish\nit; yes, my Father, yes; always yes!\u201d You can also, if you wish, make\nthe sign of the cross, or kiss the cross of your rosary, your medal, or\nsome pious picture; for all this will signify that you remit yourself\nto the Providence of God, that you adore it, that you love it with all\nyour heart, that you unite your will irrevocably to that supreme will.\n5th. But these whisperings of the heart, these interior words, should\nbe uttered peacefully and firmly; they should be distilled, so to\nspeak, softly and lovingly in the depths of the mind; and as we whisper\nin the ear of a friend a word which we desire should penetrate his\nheart alone, thus these whisperings will penetrate deeper and more\nefficaciously than these transports, these ejaculatory prayers, and\nthese outbursts. Experience will prove this to you, provided you are\nhumble and simple.\nMay God and His holy Mother be praised!\nV.\nAct of Abandonment.\nBY ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL.\nO sovereign goodness of the sovereign Providence of my God! I abandon\nmyself forever to Thy arms. Whether gentle or severe, lead me\nhenceforth whither Thou wilt; I will not regard the way through which\nThou wilt have me pass, but keep my eyes fixed upon Thee, my God, who\nguidest me. My soul finds no rest without the arms and the bosom of\nthis heavenly Providence, my true Mother, my strength and my rampart.\nTherefore I resolve with Thy divine assistance, O my Saviour, to follow\nThy desires and Thy ordinances, without regarding or examining why Thou\ndost this rather than that; but I will blindly follow Thee according to\nThy divine will, without seeking my own inclinations.\nHence I am determined to leave all to Thee, taking no part therein save\nby keeping myself in peace in Thy arms, desiring nothing except as Thou\nincitest me to desire, to will, to wish. I offer Thee this desire, O my\nGod, beseeching Thee to bless it; I undertake all it includes, relying\non Thy goodness, liberality, and mercy, with entire confidence in Thee,\ndistrust of myself, and knowledge of my infinite misery and infirmity.\nAnother Act of Abandonment.\nBY BOSSUET.\nMy God, who art goodness itself, I adore this infinite goodness;\nI unite myself to it, and I rely upon it, even more than upon its\neffects. I find no good in me, no good work done with the fidelity\nand perfection Thou desirest, nor anything which can make me pleasing\nto Thee; hence I place no trust in myself or in my works, but in Thee\nalone, O infinite goodness, who in one moment canst effect in me all\nthat is needful to make me pleasing to Thee! In this belief I live; and\nwhile I live, to my last sigh, I remit my heart, my body, my mind, my\nsoul, and my will into Thy divine hands.\nO Jesus, only Son of the living God, who camest into the world to\nredeem my sinful soul, I abandon it to Thee! I place Thy precious\nblood, Thy holy death and passion, and Thy adorable wounds, and\nparticularly that of Thy Sacred Heart, between Thy divine justice and\nmy sins; and thus I live in the faith and hope I have in Thee, O Son of\nGod, who hast loved me and given Thyself for me. Amen.\nAnother Act of Abandonment.\nBY VENERABLE FATHER PIGNATELLI.\nO my God, I know not what must come to me to-day; but I am certain\nthat nothing can happen me which Thou hast not foreseen, decreed, and\nordained from all eternity: that is sufficient for me. I adore Thy\nimpenetrable and eternal designs, to which I submit with all my heart;\nI desire, I accept them all, and I unite my sacrifice to that of Jesus\nChrist, my divine Saviour; I ask in His name, and through His infinite\nmerits, patience in my trials, and perfect and entire submission to all\nthat comes to me by Thy good pleasure. Amen.\nAn Act of Confidence in God.\nBY REV. CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIERE, S.J.\nMy God, I believe so firmly that Thou watchest over all who hope in\nThee, and that we can want for nothing when we rely upon Thee in all\nthings, that I am resolved for the future to have no anxieties, and to\ncast all my cares upon Thee. \u201c_In peace in the self-same I will sleep\nand I will rest; for Thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope._\u201d\nMen may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors; sickness may take\nfrom me my strength and the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy\ngrace by sin: but my trust shall never leave me; I will preserve it to\nthe last moment of my life, and the powers of hell shall seek in vain\nto wrest it from me. \u201c_In peace in the self-same I will sleep and I\nwill rest._\u201d\nLet others seek happiness in their wealth, in their talents; let\nthem trust to the purity of their lives, the severity of their\nmortifications, to the number of their good works, the fervor of\ntheir prayers; as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my\nhope. \u201c_For Thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope._\u201d This\nconfidence can never be vain. \u201c_No one has hoped in the Lord and has\nbeen confounded._\u201d\nI am assured, therefore, of my eternal happiness, for I firmly hope for\nit, and all my hope is in Thee. \u201c_In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me\nnever be confounded._\u201d\nI know, alas! I know but too well that I am weak and unstable; I know\nthe power of temptation against the strongest virtue. I have seen stars\nfall from heaven, and pillars of the firmament totter; but these things\nalarm me not. While I hope in Thee I am sheltered from all misfortune,\nand I am sure that my trust shall endure, for I rely upon Thee to\nsustain this unfailing hope. Finally, I know that my confidence cannot\nexceed Thy bounty, and that I shall never receive less than I have\nhoped for from Thee. Therefore I hope that Thou wilt sustain me against\nmy evil inclinations; that Thou wilt protect me against the most\nfurious assaults of the evil one, and that Thou wilt cause my weakness\nto triumph over my most powerful enemies. I hope that Thou wilt never\ncease to love me, and that I shall love Thee unceasingly.\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes\nObvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations\nin hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and\npunctuation remains unchanged.\nThe reference to the Quietests in the Preface has been corrected to\nQuietists.\nItalics are represented thus _italic_.\nEnd of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abandonment, by J. 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{"created_timestamp": "01-19-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0058", "content": "Title: Advertisement of Godfrey\u2019s Almanacs, 19 January 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \nGodfrey\u2019s Almanacks for the Year 1731. Done on a large Sheet of Demi Paper, after the London manner. Containing the Eclipses, Lunations, Judgment of the Weather, the Time of the Sun\u2019s Rising and Setting, Moon\u2019s Rising and Setting, Seven Stars Rising, Southing and Setting, Time of High-water, Fairs, Courts, and Observable Days. With several other Things useful and curious. Printed and sold at the New-Printing-Office near the Market.\nN.B. The 3 Mathematical Questions proposed in Leeds\u2019s Almanack, were solv\u2019d and answer\u2019d by Godfrey, in less than half an Hour after he saw them, as the Printer hereof can testify; the Solutions and Answers were sent by the Post to the Author of the Questions, together with 3 other Questions for him to Answer; but there being a Pretence that the first Copy of those Questions came not to Hand; and a Second having been sent above 6 Weeks since, concerning which nothing can yet be heard; it is thought proper to publish the said Questions, that there may be no Room for further Excuse. Note, A Copy of the aforesaid Solutions is in the Hands of the Printer.\nQuestion I. Suppose 2 Ships being in the same Latitude, distant from each other 100 Leagues, sail directly North 500 Leagues, (20 in a Degree) and then are 70 Leagues a-part: What are the Latitudes?\nQuest. II. Suppose 2 Roads of = Breadth to cross each other at Right-angles in the Centre of a given circular Piece of Ground, and take up the half or third Part of that circular Piece of Ground: What is the Proportion of the Breadth of the Roads to the Diameter of the Circle?\nQuest. III. Suppose a Ship in North Latitude, sailing between the North and East,\nmakes her Distance\n  Minutes more than her\nDiff. Latitude.\nDeparture.\nDiff. Longitude.\nWhat is the Course, Distance, and both Latitudes?", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "05-01-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0059", "content": "Title: To Benjamin Franklin from James Logan, 1 May 1731\nFrom: Logan, James\nTo: Franklin, Benjamin\nFriend B.F.\n1st of May 1731\nI did wrong perhaps in bringing out with me the Paper I had from T. G. but on thy Letter I return it. To give my opinion of it is needless, for it Speaks for itself. That method of Locks (as they are call\u2019d) in Rivers is found of great Use, and comes daily more into practice. There are now vast numbers of them in England: But the authors Proposal of a Side Dam (to me at least) is new, and in some places, I believe, might be advantageously applied, but scarce in [the] Delaware, I doubt; For Such a Wall, as it must be Tight to make it of any Use would be vastly laborious and chargeable. Besides that what we call Falls in our River for the most part are not properly Such, but only ledges of Rocks cross the Stream, which are not near so difficult to remove, as it would be to make such Walls and Gates, that are necessary only where there is a Descent, when with us were the Rocks removed the Stream would be near a Level. His other Proposals, where practicable for the Ground, might doubtless be useful on the great Rivers in Europe, where large Cities and Towns are Seated both below and above, and here perhaps in future Ages may be tried, but scarce under any of our Governments as they are at present established. It would be well I believe to have the Paper made public, for \u2019tis a pity that such ingenious Thoughts should be lost. But as it is doubtful at least whether any part of it will be putt in practice in these parts during this Age how far an Impression of it might answer the Charge I shall not pretend to judge. I thought to have taken a Copy of it, but for want of a fitt hand here for such purposes have not done it. Thy friend (sign\u2019d only)\nJ. L.\nTo B. Franklin", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "05-09-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0060", "content": "Title: Observations on Reading History, 9 May 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \n  Observations on my Reading History in Library\nThat the great Affairs of the World, the Wars, Revolutions, &c. are carried on and effected by Parties.\nThat the View of these Parties is their present general Interest, or what they take to be such.\nThat the different Views of these different Parties, occasion all Confusion.\nThat while a Party is carrying on a general Design, each Man has his particular private Interest in View.\nThat as soon as a Party has gain\u2019d its general Point, each Member becomes intent upon his particular Interest, which thwarting others, breaks that Party into Divisions, and occasions more Confusion.\nThat few in Public Affairs act from a meer View of the Good of their Country, whatever they may pretend; and tho\u2019 their Actings bring real Good to their Country, yet Men primarily consider\u2019d that their own and their Country\u2019s Interest was united, and did not act from a Principle of Benevolence.\nThat fewer still in public Affairs act with a View to the Good of Mankind.\nThere seems to me at present to be great Occasion for raising an united Party for Virtue, by forming the Virtuous and good Men of all Nations into a regular Body, to be govern\u2019d by suitable good and wise Rules, which good and wise Men may probably be more unanimous in their Obedience to, than common People are to common Laws.\nI at present think, that whoever attempts this aright, and is well qualified, cannot fail of pleasing God, and of meeting with Success.\nB. F.", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "06-10-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0061", "content": "Title: Apology for Printers, 10 June 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \nBeing frequently censur\u2019d and condemn\u2019d by different Persons for printing Things which they say ought not to be printed, I have sometimes thought it might be necessary to make a standing Apology for my self, and publish it once a Year, to be read upon all Occasions of that Nature. Much Business has hitherto hindered the execution of this Design; but having very lately given extraordinary Offence by printing an Advertisement with a certain N.B. at the End of it, I find an Apology more particularly requisite at this Juncture, tho\u2019 it happens when I have not yet Leisure to write such a thing in the proper Form, and can only in a loose manner throw those Considerations together which should have been the Substance of it.\nI request all who are angry with me on the Account of printing things they don\u2019t like, calmly to consider these following Particulars\n1. That the Opinions of Men are almost as various as their Faces; an Observation general enough to become a common Proverb, So many Men so many Minds.\n2. That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Mens Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or oppose others.\n3. That hence arises the peculiar Unhappiness of that Business, which other Callings are no way liable to; they who follow Printing being scarce able to do any thing in their way of getting a Living, which shall not probably give Offence to some, and perhaps to many; whereas the Smith, the Shoemaker, the Carpenter, or the Man of any other Trade, may work indifferently for People of all Persuasions, without offending any of them: and the Merchant may buy and sell with Jews, Turks, Hereticks, and Infidels of all sorts, and get Money by every one of them, without giving Offence to the most orthodox, of any sort; or suffering the least Censure or Ill-will on the Account from any Man whatever.\n4. That it is as unreasonable in any one Man or Set of Men to expect to be pleas\u2019d with every thing that is printed, as to think that nobody ought to be pleas\u2019d but themselves.\n5. Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence they chearfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute.\n6. Being thus continually employ\u2019d in serving all Parties, Printers naturally acquire a vast Unconcernedness as to the right or wrong Opinions contain\u2019d in what they print; regarding it only as the Matter of their daily labour: They print things full of Spleen and Animosity, with the utmost Calmness and Indifference, and without the least Ill-will to the Persons reflected on; who nevertheless unjustly think the Printer as much their Enemy as the Author, and join both together in their Resentment.\n7. That it is unreasonable to imagine Printers approve of every thing they print, and to censure them on any particular thing accordingly; since in the way of their Business they print such great variety of things opposite and contradictory. It is likewise as unreasonable what some assert, That Printers ought not to print any Thing but what they approve; since if all of that Business should make such a Resolution, and abide by it, an End would thereby be put to Free Writing, and the World would afterwards have nothing to read but what happen\u2019d to be the Opinions of Printers.\n8. That if all Printers were determin\u2019d not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed.\n9. That if they sometimes print vicious or silly things not worth reading, it may not be because they approve such things themselves, but because the People are so viciously and corruptly educated that good things are not encouraged. I have known a very numerous Impression of Robin Hood\u2019s Songs go off in this Province at 2s. per Book, in less than a Twelvemonth; when a small Quantity of David\u2019s Psalms (an excellent Version) have lain upon my Hands above twice the Time.\n10. That notwithstanding what might be urg\u2019d in behalf of a Man\u2019s being allow\u2019d to do in the Way of his Business whatever he is paid for, yet Printers do continually discourage the Printing of great Numbers of bad things, and stifle them in the Birth. I my self have constantly refused to print any thing that might countenance Vice, or promote Immorality; tho\u2019 by complying in such Cases with the corrupt Taste of the Majority, I might have got much Money. I have also always refus\u2019d to print such things as might do real Injury to any Person, how much soever I have been solicited, and tempted with Offers of great Pay; and how much soever I have by refusing got the Ill-will of those who would have employ\u2019d me. I have heretofore fallen under the Resentment of large Bodies of Men, for refusing absolutely to print any of their Party or Personal Reflections. In this Manner I have made my self many Enemies, and the constant Fatigue of denying is almost insupportable. But the Publick being unacquainted with all this, whenever the poor Printer happens either through Ignorance or much Persuasion, to do any thing that is generally thought worthy of Blame, he meets with no more Friendship or Favour on the above Account, than if there were no Merit in\u2019t at all. Thus, as Waller says,\nPoets loose half the Praise they would have got\nWere it but known what they discreetly blot;\nYet are censur\u2019d for every bad Line found in their Works with the utmost Severity.\nI come now to the particular Case of the N.B. above-mention\u2019d, about which there has been more Clamour against me, than ever before on any other Account. In the Hurry of other Business an Advertisement was brought to me to be printed; it signified that such a Ship lying at such a Wharff, would sail for Barbadoes in such a Time, and that Freighters and Passengers might agree with the Captain at such a Place; so far is what\u2019s common: But at the Bottom this odd Thing was added, N.B. No Sea Hens nor Black Gowns will be admitted on any Terms. I printed it, and receiv\u2019d my Money; and the Advertisement was stuck up round the Town as usual. I had not so much Curiosity at that time as to enquire the Meaning of it, nor did I in the least imagine it would give so much Offence. Several good Men are very angry with me on this Occasion; they are pleas\u2019d to say I have too much Sense to do such things ignorantly; that if they were Printers they would not have done such a thing on any Consideration; that it could proceed from nothing but my abundant Malice against Religion and the Clergy: They therefore declare they will not take any more of my Papers, nor have any farther Dealings with me; but will hinder me of all the Custom they can. All this is very hard!\nI believe it had been better if I had refused to print the said Advertisement. However, \u2019tis done and cannot be revok\u2019d. I have only the following few Particulars to offer, some of them in my Behalf, by way of Mitigation, and some not much to the Purpose; but I desire none of them may be read when the Reader is not in a very good Humour.\n1. That I really did it without the least Malice, and imagin\u2019d the N.B. was plac\u2019d there only to make the Advertisement star\u2019d at, and more generally read.\n2. That I never saw the Word Sea-Hens before in my Life; nor have I yet ask\u2019d the meaning of it; and tho\u2019 I had certainly known that Black Gowns in that Place signified the Clergy of the Church of England, yet I have that confidence in the generous good Temper of such of them as I know, as to be well satisfied such a trifling mention of their Habit gives them no Disturbance.\n3. That most of the Clergy in this and the neighbouring Provinces, are my Customers, and some of them my very good Friends; and I must be very malicious indeed, or very stupid, to print this thing for a small Profit, if I had thought it would have given them just Cause of Offence.\n4. That if I have much Malice against the Clergy, and withal much Sense; \u2019tis strange I never write or talk against the Clergy my self. Some have observed that \u2019tis a fruitful Topic, and the easiest to be witty upon of all others. I can print any thing I write at less Charge than others; yet I appeal to the Publick that I am never guilty this way, and to all my Acquaintance as to my Conversation.\n5. That if a Man of Sense had Malice enough to desire to injure the Clergy, this is the foolishest Thing he could possibly contrive for that Purpose.\n6. That I got Five Shillings by it.\n7. That none who are angry with me would have given me so much to let it alone.\n8. That if all the People of different Opinions in this Province would engage to give me as much for not printing things they don\u2019t like, as I can get by printing them, I should probably live a very easy Life; and if all Printers were every where so dealt by, there would be very little printed.\n9. That I am oblig\u2019d to all who take my Paper, and am willing to think they do it out of meer Friendship. I only desire they would think the same when I deal with them. I thank those who leave off, that they have taken it so long. But I beg they would not endeavour to dissuade others, for that will look like Malice.\n10. That \u2019tis impossible any Man should know what he would do if he was a Printer.\n11. That notwithstanding the Rashness and Inexperience of Youth, which is most likely to be prevail\u2019d with to do things that ought not to be done; yet I have avoided printing such Things as usually give Offence either to Church or State, more than any Printer that has followed the Business in this Province before.\n12. And lastly, That I have printed above a Thousand Advertisements which made not the least mention of Sea-Hens or Black Gowns; and this being the first Offence, I have the more Reason to expect Forgiveness.\nI take leave to conclude with an old Fable, which some of my Readers have heard before, and some have not.\n\u201cA certain well-meaning Man and his Son, were travelling towards a Market Town, with an Ass which they had to sell. The Road was bad; and the old Man therefore rid, but the Son went a-foot. The first Passenger they met, asked the Father if he was not ashamed to ride by himself, and suffer the poor Lad to wade along thro\u2019 the Mire; this induced him to take up his Son behind him: He had not travelled far, when he met others, who said, they were two unmerciful Lubbers to get both on the Back of that poor Ass, in such a deep Road. Upon this the old Man gets off, and let his Son ride alone. The next they met called the Lad a graceless, rascally young Jackanapes, to ride in that Manner thro\u2019 the Dirt, while his aged Father trudged along on Foot; and they said the old Man was a Fool, for suffering it. He then bid his Son come down, and walk with him, and they travell\u2019d on leading the Ass by the Halter; \u2019till they met another Company, who called them a Couple of sensless Blockheads, for going both on Foot in such a dirty Way, when they had an empty Ass with them, which they might ride upon. The old Man could bear no longer; My Son, said he, it grieves me much that we cannot please all these People: Let us throw the Ass over the next Bridge, and be no farther troubled with him.\u201d\nHad the old Man been seen acting this last Resolution, he would probably have been call\u2019d a Fool for troubling himself about the different Opinions of all that were pleas\u2019d to find Fault with him: Therefore, tho\u2019 I have a Temper almost as complying as his, I intend not to imitate him in this last Particular. I consider the Variety of Humours among Men, and despair of pleasing every Body; yet I shall not therefore leave off Printing. I shall continue my Business. I shall not burn my Press and melt my Letters.", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "06-19-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0062", "content": "Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 19 June 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: Mecom, Jane\nTo Jane Mecom\n   MS not found; reprinted from Duane, Works, VI, 3\u20135.\nDear Sister,\nPhiladelphia, June 19, 1731\nYours of May 26, I received with the melancholy news of the death of sister Deavenport, a loss, without doubt, regretted by all that knew her, for she was a good woman. Her friends ought, however, to be comforted that they have enjoyed her so long and that she has passed through the world happily, having never had any extraordinary misfortune or notable affliction, and that she is now secure in rest, in the place provided for the virtuous. I had before heard of the death of your first child, and am pleased that the loss is in some measure made up to you by the birth of a second.\nWe have had the small pox here lately, which raged violently while it lasted; there have been about fifty persons inoculated, who all recovered, except a child of the doctor\u2019s, upon whom the small pox appeared within a day or two after the operation, and who is therefore thought to have been certainly infected before. In one family in my neighbourhood there appeared a great mortality. Mr. George Claypole, (a descendant of Oliver Cromwell) had, by industry, acquired a great estate, and being in excellent business, (a merchant) would probably have doubled it, had he lived according to the common course of years. He died first, suddenly; within a short time died his best negro; then one of his children; then a negro woman; then two children more, buried at the same time; then two more: so that I saw two double buryings come out of the house in one week. None were left in the family, but the mother and one child, and both their lives till lately despaired of; so that all the father\u2019s wealth, which every body thought, a little while ago, had heirs enough, and no one would have given six pence for the reversion, was in a few weeks brought to the greatest probability of being divided among strangers: so uncertain are all human affairs: the dissolution of this family is generally ascribed to an imprudent use of quick silver in the cure of the itch; Mr. Claypole applying it as he thought proper, without consulting a physician for fear of charges, and the small pox coming upon them at the same time made their case desperate. But what gives me the greatest concern, is the account you give me of my sister Homes\u2019s misfortune: I know a cancer in the breast is often thought incurable: yet we have here in town a kind of shell made of some wood, cut at a proper time, by some man of great skill (as they say,) which has done wonders in that disease among us, being worn for some time on the breast. I am not apt to be superstitiously fond of believing such things, but the instances are so well attested as sufficiently to convince the most incredulous.\nThis if I have interest enough to procure, as I think I have, I will borrow for a time and send it to you, and hope the doctors you have will at least allow the experiment to be tried, and shall rejoice to hear it has the accustomed effect.\nYou have mentioned nothing in your letter of our dear parents, but I conclude they are well because you say nothing to the contrary. I want to hear from sister Douse, and to know of her welfare, as also of my sister Lydia, who I hear is lately married. I intended to have visited you this summer, but printing the paper money here has hindered me near two months, and our assembly will sit the 2d of August next, at which time I must not be absent, but I hope to see you this Fall. I am, Your affectionate brother,\nB. Franklin", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "09-13-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0064", "content": "Title: Articles of Agreement with Thomas Whitmarsh, 13 September 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin,Whitmarsh, Thomas\nTo: \nArticles of Agreement with Thomas Whitmarsh\n   Copy: Land Office, Department of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg, Pa.\n[September 13, 1731]\nArticles of Agreement made and indented the Thirteenth Day of September Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and thirty one Between Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania Printer of the one Part and Thomas Whitemarsh of the same place Printer of the other Part, viz. Whereas the said Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Whitemarsh have determined to enter into a Copartnership for the carrying on of the Business of printing in Charlestown in South Carolina, It is hereby covenanted, granted, and agreed by and between the said Parties and each of them the said Benjamin and Thomas for himself, his Heirs, Executors, and Administrators, doth covenant, promise, and grant to and with the other and to and with the Heirs, Executors, and Administrators of the other of them in Manner following, To say, That they the said Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Whitemarsh shall be Partners in the said Business of Printing in Carolina for and during the Term of Six Years next ensuing the Day of the Arrival of the said Thomas in the Port of Charlestown aforesaid, if they the said Benjamin and Thomas shall so long live. That the said Benjamin Franklin shall be at the sole Charge and Expence of providing a printing Press with all its necessary Appurtenances together with four hundred weight of Letters (if the said Thomas shall think so great a Quantity necessary, and require it) and shall cause the same to be transported at his own Risque to the said Town of Charlestown in South Carolina. That the Business of printing and disposing of the Work printed shall be under the Care, Management, and Direction of the said Thomas Whitemarsh and the working Part performed by him or at his Expence. That all Charges for Paper, Ink, Balls, Tympans, Wool, Oil, and other Things necessary to printing, together with the Charge of all common and necessary Repairs of the Press and its Appurtenances and also the Charge of Rent for a Shop and for so much Room as is necessary to be used in the Management of the Business aforesaid, shall be divided into three equal Parts of which two Parts shall be disbursed by and paid as due from the said Thomas Whitemarsh and the remaining Third Part shall be allowed to be paid as due from the said Benjamin Franklin and taken out of his Share of the Income next to be mentioned. That all Money received or to be received for printing or for any Thing done or to be done relating thereto by the said Thomas Whitemarsh either as Gratuity, Premium, Reward, or Salary from the Government or from others shall be divided into three equal Parts of which the said Thomas for his Care, Management, and Performance shall have two Parts and the said Benjamin Franklin shall have the remaining Third Part. That he the said Thomas Whitemarsh for that End and Purpose shall keep fair and exact Book of Accounts of and concerning all Work done and sold by him and all his Receipts and Disbursments relating to the Business of Printing in Copartnership aforesaid with the Day, Month and Year of each Entry and submit the same to the View of the said Benjamin Franklin, his lawful Attorney, Executors, or Administrators as often as there unto required. And the Accounts of the Copartners aforesaid shall be drawn out Fair, communicated to each other and settled once a Year during the Copartnership aforesaid or oftner if either of them require it. And that upon such Settlement the said Thomas Whitemarsh shall remitt the Part by this Agreement belonging to the said Benjamin Franklin in such Wares or Merchandizes or in Bills of Exchange or in Money as the said Benjamin shall direct by Letter or Order under his Hand and on Board such Vessel and to such Port as the said Benjamin shall also require by Letter or Order as aforesaid at the proper Risque of the said Benjamin. That the said Thomas Whitemarsh shall not during the Term of the Copartnership aforesaid work with any other printing Materials than those belonging to the said Benjamin Franklin nor follow any other Business but Printing during the said Term, occasional Merchandize excepted. That the Loss by bad Debts shall be divided and sustained by both Parties in the same Proportion as the Money ought to have been divided by this Agreement if it had been received. That neither of the said Parties shall reap any Benefit or Advantage by his Survivorship if the other of them shall depart this Life before the Expiration of the said Term of six Years as aforesaid, But that if the said Thomas Whitemarsh shall depart this Life before the Expiration of the said Term his Executors or Administrators shall within one Year after such Decease deliver up the Press, Tipes, and all the Materials of printing which have been provided by the said Benjamin Franklin or at his Charge to the said Benjamin, his Heirs, Executors, or lawful Attorney in good Order and good Condition (allowing the usual Ware and Decay of such Things) as also the share of Money, Effects, and Debts belonging to the said Benjamin by this Agreement which shall be in the Hands of the said Thomas Whitemarsh or due at his Decease. And if the said Benjamin Franklin shall depart this Life before the Expiration of the Term of Copartnership aforesaid the said Thomas Whitemarsh shall continue the Business aforesaid, nevertheless paying and remitting the Part by this Agreement belonging to the said Benjamin Franklin unto the Heirs, Executors, Administrators, or Assigns of the said Benjamin or as they shall [direct?]. Provided the Heirs or Assigns of the said Benjamin perform all Parts of this Agreement to the said Thomas which he the said Benjamin ought to have done had he lived. And that at the Expiration of the Term of six Years aforesaid the said Thomas shall have the Right of purchasing the abovesaid Printing Press, Materials, and Types if he is so disposed at their first Value in Philadelphia allowing only what shall be judged a reasonable Abatement for the Wear of such Things in the Time they have been used. But if the said Thomas shall not be inclined to purchase them at that Price he shall transport or cause to be transported to and delivered at Philadelphia the said printing Press, Materials, and Types at his own proper Risque and Charges to the said Benjamin Franklin, his Heirs, Executors, Administrators, or Assigns. And if any unusual Damage by bad Usuage, Accident, or Negligence have happened to them he the said Thomas shall make it good. Provided nevertheless That if the first Printing Press, Materials, and Types which shall be sent by the said Benjamin Franklin to Carolina according to this Agreement miscarry thro\u2019 the Dangers of the Sea the Copartnership hereby made shall be disolved and abolished unless the said Benjamin be willing to continue it and provide another Press and Types as aforesaid and send them at his own Risque as before, any Thing herein contained to the Contrary notwithstanding.\n    Sealed and Delivered\n    Benjamin Franklin\n    \u00a0\u00a0in the Presence of us\n    Thomas Whitmarsh\n    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wm. Maugridge\n    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nicholas Cassell\nMemorandum the twenty fourth Day of November Ao. Di. One thousand seven hundred and thirty three before me, Edward Roberts Esquire, one of the Justices of the Peace for the City and County of Philadelphia, came William Maugridge and Nicholas Cassell both of the said City, Joiners; And upon their solemn Affirmations according to Law Did declare and say they were present and did see the within named Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Whitmarsh seal and as their respective Act and Deed deliver the within Writing indented, contained in the three preceeding Pages of this Sheet of Paper, And that the Names of them the said William Maugridge and Nicholas Cassell thereunto subscribed as Witnesses are of their these Affirmants own Hands writing respectively. Witness my Hand and Seal the Day and Year abovesaid.\nEdward Roberts [L.S.]\nRecorded the 24th Day of November Ao. Di. 1733", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "11-08-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0065", "content": "Title: Joseph Breintnall to Directors of Library Company, 8 November 1731\nFrom: Breintnall, Joseph\nTo: Directors of Library Company\nThe Library Company of Philadelphia was Franklin\u2019s \u201cfirst Project of a public Nature.\u201d He drafted its plan, rules, and articles of agreement; the latter were signed July 1, 1731, naming ten directors, a secretary, and a treasurer, and announcing that the Company would be organized when fifty subscriptions were obtained. With the help of the Junto, this took about four months. The secretary then prepared this call to meeting, and Franklin had copies delivered to all concerned.\n[November 8, 1731]\nThe Minutes of me Joseph Breintnall Secretary to the Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, with such of the Minutes of the same Directors as they order me to make. Begun the 8th Day of November 1731. By Virtue of the Deed or Instrument of the said Company dated the first Day of July last.\nThe said Instrument being compleated by fifty Subscriptions I subscribed my Name to the following Summons or Notice, which Benjamin Franklin sent by a Messenger. Vizt.\nTo\nBenjamin Franklin,\nThomas Hopkinson\nWilliam Parsons,\nPhilip Syng Junr.\nThomas Godfrey,\nAnthony Nicholas\nThomas Cadwalader,\nJohn Jones Junr.\nRobert Grace and\nIsaac Penington\n\u201cGentlemen,\n\u201cThe Subscription to the Library being compleated You the Directors appointed in the Instrument are desired to meet this Evening at 5 o\u2019Clock, at the House of Nicholas Scull to take Bond of the Treasurer for the faithfull Performance of his Trust, and to consider of, and appoint a proper Time for the Payment of the Money subscribed, and other Matters relating to the said Library.\nJoseph Breintnall, Secy.\u201d\nPhilada. 8 Novr. 1731", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "01-01-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0066", "content": "Title: Miscellaneous Business Memoranda, 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \nVolume 66 of the Franklin Papers in the American Philosophical Society contains approximately 250 miscellaneous business papers and memoranda. A few are undated; most bear dates between 1729 and 1768, but a few items are of an earlier or later year. They range from torn scraps the size of a playing card or even smaller to single or double sheets of quarto size; and are mounted in the volume on numbered pages in roughly chronological order. The individual papers are not indexed, but a typewritten list set into the volume indicates briefly the nature and date of each. Some of them, especially among those of the earliest years, have no connection with Franklin, but were accidentally mixed with his papers, probably when they were salvaged in 1778 from Joseph Galloway\u2019s house Trevose, where they had been stored. The earliest transaction recorded in this volume clearly concerning Franklin is dated 1731.\nOver 90 per cent of the papers in Volume 66, however, are directly connected with Franklin\u2019s business transactions or those of members of his immediate family. They include statements of his printing and stationery accounts; receipts for payments; bills of exchange; promissory notes signed to or by him; stray pages of journal or ledger entries; notes requesting him to deliver books, other articles, or cash to the bearers; merchants\u2019 accounts with other men which Franklin settled and in turn credited to himself; and tradesmen\u2019s bills for goods and services of all sorts.\nThis last category is the largest and most representative. The bills show that among the articles supplied to Franklin or his dependents were cloth of various kinds (linen, calico, chintz, cambric, taffeta); mattresses, bolsters, and pillows; tea, both bohea and green; elixirs and bitters; chinaware; hats; paper and parchments; fish and oil; beer; and harness. There are bills to Franklin for such services as the alteration of gowns for Mrs. Franklin and their daughter Sarah; the stabling of his horse; and the repair of his carriage (a \u201cDouble chere\u201d) on a trip to Boston. Bills from London shopkeepers after 1757 show brass casters for a chair; a shovel, tongs, and coal for Franklin\u2019s fire; butter, cream, and spices for his table; steel spindles for his armonica; leather breeches; spectacles; candles; Madeira wine; books; and a variety of articles to send home to his wife and daughter in Philadelphia or to his sister Jane Mecom in Boston.\nThe papers in Volume 66 do not comprise all the documents of these several varieties that have survived. Others are scattered among the Franklin Papers in the American Philosophical Society, in other collections, and in private possession. A large proportion of the whole are too inconsequential to print in this edition. Those which shed useful light on significant figures or events in Franklin\u2019s career will be presented, in full or in abstract, at the appropriate places in the text or footnotes in this and later volumes.", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "01-01-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0068", "content": "Title: Doctrine to be Preached, 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \n\u201cFrom time to time,\u201d Franklin wrote in his autobiography, he put down \u201con Pieces of Paper such Thoughts as occur\u2019d\u201d to him respecting his proposed United Party for Virtue. In 1788 he found one of these slips, containing, he thought, a statement of \u201cthe Essentials of every known Religion, and \u2026 free of every thing that might shock the Professors of any Religion.\u201d What follows here may have been another of those \u201cPieces of Paper,\u201d an earlier and fuller draft of the \u201cEssentials\u201d of his creed. At least the substance and penmanship of the notes belong to Franklin\u2019s earlier years.\nDoct. to be prea[che]d\nThat there is one God Father of the Universe.\nThat he [is] infinitely good, Powerful and wise.\nThat he is omnipresent.\nThat he ought to be worshipped, by Adoration Prayer and Thanksgiving both in publick and private.\nThat he loves such of his Creatures as love and do good to others: and will reward them either in this World or hereafter.\nThat Men\u2019s Minds do not die with their Bodies, but are made more happy or miserable after this Life according to their Actions.\nThat Virtuous Men ought to league together to strengthen the Interest of Virtue, in the World: and so strengthen themselves in Virtue.\nThat Knowledge and Learning is to be cultivated, and Ignnorance dissipated.\nThat none but the Virtuous are wise.\nThat Man\u2019s Perfection is in Virtue. [Remainder lost]", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731},
{"created_timestamp": "01-05-1731", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-01-02-0069", "content": "Title: Extracts from the Gazette, 1731\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \n   In our last we gave our Readers an Account of the Number of Burials in this City for a Year past, by comparing which with the Number of Burials of one Year in Boston, Berlin, Colln, Amsterdam and London, (See our Gazette No. 64, 77, 78.) a pretty near Judgment may be made of the different Proportions of People in each City. In this Paper we exhibit an Account for one Year, of all the Vessels entered and cleared, from and to what Places, in the Ports of Philadelphia, Amboy, New-York, Rhode-Island, Boston, Salem and New-Hampshire, by which the ingenious Reader may make some Judgment of the different Share each Colony possesses of the several Branches of Trade. At the End we have subjoined an Extract from a new Piece, entituled, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, &c. written by Mr. Joshua Gee, and by him presented within this 12 Month to the King, Queen, Prince, Lords of Trade, and every Member of Parliament; by which the Reader may be informed what Commodities the several Colonies Trade in.\n   N.B. Some Vessels enter several Times in a Year. [January 5]\n\tThose Subscribers for this Paper, who live on the Post Road to York, and at York, and have taken it a Twelvemonth, are desired to pay in their respective Yearly Payments at those Places where they usually receive their News, that the Money may be transmitted to us by the Post. [January 12]\n\t  The Practice of Inoculation for the Small-Pox, begins to grow among us. J. Growdon, Esq; the first Patient of Note that led the Way, is now upon the Recovery, having had none but the most favourable Symptoms during the whole Course of the Distemper; which is mentioned to show how groundless all those extravagant Reports are, that have been spread through the Province to the contrary. For an Account of the Method and Usefulness of Inoculation, see our Gazette, No. 80. [March 4]\n\t  The Country may depend upon it, that there are not more Burials in a Week in this City than we give an Account of. [March 4]\n\t  From Maryland we hear, That Subscriptions have been lately made among the Gentlemen there, for encouraging the Manufacture of Linen: The Mayor and Common Council of Annapolis, have promised to pay as a Reward the Sum of Five Pounds to the Person that brings the finest Piece of Linen, of the Growth and Manufacture of Maryland, to next September Fair; for the second Piece in Fineness Three Pounds, and for the third, Forty Shillings; the Linen to continue the Property of the Maker. Like Rewards are offered in Baltimore County, and \u2019tis thought the Example will be followed by all the Counties in Maryland. [April 15]\n\t  At a Petty Sessions of the Peace, held for the County of Burlington, at Burlington the 16th Day of April, 1731. it was consider\u2019d that Fairs generally occasion great Concourse of People from the most adjacent Places, and that at present it is not meet for keeping the Fair at Burlington as usual, by reason of the great Mortality in Philadelphia, and other Parts of Pennsylvania, where the Small-Pox now violently rages: Therefore, to prevent to the utmost Power of the said Justices, the further spreading of so epidemical and dangerous a Distemper, and more especially for that the approaching Heat of Summer may render it more malignant and fatal, It is Order\u2019d, that May Fair next, be, and is hereby prohibited to be kept in the said Town of Burlington; and all Persons are hereby to take Notice accordingly, as they will answer for their Contempt at their Perils. [April 22]\n\t  Ferdinando John Paris, Esq; was, at the last Sitting of our Assembly, chosen Agent for this Province at the Court of Great Britain. [April 29]\n\t  The new Settlement going forward at Cape Fear, having for these 3 or 4 Years past, been the Subject of much Discourse, especially among Country People; and great Numbers resorting thither continually, from this and the neighbouring Provinces, meerly to view the Place and learn the Nature of the Country, that they may be capable of judging whether it will probably be an advantageous Exchange if they should remove and settle there; and none having at their Return published their Observations for the Information of others; The following Account of Cape Fear, (extracted from the private Letters of a judicious and impartial Person, who lately resided there some Time, and who had not the least Interest that might induce him either to commend or discommend the Country beyond strict Truth,) it is thought will not be unacceptable to a great Part of our Readers. [May 6]\n\t  To-Morrow will be Publish\u2019d, The Votes of the House of Representatives of this Province at their last Session. Containing, the Charge brought by the Managers against Mr. Fishbourn late Trustee of the General Loan-Office, with his Answer and Defence at large, and the Proceedings of the House thereupon: The Petition of the Wardens and Vestry of Christ-Church, in which they lay Claim to the Baptist Meeting-house in Philadelphia; with the Remonstrance of the Baptists in Answer thereunto at large: The Proceedings relating to the Brewing-Bill, and several other very curious Things. Sold by B. Franklin, Price 2s. 6d. [May 27]\nAll Persons indebted to Benj. Franklin, Printer of this Paper, are desired to send in their respective Payments: (Those Subscribers for the News excepted, from whom a Twelvemonth\u2019s Pay is not yet due.)\nGentlemen, It is but a little to each of you, though it will be a considerable Sum to me; and lying in many Hands wide from each other, (according to the Nature of our Business) it is highly inconvenient and scarce practicable for me to call upon every one; I shall therefore think myself particularly obliged, and take it very kind of those, who are mindful to send or bring it in without farther Notice. [June 10]\n\t  From Newcastle we hear, that on Tuesday the 8th Instant, the Lightning fell upon a House within a few Miles of that Place, in which it killed 3 Dogs, struck several Persons deaf, and split a Woman\u2019s Nose in a surprizing Manner. [June 17]\n\t  Friday Night last, a certain St-n-c-tt-r was, it seems, in a fair way of dying the Death of a Nobleman; for being caught Napping with another Man\u2019s Wife, the injur\u2019d Husband took the Advantage of his being fast asleep, and with a Knife began very diligently to cut off his Head. But the Instrument not being equal to the intended Operation, much struggling prevented Success; and he was oblig\u2019d to content himself for the present with bestowing on the Aggressor a sound Drubbing. The Gap made in the Side of the St-n-c-tt-r\u2019s Neck, tho\u2019 deep, is not thought dangerous; but some People admire, that when the Person offended had so fair and suitable an Opportunity, it did not enter into his Head to turn St-n-c-tt-r himself. [June 17]\n\t  Sure some unauspicious cross-grain\u2019d Planet, in Opposition to Venus, presides over the Affairs of Love about this Time. For we hear, that on Tuesday last, a certain C-n-table having made an Agreement with a neighbouring Female, to Watch with her that Night; she promised to leave a Window open for him to come in at; but he going his Rounds in the dark, unluckily mistook the Window, and got into a Room where another Woman was in bed, and her Husband it seems lying on a Couch not far distant. The good Woman perceiving presently by the extraordinary Fondness of her Bedfellow that it could not possibly be her Husband, made so much Disturbance as to wake the good Man; who finding somebody had got into his Place without his Leave, began to lay about him unmercifully; and \u2019twas thought, that had not our poor mistaken Galant, call\u2019d out manfully for Help (as if he were commanding Assistance in the King\u2019s Name) and thereby raised the Family, he would have stood no more Chance for his Life between the Wife and Husband, than a captive L---- between two Thumb Nails. [June 24]\n\t  The Small-pox has now quite left this City. The Number of those that died here of that Distemper, is exactly 288, and no more. 64 of the Number were Negroes; If these may be valued one with another at \u00a330 per Head, the Loss to the City in that Article is near \u00a32000. [July 8]\n\t  [Advertisement] Aleppo Ink, For the true staining Black, equal to any Sort of Ink whatever; and far exceeding all other Sorts in the Lastingness of its Colour: So that no Ink is so proper as this for Records, Deeds, and other Writings which ought to endure. Sold at the New Printing-Office, Price 1s. per Bottle. Where also you may have good common Ink. [July 8]\n[Advertisement] Whereas by an Act of Parliament made in the Ninth Year of the Reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, entituled An Act for establishing a General Post-Office for all her Majesty\u2019s Dominions, &c. it is among other Things enacted, That all Masters of Vessels, Sailors and Passengers, shall immediately upon their Arrival in any Port, deliver the Letters and Pacquets on board to the Post-Master, or his Deputy, under the Penalty of Five Pounds, British Money, for every several Offence.\nAnd whereas by the same Act it is also Enacted, That if any Master, Sailor or Passenger on board any Boat or Vessel, passing or repassing, on any River or Rivers, in any of her Majesty\u2019s Dominions, shall or do collect, carry or deliver any Letters or Pacquets, he or they shall forfeit and pay Five Pounds, British Money, for every several Offence, One Hundred Pounds of like British Money, for every Week he or they shall continue to carry or deliver any Letters or Pacquets, as aforesaid.\nThis is therefore to give Notice to all Masters of Vessels, Sailors, Passengers, and others whom it may concern, That they be careful not to offend against the aforesaid Act of Parliament, upon Pain of being prosecuted for the several Penalties therein mentioned, pursuant to the Orders and Instructions of his Majesty\u2019s Post-Master General, to the Post-Master of Philadelphia. [July 15]\n\t  [Advertisement] Good Writing-Parchment. Sold by the Printer hereof, very reasonable. [July 15]\n\t  [Advertisement] Whereas one John Emmery, by Trade a Cabinet-maker, went from England in the Year 1725 to the West Indies, and from thence to some of the Northern Colonies: This is to inform him, if he be living, that he may apply to the Printer of this Paper, and be informed of something to his Advantage. [July 15]\n\t  We are credibly inform\u2019d, that the young Woman who not long since petitioned the Governor, and the Assembly to be divorced from her Husband, and at times industriously solicited most of the Magistrates on that Account, has at last concluded to cohabit with him again. It is said the Report of the Physicians (who in Form examined his Abilities, and allowed him to be in every respect sufficient,) gave her but small Satisfaction; Whether any Experiments more satisfactory have been try\u2019d, we cannot say; but it seems she now declares it as her Opinion, That George is as good as de best. [July 29]\n[Advertisement] The Widow Read, removed from the upper End of Highstreet to the New Printing-Office near the Market, continues to make and sell her well-known Ointment for the Itch, with which she has cured abundance of People in and about this City for many Years past. It is always effectual for that purpose, and never fails to perform the Cure speedily. It also kills or drives away all Sorts of Lice in once or twice using. It has no offensive Smell, but rather a pleasant one; and may be used without the least Apprehension of Danger, even to a sucking Infant, being perfectly innocent and safe. Price 2s. a Gallypot containing an Ounce; which is sufficient to remove the most inveterate Itch, and render the Skin clear and smooth.\nShe also continues to make and sell her excellent Family Salve or Ointment, for Burns or Scalds, (Price 1s. an Ounce) and several other Sorts of Ointments and Salves as usual.\nAt the same Place may be had Lockyer\u2019s Pills, at 3d. a Pill. [August 19]\nThursday last, a certain P\u2014\u2014r [\u2019tis not customary to give Names at length on these Occasions] walking carefully in clean Cloaths over some Barrels of Tar on Carpenter\u2019s Wharff, the head of one of them unluckily gave way, and let a Leg of him in above his Knee. Whether he was upon the Catch at that time, we cannot say, but \u2019tis certain he caught a Tartar. \u2019Twas observ\u2019d he sprung out again right briskly, verifying the common Saying, As nimble as a Bee in a Tarbarrel. You must know there are several sorts of Bees: \u2019tis true he was no Honey Bee, nor yet a Humble Bee, but a Boo bee he may be allow\u2019d to be, namely B.F.\nN.B. We hope the Gentleman will excuse this Freedom. [September 23]\nWe hear from Hopewell in the Jerseys, that on the 4th past, two Bucks were observed fighting near the new Meeting House there; one of them extraordinary large, supposed to be a Roe-Buck; the other small and of the common sort. In company with them was a black Doe, who stood by to see the Engagement. The small Buck proved a full match for the great one, giving him many violent Punches in the Ribs, but in the height of the Battle, they fastned their Horns so strongly together, that they were not able with all their Strength to disengage; and in that condition they were taken. The Doe retreated into the Woods, but being pursued with several Beagle Hounds, she was taken also alive, and they have put her and the large Buck into a boarded Pasture together, in hopes to have a Breed, if the Sizes are not too unsuitable. This is the second Brace of Bucks that have been caught by the Horns this Fall. Had they not better put \u2019em up quietly in their Pockets? [October 14]\n\t  [Advertisement] This is to give Notice, that Mr. Louis Timothee, Master of the French Tongue, hath settled himself with his Family in this City, in order to keep a publick French School; he will also, if required, teach the said Language to any young Gentlemen or Ladies, at their Lodgings. He dwelleth in Front Street, next door to Dr. Kearsley. [October 14]\n\t  \u2042 The Second Year is expired since we undertook this Paper: Those Persons who are indebted on that account, are desired to send in their respective Payments. [October 14]\n\t  [Advertisement] Lost on Tuesday Night last, on the Road between Marcus Hook and Chester, a Pocket Book with 30s. Money, and some Notes. The Finder is desired to leave the Book and Notes with the Printer hereof, and take the Money for his Pains. [October 21]\n\t  [Advertisement] A Likely Servant Lad\u2019s Time for near Seven Years, to be disposed of; He is fit for Town or Country Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof. [October 21]\n\t  We hear from Cecil County in Maryland, That the Rev. Mr. Ormston, Minister of the Church there, is lately dead. His Man left him in good Health sitting by the Fire, while he went to a Neighbour\u2019s House; but at his Return, found him lying upon the Hearth, his Pipe by his Side, and his Head burnt off in the Fire. He was formerly Minister of the Church in this City. [November 18]\n\t  Just Publish\u2019d, The Votes of the Honourable House of Representatives of this Province, in their Three last Sessions. Printed by B. Franklin, and sold either separately or together. [December 14]\n\t  [Advertisement] Choice English Quills, just imported, Sold by the Printer hereof. Of whom may be had, Jerman\u2019s Almanacks for 1732, and Godfrey\u2019s Almanacks, either on large Sheets or in Books, at 3s. 6d. per Dozen. [December 28]\nPhiladelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and H. Meredith, at the New Printing-Office near the Market, where Advertisements are taken in, and all Persons may be supplied with this Paper, at Ten Shillings a Year.", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1731}
]