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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6583.txt b/6583.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cca269 --- /dev/null +++ b/6583.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4860 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Serious Hours of a Young Lady, by Charles Sainte-Foi + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Serious Hours of a Young Lady + +Author: Charles Sainte-Foi + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6583] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 29, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII, with one ISO-8859-1 character + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERIOUS HOURS OF A YOUNG LADY *** + + + + +Produced by Naomi Parkhurst, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. + + + + +SERIOUS HOURS + +OF + +A YOUNG LADY, + +BY + +CHARLES SAINTE FOI. + +Translated from the French + +BY PHILALETES + + + + +PREFACE. + + +A celebrated author has justly remarked that Christian women can, +like the guardian angels, invisibly govern the world; and the author +of the "_Serious Hours of a Young Lady_" has very appropriately +made this truth the basis of his book, since the object that he had +in view in writing it was to point out the important role that woman +plays in society, and to give the young girl such instructions as +will enable her, in due time, to discharge, in a worthy manner, the +duties of her calling. In doing this he has given evidence of very +elevated views and of a profound knowledge of the human heart. The +book is a tissue of practical counsels, couched in the clearest and +most delicate terms. + +Hence, judging from its intrinsic worth, and the universal welcome +with which it has been hailed in the original, we feel that it is no +exaggeration to assert that it has rendered and will still render +inestimable good to society. + +After having lucidly exposed the importance of woman's mission in +this world, and pointed out the evils that prevent its realization, +the author ingeniously brings before the mind's eye the different +phases of her life, the varied process of development that she +undergoes in all her faculties, the dangerous influences to which she +is constantly exposed, the means that should be employed to ensure +her protection. + +We behold her on the threshold of childhood a tiny, timid and +retiring creature, naturally disposed to attach her affections to all +that is pure and elevated, to everything that conduces to the +practice of virtue and the love of God. While yet a child she is the +little confidante and angel of consolation of her brothers and +sisters in their pains and difficulties. At a more advanced age we +see her consoling her aged parents in their sorrows and afflictions; +and when she merges into womanhood she becomes either the spouse of +Jesus Christ or of man, only to continue the same work of beneficence +in some charitable asylum, or in the midst of domestic cares. But ere +she attains this last stage of life how numerous and great are the +difficulties that she must encounter, the dangers to which she will +be exposed, and the snares to entrap her! + +Hence, to ensure her safety and prepare her to act the important +role that she holds in society, her education must be the work of +piety, modesty and retirement. All that interferes with their action +in her soul must be peremptorily removed. Worldly pleasures with +their numerous cortège should never have access to the sanctuary of +her heart, for their poisoned influence blasts the fairest flower in +her crown of simplicity. + +But, alas! we confess, with deep regret, that there are many +thoughtless tutors who seemingly ignore the grave responsibility of +their charge, and unwarrantably parade the little one before the +world's gaze, which creates in the heart evil impressions, frivolous +tastes and inordinate desires. And, even when they would all prove +faithful to their trust, it is a noted fact that society, friends and +companions wield a powerful influence over the mind and heart of a +young girl, which, when allowed to continue, most invariably proves +pernicious to her spiritual and temporal welfare. + +Hence, she stands in need of a true friend, a faithful adviser, on +whom she can depend for safe instruction, and to whom she can have +recourse as often as need be. The "_Serious Hours_" is unquestionably +all this; it speaks openly, firmly, but mildly. It inspires the +young girl with that genuine, lofty esteem that she should have +for herself and for the dignity of her sex. It clearly defines her +line of conduct in all the most critical incidents and circumstances +of life, so that she cannot be deceived unless that she wilfully +shuts her eyes to the light of truth. It is all that the author +proposed to make it, a first class book of instruction for young +ladies, showing a careful study of all their wants and a happy +choice of the remedies to meet them. And, believing that such a +valuable book ought to be made accessible to all nations, we have +ventured to present it to the public in an English dress. How far we +have succeeded in rendering both its form and spirit we leave the +public to decide. And, while we are fully aware that, in transferring +the genius of one language to another, some of the original delicate +shades of beauty must be inevitably sacrificed--the present +translation not excepted--still we are happy to say that the work was +one of love and deep interest to us, on account of its importance and +good to society. + +TRANSLATOR. + + + + +CONTENTS: + + +Translator's Preface + +CHAPTER I.--Importance of the Time of Youth; Difficulties and +Dangers that Women Meet With in Life, and the Necessity of Providing +for Them + +CHAPTER II.--Illusions of Youth; Value of Time at this Period of Life + +CHAPTER III.--The Heart of Woman; the Necessity of Regulating it +During Youth + +CHAPTER IV.--The Dignity of Woman + +CHAPTER V.--Eve and Mary + +CHAPTER VI.--Eve and Mary (Continued) + +CHAPTER VII.--The World + +CHAPTER VIII.--The Same Subject (Continued) + +CHAPTER IX--The Will + +CHAPTER X.--The Imagination + +CHAPTER XI.--Piety + +CHAPTER XII.--Vocation + +CHAPTER XIII.--A Serious Mind + +CHAPTER XIV.--Choice of Companions + +CHAPTER XV.--Toilet + +CHAPTER XVI.--Desire to Please + +CHAPTER XVII.--Curiosity + +CHAPTER XVIII.--Meditation and Reflection + +CHAPTER XIX.--Obedience to Parents + +CHAPTER XX.--Melancholy + +CHAPTER XXI.--On Reading + +CHAPTER XXII.--Same Subject (Continued) + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +IMPORTANCE OF THE TIME OF YOUTH; DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS THAT WOMEN +MEET WITH IN LIFE, AND THE NECESSITY OF PROVIDING FOR THEM. + +The most important period of life is that in which we are the better +able, in making good use of the present, to repair the past and +prepare for the future; that period holds the intermediate place +between the age of infancy and the age of maturity, embracing the +advantages of both, presenting at the same time the flowers of the +one with the fruits of the other. In order to prepare for the future +we need a certain assistance from the past, for this preparation +demands a certain maturity of judgment and a force of will that +experience alone can give. + +The child, devoid as it is of personal experience, can, by turning +that of others to good account, make up for the deficiencies of its +youth, and prepare for the future without having to learn in the +severe school of self-experience. But, through an unfortunate +occurrence of circumstances, and very often without any fault of +theirs, the greater part of children attain the age of manhood and +womanhood without having reaped the precious advantages offered them +by the first stage of life, when the soul is most susceptible of +receiving the impress of grace and virtue. A vitiated or inadequate +primitive education, bad example, pernicious instruction? perchance, +or at least personal levity of character, combined with that of +childhood, deprive this age of many advantages, and call for a total +reparation of the past, at a period of life that should be the living +figure of hope. + +Happy, indeed, are those who have only the levity and negligences of +childhood to repair, and who have never felt the crushing weight of a +humiliating and grievous fault! Alas! that purity, that innocence so +common formerly among children, is every day disappearing from their +midst, many among them have become the victims of sin ere the +passions of the heart manifested their presence; and their hearts +have quivered from the sting of remorse ere they felt the perfidious +lurings of pleasure. Many have received from sin that doleful +experience, that premature craftiness, which, far from enlightening +the mind, obscures and blinds it,--which, far from fortifying the +will, enfeebles and enervates it. + +Such is the light by which we can truly see the importance that +should be attached to the time of youth. At this period of life sin +has not yet taken deep root in the heart,--it has not at least +assumed the frightful magnitude of one of those inveterate habits, +justly called habits of second nature, which invade and pollute the +sacred sanctuary of both body and soul, forming in the earliest +instincts, inclinations and desires so violent, so obstinate, that +superhuman efforts with a life-long struggle are the consequences +entailed upon the unfortunate victims, who desire to hold them in +subjection. + +However, it is invariably true that, if the passions peculiar to +youth virulently assail virtue and expose the heart to the seductions +of pleasure, they also give a great facility of doing good, by +inflaming youthful zeal which age never fails to cool. The ardor +aroused by them for the commission of evil can be easily employed for +the practice of virtue; they are young and fiery steeds which God has +placed at your disposal, ready to obey your orders. Attach them to +the chariot of your will, they will not fail to draw you in the +direction that you may open to their impetuosity. It matters not to +them whether they run upon the way of vice or virtue,--all that they +require is to go, to run and not to be constrained to inaction, which +kills them. They must be managed by a resolute will which holds the +reins with a firm grip, and by a calm intelligence, skilled to direct +them. + +Trees, while young, can be easily plied into any direction that man +may wish to give them. The same may be said of hearts in which the +frost of age has not cooled the ardor and impetuosity of desire. +Their energy and vivacity, whether for good or evil, never forsake +them. They are like those spirited racers which are no sooner down +than up again, for, swift as a flash, they will turn you to God by +repentance and love, the moment you have the misfortune of losing Him +by sin. Be then full of confidence and hope, young soul, to whom God +has opened with a liberal hand the spring-time of life; be grateful +to Him for so signal a favor, and, like a wise economist, profit by +the resources that He places at your disposal. But, should the past +recall some doleful memories, be not dismayed; be hopeful and, re- +animating your courage, prepare for the future by sowing at present +the germs of those beautiful virtues which grace irrigates, and whose +fruits will rejoice your old age and atone for the sterility of your +earlier years. + +Your future happiness is insured if you fully comprehend the +importance of the epoch which you now begin, and the greatness of its +results for the rest of your life. Let past delinquencies become an +incentive, stimulating your will to energetic action. Let the need of +repairing the past, and the importance of preparing for the future +inspire you with generous resolutions and an ardent desire of +acquiring all the virtues necessary to a person of your sex and +position, in order that you may discharge in a worthy manner all the +duties which may be required of you. Regard the future with a calm +and firm eye, without exaggerating the difficulties, but also without +dissembling the dangers. The first condition required to avoid a +danger is to know it, for the ignorance that conceals from us the +snares which we should avoid is--after the evil inclination that +leads us into them--man's greatest misfortune, and the most +disastrous of the effects of original sin. + +Women, even in the most humble walks of life, can scarcely hope +now-a-days to enjoy that sweet, calm and peaceful life which was +formerly insured by the purest morals and the most pious customs. + +If the world, spite of that inordinate desire for reform and +innovation which consumes it, has not yet seriously endeavored to +withdraw woman from the circle to which Providence would have her +devote the activity of her mind and life; if it has consented till +now to have her shun the theatre and the whirlpool of political +commotions, it will be extremely difficult for her to escape its +counter-shock, and preserve her self-composure and serenity of soul +in the midst of those turbulent events which absorb her husband's +life, that of her children, of her father and brothers. If it was +easy for her to preserve her heart at a tender age from the +seductions of the world and the dangerous snares of vanity or +pleasure, through the sweet influence of those more modest, and at +the same time more rigid customs which identified her thoughts and +affections with the family circle; such is not the case at present, +for an unfortunate necessity, invested with the vain title of +propriety, compels her to seek in a more fashionable, a more +numerous, and consequently an unsuitable society, distractions or +pastimes for which she is not made, and which recreate neither body, +nor mind, nor heart. + +The feverish agitation and insatiable thirst for enjoyment which +seem to prevail among all ages and classes of the present day is +enigmatical. Life now-a-days must be passed in a state of constant +excitement. The peaceful calm productive of a modest and pure life +appear to the imagination like a monotonous and disdainful sleep. The +young girl herself has scarcely left the paternal home in which she +passed her youthful days when she dreams of the pleasing emotions and +incomparable joys promised her by a flashy and fashionable life. The +examples which come under her notice wherever she goes or wherever +she turns her eyes,--the language which she hears, and the very air +which she breathes,--all give her, as it were, a foretaste of the +false pleasures which now fascinate her imagination. + +This is, most assuredly, one of the worst signs of our time. Up to +the present day women, for the most part, faithful to their vocation +and to the duties of their station in life, have carefully preserved +in the family circle that sacred fire of Christian virtue which forms +magnanimous souls, and that piety which produces saints. Their +hearts, like the Ark of the Covenant, have preserved intact those +tables of the divine law which admonish men of their duties, and +inspire them with a firm hope. They have not fixed their hearts on +the vain and frivolous joys of earth; no, heaven was their aim. +Preserved from the contagion of worldly interests and desires, their +thoughts feasted on elevated and heavenly objects. What will become +of society if, deprived of the resources it found in their virtues, +it meets with no other barrier on the steep declivity down which it +is being impelled by cupidity and the love of pleasure? What will be +the fate of future generations if they are not sanctified in the +sanctuary of the family by the benevolent influence of woman, and +fortified against the seductions of vice by that odor of grace and +sanctity which the heart of a Christian mother exhales? + +Be not discouraged at the sight of difficulties that hover over the +horizon of the future; on the contrary, they should inspire you with +greater courage and energy. The less help you will obtain from +trusted sources of reliance, the more earnestly should you seek in +God and yourself what you look for in vain elsewhere. You may expect +to see diminish, from day to day, the number of those saintly souls +from whom you could obtain advice, support or light. + +For you, perhaps, like many others, life will be a desert which you +must traverse almost alone, without meeting a single soul to reach +you a helping hand in your necessities and trials. Being about to set +out on this pilgrimage of life, which will perhaps be long, fatiguing +and painful, be supplied with an ample provision of strength, +patience, virtue and energy. And, if happily deceived in your fears, +you find the road which leads to eternity smooth under your feet, you +will at least have the merit of having been wise in your conduct, for +not less moral strength is required to bear the happiness of +prosperity than the misfortune of adversity. Happiness here below is +something so extremely perilous to man's eternal welfare that few can +taste it without injury to their souls. Hence, in order to guard +against its fatal influence, not less preparation, nor less time, nor +less efforts, are required than to suffer the privations imposed by +adversity, for experience proves that the former is more destructive +than the latter to the work of eternal salvation. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +ILLUSIONS OF YOUTH, VALUE OF TIME AT THIS PERIOD OF LIFE. + +The age of youth is the age of illusions, ardent desires, and +fanciful hopes. Youth is like a fairy whose magical wand evokes the +most graceful images and the most alluring phantoms. This ignorance +of the doleful realities concealed in the future is a gift of divine +goodness which, in order that life might not be too bitter, casts a +beneficent veil over the sorrows that await us; God screens the +future from us to let us enjoy the present. Far be it from me to +remove this veil which renders you such kind service. But, apart from +this screen which the good God has placed between you and the +miseries of this life, there is another of a darker and heavier +shade, fabricated by the imagination, and which it draws with a +perfidious complacency over the object which it behooves us the most +to know and avoid--a seductive and deceitful veil which, while +presenting things to us in a false light, exposes us to most +deplorable illusions and inevitable dangers. + +God permits that we should ignore many things, but He does not wish +that we should be deceived in anything. He is truth itself; error can +never claim His acquiescence. + +If prudence and respect for God's work make it a duty for me to +leave intact the veil that He has drawn between you and the future, I +would consider it highly criminal in me if I did not endeavor to +remove that by which your imagination seeks to conceal its illusions +and its errors. It is not my wish or design to trouble the present by +exaggerated anxiety; but, on the other hand, I do not wish to leave +you under a false impression, fed by delusive hopes relative to the +future. My desire is that, while enjoying with gratitude and +simplicity the happiness or peace which God has bestowed upon you in +the springtime of life, you may profit by the calm and tranquillity +it affords you to prepare for the future, and to anticipate a means +of soothing its sorrows and bitterness. + +While the soil of your heart is yet untilled and moist, and while +your hands are yet filled with those heavenly seeds which God has +given you in abundance, I desire that you may sow them in the light +and strength of divine grace, to develop in them the heavenly germs +which they contain, that you may be enabled to reap at a later time +an abundant harvest of virtues, holy joy and merit before God and +men. I desire that you may learn to turn to good account all the +natural resources that you possess, and acquire that knowledge of +yourself which enlightens the mind without troubling the heart; I do +not wish to discourage nor flatter you, I only wish to instruct and +fortify you. + +Do not think that the river of life will always flow for you as it +does at present, broad, deep, calm and limpid, between two flowery +banks. Age will diminish those waters and deprive their banks of +their charm and freshness. The flame of passion, like a burning wind, +will rise, and more than once perhaps will bring to the surface the +mud that rankles in the bottom, and thus destroy its limpidity. + +A day will come, and before long, when, stripped of all those +exterior advantages which please the senses, you will possess only +those qualities, less striking, but more solid, which satisfy the +mind and heart and attract the complaisant regard of God and the +angels. Youth will quickly pass, more quickly than you think, and the +subsequent period of life will last much longer, hence, in all +justice to yourself, let its preparation absorb your attention. + +If you had a long sojourn to make in a place close by, would it be +reasonable on your part to pay less attention to the place of your +destination than to the few fleeting moments it would require to go +thither. Youth is not a stopping-place, it is a passage, a time of +preparation; it is to the whole life what the florid period is to the +gardener, or seed-time to the farmer. + +Oh! if you did but fully comprehend the value of each hour during +this most important period of life, the value of each thought of your +mind, of each sentiment of your heart, with what extreme care you +would watch over all the movements of your soul, nay, even the +external movements of your body. + +That fugitive thought which enters your mind, fanned by curiosity's +wing, may seem quite trivial; to dwell on and delight in it may be to +you something indifferent. That sentiment which, scarcely formed, +commences to germinate in your heart, and to produce therein emotions +so imperceptible that you are but imperfectly conscious of its +presence, seems insignificant at first sight; that unguarded glance +seemed to you a matter of no import, and which, at an earlier or +later period of your life, would have but little consequence. At an +earlier age the impression, it is true, would be lively but +inconsistent, and the levity of childhood would soon have replaced it +by another; later it would be found so superficial and trivial that +it would be soon forgotten among the multiplicity of thoughts which +absorb the mind at the age of maturity; but, during the youthful +years, everything that comes under the notice of the senses sinks +deeply into the soul, penetrating its very substance, the faculties +still retain all the vivacity of youth, while already they +participate in that firmness which is characteristic of the age of +maturity. + +That thought is, perhaps, the first link in a chain of thoughts and +images which will be the torment of your conscience and the bane of +your life. That sentiment to which you imprudently pandered is +perhaps the source of countless fears, regrets, remorse and sorrows. +That imprudent glance is perhaps the first spark of a conflagration +which nothing can extinguish, and which will destroy your brightest +hopes. + +If, as yet, you are ignorant of all the evil of which an imprudent +glance may be productive, recall to mind the example furnished us by +the Sacred Scriptures in the person of David, who, for his imprudent +glance at the wife of Urias, committed two crimes, the names of which +you should ignore, and suffered a life of sorrow, repentance, +bitterness and anguish: a life which even yet serves to express the +sorrow and repentance of imprudent souls who have yielded to the +allurements of the senses. And, nevertheless, David had attained the +age of discretion when the mind is firm and the will is strong; David +was the cherished one of God; he was just and virtuous, one on whom +God had special designs of mercy. What a terrible example! What a +severe, but at the same time instructive, lesson! + +Young Christian soul, may it never be your sad experience to learn +the effect of an imprudent glance which would exact from you the +bitter wages of countless tears and regrets. Is there anything in the +material world so beautiful, so beneficent as the light and heat that +we receive from the sun; is there among material things a livelier +image of the goodness of God towards us? And, nevertheless, let the +sun shine upon the young and tender flower or vine immediately after +a shower of rain, and it will cause them to droop and wither. The +reason is quite obvious, for at no time is a being so frail and +delicate as at the moment of its formation. There is a critical +period for all beings, during which the greatest possible care is +necessary. In this relation, what is said of the body may be said of +the soul; character is formed and developed according to the same +laws which regulate the development of the physical constitution. + +Are you not aware of the extraordinary care that must be taken of +those organs that are the chief motors of the body, while they are +under process of development? Are you not aware that the fresh air +which you inhale and which purifies and invigorates the blood +contains for you the germ of death, which justifies in your good +parents the anxious care they take of your health, but which you +perhaps regard as entirely unnecessary? + +Now, what the lungs are to the human body, that the heart is to the +soul. It is by the heart that we breathe the spiritual and divine +atmosphere that sustains our moral life. This atmosphere is composed +of three elements,--truth, goodness and beauty, which envelop and +penetrate the soul's substance; as it is the respiratory organ of the +mind it follows that for the heart, as well as for the lungs, there +is an epoch of development which is dangerous, and which, +consequently, demands the greatest possible care; it is the epoch of +your age at present. An emotion too vivid, an indiscreet thought, an +imprudent glance, is quite sufficient to imperil the interesting and +delicate process by which your moral constitution is formed, to +accelerate the development of the heart, and thus give to this most +important organ a pernicious precocity or a false direction. + +Your mother, anxious and always trembling for your welfare, guards +it with tender solicitude from all the dangers to which it might be +exposed. But her vigilance cannot equal that of your guardian angel, +nor the care with which he removes you from contact with all that +might in any way tarnish the purity of your soul, or trouble its +peace and harmony. It is to you that the Holy Ghost addresses these +words of the Proverbs: With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because +life issueth out from it. [Footnote: Proverbs iv 23.] + +The heart is, therefore, the seat of the moral life, and as the +source is known by the waters that flow from it, so will the moral +life partake of the character and bear the impress of the heart +whence it proceeds. This is true of youth in general, but more +particularly so of young ladies. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +THE HEART OF WOMAN; THE NECESSITY OF REGULATING IT DURING YOUTH. + +The most humble, most chaste, most holy of women, Blessed Mary ever +Virgin, she who is the ornament and glory of her sex who, in +consequence of her privilege of being the mother of God, merited to +be elevated so high above all creatures, revealed to us the existence +of a faculty in the soul, unknown to the philosophers, undiscovered +by the saints, unspoken of by the prophets. This faculty is more +conspicuous in woman than in man, for it exercises in her a decisive +influence which extends over the entire period of her life. Hence, +God, "who ordereth all things, sweetly," (Wisdom, viii. 1), desired +that its existence should be made known to us by a woman, and that, +too, while she was visiting another woman. + +In answer to the salutation of her cousin St. Elizabeth, Mary, +filled with the Holy Ghost, breaks forth into that sublime Canticle, +called the "Magnificat:" "He hath scattered the proud," she sings, +"_mente cordis sui;_" literally, "in the _mind_ of their +heart." This is the faculty of which I speak; that _mind_, that +_intellect of the heart_, if I may so term it, which is the +hidden recess, the secret chamber of the soul, either blessed by the +peaceful presence of humility, or cursed by the baneful restlessness +of worldly ambition or pride. + +It is not going too far to say that a woman's mind is in her heart; +it is the source both of the thoughts which ennoble and elevate, and +of those which are selfish and worldly; it is the key to all the +powers of her soul, so that he who becomes the possessor of her heart +is master of her whole being, and can exercise over her a power of +fascination which has no parallel in nature. + +God who disposes every being for the end which He proposed to +Himself in creating it has established in woman's heart an abyss +which no human affection can fill nor exhaust when once it has been +filled, because He desired to submerge her whole being in love, and +thus to render easy and necessary to her the noblest sentiments and +the most heroic sacrifices. Such is the agent that He wished to +employ for the culture of charity in society and in the family +circle, as well as of the virtues of tenderness, compassion and +devotedness. He desired that in the family the child should be borne, +so to speak, on woman's heart and man's intelligence, as on the two +arms of one and the same being; He desired that in society the mind +of the one should furnish the light to guide in the way, and the love +of the other should produce that vivifying principle which animates +and quickens man's being: And, thus, that the moral life of humanity +should be the result of these two factors. God endowed the heart of +woman with treasures of tenderness and devotedness, desiring to be +Himself the supreme object of its devotion. To Himself alone has He +reserved the power of calming its fearful agitation and soothing its +poignant grief, hence we see it turning to Him in its joys and +sorrows, like the magnet to the pole that attracts it. He has made +the heart of woman broad and deep, so that its devotedness may +suffice for all the exigencies it is called upon to meet, whether in +society or in the family, yet finding no created object able to +exhaust it. + +When, forgetting the sublime end for which she has been created, +woman lives for the world and not for heaven, lavishing her love on +creatures instead of giving it to God, her Creator, her soul becomes +the prey of inexpressible anguish and despondency, which admonish her +of her mistake and induce her to correct it. + +You can easily judge from this of what great importance it is to you +to keep a vigilant watch over your heart and its movements, since the +heart is, so to speak, the citadel of your whole being, and hence +when it is captured all the powers and faculties of your soul are +forced to surrender. The heart is the agent that furnishes woman with +the greater part of her ideas, and the object of its predilection +inevitably becomes the only object of all her thoughts. This is the +artist that furnishes the imagination with those images which remain +substantially the same under forms constantly varying, but absorbing +the soul to such a degree that a person is often tempted to look upon +their action as the result of obsession. + +It is the heart that governs and shapes the will, giving it that +flexibility and at the same time that constancy so prevalent among +the greater part of women, leading them, with unflinching +stubbornness of determination to the accomplishment of the end +proposed. All difficulties vanish that stand between them and the +object of their heart. This disposition renders them potent for good +or evil, hence the necessity of regulating the heart and of never +losing control over its movements. When their soul is swayed by a +pure and generous sentiment, and when the natural weakness of their +sex gives place to an energy which few men are capable of displaying, +their ardor in doing good is truly admirable. God alone knows all the +treasures of virtue stored up within them daily, by charity, maternal +love, filial piety, devotedness and compassion, but He alone also +knows the malicious excess to which a sentiment, bad in its nature or +in its source, may lead them. + +Oh, if while standing between these two abysses of good and evil, +you could sound their depth, and behold the ineffable joy and glory +that women have secured by the practice of virtue, the sorrow, +disgust, humiliation and shame that evil doings have brought upon +them (faults which at first sight did not seem capable of entailing +such fatal consequences) horror and admiration should dispute the +possession of your soul; you would indeed tremble on beholding the +consequences of neglecting your vocation, while you would be +astonished at the sublime elevation that fidelity to grace would +secure to you in heaven. + +God desires to accomplish great things through your instrumentality, +and in order to secure your services with greater certainty he has +placed around you barriers which you cannot pass without an effort +that does violence to nature, still necessity makes it a duty to +break them down, and necessity has no law. When the first step is +taken nothing can impede the will in the execution of your designs, +be they good or bad. Hence the great importance of making your first +step in the right direction, as it will be the prelude to countless +others. + +If you wish to possess your own heart and insure to yourself a life +exempt from trouble and remorse, attach it firmly to God; accustom it +to always prefer duty to pleasure and to propose to itself in all its +movements an end worthy of your sublime destiny. Remember that God +alone can satisfy it--no creature being able to give it that peace +which it so ardently craves. O, my child, if you knew the gnawing +desires, the vain hopes, the false joys, the troubles, the regrets +and bitterness that fill the heart in which God does not dwell! If +your eyes were not screened by the veil of candor and simplicity +preventing you from foreseeing the torments to which that woman's +life is exposed, who has not learned in early youth to regulate the +desires and affections of her heart, you would better understand my +words, and the necessity of laboring energetically and efficiently to +direct your own, and to check all its irregular movements. Learn now, +and profit by the experience of others. Hearken to the voice of God +addressing you in these words: "The flowers have appeared in our +land, the time of pruning is come; the voice of the turtle is heard +in our land; the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my +love, and come. Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines, for +our vineyard hath flourished." (Cant. ch. ii. 12, 13, 15). The foxes +of which the sacred writer speaks here are those defects which, +although they appear small, still assail the soul with great +virulence, and will leave no virtue intact unless you hasten to +destroy them. + +The time for pruning is the time of youth, age truly precious +wherein you can still lop off useless branches which absorb a portion +of the sap, depriving the others of that strength which they need in +order to produce an abundance of savory fruit. You should attack not +only those gross and manifest defects which disfigure the soul, but +also those imperfections which are slight in appearance, but which, +if left alone, will in time become pernicious inclinations. You +should even watch over certain natural dispositions, which, though +good in themselves, and even often esteemed above their true merit by +the world, might easily, on that account, divert the thoughts of the +mind and the efforts of the will from more important objects; +dispositions very often dangerous for those who possess them, because +it is easy to abuse them, and because they flatter and nourish self-love, +or the other passions that flesh is heir to. You should imitate +those intelligent gardeners who pay a daily visit to their garden, +pruning knife in hand, and cut off branches that might exhaust or +overcharge the tree--not sparing them for the beauty of their foliage +or the brightness of their flowers. + +If you wish to cultivate your heart and make it produce all the +fruit and virtue that it is capable of producing, suffer nothing +useless or superfluous to grow therein, choosing what is best, +measuring your esteem of certain things, and your application of +certain duties by the degree of importance that each merits, giving +the preference, in your mind and heart, to the virtues which bring +the soul nearest to God. Love those hidden virtues, so modest and +humble, which are the ornament of your sex--those virtues of which +God alone is witness, which the world ignores,--which it often, in +fact, despises, because they secure no advantage in men's esteem, +receiving their reward only in the future world. But this is just the +reason why God loves them so dearly, and why you should prefer them. +For if, in general, it is dangerous to please the world and useful to +shun it, this truth is especially applicable to woman, who, being +confined to a narrower sphere, and devoted to more intimate +affections than man, is obliged to seek, at a tender age, isolation, +tranquillity, repose, and that retirement which are truly a shield to +her virtues. In this way you will do more for the real development +and culture of your heart than by the acquisition of more agreeable +and more brilliant qualities. + +Moreover, the same thing will happen for you that always happens +when efforts are made to acquire what is best; when that which is +essential is secured, the accessories will infallibly follow, just as +the effect follows the cause that produces it. By acquiring the +virtues that are pleasing to God you will receive, in addition, those +which men esteem; in becoming more and more agreeable to God you will +become more and more pleasing to men, whose good sense and sound +judgment almost invariably triumph over prejudice which an austere +but modest virtue always removes. This is also what the Saviour of +the world insinuates by these words of the Gospel in which He +recommends us to seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, +promising that all other things shall be added thereto. But this +addition should not be directly sought, nor should it be ardently +desired; await the will of God who has promised it to us, provided +that we first seek the things to which that is accessory. Very often, +on the contrary, when, through want of due reflection, preference is +given to secondary and inferior things, by neglecting solid and +hidden virtues for brilliant qualities, neither are obtained. God +permits this in order to punish this subversion of the moral order +and of the laws that govern it. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +THE DIGNITY OF WOMAN. + +POPE ST. LEO, in one of his homilies on the nativity of our Saviour, +says, in addressing man: "O man, recognize thy dignity!" We might, +with all due propriety, address these same words to woman, for her +happiness and virtues depend in great measure on the elevated idea +that she has of herself, and on the care with which she maintains +this idea, both in her own mind and in that of others. Woe to the +woman who, through false modesty, or something still worse, has lost +self-respect, for she has deprived herself of her most powerful +safeguard against instability of character and seductions of the world. + +Woman has received from God the sublime mission of fostering in +society the spirit of sacrifice and devotedness. Faithful, nay, +sometimes perhaps over-zealous, in the discharge of these duties, she +feels an imperative need of sacrificing herself to another who should +constitute the complement of her life. As long as she has not made +this surrender of herself to another she is a burden to herself, for +she seems to find her liberty and happiness in this voluntary +servitude of the heart, in this constant abnegation, in this +perpetual sacrifice of her whole being. + +This disposition of woman's heart, which has been given her for the +good of society and for her own happiness, can be easily used to the +detriment of both; such is necessarily the case the moment she sinks +in her own estimation, so as to account herself a being of little +value. It is a matter of vital importance to her to have a just idea +of the value of the present she is making when she engages her heart +and her fidelity. In fact, when a thing is lightly appreciated, we +make little account of giving it away and less of choosing those to +whom we give it. Now, if we consider the deplorable facility with +which a vast number of women obey the caprice of their heart or of +their imagination, we will be led to conclude that their valuation of +them--selves is very low indeed. They seem to lose sight of the fact +that in giving their heart they give the key to all the treasures +that enrich their soul; they give their will, all their thoughts, +their whole life. They sometimes give more than all this, they give +their eternal salvation, their conscience, and God Himself, putting +in His place, by a sort of idolatry, the object that claims their +heart. + +To prevent this deplorable prodigality of themselves, women should +spare no pains to comprehend thoroughly their dignity, of which they +can never have too high an appreciation or too great an esteem. It +would be most prejudicial to them to lower in their own mind their +just value by a false humility. + +The most humble of all women is, at the same time, she who had the +best knowledge of her dignity. And her humility, which was never +equaled by that of any other woman, did not hinder her from seeing +the great things that God had operated in her, as she herself +proclaims in that sublime canticle which is the "Magna Charta" of the +rights, the prerogatives and the greatness of woman. + +The two most beautiful and most elevated things in all creation are +the intelligence of man and, the heart of woman. They are the special +objects of God's complacency. He seems to be absorbed in the work of +their education; to this end he seems to have converged all the +miracles wrought by His divine Son, all the mysteries of Jesus Christ. + +To impart to man a knowledge of truth and a love of virtue was the +end that God proposed to Himself in the creation of the world. But +the order which he had established was iniquitously subverted, and +this subversion has shaken society to its very foundation, leading +man's intelligence to conceive a hatred for truth and to become the +slave of error; turning away the heart of woman from what is truly +good and great to pander to false and transitory goods, which sully +without contenting it. + +The heart of woman may be said to be the source from which flows all +the good or evil that consoles or afflicts mankind. As the city and +state receive their form and character from the family, so the family +is modelled after the type of the mother's heart, since upon her +devolves the culture of the infant mind, that all-important education +upon which depends man's weal or woe, both for time and eternity. +Hence it is that, while writing this little work, and considering +that many to whom it is addressed will read its pages, namely those +who are destined to be one day heads of families, charged with the +education of several children, who in turn will found numerous +families to act a more or less important part in the great movement +by which the plan of divine Providence is executed throughout ages, I +feel a kind of profound respect, bordering on reverential awe, that +engages me to pray God to inspire me with thoughts equal to the +sublimity of my subject. + +Whoever you may be that read and meditate this little book, I honor +and venerate the dignity of your vocation; I regard you as an august +and sacred being. I admire the great designs that God has over you; I +pray Him to have you participate in the sovereign esteem and respect +with which your condition inspires me. You are as yet free from all +engagements, in the bloom of youth, adorned with the treasures of +innocence and candor, standing like a queen upon the threshold of the +future which opens before you like a spacious temple. The past is +immaculate and free from the sting of remorse; with a vigorous mind +and will you behold the future's perspective without anxiety or +dismay,--rich in pious souvenirs, saintly hopes, heavenly thoughts +and merits acquired by prayer and the practice of virtue, ignorant of +vice and its bitter consequences, save by the pictures that have been +painted in order to inspire you with horror for it; your liberty is +such that every Christian soul envies your happy state. You possess a +power--I would almost say, a majesty--that no one can help admiring +and revering. As there is no one freer than he who has never been the +slave of sin, so there is no man stronger than he who has never +succumbed to the allurements of pleasure. The woof of your life is +there spread out before you intact and flexible, you can dispose and +weave it as you please; you will now find none of those knotty or +broken threads which, in after life, must sometimes be met with. + +You are now at the period of life at which all the roads of life +meet. You can choose the one that pleases you most, and enter on the +good way with all that generous ardor so natural to youth. But, +whatever you do, whatever the choice you may make, you will occasion +the future weal or woe of many, perhaps for many generations. Whether +spouse of Jesus Christ or of man, whether mother of a family or of +the poor, whether a cloistered nun or a celibate in the world, you +will neither save nor lose your soul alone; the effects of your +virtues or vices shall be reproduced, long after your departure from +the scene of life, in the lives of beings yet unborn, in favor of +whom divine Providence implores your compassion. What a solemn +moment! What sublime power! Have you given it serious thought? + +Transport yourself, in thought, to the house of Nazareth, recall to +mind the day on which Gabriel proposed to your Queen to become the +mother of God, asking her consent to the Incarnation, by which was to +be accomplished the salvation of the world. The angel's words +astonished Mary's humility so far as to make her recoil before such a +prodigious elevation, and, to obtain her consent, it was necessary to +assure her that the Holy Ghost Himself would accomplish in her this +prodigy. Indeed, it was a most memorable moment in the world's +history,--a moment wherein the salvation of the entire human race +hung upon the word of a virgin's lips. + +Now, in your present condition, at this period of your life, you +bear a certain resemblance to the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth, on the +day of the Annunciation. A glorious destiny is also announced to you; +to you also is promised a saintly posterity, if you give your consent +and concurrence to the Holy Ghost, with docility to the operation of +His grace. Be not astonished at so great an honor. The choice that +you are going to make, the course that you are going to adopt, will +determine and fix the fate of a family, of a generation,--of many +generations perhaps, for God alone can tell how far the influence of +your virtues or the result of your faults may extend. + +If you have no regard for your own salvation or glory, oh, at least +have pity for those whom the hand of God will place under your care, +to be modeled by your instructions and example. Have compassion on +them and on those who, succeeding them, must inherit your virtues or +vices. Oh! how pleasing to God and respected of men is the young lady +who, piously impressed with the greatness of her vocation, prepares +for the future in a Christian manner, and resolves courageously to +embrace and faithfully to discharge all its duties. + +Like Mary, the model and glory of your sex, you also, but in a +spiritual manner, are carrying Jesus Christ within you; and He, by +the operation of the Holy Ghost, is leaving the impress of His +virtues in your soul, that one day you may give Him birth +spiritually, producing Him externally by a pure and Christian life. +Like her you should be ready to accomplish the will of God in your +own regard, saying, as she did, with sentiments of obedience and +profound humility: "_Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done +unto me according to Thy word;_" abandoning your soul with perfect +docility to the operation of the Holy Ghost, following Him wherever +He desires to lead you. Let your soul glorify God, and rejoice in Him +on account of the great things He has done in you, remembering that +His mercy extends from generation to generation, in favor of those +who fear him, and that holy families, fearing God, are formed by the +lessons and examples of virtuous, God-fearing women. He reduces to +naught those who confide in their own power and strength, while He +sustains and exalts the humble. He freely shares His treasures with +those who desire them, and reduces to indigence those who glory in +their own abundance. + +Let this beautiful canticle dwell in your heart and be the prayer of +your lips; in this canticle, composed by the Mother of God, the honor +and glory of your sex, or rather by the Holy Ghost Himself, who +inspired her, He has inscribed all the rights and glories of women, +by celebrating in it the power of her feebleness, the greatness of +her humility and of all those modest virtues which so well become +your condition. + +A Christian woman who would never lose sight of what she is, of her +worth, of her moral capabilities and of her sacred duties, will find +in the frequent meditation of this sublime canticle considerations +suggestive of thoughts and sentiments corresponding to God's designs +over her. She should nourish her soul with the vivifying substance of +the words it contains, and look therein for light to dispel her +doubts, and for consolation in her troubles. In them she will also +find a cheering hope in her languor, a powerful prayer in temptation, +an acceptable act of thanksgiving, and a hymn of joy and triumph in +her victories. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +EVE AND MARY. + +PILATE, on presenting to the Jews, Jesus crowned with thorns, and +clothed in a purple garment, said: "_Behold the Man!_" Jesus +frequently calls Himself the Son of man in the Gospel, that is, the +Man _par excellence_, the Man who is the model and type of all +others. To women, we can also say of Mary: "_Behold the woman!_" +the honor, glory, joy, crown, type and model of your sex. Such is the +manner in which Jesus presented her from the cross on Calvary, when +He said to her, a few moments before expiring: "_Woman, behold thy +Son!_" + +It is, indeed, remarkable that the Saviour of the world, when +addressing Mary in public, did not call her mother, but woman, as if, +by that, He would declare to us that she is the model of all other +women. It is as if He said to us: Behold THE woman; and, although she +was His mother--principal title of her glory--nevertheless she is +woman before all. She merited to become the most glorious of all +mothers only because she had been the purest and holiest of all +women. You should therefore have your eyes constantly fixed upon +Mary, as a servant who watches her mistress in order to observe and +obey her commands. If you can see yourself in Mary, you will +entertain an exalted idea of the dignity of your sex; for it is in +her and by her that you are great; it is to her you owe the honor and +respect that the world pays the woman who knows how to respect and +appreciate herself according to her just value. If you would +understand all that you owe to Mary in this regard you need but +consider what was the social condition of woman in society before the +birth of Christ, and what her condition is to-day among people on +whom the light of the Gospel has not yet shone. You are now too young +to appeal to your own experience, but, according as you advance in +life, observing closely what passes around you, you will learn--and +God grant that it may not be at your own expense--what an immense +difference there is with regard to the esteem in which woman is held +between those who adore God as the Son of Mary, and those who regard +her as common with other women. + +Among men of social standing, whose habits, condition and character +are so different, you can easily discern those whose faith discloses +to them a reflection of the glory of Mary in you, from those who +behold in you simply a daughter of Eve. Their conversation, +deportment and looks, everything in them, will serve you as an index +to this discernment. It is very difficult for man to disguise his +real sentiments--dissimulation costs nature too dearly--but there are +two circumstances wherein his moral character betrays itself in a +striking manner, namely, in the presence of God, and in the presence +of woman. It is neither permitted nor possible to a man truly +religious and chaste to be bold or trivial in presence of either. + +The woman illuminated by the sweet reflections of the glories of +Mary, and imitating her virtues according to her state of life, +enjoys the singular privilege of commanding the deferential respect +of men of the most decided character. In her presence vice is silent, +audacity is confounded, virtue, innocence and candor are at ease. The +holy emanations of her heart purify the moral atmosphere around her, +imparting to it a sweet and charming serenity, converting the place +in which she appears into a kind of sanctuary. + +By a contrary effect, resulting from a want of self-respect, woman +becomes an easy prey to men of vain hearts and frivolous minds, who, +not thinking themselves more obliged to respect her than she respects +herself, without any reserve, give expression to the vanity of their +hearts and thoughts. Everywhere and always ignorance or contempt of +the Christian religion has begot contempt for woman, or disregard for +her sacred rights and exalted dignity. Every where and always, +irreligion has produced libertinism, the immediate and necessary +effect of which is a depreciation of woman; and in those countries +where the habits and institutions of the people have been deprived of +the precious culture of Christianity, woman's condition is so abject +that it differs in nothing from that of the brute, save that in +_her_ the sacred rights established by divine Providence are +most shamefully violated. + +That woman is worthy of glory or ignominy is the logical consequence +of her being regarded as a daughter either of Eve or of Mary. In the +one she is the poisoned source whence sin with all the evils that +attend it flowed into the world, in the other she is the blessed +source whence the Salvation of the world has issued forth. And, what +she has been once for the entire human race in the garden of Eden and +at Nazareth, she is yet every day for a people, a city, a family, or +for each man in particular, according to the elevation of her +position in society, and the extent of her influence. + +The greater part of Christian nations owe to the prayers and +examples of some holy woman, some pious queen, for instance, the +gifts of Christianity and civilization--in this regard France has +been, among all nations, singularly fortunate, and the name of +Clotilda shall forever be revered in the pages of its history; while +on the other hand, woman has often been instrumental in depriving the +church of a kingdom, and in plunging into darkness and error a long +succession of generations. For instances of this we have only to +recall the names of Anne Boleyn and her cruel daughter, queen +Elizabeth. + +Countless numbers are indebted to woman for a knowledge of the +truth, or the misfortune of forsaking it. Is there one who, in +recalling the memories of the past, does not either bless or curse a +woman, seeing in her an instrument of God's mercy, or of the +seduction of Satan? Is there one who has not realized in that woman +either a daughter of Eve or of the Blessed, Virgin--an Eden or a +Nazareth? Behold the two poles between which the history of peoples +and the life of each man in particular continually oscillate. Eve and +Mary these are two guiding stars, either of which man must follow; +the light of the one is deceitful and treacherous, while that of the +other is true and beneficent; the one leads humanity along the paths +of righteousness, while the other lures to the commission of sin. +Hence it is that the church has given Mary those beautiful names, so +significantly true: "Morning Star!" "Star of the Sea!" + +This world is, indeed, like a stormy sea, in which are rocks and +shoals, upon which man runs the risk of being wrecked unless he keeps +his eyes steadfastly fixed upon this star whose brightness no storm +can dim, and which, at the most perilous moment, shines with greater +brilliancy, as the cheering sign of grace, hope and happiness. It is +by turning our eyes toward Mary with her divine Son in her arms, +presenting Him to us as our Saviour, that our troubled souls find the +polar star which will quiet all their movements, and tranquilize the +fluttering beatings of our troubled hearts. But, woe to us if, +instead of fixing our attention upon Mary, virgin mother of God, we +turn to Eve, infected with the contagion of the serpent, and offering +to our hearts the doleful fruit of temptation and sin! + +At the entrance to every path that leads to heaven or to the abyss +of hell you will find a woman--the image of Mary, at the former, the +image of Eve at the latter. It almost invariably happens that it is +woman who deals out to mankind sin and death like Eve, or life, +redemption and salvation like Mary. If you meet with one of these +privileged men, chosen by God to be an instrument of His mercy, +intimately associated with Jesus in the work of the salvation of His +people, you may rest assured that this man owes to a woman, to a +mother or a sister, the development of the great qualities which +distinguish him. While, on the contrary, if you see one of those men +tainted by the curse of some hereditary vice, very often more +pernicious than original sin in its effects, you will discover that +its source is the lesson or examples of a woman, whose poisoned +influence shall oppress generations, just as that of Eve has +oppressed the human race. Once again, I repeat it, that, as the +corrupt and incredulous generation is the offspring of mothers +modeled after Eve, so the holy and faithful generation traces its +origin to mothers modeled after Mary. + +You must choose between these two models, and on your choice will +depend not only your own happiness and salvation, but also that of +many yet unborn, whom God will confide to your care, and who will be +dear to your heart. There remains no alternative; you will be either +a cause of temptation and sin, or an instrument of grace and +benediction for those who will live with you. You will either offer +them the forbidden fruit like your mother Eve, or you will give +spiritual birth to the Word of Life for them. As one of the greatest +torments of the reprobate woman in hell will be to see the woeful +misery into which she has brought those whom she had loved so dearly +upon earth, and to hear the maledictions and reproaches which they +shall hurl against her, so, also, one of the greatest joys of the +faithful woman in heaven, will be to see those whom she sanctified by +word and example now grouped around her, crowning her with a diadem +of glory as a mark of everlasting gratitude. + +Would you deprive your soul of this saintly joy, and condemn it to +suffer the punishment reserved for those women who will be the cause +of the ruin and eternal perdition of many? Divine justice shall +vindicate itself, even in this life, by making your heart a most +cruel torment to itself, that you may expiate, in agonizing torture +your infidelity to grace. The cause of your sin shall be the very +means of your punishment. God will employ, to avenge His outraged +honor and His violated laws, those whom you have turned away from +Him, and who, recognizing in you the cause of their evils, will end, +perhaps, by hating you, or, what is still worse, by despising you. +Oh, may it never be your sad fate to feel the withering contempt of +those who have been led away from God by your bad or undue influence, +that is, by loving them for _yourself_ and not for _God and +themselves_! Do not, I pray you, store up such bitterness for your +old age, such anguish for your death-bed, since, instead of bitter +regrets, you can experience a sweet joy, which is a foretaste of +never-ending happiness, a special consolation for God's faithful +friends at that last and dreadful moment when the soul stands +trembling on the threshold of eternity; may it be your envied +privilege to leave after you upon earth souls edified by your +example, and grateful for the good you have done them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +EVE AND MARY CONTINUED. + +The history of the fall of man, caused by Eve, and of his +restoration, brought about by Mary, is a subject of grave +consideration for women of serious minds, for women who have at heart +the preservation of the dignity and vocation of their sex. By a close +consideration of these two models, which furnish the solution to so +many enigmas, explaining so many truths and throwing so much light +upon the most obscure and the most profound questions, they will +learn by a short and easy method what they should do, and what they +should avoid; they will learn how sin has been propagated, the reason +why it still exists; they will learn how justice and virtue flourish +upon earth, how men turn away from God, and how they return to Him. +It was with reason that God allowed sin and justice to attain us +through the agency of woman, and that her free consent was a +necessary condition for both the ruin and the restoration of the +human race. + +It is therefore an interesting and useful study to consider in their +detail and most minute circumstances the acts (so extremely opposed) +of these two women, for one of them, according to the beautiful +expression of the Church, has restored to us by her divine Son what +the other had deprived us of by her disobedience. There is in these +two facts, so different in their nature and results, a wonderful +gradation which points out to us the fatal declivity by which the +human heart insensibly sinks to the lowest abyss of evil, or rises to +the highest degree of virtue and glory. In the sin of Eve the first +degree was a certain intemperance of language, which led her to reply +to the insidious questions of the devil; in appearance this +forgetfulness was very slight. To answer a question, give an +explanation requested of you, clear up a doubt, render an account of +a precept of the Lord, seem at first sight something natural and +permitted. It is quite easy to be deceived in this matter. We readily +convince ourselves that we are actuated by laudable motives in such +like conversations--motives for gloryfying God and justifying His +providence; but we should be extremely cautious: language is +something august and sacred, for it is the tie that unites the soul +to God, and man to his fellow-men,--it is the mysterious knot of all +societies, divine and human. + +Language establishes between those who speak a more intimate +relation than they are generally aware of. Few persons realize the +prodigious transfusion of thoughts, sentiments, influence and life +that arise from conversation. Have you clearly understood this truth +in its full force? Language establishes between souls a very close +and mysterious union, and this is why discretion, prudence and +reserve are so necessary in regulating its use. This is why Jesus +Christ warns us in the Gospel, that we shall render an account of +_every idle word_, if indeed we may call idle a thing that +entails such frightful consequences or fatal results. + +If this reserve is necessary for all it is more especially so for +woman, who, being more communicative than man, experiences a greater +necessity to speak--to express herself more freely, and in terms more +explicit. If women were sincere and impartial judges of themselves +they for the most part would not fail to recognize that nearly all +their faults spring from a useless word--an imprudent answer, or an +indiscreet question. + +The word why is indeed very short, but in its insidious brevity it +comprises a multitude of things which are all the more dangerous +because they are unforeseen, being concealed in a perfidious and +cloudy vagueness. Why? This word is the beginning of the greater part +of those temptations against frailty. The enemy, seeking our +destruction, almost invariably announces his presence by this +captious question, either by the mouth of another or by our own mind, +in order to fill the heart with doubt and trouble. Why take such and +such precautions? Why avoid such a place, such a person, such +company? Why renounce such and such amusements? Why neglect or cast +off that ornament? Why suffer this or that privation? Why abstain +from this action, which is not bad in itself? Why turn away the ear +from those praises, those compliments, dictated by usage or +etiquette, to keep up that intercourse without which society would be +impossible? Why not read this book, this novel? Why not assist at +this play which the most rigorous moralist would not condemn; and +which has for its object to inspire horror for vice, by placing +before our eyes its doleful consequences true to reality? Why +restrain to inaction the finest faculties of the soul, and refuse +them the aliment they so ardently crave? Why deprive our heart and +imagination of the pleasures which the beautiful inspires? Why not +form at an early age a taste for worldly beauty, and be possessed of +all the resources and advantages that it affords us during life? Why +be mistrustful of the mind and heart, at an age when they still +possess all their simplicity and freshness, through vain fear which +renders after-life almost intolerable? Why not be more confiding in +the heart's fidelity and in the goodness of God, who has not +condemned man to constant privations?--Such is the language that the +enemy of our eternal salvation and happiness addresses us every day +with such perfidious adroitness; and who, spite of the experience of +those whom he has already deceived, deceives us every day. + +This language is the more perfidious for being apparently truthful +and natural. When there is question of corrupting a heart that is yet +virtuous, vice conceals itself under the mantle of virtue, as +otherwise its efforts would be powerless. Now, we can safely say that +its venom has already tainted the young lady's heart, when, through +inattention and want of vigilance, she has suffered doubt to brood +over any of those obligations which are so delicate and difficult to +determine, and, nevertheless, most grave and important, since they +entail, when neglected, the most disastrous results. Firmness of +mind, assurance in her convictions, a clear and strong consciousness +of duty, are to her indispensable qualifications; and when she +suffers this tenor of conduct to be interfered with by imprudently +replying, like Eve, to a captious question, the peace and innocence +of her heart are certainly threatened. + +The young girl's innocence is something that is very imperfectly +known; the delicate and almost imperceptible shades that reflect its +beauty and which render it delightful to God and His angels, escape +the general notice of mankind. It is composed of a chaste ignorance +of mind, a great simplicity of heart, and a constant and unwavering +firmness of will. Now, what merits our greatest attention is the fact +that this firmness of will begins to give way in woman the moment she +removes, even by a slight doubt, this precious veil of ignorance +which protects her virtue, or when, by an indiscreet question, or an +imprudent answer, she exposes the simplicity of her heart. + +The virtues which adorn the heart of a young lady are concealed from +her own knowledge. God has so enveloped her in mystery that He alone +understands her. None other save the penetrating eye of God should +look into the sanctuary of her heart. None other than His light +should shine in this holy and chaste obscurity, and this is why +humility, of which we have found so perfect a model in Mary, should +be the necessary shield and guarantee of a young lady's innocence. +She ought not to have the slightest misgivings relative to the value +of the treasure she possesses or the loss she would sustain in losing +it. + +The presence of an angel sufficed to trouble Mary. Oh, young ladies +should meditate well and frequently on the conduct that Mary observed +in this interview, and imitate her example! She did not answer the +Angel's words, but she observed an humble and modest silence. Not so +with Eve who, without reflection, answered the devil's question, and +by this first reply began a conversation the issue of which has +proved so disastrous to the whole human race. Learn from this two-fold +example, and from the effects so different which have resulted +from both, how much you should fear Eve's curiosity in yourself, and +with what care and assiduity you should labor to imitate the reserve +and silence of Mary. + +Curiosity is a most dangerous rock for a young lady,--this is the +rock upon which a countless number of your sex and age have been +wrecked. The moment that you pander to the desire of knowing +everything, you immediately enter on a most dangerous way, the issue +of which is at least precarious. It was for having satisfied this +desire that Eve opened the door to all the calamities that afflict +and will afflict mankind till the end of time. And, since then, it +has caused the ruin of a countless number of women. + +Intrench, so to speak, your mind in the citadel of your own heart. +Let it repose in the holy obscurity of an humble and docile faith, +and you will learn more useful things in this way than you could ever +learn even from the best books and the most eloquent instructions. +Faith and prayer should be the daily food of your soul. Faith, with +its imperfect yet celestial light, will meet all the legitimate wants +of your mind; and prayer, with its divine unction, will embalm your +soul. + +Often turn your eyes toward heaven, and earth will soon lose all its +attractions. Converse frequently with God and you will find it easier +to dispense with the intercourse of men; keep your mind at a remote +distance from all worldly knowledge, and the innocence of your heart +will enjoy sweet repose. Seek not to anticipate by an indiscreet +precipitancy the time when the realities of life shall open out to +your view. Perhaps, more than once you will regret the happiness +which you now enjoy, and which is due both to your knowledge and +ignorance of things. + +In reality, you possess by faith the same knowledge that the blessed +have in heaven, that knowledge which has been the object of the +study, research and love of the most renowned minds and of the most +perfect souls in this world. Faith, elevating you above yourself and +all earthly things, leads you to regions to which the most +distinguished genius, joined to the most profound and persevering +study, can never approach. Faith makes you in a certain way the +sister of angels and of men,--of men who have been the most +remarkable on earth for their excellent qualities of head and heart. +Faith associates you with the glorious choirs of heaven, and, when +truly lively and active, will bring you unalloyed felicity and +ineffable joy. + +Why should you envy those women, who, for being older than you, have +gained by experience a knowledge of things that you should still +ignore? Why seek to compare their knowledge with that which you +possess? The knowledge that you have obtained by faith has cost your +mind no effort--not a single regret to your heart, no remorse to your +conscience. Every step that you make in this illuminated way recalls +to your mind a sweet and precious souvenir, the pure reflections of +which will be the only light that will dispel the gloom of the trials +and anguish of life. It shall be very different with regard to what +you must learn in time to come. Experience is a severe teacher, whose +lessons are dearly bought; this is clearly and forcibly expressed by +the Holy Ghost saying: "He that adds something to the knowledge +already acquired, adds at the same time new pains to those he already +suffers." + +So far you have learned the one thing necessary to man, and which +meets all his wants: you have learned how to please God, to love and +serve Him by the observance of His commandments, and fidelity to his +inspirations, acknowledging and honoring His authority and power over +you in your parents, who are, in your regard, His representatives. So +that at present duty possessing pleasing attractions offers none of +those difficulties which, at a later period of life, will render it +oftentimes painful. Your virtues, protected by that reserve which the +world itself has imposed upon youth, guarded by the vigilance of a +tender and careful mother, aided by her examples, encouraged by her +exhortations and love, tranquilly grow up in the modest sanctuary of +the family, without the remotest idea of the trials they must one day +meet with. + +To learn what pertains to faith and salvation, good will suffices. +We are always sure to succeed in pleasing God when we are sincerely +desirous to serve Him; in this regard we can never anticipate Him. +Not so with the science which teaches how to please men and secure +their good will or favor, to enter into their views, conform to their +laws and customs. No matter how great our desire may be to succeed, +we are never sure of success, and very often the efforts made to +secure it remove us farther from the desired end. Consequently, very +often the surest means of securing the esteem of the world is to +despise it, and withdraw from its tyranny. If you fail to disengage +yourself from it, and if you wish to servilely adhere to its maxims, +you will often experience that they are severe and hard; and you will +reproach yourself more than once for having desired in your youth to +taste of those fruits, externally so beautiful but internally so +bitter. + +Hence, moderation of the mind's curiosity is necessary, and in order +to satisfy its activity apply it to those things that can be of +interest to your conscience and salvation, to the knowledge and study +of those sublime truths which, while enlightening your intelligence, +will elevate your heart and strengthen your will. The knowledge that +you will acquire in this way will serve you for the rest of your +life, much more than all the profane and useless books that you can +read. Accustom your mind to the love and search of serious things; +this will prove to be of invaluable utility to you. + +There is little consistency in frivolous things, and those, who have +fed their souls upon them during youth, find themselves void and +abandoned when they arrive at the age when woman can please only by +interesting the mind and heart by solid charms and tried virtue. This +is the age which you should constantly keep before your mind, because +it is the one that lasts the longest, and which disposes us +proximately for that awful moment in which our fate will be decided +forever. Endeavor to become at an early age what you should be during +the greater part of your life, and what you would desire to have been +at the hour of death. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE WORLD. + +The world is like some objects which, when seen from afar, deceive +the eyes and allure the imagination; but on approaching or touching +them their charms vanish. It is like those carcasses that retain the +form of a human body as long as they are buried in the obscurity of +the tomb, but which, on being exposed to the air, are immediately +reduced to dust. Those who are separated from it without having ever +known it are exposed to be deceived by its perfidious allurements; +and those who, in order to know it, with a view of despising it, +desire to mingle in its feasts and pleasures, run a greater danger of +falling a victim to the seductions and corruption of its charms.-- +How, then, shall you secure the advantage and escape the danger? + +By shunning the world, you secure your heart and conscience against +its seductions; but this evasion, leaving you to consider it from a +remote standpoint exposes your mind to prejudices favorable to it, +and which, later, might become for you the source of many errors and +of many faults. How shall you surmount this twofold difficulty? On +the one hand you cannot mingle with the world without danger, and on +the other hand it will not do for you to ignore its dangers which +must be known in order to be avoided. This dilemma would be of no +consequence to a frivolous and unreflecting soul, or to a vain and +presumptuous mind, which, confiding in its own powers, believes that +it has a good knowledge only of what it sees and experiences; and +counts for naught the teachings of faith and the experience of those +who have gone before. + +Let not this be your case, but, listening with an humble and docile +heart to the teachings of faith, reason and experience, learn to know +the world and its dangers while your age and condition still shield +you from its seductions. Of all the means by which divine Providence +enlightens our minds here below, divine faith, as you are aware, is +the purest, the brightest and the most reliable,--not only because it +comes from God, but because it is presented to us by an authority +which He has established, and which, by His special assistance, He +preserves from all error. + +Sacred Scripture, interpreted and explained to you by this authority +is, therefore, the great source to which you must have recourse for +the knowledge of the things you _should_ know. Now you will find +that there is hardly a single page of those sacred writings in which +there is not a malediction pronounced against the world, and a +warning for you to avoid its siren charms. You will find in the +gospel according to St. John its true character described by Jesus +Christ Himself, who, being the Incarnate Wisdom, could not have any +other than the most perfect idea of things according to their just +value. + +In the first place, it is certain, according to this Apostle, that +when the Eternal Word came into the world it knew Him not; when Jesus +wished to make the Jews feel the confusion of their own blindness, +and see the reason of their opposition to His doctrine, He said: You +are from beneath, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of +this world, therefore, I say to you that you shall die in your sins. +(John viii. 23, 24.) Could there be anything more explicit in +condemnation of the world? It has its origin and the throne of its +power in the lower regions of the earth, while the kingdom of God +resides in the sublime abode of the human heart. + +When He promised His disciples that He would send them the Spirit of +Truth, to console them, He gave as the distinctive mark by which they +would know the Holy Spirit, that the world could not receive Him +because it has no knowledge of Him. Hence the opposition that exists +between the world and the spirit of the New Law is so great that any +compromise is impossible. The world is absolutely incompetent to +receive or understand the spirit of Jesus Christ. Another fact will +render this manifest opposition still more palpable. When Jesus +addressed His eternal Father that beautiful prayer preceding His +agony and passion, He excluded the world by a positive act of His +will, in order to give all to understand that the world could never +have any share with Him. "_I pray not for the world but for them +whom thou hast given me. The world hath hated them because they are +not of the world as I also am not of the world._" (John xvii. 9, +14.) + +St. Paul interprets these words in that energetic style so +characteristic of his writings, when he says to the Corinthians that +"we have not received the spirit of this world whose wisdom is folly +before God." Now shall you adopt as the rule of your conduct and +judgment a wisdom which God has not only reproved, but even branded +with the stigma of folly? According to the same Apostle the world +proves by its own words that its knowledge is stupidity, since it can +see nothing but folly in the cross. The maxims, ideas, judgments, +conduct and habits of the world and those of the flock that Jesus +came to save are so contradictory, their language is so different, +that the wise of the one are fools with the other; and the things +regarded as the most sublime by the former are to the latter +preposterous absurdities. The reason is simply because the one has +its origin, light and end in heaven, while the other draws them from +the earth. + +Now, if, in order to verify these words of the Sacred Scriptures, +you take a view of the doctrine of the world and of that of Jesus +Christ, and compare them, you will not find a single point in the one +that is not in direct contradiction to the other; so that, by the +Gospel, you are enabled to discover the maxims of the world, and +_vice versa_. You may rest assured that what is recommended and +sought for by the one is censured and despised by the other. St. +Paul, speaking to the Galatians, says; that "if he was still pleasing +to men he would not be the servant of Jesus Christ." + +If this be the case, you will say, why remain in the world? Is it +not every one's duty to leave it as soon as possible and abandon it +to its own corruption? Let the words of our divine Lord answer: "_I +do not pray you to remove them from the world, but I pray you to +preserve them from evil._" Our peace of conscience in this life, +and the joys of heaven hereafter require separation from the world +and opposition to its maxims. But this separation is one of mind and +heart, which consists in a manner of thinking, judging and acting +entirely opposed to that of the world. Man ceases to belong to the +world the moment he has ceased to make it the arbitrator of his +conduct and judgment, and when he has freed himself from its +prejudices, caprices and tyranny. Behold what religion requires of +you, and what alone will insure you happiness in this life and in the +next. + +Now, what is this world from which we must separate in order to lead +a Christian life? In any society, that we wish to study with a view +to obtain a knowledge of its nature and objects, we may consider +either the laws by which it is governed, or the body of men who +compose it and who are governed by these laws. + +Considered from the first point of view, the world consists in its +own maxims, laws, customs and judgments, which are in opposition to +the letter and spirit of the Gospel; and which tend to withdraw the +soul from the love of spiritual things, or at least to create in her +a dislike for them. + +Considered from the second point of view, the world comprises a mass +of men who profess its maxims, adopt its usages, obey its laws, and +yield to its judgments. + +The world thus considered entails a twofold obligation for you, one +of which can never admit of any exception or dispensation, while the +observance of the other must be always regulated by prudence and +charity. Indeed the world, considered in its maxims, should be for +you an object of constant aversion and contempt, because it is the +arch enemy of Jesus Christ and of the spirit that He communicates to +His true disciples. This is the world that you renounced on the day +of your baptism; and the solemn engagement that you then made was the +first and most important of all those that you have made, or will +make, during life. + +But, while it is never permitted you to adopt the maxims of the +world, charity, prudence, and the consideration due to your position, +age and family, will not allow you to effectively isolate yourself +from those who have adopted its maxims as the rule of their actions +and judgments. In this you should conform to all that due decorum +requires, and endeavor to preserve your mind and heart against the +pernicious influences often communicated by words, actions, lessons +or examples of those who are slaves of the laws or customs of the +world. The danger is the more imminent inasmuch as the sunny side +only of the world is displayed to you; while no pains are spared on +the part of those bound to you by the most sacred ties to engage you +to adopt their views and imitate their example. This is certainly one +of the most delicate positions in which a young lady can be placed, +when her only arms of defense are the uprightness of her mind, the +innocence of her heart and the purity of her instincts. + +St. Bernard says, "to serve God is to reign." By a contradictory +assertion, we can safely say, to serve the world is to be a slave; +and of all servitudes there is none so hard nor so humiliating as +that which the world imposes upon those who yield to its empire. If +God were so exacting as the world, so inflexible in the laws that He +imposes upon us, so severe in the chastisements by which +delinquencies are punished, piety would be an insupportable burden +through the weakness of the greater part of men; and God would find +very few worshipers who would be willing to submit to such an ordeal. + +What is most remarkable and worthy of compassion is the fact that, +very often, those who groan the most under this slavery are at the +same time those who support it with the greatest resignation. + +To suffer for a genuine duty, for a generous sentiment, for a noble +or grand idea, is something which the human heart can, not only +accept, but even love and choose with a certain pride; but to suffer +for the sake of worldly etiquette, for the sake of fashion, for +things and parsons despised for their tyranny, is a deplorable +humiliation for those who do it. And, nevertheless, the greater part +of those who might be called world-worshipers, who seem to give it +the _tone_, bear patiently its yoke, which debases them in their +own eyes,--pandering to necessities which they have imprudently +created, and from which they now find it impossible to free themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. + +IF the life of a woman of the world were proposed as a model, and, +after having carefully examined all her occupations, you would +discover what would be hard for you to be convinced of before having +done so, namely: that there are women so inconsiderate as to feast +their minds on such frivolities, so forgetful of their dignity as to +make it subservient to such misery, so trifling as to make a serious +work of _bag itelles_, which at most can be considered as little +better than childish amusement; your soul, still rich in its +primitive candor, and favored with an energy tempered in the love and +habit of virtue, would revolt at the thought of such debasement. And, +nevertheless, unless you apply your mind to acquire a love for +serious matters you will not escape a disorder which you so justly +deplore in others; you will be captured in those windings which have +proved fatal fastnesses to women of other days. There remains no +choice between these two alternatives: you must either found your +conduct upon intelligence enlightened by faith, or abandon it, like a +rudderless ship, to the caprice of passion and pleasure. + +The life of a worldly woman is a fictitious life: nature seems to +have no attractions for her; her soul has lost all taste for its +charms; she studiously endeavors to shut out its influences, and to +subvert as much as possible the order by which it is governed. This +estrangement, this disgust with nature, haunts her wherever she goes, +even in the making of her toilet, even in the employment of her time. +She converts day into night and night into day, giving to pleasure +the time destined for repose; she purloins from the industrious hours +of day the sleep and rest for which her wearied limbs and excited +imagination contend. + +While she is sleeping, the humble daughter of St. Benedict or St. +Dominic leaves her cell to sing the praises of the Lord, and offer +Him the day with its duties consecrated without reserve to His glory. +When heavy curtains screen her restless slumber from the sun's +obtrusive light, the pious daughter of St. Vincent de Paul descends +into the folds of her own heart in meditation, and enkindles in the +fire of divine love the charity with which she must cheer the poor or +sick whom she is destined to visit during the day. + +What a difference between those two lives! The worldling rises +rested, but not from a refreshing sleep, she is aroused perhaps by +the importunate rays of the mid-day sun or by the noisy tramping of +hardy workmen who, after their half day's work is done, return home +to partake of a frugal repast and receive the sweet greetings of a +Christian family. It is then that her day begins, as also the series +of the _grave_ occupations that are destined to fill it. The +time is short and scarcely suffices to prepare herself for the +evening amusements; all her energies are now employed to give herself +that external grace and charm necessary to render her conspicuous in +the joyous circle. Alas! the worldly woman is entirely absorbed in +herself, and when she does something for others, it is with a view to +secure her own interest or pleasure. That devotedness, that generous +sacrifice and disinterestedness characteristic of true friendship is +to her a mere paradox, as she is an entire stranger to its effects +and charms. + +After her toilet, her most serious occupations are the visits which +she pays and receives. A visit prompted by charity or some other +virtue is good, highly commendable and praiseworthy. I admire and +understand the woman who leaves the peaceful company of her family, +when no pressing need requires her presence, to go and visit the poor +and destitute, in order to sweeten their bitter lot by a word of +encouragement or a little alms. I understand and admire her who +readily sacrifices her legitimate joy in order to go and mingle her +tears with those of her friend and mitigate her sorrow or share it +with her. I understand and esteem the woman who, impressed by the +superior wisdom and exemplary piety of another woman, goes to her for +advice, devoting with pleasure her leisure hours to that end. I see +in all these circumstances a motive that is serious, honorable, +praiseworthy, and capable of acting upon a noble heart and an +elevated intelligence. But, among the visits made by worldly women; +how few there are that are prompted by such motives! The greater part +of those women visit with no other view than to pass the time, to +pander to their own vanity and curiosity, to form or execute some +intrigue. What is said and done in their visits is worthy of the +motive that inspires them. There is not a single serious thought +expressed, not a single word to show that these women have an +intelligence capable of comprehending the truth, a heart made to love +what is good, or a soul capable of receiving God Himself. If life +were but a dream, if there be no hereafter, if at death the soul must +perish with the body; and man must sink into the nothingness whence +he sprang; they would have nothing to change in their visits, +conversations and conduct. + +There is a visit celebrated in Holy Writ, a visit paid by a young +woman to one of her own sex but more advanced in years, a visit so +holy and renowned that its anniversary is celebrated throughout the +Christian world,--it is the visit paid by the Blessed Virgin to her +cousin St. Elizabeth. O, Christian ladies, behold your true model! +Compare this visit with yours, and judge yourselves according to it. +Compare your motives with those of Mary. Compare your conversations +with that sublime conversation of which the sacred writer has given +us a fragment, being the most sublime canticle that has ever been +uttered by any intelligent creature under the action of divine +inspiration. Oh, what a world-wide difference between this sublime +canticle and the light and frivolous conversations in which so many +women indulge; if you were to look for the reverse of this heavenly +visit you would invariably find it among the visits paid by worldly +women. + +Mary carries with her the Son of God, the Author of grace, the +Principle of eternal life, the Source of chaste desires and holy +hopes. The worldly woman carries with her in her visits the spirit of +the world, the spirit of deception, egotism and folly, which is in +every way opposed to the spirit of Christianity. Mary sings the +praises of humility and proclaims it the virtue beloved of God,--the +virtue which secures His love and assistance; she extols the +happiness of those who thirst for justice and truth, deploring at the +same time the spiritual poverty and indigence of those who are puffed +up with self-conceit. The worldly woman, on the contrary, seeks in +her conversations to flatter her vanity and pride by parading the +empty resources of her imagination and misguided intelligence. She +envies the happiness of those who, rich in beauty and all those +qualities that charm, draw many admirers around them. Elizabeth, on +beholding her cousin, felt her infant leap for joy. The worldly woman +stirs up in the hearts of those whom she visits the most frivolous +instincts, and sometimes even the worst passions. + +This tableau excites your love and disgust. The comparison frightens +you; and perhaps in the simplicity of your heart you will say, it is +not free from exaggeration. On the contrary, you will be sadly +disappointed when, at a more advanced age, you will clearly see that +this is a very mild and subdued picture of what is true and real. +Your age and innocence do not allow me to reveal to you all the +mysteries of sin--all the snares, all the dangers, all the +frivolities that fill up the days of a worldly woman. + +Would that what I have said of her may inspire you with salutary +horror for her life; and make you shun the snares in which she has +been taken! I pray that you, satisfied with the knowledge you have of +her follies, may never feel the desire of adding to what you already +know, the fatal knowledge imparted by experience! That you may never +forget these words of St. John: _Love not the world, nor the things +which are in the world; for all that is in the world is the +concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the +pride of life._ (I John ii. 15-16.) + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +THE WILL. + +St. John, the Apostle, addressing those who have not yet passed the +age of adolescence, says in his first Epistles: _"I write unto you, +because ... you have overcome the wicked one."_ Then speaking to +those who have attained the age of manhood, he says: _"I write to +you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth +in you, and you have overcome the wicked one."_ Again, in the book +of Proverbs, chapter xxxi, the inspired writer speaks in the +following terms: "_who shall find a valiant woman? The price of her +is as of things brought from afar off, and from the uttermost coasts ... +She hath put out her hand to strong things ... strength and +beauty are her clothing; and she shall laugh in the latter day, she +hath opened her mouth to wisdom and the law of clemency is on her +tongue.... Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain; the woman that +feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her +hands; and let her works praise her in the gates._" + +Thus, according to Holy Writ, fortitude or strength is the portion +of youth, which is manifested by the victories of the will over the +enemy of our salvation. This valor is regarded by the sacred writer +as one of the finest qualities with which woman can be adorned, since +she owes to it all her true success and glory. Now what is this +precious quality? In what faculty of the soul does it reside? What +are the signs by which its presence is made manifest? What is the end +to which it tends? What are the rewards that crown its victories? +These are questions of deep interest, and the importance attached to +a knowledge of their solution cannot be too great. + +In the first place we shall begin by stating that the seat of valor +is found in the will. To be valiant consists in willing intensely +what is painful to nature, accomplishing what is proposed with energy +and perseverance. I have often treated this subject, but it is so +inexhaustible that it always seems new. Its importance grows with +time, and now-a-days it cannot be insisted on too much, nor can there +be too much attention paid to it by those who wish to preserve in +this world the integrity of their conscience and lead an +irreproachable life. + +Alas it is painful to avow that this generous will is too rarely met +with. This noble faculty of the soul is made subservient to other +faculties which should be subject to and directed by it. The mind has +perhaps acquired greater vivacity and penetration. The imagination, +under the action of a constant change of images, and those sensations +which the activity of life multiplies so rapidly in our time, has +perhaps become richer and more varied. The heart, cherished while +young by the cares and caresses common to the paternal roof, has +perhaps more confidence and candor. But the will, what has become of +it, what has it gained by this development of all the powers of the +soul? Where is its place among them? It should be their ruler, +whereas it is made their slave; they have conspired its overthrow. + +It is true that very often the enfeebling of this great faculty is +due to the excessive tenderness of those who have allowed us to +contract pernicious habits. Who is it that speaks to the child's +will? Who teaches him how to use that faculty and resist with energy +the caprices of his imagination, the passions of the heart, the +empire of the senses, the seductions of the world? These are duties +that the will is called on to discharge, and as long as man shall +live such duties will be of daily occurrence,--hence the will is +destined to be constantly called into action. + +The will serves us when all the other faculties fail to act. When +the exhausted imagination sinks into a lethargic slumber; when the +worried heart loses all relish for everything; when the mind, +dreading the light of truth, gives itself over to error and +prejudice; when the smoke of passion blinds the intelligence and +suffocates the senses; it is then that the will, fashioned in the +school of pliant energy, seizing the reins with a firm and vigorous +grasp, snatches the imagination from its torpor by bringing it to +bear on objects capable of arousing it; it is then that the will +animates the heart with generous and noble sentiments, and applies +the mind to the consideration of truths which enlighten and fortify it. + +There exists a strange abuse relative to the nature and essence of +the will. Very often, parents, blinded by a false prejudice, see with +pleasure, and admire in their children, stubbornness and obstinacy of +character; and, looking forward to their future with an air of pride, +they say: "That child will have a strong will." Deplorable error! Woe +to the parents who fall into it, and the children who are its object! +When the will is truly strong, far from being obstinate it is, on the +contrary, pliant and tractable. No human power can restore suppleness +to the arm which a convulsive paroxysm has stiffened, yet it does not +follow that this arm is stronger than when it was in a healthy +condition. The stiffness, far from increasing its strength, decidedly +weakens it. In like manner the will's strength does not lie in +stubborn obstinacy, but rather in that pliancy which enables it to +dispose itself as circumstances may require. + +A stubborn character has nothing in common with this noble and +precious faculty of the soul. And, like all the others, this faculty +possesses two degrees of elevation; in the one it comes in direct +contact with the senses and, the external world; and in the other, +raised above all sensibility, it receives its light and movement from +on high. + +The will, taken in its inferior part, is nothing else than that +appetite or blind instinct which we hold in common with the brute +creation; and by which animals are governed in their choice of some +things and their rejection of others. If the will, properly so +called, consisted in this blind instinct, man would be inferior to +the ass and the mule, whose attractions and repugnances are more +imperious than those of other animals. The will, as understood in the +true Christian sense of the term, acts in contradiction to this +brutal appetite; hence they alone have a strong will who can, when +duty and conscience require it, obey their voice with docility, in +spite of all instinctive opposition. + +The education of the will, I admit, is a long and painful process. +We are taught at a dear rate how to _know_ and _judge_ things; +but we must learn at a dearer price how to _will_. The culture +of the mind is the least important and the easiest part of our +education, while the culture of the will is extremely important +and demands much time and labor; yet, through a most culpable +negligence, it is just the faculty that receives the least attention +and culture. Too many imagine that the training of the will may be +done at any time and, what is still more erroneous, that age, +experience and events will suffice to do this work. Hence we see +every day poor souls entering the scene of life without an educated +will, which alone is capable of reacting against the evils and trials +from which none in this world can escape. This is the cause of that +imbecility which renders the most precious qualities of mind and +heart useless; generating inconsistencies and uncertainties which, in +the moment of trial, deprive the heart of its energy and the mind of +all light, thus leaving the soul open to all the assaults of +misfortune. + +We are obliged to chronicle a painful truth when we assert that the +culture of the will is sadly neglected in education in general, but +more especially so in that of women. There are even some so blind as +to think that a strong will in woman is a dangerous quality, +alleging, as a proof of their assertion, the puerile reason, that +since woman was made to obey she should find in another's will the +rule of her actions. But, we ask, if woman can have no will of her +own, how can she exercise the virtue of obedience, since that virtue +consists in bending the will to duty? And since, in her sphere, she +is constantly called on to practice obedience it is just the reason +why she should have a strong will. + +Now if from a tender age she has not given due attention to this +precious faculty of her soul; if she has contracted the fatal habit +of acting without a purpose, without reflecting, through caprice, +following by a blind instinct the allurements that flatter the senses +and imagination; if she has not learned to conquer herself, to put +duty before pleasure, and the voice of conscience above that of the +passions and honor; how will she be able to live with a husband +capricious perhaps in his desires and stubborn in his will? How will +she be able to confront his exactions or cope with his rage? How will +she bear with the faults of her servants and of those with whom she +may be obliged to live? How will she, in her warnings and reproaches +be able to blend in a just proportion mildness and firmness, to +obtain the salutary effects which she desires? + +The path of life is not strewn with flowers; all is not joy and +happiness here below. Woman is destined, as well as man, to meet with +days of sorrow and bitterness, when a firm, patient will must be her +only port of safety. To woman patience is, perhaps of all virtues, +the most necessary to sustain her in mental anxieties and various +other sufferings that are inevitable; and, since patience is a fruit +of the will, it follows that a morbid will cannot produce an enduring +patience, the deficiency of which must render her life almost +intolerable. + +He that sails with the current and a favorable wind need not ply his +oars; but when there is question of going in the contrary direction, +what was at first a great advantage becomes now a double +disadvantage, and he can succeed only by strenuous efforts. + +During the days of youthful glee you glide gaily down the river of +life, going with the current, favored by the breeze of hope, charmed +by varied and softly-changing scenes. But this time will soon have an +end: sorrow will embitter your joys ere the frost of age shall have +cooled the blood or chilled the imagination; very soon, in a few +years, perhaps, it will knock at the door of your soul; and you will +be obliged to give this inopportune visitor admittance, to remain +with you, perhaps, for the rest of your life. Among the young ladies +of your acquaintance are there not some who are unhappy? And can you, +without a voluntary illusion, convince yourself that youth is a +preservative against misfortune? Are you prepared to ward off the +intruder? If it wounds you how will you endure the pain? It is +imprudent to delay the acquisition of a particular branch of learning +until its practical use becomes necessary; and since it is while we +are hale and hearty that we should learn to die well, so it is while +prosperity smiles on us that we should learn to bear adversity. Learn +now, while young, to support all the vicissitudes of life; make +timely provision, not only against adversity, but also against +prosperity, which for many is the more dangerous of the two. + +Prepare to meet not only those who will try your patience by their +unjust or troublesome doings, but also those whose affection +officiousness, and flattery, will perhaps exact from you a greater +exercise of virtue. Be on your guard, not only against others, but +also against yourself. Learn to bear with yourself, to suffer with +courage the inconstancy of your own humor, the nights of your +imagination, the impetuosity of your character, the violent and +inordinate movements of your heart. Accustom your will to wield the +scepter and resolutely to govern the passions, which are most +powerful auxiliaries for good or for evil,--for good when under the +complete control of the will, for evil when they are emancipated from +its sway, for then they become the vultures of life, and a torment of +the soul. + +Never lose sight of the fact that you require a stronger will to +obey than to command, and that your condition, far from rendering +your will less necessary, shows, on the contrary, that it is +indispensable to you; unless, by indorsing that unjust and outrageous +judgment by which the world seeks to degrade the dignity of woman, +you force upon yourself the conviction that her will should count for +nothing either at home or abroad,--that she is destined to be blindly +led by the caprices of others; unless you confound obedience with +servitude, and authorize the prejudices of those who pretend that +woman should have neither thought nor will of her own, but that +another is charged with thinking and willing for her, thus +exonerating her from all responsibility. + +If this be your conviction, I ask: "Why do you read this book? Close +it, it is not written for you; because from the first page to the +last it constantly discloses to your view all the titles of your +glory and the grandeur of your dignity. Close your eyes to the light +of truth, shackle the will's liberty lest you may see and feel the +shame and humiliation of your sad condition; and, like a thing inert, +await in dumb silence until some trafficker may come and calculate +how much he will gain in fortune and pleasure by purchasing you!" +Behold the deplorable condition to which the pagan theories of the +world reduce woman! behold the degree of abjection to which she +herself descends when, losing sight of the light of faith, which +exposes the true nature of things, she suffers herself to be deceived +by the vain systems of a world worthy of God's anathemas, and +governed by the spirit of deception. + +No, woman has not been created to be a slave; God has neither +destined nor consigned to such a humiliating state that half of +humanity from which He has chosen His mother, and which has been +favored with a holy reflection of the glory of Mary. God required a +positive act of woman's will in her co-operation in the work of our +redemption,--and to obtain it He did not hesitate to choose as His +ambassador, one of the brightest of His archangels. Judge from this +the respect and importance due to woman's will. Moreover, it is a +significant truth, sustained by a long experience, that the salvation +of a family, of a father, a brother, a son, a husband, is secured in +a great measure by the care and prayers, the firm and wise, yet mild +and prudent conduct of a Christian woman, deeply penetrated with the +profound sentiment of her dignity and the true importance of her +duties,--all of which depend upon a firm and patient will. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +THE IMAGINATION. + +The imagination, that active agent of the senses, is the bee which, +in its continual excursions, gathers from the flower-cups the sweet +scented dust from which, by due process, it forms the wax that gives +us light and the honey that nourishes us. Your soul is like a +bee-hive, full of activity and life. The external world is like a +flower-garden, in which each flower has its peculiar color, perfume +and brightness. Your imagination is the working bee of this hive, +which resounds with the humming of the senses. The will governs and +directs all with perfect harmony, when peaceful order reigns in all +its workings. But the moment that the will fails to discharge the +duties of its office, the imagination and the senses, like bees +deprived of their queen, wander hither and thither without any +determined purpose, and the hive is abandoned to inaction or disorder. + +It is of paramount importance to you to have a clear knowledge of +the nature, end and functions of all the faculties of your soul; so +that you may keep them within the province that God has allotted to +them, and that no disorder may arise from the attempted encroachments +of some upon others. This point becomes one of grave importance when +there is question of _the imagination_, because it is the most +rash, most ambitious, most violent and at the same time, the most +seductive, of all the faculties. + +Holding an intermediate place between the soul and the senses, it is +the most accessible to the charms of the external world, and +participates in the inconstant and tumultuous movements of our own +sensibility. Confined to its own sphere of action, it is a precious +auxiliary, which often facilitates the perception of the truth, and +the accomplishment of good, by presenting them to the mind and heart +under colors that render them amiable and attractive. When properly +employed, it is an invaluable gift of God, who has given it to us to +aid the infirmity of our nature, by rendering less painful the +efforts that we are so often obliged to make in order to triumph over +our bad inclinations. But when we fail to make a proper use of it, it +then becomes for us a source of danger, and a great obstacle to our +advancement towards perfection. + +Placed between the will and the senses, it should neither be +controlled by the latter nor emancipated from the sway of the former. +The faithful observance of this condition can alone insure us all the +advantages we may hope to derive from it. Should it prove to be a +frequent cause of mischief to us it is because we let it act +independently of the will's control--in which case it is sure to +become the slave of the senses. Separated from the intelligence, from +which it receives light, and from the will, which points out its +course of action, the imagination is a blind instinct, precipitous in +its movements, impetuous and inconstant in its flights, violent and +capricious in its pursuits. It is in constant agitation and torment, +passing from one object to another, jumping with a single bound from +one extreme to another, from sorrow to joy, from love to hate, from +fear to hope. + +It magnifies or diminishes things according to the caprice of the +moment; and gives a color of sovereign importance to things which in +reality are the merest trifles; a word, a look, a sign preoccupies +and alarms it; it feasts on suspicion and anxiety, fictitious hopes +and deceitful reports; it seizes with avidity on the things that +please it, but scarcely is it in possession of the sought for objects +when it abandons them with disgust. Hence the impressions to which it +gives rise are as whimsical and as inconstant as itself; they appear +and disappear in the soul without any apparent reason for their +presence or absence. + +The woman, whose imagination has been developed at the expense of +her other faculties, may be said to lead a dreamy, fictitious, +contentious and agitated life. This state is rendered still more +dangerous by the agreeable forms which it assumes, and which flatter +the mind and senses by their rapid and constant changes. Hence it is +that women endowed with this doleful gift have the sad privilege of +drawing around them persons of volatile minds and inconstant hearts. +They invariably finish by becoming the dupes of their own fickle +impressions, and are taken in the snares in which their vanity sought +to inveigle others. + +Could you but see the living tableau of one of those souls +tyrannized by the imagination, the sight would arouse both your +compassion and disgust; for hers is a fickle, inconstant, fretful and +worried life. During the long dreary days not a single instant is +completely and sincerely given to God. Her thoughts, affections, +desires and occupations never rise above trivialness. Among the +multitude of persons of her acquaintance there is not a single one +whom she sincerely loves, or to whom she can render herself amiable. +In the multiplied interviews to which she has devoted her life-time +not a single genuine affection can be found: words which the lips +pronounce and which the heart ignores; visits made through etiquette +or inspired by frivolity; conversations that are mutually indulged in +for mutual illusion or deception;--such are the joys, such the +occupations, of this woman. + +With dispositions such as these there cannot be question of sincere +piety nor of a Christian spirit. Piety resides in the will and +supposes the love of duty; imagination abhors duty and seeks only +after pleasure. True, the grace of God is all-powerful, it is not +tied down to the development of our natural qualities, and God knows +well, when He pleases, how to come to the assistance of the soul's +faculties, and plant the germs of solid virtue in a heart that is +frivolous and badly disposed; still it is an evident fact that among +souls there are some better prepared than others to receive this +divine seed, which takes deeper root when the heart is well disposed. +Now, among all the agents that can unfit us for the reception of +divine grace there is none so bad as an ungoverned imagination, +because it is the source, especially among women, of the most fatal +illusions. + +A woman in this condition spends her whole life-time in deceiving +herself and in deceiving others--not purposely, but by a fatal and +voluntary illusion; she can see nothing in its true light; all +objects appear to her under strange colors; she forms her judgment of +them according to the impression they make on the senses, or the +effect they produce in the imagination. All this unfits her for the +reception of those supernatural truths which fortify the mind without +troubling the imagination, and, consequently, she remains insensible +to the sweet impressions of grace which acts so mildly on the heart +as to be unperceived by the senses. To such a woman piety is a mere +matter of form, made up of certain practices which, in the guise of +religion, flatter and feed her imagination. But the most terrible +feature of this condition is, that it always grows worse, keeping the +soul in a cloud of darkness, which even the special light attendant +on death cannot dispel. + +Thus, living and dying, they deceive themselves, and carry their +illusions to the very tribunal of the Sovereign Judge. Then, and not +till then, do they discover the truth which, though _seeing_, +they did not _perceive_ during life. Then, in doleful cries and +lamentations will they exclaim, Alas! _"We deceived ourselves, we +have gone astray from the path of truth!"_ + +Do not expose yourself to the same sad fate and doleful end; avoid +the danger while it is yet time; train your imagination from a tender +age, keep its activity under control,--then, instead of being a +source of vile it will be a source of most precious advantages to you. + +One of the best means by which you can succeed in doing this is to +fortify your will, giving it that authority and consistency which it +needs in order to govern the imagination; without a strong will, that +remains always self-composed in the midst of the tumult of the senses +and the activity of the imagination, you will certainly fail to +confine the latter to a just moderation. + +That your judgment may enjoy perfect liberty and ease, your every +act should be determined during peaceful calmness. Do not forget +that, while you are passing through moments of excitement and +pre-occupation, you are unable to see things rightly and execute them +properly. When in this state of mind a project is proposed to your +consideration; you will find that your heart is already fixed upon it +before you have duly examined it; then the liberty of your mind +becomes shackled either by vain hopes or fears suggested by some +blind and violent instinct. In this and similar circumstances you +should proceed with great precaution. + +It is prudent and wise to defer taking action in any serious matter +until self-composure is completely restored, until the mind is +serene, the heart at peace, and the will in full possession of its +liberty. Listen not to the plausible solicitations--obey not the +impulses of your imagination, but wait several days, or weeks, or +even months if necessary; for a final determination taken in the +midst of confusion and agitation will inevitably entail bitter +regrets. Even prayer will not obtain for you, while in such a state +of mind, all the light that you need. What you should first ask is, +that God would lull this storm, and restore peace to your soul; but +it is not the moment to pray that He may inspire you what to do in +this or that difficulty, because, preoccupied as you are, you will +perhaps take for the voice of God and of your conscience the cries of +your troubled imagination. + +When, after a mature and serious examination of the matter at issue, +you have calmly discovered what course to adopt, it is then time to +enlist the service of the imagination to aid your will, and get it +interested in the work that you have to do, in order to impart new +energy to the soul, and new light to the intelligence; when it is +docile to the orders of the will it is a powerful auxiliary for good. + +Never forget that the liberty of the mind and heart is an +indispensable condition to judge rightly, to love with security, and +to act with prudence; and that whatever tends to diminish this +liberty should arouse your suspicions, no matter what may be its +apparent advantages; for these can never equal the advantages +accruing from an unshackled heart and mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +PIETY. + +Most appropriately indeed was the name _piety_ given by our +fathers in the faith to the sentiment which elevates the mind and +heart to God. It establishes an intimate union between God and the +Christian soul, for it is an affection composed of the most generous +qualities of the human heart. In woman, it is a mixture of respect, +devotedness and tenderness, which are enhanced still more by a +certain blending of fear, confidence, and candor. Man is pious +towards God and his parents; but the woman whose heart is not +vitiated by anything fictitious is pious towards those whom she +loves, for in each one of her affections may be found, combined in +different degrees, all the shades of sentiment that we have mentioned +above; but it is in her piety towards God that they are especially +striking. + +Woman's heart languishes for God, because it thirsts after the good +and beautiful; and all her efforts to satisfy its cravings will prove +futile until it is immersed in the bosom of the Divinity, the Source +of all goodness and beauty. With woman the heart is the great +receptacle of grace, the principal agent in the practice of piety and +virtue. If this precious disposition of her heart offers many and +great advantages, it carries with it also its inconveniences. The +heart is a near neighbor of the imagination, and the latter often +allures the former by its charms. Its activity is often developed and +exercised at the expense of the will, by diminishing and enfeebling +the power and influence of the latter. It not unfrequently happens +that the heart becomes the seat of dangerous illusions, when it not +only favors, but even indulges in that tender and sensible piety, +which is founded on and fed by lively sentiments and beautiful +images. In this state it costs no little effort to will and act. + +The reading of a pious book, the meditating on the mysteries of the +passion and death of our Saviour will melt the heart to tenderness. +Thus, nature has a greater share than grace in piety and fervor of +this stamp. Self-complacency and self-love are here most adroitly +concealed under the garb of humility, and it requires a rare sagacity +to discover their presence. The Christian soul in this state seeks +not to please God or others, but it seeks rather its own pleasure, +and for many women this kind of piety is a form of affectation and +vanity. With those fine sentiments and enthusiastic transports they +remain unmortified, vain and curious lovers of flattery and averse to +reproof, retaining all their faults, which they endeavor to conceal +under the mask of external piety. + +Do not ask such women to bridle their will or to restrain the +sallies of their humor,--speak not to them of the good derived from +self-mortification, self-abnegation and the love of the Cross,--words +such as these have no signification for them. They are satisfied with +simply feeling and giving expression to those virtues, after the +manner of artists who, by a happy disposition of mind, are expert in +becoming penetrated with ideas and sentiments in which their will has +no part whatever; and which have no moral influence over their life. + +They are delighted to go with Jesus on Mount Tabor and contemplate +Him in the splendor of His glory; but when there is question of +participating in His ignominy on Calvary they most shamefully abandon +Him. And when He asks them to aid Him to carry His cross they do it, +if at all, as reluctantly as did Simon of Cyrene. They willingly +multiply prayers and exterior practices of piety, which flatter +natural inclinations; they frequent the Sacraments, and this +furnishes them the occasion and means of producing those lively and +tender sentiments upon which the heart loves to feast. + +Their doleful condition is rendered still more deplorable by the use +of the most sacred things to nourish their self-love and sensibility. +Grace, according to their views of the spiritual life, is only a +means to render natural sensibility more delicate and refined. Thus, +led on from one delusion to another, such women come to the end of +their life, rich in foliage and flowers, but without ever having +produced any fruit. + +I hope, dear reader, that such may not be your case; but, to avoid +all error on a point of such vital interest, meditate constantly on +the divine instructions that Jesus has left us in the Sacred +Scriptures, and on those also with which He inspired the pious author +of the "Following of Christ," their most perfect commentator. Learn +to discern genuine piety from that which bears only the name. Learn +to distinguish between its object and that which is only a means to +attain that object,--two things which are frequently and erroneously +confounded, yet which are very distinct and very different from each +other; for it is a great mistake to neglect the end by attaching too +much importance to the means by which to attain it. + +Piety does not consist in sublime language, mystical thoughts, or +angelical sentiments, for, according to St. Paul, we might speak the +language of angels and be still only sounding brass; neither does it +consist in the knowledge of divine mysteries, nor in the more +excellent intellectual gifts; for, according to the same apostle, a +man might be a prophet and possess a knowledge of all science, +without being on that account anything in the sight of God. + +Faith is truly grand, because it is the principal basis of our +justification; and because with it we are enabled to obtain all +things from God. Nevertheless, man might have faith strong enough to +move mountains and be absolutely nothing before God. Charity to the +poor, compassion for the unfortunate are indeed excellent virtues, +because they cancel numerous sins, and because they seem to form the +principal matter of that terrible judgment which will decide our weal +or woe for eternity; yet you might distribute all your wealth among +the poor, and still merit no reward from God. + +We are recommended by the Holy Scriptures and by the masters of the +spiritual life to practice mortification, the perfection of which is +found in martyrdom; and nevertheless, though you should even lacerate +your body till it became one bleeding wound, and deliver it into the +hands of the executioner to be burned, you might gain nothing thereby. + +None of all those things constitutes the essence of piety. One thing +alone can claim this privilege and that is CHARITY, not that charity +which consists merely in _feeling_ and _speaking_, but a +_charity that is active_, and which penetrates the entire life +by its divine, influence; that charity which is patient and +beneficent, not envious, dealing not perversely, not puffed up. True +charity is not ambitious seeks not its own, is not provoked to anger, +thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but for the good it +beholds everywhere, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes +all things and endures all things; such is the soul of true piety +according to the Apostle St. Paul. (Cor. I Epist., xiii chap.) + +Our divine Lord clearly defines its nature in the following terms: +"_If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up +his cross, and follow me, for he that will save his life, shall lose +it, and he that shall lose his life for my sake shall find it._" +(Matth. ch. xvi.) To be a Christian consists in walking in the +footsteps of Jesus Christ. Hence, to follow Him and carry the cross, +self-denial is the first and most necessary qualification. In order +to enjoy the eternal happiness of the future life we must sacrifice +the false joys of earth. Again, He tells us: "_The kingdom of +heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away_," that is +to say, _the valiant, the energetic, and persevering_, will +alone succeed in securing it; for the words _bear away_ express +the action of one that seizes a prey. Add to these texts those others +of St. Paul: _"If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none +of his,"_ that is--he does not belong to Christ, he is not His +disciple; and _"they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh +with the vices and concupiscences."_ + +Now I would not have you think that the piety of which I speak is +too elevated for you, that it can he practiced only by members of +religious orders, and very holy laics--this is by no means the case. +What is required of you is nothing more than what our Lord and all +the saints would have you do. + +I must point out another error not less pernicious to the practice +of true piety, namely; that of taking the means to the acquisition of +piety as the end for which you practice it, for the means should at +all times be appreciated according to their just value, or according +to the assistance they give you to attain your end as a true +Christian, which consists in dying to self and to self-glory. I would +not have you judge of your progress in perfection by the number of +your communions, or the multitude of your pious practices, or the +length of your prayers, but by the victories which you gain over +yourself, over your passions, your character, and your temper. + +Like all other good things, you can turn prayer to your spiritual +detriment, when you have recourse to it through vain glory. Be +thoroughly convinced of the truth expressed by the Evangelist St. +John, _that he is a liar who says that he loves God, and does not +keep his commandments._ Remember that the spirit of darkness, as +St. Paul tells us, can, and often does, transform himself into an +angel of light, and produce in the mind false lights, which dazzle +and blind it. + +Now that you know in what the essence of piety consists, you ought +to learn in what faculty of the soul it resides, and this knowledge +will preserve you from many illusions, and point out to you the +direction in which you must advance in order to attain your end. + +Piety, should, by its divine influence, penetrate all the faculties +of the soul and take possession of your whole being; it ought, as we +have said above, to make its presence especially felt in your heart, +by purifying all its affections; but its principal abode should be in +the will, through which it may reach all the other faculties in order +to elevate and vivify them. + +The will is, indeed, if I may so speak, the organ or the instrument +of sacrifice and duty; and since piety properly consists in sacrifice +and duty, in suppressing the inordinate appetites of the human heart, +and elevating nature above herself, the will is the faculty in which +piety should reside. + +It is not an easy matter to be truly pious, for, in order to attain +to a superior order of spiritual perfection, we must lay aside +_self_ which paralyzes all the generous movements of the soul,-- +we must also faithfully correspond to divine grace. All this entails +much difficulty, many struggles, and, consequently, great and +constant efforts. + +Every being has a tendency, founded on an imperious instinct, to +dwell in its natural sphere, which it can not leave even to enter a +superior one without making a great effort. Hence, the Holy Ghost +warns him who desires to serve God to prepare for temptation and +struggle. Now, among all the faculties of the soul, the will is the +best disposed for the combat, because pleasure has a smaller share in +its movements than in those of the heart and imagination; it is able, +when necessary, to rise superior to the most alluring charms, +preferring fidelity to duty with all its difficulties and bitterness. + +To be pious implies the faithful observance of God's commandments, +_"If you love me,"_ says Christ, _"keep my commandments;"_ +it consists in being resigned to the will of God, ready to be +disposed of at His good pleasure. To do this you must place all your +faculties, and especially your will at His disposal. God has reserved +to Himself the right of acting in an intimate and profound manner +upon the will. This faculty is His sanctuary, in which He delights to +dwell, and operate the prodigies of His grace and love, which He +communicates with unbounded prodigality to His elect. + +This is the throne upon which He silently engraves the image of His +divine Son, the essential characteristic of predestination. It is in +this power of the human soul that He plants in the depth of Christian +humility the foundation of solid virtue, in defiance to the disorders +of the mind, the agitations of the heart and the incoherencies of the +memory. + +From the bosom of the Divinity our Blessed Lord brought with Him two +special favors, one of which was for His eternal Father, and the +other to be given persons of good-will. He charged His angels to +announce them to the world in the person of the shepherds. They were, +glory for His Father and peace for men, but only for men of good- +will. This heavenly peace is a foretaste of the never-ending joys of +Paradise. It is a prize worth striving for, and easy to secure, at +least for you, since it is promised to all persons of good-will. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +VOCATION. + +God, who has created all things by His own power, conserves them by +an act of His divine love; and by His providence leads them to their +appointed destiny through ways conformable to their own nature. He +did not create man to live a solitary being, and, consequently, +implanted in his heart an instinctive need of society; desiring that +the latter should effectively contribute to the development of the +faculties of soul and body. And, as society cannot subsist without a +certain variety of conditions, and functions, which lend each other +mutual aid, He has planted in our souls certain dispositions in +harmony with the particular state of life to which He has destined +us. This is what is called _vocation_. + +It is, as you perceive, only a particular form of that general +providence by which God governs the universe, giving to the lilies +their eclat and perfume, watching with maternal care over the young +brood, preparing its food for the little bird, and not allowing a +single hair to fall from our heads without His permission. I +purposely make use of the beautiful images that Jesus Himself +employed to reveal to us the sweet mystery of providence. + +To deny that man has a special vocation is placing him in a rank +inferior to the plants and irrational animals. It is denying the +variety of dispositions which enter into the combination of +character, and which is at once one of the greatest charms of and +most precious advantages to society; it is forcing on the mind the +conviction that every one is free to choose, whether in or out of +season, his post in the world, even when such a course would be +contrary to the principles of common-sense, and would entail the +subversion of society; for, let each and every one be directed in the +choice of his post by the whims and caprices of nature, assuredly +society will soon become demoralized, even as an army in which each +soldier would be free to choose and take the grade and position that +best suited his tastes. + +If society is kept in a constant feverish agitation, by the furious +contests of ungoverned passion, it is because no one, or at least the +vast number never take the trouble to consult God by prayer, or +otherwise, before making a choice of a state of life. If there are so +many dissatisfied with their state of life it is because they are not +where God had destined them to be. If life is blighted with +deception, fraught with regrets and bitterness, if our fairest hopes +are blasted, if pain and sorrow brood over our existence, it is +because the soul suffers the punishment entailed by her levity or +negligence in a matter on which her weal or woe depends, both for +time and eternity. + +Oh, how sadly rare in the world is that sweet and celestial peace, +that interior contentment, that pure and simple joy which in holier +times families prized as their most precious inheritance; and which +they handed down to their posterity as one of their richest gifts: +then the thought of God and eternity presided over all the important +actions of their life; then the light of heaven was invoked when +there was question of any important undertaking; and as grave matters +were considered and weighed in the light of truth and religion, due +attention was paid to the choice of a state of life. + +They knew that, while other proceedings might be changed, and +consequently their fatal result averted when foreseen, the step made +in the choice of a state of life is irrevocable and a mistake made in +that step not only involves our happiness or misery for time but also +for eternity. Hence it is said by many that vocation is closely +allied with predestination. + +It is a most solemn moment in the Christian's life, for it is the +beginning of that road by which he must attain his destination. At +this juncture it is consoling to consider with the eye of faith, the +love and solicitude with which God protects the soul; to behold Jesus +offering with ineffable tenderness for her the blood which He shed on +the cross. To see the guardian angel redoubling his charitable +efforts in the interest of his client, awaiting with pious anxiety +the issue of a deliberation upon which must depend in a great measure +the success or failure of his labors for her eternal salvation. + +Still, should any one be so unfortunate as to make a bad choice, let +him not consider his condition irremediable; divine mercy has +inexhaustible resources from which to provide us with the means to +work out our salvation, and prevent the doleful consequences of those +fatal errors. + +Yet, it is certain beyond all question, that we render the work of +our eternal salvation always more difficult when we have not embraced +that state of life which God had laid out for us; for the sins which +are a consequence of this want of correspondence to the divine will, +will have, if not a decisive influence, at least a considerable share +in the work of our reprobation. How many souls now writhing in +eternal torments could, on ascending the course of their lives, point +out the solemn moment in which they made a choice of a state of life +as the time of their departure from the road to heaven. + +No Christian who has his salvation at heart will hesitate to say +that it is folly to treat with indifference and levity a matter of +such vital importance; for he must remember with a sacred awe that, +when he makes a choice of a state of life, he pronounces in a certain +manner an irrevocable sentence on himself. + +When the soul is deprived of the advantages of a rule of life, of +the advantages of good dispositions, character and temperament, as +well as of those provided by circumstances, men and things on the one +hand; and when she is obliged to struggle incessantly against herself +and external obstacles on the other hand, the work of her salvation +becomes more difficult and less certain. In this deplorable +condition, the only pillar left her on which she can anchor her hopes +of salvation is the mercy of God; but then a faithful correspondence +with divine grace in the most minute details, constant and +persevering prayer to obtain strength to bear the trials of life with +profit, are positively necessary conditions to escape destruction. + +Commencing her career, woman finds for the most part only two roads +that dispute the choice of her adoption. Estranged, generally +speaking, to the professional life, or at least, acting in it only a +secondary role, she scarcely gives it a serious thought; she can +therefore give all due deliberation to her choice between marriage +and celibacy. + +If all were bound to choose the more perfect state, considered in +itself, the question would be easily settled, as in that case there +would be, properly speaking, no choice to make; for evidently it is +the celibate state of life that should be adopted, since it is a more +perfect state than that of marriage; and the church, maintaining the +doctrine of the Apostle on this point, has condemned as heretics +those who teach that the married state is as perfect as that of +virginity. But, if all should aspire to perfection, if all are free +to choose the kind of life that will better insure the attaining of +that perfection, then all are not obliged to embrace the celibate +state, since our perfection consists in doing God's will. + +When you are about to make a choice of a state of life, you are not +only permitted, but even urged, to take into consideration your +dispositions and aptitudes for the state which you propose to +embrace; and, if they are in good accord with it, you may safely +conjecture that they were given you for that state of life. Your +imperative duty consists in distinguishing between the call given by +God and the voice of passion or prejudice. Hence you should promptly +and faithfully follow the attractions and dispositions that God has +given you, and nothing else. + +If for instance, a woman made her choice with a view of pandering to +her vanity, curiosity, worldly love, or some other passion still more +culpable perhaps, God would have no part in her determinations, and +she would inevitably become the dupe of her own folly; for God gives +light only to such as are sincere in their search for it, and they +who look for it in this way are such as those, who, in examining the +question of their vocation, have chiefly in view the glory of God and +their own salvation. + +If the natural dispositions should be taken into consideration, it +is not indeed with a view to flatter nature and avoid the struggles +incident to the Christian life. That would be renouncing the glorious +title of Christian, and the incomparable favor that God has conferred +upon us in creating us to live with Him forever. If it is useful to +consult our taste and aptitude it is because they are for the most +part indicative of God's will; hence we ought to employ them for the +purpose for which He gave them to us. Then the object of your +researches in this matter should be to discover God's will in that +state of life for which He has given you a pronounced taste and +aptitude; but, because the caprice of nature or character may +sometimes be taken for that taste and aptitude, you are not +altogether safe from deception without some other guarantee. + +It frequently happens that man believes to be an inspiration from +God what is only the effect of badly-regulated passion or some bad +habit deeply rooted in the soul. In order to be sure that God has +given such a disposition or aptitude of the heart and mind as being +indicative of the state of life He would have us enter, it should be +possessed of the following conditions, namely: The sanction of time, +which is the instrument that God ordinarily employs to stamp the +impress of His will on the works that He operates in us. It is +necessary that this disposition has been constant, that is to say, +that it has not suffered from frequent or long interruptions. A +transitory taste appearing to-day and vanishing to-morrow, a volatile +inclination frequently appearing and just as frequently disappearing, +merits no consideration in an affair that involves the Christian's +happiness both for time and eternity. + +However, if the aptitude which you feel in your soul for a given +state of life has lost much of its vivacity, or even when it should +have frequently vanished in the course of your life; you are in duty +bound to study the causes and circumstances of this change, +especially when, with the disappearence of that inclination, piety +and fervor in God's service have also diminished in the soul. + +If, as often as you felt the sweet impulse of divine grace in prayer +and holy communion this inclination became also aroused in the soul; +if you felt it increase in proportion as you gave yourself to God, +you may safely conclude that it is the indicator of God's will in +your regard, and that its vascillating or enfeebled condition was the +work of your own perverse will. Hence, in order to ascertain whether +the natural inclination or aptitude you feel for any state of life is +from God or the effect of a deluded fancy, you need but compare your +natural aptitude with those you have received through divine grace; +and if you find them in perfect accord you may rest assured that they +are from God, for He is the author of nature as well as of grace. On +the contrary, should they disagree then you may safely conclude that +your natural desire or inclination is a delusion. + +This last consideration should not be omitted, especially when there +is question of embracing the religious life; for the attraction by +which we feel ourselves drawn to a more perfect life is in itself a +gift of God, and one of His most precious gifts. As often as this +attraction reveals its presence in the heart, it singularly involves +the study of vocation. Hence, it is a most delicate and perilous +matter to deal with, for if this attraction comes from God and if the +soul repels it she prepares for herself lamentable delusions, and a +life fraught with bitterness and remorse. God has a reason for +frequently saying in the Sacred Scriptures that He is a jealous God, +and the church, for the same reason, addresses Jesus in the litanies, +_jealous of souls_. + +Hence, after having shown the greatest preference for a soul, in +honoring her with the exalted dignity of being His spouse, adorning +her with the gorgeous splendor of His richest treasures, and then see +Himself basely rejected, or treated with cold indifference; His +divine justice should naturally revenge the insult; which is done by +delivering her into her own hands, the most cruel punishment that +could be inflicted on her. + +However, if you feel an attraction for the religious life, it, would +be imprudent and rash on your part to decide the matter yourself. You +should, in the spirit of humility, after having consulted God by +prayer, consult some enlightened persons noted for their wisdom and +prudence, piety and learning, who will advise you with a view to +secure the spiritual welfare of your soul above all things. Should +those to whom you address yourself fail to give all the assurance you +should have, be not backward in consulting others; for unlimited +confidence in the words of any man, no matter who he may be, will not +dispense you from all responsibility before God, nor preserve you +from making a wrong choice. + +Neither should you lose sight of, or derogate in the least, from the +respect and obedience you owe your parents. It is their sacred duty +and right to advise you; and to whom should you look for a more +disinterested advice? A young girl would indeed be an object of pity +if, instead of finding a truly Christian tenderness in her parents, +they would be her idolizers so far as to be blinded to her true +interests. It is for this blind and foolish love that many parents +sacrifice their children, either by ignoring their just claims to +embrace the religious life, or by opposing an advantageous marriage +through vanity or personal interest. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +A SERIOUS MIND. + +A vast number of people unfortunately labor under the false +impression that woman's great work and duty consists in making her +company agreeable and pleasing to all. This error is most prejudicial +to woman; it is opposed to the teachings of religion and the Holy +Scriptures; and nevertheless it is only too true that a countless +number of women have sedulously labored for its propagation, or, at +least, they have proved by their actions that this is their +_only_ work; and in many places, to the great detriment of +society, the education of girls has been directed in a great measure +according to this false opinion. + +They are taught to esteem graceful manners, elegance of deportment, +flashy humor, affability of character, and unlimited condescension as +being the elements of a finished education; and the precious days of +childhood with the more precious time of adolescence have been +entirely absorbed to acquire it. + +This is the school that has given birth to what is called "_Arts +of Pleasure_," to which it sacrifices the knowledge of more +necessary things which instruct the mind, fortify the heart, and +invigorate the will. Our compassion and disgust are simultaneously +aroused, when we see so many women whose education has given them no +other knowledge than to teach them how to flatter the taste of others +at the expense of Christian modesty. + +How many women there are who, from their youth, have renounced the +dignity and glorious privileges of their sex, calmly resigning +themselves to play the inferior and humiliating role that the +prejudices and passions of a frivolous society impose upon them! + +It is our heart-felt desire that you may never experience anything +of the kind; suffer not the aureola with which God has decorated your +brow to be ruthlessly removed and trampled under foot. Remember that +your soul is just as noble as that of man; that it is illuminated by +the same faith, drawn towards heaven by the same hopes, and united to +the same Author of all greatness and of all life by the same charity. +Should your belief in this waver, transport yourself in spirit to +Calvary: there you will see that women were the only sympathizers of +Jesus, and, while hanging on the cross, women were, with the +exception of St. John, the only witnesses of His death. + +The apostles and disciples, all had fled; and in this memorable +scene in which all things seem to be confounded courage and valor +seemed to have taken refuge in the soul of women. Hence the Church +records, with love and gratitude, on the brightest pages of her +history, this noble and generous act of devotedness as being the +special privilege of your sex, since it was won on the ever-memorable +day of our redemption. + +It is not easy to look a painful truth in the face; but we are +forced to do so when we reluctantly confess that female frivolity is +the source of that levity which prevails now-a-days, to such an +extent as to affect the very laws and government of society. To keep +aloof from this poisonous atmosphere, you must cultivate that serious +turn of mind, that gravity which gives women an air of majesty, and +wins the homage of those who do not even understand her. + +Experience will teach you that the importance attached to the +seriousness with which woman's life should be enveloped is +undervalued. Learn to appreciate it as it merits; show that +appreciation by now giving to all the actions of your life that +weight and gravity which shall render them agreeable to God. + +To succeed in your good resolution great firmness is required; you +will be obliged to condemn the frivolity of young persons in whose +company circumstances may throw you. You must set your face against +the fashions of the world, against the force of habit and prejudice, +perhaps against the freaks of your own character. But remember that +the reward awaiting you is well worth the struggle you are asked to +sustain; and this struggle will not be so difficult as you may think, +if you face it courageously, coherently and perseveringly, employing, +of course, the proper means. + +To begin, you should cast overboard that inclination to frivolity +wherever you meet with it. But since a bad plant is more quickly and +radically destroyed by pulling it out of the roots than by simply +lopping of the tops as they appear over ground, so do we likewise +succeed better in correcting a bad habit, or destroying an evil +inclination by attacking it at its source than by being satisfied +with arresting its bad effects, allowing the cause to remain. And +since it is in the mind that frivolity takes up its abode, it is +there that it must be sought for and destroyed. + +There exists among the different faculties of the soul a certain +order, a species of hierarchy which gives a certain preponderance to +some of them over the others; consequently some of them are of an +inferior while others are of a superior order. You will labor in vain +to give a serious cast to your sentiments and actions if you feed +your mind on frivolous thoughts, while serious thoughts are the +progenitors of enduring affections and noble deeds. Hence the culture +of the mind is an important factor to the acquisition of a taste for +those things which are the true ornament of woman. Sentiments are the +outcomings of thoughts, and both together are expressed by actions. + +Feed your intelligence with serious thoughts; never amuse it with +those trifles which absorb the attention of persons of your age. Do +not think that those serious thoughts badly become your youth; that +they would deprive you of a part of your comfort, rendering you +wearisome to others and insupportable to yourself; that they would +give you a pedantic and affected air which would lead others to +believe that you despised them; that every age has its peculiar +tastes and customs, and that it would be an act of uncalled-for +severity to exact from a young person just beginning, so to say, the +apprenticeship of life, a gravity of manners and dispositions that +would scarcely be required at a maturer age. + +Seriousness is required in all ages, but not always in the same +degree. Thus the gravity befitting a young lady is very different +from that expected from a woman more advanced in years. This virtue, +far from excluding legitimate amusement and pleasure, only regulates +and elevates them by confining them to just limits. An agreeable and +lively turn may be given to the most serious things, rendering them +pleasing and acceptable to the minds of all. + +Truth is never subtle, and never darkens the soul in which it +resides; on the contrary, it sheds a halo of light around her, +revealing all those interior movements which lend a sweet and amiable +charm to every action. + +You would be the first to condemn the doctrine of those who maintain +that woman must be of a frivolous turn of mind in order to be +agreeable. You would justly regard, as an outrage to your sex, such +assertions as go to show that seriousness can have no place in the +mind of woman. Such being the case, you will not say, with many of +your age, that the time will come soon enough to feed your soul with +solid substantial food; and that the age of serious thoughts will +come only too soon; nor will you close your eyes to the fact, taught +by long experience, that every one must reap in riper years such +fruit as they had sown in youth. If you wait till then, it will be +too late for you to enter another groove and form new habits. If you +are now frivolous in your thoughts and sentiments you will be so +later; for, as age fortifies the tastes and inclinations, frivolity +must increase as you advance in years. + +Perhaps facts of this nature have already fallen under your notice; +you must have met with old ladies whose levity so painfully contrasts +with the gravity that becomes their age; and, while it is not +permitted us to judge others, yet every good Christian must be +shocked at this contrast. Profit by their example, sad as it is, and +hasten to conclude that it is folly to defer to a future time what +can and should be done at present; and that defects, as well as +virtue, are fortified by time and habit. If your early education has +not been truly Christian, if the teachings of divine faith have not +yet rendered you familiar with the most serious things of life, you +might perhaps consider as difficult, or even impracticable, the +counsels that I give you now. + +Is there anything more serious or more in opposition to our natural +inclinations, and at the same time less consistent with the +deplorable levity of our minds, than the truths of our holy religion? +For serious, indeed, must be the reflections that those truths +inspire, which you should now learn to meditate seriously, in order +to make them a life-long practice. Is it not a serious occupation of +the mind to think of God, of the salvation of your soul, the +briefness of life, eternity which follows it, the duties that +religion imposes upon you? Is it not a serious occupation to address +God in holy prayer, to descend into the secret folds of your +conscience, and examine all your actions in the light of the gospel; +to reveal in all your works the sacred character that you have +received in baptism; to lead a life according to the spirit of faith, +and not according to the spirit of the world-for, if there is no +difference between your conduct and that of worldlings, to what +purpose will the title of Christian avail you? All this is a serious +work, and requires a serious mind to accomplish it. + +The practice of Christian virtues supposes and develops at the same +time the love of seriousness. This love does not increase in a +superficial soul; while it is entirely sterile in a frivolous mind. +Remember that you have now attained the age between childhood and +womanhood, when it is no longer lawful to be amused by trifles, and +when you are called upon to prepare for austere duties which you +must, ere long, discharge. + +You have now come to that period of life at which you must determine +your final future course; hence you have need of a serious mind and +will to guide you securely in the choice of the road, as also to pave +it with those virtues which in the end will form your most precious +treasures. This road will be such as you have made it, narrow or +wide, level or rough, according to the pains and labor that you have +expended in preparing it. + +If you hearken to the voice of reason, and wish to profit by the +lessons of wisdom, you will not squander a most precious time in vain +amusements; you will neither step to the right nor to the left, but +continue right on in the way of stern duty. The world's siren charms +will have no attraction for you, as their bitter fruits would extort +from you bitter regrets for having so little profited by the most +precious time of your life. + +Oh, how sorrowful the old age of women who have never nourished +their minds otherwise than with frivolous thoughts: finding neither +in themselves nor in society any means to dispel the gloom that +envelops them, and not being able to enlist the sympathy of the world +which abandons and despises them, they are condemned to eke out a +miserable existence in the disgust and wearisomeness of a sombre +solitude. + +To a serious woman, on the contrary, old age lends a peculiar charm +which renders her company agreeable to, and sought for, by all +serious minds. Her conversation and manners still possess all the +blitheness, freshness and vivacity of youth. Her steady lightsome +gaze, tempered by a benignant and reflective mind, lends her an air +of amiability and majesty. Her language is instructive, her counsels +encouraging, while her reproaches arouse the heart to a sense of +duty. She has friends wherever she is known, friends who revere and +respect, without idolizing her. In her youth she never pandered to +flattery, now, old, she shall not experience ingratitude. The friends +she earned by her sterling worth will recall to her mind the happy +souvenirs of her youth, even up to the last days of her life; for her +years bear with them all their primitive charms which can never +decline under the influence of time, because the thoughts and +affections that produced and preserved them are now what they were, +solid and grave. And while the companions of her youth languish and +fret in their sad isolation, she, always the same, sees herself +surrounded by a multitude, anxious to profit by her experience. + +If you have learned to be serious in youth, you shall enjoy an +agreeable old age; but if the former be stamped with levity and +frivolity, the latter shall be fraught with sorrow and desolation. Do +not count on the charms of youth, it is a flower that shall very soon +fade, and like a bird on the wing, shall leave no trace behind it. +The lustre of your eyes now beaming delight shall soon grow dull; the +bloom shall depart from your cheek; the bright hopes that now fill +your soul shall give place to sad souvenirs; and your heart which is +now the abode of delight shall then be harrowed with sorrow and woe. +To-day you are flattered and praised, then you shall be a castaway, +abandoned. All that will remain to you is God and your soul, with +whom you had never learned to converse or commune. Oh, sad, indeed, +is the old age of a frivolous youth! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +CHOICE OP COMPANIONS. + +Since a predisposition to good and evil is found among persons of +all classes and ages; and as this predisposition is especially strong +at your age, when the sympathies are most tender, when the heart so +candid and open is ready to receive and reciprocate those secret +emanations that escape from the souls of loved ones; you require to +take more than ordinary precautions, since the danger to which these +circumstances expose you is indeed very great, and requires a +prudence superior to your years,--you must therefore look for it in +the advice of others, but more especially in that of your mother who +should be your first adviser in all things. + +How many women owe to the examples and deceptive lessons of a so- +called friend, the bitterness that corrodes their hearts, and the +remorse which perhaps torments their life! We pass over in silence +those societies the evident danger of which is easily perceived, and +on that account easily averted; but you have not the same guarantee +against the noxious effects which arise from those relations whose +union is found in the most frivolous instincts of the heart, to which +access is gained by the feeblest faculties of the soul. What is it +that is most commonly found in those intimacies, if not thoughts +without consistency, vain hopes, precocious or impatient desires, +indiscreet confidence, imprudent language, rash questions and answers +rasher still? + +As a general rule, any society or company from which you derive no +benefit for head or heart is, if not dangerous, at least pernicious; +and you ought to shun them unless that imperative reasons or the will +of your parents advise otherwise; for all that tends to diminish your +esteem for the value of time and for the love of serious things is +prejudicial to your soul. You should prefer your mother's company to +that of all others. Her life should be as a book constantly open +before you; her lessons and examples, her experience and counsels +should be an inexhaustible mine of instruction, useful and precious +to your soul. + +The young lady is indeed an object of compassion who feels her +mother's company irksome and onerous. At your age the heart is +confiding and effusive, and it needs some bosom in which to repose +its confidence; for it would be subjecting it to an ordeal too rude, +and exposing it perhaps to a fatal reaction, by completely depriving +it of consolations derived from acquaintances approved by every law, +human and divine. It should be treated with moderation, founded on +prudence, as undue severity renders its desires and needs more +imperative. + +But if it is dangerous to restrict the heart to silence and inaction +it is much more dangerous to feed it on frivolous affections. There +is nothing that exhausts its energies so much as an over-indulgence +in those puerile sentiments fed by the imagination. Those sentiments +create within it a void which nothing can fill, and destroy its love +for everything that is noble and generous. + +A frivolous heart is not less disastrous to woman than is a +frivolous mind. How many women find themselves disarmed and powerless +in important circumstances of life, for having neglected in youth the +training of the heart's affections! How many are unequal to the task +of discharging a painful duty, because they were wont to seek their +pleasure in all they did from early childhood! How many who, spite of +the chastisement of adversity and deception incurred by their +idolizing preference for their levity and affections, still remain +the dupes of their blind attachment even in their old age! Your +esteem for your own heart, and appreciation for its affections, +should be highly noteworthy, and deeply graven in your mind by the +constant habit of prizing them. + +When you feel an attraction for a young person of your own age, do +not blindly obey it, before having maturely studied its nature and +motives. We should always act for a purpose worthy of ourselves, but +more especially so when there is question of delivering ourselves +over to the confidence and friendship of others; for in this mutual +exchange we dispose of the greater part of our being. In this +intimate relation, which is formed insensibly by repeated interviews, +there is formed a reciprocal discernment that exercises a powerful +influence over all the faculties of the soul, the convictions of the +minds, the sentiments of the heart, the habits of character, and +often even over the general deportment. + +The good sense of our fathers has expressed this truth by one of +those proverbs so familiar to them: "_Tell me your company and I +know who you are._" Of course you have frequently heard those +words, and knowing their meaning withal, perhaps you have not +considered the circumstances wherein they may be applied. We +earnestly wish that they may never be employed relative to you, at +the expense of the joy of your heart or the peace of your conscience. + +You should use much discretion in the choice that you make of the +person with whom you would form an intimate acquaintance; for such an +intimacy is not only founded on a mutual confidence, and reciprocal +affections; it is also the result which follows from being frequently +in each other's company. This latter intimacy is more dangerous than +the former because the heart, not thinking itself interested, is less +upon its guard, and consequently more exposed to suffer from the +poison concealed in words and examples. + +Be assured of the nature of the attraction you feel. See if it is +founded upon solid qualities, capable of making an impression upon an +upright and serious mind, or upon those superficial qualities which +the world esteems, and which allure volatile minds. In the latter +case, you cannot, without danger, engage in relations; the inevitable +effect of which must be either to fortify your present defects, or +add to them others which you have not at present. If your love for +any one be founded on trivial motives, and if you dispense yourself +from the obligation of restraining your affections, let me entreat +you to take at least all the precautions that prudence requires to +prevent you from becoming the dupe of a foolish fondness. But if your +affections are founded on sympathy of character, on a concurrence of +holy thoughts and sentiments, with a view to strengthen the love and +practice of virtue; then the attainment of their object is highly +commendable and praiseworthy; and you may justly hope to secure the +happiest results from it. But even then, you should be on your guard +against your own judgment, placing a certain restraint on your +sentiments of confidence and love, or friendship, which, in order to +be lasting, must be calm, devoid of that impetuosity which acts +violently on the heart. It should be the work of time, shedding its +sweet influence on the duties of life, rendering their accomplishment +less laborious and more fruitful. + +Those who love each other with a sincere Christian affection, +willingly sacrifice to duty the pleasure of being together, or rather +their great pleasure consists in doing God's will; with noble courage +they rise superior to all other considerations, and mutually inspire +each other with a holy zeal, imposing silence upon the voice of their +affections, in presence of the voice of their conscience. + +Such is the manner in which persons should love each other; such are +the affections that God blesses and rewards. You are deeply indebted +to Divine Providence if it has sent you one whom you can love in this +way, for this is one of the most precious gifts of God's mercy. It is +especially at your age that such friendships are most easily formed, +because then the heart is more tender and confiding. How many women +owe, in a great measure, their peace of mind and conscience to the +good advice and protecting influence of a friend whom they met with +in the springtime of life. + +There are in woman's life many delicate and trying circumstances +that demand the intervention of a sincere friend, to direct and +sustain her, when the light of conscience becomes obscured or +extinct; when the energies of the heart succumb to the allurements of +pleasure; when the mind, embarrassed by doubt and perplexity, can +scarcely distinguish the line of duty, semi-obliterated by prejudice +and passion; happy, then, is the woman who can call upon a faithful +and tried friend, to whom she can confide the secrets of her heart, +and from whom she may hope to receive the help and consolation that +her condition calls for. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +TOILET. + +An undue attention to toilet is a dangerous rock for many women who, +otherwise remarkable for their grave deportment, are sometimes +greater slaves than the most frivolous women to dress and fashion. It +is truly a great misery to be taken up with undue solicitude for the +fragile and perishable part of our being; but more especially so, +when such preference is given it by minds which are otherwise noble +and elevated. It is painful to be obliged to confess that many women +of high and cultivated attainments spend a considerable portion of +their life in this futile occupation. It seems incredible that a +ribbon-knot, the color of a robe, or the form of a head-dress, could +become a capital matter for an intelligent creature destined to +contemplate with the angels of heaven the majesty of God. + +If there are so few women who enjoy all the advantages of their +happy dispositions and attainments, it is because of their inordinate +love for toilet and fashion; for nothing narrows the mind or +contracts the heart so much as excessive care of the body. When they +neglect the soul, the noblest part of man, she revenges herself of +the insult by concealing all her brilliant qualities, which alone +constitute woman's true beauty and adornment. + +It is impossible for a vain or gaudy woman to converse on any +serious matter, but she will talk for whole hours on the form or +quality of a dress; should the conversation happen to turn on a +serious subject, capable of engaging the attention of an elevated +mind, her countenance will soon betray a sense of dissatisfaction and +weariness. + +Give befitting attention to the care of your body, because it is the +temple of God, who has deposited therein a precious germ of +immortality. But at the same time, keep it in its own place; and +since it is the inferior part of your being do not allow it to +infringe upon the rights and privileges of the soul, whose docile and +obedient servant it should be. Avoid in your toilet all that savors +of frivolity, which betray a desire to attract attention; but above +all; avoid every thing that might in the least wound modesty. Do not +forget that this virtue is one of the most beautiful ornaments of +your sex, and that when woman is deprived of it she is like a faded +flower, without eclat or perfume. You should conform to the customs +of your country and condition without being in any way their slave, +remembering that your soul is at all times in duty bound to soar +above all those futilities, and conserve by a noble independence, her +glory and her majesty. + +Do not follow the example of those women who, slaves of the world, +obey with blind docility all its caprices; seeking with avidity +whatever is novel, in order to be the first in the _fashion_, +and acquire by that, the vain reputation of a woman of good taste. +Those who believe themselves obliged to have recourse to the +seductions of fashion and dress in order to attract the attention of +their would-be admirers, give a sad manifestation of the emptiness of +their minds and the depravity of their hearts. Those who are +distinguished for their noble qualities of head and heart attach +their hopes, to loftier claims; by their modesty and reserve they are +pleasing to all, and the sentiments which they inspire, being always +noble and pure, never give the slightest annoyance to any one; on the +contrary they arouse the holiest and most generous instincts of the +soul. + +One of the sweetest charms that adorns your age is that which arises +from its simplicity and candor. The world itself, so liberal in its +judgments, will not pardon in you whatever savors of egotism and +ostentation. In these and similar things it will avail you naught to +offer for excuse custom and usage, behind which so many aged women +try to take refuge. Profit, then, by the truce which the world in a +measure concedes in favor of your modesty, to acquire the habit of +simplicity in your dress and whole exterior. This simplicity, once +acquired, will be your guarantee, later on, against the examples and +seductions of the fashionable world, which shows as little deference +for the laws of good taste as for those of Christian modesty. + +The beautiful and good are never in contradiction with each other. +The same is true of what are perverse and depraved. And this is why +the depravity of taste is in keeping with the standard of a people's +moral life. Be assured that there is nothing beautiful except what is +true and good; and that there is neither truth nor goodness in things +devoid of simplicity. If you regulate your dress and whole exterior +bearing according to these two principles you will stand +irreproachable to your own conscience, and secure the respect and +admiration of the most exacting worldlings, for simplicity of dress +and manners possesses charms that win universal approbation. + +Never lose sight of your glorious title of Christian. Remember that +on the day of your baptism you renounced the pomps and vanities of +the world, and, if you are allowed to conform to customs not contrary +to the maxims of the Gospel, you ought at the same time manifest in +your dress, as in the rest, the glorious character that God has +stamped in your soul. You should show by your conduct the striking +contrast that exists between the Christian woman and the woman who, +being incredulous or indifferent, does not draw her rule of life from +the precepts of the Gospel. + +Your dress should be grave and modest: these are the characteristic +marks by which it can be distinguished from that of women who are +slaves of the world. St. Paul said to the Christians of his time: +_Let your modesty appear to all men, for the Lord is near you!_ +What a profound lesson there is in these words, and how strongly they +set forth the motives for which a Christian should be modest. To put +in practice this counsel of the Apostle, you must accustom yourself +to walk in the presence of God, representing to yourself by a lively +faith that God is near you, that He sees you and will demand a strict +account one day from you of all your actions. Frequently call to mind +what St. Paul said to the Corinthians, namely: that _we are a +spectacle to men and angels_. Let the true sense of those words +sink deeply into your heart, and it will enable you to regulate soul +and body. + +The desire to attract attention, to draw the admiring gaze of fellow- +beings is a weakness that lurks in every human heart; but with woman +it seems to be the main-spring to all her actions, which is kept in +motion alike by the applause and reproaches of spectators. In the +light of faith all this is folly and vanity; for in that light we +behold the whole court of heaven, God and His angels watching with an +interest full of tenderness and solicitude not only our exterior +actions, but even the secret movements of our souls. Could we have a +better or more appreciative audience to witness what we do? The very +thought of their presence should inspire us with a disgust for those +vain desires that urge us to see and be seen by mankind in order to +secure to our actions the approbation of the multitude. Regulate your +conduct in this matter according to St. Paul's instruction to +Timothy: _Let women be clothed in decent apparel, adorning +themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with platted hair, or gold +or pearls, or costly attire. But, as it becometh women professing +godliness, with good works._ + +Moreover, you labor under a great mistake if you think that +gaudiness in dress is necessary to render you attractive and inspire +those sentiments of esteem and affection which sometimes prepare the +way to an advantageous alliance. Should you succeed by this means in +securing such a marriage, be assured that you deceive yourself; for +the man who, setting aside the qualities essential to woman, lets his +affections be won by her outward charms only does her an injury, and +prepares for her, as well as for himself, bitter regrets in the +future. If you fully understand your true interest, both in this life +and in the next, far from making your dress a means of attraction, +you would tremble to owe to such vile contrivances the affection +bestowed on you. You would not compel by your vanity those who love +you for your own good to pander to your self-love and encourage your +negligence. + +The sentiments that a woman awakens in the hearts of her admirers +draw their worth from the motives that inspire them, and this being +the case, what value shall you set upon affections determined by +empty show, and flattered by qualities purely exterior, unworthy of +the attention of an intelligent being? Still, for some unaccountable +or visionary reason, the greater part of women attach excessive +importance to such puerile advantages, and neglect those that are +capable of making a deep and lasting impression upon valiant and +noble souls. If they are much depreciated in the esteem of those by +whom they would like to be loved and admired, the cause may be traced +to their own frivolity; let them labor with the same zeal to +cultivate the heart and mind that they display upon external show, +and they will more readily attract the attention of all who belong to +refined and educated society. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +DESIRE TO PLEASE. + +AFTER having created man God saw that it was not good for him to be +alone; and in order to console and cheer him in his solitude He took +from his side, near his heart, the material out of which He made him +a companion. This origin of woman tells us more of her nature, and +points out more clearly the end that God proposed to Himself in +creating her than the most elaborate and profound treatises or the +most lucid theological theories. + +Man was made out of the slime of the earth, woman has been formed +out of a body already organized and vivified by the breath of life; +man has been created to reign over the world, to govern the animals +which God placed under his control, woman has been created to be +man's companion; to cheer him in his solitude, and share with him the +power and gifts which he received from God. + +Hence it is quite natural that woman should feel in the depths of +her heart a gnawing desire to please and be agreeable, for in that +she only obeys the instinct of her nature. Still, woman would be +abusing that instinct, and acting contrary to the designs of +Providence, if she sought to please by means unworthy of her. + +Before plunging Adam into that mysterious sleep, God brought all the +animals before him, that he might see and know the extent of his +dominion. The sacred writer remarks, that among all those animals +Adam did not find a single being that resembled himself. He could +find in none of those animals a sociable companion, because none of +them had a soul like his, and consequently, could not share in the +sweet joy that arises from an interchange of thoughts and sentiments, +which constitutes the charming pith of life. + +Many of them surpassed him in bodily strength, fleetness and +agility, many attracted his attention by the beauty of their form, by +their wonderful instinct and industry. And God, through His unbounded +goodness, had planted in their very nature a desire or want of +attachment, an instinctive gratitude and fidelity, such, that it +seemed impossible to desire anything more exquisite of the kind. +Still, with all these advantages, man was unsatisfied, he required a +being like himself, possessing qualities superior to those found in +irrational beings, one with whom his intelligence and heart might +commune. + +You must have already penetrated the profound sense of the words of +the sacred historian and obtained a clear knowledge of the end that +God proposed to himself in creating woman. Yes, He has certainly +willed that you should be a messenger of consolation and comfort, +that your mission should be, not to please and flatter the senses, +which the animals did for Adam before Eve was created, but to meet +the wants of the mind and heart of man. + +Irrational beings suffice to please the senses and imagination; +hence, if this is all that you propose to do, you put yourself in +contradiction with the designs of God over you, and the grandeur of +your destiny. You seem to say to God that it was not necessary for +Him to create woman, that man could dispense with her, because the +animals subject to his empire sufficed to meet all the wants of his +mind and heart. Do not debase and despise your noble nature by thus +placing yourself in the same category with animals, which can have +nothing in common with the duties of your sublime mission. + +The senses are blind, impetuous and changeable in their instincts; +inconstancy and change are so necessary to them, that, rather than be +condemned to remain immutable, they readily quit a more agreeable +object for another very inferior, simply to satisfy that need of +change inherent to their nature. Hence the strongest protestations, +the most assiduous attentions, and the most active devotedness, +though truly sincere in themselves, but when founded on the senses, +are like smoke that disappears, even as the material that produces +it. You will not have the right even to blame those who may deceive +you in this way, because it is not in the power of man to conserve +for any notable length of time a sentiment produced by the senses, +and which has received no higher sanction than that of the imagination. + +The difference, however, between this abortive sentiment and a +genuine one is so palpable and characteristic that it is impossible +to be mistaken in them, unless that we wilfully close our eyes to the +truth. But, alas! it must indeed be confessed that a vast number of +women wish to be deceived, not only in their discernment of the +sentiment by which they are actuated, but also in their preference +for it. And through some unaccountable blindness, they fear every +thing that might interfere with their cherished idol. They purposely +shut their eyes to the light of truth, preferring to deceive and be +deceived than to be obliged, on seeing the matter in its true light, +to doubt the power of their frivolous charms; as a proof of this the +least compliment paid them for their beautiful or handsome appearance +puts them beside themselves so far as to make them forget to consider +whether such compliments are authorized by sincerity or flattery. + +In vain will you try to convince them that this is not the way in +which a genuine sentiment is formed and manifested. It is useless to +tell them that such a sentiment does not spring up suddenly in the +heart; that, on the contrary, its development is due to the process +of a constant and almost insensible growth; being characteristically +modest, calm, reserved, and even timid; having God for its first +confidential friend, and pure souls for its tutors. It is labor in +vain to point out to them that an affection, unaccompanied by the +necessary precautions, should be repelled by a young lady as an +insult to the dignity of her sex. But they will readily listen to any +language that flatters their vanity, which paves the way to so many +fatal friendships that often entail a lifetime of woe and sorrow. + +When necessity or propriety requires your presence in society, +somewhat brilliant, where you must inevitably come in contact with +young men whom perhaps you do not know; then you should guard the +senses, the mind and the heart with vigilant care; without ceasing on +that account to be simple and natural in your whole demeanor; for the +most vigilant are neither troubled nor embarrassed on account of +their vigilance; yet excessive fear of being recreant either to duty +or propriety in such like circumstances, would only expose you to +greater danger of falling into the snare you try to avoid, as it +would pre-occupy the mind and weaken the will. In such conjunctures, +remain as near as possible to your mother, keeping your eyes fixed +upon hers, always hearkening with a tender respect to the mysterious +language that escapes from the maternal heart; a language easily +understood by a daughter that loves the virtue of filial piety. + +The mother's presence is always an infallible protection for young +ladies; her looks are a book constantly open, and in which they can +read her most secret thoughts; whether they approve or condemn their +actions. Whenever you are called on to participate in worldly +festivities let your mother be your visible guardian angel; she will +preserve the innocence of your heart from the dangers that surround +you. If you feel a secret desire to be relieved of your mother's +presence, as being something noxious to your liberty, rest assured +that your heart has already lost something of its innocence and +simplicity. A daughter who dreads her mother's eye has evidently +entered on a winding way, and ought to consider with suspicion the +state of her soul. There is no company that you should prefer to that +of your mother, no conversation that you should esteem more than +hers; there should be no pleasure that could engage you to forego the +pleasure of being near her. God himself has placed those sentiments +in the hearts of young ladies in order to guard them against the +seduction of the world and the attractions of false pleasures. He +strengthens in their soul the virtue of filial piety, which forms an +impregnable citadel around the heart, keeping it in perfect security +against the evil influences of wicked agents. + +Your conduct in every detail ought to be discreet and grave in the +company of young men with whom you are unacquainted. If they speak to +you, answer them briefly modestly and with simplicity, but +fearlessly. Let it be your constant endeavor to converse on subjects +capable of interesting a serious mind; in this way you can better +divert their attention from frivolous topics, and prevent perhaps +indiscreet questions or rash intimacies. + +It is well to advert to the fact that, in consequence of a +deteriorated faith and virtue among young men, in whom a bad +education has oftentimes destroyed the happiest dispositions; many +among them have lost that esteem, respect and veneration for woman so +prevalent in the Christian ages prior to ours. Such, unfortunately, +is the case in thousands of instances now-a-days; for when a young +man finds himself in company with a young lady his chief object is to +amuse himself with her, if his heart, already vitiated, does not +entertain desires more criminal still; he is unguarded in his +conversation, while displaying his talents, complimenting her for +qualities which he interiorly believes her devoid of. + +Bear in mind that this young man with whom you are conversing +watches all your movements, studies all your looks, discusses and +interprets interiorly every word you speak; while treating with you +he plays the part of a cunning diplomatist whose wiles you happily +ignore; but in order to escape from becoming his dupe, prudence +should govern all your actions while in his company. + +Remember that there are in the world manners, gestures and attitudes +that constitute a conventional language, but which hold nothing in +common with the genuine sentiments of the heart, being like a +counterfeit money which vanity pays and receives. It is one of the +most dangerous snares for a young girl whose simplicity and candor +are yet intact. Those qualities, so precious in themselves, are +sometimes prejudicial to her safety from the perfidy of a heart +already skilful in the art of deceiving. For, judging others by her +own heart, she cannot suspect those who converse with her of wicked +designs. She accepts all that is told her as the sincere expression +of the heart, and very often receives for a genuine affection what is +only hypocrisy and deception. + +If you are acquainted with the young men whom you meet in the world, +you should know how to treat with them; yet experience proves that +for the most part a young lady is little posted in matters of this +nature. If the mind is already poisoned by the distemper of +incredulity, if the heart is already vitiated, if they have justly +won by their evil conduct a sad notoriety in the world, if they are +of that class that seek to take the advantage of woman's simplicity +by rendering vice agreeable to her in their own person; oh, you +cannot treat them with too great severity. Your language, your looks, +your attitude, should repel them from or command a respectful fear in +your presence. Do not fear to wound their feelings, or to be +impolite, or indecorous in their regard. An obstinate reserve, a +severe demeanor, is all that you owe them. Treating them with that +courtesy due to gentlemen would prove noxious to you, as they would +not fail to make of it a plausible reason to justify their insolent +conduct and rash judgments; be not deceived, the slightest mark of +benevolence that they would receive from you would be immediately +interpreted by them in the most perfidious manner. They detest virtue +as much as you detest vice. They have a sovereign contempt for every +woman, for they believe that she is unable to resist the allurements +of pleasure. + +They are mutual confidentials, and tell each other, with deplorable +levity, all that young ladies innocently say to them; wickedly +misconstruing their intentions, exaggerating what was true, and +treating with sneering contempt those who were simple enough to +believe in the sincerity of their hypocritical compliments. Most +assuredly you have not the slightest desire of becoming the subject +of the scandalous conversation of those men; you have but one means, +however, of guarding yourself against their venomous tongue; that is, +to exact from them a respectful deference by the gravity of your +demeanor, and the severity of your relations with them. + +If, on the contrary, you meet with young men who, with a lively +faith, have conserved the purity of their hearts, and as a +consequence of these virtues, all due respect for woman, you can show +them greater confidence, and let them feel that you highly esteem +them for their virtues, without, however, renouncing the precautions +advised by prudence while in their company. It is in such encounters +that your conversation should reveal a serious turn of mind, +carefully avoiding every thing that would intimate undue confidence +or intimacy; for the heart of a young lady should never be on her +lips; except with regard to her mother, she should keep it buried in +the depths of her soul to converse familiarly only with God and His +angels. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +CURIOSITY. + +CURIOSITY is a defect that seems to be particularly inherent to the +heart of woman, and which, when not properly governed, never fails to +entail the most disastrous consequences. Through it they have +frequently acquired a knowledge of evil and a disgust for virtue. You +are well aware that curiosity was the door through which sin and +death enter the world; that when the devil sought our destruction he +made use of woman's curiosity. Now, it is well not to lose sight of +the fact that woman is always the daughter of Eve. She feels a +pressing desire to see what pleases the mind, flatters the senses, +and enlivens the imagination. Eager for vivid emotions, she seeks +them with an insatiable avidity; and, rather than feel nothing, she +prefers painful emotions, finding a certain secret charm even in the +fits of sorrow and pains of her imagination. Her great desire to see +and hear whatever tends to excite or create emotion is in a great +measure the source of her curiosity. The education that women for the +most part receive develops this disposition of the heart: an +education which, instead of elevating the mind and giving it a taste +for serious things, narrows it, and accustoms it to feed upon +aliments that are trivial and void of consistency. The mind requires +to he kept in constant activity, and since thoughts alone can do this +they should be such as to amply furnish it with solid and wholesome +food, for all kinds of thoughts are not equally good for it, no more +than all kinds of food are equally good for the body. In some kinds +of food the quantity and quality of nutriment are much inferior to +what they are found to be in other kinds. Hence greater moderation is +required in the use of the latter than in that of the former, +otherwise the stomach, overcharged, would soon become disgusted with +it. + +On the other hand, no quantity of food void of nutritious qualities +will ever appease hunger. The same thing may be said of the kind of +thoughts with which the mind is fed; some are used less for their +sound and wholesome nutriment than for their efficiency to flatter +sensuality, inflame the passions, create new wants in the heart, and +excite a depraved curiosity. Under this regime the mind is starved +and tortured by an incessant hunger. It sadly languishes and pines in +the grip of famine; and all this in the midst of full and plenty, but +this abundance contains no nutriment, it is made up of news, whether +true or false, which amuses without satiating; still the mind enlists +the service of the senses to gather it up from all sides. The eyes, +continually gaping and watching what passes before them, present the +mind with numberless images to amuse it in its weary or lonesome +moments. + +Hence that insatiable thirst to see and observe every thing, that +inconstancy and want of changing from one place to another, that +desire to read useless and frivolous books, novels, weeklies and +magazines, which for the most part enervate the mind by their +futilities, trouble and darken it by a multitude of incoherent images +and contradictory thoughts, and poison the heart by foul and filthy +images that will constantly torment the soul. + +The ears are on the alert to catch every report, every murmur, all +kinds of news, detractions and calumnies, stories and scandals. I say +all kinds of news, no--I make a mistake, it is only such news as is +of an exciting or startling nature to break up the monotony of life. +Hence those indiscreet questions which provoke answers more +indiscreet still; those rash revelations made by thoughtless young +ladies, those prying efforts to discover things which only exist +perhaps in their own imagination, and of which they should live in +holy ignorance. + +Hence those long conversations, discussing the vices and evil doings +of others, in which justice and charity are discarded, and iniquity +drank like water. Few forego the criminal satisfaction of +participating in those detestable conversations, and fewer still, +alas! reproach themselves at night for the detractions and calumnies +committed, permitted, or provoked during the day, and by a monstrous +union they couple with those deeds the external practices of piety. + +This is but a feeble picture of the frightful condition of a mind +starved for want of solid and wholesome food, and poisoned by the +empty frothings of vanity and passion. Curiosity is the constant +companion of this mediocrity of the mind and poverty of the heart. In +order to avoid this fatal rock, no pains should be spared, and if, +unfortunately, you have already drank at its poisoned sources, hasten +to use every available means to arrest its ravages. To insure +success, do not amuse yourself with lopping off the branches of the +evil, allowing the root to remain, do at once what is essential: feed +your mind and heart with a genuine love for the true and beautiful. + +A frivolous woman is invariably curious, and a curious woman always +finishes by becoming the dupe and victim of her curiosity. To +overcome an inordinate love for sights and news you must accustom the +mind's eye to feast on the panoramic beauties of nature, and confine +yourself to the company of persons of your own age, in whom you +remark an elevated mind and heart,--lovers of what is truly good and +grand. + +Curiosity has its source, also, in another defect which becomes +daily more and more prevalent--it is a want of forethought and +reflection, arising from a volatile and frivolous mind. Few, indeed, +are lovers of the interior life; all seem to be bent on parading the +mind and heart, the imagination and senses. Now, when man has not +learned the art of living and conversing with himself, he becomes +wearisome and sometimes dangerous to himself when alone; because the +mind, not knowing how to occupy itself, and not finding in its own +resources the thoughts that elevate and nourish it, is obliged, in +order to avoid lonesomeness, to dwell upon images which at least +distract and weaken it, and not unfrequently disturb the peace of the +heart. + +Religion, always inspired by God in the choice and formation of the +terms which it employs to convey the ideas that it wishes to impress +upon the heart, has invented two words, which admirably express the +meaning of the concentration of the faculties of the soul,--in other +words, that society or cohabitation of man with himself--they are +_self-composure and recollection._ + +These words express that state or power of the will by which it +holds complete control over all the faculties of the soul; so that +sensibility can have no command over any of their operations. Thus +shielded from this turbulent disturber they are enabled to labor +peacefully and efficiently in their interior province or the soul. + +The advantages secured by interior recollection are so great and the +consequence of its absence so prejudicial that the Holy Ghost +distinctly declares its absence to be the cause of all the evils that +desolate the earth. _"With desolation is the earth laid desolate +because there is no one who thinketh in his heart."_ This is a +terrible truth, but it is not the less real on that account. To be +convinced of this you need only descend into your own heart, and you +will soon discover that the want of interior recollection has been +the cause of the most of your faults. It is during the interior +composure of the soul's faculties that we understand what the Lord +says. _I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me, for he will +speak peace unto them that are converted to the heart._ (Psalm 84.) + +But if we find nothing in the heart but trouble and obscurity we +must naturally find many pretexts to justify our preoccupation with +external things; and like a man, finding his house the abode of pain +and displeasure, remains away from it as long as possible, we, too, +will shun as far as possible the scene of our misery. It is, +therefore, of most vital importance for you to form in your own heart +an agreeable and useful society with which you can always converse. +This society you carry with you wherever you go, for you are with +yourself at all times; and since you have not always the satisfaction +to enjoy the company of others you should learn how to turn to good +account this privation by making it an incentive to cultivate with +industry an agreeable society in your own heart; and the best way to +insure the success of this work is to accustom yourself to converse +with God who is always present in your heart, except when you expel +him by mortal sin. + +The work itself must be made up of pious readings, meditation and +prayer, which will furnish you with such thoughts and affections as +will prove to be constant friends in pain as in joy; hasten to amass +these honeyed treasures during the noon-tide of life; for the winter +will soon come upon you, the flowers of life shall lose their perfume +and their withered corolla shall be strewn on the ground. Then you +will not have time to enrich the soul with the longed-for booty when +you will be reduced to the miserable condition of those women who +endeavor to conceal the poverty of their mind and heart by a foolish +and puerile deception. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +MEDITATION AND REFLECTION. + +Meditation and reflection are two words that express two shades of +difference of the same idea. In meditation we consider supernatural +things pertaining to our eternal salvation. The soul maintains +herself with difficulty in the love and practice of virtue without +the help derived from meditation; for when she gives it up, her +fervor in piety grows lax, temptations became more frequent and +obstinate, often followed by humiliating falls. + +You are well aware that the real object of the Christian's life upon +earth is to establish God's kingdom in our heart; and this is what +forms the object of the second petition that we address to God every +day in the Lord's prayer; and since the kingdom of God is entirely +interior, as Jesus Christ himself tells us, when He says: _the +kingdom of God is within us,_ we should acquire the habit of +looking for God in our own heart; but in order to find Him there we +must give Him a place in it by meditation and prayer. + +The advantages derived from meditation are so numerous and so great, +that it is a matter of surprise why it is not more universally +practised; for the effects that it produces in the souls of those who +are faithful to its practice are so striking that it is easy to +discern a man given to this habit from those who are entire strangers +to its holy influence. Meditation teaches us to know God and ourself; +it lays open to us our faults and vices, their source and fatal +consequences and the arms we should employ to combat them. Finally, +meditation contributes most efficiently to form our minds and purify +our hearts, to fortify the will and develop in us the habit of +reflecting. + +The knowledge of God and ourself is such an important factor in the +work of our spiritual perfection that St. Augustin constantly prayed +for it, saying: _"Lord grant that I may know Thee and myself."_ +The pagans themselves well understood the advantage of this most +important science, even for the securing of the happiness of this +life; since they had the following words inscribed, as a summary of +all human science, upon the frontispiece of the most celebrated +temple of Greece, _know thou thyself_. But, alas! this knowledge +is as rare as it is necessary; with a mind absorbed by distractions, +and a heart harassed by passions, we flee, so to speak, from God and +from ourselves. + +Where is the Christian that knows God? Do you presume that you know +full well what He is, what He has done for you, and what He still +does for you every day? Every moment you receive His gifts: your life +is due to His beneficence and His love, you are carried in the bosom +of His providence as in the arms of your mother, He is continually +preoccupied with your welfare, He has done all, created all things +for your comfort and happiness; for your sake he has become man, to +participate in all the infirmities, weakness and miseries of our +humanity, in order to heal them and console us. Every thing speaks of +Him, and proclaims His holy name to you. All that you see, all that +you hear and feel must recall to your mind some gift of His love, or +some effect of His mercy. All creatures in heaven and on earth are +like so many voices which, mingling in a harmonious concert, sing to +you His praises and publish His mercies. + +Do you listen to them? Do they not pass you unperceived like the +flitting zephyrs' leaving no trace to mark their passage. Did you +ever seriously try to render an account of the attributes of God, and +particularly of His goodness and justice? of His goodness to endear +Him to all, and of His justice to make Him be feared by all. Have you +considered well that to know God is to know all, because He is the +Author of all creation possessing in Himself to an infinite degree +all the perfections of His creation? + +He who does not labor to obtain a knowledge of God can scarcely +obtain any knowledge of himself. How is it possible for us to know +what we are while we ignore what God is for us and what we owe Him? +Oh, how few there are who know themselves! The first condition +necessary to secure this knowledge, so important and so precious, is +profound humility, which unsparingly reveals the real motive of all +our actions, the uncompromising antagonist of our pride and self-love. + +Now it is quite evident that he who does not know God does not +possess this virtue; for how can a man humble himself before a being +that he ignores? At first sight it may seem that there is nothing so +easy as to know one's self,--that this knowledge may be obtained by a +close consideration of the heart's operations; but when we give the +matter sufficient thought the work does not appear to be so easy. And +the number of those who have acquired this knowledge to any noted +degree is so limited that we are forced to infer that a knowledge so +rare must offer great difficulties. + +However, there is one thing certain, namely: that this knowledge is +not obtained in the midst of tumult and pleasures, from the +seductions of the world or the distractions of life. It is not by +fleeing one's-self as we would fly an enemy; by concealing with a +complaisant but perfidious veil our defects, to avoid being troubled +by their appearance--always painful to pride; it is not by living a +dreamy life of fiction to which the slaves of the world condemn +themselves with a deplorable obsequiousness; it is not by continually +trying to deceive ourselves and others that we may learn how to know +ourselves; and, just as our knowledge of material things increases by +the frequency of our relations with them--for instance we know +persons better with whom we are intimately acquainted than those with +whom we are comparatively strangers--so, likewise, in order to know +ourselves well, we must live intimately with ourselves, observe +closely and impartially all the movements of our mind and heart, +frequently descending into the depth of our soul, scrupulously +examining our thoughts, desires and actions, sparing no pains to +discern well their source and motives; this latter portion of the +work is, without doubt, the most difficult, since it is the point at +which all the passions unite to deceive us by the most subtle +illusions. The best actions are despoiled of their merit by certain +motives of vanity, often concealed from our own notice. + +The motives by which we are actuated are, relative to our actions, +what the eye is relative to our body,--it is the motive that gives +light and brilliancy to our actions. This is the sense in which we +should understand our Lord when He says if our eye be simple our +whole body will be luminous. Now the great light by which we can +clearly see the motives for which we act is meditation. + +In the peaceful calm of solitude, and in the silent slumber of the +passions, meditation puts us in presence of ourselves, before our own +eyes, by which we see ourselves as in a true mirror. Meditation +teaches us to judge without prejudice what we have done and to +determine with propriety what we should do, by making the experience +of the past our lamp for the future, and by converting past mistakes +into practical lessons for the present. + +The meditative and recollected soul will turn even her shortcomings +to good account; seeing her delinquencies, she clothes herself with +the mantle of humility, she rises with renewed confidence, and shuns +with greater care the occasion of those evils from which she has +suffered; she is rarely taken by surprise, a few moments' reflection +will suffice for her to determine what is to be done under the +circumstances; she is rarely taken in the snare of deception, for she +knows that human nature is weak, vacillating and unreliable, and, +consequently, she keeps herself on her guard. + +Considered from this point of view; meditation is particularly +necessary to woman, because, being endowed with a very lively +imagination and a tender heart, she is more exposed to illusions +which, for the most part, spring from those two sources. Moreover, +surrounded as she is, by the seductions of the world; breathing +incessantly the poisoned atmosphere of flattery and adulation; waited +on by men who seek to deceive her; distracted by a multitude of cares +which absorb her soul; lost in a painful detail of trifles; how will +she be able to resist the united action of those trials; if she has +not contracted the salutary habit of frequently conversing with her +own heart by holy meditation and recollection? + +The precious habit of meditation makes its influence felt by all the +faculties of the soul. It imparts to the mind the love of solitude, +assurance and confidence to the judgment, consistency to all the +thoughts. It is by reflecting on what we interiorly feel, as well as +on what we exteriorly see, that we enrich our intelligence and +acquire that cheerful alacrity and firmness of purpose so necessary +and precious in the most trying and delicate circumstances of life. + +A woman of an irreflective mind becomes an easy prey to her own +impressions; rarely ever seeing things in their true light she is +balloted from one illusion to another, from one error to another; she +believes in every thing, hopes for all that she desires, and desires +all that flatters her. Unable to render an exact account either of +the thoughts of her mind or the movements of her heart, she acts +without aim or motive, governed solely by the caprice of her +imagination or the impulse of whimsical humor; equanimity is +impossible in the midst of such confusion. All this will have a fatal +effect upon her spiritual welfare; for what shocked her some time ago +will now fail to make the slightest impression. The bloom of youth +will soon fade away, leaving to her only confused souvenirs of those +days when, to be happy, it sufficed for her to descend into her own +soul, where she always found peace and consolation. + +If you wish to preserve in all their integrity the faculties of your +soul; if you would not have your life ruled by the caprice of the +imagination; contract at an early age the salutary and happy custom +of making your meditation. Set apart a special time for it every day, +let it be practical, having for its object the spiritual progress of +your soul, the sanctification of your life. Lay out in God's presence +what you have to do every day, recall to mind the places, persons and +things that have been to you an occasion of sin, or a help in the +exercise of virtue, in order to avoid the evil accruing from the one +source, and increase the influence arising from the other. Never +recline your head upon your pillow before having rendered an exact +account of the day you have just finished, like the merchant who, +every night, tots up his loss and gain, to see what has been the +result of the day's transactions. The next day, with the double +armour of experience and resolve, you will be better able to avoid +what proved noxious before, as well as to do the good that you had +omitted. By thus acting you will give to your life a sure direction, +a powerful impetus in the accomplishment of all that is worthy of +your glorious destiny. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS. + +In the natural order of things, man, after having obeyed his parents +in his youth, becomes in turn the head of another family which he +must govern by the authority of his word and example. God has given +to woman another vocation. She obeys from her childhood, and +obedience becomes more necessary to her as she advances in years; for +when she quits the paternal roof for the one of her choice, it is +still to obey and be directed by the will of another. But in this +second moiety of her life she often finds the practice of obedience +more difficult and painful than it was when she lived with her +parents. More than once has the young woman, allured by the deceitful +charms of a false liberty, left with a secret joy the paternal roof, +hoping thereby to be delivered from the duty of obedience which +weighed so heavily on her heart. But, alas! she has often been +obliged to regret those days as the happiest of her life, when the +tender solicitude of a mother rendered submission sweet and easy. + +God, whose Providence is infinitely wise, has disposed all things in +such a way that each epoch of life is a preparation to that which +follows; strengthened by the labors of the past, we are fitted for +those of the future, and prepared for the accomplishment of the +duties of to-day by our fidelity to obligations less difficult of +yesterday; we are thus imperceptibly and safely conducted by this +graded scale to the end for which we were created. + +Hence you may consider the present as your noviciate to the future; +the family circle at home is the image of that with which you must +live at a later time; and while your duties and trials will vary with +your position, there is one obligation that always remains +invariable; that is obedience. If you have learned well how to obey +your parents whom God has given you, you will find it easier in after +life to bend your will when obliged in submission to that of another. + +At present holy obedience is not painful to you; on the contrary, it +is a pleasure, as it is a means by which you can please your dear +parents whom you love; and by force of habit it is now so deeply +engraved in your heart as to be an act of second nature. But other +times and other circumstances will present new difficulties, when +perhaps you will be obliged to obey a man of your own age, possessed +of none of those qualities that give authority and prestige to command. + +The familiarity that exists between the married couple which, when +truly Christian, is one of the greatest charms of their life, not +unfrequently becomes for woman an obstacle to the observance of +obedience; but she has reason to rejoice when her delinquency does +not diminish the sacred authority of her husband's commands. The lady +who has been docile to the orders of her parents will be docile to +those of her husband; for as we are assured by Holy Writ, our +accomplishment of the duties that God has imposed on us relative to +our parents is rewarded even in this life; as likewise our +delinquencies on this point will incur heaven's displeasure. + +The paternal home should be for you a school of respect, obedience, +gratitude, and love; and these virtues should be constantly +manifested in your conduct; for, mark it well, you will be in the +position destined for you later by God what you are presently in that +which you now occupy. There is a logical succession in all our +actions, whether good or bad. In each one of your actions may be +found the germ of another which, being developed in due time, will +produce others. The same is also true of that happy or unfortunate +succession of thoughts and affections which is developed into habit; +and which is engrafted in our very souls, forming, as it were, an +integral part of our nature. From our infancy, God, in His infinite +goodness, has given us a facility to do good, which in the course of +time can be strengthened by habit; it will enable us to surmount +obstacles and dangers that increase with age, but which are ignored +in childhood. + +The individual practice of respect, obedience, confidence; and +gratitude is necessary for the preservation of society; and in order +to render this practice easy for us, God, in loving goodness has +removed from those beautiful flowers of virtue, whose perfume should +embalm our whole life, the thorns that might pierce us. He has +confided their care to those to whom, after God, we owe our life, and +towards whom we are drawn by an invincible inclination of the heart. +When we merge into the noon-tide of life we find these virtues +already engrafted in our souls, with little trouble to us, for they +were planted there by the hands of good and pious parents; and, as a +reward for our fidelity to their instructions, those cherished +virtues take deep root in the heart and grow imperceptibly as we +advance in years. + +But if, instead of being docile to their orders, we have stubbornly +resisted them, if, by some unaccountable egotism, the soul has become +concentrated in herself; and instead of giving our confidence and +love to those who have so generously given their life and means to +secure to us the happiness we enjoy, we rest satisfied with living on +the fruits of their labors without making them any return; we will +carry with us later on into the family of our choice only a withered +heart, dead to every noble and generous sentiment. + +You should respect and honor your parents with the filial love of a +Christian daughter. Such is the precise meaning of the precept given +you by God in their regard: _Honor thy father and thy mother!_ +Relative to you they hold God's place, who is the source of all +paternity in heaven and upon earth. Nothing can dispense you from +this respect which God requires for them, and which nature ought to +render easy to you; for, even when your parents would suffer by a +criminal negligence the image of God to be deteriorated in their +souls; they always remain His representatives for you, because they +are always, no matter what they may do, the instruments that God +employed to give you existence. + +The faults of your parents should never diminish in your heart the +respect and honor that you owe them; and in certain painful and +delicate circumstances, you should imitate the example of the two +sons of Noah in order to escape the malediction that fell upon Cham +for his impudent strictures of his father's faults. You should +carefully draw the mantle of charity over any fault of your parents +that might tend to weaken your respect for them. Silence should seal +your lips forever on all their shortcomings, even before those who +know them, unless that it be to ask advice in some critical +conjuncture, or bring them to receive some useful and charitable +counsel. God alone should be the depository of your sorrowful +confidence in this matter. To Him alone you should confide your +sorrows and alarms, because He alone should hold the first place in +your mind and heart, for He will be your judge as well as theirs. + +If you see that a salutary effect may be obtained by a prudent and +respectful observation, be slow in making it, and never act before +having consulted some virtuous and enlightened persons; should they +advise you in the affirmative, let your observation assume the tone +of a remonstration rather than a warning. Your language, actions or +gestures should never savor of anything that betrayed a disregard for +that profound veneration with which you should honor in them the +title of God's representatives in your regard. An unfortunate custom, +the fruit of a bad education, or of an excessive tenderness on the +part of parents, has sadly vitiated the nature and form of the +relations that should exist between child and parent. + + +During the present century in many places a fatal familiarity seems +to have sapped the very foundation from that profound respect which +was the honor and glory of the Christian family, and the salt that +preserves nations from corruption; that respect which children, who +truly feared God, paid to their parents. To that beautiful order that +reigned in the Christian family, and which preserved inviolable the +father's authority in Christian times, has succeeded a spirit of +equality as hostile to the natural order as to the order of Divine +Providence, since it destroys both rank and duty. It gives birth to +that false independence which may justly be called the seed of +revolution and anarchy; no consequence is more natural, for what can +be expected of a citizen who imbibed in his childhood, under the +paternal roof, the spirit of disobedience and insubordination, who +was taught to regard superiority with a jealous eye, and treat with +contempt those who are beneath him. + +After paying due respect to your parents, they should be, after God, +the depositories of your confidence, and since a daughter's wants are +more easily communicated to her mother, it is in her mother's heart +that a Christian daughter will deposit the secrets of her own. This +filial confidence supposes, also, in a young lady a sincere +diffidence in her self, a consciousness of her own weakness which, so +far from being a fault, is the result of true humility. Those young +ladies who are wanting in confidence in their own mothers are indeed +great objects of compassion. For this confidence is not only an +essential condition to their advancement in virtue, but also one of +their principal safeguards against deception and intrigue. + +The heart of woman, especially at your age, feels an imperative need +of making a confidant of some one, and if that one is not her mother, +it will be some friend who, perhaps, will not possess greater +experience nor more wisdom or force than herself, and consequently, +instead of giving the proper counsel, will add evil to evil by the +fatal help of encouragement in a course that should be abandoned. +Rest assured that you can never find any one able to fill the +mother's place in this regard. This unreserved abandonment to a +mother's confiding heart is not always possible, since death often +interferes. When such is the case it is a great misfortune for a +young lady--a misfortune that can scarcely be retrieved in her +lifetime. It is easy to recognise a woman whose soul has been +fostered in that of her mother. Such women ordinarily possess a +milder disposition, a more amiable ingenuousness, with a certain +simplicity of heart which, without being prejudicial in the least to +her mind, adds a new charm to the noble and generous virtues which +become the mother of a family. Those habits of confidence and +abandonment contracted from childhood have made frankness and +sincerity second nature. Their love for truth and sincerity is +revealed in their conversation, the sanctity of which is the echo of +their souls. Their whole demeanor sheds such a halo of delight around +them that they become, unpretentiously, the centre of attraction for +all those whose enviable pleasure it is to be honored by their company. + +If up to this hour you have concealed nothing from your mother; if +you have given her the key to your soul; if your heart is for her an +open book; if she can at all times read in your looks your very +thoughts; on bended knees thank God from the depths of your soul for +having given you such a mother, and the grace of giving her your +confidence. If you remain a child to your mother you will preserve +your youth through the toilsome days of life to a ripe old age, an +advantage so precious that nothing should be left undone to secure it. + +Woman is pleasing to others only in as much as she possesses this +adornment, which exhales a sweet odor like the perfume of youth. +Alas! how many women there are who have never been children even with +their mothers. Women from their youth, they have treated their mother +with a kind of diffidence, dissembling at an age when the only danger +to be feared should be an excessive confidence. + +As for the gratitude and love that you owe your parents, I would +regard it as an injury offered to the candor of your age and the +sincerity of your heart to undertake to prove that these are +obligations which you are in duty bound to discharge. God who has +commanded us to honor our parents, left us no precept obliging us to +love them; but while He engraved other commandments upon stone this +one He has written in the very essence of our being. Hence I appeal +only to your heart in this matter, leaving you entirely to its +instincts to point out to you your duty, which to assert by any other +proof, I fear would lead you to suspect that there are children +unnatural enough to forget and neglect their parents. + +Bear in mind, however, that your love and gratitude for them must by +no means be restricted to a sentiment of the heart or an instinct of +nature. Those virtues must find an echo both in your words and +actions. Love founded on sensibility has no signification, if you can +make no sacrifice to obey or please them. Love in man is effective, +and this is why our Lord tells us with regard to the love we owe Him: +_He who loves me keeps my commandments._ + +To love consists in pleasing him who is loved; it is prefering his +will to our own, his interests to ours; in a word, it is to seek him +rather than attract him; it is to become his property rather than to +appropriate him; it is to forget ourself to think of him. Love lives +upon sacrifices; as the pious author of the Following of Christ says: +_where love is, there is also pain: but love converts that pain +into pleasure._ If this be true of all the affections of the human +heart; what shall we think of the one that we have first felt, and +which in some way forms a part of our very nature? + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +MELANCHOLY. + +It will perhaps seem strange to you to be warned in the bloom of +youth against a sentiment that seems to be reserved for that period +of life when delinquents, through the infinite goodness of God, are +brought to enter into themselves; when the illusions of the heart +have been replaced by a cold and sad reality; when hope seems to +recoil under the weight of sad recollections. Still, because this +mental canker preys on the most vital interests of the soul, and +because a predisposition to it is found to prevail even among the +youthful portion of your sex, a certain knowledge of it is necessary +in order to resist it effectually. + +It is most delightful and consoling to find in persons of your age +and sex that pure joy, so frank and candid, springing out of the +innocence and simplicity of the heart; a good conscience and a lively +faith, with unbounded confidence in Divine Providence; all of which +combine to produce that sweet and saintly cheerfulness which dilates +the heart and lights up the soul with its amiable reflections. But, +alas! we confess with deep regret, that many young ladies have been +ruthlessly robbed of all those charms by a precocious development +received under the world's tutorship, by which they have been made to +cross with a bound the smiling season of hope and joy, to a premature +old age before having tasted the charms of youth. + +In order that joy may reign in the heart, the heart must first +repose in the bosom of Divine Providence--free from the pressure of +doleful souvenirs, and from the pestering desires stirred up by +vanity; in a word, exempt from every obstacle, whether intrinsic or +extrinsic, that might in any way oppose the designs of God. But, +alas! by some unaccountable inconsistency, we are in contradiction +with ourselves; for, notwithstanding our great desire to live, and +our horror of death, still we seem to be in a hurry with the time to +pass, as though we advanced too slowly to the grave. + +Now, we are well aware that of this lifetime the present is all that +we can claim, the past and future being in the hands of God; still, +true to the same principle of inconsistency we make little or no use +of the present, it is something annoying that we wish, to get over, +as quickly as possible, while we are absorbed by a countless +multitude of useless but importunate desires relative to the past, +which we can never recall, and the future, which perhaps we shall +never see. + +Hence, as we journey onward in this way, we must naturally find +ourselves a prey to fears and doubts, sometimes suspended between +hope and despondency, while the heart is harassed by corroding +desires that succeed each other like waves on a tempest-driven sea. +We wish to be our own providence, to dispose of our own future of our +lifetime according to those desires, instead of leaving that work to +Him from whom we have received all that we possess. + +When we are assailed by regrets in the evening, and filled with +anxieties for the morrow, how can our heart rebound with joy, or our +lips wear the smile of confidence and tranquility? Behold some of the +many sources from which the fatal fiend of melancholy is fed and +strengthened. But this vile destroyer of peaceful joy springs from +another source not less fatal than those just mentioned. That is a +certain vagueness of mind and heart, which is sometimes the result of +some physical or bodily indisposition, but more frequently the +consequence of an imperfect education, or indifference in the service +of God. + +That which gives to the mind its needed assurance and strength, and +to the heart its consistency and solidity, is a lively faith, +nourished and sustained by a sincere piety. Of this you are +thoroughly convinced, as you know full well that faith alone can give +a solid basis to our thoughts, a true direction to our desires, and +an eternal destiny to our hopes. Without faith the mind is without +ballast--unsettled as to what it ought to believe or reject; the +heart ignores what it should fear or hope for; in a word, the soul is +lost in the midst of her vacillating desires. + +In order that faith may impart its vivifying influence it must +penetrate the soul's substance, and become to her the principle of a +new life, directing all her movements, animating all her thoughts, +desires and hopes. A superficial and inactive faith that is purely +exterior, satisfied with believing what God reveals, without +quickening the spiritual pulsations of the soul, will not preserve +her from that vagueness and uncertainty which deprive all objects of +their natural colors, and lend them a sombre shade which saddens the +heart. + +If you would escape falling a victim to melancholy, preserve your +faith with precious care, enliven it constantly by fervent prayer, by +meditation and the abundant graces received through the Sacraments. +Let its pure light be the rule of your thoughts and actions, accustom +your mind to dwell upon things that are practical, and consequently +useful, sedulously avoiding all speculative or doubtful topics, that +have no other result than to keep the mind in a state of suspense and +indecision. You will fare better in having a clear knowledge of +practical things, even at the cost of appearing less learned than +others. + +A third source of melancholy is a species of mental idleness, +concerning which women are exposed to labor under a false impression. +As they are naturally given to manual occupation habit begets with +them an antipathy to mental labor; their judgment is readily but +erroneously convinced by their feelings, which easily lead them to +believe that they are sufficiently occupied when their fingers are +engaged in fixing an embroidery or something similar. To reason the +matter, they will readily admit that labor exclusively manual having +no share in the exercise of the mental faculties, cannot be +considered to give sufficient occupation to an intelligent being; +since the imagination would be left to the mercy of its caprices and +the heart to the whims of its desires, which is not worthy of a being +created to the image and likeness of God, who commands us to labor as +He labored, namely: with mind and heart constantly supplying useful +thoughts to the one and noble sentiments to the other. + +Such is the heavenly duty enjoined by those consoling words of our +Saviour: _pray always_. At first sight it would seem that such +an obligation is impossible and contrary to human nature. We cannot, +however, even suppose that He who has made man what he is, +misunderstood his nature so far as to command him to do +impossibilities. + +Every thought that raises the mind towards God, every sentiment that +brings the heart near to Him, is a prayer. Hence there is no +occupation that may not become a prayer, since there is none that may +not be referred to God. The duties and obligations of woman, far from +being an obstacle to the practical exercise of the above principle, +on the contrary favor its execution most admirably; for her duties, +though of the manual order for the most part, are not of a nature to +distract the mind or absorb the heart; she can easily and constantly +concentrate the thoughts of the one and the affections of the other +upon God. + +That you should make God the object of all your actions is your +first and most imperative duty, and the moment that you discharge +your duties for any other end that moment they shall lose the dignity +of deeds worthy of a Christian or even of a rational being; moreover, +your mind, as you are fully aware, is endowed with perpetual +activity, it is never idle,--you need only chose the objects to which +you wish to apply it. But if you fail to apply it to things worthy of +your sublime calling it will soon escape from your control, and, +flitting from one trifle to another, it will meddle with objects that +might become dangerous to the peace of your soul. It will soon become +preoccupied by puerile fears, unfounded apprehensions, vague sadness, +which, when constantly indulged in, will deliver your soul over to +melancholy which never fails to tarnish the purity of the heart and +enervate the energy of the will. + +The pain that many suffer from their imaginary ills robs them of the +noble and generous love of compassionating the real and painful +griefs of others. Egotism is nurtured and fortified in those ravings +which attach the soul's energies to the consideration of our own ills +or sorrows; the heart grows cold and hardened in a deplorable +insensibility which estranges it to every sentiment of pity and +compassion for others. + +There is, I am aware, a sorrow that is salutary to the soul, and +conformable to the spirit of Christianity, as also to man's condition +in this vale of tears. I know that it is very difficult to be always +joyful, when we take into account the dangers by which we are +surrounded, the countless calamities to which we are exposed since +the day that sin had entered the world. We very often see the objects +of our warmest affections disappear from around us; and every day +some new misfortune or some new loss adds some new tears to our cup +of sorrow, from whose bitterness every one is doomed to drink during +life. + +Far from me be the thought of engaging you to fly this holy sorrow +imposed by our condition and recommended by our Lord Himself. +_"There is,"_ says St. Paul, _"a sorrow according_ to God" +which, far from plunging the heart into a state of despondency, +enables the soul to avoid the dangers which constantly expose her to +lose God by sin. But this sorrow does not trouble the peace of either +the heart or the mind, for it is that sorrow which our divine Saviour +called blessed, and for which He has promised consolation. + +Far be from me, also, the thought of advising that foolish and +boisterous joy which carries away the soul, absorbing all her +energies filling her with void and disgust. This joy, far from being +a remedy or a protection against melancholy, is, on the contrary, +both its cause and effect. The result of those intemperate paroxysms +of joy, so little in conformity with our nature is that which +invariably results from any forced or undue influence. + +When shackled nature recovers her liberty she revenges the violence +that she was made to endure. But, seizing her rights with too great +avidity, she suffers more from the reaction than from the force that +infringed upon them. This explains the reason of those fitful +outbursts of joy and grief that pass in quick succession. Those +puerile fears, followed by hopes, without rule or aim, that vain +confidence giving place to sad discouragement. Those despondent +feelings after moments of zealous fever, during which we seem to be +able to do and attempt everything. Here we find the solution of those +sudden and varied shades of temperament which will instantaneously +cheer or prostrate the energies of the soul. + +If you would preserve your soul from melancholy, conserve your heart +in a calm composure, your mind in a just equanimity keeping both +equally distant from all extremes able to taste joy with discretion, +and sorrow without becoming discouraged. This will be putting in +practice the advice of the wise man: Give not up thy soul to sadness +and afflict not thyself in thy own counsel. The joyfulness of the +heart is the life of man and a never-failing treasure of holiness, +and the joy of man is length of life. Have pity on thy own soul, +pleasing God and contain thyself; gather up thy heart in his holiness +and drive away sadness far from thee. For sadness hath killed many +and there is no profit in it. Envy and anger shorten a man's days, +and pensiveness will bring old age before the time. A cheerful and +good heart is always feasting, for his banquets are prepared with +diligence. Eccl. xxx. 22-27. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +ON READING. + +If the wisdom of nations, which loves to find expression in the +proverbs, teaches us that a man may be known by knowing the company +that he frequents; we can say with the same assurance that his +character and dispositions may be known from the books which he +constantly reads. Of all friends, the most intimate are the books +that we constantly read, hence there is nothing more important for a +young person, as there is nothing that entails such grave +consequences for the moral culture, than the selection of proper and +suitable books. Because it is a noted fact that such readings +exercise the deepest influence over the mind and heart, so much that +all the resources which the ingeniousness of maternal love can employ +against it avail nothing. God's minister in the pulpit of truth has +no weight with those souls fascinated by the deceitful charms of a +bad book, which addresses itself to their prejudices and passions. +The charitable advice of the confessor in the tribunal of penance is +futile against the intoxicating seductions of those romances whose +only merit consists in flattering the most depraved inclinations of +the human heart. + +Indeed it is a subject both of surprise and sorrow to see an author +of the most menial abilities lauded to the skies for a book still +more abject than himself, a book teeming with error and immorality; +while, very often, a discourse, a sermon or an instruction, whatever +may be the authority that they receive either from the character of +the person who pronounces them, or from the gravity of the +circumstances in which he speaks, are heard with indifference. Good +and evil, truth and error, are never so rapidly propagated, never so +powerful in their action, never so certain in their effects as when +they are communicated to us under the form of a book authorized by +fashion or party spirit. Hence there is no greater responsibility +before God than that which man assumes when he wields the pen in the +name of humanity, whether for noble or selfish ends. + +A book is a teacher whose doctrine is listened to with a willingness +equal to its degree of conformity to the inclinations of our heart. +It is a friend that gains our confidence, inasmuch as it flatters our +prejudices and passions, and in which we find a reflection of our own +thoughts, the echo of our most secret sentiments. You would not like +to receive a stranger into your house without his being properly +recommended, but you will readily receive a book on the strength of +reports that are often deceitful. + +The country is flooded with productions that sap the foundations of +morality, and which bear that _imprimatur_ given by a poisoned +public opinion to such authors as pander to its craven spirit. The +world judges with a depraved indulgence the book in which it finds +its maxims approved and sanctioned, portraying the exact seducing +picture of its vanities. The purest souls and, not unfrequently, +serious minds are too often imposed upon by those popular prejudices, +and, despite their good reason, yield to their influence by reading +the flimsy productions of depraved minds, which, besides all the +other injuries they cause, rob them of a most precious time. A book +must be very bad before the world condemns it, so bad, in fact, that +its own intrinsic filth disgusts the reader and seals its fate. But, +there is another kind of literature favorably received by that +portion of mankind called respectable, honest, and sometimes even +severe, and whose authority is capable of making a grave impression +on your mind. + +It is, therefore, very important for you to know not only the signs +by which to recognize a bad book, but also whom you should consult as +judges in the matter. There can be no question here of those books +professedly immoral, in which vice is eulogized and corrupt maxims +sustained. Those books are not dangerous for you, because they will +not fall under your hands, and even when they would you could not +open one of them without flinging it away with horror;--in this case +the evil--contains in itself its own remedy. + +But there are books, less dangerous in appearance, in which the most +delicate situations are represented, clothed in all the charms of +style, well calculated, under their moral guise and serious bearing, +to captivate the heart and imagination. Indeed to represent in lively +colors the terrible effects of the passions, and the fatal +consequences that a momentary excitement might entail is not of a +nature to inspire a young lady with horror for vice and love for +virtue. How is it possible that she will guard against the evil +inclinations of the heart, when she is conscious of the danger in +giving them free scope, and that a momentary forgetfulness is +sometimes punished by a life-time of sorrow and bitterness? Such a +culpable negligence might be accounted for, if there existed a +necessary relation between the will and the imagination, by which the +determinations of the former are necessarily dependant upon the +impressions of the latter. + +But such is not the case, for the imagination has a sphere of action +very different from that of the intelligence or the will. It is an +interior mirror which reflects back upon the soul images of things +beheld by the senses and conceived by the intelligence, without +regard to time or place. Positively no, would be the answer of a +young lady of self-respect, whom we would ask if she would like to +see with her own eyes all that is spoken of in the novel which she +reads with so little caution! Your answer would be given in the same +terms, should we ask you if she might read without impunity to virtue +those intrigues, those scenes so engaging to curiosity, and which +incite the reader to follow up the details of ineffectual struggles +against passion. Could she, without blushing, listen to the +passionate conversations of those who had lead each other to +destruction, after having exhausted all the resources of heart and +mind to render vice amiable, even when their fall would seem to be +less the effect of a criminal will than the result of a kind of +fatality? Your answer to all this would be emphatically, no! + +But while young ladies will neither listen to nor look at scenes of +this nature, many, alas! do not scruple to look at them in books, +where they are much more dangerous, for being adorned with all the +charms of style, and because the persons represented are made to +speak and act in a much more luring manner than they do in reality. +They devour with avidity those dangerous, and sometimes scurrilous +pages; but while they chain their attention to the matter they are +reading, their imagination gains the ascendancy over all the senses, +and under their united action images are formed which leave a lasting +impression on the mind--images of misfortune that has befallen +persons either through their own fault or the fault of others, and +which, through sympathy, the human heart, whether wrong or right, is +always ready to find a pretext to justify. + +In reading of those misfortunes she may perhaps recognize the hand +of divine vengeance pursuing the criminal culprit, which is of a +nature to inspire her with a sentiment of fear that deters from the +commission of crime; but such sentiments have been felt by the heroes +of the novel which she has read, and nevertheless they have fallen +into the abyss which they so much dreaded, I would almost say while +fleeing from it. But when they take their stand on a declivity so +steep and slippery, nothing short of a miracle can save them. + +Such is precisely the nature of the danger in which the readers of +such books place them-selves. In those books human frailty is +idolized, deeds committed through it are either necessary or +excusable, the hair-breadth escapes, and often the tragical +conclusion of their story, will often inspire the reader with a +salutary terror, it is true; but will that feeling destroy all those +tender sympathizing sentiments that were felt while dreading it? Of +course this fear is felt by the will, but the imagination has already +finished its work; it has seen, heard and felt by the senses; it has +delighted and fascinated the soul by those images whose charms cannot +be destroyed by the unfortunate issue of those struggles in which +frailty played such an important role. + +The will, distracted by the tumult of external things, and the +variety of, her occupations or pleasures, will soon lose this +sentiment of terror on which she seems to count so much, but the +imagination will conserve for a long time the impressions and images +upon which it has feasted, and which will form the constant subject +of her thoughts during the day and of her dreams during the night. + +Hence, the books that are capable of producing such results are +evidently bad, and if you wish to preserve intact the innocence of +your heart you should never take one of them in your hands. If you +wish to conceive a deep horror for vice, and guard against the snares +of passion, you will more readily and securely attain your end by +reading a few serious books in which truth is presented in its own +simplicity without artifice. Books in which the author, realizing the +importance of his mission, directly addresses the mind without trying +to captivate the heart and imagination, or to render vice amiable +first in order to inspire you with horror for it afterwards. If you +wish to be true to yourself; if by your readings your object is to +cultivate a love for virtue and horror for evil, novels are not the +books that you will have recourse to. + +Hence, to draw a practical conclusion from our considerations on +this subject, you may safely say that a book is, if not bad, at least +dangerous when its tendencies are to render interesting, and +agreeable such deeds or language as you would neither look at nor +listen to. This should be the first rule by which to judge of the +moral worth of the books you wish to read. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. + +To the rule given in the foregoing chapter may be added another of +equal importance in the selection of suitable books to read. +Generally speaking, all books that draw too much on the imagination +may be considered as dangerous. You are well aware, and it has been +frequently said, in the course of this little book, that the +imagination is precious and useful when regulated with discretion, +and directed with prudence; but the moment that it is allowed to +assume a preponderance which does not belong to it, it becomes +noxious to our spiritual and temporal welfare. Moreover, it is united +to the senses by the most intimate ties, through which it receives +impressions and images that keep it in constant activity; we should +constantly labor to check, rather than to encourage its development; +while we should spare neither pains nor diligence to develop the +intelligence which, when left in ignorance of truths that could +enlighten and elevate it, becomes the victim of cruel doubt, +idleness, effeminacy and pleasure. + +There are books said to be useless, and consequently harmless, but +the conclusion, without being false, is not just; for we have just as +much reason to believe they are dangerous as to admit the contrary. +Now, if a book is indeed useless you cannot bear to read it, and +since you do read it, it must certainly contain something interesting +which renders it agreeable to you; it pleases some faculty of your +soul, some habitual thought of your mind, some predominating +disposition of your heart. + +That a book may be read without profit is quite true. But that the +same book can be read without danger of sustaining some loss is +evidently false, unless that it be maintained that we are justified +in having no proposed end for our actions; or that we may act solely +for pastime which is diametrically opposed to the end for which we +were created: Our time is too precious to be used indifferently. +Again if there is in life anything that may be read or omitted +without losing some advantage, or committing some evil, it is +certainly not a book, for it always contains either some facts or +some pictures, or some maxims capable of making an impression on your +mind and heart. + +The intelligence is formed and developed by means of language, and +language, considered from this point of view, furnishes us with no +idle words. Hence a useless book is, in the true acceptation of the +term, a book that amuses the imagination and the heart. Now, whatever +the soul receives through these channels must be of some importance +for good or evil. Hence we are not justified, on the plea of +indifference to accept any book that falls under our hands without +being thoroughly examined and competently recommended. + +Here, of course, a new difficulty occurs: at your age, and with your +experience, you are unable to judge what books you should read; you +are therefore obliged to follow the advice of others in the matter, +but not the advice of all indiscriminately, as all are not competent +to direct you in a matter of such grave importance. Popularity will +give a wide circulation to a book bat can by no means recommend it; +hence public opinion is not a rule that will guarantee you against +deception. + +Those in whom you place entire confidence to choose a book for you +should themselves be recommended by their sincere and generous piety, +the dignity of their life, the solidity of their judgment, +strengthened by an extensive knowledge of men and things. Above all +things be on your guard against the books recommended by worldly +women, lovers of pleasure and parties; those whose light and +frivolous minds sicken at serious thoughts, who are on their guard +lest they may do too much for God, and who vainly endeavor to +reconcile, in a monstrous union, the maxims of the world with those +of the Gospel, the seductions of pleasure with the austerities of +virtue, desiring to serve God and mammon. + +If, by some negligence, or even in good faith; you open one of those +books against which you have been warned, shut it the moment you feel +your imagination excited by the images it offers, or when you +perceive that the mind's curiosity becomes aroused to its agreeable +narration of incidents, for it is almost always an unfavorable sign +of a book that produces those and similar effects. Such is not the +manner in which truth and virtue affect us. Their action is milder +and calmer, and has the heart and will, rather than the imagination +for its object. Hence, be on your guard, lest by some indiscretion +you allow a poison to enter your soul, which is never more dangerous +than when it seems least to be feared. + +Finally, to resume in a few words, all that we have considered on +the subject: If you would place the moral merit of a book beyond +question, ask yourself if you would like to have its author for your +spiritual director; do not think that this precaution is exaggerated +or uncalled for; for between the author of a book and the reader +there are relations established so intimate that they beget a kind of +intellectual paternity, which produces deeper and more durable +effects than you may be aware of. + +To express the influence that our actions exercise over our life and +over our fate, man is said to be the son of his works. For similar +reason, it may be said of him, but more especially of woman, that he +is the son of his readings, for reading forms such an important +factor in the formation of the heart and mind that it often modifies +our whole being. Besides, if you wish to profit by your reading, read +only a few books, but read them well, with close attention, +reflecting long and often on what you have read, identifying your +very thoughts and sentiments with the subject matter of their pages. +But let all this have its practical utility, let all those advantages +find a living expression in your language, in your actions, and in +your whole life. + + +END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Serious Hours of a Young Lady +by Charles Sainte-Foi + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERIOUS HOURS OF A YOUNG LADY *** + +This file should be named 6583.txt or 6583.zip + +Produced by Naomi Parkhurst, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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