reproaches. Believe me, dear daughter, we must be stedfast in loving our neighbour—I say this with my whole heart, without any consideration as to your individual opponents or anything concerning the matter, caring for nothing save your perfection. But I must stop, nor did I mean to say so much. You have God always with you, if you will. Does not that make you rich enough? May His Will be your rest, His Cross your glory. I am, ever yours, &c.

[213.]

XL.

TO A GENTLEMAN, GOING TO THE COURT.

SIR,

Dec. 8, 1610.

So at last your sails are spread, and you are about to enter the high seas of the world and the Court. May God vouchsafe to guide and keep you in His Holy Hand!

I am not so timid as some people, nor do I hold this manner of life to be the most dangerous for welltrained souls who are bold and brave. There are but two great perils to dread ;-vanity, which is the ruin of sensual, indolent, self-indulgent, effeminate characters; and ambition, which destroys presumptuous, audacious minds.

Vanity implies a lack of courage: the vain man has

not strength to seek after real, well-earned approbation, and so he is satisfied with what is unreal and hollow; whereas ambition is courage carried to excess, which goes headlong in pursuit of glory and honour, regardless of all reason and rule.

So vanity leads a man into the frivolities which are acceptable to foolish women and other weak persons, but which are despicable in the eyes of nobler spirits: and ambition makes him grasp at honours which he has not earned-it makes him put too high a price upon himself, and upon the merits of his forefathers, on which he strives to build his fabric.

Now, dear sir, as you wish for my advice, I would say, strengthen your mind against all this, by spiritual and sacred food, which will enable you to resist both vanity and ambition.

Be stedfast in frequent communion; believe me, nothing will so tend to confirm you in the right way; and for the better use thereof, place yourself under the guidance of some good confessor, and ask him to call. you to account for any neglect you may ever fall into in this matter. Let your confessions be humble, and made with a real and express purpose of amendment.

I intreat you never to omit asking upon your knees for the Help of our Lord before you go forth in the morning, and in like manner ask forgiveness of all your faults before going to bed at night.

Especially avoid bad books ;-let nothing induce you to be led away by the writings which captivate certain weak minds by their vain subtleties; such works I mean as those of Rabelais and others, who affect to throw doubt and contempt on everything, and scoff at all our venerable doctrines and precepts. Keep books of a solid character, especially Christian and spiritual works, at hand, and refresh yourself with them from time to time.

I would have you cultivate a gentle, sincere courtesy, which offends no one, but wins everybody;-being more ready to seek love than honour ;-never jesting at the expense of another, never sarcastic, never affronting or being affronted.

Take care not to get involved in flirtations, and do not allow your affections to carry you away against judgment and reason. Once let feeling get the lead, and it is apt to make a sorry slave of the judgment, and leads to results you are sure to repent of.

In manner, appearance, conversation, and all such things, I would have you make an open profession that you purpose to live virtuously, wisely, and stedfastly, as a Christian should. Virtuously, so that no one may attempt to lead you into any debauchery ;— wisely, without any exaggerated outward demonstrations; steadily, because unless you show that you have a stedfast will and even mind, evil men will seek

to tempt and delude you; and as a Christian should, because some men profess a philosophic virtue, which is but a mere phantom at best. We who know that we can have no possible goodness save through the grace of our Lord, are bound to live by the rules of piety and religion, or else all our virtue will prove a shadow and an empty imagination.

It is most important that you should let it be known from the first what you mean to be; there should be no doubt about the matter; and it will help you much if you have some like-minded friends, with whom to exchange counsel and sympathy. Unquestionably the intercourse of right-minded people tends not a little to keep us straight.

I think you will easily find some worthy friend among the Jesuits, the Feuillants, or in some other not necessarily monastic quarter, who will be glad if you occasionally seek him to repose yourself, and take breath, so to say, in a spiritual sense.

There is one special point on which you must permit me to touch. I dread, sir, lest you should again take to gaming. It would be an exceeding evil, and in a few days would lead to complete dissipation, withering the bloom of your good desires. It is but an idle pursuit, at best ... not to dwell upon the angry passions, the dishonesty, and despair, from which few gamblers are exempted. I would wish for

you a vigorous heart, and a disposition to avoid bodily ease, whether in food, sleep, or anything else. A really noble mind despises mere luxury and self-indulgence. But I touch upon this point because our Lord says, They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses;" not as meaning that all dwelling there must be luxurious, but that many found in such quarters are so disposed. Of course I am not alluding to the exterior, but to the interior life. In short, I would have you keep the body in hand, and make it sometimes forego pleasant things, and endure hardness and abstinence, so that the higher nature may assert and maintain its superiority over that which is lower.

Imagine for a while that you are a courtier of Saint Louis (your little King may be considered holy in his innocence 1), he liked those about him to be brave, courageous, generous, cheerful, courteous, open-hearted, but, above all, he would have them to be good Christians. If you had been about S. Louis, you would have seen him laugh merrily, speak boldly, maintain a brave outward show of royal dignity, like King Solomon, and the next moment he would be ministering to the sick and poor in hospital. In short, he combined civil and religious virtue, majesty and humility. And this is what you must aim at ; to be no whit less brave because you are a Christian, no whit less a Christian 'Louis XIII., then not nine years old.