too, that through man's blindness, infirmity, and sin, that is made needful and must be, which in deed and truth were neither needful nor right." For those who are perfect are under no law. And the perfect accept the law along with such ignorant men as understand and know nothing better. Theologia Germanica.

Self love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues. Goethe.

"Self-contempt is not humility."

Where all other temptations are about evil, pride alone is conversant only about good things; and one dram of it poisons many measures of grace. I will not be more afraid of doing good things amiss, than of being proud when I have well performed them. Bishop Hal

As fate throws the shuttle, the faults of one man are on the outer, of another on the unseen surface of the web. Which is the most fortunate?

In a company they were extolling a gentleman of distinction, and magnifying his splendid virtues. He raised his head and said, I am such as I know I am. In the eyes of mankind my outward person is a goodly object; but my head hung down in shame at the deformity of my mind; people are crying up the rich and variegated

plumage of the peacock; and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly feet. Sadi.

God hath taken advantage of this man's humiliation for his conversion. Had not one foot slipped into the mouth of hell, he had never been in this forwardness to heaven. Bishop Hall.

The divine favor had placed the lamp of grace in the path of a wanderer in forbidden ways, till it directed him into the circle of the righteous, and the blessed society of dervishes; and their spiritual coöperation enabled him to convert his wicked propensities into praiseworthy deeds; yet were the tongues of calumniators questioning his sincerity, and saying, He retains his original habits, and there is no trusting to his piety and goodness. “By the means of repentance thou mayest get delivered from the wrath of God; but there is no escape from the slanderous tongue of man." He was unable to put up with the virulence of their remarks, and took his complaint to his ghostly father, saying, I am much troubled by the tongues of mankind. The holy man wept and answered, How can you be sufficiently grateful for this blessing, that are better than they represent you. But on the other hand, behold me, of whose perfectness all entertain the best opinion, while I am the mirror of imperfection. There is a shut door between me and mankind, that they may not pry into my sins; but what, O Omniscience, can

you

a closed door avail against thee, who art equally informed of what is manifest or concealed.

Sadi.

Among the afflictions which we suffer, some are abject, and others honorable; many can frame themselves to the honorable, but almost none to the abject. Thou seest a devout hermit, all ragged and cold; each one honoreth his torn habit with compassion of his sufferance; but if a poor Tradesman, or a poor Gentleman be in the same case, Men despise and mock them; and behold how their Poverty is abject.

I say, then, that we must not only love the evil itself by the virtue of Patience, but we must also love the abjection, by the virtue of Humility.

Moreover there are abject virtues, and there are honorable virtues. There are, also, actions of one and the same virtue, whereof some are despised and others honored.

There are faults which have no other ill in them but only abjection; and humility requires not that we should commit them of set purpose, but it requires that we vex not ourselves when we shall have committed them. Such are certain fooleries, incivilities, and incircumspections, which, as we ought to avoid before they be committed, in order to civility and discretion; so when they are committed, we must be content with the abjection that cometh thereby, and accept it willingly, that so we may practise holy Humility.

I say yet more; if I have disordered myself through passion or dissolution, and have spoken indecent words, wherewith God and my Neighbor are offended, I will repent myself heartily with true sorrow, and endeavor to make the best reparation I can for the offence; but yet I will be content with the abjection and the shame which it brings with it; and if the one could be separated from the other, I would most cheerfully cast away the Sin, and humbly retain the abjection.

But thou wouldst know, Philothea, which are the best abjections. I tell thee, clearly, that the most profitable to our Souls, and most acceptable to God, are those which come to us by accident, or by the condition of our life; because we choose them not, but receive them as they are sent by God, whose choice is always better than our own. But if we were to choose them, the greatest are the best; and those are esteemed the greatest which are most contrary to our inclinations, (so that they be conformable to our vocation;) for, to speak once for all, our own choice blasts almost all our virtues. De Sales.

Humility is the great ornament and jewel of Christian religion, that whereby it is distinguished from all the wisdom of the world; it not having been taught by the wise men of the Gentiles, but first put into a discipline, and made part of a religion, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who propounded himself inimitable by his disciples so signally in nothing as in the twin sisters of meekness and

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humility.

Learn of me, for I am meek and humble, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For all the world, all that we are, and all that we have, our bodies and our souls, our actions and our sufferings, our conditions at home, our accidents abroad, our many sins, and our seldom virtues, are as so many arguments to make our souls dwell low in the deep valleys of humility.

Our strength is inferior to that of many beasts, and our infirmities so many, that we are forced to dress and tend horses and asses, that they may help our needs and relieve

our wants.

Our beauty is in colour inferior to many flowers, and in proportion of parts it is no better than nothing for even a dog hath parts as well proportioned and fitted to his purposes, and the designs of his nature, as we have: and when it is most florid and gay, three fits of an ague can change it into yellowness and leanness, and the hollowness and wrinkles of deformity.

Our learning is then best when it teaches most humility: but to be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance in the world. For our learning is so long in getting, and so very imperfect, that the greatest clerk knows not the thousandth part of what he is ignorant; and knows so uncertainly what he seems to know, and knows no otherwise than a fool or a child, even what is told him, or what the guesses at, that except those things which concern his duty, and which God hath revealed to him, which also