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