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