includes everything besides. He valued these, I say, more than magnanimity,
or liberality, because such virtues can be more rarely practised and they
affect fewer subjects.

4 deg.. He was always on his guard against showy virtues, which of their very
nature encourage vainglory, the bane of all good works.

5 deg.. He blamed those who measure virtues by the standard set up by the
world, who prefer temporal to spiritual alms; haircloth, fasting, and
corporal austerities to sweetness, modesty, and the mortification of the
heart; virtues by far the more excellent.

6 deg.. He greatly condemned those who select the virtues most agreeable to
their taste, and practise these alone, quite regardless of those which are
specially adapted to their state of life. These people, indeed, serve God,
but after a way of their own, not according to His will: a by no means
uncommon mistake, which leads many, otherwise devout-minded, far out of the
right path.


UPON THE LESSER VIRTUES.

He had a special affection for certain virtues which are passed over by
some as trivial and insignificant. "Everyone," he used to say, "is eager to
possess those brilliant, almost dazzling virtues which cluster round the
summit of the Cross, so that they can be seen from afar and admired, but
very few are anxious to gather those which, like wild thyme, grow at the
foot of that Tree of Life and under its shade. Yet these are often the most
hardy, and give out the sweetest perfume, being watered with the precious
Blood of the Saviour, whose first lesson to His disciples was: _Learn of Me