ical advice, might be summed up in these words--to
_love_ and to _wait_.

_To wait_ for the visitation of the divine Bridegroom. Far from
advising action, or the desire of acting, he is so afraid of motion,
that he proscribes the word _union_ with God, which might imply a
tendency to unite; and desires that the word _unity_ may be used
instead, for it is necessary to remain in a loving indifference. "I
wish for very little," said he, "and that little I desire very little;
I have almost no desires; but if I were to be born again, I would have
none at all. If God came to me, I would go to Him also; but _if He
would not come to me, I would remain there, and not go to Him_."

This absence of every desire excluded even that of virtue. It is the
highest point which the saint seems to have reached a short time before
his death. He writes on the 10th of August, 1619, "Say you renounce
every virtue, desiring them only as you receive them gradually from
God, nor wishing to take any care for acquiring them, excepting in
proportion as His bounty shall employ you to do so, for His own good
pleasure." If self-will disappear at this point, what will take its
place? The will of God apparently.... Only, let us not forget that if
this miracle take place, it will have for its result a state of
unalterable peace and immutable strength. By this token, and by no
other, are we bound to recognise it.

Madame de Chantal herself tells us that it had just the contrary
effect. Though they have skilfully arranged her life, and mutilated
her letters, there are still enough of them to show in what a tempest
of passion she passed her days. Her whole life, which was long, and
taken up with real cares, in founding and managing religious
establishments, contributes in no way to calm her; time wears her out
and destroys her, without effecting any change in her inward martyrdom.
She finishes by this confession in her latter days: "All that I have
suffered during the whole course of my life are not to be compared to
the torments I now feel; I am reduced to such a degree that nothing can
satisfy me, nor give me any relief, except one word--Death!"

I did not need this sad testimony; I could have found it out without
her assistance. This exclusive cultivation of sensibility, whatever be
the virtues that ennoble it, ends infallibly in tormenting the soul,
and reducing it to a state of excruciating suffering. We cannot, with
impunity, allow our