cunning and watchfulness." The Life of the Blessed Henry Suso, by
Himself, translated by Knox, London, 1865, p. 168.

[210] Vie des premieres Religieuses Dominicaines de la Congregation de
St. Dominique, a Nancy; Nancy, 1896, p. 129.

We have no time to multiply examples, so I will let the case of Saint
Louis of Gonzaga serve as a type of excess in purification.

I think you will agree that this youth carried the elimination of the
external and discordant to a point which we cannot unreservedly admire.
At the age of ten, his biographer says:--

"The inspiration came to him to consecrate to the Mother of God his own
virginity--that being to her the most agreeable of possible presents.
Without delay, then, and with all the fervor there was in him, joyous
of heart, and burning with love, he made his vow of perpetual chastity.
Mary accepted the offering of his innocent heart, and obtained for him
from God, as a recompense, the extraordinary grace of never feeling
during his entire life the slightest touch of temptation against the
virtue of purity. This was an altogether exceptional favor, rarely
accorded even to Saints themselves, and all the more marvelous in that
Louis dwelt always in courts and among great folks, where danger and
opportunity are so unusually frequent. It is true that Louis from his
earliest childhood had shown a natural repugnance for whatever might be
impure or unvirginal, and even for relations of any sort whatever
between persons of opposite sex. But this made it all the more
surprising that he should, especially since this vow, feel it necessary
to have recourse to such a number of expedients for protecting against
even the shadow of danger the virginity which he had thus consecrated.
One might suppose that if any one could have contented himself with the
ordinary precautions, prescribed for all Christians, it would assuredly
have been he. But no! In the use of preservatives and means of
defense, in flight from the most insignificant occasions, from every
possibility of peril, just as in the mortification of his flesh, he
went farther than the majority of saints. He, who by an extraordinary
protection of God's grace was never tempted, measured all his steps as
if he were threatened on every side by particular dangers.
Thenceforward he never raised his eyes, either when walking in the
streets, or when in society. Not only did he avoid all business with
females even more scrupulously t