yer; and sometimes it came
so far as to arrive at union; though I understood neither the one nor
the other, nor how much they both deserve to be prized. But I believe
it would have been a great deal of happiness for me to have understood
them. True it is, that this union rested with me for so short a time,
that perhaps it might arrive to be but as of an 'Ave Maria'; yet I
remained with so very great effects thereof, that with not being then
so much as twenty years old, methought I found the whole world under
my feet.

Dreams, the soul herself forsaking;
Fearful raptures; childlike mirth.
Silent adorations, making
A blessed shadow of this earth!

Ib. Chap. V. p. 24.

I received also the blessed Sacrament with many tears; though yet, in
my opinion, they were not shed with that sense and grief, for only my
having offended God, which might have served to save my soul; if the
error into which I was brought by them who told me that some things
were not mortal sins, (which afterward I saw plainly that they were)
might not somewhat bestead me. *** Methinks, that without doubt my
soul might have run a hazard of not being saved, if I had died then.

Can we wonder that some poor hypochondriasts and epileptics have
believed themselves possessed by, or rather to be the Devil himself, and
so spoke in this imagined character, when this poor afflicted spotless
innocent could be so pierced through with fanatic pre-conceptions, as to
talk in this manner of her mortal sins, and their probable eternal
punishment;--and this too, under the most fervent sense of God's love
and mercy!

Ib. p. 43.

True it is, that I am both the most weak, and the most wicked of any
living.

What is the meaning of these words, that occur so often in the works of
great saints? Do they believe them literally? Or is it a specific
suspension of the comparing power and the memory, vouchsafed them as a
gift of grace?--a gift of telling a lie without breach of veracity--a
gift of humility indemnifying pride.

Ib. Chap. VIII. p. 44.

I have not without cause been considering and reflecting upon this
life of mine so long, for I discern well enough that nobody will have
gust to look upon a thing so very wicked.

Again! Can this first sentence be other than madness or a lie? For
observe, the question is not, whether Teresa was or was not positively
very wicked; but whether according to her own scale of