es carried out into life on
the instant; of aims obviously, inevitably proportioned to my
highest nature. Sometime, in God's good time, let me live as
swift and earnest as a flash of the eye. Meanwhile, let me
gather force slowly, and drift along lazily, like yonder
cloud, and be content to end in a few tears at last.'

* * * * *

'To-night I lay on the sofa, and saw how the flame shot up
from beneath, through the mass of coal that had been
piled above. It shot up in wild beautiful jets, and then
unexpectedly sank again, and all was black, unsightly and
forlorn. And thus, I thought, is it with my life at present.
Yet if the fire beneath persists and conquers, that black dead
mass will become all radiant, life-giving, fit for the altar
or the domestic hearth. Yes, and it shall be so.'

* * * * *

'My tendency at present is to the deepest privacy. Where can I
hide till I am given to myself? Yet I love the others more and
more. When they are with me I must give them the best from
my scrip. I see their infirmities, and would fain heal them,
forgetful of my own! But am I left one moment alone, then, a
poor wandering pilgrim, but no saint, I would seek the shrine,
and would therein die to the world. Then if from the poor
relics some miracles might be wrought, that should be for my
fellows. Yet some of the saints were able to work in their
generation, for they had renounced all!'

* * * * *

'Forget, if you can, all of petulant or overstrained that may
have displeased you in me, and commend me in your prayers to
my best self. When, in the solitude of the spirit, comes upon
you some air from the distance, a breath of aspiration, of
faith, of pure tenderness, then believe that the Power which
has guided me so faithfully, emboldens my thoughts to frame a
prayer for you.'

* * * * *

'Beneath all pain inflicted by Nature, be not only serene, but
more; let it avail thee in prayer. Put up, at the moment of
greatest suffering, a prayer; not for thy own escape, but
for the enfranchisement of some being dear to thee, and the
Sovereign Spirit will accept thy ransom.'

* * * * *

'Strive, strive, my soul, to be innocent; yes! bene