us
memorial of himself before God, alike in his lifetime and after his
death.

What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me? asks
the most devout Psalmist, an invincible King and first among the
prophets; in which most grateful question he approves himself a willing
thank-offerer, a multifarious debtor, and one who wishes for a holier
counsellor than himself: agreeing with Aristotle, the chief of
philosophers, who shows (in the 3rd and 6th books of his Ethics) that
all action depends upon counsel.

And indeed if so wonderful a prophet, having a fore-knowledge of divine
secrets, wished so anxiously to consider how he might gratefully repay
the blessings graciously bestowed, what can we fitly do, who are but
rude thanksgivers and most greedy receivers, laden with infinite divine
benefits? Assuredly we ought with anxious deliberation and abundant
consideration, having first invoked the Sevenfold Spirit, that it may
burn in our musings as an illuminating fire, fervently to prepare a way
without hinderance, that the bestower of all things may be cheerfully
worshipped in return for the gifts that He has bestowed, that our
neighbour may be relieved of his burden, and that the guilt contracted
by sinners every day may be redeemed by the atonement of almsgiving.

Forewarned therefore through the admonition of the Psalmist's devotion
by Him who alone prevents and perfects the goodwill of man, without
Whom we have no power even so much as to think, and Whose gift we doubt
not it is, if we have done anything good, we have diligently inquired
and considered in our own heart as well as with others, what among the
good offices of various works of piety would most please the Almighty,
and would be more beneficial to the Church Militant. And lo! there
soon occurred to our contemplation a host of unhappy, nay, rather of
elect scholars, in whom God the Creator and Nature His handmaid planted
the roots of excellent morals and of famous sciences, but whom the
poverty of their circumstances so oppressed that before the frown of
adverse fortune the seeds of excellence, so fruitful in the cultivated
field of youth, not being watered by the rain that they require, are
forced to wither away. Thus it happens that "bright virtue lurks buried
in obscurity," to use the words of Boethius, and burning lights are not
put under a bushel, but for want of oil are utterly extinguished. Thus
the field, so full of flower in Spring,