a
stranger to a lowering or contracted look. The main point in Christian
mortification is the humiliation of the heart, one of its principal ends
being the subduing of the passions. Hence, true virtue always increases
the sweetness and gentleness of the mind, though this is attended with
an invincible constancy, and an inflexible firmness in every point of
duty. That devotion or self-denial is false or defective which betrays
us into pride or uncharitableness; and whatever makes us sour, morose,
or peevish, makes us certainly worse, and instead of begetting in us a
nearer resemblance of the divine nature, gives us a strong tincture of
the temper of devils.

Footnotes:
1. St. Athanasius commends St. Antony's love of reading, both when he
lived with his father, (p. 795, B.) and afterwards when he lived
alone, (p. 797, C.) which we cannot naturally understand of his
hearing others read, especially when he was alone; therefore, when
St. Athanasius says, (p. 795, A.) that in his childhood he never
applied himself to the study of letters, [Greek: grammata mathein],
fearing the danger of falling into had company at school, he seems
to mean only Greek letters, then the language of all the learned;
for he must have learned at home the Egyptian alphabet. In the same
manner we are to understand Evagrius and others, who relate, that a
certain philosopher expressing his surprise how St. Antony could
employ his time, being deprived of the pleasure of reading, the
saint told him that the universe was his book. (Socr. l. 4, c. 23,
Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 6, c. 4, St. Nilus, l. 4, p. 60.)
Nevertheless, St. Austin imagined that St. Antony could read no
alphabet, and learned by heart and meditated on the scriptures only
by hearing them read by others (S. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. pr. p. 3, t.
3.) See Rosweide, Not. in Vit. S. Antonii. Bolland. 17 Jan. p. 119,
Sec.64, Tillem. note 1, p. 666.
2. Matt. xix. 21.
3. An aura was one hundred cubits of land. See Lexicon Constantini.
Fleury, l. 8, p. 418.
4. Ibid. vi. 34.
5. [Greek: Parthenon], as St. Athanasius calls it, t. 2, p. 796, ed.
Ben. He mentions that St. Antony, long after, paid her a visit, when
she was very old, and superior or mistress of many virgins, [Greek:
hathegoumenen allos parthenon], n. 54. p. 837.
6. Orig. lib. 5, p. 264.
7. His first monastery was situated near the confines of Uppe