Advantage for who vaults from low to high,
And makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone?"

Even though the goal be not reached, to have willed deliberately here
the first step may prove to have been not wholly unavailing.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Quoted by Fr. Joseph Rickaby, S.J., in _Scholasticism_, p. 121.

[2] _Wayside Sketches_, p. 135.

The Form of Perfect Living.

The Form of Perfect Living

by

Richard Rolle.

CHAPTER I.

In every sinful man and woman that is bound in deadly sin, are three
wretchednesses, the which bring them to the death of hell. The first is:
_Default of ghostly strength_. That they are so weak within their heart,
that they can neither stand against the temptations of the fiend, nor
can they lift their will to yearn for the love of GOD and follow
thereto. The second is: _Use of fleshly desires_:--for they have no will
nor might to stand, they fall into lusts and likings of this world; and
because they think them sweet, they dwell in them still, many till
their lives' end, and so they come to the third wretchedness. The third
is, _Exchanging a lasting good for a passing delight_: as who say they
give endless joy for a little joy of this life. If they will turn them
and rise to penance, GOD will ordain their dwelling with angels and with
holy men. But because they choose the vile sin of this world, and have
more delight in the filth of their flesh than in the fairness of heaven,
they lose both the world and heaven. For he that hath not JESUS Christ
loses all that he hath, and all that he is, and all that he might get.
For he is not worthy of life, nor to be fed with swine's-meat. All
creatures shall be stirred in His vengeance in the day of Doom. These
wretchednesses that I have told you of are not only in worldly men and
women, who use gluttony, lust, and other open sins: but they are also in
others who seem in penance and godly life. For the devil that is enemy
to all mankind, when he sees a man or a woman among a thousand, turn
wholly to GOD, and forsake all the vanities and riches that men who love
this world covet, and seek lasting joy, a thousand wiles he has in what
manner he may destroy them. And when he can not bring them into such
sins which might make all men wonder at them who knew them, he beguiles
many so privily that they cannot oftentimes feel the trap that has taken
them.

Some he takes with _error_ that he puts them in. Some with _singular