ersonality of the individual comes into conflict with the
life of the community, the personal side must not be sacrificed, but
made to yield to the common. In case of conflict, as before said,
common life and interests outrank personal life and interests. It may
be asked how, in the ordinary regulation and government of a
community of this kind, the individual and common elements are to be
made to harmonize? The answer is, that the one at the head of affairs
must be a true Paulist that is to say, keenly sensitive of personal
rights as well as appreciative of such as are common: where the
question is not a point of rule, its decision is dependent on the
practical sagacity and prudence of the superior more than on any
minute regulations which can be given. He who interprets the acts of
legitimate authority as an attack on his personal liberty, is as far
out of the way as he who looks upon the exercise of reason as an
attack on authority."

"How about persons of dull minds or of little spiritual ambition
coming into the use of this freedom? First, no such person should be
allowed to enter into the community: such persons should be excluded.
Second, a full-fledged Paulist should have passed a long enough
novitiate to have acquired the special virtues which are necessary
for his vocation. Absence of supernatural light is the cause why a
man is not fit to be a Paulist, for he cannot understand rightly or
appreciate the value of the liberties he enjoys. He either is or he
becomes a turbulent element in the community."

"A Paulist, seeing that he has so much individuality, should have a
strong, nay, a very strong attrait for community life; he should be
fond of the Fathers' company, prefer them and their society when
seeking proper recreation, feel the house to be his home and the
community and its surroundings very dear to him; in the routine of
the day all the community exercises and labors are, in his judgment,
of paramount obligation and importance.

"The civil and political state of things of our age, particularly in
the United States, fosters the individual life. But it should do so
without weakening the community life: this is true individualism. The
problem is to make the synthesis. The joint product is the Paulist."

"A Paulist should cultivate personal freedom without detriment to the
community spirit; and, vice versa, the community spirit should not be
allowed to be detrimental to personal freedom. But when the