GOD has
implanted, these three tyrants that have obtained dominion over, you: (1.)
Pride; (2.) Ambition; (3.) Self-conceit.

From them have sprung: dissatisfaction and contempt of your life and its
surroundings, restlessness, a longing for power and dominion over others,
malice, habitual discontent, and incessant murmurings. Have you any
further doubts? Then inquire of those with whom you live.

Ah! if this be indeed the sad result, then, whatever may be your age,
close, oh! close those books, and seek once more those two elements of
happiness you ought never to have forsaken, and which, had you made them
the companions of your study, would have kept you pure and good.

I refer to prayer and manual labor.

XVII.

Listen to the story of a simple shepherd, given in his own words: "I
forget now who it was that once said to me, 'Jean Baptiste, you are very
poor?'--True.--'If you fell ill, your wife and children would be
destitute?'--True. And then I felt anxious and uneasy for the rest of the
day."

"At Evensong wiser thoughts came to me, and I said to myself: Jean
Baptiste, for more than thirty years you have lived in the world, you have
never possessed anything, yet still you live on, and have been provided
each day with nourishment, each night with repose. Of trouble GOD has
never sent you more than your share. Of help the means have never failed
you. To whom do you owe all this? To GOD. Jean Baptiste, be no longer
ungrateful, and banish those anxious thoughts; for what could ever induce
you to think that the Hand from which you have already received so much,
would close against you when you grow old, and have greater need of help?
I finished my prayer, and felt at peace."

XVIII.

The work of the Sower is given to each of us in this world, and we fall
short of our duty when we let those with whom we are brought in contact
leave us without having given them a kind thought or pious impression.

Nothing is so sad as the cry, "I am useless!" Happily none need ever _be_
so.

A kind word, a gentle act, a modest demeanor, a loving smile, are as so
many seeds that we can scatter every moment of our lives, and which will
always spring up and bear fruit.

Happy are those who have many around them ... they are rich in
opportunities, and may sow plenteously.

XIX.

Few positions in life are so full of importunities as that of the mother
of a family, or mistress of a house. She may have a dozen interruptions