XXXVni. PROLEGOMENA. 



seem to me to relate to the union with the Deity. 

 People talk of being united to God in prayer, 

 and so on. In short the more one meditates in 

 silence and in abstraction from the interferences 

 of earthly objects, which dazzle our senses, on 

 the end of our being-, we must be convinced 

 of this: and hence we see the comprehensive force 

 of the maxim of St. li^natius : — O nines cogitaiio- 

 nes verba et opera in Deum, tanquam injlnem, 

 referrentes ad Deum etDeigloriam honoremque 

 destinate. To toil for this end then is the labour 

 of the life of a Christian ; and as the perfection 

 of Charity is to effect our own union with God, 

 or our salvation, by labouring for that of our fellow 

 creatures, so also must we even forego periodical 

 prayer and the divine office, for the fulfilment of the 

 duties of education and conversion, for the greater 

 spiritual gain : hence again do we perceive, as 

 our holy Father expresses it, Relinquere Deum 

 propter Deum midtum lucri spiritualis esse 

 compendium, nidlum dispendiiim. 



The complete exercise of this harvest of souls, 

 cannot be exercised so well in riches as in poverty. 

 For riches (derived from the Gothic rigkan, 

 congerere, to heap up, like ricks, and racks, 

 things raked up, whether of corn, hay, or 

 money, honors, or scientific renown, it matters 

 not,) are opposed to poverty, or egestas, which 

 is, the being without congeries or heaps of 



