IxXXVi. PROLEGOMENA. 



his duties ; heard mass and vespers every 

 day ; that he said the Angelus morniMg-, 

 noon, and night ; that he kept all the canonical 

 hours, never omitted morning or night prayers, 

 never forgot his beads, or the office of the rosary 

 or feasts of Our Lady ; that he knew the calen- 

 dar by heart, kept all the festivals, and spent two 

 hours a day in meditation, and more in works of 

 mercy, I should say well done ; — but part of all 

 this cannot be achieved by everybody who have 

 secular duties to do ; some are forced to spend 

 nearly the whole day out of doors, with the ex- 

 ception of only a very small portion of time for 

 some of the above offices. What are they to do ? 

 Why they must convert, by habits of early asso- 

 ciation, everything into a memento of the End of 

 their Creation, and the means of achieving it well. 

 On rising, every man may meditate for a short 

 time ; he may then convert the scenes of the day 

 into a short history of the world : at the twilight 

 crowing of the cock he may think of the first dawn 

 when God said, " Let there be light;" as the sun 

 expands the view, he may reflect on the creation of 

 all animated nature ; when he goes out from his 

 own little garden to toil in the field, he may think 

 of the first man chased away from Paradise to 

 till the earth ; — for what are all our wants and 

 labours but the penalty of Adam ; — the brilliant 

 rays of noon, while the cattle bask under the 



