ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. 333 



inclinations, the whole world of waters for your 

 habitation. It is he that has furnished it with 

 lodgings, chambers, caverns, grottoes, and such mag- 

 nificent retirements as are not to be met with in the 

 seats of kings or in the palaces of princes ! 



' You have the water for your dwelling a clear, 

 transparent element, brighter than crystal ; you can 

 see from its deepest bottom everything that passes 

 on its surface. You have the eyes of a lynx or of 

 an Argus ; you are guided by a secret and unerring 

 principle, delighting in everything that may be bene- 

 ficial to you, and avoiding everything that may be 

 hurtful ; you are carried on by a hidden instinct to 

 preserve yourselves, and to propagate your species ; 

 you obey, in all your actions, works, and motions, the 

 dictates and suggestions of nature, without the least 

 repugnance or contradiction. 



' The cold of winter and the heat of summer 

 are alike incapable of molesting you. A serene 

 or a clouded sky are indifferent to you. Let 

 the earth abound in fruits or be cursed with 

 scarcity, it has no influence on your welfare. You 

 live secure in rains and thunders, lightnings aud 

 earthquakes ; you have no concern in the blossoms 

 of spring or in the glowings of summer, in the fruits 

 of autumn or in the frosts of winter. You are not 

 sclicitous about hours or days, months or years, 

 the variableness of the weather or the change of 

 seasons.' 



