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Lapi^ Lazuli. 
A mineral of a fine azure-blue color, usually amorphous, or in 
rounded masses of a moderate size. 
Humility. 
‘‘God hath sworn to lift on high 
Who sinks himself by true humility.” 
— Keble . 
Hp IIE humble man is he who acknowledges his own nothingness and the 
nothingness of all earthly things, and comports himself in accord¬ 
ance with this conviction. 
Humility is two-fold: it consists of humility of the understanding, 
by which a man becomes conscious of his own abjection, and humility of 
the ivill, which causes him to manifest his consciousness in his conduct. 
St. Bonaventure defines humility as voluntary self-abasement result¬ 
ing from the knowledge of our own frailty. 
St. Augustine says: “If you asked me, What is the most fundamen¬ 
tal thing in religion ? I should answer, It is humility. What is the sec¬ 
ond ? What is the third ? I should still reply, It is humility.” 
Humility is the first condition for praying, for having intercourse 
with our neighbor, for conquering temptations, for triumphing over our 
passions. 
Self-love can produce nothing but sin, or the false virtues, void of 
all merit, of the pagan philosophers, because it is only a miserable egqtisrn, 
which acts for itself alone, and which God cannot consequently recom¬ 
pense ; it is a vicious inclination, which makes us live and act without hav¬ 
ing faith or grace, and solely from natural motiyes. 
Humility, on the contrary, the true seat of grace, the seed of glory, 
the characteristic of the elect, makes us live a supernatural life, and all the 
