s, to speak or not to speak to such a person, or the
like; and I must put all my fervor in executing zealously and exactly
what I am ordered. I must consider myself as a corpse which has
neither intelligence nor will; be like a mass of matter which without
resistance lets itself be placed wherever it may please any one; like a
stick in the hand of an old man, who uses it according to his needs and
places it where it suits him. So must I be under the hands of the
Order, to serve it in the way it judges most useful.

"I must never ask of the Superior to be sent to a particular place, to
be employed in a particular duty.... I must consider nothing as
belonging to me personally, and as regards the things I use, be like a
statue which lets itself be stripped and never opposes resistance."[189]

[189] Bartoli-Michel, ii. 13

The other saying is reported by Rodriguez in the chapter from which I a
moment ago made quotations. When speaking of the Pope's authority,
Rodriguez writes:--

"Saint Ignatius said, when general of his company, that if the Holy
Father were to order him to set sail in the first bark which he might
find in the port of Ostia, near Rome, and to abandon himself to the
sea, without a mast, without sails, without oars or rudder or any of
the things that are needful for navigation or subsistence, he would
obey not only with alacrity, but without anxiety or repugnance, and
even with a great internal satisfaction."[190]

[190] Rodriguez: Op. cit., Part iii., Treatise v., ch. vi.

With a solitary concrete example of the extravagance to which the
virtue we are considering has been carried, I will pass to the topic
next in order.

"Sister Marie Claire [of Port Royal] had been greatly imbued with the
holiness and excellence of M. de Langres. This prelate, soon after he
came to Port Royal, said to her one day, seeing her so tenderly
attached to Mother Angelique, that it would perhaps be better not to
speak to her again. Marie Claire, greedy of obedience, took this
inconsiderate word for an oracle of God, and from that day forward
remained for several years without once speaking to her sister."[191]

[191] Sainte-Beuve: Histoire de Port Royal, i. 346.

Our next topic shall be Poverty, felt at all times and under all creeds
as one adornment of a saintly life. Since the instinct of ownership is
fundamental in man's nature, this is one more example of the ascetic
paradox. Yet it appears no pa