nt to annihilate me? Why does she wish to oppress me with her
caprices? It is caprice which makes her prevent me from developing the
expansive forces within me, and relegate me to a place among vain and
wearisome things, merely because I love her.

Thus, to save himself, the child should be a strong spirit, like
Vittorio Alfieri; but too often he cannot.

We do not perceive that the child is a victim and that we are
annihilating him; and then we demand _everything_ from his _nullity_
by a _fiat_, by an act of our omnipotence. We want the adult man, but
without allowing him to grow.

Many will think, when they read the story of Vittorio Alfieri, that
they would have wished something more in their sons; they would have
wished it to be unnecessary to set up material obstacles against
temptation, such as the cutting off of the hair and the binding to the
armchair with ropes; and would have hoped that a spiritual force would
have sufficed to resist it. Like one of our great poets who, singing
of the Roman Lucrezia, reproves her for having killed herself; since
she ought to have died of grief at the outrage, had she been even more
virtuous than she was.

Now that father with the spiritual ideals would not, in all
probability, ask himself what he himself had done to enable his son to
become strong and rise to the level of spiritual aid. Very likely he
is a father who did his utmost to break the will of his son and make
him submissive to his own will. No earthly father can make the spirit
rise to such heights; this can only be accomplished by the mysterious
voice which speaks within the heart of the man in the silence. A voice
which is strident because it is raised against the laws of Nature,
like the voice of the father who wishes to subdue another creature to
himself, disturbs that "silence" where, in peace and liberty, the
divine works are being accomplished. Without the "strong man" all is
vain.

It is recorded that a priest once presented to Saint Teresa a young
girl who wished to become a Carmelite nun, and who, according to him,
had angelic qualities. Saint Teresa, accepting the neophyte, replied:
"See, my father, our Lord has given this maiden devotion, but she has
no judgment, and never will have any; and she will always be a burden
to us."

One of the greatest of contemporary theologians, who during the
proceedings to obtain the canonisation of Joan of Arc had made a
profound study of her personality, says, in