an seems
to advise and teach himself. It does its work unperceived, and therefore
with less opposition from the passions, which take not the alarm. Its
influence is communicated with pleasure. Nor does virtue here appear
barren and dry as in discourses, but animated and living, arrayed with
all her charms, exerting all her powers, and secretly obviating the
pretences, and removing the difficulties which self-love never fails to
raise. In the lives of the saints we see the most perfect maxims of the
gospel reduced to practice, and the most heroic virtue made the object
of our senses, clothed as it were with a body, and exhibited to view in
its most attractive dress. Here, moreover, we are taught the means by
which virtue is obtained, and learn the precipices and snares which we
are to shun, and the blinds and by-ways in which many are bewildered and
misled in its pursuit. The example of the servants of God points out to
us the true path, and leads us as it were by the hand into it, sweetly
inviting and encouraging us to walk cheerfully in the steps of those
that are gone before us.

Neither is it a small advantage that, by reading the history of the
saints, we are introduced into the acquaintance of the greatest
personages who have ever adorned the world, the brightest ornaments of
the church militant, and the shining stars and suns of the triumphant,
our future companions in eternal glory. While we admire the wonders of
grace and mercy, which God hath displayed in their favor, we are
strongly moved to praise his adorable goodness. And, in their
penitential lives and holy maxims, we learn the sublime lessons of
practical virtue, which their assiduous meditation on the divine word,
the most consummate experience in their deserts, watchings, and commerce
with heaven, and the lights of the Holy Ghost, their interior Master,
discovered to them. But it is superfluous to show from reason the
eminent usefulness of the example, and the history of the saints, which
the most sacred authority recommends to us as one of the most powerful
helps to virtue. It is the admonition of St. Paul, that we remember our
holy teachers, and that, having the end of their conversation before our
eyes, we imitate their faith.[4]

For our instruction the Holy Ghost himself inspired the prophets to
record the lives and actions of many illustrious saints in the holy
scriptures. The church could not, in a more solemn manner, recommend to
us to have th