st much natural horror,
not however exceeding that described by Dante, there are many quaint
side-lights thrown upon our forefathers' ways of thought; as _e.g._,
when Margaret's soul is weighed in one scale, against the fiend, "and a
great long worm with him," in the other; the worm of conscience, in
fact. But the work has not been included in this volume, lest it should
prove wholly unprofitable to a generation which if it be not readily
disturbed by sin, is easily and quickly shocked by crude suggestions
concerning its possible consequences and reward. They will find enough,
perhaps, in the treatise _on Daily Work_.

If any one should think that there, and in one portion of the treatise
_on Grace_, Rolle has dwelt harshly on considerations of fear, rather
than on those of love, he must not make the mistake of concluding that
these admonitions represent the whole of Catholic teaching on the point.
Men's temperaments differ, and teachers, meeting these various tempers,
differ in their modes of helping them. Side by side with Richard Rolle
may be put the words of S. Francis Xavier, in what is perhaps the most
beautiful of Christian hymns:--

My GOD, I love Thee; not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor yet because who love Thee not
Are lost eternally.

. . . . . .

Not for the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as Thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord!

Moreover, no reader of the Epistle _on Charity_ can entertain any doubt
as to whether our English Mystic understood the mystery of limitless
love.

It is no doubt, easy to complain, as we read certain passages, that
Richard Rolle's recommendations are neither new nor original: but if
instead of dismissing them as familiar, we tried to put them into
practice, we should perhaps have less leisure for idle criticism of
others, and ourselves be less evil and tiresome people.

On the other hand, the accusation may be brought that he proposes an
impossibly high aim. No doubt, in such a pitch of devotion as is
suggested, _e.g._, in ch. viii. of _The Form of Perfect Living_, some
may think they find extravagance: but no doubt it was this same spirit
which inspired SS. Peter and Paul, and the other Apostles; which built
up the Early Church; which made Saints, Martyrs and Confessors; which
suggested such apparently forlorn hopes as that of S. Augustine of
Canterbury, when, to bring them the Gospel of JE