prostration, "I mean to make you the receiver-general of all my inmost
ruminations. Harken attentively to what I am going to say. I have a
great pleasure in preaching. The Lord sheds a blessing on my homilies;
they sink deep into the hearts of sinners; set up a glass in which
vice sees its own image, and bring back many from the paths of error
into the high-road of repentance. What a heavenly sight, when a miser,
scared at the hideous picture of his avarice drawn by my eloquence,
opens his coffers to the poor and needy, and dispenses the accumulated
store with a liberal hand! The voluptuary, too, is snatched from the
pleasures of the table; ambition flies at my command to the wholesome
discipline of the monastic cell; while female frailty, tottering on
the brink of ruin, with one ear open to the siren voice of the seducer
and the other to my saintly correctives, is restored to domestic
happiness and the approving smile of heaven, by the timely warnings of
the pulpit.

"These miraculous conversions, which happen almost every Sunday, ought
of themselves to goad me on in the career of saving souls.
Nevertheless, to conceal no part of my weakness from my monitor, there
is another reward on which my heart is intent--a reward which the
seraphic scrupulousness of my virtue to little purpose condemns as too
carnal--a literary reputation for a sublime and elegant style. The
honor of being handed down to posterity as a perfect pulpit orator has
its irresistible attractions. My compositions are generally thought to
be equally powerful and persuasive; but I could wish of all things to
steer clear of the rock on which good authors split who are too long
before the public, and to retire from professional life with my
reputation in undiminished luster. To this end, my dear Gil Blas,"
continued the prelate, "there is one thing requisite from your zeal
and friendship. Whenever it shall strike you that my pen begins to
contract, as it were, the ossification of old age, whenever you see my
genius in its climateric, do not fail to give me a hint. There is no
trusting to one's self in such a case: pride and conceit were the
original sin of man. The probe of criticism must be entrusted to an
impartial stander-by, of fine talents and unshaken probity. Both those
requisites center in you: you are my choice, and I give myself up to
your direction."

"Heaven be praised, my lord," said I, "there is no need to trouble
yourself with any such th