er me,--' Jesus, thou son of
the living God, give me the grace to believe firmly this first article of
thy faith, and with that intention we offer thee that prayer of which
thou thyself art author.' We add,--' Holy Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ, obtain for us, from thy beloved Son, to believe this article,
without any doubt concerning it.' The same method is observed in all the
other articles; and almost in the same manner we run over the ten
commandments. When we have jointly repeated the first precept, which is,
to love God, we pray thus: 'O Jesu Christ, thou Son of the living God,
grant us thy grace to love thee above all things!' and immediately after
we say the Lord's prayer; then immediately we subjoin: 'O holy Mary,
mother of Jesus, obtain for us, from thy Son, that we may have the grace
to keep this first commandment.' After which we say the Ave Maria. We
observe the same method through the other nine commandments, with some
little variation, as the matter requires it.

"These are the things which I accustom them to beg of God in the common
prayers; omitting not sometimes to assure them, that if they obtain
the thing for which they pray, even that is a means for them to obtain
other things more amply than they could demand them.

"I oblige them all to say the confiteor, but principally those who are to
receive baptism, whom I also enjoin to say the belief. At every article,
I demand of them, if they believe it without any scruple; and when they
have assured me, that they do, I commonly make them an exhortation, which
I have composed in their own language,--being an epitome of the Christian
faith, and of the necessary duties incumbent on us in order to our
salvation. In conclusion, I baptize them, and shut up all in singing the
salve regina, to implore the assistance of the blessed Virgin."

It is evident, by what we have already said concerning the instruction of
the Paravas, that Xavier had not the gift of tongues when he began to
teach them: But it appears also, that, after he had made the translation,
which cost him so much labour, he both understood and spoke the Malabar
tongue, whether he had acquired it by his own pains, or that God had
imprinted the species of it in his mind after a supernatural manner. It
is at least probable, that, being in the Indies when he studied any
tongue, the Holy Spirit seconded his application, and was in some sort
his master; for it is constantly believed, that in a v