and pens of his servants, that, although the doctrine is always one and the same, the discourses which are held on it are, nevertheless, very different, according to the various methods in which they are composed. I certainly cannot, neither do I wish, nor ought I to write in this Introduction but what has been written by our predecessors on this subject. They are the same flowers which I present to you, my reader; but the bouquet which I have formed from them will be different from theirs, on account of the difference of the method of making it.
Almost all those who have hitherto treated of devotion have had the instruction of persons wholly retired from the world in view, or have taught a kind of devotion leading to this absolute retirement: whereas my intention is to instruct such as live in towns, in households, or in courts, and who, by their condition, are obliged to lead, as to the exterior, an ordinary life, and who frequently, under the pretext of a pretended impossibility, will not even think of undertaking a devout life, believing, that as no animal dares to taste the seed of the herb called Palma Christi, so no man ought to aspire to the palm of Christian piety so long as
