quiet; the man is quite right, for I would actually be what he says I am, did I not apply myself to the study of philosophy and the practice of virtue.” If a heathen by natural means can so overcome his evil inclinations, how much more in this respect can and should Christians accomplish by grace!
Q. Was any one ever preserved from original sin?
A. The Blessed Virgin Mary, through the merits of her Divine Son, was preserved free from the guilt of original sin, and this privilege is called her Immaculate Conception.
The Apparition at Lourdes
Even at the present day apparitions take place in order to corroborate the truth of our religion. In the south of France, there is a small town called Lourdes, situated at the foot of the Pyrenees. In the year 1858, that is, four years after the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of God appeared there no less than eighteen times. The following is an account of how she was seen by Bernadette Soubirous, a girl fourteen years old, the child of poor parents, who had brought her up piously and taught her to say the rosary. This she often did when keeping sheep on the hills. About midday on the 11th of February, 1858, Bernadette went with some other girls to pick up sticks on the banks of the river Gave, which flows at the foot of the mountains. While the Angelus was being rung from the church tower, she saw in a niche in the rocks on the other side of the river the
