ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.
Of the "Venerable" Author of the following work the reader will find a full and edifying account in the excellent " Life of F. Ludovico de Ponte," lately published by the Fathers of the Oratory ; of the work itself the subjoined extract, from the same life, is at once a glowing and a truthful testimony.
"It is in truth an immortal work, in which the reader scarcely knows which to admire most, either the extensive learning, or the order of arrangement, or the multiplicity and correctness of the reflections, or the unction with which the mysteries are unfolded: it cannot be read without feeling the will excited to devotion, or without a desire to profit by it. It passed through three editions, and was translated into several other languages within one year after its first appearance. In it he explains admirably the practice of prayer, at the same time furnishing ample materials for it. In it directors and confessors may find wherewith to instruct those committed to their charge. In it religious of every order may find
