Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/14

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the meditations are stored with sound reasoning and argument, the colloquies are so many out-pourings of the heart in prayer, always natural and impressive — not unfrequently sublime. It may be added, that every expression of the soul, and every tone of the heart, so they be in earnest and rightly disposed, will not fail to find an echo in those deep and devout breathings.

Nor are the quotations from Scripture and the Fathers the least excellence of the work. They are scattered through the meditations, pointing and sanctioning the truths set forth, with a force, frequency, and appositeness which bespeak a rare amount of scriptural and patristic learning.

Those who, through God's grace, feel happily drawn to aspire to this " science of the saints," will find in the Introduction a course of instruction admirably adapted to initiate and lead them on. Nor will it be consulted without profit even by the more advanced.

As a proof of the estimation in which this work has ever been held, it may be observed that it passed through three editions within one year after its first appearance, and has gone through at least fourteen more subsequently.

The edition of which the present professes to be a reprint, is by John Heigham, who is mentioned by Dodd, in his history, as a gentleman chiefly residing abroad and occupying himself in translating works of