St. Basil prescribes another means, which, he says, will in a short time contribute very much to our advancement in perfection. This is never to stop in the pursuit of virtue. There are men, who are sometimes seized with certain fits of zeal and devotion, but stop short on a sudden, and go no farther. Be sure not to imitate these, but advance constantly on your way, and remember that, in your spiritual career, you will become more weary by halting than if you continue your journey. It is not the same in spiritual as in corporal exercises: the body is weakened and exhausted by continual labour; but the more the soul acts, the more strong and vigorous she becomes, according to the Latin proverb: " The bow is broken by being too much bent, and the mind is corrupted by too much relaxation." (Arcum frangit intensio, animnm remissio.)
St. Ambrose says, that as it is far easier to preserve our innocence, than to repent truly: so it is easier to persevere in the fervour of devotion, than to recover it after a short discontinuance. When a smith has taken a bar of iron from the fire, to forge it to the shape he desires, he never permits it to grow quite cold, but puts it into the fire again as soon as possible, that it may grow hot and fit for the hammer to work upon as before. In like manner ought we to be cautious never to suffer the fire of our devotion to be extinguished: for if the heart once grows cold, and begins to harden, we shall find it extremely difficult to warm and soften it again. We find by experience, that though men be very far advanced in virtue, if they once begin to grow remiss, and discontinue their exercises of piety, they lose, in a few days, what they had been a long time acquiring; and when they endeavour to recover it again, they find so many difficulties and contradictions in the attempt, that they can seldom rise to that degree of perfection from which they had fallen. They, on the contrary, who persevere with fervour in their devotions and spiritual exercises, not only remain with ease in that degree of perfection they had already attained, but in a little time ascend much higher. Thus they never lose time, nor diminish what they have once acquired. They are not like the tepid and negligent, who spend their whole life in alternate fits, of tepidity and devotion, destroying by their negligence what they have acquired by their fervour, doing and undoing, building up and putting down, without ever bringing any of their projects to perfection. But the fervent labour incessantly without repose; and acquiring new strength by continual exercise, they perform
