because they are shot like darts or arrows towards Heaven.
They have a great effect upon us, stirring us to virtue, and penetrate even to the heart of God, if they have, so to speak, these two wings:—one, a true knowledge that God is pleased with such spiritual exercises; the other, a true and ardent desire after holiness with the sole end of pleasing His Divine Majesty.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
That in the Exercise of Virtue we must continually Advance with Diligence.
AMONGST the things which are most important and necessary for the attainment of virtues, besides those already taught, this is to be borne in mind;—that we must uninterruptedly press forward towards the end we have purposed; else, by only standing still, we turn back.
For as soon as we leave off acts of virtue, it follows of necessity, that, by the violent inclination of the sensual appetite and the action of external objects, many unruly passions are raised in us, which impair or destroy holiness; and, besides that, we lose many graces and gifts, which, if we had continued to press onward, we might have gained from the Lord. In this re-
