on our guard against two faults, which very commonly impair its action.
Ignorance is the first of these; it darkens the understanding, and obstructs the entrance of truth—its proper object. Therefore you must by exercise of the understanding render it clear and bright, so that you may be able to see and distinctly discern what you need for purifying your soul from its disorderly passions, and adorning it with holy virtues.
Light may be obtained in two ways.
The first and most important means is prayer. The Holy Ghost should be intreated to pour this light into our hearts, which He will not fail to do, if we are true with God, and really seek nothing else but the fulfilment of His holy Will, and entirely submit our own judgment to that of our spiritual fathers.
The second way is, to gain the habit of viewing all things seriously and faithfully, in order to see them as they really are according to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, whether they are good or evil, and not according to their outward appearance, as judged by our senses, or by the world.
And if things are duly considered from this point of view, we shall clearly see that all, which the world in its blindness and corruption, in so many and in such various ways, seeks after and is eager to gain, is empty and delusive; and that
