the honours and pleasures of earth are but vanity and vexation of spirit; that injury and reproach, inflicted by the world, produce true glory, and that tribulation is a source of contentment. We shall learn, that to pardon our enemies and to benefit them is greatness of mind, and forms in us a close resemblance to God; that to despise the world is a nobler course than to have possession of it; that to obey for the love of God those far beneath us, is more generous and great than to rule great princes; that a humble conception of ourselves is more precious than the highest intellectual attainments; and, that the victory over and mortification of a slight rising of one of the passions is more glorious than the conquest of many cities, than the overthrow of powerful and armed forces, than the working of miracles and the raising of the dead.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Hindrances to a right Discernment of Things, and of the course which we should take in order to Judge truly concerning them.
OUR failure in judging of the things above mentioned, and of others, must be traced to the precipitancy with which at the first blush we regard them either with love or hatred; and
