wert going to travel in dark midnight by an uuknown road, wouldst thou wish for a guide who was unacquainted with the way? If thou wert ill of a dangerous disease, wouldst thou desire to have an ignorant and inexperienced or tender physician, who, by sparing thee, would kill thee? No one entrusts his horse or his ox to the care of any but an honest and experienced person; yet thinkest thou that it is of small consequence to whom thou entrustest thy soul? It will, then, be safest for thee to entrust thy soul to one able to take care of his own. If the blind lead the blind, do not both fall into the ditch? For who will be good to one who is evil to himself?
Man. To err and be deceived is, I confess, O Lord, the lot of man. Oh, that thou wouldst provide mo a guide who has a zeal of God according to knowledge, able to instruct me in the spirit of gentleness and meekness, who seeks not his own, but the things of Jesus Christ; one, I say, who, for love of thee and of his neighbour, would not spare me, that thou, O Lord, mayest spare us both. Let the just man correct me plainly in mercy, and reprove me; but let not the oil of a flatterer anoint my head. In him I shall hear not so much the man as thyself speaking in him; for truth, come whence it may, is from thee, who art the first truth.
§ 10. Daily examination of conscience.
Christ. There is yet one thing to which thou must daily and earnestly attend, or thy labour upon others will seem thrown away. This is the daily examination of conscience, which is of such consequence, that without it there can be no hope of thy long continuance in a holy and spiritual life, or of thy solid progress in virtue. For since the knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation, how shall one who does not even care to know his defects think seriously of amendment of life, compunction, or advancement in piety? How shall one who knows not when he has offended me, be anxious to obtain of me forgiveness and remission of sins? How shall one seek to be cured who is ignorant of his disease, and rather flatters himself that he is perfectly well; and is pleased with himself, as though he were a good man, and had done no evil; and says, I am rich, and have need of nothing, and knows not that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked?
My son, if thou wouldst look into thyself, thou wouldst displease thyself and please
