Thee; because Thou wast good I have made no account of Thy precepts. I confess that I have done wickedly; and I detest all the offences I have committed against Thee. Now do I love Thee more than myself, and I desire never more to displease Thee. Ah, if I should again offend Thee by mortal sin! Permit it not, O Lord; rather let me die. O Mary, Mother of perseverance, do thou assist me.
MEDITATION IX.
The Emptiness and Shortness of Human Life.
1. Holy David said that the happiness of this life is as the dream of one awaking from sleep: as the dream of them that awake. All the greatness and glory of this world will appear no more to poor wordlings, at the hour of death, than as a dream to one awaking from sleep, who finds that the fortune which he had acquired in his dream ends with his sleep. Hence, did one who was undeceived wisely write on the skull of a dead man, " Cogitanti ornnia vilescunt" — He who thinks, undervalues all things. Yes, to him who thinks on death, all the goods of this life appear, as they really are, vile and transitory. Nor can that man fix his affections on the earth who reflects that in a short time he must leave it forever.
Ah, my God, how often have I despised Thy grace for the miserable goods of this world! Henceforth I desire to think of nothing but of loving and serving Thee. Assist me with Thy holy grace.
2. "And is it thus, then, that worldly grandeur and sovereign power must end?" Such was the exclamation of St. Francis Borgia, when he beheld the corpse of the Empress Isabella, who died in the flower of her youth. Reflecting upon what he saw, he resolved to bid adieu to the world, and to give himself entirely to God, say-
