Prologue

"Give an occasion to a wise man, and wisdom shall be added to him."1 As an intelligent man, who frequently becomes wiser through the folly of others, finds even in trifling occurrences matter for increasing his store of knowledge, so newly appointed superiors, who may not be fully prepared for distinguishing between what is right and what is wrong in the discharge of their duties, may find inducements in this treatise to give the matter more earnest reflection and seek from the study of the imperfections here described to acquire a better knowledge of the higher and more useful things as well as of many others necessary to a religious superior in the govern ment of inferiors. For we read that scientists have been led to deduce certain practical prin ciples from the careful study of the habits of certain animals.2 * St. Isidore, Etymolog., C. 19, n. 9.