Letter II. To a Gentleman who was going to live at Court

8th December, 1610. Sir, — At last then you are going to make sail, and take the open sea of the world at court. God be gracious to you, and may his holy hand be ever with you!

I am not so fearful as many others, and I do not think that profession one of the most dangerous for those of noble souls and manly heart; for there are but two principal rocks in this gulf: vanity, which ruins spirits that are soft, slothful, feminine, and weak (Jlouets); and ambition, which ruins audacious and presumptuous hearts.

And as vanity is a defect of courage, and has not the strength to undertake the acquisition of true and solid praise, but desires and is content with the false and the empty; so ambition is an excess of courage, which leads us to purchase glories and honours without and against the rule of reason.

Thus vanity causes us to occupy ourselves with those silly gallantries which are in praise with women and other little spirits, and in contempt with great hearts and elevated souls; and ambition makes us want to have honours before deserving them. It is ambition which makes us put to our own credit, and at too high price, the merit of our predecessors, and we would willingly gain our esteem from theirs.

Well, sir, against all this, since it pleases you that I speak so, continue to nourish your soul with spiritual and Divine meats, for they will make us strong against vanity, and just against ambition.

Keep carefully to frequent communion; and, believe me, you could do nothing more calculated to strengthen yourself in virtue. And to make yourself quite safe in this practice, put yourself under the orders of some good confessor, and beseech him to take authority to make you give an account in confession of the failures you may make in this exercise, if by chance you make any. Always confess humbly, and with a true and express purpose of amendment.

Never forget (and this I conjure you) to ask on your knees the help of our Lord, before leaving your house, and to ask the pardon of your sins before going to bed.

Especially beware of bad books; and for nothing in the world let your soul be carried away by certain writings which weak brains admire, because of some vain subtleties which thev find therein. Such are the works of that infamous Rabelais, and certain others of our age, who profess to doubt everything, to despise everything, and to scoff at all the maxims of antiquity. On the contrary, have books of solid doctrine, and specially Christian and spiritual ones to recreate yourself in from time to time.

I recommend to you the gentle and sincere courtesy which offends no one and obliges all; which seeks love rather than honour; which never rallies any one so as to hurt them, nor stingingly; which repels no one and is itself never repelled. Or, if repelled, it is but rarely; in exchange for which it is very often honourably advanced.

Take care, I beseech you, not to embarrass yourself in love-makings [amourettes), and not to allow your affections to prevent your judgment and reason, in the choice of objects of love; for, when once inclination has taken its course, it drags the judgment like a slave to decisions which are very improper, well worthy of the repentance which soon follows them.

I would wish that, first, in speech, in bearing, and in intercourse with others, you should make open and express profession of wishing to live virtuously, judiciously, persevering] y, and Christianly.

I say virtuously, that no one may attempt to engage you in immoralities.

Judiciously, that you may not show extreme signs, exteriorly, of your intention, but such only as, according to your condition, may not be censured by the wise.

Perseveringly, because unless you show with perseverance an equal and inviolable will, you will expose your resolutions to the designs and attempts of many miserable souls, who attack others to draw them to their company.

In fine, I say Christianly, because some make profession of wishing to be virtuous philosophically (ct la philosophique), who, however, are not so, and can in no way be so; and are nothing else but phantoms of virtue, hiding from those who are not familiar with them their bad life and ways by graceful manners and words.

But we, who well know that we cannot have a single particle of virtue but by the grace of our Lord, we must employ piety and holy devotion to live virtuously; otherwise we shall have virtues only in imagination and in shadow.

Now it is of the last importance to let ourselves be known early such as we wish to be always, and in this we must have no haggling (marchander).

It is also of the greatest importance to make some friends of the like aim, with whom you can associate and strengthen yourself. For it is a very true thing that the company of well-regulated souls is extremely useful to us to keep our own well regulated.

I think you will easily find either among the Jesuits, or the Capuchins, or the Feuillants, or even outside the monasteries, some gracious (courtois) spirit who will be glad if you sometimes go to see him, to recreate yourself, and take spiritual breath.

But you must permit me to say to you one thing in particular.

You see, sir, I fear you may return to gaming, and I fear it, because it will be to you a great evil: it would, in a few days, dissipate your "heart, and make all the flowers of your good desires wither. It is the occupation of an idler; and those who want to get renown and introductions by playing with the great, and who call this the best way of getting known, show that they have no good deserts, since they have no better credit than that of having money and wanting to risk it. It is no great merit to be known as gamesters; but if they meet with great losses every one knows them to be fools. I pass over the consequences, such as quarrels, despair and madnesses, from which not one gamester has any exemption.

I wish you, further, a vigorous heart, not to flatter your body by delicacies, in eating, sleeping, and such other softnesses: for a generous heart has always a little contempt for bodily comforts and pleasures.

Still our Lord said that those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings* therefore do I speak to you about it. Our Lord does not mean to say that all those who are in king's houses must be clothed in soft garments, but he says only that customarily those who clothe themselves softly are there. Of course I am not speaking of the exterior of the clothing, but of the interior; for as to the ex- * Matt. xi. 8.

terior, you know far better what is proper; it is not for me to speak of it.

I mean, then, to say that I would like you sometimes to correct your body so far as to make it feel some rigours and hardships; by the contempt of delicacies, and by frequent denial of things agreeable to the senses; for, again, the reason must sometimes exercise its superiority, and the authority which it has to control the sensual appetites.

My God! I am too diffuse, and I scarcely know what I am saying, for it is without leisure^ and at odd moments; you know my heart, and will take all well; but still I must further say this.

Imagine that you were a courtier of St. Louis; this holy king (and the king * is now holy by innocence) loved that every one should be brave, courageous, generous, good-humoured, courteous, affable, free, polite; and still he loved, above all, that every one should be a good Christian.

And if you had been with him, you would have seen him kindly laughing on occasion, speaking boldly at proper time, taking care that all was in splendour about him, like another Solomon, to maintain the royal dignity; and a moment afterwards serving the poor in the hospitals, and, in a word, marrying civil with Christian virtue, and majesty with humility.

In a word, this is what we must try after; to be no less brave for being Christian, and no less Christian for being brave; and for this we must be very * Louis XIII., aged nine years.

i 8 2 Si. Francis de Sales.

good Christians, that is, very devout, pious, and if passible, spiritual; for, as St. Paul says: the spiritual man discerneth all things; he knows at what time, in what order, by what method, each virtue must be practised.

Form often this good thought, that we are walking in this world between Paradise and Hell, that our last step will place us in an eternal dwelling, and that to make the last well, we must try to make all the others well.

O holy and unending eternity! blessed is he who thinks of you. Yes; for what do we play here in this world but a children's game? Nothing whatever, if it were not the passage to eternity.

On this account, therefore, we must pay attention to the time we have to dwell here below, and to all our occupations, so as to employ them in the conquest of the permanent good.

Love me always as yours {chose votre), for I am so in our Lord, wishing you every happiness for this world, and particularly for the other: may God bless you, and hold you by his holy hand.

And to finish where I began: you are going to take the high sea of the world; change not, on that account, patron or sails, or anchor, or wind. Have Jesus always for your patron, his cross for a mast, on which you must spread your resolutions as a sail: your anchor shall be a profound confidence in him, — and sail prosperously; may the favourable wind of celestial * i Cor. ii, 15.

inspirations ever fill your vessel's sails fuller and fuller, and make you happily arrive at the port of a holy eternity, which with true heart is wished you, sir, by your, &c.