Letter 7. To President Fremiot

ON PREPARATION FOR DEATH.

Yours has been a long and honourable life, one of faithfulness to the Church, but still it has been spent in the world, and in worldly afiairs, and it is not possible to live in the world, even though we only tread it under our feet, without being soiled by its dust, as S. Leo says, “Necessa est de humano pulvere etiam religiosa corda sordescere.”

In patriarchal days, Abraham and his successors were wont to offer water to wash their guests' feet, and so I think the first thing you have to do is to wash your soul, that it may be ready to accept Our Dear Lord's hospitality in Paradise.

It always seems to me unfitting for any mortal man to die without having thought about death, but it is doubly wrong in the case of those who have been blessed by God with the grace of old age; and they are ever best prepared who make ready before the alarm is given, and have not to seek for their arms in confusion and terror. It is well to take leave of the world calmly, and little by little to withdraw one's affections from it. When trees are blown down by the wind, they are not fit for transplanting, because their roots remain in the ground; if you would move them successfully you must loosen their roots and fibres gradually; and as we hope to be transplanted from this miserable world into the world of life, we must withdraw our earthly attachments, and loosen our hold upon them by degrees; not rudely and roughly, but gently and carefully. When people leave a place suddenly, they are excusable if they do not take leave of their friends, and set out unprepared; but those who have foreseen their coming departure should hold themselves ready, — ^not in order to start before the appointed time, but to await it with calmness. To this end I think you would find great comfort in taking a fixed time daily for consideration, as before God and your Guardian Angel, as to what is necessary to a blessed departure. How would you have your affairs stand if it be near? I know that such thoughts are nothing new to you, but they should be renewed in the Presence of God> made with calm attention, and rather so as to excite the affections than the intellect.

I have benefited by your fine library; from it I would suggest, as your spiritual reading on this subject, S. Ambrose, “ De bono Mortis S. Bernard, “ De interiori domo,” and sundry of S. Chrysostom^s Homilies. S. Bernard says that the soul departing to God should first kiss the Feet of the Crucified by purging his affections, and heartily, though gradually, withdrawing himself from the world and its vanities; then His Hands, by the renewal of actions which is the result of changed affections; then His Mouth, uniting himself to his All-gracious Saviour by ardent love. We are told that Alexander the Great, when at sea, discovered Arabia Felix by the scent of its aromatic herbs and trees; even so those who seek a Heavenly Country, while yet on the broad ocean of life, inhale the sweet odours of Paradise, which cheer and encourage them in their voyage thither, but they must ever keep to windward, lest it fail. We owe ourselves to God, to our coimtry, our relations, our friends — to God first, and our Heavenly Country has a stronger claim than our natural country; then to our relations, but no one is so near a relation as oneself; to our fnends, but your closest friend is you. S. Paul says to Timothy, “ Attende tibi et gregi; ” * first “ tibi,” then “ gregi.'^

Enough, dear Sir, if not too much for this year, which is fast speeding away, and which, in two short months, will be for ever gone, like its predecessors..... May God fill your remaining years with His blessings.

I remain with a most filial affection, yours, &c.

[64.] Vlll.