Chapter V. That we have need to Watch continually over our Will, so as to discover the particular Passion to which it inclines

ENTER into yourself as deeply as possible, in order to find out to which of your passions your will is most often inclined; for by it, more than by any other, it will be seduced and held in bondage.

For since the will of man is unaccustomed to lack the companionship of some one of the passions, it must needs either love or hate, desire or shun, rejoice or regret, hope or despair, be fearful or daring, or be angry.

When you find it to be influenced by some passion, not as God wills, but as its own self-love wills, take pains to bend it from the love of self to the love of God, and to the observance of the precepts of God, and of His Law. And this you should do, not only with strong passions, such as those which lead to mortal sins, but also with those which are the occasion of venial faults; for these, when they are allowed, though they move lightly and tread very softly, keep us nevertheless weak and without vigour, and in great peril of falling into mortal sin.