with great facility the most difficult undertakings, and daily advance more and more in virtue. Thus both the one and the other verify in themselves that saying of the Wise Man: " The slothful hand hath wrought poverty; but the hand of the industrious getteth riches." (Prov. x. 4.) " The soul of those that labour shall grow fat." (Prov. xiii. 4.)
A great servant of God was wont to compare the tepid and fervent religious to two sorts of courtiers. He said that the lukewarm who think themselves entitled on account of their seniority to ease and indulgence, and who labour to advance no farther in perfection, were like those old domestics, who, from their former services, were allowed a place in court, but on account of their present inactivity, receive no further preferment from their prince, or are hardly admitted into his presence; but the fervent he compares to those wise and active young courtiers, who continually waited upon, and applied all their thoughts to discover what was most pleasing to their prince, and by their diligence and assiduity, insinuated themselves so far into his good graces, that they were at length raised to very high honours and dignities.
CHAPTER XIII.
Of three other Means which conduce very much to our further Advancement in Virtue.
St. Basil, and many other holy men say, that in order to acquire perfection, it is very advantageous to consider attentively the lives of the most perfect, and propose them to ourselves as models for our imitation. St. Anthony also says, that as the bee settles upon, and extracts from every flower its most pure and exquisite substance to make honey; so a religious ought to observe every man in his community, and learn from one modesty, from another silence, from a third fervour, from a fourth obedience and resignation; in fine he ought to imitate what he finds most commendable in each, and endeavour to conform in all things to the proposed model. It was thus St. Anthony himself acted, and by this means became so great a saint. Good example is one of the greatest advantages we have in religion. When St. Jerom advised men to live in community rather than in solitude, "it was," as he said, " to the end that they
