|
BUT you must know that our battles are not all fought in the same
order, because, as we mentioned that the attacks are not always made on us
in the same way, each one of us ought also to begin the battle with due
regard to the character of the attack which is especially made on him so
that one man will have to fight his first battle against the fault which
stands third on the list, another against that which is fourth or fifth.
And in proportion as faults hold sway over us, and the character of their
attack may demand, so we too ought to regulate the order of our conflict,
in such a way that the happy result of a victory and triumph succeeding may
insure our attainment of purity of heart and complete perfection.
Thus far did Abbot Serapion discourse to us of the nature of the eight
principal faults, and so clearly did he expound the different sorts of
passions which are latent within us--the origin and connexion of which,
though we were daily tormented by them, we could never before thoroughly
understand and perceive -- that we seemed almost to see them spread out
before our eyes as in a mirror.
|
|