parent of every vice. Oh, what could mislead a mind like your's, my child?" "Madam, there are some born with a perversion of intellect, a depravity of feeling, nothing can cure. Can we straighten deformity, or change the rough features of ugliness into beauty?" "We may do much." "Nothing, good lady, nothing; though man would boast that it is possible. Let the ignorant teach the wise; let the sinner venture to instruct the saint; we cannot alter nature. We may learn to dissemble; but the stamp is imprest with life, and with life alone it is erased."
"God bless, forgive, and amend thee!" said the abbess. "The sun is set, the hour is late: thy words have moved, but do not convince me." "Rise, daughter, kneel not to me: there is one above, to whom alone that posture is due." As St. Clare rode from the convent, she placed a mark upon the wicket of the
