personal nature. Why should you not feel the same affection for yourself as you do for a friend? Why should you not take counsel with yourself in the same manner in which you would seek to advise him? Ask yourself the question which St. Aloysius was wont to put. to himself whenever he was obliged to come to an important determination: How does this look in the light of eternity? " or " What does this count for eternity? "
Act in respect to yourself as you will wish you had done when you come to lie upon your death-bed. There can be no safer rule than this. For in the presence of death matters are viewed in their true light, and no longer seen through colored glasses. How extremely foolish it would be to embrace a state of life which would furnish cause for bitter repentance in your last hours!
5. My second piece of advice is: Take counsel with others. But who is to counsel you, and to whom ought you to listen? Here great caution is necessary; there are counselors who present themselves unasked, and to whom it would be wrong to listen. On no account lend your ear to bad Catholics, to persons who 'have no faith or who have not a good reputation. In regard to the supernatural their understanding is either darkened or extinguished altogether; 'the eyes of their mind are blind as far as the eternal truths are concerned; how, then, could they
