characters, make demands which are absolutely incompatible with a desire for self-indulgence and self-satisfying solitude.
The Ego we love so well, and cherish so tenderly, can no longer make its claims felt. It is not necessary to think of a specially strict Order where the regulations are peculiarly stringent, but the obligatory observance of the vows is merely to be reflected upon - to possess nothing of one's own, to live in subjection to a superior; this done, it will at once be clearly perceived that self-will can no longer hold the scepter there.
2. Thus we see that the life of a true Religious is a life of constant sacrifice. For he relinquishes all those things which are most calculated to bind poor human beings down to earth. The evangelical counsels, which the Saviour Himself has given, and to the observance of which the Religious pledges himself, can not be faithfully carried out without grievous sacrifices on the part of the carnal man. Every one knows what these counsels are: voluntary poverty, virginal purity, and constant obedience to a spiritual superior. And Religious pledge themselves
to the conscientious observance of these counsels under pain of grievous sin when they pronounce their vows either for their whole life, or at least for a definite period.
3. It must certainly involve a sacrifice to pronounce the vow of poverty, for instance, and to keep it faithfully. Or can it be easy
