“Pride is the root of all our vices, so that, when once we have uprooted it, those vices will little by little disappear also. This is the true reason of our having to accuse ourselves of the same sins over and over again in our confessions, because we never confess that pride which is the root of them all.”

Between the covers of this unpretending volume there is nourishment for all who “hunger and thirst after justice”—for the proficient in spiritual life as well as for the beginner—Humility, as it were, holding in itself all those elements that are needed to build up the strong Christian man.

In it the soul will find a sovereign remedy for its many ills, a matchless balm for its many wounds, while a soul-beauty all its own will spring up in all who shall learn how to use it wisely under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “He who is truly humble,” says St. Bernard, “knows how to convert all his humiliations into humility,” while out of humility God can raise a soul to what otherwise might be giddy heights of sanctity.

If anyone should need a proof of this statement, I will refer him to any chapter in the life of any saint in our Calendar. For a moment gaze into the face of “the Woman clothed with the Sun” and remember the words, “Respexit humilitatem ancillae suae.” The height of Mary’s sanctity is gauged by the depth of her humility: “Exaltavit humiles.”