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and yet he almost reinstated it in its former degree of dignity and power, causing it to have a considerable weight in the political balance of European nations.

The knowledge of God imparts to its possessor both sagacity and strength, since it not only quickens the mind but also expands it. What strikes me as most remarkable in the lives of the saints, and especially in the lives of the Fathers of the Desert, is something that has not yet been fully appreciated. I know of no man, who is in the habit of conversing with God, and accustomed to the contemplation of divine things, who, circumstances being equal, is not superior to other men, either by the extent of his genius, the solidity of his judgment, or the penetration and acumen of his intellect, and, above all, by that superior and practical prudence which men call good sense.

If mankind were not irremissibly condemned to take a distorted view of things, they would select theologians from among men as counselors, and among theologians they would select the mystics, and among the mystics those who have lived most remote from the affairs of the world. Among the persons whom I know, and I know very many, the only ones in whom I have recognized an imperturbable good sense, an eminent sagacity, and a wonderful aptitude for the practical and prudent solution of the most intricate problems, and for the discovery of the best manner of escaping from the most perplexing complications, are those men who have lived a retired and contemplative life; while, on the contrary, I have never met, and I never expect to meet, among those persons who are called business men, who hold in contempt all intellectual occupations, and especially disdain all attention to spiritual contemplations, those who are