Four mouths ago I was blessed with health, honour, lands, friends--all for which the heart of man could wish.

And if, for an insane ambition, I have chosen to risk all those, against the solemn warnings of the truest friend, and the wisest saint who treads this earth of God's--should I not rejoice to have it proved to me, even by such a lesson as this, that the friend who never deceived me before was right in this case too; and that the God who has checked and turned me for forty years of wild toil and warfare, whenever I dared to do what was right in the sight of my own eyes, has not forgotten me yet, or given up the thankless task of my education ?' 'And who, pray, is this peerless friend ?' 'Augustine of Hippo.' 'Humph! It had been better for the world in general, if the great dialectician had exerted his powers of persuasion on Heraclian himself.' 'He did so, but in vain.' 'I don't doubt it.

I know the sleek Count well enough to judge what effect a sermon would have upon that smooth vulpine determination of his....

"An instrument in the hands of God, my dear brother....

We must obey His call, even to the death," etc.