In this way you will do more for the real development
and culture of your heart than by the acquisition of more agreeable
and more brilliant qualities.
Moreover, the same thing will happen for you that always happens
when efforts are made to acquire what is best; when that which is
essential is secured, the accessories will infallibly follow, just as
the effect follows the cause that produces it. By acquiring the
virtues that are pleasing to God you will receive, in addition, those
which men esteem; in becoming more and more agreeable to God you will
become more and more pleasing to men, whose good sense and sound
judgment almost invariably triumph over prejudice which an austere
but modest virtue always removes. This is also what the Saviour of
the world insinuates by these words of the Gospel in which He
recommends us to seek first the kingdom of God and His justice,
promising that all other things shall be added thereto. But this
addition should not be directly sought, nor should it be ardently
desired; await the will of God who has promised it to us, provided
that we first seek the things to which that is accessory.
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