Elizabeth, on
beholding her cousin, felt her infant leap for joy. The worldly woman
stirs up in the hearts of those whom she visits the most frivolous
instincts, and sometimes even the worst passions.
This tableau excites your love and disgust. The comparison frightens
you; and perhaps in the simplicity of your heart you will say, it is
not free from exaggeration. On the contrary, you will be sadly
disappointed when, at a more advanced age, you will clearly see that
this is a very mild and subdued picture of what is true and real.
Your age and innocence do not allow me to reveal to you all the
mysteries of sin--all the snares, all the dangers, all the
frivolities that fill up the days of a worldly woman.
Would that what I have said of her may inspire you with salutary
horror for her life; and make you shun the snares in which she has
been taken! I pray that you, satisfied with the knowledge you have of
her follies, may never feel the desire of adding to what you already
know, the fatal knowledge imparted by experience! That you may never
forget these words of St.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90