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A short method of prayer, and Spiritual torrents, tr. by A.W. Marston

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SPIRITUAL TORRENTS. 179

degrees, as well as the other losses, and this appa-rent inclination for evil is involuntary ; for that evil which makes us so vile in our own eyes is really no evil at all.

The things which bring defilement to these persons are certain faults which only lie in the feelings. As soon as they see the beauty of a virtue, they seem to be incessantly falling into the contrary vice : for example, if they love truth, they speak hastily or with exaggeration, and fancy they lie at every moment, although in fact they do but speak against their sentiments ; and it is thus with all the other virtues ; the more important these virtues are, and the more strongly they cling to them, because they appear the more essential, the greater is the force with which they are torn from them.

Section IV.

ENTRANCE OF THE SOUL INTO MYSTIC DEATH, AS TO ITS SENSIBILITIES, POWERS, AND EVEN ITS PERCEIVED FOUNDATION— IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS ON THIS CON-DITION.

This poor soul, after having lost its all, must at last lose tfs own life by an utter self-despair^ or