'These trifles of trifles, these vanities of vanities,
pulled me by the garment of my flesh, and whispered to me: "To you send
us away? What! Shall we never more abide with you? And how now, shall
this and that be no longer granted you -- and forever?" On the side to
which I turned, and where I feared to pass, stood Continence, in chaste
majesty, inviting me no longer with the smile of the courtesan, but with
the purest caresses, to draw near her without fear; she stretched out
her holy arms to receive and embrace me, and pointed with her hand to
countless bright examples -- to children, tender maidens, young men
above number, persons of every age, venerable widows and virgins with
the snows of years on their brows. And the lovely form seemed to say to
me with a sweet and cheerful voice of irony: "What! You cannot do what
these children and these weak women have achieved? Is it, then, of
themselves, and not in the Lord God, that such a live has been possible
for them? O, cast yourself boldly on him, have no fear; he will not
withdraw, nor allow you to fall."'
