Part I

Of the Chief Obstacles to the Acquisition of Solid Virtue

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The fruit to be derived from the considerations presented in this work should be an earnest and persevering effort to acquire solid virtue. To compass this end, it is absolutely necessary to commence by removing the chief obstacles to its attainment. If this be not our first care, all will end in useless desires, and our exertions will be fruitless.

These obstacles are venial sin, tepidity, abuse of grace, the predominant passion, human respect, and sloth in rising in the morning. All these vices injure the life of grace, conspire to destroy the soul, impair its merits, and ruin the work of its perfection; so long as they exist there can be no hope of our acquiring solid virtue. In this first part of the work, therefore, which corresponds to the purgative way, we shall apply ourselves exclusively to the destruction of the smallest vestige of those things so detrimental to our spiritual progress.