Cox And Wyman,
Classical and General Printers, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
To the Very Reverend
Father Ignatius Of The Infant Jesus,
Passionist,
Long The Director Of Father Ignatius Of St. Paul,
For Nine Years The Faithful Steward Of The Anglo-Hibernian
Province, Which He Found A Handful And Made A Host,
This Volume,
Written By His Order And Published With His Blessing,
Is Dedicated,
To Testify The Gratitude All His Subjects Feel, And The Most Unworthy Of Them Tries To Express,
By His Paternity's
Devoted And Affectionate Child,
The Author.
Preface.
Great servants of God have seldom been understood in their lifetime. Persecution has assailed them often, from quarters where help would be expected in their defence. Even holy souls are sometimes mistaken about the particular line of virtue which distinguishes their contemporaries from themselves. St. John of the Cross, St. Joseph Calasanctius, and St. Alphonsus Liguori, have had the close of their lives embittered, as we might call it, by domestic persecution; and it was some time before their splendour, as they vanished from the horizon of life, rose again to its zenith, and outshone its former glory. If the impartial eye, with which we read their actions, fails to find a plea for the manner they have been dealt with, let us remember that we have no interests at stake—no false colouring of passion to blind us. Death, indeed, does not always mow down mistaken notions with the life of him about whom they are taken up. We must, however, be thankful that it slays so many wrong impressions, and attribute the residue to other causes.
Justice to the dead is an impulse of nature; and those who would qualify praise of the living by the mention of unworthy actions or inferior motives, will qualify blame of the dead by a contrary proceeding. This instinct has its golden mean as well as every other. If an ancient Greek ostracised a man because he was praised by every one, many moderns will defend a man because he is similarly blamed.