CIUDAD to - the Catholic Kingdom!

INTRODUCTION
WHICH
EMBRACES THE I^ATTER PART OF THE MOST HOLY LIFE
OF MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD.
TO THE THIRD PART OF THIS DIVINE HISTORY,
1
1. In navigating a deep and dangerous sea, the naviga
tor is so much the more dangerously beset with its terrors
and the attacks of pirates, the farther he has penetrated
into its wide expanses. His cares are vastly increased on
account of his weakness and want of certainty; for he
does not know when or whence danger may come, and he
is
powerless to avert its coming and unable to resist it
when at hand. This is just what is now happening to
me since I am engulfed in the immense ocean of the ex
cellence and magnificence of the works of the most holy
Mary. And yet
it is a sea full of repose and tranquillity,
as I know and confess. Nor can the fact, that I have
advanced so far upon this sea of grace, and that I have
finished the first and second part of her life, give me
assurance; for in this work I have, as in a most clear
mirror, only so much the more clearly perceived my own
incapability and vileness, and the deepest conviction
forces itself upon me, that her history
is most impene
trable and incomprehensible to all created understand
ing. Nor are the enemies, the princes of darkness, ever
at rest; for, like the most persistent pirates, they con
tinue to afflict and discourage me by false illusions and
temptations with a malice and astuteness beyond all
culation. The navigator has no other recourse than to fix
his sight upon the north-star, according to which, as his
cal
Private Use Only