your abilities towards the less fortunate and happy."
"And is this," cried Ferdinand, 'the language of a man detached from the world, this the advice of a holy Father, to expose a fluctuating disappointed heart to the allurements and dissipations that tempt, in a hundred pleasurable shapes, the mind of youth, and lead him into vice?"
"It is the language of truth and reason," answered Father Joseph, with energy, "it is the advice of dear-bought wisdom and experience. Man was not intended for a solitary being, and a young man, who flies from the world because he has indulged delusive hopes, and formed expectations that in the nature of them must at one time or other receive a severe check, who neglects the duties he has it in his power to perform, and by a rash and ill-judged misanthropy, shuns mankind to give up his mind to despair; believe me, such a man is a pusillanimous wretch, who deserts his post, and by his cowardice and impatient spirit, lays up for himself bitter
