clouded over, and he said sadly: “ Then of course at last I must die.” “And then?” the saint once more repeated. The young man did not answer a word, but went away with downcast looks. The words, “ And then? ” — sounded incessantly in his ears; he could not get them out of his mind. They made a pious and virtuous man of him later on.
The Three Mirrors
There is no real beauty without virtue. A school girl, writing home, asked her mother to send her a looking-glass. Her mother, a sensible and Christian lady, when she answered the letter, said: “ I am sending you a parcel by post in which are three mirrors. The first will show you to yourself as you are; the second will show you what you will be; the third will show you what you ought to be.” When the box arrived, the girl opened it with curiosity; the first thing she took out was an ordinary looking-glass; then there was the representation of a skull; below both of these was a beautiful statuette of Our Lady, Thus the pious mother sought to impress upon her daughter’s mind that personal beauty is transitory and is effaced by the hand of death; and for this reason a maiden ought to imitate the virtues of the Mother of God, since thus alone will she attain true loveliness, a beauty which does not pass away with this mortal life, — the beauty of the soul, which lasts eternally. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, says Holy Writ. I am black but beautiful, for the beauty of the King’s daughter is from within.
