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name of God, some against the honour and fame of my neighbour, and to the great injury of my own soul, as appears by what has been set down in the first points of the preceding meditations. Other words have been vicious, by failing in the due circumstances, speaking things unbecoming my state and profession, or in places and times prohibited, as it is to talk much in the church, at mass or at sermon-time, to the scandal of others; or when, by my rules, if I be a religious, I am obliged to keep silence; or when I speak in an improper manner, hastily, inconsiderately, very affectedly and harshly. In such a manner that, considering the sins of my words, I may affirm with the apostle St. James that my tongue has been " universitas iniquitatis," " a world of iniquity," where every sort has been assembled, and a fire that has inflamed and burned "the wheel of" my "nativity" [1] throughout the whole course of my life.

v. With these sins I may join others of immodesty and disorder in the use of the rest of the members and exterior faculties, as are immoderate laughter, sneering, mocking, and light gestures of the head, feet, or hands; or walking in an affected, disorderly, and too hasty manner, and the like, which show but little gravity. Of which the Wise man says, that " the attire of the body, the laughing of the teeth, and the gait of the man, show what he is," [2] and what virtue he has.

2. Considering these sins, I must greatly confound myself for having so much abused the faculties that God Almighty gave me, using them for my own pleasure, pampering and honour.

Colloquy. — O great God, how hast Thou suffered in me so great disorder! O miserable man, how is

  1. Jac. iii. 6.
  2. Ecclus. xix. 27.