peculiar property; all his actions are in a certain sense sacred, and of double merit in His sight. Be it remembered that a religious makes this sacrifice freely, and it is in this free dedication to God's service perpetually of body, soul, and possessions, without reserving the right to claim back anything for self, that the special excellence of the religious state consists. {214} There are several other less cogent arguments in favour of the religious state, as that without it we should not have the Evangelical virtues practised which form the principal part of the note of holiness in the Church. That it is easier to practice great virtue in a monastery than in the world, and that more religious have been canonized than seculars since the time of the martyrs. Father Spencer came to understand that the religious state is more perfect than the secular, though he knew that many seculars are far more perfect than some religious, but one point he could never get over, and that was since vows undoubtedly do raise the merit of one's actions, why cannot people take and observe vows without shutting themselves up within the walls of a convent? He consulted many grave theologians, doctors, and even cardinals, for the solution of this problem. He was told, to be sure, that it was quite possible in the abstract to have a people observing vows, but that in practice it proved to be chimerical and Utopian. _What is possible can be done_, was his maxim, and he resolved to begin with himself. He was told by Dr. Wiseman and Cardinal Weld that he seemed to have a religious vocation. He wrote accordingly to his diocesan, Dr. Walsh, who dissuaded him from becoming a religious by saying that, though it was a better state, a secular priest could be more useful in England. Others differed from this opinion, but F. Spencer heard in it the voice of his Superior, and resolved to obey it for the present. This settled matters for the time, but his _view_ could never be got out of his head. He gets thoroughly engrossed now with his approaching ordination. It grieves him to see souls lost in heresy and sin in a way that few grieve; for, the concern he felt for the spiritual destitution of his country began to tell upon his health. It is feared he will die; he begins to spit blood, and several consumptive symptoms alarm his physicians. He is removed to Fiumicino, and writes a long letter from his sick bed there to Mr. Phillipps. In this letter he hopes his friend may be caught into the Church like his patron, St. Ambrose. Here we have the first evidence of his getting thoroughly into a Catholic way of thinking. {215} Nothing strikes a cold, careful, Catholic, who has been brought up in a Protestant atmosphere, so much as the wonderful familiarity of Spanish and Italian boys with the lives of the Saints. They quote a Saint for everything, and they can tell you directly how St. Peter of Alcantara would season his dinner, or how St. Rose of Lima would make use of ornaments.