The difference between heavenly zeal and fanaticism is, that one is willing to be directed, the other breaks the bonds of authority. One acts sweetly and consistently, the other intemperately and rashly. One distrusts self, the other begins and ends with self. Father Spencer was full of zeal. It was, in fact, his zeal that brought him into the Church. Now that he found himself commissioned to propagate God's kingdom, his zeal arose to that of the saints, and began to burst forth and devise means by which that kingdom could be speedily and perfectly spread. He devised plans for the sanctification of the clergy by introducing a kind of religious life amongst them; he formed plans for the perfection of the laity, after an old but abandoned model, which will be described; he had conceived plans of founding a religious institute, of which a devout soul he knew was to be first rev. mother; he had plans of preaching, away at some place or places which he does not tell us about; he had plans for finding out the secret by which the Jesuits became such successful missionaries; he had plans of going to Cambridge for an installation, and bearding the lion of heresy and error in his very den;--and all these he proposed from time to time to his director and diocesan superior, but all met the one fate of being drowned by the cold water thrown upon them. He complains a little, in a letter he wrote at this time, of "the slowness of Catholic prelates with regard to schemes;" but after being told to lay them aside, he resigns himself with perfect submission. He finds out, in a short time, that the Catholic prelates were right, and he drops his wings completely, by saying: "I am resolved to give up forming plans {229} for the future, and I shall try to gain more love of God and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. This again He must give me, and Mary must gain it for me; or rather, I must charge her to persevere in making this request for me, whether I forget it occasionally or not." Besides the crossing of his plans, he has another cross to endure; he loves to visit Hagley, where Lady Lyttelton, his sister, generally lived, and he is received only on condition that he will not speak of religion. This he feels hard, as he loved this sister very much, and thought he could not show a greater proof of his affection than that of communicating to her, if possible, what he prized more than his life--his faith. One plan he forms, however, which does not meet with the disapproval of his superiors, and that was, to go to London and beg among his aristocratic friends for funds for a new church he intended building at Dudley. He seems to have succeeded pretty well, as there is a nice gothic church there at present, which was built by him. We have only one peculiar incident of his first begging tour.