"I do not, however, propose to myself the benefit of others only in this composition. The noblest and the most useful study of mankind is man; but, certainly, this study is in no way so important as when it {xviii} is in the contemplation of ourselves that we follow it up. It is a high point of wisdom to know and understand other men; but we know nothing that will indeed avail us if we know not ourselves. Hence, while I am undertaking a history of myself for the instruction of others, I purpose, at the same time, and in the first place, to gain from my researches instruction for myself. In now recollecting and declaring the doings of God towards me, and my doings towards Him, I most earnestly desire an advancement in myself of love and humility; would that it might be an advancement in perfection! I began this work with fervent prayer that I may be preserved from the snares with which it may be accompanied; above all, that I may not make it an occasion of vain-glory, and so turn what ought to be done for God's service and for others' good into an offence of God and my own exceeding loss; but that, being delivered from the danger, I may find it the occasion of exceeding spiritual benefit to myself, if it be not to any others." The reader must take what Father Ignatius writes of himself with some qualifications. He seems to have had an invincible propensity to put his worst side out in whatever he wrote about himself. He did not see his own perfections, he underrated his knowledge, his mind, his virtues. He saw good in every one except himself. But it is needless to speak much on {xix} this point, as his candour and simplicity are sure to make every reader favourable. It is to be regretted that the autobiography does not reach farther into his life than his ordination as a minister. How gratifying it would have been if we could read his interior conflicts, his exterior difficulties, his alternations of joy and sadness, in the sweet, affectionate style which tells us his early life. But the reason must have been:--He had little to charge himself with; he had no faults serious enough to lower him in the esteem of men from that time forward, and therefore he did not write.