This I do in true affection, for, to me they sum up all that is necessary for us and nothing more is needed by us. His great fear, our Blessed Father told me, was lest we should not thoroughly devote ourselves to the practice of the Rule. And I, also fearing this, pray God that our very apprehension may make us all the more faithful to our observance. "The precepts," he said, "of all virtue and perfection are contained in our Rules and Constitutions." Oh, how true this is! For if we have but one heart in God, if we honour Him in the person of one another; if we are simple, humble, chaste, poor, retiring, and all else that is prescribed, shall we not fulfil all perfection? Again, he said that our Institute teaches us sufficiently what to do, and our part is to do it. Let us, then, labour, I beseech you, very dear Sisters, with our whole hearts, whether it be in obeying or in commanding, to become living Rules, not according to our own human wisdom and prudence, but according to what is set down, practising it, exactly and punctually, to the letter, without gloss or comment; and let us rather die than under any pretext whatsoever depart from this holy way. The peculiar obedience we owe their Lordships, our prelates, is a special virtue of our Institute. They ought to be its protectors and consequently cannot command us anything at variance with it. Many a time has our Blessed Father exhorted us to be on our guard against opening the door to any change, for with it all will go. Not even in things of small importance would he have us yield, for little changes open the way to greater, and if we want to keep intact what we have received, and what has been so wisely instituted, we must change nothing. Old established customs, though but mediocre, are better than new ones that appear to us more desirable. Above all he charged Superiors to take heed to this, and insisted that the good or evil estate of their monasteries rests in their hands; that care and attention to their duty should, in them, be universal; that they ought not to neglect even the most insignificant points; and said that their love, cordial support, and zeal for the perfection of the Sisters in exact observance would make their monasteries abodes of happiness, and preserve their Institute. We must aspire, then, to nothing more and to nothing less than what is prescribed for us. All these words of Our Blessed Father should be engraven on our hearts and practised literally. If, however, times and places demonstrate the necessity of accommodating in some point, and the change affects in no way the Rules, Constitutions, and Customs essential to the conformity of the convents, such change can be made. But we should first consult the Spiritual Father, some capable and pious persons, and the old established monasteries of the Order, above all Annecy, which latter, after having maturely considered the proposition, should confer with the monastery of Lyons, so that the changes