and to souls, if it were made by a local Superior. Nature is clever at self-justification.Corpses are also "hidden and unknown': good-for-nothingsare "hidden and unknown", too. Y es, it is the hidden life that Father extols, and to which we are called with Mary's example, but it is LIFE.... We will make this remark only once; the thing is so obvious. But we do feel that we should make it at least once, because, on very rare occasions, we have seen some subject, and even a superior, make a false application, at least in part, of this vital, productive principle "hidden and unknown", which they made a principle of death, of sterility, and even of sheer idleness. False interpretation The statement of Mayet shows what Father Colin really meant: it was the basis for great deeds and never a pretext not to do something. And it is very well analysed: "Nature is clever at self-justification".It is so easy for us to look for pretexts not to go out and work, to look for pretexts precisely to shut ourselves in our shell; and it is so hard, sometimes, to leave our warm houses and go out, go out in to the cold to meet the danger, to meet the world and what it requires from our responsibilities. Always the danger will be to say: "Oh no! We are not supposed to do so, we are supposed to be hidden and unknown.Let us stay at home,then; let us not undertake this or