our inability to praise and serve Him enough.

Here ends the first of the four chief kinds ot interior exercises,
which adorn the lower part of a man.

HOW TO INCREASE INWARDNESS BY HUMILITY

BUT in thus comparing to the splendour and power of the sun the
modes in which Jesus Christ comes, we shall find in the sun another
virtue or influence which makes the fruit more early ripe and more
abundant.

When the sun rises to a very great height, and enters the sign of
the Twins--that is to say, into a double thing, but of the same
nature, in the middle of the month of May, the sun has a double
power over the flowers, herbs, and all that grows upon the earth. If
at that time the planets which rule nature are well ordered
according to the season of the year, the sun shines brightly on the
earth, and attracts the moisture in the atmosphere. Hence are born
dew and rain, and the fruits of the ground increase and multiply.

Even so when Christ, that bright sun, rises in our heart above all
other things, and when the requirements of material nature, which
are contrary to the spirit, are well regulated according to reason,
when we possess the virtues as I have said above, and when, lastly,
we offer and restore to God, by the ardour of charity, and with
gratitude and love, the delight and peace which we find in the
virtues, from all these are born, at times, a gentle rain of new
internal consolations, and a celestial dew of divine sweetness. This
dew and rain make all the virtues increase and multiply day by day,