Cerda, and that great master of the spiritual life wrote the
following censure of it:

"The grace and peace of Jesus Christ be with you always.

"1. When I undertook to read the book sent me, it was not so much
because I thought myself able to judge of it, as because I
thought I might, by the grace of our Lord, learn something from
the teachings it contains: and praised be Christ; for, though I
have not been able to read it with the leisure it requires,
I have been comforted by it, and might have been edified by it,
if the fault had not been mine. And although, indeed, I may have
been comforted by it, without saying more, yet the respect due to
the subject and to the person who has sent it will not allow me,
I think, to let it go back without giving my opinion on it, at
least in general.

"2. The book is not fit to be in the hands of everybody, for it
is necessary to correct the language in some places, and explain
it in others; and there are some things in it useful for your
spiritual life and not so for others who might adopt them, for
the special ways by which God leads some souls are not meant for
others. These points, or the greater number of them, I have
marked for the purpose of arranging them when I shall be able to
do so, and I shall not fail to send them to you; for if you were
aware of my infirmities and necessary occupations, I believe they
would make you pity me rather than blame me for the omission.

"3. The doctrine of prayer is for the most part sound, and you
may rely on it, and observe it; and the raptures I find to