mainspring of his direction of others. He has often said to me that those
who try to force the human will are exercising a tyranny which is hateful
to God and man. This was why he had such a horror of those masterful and
dominant spirits which insist on being obeyed, _bon gre mal gre_, and would
have every one give way to them. "Those," he often said, "who love to make
themselves feared, fear to make themselves loved; and they themselves are
more fearful than anyone else: for others only fear _them_, but they are
afraid of every one."

I have often heard him say these striking words: "In the royal galley of
divine love there is no galley-slave; all the oarsmen are volunteers." And
he expresses the same sentiment in Theotimus, when he says: "Divine love
governs the soul with an incomparable sweetness; for no one of the slaves
of love is made such by force, but love brings all things under its rule,
with a constraint so delightful, that as nothing is so strong as love,
nothing also is so sweet as its strength."[1] And in another part of the
same book he makes a soul, attracted by the delicious perfume shed by the
divine Bridegroom on his path, say:

"Let no one think that Thou draggest me after Thee like an unwilling
slave or a lifeless load. Ah! no. Thou drawest me by the _odour of Thine
ointments_; though I follow Thee, it is not that Thou draggest me, but that
Thou enticest me. Thy drawing is mighty, but not violent, since its whole
force lies in its sweetness. Perfumes draw me to follow them in virtue
only of their sweetness. And sweetness, how can it attract but sweetly and
pleasantly?"[2] Following out this principle, he never gave a command even
to those who were bound to obey him, whether his servants or his clergy,
save in the form of a request or suggestion. He held in special veneration,
and often inculcated upon me the command of St. Peter: _Feed the flock of
God which is among you, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy