1.  That the lights and inspirations of the Holy Spirit, which are necessary in order to do good and avoid evil, are never wanting to them, particularly if they are in a state of grace. 2.  That being altogether exterior as they are, and scarcely ever entering into themselves, examining their consciences only very superficially, and looking only to the outward man and the faults which are manifest in the eyes of the world, . . . it is no wonder that they have nothing of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is wholly interior.  But, first, let them be faithful in following the light which is given them; it will go on always increasing.  Secondly, let them clear away the sins and imperfections which, like so many clouds, hide the light from their eyes:  they will see more distinctly every day.  Thirdly, let them not suffer their exterior senses to rove at will, and be soiled by indulgence; God will then open to them their interior senses.  Fourthly, let them never quit their own interior, if it be possible, or let them return as soon as may be; let them give attention to what passes therein, and they will observe the workings of the different spirits by which we are actuated.  Fifthly, let them lay bare the whole ground of their heart to their superior or to their spiritual father.  A soul which acts with this openness and simplicity can hardly fail of being favored with the direction of the Holy Spirit” (Spiritual Doctrine, 4th principle, ch. i. art. 3).

Father Hecker had himself suffered, and that in the earliest days of his religious life, from want of explicit instruction about this doctrine.  Father Othmann, whom our readers remember as the novice-master at St. Trond, was too spiritual a man to have been ignorant of its principles.  Yet he seemed to think that either no one would choose it in preference to the method in more common use, or that he would not find his novices ready for it.  But to Father Hecker it was all-essential.  “When I was not far from being through with my noviceship,” he was heard to say, “I was one day looking over the books in the library and I came across Lallemant’s Spiritual Doctrine. Getting leave to read it, I was overjoyed to find it a full statement of the principles by which I had been interiorly guided.  I said to Pere Othmann:  ’Why did you not give me this book when I first came?  It settles all my difficulties.’  But he answered that it had never once occurred to his mind to do so.”  Besides the Scriptures, Lallemant, Surin, Scaramelli’s Directorium Mysticum, the ascetical and mystical writings of the contemplatives, such as Rusbruck, Henry Suso (whose life he carried for years in his pocket, reading it daily), Tauler, Father Augustine Baker’s Holy Wisdom (Sancta Sophia), Blosius, the works of St. Teresa, and those of St. John of the Cross—­these and other such works formed the literature which aided Father Hecker in the understanding and enjoyment of the guidance of