Preface.

in the deepest kidneys, and would rather give themselves up as defeated than enter further into such discord, as they recognize their enemy against them to be all too strong. But what is to be done in this case for an authority that should let its subjects live according to the laws? To affix a stain of shame upon those children of man who strike the eye with it would not exactly be advisable; especially since many a monastery-friend, out of love for his wife or daughter, would withdraw his generous hand, and thus a necessary rule of state must serve here: Hoc opus, hic labor est This is the work, this is the labor. Here lies the rabbit buried idiom for "here is the crux of the matter".

I, for my part, have not been able to look around much in various trial-houses of the monastic orders, and know best what the two maxims intend to say, or how strongly they can take root in the mind of a spiritual novice: Cogita ad quid venisti, Cur seculum reliquisti? Think about why you came, and why you left the world?

The catchword "qui-" indicates the continuation of "reliquisti" on the previous page's context.