I ask nothing more from the Source
whence all strength cometh, and if that is granted, your wishes
will have been accomplished."[169]
[169] Bulletin de l'Union pour l'Action Morale, September, 1894.
There is something pathetic and fatalistic about this, but the
power of such a tone as a protection against outward shocks is
manifest. Pascal is another Frenchman of pessimistic <281>
natural temperament. He expresses still more amply the temper of
self-surrendering submissiveness:--
"Deliver me, Lord," he writes in his prayers, "from the sadness
at my proper suffering which self-love might give, but put into
me a sadness like your own. Let my sufferings appease your
choler. Make them an occasion for my conversion and salvation. I
ask you neither for health nor for sickness, for life nor for
death; but that you may dispose of my health and my sickness, my
life and my death, for your glory, for my salvation, and for the
use of the Church and of your saints, of whom I would by your
grace be one. You alone know what is expedient for me; you are
the sovereign master; do with me according to your will.
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