And how does God give grace to the humble? My friends, even the
wise heathen knew that. Listen to a heathen; {328} a good and a
wise man, though; and one who was not far from the kingdom of God,
or he would not have written such words as these,--
'It is our duty,' he says, 'to turn our minds to the best of
everything; so as not merely to enjoy what we read, but to be
improved by it. And we shall do that, by reading the histories of
good and great men, which will, in our minds, produce an emulation
and eagerness, which may stir us up to imitation. We may be pleased
with the work of a man's hands, and yet set little store by the
workman. Perfumes and fine colours we may like well enough: but
that will not make us wish to be perfumers, or painters: but
goodness, which is the work, not of a man's hands, but of his soul,
makes us not only admire what is done, but long to do the like. And
therefore,' he says, he thought it good to write the lives 'of
famous and good men, and to set their examples before his
countrymen. And having begun to do this,' he says in another place,
'for the sake of others, he found himself going on, and liking his
labour, for his own sake: for the virtues of those great men served
him as a looking-glass, in which he might see how, more or less, to
order and adorn his own life.
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