Being Spiritual Maxims gathered thoughts conversations letters. Although death has carried off last year many of the Order of the Carmelites Deschausses, brethren who have left in dying rare legacies of lives of virtue, Providence, it would seem, has desired that the eyes of men should be cast chiefly on Brother Lawrence, and has made his death the occasion of showing forth the merit of this holyman, who all his life has studied to avoid the gaze of men and whose saintliness is only fully seen now that he is dead. Several persons having seen a copy of one of his letters have desired to see more; and to meet this wish, care has been taken to collect as many as possible of those which Brother Lawrence wrote with his own hand. These letters are so edifying, so rich in untion, and have been found so full of delight by those who have had the hoy of reading them, that the first readers have desired not to be along in profiting by them. It is at their wish that the letters have been printed, for they judge that these writings will prove very useful to souls who are pressing forward to perfection by the Practice of the Presence of God. All Christians will find herein much that is edifying. Those in the thick of the great world will learn from these letters how greatly they deceive themselves, seeking for peace and joy in the false glitter of the things that are seen, yet temporal: those who are seeking the Highest Good will gain from this book strength to persevere in the practice of virtue.