'A short-cut to hell. If parents would take my advice,
they would rather marry their daughters to the very poorest of men, or
else keep them at home under their own eye. If young women will be
wicked at home, their wickedness will not long be hidden at home; but in
monasteries, such as I speak of, their worst wickedness can be completely
covered up from every human eye. And all the time the poor things are
not to blame. They only walk in the way that is shown them. Many of
them are to be much pitied, for they honestly wish to withdraw from the
world, only to find themselves in ten times worse worlds of sensuality
and all other devilry. O my God! if I might I would fain speak of some
of the occasions of sin from which Thou didst deliver me, and how I threw
myself into them again. And of the risks I ran of utterly shipwrecking
my character and good name and from which Thou didst rescue me. O Lord
of my soul! how shall I be able to magnify Thy grace in those perilous
years! At the very time that I was offending Thee most, Thou didst
prepare me by a most profound compunction to taste of the sweetness of
Thy recoveries and consolations.
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