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 advise others, how point out to them the right road to heaven? There are yet other counselors to whom it would be most inadvisable to listen. I mean worldly persons, who are entirely absorbed in material things. For higher interests they have no perception; their thoughts are set upon nothing else but money, honors, and pleasures. Persons of this class usually deplore the entrance of a young man into a Religious Order.

6. Nor ought you to listen to the advice of those who have anything to gain or lose from your choice as regards the goods of this world. Finally, do not be advised by persons who know nothing about the state of life that you may be thinking of adopting, as, for instance, the religious state. Their ignorance imbues them with the most absurd ideas and vehement prejudices, in regard to such a state of life. How could they form a correct judgment?

7. From whom, then, are you to seek counsel? Holy Scripture exhorts you: "Keep continually to a wise man, who fears the Lord." It is very important to remember this when the choice of a state of life is under consideration. And why is it so? Because he who desires to give good advice must often offend this or that individual with regard to whose temporal interests the results of his advice may prove to be prejudicial. If counsel is sought from persons who fear man rather than God, what misery may not be the consequence of following their advice, since in giving it they view things from a purely human