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] tion, he  will  easily  commit  faults,  by  indecent  words and by  unbecoming  gestures. But the  greatest  evil  of intemperance  is,  that  it  exposes  chastity  to  great  danger. "Repletion of  the  stomach,"  says  St. Jerome, " is  the hotbed  of  lust."*  Excess  in  eating  is  a  powerful  incentive to  incontinence. Hence, Cassian  says  that  "it  is impossible  for  him  who  satiates  his  appetite  not  to  experience conflicts."*  The  intemperate  cannot  expect  to be  free  from  temptations  against  purity. To preserve chastity, the  saints  practised  the  most  rigorous  mortifications of  the  appetite. "The devil,"  says  St.  Thomas, "vanquished by  temperance,  does  not  tempt  to  lust."* When his  temptations  to  indulge  the  palate  are  conquered he  ceases  to  provoke  incontinence.

He that  attends  to  the  abnegation  of  the  appetite makes continual  progress  in  virtue. That the  mortification of  the  palate  will  facilitate  the  conquest  of  the other senses,  and  enable  us  to  employ  them  in  acts  of virtue,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  prayer  of  the Church: "O  God,  who  by  this  bodily  fast  extinguishest our  vices,  elevatest  our  understanding,  bestowest  on  us virtue  and  its  reward,  etc." By fasting,  the  Lord  enables the  soul  to  subdue  her  vices,  to  raise  her  affections  above the  earth,  to  practise  virtue,  and  to  acquire  merits  for eternity.

Worldlings say:  God  has  created  the  goods  of  this earth for  our  use  and  pleasure. Such is  not  the  language of  the  saints. The Venerable  Vincent  Carafa,  of the  Society  of  Jesus,  used  to  say,  that  God  has  given  us the  goods  of   the  earth,  not   only  that   we   may  enjoy