He did not seek to shine,-- "More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise." His own birth made the poor his brothers, and their dispositions and wants familiar to him.

His own early errors made him tolerant to the faults of others,--few men are charitable who remember not that they have sinned.

In our faults lie the germs of virtues.

Thus gradually and serenely had worn away his life--obscure but useful, calm but active,--a man whom "the great prizes" of the Church might have rendered an ambitious schemer, to whom a modest confidence gave the true pastoral power,--to conquer the world within himself, and to sympathize with the wants of others.

Yes, he was a rare character, that village priest!.