Excerpt from On the Imitation of Christ: Four Books; A New Translation It seemed to the translator that such portions might be paraphrased in such a manner as to preserve their spirit, and yet to avoid all that could be regarded as unsuinble. This course has been attempted; at the same time the changes which have been made have been carefully noted, so that nothing may be attributed to the author, which he did not write and the reader will accordingly find all interpolations or substitutions marked with an asterisk. To take an example: the heading of Book I. Chap. Xvu. Is in the original, De Monash'cd Vitd in this edition has been substituted the title, 0 a life qf Fiay. Oi course such changes require much judgment. The manner in which the present translation has been received leads the translator to hope that his task has not been rashly executed: at all events the reader will always know when he is perusing words for which the translator, and not the author, is responsible. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.