Excerpt from The Life and Times of Margaret Bourgeoys: The Venerable This life shows a combination, usual only in the lives of great saints, of providential guidance with personal efiort, of sustained singleness of human purpose with absolute conformity to the Divine will, of self-diffidence the most utter with courage the most heroic. One has only to read the following pages with an open mind to marvel at the wondrous way in which Margaret Bourgeoys was guided by an all-ordering Providence into the great work of her life, and to admire the promptness with which she seized on every intimation of God's wishes. From the early age of twelve, circumstances intro duced her to the responsibility and devotedness of that teaching profession which was to be her life long passion. As soon as she had grown to full womanhood, the precocious piety of her childhood developed into a longing for the contemplative life. She tried to be a Carmelite, but was not accepted. The Holy Ghost often breathes such ineffectual yearnings into the souls of those whom He destines to a life of great activity, in order that they may be rooted and confirmed in prayerful union with Him and thus ever preserve, amid the cares anddistractions of their busy lives, the deepest interior recollection. 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.