_ 46 _ I do not say that you should not read written books on occasion, but do so in order to seek evidence in writing to justify the remedies against vices and sins that you find in the book of life and to reinforce your denunciations of vice with quotations from the Sacred Scriptures and the examples of the saints. Since the King commands you to be given everything, you need, you will accept it from him rather than from some other person. It is a serious matter not to accept from somebody what you need, because whoever takes, is taken. By that I mean that words do not have the same efficacy concerning someone who accepts something from another, as they would if he were not under obligation. So, later, when we should reproach them, we feel embarrassed, and we are at a loss for words to criticise such a person. We will come across many people living in sin, who will make great efforts to court your friendship so that you do not speak 111 of them, but they do not do this because they can profit thereby and abandon their sins through your agency. I tell you this as a warning. When they send you invita-
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