56 THE FLOWERS

produce, that the root is excellent. Whilst
meditating on these subjects, I took a dusty
Latin Bible, which had once belonged to a
priest of the church of Geneva, from its shelf
in my study, and began to compare its con-
tents with the received doctrines of our church,
and was struck with the comparison of Matt.
xv. 19, “Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies,” with the
following clause in our catechism ; namely,
“Ts it possible to keep them all?” (speaking
of the commandments.) “ Answer. It is, by
' God’s grace; Zacharias and Elizabeth were
both just before God, walking in all the com-
mandments of God without reproof.” I felt
more and more confounded whilst meditating
on these things; and the result of these re-
flections was, that I resolved not to speak
even to Madame Bulé of the heretical state,
as I then apprehended it to be, of the little
Aimée.

Under this embarrassment of mind, I re-
mained in my study several days, or walked
in the most solitary places I could find, medi-
tating on many things. In the meantime,