Blessed Francis laid great stress upon the necessity of patience when
we are importuned. "Yet," he would say, "patience seems almost too
great a power to invoke in this matter. In reality a little gentleness,
forbearance, and self-control ought to suffice. Still, when we speak of
patience it must not be as if it were to be employed only in the endurance
of really great evils, for, while we are waiting for these notable
occasions that occur rarely in a lifetime, we neglect the lesser ones. We
imagine that our patience is capable of putting up with great sufferings
and affronts, and we give way to impatience under the sting or bite of an
insect. We fancy that we could help, wait upon, and relieve our neighbour
in long or severe sickness, and yet we cannot bear that same neighbour's
ill-bred manner, and irritating moods, his awkwardness and incivility,
and above all his _importunity_, especially if he comes just at the
wrong moment to talk to us about matters which seem to us frivolous and
unimportant.
"We triumphantly excuse ourselves for our impatience on these occasions by
alleging our deeps sense of the value of time; that one only thing, says an
ancient writer, with regard to which avarice is laudable.
"But we fail to see that we employ this precious time in doing many things
far more vain and idle than in the satisfying the claims of our neighbour,
and possibly less important than those about which he talks to us,
occasioning what we call loss of time.
"When we are conversing with others we should try to please them and to
show that their conversation is agreeable to us, and when we are alone we
should take pleasure in solitude. Unfortunately, however, our minds are
so inconsistent that we are always looking behind us, like Lot's wife. In
company we sigh for solitude, and in solitude, instead of enjoying its
sweets, we hanker after the company of others."