"I know not," said our Blessed Father, on one occasion, "what this poor
virtue of prudence has done to me that I find it so difficult to love it:
if I do so at all, it is only because I have no choice in the matter,
seeing that it is the very salt of life, and a light to show us the way out
of its difficulties.
"On the other hand, the beauty of simplicity charms me. I would rather
possess the harmlessness of one dove than the wisdom of a hundred serpents.
I know that a combination of wisdom and simplicity is useful, and that the
Gospel recommends it to us;[1] but I am of opinion that in this matter it
should be as it is with certain medicines, in which a minute dose of poison
is mixed with many wholesome drugs. If the doses, of serpent and dove were
equal, I would not trust the medicine; the serpent can kill the dove, the
dove cannot kill the serpent. Besides, there is a sort of prudence that is
human and worldly which Scripture calls carnal wisdom,[2] as it is only
used for wrong-doing, and is so dangerous and so subtle that those who
possess it are unconscious of their own danger. They deceive others, yet
are the first to be themselves deceived.
"I am told that in an age so crafty as our own prudence is necessary, if
only to prevent our being wronged. I say nothing against this dictum, but
I do believe that more in harmony with the mind of the Gospel is that
which teaches us that it is great wisdom in the sight of God to suffer
men to devour us, and to take away our goods,[3] bearing the loss of them
joyfully, knowing that a better and a more secure substance awaits us. In
a word, a good Christian should always choose rather to be the anvil than
the hammer, the robbed than the robber, the victim than the murderer, the
martyr than the tyrant. Let the world rage, let the prudence of so-called
philosophy stand aghast, let the flesh despair; it is better to be good and
simple than clever and wicked."
[Footnote 1: Matt. x. 16.]
[Footnote 2: Rom. viii. 6.]
[Footnote 3: 2 Cor. xi. 20.]