The Letters of St. Teresa of Avila

Translator's Preface.

I TRUST this first volume of Saint Teresa's "Letters," now presented to the public, will be read with that profit, interest, and delight which they are so eminently calculated to produce. If volumes filled with the "Life and Correspondence" of statesmen, poets, philosophers, travellers, military men, &c., be now so universally sought after, how ought we to prize the "Correspondence" of St. Teresa? Her "Letters" far surpass in sterling worth (as well as abound in circumstances invested with the deepest interest) the letters of any statesman, poet, or philosopher of modern times, however great such may have been in the eyes of the world. However pure or elegant their style may be, they cannot equal the classic purity of St. Teresa's; however interesting may be the events recorded in them, they cannot surpass in interest the wondrous events mentioned by St. Teresa, whether they relate to the supernatural state, or to the occurrences of ordinary life, or to her familiar and loving intercourse with her brothers and sisters; or to the delightful outpourings of her noble soul to her confessors; or to the edifying exhortations she gives to her Religious; or to the wit, vivacity, and playfulness with which she both delights and amuses those to whom she writes.