The Degrees of the Spiritual Life, Vol 1.

This book is well fitted to become the spiritual companion of souls who are entering on the way of perfection, and they will find in it a sure and faithful guide. Although primarily intended for the vowed religious, it is by no means adapted for them alone, and there are few indeed who are in earnest about their salvation who will not get help and light from its perusal. I hope that to many it will become what The Spiritual Combat was to Francis of Sales, and what that F. de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life has been to countless souls. For the Abbot Saudreau has no new doctrine of his own to proclaim; his work has been to gather together, expound, and co-ordinate the teachings of those before him. Although the structure of the book is founded on Teresa's Interior Castle, and it may in some sense be regarded as a commentary on that immortal work, yet the author has illustrated and enforced the teachings of the Seraph of Carmel from the writings of innumerable other Christians with such skill that the whole work has become, not a mere mosaic of quotations, but a luminous exposition of the science of perfection.