Note 87 — DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINTS, Etc.

Bishop Lavington, after quoting many of the legends of St. Catherine and St. Teresa, and the journals of modern Methodists, which in a very similar style describe their divine love, concludes as follows:—

"'Tis true indeed, as the legendaries own, that St. Catherine was slandered as a fond and light woman, and St. Teresa kept such bad company, that most persons concluded celestial visions were not compatible with her kind of life; but all this may be reconciled; for these excesses of the spiritual and carnal affections are nearer allied than is generally thought, arising from the same irregular emotions of the blood and animal spirits; and the patient is hurried on either way, according to the nature of the object; and I am much mistaken, and so is history too, if some of the warmest and most enthusiastic pretenders to the love of God have not entertained the same violence of passion (not quite so spiritual) for their neighbours."—Lavington's Enthusiasm of Papists and Methodists Compared, vol. i. p. 57.