The love of nature in our days has gone so far apart from Christian feeling. Men have forgotten that God’s thoughts find expression in the visible, as well as in the invisible, world, and that inner and secret harmonies bind the natural and the supernatural together. The things of beauty which God has bidden arise on the earth lose half their grace, because men do not mount by them to the better understanding of the supernal beauty of the operations of that world which Faith reveals to our gaze.

The God who writes his thoughts in the Book of Nature is the same who writes in the Book of Scripture. And those whom He sent to expound to mankind the teachings of the latter have ever loved to illustrate its heavenly doctrine from the pages of the former.

The Mystical Flora of St. Francis de Sales is an attractive anthology of his writings drawn from the saint’s collected works using allusions to plant-life to explain the Christian life. Ordered into seven sections, it presents a heartfelt address to the men and women of the world, using comparisons drawn from nature to illustrate the operation of grace in the spiritual life. The writings of the saint have not been drawn at random, but carefully arranged in such a way as to form a perfect little treatise on the devout life, from its first principles to its consummation, according to the plan of St. Francis himself in his works.

The Mediatrix Press edition has been retypeset in conformity with the original, and contains the original illustrations. It is not a facsimile reprint.