14.  O untended body, and squalid garments, whose only flower is virtue!  O soul, clinging to the body, when reduced almost to an immaterial state through lack of food; or rather, when the body had been mortified by force, even before dissolution, that the soul might attain to freedom, and escape the entanglements of the senses!  O nights of vigil, and psalmody, and standing which lasts from one day to another!  O David, whose strains never seem tedious to faithful souls!  O tender limbs, flung upon the earth and, contrary to nature, growing hard!  O fountains of tears, sowing in affliction that they might reap in joy. Ps. cxxvi. 5.  O cry in the night, piercing the clouds and reaching unto Him that dwelleth in the heavens!  O fervour of spirit, waxing bold in prayerful longings against the dogs of night, and frosts and rain, and thunders, and hail, and darkness!  O nature of woman overcoming that of man in the common struggle for salvation, and demonstrating that the distinction between male and female is one of body not of soul!  O Baptismal purity, O soul, in the pure chamber of thy body, the bride of Christ!  O bitter eating!  O Eve mother of our race and of our sin!  O subtle serpent, and death, overcome by her self-discipline!  O self-emptying of Christ, and form of a servant, and sufferings, honoured by her mortification!