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Socrates, describing the men who would be the best guardians for his republic, says that none of them should personally possess any property, that their houses should be open to all comers, that they should dine together at a common table, that they should have no money, no costly furniture; that they must not even touch gold or silver, as the cause of corruption to men*. For such opinions no doubt he may be ridiculed; but it would be strange to mock or reproach him for admiring, as he unquestionably would have done, such an institution when appointed only as a safeguard for religion and the moral instruction of mankind. At all events, the advantage to be derived by the persons themselves who embrace such a discipline would assuredly have been admitted by all wise and virtuous men of the ancient world. Aaveávo Bioag was the Greek expression for the happiest life. "I enjoy this delicious retreat in obscurity," says one who sought to realize it. "I am sick of the city, yea, and to a surprising degree of all earthly things; therefore am I here t." Plato in his old age, when he was weary of writing and reading, retired to live and die near an oracle or hermitage, in which he was buried. How often does Cicero extol that life which "was most quiet in the contemplation and study of things, most like that of the gods, and therefore," as he adds, "most worthy of wise men +!" "Ac veteres

quidem philosophi," he says, "in beatorum insulis, fingunt qualis futura sit vita sapientium, quos cura omni liberatos, nullum necessarium vitæ cultum aut paratum requirentes, nihil aliud esse acturos putant, nisi ut omne tempus in quærendo ac discendo in naturæ cognitione consumant §." Again, in his immortal treatise De Officiis, he says: "Multi autem et sunt, et fuerunt, qui eam, quam dico, tranquillitatem expetentes, a negotiis publicis se removerunt, ad otiumque perfugerunt. In his et nobilissimi philosophi longeque principes, et quidam homines severi et graves, qui nec populi nec principum mores ferre potuerunt: vixeruntque non nulli in agris, delectati re sua familiari." How deeply he could himself feel the happiness of such a life may be gathered from his familiar correspondence. Nothing," he says, writing to Atticus, "can be more delightful than this solitude. In the lonely island of Astura no human being disturbs me; and when early in the morning I hide myself in a thick wild forest, I do not leave it until the evening." Tacitus, too, might be added to the list of those who would have felt the charm of such retreat. "For the groves," he says, "and that secret depth of woods so please me, that I count

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De Repub. iii.

+ Parthenius Giannettasius, Estates Surrentinæ, lib. i. 7.

De Finibus, v. 4.

§ Id. v. 19.

i. 20.

among the chief fruits of poetry that it is composed neither amidst noise nor with a client sitting before the door, nor amidst the tears of accused persons, but while the mind in pure and innocent places enjoys the sacred seats. Though the contests and perils of orators lead to the consulship, I prefer the secure and quiet retreat of Virgil, to whom was wanting neither the favour of Augustus nor the knowledge of the Roman people *." Pliny's testimony is still more remarkable. "Quam innocens," he exclaims, quam beata, immo vero et delicata esset vita, si nihil aliunde, quam supra terras, concupisceret; breviterque, nisi quod secum est+!" Writing from Laurentinum to Minutius Fundanus, the philosophic lover of the Garda lake says: "Mecum tantum et cum libellis loquor. Rectam sinceramque vitam! dulce otium honestumque !" So, too, the poet, speaking of the villa Tiburtina of Manlius Vopiscus, says:

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"Ipsa manu tenera tectum scripsisse voluptas.

O longum memoranda dies! quæ mente reporto
Gaudia! quam lapsos per tot miracula visus !
Ingenium quam mite solo!

Hic æterna quies, nullis hic jura procellis
Hic premitur fœcunda quies, virtusque serena
Fronte gravis, sanusque nitor, luxuque carentes
Delicia."

I am aware, indeed, that in the estimation of the most brilliant writer of the present day in England all this evidence will be without weight, as being that of men whose philosophy was worse than madness; but because these Gentiles erred in many things, it does not follow that they were mistaken in all, or that we must disclaim as a fundamental error all wisdom but what has for object the exact sciences and the development of human industry. At all events, whatever we may choose to think of Gentile philosophers, it seems difficult to understand how we can consider ourselves at liberty to appeal to our own fancies from the deliberate judgment of those illustrious sages who gave to Christendom institutions that spread virtue and happiness far and wide around them, and the tenor of whose whole philosophy required a life devoted to the service of mankind. It is a going back to barbarism, and not a progress towards social perfection, when men, growing insensible to the attractions of retreat and of active sanctity, decry the monastic as necessarily a wretched life, belonging to ignorant and less civilized ages.

Thus happy, then, in the estimation of those who embraced it, of those who witnessed its effects, and even of those philosophers who contemplated a certain ideal which in part resembled it, it seems to be the life of those persons who embrace Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 2.

De Oratoribus.

what is called the religious state. But institutions which render any men happy with virtue, and in accordance with the judgment of reason, which conduce to the general stock of human felicity by providing for the intellectual, moral, and physical wants of some who would be helpless and inefficient without them, and which, consequently, open a fresh source of consolation, and peace, and utility for mankind, must have at the bottom a foundation of truth; and we have before seen that the monasteries are the result of principles which centre in Catholicism, so that they may be said to rest upon it and to spring from it; therefore Catholicism, in yielding such principles, must be identical with truth.

Again, the choice or conversion of persons who embrace the monastic state presents a striking fact, which may awaken and fix the attention of those who pass, and this will be found to constitute another avenue through which the truth of Catholicism is seen. The poet represents our first parent, after his fall, as desirous of flying to the solitude of forests to hide his misery and his shame

"O might I here

In solitude live savage; in some glade

Obscur'd, where highest woods, impenetrable
To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad
And brown as evening: cover me, ye pines!

Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs

Hide me, where I may never see them more* !”

It is with different views, we are assured, that the monastic convertite abandons the common walks of life and seeks the retreat of fountain heads and groves. It is in order to live, not savage, but in some respects more highly and interiorly civilized, that he directs his steps thither.

"O son of earth, let honesty possess thee!
Be, as thou wast intended, like thy Maker;

See through those gaudy shadows, that, like dreams,
Have dwelt upon thee long; call up thy goodness,
Thy mind and man within thee, that lie shipwrecked;
And then how thin and vain these fond affections,
How lame this worldly love, how lump-like, raw,
And ill-digested, all these vanities

Will show, let reason tell thee!

Crown thy mind

With that above the world's wealth, joyful suffering,
And truly be master of thyself,

Which is the noblest empire! And there stand

The thing thou wert ordained, and set to govern!"

Thus speak the monastic guides. It is not that they think this victory unattainable to all men remaining in the world, but that for their own part the world has tired them; and they seek a cell to rest in, as birds that wing it over the sea seek ships till they get breath, and then they fly away. They are told, however, that they have to take heed that the ground of their resolve be perfect; that they must look back into the spring of their desires; for religious men, they know, should be tapers, first lighted by a holy beam, not wild meteors, that may shine for a moment like stars, but are not constant.

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Nothing can be simpler than the rite appointed for joining the order of St. Benedict. Reverendissime pater," says the master of the novices to the abbot, who is seated; "adest sub auditorio quidam sæcularis, postulans habitum sacræ religionis." The abbot replies, "I, et adduc eum." The postulant being then led in, kneels down; and the abbot says to him, "Quid petis?" He answers, Misericordiam Dei et vestram confraternitatem." The abbot says, 66 Dominus det tibi societatem electorum suorum. When the whole community responds, "Amen;" and the stranger becomes one of the family. Here is not much ceremony; but often this new comer is himself reduced so low as to be incapable of practising or of appreciating a more formal act of union. That meek unknown would say, in the words of an old play,

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my

Fortunes carry a pardon with them, when

They make me err in acts of ceremonial

Decencies; they have been so heavy and so mighty,

They have bent me so low to th' earth,

I could not cast my face upwards to hope a blessing."

St. Fructuosus used to reject no one who had attained to the age of sixty; only when they asked to be received into his monastery, he used to warn them against indulging in narratives night and day*. "Those coming to our order," say the Dominicans in their constitutions, "whatever sins they may have previously committed, are enjoined nothing for satisfaction but to keep the rule in future†." Equally simple is the form of clothing a novice at Camaldoli. The novice being led before the altar, the priest standing only asks, “Quid postulat charitas vestra?" to which he answers, kneeling, "Misericordiam Dei et habitum vestræ sanctæ religionis eremiticæ regularis humiliter peto." Then the hermit, in clothing the new brother, prays thus: "O God, Father of indulgence, who wills that the son

Yepes, ii. 210.
+ iv. 1.
Constitut. Er. Camald. p. ii. c. 13.

accom

should not bear the father's iniquity, and who by a wonderful dispensation deignest frequently to work grace by the ministration of the evil, we beseech thy clemency that it may be no prejudice to this thy servant that he receives from us, so unworthy, the habit of this holy eremitical religion; but that the ministry which is exhibited by us exteriorly may be plished by thee interiorly by the gift of thy Holy Spirit, through Christ our Lord *." Caution, however, in all these cases had been previously exercised, lest any should have come from being merely bent by circumstances, and thereby blind in self-commitment. The postulant for the cowl was required to have a certain age. By capitularies of Charlemagne the veil could not be given to nuns till they had completed their twenty-fifth year. "There was a person of my acquaintance," says Madame de Longueville, "who had a great desire to retire from the world. She spoke of her wish to Mother Magdalen of the Carmelites, who expressed neither any approbation nor disapprobation; but only exhorted her to be virtuous, which a person can be in any situation; and, in fact, there were obstacles to her becoming a nun, though she never said any thing about them." The wife of Henry de Bourbon wished to obtain a Carmelite habit and wear it sometimes: "but the ancient mothers," say the archives of the convent of Paris, "would not hear of such a thing; having been instructed by the Spanish mothers, who in no case whatever permitted it to married women t." Mlle Fors du Vigean had expressed an earnest desire to embrace our order," says the circular of the Carmelites, "but representations were made to our mothers respecting the reality of her vocation. They were led to doubt it. They were told that secretly she disliked it, and that she was only a victim to be sacrificed to the fortune of her brother; and that the step she was about to take was only an effort of reason and courage, wishing to sustain with honour the last male heir of the name of her family. Our mothers at once rejected her, though she did not remain long afterwards in the world." By the first chapter of the canon, "de his quæ vi metusve causa," all entrance to a monastery, taking of the habit and profession without the free and unbiassed consent of the parties, is null and void; yet it has been thought that Catholicism would recommend the breach of other vows, consecrated by the finest emotions of our nature! Oh, if it could be said so with justice, the quest of truth on this road might be given up in hopeless despair; for what a heart-breaking thing would such wisdom make of life! But no; our affections, our sweet and pure affections, fountains of such joy and solace, that nourish all

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*Constitut. Er. Camald. p. ii. c. 13.

† Cousin, Madame de Longueville, Append. i.

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