for good, he largely failed. His ideals of life were not formulated in a
real world, but in an artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable
to appreciate the political needs of men. He could not enter
sympathetically into their serious employments or innocent delights.
Controlled by superstition, and exalting a servile obedience to human
authority, he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. He could
not consistently labor for secular progress, because he had forsaken a
world in which secular interests were prominent.

It may be true that in the early days of monasticism the monks pursued
the proper course in refusing to become Roman patriots. No human power
could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt world. Perhaps
their non-combatant attitude gave them more influence with the
conquerors of Rome, who were to become the founders of modern nations.

In later years, the abbots of the principal monasteries occupied seats
in the legislative assemblies of Germany, Hungary, Spain, England,
Italy, and France. In many instances they stood between the violence of
the nobles and the unprotected vassal. Political monks, inspired by a
natural breadth of vision and a love of humanity, secured the passage of
wise and humane regulations. Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many
blows which would have broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept more
foes in awe than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that we
chiefly owe the maintenance of the form and spirit of free government,
secured to us, not by force, but by law; and the altar has thus been the
corner-stone of our ancient constitution."

Although there is much truth in the foregoing observation, yet on the
other hand, when the influence of the monastic ideal upon civilization
is studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly maintained that
the final effects of monasticism minister to the development of a normal
civilization. Industrial, mental and moral progress depend upon a
certain breadth of mind and energy of soul. Asceticism saps the vitality
of human nature and confines the activity of the mind within artificial
limits. "Hence the dreary, sterile torpor," says Lecky, "that
characterized those ages in which the ascetic principle has been
supreme, while the civilizations which have attained the highest
perfection have been those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, which
were most opposed to it."

The monks did not hesitate to become