lways establish between incompatible things and which procure for man,
if not the acquisition of a truth, at least a pleasure in the play
of words. The ascendancy of the Catholic faith over these uncertain,
inconsequent, tormented souls is more or less weak or strong according
to time, place, circumstance, individuals and groups; in the larger
group it has diminished, while it has increased in the smaller one.

The latter comprises the regular and secular clergy with its approximate
recruits and its small body of supporters; never was it so exemplary and
so fervent; the monastic institution in particular never flourished so
spontaneously and more usefully. Nowhere in Europe are more missionaries
formed, so many "brethren" for small schools, so many volunteers, male
and female, in the service of the poor, the sick, the infirm and of
children, such vast communities of women freely devoting their lives to
teaching and to charity.[5351] Life in common, under uniform and strict
rules, to a people like the French, more capable than any other of
enthusiasm and of emulation, of generosity and of discipline, naturally
prone to equality, sociable and predisposed to fraternity through the
need of companionship, sober, moreover, and laborious, a life in common
is no more distasteful in the convent than in the barracks, nor in
an ecclesiastical army more than in a lay army, while France, always
Gallic, affords as ready a hold nowadays to the Roman system as in the
time of Augustus. When this system obtains a hold on a soul it keeps
its hold, and the belief it imposes becomes the principal guest, the
sovereign occupant of the intellect. Faith, in this occupied territory,
no longer allows her title to be questioned; she condemns doubt as a
sin, she interdicts investigation as a temptation, she presents the
peril of un belief as a mortal danger, she enrolls conscience in her
service against any possible revolt of reason. At the same time that she
guards herself against attacks, she strengthens her possession; to
this end, the rites she prescribes are efficient, and their efficiency,
multiplicity and convergence--confession and communion, retreats,
spiritual exercises, abstinences, and ceremonies of every kind, the
worship of saints and of the Virgin, of relics and images, orisons on
the lips and from the heart, faithful attendance on the services and the
exact fulfillment of daily duties--all attest it.

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