nd and other northern climates shoes are allowed), a black veil
and an ample white cloak. They rise at two o'clock, winter and summer
alike, to sing matins, and when they retire to rest at night one of
their number walks through the corridors--in this order each nun has
a cell--springing a rattle and repeating in a clear tone a verse of
Scripture to serve as a subject of meditation before going to sleep.
In the choir the Carmelites are only permitted the use of three notes,
the reason alleged for this restriction being that the service of God
must not run the risk of becoming an occasion of temptation to the
singers. These nuns are very strictly cloistered, and their rules
regarding visitors are much the same as those described at length in
the beginning of this paper.

The cloistered orders are less numerous, but also less known, than the
communities formed for active duty, such as education and nursing
the sick; but in describing their constitution and rules we show the
reader the true basis on which the more modern and active orders are
constituted. The traditions of the spiritual life came down through
them, and they represent the principle of vicarious oblation
which animates all the different phases of convent life; i.e. the
substitution of a small body of voluntary servants of God for the
entire world, which ought to be perpetually engaged in His service
and worship. The Benedictines, Capuchins and Visitation nuns are also
cloistered, but the last are the only ones of this description who are
likewise teachers of youth. Many very superior women belong to this
order, which, except for the enclosure, practices no special physical
austerities. The principle of the rule is the subduing of the will
and the curbing of the spirit. The order is a recent one, and was
instituted by Saint Francis of Sales while Beza ruled in Geneva and
the Reformation had just disturbed the religious balance of Europe.
With consummate prudence the new order was directed to employ the
means best understood by the age. Cold calculation had succeeded to
ardent zeal: the public mind no longer instinctively revered the old
heroic type of dragon-tamers, be they called Roland or Saint Benedict.
The new current required a new rudder, and the Visitation nuns
supplied the need. At first they were not even meant to be cloistered,
but to form a kind of missionary society (as their very name implies)
among the Calvinists of Savoy and France. This origin