d. With a Cistercian rule, perhaps they might have lasted
longer. In the neighbourhood of women it is but a touch-and-go
association that can be formed among defenceless men; the stronger
electricity is sure to triumph; the dreams of boyhood, the schemes of
youth, are abandoned after an interview of ten minutes, and the arts and
sciences, and professional male jollity, deserted at once for two sweet
eyes and a caressing accent. And next after this, the tongue is the
great divider.

I am almost ashamed to pursue this worldly criticism of a religious
rule; but there is yet another point in which the Trappist order appeals
to me as a model of wisdom. By two in the morning the clapper goes upon
the bell, and so on, hour by hour, and sometimes quarter by quarter,
till eight, the hour of rest; so infinitesimally is the day divided
among different occupations. The man who keeps rabbits, for example,
hurries from his hutches to the chapel, the chapter-room, or the
refectory, all day long: every hour he has an office to sing, a duty to
perform; from two, when he rises in the dark, till eight, when he
returns to receive the comfortable gift of sleep, he is upon his feet
and occupied with manifold and changing business. I know many persons,
worth several thousands in the year, who are not so fortunate in the
disposal of their lives. Into how many houses would not the note of the
monastery bell, dividing the day into manageable portions, bring peace
of mind and healthful activity of body! We speak of hardships, but the
true hardship is to be a dull fool, and permitted to mismanage life in
our own dull and foolish manner.

From this point of view, we may perhaps better understand the monk's
existence. A long novitiate and every proof of constancy of mind and
strength of body is required before admission to the order; but I could
not find that many were discouraged. In the photographer's studio, which
figures so strangely among the outbuildings, my eye was attracted by the
portrait of a young fellow in the uniform of a private of foot. This was
one of the novices, who came of the age for service, and marched and
drilled and mounted guard for the proper time among the garrison of
Algiers. Here was a man who had surely seen both sides of life before
deciding; yet as soon as he was set free from service he returned to
finish his novitiate.

This austere rule entitles a man to heaven as by right. When the
Trappist sickens, he quits no