) And believe me, children,
I am no warped witness, as far as regards monasteries; or if I am,
it is in their favor. I have always had a strong leaning that way;
and have pensively shivered with Augustines at St. Bernard; and
happily made hay with Franciscans at Fesole; and sat silent with
Carthusians in their little gardens, south of Florence; and
mourned through many a day-dream, at Melrose and Bolton. But the
wonder is always to me, not how much, but how little, the monks
have, on the whole, done, with all that leisure, and all that
good-will! What nonsense monks characteristically wrote;--what
little progress they made in the sciences to which they devoted
themselves as a duty,--medicine especially;--and, last and worst,
what depths of degradation they can sometimes see one another, and
the population round them, sink into; without either doubting
their system, or reforming it!
(Seeing questions rising to lips.) Hold your little tongues,
children; it's very late, and you'll make me forget what I've to
say. Fancy yourselves in pews, for five minutes. There's one point
of possible good in the conventual system, which is always
attractive to young girls; and the idea is a very dangerous one;--
0the notion of a merit, or exalting virtue, consisting in a habit
of meditation on the "things above," or things of the next world.
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