DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0306
CHARACTER OF THE MONKS. 289
preter would permit. So far as I could judge, they
seemed perfectly contented ; but they were, for the
most part, mere drones and sluggards, doing little
good for themselves or others, and living idly upon
the misapplied bounty of Christian pilgrims. I do
not mean to say that they were bad men. Most of
them were too simple to be bad ; and if there was
evil in their nature, they had no temptation to do
evil; and, after all, the mere negative goodness
which does no harm is not to be lightly spoken of,
in a world so full of restlessness and mischief as
this of ours. Many of them had been a long time in
the convent, some as much as twenty or thirty years,
and one, who was now a hundred and five years
old, had been seventy-five years worshipping the
Lord, after his fashion, at the foot of Sinai. Among
them were a baker, shoemaker, and tailor; they
baked, cooked, made and mended for themselves,
and had but one other duty to perform, and that
was four times daily to kneel down and pray.
Nothing could be more dull, quiet, and monotonous
than their lives, and none but the most sluggish or
the most philosophic spirit could endure it. They
were philosophers without showing it, and dozed
away their existence in one unvarying round of
prayer, and meals, and sleep. Their discipline
was not rigid, save in one particular, and that a
matter in regard to which there has been much
discussion with us; they never ate meat; no ani-
mal food of any kind is permitted to enter the walls
of the convent. During all the various periods of
their abode in the convent, some thirty, some forty,
VOL. I.-B B
preter would permit. So far as I could judge, they
seemed perfectly contented ; but they were, for the
most part, mere drones and sluggards, doing little
good for themselves or others, and living idly upon
the misapplied bounty of Christian pilgrims. I do
not mean to say that they were bad men. Most of
them were too simple to be bad ; and if there was
evil in their nature, they had no temptation to do
evil; and, after all, the mere negative goodness
which does no harm is not to be lightly spoken of,
in a world so full of restlessness and mischief as
this of ours. Many of them had been a long time in
the convent, some as much as twenty or thirty years,
and one, who was now a hundred and five years
old, had been seventy-five years worshipping the
Lord, after his fashion, at the foot of Sinai. Among
them were a baker, shoemaker, and tailor; they
baked, cooked, made and mended for themselves,
and had but one other duty to perform, and that
was four times daily to kneel down and pray.
Nothing could be more dull, quiet, and monotonous
than their lives, and none but the most sluggish or
the most philosophic spirit could endure it. They
were philosophers without showing it, and dozed
away their existence in one unvarying round of
prayer, and meals, and sleep. Their discipline
was not rigid, save in one particular, and that a
matter in regard to which there has been much
discussion with us; they never ate meat; no ani-
mal food of any kind is permitted to enter the walls
of the convent. During all the various periods of
their abode in the convent, some thirty, some forty,
VOL. I.-B B