Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/28

16 income sufficient for ordinary needs. Under these conditions, the quiet and comfort of rural environment could be enjoyed without the heavier cares, labors, and isolation of country life.

Of what might be called business, in the usually accepted sense of the term, there was very little; but what there was bore a character of stability that insured the honor of the town and effected the general condition of easy circumstances.

Étables overlooked the sea. The dark frowning rocks rising mountain-like above the shores, or the gentle slopes of blanched sand leading to the water's edge, contrasting with the green hills on the opposite side, created magnificent scenery. The valleys were fertile and well cultivated; the hills were unproductive except of a broom brush that served as fuel; at their bases nestled the cottages, neat and unpretentious, yet having an air of comfort and ease, while here and there a few public buildings and manorial homesteads gave variety to the scene.

The parish church was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin under the title of the Immaculate Conception, that prerogative of the Mother of God having been dear to the hearts of the faithful long years before Pius IX. proclaimed the dogma an article of faith. If, as it is said, two-thirds of the cathedrals of France were named in honor of Our Lady's Assumption, the same proportion might be said to exist in the case of the parishes whose title was that of the Virgin Mother, pure and immaculate. The fact is suggestive. What more salutary and effectual than that to the moral declination of the world there should be opposed a