Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/207

Rh to the same. The convent has a school. The nuns are permitted to receive visits from their relations, and are also allowed to go out—once a year! Consequently, the rules are not very strict.

The parents of the young girls are said to be glad to have two of their daughters so well provided for. And however much I may have heard and read against conventual life, yet I have received from this place a very different impression. The bright and kindly expression of the nuns; the well-lighted rooms, the garden which was so fresh and verdant with golden fruit shining on the trees—I thought that life here might not be unpleasant, and I have seen this earthly life so difficult in many ways for poor girls, especially for those who are not richly endowed by nature; so much humiliation in the world, so many straits at home, so much anxiety for the morrow, so much discomfort—sometimes even want—in old age, that I cannot regard it otherwise than as good fortune to be safely housed in such a position, even if one must pay for it with a portion of one's liberty. But there are c e o nvents of another kind. The mild establishment of San Fillippo de Neri, is differently constituted to the soul-destroying, unnatural life of Le vive Sepolte, and others of the same class, which prevails in many of the Italian convents. In this institution the motherly part of the woman's being is called into operation and is developed by the education of children; here the family-bond is not altogether broken. The rules are not rigid; the work is good, daily, moderate; the social life pleasant. The young girl is safe from the necessities of life; she may live usefully for the