Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/208

218 world, whilst she calmly cultivates her soul for heaven, and she may, by its mercy, attain to that heavenly peace and joy, which the beautiful picture above the altar represents! This, however, is indispensable to those with whom it succeeds; they must have a vocation for this quiet life, with its appointed times and seasons for work, meal-times, hours of prayers, hours of rest! It would not suit every one!

I have seen in San Pilippo de Neri the bright side of the conventual institution. But I know that there is another, one which causes the child to be torn from its parents in order to enrich the convent, which blinds the human being to the natural ordinance of God, blinds to his kingdom, in order to bind her to the church of stone by ceremonies and dead forms, and which tears her from family life, in order to make her the servant of the hierarchy and its despots;—against this side of the conventual institution I would read the Litany.——“Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good,” says the apostle.

March 16th.—I visited, in company with Madame de Martino, the private Chapel of Saint Brigitta and the rooms adjoining, which she inhabited during her residence of twenty years in Rome, and which remain still, as they were then. The three little rooms evidenced a mind which was weaned from the splendors of this world. The little chapel had been repaired and beautified. Both it and the whole house belong to the order of Salvator Brothers, an order which occupies itself with the education of youth. A friendly abbé, who conducted us round the place, spoke much of the good influence which Brigitta, as well by her