Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/165

 So much is clear from election results; but in a country which is fermenting with new ideas mere statistics teach very little of themselves. A new party which is hardly a generation old and which has had a marvellously rapid growth is presumed to have acquired a serious momentum: it consists almost entirely of converts, and the average convert is conscious of his opinions and zealous for them. The adherents to the old party may be still, to a great extent, in their traditional apathy, and only need their minds to be quickened in order to change position. And in Belgium, if we merely listen to the clerical party itself, such would seem to be the state of affairs.

It is much easier to test the real fidelity of nominal adherents of the Church of Rome than of those of any other sect or party in existence: it is the only sect that binds its members under pain of grievous sin to certain positive religious observances. Hence it is possible to gauge the depth and vitality of its influence over its statistical members without entering into the sanctuary of their consciences. And so the fact that one third of the students at the only Catholic university systematically neglect Mass has a profound significance. I once heard a dispute between a Premonstratensian monk, a Walloon, and a Franciscan, who was a Fleming, about the religious merits of their respective races; and to a stranger the choice between them seemed difficult. Confession