Another distinctive mark by which the false asceticism can be recognized, is the absence which it entails of human virtues, and of what may be termed natural goodness. Pliny says, that in odoriferous woods serpents are most numerous. In the moral forest, there is sometimes reason to fear most when the odour of Biblical and ascetic phraseology is strongest : for there are characters provided with an unyielding surface, formed of such terms which resembles the bark of the birch, when, as in Lapland, large trees are found lying prostrate, from which the wood has gradually mouldered away, while the bark remains like a hollow cone, without the slightest change. It is a remark of Burke, that "the theatre is a better school of moral sentiments than temples where the feelings of humanity are outraged." While it would be difficult, perhaps, to disprove what is so boldly said by Roscius in the "Muse's Looking-glass :" "There has been more by us in some one play Some may remember having read in a famous history, that “in one point only Square the philosopher and Thwackum the divine agreed, which was, in all their discourses on morality never to mention the word goodness." The same concord is found here among ascetics of this kind; and in truth one cannot wonder at it; for there are many seeming virtuous who very naturally may wish to deny its existence. Yes; there are persons who resemble the cypress, in being, no doubt, incorruptible, in pointing always to the sky, in loving to cast their shadow over melancholy spots, but who resemble it also in the effects produced on others by the odour of their presence; for the atmosphere of a cypress wood is deemed insupportable by some; and it is impossible for any one to feel it long without having the head fatigued. Those who pretend, and even some who really believe themselves to be the representatives of Divine virtue among the higher classes, are often characters that may remind one of this effect produced by the dark spire. All may be strict and respectable, decorous and severe; but there is something in their intercourse that fatigues, that distresses, that exasperates; and those who have to suffer it continually, are often tempted to catch a glimpse at what passes in any other place, heedless of its qualities, so that they can but escape out of the sphere which oppresses them; as in the picture of Hogarth, in which, by means of a gap in a wall, figures are seen passing on the other side, having no relation to the subject of the composition. Virtue by these persons loses its charm and becomes oppressive. "Here is no fair dawn Of life from charitable voice! no sweet saying All bespeaks sadness, isolation, bitter coolness; and the consequence in some cases is, that others, who learn to identify supernatural virtue with such outward respectability, direct their affections elsewhere, and find, perhaps, some worth in those who are pronounced, by the same class of moralists, to have lost all. It is a fearful result of experience, when natural benevolence and kindheartedness, undissembling love and disinterested inclinations, are found to exist least where are made the greatest professions of a supernatural morality. Deadly, indeed, must be the offence, and terrible the responsibility, where, perhaps, it is thought wholly absent, when persons, by their own inconsistency, cause observing youth to believe that there exists something which can be more amiable than virtue. If it could be ever lawful to say that life was but a jest, it would be when witnessing the vain religion which false supernaturalists observe. In them all is pride, selfishness, and Pharisaical respectability. There is, in fact, nothing amiable in them-nothing deep, nothing true, nothing constant, but a certain exterior of virtue, sometimes accompanied with an odious cant and affectation, which is enough to exasperate, almost to madness, those who are its constant observers. We read as follows in the Magnum Speculum:-" A certain brother from Egypt came to the abbot pastor, being announced as one who had celebrity in his own country; so the old man received him with great charity and the foreign brother began to speak of the Holy Scriptures and of spiritual things; and the pastor turned away his face and answered not. So the other departed; and he who had introduced him asked, Why did you not speak with so eminent a man?' To whom the old man answered,' He is from above, and speaks of heavenly things; but I am below, and speak of earthly. If he had spoken to one of the passions of the mind I would have answered him; but he spoke of spiritual things, of which I am ignorant.' Then hearing this, the other returned; and in the fulness of delight which he experienced from the old man's answers, exclaimed, Vere hæc est via charitatis*.'" This way of charity is not followed by those whose ascetic pretensions are objected to us here To envy and to suspect, to be harsh and implacable, is the conclusion to which leads all this praying, that does not mollify one rudeness in their nature; and one may be reminded, every time one meets them, * Id. p. 433. of the description in Froissart, of a certain leader of a fanatical troop, who called himself—“ Ami de Dieu et ennemi de tout le monde." The late historian of Innocent III. says, that "to appreciate the eminent moral worth of a man, one must inquire after his possession of three qualities, without which this worth does not exist that is to say, gratitude, friendship, and the appreciation of the merit of others. Innocent,” he adds, “possessed these three qualities, and proved them by his actions*." The false piety is not concerned with such questions. It is content with that very propensity to suspect and judge others, which Catholicism denounces as a prevarication; and an instance related in the Magnum Speculum, may be cited to show in what that kind of perfection consists: "There was a monk," then says that author, "in a certain monastery, prone to suspicions. The evil so increased, that it became at length an almost constant delusion of the devil. One morning, he hastened to the abbot, and told him that a certain monk, who had just received the Communion, was seen by him in the garden previously stealing a fig and eating it. He added, that he had watched afterwards and seen him receive the Communion. The abbot, on inquiring, found that the monk was not in the garden, nor even in the monastery at the time specified, having been sent after matins, by the procurator, a distance of some miles, and that he had gone straight into the church on his return. The abbot then severely reproved the suspicious brother, and gave warning to the whole community, setting before them the danger of giving way to suspicions, than which nothing can be worset." The false asceticism deems it sufficient excuse, and a proper answer on such occasions to say, that you do not know the persons whom it accuses; and then it pronounces further discussion on the subject unnecessary. Reckless of the fair name of others, while tremblingly susceptible of the least breath that they can suspect to be directed against themselves, persons of this kind answer, with Dyscolus, when told he ought not to be suspicious, "How! suspicious! Carry me to the justice; bind me over For a suspicious person! Oh, oh, oh, Some courteous plague seize me, and free my soul From this immortal torment! Every thing I meet with is vexation." And then when it is replied,— "Sir, we strive to please you, but you still misconstrue us,”— they exclaim, * Hurter, xx. Mag. Spec. 636. "I must be pleas'd! a very babe, an infant! I must be pleas'd! give me some pap, or plumbs; To still me, do! be pleas'd! O death, death, death! if that our grave hatch worms Gentleness, kindness, tranquillity, consideration for the happiness of others, enter not in the smallest proportions into this deplorable character. There is found in it a harsh condition; no gentleness can win it; 'tis severe in its constructions, 'tis rancorous. But nothing can be conceived more contrary to the Catholic type of virtue, than the conduct of those who cause themselves to be noted for a strict observance of religious practices, while renouncing all the amiable graces of humanity. St. Isidore of Damietta writes to a priest, Maron, saying, "all the world complains of you, as being more untractable than the wild beast. This brutality of manner must be corrected, or the disgrace will fall upon the Church.” Who can confound Catholic constancy with the temper of one, who, as Goethe says, "is like a gentle stream, to which no one dares oppose any thing lest it should foam?" We read in the lives of the fathers, " that a certain brother, sitting alone, was troubled; and going to the Abbot Theodore de Firme, he said to him, Vade, humilia mentem tuum, et subde te, et habita cum aliis.' Then he went to the mountain and dwelt with others; and returning to the old man, he said, Neither with others have I rest:' and the old man said, 'Neither alone nor with others have you peace. Why do you wish to become a monk? Is it not to sustain tribulations? But say, how many years since you wear this habit?' And he said eight.' Then the old man said, ' Believe me, I have spent seventy years in this habit, and I have not had rest a single day*" The false asceticism would have every thing even and conformable to its wishes; and at the least contradiction it foams like a torrent. The Catholic expects and accepts labour, contradiction, resistance, saying, "Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve first thy obedience." It is kind, placid, indulgent, forgiving; hoping and believing all things well of others. "Master Rudolph, Scholastic of Cologne, whom I knew well," says Cæsar of Heisterbach, "when teaching his scholars, used to cite this example against the envious, saying, there was a monk who greatly disliked one of his brethren. The other perceiving it, and wishing to cure his malady, did all he could to overcome his prejudice, discharging every sort of service by which he Lib. Vit. SS. Patrum. thought he could conciliate his esteem, down to the least things -such as turning his pillow and brushing his habit. He succeeded, so that the other began to love as much as he had hated him before*." Such victories are not achieved, and indeed are not sought for, by the kind of virtue which is here opposed to us. Notwithstanding its boast of a Christian origin, the Pagans knew it well. They witnessed it in the childhood of Alcibiades, when his impetuous passions moved him to throw himself before a cart-wheel rather than cease his play at the word of another, only to let it pass. They beheld it in the men described by Plutarch, as being accustomed to yield to the movements of that part of the soul which is the seat of anger and obstinacy, which they think the principle of courage and grandeur, having no mixture of that gravity and sweetness of reason and instruction so necessary to political virtue-men ignorant of the wisdom of patience, who can bear no injury †. Alcibiades would not play upon the flute for the reason that it distorts the mouth and the whole face ; but these false ascetics, "ever in a passion or a prayer," seem to have no such concern, exercising, as they do, their excitable ill-nature, which so alters the human expression, that it cannot be seen without a certain terror, arising from the mere aspect of deformity. What a contrast do they present to persons who exhibit the consequences of the Catholic discipline, which will not even suffer any excuse of official duties to prevail against the duty of nourishing or forming a sweet affable dispo sition! St. Peter Nolasco, visiting a convent of his order, on entering the kitchen, found the father procurator quarrelling with the bursar for having bought some article too dear. Having heard the cause of debate, he blamed the procurator, and said, "Dear father, ought you for such a trifle to lose interior peace and charity to your brother?" In Catholic books, we read of men moved by a consideration of the deep seat of anger in the soul, to vanquish, by an heroic effort, the temptation to indulge in it. "There was a certain brother," says an old author, "in a community, prone to anger. So he said to himself, I will proceed and dwell alone, that in solitude I may be able to subdue my bad temper.' He went forth accordingly, and dwelt by himself in a cave. But one day as he drew water, the vessel was suddenly overturned on the ground; and having filled it a second and then a third time, the inequality of the ground still causing it to turn over, he grew furious, and in a passion broke the pitcher. Then immediately recollecting himself, he said, 'Lo, I am alone, and the same demon deludes me. I will * iv. c. 26. + Vit. Coriol. Hist. de l'Ord. de la Mercy, &c. 118. |