three years alone with his thoughts of God. It would be easy to
regard him as an eccentric boy: but he was adjusting himself to the real
centre of his life. Gradually others who longed for a more real
existence joined him, and he divided them into groups of twelve, and
settled them in small houses; giving them a time-table by which to live,
which should make possible a full and balanced existence of body, mind
and soul. Thanks to those years of retreat and preparation, he knew what
he wanted and what he ought to do; and they ushered in a long life of
intense mental and spiritual activity. His houses were schools, which
taught the service of God and the perfecting of the soul as the aims of
life. His rule, in which genial human tolerance, gentle courtesy, and a
profound understanding of men are not less marked than lofty
spirituality, is the classic statement of all that the Christian
spiritual life implies and should be.[56]

What, then, is the character of the life which St. Benedict proposed as
a remedy for the human failure and disharmony that he saw around him? It
was framed, of course, for a celibate community: but it has many
permanent features which are unaffected by his limitation. It offers
balanced opportunities of development to the body, the mind and the
spirit; laying equal emphasis on hard work, study, and prayer. It aims
at a robust completeness, not at the production of professional
ascetics; indeed, its Rule says little about physical austerities,
insists on sufficient food and rest, and countenances no extremes.
According to Abbot Butler, St. Benedict's day was divided into three and
a half hours for public worship, four and a half for reading and
meditation, six and a half for manual work, eight and a half for sleep,
and one hour for meals. So that in spite of the time devoted to
spiritual and mental interests, the primitive Benedictine did a good
day's work and had a good night's rest at the end of it. The work might
be anything that wanted doing, so long as the hours of prayer were not
infringed. Agriculture, scholarship, education, handicrafts and art have
all been done perfectly by St. Benedict's sons, working and willing in
quiet love. This is what one of the greatest constructive minds of
Christendom regarded as a reasonable way of life; a frame within which
the loftiest human faculties could grow, and man's spirit achieve that
harmony with God which is its goal. Moreover, this life was to be
so