ungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no
drink ... sick and in prison and ye visited me not." Then shall they
answer him, saying, "When saw we thee an-hungered, or a-thirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto
thee?" Then shall he answer them, saying, "Inasmuch as ye did it not
to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

This is the fundamental difference between heathen and Christian
morality; between intellectual Greek philosophy and practical modern
science; between the aesthetic ideal and the ideal of "life."

* * * * *

Positive science, therefore, has made us realize a part of
Christianity. We might almost say that the monastic orders practically
represented, throughout the centuries and the different civilizations,
the only form of life which is really life--that which science has
revealed to-day.

They alone, at a period of disorderly excess, had a dietary which
begins to be generally recognized as hygienic; they ate coarse bread,
fresh fruit, milk fresh from the cow, many vegetables, little meat, at
frugal but regular repasts. Withdrawing from the polluted air of
crowded cities, they chose large, spacious houses in the open country
or, at any rate, rather isolated--if possible, standing on a height.
Their luxury was not heavy, padded furniture but large grounds where
it was possible to live in the open air. Loose clothing, comfortable
sandals, or bare feet, woolen gowns, physical exercise, agricultural
work, traveling, made them almost the precursors of the modern life of
sport. Every convent spread benefactions all around--received the
poor, tended the sick, as if to show that this freer and more
privileged life was but a phase, which must necessarily be accompanied
by help to humanity. They represented the social and intellectual
_elite_; it was the Benedictines who preserved manuscripts and
treasured the arts; it was the followers of Saint Bernard who
practised agriculture, and it was the sons of Saint Francis who
preached peace.

Or it might be said that modern society, guided by positive study of
the laws of life and of the means of saving it, has encountered the
religious laws which reveal the paths of life; and realizes a form of
civilization which recalls and, in some ways, reproduces the ancient
oases of the spirit.

If, however, we were to risk a parallel between modern society and a
convent, what kind of c