y generations. Vivarium at one time almost rivalled
Monte Cassino, and Cassiodorus[21] won the honorary title of the
restorer of knowledge in the sixth century.

The Benedictines, already accustomed to regular work, soon followed this
example. Thus, that very mode of life which in its founder, Anthony,
despised all learning, became, in the course of its development, an
asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times of the immigration and
the crusades, and a conservator of the literary treasures of antiquity
for the use of modern times.

HANNAH THURSTON.

PAUL. Well, Dorcas, now you have finished the book, what do you
think of it?

DORCAS. I must confess, my expectations on the whole have been
agreeably disappointed. From the criticisms I had read, both favorable
and adverse, I was fully prepared to quarrel with it from beginning to
end. I find in it much power and sustained interest. The descriptions of
nature are admirable--fresh, unhackneyed, and vivid. Western New York,
with its blue lakes, sloping hills, shining brooks, quiet woodlands,
spring buds, autumn flowers, winding country roads, and laden grain
fields, stands before one, clearly pictured. The characters, with their
_isms_, seem like old acquaintances, and the seething, fermenting
condition of American society is most accurately represented. There is
pathos, too, in the story, and many will read it with moistened eyes.

PAUL. So far so good, but--?

DORCAS. But there runs through the entire work a vein of
sentiment or philosophy, which wears a very suspicious resemblance to
that of a certain school just now popular in France. I need not tell
you, Uncle Paul, how distasteful to me is that school, nor how false I
think the premises upon which it is founded. I am convinced there is a
difference in the mental and moral constitution of men and women. I will
not bore you by any disquisition upon relative superiority or
inferiority, but will simply give you a portion of my idea as I find it
laid down by St. John Chrysostom: 'Do not confound _submission_ with
_slavery_,' says the golden-mouthed Greek. 'The woman obeys, but
_remains free_; she is _equal_ in honor. It is true that she is subject
to her husband; and this is her punishment for having rendered herself
guilty in the beginning. Mark it well; woman was not condemned to
subjection at the time of her creation; when God made and presented her
to her husband, He said nothing of domination; we hear