ssions were continued whole days and whole nights without
interruption, without relief, without repose. It sometimes happened that
a young man, incapable of sustaining these consuming vigils, reeled and
fainted; they removed the apparently lifeless body without suspending
the discussion. M. Caseaux was in an ecstasy for an hour, and began to
prophesy. Another day, M. Olinde Rodrigues was struck as if by apoplexy;
because, asking each of the members in turn whether it was not true that
the Holy Spirit was in him, (M. Olinde Rodrigues,) one of the persons
interrogated had the temerity to answer by certain expressions of
incredulity. The fit was extremely violent, and Dr Fuster, in order to
save the patient, had recourse to a formal retractation from the
inconsiderate respondent, who, on his part, was full of affliction for
the mischief he had occasioned. Such, even on men of serious thought and
elevated understanding, may be the effect produced by a belief carried
to a certain point of excitement."

Such, too, may be the danger of contradicting a prophet; and we intend
to take the hint, and never be guilty of so great an imprudence. These
dissensions, accompanied with certain financial difficulties, led to a
rupture, and the family of the Rue Monsigny were compelled to dissolve.

"In this crisis, the profound calm of Enfantin never deserted him. He
possessed, at Menilmontant, a house and garden; here he resolved to seek
a place of retreat, of study, and of labour, for himself and his more
faithful disciples. Forty of these followed him to this retreat, and
there commenced the life in common, combined always with a just
sentiment of the true hierarchy of society. Poets, artists, officers,
musicians, all devoted themselves in turn to the rudest and coarsest
labours. They repaired the house, they swept the courts, they cleaned
the chambers and polished the floors; they dug up the uncultivated soil,
they covered the walks with gravel, extracted from a pit which they
themselves had excavated. To prove that their ideas on the nature of
marriage, and the emancipation of women, were pure from any selfish or
sensual calculations, they imposed upon themselves the law of celibacy.
Morning and evening they nourished their mind with the words of the
father, or, in the lives of the Christian saints read aloud, they found
example, encouragement, and precept. Hymns, the music of which one of
their members had composed, served to elevate