BUCKLAND ABBEY. 179 



catalogue of the most heinous sins. The freedom of 

 the mind, the source of every generous and rational 

 sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of credulity and 

 submission; and the monk, contracting the vices of a 

 slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions of his 

 ecclesiastical tyrant. The popular monks whose repu- 

 tation was connected with the fame and success of the 

 order, assiduously laboured to multiply the number of 

 their fellow capti ves. They insinuated themselves into 

 noble and opulent families ; and the specious arts of 

 flattery and seduction were employed to secure those 

 proselytes, who might bestow wealth or dignity on the 

 monastic profession. The indignant father bewailed 

 the loss, perhaps of an only son ; the credulous maid 

 was betrayed by vanity, to violate the laws of nature ; 

 and the matron aspired to imaginary perfection, by re- 

 nouncing the virtues of domestic life. 



The brethren were supported by their manual labour ; 

 and the duty of labour was strenuously recommended 

 as a penance, as an exercise, and as the most laudable 

 means of securing their daily subsistence. The garden, 

 and fields, which the industry of the monks had often 

 rescued from the forest, or the morass, were diligently 

 cultivated by their hands. They performed, without 

 reluctance, the menial offices of slaves and domestics ; 

 and the several trades that were necessary to provide 

 their habits, their utensils, and their lodging, were exer- 

 cised within the precincts of the great monasteries. 

 Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to com- 

 municate : study is the resource of solitude ; but edu- 

 cation had not prepared and qualified for any liberal 

 studies the mechanics and peasants, who filled the mo- 

 nastic communities. The monastic studies have tended, 

 for the most part, to darken rather than to dispel, the 

 cloud of superstition. Yet the curiosity or zeal of some 

 learned solitaries has cultivated the ecclesiastical, and 

 even the profane sciences ; and posterity must grate- 

 fully acknowledge that the monuments of Greek and 

 Roman literature have been preserved and multiplied 

 by their indefatigable pens. 



