[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 47 



vators of iieligioii ? Look ait this Freoalch version of his De Spec, c. xxxix, 

 P.L., t. 1, col. 735, and be convinced forever: — " Vous avez des spectacles 

 saints, perpétuels, gratuits; cherches-y les jeux du cirque, regarde le 

 cours des siècles, les temps qui s'écoulent, compte les espaces, attends 

 qufosn touche la dernière borne, défends les sociétés des églises, ressuscite 

 au signe de Dieu, lève-toi à la voix de l'ange, gloriiie-toi de la palme du 



martyre Nous avons, nous aussi, cette littérature, nous avo^ns 



de la poésie, des sentences, même des cantiques en grand nombre, des 

 chants ; — pas de fables par exemple, mais des vérités " 



But liow could there ever have been any place for English-speaking 

 pupils, and, above all, for Protestants, in such an atmosphei-e? The 

 only answer is that there always has been room for both creeds and both 

 races in all matters of secular instruction and that the class-room 

 entente cordiale has remained unbroken from the appearance of the 

 first English pupils to the present day. As English schools became 

 established, however, fewer Protestants attended. Now-a-days the 

 boarding school is mainly French-speaking and almost entirely Roman 

 Catholic; while the Roman Catholic equivalent of Sunday-School work 

 is carried on among the girls of the public schools, who attend the con- 

 vent for that purpose only. Education moves within certain limits in 

 all branches ; but, within those limits, it is thorough. The facilitative 

 amenities of life are nowhere better understood; and the feminine of 

 •'• manners maketh man " is nowhere better put in practice. 



Religion is very naturally made pervasively attractive to every 

 Roman Catholic; and the nuns and pupils are generally the best of 

 friends. Many a girl leaves in tears : but these do not recruit the ranks 

 of the novices nearly so much as those who leave less regretfully, "have 

 their fling," and then return for consolation from a hollow world. 



A childish impression is sometimes fixed for life by the beautiful 

 commemoration which marks the fête-day of La Mère Marie, when every 

 hand helps to strew her grave with roses. And what pupil ever forgets 

 the end of her first Christmas term? liong before daylight, wliile the 

 little girls in the junior dormitories are still asleep, soft, distant music 

 floats through the open doorway, stealing over each wann coverlet, to 

 take the ear between dream and waking. Noël! Noël! are the first words 

 soaring on the wings of that glad melody. And, presently, tlie now 

 expectant eyes discern the first tall, white, gliding form, with taper-lit 

 l)londe head, leading the undulant, long procession of the elder choir 

 girls. Voices, violins and organ — a swelling tide of sound — flow on and 

 in, until the very air of the whole vibrant room thrills with sympathetic 



harmonies. A few sweet, rapt moments of full ecstasia and 



the choir is passing through the farther door .... and the music. 



