BIOGIlArillCAL SKlViriJ. XXXI 



be in the minds of those who h:ive any acquaintanec with the 

 influences whieli, in Ji Roman Catholic community, surround 

 persons of special devoutness of teniper, to incline them to the 

 monastic state. The traditionary inlcrpniation and application 

 of such texts as " Sell all tiiat lliou hast and i»ivc to the poor," 

 " There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for 

 the kiui^dom of heaven's sake," adds to tiiese influences the sem- 

 blance of a divine authority. And even the vow of absolute, 

 imquestioning obedience to tlic will of a monastic superior, i.s 

 made attractive, not only as an expiatory penance, but by the 

 paradoxical conception that when all care and responsibility for 

 the details of daily life is disposed of by one supreme act of self- 

 renunciation, makini^ it over to the control of another, the soul is 

 thereby admitted to a true liberty. Such considerations as these, 

 joined to that genuine love of secluded religious stud}' and con- 

 templati(Mi which his whole life had tended to develop, will 

 explain, even in a countiy where such acts are unfamiliar, the 

 " impulse of unworldly enthusiasm, mingled with illusions of 

 youth," which divided the brilliant young professor of theology 

 from family and friends, and bound him under the triple vow of 

 poverty, chastity, and of an obedience to his superior in cveiy- 

 tJiing, limitcdonly by the scruples of an honest conscience. 



The first appearance of Father Hyacinthe as a preacher, in the 

 city of Lyons, was attended b}-- the same profound impression that 

 has waited on all his public words from that day to this. After 

 this commencement of his career at Lyons, he preached a series 

 of Lent sermons at Bordeaux, in 1802 ; and the following year, 

 being solicited by his former beloved instructor, the Abbé, at that 

 time Bishop Baudry of Perigueux, to perform a like service in his 

 cathedral, he went thither, but, instead of receiving the benedic- 

 tion of his venerated friend, he had but to utter Avords of grief 

 and eulogy over his recent grave. 



It was so lately as the summer of ISG-l that Father Hyacinthe 

 first preached to the world of Paris. This was in the church of 

 La ]Madeleine. The deep impression resulting from his sermons 

 led the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur Darboy, to send for the 



