SANTIAGO. 



271 



Maria's mind, of a high and lofty nature, is peculiarly susceptible of 

 religious impressions. Under these, the tender-conscienced girl, to 

 punish herself for an attachment not favoured by her house, which 

 she still felt, though at her parents' bidding she had given up its 

 object, resolved to go for ten days to a Casa de Exercisio. There, 

 under the guidance of an old priest, the young creatures who retire 

 thus are kept praying night and day, with so little food and sleep 

 that their bodies and minds alike become weakened. All the inter- 

 vals between the Masses, which are of the most lugubrious chants, 

 are passed in silence ; rfo voice is heard above a whisper, and the 

 light of heaven is scarcely admitted. A young married woman who 

 went in with Maria came out even gayer than she entered ; doubtless 

 her heart had rested on her husband and their home. But what was 

 to occupy the thoughts and affections of the girl whose best feelings 

 were to be crushed ? Could she harbour there 



" A wish but death, a passion but despair ?" 



And she has returned as it were to earth, — on it, but not of it. 

 The sight of friends throws her into fits of hysterical weeping ; and, 

 only prostrate before the altar, and repeating the Masses of her house 

 of woe, does she seem soothed or calmed. Such are the effects of 

 the house of exercise. I might have thought that my }'Oung friend's 

 peculiar disposition alone had caused this ; but I know a youth who 

 was, I am told, once all that parents could wish, — accomplished and 

 enlightened, and possessed of honour and spirit. He is now little 

 better than a drivelling idiot. He went into a house of exercise a 

 man, — he came out of it what he is. Oh ! if I had power or in- 

 fluence here, I would put down these mischievous establishments. 

 Even when they do not cause, as in this instance, a derangement of 

 the intellect, they are nurseries of bigotry and fanaticism. To have 

 been in one is a source of vanity, to conform to the sentiments in- 

 culcated there a point of conscience ; and as it is easier to be a bigot 

 than a virtuous man, great laxity of conduct is permitted, so the spirit 



