110 THROUGH CANADA 



reflected in his followers. Creed and dogma were not 

 propositions that commanded intellectual assent, but 

 docile obedience. The calm realm of thought was 

 made impossible in the whirlwind of unthinking 

 action. Dogma was not a thing to be argued, but 

 enforced, and at any cost — life itself was an insignifi- 

 cant item in the programme. The shaping of creeds 

 and framing of morals were not a matter for many 

 minds, but for one superior mind, in the conclusions 

 of which all others were required to acquiesce. 



To suit this spiritual dictatorship, the ordinary 

 rules of right and wrong were no longer binding. 

 Black was white and white black if the Superior so 

 willed it. Zeal being the dynamic of the Jesuit 

 order, exercises were enjoined for the qualification of 

 the novitiate. He must understand the penalty of 

 being outside the true fold, and meditate on final 

 things until the meaning of a lost soul was fully 

 imaged to his mental vision. So strenuous were 

 these exercises that the disciple imagined he could 

 hear the bowlings of the damned, witness their con- 

 vulsive agonies, look into the infernal pit, and tremble 

 at the fire that burned without consuming. The 

 meditative part of the curriculum covered a course of 

 two years. Next followed practical training, in which 

 the disciple was required to undertake the most menial 

 duties in the sick-room and the hospital. Humility 

 was taught in begging his own bread from door to door; 

 zeal, in watching his companions for any " tendencies " 



