We
are, indeed, far from affirming that in that little society
there was no higher tone of religious enthusiasm, that there
were not some who not only found their highest religious ideal
in the life they had chosen, but to whom it formed, in fact,
the highest ideal to which they could attain, and calculated,
therefore, to develope in them the best and noblest part of
their natures. To such, the appointed, monotonous round, the
unquestioning submission to the will of another, the obedience
at once voluntary and enforced, would not only bring a
gracious sense of repose after conflict, but, by satisfying
their religious cravings and aspirations, by demanding the
exercise of those virtues which appeared to them at once the
highest and the most attainable, would give peace to souls
which, in the world's active life, would have tossed for ever
to and fro in reckless unquiet warfare, nor have ever once
perceived that in such warfare they might, after all, be
fulfilling the noblest ends. "Peace, and rest, and time for
heavenly meditation," they had cried, stretching out weary
hands to this quiet little harbour of refuge, and perhaps--who
knows?--they had there found them.
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