Then the time was skilfully divided between attendance at ceremonies, and the repetition of lip-prayers, for from five to six hours daily (including the breviary prayers.*) Five hours of prayer daily, and such prayer! for young men of twenty-four years, designed to be the salt of the earth! Rome uses devotion as a means of enslaving men. I tried by every means to escape from the debasing feeling, from the reproach of conscience _that I had done nothing._** After the breviary prayers were concluded, there were only about three hours left daily for private study; and the spiritual work was to be performed in the midst of twenty youths who had no farther examination for office to undergo, and who besides were otherwise _finished!_ It was with horror that I contemplated the possibility that my moral strength might be weakened by the influence of idleness and dissimulation. My case was therefore often desperate, and many a time in fever heat have I outwatched the night, and prayed in spirit "If it be possible, let the bitter cup pass from me." I was forced to drink it; but a gleam of prophetic brightness lighted me through the night, and showed me in my dreams the day of my emancipation. Miserably diseased in mind and disposition, I left the seminary in 1840. * The time was divided in the following manner:--Morning,-- From 5 1/2 to 6, matins; from 6 to 7, breviary; 7 to 7 1/2, mass; from 7 1/2 to 8, breakfast; from 8 to 10, lectures; from 10 to 10 3/4, free; from 10 3/4 to 11 1/2, study; from 11 1/2 to 12, breviary. Afternoon,--Before and after dinner, prayers in the chapel--altogether about 3/4 of an hour; then 1/4 or 1/2 an hour breviary; from 2 to 4, lectures; from 4 to 4 3/4, free; from 4 3/4 to 7, study. After supper, about 1/2 an hour of prayer in the chapel and an hour breviary. The prayers are Latin, and always the same; a larger number on Sundays and feast days. It is the duty of every ecclesiastic to pray through the breviary once each day; the vicars go through these prayers for the canons as a sort of feudal service. The pupils are allowed, twice a week, to cross the threshold of the institution for a few hours only. No speaking is allowed during meals. The treatment is degrading. Two rooms for study are allotted to each twenty individuals. The sleeping places, without stoves, are arranged for three, six, eight, and fifteen. The largest was called _The Menagerie_. ** One of the Prebendaries themselves, at the time of our departure, called the Seminary "a little hell." THE WARNING.