without the convent; and to wear habits poor and mean, and of the form provided by our constitutions. They were to follow the same opinions, and the same custom of administering the sacraments, and the ceremonies of the mass, and the same mode of intoning. They were all to go to matins at midnight, as to the other hours, however few the religious might be, even where was no more than one in the convent; since for even this one it is no less necessary to glorify God, and the service is no more laborious to Him. Thus St. Paul and his disciple Silas, though in chains and in prison, at midnight extolled the Lord; and the royal prophet did the same, though he was alone. Secular visits were entirely forbidden, except such as were required by charity; and these, it was ordained, should be made only as the superior directed, and in no other case. As for poverty, it was ordered that no one should have for any purpose any thing except his breviary and one other book of devotion, and his memorandum-book; all were to be content with the books which are possessed in common in all convents--of which they might make use, with permission, and under the obligation to return them. In cells only one image was permitted, and that a poor one, without other instruments of devotion. The superiors were in this, as in all other things, to be equal with those under them; there was to be no more in the cell of the provincial than in that of any brother. This equality, and the leading of the way by the superiors, makes the road easy for the others. Such poverty as this was not only to be established and maintained with regard to individuals, but everything that the separate convents possessed was the common property of the province; and the provincial might take it from one convent which had little need of it, and give it to another that needed it more--whether it were money, or books, or ornaments, or anything else that the latter required. The license of the general of the order was required for authority to receive anything that should not belong to the whole province after the aforesaid manner; and the licenses of subordinates and superiors for that purpose were forbidden. It was necessary to follow this course, for every day new missions were to be sent out, now to Japon, now to China, now to minister in the service of the Indians; it would not be possible to undertake them without taking from the convents what they had to give, so that the fathers might not enter on a mission under the necessity of begging for their sustenance from the heathen to whom they were just beginning to preach, which would have been hard indeed for them. Above all this--even, as it were the foundation of the whole--two hours were appointed for daily mental prayer, one after matins and the other by day, ordinarily between one and two, before vespers. This was a truly holy counsel; for as a man of himself has but little strength, he could not accomplish