“The hardships undergone by these monks appear almost insupportable to human nature. Their mode of life and regulations exist nearly in the same state as established by the founder. In reciting them, such dreadful perversions of human nature and reason make it almost difficult to believe the existence of so severe an order, and lead us to wonder at the artificial miseries which the ingenuity of pious but mistaken enthusiasm can inflict upon itself. “The abstinence practised at La Trappe allows not the use of fish, meat, eggs, nor butter, and a very limited allowance of bread and vegetables. They eat only twice a day: their meals consist of a slender repast about eleven in the morning, and two ounces of bread and two raw carrots in the evening; which, both together, do not at any time exceed twelve ounces. “The same spirit of mortification is observed in their cells, which are very small, and have no other furniture than a bed of boards, a human skull, and a few religious books. Silence is at all times rigidly maintained: conversation is never permitted. Should two of them ever be seen standing near each other, though pursuing their daily labour, and preserving the strictest silence, it is considered as a violation of their vow, and highly criminal. Each member is, therefore, as completely insulated as if he alone existed in the monastery. None but the Père Abbé knows the name, age, rank, or even the native country, of any member of the community. “Every one, at his first entrance, assumes another name; and, with his former appellation, each is supposed to abjure not only the world, but every recollection and memorial of himself and his connexions. No word ever escapes from his lips, by which another could possibly guess who he is, or where he comes from; and persons of the same name, family, and neighbourhood, have often lived together in the convent for years, unknown to each other, without having suspected the proximity.” “Surely,” said Mrs. Spencer, “the recluse and solitary life of these mistakenly pious men, is in direct opposition to the precepts of the sacred volume, which enjoin us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Now this love appears best to be exemplified by acts of benevolence and practical kindness. ‘If we would do good to mankind, we must live with them;’ and the daily and hourly instances of self-denial that we are called upon to exercise, is surely of more benefit to the mind, than the most rigid austerity, or the most severe bodily penances.”