The Sun.
London, England, 1802-09-04 00:00:00

MoNzistic otbEl2 • 'OF Li--.ikA.i,Pk.

'TILE following Accottitt deri;JeS 'a degree of
tetiiporaty interest frotri the recent transactiohS in
Switierland,relativeto. the sub:o, and the Steos
taken by the New Helvetic Goirerninent thereon.

This Celebrated Monastic Order was of French
origin ; and one of the niOSt aditcite and .Self-deny_
ing •of all the institution' of this nature. One
strong instance of their unsocial and unnatural dis-
cipline is the profound silence that is enjoined them,
and which is never broken unless on very extra-
ordinary occasions;' and with the leave of the Su-
perior of the Con-vent. 'They shun the sight of
women, and in their diet 'are so abstemious, that
they live solely on Vegetables, never tasting fish,
flesh or wine. Their employment between their
religious rites are generally the cultivation of their
garden, or any other manual labour.
The founder of this Order was a French Noble-
man, BOUTHILLIER Comte DE RANCE, a man of
pleasure and dissipation, which were suddenly,con.
versed into the deepest devotion and melancholy
by the following circumstance. His affairs had
obliged him to absent himself for some time from
lady with whom he had lived in the most intimate
and tender connexion. On his return to Paris, he
contrived means, in order to surprise her agreeably,_
and to satisfy his impatient- desire of seeing her, of
going without ceremony, or - preVious notice to
her apartinent. But what must his horror and
astonishment have been, whena he ficheld her 'a life-
less corpse—disfigured beyrind conception by the
small pox, and a surgeon in the a 1 of separating the
head from the body, because the c(iffin had been
made too short ! His faculties instantly were suspend-
ed, and for some time his limb 3 were unable to per-
form their office. On coming to his self 'posses-
sion, he abruptly retired from the world to a etni-
vent, where he instituted the Order of Monks in
question, ;tad spent the remainder of his days in,
a&s of self mortA•at ion and devotion.

The lively and ingenious Lady' M. W,. MONTA.
cur, makes the following retuark',, after visiting
one of those Societies, which was established be_
twecn Ficrenzuola and Florence.

" I can not well form a notion," • says her Lady.:
ship, " of that spiritual and ecstatic joy, which-is
mixed with sighs, groans, hunger and thirst, and
the other complicated inis:.!ries of monastic discipline.
It is a strange way of going to work for happiness,
toexite an enmity between soul and body, which
Nature and Providence haVe designed to live toge-
ther in union and friendship, and which we can_
not separate, like man and wife, when thq happen
to disagree."

The sentiments of the acute and discriminating
Mr. SOUTH FY, however; do not seem to be in
unison upon this topic with those of her Ladyship.
Speaking. of Monastic Institutions in general, he
says—,4 When I reprobate Monasteries, let me ex-
" cept LA TRAPPE—The.asylum of the wretched
44 —What wisdom might not be .thlleaed from the
'4 history of those•men ? Men, who have retired
'' to dig their own graves, and labour in a silence
" not enforced by Vows, yet rendered eternal by
inclination ! Who can read thelnsetiption over
" the portal, and enter-?"
C'est ici (we la morte et que la verite
Blevent leur fiambeaux terriUt ;
C'est de cette drntrzere au itt2mle braces:llle,
Qz'te l'ots paste Eterni:e. .