- Grace, in this state of things, abounds. Such is
the term bestowed on the silent and steady, or startling and brusque,
emotion by which the Christian enters into communication with the
invisible world, an aspiration and a hope, a presentiment and a
divination, and even often a distinct perception. Evidently, this
grace is not far off, almost within reach of the souls which, from the
tenor of their whole life, strive to attain it. They have closed
themselves off on the earthly side, therefore, these can no longer
look or breathe otherwise than heavenward.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the monastic institution no
longer produced this effect; deformed, weakened and discredited
through its abuses, especially in the convents of males, and then
violently overthrown by the Revolution, it seemed to be dead. But, at
the beginning of the nineteenth century, behold it springing up again
spontaneously, in one direct, new, strong and active jet and higher
than the old one, free of the excrescences, rottenness and parasites
which, under the ancient r?gime, disfigured and discolored it.
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