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PREPARATION 11

the end of the scholastic year helps to determine the
degree of proficiency then attained by him. His class
counted fifteen scholastics, French, Belgian, Irish,
Spanish and German-speaking. On the occasion of a
visit of the General of the Order, Father Fabre, a
strict disciplinarian of brilliant intellect, theses in
theology and philosophy had to be prepared and
publicly read in his presence by the best student in
every course. A theme, or topic, that of the ‘Innate
Ideas,’ was therefore allotted for treatment to three
“philosophers” whom the professor deemed the best
in his class. Brother Morice was one of those three,
and when one of their dissertations had to be singled
out to be read before the General, it was that of our
friend which was chosen for the honour.

It would seem as if the aptitude for mechanical
reproduction, or at any rate readiness for extra work,
which he had displayed during his juniorate, and which
he was to develop to such an extent in his after life,
had been bruited at the scholasticate of Autun. We
see him, in the first year of his theological studies, this
time not printing, but lithographing by a new process,
the course in Holy Scriptures then given by Rev. J. B.
Lemius, O.M.I., who was later to make for himself
such a name as a popular preacher and a sacred orator
of remarkably winning eloquence, when in charge of
the basilica of the Sacred Heart at Montmartre, Paris.

Brother Morice should have made his perpetual
profession on the fifteenth of August, 1879. The
presence at Autun of the members of the Chapter
General of that year rendered this impossible. It was
put back till after the end of the annual retreat, which
then closed on October 9, when he became an Oblate
for life.

Shortly after, his superiors showed that they had