eee ee

PREPARATION 9

passions and temper proper to that stage of the religious
life, but because of the strictly enforced abstention
from all intellectual work to which he was condemned.
With the fondness for mental activity for which he was
already remarkable, he did indeed attempt, for the lack
of another subject, to learn the German language from
one of his fellow novices,’ but he had to deny himself
even that satisfaction.

From Nancy, Lorraine, he passed (September,
1878) to the ancient city of Autun, in the centre of
France, where he immediately started his philosophical
studies.

Autun, in Burgundy, is the Augustodunum, or Fort
August, of the Romans, who have left there quite a
number of monuments and ruins which even now seem
proof against the ravages of time. There are two
magnificent gateways, from the top of one of which
Saint Symphorian’s mother encouraged him to forti-
tude and perseverance as he was going to martyrdom;"*
There are also remains of a temple, a theatre and city
walls, the sight of which could not but further feed that
taste for archaeological lore which was one of Brother
Morice’s hobbies.

Meanwhile, what he had to do at the old Roman
city was to pursue the study of philosophy. This he
specially relished, and soon realized that intellectual
labour was becoming more and more easy to him, a
circumstance which may account for the amount of
time he even then consecrated to other side studies.
God knows, and Protestants can scarcely have an idea,
how very difficult is Catholic philosophy. What
Protestants call by that name has no relation to, and

e: Brother, afterward Father, Nicholas Hehn, a native of German-
speaking Lorraine.

4A scene which has been rendered famous by the masterpiece of a
French painter, Ingres.