CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA

  This book is a drama, whose leading personage is the Infinite.

  Man is the second.

  Such being the case, and a convent having happened to be on our road, ithas been our duty to enter it. Why? Because the convent, which is commonto the Orient as well as to the Occident, to antiquity as well as tomodern times, to paganism, to Buddhism, to Mahometanism, as well as toChristianity, is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to theInfinite.

  This is not the place for enlarging disproportionately on certainideas; nevertheless, while absolutely maintaining our reserves, ourrestrictions, and even our indignations, we must say that every time weencounter man in the Infinite, either well or ill understood, we feelourselves overpowered with respect. There is, in the synagogue, in themosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate,and a sublime side, which we adore. What a contemplation for the mind,and what endless food for thought, is the reverberation of God upon thehuman wall!