769. We can understand that the taste for social life, as a general principle, should be

founded in nature, as are all other tastes; but why should a taste for absolute isolation be regarded as blameable, if a man finds satisfaction in it?

"Such satisfaction can only be a selfish one. There are also men who find satisfaction in getting drunk; do you approve of them? A mode of life, by the adoption of which you condemn yourselves not to be useful to any one, cannot be pleasing to God."

770. What is to be thought of those who live in absolute seclusion in order to escape the pernicious contact of the world?

"The life of such persons is doubly selfish. In avoiding one evil, they fall into another, since they forget the jaw of love and charity."

- But if such seclusion is undergone as an expiation, through the imposing on one's self of a painful privation, is it not meritorious?

"The best of all expiations is to do a greater amount of good than you have done of evil."

771. What is to be thought of those who renounce the world in order to devote themselves to the relief of the unfortunate?

"They raise themselves by their voluntary abasement. They have the double merit of placing themselves above material enjoyments, and of doing good by fulfilling the law of labour."

- And those who seek in retirement the tranquillity required for certain kinds of labour?

"Those who live in retirement from such a motive are not selfish; they do not separate

themselves from society, since their labours are for the general good."

772. What is to be thought of the vow of silence prescribed by certain sects from the very earliest times?

"You should rather ask yourselves whether speech is in nature, and why God has given it? God condemns the abuse, but not the use, of the faculties He has given. Silence, however, is useful; for, in silence you have fuller possession of yourself; your spirit is freer, and can then enter into more intimate communication with us; but a vow of silence is an absurdity. Those who regard the undergoing of such voluntary privations as acts of virtue are prompted, undoubtedly, by a good intention in submitting to them; but they make a mistake in so doing, because they do not sufficiently understand the true laws of God."

The vow of silence, like the vow of isolation, deprives man of the social relations which alone can furnish him with the opportunities of doing good, and of fulfilling the law of progress.