Apparently there is no detail that can help make life worth living that has not been carefully ascertained and placed out of the Trappist's reach.

La Trappe must have known that there were men who would enjoy this kind of misery, but how did he find it out?
If he had consulted you or me he would have been told that his scheme lacked too many attractions; that it was impossible; that it could never be floated.

But there in the monastery was proof that he knew the human race better than it knew itself.

He set his foot upon every desire that a man has--yet he floated his project, and it has prospered for two hundred years, and will go on prospering forever, no doubt.
Man likes personal distinction--there in the monastery it is obliterated.
He likes delicious food--there he gets beans and bread and tea, and not enough of it.

He likes to lie softly--there he lies on a sand mattress, and has a pillow and a blanket, but no sheet.