Their bright Italian eyes, sparkling with intelligence, and their handsome open countenances, form a curious contrast with the stolid and hypocritical masks worn by their superiors.

At one glance you behold the opening flowers and the ripe fruit of religion,--the present and the future.

You think within yourselves that, in default of a miracle, the cherubs before you will ere long be turned into mummies.

However, you console yourselves for the anticipated metamorphosis by the reflection that the salvation of the monklings is assured.
All the Pope's subjects would be sure of getting to Heaven if they could all enter the cloisters; but then the world would come to an end too soon.

The Pope does his best to bring them near this state of monastic and ecclesiastical perfection.