Thus, there is born in 1806 at Rouisse-sur-Loire the congregation of "La Providence," which now has 918 "Sisters," in 193 houses; in 1817, at Lovallat, the association of "Les Petits-Freres de Marie," which numbers to-day 3600 brethren; in 1840, at Saint-Servan, the institution of "Les Petites-Soeurs des Pauvres," who now number 2685, and, with no other help but alms-giving, feed and care for, in their 158 houses, 20,000 old men, of which 13,000 live in their 93 domiciles in France; they take their meals after the inmates, and eat only what they leave; they are prohibited from accepting any endowment whatever; by virtue of their rules they are and remain mendicants, at first, and especially, in behalf of their old men, and afterwards and as accessory, in their own behalf.

Note the circumstances of the undertaking and the condition of the founders--they were two village work-women, young girls between sixteen and eighteen for whom the vicar of the parish had written short regulations (une petite regle); on Sunday, together in the cleft of a rock on the seaside, they studied and meditated over this little summary manual, performed the prescribed devotions, this or that prayer or orison at certain hours, saying their beads, the station in the church, self-examination and other ceremonies of which the daily repetition deposits and strengthens the supernatural mental conception.

Such, over and above natural pity, is the superadded weight which fixes the unstable will and maintains the soul permanently in a state of abnegation .-- At Paris, in the two halls of the Prefecture of Police, where prostitutes and female thieves remain for a day or two in provisional confinement, the "Sisters" of "Marie-Joseph," obliged by their vows to live constantly in this sewer always full of human dregs, sometimes feel their heart failing them; fortunately, a little chapel is arranged for them in one corner where they retire to pray, and in a few minutes they return with their store of courage and gentleness again revived .-- Father Etienne, superior of the "Lazarists" and of the "Filles de Saint-Vincent de Paule," with the authority of long experience, very justly observed to some foreign visitors,[5315] "I have given you the details of our life, but I have not told you the secret of it.

This secret, here it is--it is Jesus Christ, known, loved, and served in the Eucharist." II.

Evolution of the Catholic Church.
The mystic faculty .-- Its sources and works .-- Evangelical Christianity .-- Its moral object and social effect .-- Roman Christianity .-- Development of the Christian idea in the West .-- Influence of the Roman language and law .-- Roman conception of the State .-- Roman conception of the Church.
In the thirteenth century, to the communicant on his knees about to receive the sacrament, the Host often faded out of sight; it disappeared, and, in its place, appeared an infant or the radiant features of the Savior and, according to the Church doctors, this was not an illusion but an illumination.[5316] The veil had lifted, and the soul found itself face to face with its object, Jesus Christ present in Eucharist.