This stone is a primitive and solemn agreement by all concerned, a social contract, a pact proposed by the legislator and accepted by the citizens; except that, in the monastic pact, the will of the acceptors is unanimous, earnest, serious, deliberate and permanent, while, in the political pact, it is not so; thus, whilst the latter contract is a theoretical fiction, the former is an actual verity.
For, in the small religious cite, all precautions are taken to have the future citizen know for what and how far he engages himself.

The copy of the rules which is handed to him in advance explains to him the future use of each day and of each hour, the detail in full of the regime to which he is to subject himself.

Besides this, to forestall any illusion and haste on his part he is required to make trial of the confinement and discipline; he realizes through personal, sensible and prolonged experience what he must undergo; before assuming the habit, he must serve a novitiate of at least one year and without interruption.

Simple vows sometimes precede the more solemn vows; with the Jesuits, several novitiates, each lasting two or three years, overlie and succeed each other.

Elsewhere, the perpetual engagement is taken only after several temporary engagements; up to the age of twenty-five the "Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes" take their vows for a year; at twenty-five for three years; only at twenty-eight do they take them for life.