【英文原著类】THE GATHERING OF BROTHER HILARIUS(希拉里兄的收集).pdf

THE GATHERING OF BROTHER HILARIUS
THE GATHERING OF
BROTHER HILARIUS
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THE GATHERING OF BROTHER HILARIUS
PART I - THE SEED
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THE GATHERING OF BROTHER HILARIUS
CHAPTER I - BLIND EYES IN THE FOREST
HILARIUS stood at the Monastery gate, looking away down the
smooth, well-kept road to the highway beyond. It lay quiet and serene in
the June sunshine, the white way to the outer world, and not even a dust
cloud on the horizon promised the approach of the train of sumpter mules
laden with meats for the bellies and cloth for the backs of the good
Brethren within. The Cellarer lacked wine, the drug stores in the farmery
were running low; last, but not least, the Precentor had bespoken precious
colours, rich gold, costly vellum, and on these the thoughts of Hilarius
tarried with anxious expectation.
On his left lay the forest, home of his longing imaginings. The
Monastery wall crept up one side of it, and over the top the great trees
peered and beckoned with their tossing, feathery branches. Twice had
Hilarius walked there, attending the Prior as he paced slowly and silently
along the mossy ways, under the strong, springing pines; and the
occasions were stored in his memory with the glories of St Benedict's Day
and Our Lady's Festivals. Away to the right, within the great enclosure,
stretched the Monastery lands, fair to the eye, with orchard and fruitful
field, teeming with glad, unhurried labour.
At a little elevation, overlooking the whole domain, rose the Priory
buildings, topped by the Church, crown and heart of the place, signing the
sign of the Cross over the daily life and work of the Brethren, itself the
centre of that life, the object of that work, ever unfinished because love
knows not how to make an end. To the monks it was a page in the history
of the life of the Order, written in stone, blazoned with beauty of the
world's treasure; a page on which each generation might spell out a word,
perchance add a line, to the greater