communion with the Deity. It cannot indeed be wondered that this
new revelation, as it were, of the Deity, this profound and rational
certainty of his existence, this infelt consciousness of his
perpetual presence, these as yet unknown impressions of his
infinity, his power, and his love, should give a higher character to
this eremitical enthusiasm, and attract men of loftier and more
vigorous minds within its sphere. It was not merely the
pusillanimous dread of encountering the trials of life which urged
the humbler spirits to seek a safe retirement; or the natural love
of peace, and the weariness and satiety of life, which commended
this seclusion to those who were too gentle to mingle in, or who
were exhausted with, the unprofitable turmoil of the world; nor was
it always the anxiety to mortify the rebellious and refractory body
with more advantage. The one absorbing idea of the Majesty of the
Godhead almost seemed to swallow up all other considerations. The
transcendent nature of the Triune Deity, the relation of the
different persons of the Godhead to each other, seemed the only
worthy object of men's contemplative faculties."

And surely the contemplation of the Godhead is no unworthy
occupation for the immortal soul of any human being. But it would
be unjust to these hermits did we fancy that their religion
consisted merely even in this; much less that it consisted merely in
dreams and visions, or in mere stated hours of prayer. That all did
not fulfil the ideal of their profession is to be expected, and is
frankly confessed by the writers of the Lives of the Fathers; that
there were serious faults, even great crimes, among them is not
denied. Those who wrote concerning them were so sure that they were
on the whole good men, that they were not at all afraid of saying
that some of them were bad,--not afraid, even, of recording, though