Chapter 1
Volume 2: 2: Cosette · Book 7: 7: A Parenthesis I
1: The Convent as an Abstract Idea
Chapter 1Visible text2 paragraphs
THIS book is a drama the first character of which is the Infinite. Man is the second.
This being the case, v/hen a convent was found on our path, we were compelled to penetrate it. Why so? Because the convent, which is common to the East as well as to the West, to ancient as well as to modern times, to Paganism as well as to Buddhism, to Mahometanism as well as to Christianity, is one of the optical appliances turned by man upon the Infinite.