- Author:
- Miller, George A. (George Amos)
- Publication Info:
-
Manila, P.I:
[E.C. McCullough and Co.],
1906,
pg 122
Text on page 122
CHAPTER XII
fi.ower girls
Historical Values
Monastic Life
CONVENT CURIOS
THE convents of Manila present bare and uninteresting exteriors and in a way represent tlie life of their inmates. In the twentieth century they show the ideals and habits of the seventeenth, and most travelers pass them by with little thought other than that a lot of valuable property is being used with little returns.
Such an estimate disregards the historical value of the old buildings and their contents, and they may after all serve a purpose in the cultivation of that keen appreciation of historical values that comes only after personal contact with the spirit aud products of the past.
The study of sixteenth century monasticism from books may be profitable, but to visit sixteenth century institutions in actual operation is an invaluable introduction to the literature of the age of the renaissance. The convents of Manila represent the architecture of three hundred years ago; they contain the books, the paintings, the bells, the furniture, the mode of dress and the habits of life of an age that was in full vigor when Columbus discovered America, and that has elsewhere given place to the modern motives ofThe study of sixteenth century monasticism from books may be profitable, but to visit sixteenth century institutions in actual operation is an invaluable introduction to the literature of the age of the renaissance. The convents of Manila represent the architecture of three hundred years ago; they contain the books, the paintings, the bells, the furniture, the mode of dress and the habits of life of an age that was in full vigor when Columbus discovered America, and that has elsewhere given place to the modern motives of
