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41 

The monitor was thin and devout, and wore the look and manner of a general. It was he who ordered the positions of the monks, and he who set half a dozen at work walking up and down the lines fanning the others. There were about fifty men, all told. The monitor is the sort of man who leads movements and establishes sects, though if this would be any contribution to the spirit I doubt. 

Most of the men justify the low opinion of the monastic fellowship. There were young men, lads with sullen or greedy faces, or indifferent. There were middle aged men, some with the appearance of those who enjoy the idleness of the monastery, a few looking as though the monastery had provided them with a refuge, adn escape. There were old men who had grown flabby in the ranks, smirking and mechanically going through the formulae. There were men like the jovial friendly priest who had talked with us who acted as if not quite sure why they were there; men depressed by idleness at the same time that they enjoyed it, men, perhaps, dedicated in their childhood to the temple's service. Who knows the stories behind the grey robes? 

And there was one priest. He stood tall and pale the second from the end of the first line. White clean cuffs of his under coat showed below the sleeves of his black robe. Long slim hands clasped and unclasped themselves in prayer, and intermittenly wiped the perspiration from his blue and gleaming freshly shaven head. Long ears, and fine face, eyes that could see more worlds than one; - here was a man known to the spirit. 
Here was aman who made the traditions of great scholarly priests and great prophets live in my mind. Here was a man who might, under proper environment become the great painter that some priests have been, who might write a new and consummate revelation of faith, who give men new visions. No religion could be wholly dead or without hope that could produce, or attract, or hold such a man. Here in a living man seemed to be incarnate the sweet calm, the loving tolerance, and the peaceful meditativeness of ideal Buddhism. It was more than worth anafternoon to have seen such an one.