SILENCE:
There was silence in the refectory during meals so that the reader could be distinctly heard, and silence was compulsory at other times also. Indeed, in their intercourse with each other the conversation of the monks was reserved at all times, but as regards their relation to society at large the objects of their system were too practical and their engagements too much characterized by common sense to impose any restraint in conversation but such as conduced to dignity and decorum.[190]