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162
DRmiCS.
It
may
be
so;
happily
it
is
not
our
business
to
deter-
mine.
It
is
certain
that
a
vast
development:
has
taken
place
in
the
manufacture
of
the
majority
of
the
monk-
ish
liqueurs.
The
Ckarti^eux
of
L'
here
now
realize
annual
benefices
of
considerable
value,
of
which
a
por-
tion
is
said
to
be
contributed
to
the
continually
dimin-
ishing
Papal
exchequer,
under
the
title
of
Peter's
pence.
Of
this
medicinal
liqueur
the
active
and
benevolent
element
is
gathered
from
herbs
scattered
on
the
Alpine
mountains
cold,
or
on
the
slopes
of
the
Pyrenees,
or
in
the
sombre
forests
of
the
north
(see
the
Prospectus),
or
in
the
shops
of
the
apothecaries.
But
they
all
assuredly
depend upon
cognac
for
their
element
of
life.
Benedictine,
with
its
four
cabalistic
letters,
AMD
G,'
is
made
by
the
monks
of
Fecamp,
at
the
famous
Carthusian
monastery
of
La
Grande
Chartrey.se,
near
Grenoble.
The
elixir
of
long
life,
de
Sept-Fonds,
is
made
in
a
convent
of the
Trappists
of
I'Allier,
and
Trappistine
is
the
work
of
the
good
fathers
of
the
abbey
of
La
Grace-
Dieu
(Doubs).
It
13,
however,
affirmed
that
only
Chartreuse,
coloured
yellow
or
green,
at
will,
and
Trappistine,
are
the
works
of
religious
hands,
while
all
other
liqueurs
are
made
by
the
laics.
The
methods
of
fabrication
em-
ployed
in
the
convents
are
now
well
known.^
Bene-
dictime
is
the
only
liqueur
which
has
escaped
analysis.
Absinthe
I'd
not
strictly
a
liqueur.
It
substitutes
bitter
for
sweet.
This
strong
spirituous
liquor,
so
prejudicial
to
French
health
and
morality,
is,
however,
1
Ad
majorem
Dei
gloriam.
^
RoFet's-
"
Manud
du
diitillafet^r-
liquor
iste/*