Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1857

pg 310       confidence in divine Providence and in the protection of Our Lady 
             of the Lake been more necessary.  Nothing short of a miracle could 
             prevent complete ruin.  In ordinary times the sum total of the 
             debts would have been enough to alarm any administration 
             acquainted with the business of the country; but in a panic like 
             that in which all branches of commerce were involved, human 
             prudence was a nonplus.
                  The opinion of one of the clearest heads of the 
             administration favored a suspension of payment for four or five 
             years; but the impression that such a measure was likely to make 
             on the ecclesiastical authorities--although it was perhaps the 
             only means to save the institution from immediate ruin--caused it 
             to be rejected, nor was it spoken of any more.
                  It is not without its advantages thus to pass sometimes 
             through trials which, in a Christian point of view, recall 
             communities as well as individuals to the centre of all legitimate 
             hopes and confidence.  Then we feel the vanity of this world's 
             riches and the blindness of those that base their calculations on 
             this foundation of moving sand.