The religion of thy father Dominic is a delightful garden, I broad, joyous and fragrant.’ Admirers of the spirit and A children of Saint Dominic would appreciate our Lord's word ‘broad’ when he spoke to Saint Catherine, for it is said that no two Dominicans are aHke. Whatever that means, something good or something dangerous, it is but one half of a story that is on the surface paradoxical. That St Dominic's spirit and sympathies were indeed broad can never be in doubt if we look at the characters of his first companions, a set of men at once entirely diverse and bending all their diverse talents to one purpose. For seven hundred years that spirit has grown stronger by the very diversity of its followers. Perhaps there has grown with it also a romantic aura that again is half good and hah0 dangerous. In the first flush of youth a young man may set out to follow St Dominic for motives that on the surface are indeed romantic.