GROTTO OF ST. JEROME.

113

they term glory, merely to lose it to-morrow, and to die; and those men who call themselves learned, who cry aloud that their knowledge, their discoveries, their doctrines, their wisdom, their genius, are the only light capable of really enlightening the world, are nought but ignorance and darkness, understanding nothing of the things of heaven, and plunging, with their paltry science, like all the rest of mankind, into the night of the grave!

From St. Catherine you descend by a staircase, where two persons meeting would have difficulty to pass one another, and which is lighted by only two lamps, placed one before a picture of the Virgin Mary, the other before that of St. Francis.

At the bottom, on the right, a short passage leads to the altar of Eusebius, and thence to two others, which face each other, and are consecrated; the one to St. Paula, the other to St. Eustochium. Farther on is the principal part of the grotto of St. Jerome, which has been transformed into a chapel, that is likewise dedicated to him. Here it was that the illustrious recluse passed a great portion of his life; here it was that he fancied he heard the peals of that awful trump, which shall one day summon all mankind to judgment, incessantly ringing in his ears; here it was that with a stone he struck his body, bowed by the weight of years and austerities, and, with loud cries, besought mercy of the Lord; and here, too, it was that he produced those laborious works, which have justly earned him the title of Father of the Church.

The two pictures of St. Jerome, which adorn this grotto, are tolerable; but that of the little altar is

114

PICTURE OF ST. PAULA

defective in the proportions; the head is expressive, the body a great deal too small.

As for pictures, there are few that have struck me so much as that of St. Paula and her daughter Eustochium. It does not appear to me, it is true, to be by a very able pencil, but it has powerful effect. It represents those two saints in the same coffin. It is a touching idea of the painter's, as M. de Chateaubriand has aptly remarked, to have given a perfect resemblance to the mother and the daughter: youth, a white veil, and a crown of roses, are the only marks that distinguish one from the other. I should say, however, if I were permitted to have an opinion on such matters, that there is too much luxury, too much affectation, in the dress. They were descended, it is true, from Scipio; they possessed immense wealth; but their favourite virtues were Christian humility and simplicity, and it is moreover to be observed that Eustochium died superior of a monastery at Bethlehem.

Leaning against a piece of rock in this dark grotto, I looked stedfastly at this picture, lighted only by the flame of my torch, which I had set upon the altar; and the silence, the solitude of the place, filled my soul with a religious awe. I had before my eyes the image of two persons of large fortune, of a name still renowned, and who, taught by faith, had renounced the honours, the joys, which the world could promise them, in the high rank in which they were placed, and had forsaken all for the one thing needful, for salvation. "Happy mother!" said I, to myself, "to have comprehended, and to have made her daughter comprehend, how short-lived

AND ST. EUSTOCHIUM.

115

are pleasures, since life itself is of such brief duration ! Happy daughter, to have listened to the lessons, to have followed the example, of so worthy a mother! Happy, too, to have chosen for a spouse Him whose tenderness, like his life, is never-ending, and with whom one is assured of happiness as long as eternity!" And then, my thoughts soaring from these subterranean vaults, and from the contemplation of their tomb, to heaven, I saw them bearing immortal palms, the prize of their courage and perseverance, and crowned with glory.

Do not infer, my dear friend, from this language, that I would have all young Christian females retire from the world and bury themselves alive in solitude. Society needs for its happiness, still more than for the honour and the glory of religion, wives, mothers, like St. Paula, as well as virgins consecrated to God, like St. Eustochium. But, I confess to you, that, at the foot of that coffin of the two saints, I could not suppress the wish that certain mothers, whom the world seduces with its profane assemblies, its dances, its promenades, its concerts, its festivities; who expose to looks, rarely chaste, the youth, the graces of their daughters, bedizened and crowned with flowers; I could not, I say, suppress the wish that such mothers had in their house a copy of this picture to assist them to comprehend, and to teach their children to comprehend, that beauty fades as quickly as the flower whose lustre it possesses; that friendships cease, that reputation is frail as glass, that riches pass away, that sports, and smiles, and pleasures, are mingled with sorrows, often very poignant, and always end in regrets; that, in short, amidst the world,

116

GROTTO OF THE NATIVITY.

as well as aloof from the world, there is nothing solid and durable but virtue.

To go to the sacred grotto, we must turn back from the point where we now are. You pass the altar, beneath which is the sepulchre of the Holy Innocents, which I have already mentioned. This is the spot where, according to tradition, were interred the children of Bethlehem, whom Herod doomed to die.

"Then Herod," says the Evangelists, "seeing that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremie the prophet, saying:

"In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not."

On ascending a few steps, you come to a door which leads to the subterraneous chapel of the holy grotto. It is thirty-eight feet long, eleven wide, and nine high; two flights of fifteen steps each, constructed on the sides, lead one to the church of the Greeks, the other to that of the Armenians. The rocks and the pavement are covered with a costly marble given by St. Helena. Thirty-two lamps burn without interruption in this sacred place, to which the light of day never penetrates. At the farther end, towards the east, is the spot where the Virgin brought forth the Saviour of the world. This

GROTTO OF THE NATIVITY.

117

spot, lighted by sixteen lamps, is marked by a slab of white marble, fixed in the pavement, and lined with jasper, in the centre of which is a silver sun, surrounded with this inscription :—

HIC DE VIRGINE MARIA

JESUS CHRISTUS NATUS EST.

Over it is a marble table, serving for an altar, and supported by two pillars. Under this altar, and between the two pillars, you stoop to kiss the sacred spot designated by the inscription.

A little lower down, towards the south, is the manger. "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,

"To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child.

"And so it was that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that they should be delivered.

"And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

Facing the manger, and three paces from it, is the spot where Mary was sitting with the infant Jesus in her arms, when the wise men came to worship him, and to present their gifts to him.

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod, the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

"Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?