List of Illustrations

[ Women lived the life of prayer and praise and austerity and miracle ]

[ "These are the fields in which the Shepherds watched" ]

[ A gaunt, dark figure, far up in the blue Asian sky ]

[ "Come not any nearer, turn thy face to the forest, and go down" ]

[ "I am not mad, most noble Sapricius" ]

[ They won their long sea-way home ]

[ "And four good Angels watch my bed, two at the foot and two the head" ]

[ And again in the keen November ]

[ The eight hundred horsemen turned in dismay ]

[ "Surely in all the world God has no more beautiful house than this" ]

[ Itha rode away with her lord ]

A saint, whose very name I have forgotten, had a vision, in which he saw Satan standing before the throne of God; and, listening, he heard the evil spirit say, "Why hast Thou condemned me, who have offended Thee but once, whilst Thou savest thousands of men who have offended Thee many times?" God answered him, "Hast thou once asked pardon of me?"

Behold the Christian mythology! It is the dramatic truth, which has its worth and effect independently of the literal truth, and which even gains nothing by being fact. What matter whether the saint had or had not heard the sublime words which I have just quoted! The great point is to know that pardon is refused only to him who does not ask it.

COUNT DE MAISTRE.