During our ramble we encountered a well of pure water enclosed by a wall. In it are a number of gold-fish that manage to live by some mysterious means, though the guide informed us that they did not spawn. The well comes from a spring which some of the workmen discovered while making repairs many years ago, and gave it the name of the Spring of Forgetfulness, afterwards changed to the Fountain of the Good Samaritan. The water is declared to be sweet; but I should need to be extremely thirsty before drinking what would seem infected with death.
MAXIMS FOR VISITORS.
The Roman church, always on the alert to point morals and preach sermons, has filled the Catacombs at convenient intervals with inscriptions designed to be impressive. Some of these are,—
“Happy is he whose hour of death is ever before his eyes!”
“Be not proud or boastful, O mortal; for this is the end of the loftiest ambition and the highest glory!”
“Death recognizes not rank—in his eyes the prince and the peasant are the same!”
“Come, all ye busy worldlings into this silent retreat, and listen to the solemn voice that rises from the tomb!”
“Remember, O man, the mercies of thy God, and remember He will call thee when thou least expectest to hear His voice!”
“The grave is dark; but the paths that lead from it are, to the righteous, strewn with eternal flowers!”
“Mock not the lowly, for in the courts of Heaven the lowly may stand before thee, shorn of thy worldly pride!”