burned for nearly two thousand years; Cassiodorus wrote 

 that he himself made perpetual lamps for the use of the monks 

 in his monastery at Viviers; in a tomb opened at Salerno 

 the lamp was missing, having been removed by an earlier 

 explorer, but this inscription was found on the wall: 



"Adieu, Septima; may the earth lie lightly upon 

 you ; may a golden soil cover the ashes of him who 

 placed in this tomb an ever- burning lamp." 



Seventy-six years before your Majesty ascended the im- 

 perial throne, another notable discovery was made near 

 Padua; some peasants digging to a considerable depth 

 opened a tomb in which two lamps were burning, one of 

 silver and one of gold. An inscription on them explained 

 that they had been prepared with magical skill by Maximus 

 Olybius. 



In the reign of St. Louis, the good King of France, there 

 lived in Paris a certain Rabbi named Jechiel, who was 

 regarded by the Jews as a saint and by Christians as a 

 sorcerer; he possessed a lamp that gave out light equal to 

 daylight in brilliancy, which required no oil and burned 

 unceasingly. But its most remarkable property was to in- 

 dicate to Jechiel the character of his visitors; when honest 

 tradesmen, or people of noble station, came at night to knock 

 at his door, the lamp shone brightly as usual, whereas when 

 tricksters, or persons of evil intent, sought admission the 

 lamp grew perceptibly feeble and thus warned the Jew to 

 bolt his door against the intruders. 



The most recent discovery of a sepulchral lamp was made 

 in the dominions of your Majesty. Persons digging a well 

 near Clumec came upon a stone door that opened into a 

 vault; expecting to find hidden treasure the owner of the 

 ground forced open the door and was almost blinded by a 

 sudden blaze of light. The light issued from a beautifully 



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