Introductory. 1 9 



shrine of the patron is brilliant with many tapers. On 

 the walls may be seen the legend of his life, his temp- 

 tations, martyrdom, and miracles. Above the rood, on 

 the spectator's left, he sees depicted the joyful resurrec- 

 tion to a better life, while on his right the torments of 

 the damned within the gaping "jaws of hell" are forci- 

 bly pourtrayed. As the monks give forth the Magni- 

 ficat with sonorous chant, the incense rises before the 

 lighted altar blazing with gold and jewels, and smell, 

 in addition to sight and hearing, ministers to devotion. 

 The daylight fades as, in the closing office of compline, 

 the choir-boys' voices sing : " In manus tuas, Domine, com- 

 viendo spiritum meum," and the sweet " Salve, Regina, 

 Mater Misericordics " peacefully dismisses the religious to 

 their dormitory and the faithful to their homes. This 

 world, its hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows, pale before 

 the mind of one who thoroughly sympathises with such 

 a scene ; visions of holiness, of loving self-abnegation, of 

 celestial beauty and divine love, rise up before him. Well 

 may such a one, full of devout happiness, exclaim with 

 heart and soul, "Domine, dilexi decorem doinus tucz et 

 locum habitationis gloria tuce" A mind so influenced 

 may at first tend to appreciate but faintly the merely 

 natural creation, and feel but scanty revereace for its 

 forces, and a qualified admiration for its beauties. 



Let us now enter a modern museum. When its mul- 

 titudinous contents have been so mastered that the in- 



