ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 139 



that the self-immolation of those sisters and brethren, and 

 of their comrades devoted to the same work in other places, 

 transcends in sublimity all there is, or can be, of heroism 

 in the world. In its very hopelessness lies the grandeur 

 of this self-sacrifice. ' Lasciate ogni speranza, voi che 

 entrate ' is surely deeply graven on the portals of these 

 tombs of the living ; but it is something more than an 

 earthly hope that first impels these men and women to a 

 life among sights and sounds and odours repulsive to every 

 sense, and then sustains them in their labour of love, though 

 it lead on to an almost certain fate terrible to contemplate. 



Of Father Damien, the hero-martyr of Molokai (the 

 Leper Island) we have all heard ; yet there are hundreds 

 such as he — an army of nameless ones — and if any fall out 

 of the ranks there are ever others eager to step in : the supply 

 amply meets the demand. 



One hears talk of ' fallen ' human nature ; I have often 

 marvelled at the heights to which it rises. If opportunity 

 make criminals, so also does it make very saints and angels 

 of mercy. St. Elizabeths and Father Damiens there have 

 always been, and always will be, for we find them all down 

 the centuries. 



Missionaries, explorers, and others of enterprising spirit 

 go bravely and boldly enough into all manner of holes and 

 corners of the earth, carrying their fives in their hands, 

 together with the fives of those who are paid to follow them ; 

 they may or they may not come out alive. These others 

 yield up their lives in advance ; they do more, they embrace 

 a death in life — touched, indeed, with the fire ' from off the 

 altar.' 



Besides the awful form of leprosy generally understood 

 by the word, there is another comparatively harmless, 

 though offensive enough to the eyes ; at any rate, to those 

 of Europeans. It causes neither bodily suffering nor even 

 discomfort ; nor is it infectious, for Roman Catholic 



