FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191  
192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   >>   >|  
ose who had chosen such a place of sepulchre! Those low, darksome galleries were but temporary sleeping-places for the Christians. If they did not burn the bodies of their dead, as the Pagans did, it was because, like the Jews, they believed in the resurrection of the body; and it was that lovely idea of sleep, of tranquil rest after a just life, whilst awaiting the celestial reward, which imparted such intense peacefulness, such infinite charm, to the black, subterranean city. Everything there spoke of calm and silent night; everything there slumbered in rapturous quiescence, patient until the far-off awakening. What could be more touching than those terra-cotta tiles, those marble slabs, which bore not even a name--nothing but the words _In Pace_--at peace. Ah! to be at peace--life's work at last accomplished; to sleep in peace, to hope in peace for the advent of heaven! And the peacefulness seemed the more delightful as it was enjoyed in such deep humility. Doubtless the diggers worked chance-wise and clumsily; the craftsmen no longer knew how to engrave a name or carve a palm or a dove. Art had vanished; but all the feebleness and ignorance were instinct with the youth of a new humanity. Poor and lowly and meek ones swarmed there, reposing beneath the soil, whilst up above the sun continued its everlasting task. You found there charity and fraternity and death; husband and wife often lying together with their offspring at their feet; the great mass of the unknown submerging the personage, the bishop, or the martyr; the most touching equality--that springing from modesty--prevailing amidst all that dust, with compartments ever similar and slabs destitute of ornament, so that rows and rows of the sleepers mingled without distinctive sign. The inscriptions seldom ventured on a word of praise, and then how prudent, how delicate it was: the men were very worthy, very pious: the women very gentle, very beautiful, very chaste. A perfume of infancy arose, unlimited human affection spread: this was death as understood by the primitive Christians--death which hid itself to await the resurrection, and dreamt no more of the empire of the world! And all at once before Pierre's eyes arose a vision of the sumptuous tombs of the Appian Way, displaying the domineering pride of a whole civilisation in the sunlight--tombs of vast dimensions, with a profusion of marbles, grandiloquent inscriptions, and masterpieces of sculptured-work.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191  
192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

touching

 

peacefulness

 

whilst

 

inscriptions

 

Christians

 

resurrection

 

similar

 

compartments

 

springing

 

modesty


prevailing

 

amidst

 
destitute
 

bodies

 

seldom

 
ventured
 

distinctive

 

equality

 

sleepers

 
mingled

ornament

 

martyr

 

charity

 

fraternity

 
husband
 

continued

 

everlasting

 
submerging
 

unknown

 

personage


bishop

 

offspring

 
vision
 

sumptuous

 

Appian

 

Pierre

 

dreamt

 
empire
 
displaying
 

domineering


marbles

 

profusion

 

grandiloquent

 

masterpieces

 

sculptured

 

dimensions

 

civilisation

 
sunlight
 

worthy

 

gentle