THEODORA. Certainly a meaning which never entered the minds of those who contrived that system of signals.

PISTUS. It is a singular thing, too, though known to every one, that if, in looking at any bright light, the eye be almost closed, the rays will, to all appearance, put themselves in the form of a Cross.

SOPHRON. It was a tradition in Mexico, before the arrival of the Spaniards, that when that form (which is found engraved in their ancient monuments) should be victorious, the old religion should disappear. The same sign is also said to have been discovered on the destruction of the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, and the same tradition to have been attached to it. One can hardly imagine this prophecy to have been current in more ways than two;-either by a supernatural intimation, or by a continuous tradition. It could hardly have been by the force of analogy, and by observation that the whole of nature was signed with the Cross.

PISTUS. The constellation so named is one of the most striking that glorify the southern sky; very beautiful it is when beheld from the deck of the ship, as she flies westward before the trade winds. And still more majestic, perhaps, in crossing a mountain range by night, when the dark peaks tower up before you, and the golden Cross surmounts them still, and seems to beckon from another world beyond them.

SOPHRON. This celestial Cross naturally brings to mind the instances in which the appearance of such a sign has been strictly supernatural. Of the Cross seen by Constantine, enough has been already written to satisfy, and more than to satisfy, every common inquirer that such a phenomenon did really exist. And that which appeared at Jerusalem during the Bishopric of S. Cyril is equally remarkable, and at least as certain.

EUSEBIA. Of what kind was that?

SOPHRON. You shall have it in the saint's own words. Reach me down his works, Pistus ;-that folio immediately behind you. Here is his account written to Constantius. "In these holy days of the holy Pentecost, on the seventh of May," the year was 351,-"about nine o'clock, appeared in the heaven an enormous Cross, composed of light, over the height of holy Golgotha, and reaching to the holy Mount of Olives. Nor was it seen by one or two, but, most manifestly, by the whole multitude of the city. Nor,-as it might be natural to suppose,-was it a thing which like a mere phantom passed away rapidly, but was visible above the earth for many hours, exceeding in glory the rays of the sun."-And he proceeds to tell how young and old crowded to the churches; and even the very heathens adored the GOD That had done this great wonder'. And

1 S. Cyril, Hierosol. Opp. p. 247. Ed. Par. 1640.

this does not depend on Cyril's testimony alone, amply sufficient as that would be to any rightminded person: a crowd of witnesses, heretical as well as catholic, bare testimony to the notoriety of the fact.

PISTUS. Yes, as poor Gibbon says with respect to the heretical witnesses, "they could not refuse a miracle, even at the hand of an enemy."

SOPHRON. Strictly supernatural, perhaps, this Cross was not; for it seems to have been encircled by a magnificent rainbow, and may in some degree have partaken of the nature of a halo. Such appearances have been observed at other times, and occasionally in connexion with mock suns.

PISTUS. The length is said to have been more than half a mile; a point, of course, which must have been a mere guess. It seems, however, to have been visible at Antioch, and, it is also said, to the armies of Constantius and Magnentius. In that case it must have been of a very different character from a halo.

SOPHRON. Nor have such appearances entirely ceased in our own days. In 1838, at Jerusalem, for many successive nights, a dark Cross was observed in the same quarter of the heavens, as if the stars over which it extended had been blotted out.

EUSEBIA. I perceive that we are somewhat trespassing on the next part of our subject.

SOPHRON. We are so. Did you ever hear the

Greek tradition concerning the origin of the tree of which the true Cross was made?

EUSEBIA. No.

SOPHRON. Thus it is. When Adam, they say, was dying, he sent his son to the garden of Eden, to request that the angel who kept the way thereto would send him some of the fruit of the Tree of Life, that he might taste it and live. The angel denied the request, but gave to the son of Adam three seeds. "Place them," said he, "in thy father's mouth; and when they shall have grown into trees, he shall be freed from his sickness. The son returned, and found that Adam had already expired. Taking the three grains, he placed them in his father's mouth, and buried him thus. From these grains, in process of time, sprang three trees, of which the wood of the Cross was made1.

THEODORA. A very beautiful fable. It is surprising how many tales there are connected with the SAVIOUR and His Passion, which in different times and places have been invented for the purpose of accounting for the natural habits and instincts of animals and plants.

EUSEBIA. Like that sweet superstition, current in Brittany, which would explain the cause why the robin redbreast has always been a favourite and protegé of man. While our SAVIOUR was

1 Joan. de Monte Villâ, It. Terr. Sanct. i. 17. ap. Kornman. de mirac. mort. iv. 14.

bearing His Cross, one of these birds, they say, took one thorn from His Crown, which dyed its breast; and ever since that time, robin redbreasts have been the friends of man.

THEODORA. In like manner, the aspen is said to have been the tree which formed the Cross; and thenceforth its boughs, as filled with horror, have trembled ceaselessly.

PISTUS. It is also believed by the poor that the stripes on the shoulders of the ass represent the sign of the Cross, in commemoration that on that animal our LORD made His final entrance into Jerusalem.

SOPHRON. An example, which in modern times would be considered ludicrous, of the manner in which our ancestors made external nature bear witness to our LORD, occurs in what is called the Prior's Chamber in the small Augustinian house of Shulbrede, in the parish of Linchmere, in Sussex. On the wall is a fresco of the Nativity; and certain animals are made to give their testimony to that event in words which somewhat resemble, or may be supposed to resemble, their natural sounds. A cock in the act of crowing, stands at the top, and a label, issuing from his mouth, bears the words, Christus natus est. A duck inquires, Quando, quando? A raven hoarsely answers, In hac nocte. A cow asks, Ubi, ubi? And a lamb bleats out, Bethlehem.

PISTUS. I fear, as you say, that to modern ideas such a representation would be rather irreverent