bones of the early Christians. For two hours, we wandered in these gloomy regions. Now and then we came to a chapel. The passages were, in general, about six feet wide, and from five to twelve high, arched, and sometimes plastered. The cells are in tiers, one above another. Many of them were open, and disclosed the mouldering bones of those who flourished in the first centuries of the Christian Church. Others were closed by tiles, or slabs of marble with cement, which appeared with the impressions of the trowel as fresh as yesterday. Here were the remains of the early martyrs of Christianity. You know them by the small lamp, and the little phial or vase which once contained some of their blood. These vessels were inserted in the cement that sealed up their graves. Impressions of coins and medals, the date of the interment, are also to be seen in the cement, with inscriptions marked with the point of the trowel, usually the name of the individual, with the words, ' in pace,' or 'dormit in pace." What pictures can not the imagination paint here! Yet nothing so impressive as the reality; scenes where Christian hope triumphed over affliction; where the ceremonies of their holy religion were performed far from the light of day. The chapels are generally ornamented with pictures, some of which are in good preservation. They are rudely executed, but with some spirit. One picture represented Moses striking the rock; another, Daniel in the lion's den; another, the three holy children in the fire; and still another, the Virgin Mary. There were several pictures which represented bishops or priests-men

in clerical robes.

Occasionally the dripping of

the water formed stalactites upon the walls and ceilings. Some of the bones were coated with calcareous deposite.

"Some notion of the extent of the Catacombs may be formed from the length of time we were walking. There were many passages we did not enter, and many impossible of access from the rubbish with which they were choked up. We came into the open air-into the light of the glorious sun—and again stood and gazed upon the mountains. There they are, as eighteen hundred years ago; they are not changed. As they looked then, they look now."*

Some of the larger galleries are in height about eight or ten feet, and the width from four to six, but the lateral passages are much more contracted in their dimensions. On each side are the graves cut into the walls, either in a straggling line, or in tiers one above the other, sometimes amounting to six in number. A single glance at the accompanying engraving (for which we are indebted to Maitland), will give a better idea of these passages than an elaborate description.

We have represented, on the opposite page, the opening of one of the larger galleries. The daylight is seen pouring in at the mouth of the cavern, showing the rifled sepulchres.

*Life and Works of Thomas Cole, by Rev. L. L. Noble, p. 318.

Beneath the most distant of these is a square hole, which once probably contained a cup. On the right is a lateral passage, blocked up to prevent accidents, so liable to happen to those who might wander away and be lost in these intricate windings.

In some places the passages expand into the apartments mentioned by Baronius, which traditions state to have been intended as places of worship by the proscribed and suffering followers of our LORD. In one of these little chapels, which tradition has thus consecrated, we saw still remaining, a simple earthen altar, and an antique cross cut in the rock above it. It was with no ordinary feelings that we stood on this spot and looked on these evidences of early worship. In this gloomy cavern the followers of our LORD were accustomed to meet in secret to eat the bread of life, and with bitter tears to drink the water of life. What solemn services must this spot have witnessed! With what a depth of feeling must they have heard of the Resurrection, surrounded by the dead in Christ, and the symbols of that hidden and eternal life which lies beyond the grave! How earnest the prayers which were here poured forth by men, whose faith was certain, because they had received it from the lips of apostles themselves, and glowed more brightly because they stood in jeopardy every hour! These relics of their worship may perhaps have remained here unchanged, since the name of Jesus of Nazareth was first uttered as a strange sound in the neighboring city, and where we were, men may have bowed in prayer who had themselves seen their LORD in the flesh. The remains were around us of those who

had received the mightiest of all consecrations, that of suffering, and whose spirits were as noble as any who had their proud monuments on the Appian Way, and whose names are now as "familiar in our ears as household words." But no historian registered the deeds of the despised Nazarenes. They had no poet, and they died.

"Carent quia vate sacro."

A stone chair formerly stood in this little chapel, but it was unfortunately removed to Pisa by Cosmo III., of Tuscany.

The earliest of these chapels, like the one we have just mentioned, were of the simplest form, evidently mere enlargements of the gallery into an oblong or square chamber, often lined with graves on every side. Others, probably of later construction, were more elevated, with a hole pierced through to the soil above for light and air. Some of these openings in the roof are the holes to which we have already referred, as scattered over the Campagna and frequently mentioned in the "Acts of the Martyrs." In one place, for instance, they tell us of Candida, a saint and virgin, who was thrown down the light hole of the crypt and overwhelmed with stones.

When the days of persecution had passed and these places became objects of superstitious reverence, the custom began of ornamenting these chapels with architecture and more elaborate fresco paintings. We are told that, before the year 400, the tomb of Hippolytus had been adorned with Parian marble and precious metals. The roof was