The following expresses the very essence of coarse sensualism: QVOD EDI ET BIBI MECVM HABEO QVOD RELIQVI PERDIDI--“What I ate and drank I have with me; what I left I have lost.” Compare the moral antithesis of the sentiment expressed by John Wesley: “What I gave away I have still; what I kept I have lost.” Frequently the pagan epitaphs contain an outburst of scorn or defiance of the unjust gods that sit aloft and make their sport of human woe, as is seen in the accompanying examples: PROCOPE · MANVS · LEBO · CONTRA · DEVM QVI · ME · INNOCENTEM · SVSTVLIT. I, Procope, lift up my hands against the god who snatched away me innocent. In an epitaph in the Lapidarian Gallery a bereaved mother in the bitterness of her soul cries out: ATROX O FORTVNA TRVCI QVAE FVNERE GAVDES QVID MIHI TAM SVBITO MAXIMVS ERIPITVR QVI MODO IVCVNDVS GREMIO SVPERESSE SOLEBAT HIC LAPIS IN TVMVLO NVNC IACET ECCE MATER. O relentless Fortune, who delightest in cruel death, 440 Why is Maximus so suddenly snatched from me? He who lately used to be joyful in my bosom, This stone now marks his tomb.--Behold his mother. Compare also the following: INVIDA LIBITINA FILIIS ABSTVLIT PATREM--“Envious Libitina snatched away a father from his children;” VICTA EST IVSTICIA NON AEQVO IVDICE FATO--“Justice is overcome by that unjust judge, Fate;” DIIS INIQVIS ANIMVLAM TVAM RAPVERVNT--“To the unjust gods, (who) snatched away thy soul.” But the holy teachings of Christianity revealed to the weary and heavy laden souls of men, aching with a sense of orphanage, the loving Fatherhood of God,[718] and produced a spirit of meekness and resignation altogether foreign to the pagan mind. Of pathetic interest, as illustrating this fact, is a Christian fragment of date _circ._ A. D. 600, on which we may still read the inscription QVI · DEDIT · ET · ABSTVLIT .... OMINI · BENEDIC .... The familiar words suggest the imperishable thought, which has been a source of consolation to bereaved ones in every age. “Like a voice from among the graves,” says Dr. Maitland, “broken by sobs, yet distinctly intelligible, fall these words on the listening ear, ‘who gave, and hath taken away--blessed [be the name] of the Lord.’” We occasionally find pagan inscriptions breathing a sense of spiritual existence and hope of future life.[719] The yearning of the human heart that Longs for the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still,