Some of us have been warring against the Philistines beneath an oriflamme emblazoned with this shibboleth for the best part of half a century, and what has been the outcome? A modicum of success in the matter of wall paper and a magnificent collection of pictorial bill posters. Nor can we begin to hope for any more solid results until we are at least as firmly convinced as were the sinners of Brabant in the fourteen hundreds of the truth of those words which Thomas à Kempis uttered, and which in one phrase sum up the philosophy of his great spiritual ancestor, old Jan van Ruysbroek--'Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas præter amare Deum et illi soli servire.'[31] [31] _De Imitatione Christi_, lib. i. cap. i. 3. CHAPTER XVI _Buildings and Builders (continued)_ In an old collegiate church not far from Brussels there is a very curious mural tablet in memory of a certain canon who in his day was seemingly a man of some distinction. The inscription is undated and it runs thus:-- D. O. M. AC MEMORIÆ R.ad[~m]. Dñi, D. FRANCISCI VANDEN ABEELE qui ex Curato 3^æ Portionis hujus insignis Ecclesiæ dein Primæ Per 25 annos sedulus et laudabilis Canonicus-Curator fuit; Sed FUIT: nunc cinis, ossa, vermis Putredo NIHIL Hæc sors mortalium Nasci, laborare, mori. Tu qui vivis, oculos Deorsum conjice, Et attende. We, throughout many pages, have been hymning the glory of Brussels in the days of the Burgundian Dukes. That glory is among the things which have been. It was, but it has long since vanished. In the words of Canon Abeele's epitaph--'Fuit; sed FUIT: nunc ... NIHIL' in very large letters.