The dim twilight of a forest, its leafy vaults, its majestic silence, or its foliage moaning in the wind, are all apt to strike the mind with a religious awe. But the solitude and stillness of caverns is equally well adapted to awaken feelings of devotion, and thus we find that contemplative minds in every age, and of every creed, have found in them congenial retreats. The Indian fakir and the Mahometan dervish love the seclusion of the silent grotto, and here also the Hebrew prophets not seldom enjoyed their ecstatic visions. [Illustration: INDIAN ROCK-CUT TEMPLE: PORCH OF THE CHAITYA CAVE TEMPLE, AJUNTA.] There can be no doubt that, during the first ages of Christianity many an unknown anchorite retired to some solitary cave, as to a harbour of refuge from the rude contact of the world; but the first hermit mentioned in ecclesiastical history is St. Paul of Thebes, in Egypt, who, during the persecution of Decius, in the middle of the third century, retreated to the desert, where, dwelling in a cave, and living on the fruits of trees, he reached his hundredth year. His friend and disciple, St. Anthony, who first roused among his contemporaries a wide- spread inclination for hermit seclusion, plays a far more conspicuous part in the annals of the Church. Born of wealthy Coptic peasants, this remarkable man, at the age of twenty, divided his whole property among the poor, and thenceforth devoted himself to a life of the strictest ascetism. He retired first to a rock-cave in the neighbourhood of his native village, and then to the more distant ruins of a deserted castle, where he spent twenty years as a hermit. Meanwhile his reputation for sanctity had spread throughout all Egypt, and numerous candidates for a hermit life besought him to take them under his spiritual care. He yielded to their entreaties, and soon the neighbouring desert was crowded with the huts of zealous anchorites, who revered him as their model. But he was surrounded not only by these pious disciples; the worldly-minded also came flocking to his cave for advice or assistance; for the belief was general that, like the first Apostles, he was gifted with the power of casting out devils and foretelling future events. Anthony, thus disturbed in his solitary meditations, resolved to bury himself still deeper in the desert, and fled to a cave in the furthest parts of Egypt, near a source shaded by a few date-palms. Here he hoped to be able to live entirely for prayer and contemplation, but his hopes proved vain, for, after a long search, his disciples discovered his retreat, and again anchorites and worldlings broke in upon his solitude. In his hundredth year he was prevailed upon by St. Athanasius to visit Alexandria, where, whenever he appeared, crowds gathered round him to kiss the hem of his garment and to implore his blessing. Even the Emperor Constantine the Great wrote to him; yet so indifferent had he become to all worldly distinctions that he could with difficulty be