[Footnote 62: A Master of Philosophy travelling with others on the way, when a fearful thunderstorm arose, checked the fear of his fellows, and discoursed to them of the natural reasons of that uproar in the clouds, and those sudden flashes wherewith they seemed (out of the ignorance of causes) to be too much affrighted; in the midst of his philosophical discourse, he was struck dead with that dreadful eruption which he slighted. What could this be but the finger of that God Who will have His works rather entertained with wonder and trembling than with curious scanning? Neither is it to be otherwise in those violent hurricanes, devouring earthquakes, and more than ordinary tempests, and fiery apparitions which we have seen and heard of; for however there be natural causes given of the usual events of this kind, yet nothing hinders but the Almighty, for the manifestations of His power and justice, may set spirits, whether good or evil, on work, to do the same things sometimes in more state and magnificence of horror.--Bishop Hall, 'The Invisible World,' sect. vi.] The earliest kind of monumental symbolism is that which represents the trade or profession of the person commemorated. And these principally occur on Lombardic slabs and Dos d'Anes. The distaff represents {cviii} the mother of a family: [Footnote 63] a pair of gloves a glover: [Footnote 64] so we have a pair of shears: and the like. But the Cross constantly appears; and in a highly floriated form: sometimes at its foot are three steps representing the Mount: sometimes a Holy Lamb. [Footnote 65] And so ecclesiastical personages have their appropriate symbols: so the chalice or the ring [Footnote 66] represents a priest:--another type is the hand raised in benediction [Footnote 67] over a chalice: brasses abound in symbolical imagery. The animal at the feet varies with the varying circumstances of the deceased: a married lady has the dog, the emblem of fidelity: with which we may compare the speech of Clytemnestra, of her absent Lord, [Footnote 68] [Greek text] There are, doubtless, instances (there is one in Bristol, S. Peter's) where the unmarried are so represented: but they are very rare, and quite in the decline of the art. The knight again has, generally, a terrier at his feet, as the emblem of courage: sometimes the greyhound, [Footnote 69 ] the symbol of speed. Lord Beaumont [Footnote 70] has an elephant: it is a bearing in his coat-armour. [Footnote 63: See on this subject an interesting article in the _Church of England Quarterly_, for September, 1841. ] [Footnote 64: As in Fletching, Sussex.] [Footnote 65: As in Lolworth, Cambridgeshire.] [Footnote 66: As in S. Mary, Castlegate, York.] [Footnote 67: As in Hedon, Yorkshire.] [Footnote 68: Agamemnon, 606. (Ed. Dindorf.)] [Footnote 69: As in Sir Grey de Groby, S. Alban's.]