{St. Simon and 1600 citizens cut into fragments. Under Maximinus {St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandra, and forty soldiers, and Licinius {left to die, up to their waists in a frozen lake. {SS. John and Paul, beheaded. {St. Artemius, crushed between two stones. Under Julian the {St. Pigmenius, drowned in the Tiber. Apostate {St. Bibiana, flogged to death, and thrown for food {to dogs in the Forum. The last picture represents the reunion of eminent martyrs (in which the Roman Church includes English sufferers under Elizabeth), and above is inscribed this verse from Isaiah xxv., "Laudabit populus fortis, civitas gentium robustarum." "Au-dessus du tableau de la Crucifixion se trouve cette inscription: 'Roi glorieux des martyrs, s'il donne sa vie pour racheter la péché, il verra une postérité sans fin.' Et quelle postérité! Hommes, femmes, vieillards, jeunes hommes, jeunes filles, enfants! Comme tous accourent, comme tous savent mourir."--_Une Chrétienne à Rome._ "Les païens avaient divinisé la vie, les chrétiens divinisèrent la mort."--_Madame de Stael._ "S. Stefano Rotondo exhibits, in a series of pictures all round the church, the martyrdoms of the Christians in the so-called persecutions, with a general picture of the most eminent martyrs since the triumph of Christianity. No doubt many of the particular stories thus painted will bear no critical examination; it is likely enough, too, that Gibbon has truly accused the general statements of exaggeration. But this is a thankless labour, such as Lingard and others have undertaken with regard to the St. Bartholomew massacre, and the Irish massacre of 1642. Divide the sum total of reported martyrs by twenty,--by fifty, if you will,--but after all you have a number of persons of all ages and sexes suffering cruel torments and death for conscience' sake and for Christ's, and by their sufferings manifestly, with God's blessing, ensuring the triumph of Christ's gospel. Neither do I think that we consider the excellence of this martyr-spirit half enough. I do not think pleasure is a sin: the stoics of old, and the ascetic Christians since, who have said so (see the answers of that excellent man, Pope Gregory the Great, to Augustine's questions, as given at length by Bede), have, in saying so, outstepped the simplicity and wisdom of Christian truth. But, though pleasure is not a sin, yet surely the contemplation of suffering for Christ's sake is a thing most needful to us in our days, from whom, in our daily life, suffering seems so far removed. And, as God's grace enabled rich and delicate persons, women, and even children, to endure all extremities of pain and reproach in