reduced their numbers. There was the great Jesuit Church. Under the old

regime it required sixty priests to engineer it--the Government does it

with five, now, and the others are discharged from service. All about

that church wretchedness and poverty abound. At its door a dozen hats

and bonnets were doffed to us, as many heads were humbly bowed, and as

many hands extended, appealing for pennies--appealing with foreign words

we could not understand, but appealing mutely, with sad eyes, and sunken

cheeks, and ragged raiment, that no words were needed to translate. Then

we passed within the great doors, and it seemed that the riches of the

world were before us! Huge columns carved out of single masses of

marble, and inlaid from top to bottom with a hundred intricate figures

wrought in costly verde antique; pulpits of the same rich materials,

whose draperies hung down in many a pictured fold, the stony fabric

counterfeiting the delicate work of the loom; the grand altar brilliant

with polished facings and balustrades of oriental agate, jasper, verde

antique, and other precious stones, whose names, even, we seldom hear

-and slabs of priceless lapis lazuli lavished every where as recklessly as

if the church had owned a quarry of it. In the midst of all this

magnificence, the solid gold and silver furniture of the altar seemed

cheap and trivial. Even the floors and ceilings cost a princely fortune.

Now, where is the use of allowing all those riches to lie idle, while

half of that community hardly know, from day to day, how they are going

to keep body and soul together? And, where is the wisdom in</

The Innocents Abroad