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After Lent the sermons and church-going cease, and the sanctuaries are once more abandoned to the possession of the priests, droning from the altars to the scattered kneelers on the floor, the foul old women and the young girls of the poor, the old-fashioned old gentlemen and devout ladies of the better class, and that singular race of poverty-stricken old men proper to Italian churches, who, having dabbled themselves with holy water, wander forlornly and aimlessly about, and seem to consort with the foreigners looking at the objects of interest.
There were other occasions besides those stated, when for the sake of the public welfare oracles were sought at the sanctuaries. If a public improvement was to be undertaken, such as the building of a palace, or of a temple, of a canal, or a dam, it was of the utmost importance to know whether the enterprise was acceptable to the deity.
Through some halls and corridors back of the grand altar is the chapel of "Our Lady of the Sacred Heart," which is one of the most beautiful sanctuaries in the city, and remarkable for the harmony of its lines and proportions. It is in the form of a cross, ninety feet in length, eighty-five feet in the transept with an altitude of fifty-five feet.
Architectural fragments found in reconstruction are often best preserved by arranging that they shall be built conspicuously into one of the new walls, well above ground-level, or transferred to the nearest church or school-house. Sanctuaries usually consist of a walled enclosure containing numerous pedestals and bases of votive statues and other monuments.
Rulers and people alike felt prompted to make gifts to the sanctuaries on special occasions, either as a direct homage to the gods or with the avowed purpose and hope of securing divine favor or divine intercession.
In Rome two sanctuaries are the great centres of attraction in the morning, viz. S. John Lateran's on account of the baptism of adults, and the Sixtine chapel, where the service is always beautiful, and particularly on this day. We shall first give an account of the ceremonies observed in the latter, and shall then describe the additional interesting rites of S. John Lateran's.
In the Carthage sanctuaries and schools, in the squares and the streets, he could see pass the disciples of all the systems, the props of all the superstitions, the devotees of all the religions. He heard the shrill clamour of disputes, the tumult of fights and riots. When a man was at the end of his arguments, he knocked down his opponent. The authorities had a good deal of trouble to keep order.
In both, all wild things should be protected and the scenery kept wholly unmarred. I am happy to say that I have been able to set aside in various parts of the country small, well-chosen tracts of ground to serve as sanctuaries and nurseries for wild creatures.
Till quite recently Nature had her own sanctuaries, where man either did not go at all or only as a tool-using animal in comparatively small numbers. But now, in this machinery age, there is no place left where man cannot go with overwhelming forces at his command. He can strangle to death all the nobler wild life in the world to-day.
Has the Englishman, has the German, no sanctuaries to be left undisturbed; no heart-strings that are not to be fumbled at by busy fingers; no personal dignities to be shrouded from investigations; no sweet silences of sorrow that are barred to foreign mourners?
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