,
who solicited the public compassion; and the benevolent epistles of
Theodoret still preserve the names and misfortunes of Caelestian and
Maria. The Syrian bishop deplores the misfortunes of Caelestian, who,
from the state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced,
with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign
country; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian exile, and the
philosophic temper, which, under the pressure of such calamities,
could enjoy more real happiness than was the ordinary lot of wealth and
prosperity. The story of Maria, the daughter of the magnificent Eudaemon,
is singular and interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she was purchased
from the Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as
a slave in their native country. A female attendant, transported in the
same ship, and sold in the same family, still continued to respect a
mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common level of servitude;
and the daughter of Eudaemon received from her grateful affection the
domestic services which she had once required from her obedience. This
remarkable behavior divulged the real condition of Maria, who, in the
absence of the bishop of Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery by the
generosity of some soldiers of the garrison. The liberality of Theodoret
provided for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten months among the
deaconesses of the church; till she was unexpectedly informed, that
her father, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage, exercised an
honorable office in one of the Western provinces. Her filial impatience
was seconded by the pious bishop: Theodoret, in a letter still extant,
recommends Maria to the bishop of AEgae, a maritime city of Cilicia, which
was frequented, during the annual fair, by the vessels of the West; most
earnestly requesting, that his colleague would use the maiden with a
tenderness suitable to her birth; and that he would intrust her to the
care of such faithful merchants, as would esteem it a sufficient gain,
if they restored a daughter, lost beyond all human hope, to the arms of
her afflicted parent.

Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am tempted to
distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers; whose imaginary
date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodosius, and the
conquest of Africa by the Vandals. When the emperor Decius persecuted
the Christians, seven noble youths of Ep