nsion
whatever, either inside or out, though its proportions are very grand.
The mosaic pavement is doubtless the most perfect specimen of the kind
in existence,--a mosaic of tombs, and an example of sepulchral
magnificence. The whole effect is rich beyond description, from
pavement to roof. Yet there is, strange as it may seem, a cold
emptiness, not to say gloom, which overcomes the stranger amid all this
plethora of furnishing and fresco. The detail is too infinite to be
taken in as a whole. Only a general impression of the place is retained
by the average visitor. To the thoughtful and unprejudiced it must
surely prove to be more pagan than Christian.

Where we stand upon its tessellated floor, each square yard is sacred to
the memory of some departed Knight; the marbles bearing their names are
also emblazoned with their arms. One can readily imagine the many
festive occasions, elaborate and pompous ceremonials, military, civic,
and religious, which have taken place within these walls while the
Knights were at the acme of their power. The chairs of state were then
filled with gaudily dressed officials. Priests, in glittering robes,
bearing gold and silver mitres, filed hither and thither in long
processions, accompanied by banners, and preceded by youths in spotless
white, who swung burning and pungent incense in silver vases, while the
ponderous organ breathed forth its solemn, reverberatory notes. The
tapestried alcoves were brilliant with numberless candles, and the high
altar was ablaze with burning wax, while the figures in the sacred
paintings must have looked down from their canvases with weird and
cynical expression. No doubt these church ceremonials were solemn and
impressive, where one and all assumed a virtue, if they had it not. Is
it surprising that this cunningly devised and gaudy display, these
elaborate performances, should be awe-inspiring to an ignorant and
superstitious people? One can even conceive that the actors themselves,
in such a theatrical show, having been brought up in the Roman Catholic
faith, may believe that they, poor, finite creatures, individually
glorify the great and good God by this hollow mummery.

To-day, only a score of nun-like Maltese women, clad in black, kneel
here and there before some favorite saint. If the stranger catches a
glance of their dark eyes from behind the screening faldetta, he finds
them more redolent of earth than of heaven,--dreamy, persuading eyes,
glan