his wondrous promise was not for a sinner, a
murderer; and that only could he hope to merit such blessing if he had
truly repented, and won forgiveness. Stricken down by this reflection
he grew once more humble and sad.

In the afternoon, as he was pacing alone in a little portico near the
abbot's tower, the prior approached him. This reverend man had hitherto
paid little or no attention to Basil. He walked ever with eyes cast
down as if in deep musing, yet it was well known that he observed
keenly, and that his duties to the community were discharged with
admirable zeal and competence. In the world he would have been a great
administrator. In the monastery he seemed to find ample scope for his
powers, and never varied from the character of a man who set piety and
learning above all else. Drawing nigh to Basil he greeted him gently,
and asked whether it would give him pleasure to see the copyists at
work. Basil gladly accepted this invitation, and was conducted to a
long, well-lit room, where, at great desks, sat some five or six of the
brothers, each bent over a parchment which would some day form portion
of a volume, writing with slow care, with the zeal of devotees and with
the joy of artists. Not a whisper broke upon the silence in which the
pen-strokes alone were audible. Stepping softly, the prior led his
companion from desk to desk, drawing attention, without a word, to the
nature of the book which in each case was being copied. It surprised
Basil to see that the monks busied themselves in reproducing not only
religious works but also the writings of authors who had lived in pagan
times, and of this he spoke when the prior had led him forth again.

'Have you then been taught,' asked the prior, 'that it is sinful to
read Virgil and Statius, Livy and Cicero?'

'Not so, reverend father,' he replied modestly, his eyes falling before
the good-humoured gaze. 'But I was so ill instructed as to think that
to those who had withdrawn from the world it might not be permitted.'

'Father Hieronymus had no such misgiving,' said the prior, 'for he
himself, at Bethlehem, taught children to read the ancient poets; not
unmindful that the blessed Paul himself, in those writings which are
the food of our spirit, takes occasion to cite from more than one poet
who knew not Christ. If you would urge the impurity and idolatry which
deface so many pages of the ancients, let me answer you in full with a
brief passage of the holy August