th his basket, no line was
dropped from above. He waited and then called aloud, but all in vain.

When sunrise came, there sat the monk, his face between his knees, the
folds of his black robe drawn over his head. But he did not rise and
lift his hands in prayer.

All day he sat there, motionless.

The people watched in whispered silence. Would he arise at sundown and
pray, and with outstretched hands bless the assembled pilgrims?

But as they watched a vulture came sailing slowly through the blue
ether, and circled nearer and nearer; and off on the horizon was
another--and still another, circling nearer and nearer.

* * * * *

In humanity's march of progress there are a vanguard and a rearguard.
The rearguard dwindles away into a mob of camp-followers, who follow for
diversion and to escape starvation. Both the vanguard and the rearguard
are out of step with the main body, and therefore both are despised by
the many who make up the rank and file.

And yet, out of pity, the main body supplies ambulances and
"slum-workers," who aim to do "good"--but this good is always for the
rearguard and the camp-followers, never for those who lead the line of
march, and take the risk of ambush and massacre.

But this scorn of the vanguard has its recompense--often delayed, no
doubt--but those who compose it are the only ones whom history honors
and Clio crowns. If they get recognition in life, it is wrung tardily
from an ungrateful and ungracious world. And this is the most natural
thing in the world, and it would be a miracle if it were otherwise, for
the very virtue of the vanguard consists in that their acts outrun human
sympathy.

Benedict was a scout of civilization. In his day he led the vanguard. He
found the prosperous part of the world given over to greed and gluttony.
The so-called religious element was in partnership with fraud,
superstition, ignorance, incompetence, and an asceticism like that of
Simeon Stylites, leading to nothing.

Men know the good and grow through experience. To realize the
worthlessness of place and position and of riches, you must have been at
some time in possession of these. Benedict was born into a rich Roman
family, in the year Four Hundred Eighty. His parents wished to educate
him for the law, so he would occupy a position of honor in the State.

But at sixteen years of age, at that critical time when nerves are
vibrating between manhood and youth, Be