uch spoken of, if for nothing more than for his crimes.[56]
Snuff-boxes made from Shakespeare's mulberry-tree, twigs from
Napoleon's willow, or bullets from the field of Waterloo have all been
much sought after. Souvenirs of everything and anything are still much
in demand. It is within the last decade that a foreign war-ship
anchored in New York harbor, and after the officers courteously opened
the ship for the inspection of visitors they found that even their
silver toilet articles and plate had been carried away by the relic
maniacs. A United States admiral, rather more facetiously than
patriotically, remarked that "the American people of to-day would
steal anything but a cellarful of water." I suppose the remark, so far
as it applies to the relic-crazed crowd, would be as applicable to any
other people of any other time.

We have a right to ask, in closing this chapter, how it was possible
for men to believe in the power of relics to cure diseases. The
practice seems to have developed from the reasoning that the saints
who helped men while in the imperfections of the flesh, could be of
even more benefit when they were with God in the perfections of the
spiritual life. St. Augustine (426), for example, speaks of comparing
the wonders performed by pagan "deities with our dead men," and that
the miracles wrought by idols "are in no way comparable to the
wonders wrought by our martyrs." Some might agree with this, and yet
find no warrant for using relics. There was, however, the remembrance
of the dead man who was restored to life by contact with the bones of
Elisha, and of the handkerchiefs and aprons which touched Paul's body
and were thereby filled with healing efficacy. Even to-day we do not
fail to recognize the value of the association of places and objects,
and one finds it difficult to enter Westminster Abbey, for instance,
without feeling a thrill on account of the sacred clay reposing there.
When we remember the beginning of the use of relics in the catacombs
we can better understand the development of the practice.

[21] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the Middle Ages_,
p. 201.

[22] _Ibid._, pp. 142 and 156.

[23] G. P. Fisher, _History of the Christian Church_, p. 117.

[24] W. E. H. Lecky, _History of European Morals_, I, pp. 378 f.

[25] _Ibid._, I, p. 379.

[26] P. Dearmer, _Body and Soul_, pp. 268 f.

[27] J. Moses, _Pathological Aspects of Religions_, p. 133.

[28] C. Mackay,