Note 9 — THE CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA.

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! Where are now the splendid surroundings of the consulship? Where are the gleaming torches, the applause, the dances, the banquets, the crowded feasts? Where are the acclamations of the circus, the adulation of the spectators? Perished. A storm has stripped off the leaves and bared the tree, now tottering from its root. Where are the feigned friends, the revellings and drinkings, the swarm of parasites, the various artifices of the cook, the slaves and ministers to the caprices of the powerful? They were but night and a dream—the day has come and they have vanished; they were spring flowers—the spring has ended and they are withered; they were shadows, and they have passed away—a vapor that is dissipated, a bubble that is burst, a spider's web that is torn. Who was higher in place than this man? Who had ascended greater heights of honor? Now he is more wretched than the prisoner, more pitiable than the slave, more indigent than the beggar famishing. What need is there of words when the man is here before us? See the pallor of death on his cheeks, the chattering of his teeth, the trembling of his limbs—the broken voice, the unsteady tongue, the form and figure befitting a stony heart.

"Nor do I say these things as a reproach, but to soften your hearts—to lead you to be content with his present punishment. Let the rich see here the ruin of the mighty: let the poor thank his poverty, which has been a safe asylum, a waveless harbor, a sure defence. To rich and poor, to high and low, to bond and free, here is a lesson to benefit all. Have not I softened your hearts and cast out your anger, extinguished your inhumanity and led you to compassion? Your faces show it, and your streaming tears. Let us pray to the God of mercy to soften the emperor's heart. Thus shall God be favorable to us; thus shall our sins be wiped out; thus shall we adorn the Church; thus to the farthest ends of the world will be spread the fame of our humanity and forgiveness."