Saint Cecilia CECI ECILIA is as much to say as the lily of heaven, or a way to blind men. Or she is said of celo and lia, or else cecilia, as lacking blindness. Or she is said of celo, that is heaven, and leos, that is people. She was a heavenly lily by cleanness of virginity, a way to blind men by information of example, heaven by devout contemplation, lia by busy operation, lacking blindness by showing of wisdom, and heaven of the people. For the people beheld in her as in following the spiritual heaven, the sun, the moon, and the stars, that is to say, shining of wisdom, magnanimity of faith, and diversity of virtues. Or she is said a lily, for she had the whiteness of cleanness, a good conscience, and odour of good fame. Or she is said heaven, for Isidore saith that the philosophers say that heaven is moveable, round and burning. In likewise was she moving by busy operation, round by perseverance, and burning by fiery charity. William Caxton Saint Elizabeth EL 'LIZABETH was daughter of the noble King of Hungary, and was of noble lineage, but she was more noble by her faith and religion than by her right noble lineage; she was right noble by example, she shone by miracle, and she was fair by grace of holiness, for the author of nature enhanced her in a manner above nature, when this holy maid was nourished in delices royal she renounced all childishness, and set herself all in the service of God. Then it appeared clearly as her tender infancy enforced in simpless, and began to use good customs from then forthon, and to despise the plays of the world, and of vanities, and flee the prosperities of the world, and always to profit in the honour of God. For when she was yet but five years old she abode so ententively in the church for to pray, that her fellows or her chamberers might unnethe bring her thence, and when she met any of her chamberers or fellows, that she would follow them toward the chapel as it were for to play, for to have cause to enter into the church. And when she was entered, anon she kneeled down and lay down to the earth, howbeit that she knew not yet any letters; and she opened oft the psalter tofore her in the church for to feign that she read, because she should not be let, and that she should be seen occupied. And when she was with other maidens for to play, she considered well the manner of the game for to give always honour to God under occasion, and in play of rings and other games she set all her hope in God. And of all that she won and had of any part profit when she was a young maid, she gave the tenth to the poor maidens, and led them ofttimes with her for to say paternoster or for to salute our Lady. And like as she grew in age by time so grew she by devotion, for she choose the Blessed Virgin to be her Lady and her Advocate, and S. John the Evangelist to be warden of her Virginity. ... She went not gladly to Karols, but withdrew other maidens from them. She doubted alway to wear jolly clothing, but she used always to have them honest. She had ordained to say every day a certain number of orisons and prayers, and if she were occupied in any manner that she might not perform them, but that she was constrained of her chamberers to go to her bed, she would there say them, waking. This holy virgin honoured all the solemn feasts of the year with so great reverence that she would not suffer her sleeves to be laced till the solemnity of the mass was accomplished, and she heard the office of the mass with so great reverence that when the gospel was read and the Sacrament was lifted up, she would take off her brooches of gold and the adornments on her head, as circles or chaplets, and lay them down. ... She gave on a time to a poor woman a right good vesture, and when this woman saw that she had so noble a gift, she had so great joy that she fell down as dead, and when the blessed Elizabeth saw that, she was sorry that she had given to her so noble a gift, and doubted that she was the cause of her death, and prayed for her, and anon she arose all whole. And she span oft wool with her chamberer and made thereof cloth, so that of her proper labour that she gave to the church, she received glorious fruit, and gave good ensample unto others. ... When the time approached that God had ordained, that she which had despised the reign mortal should have the reign of angels, she lay sick of the fever and turned her to the wall, and they that were there heard her put out a sweet melody; and when one of the chamberers had enquired of her what it was, she answered and said: A bird came between me and the wall and sang so sweetly that it provoked me to sing with it. She was always in her malady glad and jocund, and ne ceased of prayer. The last day tofore her departing, she said to her chamberers: What will you do if the devil come to you? And after a little while she cried with a high voice: Flee! flee flee! like she had chased away the devil; and after, she said: The midnight approacheth in which Jesu Christ was born; it is now time that God calls his friends to his heavenly weddings. And this, the year of our Lord twelve hundred and thirty-one, she gave up her spirit and slept in our Lord. Then there was heard and seen a multitude of birds, so many that there had not been seen the like tofore, into the church, and began a song of right great melody, like as it had been the obsequies of her, and their song was Regnum Mundi, which is sung in the praising of virgins. William Caxton XXVII IMMORTAL SISTERS Mary Lamb BRID RIDGET ELIA has been my housekeeper for many a long year. I have obligations to Bridget, extending beyond the period of memory. We house together, old bachelor and maid, in a sort of double singleness; with such tolerable comfort, upon the whole, that I, for one, find in myself no sort of disposition to go out upon the mountains, with the rash king's offspring, to bewail my celibacy. We agree pretty well in our tastes and habits - yet so, as "with a difference." We are generally in harmony, with occasional bickerings as it should be among near relations. Our sympathies are rather understood than expressed; and once, upon my dissembling a tone in my voice more kind than ordinary, my cousin burst into tears, and complained that I was altered. We are both great readers in different directions. While I am hanging over (for the thousandth time) some passage in old Burton, or one of his strange contemporaries, she is abstracted in some modern tale or adventure, whereof our common readingtable is daily fed with assiduously fresh supplies. Narrative teases me. I have little concern in the |