One cannot well fail to admire the steadiness with which the dismal scheme was carried through; but if there be any truth in the notion, that disease may be invited by a frightening imagination, it is difficult to conceive a more dangerous plan than that which was chosen by these poor fellows. The anxiety with which they must have expected each day the sound of the bell—the silence that reigned instead of it, and then the drawing of the lots (the odds against death being one point lower than yesterday) and the going forth of the newly doomed man—all this must have widened the gulf that opens to the shades below; when his victim had already suffered so much of mental torture, it was but easy work for big, bullying Pestilence to follow a forlorn monk from the beds of the dying, and wrench away his life from him, as he lay all alone in an outhouse.
In most, I believe in all of the Holy Land convents, there are two personages so strangely raised above their brethren in all that dignifies humanity, that their bearing the same habit—their dwelling under the same roof—their worshipping the same God (consistent as all this is with the spirit of their religion), yet strikes the mind with a sense of wondrous incongruity; the men I speak of are the "Padre Superiore," and the "Padre Missionario." The former is the supreme and absolute governor of the establishment, over which he is appointed to rule; the latter is entrusted with the more active of the spiritual duties which attach to the Pilgrim Church. He is the shepherd of the good Catholic flock whose pasture is prepared in the midst of Mussulmans and schismatics—he keeps the light of the true faith ever vividly before their eyes—reproves their vices—supports them in their good resolves—consoles them in their afflictions, and teaches them to hate the Greek church. Such are his labors, and you may conceive that great tact must be needed for conducting with success the spiritual interests of the church under circumstances so odd as those which surround it in Palestine.
But the position of the Padre Superiore is still more delicate; he is almost unceasingly in treaty with the powers that be, and the worldly prosperity of the establishment over which he presides, is in great measure dependent upon the extent of diplomatic skill which he can employ in its favor. I know not from
