on a high mountain, and on the top of it had a lofty tower constructed in which there was a chamber of glass. Here he used to sit with those servants who were necessary to his wants, either for the purpose of bringing him food, or else to help him in his studies. Day and night he spent in looking through his glass to see the courses of the stars; neither the heat of the summer, which must have been greatly intensified by the glass that surrounded his room, nor the cold of winter at such an elevation, could disturb or weary him. Never during the night did he lie down to sleep; only now and then during the day was he perforce obliged to take a few hours’ repose; and even then he complained that sleep robbed him of so much precious time that he needed to continue his studies. Thus he spent and wore out his short life, of his own free will robbing himself of all pleasures and recreations, that he might gratify his eagerness to learn all about the heavenly bodies and their movements. It is said of Aristotle, the philosopher, who was so ardent a student of all natural phenomena, that when in spite of all his efforts to understand the ebb and flow of the sea it still remained a mystery to him, he threw himself into the sea in his vexation, and was drowned. So great is man’s desire to see and learn novelties.
All the wonders of earth are nothing compared to what the elect shall see. Christians! what have we to be curious about in this miserable vale of tears? Let us keep our curiosity till the last day, when the divine Judge shall call His chosen flock into the heavenly fold. And what wonderful things we shall behold there even in the first quarter of an hour, if we have the good fortune to be among the elect, and to enter on the possession of eternal joys! As far as possible let us try to picture to ourselves merely the procession and entry of the blessed into heaven. Imagine then that you see an almost infinite number of angels and elect. Of the number of angels Daniel says that there are a thousand times a thousand, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand of them who minister at the throne of God. Of the number of the elect David says that they surpass the sands on the sea-shore: “They shall be multiplied above the sand.”[1] St. John says that there is a countless crowd of them: “After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number.”[2] All these glorified bodies, shining like the sun, shall begin to move upwards in the most beautiful order, with Mary, the Queen of heaven, and Jesus
