marbles; who sew the price of whole farms into their garments with a
single thread--What was ever wanting to this naked old man? Ye
drink from a gem; he satisfied nature from the hollow of his hands.
Ye weave gold into your tunics; he had not even the vilest garment
of your bond-slave. But, on the other hand, to that poor man
Paradise is open; you, gilded as you are, Gehenna will receive. He,
though naked, kept the garment of Christ; you, clothed in silk, have
lost Christ's robe. Paul lies covered with the meanest dust, to
rise in glory; you are crushed by wrought sepulchres of stone, to
burn with all your works. Spare, I beseech you, yourselves; spare,
at least, the riches which you love. Why do you wrap even your dead
in golden vestments? Why does not ambition stop amid grief and
tears? Cannot the corpses of the rich decay, save in silk? I
beseech thee, whosoever thou art that readest this, to remember
Hieronymus the sinner, who, if the Lord gave him choice, would much
sooner choose Paul's tunic with his merits, than the purple of kings
with their punishments.


This is the story of Paul and Antony, as told by Jerome. But, in
justice to Antony himself, it must be said that the sayings recorded
of him seem to show that he was not the mere visionary ascetic which
his biographers have made him. Some twenty sermons are attributed
to him, seven of which only are considered to be genuine. A rule
for monks, too, is called his: but, as it is almost certain that he
could neither read nor write, we have no proof that any of these
documents convey his actual language. If the seven sermons
attributed to him be really his, it must be said for them that they
are full of sound doctrine and vital religion, and worthy, as
wholes, to be preached in any English church, if we only substitute