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| SECTION OF RUINS OF MELLIFONT, COUNTY LOUTH. -The tourist in Ireland always says farewell to the ruins of Mellifont with regret. There is a fascination about the place that is difficult to resist. Although nearly all that was graceful and beautiful within its boundaries has been disfigured or destroyed, the very relics, bare and dismal as they appear, appeal powerfully to the imagination, and fill the mind with melancholy reflections. Nowhere in the world does the nothingness of this life strike the mind of the thoughtful man so profoundly as amid the shadows of monastic ruins. Every foot of ground beneath his feet contains the dust of saint and sage and scholar. The dismantled dormitories and cells, choked up with weeds and stones, tell with touching eloquence, the tragical story of the past. Here was placed the holy chalice that held the sacred wine, And the mitre, shining brighter with its diamonds than the East, And the gold cross from the altar and the relics from the shrine And the crozier of the Pontiff, and the vestments of the priest. The traveller we see half recumbent through the archway, and the other who stands in the gloom of the ruined cell, appear to be filled with such reflections, as they read on "the dust of ages." |
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