ASPECTS OF DEATH. 413

XIII. MlNDFULNESS OF DEATH, AND A OLOISTEKED
LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION.

A life of contemplation and quiet study in a cloister,
withdrawn from worldly passions and ambitions, calmly
awaiting and ever mindful of the coming of death, was
a monkish ideal of former times. The contrast between
the life of the religious recluse and an ordinary worldly
life is pictorially expressed in the well-known fresco of
the fourteenth century (already alluded to) known as
the " Triumph of Death " in the Campo Santo of Pisa.
.The memento mori design on the reverse of an Italian
medal of the fifteenth century, by Giovanni Boldu,
apparently suggested the design of a marble medallion
which I have seen on the fapade of the famous Church
of the Carthusian Monastery (Certosa) near Pa via, though
the legend, "Innocentia et memoria mortis," was sub-
stituted for that on the medal ("lo son fine"). The
inscriptions, "Mors omnibus aequa" and "Vita est
meditatio/' on a Danish memorial medal of G-eorge
Hojer (1670), were obviously meant to suggest that a
contemplative life is the best means of preparing for,
and being ready for, death, which no one can escape.

XIV". MlNDFULNESS OF DEATH AS AN INCENTIVE
TO EIGHT LIVING, HELPING OTHEKS, AND MAKING
THE BEST ACTIVE USE OF LIFE.

" Teach us to remember that we must die, so that we
may become wise" (Psalm xc. 12, after Luther's transla-
tion) ; " In all thy matters remember thy last end, and
thou shalt never do amiss" (Ecclesiasticus, Eevised

VOL. IX . SEKIES IV. 2 F