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Show 304 ilrljc Bdl. "Jo.'unem plango, fulgurn. f'rnngo, So.bbn~ha. pR.ngo, K1telt.o Iento&, dlssipo Tentol, 1l<UO crl~tlrtol." h is idle to date tho origin of tho Bell from Italy, in A. D. 400. 'fhat was but tho date of its introduction upon classic gt·ound. 1'hc antiquity of nothing is more venerable. In tho beginnings of ante-historic time, in tho magic circle of Central _\.sia, among Arimaspian ironworkers, tho Dell was horn. 1t was symbolically holy in its birth, for it lay hardening for weeks in tho womb of tho mould its mother, and its sire was the sacred flame, worshipped by all tho shivering children of the N:orth. In itself, a was tho holiest symbol known THE IH~LJ,, 305 to pl'imcvalman; they baptised it and blessed it; it became a living mountain in their eyes; they hung it in towers that its voico might corne down from above, chiming of celestial visitations; it showered benedictions upon every newborn babe, calling them also from their seeth ing moulds to a baptism of blessed lifo; it followed with valedictions the departed to glory. It covered every church with a shekinah of music, in the light of which no evil wing could wave; and to this day the pagodas of Durmah arc buried in an old perpetual symphony of bells rung out by tho winds whichever way they blow. The sound of the Bell is connected with every form of traditional wor:;bip. It tinkled at the hem of Aaron's robe when he went in to stn.nd before Jehovah, breaking thoro the awful silence of the Iloly of Holies. It still tinkles before tho altar in the churches of Christendom both Pmtcstant and Catholic ; and is heard throughout all the regions of Northern and Central Asia, in every 26• |