Chapter 7. Ox the Joy of the Nostrils.

ON the other senses only a few remarks must be made ; not because they will not have great and peculiar pleasures, but be cause the Holy Scripture does not inform us what these pleasures will be. But this is sufficiently evident, that many bodies of the saints, immediately after their death, began to send forth a most sweet odour, such as no one had perceived before. This St. Jerome relates of the body of St. Hilarion, for he affirms that ten months after his burial his body was found perfect, as if he were still living; and so fragrant was it, that it seemed to have been embalmed. St. Gregory, in his "Dialogues," relates the same thing of the body of St. Servulus, a paralytic. These are his words: "At the departure of his soul such sweet fragrance was scattered, that all who were present were filled with an inconceivable sweetness; and until the body was buried, every one felt the fragrance/' Other examples of a like nature are to be found, both in ancient and modern times. From these cases we may argue, that if the bodies of the de ceased saints, after the soul was assumed to glory, breathed such a sweet odour, much more will these bodies breathe the

same when they shall be glorified and alive. St. Gregory in his " Dialogues" also speaks of the body of our Saviour, in the following manner: "Then Tarsilla^ the virgin, looking up, beheld Jesus coming; and suddenly with such a wonderful fra grance was she covered, that it was a proof to all the Author of sweetness was pre sent." And thus, if the glorified body of our Saviour breathed such an odour of sweetness, it is certain that all the bodies of the saints will send forth the sweetest odours : for it is meet that the members should be conformable to their head, not only in their glory, but also in the sweetness of their fragrance. Let those, therefore, who are delighted with odours, think with what sweetness they will be filled, when in that divine garden, adorned with thousands of heavenly flowers, they will inhale such various and sweet odours.