hearts and thoughts as well as the way of life of men and women who lived hundreds of years ago. They are extraordinarily authentic, for the marvellous facts which they contain are vouched for by writers such as St. Athanasius, who probably knew St. Antony and by St. Jerome. In most cases we have the account, almost the journals of men, who, like Cassian, Palladius and Moschus, travelled conscientiously to visit the marvellous population of Nitria and the Thebaid. Palgrave and Livingston tell us