he wondered what this should mean, a ray of divine light penetrated his soul; it was revealed to him that the miracle which, in his human wisdom he had presumed to doubt, was not only possible, but that he, Simeon, “should not see death till he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”  Therefore he tarried on earth, by the divine will, for nearly three centuries, till that which he had disbelieved had come to pass.  He was led by the Spirit to the temple on the very day when Mary came there to present her Son, and to make her offering, and immediately, taking the Child in his arms, he exclaimed, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.”  And of the Virgin Mother, also, he prophesied sad and glorious things.

Anna the Prophetess, who was standing by, also testified to the presence of the theocratic King:  but she did not take him in her arms, as did Simeon. (Luke ii. 82.) Hence, she was early regarded as a type of the synagogue, which prophesied great things of the Messiah, but, nevertheless, did not embrace him when he appeared, as did the Gentiles.

That these curious legends relative to Simeon and Anna, and their symbolical interpretation, were well known to the old painters, there can be no doubt; and both were perhaps in the mind of Bishop Taylor when he wrote his eloquent chapter on the Presentation.  “There be some,” he says, “who wear the name of Christ on their heads, to make a show to the world; and there be some who have it always in their mouths; and there be some who carry Christ on their shoulders, as if he were a burthen too heavy to bear; and there be some—­who is me!—­who trample him under their feet, but he is the true Christian who, like Simeon, embraces Christ, and takes him to his heart.”

Now, it seems to me that it is distinctly the acknowledgment of Christ by Simeon,—­that is, Christ received by the Gentiles,—­which is intended to be placed before us in the very early pictures of the Presentation, or the Nunc dimittis, as it is always styled in Greek art.  The appearance of an attendant, bearing the two turtle-doves, shows it to be also the so-called Purification of the Virgin.  In an antique formal Greek version we have the Presentation exactly according to the pattern described by Didron.  The great gold censer is there; the cupola, at top; Joseph carrying the two young pigeons, and Anna behind Simeon.

* * * * *

In a celebrated composition by Fra Bartolomeo, there is the same disposition of the personages, but an additional female figure.  This is not Anna, the mother of the Virgin (as I have heard it said), but probably Mary Salome, who had always attended on the Virgin ever since the Nativity at Bethlehem.