ABELARD.

LVIII. DIXIT AUTEM DEUS: FIANT LUMINARIA IN FIRMAMENTO CŒLI.

LVIII. Edélestand du Méril, Poésies Popul. Lat. 1847, p. 444. -I have already spoken unfavourably of Abelard's poetry; but this poem, one of a series on the successive days' work of Creation, of a sort of Hexaëmeron in verse, despite its prosaic commencement and unmelodious rhythm, must be acknowledged to rest on a true poetical foundation.

Hinc avium oblectant cantica,
Inde florum spirat fragantia.

Impensis, Dives, nimiis
Domum casuram construis;
Falso sole pingis testudinem,
Falsis stellis in cœli speciem.

In verâ cœli camerâ
Pauper jacet pulcherrimâ ;
Vero sole, veris sideribus
Istam illi depinxit Dominus.

Opus magis eximium

Est naturæ quam hominum;

Quod nec labor nec sumptus præparat,
Nec vetustas solvendo dissipat.

Ministrat homo diviti,

Angelus autem pauperi,

30

Ut hinc quoque constet cœlestia

Quam sint nobis a Deo subdita.

17-24. Augustine: Plus est pauperi videre cœlum stellatum quam diviti tectum inauratum.

31, 32. There are some good lines in the poem, De Contemptu Mundi, found in St Anselm's Works, pp. 195-201, on the same theme.

Cur dominus rerum, quare Deitatis imago

Parva cupis? cupias maxima, magnus homo.
Luna tibi fulget, tibi volvitur orbita solis,
Et tibi sunt toto sidera sparsa polo.

Nempe dies tuus est, tua nox, tuus igneus æther,
Et tibi commutant tempora quæque vices.

LIX. Mohnike, Hymnol. Forschungen, Stralsund, 1832, vol. ii. p. 250. This is a good translation, perhaps as good as could be made, of Luther's "Heldenlied," as it well has been called,—

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott:

the hymn, among all with which he has enriched the Church, most characteristic of the man, the truest utterance of his great heart. Much of the heroic strength of the original has vanished in the translation; yet, beside its merits, which are real, it is interesting as shewing the eminent philologist whose work it is, in somewhat a novel aspect. It was first published in 1830, shortly after Buttman's death, on occasion of the third jubilee to celebrate the publication of the Confession of Augsburg. The original hymn was probably composed in 1530, during the time when the Diet was sitting there.

In nobis nihil situm est,
Quo minus pereamus:
Quem Deus ducem posuit,
Is facit ut vivamus.
Scin quis hoc potest?

Jesus Christus est,

Qui, dux cœlitum,

Non habet æmulum ;

Is vicerit profecto.

Sit mundus plenus dæmonum,
Nos cupiant vorare;
Non timor est; victoriâ

Nil potest nos frustrare.
Hem dux sæculi!

Invitus abi!

In nos nil potes,

Jam judicatus es;

Vel vocula te sternat.

Hoc verbum non pessumdabunt,

Nec gratiam merebunt ;

In nobis Christi Spiritus
Et munera vigebunt:

Tollant corpus, rem,
Mundique omnem spem :
Tollant jubilent!

Non lucrum hinc ferent;
Manebit regnum nobis.