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fragments which fifteen years before had been taken by him out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New Testament complete, and, in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas, and a part of the Shepherd of Hermas.

It is to the labors and self-devotion of such men that we are indebted for much of the light thrown upon the Scriptures during the past hundred years. These German seekers after truth are content with their crust of bread and threadbare coat provided they have the range of some great library like the Imperial Library at Paris, or that of the British Museum, London. Perhaps, many a palimpsest is to be found in these great store houses of literature, which awaits the patient investigation of a Griesbach or Tischendorf to disclose to the eyes of an astonished and gratified world some such treasure as that of the Sinaitic manuscript. Surely those myriads of copies of the Scriptures and the classic authors, which the monks of the middle ages busied themselves in making for the benefit of posterity, cannot all have perished. Some of the "lost books" are still to be found somewhere! One of the ablest of the works on the subject of Early Christian Literature which have appeared in our time is that of M. Ozanam, whose early death cut short the promise of the high rank to which he would doubtless have attained as a historian and a philosopher. He was born at Milan in 1813, and died in France in 1853, in the forty-first year of his age. Bred to the law, he preferred inculcating the science of jurisprudence, to the active practice of his profession. In politics he was a decided Liberal; in religion a fervent Catholic. His more important works were developed in lectures delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, and his scheme was to embrace the history of civilization from the fall of the Roman Empire to the time of Dante. But he lived to complete only his review of the progress of the civilized world as far as the fifth century of the Christian era. In his History of Civilization in the Fifth Century, he analyzes in the most masterly manner the reciprocal influence of Christianity and Paganism upon each other, and points out the gradual process by which the salient points of the latter were absorbed into the former, until at last such vitality as there was or ever

had been in the ancient systems of religion was transferred to Christianity, and so Paganism died of inanition. Still the process was but slow, and had not been carried out even at so late a period as the sixth century. The literature of the time was mainly Pagan. Claudian, the poet, par excellence, of the fifth century, was firmly attached to the old cult; and his cotemporary, Rutilius Numentiames, openly abused Christian institutions. The Christian literature of the first centuries was strongly tinged with Pagan ideas, and with the reminiscences and influence of the glorious old literature of Greece and Rome: and, indeed, this may be said with still greater truth of the literature of the revival in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: nay, at this day, many of the most effective illustrations employed by our classical writers are borrowed from the ancient Heathen.

The charms of the old poetry caused many relapses to Paganism, and it was with the greatest difficulty that Christianity ultimately succeeded in making the literature of Europe her own. Even Jerome and Augustine, the two greatest pillars of the church, clung tenaciously to their early lore. Jerome made his monks copy "the Dialogues of Cicero," and carried a copy of Plato with him on a journey to Jerusalem. He taught grammar at Bethlehem, and expounded Virgil, and the lyric poets, with the ancient comic writers and historians, to those children who had been confided to him for training in Christianity. When he fled to the desert he carried his library with him, read Cicero while he fasted, and devoured Plautus while he bewailed his sins. Magnus, a rhetorician of Rome, reproached him for having filled his work with Pagan memories, and for being unable to write a letter without alluding to Cicero, Horace, and Virgil: to whom Jerome rereplied that he (Magnus) would never have applied such a reproach to him had he known the sacredness of antiquity: for St. Paul, pleading the cause of Christ before the Areopagus, had not scrupled to use the inscription on a Pagan altar in defence of the faith, and to invoke the poet Aratus as a witness. Moreover, the austerity of his doctrine did not hinder the Apostle from citing Epimedes in his Epistle to Titus, (I. 12) and a verse from Menander in another place.

And Augustine in his retreat at Cassiciacum passed many months with his friends Trygetius and Licentius, devoting the mornings to the discussions of grave questions of philosophy, commenting on Cicero, and reading every day the half of one of Virgil's cantos. So the two great Christian poets of modern times, Dante and Milton, can scarcely write a stanza without some allusion to classic lore, some illustration borrowed from Paganism.

Perhaps one of the prime agents in Christianizing the literature of the middle ages was the composition of hymns in the Latin language, introducing therein the new feature of rhyme as an ornament to the verse. Under the influence of these compositions, which had become a necessity in the Christian Church, the old Roman tongue, which was in process of decline, put itself forth anew, budding and blossoming afresh, the meaning of words enlarging and dialating, old words coming to be used in new and higher significations, obsolete words reviving, new words being coined. The translation of the Old and the New Testaments into Latin by Jerome had a marked influence in this revival of the languages. Some of the early converts uttered their feelings in Latin poetry; several of these compositions were attributed to Tertullian and Cyprian. Commodianus wrote a poem against Paganism, and Prosper of Aquitaine wrote one against the Semi-Pelagians; Dracontius, Hilary, and Marius Victor turned their attention to the Bible narratives, while Juvencus and Sedulius confined theirs to evangelical history, and labored to reproduce with poetical adornment the text of the gospel.

Following their example the Anglo-Saxon priest Cædmon sang of the origin of the world, and the fall of man; and the monk Ottfried, in the time of Charlemagne, wrote a poem on the Harmony of the Gospels. Christian hymnody began in the days of the Apostles; both St. Paul and St. James exhort to the practice of singing hymns. In the time of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in the fifth century, music was definitely adopted in the church in Italy, and he is the reputed author of several chants and sacred songs. He used iambic verse of eight syllables, and thus paved the way for rhyme, which was early introduced into Christian versification.

Some of the earliest specimens of this occur in St. Augustine's psalm against the Donatists, and in the hymn addressed by Pope Damascus to St. Agatha. The great Christian poets of the age of Augustine were Paulinus and Prudentius. The former of these two repudiated the influence of the Pagan muses, and dropped Venus, Juno, and the other deities, substituting in their place the illustrious personages of Scripture. The latter boldly attacked the idolatrous practices and corrupt manners of the time, and became preeminently the poet of the Christians. Venantius Fortunatus, who flourished in the sixth century, was another of those Christian poets who laid the foundation of the noble Latin hymns of the middle ages, the productions of Adam of St. Victor Pistor, Peter the Venerable, Alanus, Hildebert, Manburn, St. Bernard, Bonaventura, Bede, Alard, Abelard, Bable, Thomasà-Kempis, Bernard of Clugny, and others. Mr. French has given an admirable selection of these in his Sacred Latin Poetry; some of them almost equal in beauty and sublimity to the well known Dies Irœ and Stabat Mater. In short the range of the early literature of the Christian Church is vast and varied, full of instruction and of the noblest sentiments of piety and humanity.

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ART. III.-1. The Works of Robert Burns, with an Account of his Life and a Criticism on his Writings. London.

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2. The Life of Robert Burns. By J. G. LOCKHART, Edinburgh.

THE most striking characteristic of genius is what seems its daring; it is ever marking out new paths and discovering countries whose existence was previously unthought of, or denied. It is continually undertaking Argonautic expeditions in search of the golden fleece of perfection, and though its ultimate object be not attained, it constantly gives new impulses to the spirit of enterprise in exploring unknown regious of truth. If the possessor of genius should ask,

"Do we move ourselves, or are we moved by an unseen hand at a game?" the answer would doubtless be a repetition of the latter clause of the proposition. Genius is itself an impelling. power which possesses the individual as Apollo inspired the Sibyl:

"Struggling in vain, impatient of her load,

And laboring underneath the pond'rous god,
The more she strove to shake him from her breast,
With more and far superior force he press'd;
Commands his entrance, and without control,
Usurps her organs, and inspires her soul."

The person designated to be the mouth-piece of the oracle may, like the prophet Jonah, flee to Tarshish to avoid doing his work, yet everywhere his destiny pursues him, and sooner or later he is forced, cheerfully or reluctantly, to speak the word, or to do the deed assigned to him for his task in this life.

In the majority of cases, the possessor of genius is long ignorant of the work he has to do. He feels an impulsion to do something, and his restless soul struggles in vain for peace. With the poet this restlessness seeks utterance in words, and he finds that expression sooths him. Yet at the first this utterance is feeble and unsatisfactory, and his spirit drives him on to attain greater excellence. Absolute or even satisfactory expression is unattainable, hence his life is a continual struggle. If he gives himself up to the control of this power, as much happiness as is vouchsafed to mortals is within his reach. But, too often, finding the chain galling and the lash torturing that urges him on for his own and. others' good, the slave of genius, not perceiving the glorious end, gives himself up to darker passions, whose mastery. seems at first more pleasurable, but which conduct his stepsto the gulf of despair.

In the streets of Edinburgh, a boy-afterwards a distinguished man — wearied with wandering and sight-seeing in the strange city, has paused to rest. A man passes, something in whose appearance strikes him. He gazes after him almost unconsciously, fascinated with the magnetism of genius, communicated by the outer semblance and bearing

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