remarkable, a veritable literature, essentially disinterested, which had scarcely any other end in view but that of procuring intellectual, moral pleasure to the public; I mean the lives of the saints, the legends. They have not been introduced into the literary history of this epoch: they are, however, its true, its only literature, for they are the only works which had the pleasures of the imagination for their object. After the battle of Troy, almost every town in Greece had poets who collected the traditions and adventures of the heroes, and made a diversion of them for the public, a national diversion. At the epoch which occupies us, the lives of the saints played the same part for the Christians. There were men who occupied themselves in collecting them, writing them, and recounting them for the edification, no doubt, but more especially for the intellectual pleasure of the Christians. That is the literature of the time, properly so called. In our next lecture, I shall lay some of those before you, as well as some monuments of profane literature, which we likewise meet there.

SEVENTEENTH LECTURE.

Preface of the Old Mortality of Walter Scott-Robert Patterson-Preface of the Vie de Saint Marcellin, bishop of Embrun, written at the commencement of the sixth century-Saint Ceran, bishop of Paris-Eagerness of the Christians of these times to collect the traditions and monuments of the life of the saints and martyrs-Statistics of this branch of sacred literature-Collection of the Bollandists -Cause of the number and popularity of legends-They almost alone satisfy at this epoch-1. The wants of the moral nature of man-Examples: Life of Saint Bavon, of Saint Wandregisilus, of Saint Valery-2. The wants of physical nature-Examples: Life of St. Germain of Paris, of Saint Wandregisilus, of Saint Rusticulus, of Saint Sulpicius of Bourges-3. The wants of the imagination-Examples: Life of Saint Seine, of Saint Austregesilus-Literary defects and merits of legends.

HEADING the Puritans of Walter Scott is a preface which the French translators have omitted, I know not why, and from which I take the following details :

"The tombs of the puritan martyrs, scattered in large numbers, especially in some counties of Scotland, are still objects for the respect and devotion of their partisans. It is sixty years ago that a man living in the county of Dumfries, named Robert Patterson, a descendant, it was supposed, of one of the victims of the persecution, quitted his house and small inheritance, in order to devote himself to the task of keeping these modest tombs in repair. . . . He contrived to discover them in the most secret places, in the mountains and rocks where the insurgent puritans had taken refuge, and where, often surprised by troops, they perished sword in hand, or were shot after the combat. He freed the funeral stone from the moss which covered it, he renewed the half effaced inscription where the pious friends of the dead had expressed, in scriptural style, both the celestial joys which awaited him, and the malediction which should for ever pursue his murderers. Every year he visited all the tombs: no season stopped him; he begged not, nor had he any need so to do; hospitality was always assured him in the families of the martyrs or zealots of the sect. For nearly thirty years he continued this painful pilgrimage; and it is scarcely more than

twenty-five years since he was found exhausted with fatigue, and breathing his last sigh upon the high road, near Lockerby; by his side was his old white horse, the companion of his labors. In many parts of Scotland, Robert Patterson is still remembered, and the people, ignorant of his real name, designated him, from the employment to which he devoted his life, by that of Old Mortality (man of the dead of olden times).'

I go back from the eighteenth to the sixth century, and I read at the head of the Life of Saint Marcellin, bishop of Embrun, this little prologue:

"By the bounty of Christ, the combats of the illustrious martyrs, and the praises of the blessed confessors, have filled the world to such a degree, that almost every town may boast of having as patrons martyrs born within its bosom. Hence it happens, that the more they write and propagate the inestimable recompense which they received for their virtues, the more will the gratitude of the faithful increase. Accordingly, I find my pleasure in seeking everywhere the palms of these glorious champions; and while travelling with this view, I arrived at the city of Embrun. There I found that a man, long since sleeping with the Lord, still performs signal miracles.. I asked, curiously, what had been the kind of life of this holy man from his infancy, what was his country, by what proofs and by what marvels of virtue he had been raised to the sublime charge of pontiff; and all declared with one voice what I have here committed to writing. Men even whose age has been prolonged to a very late period, and some of whom have attained ninety, and even a hundred years, have given me unanimous answers concerning the holy pon. tiff. . . . I wish, therefore, to transmit his memory to future ages, although I feel my weakness succumb under such a burden.""

Behold the Robert Patterson of the sixth century: this unknown man performed the same travels, and fulfilled almost the same office for the Christian heroes of this epoch, as Old Mortality did for the martyrs of Scotch puritanism. It was a taste, a general need of the age, that of seeking all the traditions, all the monuments of the martyrs and saints, and trans

1 Vie de Saint Marcellin, in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, 20th April, vol. ii., p. 751.

mitting them to posterity. Saint Ceraune, or Ceran, bishop of Paris at the beginning of the seventh century, likewise devoted his life to this task. He wrote to all the priests whom he thought learned in the pious traditions of their country, praying them to collect such for him: we know, among others, that he addressed himself to a priest of the diocese of Langres, called Warnacher, and that this latter sent him the acts of three sainted brothers of one birth, Speusippius, Eleusippius, and Meleusippius, martyrized in that diocese shortly after the middle of the second century; and of Saint Didier, bishop of Langres, who underwent the same fate about one hundred years later. It would be easy to find many analogous facts in the history of Christianity, from the fourth to the tenth century.

Thus were amassed the materials of the collection commenced in 1643 by Bolland, a Jesuit of Belgium, since continued by many other scholars, and known under the name of Recueil des Bollandistes. All monuments relative to the life of the saints are there collected and classed by month and day. The enterprise was interrupted in 1794 by the Belgian revolution; so the work is finished only for the first nine months of the year, and the first fourteen days of the month of October. The end of October, and the months of November and December are wanting; but the materials for them were prepared: they have been found, and it is said that no time will be lost in publishing them.

In its actual state, this collection contains 53 volumes folio, of which the following is the distribution :

Would you have an idea of the number of lives of the saints, long or succinct, contemporaneous or not, which fill these 53 volumes? Here is the list, day by day, of those of the month of April :

I have not made the calculation for the fifty-three volumes; but according to this amount of one month, and judging by approximation, they contain more than 25,000 lives of saints. I must add that many, doubtless, have been lost, and that many others still remain unpublished in the libraries. This simple statistic shows you the extent of this literature, and what prodigious activity of mind it presupposes in the sphere of which it is the object.

Such an activity, such a fertility, surely did not proceed from the mere fancy of the authors; there were general and powerful causes for it. It is customary to see them only in the religious doctrines of this epoch, in the zeal which they inspired: assuredly, they conspired thereto; and nothing of the kind was done without their influence; still they did not do all. In other times, also, these doctrines were diffused, were energetic without producing the same result. It was not merely to faith and to religious exaltation; it was also, and perhaps more especially, to the moral state of society and of man, from the fifth to the tenth century, that the literature of legends owes its richness and popularity.

You know the character of the epoch which we have just studied: it was a time of misery and extreme disorder, one of those times which weigh, in some measure, in all directions upon mankind, checking and destroying it. But however bad the times may be, whatever may be the external circum