No More Learning



## p. 12727 (#141) ##########################################

12727
ADAM DE SAINT VICTOR
(TWELFTH CENTURY)
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN
HE Latin hymns or sequences of Adam de Saint Victor came
from that great period, the Middle Ages, so wonderful and
so misconceived. They belong to literature because they
reflect the vital motive of the time, Faith; because they are expres-
sions of the personality of their author; and because their style is
governed by delicate canons of art little understood by the modern
world of poetry-lovers.
To the strict classicist, to the man who reverences Horace and
Catullus, their rhymes are an abomination. But to one who ap-
proaches these sacred poems of the twelfth century remembering
that they were part of that greater religious poem, the daily sacrifice
of the Catholic Church, they are worthy of critical study, and they
will amply repay it. They can neither be studied nor even dimly
appreciated through the medium of translations. They are as intri-
cate and technical as the Gothic architecture of the time which pro-
duced them; they have the sonorousness and aspirational cadence,
without the simplicity, of the Gregorian chant which their music
seems to echo; and above all, they are musical.
The sequence was sung between the Epistle and Gospel of the
Mass. It was called "a prose," too, because in no regular metre;
but in the Middle Ages these sequences, which were at first merely
prolongations of "the last note of the Alleluia," were arranged for
all feasts of the Church in such profusion that much weak and care-
less "prose" crept in. The consequence was that by the revision
of the Roman Missal in the sixteenth century, only the 'Victimæ
Paschali (for Easter), the 'Veni Sancte Spiritus' (for Pentecost),
'Lauda Sion' (for Corpus Christi), and 'Dies Iræ' (in masses for the
dead), were retained. In this revision, the thirty-nine sequences of
Adam de Saint Victor disappeared from general usage. M. Félix Clé-
ment, in an enthusiastic notice of Saint Victor's poetry, regrets this,
and welcomes M. Charles Barthélemy's edition of the sequences as an
act of reparation to a genius too long misunderstood.
There is no doubt that the almost merciless precision of Adam
de Saint Victor's rhyme had a great influence on French poetry,


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12728
ADAM DE SAINT VICTOR
although neither his rhythm nor rhyme ever reaches the monotony
of the later French recurrences; and some of the poems are most
exquisitely lyrical, artificial, and intricate, yet with an appearance of
simplicity that might easily deceive the unlearned in the metrical
modes of the twelfth century. Take for instance the sequence begin-
ning Virgini Mariæ Laudes. ' It is a marvel of skill; it has the
quaintness of an old ballad and the play on words of a rondeau. It
is modeled on the Easter sequence of the monk Notker, with, as
M. Clément says,
"extraordinary skill. " It is untranslatable: no
prose version can represent it, and no metrical imitation reproduce
its unique shades of verbiage. In the sequence Of the Holy Ghost,'
occur the famous lines which were part of the liturgy of France for
four centuries:-
"THOU who art Giver and the gift,
Who from the naught all good didst lift,
Incline our hearts thy name to praise,
And form our words thy songs to raise,-
Thee, thee high lauding. "
(Tu qui dator es et donum,
Tu qui condis omne bonum,
Cor ad laudem redde pronum,
Nostræ linguæ formans sonum,-
In tua præconia. )
---
Adam de Saint Victor was born in the twelfth century, and he
died in either 1177 or 1192. It is certain that he was a canon regu-
lar of the Abbey of Saint-Victor-les-Paris; he composed certain trea-
tises, and lived, honored and admired, for a part of his life under the
rule of the Abbot Guérin, and was regarded as the foremost poet of
his time. He drew his inspiration from the sacred Scriptures; and
he applied both the teachings and the splendid figures of the Bible
with the force and fervor of Dante. Modern hymn-writers who
seem to grow weaker every year- would do well to study the eleva-
tion and harmony of Adam de Saint Victor: he is a mine of riches.
In the 'Carmina e Poetis Christianis (Songs from Christian Poets),
etc. , by M. Félix Clément (Paris, Gaume & Co. ), and in an appendix
to M. Charles Barthélemy's translation into French of the 'Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum' (Rationale of Divine Services), the material
for a study of this poet's work may be found. An analysis of the
sequence Of the Resurrection of Our Lord,' a prose version of which
is given below, will show the skill with which it is constructed, - a
skill as technical as that of a Petrarcan sonnet. The rhythm is as
marked as the time of a military march.
-


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ADAM DE SAINT VICTOR
12729
DE RESURRECTIONE DOMINI
MUNDI renovatio
Nova parit gaudia;
Resurgenti Domino,
Corresurgent omnia,
Elementa serviunt
Et autoris sentiunt
Quanta sint solemnia.
Ignis volat mobilis,
Et aër volubilis,
Fluit aqua labalis,
Terra manet stabilis,
Alta petunt levia,
Centrum tenent gravia,
Renovantur omnia.
Cœlum fit serenius,
Et mare tranquillius,
Spirat aura levius,
Vallis nostra floruit,
Revirescunt arida,
Recalescunt frigida,
Post quas ver intepuit.
Gelu mortis solvitur,
Princeps mundi tollitur,
Et ejus destruitur,
In nobis imperium,
Dum tenere voluit
In quo nihil habuit
Jus amisit proprium.
Vita mortem superat;
Homo jam recuperat
Quod priùs amiserat,
Paradisi gaudium.
Viam præbet facilem,
Cherubim versatilem,
Ut Deus promiserat
Amovendo gladium.


## p. 12730 (#144) ##########################################

12730
ADAM DE SAINT VICTOR
TRANSLATION OF THE PRECEDING
THE renewal of the world begets new joys; all things arise with
the resurrection of the Lord. The elements obey [him] and feel how
great are the feasts of their Creator.
The mobile ether and the whirling air are set in motion. The
gliding water flows, the earth remains steady; what is light arises,
what is heavy keeps its position at the centre [of the universe]. All
things are renewed.
The heaven becomes more serene, the sea more quiet; one
breathes gentle airs; our valley is [clothed] in flowers; what [was]
dry becomes green again, what [was] cold grows warm again: after
which the spring gains color.
The ice of death is loosened, the Prince of this world is done
away with, and his power over us destroyed. While he wished to
hold Him in whom he had not anything [cf. John xiv. 30], he lost
the power that was his own.
Life conquers death; man now recovers what he had lost before,
the joy of Paradise.
[Christ] makes the way easy [for us to travel] by removing, as
God had promised, the sword of the Cherubim that "turns in every
way" [Gen. iii. 24].
An inadequate prose translation must serve to give a faint im-
pression of the deep feeling and sublime passion of the sequence in
honor of the Holy Ghost beginning -
Qui procedis ab utroque,
Genitori Genitoque
Pariter, Paraclete,
Redde linguas eloquentes,
Fac ferventes in te mentes
Flamma tuâ divite.
DE SANCTO SPIRITU
(ON THE HOLY SPIRIT)
O THOU Paraclete that dost proceed equally from each, the Beget-
ter and the Begotten, render eloquent our tongues, make our souls
burn [glow] for thee with thy rich flame [of grace].
Love of the Father and of the Son, equal of both and [fully] equal
and like to each: thou dost replenish all things, dost cherish all


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ADAM DE SAINT VICTOR
12731
things, thou dost direct the stars and move the heavens, remaining
immutable thyself.
Bright light, dear light, thou dost put to flight the gloom of inner
darkness: by thee the worlds are purified. Thou dost destroy sin and
the blight of sin.
Thou dost make known the truth, and dost show the way of peace
and the road of justice; thou dost shun the hearts of the evil, and
dost enrich the hearts of the good with the gift of knowledge.
When thou dost teach, nothing is obscure; when thou art present,
then is naught impure: at thy presence our joyful soul exults; our
conscience, gladdened by thee, purified by thee, rejoices.
Thou dost change the elements; thanks to thee the sacraments
have their efficacy; thou dost repel injury and violence [lit. , injurious
violence]; thou dost silence and confute the wickedness of the enemy.
When thou dost come, thou dost soften our hearts; when thou dost
enter [them], the black clouds of darkness [lit. , the darkness of the
black cloud] flee. O sacred fire, thou dost inflame our breast; thou
dost not burn it, but thou dost cleanse it from [all earthly] cares when
thou dost visit it.
Thou dost instruct and arouse minds that before were ignorant
and buried in sleep and forgetfulness. Thou dost help our tongues,
and dost form the sound [of our word? ]; the grace given by thee
makes our heart inclined to the good.
O help of the oppressed, O comfort of the wretched, refuge of the
poor! grant us contempt for things of earth; draw our desires to the
love of things of heaven.
Drive away evil, remove our impurity, and make the discordant
concordant, and bring us thy protection.
Mayst thou, who didst once visit, teach, and strengthen the disci-
ples in their fear, deign to visit us; mayst thou console us if it is
thy will, and the peoples that believe [in thee].
Equal is the majesty of the Persons, equal is their power, and
common is their Godhead: thou that dost proceed from two art
coequal with both; in nothing is there inequality.
Because thou art so great and such as is the Father, may thy
humble servants [the humility of thy servants] render due praise to
God the Father, to the Son [our] Redeemer, and as well to thee!
manne Francis Egan
безин


## p. 12732 (#146) ##########################################

12732
-
SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
(1567-1622)
BY Y. BLAZE DE BURY
N 1567, at the height of the League in France, -at Annécy,
in a Savoy almost French in consequence of the repeated
alliances of its sovereigns with France,- he who was to be
St. Francis de Sales was born of one of the first families of his
country. His early choice of the study of the law shows the pre-
dominance in him of reason over imagination. But what he refuses
to imagination in the field of literary "invention," he makes up to it
by the abuse of "images of style. " When it is a matter of painting
with the pen, he puts under contribution flowers, birds, streams,- all
nature. The contemporary of Florian, of D'Urfé, and of Vaugelas,
as well as their compatriot, he has neither the affectation of the sec-
ond nor the "Scudérisms" of the first; but he rushes into veritable
whirlwinds of metaphors. This abuse of metaphor, especially evident.
in his 'Introduction à la Vie Dévote' (Introduction to the Devout
Life), does not prevent him, however, from having a very definite
style, a combination which makes it possible to republish him at
the present time without any changes. In the order of psychological
subtlety, Francis de Sales is the precursor of Fénelon. His direction
of the nuns of the Visitation whom he governed, with the direction of
the most worldly women of his time, evinces his great knowledge of
women. In the 'Introduction to the Devout Life,' he excels in dis-
tributing his counsels as befits the worldly and the "regulars. " For
the worldly, he even takes part in the gallantry of the time, when
he speaks of "friendships. " He even accords that "friendship is
mutual love; and that there should be constant communication and
intercourse between persons united in friendship. ”
It was about the beginning of the seventeenth century that he
founded the Order of the Visitation, and formed in his turn, with
Madame Jeanne de Chantal, the aunt of Madame de Sévigné, exactly
such a strict friendship "for good" as those of which he proclaims the
utility, when in the 'Introduction' he says: "If the benefits that friends
give each other are false and vain, the friendship is false and vain;
but if they are true benefits, the friendship is true! "
The 'Traité de l'Amour de Dieu' is not less fertile in figurative
language than the 'Introduction. ' But it applies more especially to
religious persons. Henry IV. , and later, Louis XIII. particularly, did


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SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
12733
their best to keep Francis in France; but nothing could prevail over
his love of his native land, and in spite of his constant visits to the
French court, and the direction of his "daughters" of the Visitation,
and also his strong affection for St. Vincent de Paul, the country of
his birth never ceased to be the country of his choice.
The firmness of his character, combined with great keenness, par-
ticularly fitted him for the direction of women: and it was thus he
wrote the 'Introduction' for Madame de Charmoisy, as he founded
the Order of the Visitation and modified its regulations upon the
advice of Madame de Chantal; while at the same time this moral
collaboration aimed at the personal elevation of this eminent woman
left in widowhood! The foundation of the Visitation and the direc-
tion of souls, such were the works of St. Francis de Sales. He died
peacefully in 1622. There was nothing of the ascetic in him. While
the holiness of his Italian namesake palpitates with the "madness of
the cross," the triumph of Francis de Sales is, on the contrary,
reason wisdom the economy well understood and well combined
of worldly duties with divine obligations. He summed up in a word
his own classification of each one's rôle, when he said, "The religion
of the Capuchin is not the religion of the soldier. "
The following citations are drawn from the 'Introduction to the
Devout Life. ' The selection is made especially in view of the
worldly; and in order to show them how free our saint's morality was
from all those compromises with questions of interests, such as money
interests, with which church people are sometimes too justly re-
proached. These citations show, too, how well in his secular counsels
his morality could adjust itself to social enigmas.
Speaking of the love of riches, and the pains we should take for
the extension of our worldly fortune, St. Francis wrote: "We are
rendering God an acceptable service when we take care of the good
things which he has confided to us. This care must be greater and
sounder than that of the worldly; for they work only for love of
themselves, while we should work for the love of God. ”
Apropos of the love of the poor:-
―
-
"If you love the poor, take pleasure in being with them, in having them
visit you, in going to see them. In speech be poor with them, talking with
them as equal to equal; but with your hands be rich, sharing with them what
God has given more abundantly to you than to them. »
In another passage St. Francis wishes to show us the value of
voluntary renouncing, and the difference between accepting and choos
ing poverty:-
-
«Esau came before his father with hairy hands, and Jacob did the same;
but because the hair covering Jacob's hands was not fastened to his skin, but
only to his gloves, it could be torn from him without flaying or wounding him.


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SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
12734
On the contrary, as the hair on Esau's hands grew from his skin, naturally
hairy, it could not be torn off without great pain and great resistance. The
faithful servants of God care no more for their wealth than for their clothes,
which they can put on and leave off at pleasure; but bad Christians prize it
as much as animals do their skin. "
Sometimes, too, the saint's counsels take the form of maxims or
thoughts: "Wherever there is less of us, there is more of God; pov-
erty chosen in the midst of riches is therefore most agreeable to God,
since it proves a divine election in the soul which chooses it. "—"If
poverty displeases you, it is because you are not poor in spirit, but
rich in spirit by the affection you give wealth. " St. Francis applies
his declaration that "the religion of the Capuchin is not the religion
of the soldier"; he proves it by showing the part which human love
plays in people's hearts:-
"Love holds the first place among the passions; it reigns in the heart, it
guides all its movements. Therefore forbid your heart all evil love, Philo-
thea, for it would soon become an evil heart. All love moreover is not friend-
ship; since one can love without being loved, and then there is 'love' not
'friendship. ' Friendship is a mutual love. Between people who love each
other there must be some communication. If the benefits that friends give
each other are false and vain, the friendship is false and vain; but if they
are true benefits, the friendship is true. »
Upon the harm caused by luxury, Francis de Sales is not less
explicit: "There is a great difference between having poison and
being poisoned. You may have wealth without its natural poison
going to your heart. " In the eyes of our saint, as in the eyes of
Montaigne, sadness and anxiety are the most detestable of all things.
"Anxiety arises from an unreasonable desire either to be delivered
from the ill one feels, or to attain a blessing for which one hopes.
Thus the anxious heart is like a bird taken in a net, which, strug-
gling wildly, involves itself deeper and deeper in the snare. ”
In Chapter iv. , Book iii. , upon humility, the saint says:-
"We call vain glories, those which being in us are not properly of us.
Nobility of birth, the favor of the great, are all outside of ourselves: why
should we glory in them? How many persist in vain exultation because they
have fine horses, showy clothes, beautiful furniture. Does not this show the
folly of men? Some would like to dance well, others to sing well. That is
very superficial, highly contemptible, and very irrelevant. »
St. Francis alludes very keenly to those persons who like to dis-
play their great learning, their noble traits of heredity. Acting thus,
we should be embarrassed by an examination of the qualities of which
we boast; and as there is nothing finer than honor when received as
a gift, so there is nothing more shameful when required as a right.


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SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
12735
Our author reserves his highest contempt for preoccupation with rank
and honors. "The questions of precedence, of rank and honors, suit.
only petty minds. " Thus too upon false humility: "We often say
that we are the dust of the earth, but we should be very sorry to be
taken at our word. We often flee so that we may be pursued. The
truly humble man, on the contrary, speaks little of himself, and tries
to conceal his virtues. "
Although St. Francis was not a mystic, he spoke for those who are,
when, apropos of St. Catherine of Siena, he said:-
:-
"The story of the temptations with which God permitted the Evil Spirit to
assail St. Catherine's modesty is very astonishing; and nothing more horrible
can be imagined than this spiritual combat, whether it be the enemy's sug-
gestions to heart and imagination, or to the eyes by infamous representa-
tions. Although all this external evil struck only her senses, she was violently
troubled and agitated. When our Lord finally appeared to her, she said,
(Where were you, Lord, when my heart was filled with filth? Upon which
the Lord answered, 'My daughter, I was in thy heart itself. If I had not
been present, thy soul would have consented to those impressions, which would
have destroyed it. >>>
Here, apropos of gambling, is matter to satisfy the casuists, when
St. Francis affirms "playing to satisfy the company where one is, to
be perfectly proper"; and that St. Elizabeth of Hungary played thus
at pleasure-gatherings without failing at all in devotion. Moreover,
faithful in his care for the home woman, the friend of Jeanne de
Chantal particularly advises many women to consecrate themselves
to study; to "console others; and among your occupations," he adds,
"do not forget the spindle and the distaff: these humble occupations
will keep you from idleness, the scourge of homes. "
Sometimes his taste for the picturesque leads our saint to impose
anticipations of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' upon his reader. Par-
ticularly in the passage where he advises Philothea to balance the
scales between the calls of temptation and the nobler instincts:-
"Consider on your left hand the Prince of Darkness upon a high throne;
an infinite number of sinners are around, paying him homage. Some are
transported by the spirit of rage, which makes them unchained furies of hate
and vengeance; others are weakened by the spirit of idleness, which leaves
them only leisure for vain frivolities. One group are intoxicated by the spirit
of intemperance, which renders them brutes and madmen, another swollen
with pride and insupportable; one parched with longing, another perishing
with lust; others troubled with the anxiety for gain: behold them restless, dis-
ordered, killing, persecuting, destroying each other. And now consider upon
your right hand, Jesus the Crucified, with an inexplicable tenderness of com-
passion. To obtain the liberty of these wretches, he offers his prayers and


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12736
SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
his blood to God his Father. Consider the evenness of disposition, the serenity
of mind, of the servants of God. They love each other with a pure and holy
love. Even those who have afflictions are very little or not at all disquieted
by them, and lose nothing of the peace of their hearts. »
YBlaze deBury
ST. PAUL'S ADMIRABLE EXHORTATION TO THE SUPER-
NATURAL AND ECSTATIC LIFE
From A Treatise on the Love of God'
NOTH
OTHING can be more emphatic, nor more wonderful, than the
arguments employed by St. Paul to urge us to this ecstatic
life, in which man, always elevated above himself by his
actions, lives in a species of continual rapture. The words of
this great apostle are replenished with a celestial fire and a holy
enthusiasm; it is impossible not to feel their strength and energy.
They proceed from a heart burning with love; and each of us
should apply them to himself: "The charity of Christ," said he,
"presseth us" (2 Cor. v. 14). Is it not true that nothing influ-
ences the heart so forcibly as love? We are eager to return love
for love, to those whom we know to be animated with affection
for us; this ardor redoubles when the love of a superior antici-
pates that of an inferior; and if it be a powerful monarch who is
the first to love his subject, the anxiety of the latter to return
his affection must be extreme.
Jesus Christ, the only true God, the eternal and omnipotent
Divinity, has loved us to so great a degree as to die for us on a
cross: do we require any other motive to urge us ardently and
continually to correspond with such infinite and unmerited good-
ness? Our divine Master, in furnishing us by his death with so
powerful and irresistible a motive to love him, seems resolved to
extract from our hearts the most ardent affection they are capa-
ble of feeling. By thus anticipating our affections, he employs
a kind of violence which is the more powerful, as it is perfectly
conformable to our natural inclinations.
In what manner, and in what circumstances, does the sov-
ereign Friend of our souls press us? This we learn from the


## p. 12737 (#151) ##########################################

SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
12737
words of St. Paul: "The charity of Christ presseth us," when
we consider the effects of his love for us, as revealed by faith.
Let us then attentively consider the benefits of our divine Savior,
let us continually meditate on them, and his love will press us.
But again, what is the object proposed to our reflections ? The
words of the apostle are worthy of observation; they tend to
impress our hearts in a peculiar manner with the instructions.
they convey, "judging," said he, or considering, "that if one died.
for all, then all were dead. " And Christ died for all. (2 Cor.
v. 14, 15.
) The inference to be drawn from this truth is self-
evident: a Savior died for all: consequently all must have been
dead, since they required a Savior; and the merits of his death
must be applied to the whole human race, since it has been
endured by all.
What follows from this? We learn from the great apostle,
who says that "They who live, may not now live to themselves,
but to him who died for them, and rose again. " (2 Cor. v. 15. )
All that Jesus requires of us, in laying down his life for our sal-
vation, is that we conform our lives to his, and love him as he
loved us. What an irresistible influence must these words of the
apostle have on hearts susceptible of love!
Jesus Christ died for us; he has purchased us life by his
death; we only live because he died; he died to us, by applying
to us the merits of his death; he died in us to eradicate from
our hearts the germ of sin, which was the cause of his death
and ours; he sacrificed his life for us, to deliver us from death.
Our life then no longer belongs to us; it is the possession of
him who has purchased it by his death: therefore we should no
longer live to ourselves, in or for ourselves, but only to him, in
him, and for him.
A young girl, a native of the isle of Sestos, brought up an
eagle with all the care and attention which children usually lav-
ish on their favorites. When it had begun to follow its natural
instinct, by chasing smaller birds, it never failed to bring its
prey to its dear mistress, as if to prove its gratitude. During its
absence on one of these occasions, it happened that its young
benefactress died; and according to the custom of the time and
country, her body was placed on a pile to be burned. The eagle
returned just as the flames began to ascend; and as if penetrated
with grief at the view of this melancholy spectacle, it dropped
its prey and threw itself on the body of its mistress, covering
XXII-797


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12738
SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
her with its wings as if to screen her from the fire. It remained
motionless in this position, the excess of its love seeming more
violent than the fire by which it was consumed, and died a vic-
tim to its benefactress, leaving to mankind an example of lively
and disinterested gratitude.
Does not this anecdote suffice to inflame our hearts with love?
Our divine Benefactor has watched over us from the earliest
dawn of the morning of life, even from the first moment of our
conception: we may say in the words of the Psalmist, "Thou art
he that hast drawn me out of the womb; thy paternal arms have
been the support of my tottering steps. " (Ps. xxi. 10. )
These first benefits of our divine Redeemer have been fol-
lowed by still greater: he has made us children by baptism, that
we might belong to him on the score of spiritual regeneration;
he has condescended, by an incomprehensible effort of love, to
watch over our education, to provide for our spiritual and corpo-
ral wants: in fine, he sacrificed his life to purchase ours, and left
us his adorable body and precious blood for our food. What can
we infer from all these marks of tender love, if not that "They
who live, should not now live to themselves, but to him who
died for them and rose again"? That is, every moment of our
existence should be consecrated to the love of a God who has
laid down his life for us; all our exertions, actions, thoughts, and
affections should be referred solely to his glory. (2 Cor. v. 15. )
Consider our divine Redeemer, stretched on the cross as on a
funeral pile, a bed of state to which he is about to be immolated,
and acknowledge that in this circumstance, love has indeed been
stronger than death: over which it has doubly triumphed, because
it both ordained and consummated the sacrifice, of which death
has been only the instrument; and because by inducing our
divine Savior to die for us, it has rendered the most infamous
and cruel of all deaths sweeter than even love itself.
Had we the generosity and gratitude of the eagle we have
been speaking of, we would not hesitate at this sight to cast our-
selves in spirit on the cross of our divine Redeemer, to expire
thereon with him; and embracing him by our ardent affections,
we should exclaim, I hold him, and I will rather die than let
him go. Yes, I shall expire with him, the happy victim of his
love; the sacred fire which spared not my omnipotent Creator
must likewise immolate his creature. My Savior is entirely
mine: I desire to be wholly his; to live and die reposing on his


## p. 12739 (#153) ##########################################

SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
12739
bosom, that neither death nor life may ever separate me from
him.
In this consists the holy and practical ecstasy of life and
action; it is produced by love, which causes us to renounce the
feelings and inclinations of corrupt nature, elevates us above
ourselves to conform our lives and actions to the will and
inspirations of Jesus Christ.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXTRAORDINARY DEATH OF A GENTLE-
MAN WHO DIED OF LOVE ON MOUNT OLIVET
From A Treatise on the Love of God'
I
SHALL add to the examples I have already related, a history
which has come to my knowledge, and which, though very
extraordinary, is not on this account less deserving of belief,
since, as the apostle says, "charity believeth all things": that is,
she cannot easily persuade herself that duplicity has been used
when there are no evident marks of falsehood in what is ad-
vanced, especially with regard to the love of God for man, or of
man for God: nothing is too extraordinary to be expected from
charity, which is the queen of virtues; and which, like the princes
of the earth, takes pleasure in performing great exploits to
extend her dominion, and increase the glory of her empire.
Though the fact I am about to state is not so generally
known, or so well authenticated, as so wonderful an event seems
to require, it is, however, no less true. St. Augustine has ob-
served that miracles, however extraordinary, are never well known
in the place where they have been performed, and are scarcely
believed though related by witnesses. Yet they are not less true.
on this account; pious and upright minds easily believe whatever
does honor to religion, and are more inclined to credit these
prodigies in proportion as they are more wonderful and difficult
to believe.
A gentleman remarkable for his virtues still more than for his
bravery and illustrious birth, went to Palestine to visit the holy
places where the great work of our redemption was accom-
plished. After having prepared himself for this holy exercise
by an exact confession and a fervent communion, he went first
to Nazareth, where the eternal Word was conceived, after the
angel had announced to the ever-blessed Virgin the mystery of


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12740
SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
the incarnation. Here the devout pilgrim began to penetrate by
contemplation the abyss of the mercy of God, who to rescue us
from the state of perdition to which we had been reduced by
sin, deigned to assume a human form.
He then proceeded to Bethlehem; visited the stable in which
the divine Infant was born, and kissed the earth which had sup-
ported the tottering steps of his infancy. We could enumerate
the tears he shed, in reflecting on those which had streamed so
abundantly from the divine eyes of Jesus Christ! He then pro-
ceeded to Bethabara, and entered Bethany. There, remembering
that the Son of God had taken off his garments to be baptized,
he stripped himself of his, bathed in the Jordan, and drank of its
waters to satisfy his devotion. In doing so, he imagined that
he beheld the heavens opened, that he saw Jesus Christ receiving
baptism from the hands of his Precursor, and the Holy Ghost
descending visibly on him in the form of a dove; whilst a voice
was heard from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased. " (Matt. iii. 17. )
He quitted Bethany, and entered into the desert; where in
spirit he contemplated Jesus Christ fasting and resisting tempta-
tion, and also the angels who approached after his victory, and
gave him to eat. After considering his Savior transfigured on
Mount Tabor, he proceeded to Mount Sion; where he imagined
himself in the presence of Jesus Christ in the cenacle, washing
the feet of his apostles, and giving them his adorable body to
eat, after the institution of the blessed Eucharist.
He passed over the torrent of Cedron, and entered the garden
of Gethsemane, where he felt his heart penetrated with a delicious.
sorrow, which caused his tears to flow afresh, at the recollection
of his divine Redeemer's cruel agony and sweat of blood. He
next considered him bound by the soldiers, conducted to Jeru-
salem as a criminal; he followed him in spirit by the traces of
his blood, to all the different places where he was dragged,— to
the houses of Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod,-where he con-
sidered him mangled with blows, despised, covered with spittle,
crowned with thorns, exposed to the ridicule and derision of the
populace, and condemned to death, loaded with his cross, walking
to Calvary; and meeting soon after his blessed Mother over-
whelmed with anguish, and the daughters of Jerusalem, who com-
passionated his sufferings and wept for the ignominious state to
which he was reduced.


## p. 12741 (#155) ##########################################

SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
12741
The devout pilgrim, following exactly the steps of his Master,
arrived at length on the summit of Mount Calvary: there he in
spirit viewed the cross placed on the earth; he beheld Jesus
Christ stripped of his garments and fastened thereon, his hands.
and feet being cruelly pierced with nails; he then saw the cross
elevated and Jesus Christ suspended in the air between heaven
and earth, his blood flowing in copious streams from every part of
his sacred body. He casts a look at the Mother of Jesus, trans-
fixed with the sword of sorrow according to the prophecy of
Simeon; and then returning to the contemplation of his Savior,
he listens attentively to his expiring words; he wishes to receive
his last sigh, to consider him after death, to penetrate if pos-
sible into the innermost recess of his adorable heart, through the
opening made in his side by the spear.
He does not quit Calvary until he has seen the mangled body
of his divine Redeemer taken down from the cross; he follows
him to the sepulchre, bedewing with a torrent of tears the road
which had been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. He
enters the sepulchre, as if to entomb his heart near the body of
his departed Lord. After having died spiritually with him, by
compassion, he rises with him, by the joy he experiences at his
glorious resurrection. Having accompanied him to Emmaüs, and
meditated on his conversation with his two disciples, he returned
to Mount Olivet where the mystery of the Ascension was accom-
plished, that he might end his life on the spot where Jesus
Christ had terminated his mortal career.
There, viewing the last traces which the sacred feet of his
Redeemer had imprinted on earth, he prostrated himself, to em-
brace them a thousand times with inexpressible transports of love.
Then uniting his powers and affections, as an archer draws the
string of his bow before he shoots the arrow, he stood erect, and
raising his eyes and hands to heaven, exclaimed, "My divine Sav-
ior, I no longer know where to seek thee on earth: grant then
that my soul may ascend with thee, that it may soar to the regions
of never-ending happiness. " These inflamed words, pronounced
by a last effort of his united affections, like a bow violently bent,
freed the soul from her prison, and enabled her to dart like an
arrow to the object at which the holy pilgrim aimed.
The companions of his pilgrimage, seeing him fall suddenly,
hastened to his assistance: and quickly called a physician, who,
finding him lifeless, and being unable to divine the cause of so


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12742
SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
sudden a death, inquired into his habits, temper, and constitution;
and being informed that he was of a gentle, affectionate disposi-
tion, inflamed with a great devotion and an ardent love of God,
he concluded that a violent effort of love must have opened
his heart; and to ascertain it beyond a doubt, he recommended
that his body should be opened. They actually found that his
heart had opened; and through the aperture, the words "Jesus,
my love" were seen imprinted thereon. Love performed the office
of death, by separating the soul from the body: this separation
could not be attributed to any other cause. The account of this
extraordinary death is given by St. Bernardin of Siena,-an
author no less venerable for his learning than his sanctity,- in
his first sermon on our Lord's Ascension.
Another author, nearly contemporary with the saint, who has
concealed his name through humility, though worthy of being
universally known, relates a still more wonderful circumstance in
a work entitled The Spiritual Mirror. '
He says that a young nobleman of Provence, remarkable for
his ardent love of God and his great devotion to the adorable
Sacrament of the Altar, being dangerously ill, and fearing that
he could not retain the blessed Eucharist because of the inces-
sant vomiting attendant on his malady, entreated of the clergy.
man to form the sign of the cross over him with the sacred Host,
and then to apply it to his bosom; which was accordingly done.
Immediately his heart, burning with divine love, opened; and
Jesus Christ, attracted by his ardent desires, entered through the
aperture under the form of the sacred species, and the invalid
expired.
I am aware that so extraordinary a circumstance requires to
be better authenticated: but after the miracle performed on St.
Clare of Montfalcon, whose heart is still to be seen with the
instruments of the Passion engraved on it; after the impression
of the stigmates on St. Francis, of which there can be no doubt,
I have no difficulty in believing the most miraculous effects of
Divine love.
______________


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12743
SALLUST (GAIUS SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS)
(86-34? B. C. )
(
ALLUST survives as the author of two brief historical mono-
graphs. The Conspiracy of Catiline' is twelve thousand
words in length; the story of the war against Jugurtha is
told in about twice as many. In the career of a Mommsen or a Park-
man, these might be mere contributions to a semi-popular magazine,
- perhaps later gathered up in a sheaf of minor essays. As to thor-
oughness in investigation, and conscientious faithfulness, Sallust never
rose to the level of Macaulay's schoolboy.
Yet among historians he has a right to
echo Heine's boast:-
:-

"When the greatest names are mentioned,
Then mine is mentioned too. "
Whence comes this lasting fame? Partly,
no doubt, from the meagreness of our
salvage from the Roman historians. Even
Livy and Tacitus survive only as torsos.
Cæsar's memoirs alone remain intact, as in-
destructible as are his larger monuments.
The really laborious and scientific work of
Varro, like Cato's 'Origines,' has vanished
almost utterly. And so we descend almost
at once to late and dull compilations. This pair of essays, there-
fore, each effectively centralized in plot, highly finished rhetorically,
is almost like an oasis in a desert land of conjecture and doubt.
In the great story of Roman imperial growth these two episodes
are incomparably less prominent than let us say the Nullification.
incident and the possible annexation of the Sandwich Islands to the
United States. Still, both have a certain epochal and pivotal charac-
ter which Sallust has not failed to emphasize. Indeed, Mommsen
offers much to support his own judgment that both these little books
are political pamphlets, whose chief purpose is to discredit still more
completely the beaten aristocracy, to glorify Marius and Julius as
the successive champions of the populace, and so contribute to the
rise of their successor, the young Octavian.
In fact, this political purpose is frankly though quietly indicated
to the attentive reader. Passing over the rather dismal personal
-
SALLUST


## p. 12744 (#158) ##########################################

12744
SALLUST
preface (Jugurtha,' i. -iv. ), we find early in Chapter v. : "I am about
to describe the war against Jugurtha, because
then first was
opposition made to the insolence of the nobility. "
On an early page, again, there is a clever introduction of Scipio
Africanus, evidently as the last of the great patriot nobles, to be con-
trasted with the greed and folly of his degenerate successors. When
the young African princeling Jugurtha had won his spurs under
Scipio's eye in the campaign against Numantia, he is ushered, at
parting, into the great consul's private tent, to hear words that fore-
shadowed the tragedy of his own life. "Cultivate rather the friend-
ship of the Roman people itself than of individuals. Do not fall into
the custom of bribe-giving. It is perilous to purchase from the few
what truly belongs to the many. If you persevere in your own
character, then glory, and royal power as well, will come to you un-
sought. If you make undue haste to meet them, the very money you
spend will bring your headlong downfall. "
We need not wonder whence Scipio derived his prophetic insight,
nor inquire too curiously which of the two would have handed down,
to Sallust the scribe, the very words of this secret fatherly counsel.
Nearly every page offers equally clear evidence that our two sketches
belong to the same "historical" school as Xenophon's romance of
Cyrus's boyhood.
In the use of grave general apophthegms, in a certain austere
ruggedness of condensation, and in occasional archaisms,- all traits
found chiefly in the longer set speeches, our author clearly attempts
at times to recall Thucydides. The comparison thus forced upon
us is, upon the whole, rash, not to say suicidal. Still, we may well
remember that even the conscientious Athenian lover of truth often
made his statesman's or general's speech represent merely the sub-
stance of what should have been said on some decisive occasion.
While the fierce Numidian chief long remains the central figure,
Marius is quietly and skillfully brought to the front of the stage. It
was impossible to make him the hero of the war itself, which had
been nearly finished by Metellus before he was displaced by his lieu-
tenant. Moreover, the final betrayal of Jugurtha throws little credit
on any one concerned. The essay culminates rather in the long
harangue to the people by the newly elected consul (Chapter 1xxxv. ).
The final words of the pamphlet bear out the views here sug-
gested as to its purpose, when they remind us that Marius was
re-elected consul before he could return from Africa to Italy, because
the Romans were panic-stricken by the great Celtic invasion. "All
other tasks seem easy to our valor: against the Gauls alone we
have always had to fight, not for glory, but for our very existence. "
Thus no reader could fail to be reminded that Cæsar, the conqueror


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SALLUST
12745
of Gaul, had completed the hardest of Marius's tasks, the defeat of the
Teutones and Cimbri, and so finally rescued Italy from its century-
long terror.
Space does not permit an adequate analysis of the 'Catiline. ' The
depreciation of Cicero and other patriotic aristocrats, the "whitewash-
ing" of the youthful Cæsar,- and even in some degree of his friend
the arch-conspirator,- have always been noted by observant readers.
The recognition of such a deliberate partisan purpose, followed out
in masterly fashion, only increases our sense of Sallust's rhetorical
skill. It is not to be supposed that any one studies him as a trust-
worthy source of historical facts.
Sallust's lost History covered only the years 78-67 B. C. The
speeches and letters of this work are preserved in a special collec-
tion; and several fragments from a vanished manuscript of the entire
work have also come to light in our century to pique our curiosity.
Perhaps the author's own memories would make this work doubly
valuable, though the contemporary Catiline by no means equals the
traditional Jugurtha in romantic interest. Once more, it is as a
stylist, more than as a historian, that Sallust lives at all. Over the
question "What is truth? " he lingered painfully as little as did
"jesting Pilate. "
The recorded incidents of Sallust's life are perhaps sufficient to
explain his Cæsarian partisanship. His first public appearance is as
tribune of the people, fiercely opposed to Cicero in the famous trial
of Milo. Only two years later he was expelled from the Senate on
account of his outrageously vicious private life. It was Cæsar who
by appointing him quæstor restored his senatorial rank. During the
civil war he was active on sea and land, and at its close remained
in Africa as proconsul. There he acquired enormous wealth; and re-
tiring henceforth from public life, he laid out upon the Quirinal Hill
those Gardens which remained so long a byword of imperial luxury.
He can hardly have been much more extortionate than other pro-
vincial governors. Even his profligacy, and its punishment, may have
been exaggerated by political malice and partisan ferocity. However,
he is not a winning character; and we are hardly reassured by the
pessimistic and Pharisaic tone struck in the personal introduction to
each of his two essays.
There are numerous school editions of the Jugurtha' and 'Cati-
line. ' Sallust is, however, hardly fitted to inspire or elevate the
youthful soul, and is passing somewhat out of popular use.
sufficiently faithful English versions, but none of high literary quality.


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12746
SALLUST
CATILINE AND HIS PLOT
From the History of Catiline's Conspiracy'
L
UCIUS CATILINE was descended of an illustrious family: he
was a man of great vigor, both of body and mind, but of
a disposition extremely profligate and depraved. From his
youth he took pleasure in civil wars, massacres, depredations,
and intestine broils; and in these he employed his younger days.
His body was formed for enduring cold, hunger, and want of
rest, to a degree indeed incredible: his spirit was daring, subtle,
and changeable; he was expert in all the arts of simulation
and dissimulation; covetous of what belonged to others, lavish of
his own; violent in his passions; he had eloquence enough, but
a small share of wisdom. His boundless soul was constantly
engaged in extravagant and romantic projects, too high to be
attempted.
Such was the character of Catiline, who, after Sylla's usurpa-
tion, was fired with a violent desire of seizing the government;
and provided he could but carry his point, he was not at all
solicitous by what means. His spirit, naturally violent, was daily
more and more hurried on to the execution of his design by his
poverty and the consciousness of his crimes: both which evils he
had heightened by the practices above mentioned. He was en-
couraged to it by the wickedness of the State, thoroughly debased
by luxury and avarice; vices equally fatal, though of contrary
natures.
In so great and corrupted a city, Catiline had always about
him what was no difficult matter to find in Rome - bands of
-
profligate and flagitious wretches, like guards to his person. For
all those who were abandoned to gluttony and voluptuousness,
and had exhausted their fortunes by gaming, feasting, and licen-
tiousness; all who were overwhelmed with debts (contracted to
purchase pardon for their crimes); all parricides and sacrilegious
persons from all quarters; [such as were already convicted crimi-
nals, or feared conviction;] nay, farther, all who lived by perjury
or by shedding the blood of citizens; lastly, all whom wickedness,
indigence, or a guilty conscience disquieted,-were united to Cati-
line in the firmest bonds of friendship and intimacy. Or if any
person of blameless character became familiar with him, then by
daily conversation, and the snares that were laid to corrupt him,
he too soon resembled, and even equaled, the rest. But what


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SALLUST
12747
Catiline chiefly courted was the intimacy of young men: their
minds, being soft and pliable, were easily ensnared. Some of
these he provided with mistresses; bought horses and dogs for
others: gratifying the favorite passion of each;-in a word, he
spared no expense, nor even his own honor, to engage them
heartily in his interests. Some there were, I know, who thought
that the youth who frequented Catiline's house were guilty of
licentiousness; but this rumor, I apprehend, was more owing to
other reasons than that there was any clear evidence of the fact.
As for Catiline himself, he had, when very young, been guilty
of many atrocious crimes, in open contempt of all law and order:
afterward he conceived a passion for Aurelia Orestilla,- one who
had nothing but her beauty to recommend her; and because she
scrupled to marry him, on account of his having a son who was
arrived at years of maturity, it is believed as a certain fact that
he destroyed that son, and made his house desolate, to open a
way for so infamous an alliance. And this indeed appears to me
to have been the principal cause that pushed him to the execu-
tion of the conspiracy: for his guilty soul, at enmity with gods
and men, could find no rest; so violently was his mind torn and
distracted by a consciousness of guilt. Accordingly, his counte-
nance was pale, his eyes ghastly, his pace one while quick, an-
other slow; and indeed in all his looks there was an air of
distraction.
As for the youth whom he had corrupted in the manner
above related, they were trained up to wickedness by various
methods: he taught them to be false witnesses, to forge deeds,
to throw off all regard to truth, to squander their fortunes, and
to slight dangers; and after he had stripped them of all reputa-
tion and shame, he pushed them on to crimes still more heinous;
and even when no provocation was given, it was their practice
to ensnare and murder those who had never injured them, as
well as those who had. For he chose to be cruel and mischiev-
ous without any cause, rather than that the hands and spirits
of his associates should lose their vigor for want of employment.
Confiding in these friends and accomplices, Catiline formed a
design to seize the government: he found an additional encour-
agement from the number of those who were oppressed with
debts throughout the State, and the disposition of Sylla's soldiers,
who, having squandered away what they had lately acquired, and
calling to remembrance their former conquests and depredations,


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12748
SALLUST
longed for a civil war. Besides, there was no army in Italy;
Pompey was carrying on a a war in the remotest parts of the
earth; he himself was in great hopes of obtaining the consul-
ship; the Senate seemed careless of the public; and all things
were quiet a conjuncture of circumstances extremely favorable
to his designs.
CATILINE'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS BEFORE THE BATTLE
OF PISTORIA
From the History of Catiline's Conspiracy>
WHE
HEN Catiline saw himself inclosed by the mountains and
two hostile armies, and knew that his designs had mis-
carried in the city, and that there was neither hope of
escaping nor of receiving any succor,- he thought his best
way, in such a situation, was to try the fortune of a battle; and
determined to engage Antonius as soon as possible. Accord-
ingly, assembling his troops, he thus addressed them:—
"I have learned by experience, fellow-soldiers, that words
cannot inspire courage, nor a general's speech render a spiritless.
army brave and intrepid. Every man displays in battle just
so much courage as nature or habit has given him, and no more.
It is to no purpose to exhort him whom neither glory nor dan-
ger can animate: his fear deprives him of his hearing. I have
assembled you, fellow-soldiers, to instruct you in a few particu-
lars, and to lay before you the grounds of my final resolution.
"You all know what a dreadful calamity Lentulus, by his slow
and spiritless conduct, has brought on himself and us; and how
I have been prevented from marching into Gaul, by waiting for
reinforcements from Rome. In what posture our affairs now are,
you all see.
"Two armies-one from Rome, another from Gaul-obstruct
our advance. Want of provisions and other necessaries will not
allow us to stay longer here, were we ever so desirous of doing
it. To whatever place you think of marching, you yourselves
must open a passage with your swords. I conjure you then to
summon up all your courage; to act like men resolute and un-
daunted; to remember, when you engage, that you carry in your
hands riches, honor, and glory,- nay, even your liberty and
your country. If we overcome, all will be safe; we shall have


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SALLUST
12749
plenty of provisions; the corporate towns and colonies will be
all ready to receive us. But if we fail through fear, the very
reverse will be our fate; nor will any place or friend protect
those whom arms could not. Let me add to this, my fellow-
soldiers, that we have different motives to animate us from what
the opposing army has. We fight for our country, for our lib-
erty, for our lives; they, for no interest of their own, but only to
support the power of a few. Let this consideration, then, engage
you to fall on them the more courageously, remembering your
former bravery.
"We might indeed have passed our remaining days, with
the utmost infamy, in banishment; some of you too might have
lived at Rome, depending for your subsistence on others, after
having lost your own estates. But such a condition appearing
equally disgraceful and intolerable to men of spirit, you resolved
on the present course. If you repent of the step, remember that
even to secure a retreat, the firmest valor is still indispensable.
Peace must be procured by victory alone, not by a groveling
cowardice. To hope for security in flight, when you have turned
away from the enemy the arms which serve to defend you, is
the height of madness. In battle, the most cowardly are always
in most danger: courage is a wall of defense. When I consider
your characters, fellow-soldiers, and reflect on your past achieve-
ments, I have great hopes of victory: your spirit, your age, your
virtue encourage me; and our necessity too, which even inspires
cowards with bravery,- for the narrowness of our position will
prevent the enemy's numbers from surrounding us. But should
fortune envy your valor, be sure you fall not without taking due
vengeance on the foe: suffer not yourselves to be captured and
slaughtered like cattle; but fight rather like men, and leave our
opponents a bloody and mournful victory. "
A NUMIDIAN DEFEAT
From the History of the War against Jugurtha'
N THAT part of Numidia which on the partition of the king-
dom fell to the share of Adherbal, was a river called Muthul,
flowing from the south; parallel to which, at the distance of
about twenty miles, was a mountain of equal length, desert and
uncultivated. Between this mountain and the river, almost at an


## p.