forms of social pleasure. The time consumed in preparation for a ball, the waste of thought upon it, the extravagance of dress, the late hours, the exhaustion of strength, the exposure of health, and the languor of the succeeding day-these, and other evils connected with this amusement, are strong reasons for banishing it from the community. But dancing ought not, therefore, to be proscribed. On the contrary, balls should be discouraged for this, among other reasons, that dancing, instead of being a rare pleasure, requiring elaborate preparation, may become an every-day amusement, and may mix with our common intercourse. This exercise is among the most healthful. The body, as well as the mind, feels its gladdening influence. No amusement | seems more to have a foundation in our nature. The animation of youth naturally overflows in harmonious movements. The true idea of dancing entitles it to favour. Its end is to realize perfect grace in motion; and who does not know that a sense of the graceful is one of the higher faculties of our nature? It is to be desired that dancing should become too common among us to be made the object of special preparation, as in the ball; that members of the same family, when confined by unfavourable weather, should recur to it for exercise and exhilaration; that branches of the same family should enliven in this way their occasional meetings; that it should fill up an hour in all the assemblages for relaxation, in which the young form a part. It is to be desired that this accomplishment should be extended to the labouring classes of society, not only as an innocent pleasure, but as a means of improving the manners. Why shall not gracefulness be spread through the whole community? From the French nation we learn that a degree of grace and refinement of manners may pervade all classes. The philanthropist and Christian must desire to break down the partition walls between human beings in different conditions; and one means of doing this is to remove the conscious awkwardness which confinement to laborious occupations is apt to induce. An accomplishment giving free and graceful movement, though a far weaker bond than intellectual or moral culture, still does something to bring those who partake it near each other.-Dr. Channing's Address on Temperance.

CONSECRATED IRISH BELLS.-Consecrated bells were formerly held in great reverence in Ireland, particularly before the tenth century. Cambrensis, in his "Welsh Itinerary," says, " Both the laity and clergy in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, held in such great veneration portable bells, and staves crook't at the top, and covered with gold, silver, and brass, and similar relics of the saints, that they were much more afraid of swearing falsely by them than by the gospels, because from some hidden and miraculous power with which they were gifted, and the vengeance of the saint, to whom they were particularly pleasing, their despisers and transgressors are severely punished." Miraculous portable bells were very common. Giraldus speaks of the Campana fugitiva of O'Toole, chieftain of Wicklow; and Colgan relates, that whenever St. Patrick's portable bell tolled, as a preservative against evil spirits and magicians, it was heard from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear, from the Hill of Howth to the western shores of Connemara.-Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy.

HOW TO RISE. To every man who would rise in dignity as a man, be he rich or poor, ignorant or instructed, there is one essential condition, one effort, one purpose, without which not a step can be taken. He must resolutely purpose and labour to free himself from whatever he knows to be wrong in his motives and life. He who habitually allows himself in any known crime or wrong doing effectually bars his progress towards a higher intellectual and moral life. On this point every man should deal honestly with himself. If he will not listen to his conscience rebuking him for violations of plain duty, let him not dream of self-elevation. The foundation is wanting. He will build, if at all, in sand.

EARLY RISING.-Six or seven hours' sleep is certainly sufficient, and no one ought to exceed eight. To make sleep refreshing, the following things are requisite :-To take sufficient exercise in the open air; to avoid strong tea or coffee; to eat a light supper; and to lie down with a mind as cheerful and serene as possible. We hardly ever knew an early riser who did not enjoy a good state of health. It consists with observation that all very old men have been early risers. This is the only circumstance attending longevity to which we never knew an exception.

HONOUR WHEN DUE. It is time that honour should be awarded on higher principles than have governed the judgment of past ages. Surely the inventor of the press, the discoverer of the compass, the men who have applied the power of steam to machinery, have brought the human race more largely into their debt than the bloody race of conquerors, and even than many beneficent princes. Antiquity exalted into divinities the first cultivators of wheat and the useful plants, and the first forgers of metals; and we, in these maturer ages of the world, have still greater names to boast in the records of useful art. Let their memory be preserved to kindle a generous emulation in those who have entered into their labours.

THINK, THINK, THINK! - The most cruel deeds on earth have been perpetrated in the name of conscience. Men have hated and murdered one another from a sense of duty. Thought, intelligence, is the dignity of a man; and no man is rising but in proportion as he is learning to think clearly and forcibly, or directing the energy of his mind to the acquisition of truth.

TRUTH.-Where a truth is made out by one demonstration, there needs no farther inquiry; but, in probabilities where there wants demonstration to establish the truth beyond doubt, there it is not enough to trace one argument to its source, and observe its strength and weakness, but all the arguments, after having been so examined on both sides, must be laid in balance one against another, and upon the whole the understanding determine its assent.

SMATTERINGS. Some men, that they may seem universally knowing, get a little smattering in everything. Each of these may fill their heads with superficial notions of things, but are very much out of the way of attaining truth or knowledge.

On a gravestone recently put down in a churchyard at Newchurch, in Rossendale, is the following inscription:-"Here lies the body and soul of Ann Gill."Monmouth Merlin.

"It is hardly less than miraculous to light upon a decent chapel belonging to the Anglicans. The ecclesiological movement has done next to nothing in improving the external appearance of the Established Church."

When you intend to marry, look first at the heart, next at the mind, then at the person.

Whoever is afraid of submitting any question, civil or religious, to the test of free discussion seems to me to be more in love with his own opinion than with truth.-Bishop Watson.

This is true liberty, when freemen having to advise the public may speak free; which he who can and will deserves high praise, and he who neither can nor will may hold his peace. What can be juster in a state than this?-Euripides.

POVERTY.-Poverty has in large cities very different appearances. It is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance. It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the rest. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in contriving for to-morrow.

Printed and published for the Proprietor, by A. J. BOAK, at the Office, 2, Crane-court, Flect-street; and sold by all Booksellers, Stationers, and Newsvenders in the United Kingdom. All communications for the Editor to be addressed to the Office, 2, Crane-court, Fleet-street.

No. 14.]

THE PUSEYITES.

A prospectus, supposed to be written by Dr. Pusey, has just appeared in the columns of the high-church papers, announcing a new commentary on the Bible, by the "Tract" divines of Oxford. The prospectus, if written by Dr. Pusey or adopted by him, involves him and his party in inconsistencies which they will find themselves called upon by public opinion to explain or reconcile; for it professes, on their part, as far as we can judge, a denial of the force and necessity of tradition and church authority,Catholic doctrines very strenuously maintained in the Tracts,—and pronounces in favour of the Bible alone, as a rule of faith and standard of Christian morality and observance! This is strange; but we await the forthcoming new pro

fession of faith.

[PRICE 1d.

In Newcastle, which has a population of 80,000 inhabitants, we are told:"There is not daily service in any one of the eight churches belonging to the Church of England. Only one of the Newcastle clergy endeavours to establish a daily service, and he is even discouraged by his brethren." E. C., April, 1837. The writer adds : "Alas! alas! how would the pious St. Osmund mourn.... the degenerate state of that service for which he so nobly provided while on earth!" Ay, St. Osmund would mourn, doubtless, but not for the absence of Protestant, but of Catholic worship; not for the absence of the dull and idle state formality of prayer "appointed to be read in churches," but the absence of the holy No other results could, sacrifice of the mass. or ought in reason, be expected from a church all of them gross worldlings, and many of them founded for political purposes, by men who were depraved in conduct and belief, and not for the promotion of true, sincere, self-denying, and

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Mr. Bennett, an eminent London minister, says, "In the year 1714, with, of course, a much less number of churches than we possess now, and with a population more than one third, perhaps nearly one half, less, there were FORTYNINE churches, in addition to St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, in which daily service was performed. "-English Churchman, April, 1847.

Since 1714 the population of London has more than doubled; hence it may be expected that the resources and facilities of public worship have also increased in proportion. No such thing. Instead of the forty-nine open for daily service in 1714, there are only sixteen open in 1845! " We hear," says Mr. Bennett, "of no increase; still the churches are closed; still damp and chill; still no voice resounds within, and no people bow down; . . . . they are as they were Sunday Preaching Houses, and not Houses of Prayer." Sermon on the Fast Day. Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London, in his last charge to his clergy, says, on the same subject, "The refusal on the part of some of the clergy to carry out my suggestions, and the speedy return of many others who had adopted them to the old practice, placed me in a position of great difficulty."

....

whole life, in opinion and practice, was repugnant.

THE CHURCH AND THE SUCCESSION OF THE POPES.

The following testimony offered by a distinguished Protestant writer and statesman to the greatness, the antiquity, and the glory of the Catholic Church, is valuable, not merely as such, but as identifying the Catholic Church of to-day with the Catholic Church of the first ages of the modern era, thus proclaiming the futility of a doctrine, recently set afloat by some Protestant writers, that the first Christian Church and the present Catholic Church were different churches. We, Catholics, are scarcely called upon to refute this doctrine; the question must be decided between its propagators and their fellow-Protestants who dissent from them; for instance, Mr. Macaulay, the writer of the following eloquent passage. The closing image has been so often presented to the public in speeches and criticisms, that every reader almost will recognise it as an "old acquaintance." We need not point to the error of considering the church a work of "human policy." This is the error which occasions the writer's amazement at its power

"There is not, and there never was, on this earth a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that church joins together the two greatest ages of Roman civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when cameleopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday when compared with the line of the supreme pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the papacy remains. The papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigour. The Catholic Church is still sending forth, to the farthest ends of the world, missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than compensated her for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual supremacy extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn,-countries which, a century hence, may not improbably contain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions, and it will be difficult to show that all the other Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world, and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London-bridge to sketch

the ruins of St. Paul's."-Thomas Babington Macaulay, in the Edinburgh Review, on Ranke's History of the Popes.

FALSIFYING HISTORY.

THE WAT TYLER REBELLION.

"At all events, I can read the History of England," said Harding. "I have partly done so.'

"What I meant by difficulties," said Archer," is the want of truthfulness and strict impartiality in the historians, and their want of public spirit and enlarged views. Their histories are nearly every one of them merely records of the great events of king's reigns as they relate to the kings and nobles, and rich men of the country, and the important foreign relations; but the great events relating to the people are generally passed over with a slight remark, or with a false colouring. A true and complete history of England does not exist in any single work. As a proof of the condition of history, let us take any great national events involv ing foreign countries, even in our own day, say in Spain or India, read the English account, then the French account, then the American account, and then read the comments made in Germany or in Ireland-and what a romance does it all become!"

66 'But, surely, this is not the case with our own history of England, written here, in the country, with all the records of the facts to be found locked up somethey venture to tell lies ?"" where, I suppose, in colleges and museums. How could

"Well, now, Harding, for instance, you have heard of Wat Tyler?"

"Yes."

"And served him right." "Well, what next?"

"After that he became a rebel, and got a ferocious mob together, and went to meet the king. The king spoke very civilly to him; but he made some insolent answer, and was knocked off his horse by the Lord Mayor of London, and killed somehow. The rebels made a disturbance at this, but the mob soon dispersed." "A good rough sample," replied Archer, "of the general impression conveyed by all the English histories. But listen to the undisguised truth. Wat, the Tyler, did kill a tax-collector, for offering a gross personal offence to his daughter, under pretence of establishing a legal claim to an odious and oppressive tax. This private exasperation was the torch that set fire to the already inflammable mass of popular indignation; and a great rebellion was the resnit. It was headed by Wat Tyler. It was no mere mob-no vulgar riot; it was a the extent of a hundred thousand men. In the His vast and undisciplined army-a rising of the people to tory' written by Hume they are called the common people' and 'the low people.' This army of the people drove the tyrannical nobles and their retainers pell-mell armies commonly do, when mad with excitement. The before them, and committed many shocking excesses, as king fled to the Tower for refuge, and the people were masters of London. They proposed terms to the king; most reasonable terms-such as the abolition of slavery; freedom of commerce in market towns, with out tolls and imposts; a fixed rent ou lands, instead of services due to villainage,' &c. The king agreed to all those terms, and signed the documents. The people thus obtained charters of privileges, and a free pardon for the rebellion. The king then issued forth from his the king with his suite met Wat Tyler, at the head of a refuge. All was in a fair train for reconciliation, when body of his partisaus in Smithfield, apparently by acci

THE PRESS IN FRANCE.

It will be remembered that in the course of last year a new Ministerial journal was established, bearing the title of L'Epoque, which was generally given up by its conductors to be more especially the personal organ of M. Guizot. Notwithstanding the regular advantages which this paper enjoyed, from its admitted ministerial character and other still more solid advantages which it was believed to share from funds disposable by all ministers in France, it languished, and finally failed. In its dying hour its lists of subscribers, and other pro

"Horrible! Ah, I see-Wat Tyler, then, was not a mere ignorant savage and rebel, but a working man at the head of a great mass of people, demanding some justice and liberty."

"And not more than they now possess. As for Wat Tyler's character, motives, and intentions, they are doubtful; there is no doubt about the king's."-Douglas Jerrold's Newspaper.

PARENTAL DUTIES.

When the dawning intellect begins to unfold itself, the office of parental instruction commences.

The dispositions of a child are susceptible of very early culture; and much trouble and much unhappiness are prevented by nipping in the bud the first shoots of caprice, obstinacy, and passion, and by instilling and cherishing amiable sentiments and habits. The twig, however young and tender, may be bent and fashioned by the hand of gentleness. The mind very soon learns by habits to expect discipline; and ere long begins to discipline itself.

By degrees, the young pupil acquires the capacity of understanding the general reasons of the parent's commands, denials, commendations, and reproofs; and they should be communicated in most cases in which they can be comprehended.

Among these reasons, obedience to God, the love of him, and a desire to please him, together with other motives derived from Christianity, should hold the preeminence which they deserve; and should be early presented to the infant mind in strong and attractive colours. Religion is thus engrafted, by the divine cooperation, into the nature of children, soon after their original passions begin to work; and may be expected to become a more vigorous plant, and to arrive at a more fruitful maturity, than could have been hoped if the commencement of its growth had been delayed to a later period.

Thus a child is trained up from the first in the way in which he should go; and, by a continuance of the same care, still in humble dependence on the blessing of God, there is the fairest prospect that he will keep in it unto the end.

To make a right impression on the opening mind, religion should appear, according to her real character, with an awful and an amiable aspect; liberal of the most precious gifts, and delighted to confer them; yet resolute to punish, if her offers be slighted and her commands disobeyed.

Kindness to bear with slow and feeble apprehension; freedom from irritability and capriciousness; patience, nor weary of attending to minute objects, and minute opportunities; and steadiness, never to be won by mere entreaty, nor to be teased by importunity, from its original right determination, are among the qualifications, at all periods and especially at the period we now speak, essential to the parent.

din, the editor and chief proprietor of La Presse, who, thereby, was let behind the curtain of its stage machinery, and necessarily allowed to share the secrets of its past history. M. de Girardin was then the friend and supporter of the Soult-Guizot Cabinet. He is now its most bitter enemy and unpitying assailant. Prompted, as it should seem, by a spirit of political hostility, he has lately, in one of the leading articles in La Presse, affirmed that, until its final absorption by La Presse, the journal L'Epoque had derived a part of its gains from "selling privileges of theatres" (that is to say, government licences or royal patents for theatres), 66 promises of peerages, and titles of nobility, crosses of the Legion of Honour, audiences of the ministers, and even ministerial favours," the meaning of all which is, that the said journal dispensed the patronage of the state for a pecuniary consideration! On this extraordinary statement appearing in La Presse, under the responsibility of M. E. de Girardin, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, a resolution was adopted by the Chamber of Peers to summon M. E. de Girardin to its bar, to answer for a contempt of the chamber; but for this it was necessary first to obtain the consent of the Chamber of Deputies, the alleged offender being a member of that house. This application was formally communicated to the chamber on Friday, by a messenger of state, and the question was referred to a committee, to decide whether M. de Girardin should be authorized to present himself before the higher chamber. Before this committee M. de Girardin will be at liberty to produce his justification, and its report will be made accordingly.

It appears that La Presse had not only affirmed that promises of the peerage were openly sold by L'Epoque, but that there was a regular tariff or market price for them, fixed at 80,000f., equivalent to £3,200 sterling! It was said in the Salle des Conferences on Friday, and repeated in the journals of Saturday, that M. Emile de Girardin had been heard to declare, in the Chamber of Deputies, on Thursday, in the midst of a numerous group of colleagues, that he actually had in his possession evidence to prove that a sum of 80,000f. had been paid at the office of the Epoque for promises of the peerage, and that such promises had been made with the full cognisance of a minister. It is contended on the part of M. de Girardin that his assertion does not affect the dignity of the higher chamber, but only the honour of the minister to whom such corruption is ascribed, and that consequently the lower chamber will not consent to a prosecution by the peers.-Daily News.

MOTIVES. The morality of an action depends on the motives by which we act. If I fling 2s. 6d. at a beggar, with an intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys bread with it, the physical effect is good, but the action in me was very bad. So religious exercise, if not an performed with intention to please God, avail us. nothing.-Doctor Johnson.

NEVER DESPOND.-Hope awakens courage, while despondency is the last of all evils; it is the abandonment of good, the giving of the battle of life with dead nothingness. He who can implant courage in the human soul is its best physician.-Von Knebel.

PRAYERS AND MOURNING FOR O'CONNELL IN ENGLAND.

The Catholic Church in the north is doing all the honour religion can do to the memory of the illustrious chief. Shortly after the melancholy news of his death reached Newcastle, the pious and exemplary Catholic priests, each and every one of them, offered mass for the repose of the soul of O'Connell; and on Monday a solemn high mass was celebrated in St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral, in Newcastle, in presence of the largest and most respectable congregation ever witnessed; nor, indeed, were the congregation exclusively Catholics, for the respectable Dissenters of every denomination seemed anxious to testify their respect to the memory of the illustrious deceased : many, very many, of them were present, and appeared deeply affected during the solemn ceremony. The Right Rev. Dr. Riddell, C.B.N.D., was the celebrant. His lordship was assisted by the Rev. Monsignore Vincent Eyre as deacon, and the Rev. Mr. Hubbersty as sub-deacon. A full choir was in attendance, and the solemn dirge of the requiem imposed an awful silence on all present. The Rev. James Standen, pastor of St. Andrew's Catholic Church, Pilgrim-street, delivered a panegyric on the life and times of the Liberator, and never did eloquence-pure and refined elo- | quence-fall on the ears of an auditory with more powerful effect. His text was, " By their fruits shall you know them." The moment the rev. gentleman ascended the pulpit, every eye was cast upon him, and never did a divine discharge a duty with more credit to himself, nor more complimentary to the illustrious deceased, than did the rev. preacher. His discourse continued for an hour and a half, during which time all was hushed into awful silence, and every eye rivetted on the speaker-nothing to be seen amongst the auditory but, at intervals, a silent tear gently gliding down the cheeks of those who loved and admired O'Connell, and occasionally a sorrowful sob heard here and there through the edifice from some who could not suppress the innermost feelings of grateful hearts. Never was more honour done to the memory of man, nor with greater solemnity. The clergy here loved O'Connell whilst living, and revere his memory when dead. Both bishop, priests, and people have done honour to the memory of their emancipator. Their attention on the occasion won the everlasting gratitude of every Irishman present.

DARRYNANE AFTER THE LIBERATOR'S DEATH.Extract of a letter received by a friend in Clonmel: "I have been at Darrynane Abbey during the past week, and to me, who visited it about three years ago, when all was joy and gladness, it was a sad and dreary scene. I perfectly recollected hearing the melodious | voice of our illustrious Liberator, cheering on his favourite pack of beagles, while ascending one of the highest hills in that locality. But you can scarcely imagine how dreary and desolate the abbey looked last week. Here and there I perceived a few of the peasantry bearing on their countenances the deepest impressions of grief. No sound on any side was heard, save the roaring of the wild Atlantic. Soon after I visited the chapel connected with the house, where mass is celebrated every morning by the Rev. J. O'Sullivan, who resides in the abbey. On the right of the altar is a large chair or pew where the poor Liberator used to sit. It has a back about seven feet high, and this pew is now covered with fine black cloth, the door fastened, and no one is to be allowed to enter it again."-Tipperary Free Press.

DEATH OF TWO CARDINALS.-The Univers announces the death, at Naples, of Cardinal Acton, and of Cardinal Pignatelli, Archbishop of Palermo.

NEW CONVERSION.-The Rev. R. Ornsby, M.A., late fellow and tutor of Trinity College, Oxford, and public examiner for the responsions, has become a Catholic.

JOHN ERIGENA,

ALSO CALLED JOHANNES SCOTUS, AND JOHANNES SCOTUS ERIGENA.

(From Guizot's "Modern History of France," translated for the CATHOLIC MAGAZINE by an Irishman.) There is among the learned an uncertainty as to the country of John Erigena, and, also, as to the date of his birth. The doubt concerning his country seems to me ill-founded. His twofold name clearly indicates it. John Erigena, John Scot, both mean John the Irishman. Ireland was anciently called Erin (Eire),* and its people were of the same race as the population of the Highlands of Scotland-the Scots. The name Erigena indicates, therefore, the country, and the name of Scot his racehis nation. All the petty difficulties, all the various conjectures of the learned, are reduced to nought by this simple fact. As to the time of his birth, it is more difficult to determine; and I do not mean to enter into a discussion, which would lead to no satisfactory result. All that can be affirmed is, that he was born in the first years of the ninth century, between the years 800 and 815. It is uncertain where he passed his early years, or where he studied; but his learning, together with natural probabilities, afford room to think that it was in Ireland. Of all the countries of the West, Ireland was, for a long time, as you are aware, that in which alone learning was supported, and throve amid the general overthrow of Europe.

A tradition, which we find prevailing from an early period, attributes to John Scot a journey to the East-to Greece in particular; and we read, in a manuscript deposited in the library of Oxford, a sentence written by him, which seems to prove it. "I have not," he writes, "left unvisited any place, any temple, where the philosophers were accustomed to study and to deposit their secret writings; and among the learned, in whom I could hope to find any acquaintance with the works of the philosophers, there is not one whom I have not questioned." He does not, you will observe, point out any place-any epoch; nevertheless, his words seem to refer to the countries where the ancient philosophers had lived and laboured. No other memorial furnishes us with further evidence with regard to this journey; and John Scot's knowledge of Greek literature does not seem to me a conclusive proof. However this be, about the middle of the ninth century we find him in France, settled down for life, at the Court of Charles the Bald. Much discussion has also arisen about the period of his arrival, some having proposed to bring it down to the year 870. To me the error is manifest. Many documents show that John was intimate with St. Prudentius, before the latter became Bishop of Troyes. Now, St. Prudentius became Bishop of Troyes in 847; it is, therefore, probable that it was between the years 840 and 147 that John passed into France, induced, perhaps, by a formal invitation from Charles the Bald. Not only has he translated several treatises that have issued from the New Platonic school of Alexandria, but it seems further certain that there exist, in manuscript, in several libraries, particularly that of Oxford, commentaries of his on some works of Aristotle; and, from the twelfth century to the moment when the Peripatetic Philosophy resumed, in the West, a despotic empire, Roger Bacon boasted of John Scot as a faithful and lucid interpreter of Aristotle, and ascribes to him the merit of having preserved, pure and authentic, some of his writings. It is also said that John Scot was occupied with the works of Plato; and in some writings of his he has passed, on these two masters of antiquity, a judgment too precise, too well defined, to leave us room to think that he knew them only by the writings of some of their disciples, or by vague translations. He calls Plato "the greatest of the world's philosophers," and Aristotle "the most subtle investigator among the Greeks of the diversity of

• And so it is still, in the mouths of the Irish-speaking Irish.