shallow judgment which would condemn the romantic holy legend, and the strange but sublime figure in the painting. Eusebius Nieremberg, the Spanish Jesuit, relating a legend from Peter Cluniacensis, says, "when we read such-like stories, from the representations therein contained, we are to raise our thoughts to the substance therein represented :" 1 and with respect to the strange and improbable forms which excite astonishment, hear what a profound modern has said: "Not seldom the very majesty of the principle makes its sallies appear more extravagant; the higher the tree of virtue rises, the wider will be the range of its oscillations : and in this sense is there but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. There is a sportive playfulness in true magnanimity, that, feeling the inadequateness of any earthly raiment, it is well pleased to clothe itself, like the godlike Ulysses, in rags."2 XXII. Sismondi says in one of his works, that in northern countries, or under the tropics, men may fear the Deity, and tremble at the idea of an evil principle. "Mais devant qui trembleroit-on en Italie," he continues, "where every thing smiles on man? How should all men's thoughts be directed to another life, when the present is so sweet?" The religion of which we attempt to give an outline, admitted of no such geographical limits: for the heart of man was not formed to be satisfied with even the prospects of Italian landscape. "Where is God whom I love?" said St. Augustine: "I asked the earth, and it said, I am not him. I asked the sea, and the depths, and the creeping things, and they said, We are not "InterGod." your rogavi auras flabiles; et inquit universus aer cum incolis suis Fallitur Anaximenes, non sum Deus."4 It is so with every earthly object. Either it perishes, and we lament it; or our taste changes, and it is no longer able to give us pleasure. It is not our God! this is the conclusion of Joseph of Exeter, the poet, who was contemporary of the Paladins, and who had seen life in all its variety, having left the valleys of Devonshire for the Holy Land, where he had experience of war under the walls of Ascalon: Treatise on the Difference between the Temporal and Eternal book iv. c. x. 2. Guesses at Truth. 4 Confess. x. 6. 3 Hist. des Répub. Ital. tom. vii. p. 4. Heu, heu quam tenui nutant mortalia filo! Fame and honour cannot stand the trial of St. Augustine's question. "Many thousand years are past," says Nieremberg," and no man knew thee, and of those who shall be born hereafter few will remember thee; and although thou remainest in the memory of those, yet they also in the end must die, and with them thine and their own memory must perish, and thou shalt, as before thou wert, continue a whole eternity, without being known or celebrated by any." How the heart shrinks from such solitude! Fame and honour are not our God! Shall we say that friendship has a higher claim? Let us first reply to the question of Aristotle: "In those friendships formed from early youth; if one should continue a boy in mind and disposition (that is, should retain the simplicity of youth), and the other should become a famous man (engrossed with the world, and with the cares of a political or ambitious life), how can they continue to be friends, who neither admire nor love the same things?"2 Alas! What can we reply to this question? What remains, but that we cry out with St. Augustine, "Tu fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te." The beauty of nature, which seemed to Sismondi sufficient to induce an indifference to a future state, was regarded by the heathen philosopher as calculated to encourage the soul in its hopes of beholding more perfect beauty. "Hæc enim pulcritudo etiam in terris patriam illam et avitam, ut ait Theophrastus, philosophiam, cognitionis cupiditate incensam, excitavit. Præcipue vero fruentur ea, qui tum etiam, cum has terras incolentes, circumfusi erant caligine, tamen acie mentis dispicere cupiebant. Etenim si nunc aliquid assequi se putant, qui ostium ponti viderunt, et eas angustias, per quas penetravit ea, quæ est nominata, 1 De Bello Trojano, lib. v. 511. 3 Confess. i. 1. Argo, quia Argivi in ea, delecti viri, aut ii, qui Oceani freta illa viderunt, Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda: quod tandem spectaculum fore putamus, cum totam terram contueri licebit, ejusque cum situm, formam, circumscriptionem, tum et habitabiles regiones, et rursum omni cultu propter vim frigoris aut caloris vacantes?" 1 The philosophers of the church likewise taught men to derive heavenly wisdom, and peace, and hopes, from beholding all that was beautiful and admirable on the earth and in nature. William of Paris calls the Word incarnate, "Facies ultimæ pulchritudinis." St. Thomas Aquinas says, "The great diversity of creatures in all the order of the world hath no other aim but to represent the Divinity by some image whatsoever and insomuch as the sovereign essence is infinite, it was expedient to produce many things, that the one might supply the other's defects, and all conspire to express some character of divine perfections, so that God beholdeth himself figured in the variety of beauties which fill earth and heaven." Caussin applies this: "Would you behold God? observe these exquisite flowers, these waves which curl on the current of rivers, these gentle western blasts which bear comfort and health on their wings; these vast seas, that immense extent of plains, these snow-capt mountains, all that is seen, all that is heard, cease not to recount to us the love of our Father."2 When men loved God, "they did not love beauty of person, nor the loveliness of the seasons, nor the splendour of light; they did not love the melody of the voice, nor the sweet smell of flowers or perfumes; they did not love delicacy of taste, nor any thing which was subjected to the senses: but when they loved God, they loved a beauty and a loveliness far exceeding all that mortal eyes ever beheld, a light more powerful than all light, a voice surpassing every voice, a sweetness passing all sweetness." So Albertus Magnus says of the vision of God: "it shall be music to the ear, sweetness to the taste, balsam to the smell, flowers to the touch. There shall be the clear light of summer, the pleasantness of the 1 Cicero, Tuscul. i. 20. Holy Court, 552. 3 Vide August. Confess. x. 6. 66 spring, the abundance of autumn, and the repose of winter."1 "If men should give to one person," says Eusebius Nieremberg, "all the wisdom of Solomon, all the sciences of Plato and Aristotle, all the strength of Aristomenes and Milo, all the beauty of Paris and Adonis, it would have no comparison to the delight which will be enjoyed in seeing God. In him will be found all the richness of gold, the delightfulness of the meadows, the sweet refreshment of the limpid stream, the brightness of the sun, the beauty of the heavens, the fragrance of the rose, all that can be admired and enjoyed. Every one shall then rejoice as much in the felicity of another as in his own ineffable joy, and shall possess as many joys as he shall find companions." So that while even the presence of God on earth was but to lead men to a love of things invisible, as St. Thomas Aquinas says in the divine prayer of the church, "ut dum visibiliter Deum cognoscimus, per hunc in invisibilium amorem rapiamur," all visible objects of beauty were to direct the mind to its Creator and its future destiny. Specta mare, says St. Ambrose, "terram circumspice, ut opere facta divino omnis creatura te pascat. Quæ formarum gratia in ipsis bestiis! quantus decor in hominibus ! quanta in avibus pulchritudo! hæc intuere, et non videbis iniquitatem." So says St. Augustine: "qui fecit omnia, melior est omnibus, pulcrior est omnibus. Quicquid amaveris, ille tibi erit. Disce amare in creatura Creatorem, et in factura factorem, ne teneat te quod ab illo factum est, et amittas eum a quo et ipse factus es. Quis ornavit cœlum sideribus," says another great divine, lucribus, aquam piscibus, terram plantis et floribus? Quid sunt hæc omnia, nisi Dei pulcritudinis modica scintilla?" So when Lewis of Grenada is describing the change which takes place in the views which men entertain of the natural world when they have been converted to a life of piety, he says, they see all things now with other eyes, and they feel such motions and changes within as are strong proofs of every article of faith. If the nights are clear, with their eyes cast up to heaven they admire its beauty and the brightness of the moon and stars, considering them quite differently from what they used to do, and In Comp. Theol. 1. vii. c. 7. In Psal. xxxix. "2 66 66 aerem vO 3 S. Bonaventura, i. in Soliloq. much more cheerfully; they look on them as so many mirrors of his glory, as so many messengers that come to bring them news of him, and they think upon those noble troops of saints who are more bright and glorious than the stars of heaven." As Plato saith, The love which we have here below is as a remembrance of the first fair sovereign, and most pure of all beauties, which is the Divinity. Our soul," continues Caussin, "hath a generous passion towards him, unless it be infected by the breath of the serpent, and obstructed by vapours of sensuality; it seeks for him; it speaks to him in all creatures; it beholdeth him in all the beautiful objects of nature; but it often falleth out that it forgetteth the workman in admiring his workmanship; it takes the shadow for the body; it feeleth there is some invisible hand which shoots arrows at it amidst the vermilion of roses and the whiteness of lilies. Oh, how attractive is beauty! Oh, should it on a sudden be seen without the veil, the whole world, in an instant, would dissolve under its adorable rays. It is so naturally imprinted on the heart of man, that hell itself cannot forget it. The evil rich man did from thence lift up his eyes to heaven, as desirous to look for the lovely face which he had eternally lost."1 "Hæc est plena beatitudo, et tota glorificatio hominis, videre faciem Dei sui, videre eum qui fecit cœlum et terram, videre eum qui fecit eum, qui salvavit eum, et qui glorificavit eum." In this consists all the everlasting glory of the happy.2 Holy men were even permitted to enjoy a foretaste of this bliss while on earth. Hear St. John Damascene. "St. Josephat being in pro found prayer, prostrate upon the earth, was overtaken with a sweet sleep, in which he saw two men of grave meanour, who carried him through many unknown countries to a field full of flowers and plants of rare beauty, laden with fruit never before seen. The leaves of the trees moved with a soft and gentle wind, yielded a pleasant sound, and breathed forth a most sweet odour; there were placed many seats of gold and precious stones, and a little brook of crystal water refreshed the air, and pleased the sight with a most agreeable variety. From thence he was brought into a most beautiful city, whose walls, towers, Holy Court. 2 St. August. Solilo. c. xxxvi. de |