LETTER IV. (continued.)

Like as a ship that through the ocean wide
Directs her course unto one certain coast,
Is met of many a counter-wind and tide,
With which her winged speed is let and crost,
And she herself in stormy surges tost;
Yet making many a board and many a bay,
Still winneth way, ne hath her compass
lost;

Right so it fares with me in this long way,
Whose course is often staid, yet never is astray.

SOME twenty years ago, Sir, I accompanied my old friend Davy, (not then Sir Humphry,) to the top of Skiddaw; it was the first time he had ascended that noblest of the English mountains, which for nearly half my life has been to me as a neighbour. When we had reached the summit, and enjoyed for a while the splendid prospect from the foot of one of those stone piles which the boys erect there, he cast his eyes upon the fragments of slate with which the ground is strewn, and stooping to pick up one as he spake, said "I dare say I shall find something here!" The words

were hardly uttered when he gave one of those slight starts which indicate pleasurable surprize, and added, "I have found something indeed! Here is a substance which has lately been discovered in Saxony, and has not been met with elsewhere till now." It was the chiastolite. I introduce this little anecdote with the freedom which the easy forms of epistolary composition allow, not because it is to me a pleasant recollection while the distinguished philosopher to whom it relates is living and flourishing in the enjoyment of those honours which he has deserved so well, but because it is to the point in this place, and of useful application. "Seek and ye shall find," are words to be borne in mind as well in exploring the field of history as of science.

We shall find something in the legend of St. Fursey,..which I have not selected as remarkable either for extravagance or any thing else, but have taken it because it came in our way. The first part of the story is manifestly the growth of his own country: it has the characteristic stamp of Irish sacred romance, . . a raciness as peculiar as the smaak of the Cape wines, and which any person versed in hagiologic reading may immediately recognize. It was indeed originally written in Irish, as many of the

Irish legends were; because Latin, which in those days was in all old Christian countries still a living tongue, insomuch that the women could both speak and write it, was very little known in Ireland,* that island not having been subdued and civilized by the Romans. Bolland, when he commenced his great and invaluable collection, inserted such of these legends as occurred in the order of the Kalendar, without remorse; and even apologized, in his General Preface, for the coarseness and grotesqueness of the miracles which they contained,† as being

* Non difficulter lector animadverteret, unde tam multa in Sanctorum Hibernorum vitas irrepserint aut fabulosa, aut fabulosis simillima; necnon cur ab initio nascentis in Hibernia Ecclesiæ, non modo Latiná linguâ (quá solá omnes Romani quondam Imperii nationes, etiam diu post ejus extinctionem, usi sunt in conscribendis publicis rerum gestarum monumentis seu sacris seu profanis) sed etiam Hibernicâ patria scribi cœperint Sanctorum vita; ut de coævis Patricio auctoribus Jocelinus testatur. Latina enim lingua, quæ subjectis Romano Imperio in occidente atque Africa provinciis, abolitá antiquá patriâ, facta fuerat naturalis, etsi non sine depravatione multiplici; Hibernis peregrina omnino erat, nec nisi sacra tractantibus, et domi vel peregrè operosius eruditis cognita; cum alibi etiam fœminæ Latinè nossent et loqui et scribere. Acta SS. Mart. t. ii. p. 517. Comm. Præv, ad vitam S. Patricii.

+ Quia vero in-patrandis prodigiis sese ferè simplicitati ac fidei hominum Deus attemperat, ideo Hibernorum, Scotorum, Britannorum tam qui Albionem, quàm qui Armoricam Galliæ

suited to the simplicity of the people. Henschenius entertained for some years as little scruple concerning them; but at length, the latter and his colleagues found that the Reformation had carried some light even into the Spanish Netherlands, and that, capacious as the public swallow was, it would not take down such camels as these. A sort of apology* there

oram incolunt, plane portentosæ sunt Sanctorum vitæ, atque ex miraculis, ferè incredibilibus, contextæ ; quia apud eas gentes et constantia fidei egregia, et vitæ simplicitas ac candor olim rarus extitit; vel certè quia simpliciores scriptores. Neque facta isthic plurima olim fuisse miracula, poterit quisquam, quamvis malitiosus, pernegare, cum etiamnum hodie, post abrogatas ab hæreticis majorum cæremonias cultumque Calitum, ipsa tamen loca eorum honori olim dicata, sacrosancta adhuc esse videantur, et plurimis splendescant miraculis."-Acta SS. Jan. t. i. xxxiv.

St. Winifred's well is mentioned as an instance. Even the heretics frequented it, the Jesuit says, and when they were asked why they acted thus in opposition to what their clergy preached, they would answer that they cared nothing for what was gabbled in the pulpit, the water had always been good for them and their cattle, and their fathers before them, and its virtue was owing either to St. Winifred, or God himself.

* " Istiusmodi ritas non aliter operi nostro inseramus quàm ut legendas magna cum indulgentiá erga simplicissimas gentes, et tamdiu solum tolerandas, quamdiu certiora et lectu digniora monumenta desunt, ex quibus aliqua Sanctorum illorum hauriatur notitia; cum ad hoc saltem serviant, ut publicam eorum in populo venerationem antiquam, superinductis hereseon nebulis obscuratam, faciant iterum splendere apud posteros, deque loco ac

fore was made; the richer stories were withheld as the collection advanced, and such as were admitted were introduced with a Jesuitical reservation, containing an avowal not less remarkable than incautious, that such as these stories were, they served to keep up the popular veneration for Saints, concerning whom nothing certain was known.

For the indigenous part of his history, that is, for his prenatal performances, and the other miracles of his early life, our present subject St. Fursey is as little entitled to discredit as to honour. They are clearly some of those fictions (in number exceeding all others) which,.. however you may seek to disguise the fact from yourself, Sir, or to qualify it to the world,...were falsehoods invented, propagated, and sanctioned for the purpose of keeping up a system of priestcraft and delusion. He had as little to do with these, as with the posthumous cures and other wonders which his relics are said to have performed. Can we acquit him as fairly of having brought forward his visions, not as inventions, but as sacred and supernatural manifestations? I think not. The importance which he attached to the bodies of those persons whose souls, ac

tempore quibus vixerunt et obierunt subindè curiosum piumque lectorem edoceant.-Acta SS. Mai. t. iii. p. 585.