From The Latin Of Prudentius.
An Elegy.
Aurelics Prudentius Clemens, the glory of the early Christian poets, was born in Spain in the year 348. He studied eloquence in his youth under a celebrated master. He was twice made governor of provinces and cities, raised to the highest rank, and placed at the court by the Emperor Theodosius I., next in dignity to his own person.
But in the vigor of his age, he quitted worldly honors and employments, made a pilgrimage to Rome, and thence returning to Spain, led a secluded life, consecrating his leisure to the composition of sacred poems. He is esteemed the most learned of the Christian poets, and, for the sweetness and elegance of his verses, has been compared to Horace.
Venient citò saecula, quum jam
Socius calor ossa revisat,
Animataque sanguine vivo
Habitacula pristina gestet.
Quae pigra cadavera pridem
Tumulis putrefacta jacebant,
Volucres rapientur in auras,
Animas comitata priores.
Quid turba superstes inepta
Plangens ululamina miscet?
Cur tam bene condita jura,
Luctu dolor arguit amens?
Jam moesta quiesce querela,
Lacrymas suspendite matres,
Nullus sua pignora plangat:
Mors haec reparatio vitae est.
Sic semina sicca virescunt
Jam mortua, jamque sepulta,
Quae reddita cespite ab imo
Veteres meditantur aristas.
Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum,
Gremioque hunc concipe molli;
Hominis tibi membra sequestro,
Generosa et fragmina credo.
Animae fuit haec domus olim
Factoris ab ore create;
Fervens habitavit in istis
Sapientia, principe Christo.
Tu depositum tege corpus;
Non immemor ille requiret
Sua munera fictor et auctor,
Propriique aenigmata vultûs.
Veniant modò tempora justa,
Quum spem Deus impleat omnem;
Reddas patefacta necesse est,
Qualem tibi trado figuram.
Non si cariosa vetustas
Dissolverit ossa favillis,
Fueritque cinisculus arens,
Minimi mensura pugilli;
Nee si vaga flamina, et aurae
Vacuum per inane volantes
Tulerint cum pulvere nervos,
Hominem periisse licebit.
Translation.
The hour is speeding on amain
When back into its olden form,
Once more with ruddy life-blood warm,
The spirit shall return again.
The freed soul soars aloft through space:
So, dust with dust, aloft through air,
This heavy clay swift gales shall bear
From its sepulchral resting-place..
Why doth the crowd surviving fill
The air with a lamenting vain?
Why with such idle griefs arraign
The justice of the Eternal will?
Oh! end these pangs with murmurs rife,
O mothers! cease your tears, your woe;
Weep not for your dead children so,
Death the renewal is of life.
The dead, dry seed lies hid from view,
To burst forth to new glorious bloom;
The former beauty to resume,
The ancient harvest to renew.
O earth! in thy soft bosom keep,
And quicken with new warmth this clay,
This sacred frame to rest we lay.
It smiles in thy embrace to sleep.
'Twas once the immortal spirit's cell.
That breath breathed from the lips divine;
Here was the living wisdom's shrine,
Here deigned the Christ supreme to dwell.
Guard it beneath thy faithful sod,
For He, one day, will re-demand
From thee this labor of his hand.
This breathing likeness of its God.
Oh! for the appointed hour to rend
The grave! the hope God gives is sure:
Safe, beauteous, through these gates obscure
What now descendeth shall ascend.
Yes, though this frame divinely planned
Be wasted by decay and rust,
And naught left save a little dust.
The filling of the smallest hand:
Though these strong sinews ashes be
On wandering breezes wafted wide,
Inviolate ever shall abide
The mortal's immortality.
C. E. B.
Translated From Der Katholik.
The Ancient Irish Church.
The history of the ancient Irish church, for many reasons, claims our respectful attention. In the time of the migration of the European races, this church had a great mission to accomplish among the Germanic tribes. When the Goths had overrun Spain, the Franks and Burgundians conquered Gaul, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain, the Vandals spoiled Africa, and the Lombards gained strongholds in Italy; when the Alemanni and Sueves had penetrated into the valleys and claimed the mountains of ancient Helvetia; who was it in those stormy times that elevated the moral condition of those peoples, drew them out of the darkness of German paganism, or converted them from Arianism; regenerated them internally, civilized and incorporated them into the kingdom of God, after they had devastated the provinces of the Western empire, leaving ruins, deserts, confusion, and desolation behind them in their plundering march? It was the missionaries of the ancient Irish church that rescued Europe from the barbarism of that period. Evidently sent by God, those Irish missionaries founded new Christian colonies in different lands, hewed down the forests, civilized the deserts, founded churches, schools, and monasteries. As the Roman empire without the barbarians was nothing but an abyss of slavery and rottenness, so would the barbarians have been a wild chaos without the monks. The monks and barbarians combined produced a new world which we call Christendom.