Saying these words, she disappeared, leaving behind her that brilliant light with which she was surrounded, and which slowly melted away.
In this instance, as in others, the child noticed something which seemed a rule with regard to the aureole which always surrounded the Blessed Virgin.
"When the vision appears," said she, in her own language, "I see first the light and then the 'Lady;' when it disappears, the 'Lady' first vanishes and afterward the light."
TO BE CONTINUED.
THE "PARADISE LOST" OF ST. AVITUS.
The indebtedness of Milton to Andreini for the conception of Paradise Lost, is proved not only by internal evidence, but by the ascertained fact that the English poet was well acquainted with the work of the Italian. Another poet of merit, centuries before, had produced a noble work on the subject, with which we may suppose, from Milton's classical and theological learning, he was familiar, though no proof exists that he had read it. We refer to the three poems of St. Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, The Creation, Original Sin, and The Judgment of God, which form a triad, or a poem in three parts. Its resemblance to Paradise Lost, in general idea and in some important details, is very striking, and a curious fact in literature. These, with other works of the author, were published at the beginning of the sixteenth century, though written long before.
Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, born about the middle of the fifth century, was of a senatorial family in Auvergne. He became bishop A.D. 490, dying in 525. His part in the church of Gaul was active and important, as he was chief among the orthodox bishops of the east and south of Gaul, and Vienne belonged to the Burgundian Arians. In the struggle to maintain the true faith against the Arians, St. Avitus had to contend not only against theological adversaries, but the civil power. In the year 499 he held a conference at Lyons with some Arian bishops, in the presence of King Gondebald; and he influenced King Sigismund to return to the true belief.
He was the most distinguished among all the Christian poets from the sixth to the eighth century, and only the obscurity of the age can account for the oblivion into which his works have fallen. It is true that his poetry abounds in labored comparisons and artificial antitheses; but in treating of sacred subjects he adheres to the scriptural simplicity, and though living much nearer to the days of paganism than Milton, has nothing like his mythological allusions and ornaments. He wrote a hundred letters on his own times, besides homilies and treatises. His six poems are in hexameter verse. They are, The Creation, (De Initio Mundi,) Original Sin, (De Originali Peccato,) The Judgment of God, (De Sententia Dei,) The Deluge, (De Diluvio Mundi,) The Passage of the Red Sea, (De Transitu Maris Rubri,) and In Praise of Virginity, (De Consolatoria Laude Castitatis, etc.) The first three constitute what may be called the Paradise Lost of St. Avitus.