Count Montalembert's great work contain the history of St. Oswald
and St. Wilfrid, St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede, or rather of the gradual conversion of England by their means, and of the way in which Christianity and civilization were planted throughout this island. That M. de Montalembert should be an energetic champion of these saints and heroes will surprise nobody. That he should interest even the coldest in the work done by them, should invest their lives with a halo of the miraculous, and should transmute distant legends into glowing and breathing history, is equally natural. Sometimes, indeed, he allows us to smile at the " strange caprices of human frivolity which disconcert the historian," and which lead to the retention in popular minds of absurd fables when facts would be so valuable. At another time he quotes a passage which cannot but reflect significantly on certain of the present day, as to " the excesses of the ultra-orthodox English converts, who would admit nothing to be good, or even tolerable, except what was practised at Rome, even in matters whioh the Romans themselves held of no importance." But generally speaking, M. de Montalembert is as. Roman, as fervent, as eloquent as ever. The mass of miracles trans- ferred to his pages would seem to command his credence. Even when he records the discussion as to forms of tonsures, and the difference between the Celtic form, the Oriental form, which was said to have been originated by St. Paul, the Roman form, which claimed the authority of St. Peter, and the Irish form, which was ascribed to Simon Magus, he has no difficulty in keeping from a smile. These are Montalembertian characteristics, and must be familiar to his readers. We would rather
point to the great beauty of some of his descriptions of scenery, and the power of his human portraiture. In two lines he brings before us the
contrast between St. Wilfrid and St. Cuthbert, the one "the saint of
active life, of polemics, of publicity, of the struggle with kings, princes, and prelates, " the other "the saint of nature, of a life retired and
humble, of preaching, of solitude, and of prayer." The whole chapter on Bede in the fifth volume is worthy of being detached, as the sketch of St. Columba has been detached from an earlier volume, and of being reprinted like that sketch in a smaller and handier shape, for popular reading. Of the descriptions of scenery, those of Lindisfarne, Whitby, and Durham are worthy to take rank as paintings. All Englishmen will be able to appreciate the enthusiasm of M. de Montalembert on such a subject, and if in some other respects they must regret to differ from him, they will at least recognize that he does not yield to them in love for their country.
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