St. Athanasius's Orations against the Arians, with an Account Of
his Life. By William Bright, D.D. (The Clarendon Press.)—These Orations against the Arians belong to the period of the second exile of the great Patriarch from his see. " Athanasius," says Dr. Bright, "made those six years of seclusion available for literary work of the most substantial kind, both controversial and historical. The books which he now began to pour forth were apparently written in cottages and caves, where he sat, like any monk, on a mat of palm-leaves, with a bundle of papyrus beside him, amid the intense light and stillness of the desert, which might well harmonise with his meditations and his prayers." More than one apology for his conduct, and several letters, the Arian history, and chiefly the great Orations, were the fruits of his solitary toil. The Orations are, properly speaking, three in number, the fourth, according to the editor, wanting its complete form, and dealing with other than Arian heresies. Dr. Bright's account of the great theologian's life is extremely interesting. Whether full justice is done to the Arian side may possibly be doubted. Yet an effort is made to do so. The real difficulties that beset the acceptance of the term `op.401070;, for instance, are given. And it is a matter in which it seems extremely difficult to do justice, especially as regards the charges which affected the moral and ecclesiastical character of Athanasins. They seem even ludicrously absurd. Yet we find them entertained by numerous assemblies of bishops, assemblies containing among them really eminent men. And Sir Isaac Newton, if we remember aright, wrote an elaborate paper to show that they were in a measure true. Newton, it is true, showed Arian proclivities, but could these have so entirely warped his power of judging of evidence ? But one has the greatest disposition to believe in the innocence, as one is compelled to believe in the genius and the courage of Athanasius. He is the almost solitary figure which commands our respect in the midst of a feeble and rather ignoble generation.
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