ABSTRACT
This hvofold trend, that of the man of letters and of the Christian rigorist, betrays itself in his De Doctrina Christ'iana, but the second preponderates, as might be expected, in a tract which is nothing but a treatise on sacred rhetoric, or a manual for the interpretation of the Scriptures for the use of clerics. According to St Augustine, in profane learning there arc clements so evidentl~' sullied by superstition that no upright man should think of making experiments in it: astrology, for example. There are others, such as history, natural history, astronomy, dialectics, rhetoric, etc.... which, provided that they guarded against the depravities and abuses to which they give rise, are worthy of study and should render the greatest service in connection with exegesis and oral commentary on the Scriptures. Augustine, like .Jerome, breaks into an allegorical simile wherein he sums up his views. In imitation of the Jewish peop1c in their flight from Egypt, Christianity must carry away the gold and silver vessels of her enemies and employ them for her own uses. 3
Under cover of such authorities and of such reasonings the old learning was enabled to be preserved. \Ve experience some surprise in realising that its defenders had never conceived for it any more convincing apology than to represent it as a kind of preliminary preparation to the profound study of the Bible.
Such is however the fact. Every age has its special reasons for loving the past, for attaching itself to it and for giving to it some breath of life, without which it would be nothing but dust and ashes. I t is well then to commend the courage and good sense of those who, resisting the pressure of the zealots of pious ignorance, finally maintained the duty, or at least the lawfulness, of learning the art of thinking and writing in that school wherein this art had been pre-eminently brought to perfection.
