ABSTRACT
Then follow in succession: Hilary, John (Chrysostom), Basil, Gregory, Orosius, Rufinus, Eusebius, Eucherius, Paulinus and Ambrose. . .. A quotation like that is sufficient to gauge the watermark of any mind. It warns us also to check the grandiloquent admiration of Sidonius. 'Ve can then see that these vaunted correspondents, however slightly acquainted, or however saturated, with literary ability they might be, did not surpass the level of Sidonius himself; they have the same touching fervour for things of the intellect, the Same insufficiency in power of criticism, and in profound learning.3 In his moments of clairvoyance Sidonius has well glimpsed certain aspects of this decadence,! but he did not succeed in correcting all its effects on his own account.
