Immense love impelled him to this, the fervor of zeal for the lost sheep which he was to carry back to the celestial pastures. Where, then, are they who seek their bodily ease, with curious and varied ornaments? We who desire such things have not been taught in the school of this master; and yet he is the highest master, who neither wished to deceive nor who could be deceived.

'Having thus completed the twenty-ninth year of his age, our Lord said to his mother, 'It is time that I depart to glorify and make manifest my Father, and work the salvation of souls, for to this end was I sent, Be comforted, good mother, for I shall soon return to you,' and, bending his knee, he besought her blessing, and she similarly bending, with tears embraced him. So he departed and took the road from Nazareth to Jordan, where John was baptizing. But the Lord of the world goes alone, for as yet he had no disciples. Behold him, then, how he goes alone diligently for God, bare-footed, on so long a journey. O Lord, whither goest thou? Art thou not above all the kings of the earth? O Lord, where are thy barons and counts, dukes and soldiers, horses and camels, elephants and chariots, servants and officers ? Where are they who may encompass and defend you from sudden attacks, according to the custom of other kings and great men? Where are the blast of trumpets, and the sound of instruments, and the royal banners? Where are they who go before to provide what is needful? Where are the honors and pomps which we worms use? Are not the heavens and earth, O Lord, full of thy glory? Do not thousands of thousands minister to thee in thy kingdom? Why, then, goest thou alone thus beating the earth with bare feet? I think the cause must be, that you are not in your kingdom, for your kingdom is not in this world; you have humbled yourself, taking the form of a servant; you are made one of us, a pilgrim and a stranger, as all our fathers were, and this in order that we may be kings. But why do we neglect such an example? why do we not follow you? why not humble ourselves? why seek for pomps and honors? Certainly because our kingdom is of this world, and we do not consider ourselves strangers. O vain children of men, why do we thus studiously embrace vanity for truth, perishable things for what are secure, and temporal for eternal ?”*

The whole spirit of the middle ages, seems to have been infused into this beautiful meditation of St. Bonaventura. Here are expressed almost in painting, their affectionate piety, their intense interest in all that relates to our Saviour and his blessed mother, their sublime sense of the wondrous mysteries of faith; and, on the other hand, their tender humanity, their sweet simplicity, their innocent and holy manners. Moreover, in especial reference to the present purpose, it furnishes us with the model and type of the youthful character in these ages, illustrating also the grace and dignity with which it was invested in the eyes of men, from a consideration of its being a period of the human life, peculiarly sanctified by

*St. Bonaventura, Meditationes Vitæ Christi.

the patience and sufferings of Jesus. "Qui susceperit unum parvulum talem in nomine meo, me suscepit." Who could enumerate or imagine all the kind, affectionate things, which used to be said and done to poor little innocents from the remembrance of this one sentence! It is related of St. Felix Valois, of that royal house of France, who gave proofs of great piety and charity, while a child, that, in his early youth, he used to select the choicest dishes which were placed on the table, and send them to the poor; and the Church, in her office, does not disdain to add, that he used to recreate poor little boys with nice food, pauperculos pueros recreabat. This was he of whom we also read, that when grown up to youth, he more than once gave the clothes off his person to clothe the needy; and who, afterwards, in order to avoid succeeding to the crown of France, to which he had a title by the Salic law, became a priest. It was even deemed worthy of record in a monastic chronicle, that a certain holy monk of Villars, named Godfrey, used to go into the orchard, and whatever fruit he could gather, would hasten with them to the poor children for their refreshment.*

The old writers love to dwell upon the description of this age. Thus the young Archduke Leopold of Austria is described as having the looks as well as the innocence of an angel; and it is said that the mere sight of him in the church used to inspire people with devotion. The young St. Francis Regis, while at college at Puy, was known to all the inhabitants of the town under the title of the Angel of the College. There might have been seen a young nobleman, a modest novice in a religious order, employed in collecting the poor little boys of a town and explaining to them the Christian doctrine. What school of ancient philosophy ever conceived any thing like this?

The exquisite grace with which the old Italian painters represented the youthful form in the angelic character, could only be the result of having beheld living models imbued with that grace and celestial sweetness which the Catholic religion is capable of yielding to the human countenance. Witness the picture by Francesco Albani, of the school of Bologna, of the Repose in Egypt, which is in the gallery of the Louvre at Paris, where two angels, as youths, are offering fruits and flowers to the infant Jesus, whom they regard with an expression of the utmost interest, of innocent curiosity and child-like love, as he plays on the knees of his mother; a picture which seems to breathe perfume, and which might have inspired Tasso in his beautiful description of the gentle Gabriel when he is sent to Godfrey.

A stripling seem'd he thrice five winters old,
And radiant beams adorn'd his locks of gold.
Of silver wings he took a shining pair,
Fringed with gold, unwearied, nimble, swift,

* Hist. Monasterii. Villariensis. Lib. II. cap. viii. apud
Les Vertus de Leopold d'Autriche, par Avancin, 13.

Martini Thesaur. Anecdot. Tom. iii.
Vie de St. Francois Regis, p. 16.

With these he parts the winds, the clouds, the air,
And over seas and earth himself doth lift,
Thus clad, he cut the spheres and circles fair,

And the pure skies with sacred feathers clift;
On Lebanon at first his foot he set,

And shook his wings with rosy May-dew wet.*

Men were impressed with such a sense of the respect due to youthful piety, that even the title of martyr used to be granted to such young persons as met with death from the hands of unjust men. Thus St. Kenelm was regarded as a martyr, though all that is related of his death is as follows: "Ingulphus, abbot of Crowland, says that St. Kenelm was the son of Kenulphus, king of the Mercians, and a great benefactor to the monastery of Crowland, which had been lately founded by King Ethalbald. Kenelm was left heir to the crown in his seventh year; he was enticed into a wood by the craft of Quendreda, and it being late in the evening that most innocent boy was cruelly martyred by Ascebert, his tutor." William of Malmesbury indeed supposes that such men as St. Dunstan would never have allowed Kenelm or Egelbrith to be venerated as martyrs unless God had confirmed their title by miracles;† but devout people were willing at all times to have recourse to the holiness of youth as possessing a grace that was self-evident. Thus, in the church of St. Hilary at Paris, there was the tomb of a young student of the college of Harcourt, called Louis Pelet: his death was stated to have taken place in the year of 1747, without mention of the month or day, but the inscription was terminated with these words, "Sancte puer, ora pro nobis."‡

In like manner all the sufferings of that age were regarded with great tenderness, and inspired somewhat of reverence. In our times, the young English students in the distant schools of Spain and Portugal used to be regarded with wonderful interest by the devout people of those lands who commiserated their condition in being sent so far from their country. It used to be a common opinion with the captains of vessels from England to Bilboa, that it was a good pledge for men when they had on board an English student for Valadolid. On one occasion of a storm in the Bay of Bisquai, the captain hearing that a certain youth was one of these students going thither, became quite cheerful and composed, observing, that since this student was on board they had nothing to fear. Generally too, on the death of young persons, it was obvious, that in certain minor customs established by the Church, it was her intention to indicate her sense of the peculiar innocence and purity which belonged to that age. But to proceed. The young who were in the walks of secular life became subject to the prevailing influence of chivalry, and in this respect the duties of their condition were enforced with a systematic attention to the preservation of innocence and humility. Homer makes Minerva address Telemachus in a style the converse of that which is adopted by the modern

* Book I. 14.
De Gest. Pontif. Anglic. Lib. V.
Lebeuf, Hist. du Diocèse de Paris, Tom. I. chap. v.

guides of youth, though similar to that which was common in Christian ages: she says to him, "Few sons are like their fathers; the greatest number are worse, and but very few better.* The young were willing to admit the justice of the ancient sentence, "In antiquis est sapientia, et in multo tempore prudentia." To respect age and every superior rank, and to be gracious and kind to inferiors, were duties from the observance of which the natural benevolence of youth was not prevented by any false theory of sophists or conventional rules of society. As for public and political affairs, even Socrates, though such a friend to the young, says that they are never qualified to take a part in them; and he alleges as a reason, that they admire and will follow any artful intriguer who may pursue his private ends under a specious show of virtue, whom good men will hate and fly from.† Aristotle also denies that young men can have political wisdom: "they can be geometricians and mathematicians, but not wise statesmen; for it is experience alone and length of age which can give political wisdom." With respect to reverence for age and kindness towards inferiors, we have abundant testimony to the disposition of the young during ages of faith. Eliu, who does not presume to speak to Job before his elder friends, might be taken to represent them in the former respect; and an instance of the latter kind may be seen in what is related of St. Martin, for when a youth, being forced to go to the wars along with the other sons of old soldiers whom the emperor Constantius commanded to be enrolled, he was sent by his father with a servant to wait upon him; the young Martin, however, treated him not like a servant but like a companion, serving him as much as he was served by him, pulling off his boots, cleaning his clothes, and serving him at table.§ Indeed, by the laws of chivalry, youth was trained to such services, and in this respect it was retained in that condition alluded to by St. Paul when he says, "Dico autem quanto tempore hæres parvulus est, nihil differt à servo cum sit dominus omnium."|| It was also a maxim of religion, expressly inculcated, that young people should be obliging, willing to serve, doing readily the duty which presents itself, and helping also a servant in his work as occasion may require. The remark of the cautious and selfish Cardan on this point is amusing: "Boys," he says, "are much better for your service than men, 'pueri sunt in omnibus, (præterquam gravibus) ministeriis, viris meliores; quia magis assidui, prompti, diligentes, obedientes, mundi, minoris sumtus; et verberari possunt.'"** But on the other hand, while youth was maintained in its proper degree of subordination, there was no concealment of the real benefits which an attention to its disposition might yield even to men of mature wisdom. There would have been wise men to agree with Plato without his implied censure where he says, "The old men, sitting with the young, are filled with cheerfulness and grace of manner, imitating the young that they may not seem disagreeable and imperious."†† Sir Henry Sidney says, in advice to his

* Od. II. 276.

De Repub. Lib. VIII.

Ribadeneira. Lives of the Saints, Novem. X.

Ethic. Lib. VI. cap. viii. | Ad Galat. IV.

Christian Instructions for Youth, p. 10. **Prudentia Civilis, cap. xxxix. ++De Repub.VIII.

son Robert, "In your travels seek the knowledge of the estate of every prince, court, and city that you pass through. Address yourself to the company to learn this of the elder sort, and yet neglect not the younger: by the one you shall gather learning, wisdom, and knowledge, by the other acquaintance, languages, and exercise," an advantage so feelingly appreciated by the bard of chivalry in the simple lines

And much I miss those sportive boys
Companions of my river joys,

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,

When thought is speech and speech is truth

St. Bernard begins his letter to a young man named Fulco, saying, “Inde lætari in adolescentia unde in senectute non poeniteat."* Under this direction there was nothing condemned or despised by the men of these ages in the simple pleasures of youth. Perhaps they too, at whose feet now sat disciples, were once the nimblest of the jocund band, used, long as it suited the unripened down that fledged their cheek, to be the foremost in every wild adventurous game, used to ply the hearty oar, to head the mimic chase, to sing, swimming, to the sound of the broken rushes, and each would now apply the poet's direction to himself

It was then that around me, though poor and unknown,

High spells of mysterious enchantment were thrown;
The streams were of silver, of diamond the dew,

The land was an Eden, for fancy was new.

Their wisdom would have approved of Heraclitus, when, after resigning the government of his city, which was torn with factions, and being found playing with some boys in a porch, he asked those who wondered at him, whether it was not better to play with such boys than govern such men? The writers of the middle ages indicate continually how deeply they can feel, from the purity and simplicity of their lives, the beauty of whatever belongs to the innocent joys of nature. Without any gloomy reflection on their own advanced progress in their human course, they love to describe the sportive raptures of the young. "Youth's smiling morn," they say, "enjoys a beautiful horizon; that magic distance is wondrous fair, so long as the soul has never been soiled by the world's base affection." The good abbot Desnay gave the money for Bayart's horses to his companion Bellabre, saying of the young page, "Car il a encore la barbe trop jeune pour manyer deniers." Here was assuredly a happy privilege, and one which the spirit of "the scholastic romantic ages" then secured for the young! Theirs was but one sentiment, "Bref. c'est un diablerie quant avarice procede l'honneur." The selfish prudence of Cardan saw clearly the distinctive quality of the young in this

*Epist. II.

La tres joyeuse, plaisante et recreative hystoire des faicts, gestes, triomphes et prouesses du bon chevalier, sans paeur et sans reprouche, le gentil Seigneur de Bayart. Chap. vii. Ibid. Chap. xxvi.