INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

Ir seemed desirable, that the foregoing reflections upon the Bioscope should be accompanied by some rule of practical instruction, exhibiting that MANIFESTED WILL, to which it is our great concern to endeavour to conform our own wills during our present allotment of life *, I have therefore made choice of the following summary of that Will; which, as far as I have been able to discover, has never before appeared in an English translation. It is, the Epistle of PAULINUS, Bishop of Nola in Italy, about the year 400, to CELANTIA, a Roman lady of fashion, rank, and opulence; in reply to various letters, wherein she had earnestly solicited

* See Preliminary Chapter, p. 13.

him to draw out for her some short and distinct RULE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, which she might always have at hand, to govern her conversation with the world. In this valuable breviary of Christian excellence, the reader will behold what primitive Christianity was; before superstition, priestcraft, and a reviving passion for sensual worship, had begun to obscure and deface the Christian church.

The age of Paulinus was still that age, which, (to use the words of the Abbé du Fresnoy,) was "the most brilliant of Christianity; in which "Christians were only distinguished by the live"liness of their faith, and by the exemplary sim"plicity of their manners. It was not philosophy "that inspired their virtues; the generality of "the first Christians were nothing less than phi

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losophers, they were persons of the world, who

were touched by divine grace, and who sur"rendered themselves wholly to the maxims of "the Gospel. Ignorant of, or contemning, the

"doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras, which only "flattered the genius and the imagination, they

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gave up their hearts to the rules which were

prescribed by THE APOSTLES, or by THEIR SUCCESSORS.-Ce sont là les tems les plus brillans "du Christianisme; les fidèles ne se distinguant

que par une foi vive, et par une admirable sim"plicité de mœurs.-Ce n'est point la philosophie "qui leur inspire cette droiture de sentiment. "Les premiers Chrétiens n'étoient rien moins que "philosophes; c'étoient des gens du monde que "la grace touchoit, et qui s'abbandonoient aux "seules maximes de l'Evangile. Ignorant ou mé"prisant la doctrine de Platon, et de Pythagore, "qui ne flattoit que l'esprit et l'imagination; les "premiers Chrétiens se livroient intérieurement (6 aux régles, que leur préscrivoient les apôtres, 66 ou leurs successeurs."

PONTIUS PAULINUS, of Roman origin, and of a patrician and consular family established near Burdigala, (Bourdeaux,) in Gaul, was born A. D. 353.

He received his education from the Roman poet Ausonius, under whom he made an extraordinary progress in poetry and rhetoric. Many affectionate letters of the teacher to his pupil still survive. When Ausonius was called by the Emperor Valentinian to direct the education of his son Gratian, Paulinus quitted Burdigala, and proceeded to Rome; where he so highly distinguished himself by his pleadings at the bar, that, in the year 375, he was raised to the consular dignity; having been already invested with the senatorial, and being beloved by all the city. In the following year, he commenced his travels through the western provinces of the empire; in the course of which he contracted friendships, with St. Martin, St. Ambrose, and other eminent Christians of that age. About fifteen years afterwards, namely, in the year 391, he was baptized by Delphinus, Bishop of Burdigala; and having made large donations to the poor, he went a second time into Spain, and establishing himself at Barcino,