think of our last hour and to shake off the sleep of the soul, and, being learned in our poetry, he said some things also in our tongue. " Fore the neid faræ than him tharf sie To ymbhycgannæ ær his hin ionga Huæt his gastæ godæs æththa yflæs Efter deothdæge doemid uueorthæ. Before the need journey No one is ever Ere his going hence Of good or of evil 'During these days he laboured to compose two works well worthy to be remembered, viz. he translated the Gospel of St. John as far as the words "But what are these among so many?" into our tongue for the benefit of the Church, and some collections out of the Book of Notes of Bishop Isidorus, saying, "I will not have my pupils read a falsehood, nor labour therein without profit after my death." When the Tuesday before the Ascension came he began to suffer still more in his breath, and a small swelling appeared in his feet, but he passed all that day and dictated cheerfully, saying, "Go on quickly; I know not how long I shall hold out," and when the morning of Wednesday came he bade us write with all speed what he had begun. He passed the day joyfully till the evening, and a boy said, "Dear master, there is yet one sentence not written." He answered, "Write quickly." Soon after the boy said, "The sentence is now finished." He replied, “It is well, you have said the truth. It is finished. Receive my head into your hands, for it is a great satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy place, where I was wont to pray." And thus on the pavement of his little cell, singing "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," when he had named the Holy Ghost he breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom.' Bæda's works are in Latin; they are very numerous, and on many different subjects. The greater number were commentaries and expositions of books of Scripture, but he also wrote works on chronology, astrology, poetry, and rhetoric. Biography was a favourite subject with him, and he wrote the Lives of St. Cuthbert and St. Felix, and also the Lives of the abbots of his own monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. 6 But his greatest work is the noble Ecclesiastical History of the English People,' with its beautiful pictures of the introduction of Christianity into England. CÆDMON. BEDA gives the following account of Cadmon:-' In the minster of this abbess [Hild] was a certain brother who was singularly graced with a divine gift of making songs pertaining to piety and virtue, and by his poems the hearts of many men were incited to a contempt of the world and to the companionship of the heavenly life. And also after him many others among English folk began to make pious songs, but none so well as he, for it was not through men that he received the faculty of song, but he was divinely helped.' Bæda goes on to tell that the man was formerly a neatherd, with no power of song, and that he was wont to steal away from the company when his turn came to play on the harp and sing. And on such a night one appeared to him in a dream and said, Cadmon, sing to me somewhat.' He said, 'I cannot sing;' but he who spoke said, 'Still you must sing to me.' 'What shall I sing?' said Cædmon, and the answer was, 'Sing the Creation.' Then Cædmon began to sing in praise of the Creator verses which he had never heard before, and which when repeated the next day excited the wonder of all who heard them. The verses are given in Latin by Bæda, and in West Saxon by King Alfred in his translation of Bæda, and they are written in what is believed to be their original Northumbrian form on the last page of a manuscript of Bæda's work which is thought to date back to 737. The verses are:-- Nu scylun hergan hefæn ricas uard metudæs mæcti sue he uundra gihuæs eci dryctin or astelidæ. He ærist scop firum foldu frea allmectig. Now must we praise the work of the glorious father formed the beginning. for earth's children afterwards produced for men the earth Lord Almighty. In these lines we see the characteristics of early Anglo-Saxon poetry: the short abrupt lines, more like interjections than sentences, the absence of connecting particles, and the repetition of the same idea in varied phrases. Thus in the eighteen lines eight express God, three the making of the earth, and three the earth itself. The Ruthwell Cross.-In the parish of Ruthwell, near Dumfries, is an ancient cross which was carved and set up, so it is thought, about the year 680. It was adorned with scenes from the Gospels, and on the sides were runic inscriptions which no one could read. For ages it stood within the church, but was thrown down. and broken in 1642, and served as a seat for the worshippers for another century. Then it was removed to the manse garden, the broken fragments were restored as well as they might be, and in 1840 Kemble deciphered the runes, and found they were some forty lines of a Northumbrian poem on the Rood. About the same time there was discovered at Vercelli in the Milanese an ancient manuscript book of Anglo-Saxon poems, and among them one of great beauty, which contained the fragments carved on the Ruthwell cross. The top stone of the cross has a runic inscription, which was till lately overlooked. It is Cadmon mæ fauæpo,' 'Cadmon made me,' and this is taken not unreasonably to prove that Bæda's Cædmon was the author of this beautiful poem. The poet dreams a wonderful dream: puhte me dat ic gesáwe sellic treów on lyft lædan Methought I saw leohte bewunden beáma beorhtost: eall Sæt beácen wæs Hwære ic purh dæt gold Sæt hit ærest ongann swætan on a swiðran healfe. with light rays mantling all that beacon was Yet I through that gold of the grim ones the ancient strife that it first began to trickle from its right side. The food itself begins to speak, and tells of its horror and that of all nature when Christ was crucified. Scírne sciman sceadu forbeóde wann under wolcnum weóp eall gesceaft cwiddon cyninges fill: Crist was on róde. The bright rays wan under clouds wept all creation bewailed the slaughter of the king: Christ was on the cross. The poem closes with a solemn dedication by the poet of himself to God's service. Bæda, continuing his account of Cædmon, says that the abbess directed that he should leave the secular life, and she bade the brothers teach him the whole course of the sacred history; and Cædmon, thinking over all that he heard, and, like a clean beast chewing the cud, turned it all into the sweetest song, which was so delightful to hear that his very teachers wrote it down from his lips and learned it. He sang first of the creation of the earth, and of mankind, and all the story of Genesis, and then the outgoing of Israel from Egypt and the entry into the land of promise, and many other stories from the holy book; also he sang of Christ's birth and His sufferings, and the ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the teaching of the apostles; also |