let chivalry be a vision-only let the spirit of the oracular dead, the soul of England, be restored, and let the plumed troop, and the bright banners, and the heart-stirring tournament, which made ambition virtue, be consigned to oblivion. But men ought not to reject the conclusion, because these premises are abandoned; they ought not to be insensible to the severe beauty of that solemn temple, because they may have been led to it through an enchanted garden of shadowy forms: they should remember that the destiny of man is often determined by the very passions which seem designed to reverse it. St. Augustine went to Milan, thinking that it was to teach rhetoric; but he was sent there to be converted by St. Ambrose: and young men may begin by suffering their thoughts to dwell on visionary scenes, and their imagination to kindle at Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream, and their feet to wander among the lofty fables and romances which recount, in solemn cantos, the deeds of knighthood; and all the while God may be leading them, as St. Anselm says, "through vanity to truth," " nitatem transimus ad veritatem."1 per va 66 For me, indeed, it was sufficient that what is now to be maligned was the religion of the Church; "Sed tu," I must say to the disciple of the modern philosophy, auctoritates contemnis, ratione pugnas. Patere igitur rationem meam cum tua ratione contendere." "This day," said Hannibal, when he moved the cup of poison to his lips, "will prove how changed are the manners of the Roman people. The fathers of these men gave warning to King Pyrrhus, to an armed enemy, who had troops in Italy, lest he should be destroyed by poison; these men have sent a consular ambassador, who has instigated Prusias to the crime of murdering his guest."2 A melancholy, but instructive example, which might teach even Christian people, that whatever may have been the heroic greatness of their ancestors, though their country may have been for ages the seat renowned for saints and chivalry, neither the holiness nor the heroism of former times will avail them, if the spirit, and the dignity, and 2 Livy, xxxix. 53. 1 St. Anselmi Epist. lib. ii. 25. T the innocence be not transmitted: that vain and worthless will be self-applause, and exultation, and all the pomp of material prosperity, if they should forfeit the grace of that Being, who can pull down the mighty, and confound the proud, and who determines in the balance of unerring justice the destiny and the fame of nations. 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