THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 5I 



scriptorium could make the doings of the world known to him ; 

 all these with rare exceptions he wrote in Latin. 



Next to theological and ecclesiastical subjects, the favorite 

 studies of the middle ages were those endless cycles of romance 

 which surround the fall of Troy, King Arthur, Alexander the 

 Great, and Charlemagne. Of such themes medieval writers 

 never tired. But beyond the precincts of those cycles they 

 seldom passed. Ulfilas indeed in the fourth centui-y gave the 

 Barbarian Goths, a version of the scriptures in their own ton- 

 gue, and Eusebius, in the same age contributed a bold sketch 

 of the prechristian world ; but the time was then far distant 

 when the inner life of that world could be revealed in its own 

 literature. Ages passed, before the fossils of the rocks made 

 known the myriad forms of life that have peopled the earth. 

 But at length their story found listeners, and has in part been 

 told. And now it is believed that the forgotten fragmentary 

 signs and antiquities of priinitive peoples, after their long silence 

 in the dust of ages, have information to give concerning the 

 nature and history of man. 



By the year 1400, literary expression had ventured beyond 

 the boundary of the Latin tongue, and had produced in seven 

 of the vernacular languages of Europe works having inherent 

 vitality to become nuclei of seven literatures. Of these France 

 brought forth the greatest number; Italy, honoured at nearly 

 the same time with her trio of immortals, Dante, Petrarch, and 

 Boccaccio, gave proof of the brightest genius ; and England 

 withWycliffe's bible translations, and Chavicer's narrative poetry, 

 founded enduring corner stones for the stately fabric of her 

 literature. Before the time of printing, there were however 

 but few books in the tongue of the people. The library' of 

 Glastonbury Abbey, one of the best of that day, contained 

 in 1248, but four books in " the vulgar tongue," and these were 

 reported to be old and useless, — vetiista et iruitilia. And at 

 a later day, when Leland, by commission of Henry VIII, spent 

 six years of research in the libraries and colleges of England, 

 he found but a mere handful of books written in English. 

 Such lack of native literature shews how little regard, so late 



