THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 345 



{landing, which he had cultivated, every hour of his life, by 

 ftudy or practice. 



Besides ponemng univerfal knowledge in fcholaftic divini- 

 ty, and the books belonging to his profeffion, he underftood 

 Greek, Latin, and Arabic well, was a good mathematician, an 

 excellent mechanic, wrought always with his own hands, 

 and in building was at once a careful, active labourer, and an 

 architect of refined tafle and judgment. He was, by his 

 own fludy and induflry, painter, mafon, carver, carpenter, 

 fmith, farrier, quarrier, and was able to build convents and 

 palaces, and furnifh them without calling one workman to 

 his amftance ; and in this manner he is faid to have furnifh- 

 ed the convent at Collela, as alfo the palace and convent at 

 Gorgora. 



With all thefe accomplifhments, he was fo affable, com- 

 panionate, and humble in his nature, that he never had op- 

 portunity of converfing, even with heretics, without leaving 

 them his friends. He was remarkably chearful in his tem- 

 per ; and the moll forward always in promoting innocent 

 mirth, of that puerile fpecies which we in England call fun 7 

 in great requeft among the young men in Abymnia, who 

 fpend much of their time in this fort of converfation, whe- 

 ther in the city or the camp. Above all, he was a patient, 

 diligent inftructor of youth ; and the greatefl part of his dif- 

 ciples died in the persecution that foon followed, refolutely 

 maintaining the truths of that religion their preceptor fxrfl 

 had taught them. In a word, he was the hinge upon which 

 the Catholic religion turned. He had found the feeds of it 

 fown in the country for a hundred years before his time, 

 which had borne little fruit, and was then apparently on 



Vol. II. Xx the 



