not the foundation of a
correct knowledge--these subtilties which you so highly extol, are
manifoldly pernicious, as Seneca truly affirms,--_Odibilius nihil est
subtilitate ubi est soloe subtilitas_. What indeed is the use of these
things in which you say he spends his days--either at home, in the army,
at the bar, in the cloister, in the church, in the court, or indeed in
any position whatever, except, I suppose, the schools?" Seneca says, in
writing to Lucalius, "_Quid est, inquit acutius arista et in quo est
utiles!_"[338] In many letters we find him quoting the classics with the
greatest ease, and the most appropriate application to his subject; in
one he refers to Ovid, Persius, and Seneca,[339] and in others, when
writing in a most interesting and amusing manner of poetic fame and
literary study, he extracts from Terence, Ovid, Juvenal, Horace, Plato,
Cicero, Valerius Maximus, Seneca, etc.[340] In another, besides a
constant use of Scripture, which proves how deeply read too he was in
Holy Writ, he quotes with amazing prodigality from Juvenal, Frontius,
Vigetius, Dio, Virgil, Ovid, Justin, Horace, and Plutarch.[341] Indeed,
Horace was a great favorite with the archdeacon, who often applied some
of his finest sentences to illustrate his familiar chat and epistolary
disquisitions.[342] It is worth noticing that in one he quotes the Roman
history of Sallust, in six books, which is now lost, save a few
fragments; the passage relates to Pompey the Great.[343] We can scarcely
refrain from a smile at the eagerness of Archdeacon Peter in persuading
his friends to relinquish the too enticing study of frivolous plays,
which he says can be of no service to the interest of the soul;[344] and
then, forgetting this admonition, sending for tragedies and comedies
himself, that he might get them transcribed.[345] This puts one in mind
of a certain modern divine, whose conduct not agreeing with his doctrine,
told his hearers not to do as he did, but as he told them. It appears
also equally ludicrous to find him upbraiding a monk, named Peter of
Blois, for studying the pagan authors: "the foolish old fables of
Hercules and Jove," their lies and philosophy;[346] when, as we have
seen, he read them so ravenously, and so greatly borrowed from them
himself. But then we must bear in mind that the archdeacon had also well
stored his mind with Scripture, and certainly always deemed _that_ the
first and most important of all his studies, whi