sopher with the sagacity
of a statesman, and a dramatist's appreciation of character, while in it
we miss nothing of that picturesque vividness and engaging simplicity
which belong to our early chroniclers; thus conferring upon England a
boon if possible greater than that bestowed upon Ireland in his lives of
St. Columba, St. Columbanus and other saints. It is thus that he
apportions the share which the Irish missionaries and the Roman had in
that great enterprise.

'En resumant l'histoire des efforts tentes pendant les soixante ans
ecoules depuis le debarquement d'Augustin jusqu'a la mort de Penda, pour
introduire le Christianisme en Angleterre, on constate les resultats que
voici. Des huit royaumes de la confederation Anglo-Saxonne, celui de
Kent fut seul exclusivement conquis et conserve par les moines romains,
dont les premieres tentatives, chez les Est-Saxons et les Northumbriens,
se terminerent par un echec. En Wessex et en Est-Anglie les Saxons a
l'ouest et les Angles a l'est furent convertis par l'action combinee de
missionnaires continentaux et de moines celtiques. Quant aux deux
royaumes Northumbriens' (Deira and Bernicia), 'a l'Essex et a la Mercie,
comprenant a eux seuls plus de deux tiers du territoire occupe par les
conquerants germains, ces quatre pays durent leur conversion definitive
exclusivement a l'invasion pacifique des moines celtiques, qui
n'avaient pas seulement rivalise de zele avec les moines romains, mais
qui, une fois les premiers obstacles surmontes, avaient montre bien plus
de perseverance et obtenu bien plus de succes.'[20] The only effort made
at that early period to introduce Christianity into the kingdom of the
South-Saxons was that of an Irish monk, Dicul, who founded a small
monastery at Bosham. It did not however prove successful.

There is something profoundly touching in the religious ties which
subsisted between England and Ireland during the seventh century, when
compared with the troubled relations of those two countries during many
a later age. If the memory of benefits received produces a kindly
feeling on the part of the recipient, that of benefits conferred should
exert the same influence on the heart of the bestower. To remember the
past, however disastrous or convulsed, is a nation's instinct, and its
duty no less, since a tribute justly due is thus paid to great actions
and to great sufferings in times gone by; nor among the wise and the
generous can the discharge of tha