tever is most valuable in history, whether sacred,
ecclesiastical, or profane. No! This work extends farther; it presents
to the reader a mass of general information, digested and arranged with
an ability and a candor never surpassed. Here, no art, no science, is
left unnoticed. Chronology, criticism, eloquence, painting, sculpture,
architecture--in a word, whatever has occupied or distinguished man in
{008} times of barbarism or of civilization; in peace or in war; in the
countries which surround us, or in those which are far remote; in these
later ages, or in times over which centuries upon centuries have
revolved; all, all of these are treated of, not flippantly nor
ostentatiously, but with a sobriety and solidity peculiar to the writer
of this work.

But there is one quality which may be said to characterize "The Lives of
the Saints." It is this: that here the doctrines of the Catholic Church
are presented to us passing through the ordeal of time unchanged and
unchangeable, while her discipline is seen to vary from age to age; like
as a city fixed and immoveable, but whose walls, ramparts, and outworks,
undergo, from one period to another, the necessary changes, alterations,
or repairs. Here are pointed out the persecutions which the Saints
endured,--persecutions which patience overcame, which the power of God
subdued. Here are traced the causes of dissension in the Church; the
schisms and heresies which arose; the errors which the pride and
passions of bad men gave birth to; the obstinacy of the wicked,--the
seduction of the innocent,--the labors and sufferings of the just; the
conflicts which took place between light and darkness,--between truth
and error; the triumph, at one time of the city of God, at another, the
temporary exaltation of the empire of Satan. In this work, we see the
great and powerful leaders of God's people, the pastors and doctors of
the Church, displaying lights gives them from heaven, and exercising a
courage all-divine; while crowds of the elect are presented to us in
every age retiring from the world, hiding their lives with Christ in
God, and deserving, by their innocence and sanctity, to be received into
heaven until Christ, who was their life, will again appear, when they
also will appear along with him in glory. Here we behold the Apostles,
and their successors in the several ages, calling out to the nations who
sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, "Arise, thou who sleep eat,
an