ear that the Greek church invokes the saints, and
implores their intercession with God: "_Haud obscure ostendit_," says
Walchius, "_Graecos eo cultu prosequi homines in sanctorum ordinem
ascriptos, ut ilios incocent_." Bib. Theologica, vol. iii. 668. From the
Menaeon, and the Menologium, Raderus published a collection of pious and
entertaining narratives, under the title of _Viridarum Sanctorum_. It is
to be wished that some gentleman would employ his leisure in a
translation of it. We should then be furnished, from the works of the
Agiographists of the eastern church, with a collection of pious and
instructing narratives, similar to those in the well-known _Histoires
Choisies_. One of the most curious articles inserted in the _Acta
Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists, is the _Muscovite or Russian Calendar_,
with the engravings of the saints. It was first published by father
Possevin. He praises the Russians for the great attention to decency
which they observe in their pictures and engravings of holy subjects. He
mentions that the Russians, who accompanies him in his return to Rome,
observed with surprise in the Italian paintings of saints, a want of the
like attention. Father Papebroke, when he cites this passage, adopts the
remark, and loudly calls on Innocent XII. to attend to the general
decency of all public paintings and statues. _A Greek Calendar of the
Saints_ in hexameter verse accompanies the Russian Calendar, in the
_Acta Sanctorum_; both are illustrated with notes by father Pane broke.

IX. 6. We proceed to the _Lives of the Saints_, written by individuals.
For these our attention must be first directed to the Agiographists of
the Greek church. The eighth century may be considered as the period
when Grecian literature had reached its lowest state of depression; in
the ninth, Bardas Caesar, the brother of the empress Theodora, protected
letters; from that time they were constantly cultivated by the Greeks;
so that Constantinople, utile it was taken by Mahomet, was never without
its historians, poets, or philosophers. Compared with the writings of
the ancients, their compositions seem lifeless and unnatural; we look
among them in vain either for original genius or successful imitation.
Still they are entitled to our gratitude; many of the precious remains
of antiquity have come down to us only in their extracts and
abridgments; and their voluminous compilations have transmitted to us
much useful information which ha