ession, "by their lone," I may urge its
expressiveness, the absence of an equivalent, and the fact that it may
still be heard in remote places. Where possible, I have retained the
archaic order of the original Text. Such irregular constructions, as
_e.g._, the use of a singular pronoun in the first half of a sentence,
and of a plural in the second half, I have left unaltered; for the
meaning was perfectly clear. In short, I have endeavoured to make
Richard Rolle as he was as significant as possible to English men and
women of to-day as they are, when they are not professed students of
English language. In such an undertaking, it is obvious that I must have
presented endless vulnerable places to the learned. I can only repeat
that the book was never meant for them, but for those who will perhaps
forgive me if I describe them as specialists in religious thought
rather than in English Language.

The rendering is made from the texts printed by Professor Horstman in
his _Library of Early English Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole an
English Father of the Church_.

GERALDINE E. HODGSON.

_The University, Bristol,
S. Mary Magdalene, 1910._

Contents.

PAGE.

Preface vii.

Introduction xi.

The Form of Perfect Living 1

Our Daily Work (a Mirror of Discipline).
(_From the Arundel MS._) 83

On Grace. (_From the Arundel MS._) 169

An Epistle on Charity 185

Contrition 190

Scraps from the Arundel MS. 192

Introduction.

Richard Rolle of Hampole is the earliest in time of our famous English
Mystics. Born in or about 1300, he died in 1349, seven years after
Mother Julian of Norwich was born. Walter Hilton died in 1392.

An exhaustive account of Rolle's life is given in Vol. ii. of Professor
Horstman's Edition of his works, a book unfortunately out of print. The
main facts are recorded in a brief "Life" appended to Fr. R. Hugh
Benson's _A Book of the Love of_ JESUS. Therefore, it will suffice to
say here that Richard Rolle seems to have been born at Thornton, near
Pickering, in Yorkshire, in or about 1300; that, finding the atmosphere
of Oxford University uncongenial, he left it, and for some four years
was supported, as a hermit, by the Dalton Family. By th