Sentences, containing religious doctrines collected from the writings of the Fathers of the Church. In this work theological contradictions are reconciled and difficulties removed. From the fame of his authorship, Peter Lombard was known as the 'Master of the Sentences.' 444. Scotists and Thomists. Thomas Aquinas, 'the Angelic Doctor,' was born in Italy in 1227. As a young man he entered the Dominican order, and obtained from the university of Paris the title of Doctor in Theology. He lectured in Paris and in various Italian universities. He died in 1274 and was canonized half-a-century later. A Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard forms one of the monuments of his genius and industry. John Duns Scotus, 'the Subtle Doctor,' was born about the year 1265, probably in Scotland. He was educated by the Franciscans and afterwards studied at Oxford, where, in 1301, he became professor of Theology. His fame attracted vast crowds to his lectures on the 'Sentences of Peter Lombard.' By order of the Franciscan authorities he removed to Paris, and there again he acquired immense reputation. A few years later he was received with enthusiasm at Cologne, where he died in 1308. Duns Scotus was the chief glory of the Franciscans; Thomas Aquinas of the Dominicans. Scotists and Thomists divided the medieval schools between them. Duns Scotus had a profound knowledge of law, philosophy, theology, and mathematics. His Opera Positiva still remains in manuscript: his Opera Speculativa was published, in 1639, in twelve folio volumes, of which the prelections on Peter Lombard fill six. It may seem strange that the name of Duns, whose intellect was one of the acutest that the world has known, should be perpetuated in our vocabulary by the word 'dunce.' This etymological injustice arises from the fact that, in the days of the Reformation, the Scotists, who` hitherto had controlled the universities, were looked upon by the reformers as professors of a barren system of philosophy and obstructives of the New Learning. Hence a cavilling opponent was called a 'Duns man,' and the term gradually extended its meaning till it denoted any obstinately dull person. 445. Duck-lane, a place where old and second-hand books were sold formerly, near Smithfield. cob-web, i.e. ‘attercop-web.' The old word for spider was 'attercop,' from atter, 'poison,' cop, 'head.' 447. mode, from Lat. modus, 'a mode,' or 'way,' signified (1) 'a way' of doing anything, (2) 'the customary way,' 'the fashion.' Bagehot has some interesting remarks on fashions in literature, changes of "modes in wit,' as Pope calls them: "I spoke of the mode," he says, "in which the literary change happens... Some writer, as was explained, not necessarily a very excellent writer or a remembered one, hit on something which suited the public taste; he went on writing, and others imitated him, and they so accustomed their readers to that style that they would bear nothing else. Those readers who did not like it were driven to the works of other ages and other countries,—had to despise the 'trash of the day,' as they would call it. The age of Anne patronised Steele, the beginner of the essay, and Addison its perfecter, and it neglected writings in a wholly discordant key. I have heard that the founder of the 'Times' was asked how all the articles in the 'Times' came to seem to be written by one man, and that he replied—'Oh, there is always some one best contributor, and all the rest copy.' And this is doubtless the true account of the manner in which a certain trade mark, a curious and indefinable unity, settles on every newspaper.... The regular buyers of a periodical want to read what they have been used to read-the same sort of thought, the same sort of words. The editor sees that they get that He selects the suitable, the conforming articles, and he rejects the non-conforming. What the editor does in the case of a periodical, the readers do in the case of literature in general. They patronise one thing and reject the rest. sort. "Of course there was always some reason (if we could only find it) which gave the prominence in each age to some particular winning literature. There always is some reason why the fashion, of female dress is what it is. But just as in the case of dress we know that now-a-days the determining cause is very much of an accident, so in the case of literary fashion, the origin is a good deal of an accident. What the milliners of Paris enjoin, is (I suppose) a good deal chance; but as soon as it is decreed, those whom it suits and those whom it does not all wear it. The imitative propensity at once insures uniformity; and that horrid thing we wore last year' (as the phrase may go) is soon nowhere to be seen. Just so a literary fashion spreads, though I am far from saying with equal primitive unreasonableness—a literary taste always begins on some decent reason, but once started, it is propagated as a fashion in dress is propagated; even those who do not like it read it because it is there, and because nothing else is easily to be found." (Physics and Politics, pp. 87-90: see also pp. 31-6.) 449. prove had originally the meaning of the Lat. probare, from which it is derived, viz. 'to test,' 'to judge of.' So, Luke xiv. 19, “1 have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them," i.e. 'to make trial of them.' Again, 1 Thessal. v. 21, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good,” ¿.e. ‘test all things.' Similarly in the proverb, "The exception proves the rule," Exceptio probat regulam, 'proves' means 'tests,' not as it is supposed to mean nine times out of ten when the saying is quoted, 'The exception is evidence that the rule is correct,' which is absurd. Hence the word acquired other meanings identical with those of approve; see note to 1. 391, p. 121. 448-451. An obscure passage. (1) Warburton interprets it to mean that "the writer, when he finds his readers disposed to take ready wit on the standard of current folly, never troubles himself to think of better payment." In other words, Popular opinion on literary matters is by no means correct; but, unsound though it is, no other instrument exists by which an author's ability can be brought to the test. Hence, as literary judgments are pronounced by fools, an author feels that, so long as the fools are amused, his reputation is safe. Here "proves" is taken in its primary sense, as 'tests.' (2) Mr T. Arnold explains the lines thus: "He who paints current follies gains laughter and applause; but after a few years the jokes seem frigid, and the wit forced." Here "proves" has its ordinary modern sense, 'affords evidence of.’ But it seems rather a violent proceeding to take "the current folly" as equivalent to 'the representation of the current folly.' 459. parsons: the words parson and person were originally the same. The parson is persona ecclesiae, 'the representative of the church.' beau makes its plural as beaus or beaux. The word is of modern introduction and retains the French pronunciation. The English pronunciation appears in the kindred word beauty. The term beau was used at first to denote a dandy: "Besides thou art a Beau. What's that, my child? A Fop, well-dress'd, extravagant, and wild." (Dryden, Translation of Persius, Satires, IV. 42.) Afterwards beau was applied to a suitor as well as to a dandy. By the "parsons" who "against Dryden rose" Pope probably means Collier and Milbourn. Jeremy Collier (1650-1726), wrote A Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage, in which he "distributes his swashing blows right and left among Wycherley, Congreve, and Vanbrugh, treads the wretched D'Urfey down in the dirt beneath his feet, and strikes with all his strength full at the towering crest of Dryden... At a later period Dryden mentioned the Short View in the preface to his Fables. He complained, with some asperity, of the harshness with which he had been treated, and urged some matters in mitigation. But, on the whole, he frankly acknowledged that he had been justly reproved. 'If,' said he, ‘Mr Collier be my enemy, let him triumph. If he be my friend, as I have given him no personal occasion to be otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance.' (Macaulay, Essays, 'Comic Dramatists of the Restoration,' Vol. II. p. 170. The story is told also in Johnson's Life of Dryden, p. 158.) 939 66 Blackmore and Luke Milbourn (di. 1720) is described sarcastically by Pope, in a note to the Dunciad (Book II. 349), as "a Clergyman, the fairest of Critics; who when he wrote against Mr Dryden's Virgil, did him justice in printing at the same time his own translations of him, which were intolerable." To Blackmore and Milbourn, Dryden makes the following genial reference in the Preface to his Fables: As for the rest of those who have written against me, they are such scoundrels that they deserve not the least notice to be taken of them. Milbourn are only distinguished from the crowd by being remembered to their infamy." A man who took criticism in this healthy spirit was not likely to suffer much from his assailants, provided that they stopped short of hiring bravoes with bludgeons for the attack. "Neither criticks nor rivals," says Johnson, "did Dryden much mischief, unless they gained from his own temper the power of vexing him, which his frequent bursts of resentment give reason to suspect." (Life, p. 146.) It was through much tribulation, and only partially even then, that Dryden came round to the wise opinion afterwards expressed by Bentley, that "no one was ever written out of reputation except by himself." Of "critics" and " "beaus we may mention the following :- George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1627—1687), who, in his play the Rehearsal, produced in 1671, ridiculed Dryden as “Mr Bayes,” for the bombast of his heroic dramas. Ten years later Dryden had his tit-for-tat with the Duke and hit him off in lines which will last as long as the language. Under the name of Zimri, in Absalom and Achitophel, Buckingham is described as "A man so various that he seemed to be But in the course of one revolving moon, Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon." To this satire the Duke angrily replied the following year in his Poetic Reflections, "by a Person of Honour." In a celebrated passage, abounding in picturesque touches, Pope describes how, "in the worst inn's worst room," 66 There, Victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends." (Moral Essays, Epist. 111. 299-314.) As a fact Buckingham was seized with sudden illness when out hunting, and died in a tenant's house at Kirkby Moorside. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647—1680), whose ability was almost as great as his character was infamous, "to suppress the reputation of Dryden, took Settle under his protection and endeavoured to persuade the publick that its approbation had been to that time misplaced." (Johnson, Life of Dryden, p. 146.) In 1679 an Essay upon Satire appeared, really written by Mulgrave (see p. 151) but in which Dryden at the time of publication was supposed to have had a hand. Of Rochester one of the couplets says― "To ev'ry face he cringes while he speaks, And when the back is turned the head he breaks." In retaliation Rochester did his best to break Dryden's head, for he caused him to be waylaid and beaten by a gang of bullies. Richard Blackmore (di. 1729) was a poor poet, but an honest man and of some repute as a physician. William III. conferred a knighthood upon him. As an author his industry was untiring and the consequent literary output enormous. He attacked Dryden, not without just cause, for his indecency. In his youth Blackmore had been obliged to turn to schoolmastering in order to make ends meet, and in the days of his prosperity this episode in his career was often brought up against him as a taunt: "In vain his drugs as well as birch he tried; His boys grew blockheads and his patients died.” Johnson has written his Life. Elkanah Settle (1648—1724), whom one is compelled by paucity of vocabulary to describe as a poet and dramatist, was engaged in constant |