10 OUR HYMNS :
vices of a corrupt age do not escape the poet s satire. "But," says Dr. Neale, " as a contrast to the misery and pollution of earth, the poem opens with a description of the peace and glory of heaven, of such rare beauty as not easily to be matched by any media} val composition on the same subject."
This poem, as a whole, is open to the objection that throughout so many verses it still circles about the same subject without any marked progress of thought. But this favourite part is placed beyond the region of criticism by the dying commendation of those who have found in it the adequate expression of what Trench has happily called their "heavenly home-sickness."
Dr. Neale, whose opinion is second to none, says " I have no hesitation in saying that I look on these verses of Bernard as the most lovely, in the same way that the " Dies Irao" is the most sublime, and the " Stabat Mater" the most pathetic of mediaeval poems."
��THOMAS AQUINAS. 12271274.
THOMAS of Aquino, in Naples, was son of Landulf, count of Aquino, who was nephew of the emperor. At thirteen, he went to study at the University of Naples, and at the age of fifteen, without consulting his parents, he joined the order of Dominican preaching friars. When his mother endeavoured to prevent the completion of this arrangement, he hastened away to Home, and then towards Paris. But on the way he was seized by his brothers and brought back. Interference and delay did not, how ever, prevent him from carrying out his cherished purpose. And at length, by the intercession of the emperor and the pope, his parents were prevailed upon to give their consent.
At the age of sixteen, he went to Cologne to hear the lectures of Albertus Magnus, and was recognized by his teacher as des tined to accomplish great things. In 1253 Aquinas went to
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