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This river takes its rise from one of the highest ice-mountains in Switzerland.

The species of Larch-tree here meant is called Sempervirens: The other larches are deciduis foliis.

Tip-toe. Shakespeare.

“Before we engage in worldly business, or any common amusements of life, let us be careful to consecrate the first-fruits of the day, and the very beginning of our holy thoughts unto the service of God.” St. Basil. .

Thomas à Kempis had no manifest infirmities of old-age, and retained his eye-sight perfect to the last.

All that I have ever been able to learn in Germany, upon good authority, concerning him, is as follows: He was born at Kempis, or Kempen, a small walled town in the dutchy of Cleves, and diocese of Cologn. His family-name was Hamerlein, which signifies in the German language a little Hammer. We find also that his parents were named John and Gertrude Hamerlein. He lived chiefly in the monastery of Mount St. Agnes; where his effigy, together with a prospect of the monastery, was engraven on a plate of copper that lies over his body. The said monastery is now called Bergh-Clooster, or, as we might say in English, Hill-Cloyster. Many strangers in their travels visit it. Kempis was certainly one of the best and greatest men since the primitive ages His Book of the Imitation of Christ has seen near forty Editions in the original Latin, and above sixty Translations have been made from it into modern languages.

Our author died August the 8th, 1471, aged 92 years.

In the engraving on copper above-mentioned, and lying over his grave, is represented a person respectfully presenting to him a label, on which is written a verse to this effect:

To which Kempis returns another strip of paper, inscribed as follows:

He was a canon regular of Augustins, and sub-prior of Mount St. Agnes' monastery. He composed his treatise On the Imitation of Christ in the sixty-first year of his age, as appears from a note of his own writing in the library of his convent.

Imitation of Christ, Lib. I, C. i.

“Solitude is the best school wherein to learn the way to Heaven.” St. Jerom.

“Worldly honours are a trying snare to men of an exalted station; of course their chief care must be, to put themselves out of the reach of envy by humility.” Nepotian.

“The pleasures of this world are only the momentary comforts of the miserable, and not the rewards of the happy.” St. August.

This Parenthesis was inserted by way of imitating the famous Parenthesis in Horace's Ode, which begins

“Even from the flower till the grape was ripe, hath my heart delighted in Wisdom.” Ecolus. C. li, V. 15.

A thin covering of the gause, or sarcenet-kind. Dryd. Cymon & Iphigen.

Jonah C. iv, V. 6.

This and the following passages marked with a note of reference are extracted almost verbatim from Kempis's Book of the Imitation of Christ. Lib. I, C. 1, 2. See also Lib. I, C. 19. 23.

“Death, when compared to life, seems to be a remedy and not a punishment.” St. Macar.

On the same point another Primitive Christian hath observed, “That the Supreme Being made life short; since, as the troubles of it cannot be removed from us, we may the sooner be removed from them.” St. Bernard.

“Dost thou fear poverty? Christ calls the poor man blessed.— —Art thou afraid of labour? Pains are productive of a crown. —Art thou hungry? A true confidence in God fears no famine: —for the Supreme Governour of the world beholds thy warfare; and prepares for thee a crown of glory and everlasting rest.”— Hieron. in Epist.

L. II, Thom, à Kempis.

Perseverance is an image of eternity.” St. Bernard.

Imitat. of Christ, L. III, C. 5. Ibid. C. 19, No. 1.

See also Caussin's Holy Court, Part I, L. 3, Sect. 32, Fol. 1650.

“True christian piety was never made a real captive; it may be killed, but cannot be conquered.” St. Jerom.

“The retired christian, in seeking after an happy life, actually enjoys one; and possesses that already which he only fancies he is pursuing.” St. Eucher.

“Drink waters out of thine own cisterns. Prov. C. v, V. 15. See also Rev. C. xxii, V. 1. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.” See John C. vii, V. 38.

Imitat. of Jesus Christ, L. I, C. 6.

Imitat. of Jesus Christ, Lib. II, C. 10.

“The only means of obtaining true security is to commit all our interests to God, who constantly knows and is ever willing to bestow good things on them that ask him as they ought.”

“Security is no-where but in the love and service of God. It is neither in Heaven, nor Paradise, much less in the present world. In Heaven the Angels fell from the divine presence: In Paradise Adam lost his abode of pleasure: In the world Judas fell from the school of our Saviour.” St. Bernard.

St. August. The ten lines marked with inverted commas are a literal translation from him.

“It is good to know much and live well: but, if we cannot attain both, it is better to desire piety than learning: for knowledge makes no man truly happy, nor doth happiness consist in intellectual acquisitions. The only valuable thing is a religious life.” Sti. Greg. Magn. Moral.

And again: “That only is the best knowledge which makes us better.”

Imitat. of Christ.

Ibid.

Imitat. of Jesus Christ, L. II, C. 10.

As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. Prov. xxvii, V. 19. “Thou canst avoid, sooner or later, whatever molesteth Thee, except Thy own conscience.” Augustin. in Psalm xxx.

Imitat. of Jesus Christ, L. I, C. 13.

“God causeth (afflictions) to come, either for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.” Job C. xxxvii, V. 13.

“It is the work and providence of God's secret counsel, that the days of the Elect should be troubled in their pilgrimage. This present life is the way to our eternal abode: God therefore in his secret wisdom afflicts our travel with continual trouble, lest the delights of our journey might take away the desire of our journey's end.” Sti. Greg. Mag.

“No servant of Christ is without affliction. If you expect to be free from persecution, you have not yet so much as begun to be a Christian.” St. August.

Imitat. of Christ, L. I, C. 11.

Imitat. of Christ, ibid. See also Gen C. viii, V. 11.

Imitat. of Christ, L. I, C. 13.

Ibid. Lib. I, C. 16. Lib. III, C. 12. See also Amos C. ix. V. 3, and Luke C. xxii, V. 31.

Imitat. of Christ, L. III, C. 5.

Ibid.

“For Gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.” Ecclus. C. ii, V. 5.

Imitat. of Christ, L. III, C. 5.

Exod. C. II, V. 5.

“He that gathereth by defrauding his own soul, gathereth for others, that shall spend his goods riotously. A covetous man's eye is not satisfied with his portion, and the iniquity of the wicked drieth up his soul.” Ecclus. C. xiv.

“Ahab's excuse to Naboth, when he said give me thy vineyard that I may make it a garden of herbs, represents in a lively manner the pretences that avaricious and ambitious men use, when they want to make new acquisitions. They lye to their consciences; asking a seeming trifle, and meaning to obtain something very valuable.” St. Ambrrose.”

“Woe unto them that covet fields, and take them away by violence.” Micah C. ii, V. 2.

“They enlarge their desire as hell, and are as death, and cannot be satisfied: Woe unto them that encrease that which is not theirs.” Hab. C. ii, V. 5, 6.

Imitat. of Jesus Christ, L. I, C. 3.

—Neque decipitur, neque decipit unquam. Manil.

“There is no work that shews more art and industry than the texture of a spider's web. The delicate threads are so nicely disposed, and so curiously interwoven one with another, that you would think it produced by the labour of a celestial Being; yet nothing in the event is more fragil and insubstantial. A breath of wind tears it to pieces, and carries it away. Just so are worldly acquisitions made by men in exalted stations, and reputedly wise and cunning.” Origen.

Dan. C. viii, V. 10, 11.

The Prophet here means, by the Goat, the King of Greece, the region of vain philosophy.

“He that loveth himself most, hath of all men the happiness of finding the fewest rivals.” Anon. Vet.

“He that pleaseth himself, pleaseth a fool.”

“There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth; and there is that witholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Prov. C. xi, V. 24.

“The riches which thou treasurest up, are lost; those which thou charitably bestowest, are truly thine.” St. August.

Haggai C. i, V. 6.

Paula was a Roman lady descended from the Gracchi and Scipios. Her husband was of the Julian race. After his decease, she gave most of her possessions to the poor, and retired from Rome to a solitude at Bethlehem. That incomparable virgin Eustochium was her daughter. Both their Histories are drawn at large by St. Jerom, and addressed to Euslochium. Paula has written some excellent verses on religious subjects.

She built a temple at Emmäus in honour of our Blessed Saviour. Her tomb is at Bethlehem. The inscription for her and her daughter was written by St. Jerom. Sandy's Trav. fol. 135, 139, &c.

The name of the monastery where Kempis resided.

Part of this Paragraph, printed in Italics, is copied from Job C. xx, V. 14, 15, 18. Compare also Job C. xxvii, V. 19, 20, 21.

Gold of Ophir. See 1 Kings C. ix, V. 28. 1 Chron. xxix, V. 4. 2 Chron. viii, V. 18. Psalm xlv, V. 9. Isaiah xiii. V. 12.

Turquoises. “The true oriental turquoise comes out of the old rock in the mountains of Piriskua, about eighty miles from the town of Moscheda.” Hist. of Gust. Adolph. Vol. II, p. 342.

Rubies. “Nazarites, more ruddy than rubies.” Lam. C. iv, V. 7.

Emeralds. “A rain-bow in sight like an emerald.” Rev. C. iv, V. 3.

Berryl. Dan. C. x, V. 6. Rev. xxi, V. 20.

Chrysolite. Ezek. C. xxviii.

Sardonyx. Rev. C. xxi, V. 20.

Amethist. Exod. C. xxviii, V. 19. Ibid. C. xxxix, V. 12.

Ezek. C. xxviii, V. 13, and Rev. xxi. V. 20.

The port of Leriché, in Tuscany.

“One way to know God is perfectly to know one's self.” Hugo de anima.

“Why dost thou wonder, O man, at the height of the stars, or depth of the sea? Examine rather thine own soul, and wonder there.” Isidor.

Imitat. of Christ, L. II, C. 1–3.

“It is not only difficult but impossible to enjoy Heaven here and hereafter; or, in other words, to live in pleasure and dissipation, and at the same time attain spiritual happiness. No man hath passed from one Paradise to another: No man hath been the mirror of felicity in both worlds, nor shone with equal glory in earth and in heaven.” Hieron.

Imitat. of Christ, L, I, C. 24.

Ibid. L. I, C. 21.

Imitat. of Christ, L. I, C. 21.

Ibid.

Ibid. L. I, C. 6.

Ibid. L. II, C. 3.

See Ezek. C. i.

Ezek. C. i, V. 12.

Ibid. C. iii, V. 1, 2, 3.

1 Sam. C. xiv, V. 29.

Imitat. of Christ, L. II, C. 3.

“To return one injury for another is to revenge like man: Whereas to revenge like God is to love our enemies. It is a great happiness not to be able to hurt one's neighbour, nor to have the power and parts to do mischief. The ingenuity of [what we call] men of the world, consists in knowing how to injure others, and revenge ourselves when injured. Whereas, on the contrary, not to return evil for evil is the true honour and vital principle of the Gospel.” Leon.

Jude V. 9. Zech. C. iii, V. 2.

Hosea C. viii, V. 7. Hind is the head-servant in husbandry-matters. Chaucer, Dryden, and in the west of England at present.

Isaiah C. lix, V. 4.

Matth. C. x, V. 28.

Imitat. of Christ, L. I, C. 11. L. II, C. 23.

“Instead of standing still, going backward, or deviating, always add, always proceed: Not to advance, in some sense is to retire. It is better to creep in the right way than fly in the wrong way.” St. August. in Serm.

Imitat. of Christ, L. I, C. 25.

Man.

“And Jacob took the stones of that place and put them for his pillows.” Gen. C. xxxviii, V. 2.

Amos C. vii, V. 14.

Kempisii dictum commune. “Beneficia pulveri; si quid mali patimur, marmori insculpimus.”

“A Christian hath no to-morrow; that is to say, a Christian should put off no duty till to-morrow.” Tertull.

Imitat. of Christ, L. I, C. 25.

Imitat. of Christ L. II, C. 28. See John C. ii, V. 28.

“There is a sort of seeming Good, which, if a rational mind loves, it sinneth; inasmuch as it is an object beneath the consideration of such a mind.” St. August. de Ver. Relig.

“Whatever is not loved on account of its own intrinsic worth, is not properly loved.” Idem in Soliloq. L. I, C. 13.

“In this life there is no virtue but in loving that which is truly amiable. To chuse this, is prudence; to be averted from it by no terrifying circumstances, is fortitude. To be influenced by no sort of temptation, is temperance; and to be affected by no ambitious views, is considering the thing with impartial justice as we ought to do.” Idem de Ver. Felicitat. L. II.

Imitat. of Christ, L. II, C. 11, No. 1.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Matth. C. viii, V. 34.

Ibid.

“It is common for man to ask every blessing that God can bestow, but he rarely desires to possess God Himself.” Aug. in Pselm lxxvi.

Imitat. of Christ, L. II, C. 2. No. 1.

Ibid. See also C. 12.