Mr. Folsom is engaged in constructing a library-room in a house now in the process of erection, which will be likely to exhibit to great advantage his biblical treasures.

REV. DR. FORBES'S LIBRARY.

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THE remark seems just when applied to books as to men, "Show me your companions, and I will tell what you are," and it is peculiarly so, when, as in the present case, each volume has been selected by its owner, for his own especial use and study. This is principally a Theological library, valuable for its choice selection of the best books on almost every subject connected with the great science. In works in the original languages of the Christian fathers, it is well supplied, comprising, in the Benedictine edition, the complete works of St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and St. Bernard, and side by side with these, though in less perfect forms, those of St. Clement of Rome, St. Polycarp, St. Justin Martyr, St. Ignatius, St. Cyril, St. Cyprian, St Athanasius, Origen, and Tertullian. But a book of rarer value than these, is a beautiful edition, from the Vatican press, of the works of St. Ephrem the Syrian; Του εν άγιοις Πατρος ήμων Εφραιμ του Σύρου τα

EVOLOKONEVA TAνTA. Comprised in 6 vols. folio, bound

ευρισκόμενα παντα.

in vellum, with rubricated title-pages and occasional engravings, they form a splendid set of books. As but little may be known by the general reader of this writer, the following account of him, and of the edition of his works to be found in this library, is copied from Rose's Biographical Dictionary.

Having been present at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, he afterward, it is said, embraced the monastic life, and retiring to a convent in one of the mountains near Edessa, there composed most of his works. "He wrote a commentary on nearly all the books of the Old Testament, which is extant, and one on the New Testament, which has been lost. He wrote in Greek and Syriac. A complete edition of his works, with prolegomena, notes, and prefaces, was published at Rome, in 1736 and following years, in six volumes; the first under the editorship of Joseph Assemani and the five others under that of a Jesuit, named Father Benedict." This work cannot be passed without allusion to the fact that in the Necrosima sur Funèbres Canones of St. Ephrem, the scholar will often find all the elegance of Anacreon with the chastest Christian tone and sentiment. Coming down from the writings of the early ages, the collection contains a curious work of the ninth century, entitled Epistolæ Decretales Summorum Pontificum. The edition is in 3 vols. folio, printed

at Rome, in Edibus Populi Romani, 1591. These are the forged Decretals, now generally acknowl edged to be frauds, but once of great reputation. Chillingworth, Tillotson, and Mosheim lay great stress upon the influence they once exerted. Burns also, in his preface to his work on Ecclesiastical Law, refers to them. They were said to have been written by the Pontiffs of primitive times, in order that it might appear that the early bishops of Rome enjoyed those privileges which were afterward accorded to their successors. They were, however, actually the production of some later writer, who, in order to obtain respect for his invention, published them under the name and authority of Isidore, bishop of Seville in the seventh century. They have been refuted by Cardinal de Cusa, Baronius, Bellarmine, and Bina, and also by the pious and learned Fleury, in his Discourse sur l'Histoire Ecclésiastique. They were originally published by James Merlin at Paris in 1524. Ceillier has given an extended analysis of them in the 8th volume of l'Histoire Générale des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques.

Of writers of the middle ages, this library contains the Summa Totius Theologia of St. Thomas Aquinas, in one huge folio, printed at Lyons in 1608, as well as the Cursus Theologiæ, juxta mentem Divi Thomæ, opera et Studio F. Caroli Renati Billuart, in

10 vols. 8vo., Lyons, 1847; and beside these stand the ponderous tomes R. P. J. Poncii Commentarii in libros Sententiarum ad Mentem Scoti, 4 vols. folio, Paris, 1661. Though the philosophy of these men has been characterized as an unreal system, "a collection of principles, the data not of investigation and experience, but of a prescriptive authority," yet, as the master minds of a most important period of the world's history, they will always be held in respect. Of John Duns Scotus, Hooker has pronounced the eulogium in styling him "the wittiest of the school divines," whilst of Thomas Aquinas any age might justly be proud. The Encyclopedia Metropolitana, a witness not likely to be prejudiced in favor of the schoolmen, says of him, "If we are to judge of the philosopher from the intrinsic powers of mind displayed, independently of the results to be attained by him, which chiefly depend on the concourse of favorable circumstances, then may Aquinas be placed in the first rank of philosophy. If penetration of thought, comprehensiveness of views, exactness the most minute, an ardor of inquiry the most keen, a patience of pursuit the most unwearied, are among the merits of the philosopher, then may Aquinas dispute even the first place among the candidates for the supremacy in speculative science."

As to Theological writers of a later date, with