How dare they spend time on
cherishing the painted veil called Life, when their desires are fixed on
what it conceals? When Tacitus called the Christian religion "a deadly
superstition," he spoke as a true Roman, a member of the race of Empire-
builders. His subtle political instinct scented danger from those who
looked with coldness on the business and desire of this world. The
Christian faith, which presents no social difficulties while it is
professed here and there by a lonely saint or seer, is another thing when
it becomes the formal creed of a nation. The Christians themselves knew
that to cut themselves off from the country of their birth would have
been a fatal choice, so far as this world is concerned. Their ultimate
decision was to accept Roman civilization and Roman culture, and to add
Christianity to it.
Then followed an age-long attempt to Christianize Latin literature, to
supply believers with a new poetry, written in polished and accomplished
verse, and inspired by Christian doctrine. Of those who attempted this
task, Prudentius is perhaps the greatest name. The attempt could never
have been very successful; those who write in Latin verse must submit to
be judged, not by the truth of their teaching, but by the formal beauties
of their prosody, and the wealth of their allusive learning. Even
Milton, zealot though he be, is esteemed for his manner rather than for
his matter.
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