In another work this erudite antiquary explains the marvellous part of Cædmon's history by "natural causes;" and such a principle of investigation is truly philosophical; but we must not look over imposture in the search for "natural causes." "Cædmon's inability to perform his task," observes our learned expositor, "appears to have arisen rather from the want of musical knowledge than from his dulness, and therefore it is quite possible that, _allowing for some little exaggeration_, his poetical talents may have been _suddenly developed in the manner described_."--"Hist. of England," i. 162. Thus the Saxon Milton rose in one memorable night after a whole life passed without the poet once surmising himself to be poetical; and thus, for we consent not to yield up a single point in the narrative of "the Dream," appeared the patronising apparition and the exhilarating dialogue. A lingering lover of the Mediæval genius can perceive nothing more in a _circumstantial legend_ than "a little exaggeration." I seem to hear the shrill attenuated tones of Ritson, in his usual idiomatic diction, screaming, "It is a _Lie_ and an _Imposture_ of the stinking _Monks_!" The Viscount de Chateaubriand is infinitely more amusing than the plodders in the "weary ways of antiquity." The mystical tale of the Saxon monk is dashed into a glittering foam of enigmatical brevity. "_Cædmon rêvait en vers et composait des poèmes en dormant; Poésie est Songe._" And thus dreams may be expounded by dreams!--"Essai sur la Litérature Anglaise," i. 55. [2] "The Six Days of the Creation" offered a subject for an heroic poem to Dracontius, a Spanish monk, in the fifth century, and who was censured for neglecting to honour the seventh by a description of the Sabbath of the Divine repose. It is preserved in "Bib. Patrum," vol. viii., and has been published with notes. Genesis and Exodus--the fall of Adam--the Deluge--and the passage of the Red Sea, were themes which invited the sacred effusions of Avitus, the Archbishop of Vienne, who flourished in the sixth century. His writings were collected by Père Sirmond. This Archbishop attacked the Arians, but we have only fragments of these polemical pamphlets; as these were highly orthodox, what is wanting occasioned regrets in a former day. Other histories in Latin verse drawn from the Old Testament are recorded.