The ascetic life was not binding upon all. It could not, of course, become the universal mode of life. It was a sort of extra service, which secured extra merit for him who rendered it.[642] It is true that the ascetic ideal absorbed a vast amount of the moral enthusiasm of the age, nevertheless it was a standard of moral attainment for the lesser number; for the larger body of Christians there was the less exacting ideal of excellence which could be realized in the ordinary life in the world. He who practiced the common domestic, social, and business virtues, who accepted the creed of the Church, paid tithes to the priest, and was faithful in the performance of all required religious duties, was accounted a good man, and had the approval of his fellow men and the approbation of his own conscience. III. THE CHIEF MORAL FACTS OF THE PERIOD [Sidenote: Introductory] In the present division of this chapter it will be our aim merely to indicate the essential facts in the moral history of the earlier medieval centuries. Some of these facts will serve to show in how remarkable a manner the age was dominated by the monastic conception of good life, while others will simply reveal the historical outworkings, in its more general manifestations, of the new conscience brought into the world by Christianity. [Sidenote: The ideal of the saint and that of the hero: “Dialogue between Oisin and St. Patrick”] As a prelude to the brief review proposed we shall do well to consider for a moment the contrariety between the new ideal of the Christian monk and the old ideal of the pagan hero as this oppositeness emerges in the so-called “Dialogue between Oisin and St. Patrick.”[643] This poem discloses most impressively the vast revolution which the incoming of Christianity effected in the moral feelings and judgments of men. Oisin, “the blind Homer of Erin,” is represented as in his old age entering into a controversy with the saint respecting the relative merits of the monk’s and the hero’s conception of worthiness. The dialogue runs as follows: ST. PATRICK. Oisin, long is thy slumber, arise and listen to the psalm; forsaken is thy activity, forsaken thy strength, yet wouldst thou delight in battle and wild uproar. OISIN. My swiftness and my strength have deserted me since the Fenii, with Fionn their chief, are no longer alive; for clerks I have no attachment, and their melodies are not sweet to me. * * * * * O Patrick, hard is thy service, and shameful is it for you to reproach me for my appearance; if Fionn lived, and the Fenii, I would forsake the clergy of the cross. * * * * * Patrick, pray thou to the God of heaven for Fionn of the Fenii and for his children, making entreaty of the prince, whose equal I have never heard of.