So far as these partial facts and conjectures go we are safe in affirming that Sedulius was a learned and studious person, probably an Irishman—for at that time Scot and Irishman were synonymous—and that he gained renown about the year 434, having studied in Italy, travelled extensively, and been a resident in Achaia. The temptation is, however, irresistible to make him Irish rather than Scotch, upon the strength of the most ancient “bull” on record. It is found in the Alphabet Hymn and reads thus: “Quarta die jam foetidus Vitam recepit Lazarus, Cunctisque liber vinculis Factus superstes est sibi.” “Upon the fourth day Lazarus Revived, though all malodorous; And freed from the enchaining ground Himself his own survivor found!” The writings of Sedulius are more numerous than might be supposed. Those which have been preserved are nine, two in verse and the rest in prose. The most elaborate is a commentary on the four Gospels, dedicated to the abbot Macedonius and to which he prefixed his _Carmen Paschale_. He also wrote on the Pauline Epistles, as did his namesake of the ninth century. To Theodosius he addressed a book. He wrote treatises on the books of Priscian and Donatus, the grammarians. He also treated of the miracles of Christ in prose and sent out many “epistles of Sedulius Scotigena.” His poetry is comprised in the Alphabet Hymn; in the _Carmen Paschale_ whence we get nothing for hymnology except the hexameter _Salve Sancta Parens enixa_ (_puerpera regem_); and in the Elegy, from which comes the _Cantemus socii_. The _Carmen Paschale_ is an epic in the Virgilian style. The Elegy is an exhortation to the faithful. But the Alphabet Hymn has enriched the Church with two lyrics, one on the Nativity and one on the Slaughter of the Innocents. By placing the first stanza side by side with the first stanza of the famous Ambrosian hymn, it is easily seen that they are the same. _Ambrosian._ “A solis ortus cardine Et usque terrae limitem Christum canamus principem Natum Mariae virginis.” _Sedulian._ “A solis ortus cardine Ad usque terrae limitem Christum canamus principem Natum Maria virgine.” But this is no unusual occurrence in days when the language of the Psalms was employed in the Ambrosian hymns, and when the Ambrosian hymns themselves furnished a convenient foundation for the later praises of the Church. Not only did Sedulius imitate them closely, but Ennodius, Fortunatus, Gregory, Bede, Rabanus, and Damiani—with many other unknown writers—studied and copied their metre and expression. A curious instance of this same copying and following can be found in our own hymn. In it the stanza, _Ibant magi quam viderant_, contains two lines which have been inserted bodily in a production of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It is true that they are very suggestive and beautiful, but when Sedulius wrote