he
perverted taste of the times caused him generally to shroud his
meaning[87].

[Footnote 85: Printed hitherto as two works, De Institutione Divinarum
Litterarum, and De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum. But,
as Ebert has shown (i. 477), the Preface to the Orthographia makes it
probable that these two really formed one book, with a title like that
given above.]

[Footnote 86: 'In Italico regno.' These words seem to favour the
conjecture that Theodoric may have called himself King of Italy.]

[Footnote 87: As a specimen of this better style of Cassiodorus, I may
refer to his praises of the life of the literary monk, and his
exhortation to him who is of duller brain to practise gardening:
'Quapropter toto nisu, toto labore, totis desideriis exquiramus ut ad
tale tantumque munus, Domino largiente, pervenire mereamur. Hoc enim
nobis est salutare, proficuum, gloriosum, perpetuum, quod nulla mors,
nulla mobilitas, nulla possit separare oblivio; sed in illa suavitate
patriae, cum Domino faciet aeterna exsultatione gaudere. Quod si
alicui fratrum, ut meminit Virgilius,

"Frigidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis,"

ut nec humanis nec divinis litteris perfecte possit erudiri, aliqua
tamen scientiae mediocritate suffultus, eligat certe quod sequitur,

"Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes."

Quia nec ipsum est a monachis alienum hortos colere, agros exercere,
et pomorum fecunditate gratulari; legitur enim in Psalmo centesimo
vigesimo septimo, "Labores manuum tuarum manducabis; beatus es et bene
tibi erit."']

In the first part of this treatise (commonly called the 'De
Institutione Divinarum Litterarum') Cassiodorus briefly describes the
contents of the nine Codices[88] which made up the Scripture of the
Old and New Testaments, and mentions the names of the chief
commentators upon each. After some important cautions as to the
preservation of the purity of the sacred text and abstinence from
plausible emendations, the author proceeds to enumerate the Christian
historians--Eusebius, Orosius, Marcellinus, Prosper, and others[89];
and he then slightly sketches the characters of some of the principal
Fathers--Hilary, Cyprian, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. This part of
the work contains an interesting allusion to 'Dionysius Monachus,
Scytha natione, sed moribus omnino Romanus,' of whom Cassiodorus
speaks as a colleague in his literary enterprises. This is the
so-called Dionysius Exiguus, wh