, and to illustrate many physical
facts; and to those who desire to know what was believed by our
Christian forefathers, and why it was believed, the compilation is
absolutely invaluable. Calmet was a man of naturally cool, calm
judgment, possessed of singular learning, and was pious and truthful.
A short sketch of his life will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to the
reader.

Augustine Calmet was born in the year 1672, at a village near
Commerci, in Lorraine. He early gave proofs of aptitude for study, and
an opportunity was speedily offered of devoting himself to a life of
learning. In his sixteenth year he became a Benedictine of the
Congregation of St. Vannes, and prosecuted his theological and such
philosophical studies as the time allowed with great success. He was
soon appointed to teach the younger portion of the community, and gave
in this employment such decided satisfaction to his superiors, that he
was soon marked for preferment. His chief study was the Scriptures;
and in the twenty-second year of his age, a period unusually early, in
an age when all benefices and beneficial employments were matters of
sale, he was appointed to be sub-prior of the monastery of Munster, in
Alsace, where he presided over an academy. This academy consisted of
ten or twelve monks, and its object was the investigation of
Scripture. Calmet was not idle in his new position; besides
communicating so much valuable information as to make his pupils the
best biblical scholars of the country, he made extensive collections
for his Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, and for his still
more celebrated work, the History of the Bible. These materials he
subsequently digested and arranged. The Commentary, a work of immense
value, was published in separate volumes from 1707 to 1716. His labors
attracted renewed and increased attention, and the offer of a
bishopric was made to him, which he unhesitatingly declined.

In 1718, he was elected to the abbacy of St. Leopold, in Nancy; and
ten years afterwards, to that of Senones, where he spent the remainder
of his days. His writings are numerous--two have been already
mentioned--and so great was the popularity attained by his
Commentaries, that they have been translated into no fewer than six
languages within ten years. It exhibits a favorable aspect of the
author's mind, and gives a very high idea of his erudition. One cause
which tended greatly to its universal acceptability, was its singular