freedom from sectarian bitterness. Protestants as well as Romanists
may use it with equal satisfaction; and accordingly, it is considered
a work of standard authority in England as much as on the continent.

In addition to these Commentaries, and his History of the Bible, and
Fragments, (the best edition of which latter work in English, is by
Isaac Taylor,) he wrote the "Ecclesiastical and Civil History of
Lorraine;" "A Catalogue of the Writers of Lorraine;" "Universal
History, Sacred and Profane;" a small collection of Reveries; and a
work entitled, "A Literal, Moral, and Historical Commentary on the
Rule of St. Benedict," a work which is full of curious information on
ancient customs, particularly ecclesiastical. He is among the few,
also, who have written on ancient music. He lived to a good old age;
and died regretted and much respected in 1757.

Of all his works, the one presented here to the reader, is perhaps the
most popular; it went rapidly through many editions, and received from
the author's hand continual corrections and additions. To say that it
is characterized by uniform judgment, would be to give it a praise
somewhat different as well as somewhat greater than that which it
merits. It is a vast repertory of legends, more or less probable; some
of which have very little foundation--and some which Calmet himself
would have done well to omit, though _now_, as a picture of the belief
entertained in that day, they greatly add to the value of the book.
For the same reasons which have caused the retention of these
passages, no alterations have been made in the citations from
Scripture, which being translations from the Vulgate, necessarily
differ in phraseology from the version in use among ourselves. The
apocryphal books too are quoted, and the story of Bel and the Dragon
referred to as a part of the prophecy of Daniel; but what is of
consequence to observe, is, that _doctrines_ are founded on these
translations, and on those very points in which they differ from our
own.

If the history of popery, and especially that form and development of
it exhibited in the monastic orders, be ever written, this work will
be of the greatest importance:--it will show the means by which
dominion was obtained over the minds of the ignorant; how the most
sacred mysteries were perverted; and frauds, which can hardly be
termed pious, used to support institutions which can scarcely be
called religious. That the spirits of the