illage four miles away, who borrowed
it from the library of the Bishop to lend to him.

Perhaps you have never undertaken to prepare a life of Saint Patrick.
If so, you have no idea of the difficulties of the task. In the first
place, you must settle the question whether Saint Patrick ever existed.
And this is a disputed point; for while there are those, like Father
Colgan, whose clear faith accepts Saint Patrick just as he stands in
history and tradition, yet, on the other hand, there are sceptics, like
Ledwick, who contend that the saint is nothing but a prehistoric myth,
floating about in the imagination of the Irish people.

Having settled to your satisfaction that Patrick really lived, you
must next proceed to fix the date of his birth; and here you enter upon
complicated calculations. You will probably decide to settle first, as a
starting-point, the date of the saint's escape from captivity; and to
do this you will have to reconcile the fact that after the captivity he
paid a friendly visit to his kinsman, Saint Martin of Tours, who died in
397, with the fact that he was not captured until 400.

Next you will come to the matter of the saint's birthplace; and this is
a delicate question, for you will have to decide between the claims of
Ireland, of Scotland, and of France; and you will very probably find
yourself finally driven to the conclusion--for the evidence points that
way--that Saint Patrick was a Frenchman.

Next comes the question of the saint's length of days; and if you
attempt to include only the incidents of his life of which there can be
no possible doubt, you will stretch his age on until you will probably
fix it at one hundred and twenty years.

But when you have settled the existence, the date of birth, and the
nationality of Saint Pat-rick, you are still only upon the threshold
of your inquiries; for you next find before you for examination a vast
variety of miracles, accredited to him, which you must examine, weeding
out such as are puerile and are manifestly not well established, and
retaining such as are proved to your satisfaction. You will be struck
at once with the novel and interesting character of some of them. Prince
Caradoc was changed into a wolf. An Irish magician who opposed the saint
was swallowed by the earth as far as his ears, and then, on repentance,
was instantly cast forth and set free. An Irish pagan, dead and long
buried, talked freely with the saint from out his turf-co