THE WORLD’S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
scaped thence, to return A.D. 432, when about 
forty-five years old; belonging thus to that great age 
of the Church which was made illustrious by the 
ost eminent of its Fathers, and tasked by the most 
critical of its trials. In him a great character ha 
been built on the foundations of a devout childhood, 
and of a youth ennobled by adversity. Everywhere 
we trace the might and the sweetness which belonged 
o it, the versatile mind yet the simple heart, the 
arying tact yet the fixed resolve, the large design 
aking counsel for all, yet the minute solicitude for 
ach, the fiery zeal yet the genial temper, the skill 
in using means yet the reliance on God alone, the 
readiness in action with the willingness to wait, the 
abitual self-possession yet the outbursts of an in- 
spiration which raised him above himself, the abid- 
ing consciousness of authority—an authority in him, 
ut not of him—and yet the ever-present humility. 
Above all, there burned in him that boundless love, 
which seems the main constituent of the Apostolic 
character. It was love for God; but it was love for 
an also, an impassioned love, and a parental com- 
assion. It was not for the spiritual weal alone 
of man that he thirsted. Wrong and injustice to 
he poor he resented as an injury to God. His 
chement love for the poor is illustrated by his 
‘Epistle to Coroticus’ reproaching him with his 
ruelty, as well as by his denunciation of slavery, 
which piracy had introduced into parts of Ireland. 
o wonder that such a character should have exer- 
ised a talismanic power over the ardent and sensi- 
ive race among whom he laboured, a race ‘easy to 
e drawn, but impossible to be driven,’ and drawn 
ore by sympathy than even by benefits. That char- 
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