Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/24

 6 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. —that love of God which comprehended love for all men and for self in conformity with God's love of His creatures. Inspired by so different a spirit the creations of Chris- tian thought and feeling could not be like the classic, and their excellence could not be the classic excellence. Classic principles of literary and artistic form and defi- nite unity of composition could never become organic with the spirit of Christianity which overleaped the finite and the mortal.^ Consequently the art and lit- erature of the transition centuries present a conflict, of which the Christian artists and authors are not always 1 The contrast between the (late) classical and the Christian spirit may be seen in the lines on Hope attributed to Seneca : " De- ceitful hope, hope sweet evil, the one solace of ills for wretched men, whereby they bear their lots. Silly thing, which no turn of fortune can put to flight, hope stays, anxious to please to the last gasp," etc. This pagan conception of spes is definite and unspir- itualized, quite wingless, pessimistic, and void of high assurance. It lacks all that animates Christian hope and gives it wings to bear it up to God. Spes fallax, spes dulce malum, spes una malorum Solamen miseris, qua sua fata trahunt. Credula res, quam nulla potest fortuna fugare, Spes Stat in extremis officiosa mails. Spes vetat aeterno mortis requiescere porta Et curas ferro rumpere sollicitas. Spes nescit vinci, spes pendet tota f uturis ; Mentitur, credi vult tamen ilia (sibi). Sola tenet miseros in vita, sola moratur, Sola perit numquam, sed venit atque redit. . . . — Baehrens, Poetae Latini Minores, Vol. IV, p. G5. Compare also the Pervigilium Veneris, that last soft note of pagan sexual love, with Augustine's conception of the love of God (post, p. 129) and with the mystical love of Christ which was spring- ing up within monasticism {post, p. 153).