SOURCE: "Life in the Days of St. Basil the Great" in Pauline and Other Studies in Early Christian History, Hodder and Stoughton, 1906, pp. 369-406.

In the essay reprinted below—a revised version of a book review first published in the mid-1890s—Ramsay focuses on Basil's letters, finding in their style the same contradiction that biographers have discerned in Basil's character: even-handedness and civility toward his friends, yet misleading hyperbole and bitterness toward his critics. Ramsay also points out that the writings of the Cappadocian fathers provide a wealth of detail about social, cultural, and economic life during the late Roman Empire.

The publication of three volumes of selections from the works of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century¹ may well attract notice even in this busy time; and the careful and excellent scholarship displayed by the translators and editors thoroughly deserves more generous recognition than...