[Illustration:  THOMAS AQUINAS]

These honors were merited by a remarkable combination of ability and virtue.  To an absolute purity of life, St. Thomas added an earnest love of truth and of labor.  Calm in the midst of discussion, he was equally proof against the danger of brilliant success.  As the friend of popes and princes, he might have attained the highest dignities; but these he steadfastly declined, devoting himself, so far as his duty permitted, to scientific pursuits.  Judged by his writings, he was intense yet thoroughly objective, firm in his own position but dispassionate in treating the opinions of others.  Conclusions reached by daring speculation and faultless logic are stated simply, impersonally.  Keen replies are given without bitterness, and the boldest efforts of reason are united with the submissiveness of faith.

His works fill twenty-five large quarto volumes of the Parma edition.  This is, so far, the most complete collection, though various portions have been edited from time to time with the commentaries of learned theologians like Cajetan and Sylvius.  Partial translations have also been made into several modern languages; but as yet there is no complete English edition of St. Thomas.

Turning to the Latin text, the student cannot but notice the contrast between the easy diction of modern philosophical writers and the rugged conciseness of the mediaeval Schoolman.  On the other hand, disappointment awaits those who quit the pages of Cicero for the less elegant Latinity of the Middle Ages.  What can be said in favor of scholastic “style” is that it expresses clearly and tersely the subtle shades of thought which had developed through thirteen centuries, and which often necessitated a sacrifice of classic form.  With the Schoolmen, as with modern writers on scientific subjects, precision was the first requisite, and terminology was of more consequence than literary beauty.

Similar standards must be kept in view when we pass judgment upon the technique of St. Thomas.  In his presentation we find neither the eloquence nor the rhetoric of the Fathers.  He quotes them continually, and in some of his works adopts their division into books and chapters.  But his exposition is more compact, consisting at times of clear-cut arguments in series without an attempt at transition, at other times of sustained reasoning processes in which no phrase is superfluous and no word ambiguous.  Elsewhere he uses the more rigid mold which was peculiar to the Scholastic Period, and had been fashioned chiefly by Alexander Hales.  Each subject is divided into so many “questions,” and each question into so many “articles.”  The “article” begins with the statement of objections, then discusses various opinions, establishes the author’s position, and closes with a solution of the difficulties which that position may encounter.  This method had its advantages.  It facilitated analysis, and obliged the writer to examine every aspect of a problem.  It secured breadth of view and thoroughness of treatment.  It was, especially, a transparent medium for reason, unbiased by either sentiment or verbiage.