At last he broke out into magnificent poetry.  It is not possible to translate him into any other language than the Latin in which he wrote, and preserve any of the grandeur and beauty which result from the union of ardent thought with almost miraculous music of language.  Dr. Neale aptly speaks of the majestic sweetness which invests Bernard’s poem.  The expression applies specially to those passages, abounding in all parts of the poem, in which he describes the glory and the peace of the better country.  Many of these have been translated or closely imitated by Dr. Neale, with such excellent effect that several hymns which are very popular in churches of various denominations have been constructed from Dr. Neale’s translations.  Other portions of the poem, especially those in which the vices and crimes of the Rome of that time are denounced and lashed with unsparing severity, have never been translated, and are not likely ever to be, because of the impossibility of preserving in English the peculiar force of the metre; and translation without this would be of small value.  The fire of the descriptions of heaven is increased by the contrast in which they stand with descriptions of Rome in the twelfth century.  Here, for example, is a passage addressed to Rome:—­

     “Fas mihi dicere, fas mihi scribere ‘Roma fuisti,’
     Obruta moenibus, obruta moribus, occubuisti. 
     Urbs ruis inclita, tam modo subdita, quam prius alta: 
     Quo prius altior, tam modo pressior, et labefacta. 
     Fas mihi scribere, fas mihi dicere ‘Roma, peristi.’ 
     Sunt tua moenia vociferantia ‘Roma ruisti.’”

And here is one addressed to the City of God:—­

     “O sine luxibus, O sine luctibus, O sine lite,
     Splendida curia, florida patria, patria vitae. 
     Urbs Syon inclita, patria condita littore tuto,
     Te peto, te colo, te flagro, te volo, canto, saluto.”

While no translation exists of this remarkable work, nor indeed can be made to reproduce the power and melody of the original, yet a very good idea of its spirit may be had from the work of Dr. J. Mason Neale, who made from selected portions this English poem, which is very much more than what he modestly called it, “a close imitation.”  Dr. Neale has made no attempt to reproduce the metre of the original.

[ILLUSTRATION:  signature:  W.T.  Prince]

     BRIEF LIFE IS HERE OUR PORTION

     Brief life is here our portion,
       Brief sorrow, short-lived care: 
     The Life that knows no ending,
       The tearless Life, is there: 
     O happy retribution,
        Short toil, eternal rest! 
     For mortals and for sinners
        A mansion with the Blest! 
     That we should look, poor wanderers,
        To have our home on high! 
     That worms should seek for dwellings
        Beyond the starry sky! 
     And now we fight the battle,