During our author's stay at Paris he finally completed and sent to the
press his great work on the _Lives of the Saints_. We have seen that,
from his tenderest years, he had discovered his turn for sacred
biography. At a very early period of his life he conceived the plan of
his work; and from that time pursued it with undeviating attention. He
qualified himself for an able execution of it, by unremitted application
to every branch of profane or sacred literature connected with it. He
was, a perfect master of the Italian, Spanish, and French languages. The
last he spoke and wrote with fluency and purity. He was also perfect
master of the Latin and Greek languages. At an advanced period of his
life he mentioned to the editor that he could then understand the works
of St. John Chrysostom as easily in the original as in the Latin
interpretation; but that the Greek of Saint Gregory Nazianzen was too
difficult for him. A few years before he died he amused himself with an
inquiry into the true pronunciation of tee Greek language, and in
preparing for the press some sheets of an intended Greek grammar. To
attain that degree of knowledge of the Greek language is given to few:
Menage mentions that he was acquainted with three persons only who could
read a Greek writer without an interpreter. Our author had also some
skill in the oriental languages. In biblical reading, in positive
divinity, in canon law, in the writings of the fathers, in
ecclesiastical antiquities, and in modern controversy, the depth and
extent of his erudition are unquestionable. He was also skilled in
heraldry: every part of ancient and modern geography was familiar to
him. He had advanced tar beyond the common learning of the schools in
the different branches of philosophy; and even in botany and medicine he
was deeply read. In this manner he had qualified himself to execute the
work he undertook.