them than doctrine. Synesius had gained and deserved the esteem and confidence of his countrymen. Tlie met- ropolitan Church of Ptolemais demanded him for its bishop. He was unwilling to incur the solemn respon- sibilities of the position. He declined, he (irotested, he urged objections whicii might be deemed insuperable. He couUl not ]nit away the wife to whom he was de- voted; he was unwilling to forego the pleasures of the chase, the other recreations of the country, and the lit- erary and philoso))hical ease which had been the charm of 1ms life. He had neitlier relish nor aptitude, he thought, for the multifarious and exacting business wiiich would devolve upon iiim. He could not surrender the Neo- Platonic convictions which he bad approve<l. expound- ed, and still believed; yet he recognised that they were at variance with Christian doctrine. In an elaborate letter to his brother he presents earnestly the grounds of his hesitation and reluctance. He begs him to lay his views before the patriarch Theophilus, whose deci- sion he agrees to receive as the decree of God {Epkt. cv). The patriarch must have recommended his acceptance of the sacred lionor, notwithstanding his Nolo episco- pari. He was consecrated at Alexandria by Theojih- ilus. Seven months afterwards, being still in that city, he declared that " he would have preferred many deaths to the episcopate" (Epist. xcv). Did he separate irora his wife? Druon thinks that he did. It has been more frequently supjiosed that the separation was not required of him. Did he yield his convictions in regard to the pre-existence of souls, the non-resurrection of the body, and the incompatibility of Christian doctrine with re- vealed truth? JM. Druon again confidently concludes tliat he did. Other inquirers, ancient and modern, l)e- lieve, with more probability, that he continued to en- tertain them, for some time at least, after his elevation. He may have acted on the convenient principle of Scre- vola and Varro, which he avowed in the letter to his brother, that many things in religion are allegorical, which it is expedient to inculcate upon the vulgar, wlio are unable to receive truth in its purity. At any rate, he discharged with energy, resolution, integrity, and skill the administrative and other external offices of the episcopate. He boldly assailed the tyramiy and rapaci- ty of the governor of the province, and succeedoil in re- lieving the provincials of his ride. His denunciation of Andronicus survives. Another incident of his episcopal aptitudes is preserved. He effected an amical)le and satisfactory settlement between two of his sidfragans for the possession of a dismantled fortress on the bonier of their respective dioceses. There was ample occasion for the display of his sagacity and fortitude. The ravages of the nomads were renewed. The Ausurians besieged Ptolemais. The resistance of the inhabitants was sus- tained by the courage of their bishop, who continued zealous in seeking protection for the jirovince, and has transmitted to our days the record of its woes. How much longer he guided his diocese we do not know. The date usually assigned for his death (430, 431) is founded on a dubious conjecture. In this date M. Druon does not concur. He considers a letter to Hyi)atia, writ- ten from a sick-bed, and ascribed to 413, to be ids latest epistolary or other production (Epist. xvi) (Druon, p. 551) ; and believes that he escaped, by an earlier death, the afHiction of knowing the tragic fate of "his teacher, mother, sister, friend." It would be strange, had he known it, that no mention of her murder occurs in letter or other treatise. A fantastic legend, two centuries after his death, attributed to him a miracle for the proof of the resurrection. Tiie greatest of all miracles, in his case, was that, being, or having been, a Neo-Platonist, he be- came a bishop of the Christian Church without the full renunciation of his views ; that, being a provincial of an African province, he acquired eminence in diplomacy, in philosophy, and in poetry; that, living amiil the tur- bulences, vices, and meannesses of the 6th century, he maintained the reputation of an innocent, sincere, and gallant man.
SYNESIUS
91
SYNGE
III. Woi'ls. — The works of Syncsius, usually brief — for tlie Dimi is one of the longest — are numerous and varied. They are of great interest. We may concede to Synesius grace of expression ; we may admit the exu- berance of his fancy and the propriety of his reflections ; we may enjoy the freshness and simplicity of many of his letters, and the unalloyed purity of liis sentiments; but these merits may easily be exaggerated, and do not constitute his chief claim to enduring consideration. It is tlie striking portraiture of the manifold phases of an unhappy period, when civilization was sinking under a mortal agony, that gives a value to his remains far tran- scending their literary and philosophical excellences. These excellences were, indeed, counterbalanced by very grave defects. The style of Synesius is too often char- acterized by affectations, strained fancies, and a con- scious craving for display. His philosophy is without originality. Yet even his philosophy merits attention, as illustrating the tine gradations by which pagan spec- ulation melted into the semblance of Christianity with- out divesting itself of its pagan phrase and spirit.
The works of Synesius which survive (for his juve- nile poem, the Cyncf/etica, or, On flunting^has, been lost) are, an Address to Paonius, irith the Gift of an Astrolabe, invented or improved by himself, in which he encour- aged his friend to prosecute the study of astronomy: — an Oration on Government, delivered at Constantinople before the emperor Arcadius ; it is somewhat common- place, but is remarkable for the boldness and freedom of its utterance and for its sound sense: — Dion, which is so called in lionor of Dion Chrysostom, his exemplar in style and habit of thought. This treats of the train- ing of a philosopher, or, rather, of what had been the aim and the result of his own education in philosophy. It is, in some sort, a semi-pagan anticipation of the Re- lifjio Medici of Sir Thomas Browne. The treatise is at times transcendental, but abounds in high fancies and generous aspirations. The Encomium on Baldness is a rhetorical extravaganza, a counterpart and reply to Dion Chrysostom's Eulogy of Hair. The speculation On Dreams is simply a specimen of sii|)erstition and Neo-Platonic mysticism. It was honored or loaded with a commentarj' by Nicephorus Gregoras. The Catastasis, or Catastases — for the production consists of two distinct parts — is chiefly a mournful recitation of the miseries of Cyrenaica, induced by chronic misgov- ernment and oppression, and by the reiterated invasions of the nomads. It is, perhaps, the strongest testimo- ny to the weakness, impoverishment, and disorganiza- tion of the provinces of the empire that he ascribes the calamities which he specially deplores to only one thou- sand Ausurians, and says that they were defeated and scattered by forty imperial troopers, Unnigardaj. The second Catastasis is a eulogy of Anysius, the leader of these Unnigardie, and the military chief of the province. These Catastases resemble the overwrought declama- tions of the professional rhetoricians. In the same strain, also, is the declamation Against Andronicus. A fable, entitled The Egyptian, or On Providence, is a re- gret lor the deposition and a laud for the restoration of his friend and correspondent Aurelian, the pra3torian pra>fect. A couple of brief Homilies are entitled to no special notice.