buying wagons and machinery, while the industrial schools are having a civilizing influence.1 It will thus be seen that the duties of the mounted police are varied, and naturally responsibilities are often thrust upon them in unorganized districts, which in the normal course of events they would not think of assuming. Nevertheless their influence is usually good; and whether acting as sanitary inspectors where persons are ignorant of the laws of health, or settling small disputes between employer and employed, or listening to complaints regarding food, or extending medical aid to those who need it, or writing and reading letters for the ignorant, or securing employment for those anxious to work, or performing any other social servicethey are looked up to and trusted. And however widely they may sometimes depart from their ordinary duties, they always have in mind their primary object, which is to maintain the peace. Throughout the various police districts there are a number of outposts where members of the force are stationed, and it is astonishing what a wholesome influence is exerted on the rougher elements of a district by the presence of even a single constable. In him they see the majesty of the law, whilst peaceable citizens breathe easier by reason of his proximity. Finally, not the least of the many advantages of the mounted police is the magisterial jurisdiction conferred on superintendents and inspectors. Their prompt execution of the law has been mentioned already, but it is difficult to convey any adequate idea of the good results flowing from the swift administration of the law, especially in the country districts. And perhaps an even greater element of strength on the part of the members of the mounted police force is the fact that they are unbiased by party, social, or religious considerations, and are therefore entirely impersonal. B. J. RAMAGE. 1 Report of the Commissioner, 1898, pp. 3, 4. VERGIL AS A MAGICIAN. THOSE Who read Vergil may not all be acquainted with the reputation which he bears as a magician in the literature of the Middle Ages. Yet to this famous Roman poet, as to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, mediæval authors attributed the practice of necromancy; and many amusing stories are recorded of these classic writers in regard to the way they figured in the rôle of magician. Some of these stories represent Vergil-for it is he of whom I wish here to speak-in a light entirely different from that in which most students of the Mantuan bard are accustomed to view him. These unauthentic legends are found, for the most part, in the medieval metrical romances; and it is to a few of these numerous legends that I here wish to draw popular attention. These legends have grown up in part out of the circumstances of Vergil's life. I therefore give a very meager sketch of the poet's life, that the reader may more readily see how such legends developed. Vergil, like most of the authors who enriched Rome's literature and made it live through succeeding generations, was not born in the Eternal City. Andes, near Mantua, a little town in Northern Italy, was the place of his birth, and the time was the 15th of October, 70 B.C. His father, a man of Celtic descent and of obscure social position, had the good sense to give young Vergil a liberal education, and so sent him to Milan and subsequently to Rome to pursue his studies. But his residence in the great metropolis, no matter how prolonged, was not sufficient to rid Vergil of a certain appearance of rusticity, which he acquired when a boy keeping bees on his father's farm. Perhaps it is this very circumstance of his early life that imparts to his poetry that woodland odor and freshness so agreeable to the appreciative reader. When the fate of the republic was sealed by the issue at Philippi, Vergil, as well as Horace, was among those who were deprived of their estates in order to make room for Octavius's victorious veterans. Northern Italy was shown little favor by the victors because that province, in order to be loyal to the republic, had been compelled to be disloyal to the ruler. Vergil's little patrimony was therefore confiscated. The story goes that Vergil, resisting the veteran who had come to take possession of his patrimony, came near being struck down on the spot, and only succeeded in escaping with his life by hastily swimming the Mincio. His patrimony confiscated, the tall, slender young man, of frail constitution and shrinking disposition, made his way to Rome to appeal to the emperor for the restitution of his small estate. The suppliant poet soon found himself converted into a complacent courtier; and through the generous patronage of Mæcenas he was presented with a magnificent villa on a height overlooking the beautiful city and bay of Naples-that city the beauty of which is but adequately expressed by the saying, now proverbial: "See Naples, and die!" So, surrounded by the charming Neapolitan scenery, and enjoying the rich favor of the court, the poet lived and sang of "Arms and the Man," to the great delight of his own and succeeding ages. Here also, in accordance with his own request, his ashes were buried in September, 19 B.C. Vergil had undertaken, in the summer of that year, what was intended to be a prolonged visit to the East for the purpose of studying philosophy and of putting the finishing touches upon his magnum opus, the Æneid. He had advanced as far as Athens when he met the emperor, who, returning from an Oriental campaign, persuaded Vergil to accompany him to Italy. The poet consented, and began the voyage across the Adriatic, but died on landing at Brindisi. "His tomb," to quote one who has made a study of Vergil's influence during the Middle Ages, "soon became a shrine, where poet and peasant, philosopher and fisherman, alike repaired to pay a tribute of veneration to departed genius and love of humanity. It still stands on the sunny slope, half hidden in a tangle of vines and cactus, and though modern antiquarians, in their skepticism, would throw doubt on its authenticity, they cannot despoil it of its interest. It is a small, square, vaulted chamber, unmistakably a Roman columbarium, containing ten niches for urns. The urn which held the ashes of Vergil was of marble, supported by nine small pillars, and stood alone, opposite the It bore this inscription: entrance. "Mantua me genuit, Calabria me rapuit, tenet nunc The urn has long since disappeared, but a modern stone bearing the same inscription has been placed where it stood. In 1226 the tomb was in a good state of preservation, when Petrarch, as he tells us in his "Itinerary," was taken to see it by King Robert of Sicily, and here he planted a laurel in memory of the great Latin poet. This laurel is said to have existed till the last century, when it was gradually destroyed by reckless curiosity-hunters. In 1544 the following inscription, which is still to be seen, was placed in the adjoining wall of the vineyard: "Qui cineres? tumuli haec vestigia? Conditur olim I have already called attention elsewhere to the high esteem in which Vergil was held by the Church Fathers. I have shown also how his famous Fourth Eclogue won for him the reputation of a prophet, who foretold the coming of the Saviour, and how this traditional interpretation lingered in literature till Pope's "Messiah," which he called a sacred eclogue written in imitation of Vergil's "Pollio." There is a beautiful legend that when St. Paul landed at Puteoli, on his way to Rome, he turned aside from his journey to visit the tomb of the heathen poet who in ignorance had prophesied the advent of Christ; and as he stood by the tomb he lamented the fact that he had not lived earlier to offer the poet the gospel of the Saviour whom he had so dimly foreseen and foretold. "What a man I should have made of thee, O Vergil," said the great apostle to the Gentiles, "had I only met thee in thy lifetime!" During the Middle Ages, when the mass of St. Paul's day was celebrated at Mantua, a hymn was always sung which embodies this legend. It was during the misty mediæval period of the world's history that Vergil's reputation as a mighty magician gained currency and acceptance, and he therefore became known as one who had Learned the art that none may name In Padua far beyond the sea. In some of the metrical romances, from having been exalted to the rank of a saint he is degraded to the level of a mere wizard. In the fifteenth century Hemmerlin related how a devil made Vergil the happy possessor of the magical book of Solomon, on the condition of his releasing him from a bottle in which he was stopped up. Vergil was astonished at the gigantic size of the devil that came out of the bottle; and, thinking it unwise for such a monster to be at large, he cunningly said to the devil by way of challenging him: "Surely you could not reduce yourself to the size of that bottle again?" The devil thereupon accepted the bantering challenge, and gradually diminished his proportions till he had returned into the bottle, when Vergil immediately clapped the cork into its place, and the devil was imprisoned forever. Vergil, however, got possession of the book of magic, and thus made himself master of the black art. This story, the reader will observe, bears a striking resemblance to that of the fisherman and the jinn in the "Arabian Nights." The belief that Vergil was in league with devils, like the Faust legend, was very widespread throughout Europe, and long lingered as a literary tradition. Another interesting story representing Vergil as the savior of Rome is found in the "Seven Wise Masters." According to this legend, in the reign of Octavius, who was inordinately fond of gold, the Romans conquered all their neighboring nations and oppressed them grievously, so much so that they determined to enter into a defensive alliance against the Romans for their common preservation. To offset the effect of this alliance Vergil contrived a tower in which there were as many images as there were kingdoms in the world, and in the head of each image he placed a bell, so that if any king |