Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/292

274 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap setting a rein to the young people's lust of the vain- glory and pleasure of this world, and turning their minds toward eternal joys. In tone and contents it is the opposite of pagan epithalamia. It may be compared with a sweet elegiac poem from husband to wife, attributed to Tyro Prosper,^ a poem of Christian trust and marital consolation, written amid the terror and ruin of the invasions. Tyro's poem closes with these affectionate lines : — Tu modo, fida comes, mecum isti accingere pugnae^ Quam Deus infirmo praebuit auxilium. Sollicita elatum coJiibe, solare dolentem ; Exemplum vitae simus uterque piae. Gustos esto tui custodis, mutua redde Erige lahentem, surge levantis ope ; Ut caro non eadem tantum, sed mens quoque nobis Una sit, atque duos spintus unus alat. Thus husband and wife, with faces set toward Christ and eternity, comfort and encourage each other on the way. This noble view of marriage had scant opportunity to develop in communities where monas- ticism was becoming the ideal of Christian life. Like these elegiac marriage poems, Paulinus' elegy upon the death of a boy ^ is distinctly Christian. It suggests abnegation of temporalities, and shows the mind set upon eternity. In spirit he passes with the boy's departing soul to heaven, and there takes joy in seeing the newcomer join company with the soul of his own son, who had died before : — Vivite participes, aeternum vivite, fratres^ Et laetos dignum par habitate locos. 1 Clement, Carm., etc., pp. G7-71. 2 Carmen XXXI.