ENELM HENRY DIGBY, author of this work, was born at He was the youngest son of the Very Rev. William Digby, Protestant Dean of Clonfert. He came of a family that had enjoyed considerable ecclesiastical preferment: one of his ancestors was Protestant Bishop of Elphin, and another was Protestant Bishop of Dromore. He was sent at a very early age to Trinity College, Cambridge, to complete his studies, and graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1823. He was a diligent, but discursive reader, as is evident from his varied and vast attainments. His works exhibit a variety and amount of erudition truly amazing. His acquaintance with Medieval customs and literature was altogether unequalled. His knowledge of Greek and Roman literature was, perhaps, no less extensive and profound. With all this accumulation of ancient and Mediæval lore he combined an acquaintance with the modern literatures of Europe, which, alone, would seem to require a lifetime to obtain. But these vast stores of knowledge, and the happy art of using them appropriately and felicitously, did not constitute his sole claim to the world's attention. He united a high poetic with a profound philosophic faculty. This rare union fitted him for the examination and discussion of the most elevated subjects. His early studies in scholastic theology enabled him to see the errors of Protestantism, and soon after his graduation at Cambridge he became a Catholic. A short time before this, when he was yet but twenty-two years old, he published the first edition of The Broadstone of Honor. This |