Editorial note — From The Dublin University Magazine. The Libraries Of The Middle Ages And Their Contents.

[Footnote 120: John Hardouin, the son of a bookseller of Quimper, was born in 1646. He entered at an early age into the Society of Jesus. He soon distinguished himself by acute perception and a great memory, but still more by cherishing such paradoxes as the above. The AEneid, according to him, was the work of a Benedictine of the thirteenth century, and was an allegorical description of St. Peter's journey to Rome; and Horace's Lalage was a type of the Christian religion. The antique metals were all modern inventions, each letter representing a word. "You are quite right, father," said an antiquary to him one day. "These letters found on so many metals, Con. Os., and supposed to stand for 'Constantinopli Obsignatum,' (stamped [sealed] at Constantinople,) are evidently intended to read, 'Cusi Omnes Nummi Officina Benedictina'—all moneys struck in the Benedictine Mint." He was a most firm believer in all the dogmas of revealed religion, but a thorough Pyrrhonist in human traditions. He classed Jansenism, Thomassin, Malebranche, Quesnel, Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal, Descartes, Le Grand, and Regis among the atheists. They were Cartesians, merely another name for unbelievers. His learning was most extensive and his works numerous. He died in Paris in 1729 at the age of 88.]