DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49369#0113
STORY OF ZOSIMUS 95
vincing evidence of Commodian. In the form in which it now
appears it need not be earlier than the fifth or sixth century.
I claim for it a certain vigour of imagination. It seems to
me to rise to a considerable pitch of excellence in its description
of the death of the righteous: and the circumstances of the
expulsion of Zosimus from the Earthly Paradise, and of his conflict
with the devil are examples of a kind of designedly humorous
writing, which we are too apt to ascribe to a deficiency in the
sense of humour when we meet with it in quasi-sacred literature.
The design of the little book is plain enough. It is meant to
set before the monastic communities of the East an ideal of the
ascetic life.
vincing evidence of Commodian. In the form in which it now
appears it need not be earlier than the fifth or sixth century.
I claim for it a certain vigour of imagination. It seems to
me to rise to a considerable pitch of excellence in its description
of the death of the righteous: and the circumstances of the
expulsion of Zosimus from the Earthly Paradise, and of his conflict
with the devil are examples of a kind of designedly humorous
writing, which we are too apt to ascribe to a deficiency in the
sense of humour when we meet with it in quasi-sacred literature.
The design of the little book is plain enough. It is meant to
set before the monastic communities of the East an ideal of the
ascetic life.