Chaucer's Damascene

*Chaucer's Damascene.*—Warton, in his account of the physicians who formed the Library of the Doctor of Physic, says of John Damascene that he was "Secretary to one of the caliphs, wrote in various sciences before the Arabians had entered Europe, and had seen the Grecian philosophers." (*History of English Poetry*, Price's ed., ii. 204.) Mr. Saunders, in his book entitled *Cabinet Pictures of English Life*, "Chaucer", after repeating the very words of this meagre account, adds, "He was, however, more famous for his religious than his medical writings; and obtained for his eloquence the name of…