SOURCE: "Philosophical and Theological Works Written by Albert at This Period," in Albert the Great, of the Order of Friar-Preachers: His Life and Scholastic Labours, translated by T. A. Dixon, 1876. Reprint by Wm G. Brown Reprint Library, pp. 101-19.

In the following excerpt, Sighart surveys the writings Albert produced while he resided and taught in Paris and Cologne.

Contemplation, prayer, and preaching were to [Albert] but the accessories of the greatest activity, the adornment, the joy of his life, a sweet recreation and an interior refreshment amid his more serious studies. The principal work to which he felt himself called was, besides teaching, his labours as a writer, especially as a philosophical writer. It is in this capacity that he truly merits a glory which nothing can tarnish. On this rock of science his greatness as an educator of the human race rests. And it was precisely during...