PROSE IX.

Igitur Hymenteo mysticae legationis mysteries indulgente.

Then while Hymen was employed in the secret rites of his mystic embassy, Nature, in a sorrowful speech of wretched complaint, reviewed the wrongs of those by whose violent and disgraceful acts the glory of her state had felt the full injury of deep loss. And here she censured with the stings of reproof, more sharply than the others, one who, more rudely than the rest, had taken pains to dishonor the orderly being of Nature. Although Fortune smiled upon him with high favor, and though the gift-nay the gifts-of knowledge were joined to him, and though Magnanimity brought him up, and Generosity taught him, yet because the whole mass works with a little sour leaven, the fall of one virtue was obscuring entirely the rise of the other virtues, the eclipse of one good quality was forcing the stars of the other good qualities to die away in dark retreat. Now when Generosity saw this censure aimed at her foster-child, she did not dare to adorn his faults with the cloak of a defense, but, with low bending of her humbled head, sought the relief of tears.

But Nature, who considered what the bowing of the head and the flow of tears stood for, spoke to [1] Generosity gracious words, saying:

'O virgin, in the building of whose excellence the human race enters into the habitation of the virtues, through whom men attain the rewards of kindness and favor, through whom the ancient cycles of the golden age live again, through whom men bind themselves in the pact of warmest friendship, the eternal Being has begotten and produced with the everlasting kiss of His spirit, and has given me an own sister. Not only the natural tie of blood binds her to me. but the connection of pure love links us also. And because of this, thine even judgment does not allow thy will to wander from the consideration of my will. For such a union in symmetry, nay, a symmetry in unity, harmonizes our minds in firm peace, that not only is that union clothed in the express image of union, but even puts aside mere outward unity and tends towards the essence of identity. . And so a wrong to the one, which does not attack the other, assails neither; a temptation for one subdues neither, if it does not threaten the other. He, then, who tries to weaken my name and renown by the loud blasphemy of shameless deeds, tries in the persistence of his evil vexation to detract from thy glory. He who abuses the gifts of Nature in the waste of ungovemed prodigality is stripped of the gifts of Fortune as a penalty for his lawless extravagance. Thus does the prostituted fellowship of Prodigality falsely profess the honorableness of Generosity. Thus, too, a torrent of wealth is turned off into the desert of poverty, brilliance of wisdom errs and degenerates into folly, magnanimous strength is relaxed into reckless daring.

1. Emending Largitas to Largitatis.

Therefore I am wearied with surprise why, at a condemnation of him who tries more destructively than the others to ruin us, thou art not able to check the flood of tears.'

Then Generosity, drying and removing the river of tears from her countenance, raised again her bowed head to the skies and said:

"O first foundation of everything in nature! O special protection for all! O queen of the region of earth! O trusty agent of a principal above the heavens; who, acting under the authority of the eternal master, dost not disturb thy faithful administration with any disobedience; whom the whole world is bound by the demand of primal righteousness to obey! As strong affinity and close relationship require, the golden chain of love connects me to thee. He, then, who sells his nature to ruin and abomination, and assails thee with insult and fierce rebellion, rebels against me with equal insolence and rage. Although, deceived by the shadowy forms of credulity, he believes that he is serving among my train, and although men who are lured by the flashy appearance of Prodigality smell the footsteps of Generosity there, yet they are anathematized from our favor and friendship to long banishment. But, inasmuch as it is ours to sympathize and condole with warped and straying error, I cannot be unmoved at the fatal sin of his irrational will.'

While the meeting in speech of question and answer was going on between these women, behold, to the applause and festivity of instruments of music, and of strange and striking appearance, Genius came before us. His stature, which was duly limited by the canon of the mean, neither complained of subtraction and curtailment, nor grieved at addition and excess. His head was clothed with locks of hoary whiteness

and bore the marks of wintry age; yet his face was delicate with the smoothness of youth, and unfurrowed by any of the plow-marks of old age. His Lyarments, whose workmanship followed nature, seemed now to be in flames of purple, now to be bright. like hyacinth, now to burn with scarlet, now to be a clearer white than lawn, not knowing the want of any one. On them images of things lived momentarily, and as quickly vanished, so as to elude our scrutiny and perception. He carried in his right hand a reed of frail papyrus, which never rested from its occupation of writing; and in his left he bore an animal's skin from which a knife had cut and bared the shock of hair, and on this, by means of his compliant pen, he gave to images, which passed from the shadow of a sketch to the truth of very being, the life of their kind. And when these slumbered in the death of deletion, others were called [1] to life in a new rising and birth. There Helen, half a goddess in her loveliness, the brilliancy of her beauty interposing for her, could be called beauty. There the lightning-flash of boldness ruled in Turnus, strength in Hercules. There rose a giant's height in Capaneus; in Ulysses played a fox-like shrewdness. There Cato was intoxicated with the golden nectar of virtuous sobriety; Plato shone with the sidereal splendor of genius. There the splendid tail of the peacock of Ciceronian eloquence glittered variously. There Aristotle involved his puzzling thoughts in concealing phrases. Then, after this serious drawing, the left hand came to the aid of the right, which had become tired with its work of constant delineation, as to the aid of a wearied sister, and assumed the office of designing, while the right hand took the writing surface. The

1. Reading revocabantur, with Migne.

left hand forsook the path of true representation with false and limping imagery, and created figures of things, or rather the shadowy ghosts of figures, with incomplete depiction. For there Thersites, clothed in the raggedness of disgrace, asked the expertness of a more skilled artist. There Paris was subdued by the voluptuousness of carnal love. There Sinon's weapons were the subterfuges of trick and concealment. There the verses of Ennius starved for beauty of thought, transgressed metrical art with unbridled license. There Pacuvius, who knew not how to order the course of a story, placed the beginning of his composition at the end.

Then Truth, who followed in attendance like the modest daughter of a father, assisted Genius in the skillful execution of the pictures, while he bent seriously over the work. Not by the common passion of Aphrodite had she been begotten, but she was sprung from the loving kiss alone of Nature and her son, when the Eternal Mind greeted matter, as it was considering the reflection of forms, and kissed it by the intermediate agency and intervention of an image. In her face was read the divinity of godlike beauty, which scorned our nature's mortality. Her raiment, glowing with the splendors of unwearied brilliancy, and eloquent of the hand of a heavenly maker, was uncorrupted by the moth of old age. It was joined to the virgin's body in such a close connection that no division ever separated them. Other garments, of unfamiliar nature, so to speak, supplementary to the former, now offered glimpses to our eyes, now stole from their gaze. Opposite stood Falsehood, hostile to Truth, and very watchful. Her countenance was clouded with the soot of dishonor I and confessed none of Nature's gifts, for old age had subjected it to hollow

creases, and drawn it all together in folds. Her head was seen to be unclothed with covering hair. Nor did she compensate for the baldness by an enveloping robe; but an infinity of little patches, joined by a greater of threads, had composed a cloak for her secretly spying on the pictures of Truth, she rudely marred whatever Truth harmoniously formed.

Nature at this gave free reins to her approach, and was seen to go solemnly to a solemn meeting. And to Genius, as he hastened to meet her, she offered her lips, which were not stirred with the poison of any illicit passion, but which signified those embraces of the mystic love which show the harmony of spiritual affection. After the mutual rejoicing had been consummated in an end of satisfaction, Genius, with hand raised in request, enjoined silence, and, 175 material of his voice into following this, coined the this form of speech:

`O Nature, I do not believe that without the divine breath of inspiration has that imperial edict gone out from thine even judgment, to the effect that all who try by abuse and neglect to reduce our laws to ruin should not rejoice in the high day of our festival, but should be smitten with the sword of anathema. And since this law and legitimate decree does not oppose the rule of justness, and since the scales of thy careful judgment sit quiet on the balance tongue of my consideration, I hasten more quickly to strengthen the ruling of thine edict. For though my mind, which has been tormented by the odious vices of men, and which has traveled into the depth go of sorrow, is unacquainted with the paradise of gladness, yet the beginning of delight and joy smells sweetly in this, that I see thee striving with me toward the attainment of vengeance due. And it is not strange

if in the harmonious union of our wills I find the music of concord, since one original thought and idea conforms us with each other, and has brought us into the same mind, since the official rank of one administration makes us alike, and since hypocritical love does not join our minds with the hand of shallow affection, but the virtue of pure love dwells in the inner secret places of our souls.'

While Genius was limiting the course of his speech to these few words, Nature drew aside a little the shadows of sorrow with what was like the rising dawn of an exclamation, and, though with the honor of her position preserved, showed to Genius her proper gratitude. Then Genius, after laying aside his common garment, and being adorned more honorably with 210the higher ornaments of the sacerdotal vestment, called out from the secret places of his mind the order of excommunication referred to, under this form of words, and proceeding in this way of speech:

'By the authority of the Absolute Being and of His eternal thought, and with the approbation of the celestial soldiery, and the agreement of Nature and the assisting ministry of the attendant virtues beside, let him be separated from the kiss of heavenly love, as the desert of ingratitude demands, let him be degraded from the favor of Nature, let him be isolated from the harmonious assembly of the things of Nature, whoever turns awry the lawful course of love, or is often shipwrecked in gluttony, or swallows greedily the delirium of drunkenness, or thirsts in the fire of avarice, or ascends the shadowy pinnacle of insolent pride, or suffers the deep-seated destruction of envy, or keeps company with the false love of flattery. Let him who makes an irregular exception to the rule of love be deprived of the sign of love. Let him who is deep in the abyss of gluttony be chastised by shamefaced beggary. Let him who sleeps in the Lethean stream of drunkenness be tormented with the fires of perpetual thirst. Let him in whom burns the passion to possess incur the continual needs of poverty. Let him who, exalted on the precipice of pride, throws out a spirit of arrogance, fall ingloriously into the valley of dejected humility. Let him who envies and gnaws like the, moth of detraction at the riches of another's happiness first find himself an enemy to himself. Let him who hunts gifts from the rich by the hypocrisy of flattery be cheated by a reward of deceptive worth.'

After Genius, in the utterance of this anathema, had made an end to his speech, the assembly of the women approved of the curse with quick word of ratification, and confirmed his edict. Then the lights of the tapers in their hands became drowsy, sank to the earth with a scorn of extinction, and seemed to be fallen asleep. With the mirror of this visionary sight taken away, the previous view of the mystic apparition left me, who had been fired by ecstasy, in sleep.