PROSE VIII.

Cum in hanc spcecialis disciplinae semitam.

While Nature's discourse was proceeding along this particular path of instruction, behold, a man, appearing suddenly and to my amazement, having given no previous warning sign to our attention, showed his presence to our sight. He, for he seemed obedient to no law of age, now was young in the spring of

youth, now his maturer face spoke of serious affairs, and now was seen to be ploughed by the furrows of old age. Just as he would alter through many degrees of changing age in face, so his doubtful [1] stature was now made short and insignificant; now his slight figure would be increased according to the scale of an equally balanced mean; now, growing up in bold height, he would rival the towering giants. In his face were evident no traces of feminine softness; the strength of manly dignity reigned there alone. It was neither flooded with the rains of tears, nor brightened with the pleasures of laughter, but, watched over by both in moderation, tended rather toward tears. His hair had gained a truce in fight, and confessed the industry of the skillful comb. Yet it lay arranged in manner seemly and proper, so that it should not stray into extravagant ornament, and be seen to fall to a feminine delicacy. And that the least cloud of hair should not hide his broad forehead, the fringes of his locks had known the biting shears. And his face also, as manly dignity demanded, did not vary at all from favor and beauty. His chin now would sprout the first down, now would be fringed with a longer beard, now would seem to run wild in an abundant fleece, and now the severity of a razor would reprove the growth's excess. Rings, gemmed with constellations of stones, shone on his hands with extraordinary splendor, and displayed a new sun. His garments appeared now to be common, of poor make and coarse substance, now to rejoice in the most skillful woof of fine material. On them ideal pictures told of the events of marriage, though the soot of time [2] had almost made the images fade. Yet

1. Reading staturam ancipitem, with Migne.

2, Reading vetustatis, with Migne.

nevertheless the eloquence of the picture spoke of what was woven therein-the holy faith of marriage, the peaceful unity of wedlock, the equal yoke of matrimony, the indissoluble bond of the wedded. For in the book of imagery it was obscurely told what festal exultation was wont to cheer the beginning of a nuptial, what solemn sweetness of melody was there, how the guests, single and united, applauded the marriage, what patrimony the sociable and jocund cithara established. Furthermore,[1] an ordered company of men skilled in music honored his approach. But these same musicians showed among themselves the sorrow of their master, and enjoined silence upon their instruments. Thereupon the frames of the instruments, which dull silence had made tongueless, seemed to raise a groan. Then, when he had approached close to where Nature' stood, she, calling him by name, offered him a greeting and gave him a kiss. Then from the designation of his name and from the telling signs of other circumstances, I recognized him who had come as Hymen. Him Nature placed at her right hand, and granted him its honor.

While cheerful conversation was being enjoyed between Nature and Hymen, behold, with sudden appearance and unlooked-for coming, a virgin, the dawn of whose beauty charmed all things, was seen to approach on her course toward our presence. In her loveliness was evident such high and holy art that the finger of Nature, the finisher, had not failed in any particular. Her countenance borrowed no false or foreign color ; but the right hand of most powerful Nature had planted there, with marvelous grafting, the rose vying with the lily. Her eyes were

1. Placing a period after generalis, and reading quoque for quae, with Migne.

governed by simple modesty, and did not wanton in any impudent sally. Her lips, retentive of their freshness, seemed neither drained by pleasures nor to have felt the first kisses of passion. Yet one would think that her face, which flowed with tears, had suffered sorrow of shipwreck in the flood of weeping. A wreath of lilies, strung by a beautiful chain, smiled on her lovely head. Yet the whiteness of her swan-like hair scorned to ask for the radiance of the lilies, and gave out continually a rival lustre. Her garments, furthermore, would have silenced with their truer snows the arguments of the whiteness of the others, had not a picture, mingled with various colors, cheated them of their purity. For on her garments was seen interwoven, after the fancy of a picture, how the chastity of Hippolytus was defended opposed by a wall of constancy, and how it zealously and repelled a stepmother's lustful desires. There Daphne, lest the bolt and bar of her virginity should be broken through, put to rout the enticements of Phoebus by flight. There Lucretia set off the loss of violated chastity by the gain of death. There, in the mirror of the picture, I could catch sight of Penelope, mirror of purity. And, to include the picture's many eloquent but subtle touches in a brief way of speaking, it had been careful not to cheat any daughter of chastity of her meed of praise. A noble seal of gold, studded by a starry multitude of jasper stones, shone like day on the right hand of the virgin. On her left hand sat a turtle-dove, which in the manner of elegiac song tuned the cithara of its voice to sorrowful moans. A band of young girls, none of whom seemed to have wantoned in the wrestling-ground of love, clung to her footsteps, to comfort her journey and do her obedient service. When Nature had perceived

her near and close at hand, she left her seat, and, coming to her with solemn approach, showed outwardly by her first salutation, by her welcoming kiss, and by the joining in embrace, the love for her in her mind. And when at the beginning of the salutation the name of this virgin shone forth, I recognized there the arrival of Chastity.

Now while Nature was welcoming her with glad conversation, behold , a matron, with moderate and measured gait, was seen to be directing her way toward us. Her stature was bound within the limits of the mean. Her age tended toward the noon-hour of life; yet in no respect did the noon hinder the dawn of beauty. The hoar-frost of old age was trying to scatter its snows on her hair. This she did not allow to play in free waves over her shoulders, but held its luxuriance in bounds. Her garments did not seem to boast of the glory of fine material, nor to bewail their loss in being made of common stuff. Obedient to the canons of moderation, they neither escaped and strayed from the surface of the ground, cut short and curtailed in excessive brevity, nor did they clothe the face of the earth with needless length, but touched it with the brief taste of a kiss; for a girdle governed the fall of her tunic, and recalled irregularity to rule. A collar kept watch over the entrances to her bosom, and denied the hand admission. On her garments a picture showed with faithful characters what circumscription ought to be in the words of man, what circumspectness in his deeds, what moderation in dress, what serenity in bearing, what bridling of the mouth in eating, what reproof of the throat in drink. Her Nature recognized, though surrounded by few attendants, and hastened to meet and welcome her, showing the full measure of her love by the warm

greeting with which she began, and by concluding with manifold kisses. The clear expression of her right name told of the gracious arrival of Temperance.

And while Nature was receiving the presence of Temperance with the gift of a friendly salutation, behold, a woman, the daylight of whose beauty, when presented, threw continually on the glory of the actual day the splendor of a brighter countenance, was seen hurrying her quick course and bending her direct approach toward us. Her stature had scorned the poverty of human stature in its growth, and exceeded it in unusual degree. Her head did not bow humbly to the ground or bear a face cast down, but, with neck straight, fixed its gaze on things above, and kept the shaft of its vision for the heights. Nature had finished her appearance with such careful perfection that she could admire in it her own diligence as a maker. A diadem, which did not redeem property of material by pre-eminence of workmanship, or atone for meanness of workmanship by fineness of material, but which showed in both a supreme monarchy without the pain of that absolute state, glowed on her head. Yet her golden hair, more flaming and with lovelier fire, seemed to afford a seat to the golden diadem indignantly. Not cut short by industrious scissors, nor collected into companies of locks, it wantoned in freer wandering, and, crossing the limits of the shoulders was seen to condescend to the poor estate of earth. Her arms were not bound to a scant shortness, but, extending in ample length. seemed not destined to shrink , but rather to increase further. Her hands, which did not turn back in any hollow curve, but which lay open, ample and broad, cared for the offices of giving. Her garments, which had their substance of golden- and- silken threads joined in the

kiss of the web-such that the fineness of the workmanship was inferior [1]' to the richness of the material ,-rejoiced in such evidences of art that you would think that a hand, not of earth, but from very heaven, had toiled at their making. On them an imaginative but- lifelike picture condemned, by reproach and anathema with its art's deceptive illusion, those men who toil in the notorious sin of avarice. It seemed, moreover, to honor the sons of generosity by the praise of fame, and to make them sharers in the grace of her benediction. While this woman, closely accompanied by three attendants, pressed on in her haste to approach, behold, Nature ran quickly to meet her and welcomed her coming, and, dividing her kiss with a salutation, closed her salutation with a kiss. And while the singular distinction of her beauty, the elegance of her unusual apparel, the individuality of her bearing, were speaking openly of the arrival of Generosity, the sound of her name in the salutation took [2] the credibility of the matter away from the cloud of doubt.

Then while Nature was performing to Generosity the duties of salutation and friendly welcome, behold, a maiden of slow and somewhat sadder step, calmer in the peace of her dove-like countenance, and lowlier in her small and slender figure, encouraged herself to turn to us her gentle and measured approach. Yet her grace and her beauty came to plead in behalf of [3] the slight stature. For these, acquired not by the mechanical deceits of human art, but gushing from the living fountain of nature, had breathed upon her whole body with the graces of loveliness. Her hair had been cut with such hungry scis-

1. B. has non degeneraret, was not inferior.

2. Emending excepi to excepit.

3. Reading venerat in patronum, with Migne.

sors, that, shortened in the fashion of the cutting, it had passed into a blemish. But some tresses which wandered and strayed irregularly, and were entangled with inextricable confusion, seemed to be at strife within themselves. Her head was cast down with profound abasement, and humbly bowed toward the ground. Her garments, which did not fail from their native color through the addition of any foreign hue, excused the commonness their of their ordinary material by artistic workmanship. Here was read, written in the imaginative fancies of a picture, how in the list of virtues humility shines foremost, carrying the banner of excellence; how by the holy synod of the virtues pride is anathematized with the mark of excommunication, and condemned to banishment and uttermost destruction. To meet her, then, as she approached, Nature went with especial haste, and, as she sweetened the dish of her salutation with the spice of kisses, showed a face of deep affection. In the peculiar phrases of this distinguished personage was made clear the arrival of Humility.

Then while Hymen and these women were copying the appearance of profound sorrow from the face of Nature, and were striving to produce in lines of outward grief the feelings of inward pain, lo, Nature, anticipating their speech with speech, said:

`O lonely lamps in human darkness, morning stars of a setting world, scattered planks to those suffering shipwreck, solitary ports on earthly floods! I perceive, with a mature and deep-rooted understanding, what is [1] the reason for your coming together, what the occasion for your arrival, what the cause of your lamentation, what the source of your grief. For men who are fashioned only in the beauty of humanity,

1. Reading sit, with Migne.

and who yet within are sunk into weak and bestial ugliness, and whom I grieve to have invested with the robe of manhood, are endeavoring to disinherit you from your patrimony of an earthly habitation, and are seizing all power on earth, and forcing you to repair to your celestial home. Since, then, my welfare is affected, since our party-wall is flaming with fire, I feel compassion for your suffering, sympathize in your grief, read my groans [1] in your groans [2] and find my loss in your adversity. Therefore, passing over nothing of what has happened, I will attain my own goal myself, and I will smite these men with vengeance answering to their sin, so far as I am able to extend the arm of my might. But since I cannot exceed the limit of my power, and it is not in my control to root out the poison of this pestilence completely, I will follow the measure of my ability, and brand the men who are caught in these crooked vices with the mark of anathema.

'But it is fitting to ask Genius, who assists me in the priestly office, to cast out, with the aiding presence of my judiciary power, with your assent and favoring help, and with the pastoral rod of excommunication, those men from the catalogue of the things of nature, from the bounds of my jurisdiction. Hymen, the highly proved, will be the executor of this mission. In him shine the stars of glittering eloquence, and in his possession is placed the armory of the examining council.'

Then they rose, and, resting from their tears and lament, bowed their heads in deep humility, and freely gave to Nature abundant signs of their gratitude due. And Hymen, who humbled himself on bended knee

1. Reading gemitum, with B. and Migne.

2. Reading gemitut, with B. and Migne.

in the immediate sight of Nature, declared himself obedient to the appointed mission. Then she marked and inscribed with a reed-pen a papyrus sheet with an epistolary composition of this sort:

`Nature, by the grace of God delegated protectress [1] of the worldly realm, to Genius, her other self, greeting, and a wish that in everything he be befriended by the favors of fair fortune! Since similarities rejoice in a scorn of things unlike them, and in the friendly appearance of things like them, I, who find in thee, as in the mirror of Nature, myself again in marked resemblance, am bound to thee by the knot of most ardent love, so that I am with thee in all -go things, advance in thy progress, or, in like measure, droop in thy failure. Therefore ought our love to be reciprocal, so that thou wouldest answer with equal affection, and make our fortunes one [2]. The evidence of evil committed tells thee fully, in the form of a loud wail, of the shipwreck of the human race. For thou seest how men debase the original dignity of their natures with bestial pleasures, and transgress humanity's privileged state, changing in their degenerate practices to beasts, and how, in following their [3] own desires in the pursuit of lust, going to shipwreck in the whirlpools of intemperance, seething in the heat of avarice, flying upon the false wings of pride, giving way to the bites of envy, gilding others with the hypocrisy of flattery, they fall far from their natural and noble state. No one is ready with medicinal remedies for these vicious diseases. No one restrains the torrent of these crimes with a dyke of defense. No harbor checks unchangeably the flood tides of these evil deeds. Therefore the virtues, be-

1. Migne reads procreatrix.

2. Commencing a new sentence at patrati, with Migne.

ing wholly unable to bear the assault of such a hostile onset, have fled to us, as to a refuge of defense and a succor to their life. Since our common interests are thrown into confusion by the fierce attack, I entreat thee with prayers, enjoin thee by the virtue of obedience, both warn as I command, and command as I warn, that thou banish all deception and excuse, and hasten thy approach to us, and that with the aiding presence of myself and my women, thou sever the children of abomination from the holy communion of our congregation, and, in the due solemnity of thine office, smite them with the hard rod of excommunication.'

Thereupon she gave the letter, which had been sealed and marked with a signet, on which an artist's skill had graved the name and image of Nature, to her legate to deliver. Then Hymen, ending his acts of thanks with a graver countenance of joy, received his appointed embassy, and, rousing his companions from dull idleness, bade them take up their instruments of music, and, stirring them from dumb silence, summon them to the measures of harmonious melody. Then caressing their instruments in a few preludes, they struck out a sound of many notes in one, of quality unlike yet consonant, of manifold tone.